Never mind the countdown to Christmas...

it's almost Halloween! I have to admit I love Halloween. I wish we went a little more "all out" here in the UK like they do in the States. I try my best though. As Halloween approaches I'm busy preparing for "The 3rd Annual Garratt Halloween Party." When the Pebbles Thirty-One range landed on my doorstep I set about making some little party bags for the kids to fill with sweeties at the party. I'm sure there are other ways to make paper bags but this is how I went about it using a 6x6 paper pad from the range.

1. Score and fold TWO pieces of 6x6 as shown below. 4cm in from the right, 4cm in from the bottom and 4cm in from the left. 

2. Cut one piece as shown, not removing any sections, simply cutting along the lines.

3. Turn over and apply glue to the square sections seen at two of the corners.

4. Fold and stick to make one side of the bag like this:

5. Now with the second piece of card actually cut away those square corner sections like this:

6. Turn over and apply glue to the three rectangular sections: left, right and bottom.

7. Slot those glued sections inside the shape you made in step 4. This creates the party bag/box shape.

 8. Using more paper and cardstock stickers from the coordinating range along with twine and thickers, decorate your bag. Add a strip of black cardstock for the handle then fill with sweeties!

These are 4 of the 9 bags that I have made for the party. Can you guess which DT members are bringing their kids along?

Have you made any Halloween projects? Please share them with us as a link in the comments :) 

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The same but different.

Hello all, it's Louise here with 3 LOs to share. This month I chose to work with the Teresa Collins Memorabilia range. I had 3 photos in mind that I wanted to scrap and thought the colours and frames in this range would be perfect.
After seeing the idea on Pinterest I took a photo of each of the boys favourite toys and had them printed A2 size and framed for in the play room. I wanted to produce a LO of each photo so the boys had a record of their favourite toy.
Oliver has had Mr. Snuggles since he was a a few months old. He took to the cheap Tesco toy straight away and it went everywhere with us. Now he is too old and fragile to go anywhere and lives permanently in Oliver's bed. I used the Maya Road Varsity Uppercase stamps with foam pads to raise the date from the page. I wanted to keep the LO clean and fairly simple so as not to take the attention away from the photo. The title was added with these Simple Stories alpha stickers.

Harry's is one on his own and although he has had soft toys, he's never really taken to any of them. When Granny bought him this large dinosaur it slept in his bed for a few weeks even though it is hard and pointy.
I used mist and stamped images on the background of this LO, and added random spiky machine stitching.

 Drew loved Charley Bear on the tv, so when I saw the cuddly toy I had to buy him. I put him in bed with Drew so that he was there when he woke up. Charley Bear gets taken everywhere and Drew gets very upset if he can't find him. I recently bought a spare, just in case Charley got lost. Drew found the spare and now we have soft Charley and Charley Charley... or smelly Charley as he's also known.
I raided my brad collection and added a row underneath the photo, using my sew easy tool to pierce the holes in a straight line.

 These grey arrows from the Project Life range were just perfect to add a bit of extra detail to the LO.

Have you recorded your favourite childhood toy? I dont' have any of my things from when I was young, but have created a Pinterest board of toys I had... maybe I should scrap a LO to show my boys what mummy used to played with.
Remember to call back every few days to see what the rest of the DT have been up to... and watch out for some lovely Halloween themed creations coming soon.

{Documenting a BIG week}

Hi all, Jen N here. I've been away for a couple of months from the blog, as I've been busy having a baby! Now that my little daughter is here, I've been itching to get back into creating, but of course time is very limited with a newborn and a toddler in the house!

My ongoing project life album is the one creative outlet that I find is the easiest to pick up and put down for a few minutes here and there. I'm way behind with my pages partly because of the aforementioned time issue, and partly because I'd hit a bit of a road block. How on earth do you go about documenting the arrival of a child? It felt too big to even contemplate. I had no idea where to start. I was overwhelmed by photos and emotions. I wanted to "do it justice". These issues could also apply in many other situations such as holidays or weddings - how do you squeeze such a big event into a weekly album without taking up pages and pages?

My usual weekly process is to write down the events of the week, then sketch out my double spread and fill in where each thing will go. I have a diary where it's all kept, and any memorabilia to include is jotted down too. Most of my photos at the moment come from my phone, so I jot down when I've used my "big camera" in the diary too to remind me.

I've stuck to the same page protector throughout the year -  Project Life Design A. I always have the dates in the top left, and during my pregnancy the two 6x4 spaces of the bottom left of the spread were dedicated to bump photos and pregnancy information. Usually for bigger events or days out I simply add an insert or two, but I felt that Amelia's arrival required more than that. I decided that I would split the week into two - before her arrival and during/after. Being born on a Thursday meant this was quite easy to do. I dedicated a double page spread to the 3 days of the week before she was born, and a double spread with inserts to her birth and our hospital stay.

In order to help the whole week feel cohesive I used one set of supplies for the whole set of pages. I usually use a totally different colour scheme each week, so it's noticeable in my album that these pages go together. I chose a Project Life Mini Kit in Baby - For Her as the base of my pages. Using these kits is so simple and easy, and takes away a lot of the time consuming (for me) process of choosing colours and papers. Although I do find that process enjoyable, I really wanted to get this week done so I could move on with my album as I definitely felt very "stuck". This particular kit is a gorgeous mix of pink, yellow, orange and green. Tjhere are a few baby themed cards, but the vast majority are usable for anything. Having made the decision about how many pages to do, I made a rough plan of what to include where, and I printed my photos at home for ease and speed. I tend to stick to 3 photo sizes - 6x4 (sometimes cut down to 4x4), 3x4 (two fitted onto a 6x4 sheet), and 2x2 (6 fit on a 6x4 sheet). This makes it much easier for me to decide what size to print at.

I simply added some washi tapes, some glittery thickers, flat alphabet stickers from Jillibean Soup, a little twine and some wood veneer. I find the best way to approach this album when I'm behind is to keep it very simple and focus strongly on the photos and words, worrying much less about adding embellishment to the pockets. Having a double spread dedicated to just 3 days meant I could use a couple of the lovely filler cards that you get in project life packs (the cards are all double sided - there's usually one journalling side and one solid design), which I don't usually get to do as I have too many things to squeeze in! The box contains both 6x4 and 3x4 cards. You get each 3x4 card twice, so if you love both sides you can use them both - yay!

My weeks usually don't run particularly to a time line within the week, I just put things where they fit the best, but for the baby's arrival I felt it definitely needed to be in some kind of order or it wouldn't make sense! I started with the dates as always in the top left, then added photos from the morning she was born - the sunrise, the last bump photo I took before we left for the hospital & photos of us waiting to go to theatre. I then added a couple of her first photos and a "welcome" card with her name, date & time she arrived, & weight. That completed the left hand spread. The right hand side is photos from the next couple of days in hospital, including our first family of four photo (notice it's in the same spot as the family of 3 photo in the previous spread) and meeting her big brother. The page is finished off with us going home and the first picture of her in her moses basket at home. Handily, we went home on a Sunday evening, which fitted in very nicely with my usual Monday - Sunday week!

I had a lot to write about her actual birth and the hours and days that followed so I included an insert of "the story". This is actually two 6x12 inserts (I've created a collage). The design I've used is American Crafts divided 6x12 page protectors. I ran out of journalling style 6x4 cards from the pack that could accomodate lots of words so I taped together two identical 3x4 cards in order to continue my writing without using different supplies. Once I stopped stressing about making it perfect, or including all the photos I found the week came together pretty quickly. Not everything is there; there are plenty of photos that aren't and several small details too, but I'm okay with that. My full birth story is written down elsewhere, and I have tried not to include too many negative feelings on this page (without being dishonest) as it will be read and kept by all. The salient facts are down, and it's a good overview of the week which tells a story from start to finish. Or bump to baby if you like! I have plenty of extra photos and I plan to make some 12x12 pages too, but for now I can move on to the newborn weeks and attempt to catch this album up to date - wish me luck!

October sketch challenge

A new month means a new Sarah's cards blog sketch challenge. There's a £20 voucher for the shop up for grabs again this month. All you have to do is create a layout inspired by this month's sketch and post a link to your work at the bottom of this post by the deadline of the end of the month.

Here's this month's sketch.

A few of the design team have been busy creating example pages to inspire you.

This colourful page 'Ferry to Yarmouth', has been created by Ifa.

 Jen G has flipped and rotated the sketch to create her A4 page, using just one photo.

Jen N, created this  fabulous pink page featuring her new baby daughter, and has stuck pretty closely to the sketch.

I too stuck to the sketch, and created this masculine page, featuring my great Nephew and his Daddy.

 We are all looking forward to seeing all your fabulous creations.

September challenge winner

A huge thank you to everyone who took part in our September sketch challenge.
We love looking at your creations and it's always a difficult task picking out just one winner!
However, this month we went for Veronica's lovely layout

we just loved all the texture and the lovely summery feel of this page!

Veronica, please email Lianne to receive your £20 e-voucher

Congratulations Veronica and thanks again to everyone who took part, keep up the good work ladies!!

How you doodling?

Hello lovely ladies, it's Tracie here with you again, and this month I have reverted back to my old favourite technique of doodling!!

I love the fact that the odd doodle on your layout can make it unique to you! and let's face it there's nothing quite as relaxing as sitting scribbling on bits of paper, just ask anyone who's become hooked on Zentangling! (yes, I admit I am a dedicated follower of that particular trend!!)

For my first layout I started off just doodling a frame around the edges of the layout and adding the odd swirl and my favourite dotty lines!!

I really love the effect of white pen on  kraft kard!

I used the lovely Bella boulevard range, the papers are lush and the choice of alphas and embellies leave you spoilt for choice!

I used the same range for my next layout too.
All you Dirty Dancing fans will understand the title I chose to go with this photo of my lovely daughter-in-law!

This time I doodled flowers in black pen onto white cardstock and then layered cut out flowers from the
Rise and Shine patterned paper over the doodling using 3d foam pads

and for my final layout I took my inspiration from the doodling on the daily details paper

 using a white pen I copied some of the doodling onto black cardstock to contrast with the black on white, and used it for my layout of one of the kittens I am currently looking after

So with just one gorgeous range of papers and a little bit of doodling, I was able to create three very different looks. 

I had great fun and urge you all to get your doodle on!!

Die-Namics Words for a Big Feastival

Hello Lovelies. It is Ifa with you today.  Hope you are having a relaxing Sunday ( or Monday or Tuesday...)

I spotted a new line in store that I am super excited about. Have you seen the Die-Namics dies? I bagged myself this set.

I also splashed out on a set of buttons by Fancy Pants. The bonus of this set, it is backed by a sheet of cork effect cardstock which came in handy for my layout.

I printed 12 photos on a sheet of A4 that I then cut out and arrange into a suitable arrangement. I glued them all together, to each other.  This will enable me to move them around the layout later without having to keep rearranging them.

I picked a background cardstock to used for this layout.  Shock horror, I know, it is not a white background this month but close.

I added a few Remember that I die cut from an assortment of patterned paper to the edges.

This is followed by the title.  To make this long title, I cut REMEMBER before aligning THIS WEEK to the end to get Remember This.  And you noticed! I have used the cork effect packaging.

I stitched around the edges of the cardstock.  The wonkiness is very intended! I can actually sew in straight line.

I added a few embellishments to the edges. I also took the opportunity to figure out where I want to place my photos. I actually ended up placing the photos higher up on the layout.

I added the photos to the layout.

Next, I ear marked an area for journaling.

This is the finished layout.  It is about our weekend in the Cotswold at Jamie's Big Feastival.  Did you spot Jamie Oliver in one of the photos ? He is surrounded by a group of girl singers who were performing at the Feastival.

 

I also looked at how else I can use the dies.  Here are a few things I cut out. I even tried cutting out of foam.  The orange, curved, Remember is one.  I like that I can bend it like that.

 

 

That's all from me this month.  See you next ?

I've been Glitzing..

Hello

This month I promised myself I would get out and use my alcohol inks as they are just sitting redundant unused and unloved in my craft unit.

Rather than pick papers first and then worry about what I'm going to do afterwards, this month I chose my papers to match the colours of my ink so I knew I had no excuse not to use them.

Sarah has added lots of new products to the shop this month and The Glitz - Wild and free collection caught my eye as the colours were so vibrant but also matched the tones of my inks.

I decided the collection pack would be the best choice for me as I like both sides of a few of the papers and the pack contains two of each design, along with a sheet of alphas and a sheet of fab stickers.

I created my first page using my inks and squirted and drizzled them onto a white background the create this effect.

I also used a lovely Pink Paislee mistable flower that I purchased at the last retreat and added some of my ink to that so it co-ordinated with my background..

After having fun with my inks I had enough time left to make another bright page with this beautiful picture of my children getting along very well for a change :)

I hope you like this collection as much as I do its selling pretty quickly in the shop but the collection pack is still available :)

Have fun Claire xxx