June Single Page!

One advantage of a miserable bank holiday is that I get to do a bit of scrapping, and as club night is approaching fast - I decided to get on with my single page  kit sample layout for the June club.


This one is pretty much a direct lift of Karen's, but as I used just one 8x6 photo, instead of two 6x4s - it looks totally different - and I arranged my cut outs differently too!

The papers are scrummy Graphic 45 Kraft Reflections collection and the kit includes three sheets of patterned paper, black card for the base, and the extras this month are a Zig 2 way glue pen, a pack of earthtone foils and a length of black ribbon. The photo is another one of Anna Bowkis'  from the retreat the other week - but this one just ordinary  clothes rather than the boudoir ones.


Hope you are all having a great bank holiday - despite the weather, and I will see you all next week!


New members are always welcome - please get in touch if you would like to come


wealdenscrapper@aol.com/ 07528492765

June Double Page

Well here we are again showing off this month's gorgeous page for the Weald of Kent Scrapbook Club. My page is a lift of Karen's design from the Total Papercraft kits we use, but there is no rule saying that you have to slavishly copy the pages... I will hopefully be brave enough to take up the challenge and produce my own offering in the next couple of months. To appease the prudes who thought the title of "Glamour Puss" was offensive last year, I have added a post it note to spare the sensibilities of anyone who would have a heart attack if they should get a peek at my knickers!

This page (as well as being absolutely gorgeous) is stuffed full of techniques - the main one being using white glassine paper to make the flowers and leaves, but we will be learning how to make those lovely 3D roses, and using reinkers to dye our own tape as well.

You will need to bring along 3 6x4 photos to make this page, two portrait and one landscape - my photos were taken by the talented Anna Bowkis at the recent Creative HeART and Soul retreat I went on a couple of weeks ago in deepest Staffordshire. Anna jokingly suggested that we might like a "boudoir" photography session while we were there - and I jumped at it as its probably the last time I will feel like doing this type of shot as most of me has already started the long journey south!! I was nervous about doing it as my figure these days can politely be described as Rubenesque - but Anna did a fabulous job of disguising the lumps and bumps and gave me 8 beautiful shots  to take home with me... I thought that they went brilliantly with this kit.

Be back soon with the single page kit - and more on the retreat - we did some absolutely gorgeous  projects!

Bargains! bargains! bargains!

Are you going to be in the Horley/ Crawley area tomorrow morning (12th May)?


Why not come along to the second hand craft sale being organised by Zoe Pierson and grab yourself some bargains... one girl's junk is another girl's treasure so I'm sure there are loads of bargains to be had


You can find us at 
St Francis Church Hall
84 Balcombe Road
Horley
Surrey RH6 9AY.


The fair is open from 11am to 1pm, and entry is free and as well as the stallholders there will be a refreshment area with cakes!


I will be selling off some of my kit mountain as well as retired SU goodies so hope to sell as much of it as I can!

May club is this Wednesday (9th) and kaiser

Well time has really run away with me this month.... believe itor not, i actually had both of my pages the club double and the single made weeks ago (since the weekend after the last club to be exact!) and I just didn't get round to photographing the pages until just now.


Anyway - this is the page we will be making at club tomorrow night - and karen has promised that this is the last of the corrugated card for a while - thank goodness - as I don't think my poor album could stand it!


The papers are the gorgeous bright and beautiful Magpie range from Jenni Bowlin - and it wouldn't be a Karen kit if it didn't feature lots of intricate cutting out - and yes Jill, I will be showing you how to cut out those swirls. Because its a bright page with lots of colours - just about anything goes with this one

And here is the optional single page kit which I don't teach as a formal class, but I do provide online or phone support to those of you who take one - I think this has to be one of my favourite pages of all time - so stylish and packed with interesting features!

Shall we say - I have learned a lesson - when you make a page with one of Karen's fabulous kits DO NOT put them in your album before taking a photograph of it... They are so loaded with product (most of it in the kit!) that they need to be trimmed down to fit in which is why I gave up and took the photo of both pages in the album - but come along and see just how dimensional they are in real life at club this week!


Over the Bank Holiday its been to yucky to do anything outdoorsy so while my 'erberts went off to get soggy on the boat - I stayed behind with Muttley and discovered my Kaisercraft Charlotte's Dream layout kit which i bought from Merly Impressions last month! These are fab kits put together by Kaiser themselves and are absolutely stuffed with product. They give instructions for two single pages and a double page, but as with the Tigerlily kit from March, there is loads left over once you have made the 4 pages, so I have enough bits and bobs left over for at least another 2 layouts if not more. I doesn't look as though kaiser have done one for May - but I live in hope that one will appear soon (hint! hint! Chrissy!LOL!)


Here are my 3 pages from the kit -  first up this romantic one of yours truly - I just need to add a title and some journalling to finish it off! The light is really horrible here at the moment - I haven' t really got a beard rash - honest!

Here's the second page - a lovely romantic one - and you can see just how much stuff you get in one of those "Collectibles" packs of die cuts.....

And finally one of Charlotte and Jonathan's big day last year....

See you all soon!

Weald of Kent Scrapbooking Club

Hello there one and all!

I am pleased to announce that I will be offering a monthly scrapbooking class at my home in Horsmonden, Kent. If and when numbers increase, the venue will change to the function room of the Gun and Spitroast pub on the village green.

The Weald of Kent Scrapbooking Club will meet on the second Wednesday of each month from 7:30 until whenever. Each evening will cost £10 and will include not only as much tea/ coffee/ squash/ soft drinks as you can drink with biscuits/ cake, but also a kit stuffed full of goodies to make either a double page spread or two single pages. You will have loads of supplies left at the end of the evening to use on other projects if you add a sheet of cardstock or two from your own stash. I will have various die cutting machines available for you to use, a Cricut with SCAL software and over 30 assorted cartridges and a Big Shot machine with lots of dies and alphabets for titles.


New members are always welcome to come along and join in the fun, but please, if you would like to scrapbook on the night, please let me know so I can ensure that I have a kit here for you

If you would like to come along for a fun evening of chat, giggles and creativity, please get in touch with me via email at Wealdenscrapper@aol.com or by phone at 07528 492765.

Our class for April is a fabulous double page which uses corrugated card and acrylic paint.

You will need to bring along two 6x4 portrait photos, a pale brown/ beige inkpad, a decorative edger punch (although I do have a selection here for you to use), if you have them, a gold inkpad, a white inkpad would come in useful too and you will need a variety of glues eg herma/ glue dots/ glossy accents/ double sided tape and some brads. your kit will include 16 6x6 Prima papers, a die cut chipboard clock and a whole pack of Prima flowers, as well as the corrugated card and zipper trim which we will use to make flouishes and ribbon roses.

Total Papercraft Creativity Escape 23-25 March

Well now that I am no longer associated with a company which runs scrapbooking retreats, I am free to blog about the other retreats I go on, and I have just come back from one of the best and most fun filled retreats I have ever been on!


Last weekend - I packed my passport and craft stuff and headed over the Dartford Crossing into darkest Essex, to Karen's "Creativity Escape at Debden House in Epping Forest. Debden is a local authority run conference centre, and whilst its not the poshest venue I have ever been to for a scrapping weekend, the accommodation is clean and comfortable, the food is good and the crop room is a great size and well lit for crafters. I can honestly say that I had an absolutely wonderful time from the moment I arrived on Friday afternoon until the moment I drove away after a great roast lunch on Sunday.


We had a total of 5 masterclasses over the weekend, one project and four gorgeous (as always) layouts... and all the ladies who attended were an absolute hoot! We had two rookie scrappers with us, and by the end they were totally converted and already talking about coming back for the September retreat. I don't think I have laughed so much for a long time.... one reason being Jane Errington Taylor bursting into the "I love the way you mooooove!" advert every few minutes and Karen and her Essex ladies serenading us with "Everybody loves Amanda Lamb!" every now and again.... crazy and noisy and a real fun time!

Now - on to the projects  (all of the photos on here were taken by me but they are Karen's samples (I haven't finished mine yet - still got some bits n' bobs to come from eBay for the box)

Our first one on Friday evening was this gorgeous Tim Holtz box

Its one of the compendiums, but Karen very cleverly transformed the lid into another box and we hinged both pieces to make a "book" and spread the boxes between the two halves (some of the spaces are just that - spaces). The technique on this one was decoupaging with beeswax - and while it was errrrmmmmm interesting.... I think I'll stick to good ol' Mod Podge for future projects like this. we made our own tissue tape using stamps and masking tape and our kits contained lots of bits n' pieces to fill the boxes with.... the photo really doesn't do it justice - its one of those things you have to see in real life!

Now - remember i said there were 4 layouts? I love doing Karen's classes because her style is so different to my own clean and simple one. Normally when i try to load a page like this it ends up more shabby and sh1t than shabby chic...... so I love seeing my pics on pages like these!

ALL the pages were lovely but I think this is my favourite one - its so romantic with those gorgeous roses ..... and the rub ons ..... and the stamp..... all of these (bar the roses) are from the Kaisercraft "Sweet Nothings" range which came out in January - truly beautiful!

The next one featured the Tim Holtz glassine papers which we coloured, embossed and die cut to make flowers and leaves. The papers here were Simple Stories "Documented" dark brown/ black and cream (with just a touch of red!) and they are right up my street!

Next was this lovely page featuring Graphic 45 papers, and chipboard - this isn't a very good photo - but once i have decided which school photo I'm going to use on mine - I will take a better one...... this is what comes of trying to take photographs when you have consumed the majority of a winebox on Saturday night!

This was the last of the pages - and featured lots of messy preparation of the base page using  gesso and masks and shimmer sprays and distress stains.... generally everything to do with getting inky! 

And finally - one of me with our lovely hostess/ organiser/ designer/ all round Martha Stewart.

Thanks for a fabulous weekend Karen - I had a wonderful time and can't wait for the next one..... when is it going to be??

Scrapping for ME!!

Well, yesterday I received a nice box of goodies from Merly Impressions - I had seen the new Layout Kits that Kaisercraft are now offering... and as I loved the brand new TigerLily range (pink/black/white/orange) I couldn't resist this one..... and a couple of the new Sir Tim Distress Markers in Picket Fence (the white one!) fell into the box too.... and what a coincidence.... I needed a white pen for the double layout!!!!!

Anyway - as I am a sailing widow this weekend... I settled down to make the pages this morning and as a couple of folk have asked to see them on Facebook, I thought I would blog them for everyone to see.

Now before I do.... let's get a few things off my chest from the last year or so.... firstly - these are MY Layouts - done for me - so I will scrap what I ruddy well want to, And if I want to scrap the same photo 10 different ways - I will (not that I have ever done that many though!)! Secondly, If I put a title on one of my pages, that title means something (usually a lot!) to me, and if I put a page up here (on MY blog!) to share, I have already censored it and I don't think that there is anything in either the page itself or the title that will offend anyone.

However, if anything on the pages I share does happen to offend you, sorry - but that is YOUR problem - not mine! That said - if you are offended in any way, please talk to me directly - and don't send anonymous messages via third parties. If you think it's that bad, talk to me yourself instead of upsetting me about a layout I loved - the person(s) concerned probably know what I am talking about!!

Aaaaaandddd Breathe!!!!!!

OK - on to the layouts I have just made. As I said - the kit was from Merly Impressions and this one was a huge £21... but I have 4 pages to show - and loads and loads of leftovers so with a couple of sheets of card as bases - there's probably enough left to make as many again - so I think its great value! All pages were designed by Melissa Kennedy, the owner of Kaiser... I think she's done a grand job!

The first single page (and yes - its using photos from my vow renewal again as are the other two pages as well so Pffftttt if you are bored with them I have over 300 photos of the event and I will get round to getting them ALL on pages in time - and i have around 250 to go!!) This one uses a lot of the elements from the sticker sheet - as well as from the big bag of "Collectibles" which contains flourishes, flowers, tags, journalling blocks, photo corners and words all matching the papers beautifully

The second single page moved on to the the rub ons and pearl swirls included in the kit - and whilst I've used all the pearl swirl and most of the rub ons - there is still LOADS left in the collectibles and patterned papers.

And finally to the double page which definitely takes me out of my single page single photo comfort zone.... here's a double with no less than SIX photos on it!! Oh and the Picket Fence marker was used for the snail trails of thebutterflies..... its a bit disconcerting as the ink for the white pen goes on clear - and takes a couple of seconds to dry white!!

Well after my lazy day so far - I had better go and get on with some housework before Rog and Katy get home from the Hamble.

The End of an Era

The Tunbridge Wells Scrapaholix Club will meet for the last time on Wednesday 14th March 2012 at my home in Horsmonden, Kent from 7:30 onwards. Please ring on 07973 969153 if you need any details


As this meeting will close a chapter of my life, there will be no charge for the meeting, you will just need to pay for the club kit on the night. All past members are welcome to come along and join me for a glass of wine and some nibbles to mark the end of an era.

#The party's over - it's time to call it a day!#

Well the title says it all really - after almost eight years with Scrapaholics/ Scrapaholix, the last two as co-owner, I have decided that it's time to call it a day and hand the reins back to Sarah.

As of the 1st April 2012, I will no longer have any connection to Scrapaholix, apart from maybe being a member of Lizzie's club in Tonbridge. If anyone has any queries about starting their own Scrapaholix club, wants a kit subscription, a grab box of past kits or details of upcoming retreats, please contact Sarah on Scrapaholix@mac.com.

Its been a fun ride - but all things come to an end, and when you gotta go - you gotta go so this is my swansong.

So with that out of the way - I'm returning to being a hobby scrapper who dabbles in SU goodies on the side, so keep watching this blog and my SU one for what I get up to with my layouts!