May's sneaky peek

Now this is cutting it fine .... but here it is the sneaky peek at May's kit which will be going on sale tomorrow - Thursday 10th - it will be on earlier during the day .. so keep checking.

 

It's Just Scraps

It's been a while since I've done a "scraps" for you. But with a kit as lovely as this, how could I resist? I wanted to use up every last little bit and this is what I made:

My inspiration for this page was actually a sheet of  Bazzill patterned paper. It has a line of labels and tickets done the right hand side and I thought it would be an easy trick to try so I used my Slice and a couple of punches to reproduce the effect. The strip on the left hand side is, of course, simply from the bottom of one of the sheets in the kit and the title is cut from the green cardstock in the kit. Give it a try!

More MME

I'm dreadful!!! I said, I'd share with you more layouts from Leanne & Lorna, and then totally forgot ... so here they are

Both used papers from MME - One the Bright Side.

Here's Lorna's

and Leannes

I'm so lucky to know both these lovely ladies ... and I'm always in awe of them at crops.  Both of them are so productive ... me, I'm always in Starbucks LOL.

Don't forget to stop by their blogs and say hello  ... My Little Blogette & My Little Life of Scrap

Introducing Alana

Let me introduce to you another talented Guest Designer joining the team, Alana ... she of "The Little Blue Shed" blog :) ... super talented and so such fun. (She made me say that :P)

Ok enough!, but it's true - Alana has such a lovely creative flair, which when you pop on over to her blog you'll see for yourself.

She's been working with Cosmo Crickets - Tea for Two, which I just knew was right up her street, and boy she doesn't dissapoint, that's for sure; what a gorgeous card

and of course with tea ... you just have to have cake :)

And that's not the end of it, ooohh no, no, no ... I'll be uploading another on the site in the next day or so. Told you she was talented :)

Lots and LOTS of new goodies have been arriving ... do check out the "new in" section on the site. With the likes of Amy Tangerine, Neapolitan, Elles Studio and today - Crate Paper, you won't be dissapointed, trust me.

Dear Lizzy..

..we think we love you. April's kit is here and it's a beauty! Dear Lizzy's Neapolitan sounds as good as it looks (or should that be licks?). This collection has been selling out all over the place, so I'd be quick - grab all the best bits while Sandra has a couple of kits left.

I made this one with the kit alone..

And then think about adding in a couple of lovely extras. Maybe the Tile letters? or the Ticket Flowers? So pretty!

...and this one with a few added rubons from my stash and lots of Slice cutting

March Kit

If you haven't seen it yet the March kit contains a lovely mix of papers from MME's Miss Caroline collection. I realy like the wood effect papers as a background for layout, so for this one I used the paper with the printed cluster of flowers in the corner and designd my layout around that.

I used some white embroidery thread to stitch around the edge of my circle and to add a flourish. The letter stickers are from Echo Park.

I also made a quick birthday card using a some scraps of papers and some plain black card.

There are still kits available to buy in the shop if you would like to try one, and if you would like to get a kit sent to you every month I see that Sandra has subscriptions available at the moment....

Sorry Clare ... jumping in again, on your post :) .... just to say that the April kit, will be on sale - Wednesday 11th.

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......