Chilling out with a mag

We had a huge delivery of magazines yesterday - I mean enormous! They sent me both July and August issues of Creating Keepsakes, the August/September Simple Scrapbooks, the August/September Papercrafts and Digital Scrapbooking! Thats hot on the heels of the VERY late June issues as well. I am swamped with magazines right now so I have decided to chill out and read my copies!

My favourite bits of mags aren't the features or the gorgeous layouts but the adverts - wierd I know but the ads give me a heads up on what is going to be coming out soon and I also find out about newer small companies that don't have the exposure that the likes of BasicGrey and K&Co get for example. I've had some great little finds from the ads over the past couple of years and have a few more irons in the fire for forthcoming club kits but you'll have to wait and find out what they are!!

The response to the subscription for the August kits has been phenomenal and we sold out so I have opened subscriptions for the kits from September. If you take out this subscription I will add a copy of Creating Keepsakes and a copy of Simple Scrapbooks to your first parcel for free - that way you can join me as I chill out!!

Take care, K :o)

The second kit for August

The arrival of Summer (at last!) has had a huge influence on my choice of colours for both of the August kits - perfect for your holiday pics! Whereas the first August kit is hot, this second one is very cool! The papers in the kit are double sided with patterns on both sides and so give loads of scope for matching with photos. You don't need to have pool pics, but I thought that they worked really well as there is always so much blue in them.

The kit contains 3 patterned papers, cardstock, a whole pack of coloured co-ordinating chipboard embellishments, a whole pack of co-ordinating ribbons, templates and instructions for the sample page (or you can choose to do your own thing!).

Subscriptions for our kits are still open so you could have both of the August kits for £15 including P&P which is a great deal! You can also pick and choose from the club kits if you prefer to be flexible - its completely your choice!

I'm off to start thinking about September's kits now!!

K :o)

Vita Bella album

I've been playing with some of the new stock! I really love the new Blue Awning and Vita Bella products that we added to the shop this week, particularly these gorgeous mini albums that come on a 12" x 24" sheet with oodles of embellishments. They take about six 6" x 4" photos (or loads more smaller pics) and are a perfect way to showcase a group of photos of a day, place or person. I used a selection of photos from the picnic that we had on Sunday afternoon at Hadleigh Castle - they are all very different and would have been difficult to use together on a scrapbook page but they worked beautifully in this little book!

The Vita Bella line is particularly stunning because it includes metallic colours - beautiful stripes of blue metallic foil and gorgeous decorative shimmery accents. I've been stroking lots of this all week and even the mini album has the metallics in it, not bad for only £3.50 and you get everything you need! I added some chipboard alphas to the cover and a few scraps of ribbon from my stash but that was all it needed and I've decided that this is one I'm going to keep!

The crop class we released last night sold out in just 3 minutes, wow!! I have more deliveries due in very soon and will have more classes, watch this space for the details!

Take care, K :o)

2nd class for the Kent October crop

The sunshine has got me thinking of holidays to exotic places where every corner brings new scents and sounds and where we can discover new things. I love going to new places, which was what encouraged me to step out of my comfort zone and choose something a bit different for the second crop class for October. The class is called 'Morocco' after the hot, spicy colours of the patterned papers and I've added coloured chipboard, cardstock and fabric flowers in the same colourway. The papers are gorgeous as they are patterned both sides so there we'll have even more to play with in the class.

The class goes on sale this evening at 9pm and there are limited places, I have a feeling that this one will go very quickly!

Karen :o)

August club kit #1

I'm being super-organised right now and have already put together the club kit for August! I don't know what has come over me but its great to have things done and dusted in advance!!

This will be our first club kit for August and I'm loving the hot, summery colours in this. Its funny, these bright kits are often the ones I find easiest to put together - I've no idea why but I'm all for easy!

The kit contains; cardstock, 4 sheets patterned paper, ribbon, a die-cut title, a journaling card, a jumbo Bazzill paperclip, transparencies, templates and full step-by-step instructions for the sample page. All of this is for the great value price of £6.50 and from this month we are excited to offer a monthly subscription service so you can have club kits delivered direct to your door! We show you in advance what you can do and what you are getting plus we provide full instructions for the sample page so you don't need to think about it if you don't want to! We are also offering a bonus for all subscriptions taken out for the August kits - another free kit! So thats 3 kits for the price of 2!!

You can find the subscription offer in the online shop at www.totalpapercrafts.co.uk

Take care, Karen :o)

Kent crop class on sale tonight!

Things are crazy busy here right now as we prepare for our Kent crop in October and another in Essex which we are just finalising the details for. We're doing different classes for all of our crops this year so that'll keep us on our toes for the Summer.

As soon as our class kits arrive here, we'll be releasing them so you can spread the cost over the next few months which will make our great value classes even more affordable :o) The first class is ready to go and its fabulous - a mega-full kit using the Daisy Ds 'Brighten My Day' range! The kit contains cardstock, a whole 8x8 pad of 24 patterned papers, 2 die-cut sheets, 2 sticker sheets, a whole box of ribbons, a whole box of chipboard, a whole box of flowers and a whole pack of rub-ons. The class is longer than our usual to give you time to put together both the scrapbook page and project that have been designed using all these goodies!

The class goes on sale tonight at 9pm and as soon as the classroom places have sold, we'll be releasing the kits on their own which will suit those of you who would prefer to do the kit in your own time at the crop. Only those who have booked a place at the crop will be able to book this class and we have a couple of places left for Saturday 11th October, so why not join us? You can book both the crop and the class through the shop at


Make sure you grab your class quickly because we sell out fast!!

K :o)

My new baby!

Yes, I was one of those saddos queuing and waiting for the phone store to open this morning but I'm now the proud owner of a 3G iphone! I nearly had one of the old type as a birthday present this year after they dropped the prices of them but we couldn't find one anywhere and so I settled for my cross-trainer instead (better for my wobbly bits in any case!! LOL!!). I'm quite pleased I couldn't get one now as the new version is so much faster and very much cheaper!

Jack is chuffed to bits as he gets to inherit my iPod which upgrades him too! I don't expect to get much out of him this weekend - he'll be too busy uploading and playing with his new gadget too!

Off to play........!! :o)

Second kit for July

I have a few grey hairs this week after one of the papers I'd planned to use in the next kit weren't delivered! I did a shuffle around and this is what we'll be doing for our second kit this month. Like the black & white kit, this one works so well with so many different types of photos because the colours are natural - think of how great flowers look against these colours as a backdrop.

I'm really pleased with the kit as it is great value once again - you get cardstock, 3 double sided patterned papers, a 12x12 sheet of alphabet stickers and a 12x12 sheet of tags and embellishments, templates and full step-by-step instructions.

I used photos of Jack and his German exchange student, these were the photos they swapped via email and lets just say that there weren't any complaints about her being a girl!!

You'll need a dark brown inkpad for this one and a circle punch - anything will do but I used a 1.25" one which I will have with me at club. If you are coming to either the Kent or Essex club please let me know so that I can be sure to have a kit for you - see you there!

Fab night, new club!

I am a happy bunny this week - the opening night of our new club was fab! We had more people there than we expected and had to grab more tables to ensure that everyone had enough space. I think everyone left with an almost complete page which was exactly what I had hoped. If we get any bigger we'll be moving into the main hall which may not be a bad thing just so long as everyone is ok with setting up and putting away tables?!

Pauline sent us a good luck text from her holiday in France which I read out to everyone. Quite a few of the girls know Pauline through having attended my crops or other events at which I have taught so they weren't completely bemused by the message!

I'm now working on the sample page for next time so I can get that up on here in plenty of time - keep checking here for it any day soon :o)