Update...

It's been two and a half weeks since we had the fire here at Papermaze, and life has been very busy since as we're trying hard to get things up and running again! I thought I'd bring you all up to date with what's happening and share some pictures. These were taken on the day of the fire itself. By the time the fire engines arrived the stock room was well and truly ablaze. You can see the shop in the foreground of this picture. The stock room was a lovely 17th century granary barn next door - all that remains here are a few posts.

We were lucky that the fire didn't really spread to the shop - fortunately there was a gap between the buildings which acted as a firebreak. The roof tiles were taken off by the fireman to check that the insulation wasn't smouldering.

And this is where the stock room stood :( The whole building and its contents destroyed. My husband used a digger to take loads of rubble and rubbish from this site to the field behind where the fireman hosed it down to stop it smouldering.

And here is the stock room plus several thousand scrapbook goodies scattered on the field.

Inside the shop, the plasterboard of the ceiling either fell or was taken down to get to the insulation. The fireman moved everything down to one end of the shop...

And so the next day, the clean up operation began. The farm machinery came in very handy again!

And while the men were working here, I had some willing volunteers (friends, customers & family) who came and helped sort through the rubbish, separating paper and other items from stock room fittings.

We came across pieces we could still recognise which was quite sad. With the charred papers we played 'guess which manufacturer it is'! I think it's Echo Park here...

... and some October Afternoon...

It took a good couple of days to sort through it all, and then the field was back to normal. Remaining papers were burnt completely, metal items pulled out and the rest of the rubble went in a hole in a field! Then it was on to the shop. We moved all the shelves and products out of the shop....

.... and into the one next door, that fortunately my husband hadn't yet occupied!

And you can even see boxes of new products in the picture above, already arriving! We've sorted out everything that was in the shop, and although it's a much smaller space, we're ready to go again! So, everything is now half price!!! Yes, 50% off everything! It has obviously been exposed to smoke, but many items seem fine, even some of the papers and cardstock have survived remarkably well!! So there are plenty of bargains to be had :) The shop is not ready for customers yet, so we are only taking online orders and there is a flat postal rate of £2.75 for UK orders. We hope that most of our stock figures are right, but there may be occasions when we find we don't have items in stock, in which case we will issue refunds rather than send replacements.

We've been very touched by the numerous emails and offers of help that we've received - thank you for all your support :)

UKscrappers blog hop...

Hi and welcome to the UKScrappers blog hop...you can find the original post and your first stop on the UKS forum which is here.You have come from Happy daze team and i hope you loved what you saw!!!!

Today as part of the blog hop we have two cards to share with you using the new Authentique line...

To make the pattern circle...punch out a scallop circle using card...the cut through to the centre...making a heart shape... every two scallops and you end up with something like this...really easy and simple but very effective, especially if you using contrasting colours.

  Thanks for popping to see us...now pop onto the next blog in the line....which is Pickleberry Papercrafts...i hope you enjoy the rest of the hop...make sure you comment on here to be in with a chance for a prize of a £10 gift voucher!!!!!!!!!!! thanks! Wendy x

Birthday Card

Using some of the scraps left over from the Authentique Blissful collection. I made this birthday card with some of the circle flowers.

I used a oblong card & cut a piece of patterned paper slightly smaller than the card.  I then cut some small slits along the paper and threaded some ribbon through.
Having cut several sized circles I then distressed the edges with sandpaper & bent the circles slightly to give a '3d' appearance. I then layered them and added a button & leaves.
I finished with a inked and distressed tag and a smaller flower.

Authentique Blissful

This page was created using papers from the Authentique Blissful collection.  This is a gorgeous collection.

I started with the Pleasant paper and matted my photo onto cardstock and attached to the paper at a angle.

I cut several circles from the various patterned papers and some leaf shapes & distressed the edges with sandpaper, then I made up some flowers with the different sized circles & finished with a button in the centre of each

I positioned the flowers around the photo, some cutting in half before attaching the button centre & added the leaves to finish off.

The page was finished by stapling a inked & distressed tag to the top left corner and again adding some smaller flowers.

and the winner is...

Hi...because of all that has happened over the last week, the competition slipped my mind....luckily the stamps that we were giving away were at my house to photograph...so we still have some to send out...so drum roll please...............the winner of the set of stamps is...

Sue said...BEAUTIFUL!!!
As the store sell such gorgeous (Notice the play on words;))stamps, I would like to see more stamping like this as i Love stamping.

8 October 2011 14:44

send me your address and i will get them in the post to you...my email address is wendy@bbbweb.com.

Crate Mini Books

Hi everyone...Even though Papermaze is not up and working at the moment we have decided to still keep this blog going....so keep a check back here for the design team girls posts. We are in the middle of clearing up after the fire. So please bear with us for a while until everything is up and running again. Again if you have any questions email vanessa@papermaze.co.uk. We will be back with a full update soon x




I'm a big fan of Mini Books, but I loose interest quickly.
I like to be able to make one during one stitting. If it's something that takes weeks of work I get bored and end up moving onto the next project before finishing.

I find the 12x12 Crate Papers perfect for making quick mini books.
They come in a variety of themes.
I like to buy 2 sheets of each.
And then I cut out each journal card and stick them back to bake so a different card is showing on each, but matching them up so all the same sizes are stuck back to back.
Once you've done this, the edges can be trimmed up tidy and then inked.
You are now ready to stick on your photos and add your journaling.



I've added some of the crate stickers that you can buy to match the collections too.


I just love how quick and easy it is to make and everything goes together so well.












To finish punch a hole in the top and add a large book ring.

Papermaze.....

Unfortunately we have had a fire at our premises yesterday. We have lost a lot of stock but we are grateful that nobody was hurt. We have closed the website for the time being while we sort things out. This will obviously take a bit of time, but we do intend to be back up and running as soon as possible. Please email vanessa@papermaze.co.uk if you have any queries.