sugar and spice

Hello All I am soon to turn 30 and I have decided to make a list of things I want to achieve before the big day. I won't bore you with the list (its far too long) but I wanted to create a LO to mark the occasion. I went for bold colours but wanted the LO to still be girly. I used my favourite stamp Scribble flowers and used the great glossy accents to make them shiney and make them stand out. I also used one of the smaller scribble flowers and again I coated them in glossy accents. I used the quote stamps but only inked the birthday part and used this to create a border across the center piece of card and also down the side of the main piece of card. You could do this with any of the words on the stamps. They make great borders. I hope you like my project Louise x x

Well, after a really hectic month, with one thing and another, i needed to create something bright and happy, so using Scribble flowers stamps , as they are so cute, i love the flowers on these, I created this 'Happy' birthday card. Obviously it had to be pink, as i just seem to do pink... nothing planned, just turns out that way! I stamped flowers all over a plain white piece of card, using memento Angel Pink , and stamped the Happy greeting using black memento and Rose Bud inks. I then used Martha Stewart Doily punch to create a border, and using white ribbon , wrapped and knotted it over, after stampin 'Birthday' onto it again using Memento black. I finished off the flowers with a diamante Gem and added few to the edge, just to fill the gap, all in all, was quite pleased with the finished card and yes... it did make me feel happy! Heres the stamp sets i used ... Scribble Flowers Stamps Till next time, Take care Nicki x

You'd have been hard presssed to have missed the recent launch of the remastered Beatles Albums, which meant that there was a lot of their music playing on the radio recently. All you need is love seemed like the perfect title for a wedding layout. I love this photo, taken by our mutual friend Phil Bradley, it shows the couple looking relaxed and enjoying their day. He's a bit of a whizz and turned it black and white for me, just leaving the flowers in colour it highlights their colourscheme for the whole day. I used my faithful standby, the Scribbles Sentiments to stamp 'love' along the bottom of the white mat and the hearts from the same set on the photo itself in a blank space. The choice of font for the title and the relaxed way I set it out hopefully reinforce the less formal feel of the picture, but the papers keep a more classic wedding feel. I hope you like it.

Hello everyone, Are you a savoury or a sweet person? I am definitely in the sweet camp, I have a really sweet tooth and love all things sugary, so when Marion sent me the gorgeous 'happy birthday with a cherry on top' stamp set, the first thing that sprung to mind were all the delicious sweet treats I love to eat. I decided to create a LO recording all my favourites and used the number stamps in the set to record my top ten (took a bit of narrowing down LOL) and stamped each number using black versafine ink onto patterned paper which I then cut out and stuck onto my cardstock. I then used the cupcake and the cherry stamps to make an embellishment for my page. I wanted the cupcake to be three dimensional, so began by stamping the bottom half of the cupcake twice onto patterned paper, then I scored and folded the image like a concertina and glued each piece together, to make the paper case. I then stamped the top half onto pink cardstock and gave it a generous coating of stickles...

Hello peeps! Phew we have been super busy in the shop the past few weeks. Not only have we had HUGE amounts of new stock, we have had the arrival of Edith the EPOS machine. She is wonderful and very clever! And then to top it all off we have had to get ready for The Big Stamp and Scrapbooking show at Ally Pally. Are you going too? So when I sat down to relax with paper and wine, I produced this..... Now stitching on your page might seem like a brave thing to do but it really is quite easy. There are a few thing that do make it easier though, like my fave piercing tool and a nice springy matt so you don't get loads of random creases in the page. Now starting off with a frame like mine is a good start. I didn't want it to be all lined up and straight as this didn't go with my fun page. This means that it can be wonky but right! Also the other brave party of the page was using naked chip board! Hey why does he always have to be painted? After all there are no rules in scrapbo...

This is a LO designed around a picture of two very special ladies in my life. Both have been through the same horrible illness and both have come through it with a determination to live life to the fullest. I thought I would have a go at producing my own pattern paper with matching ribbon and embellishments for this entry. Both Marion and Sandra love gardening and so flowers had to be the theme. The colours were inspired by Marion's top. I started with a white card stock and randomly stamped large scribble flowers over it using a watermark stamp, and heat embossed them with white pearl embossing powder. Then using a baby wipe, I padded contrasting green and blue ink over the whole page. I used the more textured side of the card stock as it kind of looked like a rough weave when inked. I then repeated the embossing process, this time using the Cherish yesterday, Dream tomorrow, Live today stamp and this time, white heat embossing powder. I wanted the sentiments to be and el...

As all the leaves are falling from most of the trees around us and during the early morning there has been a bite in the air I have taken my colour choices from the season Autumn. It's well on its way! And for many of us our kiddos have returned back to school... with a little 'yippee!' from us crafty peeps out there :) I used the scribble sentiments set, which if you haven't laid your hands on yet... you need to! It is one of the most versatile, with lovely words in the most delish font. I *heart* this one so much. After layering all my paper on my layout up, I freehand (yes!) cut some wobbly and shaky circles. The whole layout just needed alittle bit of plain to balance up all the patterns. I then inked around the edges (I love the momento brown ink we have in, it's one of the best dark, deep browns that i've found) and still using this ink I stamped the 'love' and 'you' from the scribble sentiments. I stamped around the random sized, freehan...

Hi everyone, kids back at school, husband back at work, what better than to have a photo 'wall hanging' to see them all.....................anyone would think that I missed them! For this project I cut some frames out of chipboard using a die cutting machine, mine being a cuttlebug, I also cut out the same amount of frames in acetate. The chipboard frames are painted in a black acrylic paint and then overlaid with the acetate. Before overlaying, I used a lovely frame stamp from sugar and spice and stamped on the acetate using stazon cotton white . The stamps used in this project are called fancy flourishes and also contain some fab corner stamps. I covered the back of the frames in a black and white paper continuing the theme. I also added an extra solid frame at the top of the 'wall hanging', and by writing on it made it personal to me. Bye for now and happy crafting!

Hello again everyone For my project this time I wanted to do something a little different. I was inspired by my friends baby shower. Someone bought her a mobile, it was so beautiful and I decided to have a go at making one. Not a great photo. but I will replace with a better one ASAP For this I used the scribble flowers stamps. I stamped onto pink card and cut the flower part out. I covered them in glossy accents to make them slightly stronger. Once dry I pierced a hole in the middle for my thread to pass through. I used an acrylic flower that I coloured pink using alcohol inks as the top of the mobile and then strung beads and the flowers onto thread, the embellishments stay in place on the thread by making little knots. I attached pink ribbon at the top to hang the mobile. I hope you like my project Louise x x

Hello fellow ATN's (all things nice). The good news is the weekend is almost upon us. And that's rarely a bad thing! I'm all organised this time round and have my project ready in advance. Wonders will never cease. I've only used one set of stamps this time, the gorgeous Happy Birthday with a Cherry on Top set, and got to play with my stickles collection. Cupcakes, stamping and stickles. Perfect night in really. Ok with wine and friends then. With the exception of the pink vellum, I made this entirely from bits and bobs I had in my stash, scraps of paper, ribbon, stickles and the threading water punch. You have to love card making for that. I built up layers of stickles on the 'frosting' of the cupcake to give it dimension and mounted it and the cherry on foam pads. Two layers of ribbon also add interest. I only used a single layer of vellum inside the card rather than a full insert to keep the colour light. Happy stamping!

Hello everyone :) For my next project the stamps I have used are from the 'In a word' and 'Love and Laughter' sets. When looking at the four main stamps from the In a Word set, I thought that they would make great gift tags, so without further ado, I put my theory to the test and here is my finished gift bag: I used my cricut to cut out the template for the bag, using the inchbag cut from the tags, bags and more cartridge. For those who don't have a cricut, I found this site through google which has a section with lots of templates that are free for your own personal use including a similar bag template to this one. Once I'd cut out my template I cut the bag in half so the top and bottom half measure 3"wide and used a punch along the top edge of the box. I then cut a 1.5 inch wide piece of clear transparency and used the with love word, stamping randomly over the transparency with red stazon ink. When dry I then attached it to both sections of the box w...

How many little pots of odd Brads, Buttons and little Gem Stones have you got in your stash and never seem to get around to using? Well this is a simple way of using them up. I love black and white cards. It's my thing at the mo. That and Kraft paper.........natural and raw........but that is another project. I used all the flower stamps from the various sets of Sugar and Spice clear stamps , stamping them on plain white card with black ink. Using a black glaze pen, I dotted some and drew straight lines on others rather than colouring in the petals. Even a black glaze pen on solid black stamped petals adds interest. But the flowers still needed a little something to liven them up when I placed them on the card. So in the centre of each flower I added a small coloured brad, button or little gem to give just a hint of colour. The sentiment "Just for You" is from the new All Lined Up clear stamps . I love this sentiment because it's not just for a Birthday is it? Why He...

Hello!! Well, this week Autumn has well set in... wind and rain... yuk!! And of course the birthday season has kicked in ... :) Both my kiddos birthdays are in September and so here's a cute card for the little man in my life! I used scribble sentiments which can be found here... I also used the little letter stickers we stock from my little shoebox. Combining both gives you alittle more texture and a cute sentiment 'Snappy Birthday' :D I covered a card with patterned paper and a strip of green cardstock and satin ribbon. I hand cut that sweet, long croc from some of our kaiser paper and mounted on 3d foam. To enhance his spots and nostrils I blobbed on glossy accents to give an epoxy finish, you could sprinke with alittle glitter too while wet if you fancied a glitzy croc! So for those of you who have birthdays in September... Happy Birthday! Love, Polly!

Hi everyone, is it really the 1st? Where has the summer gone??? Or should I say where has the year gone?! The kids will back at school later this week and as much as I'm going to miss them, I'm secretly looking forward to some organised chaos in my life again. Anyway, on with todays project............................... The paper I've used in this project was from sugar and spice , one of many fab papers I own, and like many crafters, have problems using, because for some reason we just collect them, feel the embossing and glitter, and can't possibly use them. So from today I've decided to start using my stash because there is always more to collect. I love dimension on a layout and I felt I managed to do this without making the project too bulky. On the plain background, I used two flower stamps from Happy Birthday Flower clear stamps. The solid daisy stamp gave a great effect on the bazzill card. I then overlaid some flowers that were punched from the patterned ...