Quick & Easy Childs Birthday Card

Just taking the opportunity to share something from a while back which I forgot to upload...

A few weeks ago we headed up the A1 to spend the day at my neices 5th birthday party. My two girls loved the party and spending time with their two cousins.

Before we went I needed to make a card for Anya, so I set about making something bright and cheerful with a bit of sparkle too.

As ever when I am card making I totally raided the scraps box - I think there is a little October Afternoon on there, some Echo Park Stickers, the bunting is Fancy Pants and the lettering is Doodlebug Just My Type! I am eternally grateful to my sister in law for choosing 4 letter names for my neices - both easily fit on a string of bunting on a card!

7 Gypsies Class - My Original and Denises Version...

Tonight I wanted to share with you one of the class layouts I taught at the retreat. I used the wonderful 7 Gypsies Off The Wall and Global papers and combined these with collage tissue and a few other products to make this layout:

One thing we always make clear to all our delegates is that no one is precious about their class layouts and whether you want to walk out with an identical layout but with your photos, something adapted from the layout or something just loosely inspired by the original it is absolutely fine.

I always find it fascinating to see what the ladies end up with at the end of a class. The layout below is the one by Denise Holmes who took the class and adapted it to suit the photos she had and then made further adjustments to cover up something she didn't like (a wrinkled frame I think) I like to think that was a happy accident because it led to the butterflies flying up the right hand side of the page and the beautiful stamping.

Come back soon to see a little more of what we got up to and of course the fabulous challenge entries and winners :)

Good Students?!

One of the fun things about the retreats is that amongst the many lovely ladies we have attending there are always a few from our Design Team. Spending the year emailing back and forth with them and sending out little packages of loveliness to them it is really nice to spend some time with them.

They are often teaching but they also take classes themselves. This most recent retreat we had Ann, Jane, Suzanne, Karen M & Karen C all teaching plus Debbie with us as a delegate so almost a full house (Dawn was missed by all as she couldn't come this time)

I was trying to get some photos of the delegates working away in classes and this pair were sitting together engaged in a deep and meaningful crafty discussion while working in Suzannes class.


And here they are again teaching their own classes!

Jane was teaching her fabulous ABC Primer pencil bound book...

and Ann was teaching her beautiful My Little Shoebox layout as featured on the blog hop.

More to share over the next week including some more classes and the fabulous challenge winners! Apologies for the photos, I have a new computer and NO photo editing software installed so they are straight out of camera and clearly the setting were a little awry!

Following Up On Those 3D Flowers....

During our retreat the 3D flowers were used by delegates in a variety of ways and I wanted to share a couple of those with you today.

First up is this gorgeous cluster of flowers. I saw Antonia working on this at the retreat and even though she hasn't finished the layout yet I asked her to email me a photo of the progress so far. I am sure you will agree that the effect of the clustering is pretty spectacular!

And to show you that they are not just for layouts here is Debbies fabulous altered pencil pot with a beautiful floral lid!

I hope you have enjoyed seeing what some of the ladies came up with using the My Little Shoebox 3D Flowers, remember we are running a special offer for all orders over £20 placed before Sunday - you will receive a FREE set of 2011 release Christmas papers with all orders over £20.

"I" Thirsty Thursday

Welcome back after a week off from our regular weekly challenge called Thirsty Thursday where we aim to inspire you with a challenge to quench your creative thirst. Don't worry if this is the first you have heard of our challenges. You can pick up from here and play along or look back at previous weeks and join in those too. This week we are up to week 9 and we are taking inspiration from the letter I prompts below to make a layout, card or another crafty project. So here we go...

I is for INTERACTIVE - Can you make your cards pop and flip and fold? Do you have hidden journalling on your page or another interactive element ? This week we challenge your next project to contain an interactive element.

I is for INK - Be these your ordinary ink pads, the very popular distress inks (stocked HERE in the shop), spray inks or your even alcohol inks; it is time to dig them out for this week's challenge.

I is for IVY - Holly and the Ivy Seasonal project prompt perhaps, or maybe include a stamped Ivy leaf on an Autumnal page. This week we challenge you to include Ivy on your project.

I is for IDEA BOOKS - Do you have a selection of these in your craft room, sitting unused on the shelf? Might be time to regenerate them and be inspired by a project within it. We have a selection of Idea Books in the shop also if you are looking for Christmas gift for a fellow crafter?

I is for INDIVIDUAL - A large individual photograph on a layout can make quite the statement and often need little else adding to the page other than pretty paper of course! Why not feature an oversize Individual photograph on a project for this week's challenge.

Before you head off to play we just want to share as always a couple of inspiring projects from our design team, this week from Jane and Ann.

Jane shares with us an inky page with an interesting design element too.

And another from Jane, this time Interactive with pull out tabs beneath the photo and fulfilling the Individual challenge too!

And finally for this week and IVY layout example for you all by Ann using My Little Shoebox papers.

Early next week we will announce the winner of the Thirsty Thursday challenges from last month. If you'd like to be in with a chance to win a prize from the shop this month simply link your creations using our Inlinkz tool below, or leave us a lovely comment with a link to your page and which of the I challenges (one or more) that you have met with your creation. In the meantime, happy scrapping.

Altered Challenge from the retreat

We always have a number of optional challenges at our retreat weekends which delegates can take part in, seven was the count of last weekend including a sketch challenge, a top 10 challenge, a mystery kit challenge and one of the most popular - the altered challenge. This retreat the object to be altered was a small brown gift bag.

It never ceases to amaze me the variety of entries we get to these challenges and this year was no different. Projects ranged from minibooks to lined wine coolers, from festive reindeer to spooky houses, from mini Calendars to miniature stages, not to mention some very pretty decorated bags retaining their original use.

As always judging the challenges was not made simple by the very talented delegates who gave so many options to choose from and all so wonderful in their own right. Jane's post on Halloween showcased her witches house a little further. The overall winning creation however was this one by Denise.

More retreat projects and photographs to share in the coming days along with another Thirsty Thursday challenge

UKS Blog Hop!

Today we are taking part in the UKScrappers Blog Hop!

You may have come here from The Biskit Barrel (A Sprinkle of Imagination) and if so I hope you enjoyed your visit there. Here at ATDML we are uploading a layout project using the My Little Shoebox 3D roll up flowers.



Available in 5 different designs these versatile double sided embellishments will add dimension and texture to your pages.

The class is a layout designed by Ann Freeman, feel free to use it to create your own version of the same layout, or to get inspired to use these fabulous little 3D flowers in some other way!

The full instructions can be found HERE on our website as a free downloadable PDF

Here is an excerpt from Anns instructions talking about assembling the flowers:

• Choose a selection of 3D flowers (they all make different size and height flowers) and carefully pop out of the sheet. Note that the sheet is double side with a pattern on one side and a plainer complimenting colour on the reverse.
• Taking a needle or paper piercer start the rolling of the flowers from the outside working in to the centre, and once you have got the roll started you can carry on with your fingers. Roll the flower up and secure in place with a glue dot. You can practice how loose or tight you want your flowers, it is a matter of individual preference.
When you have a selection (I think I rolled 5) layer some of these onto the standard flower die-cuts on your sheet and use a needle or piercer again to gentle curl the petals on these.

We have donated a prize to UKScrappers which, along with some others donated by other UKS sponsors will be drawn for those who participate in the blog hop by commenting on all the blogs and on the UKS thread (link at the top)

In addition, all orders over £20 placed between now and 6pm on Sunday 6th November with your UKS name in the comments box will qualify for a free selection of brand new 2011 Christmas papers.

Thanks for joining us. Next on the blog hop list is Dyan Reavely of Art From the Heart