Artful templates

As you may know, I'm lucky enough to be on the team at Sweet Shoppe Designs, so I get the amazing opportunity to play with lots of goodies that I probably wouldn't do otherwise.  That includes templates designed for LO's - I don't often purchase this sort of template, predominantly using freebies if I use them at all. 

Between you & me, I have issues with photographs: the minute I introduce them into something I'm creating my mojo leaves the building.  Plus I take so few photos - I just forget to take my camera with me or I get very self-conscious using it.  Very silly, really.

Back to those templates... Janet Phillips is a template designer at the Sweet Shoppe - and I love the simplicity and clean lines of her designs.  Last week she introduced a new range of templates to her collection called Artful Expressions.  They're based on subway art, that is soooo popular today.  Anyway (I'll get to my point now!), I've been playing & am in l-o-v-e with the results.

The one at the top of this post is the first of her collection (here).  I reduced the canvass size & rotated it, then added the photos: one of a very happy Alex & one of the cup of coffee I found via Google.  After decorating with papers by Shawna Clingerman & Heather Roselli, I printed it onto photographic paper & framed it - the frame definitely needs replacing as soon as possible, but I was impatient to show it off!

The next of Janet's templates I used was her new Artful Expressions #3.  This time I reduced it to card size:

I printed the hearts out separately so I could layer them by their centre lines, so they'd look less flat.  The card looks so pretty & was a snap to make, I would definitely recommend having a go. I used pretty papers from Kiss Me Kate by Susan Bartolini to decorate.

Finally, I just wanted to show a very sweet gift bag I made recently using a template by WendyBird Designs.  I am in love with her templates - they're just that little bit different & all CU-friendly too :)  I'd recommend checking out her blog, as she is very generous with freebies if you're considering starting to give hybrid templates a go.

I guess it was maybe a little more fiddly to put together than other heart bag templates I've used, but the finished result really is rather special and the paper bow finishing touch is perfect.  I used Life is Beautiful by Ju Kneipp to decorate (couldn't resist the tartan paper!), layering the flower image from her kit with sticky foam pads, & topping it with a real button to complement the colour scheme.

That's all for now folks! I'm off to listen to Alex read - he's very proud to be a 'free reader' now, which means he can choose any book he wants to read, rather than the selected ones at school.  His first choice?  Horrible Histories: The Groovy Greeks.  That's my boy :)