Pebbles, Jen Hadfield - Reaching Out - You Make Our House A Home

Hi everyone!

Claire back again with my second layout from Jen Hadfield, Reaching Out.

As promised - I'm using the bold, bright and fun side of this awesome collection - I had an absolute blast making this page!

I started with a sheet of the blue Bazzill cardstock from the Matchmaker pack. I gutted the paper to leave an inch or so border and mounted a piece of smaller white premium cardstock on top.

Now, some of you may know, that I cannot resist a paper with houses - they are screaming to be fussy cut and I decided it would be rude not to (especially with my track record!).  One of my favourite design elements is repeating shapes, so I decided that this time I would make a house from mini houses - why not?! :)

I took a piece of the Be You paper and cut a house shape to make an aperture. I also trimmed the paper to about 10.5" and distressed the edges. Before sticking it down, I hand stitched a border around the house in blue thread for extra definition and machine stitched around the edge, lifting the edges slightly to get a bit more height.

And now the fun part - I fussy cut the houses from the Hi Neighbor paper and mounted them on foam pads. I strategically positioned them inside the house aperture until the shape was full.

Next, I double mounted my photo using the 'b' side of the Stick Together paper and the 'b' side of the Scatter Friendship paper. I left the bottom layer a little longer and ripped the end for extra interest.

Once the photo was positioned, I set to embellishing.

I used some florals and houses from the ephemera pack around the photo, with a floral rainbow along the top. I also added a floral cluster from the Accent Stickers.

For the title, I used the Navy Puffy Alphabet Thickers coupled with some chunky white thickers from my stash. To finish the page off, I used a red heart from the Hello Phrase Thickers above the chimney and added a few Prima Crystals in Golden Desert for each cluster.

The journaling was hand written on some strips of left over white cardstock and added on foam pads.

This was an incredibly fun page to make - so many great elements to play with and so different to Layout 1 I shared earlier this month.

It's been a while since I saw a collection with this many options - it's exceptional value for money and I feel like I have only just scratched the surface of what this has to offer.

Hope you've managed to enjoy some scrappy time this month.  I will see you next time.

Take care,

Claire xx

Bear Hugs ........ Prima Capri

Hello again!

It's Anita here today and I have got a layout to share with you today using some Prima papers from their Capri Collection. Designed by Frank Garcia, this beautiful range was inspired by the magic and beauty of travel and the elegance of vintage flair. It's full of inspiring travel quotes, beautiful florals, and textured patterns and has delightful holographic foil designs scattered throughout the pages.

I decided to not follow the travel theme however with my layout and hopefully this will also show how versatile the range is.

So I decided to scrap these gorgeous hugging bears, a gift I gave my hubby earlier this year! He loves bears....I love hugs.....perfect combo!
The layout is based on a sheet of cardstock, which was gutted and the excess piece was used to mat the photo and also create some of the flower layers. The picture below shows some of the delicate gold holographic foiling that appears on the sheets in varying degrees. Its very pretty and captures the light beautifully.

I used a sheet of  Capri Carolina for the background and also chopped up a sheet of  Grotto Bianco and Arco Naturale. Brown acrylic paint was gently swiped around all the edges of the panels and the page and I also gave a few squirts and splats of Cosmic Shimmer Mist across the page  in Ancient Copper and another colour I have, but the label has come off so I apologise I have no idea which colour it is!

I wasn't sure initially how to embellish my page and thought it might be nice for a change to get out some of my older dies that I haven't used for a long time.

 After having a good rummage I decided on using my Tim Holtz Tattered Floral Bigz die which is an old favourite of mine and also a Sizzix Flourish and Nouveau alphabet dies for the title.

The flowers were cut using 2 different plain cardstock sheets and also some were cut from a sheet of Arco Naturale 
I layered them up, mixing the designs. By curling the edges up in different ways you can easily change the design of the flowers. This does however create quite a depth to the flowers and lots of scrappers prefer to not have such 'lumpy' layouts. These die cuts can also be left flat and be layered...still very pretty and then they sit a bit wider on the page.
I also die cut some flourishes, gave them a little spray misting and added them in below the flowers.                                                                                    

I added some sparkly cabouchons to the centre of the flowers and a sprinkling of pretty sparkly cabouchons and flat backed crystals were scattered about the page to finish it off ( I do so love a bit of sparkle!!)

Its actually made a nice change to scrap just an object rather than a person for a change....and also use a themed collection for a different theme than it was designed for. It really is a gorgeous collection.

Why not pop along to the SHOP and have a cuppa and a good look round. There are always lots of New Products and lots and lots of other goodies to be found within the site....and we all deserve a treat now and again eh ;)

See you later in the month again....Happy Crafting!

Warmest wishes
Anita xxx

Every Moment Matters ..... Prima Aricot Honey pt 3

Hi There

Anita here today and I am sharing my final layout using the last left overs of Prima 's stunning Apricot Honey Collection. I am not a massive fan of scrapping with just plain cardstock...not for me to scrap with anyway. I am a die hard patterned paper girl....however I AM in awe of so many scrappers who do base most of their layouts round cardstock and how they create such uncluttered, striking layouts

So I thought as I only had a few scraps that I would base mine of a sheet of Fawn cardstock.
I sprayed a few squirts of some brown, copper and gold ink sprays I had in my stash...I really couldn't make myself leave it plain lol!

The papers have some beautiful copper foiling detailing on them and so I decided to echo this all round the edge of the layout (See....I just KNEW I wouldn't be able to keep it very clean!)

 I gently sponged some FlitterGlu round the edge of the layout and then rubbed some copper gilding flakes all around before buffing them up to finish the technique off. I love how it shines so nicely in the light and I feel it really enhances the page.

I cut various panels and embellishments from the sheets of  Deep Love  and Happiness Looks Good On You
I layered these up and raised on foam pads to add a little dimension to my layout and cut a photo to the same size as the panels to add to the bottom row. The original photo had lots of different blue tones in the background so I had it re printed in B&W and then it will work on any papers.

 I gently inked around the edges of each of the panels with an old ink pad and added a few co-orinating Chipboard Stickers
I then added a few flat back gems and half pearls .....and then I had to sit on my hands....just to stop myself chucking lots more bits and pieces on the page and probably spoiling it!

So that's it for me now with that gorgeous range of papers. I have had a lovely time playing with them and am looking forward to working with my next set of papers.

Have a great week!

Warmest wishes
Anita xxx

Friends Make The Good Times Better ... Kaisercraft Morning Dew

Hello again, it's Anita here with you today.

This month I am working with the gorgeous Morning Dew Collection from Kaisercraft, full of calm and relaxing colours, natural elements and general good feeling.

We recently spent a few lovely days away with some very dear friends of ours and had some great days out walking and exploring local beauty spots and just enjoying each others company. One of the sheets in the collection, Refresh , has some really lovely quote panels on it about friendship....so I knew it would be perfect to use to scrap a memory of our time away together.

I based the layout on a sheet of Rejuvenate that I cut down to 11" x 11" and then placed it onto the reverse side of a sheet of Serene this created a lovely polka dot frame around the edge.

Using some bubble wrap I sponged on some white acrylic paint and stamped it onto the background and I also used some 49 and Market Gabi's Line Stitch stamps with paint around the edges.
When the paint had dried I picked at the entire edge of the inner layer to distress the edges and create some texture.

 I gently sponged white paint onto the edges of my photo and then matted it on a piece of Exhale before fussy cutting some clusters of flowers from a sheet of Serene 

Using Stickles in Unicorn I added a few highlights to the flower centres for a little sparkle and also onto the wings of a couple of butterflies that I cut from the sheet of Refresh
I added some tiny word stickers from Pretty Little Studio

 I also cut some quotes and panels from the Refresh sheet and sponged the edges gently with paint before adding them to the page.
In my stash I found some metallic craft sand in colours that complimented the papers, so added this in a few areas for some more texture on the page.

 

Some crystal swirls were added beneath the butterflies to leave pretty, sparkly trails and to just finish the page off.

 I have really enjoyed creating this page , not only was it in my favourite colourway, but it also has such lovely sayings, patterns and elements in it. You can find the entire range here .

Thank you for looking today x

Warmest wishes
Anita xx

Sitting Pretty ...... Georgia Blues from Prima.

Hi there!

It's Anita with you today and I would like to introduce the stunning GEORGIA BLUES  Collection from Prima. What an absolute delight these papers are with the gorgeous blue tones, floral displays and elegant silver foiling details on each sheet. The patterns are magnificent and varied and they really are rather luxurious.
( Please excuse the poor quality of the photos, the weather has been wet and  lousy here today and I haven't been able to take them outside like I normally do)

I have been wanting to scrap this photo, taken of our youngest daughter for some time. When we were on a day out on holiday in August 2015 we found a row of lovely beach huts at Hunstanton and we had a little photo shoot.... I think these papers were perfect for the job.

I based the layout on a sheet of Dark Grey cardstock and took a sheet of MORNING GLORY that I then gutted out a large oval shape from the centre of the sheet. I cut small snips all the way round the oval and then using a thin paint brush handle, I rolled the edges backwards..... this created a rolled frame and also exposed the pattern from the rear of the sheet.

I also used a sheet of HAPPY DAYS, from this I cut out the bicycle and the floral arrangement from the top left of the sheet. The large remaining piece was placed behind the oval aperture for the photo to sit on.

I added the bicycle and the floral section around the rolled frame and then cut a slice and rolled back on the top of the right hand side of the layout. Behind the slice I slipped in a small panel cut from a sheet of Memory Lane and then did some criss cross lacing using some sparkly blue thread.

I took the Decorative Chipboard and cut it in half ( to use at the top and bottom of the page) I gently added some Pewter cream rub on to make it suit the page a little better.

The title was made using some lovely puffy alphabet stickers from PinkFresh Studio and their Simple and Sweet Range and I then just added a few blossoms, berries and leaves and also a few blue crystal gems to finish.

This really is such a beautiful, useable collection and I am very much looking forward to doing more with the remainder of my DT kit.

Why not pop over to the SHOP and see what other gorgeous goodies are on offer.

Happy Crafting!!

 Warmest wishes
Anita xx

The World is Yours..... Gypsy Rose pt 2

Hello There

Its Anita today, using up the last few little bits of left overs from the sheets of Gypsy Rose that I have been working on. Please see my original post, Be Yourself ,  for the first layout using these gorgeous papers from Kaisercraft.

I am not normally a fan of using too much cardstock, but I had a couple of sheets spare and they worked well with the colours in this paper range. I cut the lighter sheet down to an 11" x 11" square and then using a Martha Stewart Deep Edge, I did a single punch on each side.

I had a few floral clusters left over that I had cut out from the sheet of Inspiring and scattered these around the page. I also added a die cut butterfly and gave her a trail of champagne coloured crystals.

 

I chose a couple of sections from the sheet called Original....this is full of lovely quotes and sayings and is very usable for a variety of style layouts and cards.

I also used the largest of all the Dream Catcher images in this collection, its taken from the sheet called Free Spirit. A little strip of words was added across the centre and I then added small and large Champagne crystals across the page in various places to finish the layout.

This really has been a delightful Collection to work with....and you can find Gypsy Rose and lots of other stunning Kaisercraft Collections here at the shop!

Happy Crafting, see you again soon

Warmest wishes
Anita xx

Be Yourself ......Gypsy Rose from Kaisercraft

Hi There Crafters

Anita here with you today and just for a change, instead of working with some of the newest additions to the shop, I thought I would break out an older release which is really beautiful. I wanted to scrap these 2 photos of my youngest daughter after she had been playing with some Snapchat filters. This layout has been inspired by the beautiful work of Kylie Kingham who is on the DT for Kaisercraft.

 Kaisercraft have 2 releases of fabulous papers at the very beginning of every month, all great quality, double sided and designed to compliment each other perfectly. The collection I am working with is Gypsy Rose  and is a lovely mix of dream-catchers, beautiful blooms and varying shades of burgundy, green and pinks.

I backed the layout on a sheet of deep burgundy cardstock and stuck a 5" x 12" strip of the green polka dot paper Wandering across the top of the page. I also fussy cut a large and small Dream-catcher from the reverse side of the sheet

I then took sheet of Free Spirit and fussy cut the extra large Dreamcatcher, which I put to one side for another layout I had planned. The remainder of the sheet is a shabby chic wood effect and I cut this into 6 strips that were 7" x 2". I distressed all round each strip with an old dark brown ink pad and roughed the edges with the edge of a scissor blade before laying them side by side across the bottom of the layout to create wooden panels

The rest of the page was created by fussy cutting lots of flower clusters from the sheet of Inspiring and also picking some of the sayings and cutting them out from the sheet of Original ( there is a great selection to choose from).
I also die cut some leafy fronds from green cardstock and tucked in behind the edges of some of the bloom clusters

After adding the 2 dream catchers that I had cut from the sheet of Wandering, I added some flat backed pearls and crystals to them and also scattered a few across the page in different places to complete the page.

I have really enjoyed using these papers, the colour way and the prints are beautiful and easy to use. There are lots of gorgeous collections available throughout the shop here for you to have a good look through.

I will be back again at a later date with another layout, using mainly cardstock ( most unusual for me!!) and the left over pieces from the sheets I used today.

Have a great weekend, hope some of it is filled with crafting of somekind!

Warmest wishes
Anita xx

Is 50 too old for Unicorns?..... with Stamperia.

Hi There

It's Anita here with you today and I have a layout to share using a brand new manufacturer to Papermaze, called Stamperia! The shop stocks a good selection of their papers and they cover various themes. The papers themselves are super quality, nice and thick and the colour ways are beautiful.

I chose to use some photos from my 50th Birthday (earlier this year) when my lovely daughter and sister joined forces and made me a luscious rich chocolate layer cake and a fabulous, huge well fed unicorn ( made from fimo!)

 I had a sheet of light cream cardstock in my kit that I wanted to use to base the layout back onto, but needed it to blend in, so I used 2 Distress Oxide Ink pads : Peacock Feather and Seedless Preserves and applied them using some cellophane packaging and a water mister.

I also used the same colours and technique on the sheet of Wonderland Unicorn that the layout is created on. Where some of the patches were particularly wet, I blew hard and created the runs down the page.
Using some white acrylic paint I dry brushed around each photograph to create a soft matt and also around the entire edge of the layout.

I had some Prima Blossoms in my kit and I wanted to make them work with the page, so I used the same inks on these, gently patting a bit of each colour on and then misting with the water spray again to help blend the colours.

 I had bought a 2nd sheet of Wonderland Unicorn and so cut out the 2nd Unicorn and layered it on the original page using some foam pads for dimension, then gave the wings, mane and tail some magical sparkle using some Stickles.

 I also had some lovely cotton lace in my kit, this took some of the ink really well and stained it to co-ordinate with the rest of the page.

I tore a slice out of the paper on the right hand side and rolled each section back, to reveal some of the inking underneath. Then used some irridescant, sparkly thread to stitch criss crosses along the length of it.

I cut a floral section from the back of a sheet of Wonderland Dragonfly and used a couple of other scraps of left overs and layered them up behind the photos along with a couple of small plastic doily embellishments.
The title was made using various alphabet stickers, including Simple Stories Snap Studio, Martha Stewart and AC Thickers.
I used a few different paper blossoms and lots of flat backed AB crystals scattered about ( because you can never have too much magical sparkles can you??)

                                                        A couple more close ups.

So, if you want to see some absolutely gorgeous new papers, then pop over to the shop and have a good look round. And don't forget the super Summer Sale is still on and there are some fabulous bargains to be found.....don't miss out!!

Happy Scrapping!!

Anita xxx