THANKS to everyone who entered the June/July Challenge - Sport & Selfies. We enjoyed looking at the variety of entries and are pleased to announce the winners for this month.

Please head to the Gallery to check out the fabulous entries and leave comments to encourage the crafters. We all love positive feedback. And check the blog later tonight to see what the new challenge will be for August (Spring is just around the corner!)

1) Overall Challenge Winner

Congratulations to Vicky M who submitted this fabulous layout of her son's university selfie. We loved her use of papers, chipboard and journalling ntoes. Read all about the layout on her blogpost here

 2) Sketch winner

 3) New entrant winner

Congratulations to Ivy Williams for entering for the first time. Ivy said she's totally addicted to cardmaking and that she has made these cards for family members with some new stamps. Thanks for entering!
 

A close up of the painted chipboard.  You can purchase Pitter Patter in the shop here.





A close up of my cluster of doily, flowers and a charm.

Thanks for looking, make sure you head on over to the shop if you wish to purchase these lovely collections.

Have a fantastic rest of your week!
Melissa

Betsy here this morning to share another of Kaisercraft's July collection, Bow and Arrow, which I have made into three cards. Another " must have " of their lovely ranges. They have some very talented designers over there, it is hard to choose which one I like the most. One has to just get the LOT!!

And a close up so you can see the delicious papers ...


I printed some smaller photos of my birthday celebration and created these 4 mini layouts using papers from the 6.5x6.5 pad. Each layout is different but all the papers/patterns/colours complement each other perfectly to help create the story of the day.


And here are the closeups ...





And a couple of simple cards also created using papers with collectable tags ...

Aren't those collectables so cute! Just perfect for adding a little something extra to a layout.


This is the Silhouette cut title - a freebie from Heidi Swapp. Have you seen that Artfull Crafts now stock Silhouette Cameo machines? This is the first electronic cutting machine I have invested in and I have to say I'm having a lot of fun cutting cute titles and shapes for my layouts (not to mention bits for the kids school projects too!).


And here are some cute cards that I made with more of the collectables combined with papers from the 6.5x6.5 pad ...

Hello hello! Lisa here once again, with another couple of layouts to show you. This time, I used another of the July releases from Kaisercraft: the gorgeous BeYOUtiful range. These papers feature lovely bright colours, shabby chic textures and lush florals, and are just fabulous to work with.



My first layout uses black cardstock as a base, and features a selfie. I really loved the wording on the left- "let your faith be bigger than your fear"-- because I had to have minor surgery recently, and this was a timely reminder to myself that if I took a deep breath and put my big girl pants on, everything would be fine. (and it was. :D) I paired the words (cut from the Delightful sheet) with a selection of patterns from some other papers in the range, picking colours that roughly matched the floral element. I tore the edges a little to add a bit of contrast to the straight edges of the photo. A couple of Collectables, some flowers, a touch of bling and gold ribbon, and it was done. 

A couple of close up shots below:



The second layout uses kraft cardstock as a base, and features another of the floral designs from the range on the right - the Captivating sheet, which is gorgeous. I used a favourite black and white shot of my daughter, and again, paired it with some of the other patterned papers, torn edges providing a nice contrast. Including a few hand-torn strips in various patterns on a layout are a great way of adding variety without any particular pattern being too dominant, I think.


Along the bottom of the page, I went a little embellishment-crazy-- because, why not? :D It's a fun way of using up bits and pieces you might have left over from other projects, and even if all of the elements are from various ranges and/or manufacturers, if you stick to a loose theme/colour scheme, everything usually fits together pretty nicely. Just play around adding and removing/repositioning things until you're happy with how it looks. Sometimes I'll leave everything sitting in place overnight and then look at it with fresh eyes again the next day, just to see if I'm still happy with the composition before I finally stick it all down. Nine times out of ten it works out for the best, and if not, well, chalk it up to experience! :)

Again, I've included a couple of closer shots below:



And that's it! BeYOUtiful really is a lovely range to work with so check it out in the shop, and I'm looking forward to seeing what wonderful projects can be made using it. :) As always, thanks for looking, and have a fab day!

Cheers,
 Lisa :)