Best Friends

Merry Christmas and a very happy 2018 to all of you!
I hope you had a great Christmas and new year. If you're anything like me you ate too much haha.

So here I am with my first layout using the Nov/Dec quirky kit. I opted for the Regular main kit as the colours were so bright and cheerful! As soon as I saw this paper in the subscribers extras shop I new I had to purchase it. The lines were screaming to have some string art on them. Lets see what I used and take a look at how it turned out:

What I used:

• Crate Paper Good Vibes Hashtag 12x12 patterned paper
• Crate Paper Good Vibes Passion 12x12 patterned paper (both sides)
• Crate Paper Good Vibes Ephemera pack
• Crate Paper Good Vibes Sticker sheet
• Marianne Design Gold & Silver enamel dots
• Orange and Brown threads

How I created the layout:

I stared by grabbing my secret stampers weapon and pokey tool, and poking holes (carefully) where all of the lines ended on the paper, being careful to stay away from the edges so I didn't split or tear the paper.

I then alternated between the orange and brown threads connecting the dots, rather than doing a backstitch (I wanted long loose lines of thread).

Once I had completed this, I backed my photograph onto 2 pieces of the Good Vibes Passion paper, using both sides as layers and adhered it to my background.

I loved the look of those papers on top of each other and once I had stuck them down I decided I wanted to focus my clusters around the top left corner and bottom right corners of the photograph. 

(As a scrap-booker I am trying to not be so literal with the embellishments I use, as designers insist on adding embellishments such as cacti and flamingo's etc to their ephemera packs that I have no idea how to use. I am sure I'm not the only one who struggles with this...so I am letting go of those thoughts and just using them because I can.)

So as you can see from the photograph above this layout features 3 cacti...just because they go with the colours in my photograph. I laid this underneath the #lovethis banner and popped one of the cork stars on top and a gold glittery enamel dot.

The other embellishment cluster features the best friends tab, one of the flower clusters from the good vibes sticker sheet and a journalling tag, also from the ephemera pack, which I will do my journalling on at a later date. I finished it off with another gold enamel dot and some matching orange and brown thread looped through the hole in the tag.

I popped one more tiny enamel dot on the bottom left corner and called it finished.

I loved how this turned out and I'm hoping companies will bring out more patterned papers like this so I can create a similar layout again in the future.

Join me again next week, where I will be uploading my second blog post, showing you a couple of different ways you can use the pom pom trim from the main kit.

Until then...Happy Scrapping, Everyone xxx

Quick and Easy Gift Tags

Hi Leo here!
It's getting that time for gift giving so this week I've been making some gift tags. I got out my Christmas theme main kit and took out the December Days die cuts pack and Crate Paper Falala stickers pack. I also had a pack of Pinkfresh December Days 6x6 patterned paper pad that was in the extras shop. I also pulled out the foam pads, white paper doilies and some label tags from the Custom Card kit that were all leftovers from my July/August kits. Basically I'm just using bits that are out on my desk that match the Pinkfresh Studio bits I've picked out to use!

To make the basic square tags I've cut a sheet of the 6x6 paper in half then folded it in half again to make a3x3 folded tags. You can use any paper you have to make these, they're ideal for using up paper off cuts too. I like using the 6x6 pads because they're white inside so handy for writing a message on the inside too.

Next I've picked out some of the die cuts from the pack. I looked for ones that had spaces on for writing and messages that worked for tags too. In the tag I've added a bit of bakers twine, (from kit packaging).

The tag I've glued to the base at an angle then added some foam pads to the 'Be Merry' die cut.

Then added the die cut over the top.

Here's another one:

With this one I've used a Custom Card kit label and stickers from the Crate Paper Falala sheet. Sorry about the bounced light I was making these at night time, (only time I had that's peaceful!) with the lamp on.

Here's the finished tag:

This one mixed the die cuts and the stickers together, (the holly sticker is from the sheet, the tag and red snowflakes from the die cut pack).

This one's just the joy die cut fixed on with foam pads:

With this one I stapled a die cut to a label then glued it to the base.

The added more die cuts along side it.

This one mixes up a die cut with the stickers again. I liked the die cut but the message wasn't working for me for a gift tag so I picked out the stickers to layer over it.

I've added another sticker just tucked underneath.

I also made some gift labels with some doilies. I just added labels, stickers and die cuts to the centre:

Here's another one, this is the one I actually made first!

 They get very addictive to put together! I took a few more photos in the morning but the light's still not good. We only get about an hours good daylight just lately!

And here I've started adding them to my wrapped up gifts. I think they work to add an extra special touch and they don't take hours to slave over it's just a nice fun way to spend an hour with some Christmas music on! My gift wrap is from Wilkos, (was a bargain 50p!) it's really cute. I wish I'd picked up two packs of it now though. You can never tell from the packets what it's like but it's really lovely thick wrap.

 Have a lovely Christmas! I'll be back to do some December Daily album putting together in that week after Christmas day and before new years day. xx Leo