Hello June...almost...

June is just one day away and with the new month comes new Design Team creations.  We hope to bring you lots of inspiration because we all kind of let May slide by with no new Design Team pick.  For June we will be using the "Summer Fresh" line by Simple Stories.  This is a great line that can be used for both feminine and masculine projects.  Great stripes, dots, florals, and some generic patterns that are really hot right now.

So as soon as I clean up my studio from the minor flood we had in our home this past week (DIY home improvement backfired on us!), I will show off some Simple Stories cards.

Remember to check out the Design Team wall in person when you are shopping in the store!

Looking forward to creating with you soon,
Cindy

June's Demo Day card

Join us Saturday June 9th from 11 - 4 pm for the always-fun Photo Scraps Demo Day!  Yes, it is a week earlier for the month of June, so make sure to mark your calendars so you don't miss it. 

I will be showing you a quick and easy way to color this gorgeous Penny Black butterfly stamp (and the technique works great for other stamps too).  But wait...do you notice something wrong with this picture?  That's right, there's no ribbon!  I just could not figure out a way to squeeze it on there without distracting from the beauty that is the butterfly. And as always, I will have other sentiments available at my table in case you want something different from what I have stamped.

I look forward to seeing you soon!
Cindy

Design Challenges from Natl.Scrapbook Day

Hi from Gina A to all of you who joined me this past weekend for the 3-day Crop here at Photoscraps! We had a blast, didn't we?!?! So much creativity and so much laughter! (Not to mention so much good food!) The following pages are just three of the THIRTY-NINE 12 x 12 layouts I got done this weekend!!! (Nothing like some uninterrupted crop time to get caught up on all those projects that have been lying around:-) The three layouts pictured here were created as part of some of the "Design Challenges" we were given during the Crop to celebrate National Scrapbook Day. Everyone who participated told me they loved the challenges because they really got the creative juices flowing.... and it doesn't hurt that Tracy gave prizes to everyone who participated! Of the three shown here, the first challenge was to create a "fanciful frame" around a photo. When that challenge was announced I was working on a page from a car show my husband attended in Sweden. I created a really cool frame around one of the detail photos using a combination of stickers, brads and buttons. The next two Challenges I participated in were design sketches. The Happy Birthday layout went together so quickly following the sketch and using Pebbles papers from the "Hip Hip Hooray!" line and some Echo park "Birthday Girl" stickers... (by the way, I have enough scraps leftover to create some quick,cute and easy birthday cards next - gotta love that!) The final layout followed a challenge sketch and I used the new papers from Webster's Pages including the "Sunday Picnic" and "Everyday Poetry" lines and the cards from the "Joy Ride" paper. I created a border on the paper using a Martha Stewart heart-shaped border punch and embellished with doilies I sprayed with glimmer mist, two of the beautiful new "mini Princess Petals" flowers from Webster's Pages and a few pearls from my stash. I just love how this layout came together and how beautifully it highlights this lovely photo of my daughter, Caitlin, and my 91-year-old mother-in-law, Mickey!

Fancy Pants Summer Soul

How can you not look at the bright, beautiful colors of Fancy Pants Summer Soul line and smell the ocean air and feel the salty spray on your face?  The patterned papers are so playful and easy to mix! I used a new 2" wide burlap ribbon we are carrying in the store as the anchor on my first page letting it fold and gather loosely on the page.  Behind it I fussy cut the surfboard border from the Border Strips paper even popping a few boards up and accenting them with twine and Dew Drops.  On the second page I again used a peice of the burlap as an accent and added a new pom pom ribbon from Webster's Pages.  To get more pix (an additional 5!) on the layout I created a mini album using 4x6 photo sleeves in a waterfall formation.  Then I created tabs for each page for easy turning.  The Petaloo flowers from my stash were not the color I wanted so I inked them to complement the papers.  I added more stickers, ribbon and Dew Drops and called it a day.  Now to play with the Fancy Pants Wave Searcher line!

Baby Sampler

A dear girlfriend of mine from high school recently became a grandmother - the first in our group.  I wanted to give her a special gift that would mark such a significant time in her life.  Of course, looking around Photo Scraps I immediately knew what I would do for the gift.  Using one of the hot Basic Grey Samplers, the beautiful new baby line from Bella Blvd., and pictures I copied from Facebook that my friend had posted of her precious grandson, I created what I hope will always be a treasured keepsake for her.  I cut the papers and one photo to 1.5" squares then matted a larger print for the corner of the sampler.  The part I enjoyed the most was pouring through my stash of buttons, brads, twine and dew drops for embellishments.  I threw a few flowers on the sampler too.  One came from my growing collection of flowers and the other I created by layering flowers I punched from the paper scraps. I have to say I was really proud of the gift and my girlfriend just loved it.  This is the second Basic Grey Sampler I have made and certainly won't be the last!

May's Demo Day card

Join us on Saturday May 19th from 11 - 4 pm for the ever-popular Demo Day!  As always, we will have a variety of projects for you to make for $2.00 each and all you need to do is bring your adhesive.

At my table we will be making this lovely card using a few different stamps, and I will have several sentiments for you to choose from.  This card would be great for a birthday, an anniversary, a thank you, or even sympathy.  All you need to do is change up the wording on the tab.  I designed this card with my sister in mind since she lives in FL and I am always missing her.

I look forward to seeing you all this month at Demo Day!
Cindy

Gina A. has Fancy Pants :-)

OK, I thought that title might draw some attention - lol! Really,I do have lots of Fancy Pants papers and embellishments, though. I just love their lines and lately I am really,REALLY loving the Fancy Pants Brag Books! I am using them just as I'm using the fabulous SMASH books and products to create fun and easy mini-scrapbooks. The Fancy Pants Brag Books are especially great because they already include lots of blank lined-pages which are perfect for journaling or covering with papers and photos, plus built-in pocket pages and clear photo sleeves. For this month's Design Team I used one of the Brag Books along with the papers and embellishments from the WaveSearcher line to create a book chock full of memories of beach vacations through the years. To keep things simple, the photos appear in ramdom (vs chronalogical) order. Using this book I was able to scrapbook almost an entire box full of beach pics in just a few hours!!! Here's a few photos but you'll have to stop in the store to see the book in it's entirety. And if you like it (and I think you might! After all, what's not to like?!?!?)and/or you've already been using the Fancy Pants and/or SMASH products, please consider joining me at the next SMASH crop on Friday, April 27th. You'll be amazed and get lots of creative ideas from the many samples you'll see that night. For example: on the cover of my Fancy Pants beach book (shown here) I used my crop-o-dile to punch a hole and thread a beach-themed key chain. I got that idea from someone's book. THEN someone else saw that on MY book and suggested I could string one or more beach telescope pics! I LOVE that idea and I'll be doing it soon! Try out the Fancy Pants Brag Books and kits soon and see for yourself how fun it is to play with these great products.
Put your Fancy Pants on ladies and meet me at the CROP!
See you soon!
Gina A.

2nd date for Kaiser Butterfly Cards class!

Wow, the first class featuring Kaiser Butterflies filled up so quickly that I will be teaching the class again on Saturday May 26th from 12 - 3 pm.  We will be making 5 butterfly themed cards using a gorgeous clear stamp set from Kaiser and you get to TAKE THE STAMP SET HOME!  Call the store ASAP to reserve you spot before the class sells out again.

I look forward to seeing you soon!
Cindy