Garden Romance, the March Swirlydoos Kit Club kit.

I love the days when my kit arrives on my doorstep, it's kind of like opening a Christmas gift!  The first thing I do is take the embellishment and flower addon kits and put them in a plastic shoe box container and label it.  I always keep two months of those addons in a plastic shoe box.  That way the embellies and flowers are contained but easy to sort through.  I have plastic drawers underneath my scrappy table and that's where the papers and anything that won't fit in the shoebox go.  All of this happens, of course, after I have looked over all the pretties in the kit!

I can't work in a mess and so, when I start to work with the kit, the embellies are put in one basket and the flowers in another.  I pick out some photographs and start playing with the papers seeing how the papers will go with my photos.  I will usually pick 3 to 5 papers that I think will work and put the rest of the paper back in the drawer.  After pushing paper around for a few minutes a design starts to form in my head and I go ahead and cut some of the paper and lay  them out.  Then I sort through embellies and flowers and push those around on the papers.  I select what I think is going to work and they go into yet another basket.  Yeah, I am an organization freak and in spite of these measures I still manage to routinely lose things on my desk.  Well now really, I don't lose them, that damn scrap fairy comes and takes them!!  Eventually, the layout comes together and I repeat the process all over again for the next layout.  Like Kim, I usually start with the sketch and get that out of the way.

If I am doing the anatomy page I deviate from the above method and put everything but the main kit away and work with that only since the anatomy page is done with the main kit only.

Enough about all that, let's look at some layouts!  This is an old photo, but I love it so much!  This is Fifi and she was the flower girl at our poodle's breeder's daughter's wedding.  She carried that sweet little basket down the aisle like a little princess and held it in her mouth for about 20 minutes and then very calmly set it down in front of her.  She never made a sound or moved about during the entire ceremony!  Her brother poodle was the ringbearer.  The wedding was outside  and was just beautiful.  I think I loved it so much because as a child I always dreamed of a wedding gown with a really long train and my dogs to help carry the train, LOL LOL!!  I think I must have gotten that from a Disney movie.

The kit features Fabscraps Elegant Chic papers and a couple sheets of Blue Fern Studios Love Story.  For this first layout I used all Fabscraps and flowers from the main kit and add ons.

I embossed the chippy with Stampendous Shabby Pink embossing enamel.

This layout was done with the Blue Fern Studios papers in the kit.  Most of the red roses are handmade rolled roses done with two different dies.  I cut the Love Story title from the edge of the paper.

Here's a quick and easy card you can make in less than a half hour with Fabscraps.  I've included a Snapguide tutorial.  The lace flowers are from a prior kit.

Check out How to Create a Simple Card With Fabscraps Elegant Chic by Maggi HARDING on Snapguide.

And finally, a fun little Easter basket.  This is easy to make and it's something you could make with your children or grandchildren.

I have a video that shows you how to make this basket too.  The video shows different paper but it's the same basket.

Thanks for taking the time to visit my blog. I sincerely appreciate it! If you are not a Swirlydoos Kit Clubsubscriber, please consider it so that you never miss any of our beautifully coordinated kits. Please visit Swirlydoos Kit Club and click on Join Our Club on the left side bar. Be sure to mention my name, Maggi, when you subscribe because you will receive a 10% discount on your first kit AND a coupon for 30% off an entire purchase in the Swirlydoos store. Your Swirlydoos store purchases are always shipped free when shipped along with your monthly kit. Swirlydoos also maintains a Forum where everyone can share their work, tell stories and have a ton of fun! We have monthly challenges too so please come and join us!