Happy New Year!

Well, here we are at the beginning of a brand new crafting year and I'd like to take the opportunity to wish you all a Very Happy and Healthy 2016 ... here's to a year packed with crafting!

To inspire you, I couldn't resist posting this fabulous list of 52 journalling prompts which will see you through the year, and will be perfect as inspiration for your scrapbook layouts!  They're from the fantastic blog Bloglovin' - The girl who loved to write about life and they certainly inspired me.  I got a beautiful Liberty notebook from my sister this Christmas and this is exactly what it'll be used for!

1. Write an "About Me" about yourself.

2. A list of things you're thankful for.

3. Small things that make you happy.

4. The last time you celebrated something.

5. The best thing that happened to you this week.

6. Something you want to change about yourself.

7. Something you could do right now to get you closer to where you want to be in life.

8. Someone you love.

9. A skill you want to learn.

10. Your favorite quote right now.

11. Something that you think holds you back.

12. A word that actually describes your life, and a word you wish described your life.

13. Someone you admire and why you admire them.

14. Something you're stressed about.

15. Something that's been making you laugh lately.

16. The happiest moment in your week so far.

17. Write a letter to teenage you.

18. What you like the most about yourself.

19. The one dream you have that you just can't stop thinking about.

20. The biggest way you've changed in the past year.

21. The last bad day you had.

22. The place you currently call home.

23. Your best quality.

24. The last time you tried something new.

25. Three rules you try to live by.

26. Your family.

27. Your bucket list.

28. 5 big goals you have for your life.

29. The last person you said, "I love you" to.

30. A list of things you love about this season of your life.

31. Pros and cons of your job.

32. How you've been spending your free time lately.

33. A list of your favorite books and why you love them.

34. Your best friend.

35. Something you're scared of.

36. Your dream job.

37. Something you're really good at.

38. Your bad habits.

39. A tradition you want to have with your own family.

40. Sum up what you believe in on one page.

41. Your favorite things about the town you live in.

42. Describe your day in 5 words.

43. The last time you broke the rules.

44. Where you hope to be in five years.

45. What you think you would be doing with your life if money didn't matter.

46. Write a letter to your future self.

47. Something you're really proud of.

48. Your favorite way to relax.

49. One way you'd like to grow in the next year.

50. Your favorite way to spend a Friday.

51. A project you're working on.

52. How you think you're making the world a better place.

Have you seen the amazing "12 Tags of 2015" for April over on the Tim Holtz Blog.  They are just beautiful and Tim has detailed and photographed all 50 steps you'll need to create them for yourself.

Later this month we're delighted to announce that we'll have new Tim Holtz stamps, cardstock pads and lots more Tim Holtz Ranger products arriving in store.

Check out Keisha's blog for card inspiration with Die-namics!I

We've been massive fans of Keisha Campbell's blog, A Bit East-Coast for many years and she never fails to inspire us with her crisp,clean, original designs.  She's currently using lots of the new Die-namics dies to create some stunning cards and we thought we'd show you a few.

We're excited to announce that from the end of the month we'll be stocking a great range of the Die-namics Dies. These steel dies will cut through cardstock, thin chipboard, 1/4 inch cork, felt, acetate, sticky back canvas, fabric, denim, sandpaper, 2mm craft foam, wood veneer paper, photo magnet sheets, and much more! They work with virtually any die-cutting machine that will accommodate wafer-thin dies and we know you're going to love them!

Miss Empire Double Layout Class Kits now available!

We have some kits left over from our Miss Empire Double Layout Class and you might like to get your hands on them.  The kit costs €10 plus postage and contains full instructions (with photos) to create these two gorgeous layouts.  The kit contains paper and diecuts and all you'll need to have in order to complete the layouts is some glue, a paper trimmer, craft knife, scissors and some brown ink.  If you have a white gel pen and a black felt tip pen you can add extra highlights to the layout also.  Layout 1 is suitable for a 5" x 7" portrait format photo while Layout 2 would suit some small business card sized photos.

You can purchase the kits on the site buy clicking the button below:

Simple Stories Inspiration!

We're huge fans of Simple Stories products here at TheScrapbookStore.ie so if you're looking for some inspiration check out their current projects over on the Simple Stories Blog.  They've teamed up with the fantastic sketch site Page Maps for a week and each day they'll post up a sketch and a corresponding layout to show you how you can interpret the sketch.

If you're new to scrapbooking or even if you've been papercrafting for years and are feeling low on inspiration then sketches can really revive your creativity.  You simply take a look at the sketch, grab a bunch of your favourite supplies and then decide if you want to literally interpret the sketch or use it loosely inspire you.  Go on, we challenge you, get over to the SS blog and get scrapping!