Some News!

It is with mixed emotions that I write this blog post ....

As many of you will know I  have been involved in the craft retail industry for around 7 years, initially working in a Bricks and Mortar shop, which I then took over as owner to starting and running S J Crafts for the last 3 years!

Sometimes in life our priorities change.....

In those seven years my priorities have changed a few times ... at first it was to gain my dream job in a craft shop and then to start my own business .... to be able to work from home so that I could do the school run and "be there" for my young daughter .... to get my work published in a scrapbooking magazine .... to establish and then buildup my on line shop in the craft world.

More recently, my priorities have changed again and, together with my family we have made a lifestyle choice. A choice which I'm very excited about!

It is therefore with some sadness that I tell you that the S J Crafts on line shop is closing!

As you may know there is currently a Summer Sale in the shop. There will be a Closing Down sale with further reductions all across the store, although please do bear with me whilst I get that up and running.

At the moment it is my intention to continue with the monthly challenges (with examples from the Design Team) here on the blog and to regularly post my craft projects to share with you. I would love it if lots of you will continue to follow the blog and play along with the challenges.

I have been lucky to work with six very talented ladies - Louise, Lisa-Jane, Jennifer, Jenny, Annie and Jemma, some of whom have been on the S J Crafts Design Team since the early days. 

These ladies have all been wonderful to work with and I continue to be in awe of their crafting talents - thank you to all of them! I'm happy to say that most of them have agreed to stay on to design samples for the monthly challenges.

I will post separately very soon to thank each of them properly and provide you links to their blogs should you wish to continue to follow their crafting journeys.

Thank you to each and everyone of you who has shopped with us, come along to a class or a crop, joined in the challenges, chatted on facebook, visited the blog, commented on a post .... I have become friends with many of you (albeit some online) and sincerely hope to stay in touch either through blogging, facebook or the crops.

Thank you and please do get ready to shop in the Closing Down Sale so that I can reclaim by craft room/dining room soon!!

Sarah xx

July Challenge - 1 Of Five!

Hi and welcome to a New Monthly Challenge!

The July Challenge is called "1 Of FIVE"

The idea for this challenge is that you choose 1 out of the five shapes/symbols to include on your project, 1 of the five phrases as your title or inspiration/theme and 1 of the five colours to include on your project.

The Shapes/symbols are: Butterfly - Banner - Star (or this could be a sun) - arrow - circle.

The Phrases : Summer Days - Right Now - You and Me - Explore - The Story ... 

* You don't need to include the exact phrase but something very similar .... I need to be able to see the link *

Colours: Yellow - Light blue/Aqua - Red - Black - White    

 *Any shade of the colour is fine!*

This month we have some fabulous examples from the Team:

Jemma

Jemma had fun with an Easter photo from last year and some very ancient stash (the Christina Cole Life Happens paper from 2006).  The page started life with the June sketch by MiniOwner but ended up elsewhere! 

Shapes/symbols: Circles

Phrase : (Here's) the story...

Colours: White and Aqua

Louise

Louise used  a photo taken a few weeks ago with Heidi Swapp products

from the April Kit along with the new Heidi Swapp shapes stencils and pink color shine, Tim Holtz stars layering stencil and inks

Shapes/symbols: inked arrows stars and sunburst paper

Phrases : Right Now

Colours: Yellow, Light blue and White

Annie 

Annie used a photo from back in 1982, when her son was just starting to explore his little world. The design was inspired by a Glitter Girl video and uses 3x4 cut-aparts from the collection, so it will co-ordinate perfectly with a pocket page layout using more photos from around the same time.

Shapes/symbols: Arrows

Phrase : Explore

Colours: Yellow, White, Aqua & pops of Red

Supplies: Simple Stories Homespun Collection Kit and Simple Stories Daily Grind Chipboard Stickers.

Lisa-jane

Lisa-Jane chose a photo from last summer about a crazy day watching Big Foot.  

Shapes/symbols: Star/Sun (The cogs!)

Phrase : Summer Days

Colours: Red, yellow, white, black and blue (Well done LJ for getting all the colours on her page!) 

Supplies: Echo Park All About A Boy, red cardstock and the rest from stash.

If you click on the name above the image of the layout it will take you to their blog. The team work hard to create their sample so if you could take a minute to pop over to their blogs and leave them a comment I know they would really appreciate it! 

So, are you up for this month's challenge?

Add your entry to the linkt tool below if you want to play along. A link back to this post is much appreciated. 

The challenge will close on 31st July 2014 at 11.59pm

Have fun!

Holiday Layouts

The weather down here on the south coast has been glorious the last few weeks (although a bit cloudy today!) and the sunshine and warmth reminds me of holidays we've been on and this makes me want scrap my holiday pics!

This photo was from a holiday in Ibiza a few years ago and of course we took a whole load of photos of the scenery and each other but we had none of all 3 of us .... until the very last morning when we stopped for a drink in a little beachside cafe and realising the lack of "Us" photos asked the waitress to take a photo! Selfies weren't so popular then!

I used a sheet of Heidi Swapp Dreams Come True 12 x 12 paper for the background as it has a design similar to sun rays on it which fitted the theme perfectly. I began by layering up a few strips of patterned papers. The red "Life is Beautiful" paper, the little Adventure sticker and the doily sticker behind the journal card are all from Echo Park's Capture Life Collection. 

The title stickers are some old Jenni Bowlin alphas which were just the right red to remind me of the hot sun and matched my t-shirt. I kept the embellishment quite simple with a few more stickers, a resin flower and a "Summer" Flair badge from my stash (sorry I can't remember the brand/collection of some of the embellishments), cork arrows and a cork camera (with a red enamel dot on top), a handful of enamel dots and some drops of Colour Shine gold mist.

Down in the bottom left corner I stamped the little aeroplane and added the date. 

When I'm making a layout, I try to include a whole variety of different textures. So, apart from paper I'll aim to use at least 3 other textures. On this page I have cork, metal (the flair badge), the resin flower, enamel (dots), chipboard (the "live in the sun" embellie is a chip piece!) ink and mist so I think I've acheived (and exceeded) the three textured elements on this page. You could try including lace, ribbon, twine, thread, felt, acetate, vellum, buttons ....

I've also just seen that my daughter's cuddly bunny named Flopsy also sneaked into the photo and as she was her constant companion on the holiday I think I will add another line or two of journalling about Flopsy being in the photo too!!

Do you scrap holiday photos from years gone by when the weather reminds you of that holiday?

Have you ever added extra journalling to a layout after you thought it was all done?!

If you've made a holiday layout recently or included lots of different textures on a recent project or this post inspires you to do so, please do leave a link in the comments so we can stop by and see your work or why not post your layout to our facebook page - we'd love to see it!!

May Challenge Favourites and a Winner

Hello Everyone!

I'm just popping in to quickly announce the winner of the May Challenge! 

I know it seems ages since the Bingo challenge but sometimes life just gets in the way but here I am at long last to share a few of my favourite entries and tell you who has won a little prize, picked at random from all the entries!

You all seemed to love playing Bingo with lots of you playing along and linking up so it was tricky to pick out my favourites from so many fantastic projects.

Becky

Becky used our "Dreamy" monthly kit to create not just one but three fab layouts each using a line of the bingo grid!

Sheena

Sheena picked the line mist/metal/bow line from the grid and created a beautiful page with lots of layering!

Nathalie

A fun, colourful page by Nathalie with a brilliant journalling idea!

Please do hop on over to these ladies blogs to see their layouts in detail .... and leave them a message whilst you're there ... if you click on their name above the layout it will link you to their blogs!

So onto the winner, picked using random.org

Congratulations to .....No: 17 ... Petrina!!

Petrina entered the challenge via our Facebook page which is always option if you don't have a blog! You can e mail me your project too!

Petrine, please get in touch by e mail to sarah@sjpapercrafts (dot) co (dot) uk with your mailing address so I can get your prize sent.

Thank you to all of you who play along with our challenges .... I love visiting your blogs to see your work ... there's just a few days left to link up for the June Colour Challenge!

Enjoy your day!