Last of the saturday sketches...

This week sees the end of the Saturday sketches...next month we are going to be running a month long competition for you so stayed tuned!

Okay here are the last of the pages that i was sent!

The first one is by Janice!

Next up is Olivia!

Next Karen Wendy

And kerry Bruce...

I will leave you with all this eye candy for the weekend! THanks for all those who helped and sent in sketches and pages!

NEW PRIMA

Ooh i just love these papers by prima they are so soft perfect for all sweet little girls this layout is very simple to achieve all you need use five different size patterned papers and layer as shown.
I incorporated some stamping into this layout to add more detail. a very simple design to draw the eye straight to the photo perfect for my lil dreamer.

More Lost and Found...

When I was asked to take some My Minds Eye Lost and Found Papers home, I just couldn't decide which to grab! They were just all too pretty! But I chose just four papers, only one of each thinking perhaps I would get one LO from it, perhaps two at a push...never did I think I would manage two pages PLUS a card! There is so much gorgeous detail in each page.

So here is my second LO. I used both the 'Market Street' and 'Portobello Road' papers from the collection.

I kept the overall design simple because of the detail in the papers, plus the three photos alone took up a lot of space.

I used the design on the Portobello Road 'Looking Glass' sheet as a title plaque by cutting out the oval shape carefully with a craft knife and placing some corrugated card behind it. I also cut into my photos around the oval shape so that the whole page looks merged together.

I used punched tabs to add descriptions to the edge of the page, carrying the blue over from the block in the centre, and another to the left to balance the page.

I also used American Crafts Glitter Thickers, Lace and Cosmo Cricket Mini Alphabet Stickers.

And on to my card, I simply used scraps from the two pages I made, and layered them up with a doilie. I created the centre strip by folding a piece of patterned paper and securing it either end with stitching. This gave the card depth and interest.

By the Sea

I decided to use some of the scraps left over from my first layout using the October Afternoon Seaside collection to show you that you can create a layout using very little and still give it impact. I used the torn off sections of some of the paper mounted onto some Kraft cardstock to act as a base for my photo - the wide wavy ricrac acts as an excellent embellishment towards the bottom of the photo, giving the impression of waves on the sea.

The October Afternoon Seaside sticker sheet provided some lovely embellishments, including the sailboat and these gorgeous seagulls flying off from the top of the photo. I also used a sticker from the Seaside Collection label sheet to place my date.

Even the title of the layout comes from the sticker sheet. I mounted a section of it on the piece of decorative chipboard to draw attention to it - the chipboard didn't need any decoration as it tones in well with the Kraft background. The text sticker is by 7 Gypsies. I also cut a section of the flag paper and mounted it on foam pads across the top of the layout for a final touch.

The finished layout is quite rustic and neutral, just like the scene it portrays.

Introducing....

You may or may not know that karen who has worked at papermaze for a few years has moved onto pastures new...we will miss her lots! But it does mean that i get to introduce you to the newest member of the Papermaze team...Lou Collins...

She has joined the ranks of ladies that will be packing your parcels for you and also she is going to be the newest member of our design team!

Here is what she has to say about herself...

'Hi, my name is Louise and I am married with two young children, plus two older stepchildren.
I have been scrapping for over two years, and was a card maker for a few years prior to this. I have appeared live on QVC's Craft show, and was awarded 'Scrapbooker of the Year Runner-Up' by The Scrapbook Magazine in 2009. I am now part of theScrapbook Magazine's Design Team, and although I have designed for kit companies and challenge blogs previously, I am currently concentrating on my new job, working for Papermaze!

I have two styles which I often use, these are: distressed and flowery, and bold and masculine! They are total opposites so I tend to alternate between the two. I love to use white space on a page, and like to add little finds such as clothing tags, barcodes, pins, buttons and labels.

I am really honoured to be designing with Papermazes gorgeous products, and look forward to sharing my creations with you.'

here is her first layout for us..using the new MME Lost and found Collection...

 
and some close ups...


 

You can find the lost and found here , swirls and gems here and flowers here.
Keep an eye out for her pages and projects on the blog! Lou is is wonderful to have you on the team!

October Afternoon Seaside

So Summer is (depressingly!) over, the days are cold and grim and the next celebrations to look forward to are definitely autumnal. How can we cheer ourselves up and remind ourselves of the wonderful Summer days we have just spent? By breaking out the October Afternoon Seaside collection of course!

I'm a massive fan of all things October Afternoon - I have yet to see a range I don't like, and the embellishments such as the shape and label stickers are just as good as the papers. So I was thrilled to receive one of the latest ranges from Papermaze to work with last month. The papers are all themed in a very British seaside way - lots of deckchairs, shellfish and lighthouse embellishments and the papers are all called things like Beach Chair and Yellow Bikini, just for the amusing associations I'm sure! It's makes a nice difference to what can be the normal exotic type of beach-themed papers we get from the States, where I'm sure they enjoy much better weather than we do!

I decided to use my papers to scrap this year's trip to the Isle of Wight - an annual event with Ed's family which they have been doing for as long as anyone can remember, and which I have been part of for the last six years as well.
I started with the gorgeous die-cut paper as a base, and kept the rest of the colours blue toned to match with our outfits in the photo. I went for a hint of red to lift the page and avoid it become too 'samey' as well.

I created a few embellishments for the page, like this one based around the safety ring sticker which came from a gorgeous set produced by October Afternoon for this range. The crab at the top of the page is also from this set. I punched a red heart from scrap paper and pierced it with a pin, and adhered it to the sticker using foam pads. The letter stickers are by Making Memories.

My title was created using the same Making Memories stickers, combined with a range of American Crafts Thickers foam and vinyl letters. The quote is from a sticker set by 7 Gypsies.

Get that Distressed Look

Hi, it's Lisa here today.
I'm going to show you how I create that distressed look on my projects.
Today I'm making a card, but these techniques can be applied to scrapbooking and other crafts too.



For this card I have used:
A card blank
Bo Bunny - Mamma Razzi papers
Jenni Bowlin Tickets
Tim Holtz - Distressed Inks
And a border punch and scissors.



My patterened paper has already been cut to size, so now I need to distress those edges. I like to use a long edge of my scissors. You do need to be careful when doing this. You can also do this by using a distressing tool, which you can see here.
I carefully scrape along each edge of the card to create that rough look. Don't worry if it tears slightly, that's all part of the look.



This piece can be stuck onto your card blank.I then use my distressing inks to ink along the edges like this. I find by inking the edges, this really adds to the distressed/vintage feel. The inks are available in many colours.



Using my scalloped border bunch, I've punched 2 borders and layered up. The egdes of these have also been inked and a piece of thin 3mm satin ribbon threaded through.



I've turned my Jenni Bowlin Tickets into little tags by adding a hole at the top of each and adding the same ribbon. A small piece of sticky on the backs and sticking on the card, it looks like I've made a pocket.



And here's my finished distressed style card. x

Is it too early....

Is it too early for christmas cards??? Well probably...but i loved the new Christmas Line from Basic Grey that i just had to use it!

The colours and the patterns on this line are outstanding! So i grabbed some and made some cards...

 

and this one...

There are two papers that if you do buy this line you HAVE to have...this one and this one oh and this one as you can see on the first card that i made i used these to cover the background as they made a beautiful backdrop!

Soooo yummy! You can see the line here....

A little October Afternoon

You can't go wrong with a little October Afternoon! I find all their papers so versatile, and you can mix 'n' match between collections so easily, too.

I decided to go minimal with this layout, and used just a little of the more gentle patterns from the Fly A Kite collection, to keep the emphasis on the photos.

I began with cutting the papers to the sizes I wanted, and chose a neutral kraft cardstock as my background:



I then decided to round the edges to soften the look, inked them too, and added an extra strip to give the design some breadth:



Having laid it all out, it seemed the page lacked something, so I dug out a stamp roller I'd never even opened, and had a play, creating a dotty background. I used ink, but paint would work equally well, if not better, and you could use any sort of pattern stamp for this, or even bubble wrap:



I also ended up misting the top piece of patterned paper, to add a little bit of glimmer interest, which unfortunately doesn't come out well in the photos, you'll just have to imagine it!



Finally happy with the background, I laid out my photos, title and journalling, adding some bling, flowers and ribbon detail (find pins here). And here is that funny little passport face!

Pink doesn't have to be girlie!

When I had finished my first two layouts with the Echo Park A Walk in the Park papers, I had quite a few scraps left over, so I decided to put togther a third page with the leftovers. Because most of the papers I had left were in small pieces, I decided on a 6x12 layout, and kept to the same subject matter of a day out in the Peak District. I had this gorgeous shot of my husband, his brother in law and nephew on a bridge in the valley, but I decided to break with convention and use pink accents to scrap about 'the boys'.

I cut a strip of the colourful grid paper and gave it a scalloped border using decorative scissors and my Cropodile. The piece of blue paper acting as a base for the photo was a scrap left over from my paper piecing layout - I simply trimmed the edges to size. The little journalling blocks were cut from the back of one of the papers, and I layered them up over the bottom part of the photo.

I stuck with the white paper flowers and used a range of colourful brads as centres. The bird embellishment is a die cut by The Girls Paperie Paper Girl range.

The tile is made up of a combination of pink chipboard American Crafts thickers and some My Little Shoebox alphabet stickers. The little date stickers is by October Afternoon.

Even though the page uses colours that may not normally be associated with masculine subject matter, I hope the final layout proves you can break all the colour conventions and still make a successful page!