Time for a little giveaway.......

We seem to have been constantly unpacking boxes lately with new products coming thick and fast now after a fairly slow start. I have made up a surprise pizza box with a selection of new products for a blog giveaway. Just leave a comment below and we will use random.org to select a winner on Sunday. Remember to join us tomorrow for Thirsty Thursday!

ABC

And as if by magic when we are waiting to start our Thirsty Thursday alphabet related project we are happy to have brand new Graphic 45 products in stock including the helpfully named "An ABC Primer" collection!

Click HERE to see all New Products and use the link above to check out the ABC Primer products!

Learn Something New Every Day - Pre Made Album Pages

As I mentioned in my post yesterday I have been making pages for my LSNED album. I took a photo this morning of the 6x4 cards I made so far. The rest will be done in the next few days as and when I get time.

Some have no added embellishment at the moment other than what was already on the paper (like the dictionary paper with the bird cages) Others like the one with the lollipop flowers and butterflies have a bit more. I *really* love the My Minds Eye Lost & Found - Union Square range I have used. :)



I figure each day once I know what I am focusing on I can choose an appropriate card and add any extra embellishment once the title and journaling are on.

I have set aside some lullaby red glitter thickers, some copper honey thickers, some MM glitter letters in red and brown and various red, black and brown sticker alphas for alphabets. I will journal by hand which is usually my preferred method anyway. Then I have a 12x12 baggie of embellishments that I have pre sorted that might go with the album so it is all to hand when I come to complete the project.

Bank Holiday Crafting

well it was super rainy here yesterday and today so I had to cancel \ postpone my annual Bank Holiday BBQ. Every cloud has a silver lining though and the upside was that I had some extra time to do some crafting.

I have scrapped a few layouts lately which I liked but I was feeling somewhat mojo-less this past week so I ended up signing up for Shimelles "Learn Something New Every Day" class which will begin on September 1st. Now September is going to be a busy month for me as I a will be settling in to a routine of going to work five days a week - the last time I did that was April 2005 so I am sure it will take some getting used to. Therefore I decided if I am going to do this Shimelle class AND of course play along with our Thirsty Thursday ABC project then I need to be super organised. This does NOT come naturally to me! I can organise retreats (with the help of my trusty spreadsheet) and I can organise the information and assessments for me class (again with my spreadsheet - do you see a pattern here?!) but organised scrapping.... not something I am famed for!

HOWEVER! I have sorted out my album format for Learn Something New Every Day (Henceforth to be referred to as LSNED as it is much shorter to type) I will be using an 8x6" portrait album which I will make and bind with the BIA. Each page will have a landscape 6x4" photo and a landscape 6x4" card for journaling, titling and embellishing.

I have precut my 30 6x4 cards from patterned paper and begun to add some basic bits and pieces to them. The idea being that I can pick up a card and add the relevant journaling and title plus a little additional embellishment if there is room for it and the time required each day will be minimal! The photos I will take and store on the computer in a folder and get them printed in a couple of batches. I don't print photos at home so printing out daily is not an option.

I have chosen the gorgeous Lost & Found Union Square range for my album and although there is not much on the cards I am really happy with how it is coming along. It is 10:30 and the light is too bad for a photo now but I will try and add one tomorrow of the cards I have made so far :)

The only problem is I want to start making an album with it RIGHT NOW!

Thirsty Thursday

Grab yourself a glass,a cup, mug or bottle of something lovely and settle down as we introduce to you "Thirsty Thursdays". Start next week on September 1st, the month in which most children return to school, we are kick-starting our weekly thirst for knowledge inspiration. Imagine going back to school and re-learning your ABC only with a crafty twist. Starting with the first letter of the alphabet next week we will continue on through each of the 26 letters bring you a weekly post with inspiration, examples and ideas and we will be challenging you to create along with us.

Sound like fun? We are certainly excited about it and I'll be back here next Thursday with your first post for you and a link tool like those used during the cybercrop for you to share your creations with us. We hope you are looking forward to quenching your thirst with us! Nothing to prepare in advance, just a whole lot of crafting fun and inspiration which you may want to spread the word about!

Coming soon...

...another little something up our sleeve for you starting on September 1st 2011 and then every Thursday thereafter.... anyone thirsty?

Noun 1. thirst for knowledge - curiosity that motivates investigation and study
desire to know, lust for learning
curiosity, wonder - a state in which you want to learn more about something

Quick and simple pages

Do you ever get frustrated with how long it takes you to complete a layout? Many who know me would say I scrap fast, glue and stick without hesitation but this is not always the case. On occasions I labour over a page for what I am sure is far too long, and it's good to sometimes do a quick page with little thought required. Often sketches are good for this, gives you the basis of how to lay your papers, photo , title and journalling, but these Mix and Mend papers from Sassafras pretty much do most of the work for you. Take this paper for example and then my layout that follows.

I added a 6x6 piece of paper, a 6x4 photo and the decorative strip from the base of the paper. Added a title, placed my journalling on the preprinted lines and a small embellishment cluster in the form of a ticket/button and heart sticker.

This paper also required very little to be added to achieve a layout that looks like it took a lot longer to put together.



The papers are super summery colours and would be perfect for holiday photos too. And why not take some ideas on how the printed paper places the elements that make it up and use it to replicate the feel with your own paper choice? That is my challenge to myself for this week - I'll let you know how I get on.

Gone To The Island

Right now we are in the Isle of Wight visiting relatives and the other night at home I was sifting through photos and wanted to scrap these photos from last years trip to the island.

As well as rifling through my photo box and finding photos I had forgotten about I also took the chance to look through some older papers which I had also forgotten about. I used Cosmo Cricket Be Happy papers for this layout which documents my childrens love of throwing money into wells for the less than altruistic motive of wish making!

Don't forget the little challenge Ann set you a few days ago...

Can I Be Kim With The Glasses?!

Lately I have been thinking again about journaling and trying to write down the little stories, not just the big events.

With this in mind I set to work to scrap a little game that Olivia has been playing. The journaling takes up as much space as the photo so I have space to tell the story. It was also a bit of a departure for me as I was using a picture to illustrate the story that wasn't taken at the same time, something I have resisted doing in the past.

The photo was taken back in February before she even started nursery but I was inspired by THIS VIDEO by Shimelle Laine which about 6 minutes in talks about looking at objects or photos and them triggering lots of different ideas - this photo reminded me of her saying "Can I be Kim with the glasses?" and so I used it to scrap that story.

Retro Challenge

I recently took part in an online crop which set several challenges, one of which was to scrapbook vintage photos. The use of any photo before 2011 whilst not vintage was deemed acceptable and I think my Christening photos from 1972 qualified! I used the original photos after I had scanned them into my computer. I did think about reproducing them, but then I would still have faced the dilemma of what to do with the originals so I decided they should be used and preserved indeed in my album, with their original pin holes from where they were once hung.


I used kraft cardstock as my background as this reminds me of old brown envelopes and went with the brown colour prominent in my photos without making it too dark and dreary. The blue paper was from Echo Park's "For the Record" collection as was the gramophone sticker. Other stickers came from Bo Bunny's "Timepiece" sticker sheet. I added a MME journalling card, again in a lighter kraft colour and Chatterbox Lush velvet stickers in red for a pop of colour on my page and to bring out the muted red in the Bo Bunny stickers. For someone who rarely scraps older photos I am quite pleased with the finished page.

So how about extending this challenge to our blog readers? Share with us your retro layout using retro products or scrapping an older photo and who knows, there may be a small prize in store.

Even more new goodies

More new goodies continue to arrive in the store. Bo Bunny etcetera is a collection I can't wait to scrap with - take a look at these...

I also love the Welcome Home line too, especially the chipboard pieces - how nice is the picket fence?

There is also several other lines from Bo Bunny including an Autumnal range, Sweet Tooth and Garden girl, all within the New Products section of the website and there are plenty of matching bits and bobs including double dot cardstock packs to coordinate with each of the new collections.

Have you seen the new MME papers?

I have just returned from a week away with the family and of course I have several (big understatement!) photos taken during our vacation begging to be scrapped. Of course there are plenty new papers ranges coming out at this time of year as well from the recent CHA show, so what to choose? Well I have always been a fan of My Minds Eye and like many people fell in love with their lost and found ranges last year.


They have done it again this year, releasing several Lost and Found 2 ranges and the Sunshine one (several papers of which arrived with me this morning!) is just stunning! Take a look at some of these papers, all of which are thick good quality craft papers with added sparkle to them ,just too delicious for words and far, far nicer in the flesh than any picture can portray.

And I also ordered these cute alphabet stickers, to go with a kit I have put together to teach at the Eclectic Keepsakes crop next month, which are from a new manufacturer called Authentique. You can see more from them in the store here.

I can't wait to get scrapping with my kit which includes three papers, a sheet of cardstock, the label stickers and the alphabet stickers, all for just over £5!

There are other ranges from MME lost and found as well, take a look at them all in our store by clicking on the links to each range - BLUSH - SUNSHINE - ROSY - BREEZE - CHRISTMAS

Travel & Holiday Photos To Scrap?

With many people heading off for holidays and summer trips right now no doubt many of you will soon be scrapping travel photos.

At long last the Boarding Pass collection from October Afternoon which was released at winter CHA has arrived and is now on the site.

Take a look at the lovely stickers and papers from this collection. The colours and patterns are going to be so much fun to work with!

August Is Here

Finally it is August and hopefully some nice weather will be on our way. I am suffering from serious withdrawal symptoms from some decent weather, this time in the past two years I have been on holiday enjoying lovely warm weather, it was 37 degrees on our hottest day on our cruise last summer, so really I don't think it is much to ask for at least some half decent temperatures this month!

Besides good weather August is also going to bring us BRAND NEW CHA RELEASE GOODIES! Keep an eye on the website today and the next couple of days as we have shipments due in. Admittedly one of them is carrying new CHA WINTER release from October Afternoon LOL but finally they shipped their remaining CHA-W11 line!

My Little Shoebox should be here soon along with a new manufacturer we are adding to our existing list of brands... Exciting times.

If you have arrived here via JimJams blog hop then you will probably have come here from Mary @ Mary's Musings and you now need to visit JimJams' blog to complete the hop. Jemma @ Just-Jimjams