Oooh look!!

I know things have been a bit quiet on here for a little while but the continuing lack of Internet and my crazy schedule has priced more than challenging of late! 

I did come across something this evening that looked very exciting and thought I'd share it, another new venture by Tim Holtz that looks very exciting - fabric! Like many scrapbookers, I have a passion for many crafts and one of my first loves was sewing. This developed into dressmaking and there are more than a few brides who wore my creations on their special day. There have been a few fabric designers who have already crossed over their work into the realm of paper (Amy Butler for K&Co for one) but this is the first time I'm aware of talent crossing back the other way. The idea of Tim's designs being available on fabric has my brain whirring away! How cool would it be to combine the paper and fabric together in a project? Ooh I think I need a lie down!! I for one will be keeping an eye out for this!

Total Papercrafts April kit 2 sample layout

The single page kit for April features 7gypsies papers together with a brown inkpad and a palette knife. Why a palette knife I hear you ask?? Well the reason is we're including a recipe to make your own texture paste!
Just lately it seems like everyone is adding texture pastes, gesso or other art mediums to their layouts. We took the hint and decided to create a layout with a touch of texture. The great thing is you'll never have to buy texture mediums, after you've tried this recipe you'll be set for life! If you're not into messy stuff on your layouts then the design will work just as well without it - you could use the ink pad and a stencil instead!
The kit includes; Cardstock, 4 sheets of double sided patterned paper, ink pad, palette knife and full step by step instructions.
The sample uses a 7" x 5" landscape photo and a 3" x 4" portrait photo. I added a few cream paper flowers and some leaves but you can very easily punch or cut these from the card in the kit.
This is a great kit for every day photos, you could add more smaller pictures or opt for a single larger shot. It's a very adaptable kit in shades of off-white, blue and red.

Bonus design by Pat

Our club organisers are such a talented group of individuals and I love seeing what they produce with their kits. Even if they decide to use the sample design, they usually rustle up something extra from the leftovers. I think the ideas for leftovers are great so I really want to share them with you!!
Pat Couder runs the Bromley club and has a fab eye for design. She posted these two layouts into her blog today using the March double page kit I hope the layout from the scraps gives you a few ideas!!

Win free stuff!!

Fancy winning a pair of earrings by House of Wonderland? Tess has very kindly sent me a pair of 'Love Heart' earrings to give away to one of my customers and so I thought we'd have a bit of fun.
To be in with a chance of winning these (which could make great embellishments too!) all you need to do is post a picture of one of your Total Papercrafts kit layouts or projects on our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/totalpapercraft

You can post any kit layout you have created or even a project you've completed using one of our kits. The closing date for posting your layouts is midnight on 30/4/13 and the more layouts you post, the more entries you will have!!

Good luck!!

Bonus designs by Jackie

Our Essex club organiser, Jackie da Silva, has created two great layouts using our kit 1 for April. If you want to create both of these designs you'll need to add an additional sheet of cardstock. It's great to see some alternative options using our kit!

Just for your info, following our move the only Internet access we have right now is via our phones. This means that accessing emails, orders and most other things are proving almost impossible. We have our installation booked for next week but in the meantime please bear with us!

Total Papercrafts kit 1 for April

Our double page kit for April features papers and wooden flourishes from Kaisercraft. I love the gorgeous soft minty green and black colour combo of these papers and the vintage style prints are absolutely up my street!
The sample design uses two 6" x 4" portrait photos - for some reason my photos were bleached out when I took a photo of the finished page. I have no idea why because in real life they are strong images but I think you get the idea from this picture. I added some white paper flowers and leaves to the kit but they aren't essential as you could make flowers from the leftover paper from the kit. I also used a scallop edge punch but don't worry if you don't have one, any punch would do.

The kit includes; Cardstock, 4 sheets of double sided patterned paper, a pack of wooden leaf flourishes, piece of plastic mesh.

We have a fun technique in this kit using mesh as a stencil to create a great patterned background.

Keep an eye out tomorrow for a fab alternate design using exactly the same kit!

Bonus idea from scraps!

Tracey from the Sawbridgeworth club is very creative and always comes up with fab ideas. After making up her sample page with the March kit 2, she started playing with the leftovers and came up with this gorgeous project....
She used one of the new Prima doll stamps and the Prima Lyric papers in our kit to create a gorgeous tag. How stunning would this look added to a card or attached to a special gift?
I love seeing the great stuff created with the leftovers from our kits and sharing the ideas here. If you would like your ideas featured on our blog then please get in touch with a pic and we will share it with the world!!