February Sketch Winner

Once again we had lots of lovely entries for the sketch challenge. This month the winner was Minty Magic whose slipper layout based on a Traditions prompt caught our eye - perhaps it was the fun subject matter, or it could have been the lovely spring like colour scheme that brightened a dull winter day but we couldn't resist this layout.

Drop us an email at Mel@atripdownmemorylane.co.uk and I will email over your £10 shop voucher.

More sketches coming this month!

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Also check out the DT Gallery for March - the team were joined by Karen Larmour and both she and the rest of the designs created some beautiful pages and projects using 7 Gypsies Avignon and Venice.

A Busy Day At A Crop!

Just a quick post to say that we took the shop to the first Eclectic Keepsakes crop at the Marks Tey Village Hall today.

We had a lovely day chatting with all the ladies there and even managing a tiny bit of scrapping!

Thanks to Karen and Karen for inviting us and to Eileen for all her help carrying boxes of stock! If anyone is not too far from the Colchester area it is a really nice crop to attend, the class was great (we loved the idea of having a basic class and then a "kick it up" version for more experienced scrappers) and Karen M's cupcakes were fab!

To check out what else they have in store for future crops do visit the Eclectic Keepsakes Blog. Hopefully we will be able to add a few photos of the shop goodies to this post. I took my camera but failed completely to actually use it. However Karen C did take some photos and has said she will email some over!

Product Spotlight: Luxe Jotters

The next product to come under our spotlight is the Luxe Jotter. This product comes in a wide range of styles to suit many different projects.


Printed in black on a white cardstock background these die cut journaling spots are a great way to create a feature of your journaling. In addition you can use them to highlight part or all of a title.


There are designs which are ornate and suit heritage styles, designs with words and designs with geometric patterns, in fact there is a jotter for every occasion!


We have previously feature Luxe Rub on Frames as a product spotlight post and when we found Luxe in the New Exhibitors hall at CHA in 2007 we also loved the jotters. So often journaling gets left out, or added as an after thought to use up a little bit of space that is left. By working with a die cut journaling spot you are dedicating part of your page to the journaling and allocating space to it. The shapes and sizes vary allowing you to tell a short story, record a quote or just add the date and place.

These layouts show different ways in which I have used jotters - hopefully you will be inspired to have a play with them.

In this layout I used a bracket design jotter to add the "if you can" part of my title. By placing the words on the jotter rather than directly on the page it made more of a feature of the title and anchored it to the bottom corner of the photo.

For this layout I used the jotters not only for the journaling but also to frame the first part of the title. By adding some patterned paper to the middle of the jotter and covering the lines it became a frame that co-ordinated with the journaling spot and tied in the different elements.

Finally in this layout I wanted to record a short anecdote about our meeting with Snow White. By using a larger jotter there was space to tell the story; the oval shape echoes the shape of the balloon on the patterned paper, to add further cohesion I coloured the flowers to match the colours of the layouts and added little gems to the flower centres for additional sparkle!

Word Scramble Fun Friday!

Welcome to Word Scramble Fun Friday, where you are encouraged to go grab a cuppa (or whatever tipple takes your fancy) and then settle down to play along with our short anagram quiz, something for the weekend if you will!

Can you work out from the quirky phrases which scrappy manufacturers we have scrambled? Your clue is that all twelve of these are stocked by ATDML.

I should let you know that the making of this quiz almost resulted in serious bodily harm to the creator, who almost cracked several ribs laughing so hard at the "naughty phrases" she could make that, for obvious reasons, are not shared here!! Enjoy the challenge, let us know how you get on!

1 TARMAC FANCIERS
2 BEARS WEST PEGS
3 ICE SMIRCH MOMS
4 AROMA DAY
5 USUAL EVEN MAT
6 A WIPED SHIP
7 SIX NUDE LEGS
8 TIP AS LEGGY
9 NO CUTE CRIES
10 ACE TRAPPER
11 LUCKIEST PRY
12 COSMETIC ROCK

We will reveal the answers next week, no prizes up for grabs, just for fun!

Sketch Challenge

just quick note to say that as the second sketch went up a little later than planned the sketch challenge entries now need to be in by 8th March. To enter post a link to your sketch under either Sketch Inspiration Number 3 or Number 4!

Not much else to report tonight - we have been playing (I mean product testing) Cosmic Shimmer Misters tonight and we are now suitably inky and have made some pretty things. Sadly mostly I cannot share as they are related to a class at our next retreat however I promise to do some more with them so that I can share!

In addition i am raiding the stock room for Self Adhesive Vivelle which is making perfect bear ears and a furry tummy for Isabelle tomorrow as they are celebrating World Book Day by dressing up as teddy bears and reading bear books. Anyone else using crafting stash to make costumes?!

Cropping In Colchester And Some Challenge Layouts

First of all just a message to any of our readers who are local to Colchester Essex. We will be taking some of the lovely goodies from the shop to the first Eclectic Keepsakes Crop at Marks Tey Village Hall just outside Colchester.



For their first crop they are offering a free class and the price for the days cropping is £10. The event starts at 10am and goes on 'til 6pm. Run by Karen Moss and Karen Cole it is sure to be a great success and a great chance to spend a day cropping with lots of opportunities to share ideas and get inspiration. To book a place email eclectickeepsakes@googlemail.com



I will be there all day (hoping to crop alongside the shop) and Jill will be there for part of the day as well. Obviously it is impossible to pack up all the items from the shop to take to a one day crop as we are limited by time and space. We will try to take a range of goodies including lots of the new items however if you are going and would like to see \ buy specific items do let me know and we will do our best to bring any specific items requested. Just email Mel@atripdownmemorylane.co.uk

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Next, as promised we are going to show a few of the other entries from our January List challenge. We found it really difficult to choose a winner as the entries were all lovely but quite different in style.

Michelle La Grue sent us this layout and her list is hidden on the back of the My Wish tag. A lovely photo showcased beautifully on a layout with a really delicate but striking colour scheme.

Lynn Robertson sent us this layout which was part of her Christmas journal - very busy with her studies Lynne took the opportunity to use the challenge in January to get a bit further along with her pre Christmas crafting. We loved the use of the bingo cards to hold the various "to do" lists.

Laura Johnson sent in this layout of her daughter. We loved her clever idea to edit the photo before printing to add the list. The clean design and uncluttered background really focus attention on the wonderful photo.

i had to smile when Jude Hutchinson sent us this layout. Not only did she feature a list on her page but the page documents her love of list making, something I share! I always find pages that hold items from our real lives, or which are about things we don't normally scrap about are really interesting - I am guilty of scrapping the pretty photographs and forgetting to document the everyday as much as the next person and Jude has inspired me to think about other aspects of our daily lives which at first I might not have thought to scrap.

Jackie Pocock sent us this lovely layout also with a Christmas theme. I have had the pleasure of meeting Jackie at two of our retreats and I can't for one minute that she would be on Santas list as "naughty" she seemed like such a nice girl! We loved her Santa list as a twist on the list theme.

The Winner Of The Surprise Giveaway...

We have used the trusty old Random Number Generator over at Random dot Org to select the winner in the giveaway thread, it is much easier to let the random number machine decide than choose one of the comments ourselves!!!

Anyway, the number it chose was...

Which was Lemon who said: "Why do I need a free box of stash?...Cos you can never have too much lol" - a sentiment we very much agree with!

A box of goodies will be winging its way to you shortly Lemon!

*~*~*~*~* Look At These!!! *~*~*~*~*

We have just uploaded some gorgeous Cosmic Shimmer Mists today. These little bottles are filled to bursting with pigment rich shimmer mist which lets you create all manner of effects from the subtle pale colours to very vivid shades.

Keep your eyes peeled here for examples of these (of course in order to provide our lovely blog readers with some examples I may need to do some product testing AKA playing!!!)