Hey Little Magpie - the new name for Sarah's Cards

Hey Little Magpie is the new name for Sarah's Cards Ltd. We have a shiny new website and blog, 

come and visit us!

www.heylittlemagpie.com

blog.heylittlemagpie.com

We hope to see you soon!

Sarah and Lianne x

{Project Life with Jen N}

This month I used a selection of products including Heidi Swapp papers & alpha, American Crafts papers, bling from Imaginesce, cork stars from Studio Calico, Pink Paislee chipboard, and heart stickers from Pebbles. You may have noticed a few changes going on over at the website this week (wink wink) which means I can't link you up to these products right now. There are exciting things coming soon so do keep an eye on the shop and blog in the coming days and weeks.

 

Some of my favourite moments from these weeks: my daughter finding all the play swords in the house and loving them; my son dressing up as the gruffalo; a set of silly morning selfies with my kids; pants over trousers superhero poses; a cute snap of my mum with my children. We took lots of photos of one day out at a big park so I included several by using two 6x4 collages (put together on my phone via  collage app). Having had a relatively quiet week I chose to include them on my main spread rather than add in an insert.
Another set of memories documented for the future. My son already loves to look through these albums. That makes me insanely happy!
Jen x

Revisiting old friends

Morning everyone - Tracie here!
I hope you are all well and enjoying this lovely sunshine!

I've been thinking recently about the way I choose my stash and what 'draws me in' enough to want to add something to my growing mountain of scrapbooking supplies.

I found that many of the brands I used to love had waned a little for me, and I craved something new and vibrant. So it was a lovely surprise for me when I checked out the new Basic Grey ranges!
I'd gone from being a Basic Grey addict to barely giving them a second glance these last few years, but I feel they've really livened things up, especially with the Highline collection

On top of being a really colourful, fun range it gives really good value for money! I was amazed how much is in the collection pack, the alpha sheet in particular has letters and numbers in 6 different colours!

I also bought the vellum tape stickers, which are LUSH and the transparency pack which is bursting with goodies!

I couldn't wait to get started!

I loved these photos of my grandson, Declan this Easter! and the speech bubbles on the sticker sheet were perfect for my title! I cut the 'flower' and star shapes from one of the patterned papers and layered them up with 3D foam pads.

I came across this photo of my wonderful stepson, daughter-in-law and grandson, that I had somehow neglected to scrap and had to rectify it immediately - not all baby layouts need to be pastel shades!!
The 'Sweet' was cut from one of the papers

And yet another grandson layout - this time Declan's brother Elliott showing off his new bike! Certainly a memory that needed to be scrapped!!

The bracket shape reminded me of the handlebars, which in turn, prompted me to make a bike embellishment!

I do like a good bargain and this collection was definitely that!! I still have lots of goodies left over for more layouts so if anyone needs me I shall be busy in my craft room!

Creative Team Call Out!

Do you enjoy creating with papers and have the aforementioned qualities? If so, you could be just the person we are looking for!

What we expect from our Creative Team: 

• A monthly blog post on the Sarah’s Cards Ltd blog using supplies from Sarah’s Cards Ltd store, which includes high quality images and text.

• A personal blog is a bonus but not essential

• Use of Social Media including Facebook, Twitter & Instagram to promote the store and your post

• Exclusivity – we would ask that you are not a member of any other store Design Teams, including (but not restricted to) kit companies

• Sign a Contract – a contract will be issued once a post has been offered detailing our expectations which you will be asked to agree to and sign before becoming a member

What we give you in return:

• A generous allowance to purchase product from our Store for use on your blog post each month
• A substantial store discount to use on products for your personal scrapping
• The chance to be part of an exciting and dynamic company who are dedicated to bringing the best in Papercrafts to their customers

To apply:

• E-mail 5 projects you feel best showcase your talents, two of which must be original submissions. We are a papercrafting store. Your submission can be a mixture of scrapbooking, pocket scrapbooking, home decor or anything else you feel showcases your talent using paper. 
• Please keep in mind that if your application is successful, you will be photographing your own projects for our blog, your application images should reflect this. High quality, clear, closely cropped images should be submitted, as photo quality will be taken into account when new creative team members are being chosen. 

• Provide us with links to any Social Media you are active on including Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter & personal blog
• You must be proficient in using and publishing on blogs and Social Media
• Tell us what you bring to the Team and why you would like to be a member
• UK and European entrants only, please

Applications must be received by 30 June 2014 to info@sarahscardsltd.com

I don't like red...

I love it. It's true. I am always drawn to papers with red in them. Sometimes I see papers online that look red and they turn out to be pinky-red or orangey-red if you know what I mean! Pink Paislee "Pen Pals" and Simple Stories "Hey Pop" didn't disappoint. Red is not the main colour in the ranges but there is just enough in there to keep me happy. 

Hey Pop:

 This page features one of our Exclusive "Sarahscards Flair Badges". I pop a few in with every order I place. They are an absolute steal at 59p each.

For the background of this page and the next I used a sheet of Bella Blvd Freestyle Sophisticates paper. I usually order a few different colours of these papers every month too as they coordinate so well with many, many ranges. I love using them as the base for a layout. They are in the sale right now for 44p per sheet. Just make sure you leave some more for me :)

 Can you spot the subtle touch of American Crafts WOW glitter? It's on sale right now in the shop at a bargain price of £1.87. It lasts for ever, so snap some up now!

Pen Pals:

 The perfectly red house die cut is from the Simple Stories "Homespun" Snap Cuts pack.

This page features another of our Exclusive "Sarahscards Flair Badges"

There are a lot of bargains over in the sale right now. Why not treat yourself to some new stash? I'd love to hear your recommendations for papers that feature "real red" too. 

Enjoy the sunshine!

All puffed up with MAMBI Puffy Stickers

Hello friends.  How are you doing ? I am good and all the better for talking with you.

This month I spotted some sweet puffy stickers by Me And My Big Ideas (MAMBI). I like that affordability factor too so I grabbed a couple of packets. Because I still have money in my pocket, I also bought a couple of sticker sheets. And I couldn't resist some resin embellishments. Why don't you have a look at what I worked with.

I also ordered a Heidi Swapp stencil and set about figuring out how I can use it.  Sadly my misting didn't work out this month so I used the stencil as inspiration rather than literally used it.

I decided to replicate the circle and heart out of patterned paper.  Rather than painfully trace out the stencil and cutting out, I cut out a lot of circles on the Big Shot. I then traced some hearts from the stencil onto the paper circle and then roughly cut out the hearts with a scissors.

I arranged the circles across my layout before layering with those pretty embellishments and stickers. ps: I saved the cut out hearts for the next layout!

I couldn't resist drawing and cutting out a couple of crabs for a layout about our trip to the Crab Festival in Sheringham.

Would you like to see the whole layout ?

Following a near identical recipe, I made the following layout using the cut out hearts from the first layout.

The layout in its entirety is about my son J who finally left school this summer.  He still has one or two A levels papers to do but officially he left school at the end of May...excuse the proud mummy moment.

Have you seen our DT call out ?  You can't miss it at the top of this blog.  Good luck if you have applied and I am really looking forward to meeting you. Bye for now.

Blogged with love by Ifa

{Project Life with Jen N}

We are 5 months into the year now, how are you getting on with your project life albums? I'm about 5 weeks "behind" in scrapping mine. I don't like feeling behind, so I do try to keep the attitude of something is better than nothing, and if a few weeks do get missed it will not be the end of the world. So if you are not "up to date" don't worry, don't feel discouraged, just jump back in!

I'm going to share with you the next few completed weeks from my album today.
So starting with Week 11, back in March and using supplies from
My Minds Eye Now & Then collection
Theresa Collins Daily Stories
Me and My Big Ideas white sticker book 

I took so many photos I loved this week, but one of my favourite 'photos' is top right here - the collage of selfies from my son. He had my phone and was just snapping away at himself so I took a screenshot of the camera roll to get this image. It makes me laugh!

For the next 3 weeks worth of pages I used the following box of supplies:
American Crafts Summer collection
Elle's studio Love You More patterned paper
Simple stories DIY boutique stickers
Studio Calico alphabets & embellishments

Week 12 included some mini-milestones like a first ride in the supermarket trolley, some dressing up, some teething and some napping. We didn't go far or do much but I managed to fill the pages by adding quite a bit of journalling. For example a small photo of my son napping was accompanied by some writing about how he isn't reading to give up napping just yet!

I just love these Studio Calico acetate butterflies - they're so pretty and look gorgeous layered up over papers and stickers. I added in some Project Life 3x4" cards from the Sunshine edition for the smaller pockets.

Next up....week 13. I just adore that hexagon patterned paper from the American Crafts Summer collection -such fun.  As usual I keep my embellishment fairly flat and simple for these spreads. Stickers are brilliant for this and Simple Stories have come up with the goods again with their DIY Boutique range - usable elements, words and labels in a variety of bright colours. It's like they made them just for me!

The last spread I made using these supplies is week 14. To make the overall look slightly different I left out the pink tones from these pages and stuck to the blues, greens, reds & yellows. By restricting your colour scheme like this you can get a variety of appearances from the same set of products. It feels nice to be using all these cute photos. Just simple, everyday moments, released from their digital prison on the computer and recorded!

That's all for now from me, back again soon!
Jen x

Stencils!

Tracie here, how is everyone?

 This month I have been having a play with some stencils! I do like to get value for money and as masks and stencils are so versatile they do tend to be a staple of my crafting supplies.

 It's nearly 12 months since my eldest son got married but I am still wading through the photos and have yet to complete an album, maybe if I knuckle down it can be a first anniversary present?!

 I love how the addition of a little gesso and a stencil can give some texture to a layout and this one from Teresa Collins reminded me of the falling confetti in the photo.

 

 Stencils in home decor went out of fashion for a while, but with all things vintage and shabby chic being so popular at the moment, stencils are most definitely 'in' right now.
 I found this cute little cupboard at a car boot recently

 

 Although I quite liked it as it was, I couldn't resist adding a little bit of colour, while still keeping it fairly simple.
 I used chalk paints, white as a base and stencilled in a duck egg blue.
I also painted the inside of the cupboard in the blue, and even repeated the stencil design on the inside of the drawers, the addition of the little key on a bit of hessian gave it that finishing touch!

 

 I don't know about you but I think it was £1 well spent!!

 Finally I wanted to try stencilling on fabric, for this I chose Heidi Swapp's stencil minis and a scrap of hessian.

I loved the contrast of the black against the neutral background and thought it would make a great card topper, with the addition of some buttons, washi tape and American Craft patterned papers, I was done!

 So that's all from me for now! For those of you heading off to sunnier climes, have a great time and for those of you, like me, who have chosen to stay at home, happy crafting!!

Fond Farewells

We're a bit emotional here at Sarah's Cards as we say goodbye to some fabulous team members that have been with us for a long time. 

Claire Wheatley

Louise Stevenson

Tracy Gough

Natalie Thomas

Thank you so much for all your hard work and dedication ladies, we have absolutely loved working with you all and seeing your inspirational projects each month. Thank you for the laughs and friendship. 

Much love, Sarah and Lianne.

Wood Veneer Go Large with Dear Lizzy Daydreamer

Hey lovelies. Managed to catch some crafting time lately ?  If you are in need of some inspiration, I have a couple of layouts to share with you today.

Have you seen the 12x12 sheet of wood veneer ? I got one immediately but unfortunately it is no longer in stock.  Those of you lucky enough to bag one, wanna see what I've made ?



The sheet is soft so I went ahead and attempted to cut it into smaller sections. In fact I ended up with three sections. I started by using a craft knife but it was quite fiddly so later cuts were made with my Tim Holtz scissors.  I absolutely do not recommend trashing your scissors in this way but my scissors came away unharmed. So, my advise is, exercise caution.

I also used the following lovely products, mainly from the Dear Lizzy Daydreamer collection.

My layout is about sushi so I started by adding a lot of sushi related words to a piece of wood veneer.

I added the title on top of these words.

I added some roll up paper flowers and embellishments. Completed, the title area looks like this.

The finished layout with photos from a sushi school at YO! Sushi. I love the texture and discolouration of the wood veneer against the photo of sushi on the sushi rolling mat.

My other layout also used the wood veneer as a base for a lot of words. 

That's all from me this time.  Happy scrapping.

Blogged with love by Ifa.

Boys Rule

Hi everyone. Jen G here with a couple of pages to share using the Crate Paper Boys Rule  range. Of course the name Boys Rule spoke to me straight away as a mum of 3 boys. My boys are all very into bikes, skateboards, roller blades and scooters right now and the papers lend themselves really well to photos of that theme. The vellum papers in the range are really fun additions to a page. Here I have used the vellum stars over the "b" side of Race Track to add some dimension. 

On this page I cut numbers from the numbers vellum and placed them over the photos. 

I have to apologise for the bad photos. I was losing the light fast this afternoon and snapped them on my phone. I have plenty of the range left to play with so I will try to add some more pages soon. Thanks for stopping by!