Friday, 17 April 2026

April Papermaze Kit - Part 1

Lynn here today, sharing the layouts I have created using the beautiful April Papermaze Kit.  The kit is full of pretty purple, lilac and grey papers. There is also a selection of embellishments and Bazzill cardstock to compliment the papers.


Here are the first two of my layouts, but first let's see what you will find in the kit:


Uniquely Creative - Floral Archives collection - Pretty Pollinators
Uniquely Creative - Ultra Violet Delight collection - Layers in Lilac
Uniquely Creative - Bohemian Escape collection - Lazy Afternoon
49 and Market - Plume & Petal collection - Joy & Bliss
Mintay Papers - Man Cave collection - #5

The photo below shows both sides of the papers:


Embellishments: Laser Cut Wildflowers, Foam Stickers Dreamer, Little Birdie Butterfly, Little Birdie Flowers, Simple & Basic Dots, P13 Word Stickers & Ribbon


Bazzill Basics Cardstock - Whirlpool, Touch of Pink (included in Kit), StonewashVelvet, Date Swirl & Heidi.


The Ritz - My sister and her husband on a family trip to The Ritz to celebrate Mum's 80th Birthday.


To make this layout work, I used a sheet of scrap 12" x 12" paper, on which to build my background. I trimmed the 
Lazy Afternoon paper to 12" x 8" and placed this across the centre of the scrap paper. Then I tore two pieces from the Layers in Lilac paper, (12" x 3" across the top and 12" x 4"vfor the bottom). I inked the edges and curled back the torn edges. 


I placed the photo in the centre without sticking the very edges, so I could tuck embellishments under later. 


I decorated the layout, using some of the 49 and Market - Plume and Petal Laser Cut Wildflowers from the kit, and more from my own Elements from the same collection. This included the grand piano, and trellis. 


For the title I used an Art Deco font and cut the three layers using the Cricut. I chose some metallic gold card together with the 
Velvet & Heidi Bazzill from the kit. 


I also used some gold letter stickers from my stash, and some of the P13 Word Stickers from the kit.

The Wedding of Douglas and Dorothy - This time I made a heritage layout using a photo found on ancestry of a 1930s wedding. The couple are ancestors of my mother and details will be on my blog).


The base for this layout is the Heidi Bazzill from the kit. I added distressed strips of Joy paper.
I cut the paper to 11.5" x 1.75", distressed the edges and arranged them across the Bazzill. 


I arranged the photo and all the embellishments, before gluing anything in place.


I made a few tags, cutting them with the Tim Holtz - Sizzix Framelits - Tag Collection die set. I tied a selection of purple and lilac DMC embroidery threads and some gold metallic thread, through the holes in the tags. The papers were scraps from the first layout, featured above.


I used several pieces from the 49 and Market - Plume and Petal Laser Cut Elements pack, including the large open circle. I backed the circle with some white card and added part of my title. The title was cut from Velvet Bazzill and three sets of dies from Tonic Studios - Windsor Simple Type - Upper case, Lower case and Numbers. The names were placed on the circle and it was further embellished with more of the laser cut elements. This was then attached to two of the tags and a heart shaped doily. 


I placed the photo with two small tags peeping from the top, adding the die-cut date, another heart shaped doily and some laser cut feathers.


I stuck all the elements into place, and added the first part of the title to the top left of the page. 


I found some purple and lilac gems and pearls in my stash and scattered these about on the tags. Finally, I used a few P13 Word Stickers from the kit.


That's all for today, I will be back with two more layouts from this kit soon. 
Thanks for looking.
Lynn x

Thursday, 16 April 2026

April's Crop

 Here we are back round again for another Otley crop!  Saturday's kit has been designed by Lynn...


We'll have all the usuals - tea, coffee, homemade cakes, and use of the punches and dies, plus a discount on anything you buy in the shop!  If you fancy coming and joining us, then just drop me a message :)

Monday, 13 April 2026

Uniquely Creative - Ultraviolet Delight - Enjoy Life

Hello, Karen here. I’m back with another scrapbook layout to share. Lately, I’ve been creating with a brand that is totally new to me - Uniquely Creative. This Australian company makes absolutely gorgeous, themed collections filled with patterned papers, laser cuts, and stickers. I used their Ultraviolet Delight collection for this project, and it is stunning. It’s packed with deep violets, soft lilacs, and rich mauves. If you’re a fan of soft, romantic, or vintage-inspired styles, this collection is going to be right up your alley. 

Unusually, the paper I selected for my layout is one of the least purple designs in the collection. However, it is so easy to create a beautiful layout with this specific paper with minimal effort that I couldn't resist using it for my first project.


For this layout I started with my usual go-to technique, I took a sheet of the gorgeous Gold & Amethyst patterned paper and trimmed it down just a bit. Then, I matted it onto a sheet of  white cardstock leaving a narrow border around the edges. Using my sewing machine, I added a straight-stitched border around the edge with gold metallic thread. This introduced a bit of texture and complemented the gold colours in the patterned paper.


I matted my photo with a piece of the Layers of Lilac paper and placed it on the left side of the layout. I  tucked a purple paper doily underneath one of the corners.


Next, I started building a cluster of embellishments around the photo. I layered together some of the Creative Cuts Ephemera and Vellum Creative Cuts, and mixed them with some images I fussy cut from the Simple Life paper.


I popped some of the elements up on 3D foam to create some dimension and shadowing.


I created a matching cluster on the right side of the page to balance things out. The Simple Life paper has some cute printed postage stamps on it. Since I didn't have a specific postage stamp punch or die, I used fancy-cut scissors to give them a deckled edge. I then cut them in half and tucked them into my clusters.


Near the top of the page, I added a butterfly from the Vellum Creative Cuts. I absolutely love that these vellum pieces are self-adhesive. It makes layering them so easy since you don't have to worry about messy glue showing through. They really remind me of washi stickers.


Towards the bottom of the layout I added another Creative Cuts Ephemera piece as a title.


I printed my daughters name and date onto some tiny paper tags from my stash and added these to the layout.


Finally, I dug out a few amber-coloured, flat-backed gems from my stash and used them to add a little extra sparkle to the layout.

I hope this layout has inspired you! 💜 You can grab the Ultraviolet Delight collection for yourself right here in the shop.

Until next time, Take Care.
Karen x x

Friday, 10 April 2026

Arden Creative Studio - Field Notes - Lovely, So Lovely

Hi there

Claire here today with a very pretty spring layout using the Field Notes collection from Arden Creative Studio. 


There are so many gorgeous papers, I wanted to create a layered design to show them off. Using a circle of the pretty pink paper cut from the 12x12 paper pack as my base, I layered smaller papers from the 6x8 paper pad in complementing colours and patterns, also adding a coloured Sunburst from the rub on transfer set .


I layered these with foam on the right hand side of the circle creating an elevated base to house my strip of photos. 

I pulled some pretty pink flowers and blue butterfly from the laser cuts to add a pop of colour to the left of the photo, along with a bold title from the Ephemera Pack.


I also added some smaller labels and tickets across the design to draw the eye across the page.


I hope you've enjoyed this blog post and it's inspired you to check out this gorgeous collection. 

You can find it in the shop here.


Happy scrapping! 

Claire x

@scrpapysoulmate 

Wednesday, 8 April 2026

Simple Stories ~ Say Cheese Happiest Place #1 ✨

Hi everyone, it’s Anna back on the blog today. 
For April, I will be working with Simple Stories Say Cheese Happiest Place which you can find in the shop here

For my first layout, I wanted to use a large photo that I’ve been holding on to for a while. It’s a 8x12 photo of a scenic castle view at Walt Disney World, which we are in. 


I used ‘Toon Town’ as my base and adhered the photo above centre. I used a boarder punch to punch a strip of red from ‘Having a Blast’ which I placed above and below the photo. 


From the same paper, I cut a small circle and then cut the centre too, to create a boarded circle. I distressed the edges and I used this to stick on the photo to highlight us in the large photo! 


I added one of the boarder stickers from the Cardstock Sticker Icons to the bottom of the photo, just above the boarder strip. I also added some word stickers and the title - ‘good times’ from the same sheet. 


I fussy cut some flowers from ‘Happy Memories’ and stuck them in clusters in the top left and bottom right of the layout. To finish I added a few more floral stickers from the Cardstock Icon Stickers


Thanks so much for looking! 
See you later in the month with a second layout using this collection! 

Anna 

@acraftylifewithanna

 

Monday, 6 April 2026

Carta Bella - Wine - Vintage Dad

Hello Karen here.  I'm back today with one final layout featuring Carta Bella’s gorgeous Wine collection. I recently came across some old photos of my dad as a young man, and one picture in particular was just shouting to be paired with this collection.


I started my layout by slightly trimming a sheet of white cardstock and then matting it onto a sheet of black cardstock, leaving a narrow border around the edges.


Next, I layered several rectangular pieces of patterned paper from the collection, making sure the colours played nicely together. I also added in a large square frame that I cut from the B-side of the Journaling Cards paper. To tie it all together, I used my sewing machine and some black thread to add a straight stitch to each piece of paper.


After printing my photo with a white border, I added it to the layout.


I embellished the layout with flowers fussy cut from the Vinyard Blooms paper ......


...and a die cut from the Ephemera pack. I also dug into my stash and found a really old brad that happened to be the absolute perfect colour for the layout, so I added that right above the die cut.


To complete the layout, I cut a title from black cardstock using my Silhouette and placed it at the bottom of the page.

Thanks for dropping by today! I'll be back soon with another project and I hope you get to have some fun playing with your craft supplies too!

Take Care
Karen x x

Wednesday, 1 April 2026

March Papermaze Kit - Part 2

Lynn here today, with more layouts from the March Papermaze Kit. Using papers, cardstock and embellishments from the kit, together with items from my own stash, I have two more pages to share with you. 

Before looking at how the layouts were made, here is what you will find in the kit:



Patterned Papers:
49 and Market - Whispering Way collection - Farm Fresh & Sunshine Days
Carta Bella - Pressed Floral collection - 3 x 4 Journalling Cards
Carta Bella - Feels Like Home collection - Floral Frame & Cottage Floral
Simple Stories - Simple Vintage Junk Drawer collection - Willow

The photo below shows both sides of the papers


Embellishments: Mintay Chippies Titles - 1 line, 3 Prima Cherry Sweet flowers, 6 Uniquely Creative Bohemian Escape Vellum, 2 Kaisercraft Frames, Kaisercraft Rhinestone Flower, Bo Bunny - Beautiful Things - Candy Dots, Hero Arts Clay Hearts, 12" Lace.


Bazzill Basics Cardstock - Twig, Rosewood (included in kit), Classic Smooth White, Quartz, Guacamole and  Yukon Gold.


Outdoor Girl - Having seen many layouts created with tags as a main element, I wanted to try this idea. My granddaughter loves to be outside, whatever the weather. Here she is in one of her favourite places to explore - Abbey Wood Ruins.


I started with the sheet of Cottage Floral from the kit, I created a 1" frame by gutting this paper. Then I Trimmed the Willow paper to 11" x 11" and distressed the edges. I inked these edges of this paper and other items used on this layout with Gathered Twigs Distressed Ink. The Willow paper was them mounted over the Cottage Floral frame.


With the Classic Smooth White Bazzill I cut 6 tags, using the Tim Holtz Sizzix Tag Collection Die Set. I arranged these on the layout as shown and stuck them in place leaving the tops free so I could add the ribbon later. 


I arranged the photos onto three of the tags. printing a mini photo to pop behind one of the wooden frames. For the other frame I placed a scrap of the white card behind it and wrote the date in the centre. 


I used the top central tag for my title. This was cut using the Tim Holtz - Sizzix Alphanumeric Bold die set and three colours of Bazzill from a selection of scraps. I layered these up and added them to my tag.  


I embellished the tags with the Prima Cherry Sweet flowers and the Uniquely Creative Bohemian Escape Vellum flowers from the kit. Then I added the prepared wooden frames to two of the tags.  


From a sheet of Carta Bella - Feels Like Home - Element Stickers, I selected a few of the phrases to add to some tags and photos. I scattered some green gems over the page and finally, I tied narrow ribbons between each pair of tags, and tied them into a bow.


Pony Trekking Adventure - Here I am in the 1970's riding on the Isle of Wight, through the woods and along the beach at Seaview.


I started with the Twig Bazzill, a Tim Holtz Layering Stencil THS002, and some Gathered Twigs Distress Oxide Ink. I created some bubbles in twparallel lines, across the page, so they will peep out from the patterned papers.


I tore a strip from the 3 x 4 Journalling Cards paper (floral side up), about 4" x 12", and mounted this over a deeper piece of Floral Frame paper (gingham side up), with about 0.5" showing above and below the floral paper. This was placed across the paper over the stencilling.


My square 70's photo was mounted onto cream card, and then onto mustard card scraps - both from my stash. This was stuck to the layout to the left of centre.


For the title I used a Mintay Chippies Title from the kit. This was coated with some Walnut Stain Embossing Glaze. I placed this to the right of centre at the bottom of the layout. 


I added subtitle details using two Sizzix die sets by Tim Holtz - Alphanumeric Tiny Type - Upper and Lower case. I cut the numbers and letters from more scrap cardstock.


Finally, I used a pack of 49 and Market - Whispering Way - Laser Cut Elements to add farmyard items, animals and for flower pots.


That's all from the March kit. I'll be back with the April kit soon.
Thanks for looking
Lynn x