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!

It's not too late....

...for the last Christmas post, or too late to whip up a few last minute cards for your nearest and dearest either!

Basic Grey's True Love range caught my eye whilst browsing the shop - despite being a valentine style range, something about the candy cane red, marshmallow pink and crisp icy blue colour combination cried Christmas at me, and so I decided to use the range to make some Christmas cards.

 As well as patterned paper from the range, my supplies included the amazing Die Cuts & Transparencies pack.

Now this is a big claim to make - but these may be my favourite embellishment pack I've ever bought! There is absolutely loads in there to play with, and a variety of textures - some are printed on card, some on vellum and some on plastic transparencies, far more economical than buying several different packs of differing types of embellies. Some of the pieces also pop into separate shapes and frames - giving you endless options and combinations. This really is an amazing-value-for-money-pack and I whole-heartedly love them!

I also got the stickers and elements sheets which includes a whole host of stickers which were perfect for my project.

To realise my Christmas dream, I added a new set of AC Peppermint Express stamps in to the mix:

Here are six cards I made, hopefully something for everyone!

This quick card was created easily by layering a vellum heart from the die cuts pack on top of a journalling sticker from the element sheet, over patterned paper from the range (Love's Garden and Vintage Love). I created the greeting using a variety of stickers from the alpha sheet and sticker sheet. Using some AC embossing powder in Powder blue, I stamped a border using different images from the pack, and cut out a stamped, embossed holly leaf which I added a few gems and a stick pin to.
I wanted to use the "Christmas" part of the "Merry Christmas" stamp, so covered the merry with a piece of washi tape when I inked it up, and whipped it off before stamping on to my card as seen below.

Card 2 above used a piece of Cupid's Shower as a base, on which I strung a garland of bunting made from the flag stickers on the elements sheet, and popped some tiny die cut hearts from the die cut packet in between for added depth. At the bottom of the card I stamped the reindeer, first in red, then in dark green. To achieve the lighter green reindeer on the left, I stamped him a second time without reinking first. The stamped greeting, a transparent arrow from the die cut pack and a couple of veneer stars completed the card.

Card 3 feels a bit more traditional with rich reds and greens making an appearance. I used strips of both sides of the Little Things paper as my background, punching three small scalloped circles along the bottom one - the perfect size for the bauble stamp to fit right into, stamped directly onto the card base before being coloured in. The floral border sticker from the elements sheet joined a strip of washi to make a base for my greeting, which I made using a mixture of alphas from the sheet and the Love die-cut transparency. To further decorate the blue side of teh true love paper, I stamped the baubles using a watermark inkpad.

The technique on card 3 is a bit of a tried and tested method of card making for me! It's a great way of using scraps and pulls a pretty card together quickly. I simply punched several squares from the different papers using a 1" punch, and arranged them on the red base piece of Simple Elegance paper and added a faux zig-zag stitch with a black pen. I punched a journalling spot from the grid side of Cupid's Shower which I popped my greeting on to; which was created using a mix of stickers from both the elements and alpha sheet, a die cut banner from the pack and the Merry Christmas stamp.

Card 4 has a clean, modern feel and was quick to put together. Again, Cupid's Arrow formed the base (grid papers are always so useful!), and a quick clusyer of embellishments was created using the vellum starburst and a cardstock scroll from the die-cut pack, along with the deer and wonderland ticket stamped images. A "shower" of stamped snowflakes and veneer stars completed the wintery theme.

The last card has a pretty, wintery floral feel to it.

Strips of both sides of Love's Garden formed the base, which I ran a strip of washi tape across. The main focus of the card is a large envelope-effect journalling sticker from the elements sheet, which I gave a festive customization to using the AC stamps. A little banner sticker from the alpha sheet (oh yessssss, you get more than just alpha stickers on there - thank you Basic Grey!!) and some heart die cuts accompanied a stick-pin button to add the finishing touch.

I was really pleased with how, with a spot of creativity, I was able to customise the love-themed stash to make festive cards for my nearest and dearest! The Basic Grey sticker and alpha sheets and die cut packs really are jam-packed with goodies - making them excellent value and really useful in your projects. Go on, treat yourself - it's Christmas!! ;)

Gift Pick - Day Eleven

It's day eleven already and only 12 sleeps till Christmas!  Today's gift pick is a great idea from Nat who says: Quite a few of my friends either enjoy giving their handmade creations as gifts or sell their crafts, and would definitely love from these cute stamps to incorporate a crafty feel into their product packaging! The perfect stocking filler price means I can treat more than one friend to them, too!

Basic Grey Capture 'Give Credit' Clear Stamp Set - £4.99

See you tomorrow!

Gift Pick - Day Nine

Today's gift pick is from Sarah who has chosen this fantastic Basic Grey Calendar Kit.  Sarah says: This is a great gift to make for family members, my mum would love it filled with pictures of the grandchildren.

The kit contains everything you need to create a gorgeous personalised 2014 calendar, just add photos!

Basic Grey 2014 Calendar Kit - £19.99

A Twinkling Halloween

If you're itching to get your Christmas lights out (I know its waaayyyy too early!), I've found the perfect project to give you the excuse.  Halloween Lanterns!

Its a really straight forward, but effective project, all you need are a stack of clear plastic cups (from the party-ware section in supermarkets), your scrapbooking papers, your usual embellishments and your creativity.  

Firstly, cut with your craft knife, a cross in the bottom of each cup, this is where you will poke the lights through - they will hold.

This is the trickiest part of the project, gradually roll the cup along a piece of paper tracing the movement with a pencil at the top or bottom end of the cup, then carefully roll back again tracing with a pencil at the opposite end.  Once you have a long enough piece, join the sides and cut out.  This will be your template to use to cut out the pieces for each cup, from your chosen paper.  I've used Basic Grey's Persimmon range.

After covering each cup, you can then decorate and embellish as you wish, its as simple as that.  I have inked the edges of each piece of paper, used a ribbler on some.  Covered the edges with trims and borders.

And then hang!

Thanks for looking and keep checking back, the girls have some fab projects coming up.

Shaping up

Hello ladies! Tracie here, this month I have been playing with all the little wooden veneer shapes that are available in the shop.

There are lots of shapes available but I loved the tiny little sundrifter ones from Studio Calico, and because they aren't themed you can pretty much do anything with them.

For my first layout I started arranging them to make branches and flowers.
Once I was happy with the arrangment I glued them down onto my background paper (I used the stunnning Basic Grey avalon paper from the Serenade range) then I painted over it all with white acrylic paint to soften it.
Sticking with the Serenade range (Just because it's so lush!!) I cut some branches and birds from the Chemise paper, to give it some depth.

Then all it needed was a few rub-ons (I do like my rub-ons!!) I used the Pink Paislee Cottage Farms ones, I also added a little of the white acrylic to the edges of the photo to soften the edges.

For my second layout I wanted to try a much bolder approach.
The wonderful thing about these shapes is that they work equally well on vintage and modern layouts, and are also ideal for adding just a little interest to the more simple style of layout too, the possibilities are endless!

Foregoing all patterned papers, I started off by stamping a background with the fabby Beed Background stamp from Basic Grey Hipster collection onto white cardstock.

Sticking with the Hipster range and I was back to my trusted rub-ons again!  These aren't just any rub-on these, oh no!! These are flocked rub-ons!! ease and texture all in one rub!!

I added  a few Hipster alphas and a mix of embellishments from Fancy Pants and Pink Paislee
and a photo of my gorgeous grandson of course!

then out came the shapes agan!
This time I inked them slightly and glued them randomly all over the stamped background.

I've loved playing around with these shapes and seeing just what can be done with them, but I would love to see your creations, so please leave a link to your work in the comments box so I can have a nosey!!

That's all from me for now, I'm off to enjoy what's left of this lovely weather!

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!

Going loopy

Hi ladies, Tracie here! Hope you've all had a lovely Christmas and are settling back into normality again now?

When I came to do this month's blog post I couldn't shake off the Christmas crafting I'd been doing and it made it's way into my layouts!
After making several of those ribbon trees that are dotted all over the net, I was folding ribbon in my sleep! so it didn't come as a great surprise that when I put them aside to do some scrapbooking, my ribbon turned into paper and I was busy making loops to fit my page!

For my first layout I wanted to create a border between the journalling and the photo to fit in with my theme of being 'next door' - the gorgeous Basic grey range Serenade worked beautifully with the old photo of my lovely nan

I had lots of little strips of paper left after finishing this one so I just folded them to the reverse side (the joys of double-sided papers!) and used them up on my second layout as 'ribbons' for my kite.

I thought you might all be fed up of Christmas and winter layouts now, so decided to bring a little sunshine back by scrapping a summer photo! Which reminds me, I really must apologise for the dismal qaulity of the photos, but someone appears to have stolen the daylight in these parts!!

Well, that's it from me for now, apart from to wish you all a very happy new year!

I used the following products:
Basic grey serenade
Echo park
Queen and co tape

Studio Calico Ephemera

I often surf my way though products in the shop, and hover over an interesting-looking embellishment product but decide not to add it to my virtual basket as it's hard to be exactly sure what is included in the packet from the little thumbnail released by the manufacturers. This month though, such curiosity got the better of me, and I ordered myself a pack of the Ephemera from Studio Calico's Heyday range. I wasn't sure what to expect, but was really pleased when the packet arrived, and excitedly set to playing with my new goodies, so thought I'd share with you what I created.

I was pleased that, at £3.99, the pack was excellent value for money. It was teaming with lots of really usable die cuts that could work with lots of recent ranges from a variety of manufacturers. I coupled my pack with the gorgeous new Soleil release from Basic Grey, and some new Everyday Eclectic and For The Record Documented from Echo Park, all of which were perfect for recording some summer evening memories; but I can see that the oranges, pinks and turquoises working equally well with any of the pastel/brights releases we have seen over the past few seasons. This makes the pack a perfect, purse-friendly answer for a spot of stash busting - something new to add a twist to your existing papers.

Being the good Samaritan that I am, here's a scanned close up of the Heyday Ephemera packaging to give you a good idea of what is included, a whopping 71 pieces in all:

It was a pleasing surprise to find that you actually get two of each of the resin flower brads, and five of each of the pearlescent butterfly sequins.

Here's my first page:

 

I used one of the journalling tags as a mat for my title, but to ensure that the MLS newsprint alpha stickers showed clearly I added a trip of grey MME washi tape and some of the pretty new teal striped tap from Bella Blvd:

I completed my title with some mini alphas, and the little "photo" tag from the Ephemera. Another tag from the pack nestled above it to add another layer of texture and interest.

I find it hard to create a page that doesn't have a cluster of embellishments of some sort, and here some different washi tapes from MME, Bella Blvd and Queen and Co and a scalloped circle and strip tag (that I added some journalling to with a Slick Writer pen), make the base for some pins, two of the flower brads and some wood veneer shapes.

Returning to the pack of ephemera, I added a couple of the cloud shapes to the top of my photos, anchoring them with a spot of faux stitching, and layered one of the butterfly sequins on top of a diecut one before slipping it under a corner.

My second page contains some snaps from the fun fair:

 

With my pictures/theme in mind, I was instantly drawn to this off-kilter pink diecut, and decided to utilise it as a mat for my title; using the diagonal pattern as a guide for placing the Newsprint alphas. 

I always find it hard to break against some deep, inexplicable need to create straight-lined designs when I scrap, but was able to convince myself that as it fitted the topsy-turvy funfair ride theme, I could do it.......(maybe just this once though *twitch twitch*) 

To make the whole thing stand out further, I nestled on top of three of the banner tags, strung together with some grey twine:

I found the perfect journalling spot in the pack - the red and yellow circle design seen here reminded me of the flashing bulb lights on the mechanical arms of the ride, as did the star and arrow die cuts that I added next to it..........

For the final touch, I added the girls' initials to two of the balloon diecuts, and popped them in the top left hand corner of the page, and an image of two little children holding hands in the bottom right.

I really dug into the pack and added them quite liberally to my two pages here, but still have a whole load of embellishments left to use again. The pack really is versatile and excellent value for money - and I have a feeling that my days of deliberating are over and I may find myself going with that urge to "click" rather than "hover" again in the future - try it, you may be pleasantly surprised!

My supplies included:

Studio Calico Heyday Ephemera	Basic Grey Soleil	Basic Grey Soleil	Basic Grey Soleil
Echo Park Everyday Eclectic	EP For the Record 2 Documented	Echo Park Everyday Eclectic	Bella Blvd Designer Tape
Bella blvd Designer Tape	MME Sweetest Thing Decorative Tape	Queen & Co Pink Polka Dot Tape	American Crafts - Amy Tangerine - Mixtape 2
Studio Calico - Abroad - Wood Veneer Shapes - Cameras	Studio Calico Wood Veneer Stars	Studio Calico - Wood Veneer Shapes - People	MLS Vintage Shop
Pink Paislee Bitty Block Alphas	American Crafts Slick Writers

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