Christmas cropping..

We had our last crop of the year on Saturday :) The hall always looks so festive with its Christmas decorations, and we keep up the spirit with food, bingo and a special challenge kit! This year's was one of my favourites - it featured MME Lost & Found Christmas and Authentique Wonder, as well as a variety of embellishments.


And it's always interesting to see what people do with the kit. I thought I'd show you a few of the layouts that people made. Jackie hadn't added her photos yet, but I love how she cut the holly of the MME paper..

This is from one of our young scrappers...

Timandra managed to get two layouts from the kit...


Sadie incorporated some hidden journalling under the centre photo...


I love Sue's twisted paper across the centre - reminds me of paper decorations we made as a child!

Pat has yet to add photos, but has made a great use of the embellishments in the kit...

And finally, this one is from Liz, who made lots of presents for her layout!

Thanks to everyone who happily shared their layouts, and those who have supported our crops throughout the year :)

The Messy Look

I confess to being a messy scrappy.
Not messy as in having a messy studio to work in, that part of my scrapping is tidy, but my creations tend to end up being messy.
I try neat and tidy but they look unfinished to me, so I add something else, then splatter the ink and before you know it unintentionally, I've created another 'mess'.

I thought I'd share with you today some of my favourite 'messy' techniques.
I made this Cup Cake LO using some Emma's Shoppe papers from Crate Paper.


I love patterned paper, but I find it hard to work straight on to. It feels very busy to me and I feel like I need to tone it down a little.
My favourite way to do this is to reach for the gesso or moulding paste, apply some to the end of a strip of thick card or an old credit card and spread in to the paper/card in various directions. Sometimes I add some paint too if I need a contrast (like I have done here).


I cut the squares from this next sheet. Before sticking them in place, I've roughed up the edges of each square with the side of my scissors. I've lightly inked them and then stuck them in place but not applying any glue to the edges so they lift slightly. I also distressed the edges of the LO with my scissors and distressed ink.
I've used a faux sticthing technique here.
Take a paper piercer and pierce holes in a line. Then using a journal pen join the holes up. Like a dot to dot. You now have a faux stitched line.



I wanted to added a kind of frosted look to my title. Those thickers are lovely, but just a bit to clean and tidy looking for this LO : )
So I stuck them down and then rubbed over each one with my Basic Grey file 9sand paper or a nail file will also work) I then got carried away and rubbed the heart over too.



I then applied some crackle glaze to the title and the heart, sprinkled over some glittery pink embossing powder and heated over with the heat gun. I let it bubble and crack and ended up with this effect. Fab texture!!


And there you have it. My kind of messy, distressed, painty, inky kind of page.



Lisa xx

The Rock Cafe with Bo Bunny

Hello everyone - Kim with you here today.

I am TOTALLY into papers that have musical notes or old newspaper clippings printed onto them - why, I really don't know but I just cannot pass them by and have to have them.
Imagine my delight when I was presented this month with a selection of Bo Bunny's Et Cetera line - a paper line after my own heart *swoon*


For the following layout I went to town with an array of circle punches and made good use of the Symphony paper. After distressing the edges with some Chalk Inks from Clearsnap, I stared to randomly place the circles on my background and also raised some of them with the aid of adhesive foam dots.

Cutting various bits and bobs from the Et Cetera Cut outs paper and adding a little bit of punchinella and American Crafts chipboard thickers and my layout was completed.

Now I need to get me some more musical note papers :)

November with Simple Stories

Good day fellow crafters.

Kim here with you again showcasing how fabulous and effortless you can create a quick page with the papers of Simple Stories' Life Documented line.

To create my layout I made use of the following papers:

• 100% Real Life
• For The Record
• Journaling Card Elements #2

In order to get a little dimension onto my layout I adhered a few circle punchies with some adhesive foam pads to the background and also added flowers on top of a journaling strip with adhesive dots.