More Love Birds

As promised here are a few more stunning pages that Cathy has made using the gorgeous Fancy Pants Love Birds papers.

"I really wanted to use the quote that was on the Strips paper so I designed my page around it, to add some extra detail I added some twine around the bottom of the page and attached two little hearts. The Pink Pailsee metal badge was perfect to use as the O in title."

"To create this page I used the sheet of In Love paper, trimmed and distressed the edges then punched holes along the bottom edge using my cropadile. I added some adhesive pearls to pretty it up. I then matted the patterned paper onto a sheet of red cardstock. I cut the row of birds from the Birds On A Wire paper and stuck this across the page adding some bunting to the right hand side using the trimmed sections from the In Love paper. I have so many packets of thickers with numbers left over, doing an age related page is a great way to use them up! I added some red stickles to the hearts to tie in with the glittered thickers. I printed three small photos off with a white border which helps the photos to pop off the page."

Love Birds

Sarah and Lianne are off flying off to CHA tomorrow to see all the new releases and decide what will be gracing the shop over the coming months which is very exciting. However there are still lots of fantastic ranges available in the shop, Cathy has been playing with the Fancy Pants Love Birds range and has created some stunning pages.

"I loved the red accents on the "Sending With Love" paper so I used some red bazzill from my background to make them pop off the page. I punched and embossed a strip of paper to use across the bottom of my photo to create a "fluffy" feel as the photo is of Charlotte crawling across the bed. I added some Adornit alphas and a few buttons to complete the page."

"I wanted this to be quite a soft, muted layout to match in with the title and photo that I was planning to use, so I chose some of the paler paper from the range and accented the page with small sections of brighter colours. The thickers that I had were just too bright for the page so I carefully peeled off the top layer to create a soft, shadowed effect."

We will have a couple more pages from Cathy to share with you later in the week. Don't forget our challenge this month, you still have plenty of time to get your entry in. All the details can be found here.

More Sweetness.

Rachael has created another page to share with you using the Pink Paislee Sweetness range.

 "These papers are so easy to use as there is so much in them to cut out and use to embellish your page. To create this page I just used one sheet of the Pink Paislee patterned paper, Picture Perfect, and some scraps of the range left over from previous pages that I had completed. I cut the two floral corners from the page and then cut a large circle from the centre that was left using a circle template. I took off the sharpe corners of the flowers using the same template so that I could fit them over the bottom of the circle. I added some Prima vine lace to the back of the circle pleating it along the way to make it fit the curve. All the flowers and butterflies have been created using punches and layering them up adding gems to finish them off.
The background paper is an old piece of Crate Paper that I dug out of my huge paper pile but you could easily create the same look using a piece of kraft paper, hand cut a scalloped border and then punch holes using a cropadile."

Saturday Class

Are you looking for something to do this weekend? Rachael has put together this class using some gorgeous papers by Pink Paislee, Sweetness. We would love to see what you do with it so if you don't mind sharing leave us a link to your page in the comments box.

Stash needed...

6x4 photo
White cardstock
Pink Paislee Sweetness papers - Sweetest Day, Pretty Lace, Love Blooms, Picture Perfect.
Pink Paislee flip notes
Prima sugar plum roses
Kaiser Script Stamp
Prima Vine Lace
Adhesive Pearls
Pearl Swirls
Embroidery Thread

Tools needed....

Butterfly punch
Tab punch
Alphabet Stamps
Sewing Machine (optional)
Green and Brown inkpad
Nail file or distressing tool

How to.....

1. Ink the edges of your white cardstock, cut a 9x9 square from the centre. Put the frame to one side for later.
2. Using the script stamp cover the 9x9 sqaure using the green ink. Distress and ink the edges. I have sewn around the edge of the square with pink cotton, you could hand sew this or even draw on fake stitching.
3. Trim the edges of your Love Blooms paper, distress and ink the edges.
4. Using a craft knife you need to cut around the flower design in the corner of the paper to create a pocket to slip stamped white cardstock into. The cardstock needs to fit to the middle of the paper. Once you have cut a big enough area carefully ink around the cut flowers. Cut out the centre of the paper which will be covered by the 9x9 piece of cardstock.
5. On the Sweetest Day paper cut out the words "sweetest day" and the swirl border on the top right hand corner. You will be left with a U shape piece of swirly printed, leave the end intact but cut off one of the arms.
6. Place the white cardstock where you want it on your page and glue the large piece of what was a U shape under the right hand corner adding a length of lace over the top so that the scalloped edges just show under the edge of the cardstock.
7. Now you can glue your stamped cardstock into place.
8. Matt your photo onto white cardstock and then onto the piece of Love Blooms paper that you cut from the centre.
9. Trim the notebook edge from one of the flip notes and stick it down the left hand side of your matted photo.

10. Cut a piece measuring 6x7.5 from the Pretty Lace paper, distress and ink the edges and stick this onto your page tucking the corner into the floral pocket. Don't add glue right to the edges.
11. Add your matted photo on top.
12. Slide the words "Sweetest Day" that you cut out earlier down under the left hand side of your matted photo.
13. Add the section that you have got left from the swirly piece that you cut from the Sweetest Day paper to the bottom right hand corner of your matted photo.
14. Take a length of lace and add a running stitch along the straight edge, gather it up into a semi circle, tie off the embroidery thread and add it over the bottom of the swirly piece tucking up under edge of the yellow Pretty Lace paper.
15. Punch out a tab from the Pretty Lace paper and add that to the right hand side.
16. Add your pearl swirls, Prima flowers and punched butterflies. I have also cut out a rose bud and a couple of leaves from the Picture Perfect paper and added those too.

17. To create the top detail cut a strip of Love Blooms paper and slightly wet it with water to make it more pliable. Pleat the paper making it curve slightly, leave it to thoroughly dry and they trim the top edge so that it is straight. Ink the edges and stick it to the top of the cardstock.
18. Add a punched tab, a couple of hand stitched crosses and some pearls. Also add a stamped date.
19. Stick your finished page onto the white cardstock frame that you created earlier.

Hope you enjoy the class!

The Classics

As you are aware we are an American Crafts specialist and stock a huge range of their products over in the shop, you can see them all here.
Lou has been busy creating with The Classics range which includes numerous patterned papers, stamps, stickers, buttons and other fabulous embellishments.

"I must have said it so many times, about so many paper ranges, but these papers were perfect for the photo of my lovely Ikea sofa! I decided to go with the patchwork style of the sofa and cut 2" squares distressing the edges slightly before mounting them onto a piece of white cardstock. I used kraft for the background because everything looks good on kraft! I used the back of one of the patterned papers to matt the tiny alphas on to and inked the edges in brown to make them stand out from the busy patterns of the papers. The photo of Drew stuck on the sofa was triple matted and I finished off the page by adding some puffy thickers for my title."

"I couldn't resist sitting Drew on these scales on a day trip to an adventure land for children. He was such a chunky monkey baby, and people always commented on how heavy he was, so it just had to be done! I used chipboard shapes as masks before misting the background paper with brown and blue Maya mists. I embellished each of the shapes with scraps of paper cut into strips and stitched into place, punched butterflies held in place with a stitch which formed the butterfly body, and hand cut circles topped with a flower button. I also used coordinating rubbons and adhesive pearls, and finally opened my cute American Crafts fun small stamps to stamp the bird on a branch and the brown frame over the flowers. I used a Glitz Design Save The Date stamp on the small tag. Some random machine stitching was added before completing the page with a title made up of Hardcover thickers and a mix of mini alpha stickers."

Blog Give Away Winner!

Thank you to everyone who left a comment for the blog give away, we do now have a winner.
Using a random number generator our winning comment was no 115 which makes our lucky scrapper Hazel!
Congratulations Hazel, email us at lianne@sarahscardsltd.com with your full name and address and we will get your prize out to you.

January Challenge

As promised here is our next challenge, we decided to do something slightly different this month and not use a sketch. So our challenge to you is to create a page documenting the highlights of your 2010 using multiple photos, what could be simpler!
Our November Challenge winner, Karen, has joined us this month and created this stunning page capturing those special moments of 2010. She wanted to make her page resemble a contemporary photo frame so used ten 2x3 photos stitching around the outside of the card stock to frame the page.

 Lou has used Cosmo Cricket Circa 1934 papers to document the great weekend we all had in November, she has also used a Glitz Design save the date stamp.

 Cathy's had two new additions to her family in 2010 which is the subject of her gorgeous page, she has used Glitz Design Hoopla papers.

 Jen became a Mummy in 2010, she has used Crate Restoration papers which featured in our October kit, to create this lovely page documenting her pregnancy and the birth of her gorgeous son Benjamin.

So to enter our challenge and be in with the chance of winning a £10 e-voucher all you need to do is create a page using multiple photos documenting those special times from 2010 and post a link to it in the comments box by Monday 7th February. Alternatively you can email your entry across to us at sarah@sarahscardsltd.com. The winner will also get the opportunity to join the design team in creating an example layout for the March challenge. We can't wait to see what you come up with!

Sketch Challenge Winner

Time to announce the winner of our sketch challenge, a big thank you to everyone who entered it was great to see so many different interpretations of Lianne's sketch. Our winner this month is Gwyneth who has created this stunning page, congratulations Gwyneth! Drop us a line and we will get your £10 e-voucher to you along with details of the February challenge.

If you are looking for a challenge this month then check back later in the week when our next challenge will be posted.  Also don't forget if you want to be in with a chance to win our fantastic blog give away just leave a comment here by midnight on the 16th January.

Blog Give Away!

With all the excitement of Christmas well and truly behind us January can sometimes seem like such a long and dreary month. So we thought to add a bit of excitement we would have a blog give away!
Have you seen the fabulous new October Afternoon camp fire papers? Well we are giving away all eight sheets of patterned paper from the range plus the die cut sheet. To compliment the papers we have a pack of Maya Road kraft tickets, a pack of green bazzill half the edge, Queen and Co felt fusion in brown, WRMK Maple Grove "swirl" stamp and a pack of American Crafts thickers.

To be in with a chance to win this lovely box of stash all you need to do is leave a comment on this post by Sunday 16th January, the winner will be picked at random and announced later on the blog.
Also don't forget about our sketch challenge, you still have a few more days to enter to be in with the chance of winning a £10 e-voucher, all the details can be found here.
Good luck!