Our first Guest Designer for March is…

Helen Westen

“My name is Helén and I’m a 38 year old scrapper from Sweden. I’m married to a wonderful man and a mother to three equally wonderful children, who are my main scrapbooking subjects. I work as a registered nurse in elderly care, but in my spare time there’s nothing I love more than keeping busy with a scrapbooking project! It really is like therapy and I love being part of the scrapbooking world!

My style would probably be described as vintage, as I have a passion for distress ink, scraped edges and lots of layering! I love using lots of embellishments, creating a 3D feel to my projects. I love the diversity of scrapbooking and I’ll make anything from layouts and cards to altered art. I’m always willing to try new techniques!

I am so excited and honored to be one of this month’s guest designers here at Kaisercraft! I love anything Kaisercraft and these two new lines are no exceptions!”

Peachy Keen layout – “My beautiful Son”: Peachy Keen papers – Kosher, Neat, Rad, Peachy Keen die cut elements – Journaling spot,Peachy Keen clear stamps – bird and branches,Peachy Keen alpha stickers,Peachy Keen rub ons colour – bird,Peachy Keen embellishment pack – flowers, Other: Distress Ink, Zig writer.

Peachy Keen layout – “Best friends”:Peachy Keen papers – Rad, Super, Nifty, Peachy Keen alpha stickers, Peachy Keen rub ons black & white – saying, Peachy Keen die cut elements – chipboard circle, Peachy Keen embellishment pack – flower, Peachy Keen 6″ paper pad – scalloped edge, journaling spot, Other: Distress Ink.

Gypsy Sisters Card: Gypsy Sisters 6″ paper pad – papers, Gypsy Sisters die cut elements – chipboard square, Other: Cardstock, Distress Ink.

Gypsy Sisters layout – “Sweet”: Gypsy Sisters papers – Asha, Sofia, Gypsy Sisters 6″ paper pad – border, paper strips, Gypsy Sisters alpha stickers, Gypsy Sisters rub ons black & white – ornaments, Gypsy Sisters stamps – ornament, Other: Distress Ink, Martha Stewart punch.

Gypsy Sisters layout – “Hanna”: Gypsy Sisters papers – Ella, Esmeralda, Asha, Sofia, Gypsy Sisters 6″ paper pad – paper, journaling spot, cut out felt swirls, scalloped border, die cut rectangle, Gypsy Sisters alpha stickers, Gypsy Sisters die cut elements – scalloped border, label die cut (with saying), Other: Distress Ink, sewing machine, Martha Stewart punch, sandpaper (photo).

Thanks so much Helen! We love your work!!

These little handmade flowers are popping up everywhere lately!   I thought I’d give you a quick and easy step by step guide to making them for sprucing up your projects…

Step 1 – Cut out a circle and cut a spiral into it.  When you get to the centre you should have a little circle shaped piece.

Step 2 – You can distress the edges a bit, or leave them as they are.  Play around with it and see which look you like best.

Step 3 – Start rolling the spiral up from the end.  You need to keep it fairly tight as you roll it around or it may not work properly.

Step 4 -  Remember the little circle piece at the centre? That’s all you should be left with now, so just apply a glue dot, or a big squirt of glue and press your flower down onto it, making sure the bottoms of all the rolls are sticking to it.   Now go ahead and give it  a try yourself, and you’ll always be able to make a flower to go perfectly with your project!

We loved Elizna’s La Di Da layout (above), here’s what she had to say about it:

“La Di Da is the perfect collections for scrapping children…my daugter loves this photo of all the cousins … and La Di Da matches the colours in this photo perfectly… It is such a playful and versatile range. I adjusted the sketch to work with this paper range and the size of my photos”.

Materials used: LA DI DA Collection: P477 Hop,P472 Skip,P474 Shimmy {reverse},P476 Tweet,P475 Sing {reverse},EM909 Embellishment Pack,PP809 Paper Pad,Kaisercraft Pearls.

Don’t forget to share your creations into our March sketch gallery – you can win a $25 collection pack!

At the end of March we will be selecting a winner from the March sketch gallery to win a $25 collection pack of their choice (6 patterned papers, die cut elements, alpha stickers and rubon pack)!

And here’s Kerryn’s digital template …

Kerry’s template can be downloaded here for FREE!

And here’s a cute layout made by Sandra,

” I used the Party Time digital kit. I love the bright colors in this kit, although I wish there were some more 3D elements in it. So I ‘stole’ some elements from the Schooldays kit and from the Loire Valley kit. The sketch was made for using only one picture. I resized this part/element of the template so it was big enough for 3 pictures. I also rotated the template 90 degrees (to the left)”.

“Puppy Love” layout by Brittney Tinkey using Elegance digital kit.

Layout by Leah using Camp Stoneybrook kit.

Show us how you’ve used Kerryn’s digital template for your chance to win two digi mega kits of your choice, valued at $19.98. Before the end of the month, upload your creation here to be in the draw!

Sometimes, you just need more than the one photo on a layout, and for today, Fran and I have both created layouts which feature two photos.

First up is Fran’s gorgeous layout, using two cute photos side by side. One showing the “whole picture” and another one for more of  a close up.

“Bubbles” by Fran Tynan – Gypsy Sister papers, die-cuts, alpha sticker & freebie journaling spot out of the Q3 mag

On my layout I’ve used two photos on this page because I simply couldn’t choose which one to print out, so I printed both!  I chose not to put a title on this layout because the die cut quote said it all.

“Family” by Samantha Hauzer – Gypsy Sisters papers, Die Cuts, Magazine Freebies.

Make sure you check back later on today for a step by step guide to making quick and easy “handmade” flowers!