May Papermaze Kit

Every month Vanessa and her team put together a popular scrapbooking kit, carefully selecting papers from a variety of current collections, together with coordinating cardstock and embellishments. These kits are designed for you to create your own layouts and so do not contain any instructions.

Occasionally people have said they would like some ideas to go with the kit to help in making a start. So I thought it would be a good idea to do a couple of blog posts showing some things I made with the pretty May kit and hope this will inspire you. 

For the first post using the May Kit (available on line and in the shop from today), I have created two layouts.

This month the kit contains:
6 Sheets double-sided patterned paper:
Vertical Elements - I AM... collection - Simple Stories
Choosing Happiness - I AM... collection - Simple Stories
So Amazing - Fleur collection - Kaisercraft
Beginnings Four - Beginnings collection - Authentique
Whim - Let Your Heart Decide - Pink Fresh Studio
Flower Child - Dear Lizzy Stay Colourful collection -American Crafts

Cardstock:
6 sheets Bazzill, 2 sheets with the original kit Guacamole and Cfream Puff
4 sheets with the additional cardstock which has been selected to go with the kit, Glow, Black, Whirlpool, and Pinkini.

showing reverse side of papers

Embellishments:
laser-cut word (exclusive to Papermaze), 2 wax seals, Prima Lavender tag, 3 wooden bingo tiles, strip Dusty Attic chipboard, 3 pearls, Heidi Swapp speech bubble, 2 ribbon roses, 3 paper flowers, 10 dewdrops, 12" washi tape.

The embellishments

I love the way the kit encourages you to mix papers from different companies in the same project, rather than always reaching for papers from the same collection.

As I have just moved house most of my craft materials are still packed as we are busy preparing a craft room. So I have created these layout with a minimum of tools and equipment. Also we had no internet for two weeks and the computers are only just set up so I have been depending on a box of photos I had to hand. 

So this first layout uses mostly materials from the kit and an old 1963 photo of myself.

The wide border was made with a gutted sheet of Flower Child paper, layered up with the Pinkini and Cream Puff cardstock. I also gutted the pink cardstock to give me enough for a photo mat, and all the tags. My journalling is written on a scrap of Cream Puff, mounted onto the Pinkini and made into a tag, which pulls out from under the photo with a thin ribbon bow.

I trimmed the photo with a piece of lace from my stash. The flowers were cut from the
Vertical Elements - I AM... sheet. I added these by sticking with adhesive in some places and raising other parts with 3D foam sticky pads. I added the three paper flowers from the kit. The wording was cut from the same sheet of patterned paper and made into three little tags using scraps from the same cardstock as before, I left room for a black dew drop on each tag.

The butterflies were cut from the Choosing Happiness paper. I made antenna and bodies for the butterflies using black embroidery thread. Once everything was in place I embellished with some Nuvo Crystal Drops.

For my second layout, I was inspired by a post I spotted on NőiCsizma blog.  This time I chose a photo of my nephew and his family.  

Using whirlpool Bazzill, I gutted the 12" x 12" sheet giving me spare card for later. Then I trimmed the black cardstock to 11.5" x 11.5" and mounted this centrally over the whirlpool. I matted my photo and cut the word 'FOUR' using some of the whirlpool card.

With pencil I sketched an incomplete circle in broken lines where I wanted the butterflies to sit. I used a white gel pen to go over these once I was happy, then stuck my photo into position on the page. 

Then came the fussy cutting of butterflies from the Choosing Happiness sheet. From the incomplete butterflies around the edges of the sheet I punched some butterflies using the Martha Stewart 3 in 1 butterfly punch. These were arranged and stuck into place along the bodies. The larger butterflies have 3D foam sticky pads under the wings to raise them up off the page.

The word 'fabulous' is the laser-cut word from the kit which I embossed with white powder, the 'FOUR' was cut with a Sizzix Thinlits die -  Paper Cuts Alphabet.

To finish off I added a little Stickles to some of the wings for a little sparkle. 

Although I have created two layouts, I have plenty of paper, card and embellishments left so I will be back early next month with some more. Meanwhile the kit is available to purchase from today.

Thanks for looking
Lynn x