Crafty Templates

Create 10 at Christmas Online Classes!

2011-12-10T12:13:00.000Z

Hi!

If you missed out on Create 10 at Christmas last year you've now got the opportunity to sign up this year! Create 10 at Christmas is back available again but only until the end of December so grab your sign up token today! These classes are archived so you can start downloading them right away and pick and choose which you'd like to do. All the classes have ideas for crafting at Christmas. The first class is making a wreath from paper scraps and old decorations. There's also an idea for making a notebook/planner, ideas for last minute gifts, decorating and wrapping gifts, baking Christmas tree cookies and making garlands from popcorn and decorations from felt.

There's also scrapbooking ideas and cardmaking ideas to make special giftcard/money holders. So much to have a go at! Dive in and start your Christmas crafting adventure! Check out all the details on the Create 10 classes page, http://www.craftytemplates.co.uk/create10.html
If you did sign up last year and would like a reminder of your login email me, (enquiries@craftyprincess.co.uk) and I'll resend you your welcome email.
xx Leo

New Quirky Kits for Subscribers!

2011-11-26T16:15:00.000Z

Hi!The two new Quirky Kits are now ready to go! The kits will be shipping out Monday and Tuesday next week, (28th & 29th). Here's the (almost) full reveal. The Elle's Studio Calendar cards are missing from the photos but I've included them after so you can see what they're like.
Well here we go this is Snow Stories:

I began with my base colours of pink and grey/silver then built it up from there. I was looking for some fun trendy newsprint/text patterns and some pretty snowy elements those are also reflected in the name of the kit 'Snow, Stories'. There's lots of lovely textures from the chunky crispness of the lovely kraft based patterned papers to the soft delicate silk ribbon and organza. I picked out two alphabets both with a ever so slight sheen. The Thickers have a pearl like iridescent finish and the Glitz stickers also have a pretty pearl look too. I really love that whole mix of the kind of 'heavy' kraft colours with the softer sparkly/shiny elements. It really reminds me of that feeling after it's snowed, the idea of everything around us being softened as it's adorned with a soft delicate blanket of snow.
All the patterned papers are doublesided and the reverse sides have a mix up of black, kraft, white and blue so you can trade all the pinks in the kit, (apart from the ribbon but if you're really not into pink this would make a lovely wrapping for a gift) for blue to change up the colour scheme. I've kept most of the kit neutral on purpose so it will easily mix in with supplies you already have and we have a couple of winter elements but nothing overtly themed so it will happily sit with anything you want to make.

I really love the crochet snowflake embellishments which were made by a lovely lady on etsy, (yours might not look like the one shown as they're a good mix up of different kinds, just like real snowflakes :D) and the little penguins are just a little bit of quirky fun I thought of after watching Frozen Planet, (BBC1).
Kit features:
My Minds Eye Kraft Funday 'In Print', 'Streamers' and 'Patchwork Party' patterned papers.
Pink Paislee Snow Day, 'Hot Cocoa' and 'Cozy Sweater' patterned papers.
Lily Bee Design Head Over Heels, 'Courting' and Memorandum 'Whiteboard' patterned papers.
My Minds Eye Lost and Found 2 'Favorite Dance' patterned paper.
Bazzill cardstock in Kraft, Avalanche and Smoky.
American Crafts Marquise pearl letter Thickers alphabet stickers.
My Minds Eye Kraft Funday Everyday Fun button card.
2 x penguin shaped button embellishments.
1 handmade snowflake crochet embellishment.
Glitz Design Teeny Alpha in pearl
1 x Jenni Bowlin Doily Flower embellishment
6 x pieces of Pink Paislee Snow Day Ephemera, (printed diecut card embellishments).
MayArts Fuchsia Silk Ribbon x 1 yard, (90cm)
Silver strung sequins x 1 meter
1 length of red grosgrain ribbon
1 length of silver liquid ribbon
1 square piece of sparkle dot snow organza
Elle's Studio 2012 Vintage Calendar Circle Tags

For the Quirky Kit Lite 'Snow Drifts' this month I wanted to do something contrasting but still working with the same idea of mixing in the kraft/neutral colours. For this one I started out with a teal/green and silver colour scheme and went from there. There are some Elle's Studio Calendar pennants in this kit too, they didn't arrive in time to put in the photo but I've included them bellow it.

The snowflake is a glitter paper which is really really really glittery but it's specially made so the glitter doesn't come off. One of my favorite papers from the new summer releases is that Crate woodgrain pattern from the Peppermint line so I had to throw in some of that somewhere. It's a really versatile paper either as a background or as embellishment. The main kit has the newspaper/text print element and there's a nod to that in the lite kit with the Studio Calico sheet.

Studio Calico Classic Calico 'Newsprint' patterned paper.
American Crafts Silver Snowflakes POW! glitter paper (half sheet).
Crate Paper Peppermint 'Ski Lodge' patterned paper.
Crate Paper Farmhouse 'Sunday Dinner' patterned paper.
Echo Park Dots & Stripes 'Silver Bells' patterned paper.
My Minds Eye Lost and Found 2 'Precious Motif' patterned paper.
My Minds Eye Kraft Funday 'Party' patterned paper.
American Crafts Vanilla cardstock.
Bazzill Kraft cardstock.
My Minds Eye Lost & Found 2 "Fun Day" title card.
Authentique Petite Type Square alphabet stickers.
White wool mix felt square, 9x9 inches.
1 length of silver glitter ribbon.
1 length of white velvet ribbon.
Elle's Studio 2012 Monthly Pennants.

Keep a peek on your emails for shipping notifications. You'll be able to change the date it's sent out to you too if you need to.
For non subscribers I'm afraid these kits are sold out but there will be a couple of smaller seperate kits available and I'll soon be adding the new subscription places to the store so look out for those.

xx Leo

Blog Hop Winner!

2011-11-03T11:09:00.000Z

I've done a draw for the winner of the UK Scrappers Blog Hop from all the comments on this blog. I used the random number generator and gave a number for each post with 1 for the first comment down to the last, 148 and the number that it generated was comment number 8:

JT's crafty blog said...

This is also my 1st blog hop and I really love the home sweet home project I will attempting that
Uks dusty fairy

Congratz dusty fairy. You've won a kit of you choice from the store. Pop on the store, www.craftytemplates.co.uk and pick out what you'd like then let me know at enquiries@craftyprincess.co.uk or you can use the contact form on the store site.

Don't forget there's still other chances to win prizes from UK Scrappers I know MaryAnne is working on that right now ready for Monday so keep a peek out on UK Scrappers for that news.

I'm really glad you liked the project. Looking forward to seeing some of those finished projects when you've had a go at them, don't forget to link me up. ;-)

xx Leo

It's a UK Scrappers Blog Hop!

2011-11-01T08:00:00.003Z

Hi!
If you are participating in the UK Scrappers blog hop, you may have come here from the lovely Bubbly Funk Bubbly Scrumptious blog. Check out UK Scrappers for all the info and maybe head to the start of the blog hop if you haven't already to see all the lovely projects and details of prizes and special offers my fellow lovely UK Scrappers sponsors have up for grabs! After checking out my project shown bellow you can head on over to see the next project in the blog hop which you'll find on the Cre8tive Online blog, http://cre8tivekate.blogspot.com/

If this is your first time here first off, hi I'm Leo, {short for Leonora, Leo is way easier to type though ;-) } my store is Crafty Templates, www.craftytemplates.co.uk I specialise in papercrafting kits, templates and classes, all the things you need to help you on your crafting adventures. You can read more 'about' Crafty Templates over on the store site here, http://www.craftytemplates.co.uk/about.html

OK so onto the project. I wanted to combine a few products from the store and I also wanted to demonstrate a Crafty Template template sheet to show how you don't just have to use them for cards they're great to use to make an embellishment for all kinds of projects. For this particular project today I made these shabby chic pictures. You could make any one of these for yourself or for a gift, they're really easy to personalise too.

For this project you'll need some patterned papers, fabric scraps (optional), cardstock, a picture frame, some mini alphabet stickers and a printed out Crafty Template sheet. Just for the UK Scrappers Blog Hop I've put together a little collection of shabby chic style Crafty Templates you can download for free. The templates are all taken from the March 2011 templates set, they're in PDF format.
Click here to download the Crafty Templates

I've started out with a picture frame, {I got the ones I've used from Wilkos} and I'm using one of my card kits 'Nursery Rhymes' which you can get from the store here. This would be a great project to do to make use of off cuts of papers and card too or even wallpapers or fabrics you have leftover.

To begin with you need to choose a template and print it out. For this picture I've picked out the chair. Take apart your frame and decide which size template from the sheet fits it best. In this case I've picked the largest template on the sheet.

Cut out the template you're using.

Pick out a patterned paper and draw around the template onto it. I've drawn around the template on the back of this piece of paper because it's easier to see.

Cut out the template from the paper. To get to the inner parts of the chair use a hole punch to make holes as a starting point for your scissors to cut into.

If you want your shape to be a silhouette you can keep your chair like this but I'm going to add the cushions too.

Cut out the top cushion from the template.

You can use paper but I'm going to use a scrap of fabric. The templates are really easy to cut from fabric too. Just glue the paper piece using a glue stick, {I'm using a Pritt Stick} onto the back of the fabric. Then cut around the paper edge to make the shape. Leave the paper glued on the back to keep it from fraying.

To glue the cushion shape to your chair lay the template over the top and use it to position the cushion.

Take the template away when it's glued down.

Repeat the process for the cushion on the bottom of the chair.

Pick out another patterned paper for the background of your picture. Position the mount from your photo frame, (if using) over the paper and glue your chair embellishment in place. As a final touch I've added a message to some strips of ribbon using mini alphabet stickers and stuck the strips down onto the picture. If you're making a picture as a gift for someone you could easily personalise the message.

Now I'm going to add another touch to the mount from my photo frame because I'm not loving that white so I've decided to alter it. I'm going to use book pages and collage them over the top of the mount. To do this you'll need book pages or other thin paper, some PVA glue, water and a paint brush.

Rip the paper into small pieces. Dip your paint brush in the water then in the PVA and use the watery glue to paste the paper strips to the mount.

For the edges turn the frame to the back and fold the edges over then glue the down for a neat finish.

Let the glue dry then add your finished mount over the top of your picture.

Add the whole thing to your photo frame to finish. As another little touch I've added a bow made from a torn strip of fabric then glued it to the frame.

Here's another picture I've made using another of the templates. I began by building up the picture on a piece of kraft card using the papers and card from the kit. I've used the sewing machine template for this one.

As an extra touch I've used machine stitching around the edge of the template and around the edge of the picture.

Once your picture is finished all that's left to do is add it to the frame. I've glued on some fabric roses just to add an extra crafty touch. :-)

Hope you've enjoyed the project. If you have a go pop a link up to your project in the comments, (don't forget to leave a comment too to be eligible for the UK Scrappers prizes) you can also share anything you make with the templates up on the Crafty Templates Facebook wall here, http://www.facebook.com/pages/Crafty-Templates/165349430193543
As an added extra today I'll giveaway a lovely kit of your choice from any in stock on the store to one commenter today, (will announce the draw winner tomorrow, 2nd November 2011)
If you've enjoyed using the templates today take a look on the store at the Crafty Templates club for details on how you can get more every month.

Happy blog hopping! Don't forget your next stop is the Cre8tive blog, http://cre8tivekate.blogspot.com/
xx Leo

Hazelnut Coffee Quirky Kit Winner!

2011-10-26T14:44:00.000+01:00

I've just done the draw for the kit giveaway. I used the post numbers to draw out a winner and the number that came up was..................................
#1 Helen!

So Helen let me know where you'd like your kit sending enquiries@craftyprincess.co.uk and I'll get it in the post for you.

xx Leo

The Collectors Diary Blog Roll

2011-10-20T11:15:00.003+01:00

Hi!
Are you playing along with the Collectors Diary? The Collectors Diary class is all about creating a unique to you inspiration book. It'll help you to re-discover your supplies and use your environment to inspire you. You can read more and sign up for this class on the Create 10 page on the store here, http://www.craftytemplates.co.uk/create10.html The Collectors Diary is the first class at the top of the page. :)

As you message me back with your blog address pointing to your finished book I'll add them here All the diaries being created should be different so it'll be fun to look at what we've all come up with and to swap ideas and inspirations!
xx Leo

Win a Hazelnut Coffee Quirky Kit!

2011-10-18T12:14:00.000+01:00

Hi!
How would you like to win one of the super yum Hazelnut Coffee Quirky Kits?

Just leave a comment bellow by Tuesday 25th October and I'll draw a name out to win a kit. Take a peek at all the fun ideas going on using the kit over on the Quirky Kits Ideas Blog, quirkykits.blogspot.com
Did you know you can subscribe to Quirky Kits too? Check out all the info on the store here, http://www.craftytemplates.co.uk/quirkykitssubscription.html
xx Leo

Design Team Opportunity - Cardmakers Wanted....

2011-10-10T15:55:00.000+01:00

Hi!

I'm looking for active and enthusiastic cardmakers to add to the Crafty Templates design team. I ask design team members for a minimum of 3 cards per month. You're provided with monthly kits and digital templates to use. You will need a home printer to print out templates and a digital camera with the ability to upload your cards to email on to me each month.
If you're interested email me with a link to your blog or other online gallery where I can see some of the previous cards you've made. You could also email some card pictures to me directly if you prefer. Send your info to enquiries@craftyprincess.co.uk by 1st November 2011.
If you've got any question let me know.

x Leonora

Create 10 'The Collectors Diary'

2011-10-07T16:53:00.000+01:00

We've got a brand new set of Create 10 classes this month kicking off on October 17th.

With Create 10 ‘The Collectors Diary’ you’ll be creating something totally unique to you based around your own choices. The class begins by re-purposing an old book using a selection of papers and techniques. From then on you’ll be set a selection of tasks that will allow you to fill your book pages. Your book will become a place of inspiration and a place for you to explore ideas and try out techniques.

There is no fixed supply list for this class but you will need some basic items. You can download the first ‘Chapter’ of ‘The Collectors Diary’ using the link bellow. This will help you gather together the basic things you’ll need for the classes.

Click here to download Chapter One of The Collectors Diary

You'll need to sign up to gain access to the remaining chapters via The Collectors Diary download page. You can sign up right here, http://www.craftytemplates.co.uk/create10.html

Once you're signed up you'll be sent out your password and username to gain access to the page where everything will be kept for you once the class kicks off on October 17th. The downloads are archived after the classes so if you can't make it to follow along 'live' the classes will be there for you whenever you want to access them.

It's going to be loads of fun so I hope you can play along!
xx Leonora

New Quirky Kits

2011-09-28T15:49:00.000+01:00

The next Quirky Kits are almost ready to ship out! We've been delayed by the new Lily bee papers being late arriving but they will be worth the wait I promise :)
This month we have a lovely mix of autumnal colours with splashes of turquoise mixed in and eclectic embellishments to dive into.

Quirky Kit 'Hazelnut Coffee'

Quirky Kit Lite 'Rocky Road'

All the subscription spaces for these kits are currently sold out but there will be a couple of single kits of the main Quirky Kit 'Hazelnut Coffee' left over that I'll add to the shop next week.

If you'd like to subscribe to Quirky Kits you can email me for more info at enquiries@craftyprincess.co.uk I'll be putting up the new subscription spaces later next month. The next upcoming kit will be the November/December kit out at the end of November. You can have a peek at the ideas board for that kit on the Crafty Templates Pinterest feed check it out here, http://pinterest.com/craftytemplates/dec-kit/ It'll be a fun splash of colours to brighten up the winter months using hot pink, teals and lime green mixed in with greys, silvers and other neutrals.

Happy Quirky Kit crafting!

xx Leo

Are you ready for class?

2011-08-23T13:43:00.000+01:00

The new Create 10 Mix it up mini album classes begin on Sunday so now is the time to put together your supplies ready to begin. With these classes it's important to have everything ready to use at hand as it will make the process of putting your album together simpler. This time around we're focusing more on different scrapbooking styles and technique processes. After the initial stages of making the album in class one class two will follow with decorating the first two pages in a 'clean and simple' style. They'll be lots of hints and tips as to how you can achieve the clean and simple look and learn how you can use it in your future scrapbooking along with the class instructions.

Following on from this we'll then be looking at using different surfaces including transparency and canvas. We'll also look at more styles like getting more grungy and messy with inks and paints. They'll also be some ideas to make different kinds of pages like a fun 'pocket page' in class 9 and using washi tape to make pages with folding out multiple photos in class 7.

This set of classes is not just the opportunity to make a mini book but an opportunity to try out lots of different styles. This can work in two ways to either inspire you to try a new style if you're a seasoned scrapbooker or to give you a taster of new things to try if you're a scrapbooker just starting out.

If you'd like to sign up for Create 10 'Mix it up mini album' classes you can find all the details on the shop site here, http://www.craftytemplates.co.uk/create10.html

Hope you can join us it's going to be loads of fun!

xx Leo

New Create 10 Classes - 'Mix it up mini album'

2011-08-08T13:48:00.000+01:00

This August we have some brand new Create 10 classes coming up and this time around we’ll be mixing it up and creating a mini album. The mini album has been designed for 4x6 size photos as a place to keep lots of photos that we don’t necessarily want to make whole scrapbook pages for but still want to keep. We’ll be mixing up both techniques and materials to give your mini album a unique look as well as to learn different techniques and styles that we can use in our future crafting.

Classes will begin on Sunday August 28th although you can play along with the classes at any time you choose as they’ll be archived in the Mix it Up download area indefinitely.

To access the download area for Create 10 Mix it Up you’ll need to sign up to receive your own personal username and password. Visit the Create 10 classes page to grab your sign up token, http://www.craftytemplates.co.uk/onlineclasses.html

Once you're signed up you'll be able to login to the special password protected area on the site that will house the class downloads. At the moment you can view the class list and download the supply list to get prepared for when the classes begin.

This time around I've had a go at a video supply list too so you can get a close up look at the supplies I'll be using and why I've picked them out.

Hope you can join us it's going to be loads of fun!

xx Leo

New Kits are out!

2011-07-26T11:42:00.001+01:00

The new Quirky Kits are being sent out to subscribers this week so look out for them arriving on your doorstep! This month we're taking a nostalgic trip to the seaside. The main kit is 'The Milk Bar'. It's named after an ice cream parlor I used to visit when I was growing up during the summer holidays. I picked out ice cream colours & kitschy seaside motifs and the whole kit has an overall nostalgic/vintage summer feel.

I love the kitschy Thickers and the glitter 'ideas' sticker which I thought would be great for an ideas book or maybe a page about what your idea of a perfect summer is? The map paper would be great to plot your adventures of where you've been this summer or where you spent your favourite summer or perhaps where you would like to go in the future?

You'll also find some seam binding trim. This is great to alter and I've seen this use a lot lately with distressing techniques for shabby chic style projects.

As always I like to add in some unexpected details. These cute little pin badges have been designed just for this kit. There's also a blank watercolour paper postcard that you can use as part of a scrapbook page for your journalling or use to make a postcard size piece of art or as a page in a minibook or even send as a postcard to yourself while you're on holiday so you can collect it when you get home to put in your scrapbook or mini book or smash book!

The Quirky Kit Lite this month, 'Ice Pops' also has a summer holiday feel but I've added in some more modern feeling detailing to this one with more bright colours and fun patterns.

The fun swirly bright Thickers add a different dimension to the peachy toned papers.

There's a little bit of vintage with the Elle's Studio handmade layers pennants and then back to the modern with the bright coloured washi tape and the hot pink seam binding. Look out for a fun little technique touch with your Quirky Kit Lite this month too - we'll be going all cross stitch!

This month we'll be joined by guest designer Daphne who'll be sharing some fun techniques and project ideas with us throughout August.
Have fun with your kits!
xx Leo

These kits are totally sold out to new subscribers at the mo. I'll be adding the new subscription places to the site this week to start with the September kit, 'Hazelnut Coffee' so watch out for those popping up in the store, Quirky Kits Quirky Kits Lite .

Use it up, wear it out!

2011-07-11T12:52:00.000+01:00

Hi Leo here again with another idea using the main Quirky Kit 'Downtown Tea Party', (subscribers check out the Quirky Kit blog for more ideas using your kits this week)

Today I'm sharing an idea using up scraps of patterned papers from the kit. You can also use the idea just as a way of mixing up lots of patterns on one page. Ok here's my page..........

I used on of the Cosmo Cricket papers for my background:

I started building up the layers of patterned paper cutting some out in rectangles and some into strips then sprinkles over some of the embellishments from the kit. I really like some of the strips along the bottom of some of the papers so incorporated some of them leaving them on the edges of papers in some cases and cutting them off the bottom of the papers to use on their own.

The title I added as the last layer sprawling it across all the layers including the photo.

I love the dotted colour strip along the bottom of the Kesi'art paper so I kept that on there to use.

Some of the pieces I've cut out of the patterned paper the date piece in the corner is cut out from the Pink Paislee Daily Junque paper.

This little scissors is on the Kesi'art card strip I liked how it kind of went with the background paper - it could make a cool theme for a page about scrapbook or paper crafts too?

I used the Pink Paislee twine from the kit across the top to give the impression the rectangles of paper in the background were taped to the line of twine kind of like a washing line! This tape is not in the kit but you can get it's from the Vintage Indie card kit I was playing with this kit at the same time I made the page and I couldn't put the washi tape down!

I glued the twine down using a Pritt glue stick just dabbing it on the paper first then pressing the twine onto it - it sticks it down really well and quick too.

So what are you waiting for? Grab those scraps and get to work, share what you've made with your kit scraps in the comments and I'll pick out one at random to win a washi tape goody pack!

xx Leo

Going minimal with 'Downtown Tea Party' scraps

2011-06-22T13:00:00.005+01:00

by Julie Kirk

Hi again.

Did you catch the recent discussion on the Quirky Kits chat thread over on UKScrappers regarding how far the kits go / how many pages can be made using them? The first person to ask the question was actually referring to the 'Lite' Quirky Kits but equally the discussion it created could be applied to the full kits too.

As most people suggested, how far the kit lasts depends entirely on how much you like to add to one page, whether you use the plain card as a backing and add to it, or if you start with full sheet of 12x12 patterned paper and so on ...

So today I thought I'd share a very minimal page I made using the Downtown Tea Party kit using plain cardstock as a base and only the smallest snippets of pattern:

It really is about as restrained as I can manage - I love colour and pattern too much - but I do like how calm the page feels, which reflects the photograph of an outdoor sculpture exhibition nicely.

Before adding my tiny cluster of layered papers I spritzed the white card with shadesof light green and lilac ink and stamped a mesh design too in green and light grey:

You might just be able to make out a slight colour on the alpha stickers which I added using Promarkers, just to soften them.

To embellish the page I used two of the butterflies from the kit and punched two more from paper in the kit:

I ran them through the sewing machine adding wavy lines in a light colour thread:

Having made four layouts and a mini book already with this kit ... there's still around half of it left.

Plus, using my kit supplies at this particular minimal rate would mean I'd be dipping into it for a great while longer!

If you've missed any of the items I've made with this kit, you can drop by the Flickr set in which I keep all my previous Quirky Kit projects.

Happy creating.

Julie

July Quirky Kit 'The Milk Bar'

2011-06-21T13:28:00.001+01:00

The last few subscription places to get the next Quirky Kit scrapbooking kits are up for grabs. The upcoming kit out towards the end of July is 'The Milk Bar'. It's a kit inspired by British holidays by the sea and my own personal memories from childhood of 'The Milk Bar' a kitschy milkshake/ice cream bar at the seaside. The colours are rose tinted with soft blues, creams, peaches, pinks and yellows. I've custom designed some embellishments to get across the true kitsch British seaside feel that I wanted. Here's a peek at some of the images I picked out as inspiration for both the main kit and the Quirky Kit Lite.

If you'd like to grab one of the last few spaces check out the full details on the main Crafty Templates site:

Main Quirky Kit Subscriptions

Quirky Kit Lite Subscriptions

xx Leo

Quirky Kit: A page with pastel shades

2011-06-16T10:00:00.000+01:00

Hi again.

For my third project with the Downtown Tea Party kit I made a page which draws together some of the more muted colours in the kit:

I chose the Cosmo Cricket 'Re:peat' design as my backing paper, but used the more muted graph paper design on the reverse as it fitted with the soft shades in my photographs.

I love using graph paper and ledger / lined paper designs asbacking sheets as they're plain enough to build upon without being too fussy, but not as cold a starting point as a blank sheet of cardstock. Also, for this particular page, the lines on it helped reinforce my use of stitching through my layers.

On top of my base paper I began adding strips of text cut from the Cosmo Cricket 'Re:make' design to co-ordinate with the 'lettering' theme of the page drawn from the photos of me reading a hanging curtain of poetry at an exhibition at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

I created a triangle of embellishments across the page with each of the three clusters containing snippets of soft peachy shades. Here I cut a flower from the Pink Paislee House of Three Soiree ‘Floral’ paper as well asa sunburst design from the twine packaging!

The tiny section of the Shabby Chic journaling spot was just what remained after I used it on the micro-mini book I shared earlier. I'm so pleased it didn't end up in my recycling bin as it just adds an extra little point of interest on the page.

In the bottom two clusters I used tiny pieces of the fabric in the kit for a splash of colour inspired by the orange patterned dress and scarf I'm wearing in the photos!

Once everything was fixed in place I ran it through the sewing maching to add some texture and to reflect the hanging strands of the poetry sculpture. The gently spattered a coral shad eof Shimmerz paint across the three embellishment clusters and smeared on some white acrylic paint direct from the tube.

Overall this page has a much more muted feel than the micro book I made with kit and it's different again to the second page I've made featuring photos from the sculpture park ... which I'll share with you in my next post here.

So how do you use your kits?

Do you like to use them to keep a general colour theme and similar style running across several projects?
Or do you break them up into smaller, co-ordinating mini-kits, with a new feel to each page?

As I say, I'll be back soon with a page with a completely different feel in colour and style ... so I guess that makes me No.2 on that list. How about you?

I'll see you soon.

Julie

'Downtown Tea Party' Minibook

2011-06-08T07:31:00.002+01:00

by Julie Kirk

Hi again.
For my second project with 'Downtown Tea Party' - the latest Quirky Kit - I used the papers and embellishments from the kit to decorate a micro-book as a birthday gift for a friend:

My cover features a painted chipboard heart to which I added one of the kit's butterflies in turquoise and one of the gorgeous cerise pink resin rose beads.

The tie closures are made from twisting together a strand of each of the various colours of Pink Paislee baker's twine:

To decorate the tiny pages I simply tore and roughly cut, sections from the various papers down to size.

Here's a little snippet from the Pink Paislee Daily Junque ‘Tickets’ design which I glued onto the book's existing page:

Next I glued down half a Shabby Chic Crafts journaling card on top of which I added a yellow paper butterfly.
Once my glue dried I ran the page - as I did every page in the book - through my sewing machine with a contrasting black thread, trying here to give the impression of antennae:

I continued throughout the book, decoratively stitching-down the small strips of the paper as I went along:

To add another level of detail and texture to the book I splattered, smeared and scraped complimentary coloured paints along, around and across it.

I used white paint where I wanted a plain base on to which I could stamp my chosen words:

It was such a tiny gift, which you can judge by its size compared to my thumb here:

... so I decided to make it a protective bag from the candy pink tulle net fabric from the kit:

It was simply a piece cut to size, folded and stitched on the machine along the bottom and side.

To fasten - I just wrapped another length of baker's twine around it and tied a bow:

Using your kit on something so small is a great way to:

see a great combination of lots of the papers all at once, in a small space;
make a big feature of those small butterfly and journaling block embellishments;
experiment with a few messy techniques [like paint splattering and border stamping] on a tiny canvas - with less romm for error!
use up scraps once you've already used your kit to make several layouts.

If you'd like a few more close-ups of the detail of the book check out this post on my blog and I'll be back here soon with something more 12x12-sized I think!

See you soon.
Julie :-)

Quirky Kits Lite

2011-06-05T17:07:00.000+01:00

The first Quirky Kit Lite 'Glastonbury Fields' is now shipping out. It's a lovely mix of pattern and colour bringing you the summer in a box!

There just a few kits left to purchase individually on the site check out the details here, http://www.craftytemplates.co.uk/glastonburyfieldsquirkykitlite.html

xx Leo

'Downtown Tea Party' Quirky Kit: with Guest Designer Julie Kirk

2011-06-01T07:31:00.000+01:00

by Julie Kirk

Hello. Again.

One year on since blogging my final project as a full-time Quirky Kit Design Team member, I'm thrilled to be back as a guest for the 'Downtown Tea Party' kit!

So, considering it's both a reunion and a tea party ... I thought I'd better make an effort to dress up for the occasion. How about if I wear this ...:

My friends and I go an a crafting 'retreat' twice a year and we usually pick a theme to base our gifts, food and projects on.

The latest theme was 'The Mad Hatter's Tea Party' and one of my friends surprised us all by bringing along 4 professionally made pantomine-style costumes for us to play with!

Naturally ... being amongst scrapbookers ... there were lots of photos taken and I've been holding off scrapping them while waiting for this kit as I had my eye on the pink + white candy stripe ribbon. How perfectly does it match 'my' amazingly swooshy dress?

As for the pink + white striped paper edging ... that's the paper bag all of the embellishments come tucked inside within the kit!

I used a X-Cut edge punch along the bottom of it, pleated it and pressed it down into my double sided tape, then stamped a decorative doily-edge border along it.

Then I threaded various shades of the Pink Paislee 'Daily Junque' bakers twine through the punched out sections and finished with a tiny off-cut of the pink ribbon:

I also tied the Pink Paislee 'Daily Junque' bakers twine around the bodies of the paper butterfly embellishments, snipping the ends to form antennae:

The Pink Paislee ‘Tickets’ patterned paper was almost too nice to cut into, but once I braved it I used it as a strip across the centre:

Then punched a scalloped circle from it and used the alternative pattern on the reverse as a journaling block in the centre and finally cut around one of the roses to add a little focal point to the top corner:

And here's the final page again so you can see how it all hangs together:

I'll be dropping by throughout the month to share some more pages I've been making with this kit ... maybe there'll even be another costume ... or two ... we'll see!

Make sure you share your Quirky Kit projects by linking them up in a comment or via the Crafty Templates Twitter account or Facebook page.

So, I'll see you soon for more Downtown Tea Party-ing ... I'll bring the cakes if you put the kettle on.

Julie / @notesonpaper x
-------------------------------------

Supplies list for my 'Curiouser + Curiouser' page. Everything taken from the Downtown Tea Party kit:

American Crafts Kraft cardstock
Pink Paislee House of Three, Daily Junque ‘Tickets’ patterned paper
Kesi’art Bout d'Ficelle, ‘Cotton’ patterned paper
Cosmo Cricket ‘Heart in the Dark’ chipboard alphabet stickers
Kesi’art Script alphabet stickers, noir.
Pink/white candy stripe ribbon
Pink Paislee Daily Junque bakers twine
Paper butterfly embellishments
Paper bag - packaging!

The structure of the layout was inspired by Sketch 240 from the Pencil Lines sketch challenge blog.

Create 10 Embellishments - share your work!

2011-05-27T14:50:00.000+01:00

Create 10 Embellishments has kicked off today. If you're working through the classes and sharing what you make via your blog, pop a link in the comments bellow and share what you're making so we can stop by and have a peek.

During the 10 days we'll be having some random giveaways so keep a peek out on our Twitter Facebook and right here on the blog as they'll be different giveaways popping up here and there.

If you've not signed up yet you can still grab your sign up token from the Create 10 page on the site, http://www.craftytemplates.co.uk/onlineclasses.html

Have fun!

xx Leo

Create 10 Embellishments Class Workshop kicks off next Friday!

2011-05-20T17:24:00.002+01:00

Hi!

The new Create 10 Workshop 'Create 10 Embellishments' is starting next week on the 27th May, are you signed up ready to play along?

We've got 10 classes looking at hand making embellishments and also alongside the embellishment classes there's a minibook you can make to use your embellishments in so you can choose to follow along with the minibook too or just make the embellishments.
The classes offer lots of scope to continue the ideas in your future crafting and create custom embellishments to work with any theme.
To play along with the classes you need to sign up to Create 10 Embellishments. When you sign up you get sent a username and password which gives you access to your own little space on the site from where you can download all the classes when they go 'live' on the 27th each day for 10 days. The classes will remain there to download whenever you need them.
The sign up page is here, http://www.craftytemplates.co.uk/onlineclasses.html
Just click on the Create 10 Embellishments token to add one to your shopping basket then check out as normal.
You have a week to get prepared for class and you can also chat with others playing along we have a group on UK Scrappers, http://www.ukscrappers.co.uk/boards/group.php?groupid=474 and a Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/pages/Crafty-Templates/165349430193543
Here's an extra sneak peek:

Hope you can come and join us!
xx Leo

Scrappy Ideas

2011-05-05T18:25:00.002+01:00

I was going to add a double layout today but it's just gone ominously dark, think it might finally be going to rain! Ekk just heard a big rumble of thunder too. So anyway not good for photo taking but I do have some other projects to share already pre-photoed.

When I'm working with I kit I tend to keep all the pieces together in one box and in that box after I've finished cutting and sticking is usually a big old pile of small squares and off cuts so I put together a couple of little books to make use of the small scrappy bits and pieces.

To make the pages of the book I used plain A5 paper and cut out a 6cm strip off the short side. You end up with a square size piece and a long thin size piece. I made a large pile of the paper pieces for my pages. You can stack a wedge of paper together and trim them at once to save time. Having the two piles of paper meant I could make two books, one square for a sketch book and one long and thin for a list book.

Square Book

For the covers I used some card from a pizza box and covered the front and back of each piece of card with plain cardstock. I found out some of the leftover pieces of patterned paper and some of the netting and fabric from the Spring in Your Step kit. To begin with I added a layer of drawing ink sprayed on with a Mini Mister.

Then added a layer of netting fixing it in place with a couple of staples.

Then I added a square of paper and a sticker. I had these stickers (Crate Paper ones) on my desk from making cards so I just grabbed them to use.

Then I added another slightly smaller square of paper.

Then something else that was hanging around my desk, a lovely feather just glued on. I love adding in bits of ephemera to projects so I'm always collecting bits and pieces.

Next I added another small square of paper and some of the ribbon from the kit. I love this ribbon, I've been hoarding it!

Then another little sticker, I'm trying to use these up!

Then finally a small square of fabric from the kit and one of the rose brads. The 'ideas' title I hand stitched onto a scrap of canvas. When the cover was finished I fixed the whole book together with my Bind-it-All.

List Book

I already had a scrap of paper with a butterfly punched out of it so I cut out a rectangle around it and use a boarder punch on one edge. I used a small scrap of card and a bit of netting fabric to fix the netting behind the punch out.

Like this!

To make the cover I use just scraps of patterned paper cut to the same size as the plain paper pieces. To the front cover piece I added a bit of fabric, love the frayed edge so I kept that on.

Then the butterfly piece just went over the top along with a some of the alphabet stickers.

Again the whole book was fixed together with my Bind-it-All.

So what are you doing with your kit bits and pieces?

xx Leo

Paper Fascinators

2011-04-28T19:59:00.002+01:00

To celebrate in style every party needs hats but why not put your kit leftovers to good use and have a go at making these fun party paper fascinators instead? You can entertain young party guests making these or make some ahead of time and scatter them or hand them around. It's just about having a little fun!

Method

Grab your leftovers. You'll need some paper pieces, tulle and some embellishy bits. Stamp some motifs onto scraps of card to make extra embellishments if you don't have many left over.

You'll also need something for your bases. I'm using these cheap plastic alice bands but you could use hair clips or combs too.

Begin by cutting small thin off cuts into thinner strips and curling them with scissors to make little paper curls.

Cut out leaf shapes from larger off cuts of paper. Distress the edges and bend them to give them shape. If you wanted to you could doodle on them or ink around the edges too.

Cut out some scallop shapes with a die or punch and snip lines around the edge going towards the center.

Push the edges up to give it an appearance of flower petals.

Add a smaller scallop or piece of paper to the center and add a rose brad or other embellishment on top.

Make more paper flowers in the same way.

To make the bases staple large scallops or circle shapes of card to the tulle and cut them out leaving a small boarder of tulle around the edge of the card.

Staple a smaller piece on top so you can glue your decorations to it. If you try to glue them on top of the tulle directly they'll fall off.

Glue the embellishments you've made to your base.

Add some more embellishments on top to build up depth and interest.

Here's another one with a fabric flower added.

Glue the bases to your chosen hair accessory with a glue gun.

Have fun thinking up the designs and have fun this weekend if you're having a party!

xx Leo

Bake-a-long part 3

2011-04-28T17:41:00.003+01:00

Finally it's time to decorate the cakes!

Coconut Cupcakes with Lemon Frosting

For the cupcakes frosting I've cheated and used ready made buttercream but you can make it easily mixing 50g of butter to 200g of icing sugar, this will cover about 12 cakes so if you need to alter the recipe to make sure you have enough. If you want your buttercream softer add in a tablespoon of milk. To the buttercream mix I've add some lemon zest to give it a lemon tang. You could add the juice if you preferred but swap that for the milk so as not to make your buttercream runny.

Pop a teaspoon full of buttercream on the cake and smooth it around with a butter knife. If you want to be all fancy you can use a piping bag but I think they look just as good spooned on.

For a final touch add a little more grated lemon zest then add in your union jack cupcake picks from your Quirky Kit.

Yum!

Red, White and Blue Cakes

To make this frosting make the same basic buttercream mixture. Melt the white chocolate but leave a small amount to one side for decorating. Mix the melted chocolate into the buttercream. If the buttercream stiffens add an extra tablespoon of milk.

Add some of the white chocolate buttercream to each of the little cake layers then stack them up on top of one another to make the red, white and blue layers.

Cover the whole of the little cakes in the buttercream. I also rolled mine in some of the leftover coconut just on the edges. Grate the leftover white chocolate on top of the cakes then add the red edible glitter. You can put them in cake cases if you want to or pop them on a platter or plate. Once the frosting has hardened, (it will form a nice shell as the chocolate sets) they're quite easy to move around.

When your friends and family dig in they'll get a fun surprise!

Yum, stripy cake!

If you didn't want to conceal the colours just decorate the tops of the cakes. This one just has a bit of buttercream and coconut on top.

There's the cakes done!

If you have made the sheet cakes and have some leftover bits of cake from cutting out the circles you can mix the leftovers with some of the buttercream and make cake pops too!

Squidge the cake and buttercream together and roll into balls. Roll the balls into coconut.

Add lolly sticks to the balls and pop them in the freezer to harden. Once they're firm roll them in chocolate and leave it to set.

You could also use your leftover bits of cake to make a fun red, white and blue trifle using them as the bottom cakey layer.

Now the cakes are done. Next we need to make some decorations!
Grab your kit leftovers for some fun party decorating ideas coming up later.

xx Leo

Bake-a-long part 2

2011-04-28T16:54:00.000+01:00

OK next I've got some really fun little cakes. There's two ways you can use this recipe. You can make three sheet cakes, (you'll need a shallow large tin like a swiss roll tin) or you can make a sandwich cake and put the different coloured batters together in round 8" tin.

Red, white and blue cakes

Ingredients:

150g butter
150g sugar
2 medium eggs
4 tablespoons milk
150g self raising flour
Blue food colouring
Red food colouring
200g white chocolate
Buttercream
Coconut and red edible glitter for decorating, (optional)

Method
Measure out the butter and sugar and mix them together in a bowl until light and fluffy. Mix in the eggs and milk until the eggs are Incorporated fully to the mixture. Next measure out the flour and sieve that into the bowl. Gently stir it in and then once the flour is Incorporated beat the mixture until it's pale and light. Now if you're making one cake split the mixture up into three bowls then add the red colour to one bowl and the blue colour to another. Leave the last batch white. Grease and line your cake tin then spoon in the mixtures one tablespoonful at a time so the colours keep in separate clumps in your tin, don't mix it or smooth the top as this will marble the colours and you'll end up with purple cake, just tap the tin to make the mixture sit flat. Bake it for about 25 minutes in an oven pre-heated to 180c.
Now if you're making the layered cakes like I've made you'll need to make three separate sheet cakes so start with the white cake and place the batter into a greased shallow tin then bake for around 10-15 minutes in a pre-heated oven at 180c. Once the cake is cooked leave it to cool for around 10 minutes then turn it out of the tin.
Make another batch of mixture but this time colour it red, you'll need about 2 tablespoons of food colouring to get the red colour, it does intensify once it's baked. Cook the mixture in the same tin you've used for the white cake but remember to clean and re-grease the tins as you go. Cook it for the same time as the white cake. While that's cooking make another batch of mixture and colour this batch with the blue food colouring. Cook as before once your red cake is cooled and turned out.

When your cakes are finished you should have three different coloured thin cakes. Use a cookie cutter in a circle shape and cut out circles of cake. I found it easier to put the cake back in the tin and then cut the circles out. You could also use something else circular to cut around if you didn't have a cutter. Put the circles to one side to cool completely.

In the last part of the bake-a-long we'll be doing the fun decorating bit!

xx Leo

Bake-a-long Part 1

2011-04-28T13:51:00.000+01:00

Hi!

Are you getting ready for the party tomorrow? Here I've got some yummy bake-a-long recipes for you to have a play with. Later today they'll also be decoration ideas so even if you don't want to join in with these recipes you can follow along with the decorating later.

Coconut Cupcakes with Lemon Frosting

Recipe:
100g butter
100g sugar
2 medium eggs
100g self raising flour
50g desiccated coconut

Method
Pre-heat your oven to 180c then measure and mix together the butter and sugar in a bowl till it's light and fluffy. Add in the eggs and mix together until the eggs are well combined.

Measure the flour and sieve it into the bowl, gently mix in the flour then beat the mixture until it's light in colour and smooth.

Measure out then gently stir in the coconut to your mixture.

Pop some cake cases in a cake pan and fill with the mixture 3/4 of the way up. Pop them in the center of your pre-heated oven and bake for around 20 minutes. You'll know they're done because when the tops are gently pressed they'll pop up, if they don't pop back up they're not done yet.

Leave to cool. They need to cool completely before decorating so we'll be decorating them later.

Drop by later when we'll be baking some fun red, white and blue cake!
xx Leo

Royal Wedding Bake-a-long - Bake-a-long Shopping List

2011-04-27T11:13:00.000+01:00

Hi!
Having a party to celebrate on Friday? Join me for a bake-a-long tomorrow! If you've got a Spring in Your Step Quirky Kit grab your flags and leftover bits and bobs as I've got some fun decorating ideas and we'll be making party fascinators using the kits too!
If you're going to join me tomorrow with the Royal Wedding bake-a-long here's a quick list of goodies you might want to grab. You can make any cake flavour you like but after much deliberating and mind changing I've narrowed it down to two flavours I'll be making:
Coconut with lemon frosting

100g butter

100g sugar

2 medium eggs

100g self raising flour

50g desiccated coconut

Buttercream, ready made or butter & icing sugar if you're making your own.

1 lemon

Red, white and blue cakes

150g butter

150g sugar

2 medium eggs

4 tablespoons milk

150g self raising flour

blue food colouring

red food colouring

200g white chocolate

Extras

Cupcake or muffin cases, paper or silicon

Sprinkles, I'm using red edible glitter for the red, white and blue cakes you won't need any for the lemon ones.

Union Jack cupcake picks from your Quirky Kit

Don't fancy making those? Here's some other ideas you might want to try:

Pink velvet cupcakes

Chocolate cupcakes

Rose flavour cupcakes

Whatever you decide to use grab your goodies and bake-a-long tomorrow afternoon!
xx Leo

Quick card

2011-04-26T20:04:00.002+01:00

As promised here is a quick card made from more scraps of the kit.

Instructions

Cut a rectangle of PP slightly smaller than your card blank. Ink the edges and attach to the card.

Take some kraft CS and cut into 3 rectangles, exactly the same. Ink the edges. Trim 3 rectangles of PP slightly smaller than the kraft CS, ink the edges and attach to the kraft CS. Attach the rectangle to the card.

Take a scrap of PP, i used the large red spotty, and make a scalloped border. Attach over the rectangles, towards the bottom of the card.

Hand draw a journal card on kraft CS and attach towards the right hand side of the card, just above the scalloped border.

Take a length of fabric and tie it around the card, tieing a bow on the left hand side.

And now its time to embellish. I made a paper rose from the red PP and glued it on with a hot glue gun. Glue on the felt flower and a epoxy rose. Cut out a few leaves from one of the PP and mount on green PP from the kit. Attach behind the flowers with foam pads. Add a bird whimsy and finish with a little alphabet title and button.

And there you go, a quick and simple card that would be suitable for many occasions.

And that is me done as your guest DT for this kit. I have had a great time and I hope i have shown you a variety of projects that have inspired you to break into your kit and have a go. If i have, i would love to see your creations so drop a link into the comments section.

Thanks once again to Leo for the chance to play with her beautiful kits.

Sarah

u R my little stars

2011-04-24T15:36:00.002+01:00

Happy Easter. Hope you are enjoying the sunshine, if you have any. None for us up here in the far north i am afraid.

This week i have created a mini album from the kraft cardstock, the pizza box and the left over scraps.

Instructions

To begin, take a piece of PP. I used the woodgrain one from the kit. Cut at 6" x 12". Score 2" from each edge. Then Score every 1" all the way across. This makes your concertina for your pages.

Next you will need to make some tags for the pages. Each tag needs to be 1 7/8" x 3 7/8" and you will need 12 in total. Ink all the edges in black ink.

Next take all your PP scraps. Trim them so they are slightly smaller than each tag. You will need 24 in total. Ink all the edges and attach to the tags.

Attach 3 tags to each concertina spine. The top tag goes on the right side of the spine, the middle tag goes on the left side of the spine and the bottom tag goes on the right side of the spine again. Repeat for the remaining spines.

So that is the inside pages made. Now its time to make the album covers.

Cut two pieces of pizza box measuring 4 1/2" x 7". Also cut a spine 1 1/2" x 7". Take your hounds tooth fabric and place it best side down on the desk. Place the cover down, then spine, then back cover. Glue them into place with a strong PVA glue or fabric glue. Leave a slight gap between each piece, probably about the thickness of the pizza card board. Leave to dry.

Once dry, trim away the excess fabric, leaving about an inch all around. Fold in the corners and glue the fabric into place. Again leave to dry.

Once completly dry, cover the inside with kraft CS, using a bone folder to score along the gaps to make a nice neat fold.

Take the spotty ribbon and attach a piece to each cover with strong glue/ adheasive. Attach a piece of inked PP to the front and back covers to hide the ribbon. These will be used to fasten the album.

Next its time to decorate the cover. Take a rectangle of Kraft CS slightly smaller than the cover. Ink the edges and doodle with a black pen. Attach a piece of PP to the left with a slightly smaller one to the right. Ink and doodle again.

Next hand draw a star and cut it from more pizza box. Cover in PP, ink and doodle the edges. I stamped a journal stamp into kraft, distressed it with inks. I added it to the star before tieing string and grey netting around the star.

Next make some embellishments.

The first is a length of hounds tooth that has been turned into a rosette. Hand stitch along one side of the fabric, pull the thread to gather and secure with a few stitches. Glue a circle of PP and a button to the centre.

The next one is a pin wheel. Cut a large circle of netting. Stitch around the outside and pull the threads. Stitch a circle of hounds tooth fabric and another button to the centre.

The next one is another pinwheel. Make a slightly smaller circle, stitch around again and pull the threads. Secure the middle with a button, then stitch to a slightly larger circle of spotty ribbon.

Glue the first two flowers to the cover and a websters whimsey flower, just below the journal card.

Cut out a arrow and place it above the journal card. Add little alpha's and large alpha's to complete your title.

And that is the cover complete. Secure the whole panel to the fabric with a strong glue/ adheasive.

Next its time to attach your pages. Glue the 2" flap from the concertina spine to the edge of the front cover nearest the spine. Repeat with the back 2" piece. Cut out some stars from scrap PP again. I added another arrow to the front and the fabric flower we just made to the back.

Next attach your photos. I added mine using foam pads so they popped from the page. I also added in a few stamped journalling cards as well.

And there you go, a mini album perfect for using all those little scraps. I hope you like it and has inspired you to have a go.

I have a card made from scrap as well but my camera batteries have died so i have sent DH out to the nearest town to get more as we dont have any shops in our village, lol. So i will pop back probably tomorrow now as loosing the light and show it to you.
TFL

Sarah

Young at heart still

2011-04-17T21:05:00.002+01:00

Sarah Here, with this weeks inspiration. This is my last LO using the kit but join me again next week when i will be showing you a couple of projects made with the left overs.

So back to this week. The cycle themed paper just screamed Daniel, my eldest son to me as he is sooooo into his bikes at the moment and more than happy to play in the garden practising his moves as he calls them, lol.

All materials from the kit except alphabets title, thread and blue CS.

Here are a few quick instructions.

Start by taking a Kraft CS as your base. Add a strip of bicycle PP to the top 1/3 of the kraft base and the mustard PP to the last 2/3 of the base.

Add a strip of orange herringbone PP and yellow spots PP.

Next attach a piece of the hounds tooth material to the right hand side under the middle strip.

Cut out two half circles from the red and woodgrain PP and make into cogs. Attach to the left of the fabric.

Next print your pics. I used the polardroid app that Leo has used before on crafty templates as i wanted a retro feel to the LO. Attach the pics over the cogs and fabric. I stitched around each pic with embroidary thread.

Attach the signpost (from the websters papers in the kit) using foam pads.

Next i cut some circles out of blue CS as embellishments and added over the fabric and signpost.

Attach your title to finish.

And there you go. I love how the kit colours are just perfect for boy LO's and give the project a very retro feel.

TFL

Sarah

May Quirky Kit Subscription Places Now Available

2011-04-11T12:37:00.000+01:00

New places to subscribe to Quirky Kits from May onward are now available. As usual there are only a limited amount of places. All the details are on the shop here, http://www.craftytemplates.co.uk/quirkykitsubscribe.html

If you're subscribing now your first kit will be the May/June kit and it's called 'Downtown Tea Party'. Here's a sneaky peek!

The starting point for this one was the idea of a picnic tea party at a summer music festival. There's sprinklings of vintage, bright pop colours and a teensy bit of grunge.

As with all Quirky Kits this kit has been designed to have multiple sides so you can switch it around to make it suit what it is you're wanting to scrapbook or craft about. This is illustrated clearly in the two photos top and bottom. These aren't two separate kits this is still the same May kit in two halves. In the top image I've picked out some of the blues, greys and greens, great for guy pages or for feminine pages that you don't want to be pink. The lower image shows some of the more eclectic goodies in the kit, the Soiree cards and twine mixed with the Cosmo Cricket papers and chipboard will be great for a summer holiday journal or just fun summer pages about BBQ's and garden parties.

After this weekends sun shiny weather it's got me all geared up for the summer, can't wait to get going with the sun and this yummy kit, how about you?
Hope you can join in!
xx Leo

Peas in a pod

2011-04-10T11:32:00.000+01:00

Here is my second project as your guest DT member this kit. I wanted to make a LO representing all my children as little ones and compare how they all looked and this kit was perfect with its mix of yellow, green , orange and reds. Perfect for both boy or girl LO's.

No real step by step instructions this week as i have done a bit here and there all week and often didnt have a camera with me. All the flowers are handmade from PP with some quick instructions below.

Instructions for cabbage roses
3 x large flowers
1 x smaller flower

I actually made my flowers this time by drawing around 2 different sized Prima paper flowers but any flower punch or die with separated petals will do.

You will need

• Patterned Paper
• Black stazon ink pad
• Hot glue gun
• Heat gun
• Two sized round ended pens or paint brushes.
• Rock candy or rock candy stickles
• Water mister

Instructions

Start by cutting your flowers out of PP and ink all the edges with a waterproof ink.

Use a mini mister to dampen the PP. Take a pen that has a wide rounded end or paintbrush (Claudine’s paintbrushes are great for this). Using a old mouse pad or foam square, gently press the pen/ brush into the middle of the larger flowers. Carefully mould and cup the CS around the pen/ brush.

Repeat with a smaller pen/ brush on the smaller flowers. Dry with a heat gun to ensure they are fully dry for the next stage.

Once all the flowers are dry, carefully open fully the small flower and slightly open two of the large flowers and fully open the last large flower. Glue them into each other starting with the fully opened one at the bottom and the slightly opened ones next. Remember to off set the petals for a more natural look.

Use some knotted embroidery thread to make the flower centre, gluing into place with the glue gun. You can jazz them up with some glimmer mists or rock candy/ stickles.

And i hand cut my title. I used a silhouette download but my cutting machine is playing up at the moment so i printed in reverse on the back of my PP and cut out.

TFL

Sarah

Twitter Crop Class!

2011-04-04T17:19:00.004+01:00

Join in with the fun this Thursday 7th April for my first go at a class on Twitter! The idea is to have fun but at the same time {hopefully} get a little bit of inspiration. Class will start at 1pm and I'll be 'tweeting' live with instructions and Twitpics as we go along. You don't need to be signed up to Twitter just to follow along the class although if you want to add your own 'tweets' or messages as you go along you will need to sign up. You can do that super easily here. The Crafty Templates Twitter page is, www.twitter.com/craftytemplates so if you're not signing up just pop that in your favourites and you can read the Tweets from there at any time that suits you.
There's a list of materials you'll need to play along bellow. We'll be making a layout step by step but you can use the ideas/techniques to make a card or other project too. I've used goodies from this months Quirky Kit 'Spring in your Step' and as I'm on an ongoing mission to use up leftovers I've added some leftover alphabet stickers to the mix. You can swap these for any other supplies you have.

Supply list

From the Quirky Kit:
Kesi'art Senteurs Boisees 'Bouleau' patterned paper
Lilly bee Design This and That 'Brooch' patterned paper
Kesi'art Little Dots Aqua Green cardstock
Kraft cardstock
Piece of tulle fabric in grey
1 American Craft Peachy Keen resin rose brad
Websters Pages mini resin flower
1 piece of black and white houndstooth fabric
1 black and white button
1Webster Pages cream bird flat back resin embellishment
Kesi'art Script Woodgrain mini alphabet stickers

From my leftovers:
Prima 'alphablends' chipboard alphabet stickers, I used enough to make up the first word of my title.
2 black brackets from a pack of American Crafts foam Thickers.
1 round cardstock sticker from an old pack, I used the reverse sticky side so it doesn't matter what's on the front.

Tools:
Boarder punch, I used Fiskars Threading Water but any will work.
Doublesided tape
Corner Rounder Punch, optional.
Sewing machine, this is just for decorative purposes and is totally optional.
Butterfly punch, optional.

If you don't have a Quirky Kit just swap in your own stickers and papers. You'll need 4 different patterned papers or a couple of sheets of doublesided paper. A mix up of large alphabets and small alphabets for your title. Four or five different little embellishments, a round alphabet sticker and a piece of fabric, a long thin piece will work or even a piece of ribbon if you don't have fabric.

Hope you can play along!

xx Leo

Spring in your step Inspiration

2011-04-03T15:15:00.000+01:00

Good morning on this fine Mother's Day.

Its Sarah Carrington (Aka Smelly on UKS) here. I am your guest designer this month and will hopefully bring you lots of inspiration on how to use your beautiful Quirky Kit.

I have my first project to show you today. The theme is very fitting as today up here in the north east of Scotland i think we have had every season, sunshine, wind, rain, hail, you name it, we had it. Everything used is from the kit except the thread and some scrap blue CS.

Here are a few instructions for making this LO.

Start by matting a square photograph onto the cream websters paper.

Next cut a rectangle of spotty paper. Round of the corners and ink the edges. Take a length of the fabric and wrap around the right hand side of the rectangle. Add the photo over the fabric strip, using foam pads to add depth. Attach the matt to the scalloped die cut websters paper.

HINT, before you glue down, make out where the matt is going with a pencil. Then see which of the flowers will be covered up by the matt and cut them out. You will have unsightly holes but you wont see them when the matt goes down.

Next hand cut out the watering cans from the other Webster's paper and attach to the bottom of the photo. Take a strip of the yellow netting and tie along the bottom of the watering cans.

Next take the yellow spotty PP and cut out a circle. Cover the circle with more yellow netting. Cut out random sized triangles to make sun rays. Arrange them around the sun. Once you are happy with the arrangement, number them as it makes it easier to put them back when you are gluing them down. I added every other one onto the page with foam pads.

Once your sun is stuck down, its time to do a bit of sewing. I made myself a little swirly template and tacked it over the sun. I used a needle to poke thru holes all around the sun.

Once you have all your holes preformed, begin to straight stitch around the sun with embroidery thread. I kept mine at 6 strands.

Next, hand draw some clouds from the remaining cream PP and attach with foam pads. Hand draw some raindrops from scrap blue CS and attach under the clouds and sun.

Next its time to decorate. I took a piece of the fabric and stuck it to CS with a wet glue. Leave over night to dry. Once dry, cut out the flowers.

At the same time, cut out the little flowers from the websters paper and pick a few of your resin flowers.

I used a hot glue gun and began to glue all the flowers in little bunches around the bottom

Take the red alpha's and add a title.

And there you go. I hope you like it and i have given you some ideas for using your kit.

TFL

Sarah

Mothers Day Card Ideas

2011-04-01T12:53:00.001+01:00

If you're looking for some last minute Mothers Day card ideas this weekend why not grab some of your Crafty Templates?
Here's a selection from some of this years templates that will make great Mothering Sunday celebration cards. If you're not a current subscriber and want to get your hands on these templates you'll need to subscribe, check out this page for all the info, http://www.craftytemplates.co.uk/subscribe.html

Kitshy Cute

Card made using template from the January 2011 Crafty Templates set

Sassy Lady

Card made using template from the January 2011 Crafty Templates set

Pretty Vintage

Card made using template from the January 2011 Crafty Templates set

High Tea

Card made using template from the March 2011 Crafty Templates set

Sew Special

Card made using template from the March 2011 Crafty Templates set

Antique Speldour

Card made using template from the March 2011 Crafty Templates set

Paper used were Echo Park For the Record, American Crafts Hello Sunshine, Basic Grey Basics, October Afternoon Modern Homemaker, Studio Calico Anthology and Pink Paislee Sweetness. Stickers from Echo Park For the Record, Cosmo Cricket and Crate Paper.
Most of the goodies are from kits in the Crafty Templates store check out the January Kit and the March kit.
Happy crafting!

Put a 'Spring' in your Step!

2011-03-23T13:13:00.001Z

The new March/April Quirky Kit is almost ready to go! I'm busy packing up boxes and waiting for the last delivery then the subscribers will get their kits sent out first. There will be a couple of extra single kits available I've put by so look out for them popping up in the shop here.

Would you like a peek at just some of the goodies in the Put a Spring in your Step Quirky Kit?

It's defo a kit packed full of fun. I love the mix of textures and the touches of nature inspiration mixed with graphic patterns. I can't wait to sit down and get cutting and sticking with this one! Subscribers keep a peek on your email inbox for delivery date notification. If you'd like to subscribe to Quirky Kits, there are no March/April places available at the mo but you can go on the wait list just email me at enquiries@craftyprincess.co.uk and pop 'Quirky Kits Waitlist' in the subject line and I'll add you on. If/When kits become available I'll let the waitlist peeps know first. May/June kit subscription places will be going up on the site at the end of the month.

Happy Quirky scrapping!

xx Leo

New alphabet stickers in the shop

2011-03-07T17:58:00.000Z

Hi!

I just wanted to give a shout out about some cool new alphabet stickers I've popped in the store today. I really love mini alphabet stickers they're great to add a fun touch to cards and scrapbook pages. When I found these yummy mini alphabet stickers from French company Kesi'art I fell in love!

I've added a few different colours to the store today. If you like them as much as I do I'll get some more colours in. Check them out here, http://www.craftytemplates.co.uk/embellishments.html

I picked out the 'ruled' ones to make a card with. I think they're a great neutral colour without being black white or brown. I've also used this months card kit for this card 'Granny's House' which you can have a peek at here.

More of these fun stickers, (ones not available in store) will be in the latest Quirky Kit out at the end of March! Subscribers look out for the first sneak peek photos of the kit popping up on the Quirky Kits Blog as the fun new products roll in over the next couple of weeks.

xx Leo

Create 10 Simple Recipes - share your work

2011-02-24T11:38:00.000Z

Over the next 10 days and beyond you can share what you make from the Create 10 Simple Recipes classes right here. Leave a comment with a link to somewhere online where you've uploaded your finished project. I'll be keeping a peek out for some projects to win some spot prizes along the way.
Prizes will be given out 10 days after Create 10 has finished, (15th March 2011) so you have untill then to get busy.
Have fun!
xx Leo

More from the Cute Things Quirky kit

2011-02-20T11:12:00.002Z

As mentioned in my previous post, here are two more layouts I created with the kit.

I really loved the vibrant colours of the Sassafrass papers. This red heart pattern was a particular favourite. We don't have a dog ourselves, but the cute little puppy on the card and sticker were just perfect for a page about my youngest daughter's love of dogs.

I added glossy accents to the puppy sticker and some more of those little heart punches, as well as the arrow on the printed card I used for the title. A few gems and a bit of (very messy) machine stitching were added as extra details.

I had fun mixing up all the different elements and textures on this page. More messy stitching here too (I really can't do anything else with my machine!) and just lots of bits and pieces layered together. The envelope flap has been left open and the journaling placed inside the envelope.

I die cut some circles for the sun and layered with a couple of the stickers, and put the yellow heart pins around to act as sun rays - a simple but fun little touch.

My computer crashed before Christmas and I lost all of my fonts. I only recently had a font downloading session and one I found happens to match just perfectly the fun glitter letter stickers. The font is called Cheri and in the download you also get an outlines version (called Cheri Liney, I think). I printed out the extra words I wanted for my title onto a scrap of white cardstock then coloured them in with a Sakura glitter pen.

I really loved that the cardstock in this kit had such variety. There is the gorgeous orange bling, the beautiful embossed swiss dots as well as the other vibrant colours.

Oh and there are still more creations to come! I'm challenging myself to use as much as I possibly can with what is in the kit.

xxx's

Suzanne

Cute things make me smile!

2011-02-16T14:49:00.000Z

They do - and this kit was no exception!

Hi there from me - Suzanne Torr (aka fruitysuet online) - and a huge thanks to Leo for giving me this opportunity to guest design with this cute and funky kit. It's filled with goodies and lots of little things to oooh and aaah over (as did plenty of people at crop where I was working on this at).

So far I've done four layouts, half way through a fifth and planning either yet another layout or another little crafty something.

I'm going to break down posting my projects into more than one blog post, because there is just too much to fit into one.

I really liked the mix of papers provided - I have a boy and two girls so it gave me the flexibility to scrap both and even, like on this page, boy/girl on one page. The heart edged die cut paper is very striking and I decided to make best use of it by cutting it down into smaller sections.

I die cut a flower from the grey patterned paper and used my little hand crimper tool to add texture, lightly inking it to emphasise that texture even more. I've layered lots of other textures here too - the 'oh sooo cute' owl fabric, the airmail ribbon and even the dotty tape that held closed the bag of embellishments!

The few additions from my own stash I made from this page were inspired by things left out on my desk (yes, I really am that messy a crafter). A small section of a rub-on phrase, tiny alpha stickers, some embroidery thread, the pointy finger stamp and a couple of brads, buttons and gems.

Oh, and I thought the cannon journal spot was so fun and ideal for this page - poor Chiara is almost constantly tormented by her big brother - sparks are always flying between them!

This next page is simply fun and girly. I used lots of patterns and layered them together. I used the clouds paper LOTS in my layouts from this kit. On this page they are the perfect backdrop for the adorable bird embellishment. I kept the wire attached and folded it to add a hint of a flight trail.

I used a Martha Stewart Border punch and used some of the tiny hearts that are punched out as a result to add some extra detail.

These sheets of journal and title cards that many manufacturers produce now are one of my favourites. I love that they make titling and journaling so easy. For the title on this page, I cut down the 'love' word from one of the journal cards, attached it with foam pads and added Stickles and a couple of gems.

I layered lots of the stickers (another of my favourite products) and die cut a flower from the clouds paper and doodled around it with a white pen to echo the style of the clouds on the top part of the page. I added in some hand stitching for yet more texture and detail.

I hope you've enjoyed looking at these as much as I enjoyed putting them together. Another post with two more pages will be coming soon!

xxx's

Suzanne

Create 10 Simple Recipes!

2011-02-09T17:29:00.000Z

Create 10 online workshop is back with Create 10 Simple Recipes. Classes will run from February 24th to March 5th although as with all Create 10 classes you can work from them at anytime convenient to you accessing them from the workshop download area.

This time around the workshop is called 'Simple Recipes'. It's all about creating not in a simple style but in a simple way. It'll work to help your creating 'click' into place. The method of creating can often leave us procrastinating for ages about what to use and/or how to use it. With Simple Recipes the aim is to show a simple way to pick out supplies, put them together and make your project. It should keep your ideas flowing after classes too.
You'll be able to choose with each class what you want to make, they'll be a mix of finished samples, greetings cards, scrapbook layouts and home decor so you can make whatever you want to at the time. Along the way you'll also be encouraged to use older supplies, some of the things I've used in my samples are 7+ years old! It doesn't really matter how old your supplies are, the idea is to look upon them with a fresh eye and bring them up to date using new techniques and styles.
If you want to know more about Create 10 and sign up to this latest workshop take a look at all the details here, http://www.craftytemplates.co.uk/create10.html

Hope you can join us, we'll have loads of crafty fun as usual!
xx Leo

Cute Things Make Me Smile☺ Quirky Kit Peek

2011-01-24T13:09:00.000Z

The newest Quirky Kit 'Cute Things Make Me Smile' will be popping up on the site this week! All subscription places for this first kit have now sold out but there will be a couple of kits available for single purchase as promiced. Here's a sneak peek:

If you would like to subscribe for the March/April Kit cycle email me at enquiries@craftyprincess.co.uk and I'll add you to the waitlist. New subscription places will be available at the end of February. As a subscriber not only do you get your regular bi-monthly Quirky Kit fix but you also get inspiration and ideas as well as latest news on upcoming kits and sneak peeks via the special secret Quirky Kits Blog. You also get inspiration to your email inbox with ideas and sketches you can use along with your kit. Read full details about Quirky Kit subscriptions here, http://craftytemplates.co.uk/quirkykitsubscribe.html Look out for the single purchase kits available on the site soon they'll be a link on the Quirky Kits section of the site, http://craftytemplates.co.uk/quirkykits.html

Happy scrappin'!
xx Leo

Retro Honey Card Making Kit

2011-01-19T23:39:00.000Z

I love having the opportunity of working with the Crafty Templates card kits, and this month was no exception.

If you haven't already seen the delicious retro/vintage inspired kit - Retro Honey I urge you to do so, it is filled with so many lovely papers and the templates are fabulous.

I just loved the mixer template. I am still dreaming of owning my own Kitchen Aid and this was a fun project to work on. All papers and embellishments were from the kit, except the 'mixin' letters and gemstone.

The bunny and hearts is simply adorable and lends itself perfectly to Valentine's Day and Easter!

I just could not bring myself to cut into this gorgeous paper! I glued it onto a card base for more stability and added some ribbon, an accent spot and sentiment stamp, I just love it.

I have more pictures of 3 other cards created with this kit on my blog if you would like to pop on over :) I would also like to take a moment to encourage you to try one of Leo's kits, whether it is the Card Making kit, Quirky kit or Crafty Bale, I guarantee you will love it!

Project three of the quirky kit :) - Christmas Advent Garland

2010-12-06T16:12:00.000Z

I still had TONS of the cute Quirky Kit "Hey Christmas Cupcake" kit left - including this WHOLE pack of Elles Studio numbers:

I knew a when I first got the kit that I wanted to make a garland with them - so I took 1-25 and laid them in a neat pile, and then took some of the cool paper from the kit - and with the aid of some punches, I created some layered snow flake embellishments.

I took the pile of number cards, and with the aid of a sewing machine on zig zag stitch - sewed them in a row to make my first Christmas garland of the year (I am hoping there will be lots more all strung about the flat!)

I used 1-25 for the garland - and added the cute snowflake embellishments here and there.

I really enjoyed making it - and even my hubby likes it! (wow!)

Create 10 at Christmas kicks off!

2010-11-24T17:07:00.003Z

Hi
Create 10 at Christmas is now officially up and running. If you make anything following the classes and upload your finished work some where out there on the interweb then you can add a link to it in the comments bellow and we'll come along and look and leave you lots of lovely oohs and arrrrs :)

On the first day of Create 10 at Christmas your project sent to you is a...'Recycled Christmas Wreath'

On the second day of Create 10 at Christmas your project sent to you is a...'A tabbed Planner'

On the third day of Create 10 at Christmas your project sent to you is a...'felt tree decoration or two'

On the fourth day of Create 10 at Christmas your project sent to you is an....'interactive money holder or two'

I'll update this post with each days class peeks as we go through the 10 days. You can also view them in the Create 10 workshop area, http://www.craftytemplates.co.uk/create10login.html just login and use your Create 10 at Christmas username and password. You'll be able to download all the classes from there too, classes go up every day for the next 10 days at around 10am each day.

If you're not already signed up to Create 10 at Christmas you can view all the details here, http://www.craftytemplates.co.uk/create10.html

Have a happy scrappy Christmas time!

xx Leo

My Second page for Quirky Kits

2010-11-21T19:19:00.000Z

Hello again - I am back with my second layout made using the gorgeous December Kit.

This time, I used some of the gorgeous snowflake paper as my background, and some of the Bazzill Bling - which, by the way, takes the Mr Heuy spray beautifully!(try it!)

I made a kraft concertina flower - I am working on a video tutorial for you on this - as they are sooo easy and a great way to add dimension to your pages - and even make cute Christmas decorations.

I hope you like my page :-)

xxxxxxxxxx

Hello!

2010-11-18T13:25:00.000Z

My name is SJ Dowsett, and I am lucky enough to be guesting for the awesome Quirky Kits this month.

A quick bit about me...

I am SJ (short for Sarahjane), I am 29, a mother of one and an illustrator.

I am the creator of "Little Musings" digital images, clear stamps and custom portraits.

I live in Bexhill by the sea, with my darling husband, funny little son, who just turned 3.

Never to be found without a pencil, camera or scrapping stuff in hand, I spend my days with my little boy and a brain full of nonsense, which I put down on paper whenever I can.

I am going to be posting whenever I can, with Layouts I have created from the

"Hey Christmas Cupcake Quirky Kit"

This is my first layout - called "Little bear"

I used a mix of the papers from the kit - and some kraft cardstock.

I also couldn't wait to use one of the gorgeous cotton rolled flowers - so fab on a page - and perfect for adding a quick home made touch!

here is a close up of the LO.

I am loving this kit - ESPECIALLY the Mr Huey Studio Callico spray! DIVINE to use - the colour is rich and sits very nicely on the cardstock..

also - it seems to be less "wet" than other sprays - and I noticed that the cardstock didn't curl up as it can do with other sprays - bonus! Pretty and practical.

I hope you like my first LO - I will be back with more!

xxx

Play along and make a layout with the Hey Christmas Cupcake Quirky Kit!

2010-11-12T09:47:00.001Z

Hi!
If you have a Hey Christmas Cupcake Quirky Kit at home ready to use, why not make a start with it and create a quick simple layout like this one:

You can watch me make my layout on the video bellow. You can scrap along to the video or just watch it and then make a way better layout than mine! lol
Most of the video is in real time, (I edited out the tedious parts of me trying to get the double sided tape backing off!) so you might want to grab a cup of tea/coffee/hot chocolate etc before pressing play, it's about 14 minutes long.

If you'd like to play along in real time and make the layout you'll need to grab these things from the kit:
1 piece of Bazzill cardstock, (I used the swiss dots piece)
1 piece of patterned paper from the kit, (I used Lily Bee City Sidewalks)
The Studio Calico wood veneer stars and the backing card from the pack
The Pink Paislee tape
The Lily Bee stickers
The Pink Paislee Tinsel Ribbon
The crochet trim
The Mister Huey Color Mist
One of the Elle's Studio Tags
The Sassafras alphabet stickers
3 long pieces of kraft cardstock leftovers

I've also used an alphabet stamp, small heart stamp and a grey ink pad from my stash. The photo is a 5x7 inch one although you can use a smaller one or use two smaller photos together. You'll need double sided tape for sticking, a trimmer and a pair of scissors. You can get the Hey Christmas Cupcake Quirky Kit from the Crafty Templates store right here, http://www.craftytemplates.co.uk/heychristmascupcakekit.html

OK here we go, apologies for my mumbling my way through but hopefully you can make sense of what I'm doing from the pictures :)

Here's my finished layout. I added a couple of extra personal touches, some machine stitching to the flag stickers and some journalling along the side. Really simple and quick layout but still enjoyable. You can add more detail to your page as you choose. One thing I found using the mist is that it dries to a chalky finish so I fixed it with hair spray so it wouldn't rub off, just like you would fix a chalk ink or chalks. I think it must have lots of pigment in it to make it solid white. :)

If you've had a go at playing along with the video and making a layout post a link to it in the comments bellow I'd love to have a peek! Maybe you can set yourself a challenge of picking out the same items from the kit and creating something totally different? Go on delve into the kit, don't leave it sitting in its box!

xx Leo

New kits this November!

2010-11-01T17:25:00.002Z

We're kicking off November with a whole host of fun new kits. To begin with the new November card making kit 'Sprinkles' is available now. Sprinkles is a fun mix of bright carnival colours and vintage accessories. Check it out here. As usual the kits are great value at just £7.50 including p&p so it's a perfect little treat plus you have cards at the end of creating that you can give out to family and friends!

Next there are 4 new Crafty Bale kits - yes 4! We have the super yummy Wintergreen Park which is a fun quirky Christmas kit. Then there's Shady Terrace which is perfect for creating a spooky Halloween mini book with all the photos you took over the weekend! Then finally there are two more kits Carnival View and Cherry Blossom Lane. Check out all new Crafty Bale kits here.

Wintergreen Park Crafty Bale kit

Finally later this week into early next week will see the release of the brand new Quirky Kit! It's called 'Hey Christmas Cupcake' and it's full of yummy goodies from Lily Bee, Webster Pages, Studio Calico, Sassafras, Pink Paislee and more. I can't wait until it all comes together. I'm waiting on the last couple of shipments which should arrive later this week. Here's a quick peek. They'll also be a separate Extra Quirk kit to give the main kit an even more Quirky spin and then an add on for December Daily album making.

As soon as the new kit is online the first to know will be the Quirky Kit mailing list subscribers so if you want your name adding to the list find out the info on the Quirky Kits page, http://www.craftytemplates.co.uk/quirkykits.html

Happy crafting!

xx Leo

Create FREE kicks off!

2010-09-27T09:53:00.002+01:00

It's Monday and the start of Create FREE 10 day minibook workshop!
Class One is available now to download from the Create FREE download area, http://www.craftytemplates.co.uk/createFREE.html

Classes will continue to be added to the download area for the next 10 days. They'll be a new stage of the mini book every day to complete.

If you'd like to you can chart your progress everyday and add photos to your own blog or other space on the net. Leave a link in the comments bellow to what you're making so we can come and peek.
Enjoy Create FREE
Happy crafting!
xx Leo

Create FREE Supply List

2010-09-20T10:24:00.000+01:00

The Create FREE supply list is now available to download, just click on the link bellow.
http://www.craftytemplates.co.uk/c10free/CreateFREESupplyList.pdf

Here's a sneak peek of just a little bit of what we'll be creating next week!

Check out all the details here, http://www.craftytemplates.co.uk/create10.html

See you next Monday when Create FREE kicks off!
xx Leo

Announcing.......... Create FREE!

2010-09-16T17:39:00.003+01:00

Today we have a date for your diary! The new Create 10 will begin on Monday the 27th September. This next Create 10 will be the third so I've put a slight spin on that and instead of Create 10 3 the next Create 10 will be Create 10 FREE and so will be free for everyone to play along!
If you've never tried Create 10 before this is the perfect opportunity to give it a go. We'll be spending a little time each day for 10 days looking at inspirational ideas and techniques and putting them into practice creating a fun minibook.

As this is a free event there will be no sign ups as per regular Create 10 classes, instead you'll be able to keep up with the goings on right here on the Crafty Templates blog. There will also be a special page dedicated to Create FREE on http://www.craftytemplates.co.uk/ You can also chat about Create 10 in the UK Scrappers Create 10 group here and post pictures of what you've made in the Create 10 Flickr group here.

The supply list for the class will got out over this weekend, (18th September). All classes and the supply list will be made up as downloadable PDF files so if you can't play along during the 10 days you can keep the files or print them out to make a booklet to keep and use at your convenience. You'll be able to access the class downloads from the special Create FREE workshop download area on Crafty Templates, click on the image bellow to access it and save it to your favorites or you can also keep up with all the goings on right here on the Crafty Templates blog.

You can add the image above to your own blog if you like. Spread the word, we're going to have so much scrapping fun!
xx Leo

Bag

2010-09-09T16:35:00.004+01:00

I sat down playing with Fabric and my bag from the kit today.

This is what I came up with, I have given it to my daughter to use for school.

I really enjoyed making this :)

Claire x

She's Creative book

2010-09-07T14:02:00.005+01:00

I made this cute 6"x 12" book with the lovely kit.

To create it you will need to use

2x full sheets of craft cardstock
1x full sheet of white cardstock
1x sheet patterened paper
1x doily
1x envelope
Co-ordinating thread

Score all pieces in half top to bottom and crease well

Punch the edges of the craft cardstock then layer up as follows;

craft card punched down both the side edges
patterened paper
envelope with flap open place the fold in the centre
white cardstock
doily
craft cardstock punched top and bottom edges

Pierce along the score line and stitch the book together.

It's now ready for you to decorate as required, I used a theme of my favourite things.
The front cover is created using embellishments from the kit, I rolled up the pink tissue to create flowers, salvaged some tape from the packaging and also used the packaging that the Sassafras flowers came in.

Hope you're enjoying your kit as much as I am

Claire x

A bit more with She's Creative

2010-08-30T11:18:00.002+01:00

Here's a nice simple layout to make with the She's Creative kit.
My border was punched from the Craft cardstock and inked. The flowers are distressed with Old Paper distress ink and the title was created by laying the alpha stickers over my photograph outlining with a black pen then removing the stickers. I then slightly sanded inside the letters and added Glossy Accents to create my title.

Claire x

Mini Book Page 5

2010-08-24T18:26:00.000+01:00

Another day another page! For this one cut a rectangle of the star print paper from the kit in a size that almost covers the whole of your page, leave a gap at the top and bottom. Draw a star shape on a scrap piece of paper and cut it out. Place the star on your star paper and spray ink and mists over the top - I went with black ink and a gold mist. Remove the paper star then leave to dry or pat dry with paper towel.

Matt your photo on to a piece of patterned paper and cut out the paper leaving a large boarder. Round the edges of your photo matt. Take one of the larger paper flowers from the kit and cut it in half. Glue one half to the top of the photo matt and one half to the bottom. When the star paper is dry glue it to your page along the left side. Glue the photo piece to the right side of your page. Stick a piece of tape along the bottom of your photo then add your title over the top. Cut out small strips of paper and glue them along the top and bottom of your page. Tear one of the scalloped edged note cards from the kit in half and glue it upside down along the top of your page. Make a journalling block from a scrap of one of the plainer patterned papers and add it to your page along the lower left corner to finish.

Stop by tomorrow for the next page!

xx Leo

Rock 'n' Roll Star Sneak Peek #1

2010-08-23T17:54:00.000+01:00

The next Quirky Kit is coming together! Rock 'n' Roll Star features papers and goodies from the Pink Paislee 'Sweetness' line, Sassafras 'Count Me In' line, Sassafras 'Mix n Mend' line and as usual lots of fun quirky custom and vintage goodies.

Look out for it's arrive in September!

Vintage Holiday Minibook page 4

2010-08-23T17:52:00.000+01:00

Cut a piece of kraft cardstock to fit on your background from top to bottom and ink around then edge then add it to your page. Spray over the top of your page with black in ink a Mini mister. Cut out scallop circle shapes from three of the papers and place them along the bottom of your page. Cut out a smaller rectangle of patterned paper and punch the top with a Bind it All tool to make it look like a torn notebook edge. Glue this piece above the scallop shapes. Add some masking tape over the top of the scallop circles and the rectangle. Matt your photo on a piece of patterned paper then distress the edges. Glue the photo to your page using 3D foam pads so it's layered half over the top of the scallop circles and the rectangle. Stamp some star shapes on scraps of paper and cut them out. Doodle more stars on scraps of paper and cut them out. Layer the stars around your photo. Add a title to the top of your page. Finish with some stars doodled on your kraft cardstock and some journalling.

Stop by tomorrow for the next minibook page. The last one will feature on Thursday.

She's Creative

2010-08-22T17:01:00.003+01:00

Or rather he is in this case.

I thought I would show you how versatile this kit is and made a male page.

I am loving this kit and have lots of inspiration for you so keep checking back !!

Claire x

Vintage Holiday Mini Book page 3

2010-08-20T17:55:00.000+01:00

Round the edges of the photo and matt it to a piece of patterned paper then cut out leaving a small boarder. Distress the edges of the photo matt. Add a dab of glue or tape to the centre of the back of the matted photo and stick it to the middle of the page. Cut up small random sized rectangles of patterned paper and layer them up around the photo gluing them so they're slightly underneath the photo edges.

Add a strip of torn paper to the bottom of the page and a large rectangle of patterned paper. Add the title to the bottom of the page and a journalling spot to the top. Add two rolled roses to embellish, on this page one is made from paper and one from fabric. Distress the edges of your page to finish.

xx Leo

Vintage Holiday Minibook Page 2

2010-08-18T16:51:00.000+01:00

The second page in my 'Vintage Holiday' minibook......

Round the corners of your photo and matt it to a piece of patterned paper then cut out leaving a small boarder. Cut a larger piece of patterned paper that covers almost all of the bottom half of your page. Tear the bottom edge, matt it to your page. Layer some of the blossom embellishments from the kit around the left edge of the paper. Add two strips of patterned paper along the right edge.
Add foam pads to the back of your photo making a small pocket to accommodate a tag. Add the photo to your page. Add your title running down the right side. Make a layer of lace, paper and embellishments in the top right corner of your page to finish.

Pop by tomorrow for the next mini book page!
xx Leo

Get Creative with the 'She's Creative' Quirky Kit { vintage holiday minibook }

2010-08-17T16:28:00.003+01:00

oday I'm sharing the first part of my 'Vintage Holiday Minibook'. I've used mostly goodies from the She's Creative Quirky Kit. I'm going to begin with the minibook cover and the first page then post up a new page everyday till we're done.
Rather than buy another album I decided to make one using the packaging from the kit. This is incredibly easy to do. First decide on the size of your album pages, (if you have some page protectors already to use make your album cover large enough to accommodate them) then double it on one side, (portrait or landscape side depending on how you’d like your album orientated) and add around half an inch to accommodate your spine, you can make a deeper spine if you choose. Cut a piece of card from your pizza box to this size. In my case I decided to make a 9x7 inch size book so I cut my pizza box card to 18.5 x 7 inches. To make the spine I measured 9 inches in from each of the sides so it left a spine of half an inch then folded the sides up. For the cover I used the fabric of the tote bag from the kit. Cut the bag in half down one side then cut off the top and then wrap it around your book. Fix it in place with glue, (I used Pritt Stick) then use a sewing machine to both add decorative stitching and to help keep the cover together. I used the handle of the bag on the inside to cover over the seams and used a chunky zigzag stitch to both add a decorative look and to help keep it all together.

Because the pizza box is made from corrugated card it will squish down under the sewing machine and it does sew well – this won’t work with thicker chipboard or greyboard so don’t try it. You will need to keep the sewing machine foot lifted to get through the layers.

To add your pages to your book make two holes along the spine with a Cropodile and set two eyelets in the holes.

You can make your pages from spare pieces of card from your stash as I’ve done here or you can use a pack of page protectors. Thread two pieces of twine or string through holes in the edges of your pages.

Thread the ends of the string through the holes on your spine.

Open out your book and turn each page so the string makes a loop inside your book. Tie the ends of the thread together on the outside of your book.

The cover of the book was decorated with some lace sewn along the bottom edge, (this one is from the August card kit here) some of the Sassafras glitter stickers and 4heures37 chipboard from the kits, a lighthouse doodle drawn with Promarkers and a vintage denim rolled rose. The extra alphabet stickers are by October Afternoon.

Page 1

Cut out a background paper for your page. Spray over it with blue ink in a mini mister. Cut a piece of kraft cardstock to run from top to bottom of your page. Cut a piece of patterned paper out as a photo matt. Round the corners of both the photo and the photo matt. Fix the photo to the photo matt with some tape in the top right corner. Add some cut out pieces of paper and embellishments and position them around your photo, allow some to slide underneath and some to layer over the top. Add the journalling to the bottom half of the kraft card. Punch out some butterflies from patterned paper and glue them down the right side of the page to finish.

These page layouts you could change up to any size you like. Stop by tomorrow for the next page of the mini book. If you've already delved into your kit leave a comment bellow sharing what you've made.
xx Leo

Create 10 Goody Bag Prize Draw!

2010-08-05T12:45:00.001+01:00

During Create 10 we were very good and used up all our scraps so it makes sense that we deserve a treat! If you completed any of the classes during Create 10 and have left a link either on the Flickr group on this blog or on the UK Scrappers group you will have been entered into the draw. The winner will receive this super yum bespoke kit......

It comes in it's own little bag too which you can alter if you like or use as a tote bag for crops. There's everything you need to start creating right out of the bag!

OK here we go....
The names were written down and added to a bag then one was drawn at random. So the winner is.......

Mollymoo email me your details at enquiries@craftyprincess.co.uk and I'll get your kit in the post for you. :)

I think I've replied personally to everyone who emailed their thanks for the classes but I'll mention it here too! Thank you for taking part I'm really glad that people are getting something out of the classes and it's given you ideas and motivation to use up your leftovers. :-D
xx Leo

Apologies.........

2010-08-03T14:55:00.000+01:00

Sorry for the lateness of the Create 10 draw, just haven't got around to sorting it out yet and I'd like to take a photo of the goody bag but some of the goodies I wanted to add are still in transit :( They should arrive tomorrow because I've been waiting for aaaaaaaggggggggeeeess. Anyway just wanted to post up to let you know what's going on and that I haven't forgot about it!
xx Leo

New August Card Kit

2010-08-02T18:51:00.000+01:00

Have you seen the new August card kit - it's just out today! This time around it's called 'Chilled Out' and it's got a fun vintage summer vibe. The kit features lovely new papers from the Sassafras 'Indie Girl' line along with co-ordinating card that you can use to make shaped card bases with plus embellishments that add texture. Have a peek at the full details on the main site here.

Here's a quick card I made this afternoon using goodies from the kit. I went with a summer theme with the ice cream cones but stuck with the subtle vintage tones for a different look. The message is printed from the PC on to a scrap of kraft cardstock. The font is a fun one called 'Junko’s typewriter' you can download it from Dafont here.

xx Leo

Using it up.......

2010-07-31T17:16:00.000+01:00

Hey it's Leo and today I'm writing about using up little bits of leftovers from our kits. The newest Quirky Kit is out now, I have a bag full of goodies from it behind me sitting waiting to be played with right now. Before I went for them I noticed the baggy of leftovers from other Quirky Kits and it got me thinking. This past couple of months I've been following the mantra of waste not want not concerning leftover crafting supplies and here I am going to start on a fresh new load of goodies while still having a bag of goodies from older kits sitting on the shelf. So I decided there and then to use up these little bits and pieces first before I started on the new kit. Maybe you have some of these same bits and pieces remaining from other kits too to use up?
The best thing about using leftovers is for me that they focus you more on the creativity part of crafting. All the items are out in front of you already so there's no thinking what goes with what, it's more about how can I use this piece of paper in a different way. Anyway I'll get on to the projects I came up with.....

Here's what was in my Quirky Kits leftovers baggy.....

and here's what I made..........

I went with the idea of layers. You can use even the smallest scrap pieces of paper and build them up and up! I used straight edged shapes on the layout just cutting rectangles roughly with scissors and inking around the edges. With the notecards I went for circles starting with a brad or a button and then cutting around and around and around leaving a small layer on each time. As well as the papers I used some of the fabric and netting to create more texture. See what you can come up with using your mixed up Quirky Kit and/or card kit leftovers!
Happy crafting
xx Leo

Create 10 Card Challenge Winner

2010-07-29T17:00:00.000+01:00

On day 7 of Create 10 we had a little challenge to make a card using the techniques covered in class #7. Here's some of the cards sent in for the challenge:

By Beth

by Sandie

By Amanda

By Lou

And the winner drawn at random from the entries received was.......

Congratulations Sandie!
Email me at enquiries@craftyprincess.co.uk with your details and I'll pop one of the August Card Making kits in the post for you. This August the kit features lots of lovely Indie Girl from Sassafras Lass!

If you'd like to grab one yourself it's out on the 1st August.

If you have signed up for Create 10 don't forget there will be another prize draw on Sunday, (August 1st). All you need to do is complete at least one of the classes out of the 10 and leave a link to your work somewhere I can find it, (details of how to share your work are on the Create 10 post bellow). You'll then be entered to win the Create 10 grand prize goody bag! It's full of yum stuff from Echo Park, Elle's Studio, 4heures37, Sassafras Lass and more!

xx Leo

Create 10- Share your projects!

2010-07-16T10:00:00.028+01:00

Well it's time for another Create 10! When you have finished your class projects there are lots of ways you can share your work so we can come and see what you've made:

If you have a blog you can upload it there and then pop a comment on this post with the direct link to where you've posted your page so we can come and look
You can add your page to the Create 10 Flickr group here, http://www.flickr.com/groups/create10/
If you have a UK Scrappers account you can add images to your UK Scrappers gallery at http://www.ukscrappers.co.uk/photopost/ and leave a link to your image in the same way. Please note though only 3 images can be posted on UK Scrappers per day.

All the info about Create 10 is here. Remember you don't have to complete the projects in the 10 days you can go at your own pace. If you need a good push to get scrapping done and you can then why not take up the challenge and complete the 10 projects in the 10 days.
Another thing to remember about this times Create 10 is the idea of using up what you have be that piles of paper off cuts, random leftover embellishments or long forgotten about tools getting covered in dust. As much as you can keep this in mind as you work though the classes, you may be surprised by just how much you can get from your humble leftovers. :)

Happy scrapping!
xx Leo

New Quirky Kit out July 30th!

2010-07-15T11:36:00.001+01:00

The next Quirky kit is almost ready! Here's a quick sneak peek....

She's fun she's flirty she's a little bit 50's and most of all She's Creative!

We've got lots of cute patterned papers and fabrics, fun quirky details in the embellishments and pretty flirty fun with pink glittery alphabets and paper doilies.

'She's Creative' is out on the 30th July 2010 so make a note in your diary. You can also go on the Quirky Kits mailing list just email enquiries@craftyprincess.co.uk with 'add me to the quirky kits mailing list' in the subject and you'll be added. Once you're on the list you'll be the first to know when any new Quirky Kit goes on sale.

Two final projects with Summer Fete

2010-07-15T10:00:00.000+01:00

Here are two quick projects made with the remainder of my Summer Fete kit. This mini book is really simple to make.
Make your pages ATC size 2.5x3.5". Use a corner rounder to round the corners of your pages.
Lay two pages side by side and use the tape in the kit to tape the pages together down the middle. Fold the pages together and lay another page at the side of it and then stick the pages together with tape again. Repeat until all your pages are fixed together. Decorate your front cover to finish.

Finally I seemed to have lots of embellishments left from my kit so I decided to challenge myself to make a page just using embellishments.

The extra embellishments I've used are by October Afternoon from the Thrift shop range. A little bit of paper did sneak in but only a couple of very small leftover bits.

Don't forget about Create 10 tomorrow, they'll be a post popping up with details of how you can share your projects as you complete them.
xx Leo

Vintage card using the Summer fete kit

2010-07-06T11:53:00.004+01:00

I have been busy using up the last bits of my Summer Fete kit this morning, and as I have a friend's birthday on the 7th, I thought it would be perfect to make her a vintage style card.

I used black card for the base and used my favourite border punch on the back of the card and cut an inch strip off the front of the card to get my fancy edge.
I added a few little gems (we all have these in our stash).

I made the rose by cutting out a spiral of PP and rolling it from the outside in.

The foliage was cut from one of the De lovely Cosmo cricket papers and I reversed a journalling card from the kit and added a bit of pink chalk ink to get the effect I wanted.

The very versatile tape in the kit works perfectly as a strip of ribbon running down the length of the card.

I hope you are all enjoying using up your kits

Claire xx

More Summer Fete kit ideas

2010-06-30T17:45:00.006+01:00

The Summer Fete kit is perfect for mini books.

To make the base for my book I used my Scallop Tag die and the craft cardstock.

(All you will need to add for this project is a few scraps of ribbon and a book-ring)

The pages were all decorated with photographs approx 1.5" x 1.5" and of course the cover I just had to use that stunning rose embellishment and fabric bunting.

Here are the inside pages

Claire x

Nice Ices

2010-06-26T11:15:00.001+01:00

Hi there, Kathy here

I thought I'd show you another card I've made using the fab ice cream cone template in the June set.

For this one, I've resized the templates to about 5cms high before cutting them out. I wanted to keep the colours really simple so have cut all the "ice cream" sections from the same cream colour. Before layering everything up I inked all the edges of the various pieces.

The card blank is made from pale pink card which has a lovely pearlescent sheen, I used an offcut to make the oval using a Nesties die

The brown panel was embossed with the Cuttlebug "Distressed Stripes" folder. I found this lovely cream ribbon with "sprinkles" on it in my ribbon stash and matched the colours on the ribbon with some tiny gems - I love how those tiny pin pricks of extra colour really lift the basic colour scheme.

The little quote piece was pc generated and printed in dark brown lettering on the same cream card as the ice creams were made from.

Hope you like it

Happy Crafting

Quick Summer Fete Kit Idea

2010-06-20T18:53:00.000+01:00

Just wanted to share a quick idea using the Summer Fete Quirky Kit for those of you who have one at home, (these kits are all sold out now).

Summer usually whizzes by and it can be difficult to grab some time to catch the small things so I thought of this idea to make some really mini layouts that can be added to quickly and easily. You could make a whole bunch of them up before hand and add the odd photo as you take them.

Grab some of your papers and cut them down to 3x3 inches, (I'm making a 6x12 size page here but if you're making a 12x12 cut the papers to 4x4).

Use a corner rounder to round the corners of each piece. You could also use a boarder punch to make the top and bottom edges a different shape.

Decorate the squares with your choice of embellishments from the kit, don't forget to leave room for photos.

Give some of the squares journalling blocks.

Take a piece of clear acetate and cut it to the same size as your page. Use doublesided tape to fix the squares to your acetate. You'll need to add them front and back.

Pop your page in a page protector.

I've added the more dimensional embellishments I've made over the top of the page protector to give them a cleaner look. You could make up several of these pages before hand so they're ready to record your summer exploits or it could be a cool way of scrapbooking lots and lots of photos taken on holiday or on a day trip.

xx Leo

P.S if you've not already heard the news Create 10 is back for July! You can read all the details here on the main Crafty Templates site. I've been working hard this past couple of months making a ton of new ideas for you and editing them down to a refined list of 10 really cool projects. Actually there are more than 10 projects this time as there's home decor and scrapbooking versions of classes plus an extra class every day to use up leftovers! I'll leave you with a sneaky peek - this is just one of the exercise books I've been scribbling in and this is a project I've picked out that we'll be making if you're playing along in July!

More Quirky Kit Inspiration

2010-06-11T12:40:00.005+01:00

Hi it's Leo here! Today I've got some things to share I've been making with Quirky Kits so hopefully you'll be able to grab some ideas of what to do with you kits.

With this first project I've grabbed the 'What's the Story?" Quirky kit and the mini 'Sew Embellishy' fabric Quirky Kit.

A-Z mini book

One of the ideas behind the 'What's the Story?' kit is that the neutral colours can work as a base for you to add in your own personal style or to tell a particular story, (i.e add in colours taken from your photos). With this in mind I picked out the bright fun coloured fabrics from the Sew Embellishy mini Quirky Kit because of my love of fun bright colours and pattern. Don't forget that you can easily add your own personal style or taste to the What's the Story kit to give you a completely different look.

As well as the two kits I also used up some spare page protectors I had. These started as American Crafts 6x6 size but I trimmed 1 inch off the top which made them roughly 5x7 size, (including the binding at the edges).

This is going to be an A-Z minibook so I needed 26 sides, one for each letter, but I didn't have enough page protectors so I split the pages in half by stitching a line down the center. The easiest way I've found to do this so you get a straight edge is to cut a piece of card the same size as half of your page protector and pop it inside butting it right up to the right hand side edge. After that you just stitch as close to the edge of the card as possible. When you've done remove the piece of card and you have two pockets in your page protector.
If you haven't got a sewing machine there's still a way you can make two pockets from one page protector using the sticky tape from the What's the Story kit.

Just wrap the tape around the middle of your page protector making sure you tape over the top edge. It creates a boarder that well defines your two pages.

You can also see now I've added some of the fabric from the Sew Embellishy kit along the bound edges of the page protector. This helps to disguise the ugly holes along the page protector binding.

All you need to do for this is cut out strips of fabric and wrap them around the binding edge then sew them in place. I did find this was easier if I added a bit of doublesided tape to fix the fabric in place before sewing then it didn't slip around. If you don't have a sewing machine just go with the double sided tape. You could add some hand stitching if you wanted to using the embroidery thread from the Sew Embellishy kit.

After you have enough pockets/sides - one for each alphabet - make holes along the binding edge one at the top and one at the bottom and then add eyelets to each hole to stop the fabric fraying. Fix together all your pages with book rings. For my cover I used the micro-corrugated card, glued back to back to strengthen it.

I've decorated the cover with goodies from the What's the Story kit, the red Prima flower is from my own stash. The mini alphabets I've stuck down on to cork and cut them out to give them a 3D look. I really love these mini alphas they really stick down well on lots of different surfaces. I've made a 'hanger' from the red lace ribbon tying it between the two book rings.

The inside of the book is really simple. All I've done is print out my photos to fit in their relevant spaces inside my album and popped them inside backing them on to scrap pieces of paper from my stash. I've then added the titles and journalling on top of the page protector.

The Pink Paislee chipboard letters from the kit are great for this kind of A-Z project because they make perfect monograms.

The only letter I couldn't think of anything for was Z! I thought maybe catching ZZZZ's although I think I'm more of the staying awake with coffee kind! Will have to wait for inspiration to strike in the Z department.

Fabric 'Embroidery' bag project

For this next project I've used the canvas bag from the What's the Story kit, (your kit comes packaged in a canvas tote making it really easy for you to 're-use' your packaging!) some more of the fabric from the Sew Embellishy kit and the embroidery thread from both kits, (black and grey). I've also used an embroidery hoop and a Crafty Template.

First you need to cut a piece of plain fabric and fix it in an embroidery hoop. I guess it's not essential to use one of these but it makes it slightly easier to work with I think. I'm using an extra piece of canvas but you could use any old plain or patterned fabric.

Next I've printed out a Crafty Template. You can use a template or you can hand cut out some shapes from fabric. This template is from the June 2008 set if you want to download it from the subscribers area.

If you're using a paper template it's really easy to cut out fabric shapes this way. First cut out roughly around your template.

Add paper glue, (like Pritt stick) to the back of the paper and stick it over the top of the patterned fabric you want to use.

Cut out the design following the lines on the paper so you're cutting through both the paper and the fabric. It's lots easier to cut out this way, especially if you have a more intricate shape like this one.

Here I'm cutting out the shapes from the template that make up the design using a different patterned fabric.

Here I'm starting to build up the picture on my fabric. I'm making use of small leftovers of fabric to cut out embellishments.

Here's the completed embroidery. I've used a pattern from a fabric, (this Eiffel tower one was in the Hot Date Quirky Kit) and cut out the shapes from it to use so even if you don't have a template to work from you can cut out patterns from a fabric. The stitched writing is really simple to do I did mine free hand because I wanted more of a 'quirky' look but if you wanted to make it neater you could draw on the letters first and stitch over the top.

When you're happy with your embroidery take it off the hoop and iron it flat. I know it's a pain getting out the iron in summer, I had to hunt around for mine!

And here's what I did with it....

I made a 6x6 inch pocket and stitched it to the front of the canvas bag from the What's the Story kit. The canvas tote bag is already the perfect size for 12x12 papers and adding the 6x6 pocket means I can use my tote for 12x12 and 6x6 size papers. Great for on the go or alfresco summer scrapping! Oh and you defo don't need mad sewing skills to do this as you can tell I defo do not have the said mad sewing skills but I'm still pretty happy with how my tote turned out and I had lots of fun making it so you should defo have a go.

Because the tote is plain canvas you can also use it as a plain canvas and paint on to it! Maybe I can do that on the opposite side? Hmmmmm

I've since done more of these fun fabric embrodery pictures like this one above.

And I've made this one into a notebook cover:

So even if you didn't want a bag you can cut it up and use the fabric for other projects.

Happy Quirky Kitting!

xx Leo

Hello

2010-06-10T12:15:00.005+01:00

Hello all you lovely crafty people!

I'm a new member to the Quirky kit design team, lucky lucky me!!

I have been fortunate enough this month to receive this super quirky kit from the shop !

The Summer Fete kit is just crammed with goodies, it contains some very unusual beautiful embelishments.

Kids are back at school this week so the looking and stroking have had to finally end and I have started using my kit.

Using just a few bits from my kit, I selected the hotter zingy colours to make this layout of our crazy pooch, the colours worked perfectly with my daughters sun hat!

To create this layout i used the stripy pp and cut out 2 flowers from the co-ordinating pp. I used a border punch and a small amount of paper tearing to allow small amounts of the paper to peek out from behind my photographs. Adding in a few of the embelishments from the kit really lifted my page.

Hope you like

Claire x

Julie: Male-friendly mini-album

2010-05-27T08:12:00.001+01:00

Hi all, how's things with you?

Have you been using your 'What's the Story?' Quirky kit? I have and as I mentioned at the end of my previous post I've been turning some of it into a man-friendly project, which isn't always an easy thing to achieve in papercrafting!

I daren't share it with you before now as I'd made it as a birthday gift for my partner. But as his birthday has now come and gone .... here it is:

While the cover is the front of an old map which I found in a second-hand book shop for £1:00 - the spine is made from a strip of the light kraft micro-corrugated card from the kit.

I wanted to make good use of its flexible properties and, as I've used a similar technique to make an album spine before, this struck me as an ideal use for it: I also made a pocket page from the card, blanket stitching it in place using the kit's embroidery thread: I adore the double sided spots / grid design from the 4heures37 ‘les basiques’ range. Here I simply folded over the paper down the inner edge making both patterns visible at once. I then aged the paper using, appropriately enough, a Ranger Distress Ink in 'Old Paper': Continuing with the aged and worn feel - which seemed somewhat more manly than some papercrafting techniques - I made an additional pocket-page from the Glitz Designs 'Kismet Stripe' patterned paper and some large eyelets: And here's what the pages look like all together:

Both me and [hopefully] my partner are going to be adding photos and journalling about the various places he's lived and traveled to .. or photos etc from this year ... we're not quite sure yet.

What I am sure of is that [a] I really love the 4heures37 range of papers. Really! and [b] once you remove the pretty elements from the 'What's the Story?' kit there's an extremely man-project-kit hidden in there. [And when I say 'remove' them I mean - grab all the pretty trimmings, cute buttons and fabric embellishments and use them on your own projects!].

As always we're eager to see what you've made from any of your Quirky kits. Link us up in a comment below, in the UKScrappers forum 'Quirky kit' thread or the Crafty Templates Flickr group. Let's face it, you can never see too many papercrafting projects can you?

I'd be especially interested if you too have managed to produce a 'man-friendly' project with your 'What's the Story?' kit!

Whatever you're making, enjoy your crafting.

Julie :)

Julie: Decorating your 'Quirky Kit' canvas bag

2010-05-12T14:32:00.000+01:00

If you've already received the latest Quirky Kit: 'What's the Story?' then you'll know all about the packaging 'surprise' that Leo kept teasing everyone about. If you haven't already got yours- you can see details of the kit here - but I'll let you in on the secret right now[don't tell Leo - OK? - OK! ;)

All of the gorgeous papers and embellishments in the kit come packed inside a plain cream calico bag which you could use as a shopping bag, as storage for your stash, a tote to take along to your crops/crafting days; or as a protective case for one of your smaller albums.

And you could simply take it out of the box and start using it without doing another thing to it - if you wanted to. But why would you want to when you could customise it with some of the beautiful fabric and 'stitchy' themed embellishments which come along with it in the 'What's the Story?' kit?

So where are you going to begin decorating your calico bag? Well, how about you start off slowly, warm yourself up - crafty-wise - and simply pin the 2 badges from the kit onto it! It's a start .... and we don't want to peak too early do we? ;)

I recently customised a bag very similar to the one in my 'What's the Story?' kit and I used lots of previous Quirky Kit items to decorate my blank canvas: To create something similar with your calico bag begin by looking through your scraps of fabric from your stash and items left over from previous Quirky Kits - [which always include at least one fabric item and often includes many more].

The fabric [with the tree and buildings pattern] below came from the 'Hot Date' kit:As you can see I layered up the fabrics with embellishments in exactly the same way I would would with a layout.

To secure my fabric in place I used some iron-on adhesive tape [like wonda-web] to hold it - then hand stitched around the edges for more of a decorative effect.

Once your fabrics are in place began start adding your 'What's the Story?' embellishments one at a time until you're happy with them. There's:

the length of zig zag edge lace, the Japanese ‘sewing labels’ printed cotton tape;
the length of red lace covered ribbon and herringbone cotton tape;
fabric rose bud embellishment and the fabric heart patch embellishment.

Some of my fabric embellishments came from past Quirky Kits. This 'Create' tag came from the 'Resolutions' kit: .... as did the ribbon [far left] which I machine stitched to my bag handles:The beauty of this sort of project is that you can keep adding to it over time - it needn't all be completed using one kit. There's plenty of room for any additions from future Quirky Kits too!

For more ideas of the kind of items you can use to decorate your bag, pop over to this post on my Copy + Paste blog, which features more photos of my bag [there's even a giveaway!].

If you're eager to start adding colour to your plain bag then have a look at the brand new 'Sew Embellishy' Mini-Quirky-Kit which contains some very pretty fabric, felt, buttons, sequins and even thread: For iniration on how to turn your raw materials into unique embellishments [which you could then add to your bag or a card or layout] check out Leo's fabric embellishments tutorial here.

Happily [but probably unsurprisingly as Leo's kits are always impeccably co-ordinated!] eveything in the Sew Embellishy kit will also work beautifully with the upcoming, colourful 'Summer Fete' Quirky kit:

Exciting sneak-peek eh?

When you get around to decorating your 'What's the Story' calico bag remember to share it with us won't you? We have a 'Crafty Templates' Flickr group which you're welcome to join and contribute to. Plus we're always happy for you toleave us a comment linking us to your projects on your own blog or your UKScrappers galleries too.

I'll be back soon with more from 'What's the Story?' - where the story was 'I need to make a man-friendly-mini-album'!

Until then, happy crafting!

Julie :)

Sew Embellishy

2010-05-07T18:38:00.006+01:00

Today we're going to look at some very fun and easy ways to create some embellishments using your 'Sew Embellishy' mini Quirky Kit. If you have a kit you won't need anything extra apart from a needle and a pair of scissors. If you don't have a kit gather together some fabric, felt, sequins, embroidery thread and buttons. One top tip for making fabric embellishments is to have a favorite pair of scissors to keep just for fabric. These don't have to be specialised fabric scissors any sharp pair of scissors will suit the job but make sure you keep them exclusive to fabric use as cutting paper with them will blunt your scissors. OK on to the fun stuff!

To make this embellishment stitch one large button on a piece of felt then stitch smaller buttons around it.

Cut out the buttons in a circle leaving a small edge of felt.

Stitch the felt circle to a piece of fabric with small stitches all around the edge of the felt.

Cut it out leaving a small edge of fabric.

Stitch this on to another piece of fabric this time using a blanket stitch all around the edge. All this means is just stitching top to bottom instead of side to side.

Cut it out to finish.

To make this embellishment you need 1 fabric, embroidery thread and one large button.

Cut out a small square of fabric, roughly 1 inch square and fold it in half.

Cut out half a heart shape, it's rounded at the top and then goes to a point, this is how most people would cut a heart shape from paper.

Cut out three of these hearts and layer them together in a flower shape then fix with a button in the center. When cutting the thread at the back of your flower leave one edge long to create a 'stalk'.

You can make other embellishment by folding fabric like this butterfly. Fold the fabric in half and cut out half a butterfly shape then open out to reveal how your butterfly looks. You can use this as is with a raw edge or applique it on to another piece of fabric or felt.

For this one you'll need three fabrics and embroidery thread.

Tear off a long strip of fabric about 1.5 inches wide. Stitch a loose running stitch down one side. When you've got to the end pull the thread so it gathers up the fabric and stitch the ends together to keep it gathered.

Cut out two leaf shapes from a different fabric and layer them one on top of the other. Fix to your gathered fabric piece with one stitch in the center.

Cut out a small strip of fabric and fold it in half lengthwise. Stitch a running stitch along the folded edge and pull tight as before. Stitch the ends together but keep your thread fixed on.

Push your needle up through the middle of your 'rosette' and then push the needle back through so you leave a loop of thread, keep doing this several times then secure at the back and trim the thread off.

Cut the loops of thread and trim them down. Sew or glue this to the middle of your embellishment.

For this one get your strung sequins, felt and pearl buttons from your kit.

Strung sequins are great for making shapes as they're nice and 'fluid' you can bend them into shapes. You can make a very simple leaf shape, make one on your piece of felt then stitch in place. If you prefer you can glue them down even.

Cut out the leaf shape from the felt and stitch on a couple of buttons on the inside. This could also be a way to make a flower embellishment creating one of these for each petal.

This is a really simple one, you'll need one fabric, thread and one button.

Tear off a strip of fabric along the longest length, (10 inches). Fold it up in a concertina fashion so you end up with a roughly 1 inch square.

On one of the open edges round off the edge.

Open out your fabric and you should have a pattern like this on one edge.

Stitch a running stitch along one edge

Pull the thread tight so the fabric gathers.

Stitch the two open edges together to fix in place.

Sew a button in the middle to finish. You could also add a brad in the center if you wanted.

This one is made in a similar way

Concertina your strip of fabric as before but this time cut one of the open edges off in a point.

When you open out your fabric it should look like this

This time when you do your running stitch take care to add one stitch underneath each 'point'

Pull tight and then stitch the open edges together at the back to fix in place.

Open out the 'petals' and stitch a button in the center to finish.

This one just needs fabric

Tear off some thin long strips of fabric

Take one of the strips and tie a knot in it then trim it down.

Tie another strip the opposite way. Keep going until you've build up your 'flower' as large as you want it. These make great embellishments to use as pins on bags.

Now I've made all these different embellishments and still have this much of the kit left...

So we'll have to make some more another day.

What can you come up with? If you've made something fun share the link in the comments.

xx Leo