Our monthly tip comes Tam (aka Stepfordwife), and is all about Doodling.

 Start off with a really good grey lead pencil, not a heavy lead one in case you want to rub out any part of it…. I generally start from a corner and let the doodling just follow on from the last part I did..
I then go over it with a black zig writer or a pen like this..not an ordinary pen as it wont give the same effect..
Once I’ve done that..I get out my chalks and choose my colors, as a rule of thumb I dont use actual brushes I use cotton buds so that I can do a bit of shading..start with a lot of the chalk on the tip and gradually blend it in to the doodling.
Once I’ve done that I give it a quick spray with hairspray just to seal it then it’s done!Chalks are a great alternative to water color pencils which can sometimes be hard to control the amount of color etc
I’ve found that tattoo websites can be a great source for inspiration especially in the celtic sections…google is great too if you type in celtic tattoo designs.

Have you seen the awesome work that our Design Team have done this month?

The girls received gorgeous products from Autumn Leaves, Cosmo Cricket, Buzz & Bloom and Kaiser amongst others.

Wendy, our Guest DT, has created the following layouts:

Sara really made the most her pack this month and created all of these layouts:

Kjirsten has created this gorgeous handbag.

Susan has created this to die for layout:

All products are available in our February Monthly Kits which can be found here. Or alternatively as single items in the shop.

Our current Guest DT member is Wendy Smith. Here are some of Wendy’s fantastic LO’s that she has been creating. You can get more inspiration from Wendy in our gallery

As well as creating super LO’s, Wendy is also running a couple of challenges on the forum, which include the Music Madness challenge and the Product Theme Challenge.  Make sure you check them out.

And make sure you jump onto the gallery to check out more great work by Wendy!!!

Each month we will feature a technique that will help you create stunning layouts. This technique has been supplied by the very talented Kayla.

You will need

* Fabric of some sort – scraps are good and you can use felt.
* Needle
* Matching Thread
* Matching Button

Step 1
Using a circle template, trace out a circle using a marker. The size is completely up to you…the bigger the circle, the bigger the yo-yo etc

Should look like this