Tea for Two

When I got my hands on some of the gorgeous Kitchen Spice papers from Bo Bunny, I initially thought I'd use them to scrap one of my many kitchen adventures with my boys. But when I went through my photos, this one of my mum and I enjoying an afternoon tea treat at the Dorchester Hotel stood out, it seemed to fit well with the colours:



I wasn't sure how I was going to use one particular sheet with a large bold design, until I decided that certain elements cut out would make great accents, so I set to with a pair of scissors!



I raised the cut-out elements on foam pads, for a 3-D effect, and placed them overlapping the photo, which helps draw the eye to the picture.



I added my title using vinyl Thickers, some of the lovely velvet scalloped ribbon from American Crafts, some mini sunflowers, and finished off with a touch of sparkle with some Stickles glitter glue and Kaiser gems.

Another cuppa, anyone?

Nicky x

A mini album...

There has been alot of new stash coming into Papermaze over the last few weeks. So on a trip down there a few days ago i grab some of it to show you on here.

I decided to use one of the new Maya Road Chipboard albums. One of the reasons that i love these, is because you can use as much of it or as little as you like. The one i used here for example had 7 chipboards parts to it, so using both sides that is 14 pages. Now that is alot, so i didnt use them all.

They come undressed. So i normally take of the metal ring that holds it all together and seperate them like this...

I then started on the front page of the album... The first thing i did was to take out the spots as i wanted to cover them with different pattern papers...

I then chose the paper i wanted to use for this. As the new October Afternoon had just arrived i chose that.

I used these two on the front page. They are called Chicken Coop and Root Cellar.

I then added glue to the front of the front page... I normally use wet glue for this...
And then turn it upside down and adhere it...

I then cut round the edge using a knife...

Then i used a Basic Grey File to file down the edges...

I then inked the edges with brown ink...
Next i covered the dots, using the same process...

Now add the circles...
I then added some faux stitching around the edges...

And then added some lettering...
The rest of the pages are covered in the same manner... i wanted the photos to be the main focus on this album so i printed them all off really big!!!

Scrapping with ribbons

I have a mountain of pretty ribbon, but for some strange reason I never seem to use it. So when Ness asked me to focus on ribbon this month I was really excited to see what techniques I could come up with.

You can use ribbons to weave, hang, tie or attach. You can even stamp and print on thicker ribbons.

Attach safety pins to your ribbons. Hang little embellishments like charms on to your ribbons with the safety pins

I made a hole in the ribbon so I could could add a brad to make sure the ribbbon stayed secure where I had glued the two sides together

To finish off I used some bling

Instead of using brads, secure bookplates with ribbons at both ends, or turn the bookplate and use ribbons to hang the bookplate on your LO

Tie in a knot or bow and use a glue dot to adhere

Fold the ribbon and use staples to hold the folds in place

Here is a LO I made using ribbons and My Little Shoe Box papers

Using the Martha Stewart Simple Scallop Punch I punched a rectangle of My Little Shoebox Little Ladies - Michelle paper

Using a white pen I drew around the scallops

Then I took the ribbon that I had folded and stapeled and attached it to some lace
I then attached the lace to the scalloped paper
I cut a strip of My Little Shoebox Little Ladies - Jana paper and sprayed with glimmer mist and inked the edges

I cut my card to size, spritzed with brown glimmer mist attached the strip of ladybird paper and attached some ribbon to the edge with staples

Using the bookplate embellishment I made earlier I attached this to my LO using a brad
I added my photo and title
And here is my finished LO

Off the wall

I thought I'd share a some more layouts from the shop wall with you! First up is one from Karen that has attracted a lot of comments - she has used Cosmo Cricket Early Bird papers to create this fabulous page (although I have to say the photograph doesn't do it justice):


Lots and lots of cutting out and layering using foam pads, but I'm sure you'll agree the finished article is well worth it!
This one by Lesley uses My Minds Eye Abbey Road Whirlybird papers, and I particularly like the layered embellishment in the corner:


And finally, this is one of the pages I designed for a recent crop, using Jenni Bowlin Town Square papers.

November workshops

This month we have 3 workshops to do.

THe first one is on the 11th November.

It is a page that has a mini album on the actual page. This workshop starts at 7.30pm. Bring with you your normal cropping tools and a big photo nearly an A4 size. The colours of this page are green and blue.

The 2nd workshop is a christmas cards workshop. We will be making 'special christmas cards' on this evening.


This is going to take place on the 18th November and starts at 7.30pm. Bring with you your normal cropping tools. We will only hold this workshop if we have enough people.

THe third one is a page based on puzzle shapes.

It is done using the new Basic Grey Nook and Pantry line. Again you need to bring your normal cropping tools and it starts at 7.30pm on the 25th November.
You will need several pictures for this one. I have used 4 photos on this one, but you can add more if you wish. The size of the puzzle shapes and there fore the photos are roughly about 10.5 cm by about 13cm. Preferably portrait size.

If you have never been to one of our workshops before, they are held in the shop, we have tea, hot chocolate, lots of gossiping and laughing. They are great fun, and dont worry if you have no one to come with it is a very easy and friendly place!!! lol. Hope to see you there.

Easy Mini Books (with the help of October Afternoon)

Hi, I want to show you my quick way of making mini books. They don't have to take days and days. I used to be terrible at starting these projects but then never finishing them. So here's how I make my quick and easy mini books in an afternoon.

Firstly, once you've decided on which photographs you want to scrap (I like to print mine off the same size for these simple mini books) then cut your card stock to size. This one is 5.5 inches square. I've then inked the edges. I personally love the cats eyes ink pads for this job.


I've stuck to the October Afternoon Road Map range for this project. Again this makes it more simple to make not having to fuss and decide which papers and embellishments to use.

The journal cards are perfect for mini books. As everything coordinates so nicely, I wanted them to stand out of this album rather than hide them away inside.

I've then added the matching stickers throughout the book.

And the mini alphas are another favourite of mine when making mini books.
I've used the Bind it all to hold it all together.

So, simple, effective and can be achieved in an afternoon.

Thanks for looking, Lisa x

Apologies!

I must apologise to everyone for not posting the results of the Autumn Layout competition that we ran. Sometimes life just takes over - we are having some extensive building work done which has been taking up all of my time and concentration, and I was reminded earlier this week that I hadn't announced a winner!

Anyway, we had some fabulous entries - I have posted some of my favourites below:

Rebekah


Anita


Louise

Anna

And the winner, whose name was drawn at random by my husband - Morag

Congratulations Morag - a pack of Indian Summer will be winging its way to you - just drop an email to vanessa@papermaze.co.uk with your address!

And apologies once again for keeping you waiting - the building work is well underway now so I hope to be able to turn my focus back to the shop again!!