Super Sale at the Sweet Shoppe

SSD is having their annual birthday sale and everything is 34% off! And if you are a reader of The Daily Digi you can get an extra 30% off Traci Reed's products. (Hurry, the code expires today!) I just bought three kits and two element packs for $10, which is actually my very first digi scrap purchase of the New Year!

New Release Day @ ES

Today is Monday so that means new releases at Elemental Scraps! The designers are truly on a roll lately, I've just seen some of the new February Color Play out next week and it is amazing! Here are some layouts I've done recently using kits new in the shop today!

Oh Baby by Flutter Expressions & Kandy Kane Creations

Love Stinks by Bella Gypsy


Masculine Edge by Flutter Expressions


Connie Prince's Love Birds

Getting Caught Up

I think I'm finally caught up with 2009 and 2010 pictures!

Our family just went to see Sesame Street Live. It was such a fun show, and the kids had a blast! This was made using Kandy Kane Creations' Up Up and Away:


I have been wanting to scrap this page for a really long time, but couldn't find the right kit. Connie Prince's Party On was perfect!


And here's an oddity in my scrapping lately - a kit not sold at Elemental Scraps! It's by Chelle's Creations and I LOVE it. My kids made Jesus a birthday cake on Christmas Eve and we ate it right after brunch on Christmas morning. I think we've started a new tradition!

Check out this kit by Bella Gypsy, called Mayhem. It's one of her older ones, but I really love it because it's so versatile! I can see using this for a lot more pictures, especially older ones of my son that I need to go back and scrap.



I went back and did an older New Year's Eve layout because I just couldn't pass up Bella Gypsy's new Martini's at Midnight kit! The colors are perfect for the pictures I had.


Don't forget this Monday is Dollar Day at Elemental Scraps! And one of the kits I have used here will be only $1! ;)

January Template Freebie

As promised, I have another template freebie this month! Click image to download.


Here's the layout I created with it:


Enjoy! :)

First ES Challenge

It's my turn to host a Surprise Challenge this month. Head on over to Elemental Scraps to check it out!

Surprise Challenge: Letter

Right to Work

It's official, Elemental Scraps made the announcement about the new site Creative Team!


Our official duties don't begin until January but I've gotten right to work! I have a lot of Christmas pages planned so I'm trying to crank some out.

Credits: Dec Color Play: Lucky Smith's Warm Wishes; Dec Color Play: Bella Gypsy's Very Boyish Christmas; template from Connie Prince's Let's Get The Party Started (flipped)


Credits: template from Bella Gypsy's Scrap More template set; Bella Gypsy's Very Girlish Christmas

Best Gig Ever

I'm not sure how it happened, but I managed to end up on the best creative team ever! The Elemental Scraps site team! I applied a couple of weeks ago not really expecting to get it, but I got the offer on Christmas and accepted! So you are going to be seeing A LOT of ES products, ha ha. I am beyond excited! I will be occasionally leading challenges in their forum, posting on their blog, and of course getting to sample from the designers and show off their amazing work! Today is their last dollar day of the year, so head over for some new great items!

Merry Christmas!

I know its a bit early, but things are about to get hectic for me so I thought I'd post this now.

My newest template is my gift to you. Click image to download. Please take note of my TOU in my sidebar!! Merry Christmas and God bless!


And here's a layout I made with it using Jennifer Barrette's Boys Are Trouble kit, and some wordart from WM Squared's Life is a Marathon wordart set:

Riding the Wave

Waves are a bit trendy in digital scrapbooking lately. I was unsure about this look at first, but LePingouin Designs released a new wave template pack and once I started working with them I was HOOKED. I used ALL four templates in this pack already! Click on the template preview to check them out in her store. These fantastic templates are only $2!


Credits: template by Le Pingouin Designs; Bella Gypsy's Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie; So Happy alpha by Designs by Sarah; date bits by Plum Dumpling Designs

Credits: template by LePingouin Designs; Bella Gypsy's Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie; Bella Gypsy's Cannonball
Credits: Rawr by Ellie Lash; template by LePingouin Designs

Credits: template by Le Pingouin Designs; Santa Season by Melissa Bennett, date bits by Plum Dumpling Designs

Latest Layouts

I have been a scrapping fiend lately. I've been trying to get caught up on all the layouts I want to complete for 2009 and I'm almost there!

Here are some I've done lately:

Credits: All Aglow by Traci Reed

Credits: Simply Scraps Grinched

Credits: BZB Designs iTech; template by Bella Gypsy

Credits: Chrissy W template; Elemental Scraps Collab Shop Til Ya Drop

Credits: The Strawberry Patch by Golden Girls; circle stitches from Daydreamer by Julie Marie Designs
Credits: template by Chrissy W; Boogity Boo by Designs by Tater; Little Amy Lou alpha by Lauren Grier; date tag, string and staple by Julie Billingsley

December Template

I decided to try and make one template a month and give it away as a freebie. Here's a template I made of my Thankful For You layout. Click image to download. Also, please note that I am no longer including a TOU and a preview with my downloads. The TOU can be found in my sidebar on this blog. I realized I love to make templates but don't like taking the time to package everything up. Please only download my designs if you agree to comply with my TOU. Thanks and enjoy! :)

Thanksgiving Scrapped!

Exactly a week since Thanksgiving and my pictures are scrapped! I was lucky enough to be assigned to Jacabean Designs this month, truly one of my faves from www.scrapable.net. Her Many Blessings kit is perfect for fall and Thanksgiving pictures.

Chugging Along

I realized something about myself, I am a slowwwww scrapper. Thankfully templates are cheap and in abundance! I managed to get myself onto another CT without applying, ha ha. A friend is starting up her own template design business and I am happy to help out. Free templates, yeah! The designer is Le Pingouin Designs and if you love templates too you should check her out!

Here are the pages I've made so far with her templates:

Lighthouse Love

I used Sail Away by Project B Designs again, I love this kit! I think it would be good for baby boy pages too, I have some old baby pictures of my son I might use it for. I love lighthouses, and the Split Rock Lighthouse in northern MN is one of my faves.

Sailing Away

I live in Minnesota, also known as the land of 10,000 lakes, so a must have kit for me is a boating/lake kit. Project B Designs has a perfect kit for the hundreds of swimming and boating pictures I still have left to scrap! I used her Sail Away kit for some pictures from our trip to Lake Michigan last Labor Day weekend. Now that it's getting colder I'm turning to my summer pictures to help me warm up!

Doing the Hula

I was asked to guest CT at Scrapable, such an honor! The site CT members are called Hula Girls over there. I was assigned to Project B Designs and immediately started to work on her As We Look Back kit. This kit was really fun to work with, and really versatile. It seemed a little boyish at first but I actually settled on pictures from Mary's first birthday to use with it!


The cute cloud elements in the kit really caught my eye, so I hunted around for some outdoor pictures and settled on some I had been wanting to scrap from our vacation last June.

It's been awhile since I've been on a CT, and I'm thinking once my stint is over at Scrapable I may apply elsewhere too!

Template Freebie #1

Back from a long hiatus with my first template. Tell me what you think. :)

{Inter} National Scrapbooking Day

I'm so excited! My first National Scrapbooking Day as a digi scrapper! Soooo much easier to shop good sales and deals from the comfort of my own office chair. I'm still in my jammies!

Here are the deals I'll be browsing today:

There is a storewide 50% off at Elemental Scraps. Chrissy W has an NSD freebie template only available for a few days, and Bella Gypsy has a Buy 1 kit, get a free template set deal going on too. Spend $10 in the store and get 4 free kits worth $20, all outdoor themed.

The Sweet Shoppe has a storewide 30% off sale and are also offering a huge collab kit for free if you spend $10 today. Lots of pretty colors in this kit, some neutrals and purples. I don't know if I'll make the $10 total, though.

ScrapMatters has a storewide 40% off sale!

Digital Candy is having a storewide 30% off sale.

In other news, this morning I am inspired by this article over at the Daily Digi. I'm going to take some time to scrap a page today about digital scrapbooking. I want to be sure to actually scrap today since that's what the day is really all about. I remember my first National Scrapbooking Day in 1999, where I attended a Creative Memories crop with two good friends. I even remember the layout I scrapped - it was all about a musical I choreographed in college, Godspell.

I think my style has evolved a tiny bit, what do you think? :)

Happy National Scrapbooking Day, and have fun shopping AND scrapping!

Prayer Board Project

I finished a big hybrid project just in time for Easter. I made a prayer board for the family fridge. It holds pictures of our family members, including grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, to be switched out every day. A friend of mine made one for her kids several years ago and I've always kept it in mind for when I had kids old enough to appreciate it. It was easy peasy to do it digitally!


First I made a 12X12 scrapbook page and left enough space for a picture, a tab with the person (or couple's) name, and a pocket to hold all the pictures. I printed the page and cut a small slit on the top and the sides of the pocket to hold the pictures. I also had some pictures printed and trimmed them to 4X4. I glued the page down to a 12X12 cardboard, leaving room inside the pocket for the pictures. I printed some tabs, adhered velcro to the pictures and tabs, and magnets to the back of the board and I was done! When not in use, the pictures and tabs are velcroed together and stored in the pocket. I plan on making more to give as gifts, especially to our godchildren.


Here is what the page looks like printed:


And here is the completed prayer board up on our fridge:



Credits: Mandy Mystiques' Little Back Pocket; Cori Gammon's Nicholas alpha; Cross element from Misty Cato & Julie Billinger's Because He First Loved Us kit

Catching Up On Christmas

I got so many great pictures last Christmas, but once the holiday was past I just wasn't in the mood to scrap red and green pages. I finally dredged up the motivation today to scrap my favorite picture from Christmas Eve. It was taken by one of my hubby's cousins, of my daughter sleeping peacefully on my lap all dressed up in her Christmas dress. I ended up not using the red and green scheme at all, and I really like how simple and elegant the layout turned out.

Zillions of credits for this one: Christie Lemmon's Let It Snow alpha, Stitch from Sweet Blossom's Sweet Lilac, Ribbon from Joyce Paul's Dark Fairytale, Papers (recolored) from MIO's Gloss and Charm, Flowers by Janny Lynn, Heart stitch by Redju Designs