Inspiration with Webster's Pages. New products in store & more.

Grab yourself a cuppa and relax to enjoy the delights that this week's Inspiration has to offer, with a delightful touch of Hollywood (Vogue)!

There is a variety of activities taking place around the store at the moment: Thursday night saw the commencement of our Spring themed November Cybercrop. All challenge entries for the cybercrop are due in the Gallery by Sunday night 21st November.

Our 12 Cards to Christmas challenge is nearing the end of its fourth week (out of six) and has been a great opportunity to build up a stash of Christmas cards using a variety of techniques and challenges.

Ngaire's mid month challenge Blind Cybercrop entries are due by the evening of 15th November. This really was a fun challenge, so if you need some inspiration then this comes well recommended. Thank you Ngaire.

New arrivals in store: Wow, what a great selection of gorgeous new products have been arriving in store lately. Enjoy.

Prima Marketing brings us the lovely Annalee and Fairy Flora and a stunning lace trim
from Webster's Pages we have three exciting collections; Hollywood Vogue, WonderFall and Waiting for Santa (in Christmas Shop) along with gorgeous trims and embellishments.
Bo Bunny has excelled again with its lovely Midnight Frost collection and embellishments
Tim Holtz inspired Sizzix dies; Rossette and Tattered Leaves.
K & Co's Nature Collection specialty paper pad and matching embellishments.

Design Team Inspiration with Ngaire: What can I say - what a treat Ngaire has for us this week with that touch of Hollywood (Vogue) that I mentioned earlier!
Webster’s Pages are one company that never fail to not only meet your expectations, but also surpass them. The papers are stunningly crafted, full of intricate detailed patterns, yet with plenty of clear open space for photos to be included. Sadly, this also means they are papers that many scrappers hesitate to buy, since it seems such a shame to cut into them or even cover the patterns up with other things. What to do with them though – is easier to answer than you would think. Hopefully this week’s layouts will give you some inspiration on how to handle them.

The new Hollywood Vogue range is one I have been waiting to get my hands on ever since the sneaks for it came out. The colours for the range – teal, sage green, blush pink, black, cream and lilac – are a gorgeous combination of colours and work very well together. Webster’s have their usual variety of embellishments to go with the range – alpha, image and phrase stickers, journaling cards and various fabric trims – and for the first time – some stunning little resin hearts and flowers they have called Whimsies.

For my first layout – Paris Chic – I’ve gone with the purples and teals in the range. A lot of my daughter’s clothes are from an American company called Gymboree. One of her (and my) favourite lines from this company is called European Vacation – and the Hollywood Vogue range is just a perfect match for some photos I had taken of her in one of her favourite lilac outfits.



There are only two papers used on this layout – Shine a light and Feather Fashion (reverse). The reverse side of both of these are probably the most versatile patterns in the range – a stripe that includes all the colours and a black/white houndstooth pattern. The repeated small/general pattern they have allows you to provide a contrast to the flower/shape based larger patterns of the other papers.

For this layout I have border punched around the Feather Fashion paper to give a decorative edge to the base sheet. Trimming the Shine a Light paper down a little allows me to show off that decorative border and make a feature of the chandelier pattern – which I did by half cutting it out.



When I trimmed the top edge of the paper down I did so by cutting around the pattern that was there. To cover up this cut I put a couple of small Prima flowers (from several years ago – they came in small silver tins) and a Glimmermisted (Deep Plum) chipboard vine (no idea which company it is) over the empty space next to the chandelier.


The piece of patterned paper cut out from the top of the Feather Fashion paper went into the bottom right corner. It’s up on pop-dots, which allows me to insert half a piece of Dusty Attic chipboard (part of the Steampunk range that Mary has due in store shortly) and some Prima flowers underneath it. The chippy has been given a coat of Riptide Glimmermist to match the teal in the paper. Although some of the flowers are the older Prima ones I mentioned, the larger purple flowers are one of the new vines (Mountain Lily) pulled apart into two (I’ve used the rest of it elsewhere on the layout). The black cross charm is by Blue Moon and it has a Kaiser Aquamarine Rhinestone centred on it. The gorgeous turquoise heart you can see on the Dusty Attic Eiffel Tower is one of the Whimsies made for the Hollywood Vogue range.



Moving round the page I’ve tucked just a couple of Prima flowers into the corner on the left (the purple rose is from the new Sugar Plum range) along with a Pink Paislee Artisan Elements (Ornaments) which has been Glimmermisted with Riptide.



The sticker alphas come in two sizes and a range of colours. The larger ones are the teal you see here. There’s more of the Prima vine and the small clear beads you see tucked into it are ones that came in a RAK – as is the stunning purple pin.



In this image you can see the way I have clustered the embellishments around the photo. That’s one of the journaling cards tucked under on the left-hand side (I’ve written on the back and it just slides out from under the photo) with some Prima flowers on it. The Paris Postmark is one of a pair made by Dusty Attic. Together with the Eiffel Tower on the other side they were just perfect for my photo. And isn’t the Whimsey just to die for – I wish they would sell bulk packs of just one colour – they are just so cute and so easy to use.

For my second layout – Stars in her Eyes – I have focussed on the teal/blue/green/cream combination of the range. Using Stardom as my base paper I added bits and pieces cut from other papers to embellish it. Foo on Film and the reverse side of Stardom provided the two mats you see under the photo.

A special mention on the sticker chandelier – mwah to Karlene who happened to be there the day I was working on this and RAKed me the perfect embellishment to fill in an empty space.



From Double Feature I cut out the camera/flower cluster and tucked that underneath a black chipboard dress form (I think it is Dusty Attic), a single teal Bloomer rose, some Whimsies, Prima flowers and a black faceted drop (from Blue Moon) I had in my stash. The clapper-board also came from the Double Feature paper.

A close-up here lets you see how well the textures and colours work together in this little cluster.



To the bottom left of the photo I have added more of the same. A head and some roses cut from the Double Feature paper are arranged in and about the Prima flowers, Whimsies, faceted drop and a bit of chipboard vine I am not sure who makes. To get that yummy blue-black you see on the chipboard I combined some Riptide and Black Magic Glimmermist. The small bit of teal ribbon you can see there belongs to one of the gorgeous trims from the Hollywood Vogue Trim Pack.

Again – this close-up lets you see the textures in the cluster. I love the richness all those different textures gives the layout.



Up the top of the layout I put the mixed alpha title – some alpha stickers from the Hollywood Vogue range, some very old Making Memories rubons and the small version of the Scrapware Antique Alphas Uppercase that Mary has in stock. The chipboard has a simple coat of Olive Vine Glimmermist on it as that part of the layout is already complex enough. The black sparkler you see in the middle is one of the Vintage Sparklers and the bit of chipboard flourish is half of one I cut in two (the other half is under the photo).



For the final layout this week – Strike a Pose - I went for a cream/pink/green with touches of black combination. The houndstooth pattern was one I really wanted to use – as it matched the dress Madame is wearing here – but you need to use it carefully as it is very overpowering in large unbroken amounts. I find small strips like this and the border on the first layout tend to work best.

This was a challenging layout to work on. Aside from the difficulties of trying to scrap with a sick child (gotta love the lurgy that is going around) – the green pattern that is the reverse of the Come Fly with Me paper is not one I initially liked. A little edge punching though and as a frame it works beautifully. Over it I layered a piece of the houndstooth side of Feather Fashion and then another of the front side of Come Fly with Me. This then formed the basis of the layout.



The film strip comes from the Foo on Film paper – and took a bit of cutting out I can tell you, but is well worth the effort. I’ve popped it up on some pop-dots and tucked a bit of green tulle from my stash under and around it. That helps to soften the edges and cover any messy cutting. The olive green pleated ribbon is from the Hollywood Vogue Trim Pack and the cream roses ribbon is an old Prima one. The pink/cream roses are older Prima ones too – they were sold in a bulk pack.



Moving up the page a little and you can see here how well the punched layers look together. If you were so inclined you could stitch with a contrasting colour along that top punched edge for a lovely finish.



The alphas are a combination of the Storytellers from Hollywood Vogue and Life's Portrait – I wanted a consistent black title rather than use the teal again. The butterfly is from the Images and Phrases Sticker pack and has had some Kindyglitz applied to the outside edge of the wings. A bit more of the film strip/rose/tulle combo (with a pink Heart Whimsy) fills up the empty space in the top corner.



The empty space here was probably the hardest part of the layout for me. Nothing I put there worked until I thought of this journaling card. I’ve trimmed the frame off it, tucked it under the photo and layered a small segment of the pattern from the Stardom paper over it. A segment of the Kaisercraft black rhinestone strip underneath it and a Prima rose/tulle combo above it and whallah – my empty space is filled and I am happy.



At the bottom of the layout is an embellishment I made from a Pink Paislee Artisan Elements (Ornaments) piece which has been Glimmermisted with Olive Vine (and then most of it rubbed off again) and a set of the Twiddley Bitz Chip Filigree Wings. These wings are just awesome – for this layout I painted them cream, applied a generous coat of Tim Holtz Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint and then sprayed with Olive Vine Glimmermist. To finish the piece off I added another rose/tulle combination and tucked a Black Noir Cross from Blue Moon under the rose.



I’ve had a ball for the past 2 weeks working with the Hollywood Vogue range – it is all that it promised to be in those first sneak peeks. The only paper I haven’t used is the die cut – and that is only because I ran out of time. Treat yourself this Christmas and get some Vogue, I can promise you that you won’t be sorry you did. In the forum I am going to put up a post on some tips for using Webster’s Pages papers, so check that out if you are still unsure on how to use them. As pretty as they are sitting in your stash – they are much more gorgeous used on a layout.
Thank you Ngaire for sharing your wonderful inspiration with us.



I wish you all a most wonderful week.



Best regards,

Mary

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