Wednesday 20 October 2010

Readers' Gallery call

Calling all Scrappers!

I'm looking for the following themes for upcoming readers' gallery pages, so drop me a line with a pic at lindsey.hopkins@practicalpublishing.co.uk if you have layouts which would suit the following:

>Winter
>Newborns
>Pets

Cheers!
Linds

Mellow

If you've got masses of Autumn pics to scrap (not that it seemed to be very long between the last warm day and the first morning I had to de-ice my car!), then consider the BasicGrey Mellow Collection.


With a great Autumnal colour scheme, fab 12x12" paper designs and fun little characters and icons on the die-cut sheet, you'll get great pages from this pack.

As well as the usual high standard of distressed-style patterned and plain papers and die-cuts, you can also get coordinating black and white rub-ons, buttons, buff chipboard shapes and monograms ideal for titles.

Check out Charmed Cards & Crafts to get yours.

ScrapRat

This fabulous little company got in touch with me last week and I love the product they're offering.



With a focus on a vintage style, ScrapRat have a fab range of products available for really unique creations. They recently opened a new online craft store specialising in vintage and vintage inspired crafting products so be sure to take a look. Everything they sell is either handmade by ScrapRat or a genuine vintage find. There are also a selection of page kits and other goodies available.

Still Joyful Hearts

We love NitWit Collections here in the office and it's no wonder really considering how adorable designer Mary Fran's artwork is.

Being a huge fan of quilting and patwork styles, the majority of NitWit ranges are available in FQB (Fat Quarter Bundle) download sets and paper and embellishments have a distinct fabric look to them.

The new Still Joyful Hearts Collection (drool now)...


...is no exception, with a lovely homespun printed texture look and a whopping amount of coordinating and embellishments to make your winter scrapping a doddle. This kit was specially altered for us here at Practical Publishing from the original Joyful Hearts Collection so that the lovely Diane could have a contemporary colour scheme paper pack with her Simply Cards & Papercraft magazine.

Incidentaly, we have a NitWit Winter Wishes paper pack with issue 51 of Scrapbook Magazine (on sale 2nd December), so be sure to get your copy so you can experience these lovely designs for yourself!

Cheers
Linds

P.S. Issue 50 goes on sale tomorrow!!

Wednesday 13 October 2010

Retro Chic

What a scrummy new vintage style collection Cosmo Cricket have just released!



The new Circa 1934 Collection was just released this week and features all kinds of lovely products for vintage and retro style scrapping, as well as those all important accents to suit any theme.

As well as this fantastic crafting kit including papers, cut-apart elements, borders and stickers, you'll find the fab little 6x6" Mini Deck as well as all the other products available for purchase seperately!

Check out their blog for sneak peaks and project ideas!

First glance

Woopee! The first copies of Scrapbook Magazine issue 50 have arrived in the office and wowzers does it look different!

We've just had the initial bindary copies through from the printers so far, so just a handful of the mags and paper packs individually, but I'm really pleased with how it looks now I've seen it together in magazine form. It looks like we've used about a gallon of bleach to clean up the busy pages, and the layouts and projects look fantastic. Much better!

Actual finished copies are due in later this week, so the designers will soon get their hands on the new and improved mag as well!

On sale 21st October, so keep your eyes peeled!

Cheers
Linds

Saturday 9 October 2010

Weekend plans

Ok, I have a problem. This is something I've been coming to terms with for the past few weeks and I'm finally ready to accept it........I'm a Matalan addict!

We had a new one open up here a couple of months ago and I can't seem to stop myself going in! I've been up there every weekend for the past month and I just can't help myself! There always seems to be a bargain that just so happens to be exactly what I'm looking for, and it seems as though I'll be going up there again at lunchtime hehe.

Prepare yourself Matalan! There's a Hopkins coming!

Other than what has apparently become my weekend norm, I'll also be partaking in my usual crafty bits and bobs this weekend. I've an article to do for Papercraft Essentials, a Four Ways layout and a couple of designer gallery pages to do for Scrapbook Magazine, so will be working on these around housework and my Matalan visit!

Hopefully I'll get a chance to head out with my sister and her dogs at some point. This is the fabulous Peiper. The ball in his mouth seems to turn off his brain!

Friday 8 October 2010

One down!

Well, issue 50 went to press on Wednesday so I'm waiting with bated breath to see the actualy finished copies of my first issue as editor!

We should get our delivery to the office around the middle of October, so here's hoping it looks as good as it did on single pages! Let me know what you think of the new look Scrapbook Magazine by emailing me at lindsey.hopkins@practicalpublishing.co.uk.

Issue 51 has been commissioned and the very good girls on the design team have already started getting their layouts to me. Again, it's looking lush so far!

I've planned out issues 52 and 53, so am going to jump on the commissioning of issue 52 this afternoon, which now also includes sending a lovely selection of new goodies out the the designers to use in their articles. Lucky scrappers!!

Here's a sneak peek for the issue 51 Four Ways kit, supplied by the fabulous Bellaboo. This stunning kit includes some beautiful new My Mind's Eye releases, so be sure to get your copy 2nd December to see what the DT did with it.



P.S. Ignore the terrible photo taken with my phone!

Marvellous Momentos


All I can say is NOM NOM NOM!!

American Crafts have just announced the release of these lovely self-adhesive Mementos embellishments as part of their new Dear Lizzy Collection so get your scrapping spends at the ready!

These gorgeous accents are charming and fab for ephemera and vintage accents with a modern twist.

There's a fab selection of these engraved metal accents available, and various packs feature really nice resin elements with fab colourways and images/wording for adding designer flair.

Keep your eyes on Sarah's Cards.

Gallery glory


Does anyone else love the fact that BasicGrey are bringing back some of their retired collections in the form of digi kits?

I think it's fab that we can get our hands on some of the older ranges again, as there were some real stunners! It's well worth taking a peek at the website as there are always new goodies to be had, including the new and improved gallery feature.

Jen Williamson from BasicGrey says, "You’ll love the new format, which includes a 'tagging' feature that allows users to highlight pages for theme, color, style, techniques, etc. Gallery guests can leave comments for designers and friends who have items posted in the gallery and easily share favorite posts on Facebook".

They're even adding a sweetener to the deal with an Upload Drive Giveaway until the 15th where one project will be picked every day and the creator given a free BasicGrey Collection pack or $20 voucher to use on their digi downloads.

Go go sign up!

Have a good one!

Linds