Circle journal - Melissa's

Here we go with another circle journal entry, this time its for Melissa's "Queen for a Day" album. I have to admit to finding this one a little harder than the others I've had so far, mainly because I don't usually think of myself as being able to indulge my every whim! The other restriction was the smaller format of Melissa's album, its a tad smaller than 6" x 4" so I was limited on what I could do creatively. I found some large playing cards the other week and had the idea to use the queens as the basis for my entry and it just happened that the cards were about the same size as the pages so I could cheat and add an extra page to give me more room to journal my heart out. I found some cute heart charms and then of course I had to add the ruffle rose trim, this time in a mini version to stay in scale with the book! In the end I was really pleased with the result and I enjoyed putting it all together - I just hope that Melissa likes it!!

Masterclass 6

This is the last of the Masterclass projects - or at least a little peek of it! The class is a gorgeous mini album which is folded to create loads of pockets for photos, memorabilia and journaling and its oodles of fun to make!! Check out the Masterclass page (link at the top of the page ^^) for more details of this and the other 5 classes in the series.

Check this out......

I spotted this totally gorgeous bracelet in Accessorize the other day, how cute is this? Its called the 'Make Do & Mend' charm bracelet but look how each charm is totally scrapbook related as well!! I loved the cute ruler, crayon, scissors, stapler and tube of paint - all things used each day and then the buttons and ribbons make it so pretty.

They are so good at producing pretty accessories and how much better if they are relevant to something that you love??!!

Total Papercrafts kit 2 for March

We are sticking with 7gypsies for our second kit this month and this time we have chosen the gorgeous brand new Lille line for our single page kit. The cream/rust/black colour combination is easy on the eye and easy to match to photos. We have combined the gorgeous double sided papers of the kit with fab journaling tags and a fun and easy technique to make your own unique tissue tape. The sample design uses a single 6" x 4" portrait photo, you'll pretty much need to stick to that as there's a lot going on here!

The kit contains: cardstock, 3 double sided patterned papers, decorative tags, roll of tape, scallop edge paper template

You will also need red, ochre and black ink pads (the technique works best with StayzOn and chalk ink pads - others may take a while to dry), 3d foam pads, 1" circle punch, flowers (sample uses one large black and six small black flowers plus six paper roses for flower centres), scraps of ribbon, glossy dimensional adhesive (eg Glossy Accents, Diamond Glaze) a selection of background stamps (eg script, music score etc), a few small single image stamps (such as flower, butterfly, etc) and a copper pearl pen (as provided in March kit 1), sponge applicator.

Take a peek at Masterclass 5!!

The fifth in our Masterclass series is uber soft and feminine and full of the usual range of different techniques that these classes have established as the norm. We have gone bonkers for the brand new Prima releases and you'll find oodles of these in the kit!! Check out the iScrap Masterclass link above for more details of this class and the kit!!

Tip for today!

I thought I'd post a tip that I shared with one of my Masterclasses last night. It's not always possible to find the perfect photos to go with a kit when you want to put the page together but sometimes you really need a photo to help you position embellishments. I've made up a series of cards cut to standard photo sizes - 3 x 4, 6 x 4, 7 x 5 and 6 x 8. I have a few of them for the smaller sizes (because you can fit more of these onto a scrapbook page. These are a great help when designing or when putting a kit together as I can put them where I'd like my photos to be and attach everything else around them.

I'm going to laminate mine and pop them onto a book ring so I can have them at hand.

Hopefully this will help you move past the photo point on your layouts and you can get more done!

Another Circle Journal entry - Lindsey's

Lindsey's circle journal arrived in the post this week and I loved her theme of 'Wish upon a Star'. It made me think long and hard about what I'd wish for if I had just one wish and after a few false starts I settled upon 'a bit more time'. If I had a few more hours in my day I'm sure I wouldn't be rushing as much as I seem to be. I work best when I'm on a tight deadline but sometimes it just seems a bit ridiculous and I have too much to do with too little time left in which to do it - talk about stressy!!
Once I had my wish sorted I used Teresa Collins papers which fit perfectly with its large clock face and then I used my Cricut to create the clock hands at the bottom of the page. The addition of Bloomers trim seems to be a bit of a theme with these journal entries but I can't stay away from these gorgeous delicate organza flowers. I had to use those pink glittery letters for the title as I know that Lindsey loves them so much! I created an additional mini book in the centre of my entry which contains extra journaling. I was so pleased to have found the fab 'wish upon a star' charm at the top left of the entry, I added a few additional charms to it in keeping with the theme and to make it much more 'dangly' - hope you like it Lindsey!!

I really loved this theme, it was really meaningful. made me think and inspired me to create an entry which I am really pleased with. The first three journal themes have been amazing, thank you girls for your creative thinking!

One Little Word works!!

Ali Edwards' One Little Word concept is making a big impact here - if you don't know about this, you select a word for the coming year that will inspire you, motivate you or otherwise help you move forward in a positive way. Its surprising just how much just one little word can affect your life for the better, its already having an effect at Total Papercrafts for sure!

The word for the year here is 'organise' as its never easy to juggle all of the aspects of planning, ordering, designing and packing kits never mind the other things that life can throw at you. Its taken a few weeks for the impact of this word to become obvious but its now feeling a LOT more organised around here and the associated stress levels have gone way down.

If you'd like more information about the One Little Word project then drop by Ali Edwards' blog at http://www.aliedwards.com/ - she is also running a year long class at Big Picture classes if you'd like something with a bit more structure to it - you might be surprised at the difference it can make to your life!

Kit 1 for March

The first of our kits for March has a rich, earthy colour pallette which makes it an ideal match for all sorts of outdoor shots. The sample design has space for five 6" x 4" photos - two portrait and three landscape but you can play around with the space and include more or less as you prefer! (The scan has made the centre section of the image a little wonky - its a decorative circle shape in case you were wondering what the heck is going on!).

We have had our eye on a fab product for a little while - two of our kit designers actually asked for it independantly and so we were thrilled to be able to add a 'pearl pen' to this kit. We picked a rich copper colour to match the papers from 7gypsies and to be honest, creating pearls with this pen couldn't be easier! All of the swirls on the sample design were created quickly and simply in a matter of minutes and the great thing is that you get proper hemispheres and not spikey peaks as with other similar products.

The kit contains: cardstock, 4 sheets of double sided paper, a pearl pen, swirl templates and a length of floristry tape.

You'll need to add a brown inkpad (the sample used Distress Ink in Brushed Corderoy), a decorative corner punch, 3d foam pads, a border punch, strong wet glue and double sided tape. You can cut a title using the paper from the kit or add adhesive letters from your own stash - the choice is yours!