Tis The Season To Be Spooky...

I have to admit that Hallowe'en is not a festival we make a lot of fuss over in our house but this year we have got into it a little more as my Dad picked up an entry form and a seed (or was it a small plant) from a garden centre a while back to enter a "Grow A Giant Pumpkin" contest.

He and Isabelle have spent ages tending to it and it reached a fair size before we took it to the garden centre yesterday to enter the competition. Here is Izzy in the garden hugging her pumpkin on Saturday morning....

And Lo and behold she came in with first prize today.... one very happy little girl with a lovely orange rosette!

So of course I will need to do a layout for that and there really was only one option - I absolutely LOVE the flocked kraft Hallowe'en line "Haunted" by My Minds Eye. Now we have this line in collection packs, and knowing that my Hallowe'en layouts will be limited to one I needed a good use for the rest of the pack so I set about making a mini book which, when finished, will be decorated and ready for someone to fill with their own Hallowe'en photos and journaling.

With the retreat only a week away this also solves my "what can I put in the raffle?" dilemna. Every retreat we run a charity raffle in aid of Cancer Research UK and delegates bring items, handmade and bought, for the raffle. We donate various scrapbook related prizes as well but the handmade items always go down well and my Hallowe'en book will go into the raffle. Hopefully someone with some spooky photos will make good use of it. In the meantime here is a photo of the front cover.

If you like the look of this paper line which features gorgeous flocked designs (there is a witch destined for one of the inside pages, a chandelier on the back and flocked spiders galore then take a look HERE on our site to see this collection pack.

Brrrrrrrrrrrrr New Class Time!

Well there is certainly a winter chill in the air lately and it is just in time to get us in a seasonal mood for this lovely new class by Debbie Jewell.


As always there is a free PDF download for this class so click HERE to go to our site and download the instructions.

Happy Scrapping!

I've got a golden ticket.....

Ok, I haven't got a golden ticket, but I sure know how to make one!
Pink Paislee Parisian Anthology collection caused quite a stir when it was revealed at CHA this summer, and I have been one of those scrapbookers waiting with, I admit, not very much patience for the collection to arrive in the UK.

It is now here (hoorah!) and available in the store, and though it is hard to narrow down my favourite item within the range, I think if I was pushed to choose one I would say the tickets.


You get 100 tickets, on a roll, perforated and ready to tear and add to your papercraft projects. Each ticket measures 1.25" x 2" and they have a soft mint edge to them which is neutral enough to use on most projects, or which can be covered quite easily with a quick rub over with an ink pad (gold for example!!). At just £3.99 a roll these are my "must have" item at the moment. They work out as just 4p per ticket and you could buy a pack and split with a crafty friend - or be greedy like me and get a whole roll to yourself and use them without a care in the world for your decadence!!

An example of how you might use them indulgently (is that even a word?) is as a strip to house your layout title, as illustrated in my layout below.



Those of you lucky enough to be attending the forthcoming retreat is just over 2 weeks time will be able to see Suzanne teach a class using other items from the Parisian Anthology range, again, another inpatient wait for me!

October DT Gallery - Lost & Found

Last night I uploaded the DT gallery but hadn't had chance to photograph my layouts in good light so I will add them today but I will put them here as well.

I have to say that this has been one of my favourite ever kits from the Design Team. This range is so beautiful in real life - one of the frustrating things is it is so hard to photograph and do justice because a lot of the papers have glittered parts to the design and try as we might we can't quite capture them as well as we would like.

Here are my efforts for the DT, 4 layouts and two cards which is a bumper output for me! I loved the papers so much that I was gutting out behind everything i stuck down so I could stretch it that little bit further and I have enough bits left over to make another card when I get time :)

Click HERE to visit our site and see the Lost & Found range.

MIA & Black & White Photos Part 2

Things have been pretty hectic here at ATDML HQ with a lot of retreat preparations going on, new products arriving and general busy goings on so apologies for the lack of blogging.

I am still working on using up the last of the bits and pieces from the DT kit so no current scrapping to share but I did want to follow up on a post a while back about black and white photos versus colour.

I am one of those people who thinks that photos of me always look best in black and white, it hides all manner of imperfections and I love the timeless look.

A while back we were all playing out in the garden and i took the camera out to try and get some shots of the girls and also a few of me with them.

There were a couple of Olivia and I which I thought were "OK" but I wasn't thrilled with them. Back inside, photos uploaded to photoshop I decided to have a play, with a bit of cropping, turning to black and white and contrast enhancement there are now several photos from the set that I really like.

So far I have only scrapped this one - I thought it would be interesting to show what it was like straight out of camera and then the layout where I used my black and white conversion.

As you can see the original colours would not have worked with the papers I used - the freedom of choice over the supplies that will go with a black and white photo combined with the fact that I am convinced they are more flattering is the main reason I love to convert my pictures to black and white.

Loving Those Layouts

I can honestly say that all the layouts which have been linked to here and which have been emailed to us are lovely and I had a really hard time picking a favourite. However as you know I am a passionate believer in journaling and recording your stories, hopes, dreams and beliefs and so in the end we picked this layout by Tracy Lihanne because I loved the way she managed to include a lot of journaling without compromising on the design, allowing the journaling to become a key feature not an afterthought.

Tracy Lihanne a box of goodies is on it's way to you. Thanks to all for sharing, it was great to take a look at the layouts which really speak to you.