"A Fun Day" Tag Book!!

Have you seen these packs of Ranger Tags ? They are great for adding to layouts for journalling or how about decorating them "Tim Holtz" style or add some small photos and create a tag book?

I sent DT member, Jo a few tags and an envelope of stash and here's what she did with it all!!

Jo has recently celebrated a special birthday and she made this super cute tag book to record the fun day that she had, celebrating with her friends and family!

Jo's supplies included:
MME Lost & Found Two Label Stickers
MME Sweet Pearls
MME Fun Day Title
Fundays Twine
Prime e. Pearls and Crystals

Jo explains how she made it together with pictures of each page!

The blue glittered border on the MME Lost and Found 'Fun Day' title just didn't seem to work with my other colours so I cut the sentiment out and just used that. 

I used the Lost & Found label stickers as accents and layers rather than labels, I think it's a great way to use up the labels that have a sentiment on them that you know just won't go with anything else you have.

I inked all the tags with vintage photo distress ink.

I LOVE swirls and the Sweet "Sweet" one was too nice to use on just one page so I cut it up and used a piece on each tag.
I also added some pearls and crystals to most of the pages.

Once all my pages were done, I fastened all the pages together with some twine!

The tags are also available here in a slightly bigger size!

To see more of Jo's craft projects, pop over to her blog.

If this post inspires you to make a tag book, leave us a comment and a link on this post as we'd love to come and see it!

Half Term Offer - 20% off this weekend!!

I'm not sure if all the schools are on half term holiday this coming week or just us down here in the south of England!!!
If it is half term for you and you have children to keep occupied and entertained during the day why not treat yourself to a few crafty goodies for some well deserved " Me Time" once the little ones are tucked up in bed!!

Even if it's not half term for you, you can still enjoy our fantastic HALF TERM OFFER!!!

We have 20% off EVERYTHING in our shop all weekend up until 4pm on Sunday) - so why not treat yourself?!!

Enter the code HALFTERM in the coupon code box and select UK Standard delivery to activate the discount.

Have a lovely weekend!

My Minds Eye - Miss Caroline!!

Have you seen it yet??!!!

No?? 

It's here!!

And it is absolutely Beautiful!!

My favourite collection from MME ever!!

There's Butterflies ... Flowers .... Wood Grain ... Doilies ...

Seriously, what is there not to love in this collection?!

Miss Caroline is made up of 4 different lines: Dilly Dally, Howdy Doody, Fiddlesticks and Dolled Up.

We are stocking the 6" x 6" pads - although I'm still awaiting delivery of the Dilly Dally pad!

    
    

We have the 12" x 12" Papers from the "Dolled Up" Collection, which I'm totally in love with! These are all double sided and a lovely cardstock quality.

Here's just a few of my favourites ...

       
       

I just have to show you these ...



Yes, clear stamps with butterflies, flowers, wood grain and really handy date and place tags!! Love 'em!!

To see more of Miss Caroline, hop over to here!!

How To .... Punch the edge!

As many of you know I teach at classes and Craft Days and I am often asked for ideas on getting the most out of your stash and how to use various tools and products. In just the last two weeks I've been asked about stamping, heat embossing, using punches, paint dabbers and distressing.

This led to an idea for a new series of blog posts we will be running through 2012. Each month we will highlight a tool, a crafting technique or a particular product and explain how to use it and also show you some samples of projects incorporating some of the ideas!

Now, I know we have a wide variety of readers of this blog, some are very experienced crafters and some who have only just discovered the wonderful hobby of papercrafting. So, I will say now, before we go any further, some of you may read some of the "How to... "posts and discover nothing you didn't already know and that's ok, but for others who may learn something or pick up a new idea or two, we hope you will find these posts useful!

So, first up is .... BORDER PUNCHES!!

I set Design Team member Louise to work on our first "How to ... " blog post using one of my favourite craft tools, the Fiskars bracket border punch and she has created some step by step instructions for using border punches.

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Hi, it's Louise here ...

Punches are most probably my favourite scrapping tool - they are easy to use and small enough to store easily. The table I work on is usually pretty full when working on a project. I make a huge mess and spread right out. If I want to use my die cutting machine, I have to get it out of the cupboard and attempt to clear a space on the table for it, so more often than not I prefer to reach for a punch!

Border punches are straight forward to use, they have guidelines on them making them easy for lining up your paper or card, enabling a continuous line. Lots of craft manufacturers make border punches but two of the most popular are Fiskars and Martha Stewart. There are lots of different designs for creating pretty and interesting borders. Here I show you how I use my new fabulous bracket border punch.

When I buy a new punch I always like to give it a test run on a piece of scrap card before using it on my projects. On the punch you can see the continuous design with the punch section in the middle.....

.....line up your card ready to punch. I always start with the card in the middle of the punch, so I get a nice half design on the edges. You can do this or punch in the middle of the card and work on either side of the design. Ensure the edge of your card is "butted up" against the raised lip on the punch.

.... make your first punch. You may need to press on the lever quite firmly!!

.... next, carefully line up your punched card with the design marker on the base of the punch. You can see the white design lined up with the pattern you've already punched. Again ensure the card is lined up against the raised lip and then punch again.

.... continue lining up your card with the design pattern, and punching.

.... until you have punched the desired length of your cardstock.

Here, in the final photo, I've punched the two edges to show you how gorgeous the design is.

Here's a couple of layouts with punched borders:

For my Pumpkin Carving page, I punched two borders and put them together with the design offset. The punch was also used on the edge of the green paper, right at the very bottom of the page.

 

The Spooky page shows one of the simplest ways to use a punched border - to add interest between two patterns.

Also, don't forget to use your border punches on your cards too!!

Here's a couple of ideas:

On this last card I also used  a couple of regular punches, a scalloped circle and a Martha Stewart butterfly punch.

I hope this has given you a few ideas for border punches!!

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To see more of Louise's work you can visit her blog here!

Don't forget to enter our monthly challenge where the theme is "Happy" and the "added extra" is to use a punch!! One entry picked at random will win a £10 voucher for the S J Crafts shop!