Be Merry This Christmas

Hi there scrappers.

We've had a week of really weird weather here. I hope it's been better where you are.

The new Christmas kit from Scrappy Chat Designs is out and I got to have a play with it. I've had a blast! The kit includes some gorgeous Simple Stories papers, a Pan Pastel and some Liquid Pearls among other things.

For my first layout, I took the title 'Be Merry' quite literally. Here's my layout:

I seem to keep scrapping layouts lately where I have to explain about my very silly family! Aunty Rita is such a joker and always comes armed with a supply of gizmos to make people laugh. As you can see, she has no shortage of people willing to help share the silliness! Those fake teeth were just gorgeous - not!

The chalkboard look is hot right now and this background paper is a fabulous one. It allows colours to stand out so well. I mostly used the 3 x 4 Journaling Cards Elements paper on the remainder of this layout. I fussy-cut some items from the cards to use as features, then layered the leftovers and other whole cards behind the photo as a mat. I inked all the edges to help define the papers.

Included in the kit is a bottle of key lime Liquid Pearls. This is a bright lime green. Normally I wouldn't associate a strong colour like this with Liquid Pearls but I'm so glad I gave it a go. I've fallen in love with it! To make the strands of 'Christmas Lights' behind the photo mat I first randomly glued down handfuls of cotton thread. They're only glued under the photo mat. I then carefully placed dots of Liquid Pearls over the top of the cotton. I had to hold the cotton down at first, but once the Liquid Pearls dries, it acts like a glue and holds the cotton in place itself. I think the result is really effective and this technique would look great on a layout about Christmas lights.

The 'Christmas Lights' forming the border were made quite differently. There was no way I could get cotton to sit like that while I put Liquid Pearls on it to glue it into place so I just drew the white lines on with a gel pen. This is a lot easier way to create the lights and looks almost (but not quite!) as good as the cotton method.

I hope you get to scrap some fab Christmas layouts this year.

Happy scrappin'

Heather

Heather's Favourite Things

Hello there! As a member of Scrap Everything's design team, it's my turn to play and have I had fun this month! Katherine The Amazing has managed to get some sensational new products from KaiserCraft in advance of their release so the design team members can have layouts ready to inspire you as they're released! How cool is that! And what's more, the products are fantastic!

This range from KaiserCraft is called the Pickled Pear Collection. It's a co-ordinated range of papers and die-cuts with some beautiful metal butterflies thrown in for good measure. I absolutely adore the green colours in this range. The butterflies and flowers immediately sent me looking for girl photos but you could also easily use them for travel, general and even male layouts (butterflies and flowers optional!)

Here's this week's layout:

I can see now that I should have taken a close up of the title. It reads "These are a few of my Favourite Things." It was the die cut jounalling block with "Favourite Things" written on it that gave me the idea for the title. And of course there's no doubt my gorgeous nieces are some of my favourite things!

The circular KaiserCraft paper is beautiful and didn't need too much in the way of embellishments. I put some cream paint on my finger and ran it around the scalloped edge as well as behind the photo. I also added some black stitching for contrast.

You might have noticed the 12 x 12 paper behind the circular paper. It's another of the Pickled Pear Collection. I have left the strip that runs along the bottom on as it's beautiful. The row of butterflies matches the layout perfectly.

Here's a close up of the main cluster:

That lovely butterfly is one of the die cuts as are the flowers behind the jounalling block.

Here's butterfly number two:

I placed a metal butterfly on top of the one printed on the paper. This gave it a more dimensional effect.

And here's butterfy number three:

This is another butterfly from the die cuts pack. I made a trail using dots of Liquid Pearls. I love this product!

I hope you enjoyed the layout. If it has inspired you to take a further look at this range, it's available here.

Happy scrapping!

Heather

Purple Pumpkin Challenge

HI there.

I thought I'd have my first attempt at a Purple Pumpkin challenge. I kept seeing those gorgeous buttons on other blogs and decided that I really needed to get some for myself!

Here's this month's sketch:

And here's my take on it:

I love this photo. Indi is such a character - and a beautiful one at that!

I just adore the colours in these papers from The Scrapcake. They're so rich and vibrant. The die-cuts and journaling block are all from the same set. I love the sun rays effect on the background paper - it's so appropriate for this layout. The Manor House Creations flowers match the layout perfectly. Both the flowers and the papers are available at Manor House Creations. I don't have to point out where the Purple Pumpkin buttons are - they're certainly not hidden!

Here are some close ups:

I made that folded section by first punching the border along the piece of paper then folding it into shape. I had had this idea for a while but was waiting for the right paper to come along. See how the paper changes from pink to yellow to blue? The folding accentuates that I really like the result.

I tried to imitate the look of the zinc on Indi's face in the title. I did this by applying paint with my finger, just as you would apply zinc to your face. It's not perfect but is zinc application supposed to be perfect?! I also cut out some chevron shapes from The Scrapcake paper to draw the eye to the photo.

I added dots of three colours of Liquid Pearls around the outside of the circle to highlight it. I'm a bit of a Liquid Pearls tragic really!

I like to add journaling to my layouts whenever I can. Again, I edged the journaling block with Liquid Pearls and framed it with those gorgeous Manor House Creations flowers. These ones are called Taneisha.

Thanks so much for looking!

Heather