If your looking for something a little bit different for male themed cards, either for little boys or grown men, whatever their age, have a look at this Little Adventures die cut decoupage kit, its available from QVCUK and for the price, £16.87  plus p&p you get a lot for your money, in the kit you get 8 A4 sheets of die cut decoupage, with designs that are quite funny and include pirates, jungle, space, cavemen and more, each A4 sheet as 3 different scenes so thats a minimum of 24 cards you can make already, you also get 8 A4 sheets of peel off sticker sheets, each with letters, borders, corners and images all which you can mix and match up with the decoupage images. This kit also comes complete with 24 A4 backing papers, which are of really good quality, they are not cardstock but a good quality paper with a very nice smooth finish, and to finish the kit off you get 2 sheets of 440 3d sticky foam squares, with all this you can make up some good quality fun cards, i have made several cards using this kit and i will add some photos of them onto this blog if you would like to take a look, thanks, amanda.

It was our sons Birthday recently and i made him a lovley birthday card using the cardmaking patchwork pals birthday card kit, which i bought from QVCUK. I have to say the quality of this kit is second to none, its made by Kanban crafts who make fantastic kits. There is so much in this kit and its up to you how you put your cards together, please take a look at the photo, everything you see you get (except for the actual card and the peel offs i used) but im sure most crafters will already have a good stash of cards and peel offs. I have already written a blog about this cardmaking patchwork pals birthday kit and if you take a look, ive listed exactly what you get in the kit, by the way like i said earlier you can make the cards up however you would like to, but for all you new crafters Kanban have also put an ideas sheet in with this card making kit, (which is also great for getting insipration from for the more advanced crafter). If you like what you see in the photo you might be interested to know that there is also a Patchwork Pals christmas card kit which i have also written a blog about.

Its that lovely time of year, were christmas is just around the corner and i was wondering how many of you are going to do a Christmas scrapbook album, i love to do christmas layouts of our children and find christmas layouts to be the easiest off all to do, there is so much inspiration and so much fun . I have a good idea for a christmas scrapbook and thought i would share it with you, firstly think about how you prepare for christmas, keep you camara with you when your out shopping and take pictures of your family, children, friends and pets whoever you are out shopping with, get some good pictures of them loaded up with their christmas shopping bags or munching on their christmas candy. Take pictures of your kids wrapped up nice and warm with their hats, scarfs and gloves on etc…  Whenever you start to get your christmas decorations out from your loft is another good photo opportunity, take pictures of you and you family finding all your decorations and getting them out and of course the tree, if you dont get a real one and if you do get a real one remember to take your camara with you when it gets closer to the time to collect your tree. Once you have decorated your christmas tree and it is standing tall and your house is all decorated looking totally festive take plenty pictures again of course you would of taken some crackin photos of all this being done, carry on taking lots more pictures on the run up to christmas of your christmas days out, and fun in the snow photos (if we get some) all wrapped up cosy and warm. When you find the time to start scrapbooking all this it will be well worth it and it will tell your familys christmas story. The pictures you will take on christmas eve and christmas day will look lovely and will complete your christmas scrapbook album. If you would like to buy some wonderful christmas scrapbooking kits take a look at these that i recommend from QVCUK, Anna Griffins Sugar Plum christmas papers with embellishments, this kit will add rich warm tones to your christmas scrapbook, designs include gingerbread glitter, snowflake and starburst, price is £29.20 plus p & p item number 588763. Another fab kit is item number 587246 40 christmas die cut papers with 20 borders £17.29 plus p&p this kit includes 20 sheets of 12″ x 12″ die cut papers and 20 sheets of 8″ x 8″ along with 10 x 12″ borders and 10 x 10″ borders. 588376 is the item number for the Merry and Bright christmas papers, stickers and embellishments, you can create lovely Bespoke festive scrapbooks with this kit and the papers are double sided, price is £24.25 plus p&p and for a lovley colourful cute christmas kit which the kids will adore to use with you take a look at My Minds Eye- colourful christmas papers and embellishments scrapbooking kit at £19.98 plus p&p, item number 588898, these are just a few kits which i think are incredible value for money and are of excellent quality and please remember if you dobuy any of these kits then decide they are not your cup of tea QVCUK give you a 30 day money back guarantee, like they do with every single item they sell.

Halloweens just been and gone and so you may be looking for some good quality halloween scrapbooking papers to use for all your halloween party photos. A good place to have a look at is craftsulove, go on line to find a very wide range of scrapbooking materials. They stock Bo Bunny halloween 12″ x 12″ papers for 89p each, you can buy boo crew, goblins and masquerade amongst others with clear acrylic stamp sets for £4.99. Making Memories is another good range their 12″ x 12″ papers come in either double sided patterned papers for 69p per sheet in witches feet, ghosts and words and 12″ x 12″ glitter and varnish papers for 89p per sheet in flocked web, bats varnish and stripe glitter. For something a little different they have halloween velvet frames which come in packs of 5 for £3.49 all self adhesive with spooky detail and brads and deco pins to match. If its stamping your into craftsulove do a great selection of good quality wooden mounted rubber stamps and unmounted stamp sets from the Penny Black range and stock a range of items in daisy and dandelion and pumpkin and aubergine characters which include papers, die cut dress up and clear stamp sets and also a good selection of coloured stickers

Hi, i bought some scooby-doo decoupage sheets and backing papers to make some  themed birthday cards, i bought a kit containing 12 a4 sheets of decoupage and 12 a4 sheets of backing papers, (2 of each designs, 6 designs) and stamps from QVCUK (sorry i cant remember how much i paid for it ) its not in stock at the moment but keep checking on their website,(item no 588344) but you can pick individual sheets up from good craft stores from 49p per sheet. Have a look at this Scooby doo birthday card that i recently made, i cut down one of the backing paper sheets to fit the card i was using, leaving a very small edge of the white card showing, and attached it using double sided tape. I carefully cut out the design i wanted from the decoupage sheet,( there were three pictures to cut out ) and then i layered them using 3d adhesive foam squares, all the pictures are numbered for you, so you know exactly what goes were, the only thing is, these  are not die cut decoupage, you do need a good pair of scissors and a steady hand to cut around the fine detail on some of the pictures. Using chipboard letters i spelled out the name i wanted across the top of the card, the letters are by kay & co  and i attached them with the 3d foam sqaures to make the name stand out from the card, i had to cut the foam sqaures in half so that they would fit, i cut out the wording Happy Birthday using my cricut expressions electronic cutter machine and some green cardstock from a dcwv stack pad (available from qvc ). I carefully arranged the lettering and stuck them down with small strips of double sided tape (or you could use glue dots ) and then attached the Scooby doo picture at the bottom right hand corner of the card .I was very pleased with the finished result and hope you like it.

Take a look at these three Forever friends wooden christmas stamps, they are so cute, there is a forever friends bear with gift, a forever friends sledging bear and a snowflake. Stamping is quick and easy to do and unlike stickers( once you’ve used them you need to buy more) you have the stamp to use over and over again. There are so many ways to have fun and be creative with stamps, you could just stamp the image using a black or coloured ink pad then colour in the image with either paint, watercolour pencils or gel pens, or you could use a pigment ink on your stamp and then quickly add some embossing powder to the stamped image, make sure the image is fully covered  then shake the access off, then using a heat tool  melt the embossing powder, keeping the heat tool moving at all times and holding about  two inches above the stamped image. You can buy these stamps from good craft stores, instore or on line, take a look at craftsulove where you will find a huge range of forever friends goodies or take a look at QVCUK where you can buy a very good selection of forever friends goodies which have been put together in a great bundle at a fantastic price.

If you have’nt yet made your christmas cards and you are wondering what theme to do them in this year, why not take a look at these Forever Friends Christmas Decoupage Sheets, they are die cut, no need for scissors,  just pop them out and build the image up using sticky 3d foam pads, they are also numbered so you can’t go wrong, you get two different pictures per sheet  and there are lots to choose from, take a look at craftsulove for a good variety of forever friends decoupage sheets, they have mixed packs of forever friends decoupage and pyramage packs which contain several sheets and also include co-ordinating papers for £2.99 If you have a look at topaz crafts(Dawn Bibbys store) you will find forever friends card making kits for other occasions besides christmas, in these packs you will get 4 x a4 die cut sheets, 2 x a4 bespoke papers, 1 x a4 pearlescent paper, 1 x bepoke outline sticker sheet, 1 pack of die cut greetings, 5 white a6 cards and envelopes, 1 pack of 3d foam, 1 pack of gem stickers and a project sheet for £6.99.

If your looking for some  pre scored cardmaking large blank cards, take a look at QVC, item number 587970, its a set of 100, 10″x7″ white & ivory cards with envelopes, iv’e just bought these for myself, they are really good quality card stock with good quality envelopes. I have been making a lot of christmas cards with a lovley christmas set i also bought from qvc, its by Kanban(excellent quality), in this kit you get quite a lot of materials to make quite an amount of christmas cards, and by mixing and matching the materials you can change the style and design to your liking. You get a good selection of different materials in this kit one of them being 20 sheets of foiled cardstock, including scroll, frost and bauble designs, you could actually score and fold this cardstock to have a luxury cardstock to work on but what i do is cut the cardstock in half, matt it onto some gold or silver mirri board card, then stick it down onto my pre scored card and then decorate how you like, this way you can make 2 cards per a4 sheet, getting 40 cards out of the 20 a4 sheets, but of course you need a large card to stick it onto, so when i recieved this set of 10″x7″ cards they were perfect for this. The kanban christmas kit is one of the best i have bought, it was from qvcuk and the item number is 587026 besides the 20 a4 sheets of foiled cardstock you also get 20 a4 sheets of foiled die cut card toppers and 10 a4 sheets of die cut pyramage sheets, featuring Rudolph and Snowman designs, 8 sheets of adhesives foiled paper ribbon sentiments, 4 a4 sheets of mirri card and 4 organza ribbons for extra decoration. The cards do have a good luxury look, when finished, the price of the set of 100 cards is £17.42 plus £5.45 p&p and the price of the Kanban christmas kit is £32.72 plus £4.45 p&p, i know this may seem a lot altogether, but remember  you can make a huge quantity of cards  from these kits and to buy one handmade card about 10″x7″ in a good card shop you will probably be paying  from £5.oo upwards, so if you make 50 cards out of the Kanban christmas kit with the cardmaking large blank cards look how much you will be saving, 50 handmade cards that size in a good card shop at around £5.00 each  thats a lot of money.

Hi, i’ve had a good sort out of my craft desk and goodies and after buying some good quality craft storage boxes, which were a great price, i thought i’d let you know what i bought and for how much. I bought a lot of ‘really useful’ storage boxes from Argos quite some time ago, they are actually called Really Useful Boxes and they come in all sorts of shapes and sizes but the one’s i bought the most, holds 12″ x 12″ papers beautifully, it also has an 8 compartment tray with it which comes in handy as you can fit quite a lot of 12″ x 12″ papers per box and then also fit the tray on top of the papers were you can store your smaller bits and bobs, that size is no longer available at argos but they do have others to choose from, but the good news is that QVC now have them in stock, you get a set of two for £13.25 plus £4.95 p&p which i think is a great price as i paid about £12.00 each for mine, some time ago. As i mentioned argos have other sizes of this storage range, have a look online, just go to argos and type in Really Useful Boxes or storage drawers, i also bought the organiser which has 16 mini removable drawers, this set sits on my craft desk and is great for storing my smaller items like my brads, ribbons, pom poms, eyelets etc….this cost £19.99 and so you can find it easier the cat no is 017/6518. Whilst you are looking at the stoarge drawers, i recommend buying some of the drawer towers, these are great for storing your larger craft items such as craft punches, wooden stamps craft tools etc….and the prices start at about £12.79 upwards. If your looking for some A4 storage have a look on ASDA online, or go in store, they have some great A4 storage boxes from £1.50 and they are very sturdy, i store my chipboard embellishments in these and other chunky item’s.

Hi ,there are a lot of great scrapbooking goodies available, but here’s just a few got to have scrapbooking materials which i love to use. Scrapbooking is really fun and interesting  to do and wheather you have a little or large stash of scrapbooking supplies you can make some wonderful layouts, if your a beginner and just starting to collect items for your scrapbooking  you will be wondering what to buy and where’s the best places to buy from. Once you do get started you will find it gets very addictive and you will want to buy more and more scrapbooking goodies for your stash, here’s a list of some of my favourite got to have scrapbooking materials to scrapbook with, firstly you need some good quality background papers, i buy a lot of dcwv (die cuts with a veiw) their range is fantastic and great value for money, they do a lot of patterned papers in different sizes, 12″ x 12″ is what i normally buy, but it depends on the size of the scrapbooks you do. They have some lovley designs for all seasons , spring , summer, autumn and winter and  more specific  themes, like pets for example, you need to have a shop around and have a look  there’s so much, you will find their range in good craft shops, but i tend to buy mine from qvcuk, as you’ll find the prices a lot cheaper.Kay & co is another range i buy once again fantastic quality and reasonably priced with lots of choice , thier Halloween range is spooktastic!  Good quality card stock is another must, again i buy a lot of dcwv because of their excellent quality and the selections they have in their stack pads is fantastic, i have the Rockstar stack  among others which i bought from qvcuk it cost about £18.00 plus p&p and for this price i got two stacks one is 12″ x 12″ and the other is 8″ x 8″ they both have 48 sheets andsome of the pages have foil & flocking. I tend to use cardstock when i’m matting and layering my photos, ready to put on my pages. Alphabets is another must have, you need a good selection of different sizes , colours, fonts and textures, i have a lot of alphabet sticker sheets and chipboard letters, which are great for giving dimension to your pages. Eyelets and brads are another must, they come in handy for fastening things down on your pages, and they can make your pages a lot more intersting. If you using eyelets you also need an eyelet setting tool i recomend the crop-a-dile or the silent setter, the crop-a-dile can be purchased from craft shops, argos and qvcuk. Brads are easy to use, you just make a little hole,  pop one through and then just open up the split pins at the back to fasten, there are a lot of plain colours and fancy brads to choose from. Adhesives are needed to stick the things down on you pages, 3d foam squares are great for adding dimension, double-sided tape, glue dots and tape runners are the main ones i like to use. Ribbon, buttons (plain and fancy) also look good on your pages (if the buttons still have the shank on the back carefully remove with scissors). A paper trimmer is another can’t really do without item, great for cropping things down with nice straight lines a lot easier than fiddling with scissors. Pens , glitter pens and pencils are also needed in your stash and of course a selection of embellishments.