Scrap that!

Nikki Sivils Scrapbooker

2011-01-23T17:07:00.000Z

Nikki Sivils is a scrapbooker who is living her dream, designing and manufacturing scrapbook products. The two that have in front of me are ‘My Friend Birdie’ and ‘Tree Love’. These two ranges are some of last season’s collections. Nikki is releasing six new ranges on 29th January 2011 (and I’m keeping a very close eye on ‘It’s Raining, It’s pouring’ in particular). You could even win her new range by visiting her blog. The company’s mission is to ‘create wonderfully original scrapbook paper and embellishments by focusing on imagination and love for crafting’ and ‘provide distinctive paper’. Distinctive is exactly the word I would use to describe Nikki Sivils’ style. Both these ranges have big, bold designs and it’s clear that the same designer has had a hand in both. They both have vibrant colours with fun patterns and little characters.

Both ranges features seven patterns on doubled sided papers and one side of cardstock embellishments (including words, photo corners and journaling blocks on ‘My Friends Birdie’ and trees and words on ‘Tree Love’) that can be cut out. They also include one 10” scallop edged round die cut paper and a 12x12” sticker sheet with a good mix of alphas, journaling blocks and alphas (which was a new product introduction last season) with a high gloss sheen. The paper is high quality and the stickers are glossy, well manufactured and strong. All the papers are vibrant, with rich colours and the designs in each range complement each other well. There is variety in each range offering something for everyone.

The aforementioned little character in ‘Tree Love’ is Bucky the Beaver and he features on three of the patterns. The papers are in browns, reds, green and creams (reflecting the autumn feel of the season in which they were released).

‘My Friend Birdie’ is a range dedicated to Nikki’s friend with birdlike legs. The designs on the papers themselves are again vibrant, bold and unique. There are plainer pages, pages with large patterns, pages with smaller patterns and all in beautiful blues, yellows, greens and terracotta. There are papers that could be used by scrapbookers, cardmakers and altered art lovers, which is true of ‘Tree Love’ also.

Individually these papers retail at about $0.89 US for the 12x12” papers, $0.99 US or £1.25 GBP for the scallop edged die cut and $2.99 US or £2.99 for the cardstock sticker sheet. In the 6x6” mini-pad there are 24 pages, three pieces of four designs and four pieces of three designs. They retail at approx. $5.99 US or £5.99 GBP. Although these papers won’t appeal to everyone, they are exceptionally good quality and well priced for the market.

Nikki Sivils also does a variety of embellishments to complement her ranges. These include buttons, albums, brads and craft flags. Inspiration for using all of Nikki’s products can be found on her blog and gallery.

Making Memories Sneak Peek

2011-01-19T20:37:00.002Z

One company we always get excited about is Making Memories. We have a couple of great reviews coming up for them, inlcuding the Slice.
With CHA around the corner though, it gives us a chance to take a look at whats coming up.
Below are some great shots of what we can look forward to after CHA.

We are hoping to get to play with these ranges soon!

Prima CHA Sneek Peek

2011-01-18T23:52:00.000Z

It's sneak peek time again here at Scrap That!

This time we have Prima Marketing showing off just one new releases Madeline. It is just what we expect from Prima, a wonderfully intracate and floral range. Just take a look at this:

Here's what Prima has to say about this stunning looking collection:

swirls, flourishes and touches of nature all wrapped up in a beautiful new package

Take a look for yourself here Prima Marketing

Kaisercraft Hippy Girl

2011-01-16T23:16:00.000Z

Australian company Kaisercraft has a proud history. Their aim is to inspire the craft world with their products by making these products innovative. So does it do what it says on the box? Well, the range that I am reviewing today is the Hippy Girl collection. Have we seen spots and lines and florals before? Of course we have. However, the collection as a whole presents them in fresh, bold colours with a richness that will enhance any layout or card.

In the paper pad there are 36 sheets of high quality (160gsm) in 19 different and varied designs from plain papers to florals, spots and lines. In addition to all that there are four pages of tags/borders and journaling spots. These are also pretty and varied. 6” paper packs from Kaisercraft retail for approximately £6.99 GB pounds and $8.99 US dollars. This is in line with the cost of similar products from other manufacturers. What is different about this product is that of those 36 sheets of patterned paper eight of them have glitter detail (four designs), which are gorgeous, and four of them have flocking (two designs).

In the Journal Tags pack from the same collection there are 24 tags in the same high quality paper. There are six designs and these are again varied and well matched with the papers. Half of them have a scalloped edge and the others straight edges with rounded corners.

Kaisercraft is a Worldwide brand as blogs from America, Australia and the UK are testament to. They even have stockists in Israel. The company have a website with projects and a gallery showcasing ideas for using their products and additional inspiration can be found on their blog These products are of very high standard and manufactured with a great finish. The glitter didn’t even come off on my fingers! In my opinion scrapbookers, card maker and other paper crafters would find these products good value for money and enjoy using them on their projects thanks to the vibrant colours and variety of patterns in the collection.

Part of what makes Kaisercraft proud is its commitment to people. The people that work for the company, the people who buy from the company and the community and world further afield. They have helped to raise almost $227, 160 for worthwhile causes both in Australia and further afield. It’s heart warming to read of the work that Kaisercrafts help to support in Thailand and if you have a moment I would urge you to have a read. http://www.kaisercraft.net/kaisercraft-info/charity/news.html

This review has been sponsored by Kaisercraft specialist supplier:

My Minds Eye Sneak Peek

2011-01-14T22:22:00.000Z

Todays sneak peak is from the people over at My Minds Eye. They've got a lot being released for CHA but here is just a sample of one of their new ranges, Stella and Rose.

Here is what My Minds Eye have to say about their latest creation;
Stella & Rose was built around the feedback we have received from retailers, designers and consumers and is a definite must-have for your collection! Stella & Rose is a modern, updated twist on shabby chic and has four fabulous color schemes: Mabel, Hattie, Gertie and Hazel! But, don’t let the feminine feel of this collection fool you, there is plenty here for boy projects, too!

He's how it looks, we think it's going to be a popular line:

Teresa Collins Designs CHA sneak peek

2011-01-13T18:30:00.002Z

Next up in our sneak peak series is the fabulous Teresa Collins. We had an interview with Teresa towards the end of last year, she really is a fantastic designer.

We will no doubt see more sneaks from Teresa before CHA starts, but here's Posh to keep you going for now.

This line has everything a girl could want for classical and girly designs. With glitter paper, transparencies, die cuts and chipboard, what more could you ask for?

Here is what the lady herself had to say about Posh:

I designed this line last Summer and FINALLY it's time to reveal it! I wanted a vibrant pink, and a line that is just FUN and POSH!!!! I love the LACE and butterflies in this line too.

Our very own Amanda is on the design team over at Teresa Collins Designs and here is a lovely little flower project that she made with the line.

Check back again soon for our next peak!

Graphic 45 CHA Sneak Peak

2011-01-12T22:01:00.001Z

Our first CHA special comes from the ever classical Graphic 45. Be sure to check their site our here.
The Curtain Call range is a lovely black and sepia set.

Here is what Graphic 45 say about the new range:
Take your seat center stage for the classiest show in town! Ladies and Gentleman, we are proud to introduce “Curtain Call,” an elegant paper collection that harkens back to the golden age of entertainment. Inspired by the birth of jazz, lavish stage shows, and the silent film era, this razzle-dazzle paper collection will have you swinging! Soft creams and striking black colors give this collection an authenticity of old Hollywood. Immerse your imagination in the glitz and glamour of times gone by. With “Curtain Call” all of your crafts will get top billing!

We cant wait to see what the scrapbooking world creates with it.

Be sure to come back soon and see other great sneak peaks leading up the great CHA event.

CHA IS COMING!!!

2011-01-12T20:41:00.000Z

We took a break for Christmas but we are back now and looking forward to CHA at the end of the month. To celebrate this, over the coming weeks, along with the usual fantastic reviews we'll also be showing you sneak peeks of what the manufacturers have in store for us at CHA.

Then during the show we'll be sure to keep you up to date with everything that happens.

We'll be kicking of the sneak peaks later today so be sure to check us out.

Basic Grey Jovial Collection

2010-12-18T22:19:00.001Z

The Basic Grey ‘Jovial’ collection retails at around £21.99 in the UK and is widely available from online retailers worldwide.

Yes, the busiest time of the year for most of us.... Christmas. I have a list as long as my arm of things I ‘should’ be doing, but yet I ditched my list last night so that I could dig in to these papers and get a headstart on making my Christmas cards! This very fact is a huge selling point of these papers, for me. No matter how much I love crafting, I struggle to get excited about making my Christmas cards. I think it’s the sheer volume of cards required and the fact that I feel that I ‘should’ make them rather than ‘want’ to, that does it. The fact that I was looking forward to trying out these papers in a Christmas card making environment can only be a good thing!

In the pack you will find 18 double-sided papers, a sheet of alphabet stickers (in 2 colours) and a sheet of coordinating cardstock stickers. Basic Grey use FSC-certified papers and soy based inks (LOVE that smell when you take them out of the pack, it’s good for the soul!) to do their bit for the environment. If you’ve never tried BG papers before, you can rest assured that the quality is good. [And it’s worth buying them just to sniff that new BG paper smell ;)]

The papers are all well coordinated, but with enough variation that you could use the whole pack to make scrapbook pages and/or cards and they wouldn’t all look the same. There’s a good mix of subtle patterns with some bolder designs thrown in, and a mix of abstract patterns with more traditional Christmas motifs such as snowmen, poinsettias and gifts. I love that there are several papers that you can cut some of the motifs out of to make your own embellishments. You don’t have to think too hard about mixing the patterns, as they do work really well together. I like the way BG managed to mix traditional greens and reds with some cooler blues and make it work. The patterns are unique and not ‘just another’ Christmas line. It has a definite BG twist to it.

The sticker sheet is very useable, especially for cards. In fact, my son stole a lot of mine without me realising, and I am now the proud owner of a heavily-stickered Christmas card :) I do think it would be beneficial to have a few more stickers included, as there are enough papers to create a whole stack of cards and layouts, but you’d have to take it easy on the stickers if you didn’t want to add more from your stash – especially if you have a sticker-stealing child in the house!

In all, I’d recommend this collection for anyone who loves a good Christmas line and has a lot of cards to make, or layouts to get scrapped! The papers go a LONG way, and you could easily create a bunch of cards, a few layouts and a mini album from just 1 pack, if you’re prepared to add some extra stickers/embellishments.

I give this product 4 scissors – the only downside for me being the paper to sticker ratio :)

Sewing machine love

2010-12-15T21:16:00.004Z

My Mum is in the midst of making nativity costumes. So when she commented that she was so frustrated that she couldn’t get her sewing machine to work consistently and had to keep stopping and starting, I said ‘I’ve got two sewing machines here to review if you want to use one’. I arrived home from work a couple of hours later to find one sewing machine and one empty box. Half an hour later I got a text saying ‘This machine is amazing, you are not having it back!’. That from a seasoned dress maker and daughter of a professional tailor.

When you read this review you need to keep in mind that my comparison point is the old machine that I got for my 21st Birthday. I won’t tell you exactly how old that makes it but let’s just say that it’s a teenager ☺ It’s heavy, it’s clunky and it jams often.

When I suggested that I review a sewing machine or two to Amanda it was because I have been looking at some beautiful projects with sewing on them and wishing that I trusted my machine not to chew up an almost finished LO when I attempted to sew onto it and wanted to buy a new one. I was thinking more along the lines of a £20 job, but then I’ve not heard terribly good things about them. Therefore when Silver Viscount offered us a low end and mid range machine to review I was thinking, ‘That’ll be nice; I can create some LO with stitching on before I have to send them back’. But I had no intention of buying either of them because of the cost. This is a prime example of paying for what you get though.

The midrange machine is the Silver 1045, brand new to the market with an RRP of £419 but currently available for £279 at Silverviscount. This computerised sewing machine has 110 stitch patterns. This includes direct patterns and utility, buttonhole, eyelet, darning, quilt, satin, decorative satin decorative and cross stitches. The decorative stitches include vines, hearts and stars. ‘It even threads the needle for you!’ said my Mum and it does too. The LED screen and push button stitch control allows you to change the pattern and size of the stitch quickly and easily and you can control the speed at which the machine sews by sliding a speed control. I found this really useful on LOs where I wanted to go slowly to begin with to make sure that it would work, or where I wanted to go in circles or swirls and needed more control. The price and number of stitches may seem excessive for a scrapbooker perhaps but look at the LO I created below and tell me you don’t need that stitch ;)

With failed previous attempts with my old sewing machine in the back of my mind, I tentatively put the needle to some cardstock and put my foot on the pedal. Great! No jamming, no tearing, just beautiful stitching. Okay, so that’s not too tall an order. What about getting through some cardstock, some patterned paper and a photo? You better believe it. The machine didn’t even grumble! ‘Bring on the layers’, it said. ‘Fine, so what about chipboard then?’ (Can you see how much a part of the family it’s become? So much so that I have little conversations with it? LOL) And you know what, the 1045 didn’t even stop to think about it. Straight through chipboard onto cardstock it went. Genius!

The Silver 1008 is the low end machine. It’s retail value is £209 but again you can get a huge discount by buying from Silver Viscount for £119. This machine does 8 stitches which, to be honest, is probably all a scrapbooker or cardmaker would actually need. It has button hole stitches and an accessory box too. As a fairly basic machine it does the job. Let’s face it, most LOs and cards I’ve seen with stitching on use either a straight stitch and zig zag and it does those. The speed is harder to control and the paper didn’t feed through as easily so it’s much more manual than the 1045, which guides the paper through itself almost. It also tore through the paper a couple of times, but the more layers the better it was and this machine had no problem going through layers of papers and photos or even through chipboard.

I have a feeling that the mistake I made here was in using the computerised machine first. Once you’ve done that, you’ll find it hard to go back to a machine that’s not all singing, all dancing. In summary though, as a basic tool for scrapbooking and cardmaking the Silver 1008 is a well priced machine. However, compared to the Silver 1045 there’s no contest. In my opinion, it’s well worth paying the higher price for the quality and ease of stitching. It will appeal to a variety of crafters; dressmakers, scrapbookers, cardmakers and quilters for example. As the scissors rating says, I could easily sell this machine to my Grandmother and have already sold them to my Mum and my Aunt. It’s absolutely at the top of my Christmas list this year. I do have a wedding dress to make after all!

PS: I’ve had communication with two people at Silver Viscount and I have to say that they were both extremely helpful, polite and friendly. As representatives of the product they match the quality of the machines, that’s for sure. I have no doubt that if you had any questions or queries about any of their products then the customer service department would be only too happy to help.

Core'dinations

2010-12-09T22:30:00.000Z

I was lucky enough to be sent not one but four packs of core’dination cardstocks; ‘The Whitewash collection’, ‘core impressions’, ‘Gemstones’ and ‘Black Magic’. These come in sizes from 6x6” to 12x12” and RRP is between £3.95 and £12.95 depending on the size and the range. This is comparable with other cardstocks of this high quality.

If you’ve not come across Core’dinations cardstock before, rather than having a white core the cardstock has a core colour which coordinates with the surface color. Each sheet has a cut off tab that tells you what the core colour is. The colour can be kept hidden or you can bring it through by sanding, tearing or embossing the cardstock.

‘The Whitewash Collection’ contains 20 sheets of different colours, mainly pastels. The cardstock has been given a white wash finish. This can be sanded, torn or embossed to reveal the core colour and the effect is beautiful. Core’dinations have a design team and you can see some of the lovely creations using this collection there. This one stands out for me http://www.coredinations.com/index.php/2010/12/01/whitewash-wednesday/. Each piece of cardstock has a smooth coloured side and a textured, whitewash side. The white wash side feels a bit like a canvas and has that lovely texture.

The ‘core impressions’ I received is the result of a teaming up between Core’dinations and Cosmo Cricket. They have also teamed up with other companies such as Jenni Bowlin and Jilly Bean Soup. The pack contains the same good quality 80lb cardstock as the other packs and has a canvas texture. The cardstock is embossed with 4 different patterns (seedlings, sparkle, kitchen dot, crisscross) and comes in 5 colours (amazon, deco coral, French roast, katydid and Red pepper) so the pack contains 20 unique sheets. I particularly like the ‘sparkle’ design. These papers can also be sanded, torn or inked to add texture and interest to a LO and bring the core colour through.

‘Gemstones’ is described as ‘The Crown Jewels of Cardstock’ and contains 20 sheets in 20 colours of premium cardstock. It has one textured side and one smooth side. The textured side has a pearlescent finish. It’s a subtle finish and adds the right amount of sparkle and shine to a LO. It’s not sandable because of the finish but you can tear and emboss of course. The 20 colours are beautifully rich and there’s a good mix of brights, pastels and neutral colours included.

I think that my favourite has to be ‘Black Magic’ though. There’s something about putting a colour next to black that makes it pop, don’t you think? I used a piece of the Black Magic paper with the red core for a CJ entry and it somehow gave the page a dark and bloody feel to it, which was exactly what I was going for as it happens. I think that this range would come in to it’s own around Halloween when you could emboss spider’s webs etc on to the black and have some great greens and oranges coming through. This paper is also good for sanding and tearing to release the hidden colour.

The great thing about Core’dinations is that whichever collection you buy (and there are various others than those describe above) you can be sure that you will be buying some great quality heavy duty cardstock (80lb) that can be used and abused without tearing where it shouldn’t or ending up looking tatty. It’s all acid and lignin free too. The innovative collections contain a good mix of colours and patterns within the theme and, in my opinion, do what they say on the tin in that you can tear, emboss and sand to release the core colour. Because no two pages in these collection packs are the same, you wouldn’t tire of using them and no two projects would look the same making them good value for money. The cardstock can be used for background, matting or as patterned paper once it’s altered making it versatile.

The core’dination products are available worldwide. Prices do seem to vary quite a bit, particularly on older collections so it pays to shop around. Once you have your collection there is a blog and gallery on the core’dination website where you can get tips and inspiration for using your cardstock.

For someone like me that likes to add texture and colour to Los they are great and I think that they have great appeal to card makers too.

Perfect. Couldn’t ask for more. Great item, fair price. Everyone should have one! You’d have no problem selling this to your grandmother.

Kaisercraft Be Merry

2010-12-05T17:36:00.000Z

Yes I know it seems to have been an age since our last post but we have been ill :( Really very sorry but we are back now :)
And we are back with a bang with a great review by Val

Kaisercraft provided us with items from the Be Merry Collection to review.

Be Merry is a festive Christmas-themed collection. The 6 x 6 pad includes 24 sheets of designer paper, including 10 specialty sheets featuring glitter, spot varnish, flocking and several sheets of die cuts. The journal tag pad features 24 tags – 4 each of 6 designs that coordinate with the paper pad. Available worldwide, the 6 x 6 pad retails for $8.99 , and the journal tags for $1.39.

The papers are cardstock weight. The colors are traditional but not bright. They mix easily with current trends like kraft cardstock, twine and stitching.

The smaller scale of 6 x 6 pads make them ideal for cardmaking, although the combo of materials in this pad make it useful for a whole host of projects. I used the pad & tags to make cards:

This decorative banner was made primarily with the journaling tags. The letters were cut from the paper in the pad with a die cut machine:

…and even for gift wrapping:

This pad could easily be used for smaller scrapbook layouts and the die cut sheets would be extremely useful in making a holiday-themed mini album.

Kaisercraft is an Australian-based, family-owned company. Founded as a wood joinery business about 20 years ago, the company evolved first into small wood items, then officially their craft line in 2005. Sales from their outlet store in Geelong, Australia fund outreach projects that support children in Southeast Asia. (For every $10 spent in the outlet, $9 goes to help disadvantaged children!)

The versatility of this mini paper collection along with the tags make it an excellent value for the price! . (The Be Merry line also includes acrylic stamps, rub ons, chipboard and 12 x 12 die cut sheets & papers. ) I think these products are ideal for paper crafters.

This review has been sponsored by Kaisercraft specialist supplier:

An Interview With Teresa Collins

2010-11-16T14:10:00.000Z

In the latest of our hard nosed reporting we caught up with the fabulous Teresa Collins.

A great scrapbooker and designer. The Teresa Collins Designs ranges are always popular amongst scrapbookers and card makers alike. The innovative Teresa Collins Stampmaker product that has recently been launched at CHA has already become one of the most desirable products amongst stampers.
So sit back and have a read of what Teresa has to say.

How long have you been scrapbooking and what got you started?
At the end of 2002, I started to scrapbook when my mother died unexpectantly. I knew it was TIME to start documenting life.

What do you see as your biggest scrapbooking achievement?
Wow, I honestly don't know. I have had so many great experiences and achievements. I think the fact that I can travel the world and share
what I love is humbling. I now see my products in countries throughout the world and this is something that makes me amazed and grateful.

What is your favourite scrapbooking product?
I love my pop up dots, ATG gun, corner rounder and BLINGAGE on everything...

What is the most you've ever spent on a purpose made scrapbooking item?
NO idea... really best left unknown. wink!

Was it worth it?
Of course!!!!!

If you could give every scrapbooker in the world one piece of advice what would it be?
Enjoy the process and create from your heart...style is subjective and really should be about YOU telling your story.

Which scrapbooking product do you use the most and why?
Glossy Accents and Pop Dots... essentials to me for my gems and dimension.

What is your favourite design technique?
Stamping incorporated in my projects to personalize and customize.

If you could have any scrapbooking product or tool right now that you do not already own what would it be?
Let's see..... I think I own them all. I love tools!!!!!!

What camera or cameras do you use to take your pictures and do you have a favourite?
Canon Mark II

Do you use a particular type of pen for journaling?
I have a few... and honestly have no idea who makes any of them!

If you could use only products from ONE manufacturer for the rest of your scrapping days, who's products would you choose?
Well, you know... it would have to be my collections.

Do you have a favourite layout you've created, and could we see it please? Why is it your favourite?
I do not have any favorites because everytime I do something new it is then my "new" favorite.

As Teresa has said that her favourite work is always her last work I thought I'd share with you all a recent project that Teresa has on her blog over at teresacollins.typepad.com . Now how beautiful is this!

A huge thank you to Teresa for taking part in this little fun interview. We love to hear about all of the scrapbookers that so many people look up to. Especially those like Teresa who also produce such lovely looking products for us all to use.

American Crafts embellishments

2010-11-15T09:00:00.005Z

I had a lot of fun working with some American Crafts embellishments for this review. The Items I’ve tried out are:

City Park ‘Slide’ Delights

Dear Lizzie Mementos ‘Charming’

City Park Printed Tags

Dear Lizzie ‘Enchanted’ Rose Brads

Dear Lizzie ‘Hyacinth’ Details

Remarks ‘Gazeebo’ Dimensional Stickers

The City Park line is equally as fun and funky and full of uplifting colour. Prices range from £3.00 to £6.00, or $4.00 to $7.00 in the US.

If I had to describe these products in one word, it would be ‘fun’! You can’t help but smile when working with the bright, colourful product that we’ve come to associate with the AC brand. The Dear Lizzie line is probably one of their most popular, and it’s easy to see why. The embellishments are still typically American Crafts, but they have an interesting and unique feminine twist. I managed to combine product from all the embellishment packs from different collections on my pages and they still looked as though they were made to go together. This leads me to think that you could probably buy a few new embellishment packs to liven up your older AC collections and get away with it :) You’ve gotta love an excuse to buy new embellies, right?

In addition to the fun designs, the embellishments are well made. Things that were meant to stick did, nothing fell apart and everything was well finished.

The cost is reasonable for what you’re getting, although we get a bit of a worse deal (as with everything imported) outside the US.

They are well suited to a multitude of papercrafts, and there are many product lines to choose from, so there’s bound to be something to suit you and your project.

I loved the products, and found the continuation of style and the fact that you can tell it’s designed by AC a positive factor. I can see objectively, however, that this might put some people off in terms of being ‘samey’, and not all that different to previous releases. I can’t think of anything else negative about them :)

The Ultimate Crafter's Companion

2010-11-07T08:08:00.000Z

The Ultimate Crafter’s Companion is a multi-function crafter’s tool, or as it says on it’s package “the ultimate all-in-one scoring tool.”

The tool retails for $59.99 and is available worldwide. Packed in a neat and compact hinged 14” x 12” magenta plastic case, the tool opens flat to approx. 14” x 24” of workspace.

Each of the surfaces contains a variety of embossing shapes, borders & scoring lines. One surface is dedicated to envelope making, another to card folding (gate folds, accordion folds, half folds). Underneath one of the interior surfaces is a small storage area that holds the cutting tools, bone folders & bow making pegs. Along with a complete instruction booklet and a 3 hour dvd, the Ultimate Crafter’s Companion can help you “score, measure, trim, embellish, create boxes, shaped card blanks, envelopes and more” The features and tasks listed on the packaging of this multi-purpose tool are:

· Cardmaking

· Envelope scorer

· Box folder

· Envelobox creator

· Embossing designs

· Decorative lines and corners

· Popout & K-card creator

· Bow maker

· Built in paper trimmer

· Storage compartment

I tried each of the features listed above and felt the Ultimate Crafter’s Companion delivered on all points. I was particularly surprised by the paper trimmer, which seems flimsy but actually makes very straight, crisp cuts. The cutting mouse can be used with or without the trimming tool and is extremely easy to handle.

The Ultimate Crafter’s Companion comes with detailed instructions and an informative dvd. If you are not familiar with using a scoreboard, like me, these items are essential for making the more complicated assemblies – like the popout and K-cards, and for exploring the full potential of this multi-function tool. With a small amount of tutorial time, you can make some pretty impressive projects.

Here are a few of the projects I made with the Ultimate Crafter’s Companion.

I followed the simple directions in the booklet to make these cute triangle boxes (they’d make great Christmas ornaments, too)

The envelope maker board is particulary easy to navigate when used in conjunction with the handy paper size chart included in the booklet – this little one fits an ATC:

The board surfaces (4 all together) have a variety of embossing channels. I found the scallop embossing groove very handy when making this card:

And here’s a variation on the scallop border with this card:

My only complaints:

· When you open the Crafter’s Companion from the ‘wrong’ side, all of the loose items, including the ruler and cutting blade, fall out.

· The clip that holds the 2 sides of the case together is on the loose side and is not attached to the case – making it very easy to lose. Since the case needs the clip to stay closed, this could be a problem when you want to store or transport the item.

· To put the cutting blade in place in the ‘cutting mouse’ you must handle the sharp, unprotected razor blade.

This tool would be handy for any level papercrafter. Its functions range from simple to advanced and the possibilities of what you can create are endless.

The Glitter Girls Collection Embossing Boards

2010-11-03T19:16:00.002Z

There are nearly 40 embossing boards in The Glitter Girls Collection, ranging in price from £7.50 and £19.99 and I was given two to review today. Each board has a variety of designs on it allowing you to mix and match on both cards and scrapbook pages. These boards were were sent to us from The Happy Crafters

The Glitter Girls say that the ‘lovely designs provide a wealth of cardmaking possibilities’ and I would have to agree. The boards available cover loads and loads of occasions and using a tool (like the 6mm glitter ball tool from The Glitter Girls for just £2.50) you can create gorgeous embossed images.

The two multi-design embossing boards I had were the 12x12 Keepsake Card Craft ‘Treasured Memories’ (£19.99) and the ‘Boudoir ‘Embossing Boards (£14.99). They are both double sided, maximising the number of designs available to you. Both have comprehensive instructions printed on the packaging but if you need any further help then there’s a great website with videos, a gallery and contact details. I did get a little confused by the instructions but they made more sense once I’d looked at the website and I was able to create a scrapbook page that used the edging and journaling square from the ‘Treasured Memories’ embossing board. I highlighted them on the paper using ink. The boards can be used for cards AND scrapbooks, however the designs are perhaps more suited to card making since they are large and make great focal points. However elements on both boards can be used in scrapbooking.

‘Treasured Memories’ has 12x12 lines that can be used to make a frame for the whole page plus ovals, circles, hearts, buttons, cupcake and candle and a fan. ‘Boudoir’ has gems, curtains, hats, shoes, coat hanger, dressing screen, and female garments for those girly cards and girly pages.

The Glitter Girls collection can be ordered worldwide and shipping is charged dependent on the weight of your order. These embossing boards may seem expensive, however I think that the cost of these boards is justified for cardmaking where you could use them again and again to make gorgeous cards with your signature design. However I think that for scrapbooking the cost would seem less justified as you’re unlikely to use many of the designs over and over again. Having said that, I would definitely use the board 12x12 Keepsake Card Craft ‘Treasured Memories’ again for scrapbooking. The boards are extremely well made and appear hard wearing and from that respect they can be used again and again.

All in all the boards are a great buy for card makers and the cost could be justified by the number of cards that can be made with them and it’s to card makers that these boards will appeal the most. Scrapbookers will love some elements on each board but might not be able to justify the price with the elements having limited repeated use.

Kaisercraft Up Up & Away

2010-10-29T23:37:00.002+01:00

Today I’m reviewing the Kaisercraft ‘Up, Up & Away’ 6” paper pad and coordinating Journal Tags. The pad of journal tags contains 24 sheets, 4 each of 6 designs. The paper pad consists of 40 sheets, 10 of which are specialty papers – 1 flocked, 2 foil, 3 spot varnish and 4 sheets of die cuts. Both the pad and the tags are available from Merly Impressions for £7.45 and £1.35 respectively.

This collection is full of soft, muted colours in shades of brown, green and blue. There are a few trendy balloon prints but the majority of the collection is generic and could be used for almost any occasion or theme.

In my experience, it’s unusual to find a 6x6” pad with such a variety of specialty papers. My favourite pages are the die cuts. There are 4 sheets of tags, borders and journaling spots - more than enough to complement the papers on a whole ton of cards or several scrapbook pages. I made a layout and a card and it looks like I barely used anything out of the pads. The die cuts were easy to remove from the card and didn’t tear. They are made from 160gsm card and sturdy enough to layer up with dimensional adhesive.

I’d say that this collection would appeal to most scrapbookers and card makers. The designs are versatile enough to be used in a variety of ways, and as they do not have a specific theme they are fairly timeless. The inclusion of the die cuts and specialty papers and the inexpensive option of the coordinating journal pad makes it an interesting package. There’s enough variety in these two products to not need to add lots of extra embellishments and products to make your layout or card ‘special’. I was not disappointed by this collection. In fact it offered a lot more than I originally thought it would.

This review has been sponsored by Kaisercraft specialist supplier:

AND THE WINNER IS....

2010-10-28T21:18:00.000+01:00

As chosen by random.org Nic :)

Nic please email us at scrapthat@scrapbook-101.com to claim your prize with your address.

Well done Nic.

A fantastic review of Kaisercraft goodies will be up tomorrow, the first of our Sponsored reviews. Sponsored by Kaisercraft specialists Merly Impressions.

Cosmo Cricket Matilda Range

2010-10-24T19:00:00.000+01:00

Today we have a review of the Cosmo Cricket ‘Matilda’ collection. Available in this range is a 6x6 mini deck of patterned papers (MSRP £5.75 or $5.99 in the US), a 6x12 sheet of Ready Set Chip chipboard accents (MSRP £2.95 or $2.99) and a pack of 30 coordinating buttons (MSRP £2.95 or $2.99).

The first thing that appealed to me about the papers, is that although there are plenty of patterns that are most certainly Halloween themed, and the colour palette is what you would expect for the theme, there are a number of patterns that could be used in a variety of other projects after the holiday is over. I like the idea of being able to buy the collection in a 6x6 pad so you can benefit from all the patterns without having to spend a small fortune for a whole range of 12x12 papers. I’d never be able to use up a whole Halloween 12x12 paper collection! That said, I did miss having larger sheets of paper when creating layouts with it.

The chipboard is just plain cute, and is ideal for making pages about kids and their Halloween antics. The main thing to note about the chipboard pieces, in my opinion, was that they actually STICK to your layout, and stay stuck. I’m used to frequently having to add my own adhesive to chipboard embellishments that claim to already be adhesive. I did not need to add extra glue this time, despite some of the pieces being quite chunky. The pumpkin on the bottom left of my page was even repositioned 3 times and did not damage my paper when I peeled it off, or fall off when I stuck it back down! Thank you, Cosmo Cricket, for thinking about real-life scrapbooking!

I also think this collection would make a great kit for scrapbookers and card makers who like to share their crafts with their kids. The collection is versatile enough to be used in a ‘grown up’ way but, likewise, kids would love the cute patterns and characters in the chipboard set. Great for sitting down with your children and making some seasonal cards, creating some home decor items or scrapping and reminiscing about past trick-or-treating escapades! That is, if you can bear to let your kids near your stash ;)

The whole collection can be purchased relatively inexpensively, which makes it a sensible choice for a seasonal line. Cosmo Cricket have thought this through, and it shows.

When I created my sample layout I also used ‘Wackadoo’ Ready Set Chip letters for my title. They coordinate really well with the Matilda line! [layout based on an October sketch by Becky Fleck at Pagemaps.com]

So, overall, ’Matilda’ is a fun, great value product line. Would I change anything? Maybe make a few sheets of 12x12 paper available for larger projects. But then, if they did, I’d probably have a ton of the stuff left next year ;)

Give away time

2010-10-19T15:24:00.000+01:00

I thought it was about time that we gave all you great readers another chance to win a fab prize.
This time around we are giving away an item that was one of our very first reviews. The Purple Cows Freestyle Mouse Trimmer.

If you want to read about this fantastic little trimmer then check out Amanda's review here.

To be in with a chance of winning this little gem just post a link on your blog and then leave a comment on here telling us you've done it with the url of your post.

We will then use random.org to pick a winner.
You have until Midnight GMT on Sunday 24th.

Good luck everyone!

American Crafts Zing!

2010-10-13T22:35:00.000+01:00

According to American Crafts, Zing! can add “color and dimension to any project” and “has the smoothest opaque finish available.” American Crafts is known for being modern and trendy and they do not disappoint here. There are over 30 rich, on-trend colors to choose from in a variety of 4 finishes: metallic, opaque, fluorescent & glitter. The powders, easily found online and in retail locations sell for $4.00 for a 1 oz. pot. Considering the amount of impact an embossed image can have, and the miniscule amount of the actual powder I used on my numerous test projects, you definitely get your money’s worth.

I had an opportunity to sample the following finishes & colors:

Metallic: purple, blue, copper

Opaque: black, rouge, apricot, mustard, charcoal, brown sugar

Glitter: blue, black, copper, red

Armed with my trusty embossing pad, stamps and heat gun I got to work with the powders. I stamped mostly on the smooth side of the AC Cardstock. The powder adheres very well to the stamped area. I didn’t have any difficulty with the powder sticking on blank areas of the paper. Here are some samples of the various finishes in action – first up, Opaque:

(starfish: Opaque: brown sugar; sentiment: Opaque: rouge; anchor: Metallic: blue on AC Cardstock: grey)

(Opaque: apricot on matching AC Cardstock)

The opaque finish is smooth and maintained the fine detail of these stamps with no problem at all. In addition, the powder colors along with the AC Cardstock work very well together – as seen in the orange card above. In addition, the labeling on the top of the containers is almost an exact match to the finished product – a helpful feature when selecting color for a project. (This is especially true for the Opaque and Metallic finishes, the labeling on the Glitter pots is not as color accurate – but still pretty close.)

The Glitter finish provides the most impact and is a very easy, mess-free way to add a little bling to any stamped project. The finishes are vibrant and the glitter is very reflective & metallic. (I did notice, however, that the black glitter powder did not set as shiny and reflective as the other colors.)

(Glitter finish: red)

(Glitter finish: blue)

And finally, the Metallic finish:

(Metallic finish: copper)

The Metallic finish powders really look like metal when they are heat set. This is especially true with the copper pictured above.

Anyone who stamps would find this product useful and would appreciate the variety of color, finish & quality.

Tid bitz in time Rusty Botanicals kit

2010-10-10T15:57:00.001+01:00

Kit Contents:

Eleven Sheets of Graphic 45 Paper - Botannicabella Collection
One Sheet of Graphic 45 Botannicalbella Tags
One Package of Making Memories Tiny Alphas - Black & White - 468 Stickers
Two Rolls Tim Holtz Tissue Tape - 16 Yards Each - Symphony
One Variety Package of Real Vintage Buttons
Making Memories Vintage Findings Mini Kit
One String of Pearls
Collection of Cream Colored Ribbon Flower
Five Making Memories Glittered Paper Flower
One VersaMagic Dew Drop Chalk Ink - Brown
Ribbon/Trims - 4 Pieces - One Yard Each

Tidbitz in Time supply their kits worldwide - The kit costs $42.95 (£27.00) and shipping is included for the USA. International shipping is charged at a flat $10.95. This cost is also reduced if you decide to join the club to just $27.99 (£17.50) plus shipping charged at $7.95. International membership is $38.95 including postage.

I’d say this kit is larger than most kits – there are plenty of papers and a fantastic number of different embellishments. It’s a little more expensive than some kits but, in my opinion, you get a lot for your money, and if you do subscribe the cost is really not an issue.

There are a few interesting and unique items in the kit too, such as the genuine vintage buttons and fabric roses. It is items like these that put an individual stamp on a kit, and this one will not disappoint. I loved the variety of embellishments, too. There are certainly enough bits and pieces to make quite a few layouts without skimping on your embellishment usage! Does anyone else struggle with a lot of left over papers in kits once all the embellies are gone? I know I do. Well, that’s not a problem with this kit!

The kit arrived safely and was well packaged. Nothing was damaged when it got to me. I’d definitely say that altered artists would especially get a lot of use out of this kit, as well as scrapbookers and card makers. Everything in the kit was very well coordinated, not only in colour scheme, but in style too.
There were a couple of negatives for me. I was a little disappointed that there was only one set of tiny alphas in the kit, and I would have liked to see papers from different manufacturers, but that’s just my personal opinion. Looking back through the past kits on the website there are usually more substantial alphas included. I love the tiny alphas, but I felt that they got a bit lost with the big patterns in the papers. Some people might be put off by the lack of cardstock but, as I said in a previous review, I have TONS of the stuff, so not a problem for me ☺

In all, in terms of what I’m personally looking for in a kit, the big selection of embellishments completely outweighed any of the negatives. This kit goes a long way. The sample layout I created for this review was fairly heavily embellished, and it barely made a dent in the kit!

This kit is well thought out and a lot of care has been taken with choosing the contents. It was exciting to open the box, and that’s often the most important part! It got my creative brain working just from sifting through the contents – mission accomplished!

Maggie Holmes Interview

2010-10-08T13:00:00.003+01:00

A little while ago we contacted the fantastically inspiring Maggie Holmes to as her a few questions about her scrapbooking life. Maggie was fantastic and even though she is massivly busy she managed to fit in time to answer our questions.

How long have you been scrapbooking and what got you started?

Ever since I can remember. I was always into collecting stationary and stickers and then it turned into scrapbooking!

What do you see as your biggest scrapbooking achievement?

The current cover of CK Magazine(September edition) – It’s one of my favorite photos of Emily Jane and I also created the layout!! So fun!

What is your favourite scrapbooking product?

I can’t hardly choose because it all works together to make the magic – cardstock, mist, punches, ribbon, buttons, brads.....

What is the most you've ever spent on a purpose made scrapbooking item?

not sure

If you could give every scrapbooker in the world one piece of advice what would it be?

To just go for it and not compare yourself and your work to others. People are always telling me that they love scrapbooking but their pages aren’t that great and I say stop that! Whatever you are doing is wonderful and amazing and will be treasured by you and your family members for many many years!!

Which scrapbooking product do you use the most and why?

Again, hard to say..... But probably patterned paper.... I love using it to add color and visual interest!

What is your favourite design technique?

I love using mist to add a little flair to my background before layering everything else on top!

If you could have any scrapbooking product or tool right now that you do not already own what would it be?

The silhouette!

What camera or cameras do you use to take your pictures and do you have a favourite?

Point and Shoot – Canon G11
DSLR – Nikon D700

Do you use a particular type of pen for journaling?

Mostly American Crafts Slick Writer

You were recently named by Ella as one of the top 10 most influential scrapbookers. (How did you feel when you were given this honour?)

Completely shocked honestly! I am still so surprised and humbled when things like this happen to me! I have always just felt like a girl doing what she loves and I feel small in this huge world so it means sooooo much to be recognized and to be reminded that what I am doing is making a difference for so many people! Mostly I just feel blessed!

If you could use only products from ONE manufacturer for the rest of your scrapping days, who's products would you choose?

Eeek.... This is a hard one again! I would have to say Making Memories because they are the company that recognized me in the beginning and gave me my start in the industry. I have been with them for years and years and they never cease to amaze me! Their products are beautiful and fun and they cover it all from tools to paper to embellishments!

Do you have a favourite layout you've created, and could we see it please? Why is it your favourite?

If you haven’t noticed I am not good at picking favorites! I love them all for so many reasons and each one means something different and is special to me in a unique way. So I will just share one of my most recent.....

We must take this opportunity to thank Maggie for taking time out of her already stacked up timetable to share her thoughts and layout with us. You truly are inspirational and influential.

Is there someone you'd like us to interview? What would you want to ask them? Let us know and maybe we can fix it!!

Crafters Workshop Templates

2010-10-06T20:36:00.001+01:00

The Crafter’s Workshop provided us with a selection of their 6” x 6” and 12” x 12” templates to review.

Each 6 x 6 template retails for $4.39, (£4.95) and the 12 x 12 templates retail for $6.59 (£7.95). Templates are readily available worldwide via online retailers.

There is one plastic template per package. Crafter’s Workshop says the templates are “for cardmaking, doodling, tracing, stenciling, quilting, sponging, stippling, sprtizing, chalking & more.” I tried a variety of these techniques with several of the templates, for both cards and scrapbook layouts, and had success with all of them. As I worked with them, I realized the possibilities are pretty endless with this product. You could use any ink, paint or pen – or combo of those mediums. You could work on paper or fabric or any other surface you can think of, even cake! They are extremely easy to use, durable and clean up very easily. Below are just a few of my samples. I feel I could have worked for an entire week and come up something new every day.

Spray ink is a great way to achieve a quick and dramatic result with these templates. An interesting by-product of this technique is to ‘stamp’ with the inked side of the stencil after spraying through the template. This results in a positive impression of the template, which is quite striking. I used the Gathered Flowers 12 x 12 template for this example of positive/negative misting:

I used the positive print for background paper of this project:

Here is another spray ink technique with the Cherry Blossoms template, a pretty ‘scenic’ 6 x 6 template with branches, small flowers and birds. The 6 x 6 is an ideal size for cardmaking. I misted this with a brown glimmer mist onto a patterned paper:

Paper piercing + distress ink

The finer templates, like the Mini Dotted Scallop 6 x6 template, is an excellent tool for the paper piercing technique:

I did notice the templates with smaller openings produce the best results with an ink applicator or direct ink pad to template technique.

I made this card with the technique pictured above:

In addition to cardmaking and scrapbooking, the templates would also be suitable for quilters and even bakers. I decorated this batch of brownies with the Gathered Flowers template and some powdered sugar.

The Crafter’s Workshop is a family owned business that manufactures in the U.S. The wide variety of options and attention to detail make their products a pleasure to work with. Their templates are versatile and produce beautiful results.

Swirlydoos Kit Club

2010-10-03T23:29:00.003+01:00

Swirlydoos Summer Serenity Kit Contents:

8 x papers from the Basic Grey ‘Cappella’ collection (double sided)
2 x Anna Griffin papers from the ‘Calisto’ collection
American Crafts Thickers - Subway
Basic Grey Take Note - Journaling blocks
Dusty Attic Decorative Frame #1
Prima Clear Stamp - Paisley
Anna Griffin Cecile - Glittered Die Cut sheet
ZVA Pearl Flourish
Swirlydoos Mini pom pom fringe
Swirlydoos Wine Flw w/Ivory Lace
Swirlydoos Gold - Pearl Buttons
Swirlydoos Organza Flowers with pearl centres
Kaisercraft Soft Pink Rhinestones
Kaisercraft Dusty Pink Flowers
Kaisercraft Rubz

Swirlydoos supply their kits worldwide - The kit costs $44.75 (£28.30)
and shipping is included in the price to the USA, or exact shipping costs to
international addresses.

This kit is a good size with a good amount of papers and embellishments,
and the price is good value for the amount of product you get included.
There are a few exclusive items such as the cute buttons and organza
flowers, and I always think it’s nice to have something different
included in a kit; things you might otherwise not think to use in your
creations.

The kit arrived well packaged and in once piece (always a concern when
something travels across continents!) and there was also an informative
newsletter in the box. The products included could easily lend
themselves to all kinds of papercrafts, not just scrapbooking, and they
were well coordinated.

A couple of things I was less enthusiastic about:

1. The majority of the papers were from one manufacturer – although
there were 2 other papers included. This at least means that they worked
well together, and the fact that Swirlydoos had clearly thought hard
about the embellishments and included unique embellishments of their own
in the kit says to me that the lack of variation on papers wasn’t just
laziness, but simply that they wanted to be sure that the kit was well
coordinated.

2. There was no cardstock in the kit. But, honestly, the lack of
cardstock was no big deal, as the patterned papers mostly had plain
reverse sides which worked just as well.

There are add-ons available each month, too – extra papers,
embellishments and also a cardstock add-on, if you feel you need it.

Overall, a good kit with products from great manufacturers. Personally,
I would have like a little more variety in the papers and some
cardstock, but it did not affect the usability and enjoyment of the kit.
Most scrappers have a huge pile of cardstock in their possession already!

This kit would be perfect for paper lovers, especially those who use a
lot of layering and love pretty, subtle colours and a classic style. If
you like big, bold geometric patterns and cutesy characters in your
scrapbooks, then you might want to give this one a miss.

Disclosure

American Crafts Card stock

2010-09-27T23:15:00.002+01:00

In a quick break from the kits we finally get to introduce our final reviewer Val. American Crafts kindly sent us some of their card stock and Zing! embossing powders. Here is Vals review of the card stock.

Our review today is focused on American Crafts, who kindly sent a package of its AC Cardstock (Primaries) for us to review.

AC Cardstock is a heavy weight 80lb paper, with a solid core (the color goes all the way through). The ingenious package, which becomes a vertical paper container at the tear of the perforated tab at the top, contains 60 sheets of 15 different colors (in this case Primary/bright colors).

The package retails for $20 (apx. .33 per sheet) and is readily available in both retail and online locations. It’s got a nice texture on one side and is fairly smooth on the reverse. The colors are rich and on-trend.

In my stamping and embossing endeavors, I learned that this cardstock stands up very well to the extreme heat of a heat gun, without warping, curling or buckling. It also stands up well to wet mediums, like spray ink.

Another great feature of this paper is how it cuts. Not only does it go through a die cutting machine beautifully, it hand cuts very well, too. I used small scissors to cut out intricate shapes and the paper did not tear or fray in the tight corners and curves. This is a great feature if you tend to stamp and cut out your images, or if you plan to use the paper in a die cutting machine.

Overall I thought this paper was of great quality and the choice of over 70 colors impressive. Any papercrafter would find steady use for this in their stash.

Score: 5 Scissors

AND THE WINNER IS....

2010-09-22T19:01:00.000+01:00

Sarah C

Sarah,
Please contact us on scrapthat@scrapbook-101.com so that we can put you in touch with the Scrapagogo girls.
Well done you!

Scrapagogo give away, last chance

2010-09-21T18:23:00.000+01:00

Don't forget that you only have until tomorrow to get your entries in. Make sure you are following us and have posted on your own blog before commenting on the original post here

Good luck.

Cleo Crafts Kit

2010-09-19T13:00:00.006+01:00

Cleo Crafts kindly sent me their July kit to review. The basic kit contains six patterned papers, nine blooms in various colours and sizes, nine brown buttons (various shades), two tickets, 1 short length of lace trim, 1 short length of ricrac and a journaling card. At the time these would have been recent products and this is reflected in the price.

The patterned paper all comes from the very pretty ‘My Mind’s Eye- So Sophie’ range and, as you would expect, it works very well together. It is of extremely good quality and is double sided. The embellishments were well coordinated with the papers, but I’d have liked to have had a little more ribbon on play with. The kit costs £8.99 ($14.05) plus £2.50 postage. International postage is charged by weight. The kit offers a good basis on which to build and Cleo Crafts offer add ons for those who like cardstock, ribbons, blooms, rub ons, thickers and so on.

The cardstock add on for the July kit is £2.25. There is also a ribbons and blooms add on for £5.00. Subscribers can buy the whole lot for £15.99, saving themselves 25p. Each month there are also optional adds such as coordinating thickers, rub ons and chipboard. Subscribers can get a 10% discount on anything they buy from the shop too and there is free postage and packaging on orders over £25.

In terms of being inspirational and allowing users to try new things, this kit is found wanting. This is in part because the papers are all from the same manufacturer perhaps but also, many of you will have these embellishments in your stash already. This is certainly true of the blooms and buttons anyway. The only thing that excited me was the lace ribbon which I haven’t come across that before. I think that this kit would probably be best suited to new or occasional scrappers and cardmakers.

Here is the lovely page that Rebekah made with the Cleo Crafts kit that was kindly sent for review.

Disclosure

Scrapagogo give away

2010-09-15T13:00:00.003+01:00

The girls over at Scrapagogo were so pleased with their review earlier in the month that they have now offered us a prize to give away to one of you lucky people.
If you would like to win one of the fantastic Scrapagogo kits from the last few months then read on.
Scrapagogo are offering any 1 of their Create Kits available in their store here. That means you could be the lucky owner of a kit like this:

To win this fantastic prize all you need to do is ensure you are following Scrap That! and mention the give away on your own blog then post a comment on here to let us know you have entered. We will then let the wonders of random.org select a winner. Even if you already subscribe to Scrapagogo why not enter anyway, there's always room for more stash right?

A big thank you to Scrapagogo for this prize and good luck to everyone else. You have until 6pm gmt next Wednesday 22nd September to enter.

Becky Higgins Project Life

2010-09-12T20:30:00.004+01:00

The first thought that crossed my mind when I opened up this box was ‘wow! What a lot of goodies!’ Included in the package is:

3-ring 12" x 12" album
54 12" x 12" divided page protectors
12 clear monthly bookmarks
12 sheets of double sided designer cardstock
A sturdy box to keep all of the elements
4 playing card sized boxes to store journaling cards
360 3" x 4" journaling cards
56 bifold journaling cards
16 designer cards for title page and back page of the album
60 4" x 6" header cards for titling
60 3" x 4" designer cards
1140 arrow and day of the week stickers
1 rolling date stamp for dating journaling cards

The basic idea of the kits is that you have enough supplies to put a photo per day in the album, along with accompanying journaling, for a whole year. You don’t have to follow this format at all, but I decided to set it up that way. Becky’s website has some great ideas for alternative uses for the kit. You can find out more about the kit here.

So for $50 you can scrapbook for a year and not need to buy anything else except a pen, and get your photos developed. That’s pretty good value!

The contents of the kit all coordinate, and you can mix and match as much as you like - it all goes together so well. The materials used are high quality and, actually, you have more than you need to complete a year’s worth of entries. The product is all exclusive to Becky Higgins – you won’t find it anywhere else.

So I’m choosing to use the project as a record of my life for a year. It’s a pretty big commitment. The fact that the journaling cards come in 4 little boxes means that I can keep a set by the bed, a set in the car, a set in my craft space and a set in my bag. They’ll always be on hand to jot down some thoughts about my day. No excuses!

I’d say that most scrapbookers could find a use for this kit. Beginners would find it incredibly useful as you don’t need to think too much about your design or products – there’s no chance to get overwhelmed with choice as it’s a pretty straightforward project. I, on the other hand, am all about the creativity when it comes to making pages for my albums. Where I struggle is being organised enough to find photos and stories to scrap! So, for me, this project is the perfect way for me to organise a whole year’s worth of photos and stories to keep on hand for when I want to get more creative and dedicate a layout to a particular moment.

The kit costs C$59.99 and is available from the fantastically friendly and helpful Tammy Morales at Scrapbookers Inner Circle to UK/international buyers, or $49.99 from Beckyhiggins.com to US buyers. You can also see a video of what’s in the kit here.

The Project Life kit gets a 4 scissor rating from me. The only frustration I have is that there’s no option within the kit to vary the layout of your pages - the page protectors are all divided in the same way. But, reading Becky’s interview below, I think that might be about to change!

Disclosure

Becky Higgins Interview and Review

2010-09-12T18:15:00.002+01:00

Happy Sunday everyone. A bit of a special one today as we have an interview with the fantastic Becky Higgins and then the next review, will be her Project Life scrapbook kit. This is all part of our kit club month. Technically Project Life is not a kit club as such but as you will see it is a commitment.

So here we go with the interview.

How long have you been scrapbooking and what got you started?
In some form or another, I’ve been doing personal history and family history type projects from the time I was a child. But it was at age 17 that I really discovered the hobby in the format that we’re so familiar with now. That was in 1994. I had just graduated from high school and traveled to Utah where scrapbooking stores existed. It was like a whole new world was opened to me and everything snowballed from there.

What do you see as your biggest scrapbooking achievement?
Personally, taking a picture every single day to represent our family’s life in 2008 and 2009. I’m doing it again this year and hope to not burn out anytime soon. Professionally, I am so grateful for the opportunity to start a company with my husband nearly a year ago. We’re having a lot of fun and learning a lot. It’s been really terrific branching out and spreading my wings this way.

What is your favourite scrapbooking product?
Divided photo pocket pages. Instant places to stick my pictures. I offer these in my Project Life kit and have a line-up of more designs that will be available early 2011. There is so much I want to do with these and they save SO much time.

What is the most you've ever spent on a purpose made scrapbooking item? Was it worth it?
The We R Memory Keepers albums that house all of our family books and my kids’ books. Yep, totally worth it. They’re beautiful and impeccable quality.

If you could give every scrapbooker in the world one piece of advice what would it be?
Approach this hobby however it feels comfortable and enriching to you. If you spend hours and hours trying to keep up with the latest & greatest but end up feeling drained and unproductive, it’s time to re-think how much time you’re investing. This is a wonderful hobby. Embrace it at your own pace and don’t sacrifice valuable family time for cutting and pasting family pictures.

Which scrapbooking product do you use the most and why?
I know you’re expecting that I’ll say this paper or that embellishment or this tool or that cardstock. Honestly, since simplifying my approach to scrapbooking, I really stick with my camera, my computer, my Project Life, and that’s about it.

What is your favourite design technique?
I still enjoy mild inking around the edges of things when I’m doing some creative paper-based card, page, or project.

If you could have any scrapbooking product or tool right now that you do not already own what would it be?
I’ve been so out of the loop on the latest & greatest, that I honestly don’t know what’s out there and what I “should” be wanting. I’m enjoying my little place of simplicity and staying focused on pictures and stories.

What camera or cameras do you use to take your pictures and do you have a favourite?
My dSLR is the Nikon D90 and my point and shoot that stays in my on-the-go bag or purse at all times, is the Canon PowerShot SD1300. They’ve both served me well.

Do you use a particular type of pen for journaling?
I like the American Crafts Precision Pens.

If you could use only products from ONE manufacturer for the rest of your scrapping days, who's products would you choose?
You’re making me choose? There are so many fantastic product designers out there. Since I’m a sucker for patterned paper, I’ll just put it out there that I’ve loved KI Memories’ stuff for years. Such happy, fun, clean designs.

Do you have a favourite layout you've created, and could we see it please? Why is it your favourite?
Again -- quite the impossible task to nail down just one layout. So I’ll share one that comes to mind as *one* of my all-time favorites. This picture of me and my daughter reminded me of one of me as a baby with my mom. And then we were able to find a picture of my mom with her mom and then the next generation back too. I love making connections like this. It’s so much what scrapbooking is about.

If you want to learn more about Becky then just go check out her fab webpage BeckyHiggins.com.

Stay tuned to find out a little more about her Project Life kit when Amanda will be along with her review of this project.

At this point we must just thank Becky for not only answering our questions but also getting her product sent out to us.

Scrapagogo

2010-09-05T13:01:00.001+01:00

ScrapaGoGo pride themselves in delivering the best kits that money can buy with newly sourced and unique products for the kits each month. Does it do what it says on the box? Well, the September kit, Fresh New Fall, certainly does. ScrapaGoGo offer a variety of kit options with add ons to the main kit itself. In the Main Monthly Kit there are four pieces of Bazill cardstock, ten pieces of patterned paper (nine of which are double sided), a 12x12 piece of hessian, two lengths of ribbon, two sets of alphabets, fabric flowers, Maya road pins, chipboard trees, wooden buttons and embroidery thread. I can well believe that all this individually has a retail price of £33.99 and for just £24.99 it’s money well spent.

Opening the box was a delight as I removed yummy item after yummy item. They all coordinate really well and there is a lot of scope of creativity both in scrapbooking and cardmaking. Lorraine and Janice clearly care about giving their customers value for money and have the scrapbooking eye to enable them to do so in a well coordinated and interesting way. Add to that the ‘GoGo Clear Stamps’ (an extra £4.50) (beautiful bespoke butterflies, birds, leaves and a tree), ‘Go~2~pieces’ (an extra £4.50) (burlap pieces, Prima pearls and jewelled leaves, ribbons) or both for a combined price of £33.99 and you really have a got a kit that will keep your creative juices flowing all month!

I should perhaps say that this is the first kit that I’ve had the pleasure of creating with but having scrapped for a number of years I can see that the September kit from ScrapaGoGo is great value for money, contains well chosen patterned paper and embellishments from a variety of well known manufacturers and up to date papers that, in my opinion, anyone would be happy to use. The only negative for me is the hybrid set which I found fiddly to cut out. Not so much so that I didn’t do it and use them though ☺ The bespoke stamp and hybrid pieces make the kit unique and the circles of burlap combined with the canvas flowers (Jillibean Soup) provide ‘interesting, I’ve not used those before’ alongside the gorgeous papers.

Primarily a monthly subscription, you do have the option of buying the kit on an individual basis, assuming that there are any left at the end of the month of course. The product is available worldwide. Postage is included in the price for postage in the United Kingdom (for monthly subscribers) and overseas customers are charged exactly the price of postage once it’s known.

Having the kit delivered could be the end of it, but not at ScrapaGoGo. So committed to crafting are the ladies at ScrapaGoGo that not only do they have a fantastic design team offering inspiration each month, but they offer a 'Go to Press' magazine online or printed AND the Clubhouse (forum and gallery) where members can chat to each other and share the projects they've created with their kit each month as well as discuss all things scrappy.

Would I recommend this kit? The price might seem high at first glance but in the kit there is enough stash to keep you happy for a month I would say. One of my crafty friends told me that it’s what keeps her creativity on the level each month. Even if the kit contains something that she wouldn’t have chosen herself it challenges her and she’s always pleased with the end result. I can see what she means. So far I’ve created four layouts from the ScrapaGoGo September kit (yes, I only received it today!) and I still have masses and masses of stash left for more. I’m heading right over to ScrapaGoGo to subscribe and the next few month’s kits look as wonderful as September. So that’s a ‘yes’ then ☺

Scissors ratings!

5 scissors – Perfect. Couldn’t ask for more. Great item, fair price. Everyone should have one! You’d have no problem selling this to your grandmother.

And here are just three of the layouts that Rebekah made:

Disclosure

Kit club September

2010-09-04T17:30:00.000+01:00

Throughout the whole of September we will be running reviews on a number of Scrapbook Kit Clubs, both from the UK and America. We have reviews coming up for Scrapagogo, Cleo Crafts, Studio Calico, Tid Bitz in Time, Swirlydoo, and Becky Higgins' special Kit Project life.

We also have a couple of interviews with 2 top internationally known scrapbookers. All this along with further spotlight posts and other reviews that keep rolling in now, you really shouldn't miss it!

We may also be doing a giveaway or 2. All I can say is make sure you link to us from your blogs, it'll help!

First up is one of our new girls Rebekah with her review of Scrapagogo. That'll be up tomorrow afternoon, so be sure to stop by and check it out.

New reviewer news

2010-08-31T13:55:00.001+01:00

Coming soon to a review blog near you... 2 NEW fantastic reviewers. Val, who is our girl with her finger on the pulse in the US and Rebekah who I'm won't leave any stone unturned over here in the UK.
Their first reviews will be American crafts products from Val and, as part of our month long kit club special, the Scrapagogo kit from Rebekah.
I for one can't wait to see what they come up with.

Kaisercraft Spotlight

2010-08-30T08:34:00.002+01:00

September means it's Christmas time! Well ok not just yet, but it does mean more Christmas inspired product releases. Kaisercraft have launched absolutely tons of new products today on their blog. I'm going to take a quick look at the 'Tis The Season' collection.

Personally I love the Vintage look, no comments about my age please. Also in my opinion there is no better vintage than Christmas vintage. I'm just an old fashioned type of guy I guess. So with this in mind the Tis The Season range obviously make me happy.
The papers look great. Lovely traditional tones, with a distressed and worn look to each of the pages.

There looks like there is something for everyone in this collection. Obviously we havent yet had a chance to play with this set yet, we should start seeing it in shops in September. Along with the papers there are also some specialty flocked papers, epoxy stickers, stamps, rub-ons, chipboard and pretty much anything else you could imagine.

Whilst looking at these I couldn't help but think that the collection would really lend itself to an off the page project, and then I saw what they have created on their product page.

Now doesn't that just make you wish it was December 1st already!

If you want to see all of the products that Kaisercraft have released in this range, take a look at their page here

We are expecting a small package from Kaisercraft any day now for us to do a proper review. If these pictures are anything to go by it'll be a good review. But then you never know!

New site for Ali Edwards

2010-08-27T20:43:00.000+01:00

Just a quick post to let you all know that if you are a fan of Ali Edwards, and why wouldn't you be, she now has a brand new swanky website.
A great new look, with loads of inspiration and links to Ali's blog, and shopping sites. Definitely worth checking out.

Tattered Angels spotlight

2010-08-26T21:56:00.002+01:00

As an added extra to Scrap That! we are also planning on doing manufacturer and shop spotlight posts. In these posts we'll let you know about any new or exciting products or news that they have. So over the next couple of weeks we'll let you know about the latest releases from the Summer 2010 CHA show that took place at the end of July. Our first spotlight is on the fabulous Tattered Angels.

Tattered Angels are obviously best known for their ever popular Glimmer Mists. They have gone from strength to strength over the past few years and now have a wide range of different types of mists and other products ideal for scrapbookers, card makers and altered artists.

A quick look at their website at mytatteredangels.com will give ou plenty of ideas on what you could do with their products, and how to do it. You can download a full catalogue and a great colour chart.

At the recent CHA they released a new range of colours, and they are amazing!

Gumdrop

Jack Frost

Jingle Bells

Santa Baby

Snow Queen

Sugar Plum Fairy

Now you have to admit that they are fantastic colours that are really going to jump out at you from your wintery scrapbook pages and projects.
Check out this page to see where you can get them from in the UK and around the world. Shops
I would highly recommend taking a look and then treating yourself. Check out their blog for some great looking ideas like this:

News

2010-08-25T11:01:00.004+01:00

We have some exciting news to let you know. Over the next few weeks we'll be showing you all some interviews with some top Scrapbooking celebs. We can't wait to let you see how these scrapbooking goddesses work!
We have also secured another 2 great companies to review. Nikki Sivils and Kaisercraft! How awesome is that!

Copic Markers

2010-08-22T12:41:00.009+01:00

I was looking forward to doing this review, as I currently use a different brand of marker but have heard people raving about Copics. Are they really that great? Let’s have a look!

I tested several different things with the Copic products we were sent. Things that were important to me and the use that I thought most crafters would have for them. Firstly, what ink should you stamp with if you want to colour your image with Copic Markers? Secondly, how easy are they to use? Do they work for the projects I need them for? And thirdly, I tested the Copic Bleedproof paper pad and the Copic Mulitliner to see if they held up to their promises.
So, inks. I have read on various forums about what inks people recommend to use. I know what ink I prefer with my other markers. But I wanted to test a wide variety to be sure I was getting the best results. I stamped with black StazOn, Impress, Momento, Archival and Distress inks. The one I found to be best was Momento – no bleeding or smudging at all, even with the palest of colours. Second best was Impress, as long as I left it for a few minutes before colouring.
Once I’d selected my ink I stamped a design with some very small details specifically to check if the Copics could handle it. To colour my image I used a combination of Copic Sketch and Copic Ciao markers. Of the two, I found the Sketch markers easier to use as they are shaped differently. I found this made them easier to control, even compared with other markers I have used in the past. The actual nibs of the pens are the same size and shape in both types: a brush on one end and a medium broad chisel tip on the other. They are really luscious and juicy whilst still managing to be precise, so you get a good ink coverage with plenty of control. I have to say, the brush tip did scare me slightly as it looks incredibly broad. How would it handle the tiny spaces I needed to colour on my image?

Well, that broad brush can get into some very tiny spaces! I did struggle with some of the very tiny areas (less than 1-2 millimetres) but I don’t doubt that someone with more colouring experience could have made easy work of it. Quite simply, the more pressure you use, the broader the stroke.
The Bleedproof drawing paper was exactly that. There was no bleeding and the colours stayed crisp and true. One thing I would mention is thatit is drawing paper, and as such is 70g/m2 so quite thin. I backed my coloured image with cardstock before adhering it to my card.

The Copic Multiliner, I admit, I kind of fell in love with. It’s so smooth to write or sketch with and I can see myself buying more of these for journaling on my scrapbook pages. They claim to be water and Copic proof, so naturally I set out to test their claim. Water; no problem at all. Copic; Hmmm, I did manage to get it to smudge, but I was literally waiting with Copic poised in one hand and multiliner in the other ready to pounce on it straight away. If I left it to dry, it was completely smudge/bleed proof.I could have played with these pens for a good while longer, and I will do soon. They are one of those products that you invest in and know they will see you through. Fantastic quality.

Overall, I would give the markers a 4 scissor rating. The initial cost of the product is expensive if you want to buy a good range of colours. They retail at around £5.99 per marker for the Copic Sketch markers. The Copic ciao are a less expensive option at around £12.99 for the skin tones set that we had. But the quality is obvious and I’m a firm believer in the philosophy ‘you get what you pay for’. I would also say that beginners might struggle to colour tiny areas, as it was tricky for me at times. The Multiliner is my pick of the products I tried. It’s amazing!Here’s the card I made using the Copic products:
Supplies:Copic markers from Copic Sketch 12 colors item no. 21075 02 and Copic ciao 5 + 1 skin tones set packs; Copic Bleedproof Marker Pad; Folk Inspired stamp set from Unity Stamps; Patterned paper from BoBunny; Cardstock from Bazzil; Scalloped card blank from Craftwork Cards.

Copics are available from Copic UK and Copic Germany. To find a retailer in the UK try this page. In the US try here.

Disclosure

Scrap by color or colour :)

2010-08-20T16:24:00.002+01:00

I just had to pop on and show you all this fantastic FREE tool that I stumbled accross whilst looking on twitter. Scrapbook.com have a great tool on their site called Scrap by Color. You simply upload a picture that you want to scrap with and it selects all the best colours for you to use on your layout from the colours and tones in the photo. It shows you all the matching colours along with complimentary colours. It even then shows you a few different sketch layouts with your photo included. It's great! Well I think so anyway...

Don't just take my word for it, check out this video - Scrap by color video

And try it for yourselves here Scrap by Color

Then theres even more! It even shows you lots of products that you could buy to make your layout with! Obviously this is just a selling tool at the end of the day but even so I think it is well worth a look.

Technically I know this is not a review but i think its worth 5 stars anyway!

Purple Cows Freestyle Mouse Cutting Kit

2010-08-15T13:27:00.003+01:00

First of all, what does the manufacturer say about their product?
Freestyle Mouse Cutting Kit - Model 6045
Freestyle Mouse Cutting Kit: A perfect kit for embellishing artwork, cards, invitations, decorations, photos, scrapbook pages, and everything in between. With the Designer Click Blades you can add unique finishing touches to projects or create your own free-hand shapes.

Includes the Designer Purple Cows Click Blades Collection. There are 12 different cutting styles. Mouse attaches to cutting ruler for controlled cutting.

A special safety guard helps protect fingers from cuts.
_____________________________________________

Firstly, I will just say that Purple Cows sent us this product for review but we have no affiliation with the company or their products. We provide honest, independent reviews that will hopefully assist crafters out there when choosing products to suit their needs.

OK, I have to say I was quite excited about this product before I even opened the packaging. It solved, in theory, a lot of the issues I had with the multi-blade trimmer I already owned. I purchased the Purple Cows Ultimate trimmer a couple of years ago, and it did exactly what I wanted it to do, but it was not ideal for me for several reasons. It’s a big trimmer and takes up a lot of space in my craft room. I purchased it purely for the decorative blades as I already have a guillotine style cutter I love for straight cuts, and so I didn’t really have the space to keep both out on my work table. So, yep, it went away in a cupboard and I’ll admit, it’s only seen the light of day a couple of times since because I forget I have it.
When I opened the package from Purple Cows to find this little gadget inside, I was excited about the possibility of a more mobile tool with a much smaller footprint, that could perform the tasks I wanted. I can store this in reach of my desk for regular use (it fits nicely in a little basket, with all 12 blades) and I can store the cutting mat and ruler that’s included underneath the basket, or on my bookshelf as it’s nice and slim.

So, it solves a problem for most crafters: space. But does it work, and get the job done?

In a word, yes! It’s easy to use freehand, either for straight cuts (if you’re confident enough to get them straight) or to make curved cuts. When teamed with the ruler and cutting mat it’s simple to set up (literally place the complete mouse on the ruler and it’s good to go) giving you the functionality of a regular trimmer and lines as straight as you like. It cuts easily through patterned paper and cardstock – I used Bazzil cardstock to test it – and the clear plastic ruler helps you line everything up neatly. You don’t need to press excessively hard on the mouse to get the blade to cut, and you don’t need 8 hands to hold everything and cut at the same time, which is a feeling I’ve had when using other methods in the past. It’s sturdy and durable-feeling without being heavy or bulky – in fact it’s incredibly compact.

There’s a great range of blades included for this price, and they come in plastic storage trays which hold them safely and securely. It’s incredibly easy to swap the blades, and for the purposes of testing the tool, I managed to make a straight cut with each of the 12 blades using the ruler and mat in under 3 minutes, including blade-changing time. Impressed? I was.

Who will love this tool?
If you’re already using a straight trimmer that you’re happy with, but are considering a purchase because you’d like some decorative blades and a more versatile option, this product is for you.
In terms of everyday use to replace your regular trimmer this is probably not the ideal option because of its ‘mobile’ nature unless you have very limited space and don’t mind getting the mat/ruler out each time you want to cut.
If you craft on the go, are a regular at crops, heading to a retreat or simply haul your stash down in front of the TV every time you create, then this is a must have!
All in all, a great supporting tool. Five stars from me!
The recommended retail price for this trimmer kit is $29.95 (approx £19.20 at today’s exchange rate 15 Aug 2010)
The Freestyle Mouse is also available separately without the cutting mat, ruler and extra blades.
And finally, here’s a card I made using it ‘Freestyle’ with the straight blade, to show you the kind of thing you can do with it.

Disclosure

Free Digital Scrapbooking.com and a prize!!

2010-08-06T18:56:00.008+01:00

Our next review is for all you digi and hybrid scrappers out there. Free Digital Scrapbooking.com is, as the name suggests, an online digital scrapbooking resource website. And again as the name suggests it's FREE. Now we like free stuff don't we? Well this site is overflowing with it!
Being a website, and a free resource, it's definetely falls down to me to take a look at it, and maybe even have a play! Especially as I've never made a digital layout, EVER.

To start with it's probably worth mentioning what the site looks like and how easy it is to get around. First impressions are that it's bright and busy, but not so busy that you cannot see what is going on. There are pleanty of adverts on there, but they do not get in the way, and with the amount of elements that the owner of this site gives away, there has to be some way for her to finance it! The other way is via a shop that is also on the site. But unlike a lot of places where you can get free things along side a shop, there is definetely no scrimping on the freebies and the shop is very much understated in a way. In fact you could quite easily go onto the site and not even know there was a shop at all.
So what exactly is on offer? Well here are the listing from the sites menu and there are pleanty of items in each one:

Tutorials
Digital Kits
Alphabets
Papers
Embelishments
Quick Pages
Templates/shapes
Paper crafts
Cards
Fonts
Layout Ideas
Page titles

I really would recomend a browse through all of these just to get an idea on the huge variety of elements on offer. For anyone with no idea on how to even start with digital scrapbooking the tutorials are a good starting point, but I would imagine that they are more for beginners than experienced digi scrappers.
The quick pages I found to be great to get an idea of how a digital layout could look. All you have to do is add a photo using your prefured picture editor. I used Adobe Firefox for this, and my other layout below. Here's a "quick page" I used with a chistmas feel. I know its only August but I can't help but love Christmas!

The digital kits are a little more detailed as you have to place the items yourself and actually design the layout, which is probably why my layout isn't quite as good as the quick page I attempted earlier. At least with the digital kits though you do get everything, you need and it should all match.
I don't think I did too bad a job, any comments?

There really is a hige selection of free stuff on this page and I really enjoyed playing with them.
I would highly recommend this site for anyone who wants to take a look at digital scrapbooking.

Oh and the prize. Just leave a comment before next Friday letting us know what things you'd like to get reviewed and you'll get a chance to win a nice new pack of American Crafts Thickers. Also if you link to us on your blogs and let us know you'll get an extra entry. Good luck everyone.
Disclosure

Best craft storage

2010-08-01T12:32:00.009+01:00

The Best Craft storage range is possibly the queen of ready made craft storage ideas, unfortunately with a price tag to match. We have reviewed the triple stacker system which comes in at around $620 in the US or £505 in the UK depending on what combination you have.

The Triple Stacker

The manufacturer lists the following as the benefits of the system:

Optimizes storage space by using shallow drawers.

Modular system allows you to add on as your storage needs grow.

Will last a lifetime. We Guarantee it!

To be honest I would agree with it. You can fit an incredible amount of things into the draws which are also the perfect size for your 12 x 12 pages. The draws also come in different depths so that you can pretty much arrange your stacker how ever you want.

Available in maple, walnut or white you can be sure to find one that will match in with your decor and because it is an actual piece of furniture it won't even look out of place in a normal living area if you are not lucky enough to have your own craft room.
The major downfall to me is simply the cost. In the US you are lucky enough to get them at a reasonable price, but due to the costs in getting these bulky pieces over to the UK it does mean that we pay a premium. I also can't help but think that if these drawer units didn't have the word "craft" in front of them then the price might be half of what it actually is.

The drawers can all be purchased separately and are available as either paper trays, 1", 2" or 3.5" deep drawers. They also come in black or white to help you to match things in nicely.

Overall the quality and versitilty of this whole range is fantastic. The only thing that lets it down is the cost, which is the only reason they don't get the sacred 5 scissor rating.
Available in the UK from Storage 4 Crafts and in the US from Best .

Disclosure

Here we go!

2010-08-01T10:11:00.001+01:00

Well today is the day. After a lot of work, and believe me, it has been a lot of work, we are finally ready to start the reviews. We are hoping to give you great reviews and recommendations at least twice a week plus occasional giveaways and promotions. Don't forget that we are always on the lookout for new talent so if you think you can write an interesting article about a current scrapbooking product or service then let us know.
We are also revealing the manufacturers or shops that we will be reviewing in upcoming weeks which will then be listed in the side bar.
Oh and one last thing, we are going to be giving away some American Crafts goodies. So keep your eyes peeled and you could be the first of many lucky winners on Scrap That!

Official Launch Date

2010-07-22T20:19:00.001+01:00

The official launch and first round of reviews will go live on the 1st August at 12pm gmt. We already have some exciting products to show you. Don't forget if you have a product that you want reviewed or you want to submit a review of a product yourself then email us on ScrapThat@scrapbook-101.com

Welcome to Scrap That!

2010-07-21T16:22:00.005+01:00

Scrap That! aims to be the most up to date, impartial, unbiased, firm but fair review blog around.

Reviewing as many products as possible from the scrapbooking industry, from the simplest of sticky back plastic to computer programs costing hundreds of pounds.

We have too many years of experience of scrapbooking and have increasingly noticed how difficult it can be for newcomers to this wonderful pastime to see the woods for the trees.

So basically if you are a consumer that wants something reviewed, whether its a product, a service, a shop or even a scrapbooking celeb then let us know, or even review it yourself and send it to us to include on the blog, you could even win a prize for it!

If you are a manufacturer and you want something reviewed and don't mind honest comments then contact us and we'll happily do it.

And finally watch this space as we grow and add to our regular review team!

For all enquiries, whether its for advertising, submitting ideas or reviews or to get a product reviewed contact us on ScrapThat@scrapbook-101.com