December Thirsty Thursday's

Given the holiday season, the extra cooking and family time we thought it best to leave you with the existing Thirsty Thursday prompts for December and would remind any of you wanting to enter the draw for an ATDML gift for December you have until Midnight this Sunday. As a reminder here are the December challenge posts (click on links)

The letter M
The letter N
The letter O

Your next challenge will be posted next Thursday, Jan 5th 2012 when we bring you letter P prompts! In the meantime be sure to check out our sale items on the website and grab a bargain or two while you can.

December festive inspiration

Our December design team gallery is up now for your viewing pleasure. The team were joined by Helen Salthouse this month and we have a bulging gallery with over 50 festive papercraft images.



Have a browse through and bookmark any you like ready for some speedy scrap lifting to get you back in the crafting zone after the holiday celebrations.

*O* Thirsty Thursday (Belated)

With less than two weeks to go we move to our penultimate challenge this side of the big day. Of course you will all be busy with your festive preparations, but if you do squeeze in some crafting time we hope that you will join in our challenge this week as we seek inspiration from the letter O.

O is for OCTOBER AFTERNOON - New in the store recently we saw the latest seasonal collection from this popular manufacturer. All the Holiday Style papers can be found here in the shop, or maybe you will create a project this week using existing October Afternoon papers. Mel shares an October Afternoon layout with us this week.

O is for ORANGE - Not always a prominent colour on pages unless you are scrapping the Autumnal season or maybe your pumpkin photos but why not try it as an accent colour on a winter page? Maybe scrap that winter sunset image you took?

O is for OPPOSITE - Naughty or Nice? The question Santa is asking himself this very minute as he receives news from his elves as to the childrens' behaviour. Will you create an interactive page for this challenge showing opposites?

O is for OUT OF PRINT - A bit of a fab collection from Basic Grey, this paper is sure to please. The 6x6 collection pads flew out the doof but there are still a number oif 12x12 collection packs availble. I recently taught a CD Calendar class using these.

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 O challenges (one or more) that you have met with your creation. The O challenge runs until middnight on Jan 1st 2012.

Christmas Crop At Eclectic

Belatedly I thought I would post about the Eclectic Keepsakes Christmas crop I went to a couple of weeks ago. Organised by the lovely Karen Moss the Christmas crop included 3 classes. Two of them were taught by ATDML DT girls and the third was taught by Denise Holmes who has done a few guest DT spots for us.

I knew it would be a good day when on the way despite a cold day with grey skies my journey was brightened up by this sight :)

I was not very sensible and didn't manage to get many photos (I was having such a lovely time scrapping, chatting and eating that I forgot. I did get this one of Debbie teaching her fantastic Simple Stories Advent countdown layout which was such a clever idea and everyone loved it.

Ann taught a lovely CD Calendar class using Basic Grey Out of Print which was also very popular. I haven't finished mine yet but when I do I will upload it! Denise's class was using Tim Holtz Distress inks and stamping to make a stunning card which featured an envelope made with patterned paper using a score board. Denise makes using the distress inks look so simple and urged us to "Just Commit!" Apparently this was Mr Holtz's favourite phrase when she attended one of his workshops!

Lunch was a bring and share style buffet and there was oodles of lovely food. I did remember to take photos of Karens beautiful Christmas cupcakes... I might have indulged in a peppermint one with a candy cane top!

All in all a lovely day was had by all - I worked on a couple of pieces for the Christmas DT gallery which will be going up on or before Sunday 18th December so keep an eye out for that appearing.

Trying To Forget That It Is So Cold!

Back in September I spent a fun day in Trumpington near Cambridge at a crop and class day with two classes by Ifa Xainon. The layouts were summer themed and it was the perfect way to capture some of the fun memories we had from the summer.

I really enjoyed making this layout called "Summer Adventure" and because my photos were from several events and locations I opted for my favourite technique of turning them black and white so I know that they will go with anything!

More inspiration and new in store

Welcome to the weekend everyone! Just wanted to let you know we have the latest wintery offerings from October Afternoon in the shop now, they can all be found here if you haven't seen them already.

I took the liberty of popping over to the October Afternoon blog as well to see what the design team had been creating with this new line. Absolutely love this page and have bookmarked it for a scraplift in the new year when I have my Christmas day images.

The page could so easily be created for a non Xmas day page as well, maybe the date of a birthday, or an anniversary... the possibilities are endless! I certainly feel inspired by this page and also they have a bow making tutorial as well on the blog here - perfect for using up scraps of paper to embellish your presents. Great ideas which I saw and wanted to share!

More inspiration to be found

Two of the manufacturers we stock have teamed up to bring some fabulous crafting inspiration for the season to their blog readers. If you haven't already stumbled across these why not pop over to Simple Stories blog or Maya Road and see what they have been up to. The design team have been working with a variety of Christmas papers ready to inspire you later this month, and these include the Simple Stories 25 days of Christmas paper which can be found here in the store.