Here at Polly! we love to see the creative spin that our customers put on our kits and we would love to see your interpretation of today’s Sketch Duet. To win a fantastic Polly! Stamp set of your choice all you have to do is show us your take on the Sketch Duet, post your layout, card or PL card to your Instagram using the hashtag #pollysketchduet and then comment here on the blog to let us know when you have posted! Entries close on Sunday 20 April at 5pm AEDT. Kate and Lauren will then choose five winners! That’s right we have five stamps to give away! Winners get their choice of stamp sets from any Polly! stamps (while stocks last). You can see them here . So, get crafting – we can’t wait to see what you make! Make sure you leave us a comment so we can check out your creations!

Happy Crafting! 
Kate

Hey guys,

So I only just got my February Polly! Kit in the mail yesterday and with travelling last week I had no time to actually scrapbook using some of the wonderful things in the new kit. Luckily, I had a second layout with January's kit that I thought might help you relive last months kit and if you loved it as much as me, maybe even go back and get some more of the goodness in the Raspberry Shortcake Kit.


For my layout this week, I got to use a few of my favourite colours, the black, bright pink and yellows from the Studio Calico Print Shop papers in the kit. Unfortunately I don't use a lot of patterned paper in my layouts and prefer to just embellish photos but this week I really tried to use as much patterned paper as I could.

Hope you enjoyed my little layout share and of course as with every of my posts, I have included a process video for the layout. Enjoy!!


I hope this has inspired you to get out last months kit and have a play. I really loved the bright bolder colours in the kit and would love to see what you all create. Hopefully next week I will have a few unboxing videos of the February PL kit and the add on.

Until then, happy creating!!
Nae xoxo

Hi there!!  Thanks for taking a few minutes out of your day to say hi to Guest Designer Jess Hawkins. Jess is using our January Raspberry Shortcake kit, grab a bevvie and take a look!

Hi I'm Jess I have just turned 30 and I live in the ACT with my wonderful husband, and 3 beautiful girls. I have always been creative in some way, but it got serious 3 and a half years ago with my first papercraft project; my wedding invitations. Probably not the best project to start with, but I was happy with the finished product, and even today, I still would not change them. I am primarily a card-maker and Copic colourer, although I have dabbled in scrapbooking. I love working beyond the page, and I keep telling myself 'next week' will be the week that I start Project Life, lol. I was so excited to be asked to join Polly! as a guest designer for January. I have been a subscriber for almost a year now, and I love these kits.


Confession time, I am not a Project Lifer (yet), I am a card-maker, and have been since my crafting journey began 3 and a half years ago. But I could not resist the Polly! PL kits when my Polly! Scrapbooking subscription was up. They appealed to me because the largest goodies in the kit are the 6" square papers included each month, not to mention the fact that it comes with gorgeous co-ordinated embellies, all I needed to add is some cardstock and a sentiment, and there is a beautiful card made in minutes.



For my "What an amazing day" card, I made this with either a male or female in mind - yes, wooden spool included! I was lucky enough to get to play with the stamp that came in the January scrapbooking kit, and thought it would be perfect with a little paper-piecing and heat-embossing. I like my heat-embossing a little grungy, so I am a bit "slap-dash" with the embossing powder. Except for the black pearls around the card edge and the cardstock, everything you see on this card came from the January PL kit. I loved the little wooden spool that the washi tape came wrapped around, and couldn't resist adding it to the card with a little Tombow glue to keep it in place. A feature you will find on all of my cards is that I like to decorate the inside of the card as well. It's a great way to use some papers that you can't put down, and it also balances out the weight on the front of the card. One of the many things I love about the January PL kit, is even though there is such a wide range of colours, it co-ordinates so well together! I usually struggle with the colour yellow, but when I saw the beautiful papers, I just knew my colour scheme for this card would be black, grey and yellow.



For my "All about you" card, I wanted to showcase how this gorgeous kit can be used in conjunction with your colouring medium of choice. I'm a Copic girl, and this kit was sooooo easy to add Copics to! This card is entirely made of the January PL kit, with the exception of cardstock, white pearls, and the clock die used to make the rainbow die-cut. This card even features the twine that the January tag was attached to the kit bag with! I loved the cute little jar of sparkly stars included in this kit, and I just had to use the jar as well. I Tombow-glued the lid shut, attached the twine, and ran it through the die-cut. The 'play' veneer has been coloured with Copic RV13 and had some Dimensional Magic added, to co-ordinate with the cute little wine glass paperclip. I have used the green alpha stickers for my sentiment, and used my Copic multi-liner to doodle. The great thing about using alphas is that you can personalise your sentiment, rather than have the usual phrases you find on stamps. I have distressed all the edges, and inked them with my Copics for a distressed, yet fresh finish. Copic markers used are: C5, BG13, RV13. The inside of my card features the same Copic markers and some distressing. I have used one of the cute cards as a writing panel, and another card for the front to adhere my alpha sentiment to. 

These kits are so versatile, whether you are Project Lifer, or a card-maker. So I hope I have inspired you to stretch your kit a little further!

Jess

 Here is a closer look at the left page. It is a pretty simple design because the bold photos dont need a lot more embellishment. This memory is a lovely one, the kids had never seen anything like this before and were literally jaw-dropping in their awe and amazing as the acrobats and clown did all kinds of tricks and antics.

 The second page is all the rest of the week, including spring native bird sighting, lovely baking escapades and a very important school dress-up pirate birthday party. I tried to incorporate a good amount of white space on both pages as the combination of bold photos and bold papers is a lot for the eye to take in.

Thanks so much for joining me today, I hope you are having fun playing with your January project life kit too, there are still some available in the store, so if you would like to play with these happy and bright colours, please head over and pick one up today.

Hello! It's Gypsy here again. This time around I wanted to share a whole bunch of pages that I have made using the January Pocket Page Kit Raspberry Shortcake. I'm a relatively simple scrapper and don't tend to use a whole lot of product on my pages. One of the reasons that I love using Kits to scrapbook is that they represent serious value for money- something that is pretty important to me as my scrapping budget is fairly limited. The fact that I get to use a whole bunch of product without having to buy a full pack or paper pad is great for me. I get to use a variety of products on my pages and I get to try some things I might not otherwise buy. And I don't end up with a bunch of leftover product that I am not inspired to use again (and again).

That said I still like to stretch my kits as far as I can and today I have a few tips to share for doing this. The 7 pages made below are all made almost exclusively from one Raspberry shortcake kit. I've added 12x12 cardstock, a few lettering stickers, some bits left over from a previous Polly Kit.


Tip #3 Use Washi tape in place of ribbon. I love this because I find I can make the washi tape to go where I want to- but ribbon sometimes has a mind of it's own.



Tip #4 Cut a 3x4 card and use it across your pockets to give your design a cohesive feel. I totally loved this confetti 3x4 card so was keen to make  it a feature on my page. I cut it into 3 so I could spread it over my layout and help to lead the eye around my page.



Tip #6 Give it a facelift- this card originally said what a wonderful day but that didn't work for me- so I covered the word 'day' with a small piece of paper and used the letter stickers in the kit to make a more appropriate title.


 Tip #7 PL Cards are not just for pockets. When I saw the card above I know it would make a great title for my non-pocket LO.

Tip #8 Punch or cut your own shaped border stickers from washi tape. The great thing about washi is that it is easy to pull up and stick down again. For the piece under the word 'everyday' I taped the washi to some scrap card and then used fancy scissors to cut the zig-zag edge. Then I just pulled it up of the card and applied it to my page. I did the same thing on the bath page with a scalloped border punch.


Tip #9 Use the packaging- The yellow washi tape on this page was originally used to seal some of the little bags that my kit came in- I carefully lifted the tape so I could use the tape on my LO... and also the bags at a later date.

Tip #10 Don't forget your stamps. The little sun stamps on either side of my "Perth wa" are from the Polly November kit- I think the sunny motif is perfect for our new home town. I love that Polly Scrap Kits come with stamps- they are a great tool you can use over and over again, adding even more value to the kit.


Tip #11 Make it smaller and hide it away. One of the concerns that people sometimes have about kits is that they won't like some of the items. The pink and green PL Cards above were pretty bright as far as I was concerned and not something I'd normally choose. But cut down and used in small pieces like this I don't have a problem with them at all- in fact I think they're perfect with these photos.



Tip #12 Make it work. I couldn't find a way that suited me to use these very cool wine glass paper-clips as they were. But once I cut off the clip part with a pair of pliers I was easily able to put them right where I wanted with a little rolled up glue dot. I love how they look with the additional starry fizz.  

Tip #13 Cover it up. This journalling card was absolutely perfect for this page about my word for 2013 'Story'. But the bird on the card wasn't working at all- so I covered it with a heart from the November kit which I mounted on some patterned paper and trimmed around.

Tip #14 Chop up your stickers. I used one end of this lovely label sticker for my title and added the other shorter end for the date.I've done the same with another of the stickers behind my journalling card.

Tip # 15 Have a small stash of quality consumables. I have a small set of spray inks, and twinkling H2O's that I use on my pages to add in some extra details. With these things, a little goes a long way- they allow you to add less to your page so you can stretch your kit even further. On the page above I have used the twinkling H2O's. They have mica in them which gives this lovely shimmery effect.


Tip #16 Use paper instead of ribbon. I've simply cut a v in the end of a small strip of left over patterned paper to make some 'ribbon' for my page.

Looking at what I still have left over the Raspberry Shortcake kit I think I could make another 3 pages or so when I have the time. And that's the other thing I love about kit scrapping- all the gear is already sorted for me- making my scrapbooking much faster and productive than ever.

Thanks for reading! And thanks to Ruth and the team at Polly! Scrap Kits for the opportunity to have a play with the Raspberry Shortcake Kit and share it with you.

Gypsy

Sketch Duet with Lauren

Morning fellow Polly! fans,

Kate here with the February edition of the Sketch Duet. The idea is to provide a sketch that can be used for greeting cards & Project Life cards - to encourage you to use up some scraps from your beloved Polly! kits. Today I've got two examples to show you - both using supplies from the January Pocket Scrapbooking kit - Raspberry Shortcake. If you don't already have this kit, I know there are a few left in the store - and it's a great one. Here are some links to examples from Nae, from Lauren & one from me.

So, here is the February sketch provided by Manda.

Hi all you Polly! peeps,

Happy Sunday morning to you. If you are in Melbourne, I hope you are not melting! (currently melting myself as I type this!). Today it's my turn to share a Project Life spread that I made with the January Pocket Scrapbooking kit - Raspberry Shortcake. Such a gorgeous kit, full of beautiful papers & lots of embellishments to add to our Australian summer spreads. As you will see from my spread below, it looks completely different to Nae's gorgeous pastel spread that she shared here. It really does show how versatile these kits can be.




























This is the LHS of my Week 3 spread for this year's Project Life. I must warn you - this was a full on week for us. It included an Earthquake; a heatwave; me taking 3 boys on an interstate flight that resulted in an emergency landing at the wrong airport; looking after 6 boys at my mum & dad's for 3 days; a wonderful reunion dinner & a trip back in time as we visited our childhood holiday spot. Everything on this page is from the kit, except for the 2nd 3x4 card from the left (more on that beauty later!) & the larger thickers. I also have used the stamp set from the Almond Biscotti Scrapbooking kit. This stamp set is PERFECT for Project Life, and I wanted to use it on every card/photo!

So, some details. Firstly, I have used an insert in this week, because as you can imagine, I had a few photos! But instead of using it to document a particular event, I have used it to add another column to the page. That's why I have photographed it together with the LHS spread.  I loved all the little embellishments - the enamel dots, the sequins (that I used to make the glass look filled with a cocktail!) & the flair. All of them are just simple touches to add to the spread. I also ventured into stamping directly onto some photos this week - I will admit, this made me nervous, but those little sayings from the Polly! stamp set were just perfect for this.

There is always a piece of paper that jumps out at me in every kit, and I always wish that I had more. So it was the striped paper from the Printshop collection that I was oohing & ahhing over. To make it last, I die cut quite a few shapes from it, so that I could use it on multiple cards throughout the spread.



The beginning of this week in Melbourne was a heatwave - so we had to do lots of indoor activities. For my 5 year old son, that means paper crafting & making cards for the albums. He has his own little stash & the bottom left photo shows him making some cards - the card on the right is one of his that he created that day. I love that he wants to be involved in our album, I love this card (and the colours matched perfectly for the spread) and I love the look on his face when he looks at the album & sees his cards included. Absolutely what Project Life is all about.


























The RHS of the spread shows more of the same theme. Lots of sunshine & lots of water! Because the photos were so dominating, I decided just to make the spread quite simple. The striped paper pulls the spread together. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the work/play wood veneer in the kit. But to be honest, in January, we don't do a lot of work! It's all about PLAY. It suited our week of beach, playgrounds & skateparks perfectly!

And once again, I went for some simplicity on 3x4 cards. I loved that yellow star paper from Printshop, so decided to show it off through a die cut love heart. That sums up my feelings for that place - an Aunt & Uncles house on the lake that I have loved visiting for 30 years. My kids adored it & we had the most wonderful day. I also loved using the larger stamp from the scrap stamp set to create a journalling area. I just found the lightest piece of patterned paper and went for it. I really like how it turned out.


So, that's my Week 3 spread. Even though it is quite simple & not too bulky, I really like how it complements the photos.  And here's a little sneak peak of my Week 4 spread that I've also made with the patterned papers in the kit (did I mention that I LOVE the Printshop collection!). I told you, this kit is so versatile. It's hard to believe all these cards came from the same kit.

 

There are still a couple of kits available in the store here if you are tempted! It is so full of goodness.

Till next time, happy crafting!
Kate