Scrap Whispers

Challenge #117: Technique - punches

2012-01-31T05:10:00.001+01:00

Hi everyone!

It's Rosey here this week, as Georgina is going through a hectic time at the moment. Sorry about the delay in posting Friday's challenge, but better late than never. :-)

Georgina has chosen a good technique challenge for us all: PUNCHES

How many different ways can you put your punches to good use? If you have lots of flower punches, you might want to layer them up. Maybe you have confetti punches - try scattering them about and see what happens. If border punches are your addiction then see how many you can use in the same LO. Be innovative! Show us what you can do!

Here are a few pages from the DT to get your creative juices flowing.

See how Nilsa has used border punches not only to create borders but also to make her own embellishments. Aren't those frames just adorable?

I went down the scattering route, and made full use of both my butterfly punches, cutting them in half to make resting butterflies. I also used a corner punch on the actual photos. I had my usual problems photographing black, but you get the idea I hope.

I also made a card using the confetti idea with my smallest leaf punch. This is great for using up those teeny pieces of beautiful paper without wasting them.

Can you think of any other ways to use your punches? We'd love to see your ideas. Link your project up to us here at Scrap Whispers, and include a link to this blog in your post. As we are so close to the end of the month, we're going to include this challenge in February's prize pack, which will appear very soon. Just because you can't see it yet, don't let that stop you - it will be as good as all the others!

All the best Georgina, and we hope to have you back very soon. {HUGS}

Challenge 116: Sketch Challenge

2012-01-20T15:55:00.001+01:00

Its Friday and that means another scrapwhisper challenge for you to play with this weekend!

This week we challenge you to create a layout based on this cute sketch created by Kelly:

For some inspiration check out what the design team created:

Nilsa

Rosey

Kelly

Now it's your turn! Share your layouts with us by leaving a link below:

Challenge 115: Scraplift Challenge

2012-01-13T23:41:00.000+01:00

Welcome Scrap Whisperers, happy weekend to you all! This week our challenge for you is to scrap lift this lovely layout by Rosey:

To give you some inspiration take a look at the Design Team's interpretation of the lift:

Nilsa chose similar paper to Rosey's main background, but in a different colour. She kept the shape of the layout but added a banner across the top of her back and did not matt it on the square background. Her photos were larger and so is the scalloped border towards the bottom of her page. She has embellished her page with words in a similar way and placement to Rosey's layout:

Kelly took a different approach - she kept her 12x12 background plain and hand cut and doodled her own background paper. She only used two photos but made them squareish (similar to Roseys). She kept a scalloped border and piece of ric rak for embellishment towards the bottom left of her layout and used buttons for her other embellishments. She cut stars for the two corners of her page and added a title with journalling in a frame.

I did something different again! I didn't have any paper similar to Rosey so I chose a star shape instead. I did however choose a piece that had green dots around it which ties in with Rosey's layout. I kept the photo placement but mine were a little larger and rectangle not square. I kept the scalloped border but only across the top of two photos and not in a straight line across the page. I also used a spotty background paper (which looks seethrough to the design on the back in this photo as I photographed it in front of a sunny window!! LOL). Like Rosey I embellished with buttons

So it just goes to show - there is no right way to scraplift a layout - anything goes. Take inspiration from Roseys layout in any way you want to . Flip it, Twist it, change it to suit your style, just keep the essence in there somewhere!

If you give it a go this week, please share it with us, we would love to see what you create and there is a chance you might win this months prize pack! :)

Sign Up Now!

2012-01-13T12:17:00.000+01:00

What to play along with our next team game?

EMAIL us

your own name and email address and we will add you to a team. The next game starts in 2 weeks time!

And the winning team is.....

2012-01-09T00:22:00.000+01:00

TEAM ONE

Congratulations goes to Rosey, Mary, Wendy, Tammy, Nora, Susi and Chelsey !

It was a very difficult decision for me to make this time around - I was very impressed with every teams layouts and loved how it twisted and turned! Team One - your layouts caught my attention the most - they were all similar in theme and I loved the coincidences throughout such as the same or similar paper being used, that every season was represented in layouts and that you all tried to keep as best you could to the previous layout. Well done I am very impressed! You will each win the following prize:

12 sheets of American Craft "Classics" 12x12 paper, 1 sheet of Thickers lettering and a random splatter of embellishments from my stash such as brads, buttons and ribbon to make it into a little kit for you ! Please EMAIL Georgina with your address details to claim your prize!

Big Reveal Team Three

2012-01-08T23:47:00.000+01:00

Finally - it's Team Three's turn to shine! As with the other teams they were given this layout by Georgina to start their game:

First up was Nilsa - She moved the paper embellishment at the top of the page over slightly and used a punch to give it a scalloped edge. She kept the buttons there though. She moved the main part of the layout downwards more and kept the photo within the confines of the border. That cute little butterfly embellishment is still there but he's flying away a little bit more than he was on Georgina's layout! The scalloped circle is fuller and Nilsa has still embellished inside. Instead of a ticket there is a name and date tag on the corner of the photo.

Then it was Helen's go - she added lots of texture to her page with paper tearing and curling. She moved the paper strip embellishment at the top over to the corner more and added three circle embelishments she made herself - I think I even spy an eyelet there! She created a wave like appearance to paper and layered it then moved the photo to the opposite side of the page. She has journalled in a curvy way on the patterned paper (I'm feeling a bit sea sick with all this waviness! LOL) and added more circle embellishments and eyelets!

Elske was up next and she is taking us back to the Fall season! She has retained the top right corner embellishments and the paper tearing to add dimension. Her photo is in the same place but her title is a little smaller. The photo itself has a similar feel of water although a lot calmer than on Helen's beach! I spy eyelets again (they are so under used don't you think!) and some more circle embellishments and string.

Tracy got to play next. She continued with the paper tearing theme but made it more central to the page. Her title was increased in size and instead of embellishing top right corner of the page, she embellished with stars to the top right of the central part of her layout. She has covered the corner of her photo with a date tag and journalled towards the bottom of the page. She has added interest with a patterned border. I also have to comment on the handsome little kid!

Brianne played next - she made the centre layout bigger and instead of tearing all around the edges only turned a corner over. She kept three paper strips at the top and matted her portrait photo. She journalled under the title in white pen and placed a patterned border strip with some ribbon across the bottom of the page! Using blue black and red has made the page feel like the negative to Tracy's layout don't you think?

Finally it was over to Colleen - she kept the central feel to the main part of the layout but scalloped the borders. She added swirls to the top right of this instead of strips and added bling - all of this has softened the feel of the page. She kept the portrait photo, turning it to black and white and matted this still also. The border strip across the page remains as does the red and blue! There is less journalling on this layout but the tag is hanging from the title and contains all the relevant information! Looks like there has been some ink distressing happening on this page too!

And that was the final page! Wow - again another complete transformation - Seriously... I love this game!

Well done team three!

Big Reveal - Team Two

2012-01-08T23:30:00.000+01:00

Are we ready to see what team two got up to.........

Okay - as a reminder - this is the layout they were passed in the first instance! (created by Georgina)

It was Kelly's turn as team leader first - she kept her design fairly true to Georgina's. She embellished the top right of the page with paper and buttons, kept the placement of the photos and the matting the same, although she centred hers to the page slightly more, her title was in a similar positioning and contained more than one font and she moved her journalling to the left and up slightly. Whilst there were no butterflies to embellish she did use a hot air balloon which also flies so brownie points for that one Kelly! :)

Kelly's layout was passed to Kathy next who mixed things up - she kept the portrait photo on the right hand side but kept it within the background matting. She moved her title to above the photo and made it smaller and then embellished with 9 gifts. She used a similar paper doily to the one Kelly used and evened this out on her page by placing the other half under her photo. She retained the paper embellishment to the top right but moed it more to the top of the page instead.

Kathy passed her layout to Sarah next who created a fun bright layout about a little boy turning five! She kept the positioning of the photo in the same place but made it slightly bigger again using some matting paper. rather than embellishing with 9 parcels, she placed 6 blocks of journalling there instead. Buttons were used to embellish the entire page and the actual title is above the photo still. She has used a scallop die cut to place behind the top of the journalling and kept the paper embellishments towards the top.

Karen was next and it's all change again! (I love this game) She has changed the portrait photo to a landscape one, moved the title to the top and centre, moved the 6 blocks down the page and changed them from journalling blocks to more photos, she's added a funky dancing robot embellishement to above these and taken away the paper embellishment at the top.

Next to play was Mindy and she has created a 2 pager - 2 A4 sides in fact so this has switched things up considerably! She has also flipped the layout upside down and back to front! Instead of one main portrait photo on the right its now a landscape/block photo on the left. The 6 boxes have turned into 3 photos and her title has jumped from top right to centre left! Whats interesting here is that Mindy's journalling is in the bottom right and she has journalled on paper strips - if the original layout was flipped this is where the paper embellishment strips would be!

Finally natascha got to play and she reduced her layout back down to one page. She kept the placement of photos - 3 down one side and a single one on the top left. Her jounalling was in a similar position and she embellished with a line of bling just above her single word title which was centre left!

Now thats another great transformation I think you will agree!

The Big Reveal!

2012-01-08T23:15:00.000+01:00

Wow! It's been such a long time since we started the team Scraplifting game (way back in October) I'm sure some of you will have forgotten what your own layouts looked like! I sure know that was the case for me!!!

I'm sorry it's taken a while, but I am excited to be able to finally reveal to you all of the teams gorgeous layouts! Lets start with Rosey's Team - Team One...........................

Georgina produced the original layout and this was sent to all team leaders:

Next up was Rosey. You can see she kept true to the original design, she used matting and layering, dragonfly embellishments instead of butterflies and kept the title in the same area too. She journalled on a flower and embellished the corner of the photo with leaves instead of a ticket. She used one photo as in the original layout.

Next up was Mary and she was scraplifting Rosey's layout - Mary also kept true to the original but she added a few of her own twists. She used two photos instead of one and stretched the title across the bottom of the page. She added stickers to embellish but kept the journalling in the same spot. She took inspiration from the yellow in Rosey's layout and continued this into her own.

Then it was Wendys turn. Suprisingly she chose to scrap a similar theme to Rosey, even thought she hadn't seen Rosey's layout - Wendy was lifting Mary's! Wendy has embellished with leaves and buttons and kept two photos as Mary has done. She has kept the title stretched across the bottom of the page and added a cute scarecrow too.

Wendy's layout was passed onto Tammy next who also kept the fall theme - She has made the photos smaller in size and placed them more towards the centre of the layout. She kept the little scarecrow embellishment and has moved the placement of the photo to the top of her photos. Funnily enough she has used the same fall themed paper that Rosey used in her layout! I love coincidences like this!

Then it was Nora's turn and she has chosen to change the season! We've moved from fall into winter and more specifically Christmas. Nora has kept two photos but rather than having them both landscape has changed one to portrait view. She has moved the title more to the right of the page but left it at the top of the photos too. She has embelished with paper snowflakes and ornaments but moved these out from the right side of the page slightly.

Susi was next with another Christmas layout! (I love how this game works!) She has centred her photos more than Nora but kept the size and shape of the photos the same. Her title is in the same place and she has embellished with a little Christmas Squirrel (again another coincidence I love because Rosey's user ID in the forums is Squirrel) - ooh hold on maybe its a chipmunk? I don't know - what do you think? Susi has also switched the snowflake embelishements to christmas parcels.

Then, finally it's over to Chelsey who has disregarded the Christmas theme and moved to a more gothic halloweeny feeling page. She has kept it simple and removed all the background matting paper, tilted her photo to the diagonal and added some dimenstion with lace. She has no journalling, has linked die cut frames together and placed a small title to the bottom right of the page!

Wow! Look at how that changed!! Well done team one!

Challenge 114: Colour Challenge

2012-01-06T22:40:00.000+01:00

Before we leap into this weeks challenge we would firstly like to announce the winner of the December Prize Pack! There were 20 entries in all (Chelsey x1, Amanda Jane x 4, Jackie Edwards x 3, Tracy Rhodes x 4, Libeeti x 3, Wendy Crowe x 3, Tiffancy Call x 1 and Kimberly C x1) Thank you all for your lovely entries - we've looked at them all (we're sorry we can't seem to leave comments on some posts due to blogger issues) and we're pleased to announce the winner for December is............

AMANDA JANE

Congrats Amanda! Please email Georgina with your address to claim your prize

Now onto this weeks challenge!

PINK ~ BLUE ~ TURQUOISE

Happy New Year to all of our lovely Scrap Whisper Followers! 2012 is here and we hope you are raring to go - we have lots of fun challenges in store for you this year and we're starting you off gently with another colour challenge! We challenge you this week, to create a layout or card with the colour scheme of pink, blue and turquoise. As always with our colour schemes you can add black, white or cream with your creations if you wish!

Check out what our Design Team created to give you some inspiration:

Wasimh by Rosey

The Windswept Look by Georgina

Angel by Kelly

Boxes are Fun by Georgina

Birthday Card by Georgina

Now it's over to you! Want to be in with a chance of winning the January prize pack? Simply create a card or layout and link us to them using the linky below. You can enter as many times as you like with different creations too!

Challenge 113 - Colour Challenge

2011-12-30T21:09:00.000+01:00

PINK - ORANGE - PURPLE

Photo Credit: http://weheartit.com/entry/14322834

Well, who would have thought it - another year past! We would like to wish all of our scrapwhisper followers and friends a very Happy New Year and thank you for those of you who continue to support us throughout it all. This year has certainly seen a lot of changes around here huh! We of course wanted to end the year with a fun challenge and it just so happens we have a colour challenge for you to get your teeth into!

Pink Purple and Orange - an odd match that works delightfully well!

Create a card or scrapbook page with this colour scheme and link us to them to be in with the chance of winning a prize.... want some inspiration? See what our Design Team came up with:

Easter Lily by Rosey

Basketweave Homework by Georgina

She loves Dora by Nilsa

Giddy Up by Kelly

We have decided that because it's the end of the month already and we're sure you will have lots of busy plans for the new year - we will be extending the deadline to this particular challenge until the end of January 2012. If you play along with this challenge your name will be entered into the January prize draw (prize to be announced next month)

In addition remember there is still time to get your last minute entries in for the December prize pack. Just click HERE for a list of all the current, live challenges.

If you are looking for the big reveal from the team game - visit back on Monday for the full run down, winners names and more!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T13:47:00.000+01:00

Wishing all of you a

wonderful Christmas

and a very

Happy Scrappy New Year!

from the Scrap Whispers DT xxx

Challenge 112: Technique

2011-12-23T22:14:00.000+01:00

Definition - A Cluster : A small group or bunch of something.

Thats exactly what our challenge is this week. Create a layout with a whole bunch of clusters on your page.

For Example - Rosey has clustered together some cute woodland style creatures

and Nilsa has clustered her flowers!

Clusters work well together on a page - you can group similar items or you can group completely different items together the choice is yours.

Try to use an odd number of items as this takes away the symetry you would get with an even number.

Try Layering embellishments on top of each other as Nilsa did with her flowers.

Cluster your photos together. (Good Article about this CLICK HERE)

Give it a go - show us what you've got!! Create a scrapbook page with a cluster somewhere on it (doesnt matter what the cluster is of) and link us to it to be in with a chance of winning this months prize pack! :)

Have a great Christmastime and we will see you back here next week! :)

Don't forget the Big Reveal is coming shortly!!

Challenge 111: Sketch

2011-12-16T22:10:00.000+01:00

Can you believe that Christmas is literally 10 sleeps away? I'm shocked time is flying by so quickly. I hope that I get time to scrap this weekend in amongst the chaos, its nice to have such a relaxing hobby! If you get time to scrap why not try out our new sketch challenge for this month? Rosey created this fab sketch for us to play with:

Its super simple and open to interpretation PLUS there are cute little snowflake embellishments to make it feel Christmasey too! In fact in snowed here in England today so its actually a topical sketch too!

Check out what our DT created:

Royal Wedding Party Tent by Georgina

Rhinestone Cowgirl by Nilsa

So Glad! By Rosey

Now its over to you - simply play along with this challenge by creating a layout inspired by our sketch! Link up to your layout and you will be entered into a prize draw for this months wintery papers.

Good luck!

Challenge 110 - Anything Goes

2011-12-09T21:39:00.001+01:00

December is a funny old month isn't it! Always manically busy with prep work for Christmas Day. We've decided therefore that this week we're taking a different approach with our challenge. Rather than giving you a scraplift challenge, a colour challenge, a technique challenge or a sketch challenge - basically this week - anything goes! The challenge is simple ..... we want you to create a scrapbook page. It can be about absolutely anything you want. You can use whatever colour scheme you want, as many photos as you want, you don't have to follow a sketch or try to scraplift someone else. You simply have to create a page all of your own doing!

The scrapwhisper design team had fun with this one and created 3 very different but fun pages to give you a little added inspiration - check out what they did:

Christmas Craft Fair by Georgina

5 by Nilsa

From Coffee Shop to Latte Art by Rosey

Throughout the month of December you are playing for this kit from Doodlebug - perfect for the wintery weather!!

Have fun with this challenge - be creative - share your creations with us and spread the word! :)

November Winner!

2011-12-09T21:31:00.000+01:00

Thank you to everyone for playing along with our November challenges. There were lots of great entries and the following names were put into the hat (NB if you entered more than once your name will be on this list more than once! )

Wendy Crowe , Kimberly, Amanda Jane, Chelsey, Sarah S, Wendy Crowe, Amanda Jane, Jackie Edwards, Susanne, Karen, Mary E, Tracy, Wendy Crowe, Amanda Jane, Tracy, Susanne, Amanda Jane, Tracy

DRUMROLL PLEASE..............

There can only be one winner each month and this month the winner is..........

SUSANNE

Congratulations Susanne. Please email your address to Georgina and she will get your prize out to you!

EMAIL LINK

Challenge 109: Red, Aqua, Cream

2011-12-03T15:56:00.001+01:00

Apologies for the late post (I bet you didn't even notice did you - I bet you've been out Christmas shopping haven't you!!) Blogger is playing mind games with us again at the moment. In view of that we're keeping this post short and sweet and hopefully later on today or tomorrow will be able to post the winner from the November challenges as well as sharing with you the prize up for grabs in December.

I note that a few of you had issues with the linkys closing at different times - another glitch I'm afraid - anyone who linked to layouts in the comments section your names will all go into the hat with the other entries too. But more on that later or tomorrow!

Our challenge this week is to - use a colour scheme of RED, AQUA and CREAM on a card or layout and link us to them! Simples. This is what the DT have created for some little inspiration:

Georgina

Nilsa

Rosey

Kelly

Now its your turn! Usual rules etc will apply - Mr linky to be added later today or tomorrow - in the meantime get a headstart on your layout and take the photo of it so you can share tomorrow!

Challenge 108: Tutorial - How to use up alphas

2011-11-25T16:30:00.000+01:00

Every scrap-booker has packs of alphas containing only those odd letters and numbers that will never get used. And if you’re anything like me, every time you need a title you still look through them just in case, and you get more and more irritated with them - but you can’t throw them away because that would be wasteful, right? Here is a way of using those leftovers so that you can finally throw that packaging away (and buy some more!)

You will need:
• Enough alphas to create the title you want; short works better.
• Your leftover chipboard Thickers or raised alphas, any colours.
• Spray or dye ink(s) in contrasting colour(s) to the title alphas.
• Card-stock.
• Backing paper from double-sided tape or adhesive.
• If you’re using spray, a cardboard box to spray into.

1. Start by deciding your title. Cut each letter out, or stick each letter onto a different piece of the backing paper. This is so that you can remove them. Choose your alphas from a single coloured pack, or ink them all to match each other.

2. Arrange them on the card-stock, but don’t stick them down. You can use repositionable adhesive to hold them in place if you wish.

3. Randomly place your leftover alphas around the title, sticking them down. Aim for about 1½ to 2 rows of leftovers.

4. Remove the title alphas, and mist and/or ink the leftovers and the card-stock background until their original colours are mostly covered. You could use a cosmetic sponge to get into as many of the holes, nooks and crannies as you can. You may want to use several close colours in similar shades, but make sure that the title colour stands out. Allow to dry.

5. Tear the card-stock around the edges of the lettering.

6. Replace the title alphas, sticking them down permanently. Your dramatic title is finished and can be added to your LO.

For this tutorial I have used Thickers and other lettering that is raised, so that the outline of the alphas still shows. If you have flat, printed stickers, you could use the same method but with alcohol ink so that the printing shows through the ink without being obscured by it. The title could then be in raised lettering and/or a contrasting colour.

You could also use this method to create a striking card, or a name plaque for your child’s room, or a holiday greeting banner. You need never hang onto those annoying Qs, Js, Ks, Xs and Zs again!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks for the Tutorial Rosey - its very inspiring!! >> Now it's over to you - our blog followers!! Give this tutorial a go for yourself then come back here and link us to your creation. If you do your name will be entered into our prize draw for November.

Still stuck for inspiration? Check out what our Design Team did with this tutorial:

Challenge 107 - Sketch

2011-11-18T20:46:00.000+01:00

Oh my goodness, where is the year going?! Can you believe November is almost finished already>! We have a great sketch (created by Nilsa) this week for you to play with - why not take time out of your crazy schedule on the run up to the holidays and take time for yourself! Scrap, use our sketch and relax! :)

This is your challenge for this week- create a layout using this sketch:

Here is what the DT came up with to provide you with a little more inspiration:

Georgina

Nilsa

Rosey

Now it's your turn - leave a link to your creation below and be in with the chance of winning this months lovely prize pack !

Challenge 106 - the scraplift challenge

2011-11-11T12:00:00.001+01:00

I like that today is 11.11.11 it's pretty cool huh! I was patiently waiting for 11:11am today and was watching the clock like a hawk, typically I got caught up in something and then when I looked to check the time it was 11:12am! pppff!

Also - Happy Veterans day to you if you are in the States and Happy Poppy Day (Remembrance Day) to those in the UK. Truely a day we should all be thankful for and remember those who have lost their lives for our countries.

Onto our challenge for this weekend - it's a scraplifting one and we want you to scraplift this layout from Nilsa:

Here is what our DT created for some added inspiration:

Georgina

Rosey

Nilsa (yes you can scraplift yourself!)

Thats it! Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy ! Don't forget if you play along you will be in with the chance of winning out lovely echo park papers !

Challenge 105 - Colour Challenge!

2011-11-04T19:29:00.001+01:00

Happy November!! Lets jump right on in to our challenge for this week.......

You may have noticed recently that our colour scheme has changed to purple! We all love Purple on the Design Team, but its an incredibly difficult colour to scrap with don't ya think?!

Well, we like a challenge and so this week we are challenging you to create a layout with the colour scheme of :

BLUE

WHITE

PURPLE

For a little bit of inspiration check out what our Design Team created:

Hampton Court Maze by Georgina

L is for Lovely by Rosey

Chillin' in NYC by Nilsa

Snowman by Kelly

Because it's November and therefore a new month, we also have a new prize pack up for grabs for you! This month you are playing for a chance to win this brand new paper pack from Echo Park - "Victoria Gardens".

Simply link us to your creations below to be in with a chance of winning or click here for more information and the rules!

Have fun!

October's Winner Is.........

2011-11-04T18:59:00.000+01:00

CONGRATULATIONS THIS MONTH TO........

CHELSEY!

Well done Chelsey - you have won the October prize pack of Echo Park Christmas Papers !! Well done Email Georgina with your address in the usual way! Congrats.

Challenge 104 - Make your own Embllishments

2011-10-28T15:00:00.003+01:00

Hi everyone, thanks for stopping by the Scrapwhispers Blog today. Its Blog Hop time and we've got a little bit of a quick and easy tutorial for you today. Are you like me, with an endless supply of paper "scraps" in all shapes and sizes, colours and patterns? There are only so many extra layouts you can make and cards you can create isn't there!! This week we want to share with you a simple way to make lots of different, personalised and homemade feeling embellishments for scrapbook pages or indeed cards.

Start by gathering a selection of your papers and a selection of punches - make sure the punches are in all shapes and sizes. The more variety the better.

Select 3 or 4 punches to work together and punch shapes from various shades or patterns of paper.

You then are going to layer them on top of each other in a completely random fashion - whatever you think looks right. Glue them in place with a small amount of adhesive.

Now you are going to add a circle of felt or material behind the scraps of layered and punched paper. To secure this in place simple sew randomly across the whole embellishment.

Once you've done one of these, make as many more as you like. Keep going. Try different combinations and colours, play around with whatever works for you from the stash and supplies you have.

You could make a whole bunch of them and leave them in a pot on your craft desk so the next time you are working on a project you have one ready to go. You might want to leave the stitching out altogether, you might want to hand sew. You might not have felt or material so decide to stick with everything being paper. You could add number or letter stickers to make it tie in with your scrapbook page - you might even want to add extra buttons or gems to make it sparkle. The choice is really up to you - the most important thing is the layering!

I used my Christmas embellishment on a card. These would also look cute on a project such as an album cover; a covered book or a covered container.

So there you have my design - check out what the rest of the Design Team have created using this technique:

If you want to give this tutorial a go yourself - link us to your creations and be in with a chance of winning that lovely October prize. Hurry though as the deadine is short! :)

Challenge 103 - Sketch Challenge

2011-10-21T22:44:00.000+01:00

It's Friday Sketch night!! Hope you have lots of scrapping time planned this weekend! :)

This week we challenge you to create a layout based upon this sketch by the lovely Rosey.

Its simple in design but you can spruce it up however you want. ....

Check out how our DT interpreted the sketch:

Kelly

Nilsa

Georgina

Now its your turn - create a layout and share it with us! Be in with a chance of winning this months prize pack too!

Challenge 102 - Scraplift Challenge

2011-10-15T23:19:00.000+01:00

Here at scrapwhispers, the one challenge we love the most is scraplifting!! That is taking someone else's layout and making it your own - by either copying the layout, colour scheme or theme. This week we challenge you to scraplift this pretty cool layout by our very own Rosey! We love this layout and it has so much going on there is sure to be something for everyone!

To give you some inspiration check out what our DT created :

Nilsa

Kelly

Georgina

Now its your turn. Play along, link us to your creations and be in with the chance of winning our Echo Park Papers in this months draw!

Don't forget the new team game will be starting on Monday so if you want to sign up now is your chance.

Plus if you want to try out for our DT emails are required for that too! gh26@sky.com

Update

2011-10-14T21:40:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone!

Just a quick update for you all ....

Firstly challenge 102 will be posted tomorrow!!Sorry for the delay but things have been manic!

Secondly - we were due to start the new scrapwhisper team game on 10th October but sadly we havent had enough people signed up to make the teams of an adequate size to play. I'm extending the opening time to sign up until Monday - if no one else joins then we will go ahead with the numbers we have. Do you want to play> Make sure you email gh26@sky.com to sign up.

Thirdly, sadly Helen is mega busy with revising for her uni work at the moment and will be stepping down from the DT until after Christmas - she needs a break that girl works hard!! So in her absence we have an opening for another DT member. Could it be you?

If you would like to apply for the DT simply send me a small quick paragraph about why you would like to join us and what you think you could bring to the team. Deadline will be Wednesday next week. When you email be sure to include your name and a link to your blog! We can't pay you as this is all voluntary but we have some great challenges lined up and if its experience on a DT you are looking for - you've come to the right place!

Email: gh26@sky.com

See you tomorrow for the next challenge

Challenge 101 - Colour Challenge

2011-10-07T21:44:00.000+01:00

photo credit

Happy Friday!

Today we are challenging you to create a layout inspired by the rich colours in the above photo.

I found this photo when searching one of my favourite blog sites.

Its amazing the stuff you can find on the internet these days!

We want you to create a layout using the following colours:

ORANGE

BROWN

GREY

Check out what our DT created to provide some inspiration.

Kelly

Nilsa

Georgina

Now its your turn. Give the colour scheme a try and then link us back using the linky below.

Don't forget our team challenge starts on 10th October. If you want to play along email your names to Georgina quick smart!

September Winner

2011-10-02T20:09:00.000+01:00

Congratulations this month go to Teresa Jaye who has won our September prize draw!

Teresa please email your address to Georgina and she will get your prize pack out to you!

Challenge 100 - Stamping on Layouts

2011-10-01T08:49:00.009+01:00

Hi Everyone! Kelly here, with a tutorial for you for our monthly blog hop!! First though, a huge apology if you have come from mine or Nilsa's blog looking for this post, we had some uploading problems yesterday, but here it is. Stamping on your layouts!

Using stamps on your layouts is much easier than you think and sometimes they can really enhance your pages. I’ve taken just a small selection of rubber and acrylic stamps.

From the Happy Birthday set I’ve taken a Fleur de lis circle stamp and stamped onto patterned 6 x 6 paper in different colours. Making sure they overlapped. I then cut them out to create a border of a different kind.

On my layout I’ve tucked the photo into the border I’ve just stamped, so it overlaps the photo slightly and holds it in place. From the same stamp set I’ve used a butterfly stamp in each of the circles and I’ve got them Flying across the page. I’ve also used a journaling spot from the Autumn leaves Stamp set.

For another example I’ve used one of the Gorjuss Girls stamps. This was stamped onto plain white card, colored with my promarkers and I also stamped it onto a scrap of patterned paper so she could be paper pieced to create more interest to the dress.

Using just the girl image and not much else on the page has created just enough interest to the page. I again used a journaling spot from the Autumn leaves set but this time I have stamped it several times onto patterned paper.
You can see how she ties in with the photos I’ve used for my layout.

If you do not have any rubber stamps or the clear stamps, then don’t be put off. There are lots of Digital Stamps available across the web. A few of my favorites are Mo Manning, Tiddly Inks and My Favourite Things.

I hope you will give this a technique a try. If you have a huge stash of stamps like me, then maybe it’s time to make more use out of them. Check out our Design Team's Blogs and see what they have been getting up to with the stamping on layouts technique. It's October now too which means a new prize is up for grabs! The September Winner will be announced over the next couple of days!

Challenge 99 - Sketch

2011-09-23T15:47:00.000+01:00

Hi there Scrapwhisperers ! Hope you're having a lovely week and are ready to enjoy the weekend ahead!

This week we have a sketch challenge for you:

Here is our DT's take on this sketch to give you some added inspiration:

Kelly

Nilsa

Rosey

Georgina

Now it's your turn. See what you can create using our sketch and then come back here and link us to your creations. Don't forget if more than 5 people play along with any of our September challenges then there is a prize up for grabs (see top right of this page) !!

Challenge 98 : Scraplifting Challenge

2011-09-16T13:15:00.001+01:00

Hello... Hello.... Anybody out there?! LOL It feels like we're out in the wilderness on our own!

If you are still there, it's Friday again and that means another of our weekly challenges. We're a site that's really all about the main scrapwhisper team game - thats based on scraplifting. So we thought it would be a good idea to have a regular scraplifting challenge for you all to practice on!

This week we challenge you to scraplift this layout by our very own Helen Salthouse:

Cool huh?!

The design team of course couldn't wait to get started on this challenge and this is what they created:

The Girls Rule by Georgina

At 3 by Nilsa

Fairground Fun by Kelly

Now it's over to you. Scraplift Helen's layout and then come back here to tell us all about it! Link your layouts using the button below. Remember there is a prize up for grabs as pictured in the top of the column on the right of this page. We need at least 5 people playing before the prize will be awarded so we need 4 more people playing quick time! LOL

A big shout out to Tracy who so far this month is our only player!

Challenge 97: Colour Challenge - Pink Brown Green

2011-09-09T22:34:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone! Happy Friday - can you believe the weekend is here already?! This week we have a colour challenge for you to play along with! We are challenging you to create a scrapbook layout (anysize) using the following colour scheme! Green, Brown and Pink

To provide you with a little inspiration here are some layouts from the Design Team!

Why won't you go to sleep by Rosey

Easter by Nilsa

Flower Pot Cat by Kelly

Sheds R Us by Georgina

And don't forget every entry into one of our September challenges means another chance to win this great scrapbooking kit! As no one has played our last challenge yet, you've got a good chance of winning right now! The odds are with you! LOL Why not give it a go and play along - what do you have to loose?! :)

Oh and one more thing - we've just opened up our new forum!! Come and check us out!

Blog Hop Time and some News!

2011-09-02T15:00:00.003+01:00

Surprise! We're back! And this time is for real! LOL - Yes, so sorry we've totally abandoned you all haven't we! Holiday and Vacation time, summer activities and more have kept us away but we're all fully relaxed and have a bundle of renewed energy! We've been thinking long and hard about the scrapwhisper site recently and have come up with a new and improved plan - one that will fit right on into everyone's routines. We have some cool prizes to give away and we can't wait to get started! To find out more, check out the tabs across the top of this page!!
In the meantime, lets get started with our first challenge of September!!

This month Nilsa challenges you to alter a composition notebook.

For Nilsa's book she used leftover scrap papers and teeny tiny alpha letters. Instead of hand stitching or hand sewing she faux stitched the edge of the notebook too....

Once you decide the theme of your composition notebook gather all your supplies. For Nilsa's notebook she used:

Paper trimmer
x acto Knife
Tape Runner or adhesive of your choice
Distressing Ink
Ink
Tab puncher
Glass Mat
Chipboard and alphas
Scrap pieces

She started by tracing the notebook onto the paper. Then she cut the excess paper with her scissors. She used the atg gun to glue the kraft paper onto the notebook then sanded they edges, finishing with Tim Holtz distressing ink to distress the edges. She did exactly the same to her front cover.

Nilsa then went on to decorate the front cover. She used her puncher and cut out some tabs for the subjects of her notebook.

A nice quick and easy project thats brilliant for those of you going back to school! Want to see how Nilsa's Notebook turned out? CLICK HERE to visit her blog to see! Whilst you're in the blog hopping mood why not check out the rest of the DT and take a look at their altered notebooks too.

When you've done all that, give this challenge a go yourself and then link us to your books by leaving your details in the link thingmejig below! :) If you play along you will be entered into the September prize draw. You can enter as many times as you like with different notebooks too and it doesnt matter where you live in the world - we ship everywhere! :)

DT Blog Hop - make your own page kit

2011-07-15T08:30:00.044+01:00

Hello everyone, it's Rosey here - thanks for joining us again for July's Blog Hop.

In one of the NSBD events, we asked you what you would like to learn. We had a wonderful bunch of requests – thank you for all your original ideas! Several of you wanted to know how to make your own page kits out of existing stash, so that’s what I’m concentrating on today.

You might use a page kit to save time working on your pages at home, or to take to a crop. You might have your photo already picked out, or you might want to make generic kits which you would then choose photos to fit. In this example I’ve got my photo chosen.

Here it is. Interesting colours, eh?

I’m just going to pick out stuff that might work. No decisions yet, just what I like. You can either choose complimentary or contrasting colours to decorate it with. I’m going with complimentary for a soft look so I started with some basic neutral card-stock. It's always good to have an extra piece of white card-stock, in case you want to create a journalling spot, or cut a title or die cut, or a mat for your photo.

Patterned paper next. I went through my scraps first, because we’re all about recycling and reducing waste here! Hey, pebbles – cool. And music: the right colour and representing the music of the sea. Am I getting all poetic and romantic on you?! A toning coloured map because this is from a trip. Some blue swirly scraps for accents – die cuts maybe, a title or punched shapes.You could add ephemera as well (tickets, brochures, receipts etc.)

Now ribbons and fibres. I have some wonderful sea foam in my photo, so I’m thinking lace and chiffon. And there’s sand so some beachy string/raffia, and ooh look I’ve found some stuff printed with musical notes! I may be able to use these tiny bits of leftover rik-rak and swirly felt.

Brads, buttons and gems next I think. I may not use them all, but if I’ve got them selected, I’m half-way there. A little zip-lock bag is ideal to keep those loose bits together. You may want to add chipboard shapes, die-cuts, charms, jewels, shells, sea glass, pebbles....

Finally choose your alphas, and put everything into an old page protector, or one of those gallon zip-lock bags that you get in the US but which I haven't seen here!

One tip for keeping ribbons (or anything) from getting squashed is to put them into a zip-lock bag and blow it up before sealing it. If the bag is pretty air-tight, the contents will be protected from getting crushed. Do the same with your bag of brads, and those sharp points won't damage your photos and papers in transit.

Now, here's how to play! Each of our wonderful DT members has made their own page kit to show you lots of different ideas, contents and colour-ways. After you've made your own kit and posted a photo on your blog for us to see, link us up to it here. Then hop through the DT's blogs and leave a comment on each to show you've visited.

Georgina
Nilsa
Kelly
Helen
Rosey

Well that's it for now. I hope this has helped inspire those of you who have never tried making page kits before. I'm off to turn that bag of bits into something resembling a lay-out...

Happy page-kit-making!

And the winners of the scraplift challenge are..........

2011-07-11T18:00:00.000+01:00

TEAM THREE!

Congratulations to: Helen; Wendy; Michaela and Tammy

You went from this:

to this:

you have each won:

A 12x12 paper pack of the crate paper collection "Portrait"!

Please send your address details to us by CLICKING HERE.

Team Six - the big reveal

2011-07-10T21:49:00.000+01:00

Team 6 - you're up next!

They all started with this layout:

i-phone photos by Georgina

Sherri was first up to scraplift. She reduced the number of photos on her page, took part of the background paper away, made her strips of paper larger, and added a smaller title in an embellishment fastened with some brads.

Smile by Sherri

Ann was next to give the scraplifting challenge a go! She reduced the number of photos on the page to just one and placed it at the bottom of her page. She flipped the design and added two strips of paper vertically instead of horizontally and she used a sticker for her title which also contained the word smile. She added more stickers for embellishements.

You make me smile by Ann

Britany was next in line. She scraplifted Ann's layout. She kept the patterned paper strips but moved the photo to the opposite side of her page. She added some journalling blocks, circle phrases to embellish and it looks like she handstamped her own background paper too.

I do I do I do by Britany

Last up was Karen. She scraplifted Britany's layout. She took away the larger background patterned paper and added three shorter strips in the same place as on Britanys layout. She tore her paper edges to add dimension. She added a journalling block and moved the photo again this time adding another. She carried the circle theme over with some buttons.

17 by Karen

We will be announcing the winning team tomorrow so make sure you check back! :)

Team Five! The Big Reveal

2011-07-08T22:26:00.000+01:00

Drumroll please......................

Its time to see what Team Five Created. They unfortunately had someone who had to drop out so there are only three players in team five, but the really switched things up with their layout! Take a look......

A reminder first (as always) of the original....

i-phone photos by Georgina

Kimberly was up first to scraplift. She has kept the same amount of photos, kept them black and white too. She did however flip them on their side, using landscape photos and moving them more to the centre of her page. She embellished with digi flowers and minimised her title so it sits neatly in the corner. She has also reduced her background paper so it doesn't sit across the whole page. She has added a matching border and used a two tone effect.

I love your smile by Kimberly

Kimberly's layout was then passed to Carey to scraplift. Carey hasn't used any photos on her layout yet, but its ready to take them when she is ready. She has minimised the spaces for photos and has reduced the number of layer strips. She has embellished with flowers like Kimberly has done but she has moved the positioning of these to each corner of her photo matt. She has placed her title at the bottom right in a similar position to Kimberly's. The main piece of patterned paper across the middle of her layout extends across the page.

Smile by Carey

Then finally it was Mindy's turn to scraplift Carey's layout. Mindy has made the patterend paper in the middle of her page smaller again so it is more similar to Kimberly's layout. She has reduced the number of photos to 5 and they are colour photos. She has added some journalling strips and made the title spread across her page rather than being in one corner. She has also use a lot of colour rather than sticking with the two-tone theme of the other layouts.

Fruit Snax by Mindy

Well done team 5 - lovely layouts !

Come back tomorrow to see our final teams layouts and then the winners will be announced on Sunday !

Team Four - Big Reveal

2011-07-07T23:38:00.000+01:00

Well Hello! Fancy seeing you here! Are you looking to check out team four's layouts?! Well you've come to thr right place! :)

This was the original layout they were given to scraplift!

i-phone photos by Georgina

Kelly was up first - she reduced the number of photos on the page and varied the background papers to add more colour. She kept two strips of paper and raised her title up the page slightly. She added some journalling strips and inked around the edges.

Malta by Kelly

Kelly passed her layout to Mary. Mary reduced the number of photos again choosing one long photos as her focus on the page. She raised the title higher again and minimised her use of patterned paper. She embellished in a similar way to Kelly and matted her photos on a notebook page.

Howling Good time by Mary

Mary passed her layout to Susi. Susi kept the photos in the same place on her page and kept the same number of photos too, she even added them to some note paper. Her title was of mixed font and in the middle of the page like Mary's. She used slightly different embellishments but kept them in the same place.

Pause - by Susi

Finally Susi's layout was passed to Karen. Karen flipped everything to the opposite side. She kept the same number of photos and embellishments and added a patterned matted border to her photos. Her title was a little bit higher than the other ladies but still in the middle. She used buttons for her embellishments. Her journalling was across the top of the page.

Mini Horses by Karen

And there we have team fours layouts! Great job!! Come back tomorrow to see team 5 layouts !

Team Three

2011-07-06T22:38:00.000+01:00

On a side note before I begin today I must state that I am getting frustrated big time with Blogger right now! Is anyone else having issues posting or commenting or is it just me? Pppfff

Okay , now that is out of the way, lets take a look at the layouts created by team 3 in the latest round of scrapwhispers.

Remember - each team started with this layout:

I-phone photos by Georgina

First up in the challenge was Wendy. She kept to the colour scheme of Georgina's page but ensured her photos were blue too. She embellished with spots and dots and reduced the number of photos on the page. She mounted the photos slightly differently too. She kept the corners rounded and added a strip of ribbon to her page too. Her title is in the same place!

Underwater world by Wendy

Wendy's layout was then passed to Michaela for scraplifting. A lot of the elements remained the same - Michalea made the border around the photos bigger and added some journalling to.She changed the size of the layout but kept the same number of photos. She rounded her background paper and mounted it too and kept her title in the same place. She kept the strips of ribbon too.

Bechtel Christmas Prom by Michaela

Next up in the scraplift challenge was Tammy. She jazzed it up and flipped the layout 90 degrees. She reduced the number of photos added a large bracket and some journalling. Buttons kept the circle theme and her corners were still rounded. She added two strips of rick rak!

Live Life by Tammy

Finally it was the turn of team three's leader. Helen! She kept Tammy's layout but played with the size of each of the photos. She kept the heart embellishment that Tammy had added and moved her journallling over slightly. She kept the corners of her background paper rounded and added strips of paper to the page.

Bag by Helen

Well done Team three! Great layouts and a surprising twist!

Check back tomorrow and you will (hopefully if blogger lets me) see all the layouts for team 4!

Team Two - Big Reveal

2011-07-04T20:17:00.000+01:00

Welcome to day two of our big reveal and today we are looking at the layouts created by Team Two!

Remember, each team started with this layout:

i-phone photos by Georgina

Nilsa was up first and she kept try to the layout of Georgina's layout. She used the same amount of photos in the same placement (its just she used colour photos) and they were mainly headshots of people too. She used a bright spotty background paper, kept two strips of paper and the title in the same place:

Homecoming 2010 by Nilsa

Nilsa passed her layout onto Shannon to scraplift and Shannon took the film strip idea and enhanced it by adding a great film strip border to her photos. She kept the same format of photos but staggered them out more and separated them with larger spaces inbetween. She made the background strips of paper much larger and embellished with stickers. Her title was in the same area of the page.

Avril by Shannon

Shannon's layout was then passed onto Natascha for scraplifting. Natascha also kept the same style of photos, but she mounted them on a bright red border and separated them on the page even more. In her middle set of photos she even managed to double the number, getting more photos on the page. She kept the two background strips but made them a plain colour and her title was in the same area of the page just mounted in an oval.

TDV by Natascha

Finally Natascha's layout was passed onto Nora N for scraplifting. Interestingly Nora took the layout in a slightly different direction. She moved the photos back towards the left of the page more and reduced the number of photos on the page. She mounted them on a thin blue border and moved the patterne paper to the left of the page too. Her title was in a similar position but also moved across more so to the left! Her title was mounted on a cloud instead of in an oval.

DJ Dancin by Nora N

There we have it! Come back tomorrow to see more great layouts from team Three!

The Big Reveal

2011-07-03T13:52:00.000+01:00

So, isn't it typical - you just think you are back on track and then blogger starts playing up so you don't get the opportunity to upload photos and so in turn therefore are unable to post the much anticipated Big Reveal Layouts! Shocking! I'm so sorry for the delay ! But here they are (finally!)

We are starting with Team One! Rosey's Team. They were giving this "original" layout to start their scraplifting journey.

I-phone photos by Georgina

Rosey jumped right in and turned the layout on its side. She used 3 long photos instead of the photo strips but kept the placement of everything else. She kept the two tone colour scheme too and used arrows for her embellishments. Her title was angled up the side of the page and she created strips with ribbon.

Sony Cyber-Shot by Rosey

Rosey then passed her layout on to Tracy for scraplifting. Tracy kept the placement of the photos but made them portrait instead and linked them across the page. She replaced the ribbon strips with paper strips and angled them slightly and embellished with circles. She kept an arrow on the page and moved her title across the top of the photos.

Explore by Tracy

Tracy's layout then got passed on to Rebecca for scraplifting. Interestingly Rebecca flipped the layout back to the original placement. She used 3 photos but made them landscape once more, she retained the circle theme from Tracy's layout and added dimension to the page with paper tearing techniques. She moved her title to the right of the page and added slanted ribbon strips.

Party by Rebecca

Finally Rebecca's layout was passed to Susan to scraplift. Susan kept the placement and size of photo. She moved her title to the bottom of the page and journalled around the outside. She embellished with lots of fun sea creatures and some water splashes. She continued with the paper tearing technique too.

Great job Team One! You did so well! Check back tomorrow for Team Two's layouts and to our friends in USA - have a happy holiday weekend!

Surprise Challenge! - SUMMER!

2011-06-26T21:43:00.002+01:00

Hi everyone! Don't panic! We're still here. We've been on a little break and I know many of you are wondering whats happened! Well - I take full responsibility - life got in the way for me and I kept forgetting to come update the blog. I apologise!

I am back now though and the scrapwhisper blog will be back with avengence too!

You might remember we stopped the weekly challenges as no one was playing along. Well from this day forth there will be a surprise challenge once a month - it will be on a different day every month and you will have to pop back reguarly if you want to catch it! The surprise starts today with a simple card challenge - read on to the bottom of this post for more information.

Our monthly blog hop will be here every month too -that will still be held on 15th of every month and will feature a technique or project for you to try - the whole DT is involved with that and you hop from blog to blog seeing the different takes on the subject.

Of course we still have the main whisper game happening in the background - check out the forums for more information on that. The current game has come to an end and the DT have been doing wonderful things getting all your main whisper layouts in ... Oh and I'm pleased to tell you that the BIG REVEAL for this latest round will be THIS FRIDAY! Yep! You read that right - THIS FRIDAY! So make sure you pop back to see whats going on!

Okay - so this months random surprise challenge....

I challenge you to create a card for any occassion you want - you have to include however, an activity you might do in the summer. So for example:

Fishing

Going on Vacation

Strawberry Picking

So, think of an activity you enjoy in the summer and then create a card with that theme. This challenge is open to everyone including members of the ScrapWhisper Design Team (they don't know anything about this challenge yet! LOL). You can enter as many times as you like too and can live absolutely anywhere in the world.

The Prize?

So, what are you waiting for - create a summery card with a summer themed activity included and then link us to it using the buttons below. Oooh and come back on Friday to see the big reveal!

More Winners...

2011-05-20T21:29:00.000+01:00

Drum roll please...............................

The following people have won the grand prizes from our NSBD celebrations.....

3rd place winning a $20 gift voucher for scrapbook.com is..... MindySue

2nd place winning letters, embellishments, bling and thread plus a $20 gift voucher ........ Chelsey

and

1st place winning the Echo park collection pack and a $20 gift voucher is....... Kathy

congrats again ladies! email your addresses to the usual place to claim your prizes!

WINNERS!

2011-05-18T20:08:00.002+01:00

Sorry for the delay in picking our winners for the National Scrapbook Day celebrations! Blogger has been unfriendly to many of us of late!

I will not keep you in suspense any longer.....Okay so .... here are the winners of the Design Team Challenges:

Georginas challenge winner: Kathy Rogers

Kel's challenge winner: Natascha

Helen's challenge winner: MindySue

Nilsa's challenge winner: Wendy Crowe

Kimberly's challenge winner: Wendy Crowe

Sherri's challenge winner: Tracy

Rosey's challenge winner: Susi

Ladies please email your addresses so we can send out your prizes..... AND.......
To find out who won the grand top prizes (1st, 2nd and 3rd) come back tomorrow!!! :) (Well we needed a little more suspense didn't we!

DT Blog Hop - Paper Bows

2011-05-15T15:30:00.011+01:00

One of the things we discovered on National Scrapbook Day last week was that you would like more tutorials on how to use up that never ending stash of scrap paper you have cluttering up your craft room!

Well, we have the perfect VERY QUICK project for you to follow this month in our tutorial blog hop - how to make paper bows.

You know the type? Those extremely expensive "posh" bows that you can buy to add on to your gifts? I swear, once you've made this one and realised how easy it is, you will never buy a bow again. Not only are we saving your bow money we are helping you to use up your scraps! Don't you just love it here! LOL

Okay - so down to business. You will need the following:

A stapler
Some Glue Dots
3 pieces of 3/4" x 10" strips of double sided patterned paper
2 pieces of 3/4" x 8.5" strips of double sided patterned paper
1 piece of 3/4" x 4" strip of patterned paper.

Step One

Start with one of the bigger strips of paper. Carefully pull one end round into a loop and hold it there with your finger.

Step Two

Repeat this process on the opposite side

Then staple the two ends into the middle.

Repeat this for all of the 3 larger pieces of paper.

Step Three

Now you are going to layer them up. Place a glue dot on the bottom of one and turn it in opposite direction to the bottom one. Push together so the glue holds it in place.

Repeat this with the third piece. This is the base of your bow!

Step Four

Next we will do the same thing with the two smaller pieces of paper as so.....

Completely same principle. Use glue dots under each piece to keep it secure.

Step Five

For the final piece you need to simply loop it once as pictured and secure with a stapler.

Stick this into the centre of your bow and voila - done!

See, we told you it was easy.

Just think - you could make these for any occasion, out of same coloured scraps or a complete variety like I have done here. It would definately make that personal gift you spent ages picking out or making, that extra bit special wouldn't it!

Why not hop on over to all the other DT blogs too and see what bows they have created using this technique. You will see how simple this really is and what a variety of bows you can create too! Have fun hopping and thanks for stopping by.

Check back every day next week to find out who won our NSBD prizes! With Blogger being down recently we're sorry we haven't been able to announce them sooner.

Thank you!

2011-05-10T05:46:00.000+01:00

Well that was a crazy weekend - we hope you all had as good a time as we did!

Thank you to everyone who took part in our NSBD games and challenges. All challenges are now closed. The winners will be announced shortly, so keep checking back!

This coming Sunday 15th May we are having our monthly Blog Hop tutorial which will be posted by Georgina. Of course, we've noted down all your wonderful ideas, and we'll be bringing them to you each month - we're going to have to do a bit of fast learning ourselves with some of them, hehee.

If you're not all crafted out after last weekend, don't forget that you still have a few more days to finish April's simple scrap-lifting Blog Hop HERE and link it up before Saturday. Right now you have a very good chance of winning a prize! Catch you again soon......

NSBD Challenge #14

2011-05-08T08:00:00.004+01:00

Challenge #14 - Chocolate and more chocolate

And finally, for our last challenge for this year's NSBD, head over to Rosey's blog (me) for that chocolate fix: http://squirrel-nuts.blogspot.com/ Mmm. Doesn't that just make you hungry? Can I have chocolate for breakfast? Oh pleeeeeeease Mum?

Please post your entries on this post, and make sure we know who you are!

Deadline = midnight BST Monday 9th May

NSBD Challenge #13

2011-05-08T06:00:00.002+01:00

Challenge #13 - "Market" research

An easy one for the last of our non-crafting tasks. To give us a better idea of our audience so that we can give you fun Blog Hops and challenges that you want, here are a few questions:

1. Do you make cards?
2. What computer program(s) do you use to edit your photos?
3. Do you do/have you ever tried digital scrapping?
4. How many different NSBD events are you participating in this year?

Please leave your answers in the Comments on this post.

Deadline = 10am BST Sunday 8th May

NSBD Challenge #12

2011-05-08T04:00:00.002+01:00

Challenge #12 - Family recipe

Next up is a scrap-lifting challenge, courtesy of our sweet Sherri (get it? Ha I crack myself up sometimes!) - follow this link to find out more: http://sharpshootingbysherri.blogspot.com/

Please post your entries on this post, and make sure we know who you are!

Deadline = midnight BST Monday 9th May

NSBD Challenge #11

2011-05-08T02:00:00.002+01:00

Challenge #11 - Easter Egg Hunt

1. In which challenge did Nilsa create a gorgeous colorful card with none other than Smurfette featured on the front?

2. In which challenge did Rosey create a layout titled "In my Mother's Garden"?

3. Sherri taught us a little bit about Hula Dancing in which challenge?

4. Our little ones grow up so fast! In which challenge did Kelly create a layout dedicated to how much her sweet little girl has grown?

5. Girls just want to have fun! In which challenge did Georgina create a layout titled "Funny Girl"?

6. In which challenge did Kimberly journal about the sweet smile of her little boy?

7. Can you tell me in what challenge Helen created a gorgeous layout with bright fun colors about her pets?

Thank you to Kimberly for this game!

Please e-mail your answers to me at autumntrees@ymail.com

Deadline = 10am BST Sunday 8th May

NSBD Challenge #10

2011-05-08T00:01:00.002+01:00

Challenge #10 - Favourite food

Hosted by the lovely Kimberly at http://cyho-kimberly.blogspot.com/

OK now I'm getting hungry!

Please post your entries on this post, and make sure we know who you are!

Deadline = midnight BST Monday 9th May

NSBD Challenge #9

2011-05-07T22:00:00.001+01:00

Challenge #9 - the missing ingredient

Helen came up with this idea, and it's an interesting one.

There will always be times when you want to scrap an event but you haven't got photos: like an event where cameras are not allowed, or a childhood memory, or when you simply didn't have a camera with you.

We would like you to come up with ideas of what else you could put on your page as the focal point. As an example, you might journal your memory and decorate around it. What else can you think of? Maybe you've done this yourself already - share with us what you did.

Each NEW idea posted in the Comments will get an entry, so get in there quickly!

Deadline = 10am BST Sunday 8th May

NSBD Challenge #8

2011-05-07T20:00:00.003+01:00

Challenge #8 - Good enough to eat!

Nilsa has an ENORMOUS.... well pop over to http://nilsagonzalez.blogspot.com/ and see what I mean!

Please post your entries on this post, and make sure we know who you are. ;-)

Deadline = midnight BST Monday 9th May

NSBD Challenge #7

2011-05-07T18:00:00.003+01:00

Challenge #7 - Anagram game

Our clever Kelly has come up with these anagrams of foods from all over the world. See if you can work them out?

1. A LEAF TOM
2. NASA GAL
3. DEE GREEK
4. A RAKE RUT US
5. HIS US
6. A BE FOREST
7. CHIME WON
8. CASE PUCK
9. CEASE CHEEK
10. LAMSON
11. GRAB HE RUM
12. JECK CHI NERK
13. BEAR CUBE
14. A BREWSTER SIR
15. HOME OTIS
16. ALASKA AT KIM
17. FISCHER FERN
18. STAGE PITH
19. A MOOSO PUTT
20. AUK TOTE

Please e-mail your answers to me at autumntrees@ymail.com making sure I know who you are!

Deadline = 10am BST Sunday 8th May

NSBD Challenge #6

2011-05-07T16:00:00.007+01:00

Challenge #6 - Leftovers

This one was Helen's bright idea, so head on over to http://www.nerllybird.typepad.com/

Please post your entries on this post, and make sure we know who you are!

Deadline = midnight BST Monday 9th May

NSBD Challenge #5

2011-05-07T14:00:00.002+01:00

Challenge #5 - even more cake!

Time for a random game!
We want you to think of 20 different kinds of cake and then email the list of 20 to us!

Think you can? It's not as easy as it sounds!

Please e-mail your answers to me at autumntrees@ymail.com

This is Georgina's brain-child - do you think she likes cake by any chance? LOL

Deadline = 10am BST Sunday 8th May

NSBD Challenge #4

2011-05-07T12:00:00.002+01:00

Challenge #4 - a Recipe

Sugar, and spice, and all things nice, hosted by our beautiful Kelly at http://callicodreams.blogspot.com/

Please post your entries on this post, and make sure we know who you are!

Deadline = midnight BST Monday 9th May

NSBD Challenge #3

2011-05-07T10:00:00.001+01:00

Challenge #3 - what do you want for T?

For this challenge we would like you to tell us what you would like to see on a tutorial. Each NEW suggestion gets an entry into the prize draw, so put your thinking caps on, look through your outstanding projects, and come up with something to challenge you..... and us!

Please add each new idea in a separate comment on this post. Make sure we know who you are - we can't count anonymous entrants!

Deadline = 10am BST Monday 8th May

NSBD Challenge #2

2011-05-07T08:00:00.003+01:00

Challenge #2 - Cakes!

Pop over to Georgina's blog http://itsjusttoorandom.blogspot.com/ to find out all about it.

Come back and post a link to your entry in the Comments section of this post, and make sure we know who you are!

Deadline = midnight BST Monday 9th May

Welcome to NSBD 2011 and Challenge #1

2011-05-07T06:00:00.004+01:00

Hello everyone and happy National Scrap Booking Day! Thank you for joining us in our 28-hour marathon Food-Fest!

Every 2 hours from now until 10am BST (British Summer Time GMT+1) on Sunday, we're going to be posting a new challenge for you. There will be crafting challenges, games, tasks and questions to answer, not to mention prizes...... (we have cookies.... hehee!)

There will be 7 games, tasks and questions posted from the Scrap Whispers blog. Every entry (and you may be eligible for several) will go into a grand prize draw for 3 amazing prizes. All are food-related. Because we've eaten all our Easter chocolate and just need more. :-)

In between these, there will be 7 challenges posted from our Design Team's blogs. These will be crafting challenges, and you will be allowed until Monday 9th May at midnight BST to post your link. There will be a prize offered from EACH ONE of our wonderful Design Team members for the winning entry to their challenges!

We've put up a chart showing time conversions over in the side bar to help you. ->

Challenge #1 - Party invitation

Your first challenge is a really easy one to get you started.

You have until midnight BST tonight to post our poster in the side bar ->

on your own blog, with an invitation to everyone to come and join us at Scrap Whispers. If you're techie enough to link the banner back to Scrap Whispers then even better, otherwise just post a link to our site so that all your friends can share the fun with you.

Now here's the good bit. If you can get your friends to post it on their blogs as well, AND link back to you blog so we know who recommended them, not only do they get an entry into the prize draw, but YOU get an extra entry too. How about that!

Now leave a comment on this post linking us up to your blog post, and then you have until 8am BST to clear off your tables and tidy up your scrap area in preparation for the next challenge, which will be hosted by the lovely Georgina.

Deadline = midnight BST tonight

It's nearly here!

2011-05-07T01:37:00.000+01:00

We start at 1pm Western Australia time, 6am British Summer Time, 1am Central Daylight time (US) so the Aussies can start scrapping, and we'll still be here when everyone else gets up. See you here later!

Celebrate NSBD with Scrap Whispers!

2011-04-30T15:04:00.002+01:00

Can you guess what our theme might be this year? Come along on Saturday May 7th and play along with us. Everyone welcome - see you there!

P.S. We're playing from 6am British Summer Time on Saturday (1pm WST, 1am CDT) until 10am BST on Sunday (4pm WST, 4am CDT). The crafting challenges won't close until midnight BST on Monday (midday WST, 5am CDT), ~~but you'll only have 2 hours to play each game~~. ;-) we've extended the deadline for the games until the end of the event: 10am BST on Sunday.

DT Blog Hop

2011-04-22T15:35:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone! Happy Good Friday! We hope you are enjoying your Easter break. Today we thought we would share with you ways in which you can scraplift a layout and make it your own! Afterall, thats what scrapwhispers is all about!

Each Design Team member got given this layout and were asked to scraplift it:

It was created by Georgina for one of the very first scrapwhisper challenges! Check out what each of the Design Team have done to scraplift this layout, click on their names below to go and investigate on their blogs! (if their post is not quite up yet please visit back later, being in different timezones is always a bit of an experiment!)

Once you have done that, why not try to scraplift this layout yourself - we would love to see what you create. Link us to your layouts following the button below, so we can show you some love! :) Once more! Have a happy Easter and happy hopping! (like a rabbit hopping for Easter!! LOL)

Want to play in the next team game?

2011-04-21T20:31:00.000+01:00

So if you are reading this right now I'm guessing that you have either (1) played scrapwhispers before (2) have been following us for a little while and know what the game is or (3) have just stumbled upon us and are wondering what on earth we are doing!

Well - if you want to find out what the Scrapwhispers team game is CLICK HERE for more information.

Once you have read that, if you want to play along in the next game (due to start on 1st May) then EMAIL us with your details - we need (a) your full name (we won't reveal your surname on any posts etc its just so we can keep it all straight behind the scenes) (b) your forum name if you have one (c) your current email address. Be sure to put "scrapwhispers" in the title.

You can live anywhere in the world to play along with us - there are no restrictions.

Each team will have a maximum of 5 people in it, although we may decide to extend this slightly (as we did last time) if there are more people wanting to play. It is a first come first served basis though.

If you do play along - you must ensure that you maintain contact with your team leaders. (these details will be provided to you when you sign up) We don't mean every day but we do need to know that everythings okay with you and that you can get your layout completed on time. We are very flexible and know that sometimes life gets in the way of scrapping fun, but we regret we will not be able to wait to reveal the final layouts if you have missed the final deadline or haven't replied to team leader emails/forum posts. Ie if you are playing along, we need a little commitment from you and a promise you will try hard to get your layout completed

Think that all sounds great? Brilliant - email us and ask to join the fun. Closing date is 30th April 2011

Come back tomorrow afternoon for a great blog hop too! :)

WINNERS

2011-04-15T21:55:00.000+01:00

I am pleased to announce that the winning team for this scraplifting challenge is TEAM TWO!!! Congrats Team Two - great layouts and they remained the most similar thoughout!

You have each won:

a sew easy paper piercer! Email Georgina with your address details to claim your prize!

Come back tomorrow to see how you can sign up for the next Scrapwhisper Team Game!

Team Four

2011-04-14T21:43:00.000+01:00

So sorry there has been a bit of a delay in releasing team fours layouts - I hate to keep you all in suspense for so long! I'm pleased however to show you them now!

Remember this was the original layout the teams started with:

Kelly was up first. She has kept to bright colours and stuck to the original design closely. She has used a bigger brad on her folded corner, her buttons are more embellished and she has used brads instead of bling in the top right corner of the page. Her title uses square and circle letters and she has used some stickers to embellish in place of the rik rak. I like how Kelly has used a portrait photo in her layout - it makes her page look sleek and neat.

Kellys layout then got passed to Jules. Jules also kept true to Kelly's page. She folded the corner, embellished her scattered buttons, used a portrait photo and two different fonts in her lettering. I really like the lacy effects on this layout, it matches the photo really well -what pretty dresses.

Next up Jules' layout got passed to Nena. Nena kept the placement of the background paper but instead of turning a corner over she embellished with a giant flower. Instead of just three buttons on the right side of the page she scattered a whole heap. She switched back to a portrait photo but kept the two different types of font. I particularly like the big bracket Nena has used on her page. The three sets of embellishments form a triangle on her page drawing your eye to the photo.

Nena's layout was passed to Paula next. Paula kept the papers in the same position again, but she played around with the different types of embellishments. She has used two photos and slanted them on the matting, shes created snowflake embellishments instead of buttons and used a two font title. I like that piece of ribbon/rope which frames the left of the page - you can clearly see the scraplift at work here!

Paulas layout got passed to Wendy next - Wendy did a great job of scraplifting Paula - look at that rope again and the double slanted photos. I like the theme to this layout with those huge star embellishments. Wendy has also moved her title to the bottom of the page and made it bigger.

Finally Wendy's layout was passed to Doris. Again, Doris stuck true to the layout that preceeded her. She has kept the two photos, the rope framing the page, the title on the bottom and a strip of paper. She has used some cute embellishments too - I like that little truck along the bottom!

And there we have it - the final teams layouts.

Can you see the similarities between the first and last layouts?

Check back tomorrow for the results of this challenge!! One lucky team will be winning a prize!

Ps. please note that in light of the winner announcement tomorrow there will be no blog hop.

Team Three's Turn!

2011-04-11T21:22:00.000+01:00

Hey guess what? It's Monday and that means we get to see the big reveal layouts for team three! Yeay! :)

Okay so just as a reminder - this was the original layout passed to Helen to scraplift.....

Helen stuck to the layout brilliantly. She darkened the colours but kept everything in the same place - she turned a corner over on her background paper, she retained the three buttons scattered on the page, instead of bling she added three mini brads in the top right corner of her page and she chose 2 different fonts for her title. She kept the rik rak too! I adore the amount of texture on Helens page the most - she has torn vintage feeling edges, with a modern funky title, she has embossed some of her background paper and scalloped the edges. The mixture of bold modern and subtle vintage really adds to the theme of her page.

Helen's layout was then passed onto Nora to scraplift. Nora has gone for bright colours once more, she has added a photocorner instead of turning the corner over but she has kept those 3 buttons in different colours scattered. Hey look - the bling is back again on the top right too! Nora has replaced the rik rak with some straight ribbon and look the title is in those little squares again! Instead of the brad on the ribbon like Helen did, Nora has added a flower button. I really like the combination of colours on this page and Noras choice of patterned paper was inspired - I love how the circle theme carries throughout the layout with the paper, the brads and the buttons!

Nora's layout was then passed onto Ann to scraplift. Ann has chosen to scrap a different size layout. She has kept the background paper in the same placement but she has made her photo more central to the layout. She has taken the triangle corner and switched this to the opposite side of her page making them ito a banner. She has kept the three buttons on her page but these are now featured on the bottom left of the page and act as bullet points for her journalling. She has kept her flower embelllishment. I like the serenity vibe this layout gives off - one worded title, muted colours and a beautiful photograph of a gorgeous view.

Ann's layout got passed onto Sarah next. Sarah has kept everything in a similar vein to Ann's layout. The paper placement, the banner, the buttons and journalling. Even the photograph is a beautiful view like Ann's was. The green's in her photo are matched wonderfully but the patterned paper and I love the tie dye effect that paper has.

Sarah's layout got passed onto Mary next. Mary has switched back to 12x12 size. She has extended the banner the whole width of the page and added some hearts. The hearts also tumble down the page and that's where Mary has added her buttons. The journalling is still in blocks and her title has two fonts (including the single paper letters). Mary has used two photos for her page too and moved the placement of the backing paper. For me the best bit of this layout is the balanced feel the hearts give to the page they really pull everything together and make the page stand out.

Mary's layout was passed to Natascha next. The first thing that strikes me about this layout is that hand drawn background paper! Wow! Natascha has moved her journalling up a little to the mid part of the page, she has 4 bullet points too instead of three. Notice how she has embellished with heart brads as Mary did. Instead of the cascade of hearts like on Mary's layout Natascha has embellished with a flow of Bats. She has used a ticket in place of her title. My favourite part of this layout though is definately that drawing!

Finally Natascha's layout was passed onto Misty to scraplift. She has brightened her page up once more this time using three photo's. She has kept her title and journalling to the bottom left of the page but has taken away the bullet point feel, instead using them as standard journalling strips. Look how she has those individual letters in her title again (I love coincidences!) I love how Misty has carried on the "cascade" feel to her layout but in a subtle way by blending embellishments that match the background patterned paper. It really brings the whole layout together nicely.

And there we have it - all of team three's layouts! Great job everyone! Lets look at the first and last together again - can you spot the similarities and differences between the two?

Team Two - The Big Reveal

2011-04-10T21:04:00.000+01:00

Hey everyone! Remember yesterday we showed you Team One's layouts? Well today it's the turn of Team Two!

As a quick recap this is my layout which I passed to the Team Leaders for each team. The object is to scraplift each others layouts....

So Nilsa was up first. She kept true to my design, she kept the bling in the top right, she folded the top left corner over and embellished it with a brad, she doddled a border around the eges of the page, she scattered buttons too. Her title used similar fonts and she added more bling to her scalloped border. The thing she did differently was to add more scalloped paper and to take away the rik rak. I adore that photo she has used - so clear for being underwater and makes me wish summer was here already.

Nilsa's layout got passed onto Amanda next. Amanda kept a lot of the same qualities of Nilsa's layout. She kept the main backing patterned paper and turned over the top left edge. This time though she has embellished her page with a button. Instead of bling on the top right of the layout there are more buttons and buttons scattered across the page too. Amanda has kept a matted landscape photo and changed her title slightly by using only one font. I love how she has kept bling on her page but used it in a different way - those swirls are perfect and match her border punch too - the border punch was used in place of scallops.

Amanda's layout got passed to Tammy next. You will see a lot of similarities on this layout too but lots of changes too. The backing patterned paper was folded over top left and this time it looks like an arrow sticker has been used to embellish this corner. Tammy has moved her title up towards the top of the page but has gone back to using 2 different fonts for this title. She has moved the photograph (still landscape) more to the left of the page and at a slight angle. Her buttons (still 3 of them) have been neatened into a line and rik rak has made a come back on the opposite side of the photo. Scalloped borders have been replaced with more arrow embellishments and there is no doodling around the edge of the page. The thing I like most about Tammy's layout is the gorgeous bursts of orange. The subtle combination of colours really make her layout pop.

Tammy's layout got passed onto Susi next. Oh would you look at that adorable photo! Susi kept the main patterned background paper the same as Tammy but look - she's reintroduced the brad to hold the page down! Her title has gone back to one font but has been tilted slightly to compliment the tilted photo which she has kept from Tammy's layout. Susi has minimised the number of buttons used to just two but has kept them in a row. She has embellished with a big flower and a sticker with some bling! I really like the softeness of this layout and the colours compliment the photo nicely.

Susi's layout was then passed onto Shannon. You can see that the immediate difference here is that Shannon has changed the appearance of the layout but turning it around slightly. She has turned over the top right corner of her layout this time and instead of adding a title to her page she has creatively placed word blocks around to make a frame. She has kept Susi's flower embellishment but moved it to the centre bottom of her layout and she has kept the two buttons in a row but moved these to the bottom right of the page. I like how Shannon has negated the need for a title to her page. I think the combination of words and photo say it all.

Next, Shannon's layout was passed to Karen. Karen has kept the design and layout of Shannon's layout. She has folded the top right corner of her paper over and added a brad to secure it. She has switched back to a landscape style photograph. Notice how the buttons are still there in the bottom right corner and so is the flower, which this time is embellished with another button. Karen has made one of the word boxes on Shannon's layout her title but I like how she has layered this onto a tag.

Karen's layout was then passed to Sarah. Sarah has kept true to the design of Karen's layout but adding patterened paper down one side of the page and keeping the journallling in one of these blocks. Instead of folding a corner down she has added arrows (I love how things like this happen when the arrows have come back from Tammy's layout). Her photo is still landscape in format but has been matted (again like the original) She has kept her title on the tag but taken the flower away replacing with a circle embellishment and moving the three buttons to the bottom right of the page. I love the choice of patterned paper for this layout - really brings the story out of the photograph.

Finally Sarah's layout got passed onto Coleen to scraplift. What a striking difference! Collen has kept a lot of Sarah's page but has introduced lots of new details. For example she has added an extra photograph on top of the main one. She has replaced the patterned paper with some cute frilly ribbon and added a punched border to the background paper too. Her journalling has moved to the top of the page and her title has moved to the bottom. Isn't it a coincidence how the word "love" features here again as with Shannon and Karen's layouts. Finally Colleen has embellished her page. I am in love with that ribbon frill though - it looks so tactile.

And there we have it - all of team two's layouts!

The Big Reveal Starts Here

2011-04-09T18:49:00.000+01:00

OoH its so exciting isn't it. I love the Big Reveal part of our team scraplifting game! Lets take a look at the original layout that I created that got passed to all of your DT leaders.

There is a lot of detail in there and I hope that it challenged your teams well! Lets take a look and see what Team One did with my layout.

Firstly Rosey scraplifted my original layout. You can see she basically flipped the basic sketch plan 90* clockwise. She used a portrait photo instead of a landscape one and folded the top right corner instead of the top left. She used tiny embellishments in place of the buttons, but kept the title with a mixture of fonts. Her layering of paper looks really cute and really highlights her photo. She has kept the rik rak, added some journalling and doodled with a white pen to create her border. I really love how Rosey copied my title. She used a song as did I to create a full effect.

When Rosey had completed her layout she passed her layout to Roulien. Roulien switched back to a portrait photograph, but kept her journalling in the same place on her layout that Rosey did. Instead of layering paper vertically down the page she layered some border stickers across the page instead. She used a couple of different fonts for her title but chose not to use the little cut out squares. She added some more journalling to the top right of her page. I particuarly love the wavy stitching Roulien has added to her page to create an adorable border.

Roulien's layout then got passed to Caroline to scraplift. Caroline really shook things up! She kept the horizontal photo and it's matting but moved it to the far right of her page. She kept a border below the photograph but shrunk it to fit under her photograph instead of trailing across the page. Caroline added a large circle behind her photo to draw your attention to the area and embellished with a beautiful blingy swirl and a flower. She used one font but I love how she made it follow the curve of the circle, it makes the edges of the layout so soft.

Caroline's layout then got passed to Lindsay to scraplift. Lindsay kept true to Carolines layout. She kept the circle, the horizontal photo, the matting and the title all in the same area. She used a different scalloped border and embellished with a heart and a flower which really complimented the patterned paper she used and indeed her photo too. I like the way Lindsay has stayed true to Caroline's layout but made it more central to the page, it seems to take up more space.

Lindsays layout then got passed to Tracy. Tracy once more kept true to Lindsays design but she jazzed it up with a scalloped circle instead of a round circle. She extended her patterned paper across the page a little further and god rid of the bling, instead adding a vintage feel flower border. She added some ribbon and buttons for texture and her title went across the page instead of around the circle. I particularly like how Tracy has used ribbon to create a lacy feel, vintage style border across her page rather than the scalloped edge.

Tracy's layout was then passed onto Mindy. I love how there are quirky coincidences as this team is progressing! Mindy made the scalloped circle back to a normal circle, but she made it much smaller, to ensure it fit inside the background matting paper. She used patterned paper for her background too and kept her title moving across the page, although she kept it to the right hand side of her page. Mindy has introduced the rik rak and buttons to embellish (just like the original page) but kept the ribbon as her border like Tracy did. I really like Mindy's choice of colours on this layout - everything is muted and blue then you get a real splash of colour with the buttons !

Mindy's layout was then passed onto Vikki to scraplift. Vikki mixed things up again - she cut the centre out of her circle making it more of a border, she extended the backing paper across the whole page and moved everything up to the top left of the page. She added some brads to the outside of the circle to draw your attention to the photograph and she switched her title to run down the page instead of across. She has used 2 different fonts like some of the original layouts. The white pen journalling has made a come back on Vikki's layout too. I think her embellishments are really cute and cleverly add to the Easter theme.

Finally, Vikki's layout was passed onto Carey to scraplift and everything changes again! Carey keeps the basic layout but adds a variety of different patterned papers to her page. Instead of the hollow circle border she has combined the scalloped circle with a normal circle to create a journalling spot which she has then embellished with some patterned paper. She has kept her title in the same place and used the two different fonts. She has taken the ribbon away though and replaced it with a paper border strip instead. She has then added a little journalling block another scalloped circle and a big flower. I think the combination of orange yellow and brown totally works for this photo and the accent of blue really picks the sky out of the photo too.

So, there we have it! Team one have finished! This is what the original layout looks like next to the final layout from team one. Can you spot the similarities and differences?

Come back later on for team two's big reveal!

Weekly Challenges and Changes

2011-04-04T20:12:00.000+01:00

You may be wondering why there was no new challenge posted this week? Well, the DT have thought long and hard about this, and with not many of you playing along each week (due to various other commitments) we have decided to stop holding weekly challenges on the blog. We do not think we were getting the full benefit out of holding these weekly challenges and with so many other challenge blogs out there it is hard to compete!

We know some of you will miss the challenges, but fear not - the main team game will still be here. We just hope it will be better organised and we will be putting more time into the running of the main game. After all thats why we're all here isn't it and what has been the driving force behind this blog for 5 years!

If you have never played our team scraplifting game before you can find out more about how that works by clicking here.

Good news too - sign ups for the next round are fast approaching and we will be sharing the current teams layouts with you any day now! We are just waiting on one team to finish!

Come back on Friday this week to see what wonderful creations you all came up with and to see who the winning team will be.

Incidentally we have decided to continue with our monthly blog hop on the 15th of each month and we will be bringing you lots of ideas, inspiration and perhaps a challenge or two as well.

So just to recap the new scapwhispers blog will ....

1. Only focus on the main team scraplifting game
2. Hold a monthly blog hop on 15th of each month

Hope that all makes sense! We'd love to hear your thoughts!

Congratulations

2011-04-03T20:13:00.000+01:00

Susan Z wins our prize pack for the month of March! Congratulations on your win Susan - email us your address to claim your prize!

Challenge #95 - Girlie Girls

2011-03-25T16:52:00.000+01:00

Happy weekend everyone! Hope you are all well.

Challenge #95 (our final challenge of March) is to create a layout or card ~ for or about a female in your life - your mum/mom, best friend, daughter, sister, aunt, crafty friends, neighbour - it's up to you. This layout is all about celebrating the women in your life.

This is what the DT created to give you some inspiration!

Sherri

Rosey

Nilsa

Kimberly

Georgina

Now, it's over to you. We look forward to seeing what you create. Link us to your creations by the end of the month using the buttons below.

(dont forget you can also play along with the other March challenges still too CLICK HERE to see them)

Coming next week (if everything goes to plan) we will hold our big reveal of the team layouts and we also have a few announcements about the future of the scrapwhispers blog and some changes we are making. Visit back soon! :)

Challenge #94 - Buttons

2011-03-19T00:19:00.000+01:00

Challenge 94 should you choose to accept it.....

Create a layout or card using 20 or more buttons!

Here is what our brilliant DT created to give you some inspiration:

Nilsa scattered buttons all over her layout to draw your attention to the middle of the page

Sherri created a border around the centre of her greeting card to really make it "pop"

Kimberly created a digi button border across the bottom of her layout

Kelly created a photo corner using pink and purple buttons to highlight the photo.

Georgina has framed half her photo with a random mixture of buttons

Rosey placed her buttons to simulate swirls and flowers. Spot the Blog Hop flowers!

Now it's your turn! Create your layout or card with 20 buttons on it and then link us to it using the button below. At the end of the month your name will be entered into our prize draw and you will have the chance to win the gorgeous crate paper pack seen here.

Scrap Whispers Blog Hop

2011-03-15T16:33:00.000+01:00

G'day! It's Rosey from sunny Australia, and thank you for joining us again mates - we have a fun Blog Hop for you this month!

I asked my wonderful team what they would like to learn from a crafting tutorial, and I got some interesting answers: altered projects, paper techniques and flowers. This month I decided to come up with three simple paper flowers to enhance almost any LO. Here they are, made from Echo Park's "Life is Good" collection. Aren't they pretty?

All you need is double-sided patterned paper, a pencil and ruler, scissors, brads, ink and Stickles to decorate. Oh and a litle glue.

Let's start with the HEART-EASE which is made, appropriately enough, out of hearts!

1) Draw your hearts onto the patterned paper. Here's a trick for drawing good hearts free-hand.
a) On your paper, draw a 2"x2" square.
b) Mark a dot in the middle of the bottom edge.
c) Mark a dot on each side and another dot in the middle 1/2" from the top, or 1/4 of the total height.
d) Now you have the references for the edges of the heart, you can join them up neatly. It doesn't have to be perfect for this.

You will need one 2" heart, two 1 1/5" hearts, and one 1" heart.

2) Tear the shapes out, ensuring that the white core of the paper shows on the good side. This is how they will be arranged.

3) Taking your 3 smallest hearts only, make snips in the bottoms and fold over to expose the other side of the paper:

4) Carefully bend each of the petals over an edge such as the blade of your scissors as shown. You want a valley fold in the centre, and a mountain fold on the wider parts.

5) You can now ink the edges, stick the petals together as shown, add a brad in the middle and Stickles, and you're finished.

OK now onto the SPIRAL FLOWER which you might have made before using scissors. Personally I like how tearing the paper shows off the contrast of the white core.

1) Draw a rough spiral on a piece of pattered paper with a pencil. It doesn't have to be perfect. This is around 2 1/5" in diameter.

2) Tear along the pencil lines, exposing the white core on the good side. You don't have to tear all the way to the centre. If you want to ink the outer edges, now is the time to do it, before it gets fiddly.

3) Roll the paper up, beginning at the outer part. The pattern you want to show will be inner-most.

4) Arrange the coils so that they are neatly spaced out. You might also want to bend the torn edges outwards slightly. You will end up with something like this.

5) You can decorate the torn edges with ink and Stickles if you wish, and you will stick the coils down by putting liquid glue or a large glue dot in the un-torn centre part, but don't do that just yet.

Now let's make the DAISY which also doubles as a centre for the spiral flower.

1) Cut a strip of patterned paper about 3" by 1/5". The wider the strip, the longer the petals will be.
Make little snips all along one edge, about 3/4 of the width.

2) If you want to ink the cut edges, now is the best time to do it - I forgot in this photo. Hold the paper with the good side upper-most, and bend the cut edges slightly. Now roll the strip with the good side inner-most.

3) Secure the end with a little glue, and stick a brad down the hole in the centre. Arrange the petals before bending the brad's prongs.

4) The daisy can stand alone, or you can use it as a centre for the spiral flower.

Easy eh?

And there you have it, 3 very different flowers. Feel free to experiment by playing with the sizes and dimensions. I can't wait to see what you come up with!

OK if you want to be in with a chance of winning this month's Crate Paper "Emma's Shop" Collection Pack prize here's what you have to do.

1) Create your own (probably much better!) flowers using the tutorial, and post them on your blog. Make sure your post links back to the Scrap Whispers blog so that your Followers and friends can visit us too.
2) Link us up to your blog post HERE.
3) Hop through all the DT's blogs to check out all our creations, and leave a little love in the Comments on each blog including the Scrap Whispers blog:

Digi folks, we have a version for you too, courtesy of our brand new digi DT member, the lovely Kimberly! Scroll down to the next post to pick up a tutorial just for you!

Finally, you will have noticed that the blog is looking a little different today. This is in preparation for some exciting changes that we're bringing in for April. Hold onto your hats folks!

Digi Mini-Hop

2011-03-15T16:32:00.000+01:00

I love flowers. I love to receive them, to photograph them and also to use them in my Digital Scrapbooking! I'm going to show you a very easy way to use your own photos to make awesome digital flowers. The first thing you need to do is find or take a photograph of a flower of your chosing. Single buds work best but with enough patience you can do bouquet of flowers easily enough.

I am using this photo of an Easter Lily I took this weekend while on a walk with my son.

At the top of your screen, click on Image and then scroll down to Magic Extractor.

Using the Foreground Brush Tool paint inside your flower making red opaque brush stroke. You don't need to fill the area perfectly, just make sure to stay inside the flower.

Now, using the Background Brush Tool paint outside the flower leaving blue opaque strokes around it. Basically the red strokes are what you want to keep and the blue strokes are what you want to get rid of. PSE samples the colors around where each selection is made and does most of the detail work for you.

When you are finished with that go over to the right hand side of your screen and click the preview button. This is what you should see.

You can zoom into the flower and make sure that all of the background has been removed from the edges using the detail tools on the left side of the screen.

When you are finished using the detail tools click the OK button and you will have your flower, on a transparent background. Be sure to save your flower as a PNG file to preserve the transparent background.

Now you can use your flower however you'd like in a layout!

As a freebie for our Scrap Whispers digi followers I've made a few flowers for you to use in a layout for this month's blog hop! Click here to download!

To participate in this month's blog hop:
1. Create a layout using at least one of the flowers from this month's freebie.
2. Post the layout on your personal blog linking back to the Scrap Whispers blog hop.
3. Leave a comment on this blog post with a link to your layout.
Kimberly

Challenge #93 - Portrait Photos

2011-03-12T17:48:00.000+01:00

Challenge 93 already?! Wow! We hope your team challenge game is going well, the big reveal will be fairly soon!

This week we challenge you to create a layout using only portrait photos - only head shots of people, from the shoulders upwards. No objects, no animals... only people! Here is some inspiration from our Design Team.

Georgina

Kimberly

Nilsa

Kelly

Sherri

Now, its over to you. Play along with the challenge at any time throughout March and be in with the chance of winning that wonderful paper pack (see top right). Just link us to your creations by the end of the month!

Postponed

2011-03-11T23:48:00.000+01:00

With all the devestation going on in the world today, especially with the earthquake in Japan - out of respect to those people there will be no challenge posted today.

We hope you understand.

Our thoughts are with all those people effected at this sad time.

We will post the scrapwhisper challenge tomorrow.

Challenge #92 - Hip Hopping

2011-03-04T20:52:00.000+01:00

Hello everyone! We hope you had a wonderful week. This weekend our challenge to you is to create a layout or card using dance as your inspiration. Perhaps ballet, hip hop, line dancing, salsa, spanish, ballroom - whatever kind of dance be inspired by your dancing photos, the colours each dance form makes you think of anything goes!

For some inspiration check out our DT's layouts - interestingly enough each of the DT stuck to very similar colours this week!

Georgina - Barn Dancing

Sherri - Hula dancing

Nilsa - the merengue

Kimberly - Native American Dance

Kelly - Bollywood dancing

Rosey - Malaysian dance ritual

So there we have it - a wide variety of inspiration to help you along your way!

If you play along with this challenge please link us to your layouts using the button on this post. You have until the end of March to play along and at the end of the month we will choose a random winner. You can check out the prize pack by looking to the top right of this page.

February 2011 Winner!

2011-03-04T20:00:00.000+01:00

Congratulations this month goes to....Christy S! Congratulations Christy - you have been picked at random using our generator and you have won the gorgeous blue paper, album and embellishment set donated to Scrapwhispers by the lovely Rosey. Please email your details to us and we will arrange to get your prize sent out!
Well done to everyone who entered there were some lovely layouts - our DT will shortly be visiting all your creations to leave some love!

Challenge #91 - Minty Fresh

2011-02-25T20:48:00.000+01:00

Wow! February was a very short month wasn't it - who can believe its the last Challenge of February already!? For this final challenge we would like you to use Mint Green and Brown on a layout or card. You can only use these colours but we will let you accent them with black and white if you need to!

To give you some inspiration this is what the DT created:

Georgina

Kimberly

Rosey

Nilsa

Kelly

Nilsa

Sherri

Now it's your turn. You only have a few days left until the end of the month to take part in this challenge! Have fun! Don't forget to link us to your projects and if you do you will be in with the chance of winning the Feb prize pack! :)

Challenge #90 - Go Green & Recycle!

2011-02-18T22:28:00.000+01:00

For this week's challenge we want you to go green and use something that you have recycled on a layout or a card.

Check out our DT inspiration:

Rosey used some old clothing

Nilsa used some bubblewrap

Kimberly used a digi kit, one she had used before

Kelly recycled a bead and charm

Helen recycled an old book

Its fun when you get to find something to use on a layout or card that didn't really cost you anything, it has been said that Scrapbookers are like magpies! Spot something shiny and stash it away for future use on a layout!

We'd love to see what you create for this challenge - link us to your layouts below and be in with a chance of winning that cute February prize pack donated by the lovely Rosey!

Scrapwhisper Blog Hop

2011-02-15T16:30:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone - you know it's 15th February today? Well - on the 15th of every month the Scrapwhisper DT hold a blog hop showcasing a project created by a member of our lovely DT. This week Nilsa is showing us how to make Banners!

So over to Nilsa........

You will need:

Patterned paper

Foam Adhesive for dimension

Tape Runner

PaperPuncher / Crop-o-dile

Chipboard Letters

Embellishments

Yarn or String

Acrylic Paint

I made my banner from a heart chipboard album, but these days you can find templates online, which you can resize. You can use any shape, size or template that you like.

1. I started out with patterned paper. I traced and cut out all 6 hearts.

2. Then, I used my cuttlebug to cut out some spellbinders scalloped circles, which I glued onto my hearts.

3. Ink chipboard letters and add to your circles

4. For my first and last heart I used some crepe and made a ruffled edge for my hearts. (that is optional) I embellished to my liking (I used sticker cupid, crafty secret sticker and I cut out hearts from pattern paper}

5. I then added the string and hung my banner

Simple!

You can make your banner simple or elaborate. Also, you can find many different banners and tutorials online.

These are some banners which I have made in the past

Birthday Banner

Spring banner from butterfly

Banner for layout

And there we have it - a really quick project for you if you are wanting a creative fix today! Why not blog hop to the other DT's blogs and you can see what they created for Nilsa's Banner Challenge.....

When you have done that (don't forget to leave them some love) why not create your own banner too - if you do come back here and link us to them, and we will add your name into the February prize draw!

Challenge 89 - Smurf-tastic

2011-02-11T21:47:00.000+01:00

Talk about a random challenge this week! We love it! Well most of us do - you should have been a fly on the wall when the DT were talking about this challenge - some of us loved this challenge the rest of us hated it! LOL Seriously - it doesn't take many You Tube smurf videos until you can completely overdose! Trust us!

This week we want you to create a layout or a card with that has been inspired in some way by the Smurfs cartoon! How you interpret that is entirely up to you. To give you some inspiration here is what our DT came up with.....

Nilsa chose to create a bright and fun smurfette card

Kelly run with the blue theme and created this layout of her son

Rosey created a cute "smurf-day" card!

Helen was inspired by the smurf's hat!! (LOL)

Georgina created a Smurf inspired thank you card

Kimberly created the smurfiest layout!

So there we have it - a smurf themed challenge - we cannot wait to see what you create for this one! :) Link us to your layouts or cards by the end of the month and you could win our very blue Feb Prize Pack!

Challenge 88 - Forgotten Treasures

2011-02-04T23:06:00.000+01:00

It's February already! The team game has already started too - if you're not sure which team you are on go check out the team names in the forums.

So - onto this weeks challenge. This week is all about that forgotten stash you have hidden in the bottom of a dark drawer. Drag out something you've had for ages and just not managed to use despite maybe staring at it on a few occasions. Use it! Could be weird coloured ribbon, enormous stickers, ugly patterned die-cuts. Alter it if you like, just use it!

This is what the DT came up with to inspire you:

Kimberly is a digi scrapper and found this old photo of her grandparents

Rosey dug out some wooden gecko's that she altered and added to her page

Nilsa found an old tag and buttons to use on her layout

Georgina found a white pen she hadn't used in a while and went crazy with it!

She also used random lettering she had leftover.

Kelly made a card using a large monogram letter she had in her stash.

So - now it's over to you. This is the perfect excuse to use up things to make room for some of the lovely new CHA collections being advertised on the internet! :)

Link us to your layouts and cards in the usual way and if you have any questions please email Georgina.
In February we have a great prize up for grabs too - just check it out here. Thanks to Rosey for this! :)

January 2011 Winner

2011-02-04T22:47:00.000+01:00

Congrats Doris You were randomly selected as our January 2011 winner!! Please email your address details to Georgina to claim your Martha Stewart Heart Border Punch! :)

Design Team Announcement!

2011-01-30T18:07:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone! Thanks for your patience!

We are excited to finally announce the two new members of our Design Team ..........

Kimberly and Sherri

Congratulations girls, we look forward to seeing what you create to inspire! :)

Apologies to everyone else who was not successful - your entries were all amazing and we hope you can still play along with the team scrapwhisper game which starts in February!

Challenge 87 - Fabric and Material

2011-01-28T15:34:00.000+01:00

Hi Everyone!! Happy Friday to you all! Shall we let you know what your next challenge will be?

Well - we would like you to use fabric or material on a layout or card - easy peasy??! :)

Here is what our DT created for some fabric inspiration to get you started .......

Rosey

Georgina

Nilsa

Kelly

Helen

Now it's your turn! Create your layout or card and link us to it in this post - be aware though, you only have a few days to enter! You only have until the end of the month - time is ticking!!

You can check out the other challenges and the rules etc HERE

Oooh and come back tomorrow as we will be announcing our New DT members! :)

One last thing - if you want to play the next Scrapwhisper team game, you can sign up here

Challenge #087 - Fabric

You have until the end of January to enter any of our challenges. Winner will be picked first week in February. You can enter as many times as you like. You can live anywhere in the world.

Good luck and Have Fun!

Challenge 86 - Office Supplies

2011-01-21T22:31:00.000+01:00

This week, we challenge you to create a layout or card using office supplies. Paperclips, hole punches, staples, elastic bands - if you find it in your office you can use it for this challenge! Here is what our DT created to provide you with some inspiration:

Rosey

Helen

Nilsa

Kelly

Play along with any of our challenges this month and you could be in with the chance of winning that cute Martha Stewart punch! All you have to do is play along and link us to your creations. Best thing is, there is no limit on the number of times you can enter and you can live anywhere in the world. For more details CLICK HERE.

Don't forget that if you want to play the next team scraplift game then you need to email us to ask to be added to a team. You have until 1st Feb to let us know.

Design Team will be announced soon too - so keep visiting!

Gift Bag Tutorial - Blog Hop

2011-01-15T15:19:00.000+01:00

Hello everyone! Its time for another DT blog hop and tutorial. Kelly here, to show you how to make a nifty little gift bag that literally takes minutes to put together.
For the bag you will need:

1 piece of 12 x 12 patterned paper

Adhesive

Hole punch

scoring tool and measuring tool

Embellishments to decorate your finished bag.

Start by scoring your paper on one side at 3" and 9". Turn your paper and score again at 5" and 7". Fold these score lines.

This next step is the trickiest part. You will need to take the corner of where your 3 inch score line meets the 5 inch score line and pull it over so it forms a triangle. Do this again where the 7” score line meets the 9” score line. And do it again on the opposite side of the paper. This should leave you with a rectangle inside when you push it altogether.

Put your choice of adhesive as shown in both of the photos

Start putting your bag together

And then decorate as you'd like using stamps, flowers, bling etc.

I punched 2 holes in either side once the bag was assembled and attached some ribbon, but you could leave the bag open and attach some handles instead, or you create a flap to go over the top so it would look like a handbag.

I really hope you've enjoyed this tutorial and that you have lots of fun trying this out and experimenting. Don;t forget to link us up to your creations in the comments section of this post so we can come and show you some love.

Now go and check out what the Design Team have done.

When you've hopefully been inspired to give this a go yourself, check back in here and leave us a comment along with a link to your own gift bags so we can see what you have created! Have a great weekend!

If you enter any of our challenges in January 2011 your name will be entered into a draw to win this gorgeous new punch by Martha Stewart!

All you have to do is play one of the following challenges (links will become live when the challenge does) and link us to your layouts or cards or creations!

Challenge #084 - Robots
Challenge #085 - Red, Black, Heart and Glitter
Blog Hop Challenge - Gift Bag
Challenge #086
Challenge #087

You have until the end of January to enter any of our challenges. Winner will be picked first week in February. You can enter as many times as you like. You can live anywhere in the world.

Good luck and Have Fun!

Challenge 85

2011-01-14T16:58:00.000+01:00

How about another challenge huh? Afterall, thats what Fridays are for right?

In honour of Valentines Day next month, we challenge you to create a layout or card using red and black. We also want you to include one heart and some glitter! Have fun with your creations and come back here to link us to them. Anyone who enters a challenge or blog hop throughout January gets their name in a draw and one lucky winner will win our January Prize Pack.

For some black and red inspiration check out what the DT created:

Kelly

Nilsa
Rosey

Georgina

Design Team Call

2011-01-08T11:15:00.000+01:00

We have decided to expand our Design Team in 2011 from 5 to 7. Yep thats right - we're looking for 2 brand spanking new Design Team Members and it may very well be you!

Did you make a resolution this year to join a Design Team? Do you want to add the experience to your scrapping resume? Are you bursting with ideas as to how you can make our community thrive again? Are you organised, motivated, committed, dedicated and in need of some creative challenges?

Then this DT call may very well be just what you are looking for!!

CLICK HERE for more information or Click on the DT call tab at the top of this page!

We're so excited about having some new DT members and look forward to getting to know you each a bit more through your DT submissions!

The Big Reveal - January 2011!

2011-01-07T21:17:00.000+01:00

Well - welcome back Whisperers! Hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and are raring to get back to creating! Please accept our apologies for the delay in the BIG REVEAL we had a few problems along the way this time round - sickness, snow, delays with layouts and a few participants had to pull out or were not contactable. We got there in the end though and I am pleased to share with you all the wonderful layouts created in this past game. Make sure you watch through to the end to see which team won!

If you are lucky enough to be on the winning team please EMAIL your address details to claim your prize!

We are opening sign ups for a new game today too - if you want to play in the next team game (which starts in February) please EMAIL us your full name, email address and a note of your scrapwhisper forum ID if you have one, you will get added to a list and we will email you back with more information about whats happening this time round. Don't worry if you havent played before - its really easy and doesnt require a huge commitment from you - you simply have to scraplift one layout sometime in February - CLICK HERE for more details on how to play.

Please check back tomorrow morning on the scrap whisper blog as we have a brand new Design Team Call that you will not want to miss!

In fact we have lots of exciting things planned for 2011 but more on that later.

As we've all been out of our craft rooms for a while, how about a challenge - just for fun?! We challenge you to create a card or a layout with robots as embelishments!

Lets have a little inspiration to get your creative juices flowing shall we? ........

Georgina

Kelly Nilsa Helen Rosey Link us to your layouts or cards in the comments section of this post and share with us your creations!