It's a GIFT!

Have you had a good look at any of the HOTP Personal Shopper Kits? They are currently less than half price...which I have to say is practically a GIFT!!!! In honour of this...I've used some of the papers to make a birthday gift bag {fankly at this price its much cheaper than buying one...and sooo much more fun!}.

This bag is made from 3 sheets of patterned 12x12, a small section of the co-ordinating cardstock, one of the matching birthday ribbons. I've also added a couple of tiny pieces of white mini ric rac and made a co-ordinating embellishment with some UTEE and one of the stamps from the bargain priced Lucky Dip selection!!

This is the back of the bag.

and this is the side view...

Continuing my thrifty gift theme...I decided to wrap the gift itself in my favourite style, which is plain tissue and a gorgeous ribbon. (This even works with plain copy paper if your gift is small enough and it looks fabulous!) The ribbon I've used here is from the American Crafts Lucky Dip which gives you 5 fabulous ribbons in metre long lengths for a mere £1!!! So another bargain!!

I hope my friend doesn't think I'm *cheap* if she reads this post!!! lol

TIME to craft!!!

I have always wanted to alter a clock, and when I saw the Mod Design - Whirligig papers, they were perfect, so off I trotted to the shops and bought a clock for the grand sum of £2.99 and some time later (no pun intended!!) this was the result!

First I attacked it with a screwdriver and took the whole thing apart!

I used some plain blue cardstock from a HOTP personal shopper kit (April 07) to cover the entire clock face, then I glued the Whirlibloom paper inside.(which is perfect as it has 12 flowers on it and a lovely scallopped edge). I have to confess to a bit of a cheat here as the paper was too big for the clock, so I photocopied it and scaled it down to fit, and I still have the original sheet here (which is gorgeous) for another project!

I glued some contrasting gems to the hands for sparkle, and edged round the clock face in silver acrylic.
Then I put the whole clock back together again!

For the clock frame I used the Parasols paper which had smaller versions of the Whirlibloom flower on it, I cut four out and glued them to each corner and then I cut out loads of the little flowers on the paper to go round the edge.
I hope you like it, I do and it was great fun to make, just need DH to fix it up above my desk now!

DON'T FORGET you only have three days left to apply for the CTYD Design Team. Look here!

Drop Dead!

Hi everyone, me again {Alix} with a wee offering for your amusement and possibly inspiration.

I've really enjoyed doing this project. I've used the Drop Dead Red pp (which can be found here) and a wooden blank {you could just as easily use thick card to cut out the shape} to make a door hanger for a stroppy teenage girl. I've painted the blank with acrylic paint and used glue to attach the torn strips of pp and the skull that I cut out with scissors. I've then added the felt shapes from the Die Cut Felt Sheets. Actually the shapes I've chosen are officially the *waste* but I really liked thier quirky swirly nature so I used them anyway!


I then inked the edges in black using a permanent inkpad, added gemstones to one of the felt shapes and to the torn strips. I tied a heart charm on with some oddments of ribbon {there are a huge selection of charms here}, added a holographic flower shaped button and another piece of ribbon near the bottom and placed one spotty flower with a red gem centre at the top. And there you have it...

This is exactly the sort of thing I would have loved...and I dare say there are a few stroppy teenagers left in the world now...do you know any of them?? {I do!!!}

Mini-Book Fun

I'm not a huge fan of mini-books but I have been known to occasionally make them, and this is my first coaster mini-book, so it's time to go down to your local pub and smile sweetly at your barman and see if you can get him to part with a few new beer mats!!!
I covered all of mine in co-ordinating papers from the HOTP PS kit (this one is April 07) and I used loads of the co-ordinating ribbons and embellishments that come with it! Plus I used the tags in the kit for the front of my album.
I printed off loads of pictures of my beautiful Kingsnake "Cali", I used the photos that alone are not good enough for a 12x12 LO, but I still love them and shrunk down they are perfect for a min-book! I also used Felt Fusion - Stars Border Blue and Fabric Swatch Stickers - Silk Sachet, which gives a lovely textured feel to the completed project! I also inked all the pages in co-ordinating colours.
Don't forget to check out the web-shop out for the latest bargains, and have you applied to be on the CTYD DT yet??

Do You Google???

We have been having major problems with our pop3 e-mail accounts - affecting both my personal & the store e-mails that I've finally given in and got a seperate gmail addy for the store. If you have sent us an e-mail in the past week I probably haven't got it - please send it again using this new address

That also means that I've not received account requests for the forum or DT entries - I will be extending the deadline to reflect that - it's only fair!! Best bookmark the new addy now so you have it when you need it! LOL

want to make quick cards? for any occassion?

...then this could be just the solution for you!! Our amazing Lucky Dip Stamp Offer gets you an incredible *THREE* wooden backed stamps for *£1.00*!!!! I've designed a very simple sketch to use any of the stamps to make a cute card in less than 5 minutes...are you ready? ;)

my sketch is this:

its incredibly basic...but it works...and here are the 3 cards I made with my Lucky Dip:




I've created a happy birthday card{cake stamp},
an invitation for drinks {cocktail glass stamp}
and a invitation to watch a school rugby game {ball stamp}.




What will you create? I'd love to see them so do e-mail your examples in to the gallery! :)

Off The Page Projects

I have been fiddling about with some different projects, and for a change I am working on some off the page stuff! I have loads of ideas coming up and not a LO or card in sight! (Well, maybe a couple)!!!

So, first up is this greetings card box! You may remember the cards I have been making from the HOTP PS card kits? Well, they were piling up on my desk and it was high time they had their own little storage box. I used a HOTP PS kit (this particular one is the April 07 kit), it's lovely having such a large quantity of co-ordinating papers, cardstock, ribbons and embellishments, so there's no need to worry about running out of stash on some of the larger projects. Plus the added bonus is that they are only £9.50 over in the webshop, so that's half price!!! I used two sheets of the cardstock for the box and covered it in loads of the co-ordinating papers, I added the alphabet tile stickers that came in the kit and a couple of ribbons, in fact the only thing that I used that wasn't from the kit was one of the fabric yo-yos. I added a couple of brads on the lid and I used some velcro as a closure.

And the search is on ...

Due to family commitments, Looby has had to leave us - leaving a huge gaping void that needs to be filled. We have said our goodbyes so all that is left is the question: could you fill that void? The search is on for two new members to join our team. Interested? Read on ...

Each DT member is required to do a minimum of:

• 1 blog post per week - you may choose to post twice per week (& receive a bigger kit to reflect this).
• You will also be expected to take part in setting challenges for visitors to the blog (by rota, once every 3-4 months) & to take part in challenges set by the other DT members.
• Post daily on our forum, organise swaps and other events & generally to help to build our online community.
• Promote the webstore through your personal blogs, message boards (where permitted) etc.
  

This is quite a commitment, so please do think carefully about whether you have the time & enthusiasm to take part before you apply. So, are you up for it?

If you'd like to be considered, please email scans or photographs of your submissions to us with ‘DT entry’ and your name in the subject line by midnight (BST) May 31st, 2008. Please keep your file sizes under 200kb.

• Create a total of 5 pieces to enter. Your collective works should cover at least 3 of the following categories to demonstrate your ability to work in various mediums.
  
  • Layouts (any size)
  • Mini Albums
  • Home Décor
  • Cards
  • Other Paper Crafts (art journals, ATCs etc.)
  Please let us know if you have used any special techniques & give a brief breakdown of the products you have used. If you have products that we stock, please do show us what you can do with that - this is encouraged but not compulsory.

Please tell us the following information (if applicable):

• Please give links to any blogs, public galleries, online resumes etc that you might have.
  

• What scrapbook/art-related message boards are you active on? What is your user name on each?

• Are you currently or have you ever been on a design team? Whose/when?

• Have you ever had designs published in the scrapbook industry? If so when/where?

• Have you ever/do you work at a local scrapbook store or craft chain store? If so when/where?

• Full name, address, e-mail address, telephone number
• Please also write a paragraph about why you’d like a place on this Design Team
  
• Come & join us on the forum – we want to get a real sense of who you are. We require all entrants to have a minimum 10 posts prior to the close of the DT call. Be sure to include your username for this forum in your application.
• Write a review for any product in our webstore – you will need a login account, which is free to create & no purchase is necessary.
  

Age & experience are less important than your passion for craft. I'd need a commitment for 6 months, although you could be invited to stay for longer. There is no pay as such but you would receive a kit of goodies each month & the chance to showcase your work - anything you make is yours to keep & we only ask that you do not post it elsewhere before it appears on our blog.
As we are a small store with a limited budget, we can only accept entries from the UK/BFPO at this time (sorry!) UNLESS international applicants are happy to contribute the additional postal charges.

Questions?? Please post to the forum, where answers will also be posted.

Gorgeous New Stash in Stock

WOW! WOW! WOW! I got my new DT kit through and it's awesome!! There's loads of new products in there and the papers are stunning! I have the Fancy Pants Holly Jolly, BoBunny Teen Chic, Mod Design Whirligig & Flair Crazy 4 U paper collections and I can tell you they look better on my desk than they do in the webshop!!! Get on over and check out the new paper collections as there are loads of lush new ranges in stock!! I can't wait to use them all but you will have to pop back regularly to the blog to see them!! Plus there are going to be some exciting announcements coming up soon!! And while your at it why not pop on over to our forum and say hi and join in with us and chat??

Anyway onto my latest projects!

For these I have been using the April 07 HOTP Personal Shopper Kit, these are HALF PRICE in the webshop and well worth the money, they all vary so there is bound to be a kit that takes your fancy and you get LOADS of stuff in them! This card was made nearly entirely from the kit, the only thing I added was the bloom which comes from the Dahlia Box Blend, this was from the pink/black collection but I coloured it in blue with an ordinary felt tip to match the cards colour scheme!

My second thing for today is a LO of me and a friend (excuse the dodgy pic of me LOL), once again I used the kit but this time I added loads of glitter to highlight the patterns on the paper, and I painted the title on with more glitter andacrylic paints unfortunately these are now out of stock except for a couple of colours but what do you expect at 50p each!!

Got Birds???

I'm loving the current trend for birds right now & whipped up these simple collage cards from just 2 sheets of Brenda Walton's Mira Collection (K&Co) & this week's Di Hickman card sketch. The first one is embellished with die cut velvet ric rac, the second with Bazzill mini ric rac, the third with ribbon from our lucky dip and the fourth uses a combination.
I've also used a tag from this pad - super value at just £1.99 for 24 tags & the 'bird greetings' are A Muse stamps, which are now sold out (you gotta grab these bargains quick! LOL)
This is one of TWELVE new collections that we have added in the last month or so - check them all out here.

Oh! and a quick heads up ... you might want to be stalking the blog over the next couple of days ...
there's an announcement coming up soon!

May Challenge

Yep, it's my turn to challenge you this month, and that challenge is to create a project that includes felt or fabric.

Here are a couple of examples for you, both using the Fancy Pants Holly Jolly range. For this layout I used some gorgeous Queen & Co felt fusion, the title was hand cut from friendly felt and I also added one of these really cool fabric yo yos. For the card I used this really yummy pink swirl felt fusion.

There's lots of ways to incorporate felt and fabric into your projects, and we can't wait to see what you come up with! You have until 7th June to get your entry in, and just leave us a comment with a link to your project.

Have fun!!

We Have a Winner!!

HUGE congratulations to BIBI whose name was first out of the hat to win April's Monthly challenge.
E-mail us your addy & favourite colours & we'll pop it in the post!

Wanna know what Bibi won? A big bunch of American Crafts ribbons with a RRP of over £30!!!
We have these on a fabulous special offer right now - bundles of 5 individual metres for just £1 - & at that price, why not treat yourself to a bundle or 3.

Looby will be setting the next challenge this Saturday - & with it being National Scrapbooking Day in the US (although we're prone to joining in too!) there will be an extra special prize this month - so don't forget to check back then!!