New Product....

It is always nice to see cardboard boxes sitting at the door when i go to Papermaze. Especially if it contains gorgeous products that i am going to show you.

First up are some new Technique Tuesday stamps. One of my fav stamp lines.... there where some gorgeous christmas stamps in the box...


You can see the rest of the new Technique Tuesday stamps here...

Next up is a new line from October Afternoon. I actually bought 2 of each of these papers , they are seriously gorgeous. One of the best things about October Afternoon is the thickness of the pattern paper, which is like cardstock.



i am ashamed to say i have bought 4 sheets of this one lol. Perfect for covering chipboard letters... i lopve newspaper print.

And i love that every line that they do comes with a set of tage and frames...


You can see the whole October Afternoon line here.
Next up is the new Sandylion line. This is just gorgeous, seriously gorgeous and the colour on this is so rich.




how cute are those little people!!!

THis paper begs to be cut up and used as embellishments and titles.

One of my favourite embellishments that you can buy has come into Papermaze as well. THe Maya Road box arrived!!!!
These sheer embellishments are my all time favourites EVER!!!

I have my eye on these to make a calender for 2009!!!

And this is more gorgeous in real life!
You can find all the new products here, and there are always new stuff being uploaded! so check back often.

yep we are obsessed!!!

Yep another post on this blog containing the new Fancy pants line 'The Daily Grind' but seriously since Vanessa got this line though the door, it has all i have wanted to use.

I have posted this page on my own blog but wanted to share it with you here and to show you that not every page has to be expensive.

One of the first things i do when faced with a new line, is pick out the papers that i love, but i know that i cannot buy all of them ( well most of the time lol!) so i then go about selecting the ones i love and the ones that will help me put the page together.

One of the papers that i always buy is the one in the line that can be cut up and used on the page as embellishments. They are not always the prettiest ones in the line, but actually they are more uselful than any of the others.

For example in this Line from Fancy Pants there where several that i could have chosen...

THis one, for cutting out the flowers at the bottom and the rest of the piece is a good base colour to use on the page.

and this one as the leaves are perfect to cut out as well...

are perfect for that, as they both have something you can cut out and still use the rest of the paper for something else.

This exactly what i did to create this page...

This page is made up of just pattern paper and a few pieces of card.... ( and the few bits of bling of course, cannot do a page without that.

Also adding sticky pads underneath some of the bits of papers, flowers, leaves etc makes them stand out from the page and add more detail and all for the price of a piece of pattern paper...


Have you done page using the new Daily Grind line? if you have send your pages to wendy@bbbweb.com and i will put them up on the blog.

Something pretty???

Over the last few months i have seen these altered frames everywhere on scrapbooking galleries and message boards. I have loved them and drooled over some of them, and filed it in my 'MUST DO' pile in my scrapbooking room.

I love the fact that are made by doing something i love the best in scrapbooking. Cutting up small bits of pretty paper, using embellishments that are lying around and make something pretty. Something that has no rules or guidelines, just using things that i love.


So i went out and bought myself a shadow box picture frame. THe size of this one is to fit a print size - 10 by 8 inches. You do need a shadow frame to make one of these if you are going to use bulky embellishements like i have, ie chipboard and ghost shapes.

The square sizes for the frame that i did where 4 inches by 4 inches. After i had cut them out i used a distresser and distressed all the sides of each square and then inked them with brown ink so that each square stood out on the white background. I then added faux stitching around each individual square.



The pattern papers that i used are the gorgeous Urban Prairie line from Basic Grey and some scraps of cardstock.



I then covered some raw chipboard letters with this pattern paper...





And volia you have a very pretty frame which i bet any young girl would love ( especially using these papers) but i am going to keep mine and put it up on my wall in my scrapbooking room.

Getting messy with paints and templates...

This month, I was sent not only some gorgeous Fancy Pants Daily Grind papers but also a Crafters Workshop template to experiment with. I have never used templates that much in my scrapping before, but I was determined to find a use for them that wasn't limited to drawing around the shapes.

The papers and postage stamp theme of the template leant themselves well to a holiday layout, which was ideal for me as I haven't scrapped many of my photographs from our trip to Portugal in August. Its not unusual for me to be scrapping summer holiday pictures in Winter and Christmas layouts in July, but maybe thats just me! I wanted to use this beautiful sheet of paper without overpowering the design, so I decided to create a page that embraced the use of white space (not something I'm normally comfortable with to say the least!)

I tore a strip of yellow paper to act as a base for the photo, then adhered a page from a Making Memories spiral notebook to form a background to my title and journalling. Some 7 Gypsies 97% complete stickers added a touch of detail to one side of the layout, but I needed more interest aroudn the left hand side of the photo.

I lay the template over the corner of the photo and used green acrylic paint and a sponge brush to dab carefully through the designs that I wanted to use, in this case the tropical leaf shapes. You have to be very careful when doing this to avoid smudging paint through the other shapes on the template! The acrylic paint wipes easily off the plastic template once you have finished. After it had dried, I used a white pen to draw around the outside of the shapes to give them definition, and also added some background swirls in brown ink. I cut some small circles from another sheet of the Daily Grind paper, and mounted these on foam pads in between the stencilled leaves. A few buttons added a final touch of detail.

I'm sure to use this template again - the diversity of the designs on just one template will ensure there is something for a range of different layouts. Make sure you check out the shop for the other templates available in the range.

I am sorry that the competition winners have not been posted before now, but i was having a fight with the slide show website and blogger lol.

ANyway here are the entries that where sent in, all where done using the sketches provided by different members of the design team and guest members.

the winner of this months is - Jo Burton with her page
friends for life. I completly coved how she did the title on this page, using different fonts and mediums. Jo send an email to wendy@bbbweb.com and i will get your sassafrass Lass stamps out to you.

Button Frame

Today my layout features a simple but effective use of buttons, giving a nice embellished finish to the page.
It is also quite a quick and simple way to put a page together- it took me about 2 hours to complete- as I'm such a slow scrapper that probably means most people could do it in an hour.

I started off with some cardstock, and the Hope die cut sheet of paper from the Crate Paper Prudence range. I only wanted to use the shape down one side of the page, so trimmed off one edge and stuck that on the left side of the card.

I love my layers, so cut some pieces of the papers I used on a previous layout- and fixed these to my page.

I then cut a third layer, and stuck this down as a mat for my photo.

I had one glittered border from the Prudence range left, so stuck this down to the left of the photo, then cut another border strip from some paper, and punched a pretty edge using the Fiskars Treading water border punch.
The number strip is another offcut from the Scenic Route Surprise papers I used on my layout on Monday.

My title is made using American Crafts Thickers Jewelry Box alphas; and Making memories Tiny Alpha stickers in black.
I then stuck a small bling circle on the number paper strip to highlight the number 3.
Lastly the fun part- using leftover buttons from the Scenic route Surprise button pack; assorted Epoxy Stickers from the Prudence buttons pack; and some assorted clear buttons, I laid them around the photo to create a frame.

As I said, a very simple, but I think effective technique- and a good way of using up some bits and pieces leftover at the end of packs.

Here are a couple more detailed photos...



And the finished page...

I hope you have enjoyed my buttony creations this week and feel inspired to get out that forgotten button stash again.... if you do remember to share your creations with us by leaving a link in the comments box.

Crate Paper Prudence - and Button Flower Centres

Well todays layout I'm going to show you is far more my normal style than the brightly coloured one from Monday.
This time I have used the lovely new Prudence range from Crate Paper.
This layout shows one of the simplest ways to incorporate buttons into a layout- by using them as centres for your flowers.

I started with the die cut circle Charity, inked the edges with a charcoal cats eye inkpad, and stuck this onto a pale blue piece of cardstock.

Using the papers Temperance and Discretion I cut two pieces, inked the edges, and layered them like so...

Included in the range are some glittered cardstock borders... these do not look half as lovely in photos a they do in real life.
I used three of them, two to make a border down the right side of the page; and the other across the width.

Another item in the range is the Epoxy Buttons- these give another dimension and extra texture to the page... and can be used just like ordinary buttons in scrapping- they just come already sticky!
I punched out some flowers from the papers, using a large retro flower punch.

Once the page was made I also sewed some thread through them to make the buttons look even more realistic.

My title was made using American Crafts Vinyl Thickers.

And my journalling was written onto thin strips of card, and stuck on with foam pads.

Et voila- my finished page.
I love these Crate Papers, they are a great weight, and on one side have a lovely texture.