A little pink book :)

I love to create mini books and among my favourites is this one using one sheet of paper to fold it. Instructions for folding your own can be found quite easily on the web. 

Anyway, this little mini contains a few of the pictures I took recently of the House Martins who live each summer on our house in their mud nests. We love having them but they do make quite a mess so my husbands answer to that was to build shelves underneath to catch the poop. This year, however, they've decided to build more nests but away from the shelves so it looks as though we'll have to put up some more.

As I said before the book is made from a single sheet of 12 x 12, this one is from the March kit which is still available to buy in the shop, the embellishments too are from the same kit.

 I punched out the circles from the snip and stick sheet and coated them with Glossy Accents to create a shiny finish, then layered it up along with everything else with sticky foam pads.

 I loved the little doodle stamps which went with the kit and used a few of them around the mini.

I hope you enjoyed looking at it as much as I did making it.

Don't forget to join in the blog hop if you haven't yet. See the post below.

Jaine x

World of Imagination Launch Blog Hop!

Hi Everyone,

This should hopefully be your last stop on the 'World of Imagination' blog hop (if not you can go to Sarah's blog here to start the fun!) and your chance of winning a prize!

The World of Imagination range launches tomorrow (10th June) and you can read all about it on Sarah's blog and pop over to like us on Facebook for more fun and behind the scenes peeks.

Here is the Mayor of Make Believe who would love to know which was your favourite reveal and which prize you would like to win if you're drawn out of his hat...

To enter, just leave a comment telling us your favourite item from all of the reveals and if you're chosen we'll send it to you - simple as that! We'd also love to know what you think of the whole range of course. The closing date is midnight GMT on Sunday 15th June, so you have until then to complete the hop and leave your comment.

Thank you so much for playing along and we hope you love the new range!

Sarah x

Love card

Happy Saturday everyone! It's Ria here today.

June is the month when weddings happen most so I thought I make a wedding card to celebrate love.

I think Sarah's Neopolitan kit fits the bill don't you think? I love the the soft, neutral color of the collection plus the paper patterns just works with a general themed project too.

I cut my background paper to a standard card size and also cut a smaller sized vellum that I used in the middle of the card to give texture. I also took a thin white lace to use. I just thought of lace whenever I hear bridal gown so here it is.  

The love birds stamp is from Sarah's Be Mine stamp set. I colored them with Pastel promarkers. I also follow the color of the wooden arch to match the paper colors.

Here I have die cut the the papers in two colors, one with its designed part and the other with the darker full color to give contrast. The lace comes on top of the die cut pieced.

I haven't done project life yet so instead of using the photo corners for photos, I used them here in the stamped image to emphasize the frame.

And here's the finish card.

And a closer look

Supplies used:
A Few of my Favorite Things - Neopolitan
February Documented365 Kit
A Few of my Favorite Things - Happy
Be Mine stamp set
Memento Tuxedo black
Promarkers


So there's my card project for today. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Challenge 93 - SUMMER BRIGHTS

Hello, it's Claire N here today to introduce you to our June challenge - SUMMER BRIGHTS

The nestlings have fledged, the nights are drawing out, and the flowers are beginning to bloom. When the sun is out there is a definite feeling of summer in the air and everything appears much more vibrant.

I have tried to capture everything that sums up summer (for me) in my card, by using bright colours contained within white embossing powder. I have used a range of stamps across Sarah's range Dream a Little Dream Doodle Doll, Woodgrain background, Doodle Home Stamps (clouds), Personal Impression stamp set 'Picnic in the Park' (flowers, bunting, ladybird).
There are more details on my blog.

We also have a guest designer who will be joining this challenge with us. Please welcome Deborah Hurry. Crocheting is her first love so she added a crochet flower on this thank you card for her  youngest daughters teacher. Inside it says thank you for helping me sail through primary one...how cute!

So lets see how the rest of the team have captured summer in their creations,

Clare

I created this super bright card using paper from Sarah's March 'A Few Of My Favourite Things' March kit. I also the girl and sentiment from the Doodle Doll Princess stamp set which I have recently added to my collection. I really love this set! The fence stamp is from my Garden Fairy set and the different sized  flowers are from my Woodland Fairy set.

Carol

I have ventured into a new addiction that is Project Life for this challenge, I used papers, card and embellishments from several of the  A Few Of My Favourite Things kits. I used stamps from Outline & Block Alpha Stamps. 

Lisa

 I have used a couple of journalling cards from Sarah's A Few of My Favourite Things kits, along with Sentiments Stamps, lace, doodling and a few flat backed pearls.

Nicole

I created a desktop background for my computer using the April A Few Of My Favourite Things 365 digital kit. I wanted something fun and summery and bright that would cheer me up every time I sat down to work on my computer!

Ria

I used a combination of the Documented365 kits from Sarah. I love how great different kits work together in projects.  I used layering on this card using embellishments from A Few of My Favorite Things, March Snip and Stick sheet. I added a vellum sheet to keep a part of the base to add my elements.

Jaine

These are my summer colours. The background is the Fancy Deco Lattice stamp, the butterflies are a new stamp coming soon and the letters are from the Block Alpha stamp set.

Claireliz

I used Sarah's Doodle Love AFOMFT kit for this layout... as soon as I saw the exclusive lightning bolt stamp I knew I had to scrap this photo of our daughter Hermione at the Legoland Discovery Centre at the Trafford Centre in Manchester last year...

Sharon

For my summer bright make I decided to cheer up my kitchen wall! I used papers and embellishments from AFOMFT kits along with some washi tape (don't you just love it!) and cotton to decorate a picture frame from the pound shop!

Prizes

 First place - £10 voucher for Sarah's shop

 Second place - a blog badge ( email Sarah)

 Third place - a blog badge ( email Sarah)

This months special prize for one lucky winner drawn from entries using any of Sarah's products is.....

Last challenge winners can be found here

You have until 28th June to enter and goodluck!

An InLinkz Link-up

Stationery

Hi it's Sharon here and I'm a stationery-holic. There I said it! I love stationery sets, can't get enough of them and am a huge fan of snail mail. I write a lot of letters and belong to a group called Postcircle dedicated to writing just because! (I'll be sharing the details on my blog later).

We all know how nice it is to get a letter on the mat that isn't a bill. Well I was about to start a letter to a friend who likes sewing but couldn't find any sewing themed paper in my stash. Then it occurred to me that I could make my own! Me and Craft Artist don't get on so I tend to avoid digital crafting and print/cut things out instead.But- I bit the bullet and gave it a go.

I used Sarah's All Sewn Up digikit and printed out some sheets of paper in various sizes and a couple of envelopes and I have to say that me and Craft Artist seemed to get along quite well together for once!

This has opened up a whole new world to me and I'm looking forward to a) doing some more digi-crafting with Sarah's kits and b) making tons more stationery!

Storage...are you Super Organised or a Mix 'n Match kinda Crafter?

Hi Claire N with you today, to share with you a conversation that we had one weekend as a design team, and I'm sure everyone won't mind me saying that we have had many chats that have gotten hilariously out of hand.




Spring is the season that inspires us all to have a good sort out, and that of course extends to our craft rooms. The weather was so bright, and I'd had a relaxing weekend, that I felt compelled to have a good look through all the monthly kits that arrive from Sarah's 'A Few of My Favourite Things' kit club, and re familiarise myself with all the gorgeousness of the papers, embellishments and stamps.

It was then I began thinking about how I stored these kits, and it was then that I put that same question to the rest of the team





'How do you all store your AFOMFT' Kits?' - and I can tell you the banter that sparked as a result was so funny.

I have been a part of the club for 10 months, and from day one I have stored each months offering (including the embellishments, journalling cards,stamps, snip & stick sheets etc) in its own plastic sleeve, which I would then pop into the lever arch file you can see sitting there on the table. Each month was labelled and it meant that all co-coordinating elements stayed together and when writing up my blog posts I could easily reference what I used.
However the last 3-4 months Sarah has swapped the size of the papers from 8x8 (inch) up to 12x12 (inch) and it meant that it now wouldn't fit into my folders (and I was loathed to cut into the papers unnecessarily...a definate no no).

Storage from being coordinated and organised like this ...

So I was having to rethink my storage and the possibility of mixing all the papers and journalling cards together....a concept that completely goes against the grain..hehe!..and I can tell you the thought of which sent various members of the team into a major state of panic LOL!
How could I possibly consider stepping out of the structured order?, but I did and I pulled all the papers out and grouped them in size order, and then grouped all the cards. You will notice also that I was able to get the most from the snip & stick sheets too (and just as a force of habit I couldn't resist pencilling on these sheets the month they come from....oops sorry LOL!)
So I went from the organised folders above, to the mix and match piles below.

I will admit now that it was a liberating experience, because I can now fully appreciate how coordinated, with colour (and design) Sarah has been across all the many months of kits, and I know I will get far more from these beautiful papers (now that I won't be frightened to pull them out of place) and am completely fired up to get going with my Project Life layouts.

Thank you so much for joining me today on my little journey, so I would like to pose the question to you



'What are your storage dilemma's? Are you a stickler for order and coordination (like myself, Carol & Lisa  ) or are you far more relaxed with a mix n match vibe going on (like Jaine & Sharon)

We would love to know, and hear your stories.

Claire N x

Scrapbooking with A Few of My Favourite Things

Hello there, Claireliz here, how are you?

Today I've got a pink and girly scrapbook page to share with you. It's not often I get to do pink and girly even though I have an 8 year old daughter, she is the most ungirly girl, she refuses to wear dresses or anything pretty and will only wear pink if it's hot pink, I cannot imagine where she gets it from... erm, what's that saying.... "like mother, like daughter"

There was a time when she was girly but that was before she started having a say in her wardrobe and luckily enough I had the presence of mind to take this particular photo because it will never happen again....

Here she is aged 5 in her little pink leotard, tutu & wrap cardigan at her ballet lesson with her ballerina doll, oh so sweet, she stopped going to ballet after her first ballet exam as she didn't really enjoy it and they wanted to move her into the next class which was mostly full of tweenagers and teenagers.

As soon as I saw Sarah's Neopolitan A Few of My Favourite Things kit, I knew I was going to scrap this photo, it also gave me the opportunity to use the teeny pink dress embellishment that had been in crafty stash for longer than I can remember.

I ripped the papers into strips and inked the edges with Pumice Stone Distress Ink,which is a great colour for when you want some definition but not as harsh as Black or Brown. I arranged the strips onto the cardstock then ripped a square of the pink paper for the mat behind the photo. Once I'd arranged them on the page there was still something missing so I cut circles out from the Stamp & Stick sheet and cut them in half, I used these to make the scalloped border at the bottom of the page. When I was happy with the layout I stuck everything to the page. I added a strip of ribbon and a string of pearl beads.

The photo is an Instagram print from Printed.com, they are printed on really thick card so they're great for attaching with 3d foam pads as they don't sag of get too squashed in your scrapbook album.

I cut the banners from the Stamp & Stick sheet and attached them to the top of the page and used the little gold feathers as wings behind the dress embellishment. I used Thickers for the title and finally drew a little doodly border around my page.

That's all from me for today, hope to see you soon.

Claireliz xx