A Perfect Summer!

Hi, Lisa-Jane here today!

Recently, Sarah asked me to create some layouts with the lovely Echo Park A Perfect Summer Collection Kit.

I had already seen this collection in the shop and fallen in love with its bright colours - but once it arrived and I opened it up, I loved it even more!  I really don't think that the little snippet you see on the front of the collection packs do them justice - I certainly appreciated the patterns a lot more on the full page and couldn't wait to get started.

There is quite a lot of red, white and blue in this collection so it was absolutely perfect for some photos of my daughter in her pretty Jubilee dress.  The wave patterned paper is really great because it ties in with water themes of all sorts, not just summer, but isn't so themed that it is in your face and detracting from the layout itself.  The airmail postcard was the perfect place to journal too.

I added some ribbons and brads and made pin-wheels from very small pieces of the chevron paper.  I made the scalloped borders with my Fiskars Threading Water (Scalloped Lace) punch.

Although the collection is called "A Perfect Summer", I love that most of the papers and stickers are a lot more generic than purely sandcastles and sunglasses. 

This next layout is about my daughter being able to manipulate people with her cuddles and cuteness and is streetwise beyond her years when it comes to playing people.

I wanted to pick out the orange and turquoise in her outfit but, at the same time keep it subtle with the addition of the pale blues.  I added a few buttons, twine, brads and a charm from my stash to add lots of texture. I edged the gorgeous hot hair balloon paper with American Crafts ribbon and WRMK washi tape.

The lettering, hot air balloon and blue border along the bottom are all from the 2 co-ordinating sticker sheets that come in the collection pack.  I added the "Be Who You Are" stamp from the fabulous new Hero Arts 'My Notebook' stamp set - a wonderfully versatile and useful set

I'm busy working on more layouts with this collection so do check back soon for more colourful layouts.

Lisa-Jane x

DT member Lisa-Jane is Mum to two young children and regularly blogs at Come Inside My Head ..... she loves paper, writing and being creative in her lovely craft room!

Introducing Six Cards On The 6th!

Hello! It's Jennifer here, and today I am very excited to be able to introduce to you a new series here on the blog: 'Six Cards on the 6th'!

Now, I know it's only the start of August and the sun is shining, but in the craft world we usually start to mention and think about the "C" word about this time of year!! Yes ... I do mean CHRISTMAS!

Each year, I vow to make ALL my cards and despite my best intentions and my efforts, each year I fail. I start off well and get organised and make a few cards in the summer and then have a last minute rush early December. Each year it's the same. This year will be different!

To encourage myself, and you, to get cards made in advance, we're holding this blog series. Each month from now until December, on the 6th of the month, there will be a post filled with Christmas card inspiration for you! 

You will be able to link up your own cards at the end of the post, you can do this anytime throughout the month, and we'll come and take a look to get more inspiration from you!

If you join in with the series at any time, or if you just want to help us spread the word, it would be fantastic if you can copy this button into your post or sidebar! You just need to select all the text in the box below the image, and copy that either into a html gadget (or text widget) in your sidebar, or into the html on a blog post. Then the button will appear and will be linked back to the series - your button won't have a box underneath!


<a href="http://www.sjpapercrafts.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/six%20on%20the%206th"><img src="http://i871.photobucket.com/albums/ab280/Jennifergrace_photos/Sixon6thbutton180pix_zps321d7a53.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo Sixon6thbutton200pix_zps673fb713.jpg" /></a><br>

So, to start us off, here's some inspiration from me - and there's some cards by Sarah further on in the post too.

I pulled together this kit to work from. We encourage you to pull together a kit to help you make six quick cards - it really cuts down on decision-making time, and makes things easier for you! I used lots of scraps and leftover from last year's collections, even some that were negatives of shapes I'd cut or punched last year:

All I added to it were the card blanks (mostly A6, with one 6x6" square), a couple of scraps of white card to stamp sentiments on, and a few gems!

Here's the six cards I made:

Having the kit together in front of me made it easy to piece together the scraps to fill up the card blanks, and by using at least one piece of ribbon and at least one wood veneer on each card it meant they all had a variety of texture to keep them interesting!

Here's Sarah's set of six cards:

Gorgeous aren't they?

There's more details over on Sarah's blog.

What are you waiting for? Go and pull together a kit of a few papers and embellishments, and make 6 quick Christmas cards. I promise getting them started so far ahead will make you feel better! Once you've finished them, put them on your blog, or take a group photo of the set and upload it to a photo gallery, and leave a link below so we can come and check them out!

I hope you'll join us on the 6th of each month now until December and make 6 cards each month - you'll have a lovely pile of hand made cards all ready to write and send at Christmas.

Get Ready!!

I know it's only August but GET READY to kick start your Christmas Crafting!!

 "Six on the 6th" Starts Tomorrow Here On The S J Crafts Blog!

 

We hope you'll stop by and join in!