testing
testing a new way of publishing...
Is it Spring Yet?
After getting slammed by a surprise snowstorm here in New Jersey, I am so ready for Spring. I want to start doing layouts about flowers and sunshine and green grass and sneezing thanks to my pollen allergies :-) Thankfully I got a glimpse of Spring this morning in my email today thanks to Kate Hatfield. Kate's Spring Floral Doodles are the perfect accent for our Spring layouts. As always Kate has created amazing realistic and beautifully colored doodles...actually it seems a shame to even call these doodles, they are more like mini works of art! The best part is that today they are on sale for only $1!!!!!!!!! Go grab 'em and bring a bit of Spring into your life :-)
A Very Special Digi Pick of the Day
While I don't do daily picks anymore due to the growing demands of the day job, I do like to pop in every once in a while with something fun or special. Today I'd like to tell you about a very special kit put together by the Studio Girls at Scrapbookgraphics.com in honor of their friend and Studio Crew member Anna Benjamin.
Anna is currently undergoing cancer treatments and Grab Bag for Anna is a gigantic grab bag filled with goodies by the Studio Girls. All proceeds after Paypal fees will be given to Anna and her family to help with whatever needs they have as she undergoes treatment. The best part is that this grab bag is not a surprise, you can see the contents by looking at the detailed preview on the site. At a price of only $5, this is an awesome grab bag and the money goes to a great person.
Enjoy and please keep Anna in your prayers!!!!
Have You Checked Out the Daily Digi?
If you have yet to check out Janet Phillip's amazing new site called the Daily Digi, I think you should stop reading this and go there right now!!! I'm in love!
Also, they have a section called the Digi Files where for only $5.00 you get a selection of digital goodness from an amazing list of designers. I just purchased and unzipped the very first Digi File and I was blown away!!!! Trust me, you want this :-)
Digi Picks 9/3/08
Believe it or not my little Gracie started Kindergarten today! When I started this blog Gracie was just about to turn two and now she's running off to kindergarten with a Tinker Bell backpack and basically saying "don't let the door hit you on the way out, Mom" when I try to give her kisses good-bye.
Way Back When Picks
Wondering what digital scrapbooking looked like back in September 2005? Check out my picks for September 4, 2005. It's amazing to see how far things have come. As a matter of fact most the links in that post are no longer valid because of how quickly things change around our industry. What really cracks me up is my scrapping style! Wow!
Kit Pick 9/3/08
Well back to our modern age of 2008. Yesterday I showed you my first pet kit purchase and now I will show you what is next on my list. Purrfectly Doggone Cute by Chrisy Lyle and Lauren Grier is exactly what its title says...cute! I love the dogs and cats in this kit because they have a slightly quirky look about them and I know that as Angel grows quickly she will be finding herself in all kinds of funny situations that I will be more than happy to capture for posterity! This kit would really lend itself well to boy pages with that really cool polka-dot paper and the stripes, which are both fun and rugged at the same time. Totally digging the plaid background as well. Somehow I will find a way to use that fish element. It is just too darned cute to keep locked up on my hard drive, LOL.
Layout of the Day
My absolute favorite book as a young child was "Where the Wild Things Are". You see I was a bit of a wild thing at heart and I got sent to my room quite a bit, so I could totally relate to this timeless story. I could also relate to the love and understanding of the mom who leaves him a hot dinner when he returns from his adventure ;-) I have read it to Gracie many times, but sadly it is not one of her favorites. In any event, the moment I saw these famous illustrations in the Digi Chick gallery I had to find out who else shared my love of wild things!!! It was none other than Miss Pots who created Where the Wild Things Are .
I absolutely love the creative way she has documented story time with her children without having to stage photos of her reading to them or using a photo of a book. This is AWESOME!!! I really like the way she blocked the illustration to give is some more visual interest, as if these guys needed any help, LOL. The journaling tells the story that will remain in her heart and those of her family members for all the years to come. I have visions of one of her children one day reading that book to his own little ones.
Digi Picks 9/2/08
September already? Wow! That was one fast summer! I hope you all are enjoying the last days of it here in our hemisphere and the last days of winter down below ;-) I had a great summer and I have at least 500 pictures stored and quite a few of them need to make their way into layouts. Luckily I'll be cropping on the 20th and in the meantime I'll grab a few digi moments where I can!
Kit of the Day
My brother Michael has a new addition to his family and her name is Angel. She is an 8 week old German Shepherd puppy and she is simply adorable! After I took a bunch of photos I hopped online to look for the perfect digi kit to welcome Angel into our family! I'm so psyched that I now have a reason to buy pet themed kits!!!!! For my first pages I settled on Kay Miller's Paws Page Kit because it had a perfect blend of colors. It has some browns and tans as well as either blue or red/pink for boy or girl doggies. Kay is also a master a creating adorable elements like the fire hydrant and the dog house, which you will see in use in my layouts. I also love that she has a ton of word art in varied sizes and levels of complexity, which makes this a great mix and match kit. I can use her word art with papers and elements from non-doggy kits and I'm sure I have a few hundred of those!!
Here is the kit in action. Photos taken on 8/31/08, the day I first met Angel.
Layout of the Day
I'm on the hunt for summer layout inspiration in a big way. I have to say that there are some amazing layouts in galleries right now! Wow!!! People have really been taking things up a notch. For instance, check out the beauty that is Perfect Day by Elfe13. I love the simplicity of the ghosted photo over the grungy paper accented by the flower vine that seems to be creeping around the layout. The inset photo with the shell in this beautiful girl's hand is so precious and it captures what a day at the beach is all about for children.
Digi Picks 8/29/08
Ahhhh, I am enjoying a wonderful vacation week! We've been to the beach, the boardwalk, the park and today we are enjoying some time with my nephew and Godson. Later I'll be taking the kids to Rainforest Cafe for some lunch and maybe to Build a Bear if they are good. God how I love vacation!!!! Any big plans on your end for the long weekend in the US?
Kit of the Day...well it's an album...
I have not been scrapping much this summer, but I have been taking pictures like they were going ouf of style! That means I need some quick albums and I need 'em fast! So how happy was I when I found out that the Lilypad is having itself a sale and The Funky Junky Summer Lovin' Bracket Album is on sale for 50% off!!!!! Oh yeah, that is so in my cart right now!! I have the Funky Junky Summer Lovin' kit and I love, love, love it!!! That is also 50% off, by the way, as is the 20 page 20 Page Quick Album. Now I have no excuse not to get those pictures scrapped and I can even make quick gift albums for all the grandparents, aunts and uncles! Pretty good deal!!!
Layout of the Day
Not only do I love the Ronagavino's layout PJ Party , but I love the actual party idea as well! What fun it must have been to have a pajama party themed adult birthday party! I have always wanted to have a pj party with my girlfriends, but we just never make the time. After looking at all of pictures I know that we really need to give this a try. Speaking of all of the pictures, I love how she got the whole party captured on one page by creating a simple grid. To keep the layout from looking static and boring, as a grid can sometimes do, she added some great whimsical and free form elements and a cute wrinkly alpha for her title. This balances out the blockiness and makes it all feel like a party! Awesome layout!!!!
Digi Picks and Where I've Been
Well hello there digi scrappers! Sorry I have been MIA for the past two weeks. I have been posting daily over at Melissa Thinks Out Loud and, in addition to taking on some additional training roles at work, I signed up for an online class and I have been obsessed with it ever since.
Kit of the Day
Gracie is getting to that fun age where she wants so badly to be cool and grown up, although she's barely 5! She cracks me up on a daily basis with her rock n' roll poses and her cool-girl vocabulary. This means that I'll be needing less pinky, cutesy kits and more bold and funky kits. Enter Toxic Pop by Melissa Bennett and MGL Designs. This just jumped into my car the moment I saw it. I cannot wait to use that polka-dot alpha on on one of those black backgrounds!!!! The flowers and pinwheels are so awesome closeup and I'll be using each and every one of them at my earliest opportunity!!! This kit rocks!!!
Speaking of Rocking....
Check out Miss Gracie herself working the mic for the very first time on Rockband!!!!
My Gracie Book is Completed
In my previous post you saw the first part of my super cool GRACIE board book. Well I have finished it, with the exception of the binder rings. I need bigger ones than what I have at home because I went a bit embellishment happy. I am so in love with this book and it is by far my favorite project to date!!!!
I cannot tell you how much fun this was to do! I will be making some FAMILY books for the holidays and I may even make one of my own name...oh wait...that might be too big..hmmm..maybe I'll just do LIS, LOL.
Fun Hybrid Projects!!!
Note: While the papers used in the following projects were standard "paper" scrapbooking papers, you could just as easily do this by printing out some of your favorite digi backgrounds and elements. My next one is going to feature some adorable Mary Fran backgrounds.
I got to go to a new crop in Rockaway, NJ this weekend. I had an absolute blast with my friend Patti and my SIL Tina. It was Tina's first crop and she did an amazing job on a gift book. She bought a ton of stuff from our good friend Judy O'Donnell, so I know she's hooked! Judy Got me addicted to albums made out of words when she introduced me to Chatter Bookz last fall. Then I went to the Memories Expo this past May and found Creek Bank Creations and their amazing Bloom Book kits. They can help you put together a kit to make a book out of any word or name and they also have numbers! As soon as I saw them I knew I had to make a GRACIE album. Patti had told me to keep an eye out for anything new and cool for her so I grabbed her a Keira and Kendall for her twin baby girls.
Well, Patti and I have been wanting to work on these projects together since May and we finally got the chance. We had an absolute blast, but it was quite a bit of work and a little nerve wracking because we weren't sure we were doing it right. A couple of times we each cut our letters out backwards and had to redo them and that was before we hit up the Crystal Lite and Vodka! While the chipboard from Creek Bank is very heavy duty and takes well to thick gluing and sanding, it isn't as smooth as the white chipboard of the Chatter Bookz so I'm not sure how it would look if you wanted to paint instead of paper. The samples that I saw at the Expo were painted and looked okay, just a little flat. Maybe a coat of modge podge glossy over the paint would help if you wanted to go that route. Certainly less time consuming than the paper process!!!
So this is what it looks like before you get started. The letters are not attached to the lengths of chipboard. You have to line them up yourself. 
Then you decorate the letters and book pieces separately and attach the letters afterwards. Here it is with the papers adhered to the letters (all papers are Basic Grey). Look far left and you'll see a little bit of a background from Mary Fran's Summer Breeze peeking out ;-)
Meanwhile over at Camp Patti she got all of her letters done for Keira's book in these beautiful soft and subdued colors....
when she found some other papers they fit her little wild one's personality much better! She realized the softer colors would work better for Kendall. Luckily they share some of the same letters in their names so she only had to switch out the I and the R.
Then it was time for us to begin sanding down the edges of the letters to smooth out the places where the paper and the chipboard meet. That took a TON of time and my arms are still aching!!! Here's Patti demonstrating her using the table for leverage technique while showing off her new Kenny Chesney T, a constant reminder of her VIP seats at Thursday night's concert ;-)
Sanding completed it was time for me to cover my book pages with paper. I decided to go with solids for the book pages hoping the letters would stand out more.
Finally I inked the edges of my letters with Walnut Ink from Ranger and glued on my letters.
Patti was finished a little bit behind me since she had decided mid-stream to change color schemes...
Don't they look great??? I started putting in some pix, but didn't take pictures of that yet as I'm still embellishing. I cannot wait to finish this up! It was so much fun!!! I may order the word FAMILY next. What I really like about these books is that the letters start out separate so you can go really crazy decorating, distressing and inking whereas with the other books from Breezy or Bo Bunny etc, the letters are part of the board from the beginning.
Patti and I have the inside scoop on a local NJ lady that Judy is working with, who is making some really unique chipboard albums. They will be debuting this weekend at CKC in Valley Forge PA. We're tying to figure out a way to get out there for the show for some serious shopping!! I'll link you up when her website is live and you can order from her. I got a sneek peak at a Star of David album and it was really cool. I hear she's got albums in the shape cupcakes and ice cream cones she'll be selling at CKC!!!!!
Digi Picks 7/25/08
Kit of the Day
Now that we are into the peak of summer in my area I am starting to see those deep citrus colors sprouting up in other people's gardens. Mostly I see weeds in mine, LOL. Anyway, I love those colors so much because they remind me of all of the fun that happens during this part of summer. The water is warm enough to actually swim in and the cares of winter are so far in the past that every day feels like a vacation on the islands. This is about the time each year where I change my scrapping palette from pinks and spring greens to the colors found in Cori Gammon's Good Day Sunshine. Now you'll be singing that song all day like I am!!! Loving the play of these rich summer hues with the neutral of the cardboard. That little birdie is so sweet!!! Not only is this kit adorable and fun, but it also appears to be on $1.00 today!!!
Layout of the Day
One of my goals for the crop I'll be at this weekend with my friends Patti and Tina(also my SIL) is to do a layout that looks like a mosaic. I've been seeing them all over the place and I really like them. Poolside by ajaabney is the kind of layout I'm talking about. Look how she's got the patterned papers and pictures all dispersed on a grid like squares in a mosaic. What I really like about her look is that the squares aren't perfectly lined up. They are a little askew and I think that gives the page movement that it might lack if it were
level -perfect. Now if I were going to try this digitally I might go look for the Emily Powers template she based this on, but I'll be all paper and glue this weekend so it's time to go find that 2" square punch and get gluing!!!!!
