Wednesday 31 March 2010
Giveaway Number 3 Winner
Thanks to everyone who has visited and commented during our three day blog giveaway, be sure to come back often as we will be uploading classes, challenges, product spotlights and of course giveaways on a regular basis.
Tuesday 30 March 2010
Giveaway 2 - Winner
Apologies ofr the late posting of this. A work meal for a colleague who was leaving that started in an Italian restaurant and ended in a Salsa club (impromptu change of plan which those of you who know me may find a touch amusing as I was driving and unable to rely on that great dance enhancer of a large drink!)
Anyway, the winner is comment number 19 - Poinz. Email me your details and we will get some Bella Blvd sent out to you. :)
3 Day Giveaway - Day 3
You have until 6pm tomorrow for a chance to win some gorgeous Prima goodies
We haven't forgotten the Bella Blvd giveaway winner but Mel has gone out, so that will be later tonight.
Jill
Monday 29 March 2010
3 Day Giveaway - Day 2....
Take a look at their three new collections HERE (currently on New Products pages 1 to 3) on our site and leave a comment letting us know which you like the best and why and we will pick a winner at random (in the usual way) to win some Bella Blvd goodies!
Deadline for this one is 6pm tomorrow evening.
Good Luck!
Giveaway Number 1 - Winner
The winner of Giveaway Number 1 is LORNA - congratulations, drop me an email Mel@atripdownmemorylane.co.uk with your address and we will get your Fancy Pants goodies out to you.
Check out the next post (later on this evening) for the next giveaway which will end at 6pm tomorrow.
Sunday 28 March 2010
It's A Three Day Blog Giveaway...
The first giveaway is a selection of the yummy new Fancy Pants release which we received and uploaded last week. To enter just leave a comment on this post BEFORE 6pm tomorrow evening telling us which your favourite new Fancy Pants product is - to check out the new release click HERE (Fancy Pants starts on page 3 of new products and goes through to page 8) and have a look at what goodies we ordered. If Random dot org picks you you could find the product you listed in the box winging it's way to you.
While I am posting I ought to say thanks to Jane and Ann who are helping out even more than usual with the blog posts at the moment while we are very busy preparing for the retreat, they are both stars!
Latest Products in store
Fancy Pants CHA Winter 2010 releases are also in stock now and are sure to be very popular. Again double sided papers with coordinating rub-ons and glittercuts there is sure to be collection that will grab your eye.
Rusted Sun features warm summery colour tones, Roadshow has a more muted pallet and I am sure Mel will be loving About a girl (especially as one of the papers shares her youngest's name!) but my favourite has to be the My Family range! I can't wait to get my hands on some of these and play!
Also new in are various yummy products from Websters Pages, a growing favourite scrapbook manufacturer of mine. Now available are the stickers, die cut papers and 6x6 pads coordinate with the papers stocked last month. Life's Portrait is particularly nice and mixes well with Prima Flights of Fancy papers, blossoms and vines.
Plenty of eye candy there I am sure you'll agree, which of these are your favourite?
Saturday 27 March 2010
Crop Day!
Well I was going to blog about the crop I go to (as it was our crop day today) and I thought I might share a few photos including what people were busy working on... but muppet that I am - I took my camera without the memory card inside it!
Friday 26 March 2010
Alcohol inks
I love anything that gets me messy and one of my favourite things to play with is alcohol ink. I think alcohol inks are an 'alterer's' best friend because all of those things with shiny finishes like metal, glass etc that won't take paint well and all those things that are an odd shape (and therefore difficult to cover with paper) can be coloured and altered using alcohol inks.
Thursday 25 March 2010
Spring is in the air
The layout is easy to recreate using supplies available in the shop and features a nice Prima flower cluster and three different styles of stitching. The Thickers used are from American Crafts latest releases and are gorgeous!!
To create a similar layout you will need:
Background cardstock – I used Bazzill Silver bling 12x12
Bazzill Lizzard Green 8 ½ x 11 Cardstock
MME Little Miss Muffet - Celebrate - Party Dots Paper
MME Little Miss Muffet - Hello Beautiful - Beautiful Butterflies Paper
Pearl Chipboard Thickers - Marquise - Pewter
Prima Flowers
Thread, Buttons, leaf punch or rubons (or you could draw by hand)
Instructions to create the page:
Cut along the line of the seventh dot on your party dots paper and adhere, at an angle, to your 8 ½ x 11 cardstock. Then add your 6x4 photograph, also at an angle. Next pierce where your pink stitches will go to join the two papers, around the edge of the cardstock for your green stitches, then along the bottom and slightly up on the right of your photograph for your blue/grey stitches. Then sew your paper which is easier to do at this stage before adhering to your 12x12 background cardstock.
Add your title using journalling stickers and Thickers, decorated with butterflies cut from the Beautiful Butterflies paper. Then add a Prima flower/leaf cluster at the bottom left corner of your photograph, adding buttons and more butterflies on foam pads for dimension.
I hope you have fun scrapbooking your Spring inspired pages. Don't forget to share them with us here on the blog with a link to your page in your comment!
Wednesday 24 March 2010
March Challenge
Tuesday 23 March 2010
Here's a First...........
I haven't the slightest idea how to import pictures into a blog post, it took me months to get the hang of linking on UKS so today's post will have to be the boring 'just text' type. It is looking like a busy week with Fancy Pants arriving tomorrow and two shipments from the USA later in the week with an array of goodies packed inside.
We are also trying to get classes organised for our retreat in just over two weeks time - hadn't really dawned on me how close it was until I typed that. Hopefully Mel will be at home tomorrow to post on here, if not I will have to take a crash course in IT.
Jill
Monday 22 March 2010
Winners For March...
The February Challenge was to "Mix It Up" and we asked you to send us layouts where you had used 3 or more different paper manufacturers together on one page
As always we loved some of the entries we were sent. The winner was hard to choose but in the end we loved the soft colours in Sue Jones' layout "Yummy" and the combination between the clean simple lines with the more intricate embellishments she has constructed, you also have to admire the patience that went into hand cutting around the lacey edge of the patterned paper.
Congratulations to Sue who wins a £25 shopping voucher. Thanks as always to those who sent in their entries for the challenge, there were lots of lovely entries and you can expect to see a few more of them appearing on the blog in the next few days.
The March challenge will be posted tomorrow so come back then to see what we are looking for this month.
Sunday 21 March 2010
A Card Made With Cosmic Shimmer Misters
It has been a busy weekend here. As well as sorting out the retreat class lists (nealry finished now) we have been to visit our new niece today which was lovely. She was born nearly four weeks ago but as we have been struggling to shake off a virus we have waited to go and see them until we were less germy!
So tonight i wanted to show you a card i made a couple of days ago. I love the Cosmic Shimmer mists we recently got into stock so I needed little persuasion to have a play. The other item I was making can't be shown here yet as i was doing a dry run for a class but here is my card.
To begin I chose three co-ordinating shades of cosmic shimmer mists. I used Golden Sunlight, Mango Blaze and Lava Red. I spritzed the front of a card blank and an off cut of white cardstock and then left them to dry.
Saturday 20 March 2010
Scruffy Ruffle Border Tutorial By Scrapdolly
I thought it would be fun to share how you can get really distressed and have great fun. Usually the two don’t go hand in hand. This time being distressed is definitely fun!
Making a scruffy, beaten up ruffled paper border and flower couldn’t be easier.
Cut yourself some strips of patterned paper roughly 1 ½ “ wide. You will need several of these and will need to join them together to make a long strip approximately 24”. I find it easier to join the strips before I start folding.
Fold the strip of paper in and out, forward and backwards so you are creating a sort of pleated effect. Crease each fold down really firmly so it holds. You are not looking for even folds. If this is a bit haphazard it will work better with the scruffy beaten up effect you are creating.
Once you are happy with the effect run the strip through a sewing machine to hold the pleats and folds in place with a line or two of stitching down the centre. Again, you are not looking for a perfectly straight line of stitching.
Once it is stitched it is time to beat it up a little. Crumple the whole strip up into a ball to soften the paper then unroll it again. Using your finger bend edges forward and backwards, creasing them in different directions. If you use a white cored paper such as the pink on the card it will look even more distressed and the white shows through.
Once you are happy with the look adhere it to the card or layout.
The flower is made of several different sized circles of paper, each crumpled, smoothed back out and either inked or sanded and then fixed with a brad through the centre.
Friday 19 March 2010
Sketch Inspiration Number 6
As always, leave a link in the comments box to a blog or online gallery with a layout you have made using the sketch. In early April we will pick a winner from those who have entered either of the sketches for the month and they will win an ATDML shopping voucher.
Here is the sketch and my layout:
Thursday 18 March 2010
Did you manage to Unscramble?
Just a quick post from me today wondering how you all got on with the word scramble I left you with on March 5th? Anyone have a go? Anyone want to know the answers? Here they are:
1 TARMAC FANCIERS - AMERICAN CRAFTS
2 BEARS WEST PEGS - WEBSTERS PAGES
3 ICE SMIRCH MOMS - COSMIC SHIMMER
4 AROMA DAY - MAYA ROAD
5 USUAL EVEN MAT - AUTUMN LEAVES
6 A WIPED SHIP - HEIDI SWAPP
7 SIX NUDE LEGS - LUXE DESIGNS
8 TIP AS LEGGY - PIGGY TALES
9 NO CUTE CRIES - SCENIC ROUTE
10 ACE TRAPPER - CRATE PAPER
11 LUCKIEST PRY - RUSTY PICKLE
12 COSMETIC ROCK - COSMO CRICKET
Hope you had fun!
Wednesday 17 March 2010
Then & Now....
The first four I have uploaded here are all from 2005 and the last one is from 2006. Looking back I can see how in some ways my scrapping style has changed and in other ways it has stayed the same. Looking at the Contemplating Bedtime layout and the Little Beautiful Girl layout I can see that even back then I had a fondness for inked edges. My love of circles clearly isn't a recent thing either!
I look back and although I would undoubtedly scrap these pictures differently now if I had just taken them I have no desire to go back and "re-scrap" them. I like that they reflect what I liked then and where I was on my scrapping journey. The bath time layout makes me smile everytime I look at it. I know I would be highly unlikely to go out and buy wooden ducks to adhere my letters to for a title now but I wouldn't change the layout for anything! Oh and that duck vellum was a present from Anam AKA Kihaku who kindly sent me some when it was unavailable here and I was coveting it on UKScrappers.
Tuesday 16 March 2010
Button Giveaway Results...
...Jackie Pocock.
Sunday 14 March 2010
Ingredients Challenge - March
KATY FOX: I live in the Midlands with a very patient other half and a derranged puppy dog; the latter you can see in my challenge layout. My pooch is the most common subject of my scrapbook pages, although I also love recording my holiday memories and am quite partial to a minibook too. I've been crafting for as long as I can remember and scrapbooking for about five years now. I work full time so scrapping is my way to relax and have some "me" time. My favourite technique is stamping so I was delighted when stamps were on the allowed list for this challenge. I loved the kit we were sent to work with and had fun with it.
Identical kits but three very different layouts. Which one will win the shopping voucher? Vote in the poll to the right hand side of the page to have your say! Poll closes in one week.
Thanks again for taking part ladies!
Saturday 13 March 2010
That Recipe Box!
I’m taking a bit of time off working on my retreat class in order to blog today and the arrival of our choice of classes last night reminded me that Mel asked me to do some pictures and instructions for how to make the recipe box that I made as one of the challenges at the last retreat...
Unfortunately I can’t show you step by step because I didn’t take photos at the time and I don’t have another box to cover, but it’s a simple process which I’ve outlined below.
You will need a plastic box to cover – (we got these from Mel and Jill so I’m not sure what make they are)
Brown alcohol ink (I used ‘rust’)
Graphic 45 ‘Domestic Goddess’ range,
I used a sheet each of…
Quilting Bee
Farmers Market
Domestic Goddess
Simple as Pie
7 Gypsies vintage hardware (from which I used the clock and spoon)
7 Gypsies typewriter words (from which I used ‘best’)
Thickers – I used ‘Jewelry box’ in black - but any lettering would do
plus I used wire and beads from my stash
I started by colouring all the bits of the box that would still show at the end with the brown alcohol ink. Not having my proper applicator with me I resorted to just squirting it straight from the bottle onto the box then dabbing and blending it with a bit of tissue.
I also used a black sharpie pen to colour the front of the press-stud (it was white before).
I used pieces of the ‘Quilting Bee’ paper to cover the sides of the box and front flap – cutting a hole for the press-stud. To get the pieces the right size I just measured the part I wanted to cover then took off a few millimeters so that there would be a border. The rounded flap was a bit trickier and I used some scrap paper first to get the curve right by drawing round the flap then cutting out my paper a few millimetres inside the pencil line.
I tied a piece of twill onto the plastic hanger on the back of the box then I used the large panel picture of a lady holding a pie from the Domestic Goddess sheet and stuck this onto the back.
Again, using a paper template first I cut a piece from the checkerboard side of the Farmers Market paper – (though check which panels from the other side you are planning to use first!) I cut a hole for the press-stud and stuck this paper onto the front of the box.
Ok... now back to working on that class. I'm very excited about teaching at the retreat and am loving the 7 Gypsies papers I'm working with!
Friday 12 March 2010
Sketch Inspiration Number 5
Thursday 11 March 2010
What Is Your Most Used Embellishment? Mini Giveaway
For me I have phases depending on what I love at the time - I have had a bling phase, a button phase, stamped image phases and many more besides - well I am moving back towards buttons i think.
That might be influenced by the vast quantity of PRETTY buttons covering our dining table at the moment. It is a big dining table - seats 10 - and most of it has little packs of buttons on it.
We have ordered large bulk bags and are splitting them into 2 oz bags, some a single colour with different shades, some are a co-ordinating mix. Tomorrows job is to photograph and upload them to the website. We feel that with smaller bags it makes it easier for customers to get a wider range of colours rather than buy a larger pack of one colour or mix.
So what item do you love to have on hand for regular everyday use? Post a comment here and someone will win some beautiful buttons for taking the time to comment!
We will pick a winner with random dot org on Tuesday 16th March, last time to get a comment in is 6pm that day.
Wednesday 10 March 2010
Another Big Shipmemt & Retreat Prep
We have mostly checked it off and new stock is appearing as we speak on the website. The New My Little Shoebox is going up at the moment. Those fabulous little alphabet stickers that so many people love now come in even more colours, plus there are 6 new paper collections. What I love about the MLS collections is that they are small and compact - three double sided papers and a die cut paper per collection - there are go with its, including those little alphabets, but you can have the whole paper collection for very little cost. These new collections have gone to the Design Team this month so keep an eye on the galleries for ideas on how to use them.
I am working on my classes for the retreat at the moment, I am excited about the lovely products i am working with - two classes using CHA winter 2010 releases and one using a range from Summer 09. I have two layouts and a mini book all of which I really love, one of the kits is sitting right beside me now as I am waiting for a photo to arrive from photo box so I can make my sample and I just keep wanting to stroke the pretty bits and pieces in the kit. *big smiles*
Only four weeks to go until the retreat and this is the time it gets really hectic. The timing of the spring retreat always makes it slightly harder to keep on track with new supplies shipping out later than would be ideal. We are so lucky that the teachers are all very good about the tight timescales. I am sure I get a few grey hairs each time though when checking shipping dates and tracking numbers multiple times a day!
Tuesday 9 March 2010
New Class By Jane Hewitt
Click HERE to download the free PDF.