Nikki Sivils Scrapbooker

Nikki Sivils is a scrapbooker who is living her dream, designing and manufacturing scrapbook products. The two that have in front of me are ‘My Friend Birdie’ and ‘Tree Love’. These two ranges are some of last season’s collections. Nikki is releasing six new ranges on 29th January 2011 (and I’m keeping a very close eye on ‘It’s Raining, It’s pouring’ in particular). You could even win her new range by visiting her blog. The company’s mission is to ‘create wonderfully original scrapbook paper and embellishments by focusing on imagination and love for crafting’ and ‘provide distinctive paper’. Distinctive is exactly the word I would use to describe Nikki Sivils’ style. Both these ranges have big, bold designs and it’s clear that the same designer has had a hand in both. They both have vibrant colours with fun patterns and little characters.

Both ranges features seven patterns on doubled sided papers and one side of cardstock embellishments (including words, photo corners and journaling blocks on ‘My Friends Birdie’ and trees and words on ‘Tree Love’) that can be cut out. They also include one 10” scallop edged round die cut paper and a 12x12” sticker sheet with a good mix of alphas, journaling blocks and alphas (which was a new product introduction last season) with a high gloss sheen. The paper is high quality and the stickers are glossy, well manufactured and strong. All the papers are vibrant, with rich colours and the designs in each range complement each other well. There is variety in each range offering something for everyone.

The aforementioned little character in ‘Tree Love’ is Bucky the Beaver and he features on three of the patterns. The papers are in browns, reds, green and creams (reflecting the autumn feel of the season in which they were released).

‘My Friend Birdie’ is a range dedicated to Nikki’s friend with birdlike legs. The designs on the papers themselves are again vibrant, bold and unique. There are plainer pages, pages with large patterns, pages with smaller patterns and all in beautiful blues, yellows, greens and terracotta. There are papers that could be used by scrapbookers, cardmakers and altered art lovers, which is true of ‘Tree Love’ also.

Individually these papers retail at about $0.89 US for the 12x12” papers, $0.99 US or £1.25 GBP for the scallop edged die cut and $2.99 US or £2.99 for the cardstock sticker sheet. In the 6x6” mini-pad there are 24 pages, three pieces of four designs and four pieces of three designs. They retail at approx. $5.99 US or £5.99 GBP. Although these papers won’t appeal to everyone, they are exceptionally good quality and well priced for the market.

Nikki Sivils also does a variety of embellishments to complement her ranges. These include buttons, albums, brads and craft flags. Inspiration for using all of Nikki’s products can be found on her blog and gallery.