Happy Holidays!

We hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season!  We are going to give the Wednesday Freebie a holiday break for the next two weeks while we all enjoy our family time.  We will be back with new pretties in the New Year.

We wish you a wonderful season!

A Little Piece of Christmas

This Christmas I wanted to create some decorations to lay across my mantel piece. As I was searching around the Internet, I discovered how to make this cute ornaments. I didn't hang them up. I wanted them to look like ornaments spread across my mantel piece.

Our sponsor this month is G.C.D. Studios. Their Christmas papers were perfect for this project! Thank you so much for sponsoring us this month!

Happy Holidays Everyone!
Diana

Sweet fun with GCD

I had such fun working with one of our fabulous December sponsors:  GCD Studios.  My absolute favorite papers had to be the ornaments pair.  I am not normally one to cut items from sheets of paper, but I could not stop myself.  I put these ornaments on EVERYTHING. 

I always like to have a few little sweets on hand that I can grab for those last minute gifts.  I made up several of these little containers of mints.  They took only a few minutes and I love the results!

Supplies:  Paper: GCD Studios, Die Cuts: Jillibean Soup, Alphabet: American Crafts, Bling: Kaisercraft, Marker: Copic.

Thanks, GCD Studios for being our sponsor and for creating such adorable papers.  You inspire me!

Welcome to the Wednesday freebie everyone! We have the last of the little mini kit this week! Called The Taste Of Snow, this was inspired by our December Magazine cover winner Mary B. Giemza. You can see her lovely card here


Today we have the papers for you to complete your kit.


You can get them here using the password snowman.

We hope you enjoy them!

CHRISTMAS and KIDS

I used to think that Christmas is really just for kids - - it's all about toys and candies and gifts. I look at them and see how happy they are when they receive and open their gifts - - you can literally see their eyes widen and well up from too much excitement!!!

My view changed when I got my own kids. Suddenly, I feel that the joy in giving gifts and kisses makes you look forward to Christmas. While I still make sure that they still get their own loot of toys and candies - - I tell them that what's most important is love and family and faith in this season.

I made a layout using papers from Upsy Daisy Designs with that thought in mind and I thought I'd share it with you here:

Supplies: Papers, Brads: Upsy Daisy Designs, Cardstock: Bazzill Basics Paper, Stickers: Doodlebug Design, Chibpboard: American Crafts, Paint: Pebeo, Specialty Glue, Liquid Pearls: Ranger Industries, Pen: Uni-ball.

Why not create a layout today and share with us what you think of Christmas? I hope I inspired you to play!!!

Have fun creating,
janis

Wednesday freebie

Welcome to the Wednesday freebie everyone! We have a little mini kit which we are giving out over the next two weeks! Called The Taste Of Snow, this was inspired by our December Magazine cover winner Mary B. Giemza. You can see her lovely card here


Today we have the elements, just a handful along with an alpha...


You can get them here using the password snowman.

Make sure to turn up next week for the matching papers. Enjoy!

Feeling sketchy?

Did you ever use the phrase "hmmm that's a bit sketch" when referring to something being questionable?  I was just reminded of that phrase when I typed in the title of this blog post.  Which kind of relates to the topic at hand - sketches!  Our wonderful road maps to scrapbooking and card making!  The great thing about sketches is that they don't have to be used literally.  You can question the layout of the sketch and adapt it for yourself.

In this month's issue of ScrapStreet, I am featuring the lovely Allison Davis in the Blog Bay article.  If you haven't heard of Allison yet, may I strongly suggest you go check out her blog?  Not only is she extremely talented in the sketch and scrapbooking arena but she is also one of the sweetest people I've met!  We are featuring one of her "sketches of the week" in the article along with some examples from friends and family.  Several are on her fabulous new Creative Team.

So let's chat a bit about sketches.  I know some people don't like using them or just never had a desire to but others appreciate the foundation they can bring when you are in a creative rut.  Sometimes you have some papers and photos that you just don't know what to do with.  Everything you do doesn't look right and you are about ready to toss it all on the floor.  It's at that point I start to look at my favorite sketch sites.  I browse the design teams examples and the creative wheels start to turn.  Sometimes I end up using the sketch and other times I begin using it but what happens is Mo and Jo show up and I come out with something completely different!  Pretty cool I say!

I wanted to share with you the sketch Allison posted on her blog for the Creative Team call:

Used with permission. Source: Allison R. Davis blog

Here is the layout I created based on the sketch:

Supplies: Paper, stickers: Lily Bee Design, Cardstock: Bazzill Basics Paper, Alphabet: American Crafts, Alphabet Stickers: Doodlebug Designs, Flowers: Prima Marketing, Ribbon: Pink Paislee, Bling: Kaisercraft, Floss: DMC, Pen: Zig Memory Systems, Sketch: Allison Davis, Other: thread, Tools: Punch: Fiskars, Electronic Cutting Machine: Silhouette SD, Other: Sewing machine

It's pretty straight forward and almost an exact interpretation but think of all the possibilities... You could do a single photo layout and use patterned paper where the other two photos were to go.  You could flip the sketch and do 3 landscape oriented photos.  You could do one big photo.  You could even shrink up all the dimensions and have yourself a nice looking layout utilizing lots of negative space.  The options truly are endless!

So what are some of your favorite sketch sites?  And do you even use sketches? I'd love to know!

Until next time.  My next post will be on my birthday and I'm really excited about that!

hugs,
Melissa