Fabulously Fair

Hello, this is Ifa. Happy Spring to you all. Are you on half term ? Same here. My target this week is to get the little one revising for the end of year exam. If I succeed 50% of the time this week, I think I will be a very happy mummy.

I had better get on to my post. You might be wondering what my post will be about, with a title like that ?  I am usually more inclined towards bright layouts.  This month I wanted to try some Allison Kreft Design's transparency.  Have you seen it ?  This and her other transparencies are gorgeous white print, extremely, fabulously fair.  How do I use it ?

I decided to make an extremely white layout. I started by cutting out hearts using an old die. I used an assortment of materials.  As long as it is white, I used it.  These included vellum, doillies, some old Dear Lizzy ruffled paper, just the white part of course and transparency. Once I have a small assortment, I began arranging them on white background cardstock.  I then faced the problem of how to attach them, especially the transparency.  I didn't want full adhesion as I liked the texture of some of them popping up.

I decided to sew them, on the sewing machine.  I went slow and added hearts, one row at a time.  Naturally, I used white cotton. This is what I ended up with.

 

I also ordered a Maya Road stamp set.  How sweet are the sentiments! I am always drawn to stamps, I think I must have a bit of a habit. 

 

 

The same cannot be said of rub-on. I have a love-hate relationship with rub-on. This month I decided that I am feeling the love and ordered a Christy Tomlinson Doddle Flower.

 

 

I used these two products to add some colours to my layout. I added the doodle rub on to some glittered clear buttons.  You might have seen how I added glitter to the buttons in my post last month.  This month, I turned a glittered button over and added some rub on to the other side. You can see them here on my layout.

 

 

This is the finished layout.

 

 

I also made a second layout, this time die cutting some alphabets from the transparency. Here's a close up of that title area as I built the layout up.

 

 

I am very pleased with myself that I managed to include eight photos from our Segway City Tour of Paris on the layout.

 

 

Blogged with love by Ifa

More placemats.

Hi Tracy here, hope you are enjoying the bank holiday weekend. Earlier this month Jen G showed us here just how far one of the Jillibean Soup placemats would go. I too was attracted to the fabulous placemats when placing my order this month.

I chose to use the white circles,

and the white frames.

These are so easy to use, and I managed to make two layouts in almost no time at all, which was good as I was running short of time to reach my deadline due to being poorly.
I just backed the circle placemat with different patterned papers form Studio Calico Here & There and Snippets ranges.

I loved the frames one too, and chose to use just three parts of it for this very simple layout.

 

Enjoy what's left of the bank holiday and remember to pop back in a couple of days to see more from a member of the DT.

by Tracy. x

New Beginnings

Hi all

This month I have been playing with one of my all time favourite manufacturers.. Websters Pages.

I adore both of the new ranges that are in the shop so it was a hard choice which one to use first. I decided on New Beginnings as I have have a good selection of photographs relating to babies and children and this is the perfect range. This range is also great for Easter pages.

So I stocked up with the fab embellishments and the collection pack and after lots of stroking of paper bravely cut into the papers and created 2 layouts to share with you.

My first page is set on a dark background to compliment the darks in the old black and white photograph, I also chose to use the pinker girlie shades from the papers. There is a fab selection for boy and girl pictures.

I used A Crafters Workshop mask with a white chalk ink to create the background

For my second page I used a Crafters Workshop mask for my background adding white paint and a selection of green chalk inks.

Hope you are all having a nice crafty weekend.

Have fun

Claire xx

How far will one go?

Hi all. Jen G here. Huge congrats to the blog giveaway winner - see the post below for details! This month I ordered the lovely Chilled Cucumber range from Jillibean Soup (ever wonder where they get the range names from? I do!) including these cute die cuts; the bite sized bits; plus the corrugated people and shapes. I also ordered one of these White Hexagon Placemats:

- purely because I was intrigued by what it could be used for and how far it would go in terms of how many projects I could use it on. It is 12x12 and made from white cardstock. There are other shapes too and they also come in Kraft.

So I got started. First of all I had to find the courage to actually cut into it! I used a section of the placemat to cover the lower corner of my background which had already been lightly misted. I filled a few of the hexagons with patterned paper, but left most of them blank. I then layered up some of the die cuts and corrugated shapes around the photo. I lightly inked the corrugated shapes on this page to coordinate them with the papers.

For my second page I cut 7 connected hexagons in a "honeycomb" effect. This time I filled all of the holes with different patterned papers. As well as the Jillibean Soup papers I added a little of the yellow Pebbles Basics  paper. Those papers are so handy as the coordinate with so many ranges. Again I layered up the die cuts and corrugated shapes, but this time I left the shapes blank.

At this point I still had plenty of the Placemat left. I used a strip of hexagons on this third page, this time leaving them all empty. I added a little detail to them by placing a few stitches here and there over the sides. I decided to leave the corrugated people unaltered.

Now I was running out of Placemat to use! But I just had enough to fill one section of this fourth page. This time I layered in on top of a piece of Simple Stories Snap paper that coordinates with the Chilled Cucumber range. I used a corrugated shape again but this time I covered it with paper - that cute cloud over the sun.

So that is 4 pages from one 12x12 placemat. I still had a tiny section of it left though. It wasn't really useful on a page, but I was able to use it as a template. I used it to cut hexagons from the patterned papers for this fifth page that I have to share today. I used the corrugated card shapes differently here too - wrapping them with bakers twine to add a little more dimension to them.

I have kept that tiny hexagon template for future use but I plan to stock up on some more of the placemats. Have you bought any yet? How have you used them on your pages? Leave us a link so that we can take a look.



P.S. This page does not have any of the Placemat on it but I did use a couple of the corrugated people. I couldn't resist sharing it as it made me chortle as I was putting it together. Those of you who know me know the One Direction as so not my cup of tea! My son loves to tease me that I secretly love them. This one is for his album just to prove him wrong!

Thanks for looking.

TTFN

Giveaway Winner!

A huge thanks to all who entered our blog giveaway.  We really appreciate all our blog followers and are so proud of our design team and the inspirational work they come up with time and time again, we really hope you love seeing their projects as much as we do.

The powers that be (random.org) have selected a winner for us, and it's number 8, KraftyKaren

 KraftyKaren said...

Thanks for the chance to win, looks like a really lovely giveaway x

9 May 2013 15:00 

Congratulations Karen!  Send your address to lianne@sarahscardsltd.com and we'll get your prize posted out to you.

{Down by the Shore}

Hi all, Jen N here. Yet another month has disappeared - the year seems to be flying by!
This month I've been creating pages with Fancy Pants Down by the Shore collection, which I discovered quite by accident coordinates really well with Simple Stories Urban Traveller papers and embellishments.
As usual when creating in batch from one set of supplies I've picked photos from a variety of times so that the designs are spread out in my albums. This time I've chosen a pregnancy photo from 2010, Halloween photos from 2011, and beach photos from 2012. I've also created with one, two and three photos, to make sure that I vary the process and the results don't look too "same-y".

First up, a photo from 2010 when I was pregnant with my little boy and happened to attend the most awesome Alice in Wonderland themed birthday tea party! I have scrapped quite a lot of these photos before, but in my opinion you can never have too many pages about walking along the beach in fancy dress! This time I've chosen to scrap the event from the point of view of pregnancy. It amused me somewhat that this unsuspecting little baby would be entering a world where his parents dressed up as the white queen and the knave of hearts on a Saturday afternoon. You'll notice on my pages this month I've used a variety of envelope embellishments. This page features a Patterned Envelope from the 'Down by the Shore' range, and inside is some further journalling - a letter to baby taken from my pregnancy diary. The writing is quite personal, so this kind of envelope is perfect for keeping it hidden from view when people are flicking through my albums. You might know by now that I love wood veneer, and these Classic Calico v3 Circles are great for adding a focal point around another embellishment.

 

Working in chronological order then, the next page I have to share features photos from Halloween 2011 when our little boy was dressed up as the cutest little Dracula you ever did see! I used one of my current very favourite papers from 'Urban Traveller' - the multi diagonal stripe, along with several smaller cuts from the 'Down by the Shore' 6x6" paper pad, and pieces from the 4x6" brag pad which contains a mixture of journalling, cut apart sheets and feature designs. The gorgeous title was made using stickers from Jillibean Soup - these bargain sheets come in a couple of styles and plenty of colours. At 99p per sheet you could have one of each!
The envelope I chose this time is a design by Maya Road - Kraft Note Envelopes White Polka Dot. My journalling didn't need to be hidden, so I added it to cut down luggage tags and inserted them into the open envelope. The reader still has to interact with the page to read the full story, which I like as something a bit different in my album.

 My third and final page today also features the most recent photographs, this time from a beach trip less than a year ago in July 2012. It wasn't a particularly hot day, but that doesn't really matter to kids does it?! My son loved exploring, and soon found some pools down by the water's edge. Before I could remove his socks and shoes he was in! The background paper is the B side of a sheet from My Minds Eye Boy Crazy, and I again used lots of layers of papers from the 6x6" version of Down by the Shore. My trusty wood veneer box came out again, and I chose some Sundrifter Phrases to add detail to my page. I used another different kind of envelope to house my journalling tag this time - the 'Down by the Shore' decorative bags. These are made of lovely patterned semi opaque paper, and you get two different sizes in the pack, 6 designs in total.

Keep visiting the blog regularly for more fantastic inspiration, challenges and giveaways. Thanks for looking!

May Challenge

Hi all. Jen G here with May's Sketch Challenge. As an A4 scrapper my sketch is in A4 format:

I based the sketch on this recent layout of my youngest son using Studio Calico papers.

Here is Nat's interpretation of the sketch. A gorgeous photo of Natalie and Mr Natalie-to-be! How cute are all the hearts?

Tracie based her 12x12 layout on the sketch to fab results.

Vanessa used sqaures across her page rather than triangles. Definately keep smiling Vanessa, that's a lovely photo.

Post your entries below for the chance to win £20 to spend on all of the latest goodies in the shop. Goos luck!

Heidi Swapp Giveaway!

We've got a fabulous giveaway here for one of our lucky blog followers:

Heidi Swapp signed a copy of her Signature Series book for us at CHA worth £17.95, but that's not all!  We also have this adorable Heidi Swapp zipper bag filled with Heidi Swapp and Pink Paislee goodies including:

Two Heidi Swapp Color Shine Mists

Two packs of Pink Paislee Artisan Chipboard

Heidi Swapp Color Magic Note Tags

Heidi Swapp Definitions Stickers

Two packs of Pink Paislee Artisan Trims

To be in with a chance to win, become a Sarah's Cards Ltd blog follower and leave a comment on this post. Giveaway closes at midnight Sunday, we will draw a winner at random on Monday.  

PLEASE NOTE: You must follow Sarah's Cards Ltd blog to eligible for this giveaway, you can do this if you have a Google account, even if you do not have a blog.  Just click the 'JOIN THIS SITE' blue button on the right hand side of this page.

Good luck!

April Sketch Challenge Winner...

Thank you to everyone that took part in our April Sketch Challenge.  We really enjoyed seeing what you had all created and we loved seeing the different ways in which the sketch was used.

There can, however, only be one winner and this time we have chosen Sigrun.  Please contact Lianne to claim your £20 e-voucher for the shop.  Many congratulations!

 

We loved how much thought had gone into choosing embellishments with a meaning attached to them.

 

 

 

Come back in a few days to see the sketch for the next challenge.

 

 

Getting messy!

Hi, Tracie here,
I have recently been trying my hand at Art Journalling and I suppose it was only natural that some of the techniques I have been playing with have found their way onto my scrapbook pages.

The shop has an amazing range of masks and templates and they are so versatlie, they can be used on so many projects and in so many different ways!

I love the way you 'build' a background for Art Journalling, and using the same principle but with the addition of some scrumptious papers, can give your layout a really unique look.

For my first page I used the hexagon mask with Tim Holtz tattered rose ink and using the same ink I stamped randomly with a script stamp.

The paper I used were the absolutely gorgeous Pink Paislee Cottage Farm and Basic grey Serenade
 mixed with some Websters pages Modern romance embellishments (those ribbons are LUSH!!) and rub-ons.

I loved the little heart from the simple accents but the colour was a tad too peachy for me so I just dry- brushed some white acryllic paint over the top to give it a much softer look.

For my second layout I used Simple Stories Vintage Bliss! 'Bliss' is the word for this range! I just loved working with these.

Out came my trusty Gesso and this time I used the Crafter's workshop life shapes template, once the paint was dry I stamped all over with the American Crafts Amy Tan yes please stamps

I couldn't resist cutting out all the little butterflies to create a frame for the photo of some of the lovely ladies at my local crop on our 2nd anniversary. I handstitched these in place because I wasn't sure I'd end up with a circle and not a squiggly mess if I used the machine! I'm not altogether sure it's a circle as it is but I'm claiming artistic licence here!

So that's it from me for now, hope you all have a good Bank Holiday weekend and that the sun keeps shining for you!

A little of what you don't fancy...

Louise here with a few LOs to share using papers I don't like! Well, technically that's not true, but they are papers I wouldn't usually think to look at. We all have our favourite paper manufacturers and manufacturers we avoid like the plague because we absolutely do not like their products. Fancy Pants were on my 'wouldn't touch with a barge pole' list, until I saw the new ranges in real life, and was immediately impressed with the colours and designs. This made me go and take a closer look at all the manufacturers. Some of the Authentique Renew papers jumped out at me too, so I ordered a mix of these and Fancy Pants Park Bench and Trend Setter to work with this month.

The first LO I have to share is of Things 2 and 3 dressed as Where's Wally for World Book Day. I wanted the LO to be fun so created a random inky background. Here's a step by step.

On Authentique Renew Distressed White I used teal, yellow, red and blue mists. Spraying some, and splattering others.

Once the mist had dried I machine stitched 2 borders using black thread, not worrying about the lines being straight or evenly spaced.



I added a square of Fancy Pants Park Bench Lunch Date, distressing the edges and curling a ripped section up. A piece of red spotty tape was added along the edge of the LO too.

A square of Allison Kreft - Composition and Colour -That Way, was edged with 3 different tapes and added.

I stamped and white embossed the cute camera from the Amy Tangerine Aspire collection.

I stamped with black on to a narrow Fancy Pants sticker, and lining the stamped image up placed this over the white camera.

 

A Fancy Pants Trend Setter tag was tucked behind the photo and a matching sticker was added over the top.

Using white embossing powder again I stamped the boys ages under the photo, using the & from the Amy Tangerine set.

I used the Amy Tangerine date stamp set in the bottom corner of the LO, with an Elle's Studio Daily Details stamp white embossed over the top.

The title was added using this Snap collection, and machine stitched into place.

For my second LO I created a background using a mix of papers and strips of decorative tapes, with random machine stitching, and a splattering of white mist.

After positioning my photos I added the finishing details with stickers and alphas.

 

 

 

 My third LO has a rare photo of all 5 of us together. I created a collage of four photo taken from a day out on an iPhone app selecting a black border.

 

 
 

I used a calendar die cut and a transparent arrow die cut from this Basic Grey pack, and a couple of stamps from this Heidi Swapp set.

 

I used a collection of the Fancy Pants tags to add detail in the bottom corner, inking in black to match the photo border.

My final LO is of photos of Harry taken a few years ago. There is no title on the LO because sometimes a title just isn't necessary. I created this LO to record the memory of Harry being a monkey and trying to hide from the camera.

After misting the Fancy Pants Trend Setter chevron paper with turquoise, lime green and purple I added more chevron details.

A couple more elements were used from this Basic Grey pack, as well as another Fancy Pants tag and sticker.

So there you have it, 4 LOs that I really like, created out of papers that I could so easily have overlooked. What paper manufacturers do you avoid? Why not go and have a look at them right now... you may just be surprised. If you create anything using the Fancy Pants or Authentique ranges we'd love to see your work, just leave a link to your blog/gallery in the comments box.