I have a Secret to share that will save you £££

 Hi, Lisa here today and I want to share my creative secret with you that will save you loads.

Here is is....

Making Cards!!

To buy cards these days is so expensive.

But I hear all the time that people don't want or have the time to spend making cards either.

This is the thing, us scrapbookers love to buy stash and we love to create.

how about if I were to share how I make the speediest of cards and I use the same template every single time.

My cards take less than 5 mins to make every single time.

Here's how.

I always use square card blanks and take 2 pieces of cardstock or patterned paper.

I cut the first piece just a little smaller than the card blank and rough up/destress the edges, folding some over slightly.

I stick this on the card and then repeat with a second contrasting piece.

Then I add a final piece as my cherry on the top.

I love pieces like this for card making. 

This one here is from American Crafts.

It's so perfect to use.

That is my base recipe every single time.

However the cards never look the same as I use a different collection and also add tweaks to the designs.

I folded a corner here for example and added a couple of coloured staples.

I love adding a twine bow. I stapled this one, but stuck the one of the first card.

It's also a great way to use your stickers and emphemera.

I love a collection with tag, like this piece here from American crafts.

It gives you so many good options for cards.

I added a piece of ribbon and chipboard numbers.

This version is so simple as you can see.

I really recommend using the recipe next time you are creating.

It's a great way to use your supplies and it will save you so much money on buying cards.

I would much rather buy scrapbook supplies to enjoy myself rather than buying greetings cards for other people. Then just use the scraps to make the cards.

It's a Win Win!

I hope this has encouraged you to make more cards.

It really doesn't have to take long at all.

Happy card making

Lisa xx

November crop

Our November crop is in two days time, on the 14th and this months striking kit has been designed by Lynn... 

 There will be all the usual - homemade cakes, punches, dies and a discount in the shop - so if you would like to join us, drop me an email!

Pumpkin Patch - 49 and Market - Season's Bounty Collection

Hi everyone!

Long time, no see! It's been a while since I last shared a layout – July, I think! Life got a little busy, and my creativity seemed to disappear completely, so I decided it was time to take a much-needed break. Thankfully, the creative urge has returned recently, and I'm so happy to be back at my desk, doing what I love!

This month, I'm working with the gorgeous Season's Bounty collection from 49 and Market. I absolutely adore this time of year, particularly visiting all the local pumpkin patches, so I always have plenty of photos waiting to be scrapped! You can find the full collection in the store here.

To get started, I chose the Family patterned paper. It was the perfect background as it already featured a beautiful central design, giving me a lovely starting point to build my layers around. I then selected a few additional patterned papers from the 6x8 Essentials Collection Pack. After tearing and distressing the edges, I layered these behind my photos to add some extra interest.

I've also returned to one of my favourite little habits: printing the same photo twice and layering the two copies slightly staggered for added effect. With all these layers in place, I was ready to turn my attention to the embellishments.

I spent some time looking through the Laser Cut Elements and Laser Cut Wildflowers packs, picking out all the pieces I thought might work. I always seem to select far more than I actually need – it's just so hard to know when to stop! Sometimes I manage to use everything, and other times I'm a little better at showing some restraint!

As I often do, I started by layering in the larger pieces before tucking the smaller elements in around them. I also used foam pads in places to add a little extra dimension and depth.

To finish things off, I chose an acrylic title from my stash. I wanted something that not only complemented the theme but also fitted in beautifully with the colour palette of the layout.

I love how effortlessly this layout came together, and I think that's largely thanks to the gorgeous detailing on the background paper. It really did so much of the work for me!

I hope you've enjoyed seeing this layout as much as I've enjoyed creating it. It's lovely to be back at my desk, getting creative again, and I'm already looking forward to making a start on my second layout.

Take care,

Rebecca x

Doodlebug Design - Cupcakes & Candles - Happy Birthday

Hello!

It's Claire on the blog today, and this month I'm using the Cupcakes & Candles collection from Doodlebug Design to document some birthday celebrations.

The vast majority of birthdays in my family fall in the winter months, so its been quite refreshing to have such a fun, vibrant collection that matches the vibes of my photos.

For this layout, I was inspired by the Surprise Party paper and wanted to make a bold feature of this on my layout. I cut a large star from a cardboard template and added a dotted black line around the edge and added foam to help it stand proud from my Premium White Cardstock, although I didnt remove the foam backing yet.

Next, I positioned it roughly where I wanted it on the page and drew lightly around the edge of the shape so that I could add some mixed media behind where it was going to sit.

To create an effect that looked like the patterned paper was exploding across the page, I chose some Distress Oxides in closely matching colours and applied these with a dry brush through a stencil from my stash, and a few splatters of black and gold spray. To get the positioning of the mixed media correct, I followed the pencil line from the shape outline as a guide.

I love how this turned out! However, once the star was placed on top of the mixed media, it looked a little lost. To fix this, I cut the same sized star from plain black cardstock and offset this slightly to give extra definition between the shape and the background. It worked perfectly!

I backed my photos in the Birthday Bouquet patterned paper and fussy cut two tags from the Party Plaid paper which I adhered underneath, one at the top, and the other to the edge of the left-hand side photo.

Across the bottom of the star, I cut some banners, made by adding fishtails and a few folds to the paper strips on the Stripes of Streamers paper. The Happy Birthday banner serves as my title.

I embellished with the Icon Stickers and a large Birthday Cake Doodle Pop. Its my first time using Doodle Pops and they are so fun!! Make sure you check them out.

As a finishing touch, I added a few gems from my stash for that extra bit of birthday sparkle!

Thank you for joining me on the blog today.

Until next time, happy scrapping!

Claire xx

@scrappysoulmate 

Echo Park - Feels Like Fall - Tis the Season to be Fall-y

Hello, Karen here! Today, I’m excited to share a brand-new autumnal scrapbooking layout featuring the stunning Feels Like Fall collection by Echo Park Paper.

I started with a 12"x12" sheet of deep olive green cardstock as the base, then layered an 11"x11" piece of Fallen Fall Foliage patterned paper on top. To make the layers pop, I sandwiched a narrow border of gold mirror cardstock between the two papers.

I added some texture by machine stitching around the edge of the patterned paper using white thread.

Near the bottom of the layout, I added a horizontal strip of 'Autumnal Plaid' patterned paper to act as a shelf for other elements. On top of this, I placed my double-matted photo toward the right side, matted in white cardstock and the olive green cardstock gutted from the background layer (a great paper-saving trick!). Beside the photo sits a journaling card trimmed from the multi-card sheet, also matted in matching olive green to tie the two pieces together.

I embellished the bottom of the photo and journaling card with a cluster of chipboard stickers and fussy-cut leaves from the 'Fallen Fall Foliage' paper. To bring in some texture, I tucked a bit of natural twine in among the pieces.

For the top of the layout, I cut three tags from the patterned papers, matted them in matching olive green cardstock, and layered them along the top edge. I embellished the cluster of tags with more chipboard stickers, fussy-cut leaves, and a banner trimmed from the multi-card sheet. I tied a bow from twine and used this on one tag.

To finish, I added my computer-printed journaling at the bottom and scattered a few gold sequins across the layout.

I hope this autumnal layout gives you a little inspiration for your own autumn crafting! Thank you so much for stopping by today.

Karen x x

Graphic 45 - BOOtiful Greetings - The Wicked Witch of the West

Lynn here, with my last layout using the Graphic 45 BOOtiful Greetings collection. This time I have scrapped this photo of my daughter as the Wicket Witch of the West in her year six production of The Wizard of Oz.

There are several layers to this background, starting with a sheet of Raven Bazzill, this was gutted to leave a 1" frame. Then I trimmed Pumpkin Layout paper to 11.75" x 11.75" and gutted this, also to a 1" frame. Next came some Bazzill White cardstock trimmed to 10" x 10". The final layer is the remainder of the Pumpkin Layout paper trimmed to 9.75" x 9.75". I inked the edges of all these papers using Black Soot Distress Ink.

My photo was mounted onto Butter Mints Bazzill, then again onto Raven Bazzill, and placed to the bottom left of the page. I added a little purple washi tape to the top and right of the photo. With fine orange metallic tape from my stash, I added a strip to the top right and bottom left of 
the layout. 

The Title was created in three layers, using Butter Mints, Tangelo and Raven Bazzill. 

I used a Sizzix Bigz XL Die - Handmade. Once all three card letters were layered and placed onto the layout, I added sparkle with Nuvo Glitter Drops - Honey Gold. 

Finally, I embellished the page with images from the BOOtiful Greetings Ephemera Pack.

That's all with this collection for now, I'll be back with another collection soon.
Thanks for looking.
Lynn x

Creating 'Groovy' Pages This Week - Route66

 Hello, Lisa here, getting all 'groovy' in my journal this week.

You may have noticed that I do love colour.

So when working on my Route66 journal, I wanted these pages to really stand out and look FUN.

When I spotted this American Crafts collection. Groovy Darlin' I knew it would be perfect.

I added this leaflet that I picked up in Arizona too.

I wanted this to be a feature too. I stuck it in on one of the back pieces, so I could read the info on the back. And decorate around it to make it part of the page.

But I could also be able to open it up to see the full map.

I then added photos inside too.
The Ephemera pack is amazing isn't it?!
It has vellum pieces included too!

Take a look here. 

I had so much fun layering all the pieces up here. 

And yes, the cactus comes as part of the pack too.

There's so much in this pack, there was enough for the whole page and I have loads left over.

On the other side I wanted my photos to stand out. 

I created this collage and stick two 6x4's back to back as a flip.

 

And when you flip it open, look!!
Isn't this cool?!
So perfect.

Here's the paper I used.

I had so much fun creating this page : )

On my title page, this is where the leaflet flips open, I did add a couple of cards from my other collection that I'm about to work on next : )
Also American Crafts, you can see here. The globe card went so well I had to use it too.

And I used another card from that collection here for my journaling.

For the title, Doodlebug are my favourite alpha stickers.

I love use white and colouring to match.  

But there are lots of colours if you want to match up too.

And that's it. One of my Route66 pages.

I do have a video here if you'd like to watch it come together.

I just love how fun this one is.

Have a great weekend.

I hope you have some creative time planned.

Love

Lisa xx