Hello bloggers, hope you have all had a good Sunday today. I have just completed a simple but fun layout for my kiddies class that will be held on the 15th October, and wanted to share it with you all here.

These photos were taken on a visit out to Australia 2 summers ago, and are of a new baby koala.

The papers are from Fancy Pants Design - the Oct 31st range - yes it is a halloween range, but see how versatile the reverse sides can be! I just love the colours and wanted to do a layout that wasn't halloweeny. 

The brads are from MME's Lost and Found 2 range, and these went perfectly with the colour scheme. The green brads are elements brads from American Crafts.

I used a sketch by Cheryl Bradbury - her books are fantastic and I thoroughly recommend them.

That's it, a simple layout so the kids will be able to manage it in the allotted time.

Here is a layout that features my cute little niece, just after she was born. The layout went together very quickly, despite the fact that I kept trying to add more into it. However I felt that anything else was just spoiling the design, so I have left it as a simple layout.

The papers are from the September Scrapaholix kit, they are by "We R Memory Keepers" and it's the beautiful "Inked Rose" range. The alphabet is a Jillibean Soup alphabean sticker sheet in Diced Denim - I love this range of alpha stickers, as there are lots of each letter as well as numbers!
Just below the photo I have used the Bubbles layering stencil from Tim Holtz, and put texture paste through it, which I just left as is.

The chipboard "cherish" is from, of course, The Dusty Attic, and I have coloured it using Twinkling H20's.

The beautiful lace and the gorgeous fabric flower is from Les Tresors De Luxe, an American company whose products I have seen being used alot on the Maja Design blog, so of course I had to get some too!!

Finally the butterfly is from the Inked Rose range again, from the stunning embossed sticker sheet, and I have added a few hot pink glitter dots using Martha Stewart glitter glue.

Expanding Blog Hop

I am so pleased to be invited by Elaine from UK Scrappers to take part in the expanding blog hop. The blog hop involves answering 4 questions, then introducing you to other blogs that I find inspiring. It sounds like such a great way to find others and see what they are doing. You can see Elaine's blog and her answers here.

Here are my answers to these questions:

1. What am I working on at present?
At present I am working on a few different layouts, but the most urgent ones I need to finish are using the July Scrapaholix kit. Each month I put together a  kit and an optional add on kit for my Scrapaholix clubs that are all around the UK. The July one features papers from Pebbles' Garden Party range - lovely pinks and turquoises in this kit! Also included in this kit is one of the new Teresa Collins Basically Essential templates - we will be looking at different ways you can use templates.
Here is a picture of the lovely July kit:

and the add on kit:

The thing I love most about Scrapaholix is that you get to try new products and learn new techniques that you perhaps wouldn't otherwise push yourself to do. It's definitely a great way of expanding your crafting skills. Incidentally I am always looking for new Scrapaholix clubs to be started up, so if you fancy running your own Scrapaholix club, please get in touch (sales@scrapaholix.com) and I will send you more information!

2. How does my work differ from any other of it's genre?
The obvious answer to this question is: well, it is mine, featuring my photos! But seriously, I don't think I have any particular set style, as I am always trying out new ways of scrapbooking, new techniques and looking at different styles. I think I would get a bit bored if I kept doing the same style on layout after layout, so some of my layouts have clean and simple lines, others are a more messy, grungy style, and occasionally I get to do a real girly layout (difficult as I only have a son!) One thing I do consistently keep to, though, is I don't like my layouts to be overly busy as I think this detracts from the photo.

3. Why do I write/create what I do?
I think scrapbooking is such a lovely way to display photos, it has so much meaning behind it and is so much more than just photos in an album (or in a box!) How often do you hear of photo albums that no one knows who the people in it are or any information about them? It is such a shame that this family heritage just gets forgotten about, and I truly don't know why everyone doesn't make an effort to do scrapbooking! I create my albums with care and put so much love into them, they will one day be (hopefully) treasured by my family!
Not only that but it is a fabulous creative outlet for me, and I gain so much pleasure from looking through my albums now, and it helps me to remember all the little details of our lives which may otherwise have been forgotten in our busy lives.

4. How does my writing/creating process work?

I'm very much a go with the flow worker, I just get ideas popping into my head as I am working and that is how my layouts usually get done. Sometimes I use a sketch to get me started, however these seldom turn out anything like the original sketch, which is fine as I use them just as an inspiration starting point.
When I am scrapping I sometimes find it helpful to work on several layouts at once, then I can keep shuffling them around and adding bits here and there as the ideas come. Usually I leave them and keep going back to check I still like the design before I stick things down.
I must add that my creative process does vary from layout to layout, just depends on how the ideas are coming and how I'm feeling!

Well that's me done, now I will introduce you to some of my suppliers blogs that I adore and get so much inspiration from. Technically I think I'm supposed to introduce you to individual people, but as I am so new to blogging, I don't yet really follow any one person's blog, although there are a few I look at from time to time!

Firstly, here is the blog of the totally awesome Dusty Attic. At The Mad Scrapper I have one of the largest supplies of Dusty Attic chipboard in the UK, I am so addicted to their product as it is so well made and the designs are gorgeous. Truly I don't know when to stop when I am placing an order with them;-) When I look at their blog, I get so many ideas, and there is such a wealth of talented work on there.

Secondly, another Australian company that I stock and adore is Green Tara (I think I am the only one in the UK who stocks their products, but I may be mistaken). Their products are mainly focused on gorgeous paper and fabric flowers, but they also sell divine trims and decorative sprays. Their blog (which you can see here), is also another source of incredible inspiration. Again the work that is shown is so beautiful, and it makes me want to stock bigger and bigger ranges of their products. Their lovely flowers and trims often feature in the Aussie scrapbooking mags - Australian Scrapbooking Memories and Scrapbook Creations, and occasionally you will see them in some of the British magazines too.

Finally, here is the blog of Maja Design, a Swedish company that produces the most beautiful romantic and vintage papers, that really are too lovely to cut up!! This company is growing and getting better known all the time. The layouts on their blog often feature Dusty Attic products too, as the two seem to go hand in hand. Yes their papers are expensive, but you get what you pay for in this life, and they are so unique and of such a lovely quality they are definitely worth it, especially if you have a special project in mind.

Well that's it for now, I hope you can find enjoyment and lots of inspiration from today's post. Until next time,
Happy Scrapping!

Oh I have a very exciting layout to share today, I have been working on this one for a couple of weeks and only finished it a few days ago. It is a photo of my sister and I when we were really little that I always remember my parents having on their bedside table when we were growing up. It must have been taken in 1974.

I have used papers from Marion Smith Design - the Nirvana range, BasicGrey Serenade Snippets and the cardstock is Bazzill Aqua.

I have seen the curtain folding on a few layouts recently, so thought I would give it a go as I really like the dimension it adds to a page. It's not often I get to do a girly layout, with flowers and bling etc so I really enjoyed making it "pretty".

The pearl sprays are cut from a bigger spray and are from Green Tara in Australia, as are the little white roses. (I love Green Tara products immensely, and they are very hard to find here in the UK so I usually have a good supply at The Mad Scrapper). The green resin flower is from Marion Smith Designs - Junque and Gems.

The beautiful chipboard frame is from Dusty Attic - Decorative Frame 1, and I have coloured it using Smooch Pearlised ink in Frosted Aqua.

The other piece of Dusty Attic chipboard I used was for the title - Sisters. I coloured it using Smooch Pearlised ink in Snickerdoodle. When this was dry I covered it in a thick layer of clear Ranger Crackle Paint, then inked it with Vintage photo and Frayed Burlap Distress ink once dry to age it a bit more.

The resin "memories" banner is a new release from Melissa Frances - I have lightly coloured the letters with Snickerdoodle ink too, to make them stand out a bit more.

The background took a while - lots of drying time for the layers. I used Tim Holtz stencils Burlap and Doily, and applied the texture using gesso. When this had dried  I sprayed all over with Patina Glimmer mist, and then rubbed in some Snickerdoodle Pearlised ink here and there to tone down the whiteness. I finished off around the edges using Vintage photo distress ink, and then did a fine continuous stitch around the border.

The gorgeous lace and bling trim is from Prima Marketing.

I really like the soft feminine feel of this layout, and will definitely be doing more of it in the future!

I am a member of the Green Buttons team on UK Scrappers, and yesterday at the crop I managed to do this week's challenge! I am so pleased to have been able to do it as I don't always get the time to do them. I love digging through my piles of stash here at home and actually USING IT!!
Here it is:

I have used Liquitex acrylic paint through the Bubbles Tim Holtz layering stencil, I used white, blue, black and gold. I also brushed a bit of gesso over parts of it to fade it in areas where I felt I had gone a bit overboard with it.
We were using a sketch to do this layout, although as usual my layout has ended up quite different!
The red star was die cut from acetate using the Tim Holtz star die. Then I applied Smooch Glitz in Firecracker - as the acetate caused the smooch to pool, I had to do quite a few layers to build it up. Then I outlined it using a black Viva Decor Pearl Pen.
Other products used include:
Glitz Design Dance in Sunshine patterned paper
Marion Smith Design Nirvana - Family Record patterned paper
Bo Bunny Modern Miss patterned paper
Jenni Bowlin Studio bingo card
Studio Calico Atlantique wood veneer
Bella! Boutique chipboard buttons and heart
Little Yellow Bicycle Burlap star
Jillibean Soup baker's twine
BasicGrey envelope, rub ons and fabric tag
Kaisercraft alpha stickers
Simple Stories 24/7 alpha stickers
Tim Holtz adage ticket
MME Lost and Found 2 Breeze button

Hello, welcome to The Mad Scrapper's blog! I think this will be a fun way to show you all what's happening in the store, and what products I am loving at the moment.

Here is a layout I completed this weekend, it has been inspired by a single page layout done by Sue Lui that really caught my eye.

I have used my all time favourite - Dusty Attic chipboard, and my new found love, Smooch Pearlised inks. The background has been gessoed randomly through a Kaisercraft bricks template, then sprayed over with Tattered Angels' Sun Sisters Glimmer Mist.

The Dusty Attic chipboard has had Goosebumps texture spray flicked onto it, then the Smooch Ink to colour it.

I cut out a circle from Grungepaper, layered them up and coloured them with Smooch ink too.

And of course I have used lots of lovely Green Tara flowers, as well as Dusty Attic blooms, Prima pearl swirls and fussy cut paper to finish it all off.

There are loads of techniques in this layout, and it took a while for me to complete, but I really enjoyed doing this one.