Lime Twist Lickety-split!

Hi from Gina A!
I love the beautiful My Mind's Eye paper's from this month's Design Team challenge. Lime Twist has such beautiful colors, designs and embellishments! I've already used this line several times ... you may have seen my hot-air balloon layout of my daughter and her boyfriend with the title "he makes her heart SOAR!" already on display. As soon as I saw that paper I immediately came up with the design idea and I loved the result. I also used the talk-bubble paper for a get well card/book for my little nephew.

For my Design Team double layout I chose some photos of my daughter reading to her grandmother and matched the Happy Go Lucky
"Hello" Zig, "Perfect" Lines and "Together" Lines papers along with the "Perfect" Butterflies paper and a sheet of the matching stickers. The inspiration for the whole page was the sticker that says "Every moment with you is a gift"...so true as my daughter (age 21) spends time with my mother-in-law (age 90)! To those supplies I added some dotted cardstock with the scalloped edge and a set of stickers from the "school" section to tie in the reading theme.

Best part? This came together "lickety-split" .... from choosing the papers to hanging it on the wall was 45 minutes start to finish!! Lots of fun and results in no-time flat - I love that!!

If you are short on time and want to get some layouts done, think about doing some "scrap-lifting" to speed up the design time. Check out the display of my scrap-lifted pages in the "Spotlight on Scrapbooking" section of the store. (near the scrapbooks and page protectors). For each designed page I include the "scrap-lifted" original and tell you what I did... and remember: Scraplifting is totally legal! So bring your camera next time you're in the store and take some pictures of the many samples of scrapbook pages and cards we have on display. There's nothing better to get the old creative juices flowing so... GO "FOURTH" and Scraplift over the holiday!!!


Have fun!
Gina A.

Demo Day and I {heart} MFT!

Demo Day is just around the corner, happening on Saturday July 23rd from 11 - 4 pm. Here is the card you will be making at my table. I will have some regular sentiments on hand in case you don't want the quote on your card. The beautiful quote however, comes from one of my favorite stamp companies, My Favorite Things (aka MFT).

MFT has been around for a while and I am so thrilled that we are now carrying them in the store! They make lots of different stamps ranging from cute to artistic and tons of wonderful dies. All their dies and stamps are of excellent quality and you will not be disappointed with how they perform. I sincerely love their products.

I look forward to seeing you on Demo Day!

Cindy

Cute as a Button

The new lines just released from My Mind's Eye are just amazing--love,love,love them!! It has always been one of my favorite companies and this release did not dissapoint! I am so happy with how this layout turned out....love how the cloud paper and the woodgrain paper work together to reinforce the "outdoor"theme of these pictures. The circle alphas are also MME and I think they add a lot of cute detail to the pages. Finishing touches: buttons, flowers with Hero Arts hues in the insides, lots of Baker's Twine, also from MME and a few butterflies from Little Yellow Bicycle. Little details such as a circle picture on the right (of my sweet hound Myrtle), ribbon "flags" used on both pages and corner rounding the woodgrain paper help make the page more interesting. Come check out what's new at the store this week. Great weather, hooray!! Gotta love this temp.!
Lisa H
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More Design Team cards

I put these cards in the store over a week ago but completely forgot to blog about them. Ooops! I had a lot of fun playing with the We R Memory Keepers Travel Light line and a motorcycle stamp from Hero Arts again. I used a layout very similar to what I did for Demo Day but added a few more layers to mat my main image. The plaid paper was cut with the Tim Holtz Sizzix Ornamental die. Love that plaid paper! And the border with the interstate signs...that came off the edge of the plaid paper. I cut around the signs which worked perfectly to give me a scalloped edge on my card. Vrooom vrooom!

My next card has no stamping on it at all. I used the map paper from Travel Light which included the main retro image that I used as the focal point on my card. A super simple layout made this card lightning quick. I think it took 5 minutes at the most to put it together and I think it came out super cute. I find this card to be very fitting right now as we are leaving on a road trip to FL this week. It's Disney or bust!


Don't forget to look at our Design Team creations in person the next time you visit the store!

Cindy

New All Occassion Card class

Join me Saturday July 16th from 12 - 3 pm for my new All Occassion card class. We will be making 8 cards total (2 of each of the 4 designs) using a variety of Hero Arts and Memory Box stamps. Please bring sharp scissors since one of the cards requires detail cutting.

I look forward to seeing you soon!

Cindy

Travel Light with We R Memory Keepers

This crazy fun travel line from We R had me reminiscing the days of my son's travel baseball team. While in Mississippi for a tournament we stumbled across our first ever Sonic. The kids were thrilled to order from the car and be served by an old-fashioned carhop! I absolutely love the paper with the mileage calculator! I finally broke out my We R Sew Easy tools that I bought. (It feels so good to take a tool out of the package and try it out!!!) I loved creating a border in stitches next to my chipboard title and it couldn't have been easier. My daughter thought I had lost my mind when she hopped in the car at school and found me sewing on my layout while I was waiting for her! I used several pieces from the Layered Chipboard - tied off with the ever-popular baker's twine. The journal spot came from last year's Little Yellow Bicycle Pack Your Bags Journal Pad and the stitched brads are part of the Wander collection from Basic Grey.

Wall Art from Carol Gorrell

Hi Everyone,

One of our talented customers Carol Gorrell was nice enough to show us what she created with the large canvas she purchased from us.  She used some scalloped edge papers from My Mind's Eye as her base added some Creative Imaginations papers (I think).  The bracket frames are from Inky Antics.  The girl stamp is a Technique Tuesday stamp.  Carol did some great coloring and layering to finish it all off.
Thanks for sharing!

Scrappin' with We R Memory Keepers and Avocado Arts

Ready for some scrapbook inspiration! This month's design team is all about We R Memory Keepers new travel line. It is super cute!
I thought it would be perfect to create a little mini book for an upcoming trip we are taking to Great Wolf Lodge. Even better... pair it all up with the new scrapbook-friendly sets from Avocado Arts.
Have you seen the new scrap-friendly sets? AvocadoType, Strike-a-Pose and Say It! Pennant Style? These sets are SO FUN to work with. I designed these for scrapbook pages, mini books and, of course they are fantastic for cards and other papercrafting projects.
Over the next few months, I will be sharing a mini-album project using these new sets. It will be a "project in progress" and I will sneak a few images in for the Avocado Arts set releases in July and August. HOW FUN IS THAT? Have you ever searched and searched your stash for the perfect embellishment for your scrapbook pages? ACK! One of my favorite things about stamps is that you can customize your project to suit EXACTLY what you want.
Also along the way, I will share tips, tricks and techniques using the new sets. Let's get started! Mark your calendars for the 10th of the month, Scrapbook Inspiration Day! -Lisa :)

I-M-Memory Keeper

Hi from Gina A!
So, yes!, I'm the Memory Keeper in our family - and I love it, AND I love this month's We-R-Memory Keepers travel line! But I've got to admit - after working til the wee-hours of the morning each day last week to finish a HUGE farewell album for our church minister, I was not feeling too creative when it came time to work on these pages. So this two-page layout is pretty simple with no special techniques, yet I just love the results! The "Personal Travel Log" page was perfect for posting a copy of our itinerary for our trip to Sweden last summer along with journaling taken directly from my travel diary and photos of us at the airport. Simple, but still a great addition to our Sweden scrapbook.

As I tell my 101 Students all the time, the nice thing about working with one line of product is that the papers and embellishments are already matched for you. But don't be afraid to add papers or stickers from other lines as well. In these layouts, I used a blue dot paper from My Mind's Eye "Good Day Sunshine" line as my matting and a couple stickers (the speech bubble and arrow) from Cosmo Cricket "On the Record" line and I love how it all came together!

If you want to learn more about mixing, matching and creating embellishments for your layouts, join me for a Scrapbooking 102 class soon - check our store calendar for upcoming dates. Hope to see you soon!
Gina

Enjoy The Scenic Route!!

Hello everyone! This month's Design Team challenge was to use the new, oh-so-fab and just a bit retro, WeRMemory Keepers Travel Time line. Such fun! The pictures I chose though really didn't have a "travel" vibe to them, even though the colors matched perfectly. So, I decided to use these papers anyhow and work in the travel-motif in the layout. The pictures I chose are of a hiking outing we took as a family so I pulled out the colors that worked with this line. I love the map paper used on the left side of the layout and the way the different decorative papers from this line mixed so well together! The "HIKE" banner was made with Maya Road canvas banners and rub-on letters, tied together with the awesome and oh-so-versatile baker's twine and the fun puffy fabric brads from the Travel Time line. Love it! Check out our samples in the store and enjoy the heat--guess summer is here!! Lisa H.

SMASH is here and so is Little Yellow Bicycle Sweet Summer

This is such a great new summer line from Little Yellow Bicycle.

Supply list for Saturday's class!

We are going to have some inky good fun this Saturday making cards inspired by the Darcie's board that arrived back in April. You MUST bring sharp detail scissors in order to complete this class. Here is the list of Distress inks that we will be using in the class. Please bring your own if you have them. The class fee includes 4 daubers to be used during class with the Distress inks, but if you already have some inked up at home for those colors please bring them and then you will go home with 4 new ones to use with your other inks.

Distress inks:

Worn Lipstick
Mustard Seed
Broken China
Shabby Shutters

Stay cool!
Cindy

Travel Light card

Yea, I finally had a chance to play with the fabulous We R Memory Keepers Travel Light line, our design team focus for June. I made a quick but fun card using 2 Hero Arts stamps, a little bit of black twine, and one of my favorite punches by Cropadile, the stub corner punch. The paper I chose from Travel Light has a terrific map on it which I thought paired perfectly with the motorcycle. I colored the open spaces of the motorcyle in with Copics then added Glossy Accents to the headlight and taillight to give them a little more dimension.

Stay tuned for more Photo Scraps Design Team creations!

Cindy

My Demo Day card for June

Here is my Demo Day card for June, well...almost. It seems that without knowing it, I chose some discontinued colors of cardstock for my card. (Goodbye Powder OP...I'll miss you!). So my card will look almost exactly like this one, just with slightly different shades of blues.

I chose to do a birthday card this month because Demo Day falls on my actual birthday (I like chocolate, hint hint!). But, if you don't need a birthday card, this card would make a great thank you or sympathy or thinking of you and I will have some other sentiments on my table besides "happy birthday".

I also have some spots available in my class this coming Saturday where we will be making some fun and bright cards using Darcie's stamps.

I look forward to seeing you soon!

Cindy

Let's Travel!

Hello everyone! Summer is a time when lots of people travel, and our paper line focus for the month of June is just that...travel related. The Photo Scraps Design Team will be bringing you creations made with a brand new line by We R Memory Keepers called Travel Light. As is expected from We R, the Travel Light line is filled with fun patterns, bright colors, and super embellishments. Stay tuned to the blog as we post our projects, and make sure to see them firsthand when you are shopping in the store.

See you soon, and happy travels!
Cindy