Class 16 - Andy

Hello all - Dolly here again and this is the final class of what has been an amazing weekend of fun and chatter, scrapping and recording those all important memories. Andy loved his toys so much and to show they belonged to him his name was written proudly on the bottom of his toys. So this class is all about writing - although I want you to write a lot more than just your name.

People often worry about writing on their pages, preferring to either hide the journalling or use a computer, but I promise you, in years to come it will be the fact your writing is on your pages that will help to make those memories so special.

My handwriting isn't great, but that really doesn't matter; it is me!

This class will encourage you to document special stories with more than just a who, where, when, why and what approach.

One layout focuses on a lengthier story or event, one focuses on the little things in life that are so often missed yet are the seasoning in our lives and the other - well the other is just for fun.

I can't wait to see what you come up with and most of all, I can't wait to see your writing and read your stories.

Download the instructions here

Have fun everyone and do upload your pages to our class album on our facebook page here

Class 12 - Rex

Hello all and I am back with my second class for our 2019 Toy Story themed cybercrop.

Rex is the lovable insecure green dinosaur from the Toy Story films starring in all 4 movies. 
He has tiny arms and, inspired by those, this class creates pages featuring lots of tiny elements to add dimension and interest...oh and a bit of Rex green also! 

Hope you have funny layering up creating with this kit where there is plenty of scope for free styling! Find your class instructions Here and be sure to share to our gallery on Facebook and tag us with #atdml elsewhere on social media.

Your next class is at Noon with Debbie! Enjoy

Class 9 - Slinky Dog

Welcome to your next Toy Story themed cybercrop class - the wonderful Slinky Dog.

Slinky Dog is one of the toys from the films and is one of the most lovable characters. He often stretches his coiled centre to reach and rescue and this class has two pages inspired by him. The first layout stretches elements from one side of the page to the other and the second features lots of coils (ok circles!) layered up Slink style!

If you have one of the lovely Cocoa Vanilla Hello Summer kits you can download the instructions for the class or feel free to follow along with your own choice of papers and scraplift away! We do have a classes gallery over on Facebook if you are inclined to share your pages and if you use social media do tag us with #atdml

We will welcome you back at 7pm with another challenge before Katherine is up at 8pm with the last class of the day.

Class 4 - Mr and Mrs Potato Head

Good Morning everyone and I hope you are having fun with the challenges and classes.

Dolly here and I am pleased to welcome to your first class this morning, the aptly named Mr and Mrs Potato Head. No, I don't mean my other half and I look like this famous couple - no comments please - but we do share much in common with them. This couple, introduced in Toy Story 2, were inseparable and very, very happy together, embracing each other's quirks and foibles and - quite frankly - oddities.

My class is all about love and uses the gorgeous Kissing Booth from Simple Stories.

Love can be the love you share with your partner or the love of children, parents, pets or all of these things combined. Whatever and whoever you love, celebrate it with this class where there are three pages for you to create, one of which has an optional mini book as part of the page.

This is the first page - and it dares you to do the unthinkable, and cut a photo!

There is a second page which includes an optional mini book if you chose to make it.

There is also a third page with instructions from this massive kit. Click Here to see all the projects and grab the free instructions.

I hope you enjoy playing along and I can't wait to see your creations and don't forget to upload your pages to the classes album on our facebook page here

It's Cybercrop weekend starting tomorrow

We are so excited to share with you another annual cybercrop and this year we are all about celebrating the wonderful characters and goings on from the Toy Story films. If you have yet to see the latest instalment released last month I would urge you to go! It is truly wonderful!

So we have a weekend full of fun starting with your first class tomorrow at 6pm with Debbie. Then as the weekend progresses you will have 16 classes in total with pages created by your design team for you to create with either the kits or your own stash, plus a whopping 12 challenges too! The timetable was shared earlier this month so scroll through the blog to find that and print yourself a copy off to refer to if needed.

Do share your creations with us in ether the classes or challenges galleries over on Facebook and if you do share elsewhere on social media tag us with #atdml

Can't wait to share another weekend of fun with you all.

ATDML Alphabetical challenge L

Hello again and welcome to another alphabetical challenge - by now you will know the drill, take one or more of the prompts from the list below to kick-start your next page.

I can see this being a popular one as there are lots of ways this can inspire your creativity

I used a LOVE themed collection by Simple Stories for my page above and LINED paper and LAYERED my title elements over the journaling block using different LETTERING for my title. Do share with us in our Alphabetical Gallery your layouts inspired by these prompts.

Georgia Blues with Ann

As Katherine has already shared we got to chose our own papers for design team gallery in Nov and we were both drawn to Prima Georgia Blues.

I wish you could see how pretty these foiled papers are and the combination of gold foiled floral with wood and text print is just lovely. 

The options to vary up the look of your page with these papers is endless!  I've gone darker on the page above with the woodgrain background and lots of pattern paper layering but in my next layout mixed media on a white background with a few strips of the same collection and it loos completely different. 

My third layout is a combination of these two designs with 50/50 cardstock paper background and come fussy cutting of the lovely floral patterns in this collection. 

March Sketch Challenge

Hello, hello - Karen here with the March Sketch Challenge.

This is the sketch I have chosen this month .

And this is how I interpreted it.

I would love to see your take on the sketch so please post them on our Facebook page.

February Sketch Challenge

Hello, hello - Karen here with the February Sketch Challenge.

This is the sketch I have chosen this month .

And this is how I interpreted it.

I would love to see your take on the sketch so please post them on our Facebook page.

Faviourite Layouts from January 2018

Hello Lovlies

How are you liking this cold weather?  Not much I suspect.   Why not grab a warm drink and have a look at my three favourite layouts from the January Gallery?

First up is one from Ann

Tis The Season

I really like how she has combined the two different papers, her journaling on little rectangles and the little cluster of embellishments on the bottom left of her photo.

Next is Katherine's Fall In Love With

What's not to love about this page - The multiple layers, the painted areas, the beaded wire, the cluster of embellishments at the bottom left of the page - in fact all if it is gorgeous.

Finally, my favourite from me

Snow Much Fun

I chose this one because I pushed myself to find different ways to use the foiled vellum, as a photo mount, as backfill to the title and a squares behind the bottom panel.

There are plenty of other layouts in the January Gallery, which can be found on the ATDML shop site under information,  so why not pop on over there to have a look.

Jan Virtual Crop Class 2 with Ann

Hello hello on this chilly January Saturday, brrr!! Time to forget those winter blues and create some vibrant sunshiney layouts with my class today which features papers from Simple Stores Life in Colour collection.

As always the instructions to create the layouts I have created (all 3 of them) can be downloaded for free HERE but don't worry if you don't have the kit as certainly layouts 1 and 3 can be made with any papers and layout 2 is nice and simple to create with any of the 6x12 split papers Simple Stories do or just trim down your own papers and pair up to create a unique background or your own.

I hope you enjoy the classes. Pop back at 2pm where Debbie brings you your third class of the day and don't forget the challenge too, posted last night.

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.

October Virtual Crop - Class 1 with Karen

Well, hello lovely scrappers and welcome to another fun filled day of scrapping.

Up first, I have a two page class using Pink Paislee's C'est La Vie.

The first features a photo taken on a recent visit to London where we found a gorgeous little deli with this cute bicycle outside which cried out for a photo to be taken.

The paper with the roses was begging me to do some 'fussy cutting' and so I obliged!

The second page came about as I thought all the triangles on this paper reminded me of mountains and I had the perfect photo, taken on a recent walking holiday, of my gorgeous fur baby Kiera.

The instructions for my class can be found here.  Remember, even though you may not have the papers I used in this class you can still join in and post your pages on the ATDML # Create Facebook page.

Katherine's class will be up at 12 noon so pop back then to see what delights she has in store for us.

From This to That - The September Edition

A quick, photo heavy. post featuring the very pretty Bo Bunny Sweet Moments range.

Jill always knows what suits the DT's style and always gets it bang on target when she send out my DT kit.

So this is what she sent me.

and this is what I made :0)

Together is a Wonderful Place To Be

Find Joy In Every Day

Sweet Life - Tell Your Story

Uniquely You

And because Jill and Mel are so generous with their DT kits I was also sent a selection from Bo Bunny's Firecracker range.

I used it, not for fireworks and 4th July as it was intended, but for a beach themed page!

{Hello Summer}

ATDML have lots of new stock in, including gorgeous Bo Bunny Christmas ranges.

Bending The Rules - Bo Bunny Firecracker

Hello, hello - Karen here and its Bo Bunny month this month so the DT have been sent some gorgeous Bo Bunny papers.  As you may or may not know one of our dt Katherine is actually on the Bo Bunny Design Team so I am really excited to see what she produces this month.

I have to confess that when Jill sent me a selection from the Firecracker range I thought 'As lovely as it is what am I going to do with a paper range all about fireworks and 4th July'?

Click on photo to see papers in more detail

BUT I then looked at it again and rethought as the blue wavy paper reminded me of the sea and the bright yellow paper of the beach.  So I decided to bend the rules and make a holiday/beach themed layout using this range. 

I am a member of a Facebook group called Crafters@Play and every month they have a sketch challenge.  I used their sketch as my starting point for this layout. 

I started by cutting my title from the centre of the Patriot paper and also a piece 4 ins x 10 ins (from the middle of the paper so that I still had the outer edge intact), trimmed 1/2 in from the top and one side and layered it onto some dark blue cardstock, I then trimmed the Stars paper and laid this on top. 

From the Anthem paper I cut a 4 inch strip (making sure I wasn't using the pieces with the little boy and girl on) and punched the top, placing it across the centre of my page.  I cut the square with grey and white stripes and stars from the Parade paper and trimmed this so that I had one piece with stars on that was 3 in wide and one piece with just stripes on that was also 3 ins wide.  I placed these either side of the strip of Anthum. The 4 x 10 in piece of Patriot was then punched down one side and added to the left of the page, onto this I added a strip that had been cut from the stars paper.

Next I cut the little boy and girl from the Antham paper and added them to the bottom right of my page.

From the Parade paper I cut the large circle and as I wanted to cover up the rosette at the bottom cut a a circle from Anthem paper and a label from one of the squares on the Parade paper. To these I added three chipboard banners from the Button Pack. 

After adding my photo I cut the bunting from the blue square on the Parade paper and added to the top right of my page.  Finally I added a few buttons from the button pack. 

So there we have it - a beach page made from a paper range that definitely was not designed for summer beachy layouts.