Girls Allowed

We are completely loving the new Echo Park collection This & That here at Gotta Craft. Clare took Graceful and discovered that it wasn't just for girls. Now I've found out that you don't have to be a boy to be Charming

Choose carefully, add some white and a couple of little extras and Charming goes girly. Girls are definitely allowed.

New from Echo Park......

You may have noticed that Sandra has been uploading lots of newly released papers and other goodies in the shop over the last couple of weeks. Amongst many things that have caught my eye were some papers from Echo Park called This and That, so I have been using  papers from the Graceful collection to make a layout and card.

I have used several of the patterened papers on the layout along with some of the matching brads, chipboard pieces and stickers.

I love the green and pink colour combination so I also made a birthday card, the bird cage came from the sticker sheet and I cut a little bird from patterned paper to perch on the outside.

 

Although there is a lot of pink in the papers there are also some more neutral colours so I think they could work with a slightly more masculine page too, watch this space!

It's Echo Park and it's Charming

We're coming into my favourite time of the year for scrapbooking. How about you? The light is getting better, we're all getting out and about a bit more - and there is even a hint of Easter holiday in the air. When you put all of that together with the new CHA releases? Perfect.

As soon as I spotted the new Echo Park This & That I knew I had to get hold of some fast. And, of course, Sandra's delivery is always very fast, so it arrived the very next day and I made this: 

It's a layout about my nephew and I chose to use the Charming side of the collection. with blues and greens and yellows. You can see some stickers and brads in there :

and a chipboard button. The silhouette and the angel wings I cut with my Slice as a bit of a joke - they look as much like little devil horns as wings, I think!

..and that's "Charming". It looks like a collection for boys, and I do have lots of other ideas for boy pages; but I also think it will work in a more feminine way. Watch this space.

Kit News ... and a special offer

March's kit will be on sale later this evening, but I've realised that I never shared the sneaky peek with you .. how bad is that! ... so here it is.  Yes, I know... not that difficult to guess is it lol.

Anyway, I also wanted to let you know that at the moment, all Lily Bee products are on a special offer of 60% discount.  It will be ending soon - but also please note, in some cases stocks are very very low. So go on, grab yourself a bargain.

Not Just for Girls.....

The February kit was full of lots of pretty papers and I have to say all of my layouts made with it up until to now have featured my daughter and have been very feminine and soft. Being that I have a son as well I decided to see if I could use the papers in a masculine way to scrap a photo of him, so I teamed the Echo Park papers from the kit with some extra  kraft card to make this layout.

I used the sides of the papers that featured the geometric patterns, and the 'starburst' design on the layout was inspired by this project that I saw on 2 Peas recently. The letter stickers are Thickers from American Crafts. Despite the temptation to add a couple of flowers I went for some banner type embellishments instead!

New American Crafts

Oh my .... I can honestly say ... Dear Lizzy's Neapolitan collection is GORGEOUS .... pop on over and check it out. 

I will also let you into a little secret .... some of the papers will be in a monthly kit soon :)

Sadly, not everything I ordered from American crafts arrived - but hopefully, more will be arriving at the end of the month.

Cards vs. Layouts

Which do you do make first when you get a kit? Even though I love making both I probably go for layouts first and then see what I've got left over afterwards to make cards.

So following on from my layouts using the February kit I have some cards to share as well. For the first one I used one of the Glitz Design Whatnots from the kit with a pretty rose design, trimmed around it and then mounted it onto some card. I added texture to the white backing card with an embossing folder before colouring it with Distress Inks.

The next card I've already shared on the Gottacraft Facebook page, its a mix of pretty greys and greens and uses another one of the Glitz Design Whatnots. I used some plastic packaging for the centre of the frame which I embossed first.

This next card is quite simple, just some punched circles and a bit of patterned paper and finished off with some layered flowers. These were cut from plain card and then spritzed with some glimmer mists before adding some buttons from the kit to the centres. All I added was some kraft card from my own stash.

The last card is made up with some squares of the Echo Park papers left from the kit (there's not much of mine left now!) I added some sparkly vellum and used some punches to make a quick Anniversary card - I like to keep a couple of these at hand for those last minute panics!

I hope these cards give you some inspiration for ways to use the kit, let us see what you've created if you have been busy with your kits too. Thanks for stopping by!

This & That ... part 2

Yesterday I showed you the more girly side of Echo Park's This & That, latest collection and today ... here's the more rough & tumble one :)

This collection is called Charming ... and charming me, it sure is.  I adore the Rolleifex type camera image in it, as My Dad had one of those Cameras, so it brings back happy memories.  Anyway, here it is, oh and again, Echo Park has kindly done matching layered chipboard, chipboard accents and brads, which you can find HERE along with a collection pack, if you want it all ... and who wouldn't :)

First of Many

New collections, that is :) ... well, I'm happy to say the boxes are arriving, and well to say I'm impressed, would be an understatement.

So first up ... we have Echo Park's Graceful collection.  Its a beautiful collection, that for sure, with lots of florals and damasks - I could really see this being a popular collection.  Although more "girl" based, with stickers and chipboard pieces such as "Daughter", "Beautiful" "Girl" & "Cutie Pie" ... don't let it put you off, if girly isn't your thing.  You'll also find words such as "You Make me happy when skies are Grey" and "Its the little things that matter most".

The papers too aren't overly girly ... if one side is, then the so called "b" side isn't.

Anyway, here is a little taste of the papers for you.  With the This & That collection, I'm glad to say that it also has chipboard and brads to match ... pop on over and see it HERE

White is Just Right

I've just taken delivery of a fresh stack of crisp white cardstock.

Doesn't that make you want to sit down and scrapbook? A white background is feeling fresh as we start to head towards lighter nights and a hint of Spring. It's a change for me from the patterned paper backgrounds I love so well. Is white a change for you too?

Sorry Sian, for butting in on your lovely post ... and oohhh love that photo :) ... but just wanted to let you all know, that you can now find Bazzill White and Bazzill Kraft in packs of 10, and for the price of 9 sheets, can't be bad!

Happy Valentine's Day....

If you like papers with a touch of romance then the February kit will be right up your street. This month it features patterned papers from Glitz Design's Beautiful Dreamer and Echo Park Upscale. As usual Sandra has added lots of co-ordinating embellies including amongst other things some Glitz Design Whotnots, an alphabet sheet and some pretty lace.

The little letter stickers are from Authentique as are the phrase stickers which are underneath my rosettes.

 

As we've seen some fantastic layouts recently from you using the monthly kits we'd love to see what you make from the kit this month......

I hope everyone is having a good weekend so far, hopefully tucked up in the warm somewhere....

I was cutting out some journalling shapes the other day on my Cameo and when I had removed them all from the card it occurred to me that maybe I could use the bit left behind on a layout. So armed with some pretty papers from the Authentique Gathering range I set about filling the gaps with papers and photos. As I only needed very tiny pictures I printed some small photos using the mosaic function on Picasa.

Some of the photos and papers are adhered directly to the frames and the others I stuck to the base paper to add a different dimension. Behind the whole thing is a lot of foam tape!

I cut my title from kraft card using my cutting machine and added some journalling printed onto small strips of paper. If you don't have a cutting machine you could do something similar with a circle cutter (or a craft knife and a steady hand) which would look good too.

Feb's sneak peek

Here it is .... your little peek into this months kit.

It's going on sale Friday 10th around 8pm and as always filled with gorgeous goodies.  The papers are actually from two different collections, I thought I'd make it a little different this month.  Both are fabulous of course, and I look forward to seeing how you use them.

Also in this months kit, are Jenni Bowlin goodies, in the form of tickets & little pearl flowers, you'll even find a little trinket from MME. 

So do check out the shop tomorrow and see it in all it's glory.

And the winner is .....

Our first competition has come to a close, and at yesterday evenings crop, I asked Petra, to pick the winner out of a hat ... (well, my camera case actually, as we didn't have a hat :) 

And the winner is

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Congratulations, Sandi ... you can pick which of the American Crafts Flutterby's you'd like me to send to you. 

Emma will be arranging another competition next Friday, can't wait to see what she comes up with.  So have a great weekend all, oh and don't forget this sunday coming is Sian's Story Telling Sunday, Enjoy xx

Kit News

I know I've been saying it for ages ... but I've finally done it! Yup, opened up the kit subbie places.  I'm actually hoping to keep places open all the time - this may mean that sometimes they'll be less kits to buy on the night, so to speak, but I've had a few requests to open more subscription places ... and never it let it be said, I don't listen LOL.

Anyhow, you can find information about them HERE

But, don't think I'm leaving it there ...ooohhhh no, no, no! ... the lovely Denise, has been busy creating with January's kit - and she very kindly sent me in a picture of her layout.  Thanks Denise, you're a star xxx

Don't forget to stop by her blog and say hello, she's really lovely

Flutterbys Card

I hope everyone had a good weekend, it certainly wasn't the best weather but a good excuse to stay inside and craft!

Following on from my layout that I posted last week I have made a quick card using some more of the Flutterbys from American Crafts. I have used them as a border at the top and bottom of the card, raising them up on foam pads to add dimension.  The rest of the card was put together with scraps of patterned paper and some flower punches.

Don't forget to leave a comment on Emma's post from the 20th Jan for a chance to win some, you have until the end of the week...

Krafty Blog Friends

It always gives me such a huge buzz, when I'm sitting in the evening and catching up on my google reader ... and up pops up in front of me, a blog that says someone has just bought one of the monthly kits and then showcases what they've done with it :) ... Well, the other day, it happened again.  This time it was the lovely Becky - who's blog ... Becky's Scrapbook Burblings came into my reader with this gorgeous layout .

She since then also done another layout which she's sent to me ... and its another gorgeous one.  Do stop by her blog and say hello, she is so creative and does such lovely, lovely layouts.

A few of the kits are still available HERE... and I'll be opening up the subscriptions again very soon.  Actually, I'm hoping to keep them open all the time ... well, that's the plan anyway LOL.

Have a fun weekend ... and don't forget the competition to win one of the American Crafts Flutterbys - the winner will be picked this Thursday ... maybe I'll try and get someone at the crop to pick out the winner from a hat :)