Imaginisce - Snowy Jo

First I cut my cardstock to 8.5X11

The i put some white paint on my finger and drew 2 lines, once the paint had dried I covered the lines in green and clear gems and white pearls

Then I cut 2 bauble shapes out of the papers and inked the edges of the bauble shapes

I stuck the baubles onto the card and then using 3d foam added a flower and some leaves

I put a brad in the centre of the flower and hung a little bell from the brad

Next I cut a rectangle from the green spotted paper

And another rectangle from the flowery paper, I distressed the edges of this paper using a file and I carved a frame too!

Next I mounted my photo on red paper and added my title. Then i framed the bottom right hand corner of the green spotted paper using paint, gems and pearls in the same way I did the top left hand corner

Then I cut a bracket shape from the red paper.

I took a page from a small notebook and scrunched it up then flattened the paper out again and stuck the bracket shape to the note paper

I used this notepaper for my journalling

Finally I stuck the notepaper to my LO with the point of the arrow pointing to my photograph.

Homemade lace cardstock...

When I found this patterned cardstock in my latest DT package, the poppy designs immediately made me think of remembrance day and I decided to create a layout to commemorate the services this year which were especially poignant to me.

I started off by creating a collage of torn book paper and other vintage images on the base of a piece of brown cardstock. I then went about creating my own lace cardstock, by carefully cutting around all of the flower designs on the patterned paper.

I adhered foam pads to the back of the patterned paper, and then positioned it over the top of the brown cardstock. The raised foam pads create a layered effect and add depth to the layout.

(This photo shows the layout on its die - the collage should show through at the bottom of the page)

The next stage was to tear another piece of book paper to act as a photo mat - I adhered this to the bottom right hand corner of the layout using foam pads, and then place my photo at a slight angle on top of this.

My title was created by sticking American Crafts chipboard thickers to a torn strip of book paper and sticking this to one side of the photo using foam pads. The journalling was written on strips of Kraft cardstock, and then arranged around the title.

To create an embellishment cluster, I threaded neutral coloured buttons with cream thread and adhered them to the right hand side of the photo, along with some Scenic Route Sonoma cardstock stickers which I also raised with foam pads.

he final layout has a very layered effect, with each layer peeking through and drawing the eye into the page.

You could try creating homemade lace cardstock from any paper with a strong design which interlinks across the page (so it can all be cut out as one design). It is best however to use cardstock weight paper as it could become too flimsy if thin paper was used. The key to cutting out the paper is a sharp craft knife, a steady hand and a bit of patience!

Christmas Eve..

And here is the last of the advent pictures:





So, now you have them all you need to email your answers to vanessa@papermaze.co.uk The closing date is the end of the year - midnight on December 31st, so if you still have some to figure out you have a little more time! Remember to include your name on your email - and we need to know what each item is and the manufacturer. The person with the most correct answers will win a £25 gift voucher, and if there is a tie, one person will be drawn at random. Good luck!


We'd also like to take this opportunity to wish you all a happy Christmas, and to thank you for your continued support -we look forward to providing you with more gorgeous goodies and lots of inspiration in 2009!

A week of advent!

My apologies for not updating with the advent competition as I had originally intended, we have had contend with several emergency dentist trips, children falling down stairs, as well as the round of Christmas school plays, carol services etc!

So here are last weeks advent pictures - one more to follow tomorrow!

Day 17:

Day 18:

Day 19:

Day 20:

Day 21:

Day 22:

Day 23:

Cut and Embossing Cuttlebug folders...

Have you seen these? they in my humble opinion are one of the best things that Cuttlebug have come out with ( not forgetting the embossing folders)

THey come in two parts. For this one i have used a wreath die and embossing folder.


THe first thing you do to make this particular wreath is cut out two wreaths, one in red and one in green...

you then run them both through the embossing folder...

You have to make sure they are lined up properly.
THey both end up looking like this..

Then cut out the ribbon part of the red wreath..
and adhere it over the green ribbon.

I inked all the edges and added red gems for the berries...
I then added it to a little card, which i intend to use for name place mats on my xmas table...
THe size of the wreath is about 6cm across and 6cm down. You can find all the Cuttlebug products here and you can find the cutting and embossing sets here.

Jingle Bells!

Today my layout uses the scrummy Roxbury range of papers and die-cuts from Scenic Route.
I wanted to make a page using this photo, but just like everyone else, I haven't got much time to play with at the moment.
Using these papers, and the matching die-cuts, my page was finished very quickly- even for me!!

First I took the Dearborn Street paper, and cut a large wide strip to fit across the middle of the page.
The reverse is a lovely deep red with stars on pattern- I cut two very narrow strips, again to fit across the page.
I then inked the edges.

Using the paper Forest Street I cut a strip off two rows of trees wide.

Using a pair of fine detail scissors I then cut around the trees, making two border strips. Inking the edges of these would have been very tricky and taken a long time, so I cheated and drew along the edges with a brown zig millenium pen!

I love the die-cut arrows and journalling shapes that come in the Scenic Route ranges, so used a few on this layout.
I popped the ones off the sheet I wanted, and inked the edges.
The large arrow I fixed to the page using foam pads to raise it off the page a little.

The photo I sanded the edges, and matted it onto some brown cardstock to make it stand out from the patterned paper beneath a little more.

For the title, I used the Rockville Park paper, and cut it on my Craft Robo machine.
The letters I inked around the edges (with a pen again) and using foam pads mounted them onto journaling die-cuts. then I stuck these onto the page.

Lastly I added my journalling... and the page was done!

Advent continues..

Day 15

and day 16:

Snowy Jo

For some reason I have trouble using Christmassy papers, so I asked Wendy to choose a Christmas line to send me to play with.
She sent the Snowy Jo range, by Imaginisce, which are lovely heavyweight papers, all with some glitter decoration on one side.

And here is what I did with it...

I love layers, so they feature heavily on this layout.
First I took the Santas Secret Garden paper, and used a decorative edge rip and tear ruler to cut it down to size- I took about half an inch off each edge. Then I inked the edges.

Next I stuck this onto a piece of co-ordinating cardstock.

The layers on the page I tore as with the first piece, I used Jingle Baubles and Snow Soiree. One pieces was to fit the entire width of the page; one a little smaller and narrower; and one to mat a 6"x4" photo. Ink all edges and stick onto the page.

I then sanded the edges of the photo and matted it onto some green cardstock.

To embellish the page I cut an assortment of scalloped circles and retro flowers using punches.

A few of these shapes I tucked under the edges of some of the layers, the rest I layered together to make my own 3-D embellishments.

And using one of the Tinsel Tag Stickers I added a spot of journalling.

For the title I used American Crafts Vinyl Thickers - White Sprinkles.

The last stage was to ass some glitter and sparkle- I certainly put a bottle of Stickles to good use here!

And here is the whole page...