Happy Birthday Countdown!

Have you been following our 40 days blog hop? Well in case you haven't...we're celebrating the upcoming 40th Birthday of our very own *GUV*, with a prize challenge every single day until the day itself!

Today is day 6 {I think!}, so you're not too late to join in...and here is today's challenge...I want to see your LO's, minibooks, cards or ATC's celebrating the best thing that ever happened on your Birthday...whatever it is...a special someone coming to visit...and special present...or a super outing...I want to know what is the best Birthday you've had, and why?

Because its Challenge Saturday, you have all month to enter, by e-mailing your projects to our Guv, and posting in the comments section below. The prize will be...to win the little book I've made below *40 things that make me happy* and a selection of goodies to enable you to easily finish the book {with your own journalling and photos...you probably don't want a book recording the things that make *ME* happy, right? ;) }

You will also get a kit from the Guv, enabling you to be the next months' Guest Designer...so what are you waiting for!!!

The book I've made is bound on a BIA and all the papers are from the Fancy Pants Crush and Sweet Pea collections. I've used velvet ric rac, American crafts ribbons, a cute charm and assorted *bling*.

Do join in the fun...and I can't wait to see all your creations!! :)

Challenge # 30 - Innovative Scraps

Hi everyone it's my turn to do the challenge this week and it's "Innovative Scraps". I have lots of scraps left in a box and I didn't want to throw them away so I thought what can I do different with them. So I have made two cards and two ATCs using the papers as strips. I paper weaved with them to give them a different look.

My first two pieces are baby cards. One for a boy and one for a girl.

I used HOTP papers from a HOTP personal shopper monthly kit for all of the card. All the kits from the shop have massive reductions on them, card kits and scrapbook kits. You can't go wrong with them , there are stacks of papers and embellies in the box. And you can make soooo much with them. They even come with a little idea booklet if you get stuck for ideas!
So for the large square in the middle of the two cards I weaved two contrasting papers. I also added a strip of one of the papers to the top of the cards. I then added the text using a rubber stamp. Lots to choose from at the shop and lots of bargains to be had on these too! 75% in most cases! To finish the cards off I added a little tied ribbon to the left hand corners of the text layer.

My next two items are ATCs. Again I used papers from a HOTP monthly kit. Both backgrounds are paper weaved in contrasting papers. For the first one I added a little label covered in two papers, tearing one to add some dimension. I then added a good luck charm to a little bit of ribbon with a brad and attached it to the label. The charms are brilliant I think I've added them to almost all of my projects. And if you take a little look in the shop you'll see that they have 70% off making them 90p for 6 metal charms!! What a bargain! There are lots of different themes to choose from too. For the second ATC I again used some paper weaving for the background and added a black slide edged with a silver pen. To the middle I again added one of the good luck charms which says "Go for it" and attached it to a piece of ribbon. On both ATCs I used a button for the right hand corners. They were both originally red but I coloured the second one silver with a pen. I thought they both needed some sort of text on them so to simplify I added the "good luck" on both of them by using a Helix alphabet stencil.

Why not try an "innovative way" of using your scraps and show us all here at Blog 'Til You Drop? You could win a prize at the end of the month by emailing us and we will then put your work in our gallery. If yours is the best one judged by the Design Team you'll be winning the prize.

Don't forget to leave us a message at the end of this posting so that we can all go and see your work.

A Vintage Set

My turn again and today I'm showing you a vintage set comprising of a tag, a door hanger and an ATC.

For this tag I cut out the basic tag shape from some card and covered it with the lovely Sara's vintage papers from HOTP. The little piece at the bottom is black glimmer paper torn and decorated with a fabric sticker and some ribbon and the vintage looking button. The dog check fabric square in the middle is also a fabric sticker. I added some little corner pieces by cutting out triangles from some of the vintage papers. The little stars are also from HOTP.





The door hanger is along the same lines again I covered the hanger shape with the lovely Sara vintage papers. Everything is made by HOTP bar the little charm . To add a vintagey feel I sanded the white button and the brads. I tied the little grandfather clock charm to some ribbon and then added it to the hook.








And finally the ATC. Again covered in the Sara's vintage papers with some torn corners. The little tag is also in the vintage paper range. I added the little stop watch charm with some ribbon. Then to finish off I added "wish" which is another HOTP product.







If you would like to buy any of these products you can email Beverley at sales@croptilyoudrop.co.uk as they aren't showing on the web shop at the moment.

ATC's & Men

Some nice and easy Christmas ATCs for you today. The first one is a snowflake ATC using the mid winter music paper. And with 25% off at the moment too! I added a little bit of ribbon to the left hand corner. I cut out some snowflakes using some scraps that I had left from a HOTP Christmas paper. The "Noel" comes from the HOTP Cardmaker's word fragments. And to finnish off I added a bit of sparkle using some glamour dust.
The second one is using some HOTP Christmas 12 x 12 paper. I also added some Christmas transparencies across the stripes from the HOTP personal shopper - December monthly kit.
The kits are brill and with a whooping 50% off how can you resist? The little stars on top of the trees are from a Cardmaker's pack.
The third and final one is covered in paper from the 12x12 Bo Bunny Homespun range. I made a little tag with the same papers and added a little ribbon tag. The pocket is made with the reverse side of the Bo Bunny paper. Across the pocket I added some more transparencies. Along the right side I added a tag from the Bo Bunny cardstock stickers - Holiday range. The "celebrate" comes from the HOTP Cardmaker's word fragments.

My second piece is a "Thanks Dad" card. I find it so difficult to make male themed cards but with these charms it was easy! So I used a DL card for this one and cut out some circle apertures. I then covered the card with the American crafts double sided cardstock. I used the reverse side with the plain cardstock to make the frames and the vine shapes. I tied a small amount of ribbon to the tool charms and hung them in the apertures. Just to finnish off I added brads to the top right and bottom left of the card.

I hope you enjoyed these and I'll be back on Tuesday!

Pretty, Pretty papers

I love the Vintage Sarapapers that came with my kit this month, they are so pretty! I've made some cards and an ATC using them. For the card on the left, I've used a 'love' stamp that was free with a magazine. It works really well for this technique. At the bottom of the card I put a strip of plain pink paper. I'm saying plain paper but they aren't plain, they have a wonderful distressed look. I covered the main body of the card with the small floral paper and cut the bottom edge with scalloped scissors. I cut another strip of the plain pink and tied a piece of the lilac gros grain ribbon out of my kit around it then stuck it to the front of the card. I stamped the image twice. Once onto the plain pink paper and again onto the small floral paper. I cut the image stamped onto the plain paper out with deckle edged scissors and left a small border around it. I cut right to the edge of the image on the floral paper. I stuck the image with the border onto the front of the card. On the second image I punched a heart shape out of the middle of it. I put foam pads on the back and stuck it on top of the other image matching it up with the image underneath The plain image shows through where the shape is cut out. I cut another heart out the the gorgeous sheet of lilac glimmer paper and glued it to the front of the card. I love the glimmer paper in the kit! I inked all the edges and the card was finished. I'm quite pleased with it.

The second card was made using the two shades of pink Vintage Sarapapers paper out of my kit. All the Sarapapers in my kit are tones of pinks and lilacs, lush! The stamp I used here is one from my stash that I've never used and I can't remember where I got it from now, sorry!! You can use any stamp though because the papers are so versatile. The friends forever stamp is a Dovecraft stamp. I cut the piece of the paler pink paper at the bottom of the card with a large scalloped edge scissors and tied a piece of American Crafts ribbon around it before I stuck it to the card. I stamped the image and coloured it in with Tombow pens. I coloured it quite loosely because I didn't want it to look too perfect? You'll have to click on the image to see what I mean! I cut the image out using small scalloped edge scissors and matted it onto a scrap of 8 x 8 HOTP Retro cardstock. I use this cardstock a lot. It comes in pads and its co-ordinated to match HOTP 8 x 8 papers . It comes in so many colour and is such good quality I love it. I've orderd a few more pads this week because I'm nearly out!! Back to business! I matted that onto a piece of the small floral paper and fixed it to the card with foam pads. I inked all the edges as always! I like this card too. I wasn't sure if the colours in ribbon would work but they do.

My final offering is an ATC. Again I used a stamp that was free with a magazine! I stamped it onto some brown card from my stash with a Brilliance ink pad but any light colour inkpad would work. I put a little glitter glue around the edge of the clock. I covered the ATC with the Vintage Sarapaper in pink and stamped over it with a background stamp to make it look a bit more distressed. I cut the letters from the HOTP letter sheet in my kit and chalked them in blue and green and inked all the edges. I ink the edges a lot in my stuff. I like the effect but it's practical too as it hides a multitude of sins LOL! The last thing I added was a gorgeous little gold egg timer charm, it's so pretty.

Challenge #14 Acetate Adventures!

Welcome to the Saturday Challenge!

This week the challenge is to use acetate. I bet you have some in your stash somewhere, even a little piece. If not, it is available here and here and even as part of your weekly rubbish I bet!! The challenge is open to all paper crafters...cards, ATCs, LO's, altered art projects, etc. as long as you use paper and acetate...*you're in!*

To start you off I've made a couple of examples. This card uses a small piece of acetate from which the tag is suspended, which gives a lovely *boingy* effect it doesn't keep still!

This is a really easy look to achieve, just use double sided tape to adhere the acetate to the card and the tag as shown.I've also made the covers of this Birthday book from acetate, which has been partly covered in Vintage Sarapapers and bound onto a suite of extra large playing cards, with a Bind it All. Though it could just as easily have been bound with ribbon or bookrings.

The inside pages of this book can be seen on my blog :)

If you've been paying attention ;-) you'll have noticed that the LO I posted on the 18th has a title made from the HOTP Father acetate overlay. What may be less obvious is that all 3 of these projects just used that one sheet of transparency!! A little really does go a long way...

Ok, so you've seen what I can do...now let me see your attempts!! E-mail your entries to us, and post in this thread to let everyone know that your work is in the gallery. Remember, there is a fabulous prize at the end of each month for our favourite challenge entry!

Good luck...and I look forward to seeing what wonderful ideas you all come up with!!

Blame the post office!

With the postal strikes I thougth I'd better made a final layout with the October 2006 Personal Shopper Kit, just in case my new kit didn't arrive! The photo is my mother in laws 90th birthday party. On the right hand side of the layout I cut a strip of the green12 x 12 paper that I used across the bottom of the page but turned it so the stripe was vertical instead of horizontal and put a piece of vellum over the top to tone down the pattern a bit. I was surprised at how much difference it made to the look of the paper. I made a flower with a button for the centre. I cut two pieces from the last of the cardmaking paper, added some rubs ons and stapled ribbons to the side edges. I die cut some letters and numbers from the brown 12 x12 paper, added some brads and ribbons. all in all I'm very pleased with this page.

My new kit did arrive but I didn't get to play until very late last night so I've only made a card and a ATC. The American Crafts 12 x 12 papers are double sided and great quality. The colours and patterns are a bit of a challenge for me though as they are not what I would automatically choose but I'm up for a bit of a challenge!! As the cardstock is double sided I though I would make a concertina card. This card is Orwell I had to use a couple of Amuse rubberstamps that I have because I love them and I thought they would go with the funky paper. I matted the stamped images with the cardstock that I'd cut from the main card using the front and back. I used a tiny scrap of pink card that I had lying aroung to match with the pink in the American Crafts ribbon that I tied down the side. Finally I inked the edges and put 3 cute little flower brads at the top. I'm not sure about the card? What do you think?

The ATC is made from another piece of the Orwell card but I only used the plain side. I used a HOTP circle slide mount and covered it with some Vintage Sarapaper. I cut a strip of the same paper and put it along the botom of the ATC and added some American Crafts ribbon down the side. In the middle of the slide mount I put a HOTP Big Brad to which I added a Big Brad rub on, with the word 'love' on it. I stamped the word love onto the paper at the bottom and added a HOTP silk flower attatched with a brad. You may have noticed there is no photo of the ATC, well spotted. There is a problem downloading images at the moment but I'll keep trying and add it sometime this evening.

(Finally uploaded ATC tonight 18th October)

More from me!

My turn again to show you just how far these kits go! I swear my October Personal Shopper kit is breeding - it never ends!

This weeks offering is a card and an ATC using the gorgeous Fall collection - loving these autumnal colours! Also, a cute little card from the halloween papers - that pumpkin brad buddie is just too cute!!

Make sure you have a go at KTP's challenge this week - you could win yourself a fabby prize! Guv will be announcing the latest winner in the next couple of days, so check back to see the sort of gorgeous yumminess you could win by taking part in our challenges!

It's Only Words!

It's Katie's turn to set the challenge this week but as she's off gallivanting for her very special big birthday, I've been asked to post for her. Sadly I can't open the text file she e-mailed me in any sensible format so I've had to paraphrase a bit around all the random coding that's appeared! LOL. Anyway, Katie's challenge (#11) is to use words in your project - not just a single word, like 'inspire' or 'dream' - oh no! that would be too easy! Instead, use poetry, prose, a little quote or a little verse like the one used on this layout (click on the image to see a larger version).

Katie said:
'I was really stuck for a challenge idea & in the end, inspiration struck while I was cleaning out the attic! I came across a photograph of my youngest son that was taken at his playgroup when he was about two and a half years old. The photograph went alongside a poster paint print of his hands and a little verse. My son is now twelve but when I read the verse, the words take me back to the time when he was still a toddler. It always brings a lump to my throat! The original was a bit tatty but I loved it so much I had to save it. I decided to use the photo & prints to make a layout.
I used the friends papers from the Personal Shopper October 2006 kit. The blue square patterned paper worked really well with the original blue card that the handprints were on. I cut out some flowers and attached them with brads, reprinted the verse & matted it on vellum (that's the only thing not from the kit) and added one of the metal embellishments in the centre of the layout.

The ATC features a favourite inspirational quote by Mark Twain. Again, the papers are from the October 2006 kit. I cut 3 tags from cardstock, printed the last line as three separate words and attached them with black brads. I inked all the edges and put a dragonfly brad in the corner. Everything except the black brads came from the kit.

Although I haven't made one here, I think this challenge lends itself particularly well to cards - so come on card makers - have a go at this challenge!'

Note from the Guv: the winner of last month's challenge competition will be announced later this week - so keep popping back to see who it is!! To be in with a chance of winning the October monthly design challenge, e-mail your entries for any of challenges 11-14. You can enter as many times as you like (with a new project for each entry) & the DT will choose their favourite at the end of the month. Don't forget to post a comment below so everyone knows you have done it! Good luck!!

The kit that keeps on giving!

That's right folks - even more stuff from the October HOTP Personal Shopper kit - will I ever use it all?!

The first project is a LO using the friendship papers and one of the Heidi Swapp embellies, which I wrote the date on with a permanent marker. I wanted to keep this LO simple as the photo is so lovely (my OH took it!) so I hand wrote the title with a black fineliner and went over it several times.

The next project will be hanging on my door on 31st October (let's hope it doesn't rain!) and I used the Halloween papers (obviously!) and 2 yellow eyelets. I drew on the pumpkin brad buddie with a permanent marker to make him a bit more interesting!

And finally - a couple of ATCs with my scraps!

Cards, Cards, Cards!

I've done a batch of cards, all made from the October 2006 Hot Off The Press Personal Shopper Kit. The only thing I used for the cards that wasn't from the kit was a rubber stamp. I covered the front of an A6 card with pale green paper with a combed effect on it . I folded down the top right hand corner of the card and covered it with daisy paper and inked the edge. I put a triangle of square patterned paper on the top right inside corner and also on the opposite left bottom corner. I edged the bottom corner with a strip of plain green paper. I cut two mini tags from the embellishment sheet, inked the edges and fixed them on with pale green brads. the one was pre printed and I added 'for you' to the other. I cut a large daisy from the daisy paper. I fixed it with a brad to the folded down corner to hold it in place. I also used a tiny flower punch to make a flower for the bottom tag.

For the next card I covered the top of an A6 card with the pale green combed paper and the bottom with daisy paper. I attached a piece of green ribbon across the centre of the card and put three brads on the left hand side. The brads puckered the ribbon slightly but I quite liked the effect and didn't bother to change it! I cut the bottom piece of paper so a large daisy was showing and used one of the gorgeous Heidi Swapp buttons as the flower centre. There is a whole pack of these in the October Kit. I cut a strip of pumpkin orange paper and matted a strip of daisy paper onto it. I stamped a thank you greeting onto some plain green card and layered that on top of the daisy paper. I fixed it at an angle with foam pads. To finished it off I added a silver dragonfly brad on the top corner.

The last card is my favourite. I've used darker colours for this but I really like it! I covered a 5 x5 card with green striped paper at the top and plain green paper at the bottom. In the kit there are 12 x 12 Halloween papers, one of which is striped. I cut an orange stripe out of the sheet and stuck it on the front of the card. I cut the greeting from the card making section of the kit and using what was left from the orange strip, I made a faux ribbon to go behind the greeting. I used two different sized flower punches to make the flower. I punched two 3 inch flowers from orange and yellow paper and two 2 inch flowers, one from the striped paper and one from the yellow. I curled the petals in different directions to give the flower dimension and put a spotted button in the centre. I wasn't sure the colours would work but I think they do and I'm very pleased with this card!

Finally, I made an ATC. I used plain green card and matted a piece of the green leaf pattern paper onto it and inked the edges. I stuck a piece of the twill printed with the words 'falling leaves' down the left hand side and put a white metal embellishment out of the kit, embossed with the word 'fall' in the centre. I finished it off with two leaf brads. This ATC its quite plain but I think it works.

Challenge 8 - Make it Move!!

Me again...and this time i'm here to set my first Challenge! I'm calling it Make it Move because that is what i challenge you to do...make something with moving parts. Ok, stop panicking it doesn't need to be difficult...and i have several examples to get you thinking.

First of all I want to stress that this competition is open to all papercrafters, your entry can be an ATC, a card, a scrapbook layout or even an altered item. Secondly, you need to send your entry before next saturday to us by e-mail and you will be entered into the monthly prize competition. Thirdly, just leave a comment to let us and others know that you've entered so that we can all admire your work!

Here are my examples, all made using the HOTP Personal Shopper Kits and i'll start with the simplest one first!

This card is made with an apperture cut into the front and a metal charm suspended into the gap with a series of jump rings. Obviously, it moves because it is hanging free!

This second card moves by *popping-up* when you open it..scary stuff, eh? and very suitable for a Halloween card i thought!

Finally, i have made a couple of waterfall cards. The first one opens to the left and the second one opens to the right! No reason...just for fun!

For those of you who have been lurking on our forum this is the card that I won the crop competition with this month! I made it for a friend who started a new job and she seemed to like it too...so i'm quite chuffed with this one (its all from the HOTP PS Kit)

My final example is a very sweet baby card that i made (also from the kit!) for a friend who has just had baby number 2...this card is going all the way to Hong Kong!

So there you have it...my examples and my Challenge...go on give it a go...you might even win!!

More ATCs

Here is the holder full of ATCs.






With some left over bits from the kit I made these ATCs to go in the holder. As you can see I've used all the papers and some embellishments from the Fall, Halloween and Friends themes from the kit.

ATC Holder

The HOTP kits are so versatile, you don't have to use them for just scrapbooking or cardmaking. And to show you I have made an ATC holder and some ATCs.
Everything was made with the HOTP October kit.
The holder was made using the Fall papers. With the leaf brads I distressed them a little with some sandpaper and then dotted on some gold paint. I also used the gold paint to edge the holder.






Here is the inside of the holder with concertined pages. To hold the ATCs in place I just used some photo corners. Again the pages are covered with Fall papers from the kit.

ATC time

Thought I would try something else from the usual layout and cards this time and have gone down the ATC route. Again a really simple idea, the flower was made from a stencil I had floating around and the papers were HOTP Vintage Sarapapers, the brad in the centre was from Dovecraft and the caption was handwritten.

Oh and I have now finally managed to put on my own photos (How clever am I??). So thnks Beverley for all your help