It's Tough...

... to sit and compile CHA orders! As Jill is not making the trip across the Atlantic this year we have been sorting out a lot of our CHA orders in the past few days. Tonight we have been looking at American Crafts' new Thickers and some stamps that we have ordered (sorry, we are not allowed to post the pictures online yet) and we received notice that our 7 Gypsies Avignon papers and stickers have been dispatched!

We have been looking through all your suggestions below and will be placing orders with several of the companies mentioned - keep checking back to see what arrives in store and who gets the box of goodies :)

We have had a great response to the guest designer call - we have more people than there are spaces in the 2010 guest spots however those who are not asked to do a guest spot this time may be contacted to take part in blog features, product testing and mini challenges and of course 2010 will fly by and we will need a whole new bunch of guest designers again!

If you emailed look out for an email in the next few days - if you left a blog comment and your blog does not have a contact email for you please get in touch via email.

We will leave you with a picture of the lovely Avignon papers which are on their way as we speak.

Product Spotlight: Luxe Frame Rub Ons

OK So these are not a new product but we think they are overlooked gems! When we first saw the Luxe stand at CHA '07 we liked the paper but we loved the rub ons! They rub on nicely (and not all rub ons do!) and the designs were good. They continued to bring out some great rub ons over the next couple of years (my personal favourites are the circle frames - remember I have a thing about circles?!)

For todays product spotlight I had a play with this set of rub ons - Square Frames.


I made a layout and a birthday card with them and thoroughly enjoyed creating both. The rub on frames were great for drawing attention to the photo in a different way to a plain cardstock mat, on the layout I cut around the bumpy edge of the pattern. On the layout I trimmed the edges straight and rounded the corners.

Here's what I made:


The Luxe rub ons, plus all our other rub on embellishments can be found here and for a limited time only (until Saturday 16th Jan 2010) blog readers can get an extra 10% off items in the Rub On Embellishments category by entering the code: Blog0110Rub into the promotional code box. This discount is only valid if your total order value before p&p is over £5.00

Wonderful Winter White Giveaway

OK, so there is snow everywhere and I have a lot of snow photos of my girls in the white stuff as well as photos of the house and our village looking very picturesque. Trouble is I am going to need a lot of help thinking up snow photo titles.

Leave a comment with a layout title suitable for snowy \ wintery pages (doesn't have to be specific to my photos just a general winter or snow type title) and we will pick our favourite to win a white giveaway (a little box of white or wintery coloured stash)

For example in the comment box you type "Winter Wonderland" (except you won't actually type that because that is my suggestion!) and leave your name. You will need to check back for the winner next week - we will announce the winner on Wednesday.

Just a little bit of fun for a snowy cold evening!

Sketch Inspiration Number 1

In addition to the classes, product features and tutorials here on the Created By ATDML Blog we will be posting sketches to try and kick start your Mojo. These will come from various members of the DT and will include a sketch and the designers layout to go with it.

This sketch and layout is one of mine. I love the crazy brightness of the Scenic Route Garden Grove papers. In fact I love Scenic Route so I was very sad to see them go. Luckily we still have some of their products in stock!

I am also a big fan of circular designs on layouts, I used the handcut flowers from one of the papers around the bottom of the circle to add a bit of extra detail. Because my photo was so large I placed the title on top of the photo, another favourite design feature of mine.



Have a go at your own layout based on the sketch. If you want to play along then post your layout to your blog or in an online gallery and post the link here. I will sort out a little prize for my favourite :)

Finally, if you have not yet looked, scroll down to the product spotlight from January 4th - I have added a mini book from Jane Hewitt and a layout from Debbie Jewell since the original post.

Design Team Gallery & Happy Birthday Jill!

First of all HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Jill! She has spent the day packing sale orders but finished it off with a nice meal out!


The January Design Team Gallery is now online HERE

This month the team worked with Prima papers from their most recent releases. These included Animal Bash, Wink, Blooming Retro, The Tropics, Paradise City and Indeed. Our Guest Designer was Cath Stannard. Below is a sneak peek of the loveliness that is in this months gallery, don't forget to stop by our site and see the gallery in full.

Wanted: Guest Designers....

Each month the ATDML Design Team Gallery is filled with lots of lovely inspiration.

To ensure that it is always varied and fresh we have a guest designer spot each month. The guest designer receives a pizza box of goodies and then has approx 3 weeks to create at least 3 items with the contents, at least 2 of which should be layouts.

The items you create are yours to keep, there is no need to send them to us, just clearly scan or photograph and send in jpeg format.

This month our guest designer spot has been filled by Cath Stannard do take a look at the gallery, which will go up today, to see her lovely work.

However the calendar for Guest DT spots is EMPTY for the rest of 2010!

If you would like a box of free stash and a chance to showcase your work in our gallery please either post a comment here with a link to your blog or online gallery where we can see your work, or if you prefer not to post on here you can email me - Mel@atripdownmemorylane.co.uk with Guest Designer in the subject line.

We obviously have a set number of spots to fill however if you are not asked at this time we will keep your info as we may need additional scrappers for product reviews \ challenges etc...

Keep Them Coming!

Thanks for all the comments so far with your suggestions for product lines to look out for. Some of them we already had our eyes on (Jill has been gazing happily at the sneak peeks from G45) and others we definitely be looking into.

Keep all your comments and suggestions coming - remember it could be you that gets a box of free goodies when the CHA stuff arrives :)

The Design Team gallery will go live tomorrow - it will be going up on the 7th or 8th of each month - and we have some lovely projects for you. With our larger team we are working on a rotation system, each month 5 of the regular DT plus one guest will contribute to the Design Team Gallery, one of the other two designers will create a class for the website and the remaining designer gets a well earned rest!

Our guest scrapper this month is Cath Stannard. Check back tomorrow to see what Cath and the DT girls have done with their kits. This month also sees the welcome return of Dawn Evans to our DT, she took a break last year due to a busy work schedule but she is back onboard with her wonderful style of scrapping.

Right, must go - I haven't quite finished my last DT project... !