Archive for February 6th, 2010

Remember this sketch we have been talking about today?

Well you’ve seen our ideas to make it our own and use it to create scrapbook pages and cards. Well, now its your turn!!!! Thats right, we would love for you to join in on our blog celebrations and want to get you involved as much as we can!

So heres the story….

Use the sketch anyway you wish as a starting point to create your own layout/card. Manipulate it, Rotate it, Change bits, Add bits, Remove bits - do whatever you like to make it into your own design.

You must then send a picture of your entry to us at sparkleandscrap@yahoo.co.uk  before the closing date on Saturday 20th February 2010 . We will upload these onto our website and the viewing public can then vote for their favorite entry. The winner will be announced at our SECOND BLOG PARY on the 6th March 2010 and will win a selection of goodies from our favorite brands such as Prima, K&Co, Bazzill, Hambleys and more!!! So get scrapping!!!!!!!!! (And there’s nothing to stop you from entering as many times as you’d like!!!!) 

Over to the last member of our Design Team for some more inspiration – Chris!

Chris has altered this beautiful TwiddleyBitz Chipboard Frame. Isn’t it beautiful?!?

She has painted the frame in a Jupiter color using the paint from an Acrylic Dabber, cut some co-ordinating paper to size and embellished with a beautiful Prima Butterfly and K&Co adhesion. Simple but Perfect! She has done really well to ensure that the beautiful intrically cut design is not taken away from with lots of busy embellishements and papers. Well Done Chris

It looked great displayed at Exeter recently with some other great makes from Kate & Sharon

And before you ask – Yes! We will be showing you the princess mini-book very soon – we promise!!!!

Everybody loves a giveaway – Find out how you could win by watching this video!

Entrys close at 11:59pm on Saturday 6th February 2010.

We have never sold out of anything as quickly as we did of these stamps at our recent trip to exhibit at Exter Craft Show. Our stand was absolutly buzzing and we sold out of these stamps in the first day within 30mins at the most!

It might have however been down to some of these fabulous cards which were on display, created by Sandra Fox and Natalie Grantham of our Design Team. Can you see them going down the pole?

I have a couple of close-ups here however this is by far not all of the cards they created! There are many others that we will be displaying at London Excel this coming week!

I promised we’d be back again with part 2 of the sketch challenge. Here you will find two very differents layouts that again have been created using the sketch provided to Natalie and Kate.

Say Cheese! 

“The poloroids were so much fun & some of them are hilarious to look back over! It was certainly a unique way to capture the personalities of guests”

This busy page has followed the main points of the sketch but with slight alterations which is a great way to ensure the sketch becomes your own. For example, rather than using a scallop edging all the way around the page, you can see here that a heart lace effect has been created using a Martha Stewart Punch.

The long thin rectangle element down the left hand side of the page in the original sketch has been turned into a collection of photos, maintaining the element of making the readers eye move down the page.

The horizontal strip has been maintained but recreated at the top to maintain a balance to the page against the business of the papers and the original rectangular strip has been replaced with a funky scallop edge.

The layering of the papers underneath the big box has been mantained, however the proportion and layering has been enhanced to provide more interest to the page. A title has also been added to balance out the photographs and journaling, along with a few embellishments, also to have balance out this piece.

When placed alongside the original sketch you can definatly see the likeness to this page, however it definatly has its own personality.

Our Day Out

“Mummy & Obie -x- A day out with auntie Sammie. We went to the flower market in Bristol & then to the horse sanctuary. You loved the big slides & all the childrens toys that they had there -x-

This page has again been created with the sketch as the starting point. However, it has been rotated around & the scallops are only on the main section of the page.

Clever eh?!? Do you see just how easy it is now to create scrapbook Pages with Sketches?!? We will be loading up a few of our own sketches in the next few weeks and we would love to see how you interpret these and make them your own……..

Since these arrived a few weeks ago, I have not stopped talking about these fabulous rub-ons from Hambly Screenprints.

They are just GORGEOUS! If you read our blog often you may have noticed I have used these to embellish lots of my projects  in the last couple of weeks here. Just incase you missed them, heres another quick glance!

Now for the best bit…another video!!!! So you can see just how easy the Hambly rub-ons are to use

Look at this fabulous layout by Sharon Speed from our Design Team – the composition of this piece is fantastic. We love the way Sharon has clustered her embellishments on the left hand side and used the beautiful Twiddley Bitz shape to move your eye up towards the photo. A lovely layout and best of all, Sharon has given us the step by step instructions so you can too can re-create a similar layout!

Materials Used

• Amanda Photo Frame (12 x 12)
• Twiddleybitz flower on vine border
• Basic Grey Origins die cut chipboard bits
• Adirondack paint dabber – expresso
• Basic Grey Origins 3D Stickers
• Prima flower embellishments
• Scenic Route – Grafton Boy cardstock stickers
• Basic Grey Origins mono stickers
• Basic Grey Origins paper – Seaweed Wrap, revitalize, sugar pea
• Brown cardstock
• Brown ricrac ribbon

Step by Step Instructions

1. Ink edges of frame with dabber, both inner and outter frame and Twiddlebitz and leave to dry.
2. Cut 4” square from centre of Seaweed paper and adhere to frame, so that the brown inked edges just show.
3. Fix green cardstock strip from scenic Route cardstock stickers
4. Cut section of Revitalise paper across the pattern to create a strip and just layer over the edge of the cardstock sticker strip
5. Put ‘you are my sunshine’ chipboard sticker onto the acetate tag.  Add words with Basic Grey mono stickers and add 2 small flowers and jewel from 3D stickers.
6. Stick circle ‘Tell me what you are thinking’ sticker to Sugar pea paper and cut around flower shape on paper.  Matt onto brown cardstock.
7. Stick this over the end of the tag towards the bottom left hand corner of the frame and position with the ‘I love you’ die cut circle with ricrac ribbon and a Prima flower.
8. Position the Twiddlebitz vine down the left hand side behind the corner arrangement.

We hope you enjoyed our short video about Glimmer Mist. Originally it was over 30mins long, but (we didn’t know at the time!) YouTube only allows videos of up to 10mins! So we have lots more great ideas for you, which we plan to show you another day soon. Take a look at these little bits of inpiration:

 Well, for your chance to win three bottles of Glimmer Mist (colors unspecified) then please leave a comment below on your favorite color!!! Entry closes tonight (February 6th 2009 @11:59pm GMT) and the winner will be announced on Monday!!!

Good Luck!!!!

Well, some of you may have guessed, the speech bubble earlier in our sketch challenge was down to some fab work created by DT member Natalie using our sketch challenge template.

Hop on over to her blog now which you can find here at www.ngcards.blogspot.com to find out exactly what she created and how! They are perfect and uses some more of that fab American Crafts Paper!