May I?

Offer you some inspiration?

Welcome to May!  Today we have our mini mag all ready for you.  We are so happy to share pages by our talented and amazing designers.  Our readers are wonderfully talented and we love showing off their work every month.  Take a peek at this issue:

And, of course, this issue comes with a free digital kit.  Our own Katey created a kit that is more than just perfect; it is pure Bliss. 

Download Links:  {one}  {two}
Please respect this generous gift and do not upload/share this kit.  Friends are welcome to download it here for the next month.  Thank you!

We hope you will join in with so many talented scrappers and share your art with us this month.  Take a peek at our calls and send in your creations.

You Have My Smile

Hi, its me again Veronica with a layout I did of my daughter Vanessa and I.  I just love this photo because first it brings back great memories of my wedding; but also the love I have for my daughter.  She has my smile and she is a big part of my inspiration to create.
Now to the layout, I used an electic array of paper and techniques.  One of "go to" techniques when I design is to layer.  I love to layer and give depth to my work.  I also used acrylic paints, glimmer mist, distress inks, glossy accents, silk paints, stencils and stamps.

Because I had plenty of extra ... I also made a card.  Hope you enjoy :)

Time for a Coffee Break!

Today I want to share my Cuppa Joe project with you.  It was really quite easy to make and although it will need a hand made envelope, due to the coffee pot handle, it will fold flat.


I finally decided to dig out my Cricut Expression.  I have to admit, it was covered with a mighty huge layer of dust.  But what's worse is that I even have some cartridges still in the store packaging, this one included.  I guess you would say that I just lost interest in it, until now.  Now I'm Cricut cutting out things like a mad woman.


I cut the coffee pot, cup and saucer using the cartridge From My Kitchen.  The cup is actually a tea cup on the cartridge but I simply folded under the base of the tea cup to make it look more like a coffee cup.  The card was made by cutting ovals and creating an easel style card. The patterned papers are from Teresa Collins, and the sentiment is from K Andrew Designs, the butterflies were fluttering around in my box of embellishments.

I hope you enjoyed this little crafty coffee break.  Visit my blog, Needful Things, if you would like to see some of my other creations.


Happy Crafting!


MelissaO

oh baby baby

I have a secret...actually, it's more of a tip. I'll share it at the end (this is really my way of making sure you look at my whole post--hee hee).

Quick and easy layout here... I used the other We R Memory Keepers Lucky 8 punch that I received for my birthday...this one creates a large circle shape and the punch is called Tatted Doily (it's my favorite). I love being able to create large, shaped, die-cut paper out of any paper I own.  If you missed my first post about the other shape I have, click here.




There is a secret journaling tag behind the top photo, but that is still not my secret.




Here is the secret...the blue, pink, orange plaid paper that I used for my background frame. I didn't "waste" the whole sheet of paper as my background.

Here is my tip...
as you can see in this photo above, using a ruler, I framed out the edge of the paper (1 inch on all sides). I cut out the center square and just used the frame as my background. This way I still have a 10" x 10" sheet of this paper.

Here is what the layout looks like from the back.

This a great "trick" for paper you love dearly and don't want to part with. Do you have any of those?

Here is another secret...I do.

~Kelly

Reminding Myself

It's only April and I am reminding myself the word that I chose for 2012: STILL.

 Isn't it amazing how quickly we forget and/or get distracted?  The easy out would be to just change my word but I know that wouldn't be the right thing to do. Nothing quite like committing to it, once again, than creating a layout with that reminder.

The past few months have been busy on all accounts. Some life changes going on and just business in general. It's easy to get caught up in it and get frazzled. Thankfully, I have the word on my wall so I am reminded constantly. It also fit perfectly to create something to remind myself using the April kit from Scrapbooking from the Inside Out - CONTENTMENT.

I went a little bit out of my style and comfort zone with this one. I find that I feel safe and cozy when my layouts are centered and linear or horizontal in nature. But this one, I wanted to try something just a little different. I think I was inspired by the patterns of the Teresa Collins papers and elements from the kit.

Not sure.

I like the symbolism of calmness that the banner creates. For some reason I picture laundry hanging outside, blowing gently in the breeze and a calmness hanging in the air.

Love those tickets from Jenni Bowlin! I wasn't quite sure how I would incorporate them but I just went with it. Filled in the blanks and turned it into a way to date the layout, balance the layout and complete the journaling.

So how are you doing with your word? Had to do any reminders yet?

Clean and simple (and quick) stamped card

It's Megan here again and today I would like to share a card that I made recently. I have been on a clean and simple (CAS) kick lately. I guess I have always liked the clean sort of modern look. These hearts were part of a new release from joy's life and I couldn't wait to make a card for them to take center stage on.

The hearts are from the new Joyful Hearts set and the 'I love you' is from the everyday occasions set. I used some clearsnap dye ink in a dark berry color to make the hearts really pop. A little bit of bling from My Mind's Eye finishes this card off perfectly.
Just a little tip - I lined the hearts up on the acrylic block and stamped them all at the same time so that I could be sure they were lined up perfectly. I probably should have added the sentiment at the same time, but I didn't think of that beforehand.

A Spring Digi Freebie

Welcome to our digi freebie post. To celebrate Spring we have some fun butterflies or "flitters" for you to use on your scrap pages. These are at least 4 to 7 inches in size so scale them down if you need to.

You can download them here for the next week, then they will fly away....
 
Use them digitally or print them out and use them with your paper scrapping. Journal on them, make a butterfly banner or just embellish - the possibilities are endless! Enjoy.