November Tag Time

Just sneaking a quick post in here before we delve headlong into December madness. I know there are a few people following the tag project and I wouldn't be forgiven for leaving November out! So without further ado here is this month's tag - it's a shaker window tag...

To make the tag you will need the November Collective and Montage papers from Graphic 45 Children's hour collection, card for a 4"x8" tag, some brown paper to punch leaves, some thick card or foamboard, a small piece of acetate, super sticky tape, co-ordinating ribbon. You will also need a small leaf punch (or small circles or ovals will do!)

To start off, cover your tag using the paper as shown in the pictures below.

Cut out the frame and then cut a thick piece of card or foamboard to go beneath it. Attach the frame to the tag...

Add some leaves punched from russet brown paper - put them in the deep card frame then stick a rectangle of acetate on top and cover with the cut out frame (I used super sticky red tape for this)...

Cut out the boy and some of the decorative strips and apply as shown, layering them up...

Add the 'Leaves are falling...Autumn is calling' quote plus some cut out butterflies...

Finally add some coordinating ribbon and you are done.

Just one more tag to go this year! See you in December!

Not just for Men....

With Movember drawing to a close - there is bound to be hilarious photos to be had kicking aound - however the 'taches don't always have to be real....

 The Theresa Collins 'He said she said' range is appears is  great for the men....and babies ... and ladies in your life - they are so neutral and so versatile it's fab to see what you can do with them... 

I cut 2 frames using my trimmer and used scraps, tags and tickets cut from the papers to frame the picture.

I also used the eraser of a pencil to stamp a bubble effect inbetween the two outer frames for a grubby grungy look.

As i said with so many t-shirts, bags and accessories out there with the moustache motif - they would also be great for teenage girls and babies...

I loved the little beige/black accent so used the style to replicate the edge of the paper by cutting a small strip and backing on to black card.  I also framed the circle in black to add a bit of punch to the neutral shades.

Pretty Prima

Hello, lovely scrapbooking friends, Karen here with a quick post about the gorgeous papers I picked for this month's dt kit.

We are very lucky as we get to pick our own kits twice a year, at the retreat, and it is always very difficult with such a range of papers and embellishments to choose from.

This time I chose two Prima ranges - Rossibelle and Tales of You and Me plus a sheet of vellum from Shimelle which had lovely shimmery bronze spots on.  I also had some lovely little Prima bark butterflies and a selection of bling - well it would't be me without a little sparkle would it?

The first layout I made was SHINE BRIGHT, using Tales of You and Me - I used a much loved photo of Gracia and Kiera (oh how those two love each other), one I had used last month too - do you ever scrap the same photo multiple times and even twice in the same month or is it just me?

Next I used some Rossibelle to make -LOVE YOU- a layout featuring Gracia and me and our two best friends who just happen to be mother and daughter too.  We take the girls out for Afternoon Tea as a birthday treat each year (their birthdays are only five days apart) and this was a photo from this year's extravaganza.

I then returned to the Tales of You and Me for ROAD TRIP as it was perfect for a photograph of Gracia and I when we went on a Road Trip to see The Proclaimers, last year.

For my final - JOY - I used Rossibelle, the title was a Simple Stories sticker I had in my stash and I also used some of the photo acetates that we had in our retreat goodie bags.  A much loved photo of David and Gracia when we were in the Lake District in August this year.

So there we have it - four layouts using the oh so pretty Rossibelle and Tales of You and Me ranges.

November Virtual Crop Class 3 - with Mel

Hi all, I hope you have enjoyed the classes so far today. I am bringing you the last class of the day; a three layout class featuring Simple Stories We Are... Family.

Here is one of the layouts, CLICK HERE to see the others and download the free instructions.

Don't forget if you have any comments or questions please stop by the ATDML # Create Facebook page.

Before I leave you just a quick reminder that the December Virtual Crop is the only one in the year NOT on the third Saturday of the month (it is often just that bit too close to Christmas) and instead it will take place on the second Saturday which this year is Saturday December 10th.

Happy Scrapping Everyone!

Virtual Crop class 2 with Ann Freeman

Hope you are all having fun on our virtual crop day. My class is sure to get you in the mood for the forthcoming holiday season with an advent recording mini-book featuring tags!

My book features three tags per day from the start of advent on December 1st through to Christmas day to record the antics of our Elf on the Shelf "Timmy". The top tag shows the day of the month, the middle tag will feature a photo and the bottom tag journaling to hopefully be recorded by the youngest member of our home.

Class instructions can be downloaded HERE for free and will remain on the site should you wish to come back to them at a later date. This is a lot more straight forward to pull together than it looks and can be adapted for any number of projects of collections of photos.

Happy scrapping - and don't forget to try our challenge this month too!. Enjoy the rest of your day x

Virtual Crop Class 1 with Jane

Good morning everyone I hope you are enjoying a day of crafting and have got stuck into a challenge already.

It's up to me to bring you your first class of the day - and today I'm NOT doing a mini book!!! It's a layout (yes, I do them!) - but it is still Graphic 45!!

Today the kit features the 'Raining Cats and Dogs' papers, which, as someone with lots of cats, I love, but in another break from the norm today's page features a dog instead. It is the very lovely Bridget, my friend Trudy's dog who I met when I visited her in Texas recently...

The instructions for this page can be found here.

I hope you enjoyed my layout and see you back here later for a fabulous class from Ann at 12...

November Virtual Crop Challenge

It's that time again and i think you will like this month's challenge.

As always on virtual crop day with start with a challenge based on this day in music history.

On November 19th 1964, The Supremes became the first all girl group to have a UK No.1 single when 'Baby Love' went to the top of the charts and on the very same day two years later in 1966 they started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'You Keep Me Hanging On'.

So we have a double scrapbook challenge today to create a page of baby love (be that human or animal!) and feature something hanging on your page - maybe a banner??

Have fun and do share your creations on ATDML # Create.
Your first class as always will be up at 10am.

A boy's best friend...

My Nephew loves the outdoors, partly because he gets to go out and get mucky but mainly for all the treasures and mini beasts that he can find along the way.  Living in the country there is always a plethora of new additions to the Garden, and fortunately for him (unfortunately for me) his favourite, snails always seem to be kicking around. 

He's always delighted to find one as he thinks they are cute - you can hear him from the other end of the garden (IT'S SOOOOOOO KEEEYOOOOOT!!) and I wanted to capture that joy. It was also a great way of using up some old letters (and some numbers) while noting down his wee language quirks before they disappear

I loved the brown in this Bazzill Kraft and  the Making memories die cut paper (artisan die cut dot findings) but wanted to brighten it up a little bit so added in the Green chevron/dot papers from Simple stories - I love these papers cause they come in different colours and are so versitile. 

The title is from Thickers - These ones are the Nutmeg range in Spinach, the ee's and oo's are actually 3's and 0's to allow me to get a haphazardness to the sizing of the letters. The alphas were from My Little Shoe box - again a range that seems to go on and on, they are like pokemon - you have to catch 'em all!!

I wanted the photo to hold it's own so I cut two photo corners/frame from brown card and mounted at either end - it and allowed me to fit in some additional journalling in the space left.  The little snail stickers and accents were all from a mixed sheet from Pebbles inc.

Now that's summer ended, why not brighten your day looking back over some of the summer photos you've gathered. 

November Virtual Crop Photo Requirements

Hello, here are the photo requirements for this months Virtual Crop.  As always we love to see the pages that you make and you can share them in our Facebook group atdml#create, and join in the chatter.

The day will start with a challenge at 9am and then follow with the classes at 10am, 12pm and 2pm.

Class 1 - Jane Hewitt

Layout 1 -One photo 4" by 6" landscape and 2 related photos 2.5" by 4" portrait (Jane cropped the subject close from the larger photos).  Also a photo (in Jane's case her dog) from a 3" square photo that will fit in an acetate frame.  Though Jane's page is about a dog the page is not pet or gender specific.


Class 2 - Ann Freeman

Creating a Christmas themed mini book, the photos can be added later and will be 3.5" by 2.5".

Class 3 - Mel Hand

Layout 1 - 6" by 4" landscape plus a 2.5" square and two 1.75" square photos.

Layout 2 - 6 by 4" landscape.

Layout 3 - three 3.75" square photos (they were cropped from 6" by 4" photos)

As always if you haven't managed to get your hands on one of the kits you can put together your own kits and play along too.

Announcing a new member of our Design team

It is with great pleasure that the ATDML team welcome Tricia Edie to the design team.


Tricia lives in Scotland and has attended the ATDML autumn retreats for a number of years now, always impressing us with her creations which often feature stunning photographs from her many travels.

Tricia will start sharing some of her work with us this month and receives her first design team kit for December. She has set up a lovely new Instagram account too to share her work - you can find her under scrappytrish. 

I am sure you will all join in congratulating here on her new position and welcoming her to our crafty family.

Appleby Adventures or Five Go Mad in the Lake District.

Hello, lovely ATDMLers, Karen here with a little matchbook album I made to keep a few favourite photos in from our recent holiday to the Lake District.  We all agreed that it was the best holiday we had ever had and so the Shimelle Go Now Go range was perfect to record those memories and I can look back on them when it is chilly outside and I need a little sunshine in my heart to warm up.

This was such an easy project to make that I am sure I will be making many more of these little matchbook albums in future.