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.

Xmas Tipple with Simple Stories

Hello there everyone!

I (Kim) would like to share a page with you which I created with the help of the fantastic Simple Stories papers. This manufacturer has been around for some time now and their designs are made in such a way that your pages are put together in a doddle.

This page came together within the matter if 15 minutes and I think the most time I spent on one single thing was to cut the banner from the papers. With the aid  two different sized circle punches, I removed the "date" circle from its outer lines and adhered them separate from each other to the background for added dimension.

Before I started adding the cut outs from the Life Documented, Life is Good and Journaling Card Elements #2 to the cardstock, I added some stamping to the background with one of my favourite Kaisercraft stamps.

To finish the layout off, I doodled a frame around my main cluster of papers and added some flowers and pearls.

Bo Bunny meets Simple Stories

hi..., Kim here with you today to share how easy it can be to mix and match papers from different manufacturers.

This month I have been playing with Bo Bunny's Et Cetera and Simple Stories' Life Documented lines and they are just so perfectly combinable with each other, it's almost spooky!

I started off with an 8.5 x 11 sheet of white cardstock and gave it an aged look by spritzing some "home-made" walnut spray onto it. If you have an empty spray bottle and one of the Distress Ink Reinkers from Ranger Industries, just add some water and a few drops of the reinker to your empty bottle and you have a perfect walnut spray.

I then cut a few pieces of paper from Bo Bunny's Et Cetera Cut Outs and Symphony, as well as Simple Stories' Life Documented and layered this randomly onto the cardstock.
The final touch was a piece of trim onto which I added a sentiment using adhesive foam pads.

And there you have it - a mixed manufacturer layout

Sale update

Although we are putting all our energies into packing parcels at the moment, I thought I would spend a few minutes to give you a little update on the progress of our sale, and address some of the issues that keep cropping up.

So far we've packed over a month's worth of orders in 2 weeks, so we're getting through them! However, the bulk of those orders were received on the 6th and 7th November. This means we are slightly behind our estimated despatch rate at the moment. We are aware that originally we didn't state a delivery time - we were not expecting to be as overwhelmed as we have been. The subsequent estimate was simply that - an estimate, and we would like to thank everyone for being so patient with us. Most of the orders placed on 6th have now gone out, just one or two outstanding.

Each order is picked and checked before it is processed and any refunds are worked out - this can be quite time-consuming itself. We had one order today that took 2 hours simply to pick. We are working in a space half the size we're used to, but we have extra help every day.

I generally go through emails in the evening - if you have emailed and not had a reply, please re-send it - we've had over 5000 emails since the fire and it's possible I've missed some! We try and answer the phone as often as we can, but we are working in a different room and it's not always possible.

Order statuses are also updated in the evenings, and refunds given then too. So we would like to thank everyone again for their patience, we are working hard and hope to get on top of things very soon.

Crate Paper Farmhouse

With Autumn now in full swing, it is lovely to find some papers with the warm tones of yellows, browns and oranges to match the colors outside. Crate Paper's new line 'Farmhouse' is just these colours, along with some green and teal too.

Here I used a spring photo, but the bright green grass in the photo matched these papers perfectly.

I kept all the detail of the page to one side, to make one brightly coloured busy panel, with just a bit of paint splattering and the title coming over onto the other side to break up the white space.

For the title I used the gorgeous new Corrugated Alphs from JillyBean Soup, which can be found here. I simply brushed a white inkpad over each letter to make it look slightly worn.

I could search with october afternoon

I really like the October afternoon boarding pass papers, but was really stuck for ideas how to use them. We've had holidays to various countries but I've scrapped so many holiday photos that I wanted to think of something to do, and here it is.......slightly cheesey maybe but having just celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary the sentiment is true.

I started by using the amsterdam paper

and then tore a strip from the new york paper, inked and made small tears around the edges and attached to the amsterdam paper.

I matted my photo onto black cardstock & stuck down. Adding some black sequin waste under the photo, I cut out 2 hearts from some cardboard and inked them.

I added some photo corners with red brads,a tim holtz book plate which I covered in distress crackle paint as I did with the keyhole.

I finished with a couple of heart pins & some thread & used alphabet stickers for the journaling.

October afternoon

I guess it's fairly strange to decide to make a anniversary card using the October afternoon Boarding pass papers! but as my husband works away frequently and usually on our anniversary I decided they were a 'apt' paper to use this time!

I used the sydney patterned paper as the background for my card. Cutting the paper slightly smaller than my card and rounding the corners. I then inked the edges to make it stand out from the cream card.
I inked and distressed a kraft tag by sanding the edges & tearing and added this to the patterned paper.
I cut out 2 hearts from the pizza box my supplies are delivered in and tore some of the outer card from the front again giving a aged feel. I attached some small red brads to each heart and inked the edges & attached to the card having cut some sequin waste and attaching it to the side of the tag.

I finished with some glitz teeny alpha stickers and a few mulberry roses.

Scrapping the Everyday

It's so easy to scrap the big things in life.
The birthdays, the special days out etc. But sometimes I like to scrap about the little things that don't actually mean anything.

Like this photo that I took of my button jars lined up on my window.
I love this photo. They look so pretty and daily I look at these and find them inspiring.
So why not scrap this photo?!

I wanted a pop of colour to be the main feature of this LO, so I've left it quite plain.
I used this amazing green patterened paper (Crate Paper - Peppermint) as my base.

I cut a journal tag from this 12x12 sheer of accents (Crate - Peppermint) and layered it under my photo. I drew around a large circle in pencil and then stitched along the circlular edge.
I went through my tray of loose buttons that need to be sorted and stuck them in place.


Here are some other 'everyday' subjects that can be scrapped:

- Your breakfast
- Favourite outfit
- Workplace
- The car you drive
- Favourite mug
- Book you are reading right now
- The daily jewellery you wear
- The view from your window

Enjoy : )

A winner and an update...

First off we must give the winner of the UKS blog hop...things have been busy here at Papermaze and we apologise for not having it up earlier...the winner is
lemon said...great idea for a flower uks lemon

email me at wendy@bbbweb.com to claim your prize.

Okay onto another update about the shop........as you may be aware last weekend we had a everything at half price sale on the website.Thankyou to everyone that has ordered in this sale. To say we have been inudated is an understatment. Within 48 hours we had more orders than we typically pack in just a month.
We have been working hard since then to get these orders out, but please be patient with us....the amount we have to pack has been staggering...we have drafted in extra helpers but even then it is going to take some time to process them all, pick the orders and send them to you.
Vanessa took some photos today to show you...

 

As you can see there isn't much room in between everything...i woke up this morning with little bruises around the tops of my arms where i keep bumping into the hooks!!!



 
As you can see in the photo above...lots of stuff is in boxes...this box holds some thickers..there are another 3 huge boxes like this...so finding just one pack is fun!!!

We took all the cardstock out of the paper trays to be washed...ready for new cardstock to arrive...these tubs hold all of it...There were over 500 different colours, they all had to come out, be placed into plastic bags, labelled and then put in alphabetical order...that was alot of fun i can tell you!!!!

The shop has finally been painted...in a really bright orange...Vanessa loves her orange...and it looks brillant! So finally things are moving forward...and each day new parcels arrive with new stock in...ready for when we re open again.

Again all of us at Papermaze want to thank you all for offers of help and support,we have had some wonderful emails from our customers and we cannot thankyou enough. Love Wendy x

Scrapping with Lists

 Please take a look at the blog post below for an update on the fire and the shop.

Hi, Lisa here with you today.

I'm a big fan of 'the list'. I live by my lists daily.
A list for chores, work, scrapping projects, weekly menu. It's how I work.
I'm lost without them.
So it's not a surprise to learn that I love to scrap with lists too.
It's a great and very easy way to journal.

I've used the Christmas 'Snow Globe paper' 'Peppermint' range from Crate Paper.
I love this patterned paper.



I then used a circle cutter and cut lots of pretty circles out of it.


I stuck them in place with a small piece of double sided tape on each circle, placed my photo and matching jornal card in place.
Then using a piercing tool, I pierced lots of holes all over the circles making stars.
I have then very loosely sewn over purposely making it look slightly messy.


I decided to list 8 things we did this summer.


I like this messy cotton look.


Scrapping with lists, ideas are endless.

- Favourite foods, toys, books, movies
- Scrap what you like or dislike right now
- A LO about what you've done this past year
- New Years resolutions
- Ambitions
- Things that make you laugh

The list goes on : )