Scrapping with Liz

Simple & Sweet Albums II

2012-01-27T07:30:00.000-05:00

I can't wait to show you Liz's new templates. This is her second set of "simple and sweet" albums. The team loved the first set ... but we're pretty much in agreement that we love this set even more. I don't even know how that's possible. They speak for themselves, so I'll just get to them. Oh and remember that everything you see here is 20% off through 2/2/12.

First, Simple and Sweet Album Templates II

Aren't they great?! I love the fuller page designs, but there's a bit of white space in there too. They've got a mix of single to multi photo options, large and small photo spots, and several pages work together to make easy 2-page designs. So versatile!

The coordinating Simple Album Templates II has clean and simple clipping masks, no shadows. Great for photographers or scrappers looking for modern page layouts.

And here is a Photographer's Photo Book collaboration with Tracie Stroud, built from the Simple pages. All you have to do with these is add your photos and you are good to go. Perfect for making a super quick album for your clients or for a friend. You can even add your own title and journaling to make it more personal.

And now, I'm so pleased to show you inspiration from the team.

You'll have so much fun with these! Have a great weekend.

Wall Art Know How

2012-01-25T07:30:00.000-05:00

Last week I did a little blog post about how I made a digital scrapbook page and turned it into a faux canvas print.

Remember?

I promised a little tutorial on how to make that framed wall art. So that's what I'm going to show you today.

Normally I would have made the wall art in photoshop with digital scrapbook paper but since my printer was running out of ink, I decided to buy some traditional scrapbook paper. Call me cheap and lazy. I didn't really want to switch out my ink cartridge but in reality it probably would have been easier to just make the wall art digitally and print it out....no scissors or gluing. Sometimes I don't make sense.

Okay back to the tutorial.

So I bought my paper and I already had my frames. I'd been collecting them over the past couple months because I kind of had an idea of what I wanted to do. So every time I saw a frame I liked, I would purchase it. Okay, maybe not EVERY time I saw a frame I liked because, I'll admit, I love frames. I would have had a million frames sitting around my house. Two of the frames came from IKEA, the round one and the rectangle scallopy one. The little rectangle one came from my favorite store, wal-mart. No, wal-mart isn't my favorite store. I was just joking, but I did get it from walmart. The mirrored frame came from TJMax or some store like that. The horseshoe came from that farm supply store, oh man, I forgot the name of it....wait just a minute, let me google it. Tractor Supply, that's it! I got it at a steal of deal after Christmas. It was like $4!

Now that you know where I got all my frames from, don't know if you really cared, the next step was deciding what I wanted to put in each frame. I knew I wanted the letter K for Kyla and I knew I wanted some cowgirl type stuff. I searched through my digi-stash and found some elements that I thought would look cool cut out on the traditional scrapbook paper that I bought. The boot shape and horse shape are from Chelle's Cowgirl Up Kit that I bought to make the canvas. I opened a new document in photoshop to the size that I knew I would want printed to fit into my frame and placed my boot on the page. I stretched the boot to the size I need. I color overlayed (Layer Styles>Color Overlay) it with a black color. Then I right clicked on the boot layer and converted it to a smart object. After that I clicked on the boot layer again and rasterized the layer. So I had a black image. So what I did was I took my little magic wand tool and I placed the marching ants on the inside of my boot. Then I went to select>modify>contract. I contracted the ants about 10 pixels. Then I simply deleted the inside of my boot and all I had left was this wonderful little outline. I printed it, traced it onto my digital scrapbook paper, cut it out and voila I had my pretty little boot cut out on scrapbook paper.

Here's the K I printed out. I traced it and cut it out of my scrapbook paper. I cut out the bottom paper to fit into my frame and then I glued the K to that bottom paper.

And here ya go!

Here are a few extra tips.

1. When you are choosing your elements make sure you don't choose anything that will be too hard to cut out. I had a hard time cutting out the horse that you see on the far left of my wall. The legs were pretty skinny and my paper cutting skillz aren't all that great.

2. When you are choosing your papers make sure you pick contrasting colors for your cut out element and the background paper. You want to make sure the element that you choose is going to stand out. Also be aware of patterns. I chose one bold pattern and one more simple pattern for each frame so that the element would stand out more.

3. You could totally just do this all with digi-stuff if you wanted to print everything out on your home computer. Simple just use Ctrl+J to clip different paper to different elements. Put your paper behind your element, add a little shadow to your element and you are good to go. In reality, this probably would have been the easiest thing for me to do since I'm not much into cutting and gluing. Oh well, it's done and I like it and so does my daughter, that's all that matters.

4. I'm no expert at any of this so I'm sure there are easier and betters ways to do this. It's just how I did it.

And here's a little picture hanging tip. I arrange all my frames on the floor in front of where I'm going to hang my pictures. I arrange, rearrange, visualize it on the wall, ask my husband's advice, ignore my husband's advice, arrange, rearrange again and finally figure out what I want to do. Then I start hanging the pics up. Always starting from the middle. I don't measure or level or anything. I just eyeball it. Sure, there's lots of holes behind the pics but nobody will see those once everything is hung up.

Now, go make some picture art.

Big Sneak Peek! Giveaway!

2012-01-24T06:53:00.002-05:00

Okay, the sneak peek isn't any bigger than it normally is BUT the contents of what the sneak peek is trying to show you is HUGE. Does that make sense? There are two big ol' template releases this week that you won't want to miss! Seriously, this is one of my most favorite sets ever. It's been in the works for several weeks now.

So, as usual, if you want a chance to win it then just leave a comment here letting me know how much you want these. If you win you'll be able to choose the set you want! You could win $20 worth of templates. I'll announce the winner as usual: in the comments on this blog post and on my facebook page at 11pm EST on Wednesday night 1/25. But wait! There's more.

I got to team up with one of my favorite designers over at Scrap Orchard, Tracie Stroud. She designed the papers. I laid out the pages and we came up with a fabulous, ready made, photo book! I can't wait to show you the whole set! Here's a little sneaky peek to get you excited.

I would like to also say a special thank you to all my wonderful facebook fans. We reached over 2100 fans this weekend. I seriously can't believe it! I've updated the exclusive tab with a brand new freebie for all of my "likers"! So if you didn't grab it yet go on over there and check it out.

Here's the part where I would normally update you on what is going on over at Scrap Orchard but I can't! They've upgraded their site and I'm still having problems with it so I have no idea what is going on. I know some people can get in and others can't. I do know that they are working on fixing it right now! So sit tight if you can't get in. I'm right there with ya!

Now, back to your regularly scheduled ~~Monday,~~ I mean Tuesday.

Miscellaneous Sample Pack

2012-01-20T07:30:00.000-05:00

Liz has a new sample pack of elements, frames and masks. It contains unique items that are similar to some of her sets already in the Market. If you are new to her designs, or have only used her page templates, this sample will give you a taste of her other products - like the Faded Masks, Doodled Frames and Fancy shapes sets. (Her faded masks are among my most favorite scrapping tools!)

This is a broad collection that can be used by digital scrapbooking designers for creating kits, but can also be used by the scrapper for memory keeping. 20% off through 1/26. Images are linked for you.

If you like any of these samples and are looking for more, here are just some of the original product sets in the Market. The samples were created separately from any of the original sets, so you won't have any duplicate files.

Here's a beautiful layout Kimberley made with one of the masks.

Thanks for stopping by!

A Canvas Print from a Digital Scrapbook Page

2012-01-18T07:30:00.000-05:00

I had been wanting to make my daughter a "cowgirl" decorated wall for her room. She loves horses and anything related to them. So I began searching for ideas on-line, namely, pinterest. I saw some cute cowgirl plaques and then some that you could buy with custom names. I really liked that idea but none of them were in my budget. Then it popped into my head! Why not make a custom digital scrapbook page and have it printed on canvas. Genius! Sometimes I amaze myself. Okay, okay, I'm sure that it has been done before and I'm not a genius. Oh well, sometimes I like to think that I am.

Anyway, so I began researching places that I could get a canvas print before I started to make something. There's a bunch of places and most of them are pretty pricey. I decided to go cheap....real cheap....wal-mart cheap. They have a 12x12 faux canvas print for $19.96. I decided that for 20 bucks that I could at least try it. So I searched my digi-stash for anything cowgirl and anything that might look good on a canvas (stamps, paints, splatters, etc...). I also did a little digi-shopping and bought Cowgirl Up by Chelle's Creations and Lace Stamp Alpha from Faith True. So I made this canvas with a mix of Cowgirl Up, Lace Stamp Alpha and some other things I had in my digi-stash.

I had to test out my page several times when I uploaded it to the wal-mart print site. It was nice because they gave you a preview of how it would look when printed (what parts would be on the sides of the canvas). I ended up making my image 14in x14in and making sure I left about 1.5 inches on each side for the wrap part of the canvas. You can see (on the finished product) that the edge comes right up to the doodled border.

Anyway, so here is the .jpg image of my digital page.

And here is a pic of the finished product.

I was actually really pleased with it. The colors weren't as bright but still okay and it printed just as it was shown on their website. Plus I got it in 1 hour and I was able to go pick it up at my local wal-mart. I mean, it is cheap and it is faux BUT for $20 and 1 hour I feel like I got my money's worth and my daughter LOVES it. I probably wouldn't choose it for a professional print but for this little project it was perfect.

This is what the back looks like.

It's basically a card board box.

And here's what it looks like finished on her wall.

I'm going to be doing a post on how I made my paper art work you see in the frames. Look for that soon.

Hope this inspires you to use your digital scrapbook supplies to make some art for your wall.

GSO Winner Announced!

2012-01-17T16:09:00.000-05:00

Please join me and congratulating Cheryl (DigiCheryl) on winning this month’s GSO! Cheryl was up against some gorgeous competition this month but you the voters chose her lovely Christmas layout, Before Chaos, as the best. We loved this layout of her home decorated for the holidays for it’s large photo blend and the vertical clustering along the left.

We got a chance to ask Cheryl about herself and this is what she said...

How long have you been digi-scrapping? Did you start with paper?
I’ve been digi-scrapping for just a few years. I started scrapping with paper when I was a child; I have made scrapbook pages for as long as I can remember.

Describe your scrap style?
I’m not sure I have a style of my own because I love to copy everyone else, and I like all styles of pages. I'm not very creative but I can scrap-lift those who are!

What motivates you to scrap?
I scrap because I love my children. I have four children, three are adults and the fourth is still a teen. I want to pass on to them my thoughts and my faith, and making scrapbooks or digital books is a great way to do that.

Your favorite subject to scrap?
Of course, I love to scrap ANYTHING related to my children, but my favorite is to document our vacations together. My husband and I have always made traveling with our children a priority because of the bonding that takes place with shared experiences.

Your favorite product?
I love Liz's blended masks. I have several of her template packages that use her masks, and I LOVE the new collab package she has in the market right now - the Yin and Yang 2 templates made with Fiddle-Dee-Dee.

Sneak Peek Time

2012-01-16T07:30:00.000-05:00

It's time for another sneak peek. This week I'm not releasing templates but something I'm sure you'll love anyway and fear not, if you are really wanting some new templates then just wait until next week's release! I'm working on a HUGE new release that you won't want to miss! But here's this week's sneak peek.

If you want a chance to win it then just leave a comment here and I'll choose a winner on 1/18 at 11pm EST. I'll announce it here and on my facebook page.

Oh and I have an exclusive facebook freebie for anyone who is a "liker". Just hop on over to my page and click on the exclusive tab on the left for your free download! PLUS I've been known to hand out coupons and play fun games on my facebook page. I'm getting pretty close to 2100 fans, once I reach 2100 I think I'm going to have to do something special! You won't want to miss it.

And don't forget about the Make it Snappy over at the Orchard on Wednesday night. There will be prizes from AnnBV.

That's it for now folks!

Happy Monday!

Yin & Yang 2 Template Collab & Journaling Mat Freebie

2012-01-13T07:30:00.000-05:00

Liz teamed up again with Cheryl of Fiddle-Dee-Dee Designs to create another Yin & Yang template set. These are some of the most beautiful templates! They have Liz's signature faded masks, bold blocked photo arrangements, and Cheryl's gorgeous element clusters. You've got options for many photographs or just a few, and ample space to tell your story. They are beautiful and 20% off through 12/19. Image is linked for you.

Here is some inspiration from the team. I think you'll agree that each and every one of these is breathtaking. All of the design elements work together to create pages that are full of beauty.

If you haven't seen their first collaboration, here's the link: Yin & Yang Template Collab. It's just as beautiful as this new set.

And here's a little freebie Liz put together for you. She's made a bunch of these Journaling Mats and Masks and she's handing them out over the next few months in various places. So keep your eyes out! Just click on the image to download.

Thanks for stopping by.

My Printed December Daily Album

2012-01-11T07:30:00.000-05:00

Apparently I don't have a problem remembering that it's 2012 and not 2011! My problem is that I was just so ready for 2012 that I made my December Daily 2011 "In Quotes" album with this front page:

Yup, that's right and I didn't even notice it until I opened up the package and was flipping through it and then I realized it! Oh and this isn't the first time this has happened. Look closely at this poster and find the mistake.

Do you see it! Apparently it's 2102. I'm WAY into the future here.

Thankfully I saved the .psd and I can just switch out the numbers for my December Daily album and it only cost $6.00. So I think I'll just re-do the cover and order another one or I could just keep it the way it is and get a good laugh each Christmas. As far as the calendar poster template.....well, I didn't realize my mistake until the mom opened her gift on Christmas day! Everyone had a good laugh.

I was so excited to show you all my finished book and I thought about waiting until I got my corrected book but what's the difference, right? Either way it will turn out that same, just a different number.

I decided to go with Mixbook because they were the one place I could find that offered a 4x6 softcover book like this and it was pretty cheap. So I decided to go with it.

Uploading my photos and arranging my book on their website was super easy. It probably took me about 20-30 minutes. It took about one week to receive my book once I ordered it.

Here's the finished product.

Book made with Magical Christmas by Jady Day Studio & Flergs.

You can see a tiny white edge. When I reviewed the book online I did not see that. It's on a couple of the pages.

The green color looks a little bright here but in real life it actually looks just like the paper I used in the digital scrapbook kit. My photo editing skills still need some work.

I would say that the overall quality is what I was expecting for $6.99. While it may not last for generations to come it should last a good while and I'll keep the .jpg images of my book so that I can print it out again if I want to.

Well, that's my ~~2011~~, oh I mean 2012 December Daily Album!!! Guess I'm a whole year ahead of schedule.

January GSO -- Time to Vote!!

2012-01-10T03:36:00.003-05:00

Have you SEEN the Gallery lately?? The is no end to the awesome, fabulous layouts! It's time for the monthly GSO but who will it be?? We need your help...check out the stunning, gorgeous contenders nominated by Liz and the CT Team! Which is your favorite? Click here to vote and then check back here on January 17th to find out the winner!!

Cheryl (DigiCheryl) created this beautiful layout of her home decorated for the holidays using Blog Template Freebie December 2011. We are loving the large photo blend and the vertical clustering along the left.

Lovely!

Iowan created this spectacular layout of Toy Story 3 Disney On Ice using the Photo Blends Templates. The kit pairing with the photos is superb and what a fun, unique subject! The stitched borders on the small photos are a great detail.

Fun!

Sharon (shazzabess) created this adorable layout of her grandson Joel using the MIS Template Freebie December 2011. Joel may be the star of the show but you can’t ignore the eye-popping colors in the patterned paper and those fun stars.

Playful!

SageDiva2 created this stunning layout depicting a precious moment of the holiday season using the Variety Clipping Masks. We love the stolen moment feel of the layout with is gorgeous black and white photo and minimalistic design.

Joyous!

DoodleBop created this amazing journaling layout using the 3’s A Charm Journaling Templates. We love the heart-tugging emotion of layout and the flip on the photo; the repetition of the elements strengthens the point of the journaling.

Heartfelt!

BriarwoodPups created this too cute layout of her adorable puppy Minx using the Fun Fade Masks. We love the photo blending that includes the photo frame stack and the creative title design using a mix of alpha, word tag and fonts.

Adorable!

Olivia (LivyBug) created this pretty self portrait of her love of Christmas. We love the the photo treatment that color blends her blended photo to the kit colors and the use of elements that mirror the patterned paper.

Sweet!

Tammy (Tamlia) created this merry and bright holiday layout of her beautiful children using the MIS Template Freebie December 2011. We love the use of circular elements in contrast to the paper blocking and the overlapping font in the title.

Festive!

It's Collab Time - Sneak Peek & Giveaway!

2012-01-08T14:44:00.000-05:00

I have a special release for you this weekend. If you are familiar with any of my past collabs I think you can probably guess this one pretty easily. I think we are a great team!

Hmmm....who could it be with?!? This set is sure to get your creative juices flowing. If you want a chance to win it then just leave a comment here & I'll pick a winner Wednesday night at 11pm EST. I'll announce it in the blog comments & on my facebook.

I hope you all had fun at my Template Make It Snappy on my facebook Saturday night & if you missed it, don't worry, there will be another one next month. Donna was the winner of a $10 coupon to my store. She grabbed the free template, followed the instructions & posted her layout within an hour! Great job Donna!

Here's a Make It Snappy that will be going on in the Scrap Orchard forum on Wednesday night. You could win prizes from SuzyQ!

Also a little reminder that Digiscrapapalooza is coming up soon! If you are coming PLEASE make sure to register with my code (below) to save $20. PLUS if you register with my code I'll have a special little prize for you when I see you! Because I WILL make sure I meet you if you come!

If you want to know a little bit more about Digiscrapaplooza then go here.

If you would like to read about the schedule & classes go here.

If you want to register then go here.

And if you have any questions about it PLEASE just send me an email (liz @ scrapping with liz *dot* com) (no spaces or asterisks) & I will try to answer your questions.

I really DO want you to come! I want to meet you!

Okay, I think that's it for today.

Have a happy Monday!

Background Starter Templates

2012-01-06T07:30:00.000-05:00

Here we are at the first of the year, and I've got the first new products to show you. Liz calls these "Starters" because you can use them a base to build upon, but you can use them as is too. As a starter, you can add photo spots and embellishments to build your unique pages. But they also come with large text boxes for long journaling and faded masks if you want to be creative with the background papers. Each of these templates can be taken in so many directions. You'll love their versatility. They're priced 20% off through 1/12. Images are linked for you.

The team had a blast with these - these are just some of their layouts

Thanks for stopping by!

Challenges?!?

2012-01-04T07:30:00.000-05:00

It's the beginning of a new year so I know must of us are trying to accomplish new goals and challenges. The last few weeks I've been trying to decide what kind of scrapping challenges I wanted to make for myself. I've seen a few ideas floating around and I thought I would share them with you. You may already know about some of these and some of them might be new to you.

Project 365 - In this challenge you take a photo every day. And for some people they try to scrap those daily photos on to a weekly scrapbook page. I really do have such a hard time remembering to take photos every day (believe me, I've tried!) that I think this challenge would almost be impossible for me. So rather then sweat it I'm going to pass yet again on this challenge. But if it is something you are interested in there are a lot of different products and places that can offer you inspiration. We even have a Project365 category over at Scrap Orchard. Also be sure to check out Katrina Kennedy's blog she has some GREAT ideas for daily photos. After reading her lists I ALMOST want to do this project.

Project 52 - In this challenge you try to scrap a page each week of the year. Some incorporate it in with their 365 project but it doesn't have to be a page with photos from that week. It can be a journaling page, a single photo of a meaningful object, it could be a weekly photo of the same person (watching them grow and change), etc... You can make this almost anything you want it to be. I think the main focus here is documenting/scrapping something every week. Something that you really want to remember, something that is important to you, photos that are important to you. So if this project interests you then find a place to get plugged in.

Project 12 - A lot like Project 52 only you scrapbook a page a month. Hmmmm, this sounds more down my ally. Not because I only want to scrap 1 page a month but because it actually seems doable!

Project Love, Me by Suzy Q Scraps - Last year Suzy Q and Kami from Ziggle Designs started Project Love, Me. It's one way to do Project 52. There are weekly journaling prompts focused more on you and the experiences and things that have made you who you are that you want to pass on to future generations. This year's format is going to be a little different. Suzy is offering a class to help you along with your pages. It sounds really great. So go on over to the Project Love, Me blog to read more about it and see if it's something that interests you.

One Little Word by Ali Edwards. This challenge revolves around a word you focus on during the year. You incorporate it into your life and then that will also reflect in your scrapbooking. I've seen a lot of my facebook friends posting their words for 2012. I've thought about whether or not I want to do this. I think I do. I've been thinking a lot more about my scrapbooking business, the pages I create, they way I live life with my family and I think I want my word to be purpose. Since my time is valuable in God's eyes and in my family's eyes I want every second to be lived on purpose. The time I spend designing, blogging, homeschooling, hugging, cleaning, laundering, cooking, reading, tv watching, facebooking (LOL!), etc... I want it all to be done on purpose. Basically, I don't want to waste my time. In every aspect of my life I'm going to ask myself, "Why am I doing this, what is the purpose?" and if I don't have a good answer then I think it might have to go.

Project Life by Becky Higgins. In this project you are documenting your photos in a simple and easy format. You can do a more traditional approach where you slide your photos and journaling mats into specially designed page protectors or you can even go with her digital versions. I love the focus on the journaling and photos in this project. It looks like an easy way to get your photos organized and documented. So if you are feeling the need to simply get those photos documented this is a great challenge for you.

A Week in the Life by Ali Edwards. This is a seven day documentary project. Out of all the projects out there this is the one I really want to try in 2012. It's a way to capture your every day life....the simple/mundane/normal things of your life that make your life what it is. I just think this is something I could pass down to my children and say THIS is how we lived our life day to day. I know I could probably choose any week of 2012 to do this project but I think I'm going to keep an eye on Ali's blog to see when she might do hers this year. I'll let you know when I do this project.

MY PERSONAL GOAL - Now to tell you (besides the one little word & a week in the life) what my monthly scrapping goals are. Since I REALLY want to get my 2011 album done before the end of 2012, I have decided that each month this year I will scrap my photos from the same month but from last year. So my goal this month is to scrapbook my most treasured January 2011 photos. Along with that I'm going to try to scrap at least a page or two of current photos....but my main focus will be working on 2011 photos. I'm going to share my monthly pages with your at the end of each month....it will give me some accountability! I also want to work on my recipe book. I started it last year & told you all that I wanted to print a nice recipe book at the end of the year.....um, that never happened. I have been diligent in taking photos of the girls & I cooking different things but I haven't been so great about making recipe pages with them. So my monthly goal for my recipe book is to scrap a recipe from last year & then scrap a recipe that we made this year. That's 2 recipes a month. I think that is doable.

When you are thinking about what scrapping goals you have this year make sure that whatever you decide to do is doable. Don't go on some crazy crash course diet where you'll be burnt out in a week or two. Choose to do something that will challenge you but that won't stress you out. Do something that is fun and purposeful (see - it's my word).

I'm Back! Time for a Sneak Peek, Giveaway & More

2011-12-30T22:16:00.000-05:00

I'm back & after a very restful week with my family I'm ready to begin a new year. I want to thank you all so much for supporting me this past year. It was a wonderful 2011. You all are a great blessing to my family. So, thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

I have a lot of fun things planned for 2012. I'll be continuing the monthly MIS on facebook & the first one will be this Saturday, 1/7 at 7pm EST. So come along, grab the free template & play along with the challenge & you might even win some money to my store! There is also going to be a monthly Gallery Stand Out here at Scrapping with Liz. So make sure you upload your pages to my gallery & your page just might be featured on my blog & if it is you'll get an exclusive freebie from me! You'll also want to make sure you are signed up for my newsletter & are a liker on facebook....because I have this whole pack of Journaling Mats & Masks that I'm just dying to give away! Along with awesome new products, I also have some fun blog posts planned for the year. You won't want to miss any of it.

Now, I'll get on with the sneak peek because I know that's what you really want to see. So here it is. 3 pages made with 1 template! Yup, these new templates are very versatile & you can use them in soooo many ways (I'm not exaggerating). Go below to see what you have to do to win these goodies. I'm releasing two sets with a total of 8 templates this week!

I Used Magical Christmas by Jady Day Studios & Flergs.
Frames from My Girl & Huntington & older kits.

Does this look like something you might want? All you have to do is leave a comment here telling me you want them & you could win them all! I'll choose a winner on 1/4 at 11PM EST. I'll announce the winner here in the comments & on my facebook page. Please keep an eye out to see if you are the winner.

Now, as usual, I'm going to remind you of a few things going on at Scrap Orchard.

And here's the mega for January. It's a steal of a deal.

December Daily "In Quotes" - Final Week

2011-12-28T07:30:00.000-05:00

I'm done!!! I really loved doing this project but I'm happy I'm done. I'm really looking forward to printing this....now if I can only figure out how I want to print it. Anybody have any suggestions?

So let me review with you the last few days leading up to Christmas in case you missed it on facebook.

Oh & be sure to check out Week 1, Week 2 & Week 3 if you missed those.

Can you tell she could hardly wait for Christmas?

I should have recorded her singing this. It was adorable!

This is our Emmie. She didn't even hesitate when she said this. We sponsor two girls through World Vision. Each year the girls browse the World Vision Catalog to figure out what they want to "buy". Then they make up a chart & raise the money by doing odd jobs around the house during the month of December. Emmie wanted to give her "tooth fairy" money away.

She sounded so mature when she said this & it just got me to thinking.....

Truly! You should have seen the light in her eyes when she said this. It's like it clicked. She knew that He is the reason!

I hope I didn't get too sentimental for you all. I know this is something I'm going to cherish in the years to come.

If you all did a December Daily Album I would love to see it. Just hook me up to your gallery or blog. I'll take a look later this week.

I won't have any releases this week. I've been taking a much needed break....besides popping in here to do this blog post.

I'll be back next week with some new stuff for you all! It's going to be a great year!

Blogwear Templates

2011-12-23T07:30:00.000-05:00

Do you have a blog that you'd like to pretty up? Or do you have plans to start a new blog with the New Year? Liz just released a set of blogwear templates to help you give your blog a personalized touch with your digital scrapbook supplies. This set has a couple options to choose from for your background, header, sidebar labels and more. They have a scrappy look with strips and scallops and clustering. Also included in your download is a picture tutorial for installing your images to your Blogger blog. On sale 20% off through 12/29.

A few of us on the team took this opportunity to decorate our blogs. Here are the headers we made, and you can click over to see the rest of the blogs.

Have fun working on your blogs! Thanks for stopping by.

December Daily "In Quotes" Week 3

2011-12-21T07:30:00.000-05:00

Do you want to see more of my December Daily "In Quotes" pages? Well, that's what I'm going to show you today. And here some links to remind you of my little project. Week 1, Week 2 and here's a Freebie & Tutorial to help you get started, well okay, maybe not to get started, since it's well in to December BUT grab the freebie, learn how to resize your templates & you can use the templates for almost anything.

Here goes.

Ah, the oblivious child. I think every family has one....or should have one. It's quite cute.

I think I have to agree. Hot chocolate is too hot!

Melt my heart.

It's like she's making us feel guilty for telling her the truth about Santa.

I'm not going there.

Sisters. :)

My daughter did indeed eat Frosty's head & she told me it was delicious.

Maybe I shouldn't have put the Christmas tree up until the day before Christmas.....but what's the fun in that?

I can't believe I only have 5 days left! I'll be back next week, after Christmas (shwew!), to show you my last few pages.

And remember, even if you don't do a daily page or daily photo or daily whatever.....at least jot down some of your memories. You can scrap 'em later, after the holidays, when things aren't so crazy, right?

Sneak Peek & Giveaway

2011-12-19T07:30:00.000-05:00

Today's sneak peek might puzzle you. I'm wondering if you can figure out what kind of templates they might be? Well, I'm not going to tell you but you can take your guess. I had a lot of fun making these & my team had a lot of fun using them. They might not be something you can or would use BUT don't take your chances. Go ahead and enter the giveaway by leaving a comment here. I'll choose a winner on 12/21 at 11pm EST. I'll announce the winners here in the comments & on my facebook page. If you win & it's something you can't use then I'll choose another winner. Sound good?

Before I leave you to your normal Monday activities I'm going to remind you of a few things going on over at Scrap Orchard.

Here's this months Mega. It's what I used to make my Christmas Card. It's gorgeous, packed with a whole bunch of fun stuff.

50% OFF Sale, New templates, Freebies

2011-12-15T00:00:00.000-05:00

It's here! It's Liz's day to have her store 50% off, as part of the Scrap Orchard Advent promotion. Today, December 15th only.

*All sales, specials and promotions are based on Eastern Time Zone.
Coupons, Plum Perks and sales cannot be combined.

Even the new releases I've got ready to show you are 50% off! Liz made the Celebrate collection with the theme of scrapping for a party - starting with invitations and ending with your layouts. You'll find lots of scallops, clusters and paper layering. Whether you like double pages or singles, a little or a lot of journaling, there are all kinds of options. You can buy the bundle of all the products or pick the single sets. Images are linked.

To close, here are some freebies (images linked). This first is the Scrap Orchard Advent Freebie, also available in the Scrap Orchard Newsletter. This freebie is only available for 24 hours.

And here is a Page Starter freebie. Enjoy!

Resizing a Card Template Video Tutorial with FREE Templates!

2011-12-14T07:30:00.000-05:00

As promised here's a little video tutorial to show you how to resize a template. This is just a basic tutorial (I'm using Photoshop CS3) that will show you how to turn a 4x6 into a 5x7, 4x8 and even an 8x8. Ultimately you could take any size template & adjust it to fit any size that you want. A rectangular shaped template may need more adjusting if you try to change it into a square design. It all depends on the design of the template.

Here are the FREE 4x6 card templates. I made them based off of my December Daily "In Quotes" pages that I've been doing. Feel free to just use these as photo templates too. All you have to do is remove the journaling part & place a photo there instead. Just click on the pic to download.

Download includes layered .psd & .tiff files with drop shadows Individual unshadowed .png files
Layered .page files for use with SBC+3

Let me know if you have any questions.

December Daily "In Quotes" - Week 2

2011-12-13T07:30:00.000-05:00

I'm back to show you my December Daily pages from this past week. If you missed my post last week about what I'm doing you can read about it here.

I left off at day 6. So here we are starting on day 7. Day 7's quote had me in tears. Kyla can not wait until we go get her little baby sister. She's ready to have a playmate & someone that will be her best friend. For those of you who might not know we are going through the adoption process. Read more about that here.

This was just the most precious site I ever saw. I really should have taken a picture.

Oh the joys of having a 4 year old redecorate the Christmas tree!

Check out Andrew Peterson's Behold the Lamb of God Album. It's not your traditional Christmas music but it tells "the true tall tale of the coming of Christ".

My hubby & I got to do a little Christmas shopping by ourselves followed by a nice little dinner.

Emmie likes to make me laugh!

That's it for now but make sure you stop by the blog tomorrow for some FREE template based off of my December Daily pages. Plus there will be a video tutorial to go along with the card templates.

It's A Wonderful Week! Sneak Peek & Giveaway

2011-12-12T07:30:00.000-05:00

It's going to be a wonderful week here on my blog! You won't want to miss any of it. Today I'm starting of with my normal sneak peek & giveaway. Tomorrow I'll show you all my December Daily pages & then on Wednesday I'm going to have a special video tutorial along with some freebies to go along with the tutorial! On Thursday I have something extra special for you....you'll just have to wait & see what it is!

So for now, the sneak peek. This is a REALLY fun set of templates. Actually there are 4 individual sets, something for everyone! If you want to win them ALL just leave a comment here & I'll choose a winner around 11pm EST on 12/14/11. I'll announce the winner in the comments & on my facebook page.

And of course before I leave you here are some things going on at Scrap Orchard.

There's a new category in the market! It will help you with all of your Project 365/52/12 challenges. Reminds me, I need to go move some of my stuff into that category!

And if you don't know about the Scrap Orchard Advent Event it's not too late to participate. Every day leading up to Christmas there is a freebie & special sale going on. Sign up for their newsletter so you can keep up to date on the freebies & sales! Here's a preview of what you can get for FREE!

Okay, I think that's it! Remember to come back the rest of the week for some more fun.

Recyclables 8

2011-12-09T07:00:00.000-05:00

Fresh in the Market is Recyclables 8. This set contains seven digital scrapbook templates that were recent freebies on the blog, newsletter, Facebook or at Scrap Orchard. There is a variety of full page design and white space; some have a very blocked arrangement and some are more freestyle. There are plenty of fun paper strips, and one design has custom wavy text paths.

Recyclables are a great way to sample a variety of Liz's templates for a great price. And if you get them in the first week, you save even more - these are 20% off through 12/15. Newsletter subscribers often receive a special code for even more savings, so be sure to subscribe for future savings.

Recyclables 8

The team had a blast with these ones - here are just a few of the layouts they made.

Thanks for stopping by!

December Daily "In Quotes"

2011-12-07T07:00:00.000-05:00

Here's my little twist on December Daily. If you don't know what December Daily is you can check out Ali Edward's projects. It's basically documenting 1 story for every day leading up to Christmas. You can do it through pics, scrapbook pages, journaling, etc... Whatever works for you.

Anyway, since I knew taking daily pics was just not going to work for me, (believe it or not I'm horrible at remembering to take pics every day) I decided to do my pages with quotes. I'm trying to write down a quote from one of my girls every day & then scrapbook it on a 4x6 card. I think I'm going to end up with a really nice little album that I'm going to love reading every Christmas. I'm still trying to decide how I might print it out. I'll let you know what I decide to do.

So here are my pages so far.

I've chose Magical Christmas by Jady Day Studio & Flergs to scrap all of my quotes.

For those of you who might be wondering what Window Wonderlands is, it's an event where our little town decorates the downtown area & people sit in the windows of the little shops and are dressed up in old-timey costumes. The little businesses have hot cider, hot chocolate and cookies. There's music & even carriage rides. We've gone every year since we've lived here. It kinda reminds me of something you would see on Gilmore Girls in their little town....have you ever watched that?

On Day 5 I didn't get a quote but as I was pre-making my page hoping to hear something from my little girls I heard my hubby reading to them. It was perfect.

I should mention that Lucy is our cat, for those of you who might be wondering who Lucy is.

So that's what I have so far. I'll be sharing my pages weekly on my blog but if you want to see daily updates make sure you check out my facebook. I've been trying to post them there at the end of each day.

And Anita wanted to know if I was going to be making these into templates & selling them. Since I don't have time to put together a whole album right now I think what I'll do is turn a few of them into templates & then just give them away here on my blog & facebook for free! Sound good? I'll keep you posted.

Also, my friend Kami has a little December Daily freebie on her blog. It will help you with your daily pages or photos. Plus you might want to check out her December Daily photos for inspiration.

That's it for now!

Sneak Peek, Giveaway & VEGAS!

2011-12-05T14:50:00.001-05:00

I'm not giving away a trip to Vegas. Don't get too excited. I just decided that I'm going to go to Digiscrapapalooza next year!

I went last year & I had so much fun handing out prizes & meeting all my digital scrapbook friends that I thought I should go again this year. It's going to be even bigger & better! So if you haven't thought about it yet go head over to the Digiscrapaplooza blog to read more about it. It's going to be March 22-24, 2012. If you decided to go make sure you let me know because I would love to meet you.

And make sure you use this coupon when you register. You'll save 20$ plus you'll get a spot on my Vegas team.

Just go here to register.

Now that I've told you all about that I'll give you a little sneak peek of what I have coming out this weekend. It's nothing new, it might be something you already grabbed from me or you might have missed a few of them. Either way it's a great mix of templates & it will be a steal of a deal at an extra 20% off when it is released. So, with all that said I'm still going to do a giveaway just in case you might have missed some & would like all of them. All you have to do is leave a comment here letting me know if you are planning on or thinking about coming to Digiscrapapalooza. I'll choose a winner on 12/7/11 at 11pm EST time. I'll announce it in the comments here & on my facebook.

I need to update you all on a few other things too. There will be no December Blog Template Challenge this month but don't worry there will be some freebies coming your way in the next few weeks to make up for it. I do need to announce the $10 winner of our November Blog Template Challenge and it's JoyfullyOrange in Heaven. You can check out her 2011 CD Case calendar cover here. Congrats-I'll be sending your code soon!

Also, Tracy has started hosting a Facebook Template Make it Snappy on my facebook. It's going to be the first Saturday of every month. I'll keep you updated on the times. Everyone will get a free template from me & then everyone who plays along has a chance to win $10 to my store. It's a lot of fun! This past Saturday's winner was Carla!

Before I go I'm just going to remind you of a few things going on over at Scrap Orchard.

The December Mega is available now over at Scrap Orchard and you can grab this mega kit for $4 right now! This is what I made my Christmas card with. It's a gorgeous kit.

That's it for now folks! See you tomorrow. I've decided to do a December Daily album & I'm going to show you what I've got done so far.

Year in Review and Top Ten Templates

2011-12-02T07:00:00.000-05:00

Liz has a lot of new releases this week, so I think I will get right to them. They are all along the theme of yearly summaries and lists. Liz coordinated the templates to go with the My Project Year in Review Mega Kit by Captivated Visions, and there are options for all different scrapping styles - single pages, double-pages, a little or a lot of journaling. If you like them all, you can purchase the bundle. All of these are 20% off through 12/8. You can buy the bundle at 25% off! Only 9$ for 8 templates (2 double pagers).

Project: Year in Review - Templates

Project: Year in Review - Journal Templates

Project: Year in Review - Double Templates

Project: Top Ten Templates

Project: Year in Review - Template Bundle

Thanks for stopping by!

2 NEW Video Template Tutorials

2011-11-29T16:26:00.001-05:00

I scrapped this page last week with my new Play a Game Templates.

Click on the image for full credits.

Here is what this template looked like before I started. Quite a bit different.

So I thought I would show you how I changed it up.

Here ya go! I'm using Photoshop CS3.

That's not it. I also made my Christmas Card. I showed you last week. With my new Christmas Card Templates. Here it is in case you missed it.

And here's the template before I started. As you can see I changed the photo spots a bit.

So here's another little video tutorial showing you how to do that. Plus I threw in a little tutorial showing you how I copy my layer styles.

Hope this helps you a little!

Time for a Sneak Peek & Giveaway

2011-11-28T08:00:00.000-05:00

Here's a little sneak peek of what I have coming out on 12/1! Can you believe it's going to be December? These templates are going to help you re-cap the year in a variety of ways & they coordinate perfectly with a kit coming out from Captivated Visions. Everything you'll need to review the year!

If you would like a chance to win them all (8 templates!) then just leave a comment here by 11/30 at 11 pm EST telling me your favorite memory from 2011.

I'll be back a little after 11 to announce the winner! I'll announce it here in the comments & on my facebook.

But before I go I want to remind you of a few things as usual.

Tracy is going to be hosting a Make it Snappy on my blog. Make sure you stop by, grab the free template & play along! You might even win a prize from me!

There will be a Make it Snappy over in the Scrap Orchard Forum too with prizes from Kat!

And today is your last chance to grab all the $1 goodies in the market. I have 20 products for $1!

Sale ends tonight (11/28) at 11:59pm EST.

Happy Monday!

Winner Announced!

2011-11-23T23:26:00.001-05:00

Just stopping in real quick like to announce Monday's winner. Decided to do it in a real post instead of the comments. Mainly because I wanted to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Thank you all for leaving comments & telling me about your Christmas Cards. I really do enjoy reading them.

Tonight's winner is Sandra. She said, "That looks like so much fun! I make my "cards" digitally each year...usually just printed at a photo place one sided. I never made paper cards. I also make a letter full of photos that I print at Staples. Thanks for the chance to win!" Sandra send me an email please at liz *at* scrapping with liz *dot* com. I'll make sure you get all my new products for FREE!

Also don't forget about the $1 sale going on over at Scrap Orchard. I have 20 items in my store for $1, including 6 brand new items!

And since we've talked about Christmas Cards I thought I would show you the one I made for this year.

I used my new Christmas Card Templates 2011.
(which you can get for $1 right now!)
& The December Mega from Scrap Orchard.

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

$1 Farmer's Market with NEW templates!

2011-11-23T00:00:00.000-05:00

The Farmer's Market is here! If it's new to you, twice each year Scrap Orchard has its Farmer's Market full of $1 items, including NEW products. It's the lowest price you will ever get, and any product can only go in the Farmer's Market once, so if there are things on your wish list and you see them in the Farmer's Market, now is the time to grab them for a steal!
The Farmer's Market runs through 11/28.

Liz has 20 products in the Farmer's Market, and 6 of them are NEW! The older products are listed below for your convenience, but here are the new products. Images are linked.

Some beautiful double page templates.

Some Christmas cards and newsletter templates.

Finally, three sets of page templates inspired by different games. I think these are so cool, and could be used for so many purposes - celebrating your love of games and words, documenting your game night traditions, or even for recording some treasured childhood memories.

And here are the rest of Liz's products in the Farmer's Market:

Broken Templates	Chopped Paper Templates	Cut Outs - Templates
Double Temps - Mini Set 1	When You Smile Templates	Ianthine Templates
Fun Fades - Masks	My Happy Place Templates	Matching Masks
Split Paper Masks	Iron Scrapper Templates	Here and Now Templates
Faded Masks & Mats	Focus on the Photo Temps

My Posters

2011-11-22T00:43:00.001-05:00

I recently released a new set of Poster Templates. I actually made them so that I could easily make Christmas gifts for family, namely the grandparents. I also made one for my brother & sister-in-law. I did a little photo shoot with them a few months ago & I had all these lovely photos that I was dying to work with.

So I thought I should show you my finished products, printed & framed.

Warning: Mom, Tiff, & Nana, if you are reading this I guess you know what you'll be getting for Christmas!

I made a 11x14 poster for my SIL & got it printed from Persnickety Prints on their Metallic Paper. It is beautiful.

For this one I used Block Collage Poster Templates.
And Lemony Fresh Revisited by Tracie Stroud.

Right out of the package.

Then I framed it with a black frame.

The only thing I notice is that the pics are a bit close to the frame. It actually looks like little Joe's head is being cut off in this pic. I think it's just the angle of this photo. Next time I'll make sure that heads aren't too close to the edge of the page.

Now for the grandparents I made 16x20 posters & printed them with Persnickety on mounted black foamcore. I absolutely LOVE them. I should have got one printed for myself! This one is for Nana & I made another one for my mom that has all the grandchildren in it. I tied a ribbon around it & I think it will make a lovely gift.

For these I used Calendar Poster Templates and Taylor Made's Sense & Sensability.

Here's a close up.

And a little reminder that you can still grab my poster templates at 20% off until 11/24 & remember that if you purchase Simple Poster Templates, Scrappy Poster Templates, or Block Collage Poster Templates you'll get Calendar Poster Templates for FREE! This offer is only good until 11/24. :)

Try something new this Christmas. There's plenty of time to get your posters printed!

Sneak Peek & Giveaway - Christmas Edition & Some More!

2011-11-21T08:00:00.000-05:00

I have a special treat for you this week! I have 6 brand new templates sets that will be released this week. Two of them are Christmas related, 1 might have something to do with doubles & the other 3 are just plain fun! That's all I'm going to give away for now. You'll have to go on that & the sneak peek pic below to try & figure it out.

Oh & you'll be able to get each of the sets for $1 starting on Wednesday! Read more about the Farmer's Market sale below.

So now that you have an idea of what it might be, would you like a chance to win them all!?! Just leave a comment here letting me know if you make your own Christmas Cards with your digital scrapbook supplies. I would love to know. I've been making my own since I started digital scrapbooking almost 4 years ago. Actually for the past several years I've made a Christmas newsletter with my digi-supplies. I'll announce the winner here in my blog in the comments & on my facebook on Wednesday evening around 11pm EST. So you have until then to leave me a comment.

Now onto some even MORE exciting news. It's time for the Farmer's Market Sale over at Scrap Orchard. I will have 20 products on sale for $1!!! 6 of them being BRAND NEW template packs! With all the other designers over there with their $1 items you definitely don't want to miss this sale!

That's it for now folks. :)

Poster Templates - Free with Purchase

2011-11-18T07:00:00.000-05:00

Liz has a treat for you today: Poster Templates! Use them with your digital scrapbook supplies to make gifts for the holidays. You can also use them for home decor projects. If I remember correctly, Liz said she had some posters printed last Christmas, and her family flipped over them! This time around she just couldn't stop making more designs, so there are four sets now available in the market. And the best part of the deal is ... they come as a FREE WITH PURCHASE offer. You will receive the Calendar Templates FREE with the purchase of any of the others (offer expires 11/24).

Calendar Poster Templates - FREE with the purchase of any of the other sets


Scrappy Poster Templates

Block Collage Poster Templates

Simple Poster Templates

Liz will come back late & show you the posters she printed this year. They look fantastic!

Scrapping Phone Pics

2011-11-16T07:00:00.000-05:00

If you are like me you probably don't go anywhere without your phone & you probably have lots of photos on your phone. Have you ever taken your photos off your phone & scrapped with them? I did for the first time this weekend. I had taken some photos at a concert & I really wanted to scrap them to remember the moment. I think my page turned out pretty good & the photos aren't too bad. So this is just a little inspiration for you to get those pics off your phone & scrap them. It was fun.

Using Perfectly Imperfect Chalk Alpha by WM Squared & Not Fit for Public Revamped by Laura Banasiak & Litabells Designs. Oh & I used a template from Juicy Fruit Temps to get me started.

And if you are interested, these are pics from a NEEDTOBREATHE concert. My favorite band. My 3rd time seeing them live. They are awesome...just sayin'!

For more inspiration I asked my CT to share some pages they've made with their cell phone pics.

This one is from Tiff. She scrapped it for Katie over at The Daily Digi for their Play it Again posts.

Click Photos for full credits.

This one is by Jenn & she used her instagram photos to scrap this fabulous 2 pager.

This one is by Helen. She used her tablet to scrap with this page.

Now go scrap a page with your cell phone photos!

Sneak Peek & Giveaway!

2011-11-15T20:25:00.000-05:00

I am sooooo excited about this weeks new products. I have some digital scrapbook templates that are going to help you create some amazing gifts this Christmas. They can also be used for other projects but my main goal in designing these was to help you make personalized Christmas gifts with your digi-scrapping supplies. That's all you are going to learn about these goodies today. Here's a peek at the templates.

Here's a peek at my finished products.

Sorry mom or Tiff if you are reading this....guess you get a little sneak peek at your Christmas gifts.

In addition to my new templates I used Tracie Stroud's kit Lemony Fresh Revisited.

And in addition to my new templates I used Taylor Made's Sense & Sensability to create this.

You may or may not have figured out what they are but I'm telling you that you won't want to miss out on these. So for this weeks giveaway (valued at $12) just tell me if you have ever given a digital scrapbook personalized gift to someone for Christmas, a Birthday, an Anniversary or any other event. I'll be back on Wednesday at 11pm est to announce the winner.

And before I leave I just wanted to give you a heads up on some stuff going on over at Scrap Orchard.

Scrap Orchard has a bunch of awesome NEW designers.

Come meet them. It's going to be fun.

Baby Shower - Digital Scrapbook Style

2011-11-08T09:13:00.000-05:00

I hosted a baby shower for my wonderful sister-in-law this weekend. I love hosting baby showers. I don't know why, but they are my favorite kind of party. I think it reminds me of those special times when I had my babies & wonderful friends wanted to help me celebrate each time I welcomed a new little baby into our family.

You know me & my digital scrapbook love. So of course I had to incorporate it into the babyshower somehow. The VERY first thing I did before I planned anything was to go find a digi-kit to get some inspiration. I found this beautiful kit from Tracie Stroud. I knew that I wanted to incorporate blues, yellows & greys into my decorations so this kit was perfect!

Then I made this invite with the kit. It's a 5x7 and I got it printed from Persnickety Prints on their pearl stock paper. Let me tell you, it was gorgeous! It looked like I had made some fancy shmancy invites. I displayed the invite at the shower....mainly because it was supposed to be a surprise shower & my SIL hadn't seen the invites yet.

And look at that cake my sister made! It goes perfect with the kit & invite. Oh & I should mention that this surprise baby shower was all my sister's idea. She mentioned it to me & I ran with it (with help from her). Can't believe I didn't think to do it first!

Then I made a "guess the birth date" calendar. I made a 12x12 in photoshop, had it printed at Persnickety. After I got it back I decided it needed a black border. So I trimmed off a little bit of each side and matted it on 12x12 black card stock. Then I punched out little some little circles. Thank goodness I kept my Creative Memories Circle Punchers back from my traditional scrapbooking days! My idea was that people would write their name & then stick their circle (I even had some leftover Creative Memories double sided sticky thingys that I put on the back of each circle) on the day that they thought the baby would be born. So I made this page, got it all ready a few weeks early & guess what?!? To our surprise little baby Sawyer was born 5 weeks early! Thank goodness everyone is doing well. Mom & baby were both at the shower! So needless to say I didn't even need this....but you know what? I put it out at the shower anyway just because it was so cute!

We played guess the clothespins.

I made these up with Tracie's kit. Everyone filled one out & mommy can save them for the baby.

I found this idea here at Babble.com. And don't look too closely or you might notices the I repeated one of the phrases....& it's pretty ironic the one that I repeated!

A game I made with Tracie's kit! Another one found at babble.com (the internet is a wonderful thing!). Everyone filled out the phrases & whoever matched the most phrases with the mommy won a little prize.

Some decorations. Banner made with Tracie's kit & my mini-hybrid banner templates.

I found these at Hobby Lobby. Cute!

Food. What's a party without food. This is the area where I like to delegate! Lots of people helped me make food. Thanks to all that helped!

This was also supposed to be at the party. I found this cute idea on pinterest. Although I can't find the exact place I found it because I didn't pin it to my wall because I was afraid my SIL would see it & wonder why I had pinned it! I kind of put my own twist on it & it turned out really cute, a bouquet of flowers, diapers, socks, onesies, etc.... I ended up bringing it to the hospital when my SIL had her baby. He came early & I didn't want to go empty handed. I already had this made for the shower so I thought it would be perfect to take to the hospital.

Anyway, I just HAD to share all the fun hybrid digi-stuff (& other stuff) I made for her shower.

Hope it inspires you to personalize your parties with some digi-scrapping supplies.

DSD Wrap Up - $25 Winners Announced

2011-11-07T15:17:00.002-05:00

I hope you all had fun this weekend, celebrating Digital Scrapbook Day! I had a busy day hosting a baby shower for my sister-in-law & my hubby had to work in the evening so I was on kid duty. I didn't get any scrapping done but I did get to shop a little & I had some fun on my facebook & in the forums.

Tiff & Tracy both hosted some games for me since I couldn't be around much. I think they did a fabulous job! Thanks Tiff & Tracy! It looks like you all had a fun time too! I think we may even make the template MIS a monthly occurrence!

Just look at some of these photos from the Template MIS that Tracy hosted on my facebook page. You can check them all in my gallery if you want to. There's some great inspiration in there.

By jmljenson - Click on image for full credits.

From scrappy*di. Image linked for full credits.

Okay, now on to what you've been waiting for.

I've been keeping track of everyone who spent over $5 in my store during the DSD sale. I've used random.org to choose the winner for me. Drum roll please!

The first winner of the $25 is: Amy (amycoffeypot) Congrats Amy! I'll be sending you your coupon code soon!

That's not it. Now for everyone who uploaded a layout into my gallery over at Scrap Orchard during the sale was also entered into a $25 giveaway. The winner of that $25 is: Karen 32

Congrats ladies!

And thank you all for supporting me. For uploading your layouts for me to see, for buying stuff, & for participating in the games. You make this job really fun!

So I think that wraps up DSD for this year! I won't have any new releases this week. I'm taking a little break. Just a little break, only for a few days, don't worry! So no Monday Sneak Peek for you BUT I have some awesome stuff ready to go for next week. Some templates that are going to help you make some awesome Christmas gifts....at least I think so....I've already made & ordered some Christmas gifts with them! Be sure to come back next week for a chance to win those & come check out my blog post tomorrow. I'm going to show you pics from the baby shower I hosted. I even used my digi-scrapping skills to make the invite, some games & some decorations!

November Blog Template Challenge

2011-11-06T17:26:00.001-05:00

I didn’trealize this template blog challenge would fall on iDSD weekend!!! This is the first year I have really beenable to participate in the festivities and I am thrilled with the challenges Ihave accomplished. Mostly because it hadbeen SO long since I scrapped for just me. I hope you all have taken advantage of the great sales and all the hardwork that goes on behind the scenes to produce a fun-filled weekend of games,challenges, prize giveaways, etc.

Last month Ichallenged you to create a Christmas card. We had five festive submissions and I will get straight to it!!! There was one that just really popped out at me,therefore, this month’s winner is chosen by me vs. Mr. Random Dot Org. Our winner of the $10 coupon to ScrappingWith Liz is….

Sharongrey8with this jolly card:

I love heruse of the photo mask; I love the photo; I love how she duplicated the samephoto and shifted them and gave them different photo treatments! I love the whole concept and think her familywould love receiving this card in the mail with that beautiful girl exudingChristmas Joy! Congratulations! Thank you to everyone whosubmitted. I hope you enjoyed making yourcards.

What do Ihave up my sleeve this month? Well, didyou all happen to catch these templates back in August when Liz released them?

I don’t knowabout you but I love making calendars for family members at Christmas! What drew me to these particular types ofcalendars were their sizes. Theperpetual style is perfect for attaching magnets to the back for easy placementon a fridge. Or, just hang it up by yourdesk. The CD style again is small enoughto set on a desk, counter or shelf.

Liz createda set of special Calendar Cover Templates just for this month’s challenge. These will allow you to place a cover page oneither the Perpetual or CD calendar you create. That is your challenge! Downloadthe freebie set below and create either a calendar cover page for the CD orPerpetual style calendar.

Here is asample of each for inspiration:

Greenmother(Kimberley) created this FABULOUS cover page for her CD Calendar:

I createdthis using the Perpetual Cover Template:

Here are theRULES:

1. Downloadthe freebie template set HERE

2. Create your layout using either of the templates

3. Upload your completed layout in the ScrappingWith Liz gallery at Scrap Orchard HERE or a photo sharing site of your choice.

4. Come back to this blog post and leave a commentwith a link to your completed layout BY NOVEMBER 30, 2011.

5. Please do not upload it to a site that willrequire me to register in order to view the layout. Use either the Scrapping With Liz gallery orsomeplace such as Photobucket or TinyPic to upload it to.

6. Winner of the $10 coupon will be chosen andannounced the first Sunday in December!

There youhave it! Happy Scrapping! Oh, and for those in the U.S. who will becelebrating Thanksgiving later this month – many blessings to you & yourfamily – may you find much to be thankful for!

Xoxo,

Helen

Blog Post Fix - DSD, New Templates & Freebie

2011-11-04T23:02:00.000-04:00

I made a BIG mistake. While I was updating my freebies page here I accidentally deleted Tiff's post that she did for me for DSD! It was a big long post with all the info about my freebies, giveaways, games, new products, FWP & more.

So now I'm here to fix it.....well, kind of....as much of it as I can anyways.
So really quickly here are some things you want to keep in mind this weekend.

30% off Everything-you already knew that though! Ends 11/6 - so Hurry!

Name That Template Game: Read more about that here!

Facebook Make it Snappy: Tracy will be hosting a template MIS on my facebook on Saturday at 7pm EST. There will be a free template. Plus everyone who participates will receive a 40% off coupon to my store & there will be a grand prize winner as well that will win $10 to my store!

Two Chances to Win $25 to my store: Everyone who purchase $5 or more in my store this weekend will be entered into a giveaway to win $25 to my store and for every layout you post in my gallery here Scrap Orchard you'll be entered into another giveaway to win $25 to my store! I'll announce the winners on Monday's blog post.

Free with Purchase: Buy my new 3's a Charm Templates & Get 3's a Charm Journaling Templates for FREE!

If you click on the images it will take you to the store & you can

see the gorgeous pages my CT made with them!

And last but not least. The freebie that was promised!

Just click the image to download.

*download expired

If I forgot anything I'll keep you posted on facebook!

Video Tutorial: How to Add a Photo Spot

2011-11-01T07:00:00.000-04:00

It's time for another video tutorial. I know I promised this one a while back. This is a basic tutorial that will help you add a photo to a template. Sometimes you have a great template, with a great design but you just need another photospot. Well, this will help you do that.

I'm using Photoshop CS3 in my video tutorial & the template you see is a new template that you'll see in my store this weekend!

And here's my finished page with the four photo spots. Look at all those fun photos!

Using a Life So Sweet by WM Squared & Jady Day Studio

I Scrapped! Sneak Peek! Giveaway!

2011-10-31T08:41:00.000-04:00

Yay! I finally scrapped! I made a new set of templates to release this coming weekend & I just couldn't wait to use them. So for today's sneak peek I'm just going to show you a few of my pages so you can get a feel for what these babies look like. They are more traditional looking but have lots of fun paper layers. Plus there are a few with great places for journaling.

I had a lot of fun scrapping these pages. This first one shows my newest nephew that was just born a little over a week ago. I took these pics & couldn't wait to scrap them. He's so precious!

Sunny with Blue Skies from Sahlin Studio at the-Lily Pad
I got this kit from DigiShopTalk.

And here's a page showing my school room. I thought I should documents something that is such a big part of my life right now.

Using the August Mega - School Rules from Scrap Orchard.

So that's this weeks sneak peek for you. Now for the giveaway. All you have to do is leave a comment here & tell me a little bit about the last page you scrapped. I'll choose a winner Wednesday night (11/2/11) at 11pm EST. I'll come back & announce the winner here in the comments and on my facebook page.

DSD Sneak Peek!

2011-10-28T00:38:00.001-04:00

I have no new releases for you this week because I've been getting ready for Digital Scrapbook Day! I wanted to do some fun stuff for DSD so I decided to focus my time on planning some fun GAMES, FREEBIES & GIVEAWAYS for you. Plus, I don't know if you noticed, but I got this sudden urge to update my blog. I'm still working on but it's getting there.

So, I'm here to give you a sneak peek of what I have planned!

It's going to be a LOT of fun.

Here's a little sneak peek of some freebies I'll have for you.

So be sure to be signed up for my newsletter.

Like my facebook page.

And be watching my blog.

Just so you don't miss any of these goodies.

If you keep up with what's going on you could

have 7 FREE templates by the end of the weekend!

I also have some fun games planned for you where you'll be able to win some coupons to my store.

Game #1: Name that Template!

Tiff will be hosting this game for me in the Scrap Orchard DSD Forum.

So get familiary with your SwL products & you could win.

We'll be playing this game on 11/5. I'll announce next week

what time we'll be doing this game.

Game: 2: Template MIS

Tracy is going to host this game on my facebook page.

It's going to be a ton of fun. You won't want to miss it.

You'll get a free template plus a coupon if you participate &

a chance to win a $10 coupon to my store!

We will be playing this game on the 5th too.

I'll keep you posted on the time.

Additional Giveaways:

Blinkie Love: Make sure you were my blinkie around the forums.

If I spot it you may win some cash to my store!

Win $25 to my store: 2 people will be winning $25 to my store!

You'll have to read more about that next week!

And who knows what else I'll randomly decide to do next weekend. You'll definitely want to keep an eye out on my facebook in case I just randomly start to do some giveaways or games!

And Scrap Orchard is hostings some AWESOME games with some AWESOME prizes! So you won't want to miss that either.

Oh & of course there will be a SALE on EVERYTHING in my store! And not to mention a Free with Purchase that I will have going on with my new release just for DSD weekend!

If you want to get a little shopping done ahead of time here is a 30% off coupon for you to use this weekend.

swl_30offDSDes

Have fun shopping & hope to see you next week for all the fun!

Layout Tips: Lesson 4

2011-10-25T07:00:00.000-04:00

Welcome back to the last little lesson (actually it's a tiny lesson today) in our Layout Tips series. I hope you've learned a little something from them.

Be sure to check out Layout Tips: Lesson 1, Layout Tips: Lesson 2, & Layout Tips: Lesson 3, if you haven't already.

Today I'm just going to share with you a few final tips from my CT that should help you with your digital scrapbook pages.

Tiff: I'm pretty picky with text spacing - the line spacing, especially when it is on top of journaling lines. And I tend to space my lines further apart, especially for handwritten fonts. So in my character window, I play with the leading value until I get it right. And I'll often type in values that are not listed in the pull down menu.

I have a tutorial here on my blog that shows you how to use a text path & at the end of the video it will show you how to change the spacing. I also have another tutorial here that will show you hot to use a text box. Both of these tutorials have freebies to go along with them in case you want to play around with them.

Here are some examples of Tiff's perfect text spacing. Right on the line (perfect!) & I just LOVE her journaling. Something she will definitely not want to forget.

Fun with Opacity Masks by Scrapping with Liz
Paper, clouds (recolored) and alpha (recolored) from Innovative by One Little Bird
Flower (recolored) & epoxy buttons from Conversation Piece no. 4 by One Little Bird & Paislee Press
Lines brush from Conversation Piece no. 5 by One Little Bird & Paislee Press

Template Freeway Map 16 by Roadside Designs
Painted Layers by Scrapping with Liz
Everyday Life #2 by Gina Marie Huff and Cinzia Designs

Jenn: I always journal... something. Whether it be the date or who, but I know my memory won't last forever, and instead of future generations guessing who is in the picture, I include that info!

Now it's my turn. Since Jenn & Tiff are talking about journaling I think I'll go ahead & put in my two cents. I'm with Jenn. I always put a date somewhere on my page. I try to include some journaling to remember the who, what & where. I think as a scrapbooker those are some things we definitely want to remember. A page doesn't always HAVE to have journaling. Not to sound cliché but sometimes a picture can speak a thousand words. But like Jenn said our memory isn't going to last forever and we do want our future generations to know who is in the picture or where & what might be going on.

So remember, it's not always about making your page look the best but it's about preserving those memories.

Now, before I leave you I want to make sure you know about my monthly template challenge going on over at Scrap Orchard. I have a monthly template challenge that is posted in the forum each month. It's usually posted right around the 24th of the month & it's up for 1 month. So it's time for the October challenge. Here'st this months template.

All you have to do is go grab the template & you can play along! Just hop on over to the forum to get it. And lookie there, there's even a journaling spot for you to practice some journaling!

Lots of Photos Templates and Freebie

2011-10-21T07:00:00.002-04:00

Liz was really excited to have some brand new digital scrapbook page templates to release this week. (There were the Envelope Templates last week and Recyclables 7 the week before.) She said she made these templates for herself with specific photos and pages in mind. Aren't we lucky that she shares them with us too?!
The name of this new set says it all – Lots of Photos Templates were designed with the aim of placing a lot of photos on a single page. They are great for event scrapping but can also be used for paper play or pared down to highlight just a few photos. These templates feature playful full-page designs and vary between strong lines and soft edges.

Lots of Photos - Templates

If you are at all overwhelmed by the idea of a lot of photos, just see what the team did with these. They show really well how these templates can be used with just a few or even one photo.

And here is a freebie - an additional Lots of Photos template to add to your set. Just click the pic to download. Enjoy! *Download Expired - Will be available in my shop soon!*

Layout Tips - Lesson 3

2011-10-18T07:00:00.000-04:00

Welcome back to another layout lesson. This is the third lesson in a little serious I'm doing about making your layouts really look great. Today's lesson is about sharpening your layouts before posting in galleries. You can look back at Lesson 1 here (about photos) & Lesson 2 here (about shadows).

Now onto this weeks lesson. These are all tips from me & my CT. I'll just go ahead and post what they said about sharpening & saving your pages for web.

Kristi: I ALWAYS sharpen my layout after resizing for the web. (in PSE 7: Enhance>Unsharp Mask>use these settings: 85%> radius of 1.0 px>4 level threshold) I learned this trick from Stephanie a.k.a. Nanie's Designs.

Tiff: I have also recently started sharpening my web-sized layouts. I use the procedure in this post from The Daily Digi.

Jenn: I have a tutorial on my blog about trimming your layouts to save space. (This isn't really about saving your image for gallery posting but rather just saving some space on your hard drive.)

Just a side note: Jenn has some other great tutorials on her blog. Check them out!

Carrie: I use this action to save for web...and it's free!

Now it's my turn. Ever since I read a tutorial about sharpening on the Scrap Orchard Blog (about a year ago), I've been sharpening my pages before I post them in galleries. I've changed my technique over the last year & I'll probably keep tweaking it.....actually I tweak it almost every time I sharpen a page. Ever since Carrie shared the action from Paislee Press I've been using that as my basis for sharpening. I love the action because you can adjust the Amount, Radius & Threshold to your liking. You can look at your page & preview it & play around & adjust it until you like what you see.

Before sharpening:

All About Me kit from the Scrap Orchard Designers.
Was available in the September Digi Files.

And here's after I used the sharpening/save for web action from Paislee Press.

You can see a slight difference & you might not think it's much BUT when you post your pages in different galleries I guarantee that your pages are really going to stand out & really, with the action, it's only one little click away.

Next week I'm just going to give you some miscellaneous advice from the team about making your layouts amazing. So be sure to come back for that. It will be our last little lesson on making your pages really stand out. If you have an questions please post them here & we'll try to answer them for you in next weeks post.

Sneak Peak & Giveaway

2011-10-17T08:00:00.000-04:00

I finally spent some time scrapbooking! It's about time. I've always liked a lot of photos on a page. I don't know if it's part of my traditional scrapbook background or what but as I was making these new templates I was really thinking about how I wanted to scrap a BUNCH of photos. After I finished up the templates I just HAD to use them. I seriously LOVE this new set of templates. So here's a sneak peek for you & I'm even going to show you the pages I made. So you'll really get a good idea of what is in this new digital scrapbook template pack. :)

Using stuff from Tracie Stroud's Lemony Fresh Revisited Kit & Faith True's Take My Picture Kit. The little tag is from Tracie Stroud's My Bliss Kit (I just love the little tags that Tracie has in her kits).

I used stuff from Kat's Groovy Kinda Love Kit.

Now that you've seen a little sample of my new release....do you want to win it? If you want a chance just leave a comment here telling me your favorite way to scrap your photos. Is it using lots of photos on a page, is it making sure you journal, is it focusing on one photo....how is it that you really like to scrap those photos? You have until 11pm EST on 10/19 to enter & then I'll be choosing a winner & announcing here on my blog (in the comments) & on my facebook.

And just a little reminder that Wednesday night's Make It Snappy over at Scrap Orchard is sponsored by me. Everyone who participates will get a FREE exclusive template from me. Yay! Plus there will be one grand winner who will win a coupon to my store.

That's it for now everyone. Be sure to come back tomorrow for Lesson 3 of my Layout Tips series. Tomorrow we'll be talking about saving & sharpening your page for gallery posting.

Envelope Templates with Freebie

2011-10-14T07:00:00.002-04:00

Are you a gift giver and love to make beautiful cards to present your gift? With Liz's new release you can use your digital scrapbook supplies to make cards and matching envelopes to go with them. And it's a super easy project if you're looking to stick your toe into hybrid scrapping.

Envelope Templates contains three separate envelope designs with matching card inserts. You can even make a beautiful envelope to present a monetary gift card or get creative and make custom invitations to your party. The Envelopes are CU/S4H friendly and are 20% off through 10/20.

Envelope Templates

Here's a little freebie from Liz to help you out with the mini envelope template. It's a mini card template perfect for fitting in that mini envelope. Just click on the picture to download the psd & png versions of this template.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great weekend.

Layout Tips - Lesson 2

2011-10-11T07:00:00.002-04:00

I'm back to share with you some tips on using shadows on your digital scrapbook pages. These are tips from me & my creative team members. You can read last weeks lesson here: Layout Tips: Lesson 1. That lesson is all about photos on your pages.

I'm just going to go ahead and start & share with you what everyone shared about shadows.

Me: Shadows can make or break a layout. I've read a few tutorials on shadows & this is one of my faves. Tiffany pointed me to Peppermint Granber's shadow tutorial. It really is great & if you want to take it to another level you can taker her class over at Big Picture Classes. There's also a great tutorial over at the Digi Files about warping shadows. This is a newer tutorial & I haven't been able to implement it because, sadly, I have not scrapped since September 24th but I'm totally going to try it next time I make a page (which will hopefully, be later tonight after I finish this blog post).

Tiff: One tip I might say for shadows, using the smudge tool, is that I've found that I like my results better when I use a larger distance for the shadow but then when I smudge it, I pull parts of the shadow back toward the element. I find this looks better than trying to pull parts of the shadow away from the element. (She's referring to Peppermint's tutorial above).

For those of you who use PSE & you can't get the shadow on it's own layer like posted in the tutorial above. Tiff shared this way of getting your shadow on it's own layer.

1. While your Shadow Settings window is OPEN (and you've selected a size for the shadow) ... take your mouse and move it over into the canvas area. Click and drag your shadow away from the element, so it is a decent distance away. Click ok to close the shadow settings window.

2. Now, the element and shadow are on the same layer, but are far apart.

3. Drag a selection around the shadow to select it. Go the the menu items (or use a key combination) which will cause that selection to be cut and placed on its own layer. This is the part that I'm not sure the exact commands, but I'm sure you can find it with a little experimentation or googling.

4. Now with the shadow on a separate layer, just move it back under the element (and move the shadow layer to be below the element layer). You can now tweak the shadow with the smudge tool. You might even be able to change the blend mode to linear burn, I'm not sure about that, though.

Jenn: I am a fan of shadows. Love that stuff... I have actions and styles that make life easier. When you find a shadow that you created, SAVE IT! I save sooo many... but then it is easier to work off of that base shadow. Really, I have oodles... for different depths, ellies, and even the opposite edges.

Opposite Edges...

On most of my pages... when there are layered papers, I give the opposite side of the paper (the "unshadowed" side) an actual shadow. I put my main shadow on it's own layer, and then add another shadow.

Here is my layout... well, half.. lol...

My shadows then to go down and to the left... (I took pictures of my old paper layouts to see how shadows worked a little, lol!) -- but if you look to the opposite corner, I have a slight shadow to the paper. Paper doesn't sit totally flat like digi, so adding this makes me think it looks a little more realistic.

I hope these tips from me & my CT have helped you. Make sure you come back next week for Lesson #3. It's going to be about sharpening your pages.

Hybrid Projects, Sneak Peek & Giveaway

2011-10-10T07:00:00.000-04:00

I'm here today to give you a sneak peek, like normal, but I'm also going to show you some hybrid projects I worked on over the weekend.

First the hybrid projects & then the sneak peek & giveaway. I've been seeing all these really cute decorated pumpkins on pinterest & so I thought that this year I would actually try to do something more creative with my pumpkins rather then just setting them on the steps by my doorway. I thought it would be cool to take some of my digi-supplies, print some stuff out & mod podge them to my pumpkins.

This is what you see when you walk in my front door. I used the alpha from All Hallows Eve from Chelle's Creations. It was the perfect alpha for what I wanted to do.

I just printed out the letters W-E-L-C-O-M-E, cut them out & used mod podge to paste them on the pumpkin. I think if I had to do it over again I might shrink the alpha a little bit so you can see the whole word, WELCOME, when you walk in the door. Oh well...there's always next year.

Then I also decorated some smaller pumpkins. I used a retired kit from Tracie Stroud for the little decorations on those pumpkins...but seriously you could mod podge anything from your digi-supplies onto pumpkins, just make sure it's not too tiny to cut out. Forgive me for my poor dying plant there in the picture but I have to have something green in my house even if I can't keep it alive. I try, really I do.

Now onto my next project. We have a plain, white bench down in our basement that our girls sit at when they are doing their schoolwork (or playing) on the computer. It's a long bench so they can all three sit on it. Anyway, this white bench has been staring at me for several months, saying, "Do something, I'm soooo boring & plain." So, again, I saw some ideas on pinterest (can you tell that I love pinterest) showing how people have used Mod Podge & scrapbook paper to fix up old bookcases & such. I thought that would be perfect for this bench. So I went searching for the perfect paper. I finally found some over at Scrap Matters, it's from the paper pack called Dandelion Dream by dream BIG designs. I printed out about 5 sheets on normal paper & then just mod podged them to the top of the bench. Seriously, it was soooo easy. The Mod Podge did discolor the paper a bit. I don't know if it was the cheapo paper or just that I used paper I printed myself. I don't know if it would be different if you went & bought traditional paper. Either way, it still looked nice. At least I think it does.

I had to make them get off the bench so I could take a picture.

Finally time for the sneak peek. I have something hybrid for you this week. What a coincidence? Now, don't worry, if you don't really do hybrid I'll have some new 12x12 templates for you next week & they are awesome. One of my faves yet. Back to this week though. These new hybrid templates are going to be awesome....especially great for the holidays. That's all I'm going to say.

If you want a chance to win them, just leave me a comment here letting me know if you've done a DIY project lately & what it was. I LOVE hearing about other peoples projects. I think that's why I like pinterest so much. You have until 11pm EST on Wednesday 10/12/11 & I'll announce the winner here in the comments & then on my facebook page on Wednesday night.

Don't leave me yet. I have a few things to show you from Scrap Orchard.

Recyclables 7

2011-10-07T07:00:00.002-04:00

Liz has a new set of Recyclables. Recyclables are digital scrapbook page templates and scrapping basics that were freebies in the recent past, now placed in the market for sale. They are great samplers of Liz's designs. They are really fun because they often have a lot of variety. This set has quite a bit of blocked designs, but that circle one is really cool. I made a layout with that one, and I'm in love with it.

Recyclables 7 is a playful set of page templates, as well as three layered journaling mats to add to your stash of basic supplies. You will find plenty of paper play with strips and scallops and a variety of journaling presence. This collection is CU/S4H friendly and priced 20% off through 10/13.

Recyclables 7

All are so beautiful. Isn't this a fun set of templates? Thanks for stopping by, and have a great weekend!

Oh, one more thing! Did you know the Scrap Orchard Blog has all kinds of new content? Everyday is a different theme, including free templates on Thursdays. Liz has a contribution up right now! Go grab it!

Layout Tips - Lesson 1

2011-10-04T07:00:00.001-04:00

We could all use a little help making our digital scrapbook layouts really pop in the galleries, right? I had asked my creative team to give me some of their tips telling me what made their layouts pop & I shared some of my tips with them. There were so many great tips being shared that I thought it would be great to share them with you here on the blog.

I decided to split this post into a few different "lessons" since there were so many great tips being shared....it would be too long if I tried to share it in one post.

I'm just going to share what my CT & I shared with each other.

This week's lesson is about photos, photos, photos.

Me: Make sure you use awesome photos or do a little photo editing to make your photos look really nice With some photo editing you can make a bad photo look pretty good. I will either run an action on my photos to give them a special touch or I will just brighten them up a bit (Image>Adjustments>Brightness Contrast) or I play with the curves a little bit (Ctrl+M). Some of my favorite actions sites are My4Hens, MCP Actions & Indie Actions. Sometimes these places have free actions....so keep your eyes out. Oh & I just discovered the MCP Actions have some GREAT video tutorials.

Here's a great tip from Tiff about including pics of yourself in layouts & maybe a more comfortable way to do that.

Tiff: I know a lot of people don't like to take pictures of themselves, or are not usually in pictures. I have found that I'm a lot happier with pictures taken of myself in the mirror. I think it's because the mirror image is what I'm used to seeing, so I feel more comfortable with that.

Oh & did you know Tiff has a photo-editing tutorial right here on the blog?

Christine: I always, or at least 95% of the time, use some sort of action on my photos. If I don't I will play with the lighting/contrast a little bit. I have a lot of old photos that I scanned and there is only so much you can do with those...I really need some good tips of fixing those. (Anyone have any good tips for Christine?)

Dagi: I use PS lightroom for editing my photos and I love it! There are so many free LR presets out there.
(Hmmm, I need to check this out!)

Some great tips & thing to try out. Let me show you a little example of a simple photo edit that you can do to make your photo stand out. I'm going to just brighten up my photo with the technique that I shared at the beginning of this post. You can either do this to the photo before you add it to your digital scrapbook page or you can edit the photo as it is on the page you are working on. Sometimes I'll think a picture looks okay but after I add it to my page it just needs something extra to make it pop out. You can easily do this photo edit as it is on your page, just make sure you are on that photos layer. Go to Image>Adjustments>Brightness Contrast & you'll adjust the brightness & contrast there.

Here is the photo before any edits:

Without any edits.

Here is the photo after I brightened it up a bit. I set my Brightness to 40 & my Contrast to 30. The settings won't be the same for every photo. I play around with it on each of my photos. Be sure to turn the preview button on and off so you can see the before & after. It really can be a lot of fun!

Image>Adjustments>Brightness>Contrast
40 brightness, 30 contrast

Now here is the photo again with an action. I used the Indie Kick Color Action from Indie Actions. Actions are super fun, super easy ways to edit your photos. You simply download & install the action into photoshop & then run the action on your photo. Just a click of a button & you'll have a super awesome photo. Make sure you run the action on the photo before you add it to your page though, otherwise all sorts of crazy might happen on the page you are working on.

Edited with Indie Kick Photo Action.

Okay, that's all I have time for now but be sure to come back next week for a little lesson on shadows! The CT had a LOT to say about this subject!

Sneak Peek Monday & Giveaway!

2011-10-03T07:00:00.000-04:00

Happy Monday everyone! I had a wonderful weekend. We are starting to feel fall like around here. 50 degree weather, pumpkin spice candles, soups simmering on the stove, fire in the fire pit & sweatpants & sweatshirts....that's pretty much what my weekend looked like! Hope yours was as cozy & enjoyable as mine.

Here's this week's Sneak Peek for you. Some of this might look familiar to you but some of it might be new to you. It's a new set of Recyclables.....if you aren't sure what that means just go to my store & look at my other Recyclables sets & you'll get the picture.

This set includes 7 templates & some other goodies! So if you want a chance to win them (if you've missed some of my previous freebies) then all you've got to do is leave a comment here telling me your favorite thing about fall. Mine would have to be the smells of fall: pumpkin, stews, smell of our fire pit, etc...

And here's some stuff coming up at Scrap Orchard!

Oh & here is something you DON'T want to miss out on.
If you head on over to the Digiscrapaplooza blog, there is a giveaway going on over there. It's from 7gypsies & you can win all of this goodness!

Hope you all have a fabulous Monday! Off to bake something yummy for bkfst & start some school with my kiddos . Okay, I'll be honest, I'm typing out this blog post at 10pm on Sunday night but tomorrow when you read this I will probably be feeding my kids bkfst (hopefully baking something yummy, since it is fall & that's a good enough excuse to bake something yummy for bkfst) & starting school work with them. :)

October Blog Template Challenge!!!

2011-10-02T02:21:00.004-04:00

Good morning everyone. Can you believe it is time for another blog template challenge? I cannot believe it has been a month already. Since last month the weather in my neck of the woods has turned from hot & humid to crisp & cool. The leaves are starting to make their transformation from green to an autumn mixture of yellow, orange, burgundy & browns! You can smell the chimney smoke when you walk outside in the evening – ahhh, I just love this time of year.

I hope you will forgive the hurried post this month. This past two weeks has seen some big changes in my life. Last Sunday I decided to have a last minute yard sale the following weekend (yesterday), which had me busy every evening preparing. Friday was the kick off to a weight loss challenge I am hosting and that has been NO easy task…let me tell ya! It is now after 1 a.m. as I get to this post. Will life ever slow down? Okay, enough whining and on to the winner from September’s challenge….

We had 16 wonderful layouts submitted and thanks to Random(dot) org our winner is:

Tiscia

And just look at her adorable page:

CONGRATS! Liz will be sending you a $10 coupon shortly!! Be sure to go leave Tiscia some love in her gallery post HERE

Now, on to October’s challenge! This is the time of year when we begin thinking about the Christmas season ahead. I know, most of you probably don’t want to be reminded. However, I hope this challenge will get you “in the mood” & prepared. This is the template I chose for the challenge:

It is from the set, Christmas Card Temps, which can be found HERE

You got it! I want you to create a Christmas card. You do not need to print it but if you feel in the hybrid mood please free to print and decorate with real elements as your heart desires.

THE RULES:

1. Download your freebie template HERE

2. Create your Christmas card & upload it by October 31, 2011 to either the Scrapping With Liz gallery HERE or to a photo sharing site of your choice.

3. Then, come back to this blog post and leave a comment along with a link to your complete card.

4. A winner will be chosen & announced in the first Sunday’s blog post of November and that lucky person will win a $10 coupon to Scrapping With Liz!!!

And, here is the card I created using Lindsay Riches kit, Winter Heart:

Happy Scrapping!

Helen

Spark Templates

2011-09-30T07:00:00.001-04:00

Liz has a beautiful set of new digital scrapbook templates in the market. It was inspired by a gorgeous kit by Faith True called Spark, which celebrates the difference we can make in our world. The templates are licensed for CU/S4H use, and all new releases at Scrap Orchard are 20% off for the first week.

Spark Templates are a unique mix of elegant details, strong geometric lines and modest decoration. Taking from the vintage elements of Faith's kit, the script fonts and oval framing lend an elegant feel to these templates. The simple cluster work keeps the focus on your photos and storytelling.

Spark Templates

And here is Faith's Spark kit:

Spark

Thanks for stopping by!

Photography & My Weekend

2011-09-27T07:00:00.007-04:00

I just finished a photography class over at Big Picture Classes, Mastering Manual Mode by Elisha Snow. I don't think it's being offered right now but they may offer it again. I just finished up the 8 week class & I've been practicing my photography skills over the last 8 weeks. So I thought I would share with you some pics I took this weekend...on manual mode! I can't wait to scap some of these photos!

Our church had a family camping trip. This is a photo I took at dusk.

Another one. What's camping without playing in the fire.

By the campfire. There is no way I could have gotten

a shot like this in auto mode.

This is my brother & sister-in-law & their 3 little boys.

We did a "photoshoot" downtown.

I wanted to practice :)

Pin It

(I'm trying out this pin it button, we'll see if it works!)

Aren't they adorable & there's a nother little boy on the way!

I just had to add the caption in the blank space....it was just asking for it.

Another one. I think this was the fave.

I used a free action from My4Hens Photography to spruce up this photo a bit.

And then me & my hubby went hiking this weekend. All by ourselves!

I never get pics of just me & my hubby so I brought along the

tripod & set the self timer so that I could remember our hike.

This is my hubby....always being goofy.

But I do love him, very much! Trudging my camera bag all around for me.

Anyway, there's a lot more I want to learn but I think I'm off to a good start....after all, I've had my DSLR for 3 years now, it's about time!

Photo Blends and Cupcake Wrappers (freebie too!)

2011-09-23T07:00:00.000-04:00

A fun and simple hybrid project and a beautiful new set of digital scrapbook templates are now in the market. These new releases are CU/S4H friendly and are 20% off through 9/29.

Photo Blends Templates feature large faded masks paired with traditional photo spots. The faded masks are perfect for blending large accent photos into the background. Adorned with scallops, foliage and flower clustering, these templates have a feminine feel, but can be used just as easily for masculine pages.

Photo Blends Templates

Give your cupcakes an extra special touch with these Cupcake Wrapper Templates! Using digital, get the look of layered scallops without cutting by hand or the need of a cutting machine. Three different scallop styles are included, as well as one version with a text path along the top of the wrapper.

Cupcake Wrapper Templates

Your freebie is a set of hybrid Cake Pop and Cupcake Toppers. Enjoy!

CT Photo Swap - See what we did!

2011-09-20T07:00:00.000-04:00

A couple of weeks ago Dagi, one of my Creative Team Members, asked the team if they had any girl photos that she could use to digi-scrap with. She has a little boy & she needed some girl photos to work with. We discovered that there were a few people on the team who had only boy pics to scrap. So those of us who had girls started sharing our pics. Then I realized that I had only ever scrapped girl pages. I had never scrapped any boy photos! So I thought it would be neat for the whole team to do a photo swap & scrap for each other. Let me tell you, it was a blast. Here are the pages we came up with. Warning: There are a LOT of pages but they are all beautiful! Most of them are linked for full credits & some have the credits under the photo.

Helen made this page for me with a pic of my youngest daughter. Isn't it just beautiful? She really made those beautiful blue eyes pop out with the colors she chose to scrap with.

Using Yin & Yang Templates & a Kit from Amy Stoffel called Fresh Start.

And I made this one for Helen, using pictures of her nephews & Dad.

Dagi made this one for Christine.

I made this one for Dagi. It is really fun scrapping boy pages!

Dagi made this one for me. I just love the white background on this page.

She did a great job scrapping this photo, don't you think?

Tiff made this page for Christine.

Tiff made this page for me. Isn't it just beautiful!?! She really captured by daughter's spirit with this page.

I scrapped this one for Tiff.

Tracy scrapped this one for Dagi.

Lenka scrapped this one for Tracy.

Kristi scrapped this one for Lenka.

Lenka Scrapped this one for Kristi.

Tiff made this one for Tracy.

Tracy made this one for Tiff.

And Tracy made this one for Lenka.

Here's one I did for Lenka.

And one I did for Kristi.

Here's one Kristi made for me. I like seeing someone else scrap in a way that I don't normally scrap. Lots of clustering & layering....love it!

Here's one Tracy made for Kristi.

Kristi made this one for Tracy.

Christine made this one for me. I'll leave you with this one & all those smiling pics of my girls.

I think Christine might have had a little bit of fun scrapping this girly page!

So go out & scrap some of your friends photos. It is really fun & it can really give your creativity a boost.

Sneak Peek Monday & Giveaway

2011-09-19T07:00:00.002-04:00

I had a fun weekend with my family. We spent a few days at a cabin with all of my siblings, their spouses, my nieces & nephews, & my parents. We had a lot of fun but I'm glad to be back to my own home & INTERNET!

So I'm back to my routine & it's the normal Monday Sneak Peek & Giveaway today. I have two new releases for you. One is pretty standard (but still fun) & the other is something hybrid. Can you guess what it is?

Now for the giveaway. Just leave a comment here on the blog telling me a fun thing you did this weekend. You have until 9/21 at 12am EST. Then I'll announce the winner in the comments here & on my facebook page after midnight on 9/21.

As usual here is some fun stuff going on at the Orchard.
Make it Snappy with prizes by Laura Banasiak on Wednesday at 10pm in the Scrap Orchard Challenge Forum.

And if you are going to Digiscrapapalooza you don't want to miss out on your chance to get a free digiscrapapalooza hotel room! Click on photo for more details.

That's it for now folks. Now back to the regular craziness that is Monday.

Strips & Photo Templates, Inspiration Starters

2011-09-16T11:26:00.000-04:00

There are two new releases in the market. These were made for a guest spot over at Log Your Memory & are now being released at Scrap Orchard. These releases are CU/S4H friendly and are 20% off through 9/22.

Inspiration Starters is a set of scrapping basics. It includes matted photo spots with paired journaling, pie charts, time lines, two circular text paths and a faded mask. You'll also find word-art and an alphabet that are based around the journey of personal growth. Whether the word-art inspires you to scrap about your own growth, or the journalers or time-line templates help you organize your layout, you will find these tools to be useful time and time again.

Inspiration Starters

Strips & Photo Templates were inspired by paper pieces, strips and ribbons. The overall design is built on blocked arrangements, but the strips and angles makes these pages very playful. This is a fun set with a mix of full page design and white space. There are spots for large and small photos, and there is ample space devoted to storytelling.

Strips & Photo Templates

Using Inspiration Starters

Using Strips & Photo Templates

Thanks for stopping by!

Sneak Peek Tuesday?!?

2011-09-13T07:00:00.000-04:00

I'm mixin' things up a bit this week & doing my sneak peek today instead of yesterday. Maybe it has something to do with procrastination, I don't know, or maybe it's because I just need to change things up every once in awhile. Either way, here it is for you today. It's actually something I put together for my guest spot over at Log Your Memory. You can go on over to their blog today & enter to win one of the sets (*hint, hint* If you go on over to Log Your Memory you can see a full preview of one of the sets) but just in case you don't win it over there you'll be able to grab both sets in my store on Thursday. Plus there's a chance to win them, right here, on my blog. Just leave me a comment & I'll choose a winner tomorrow night (Wednesday 9/14 at 12am EST).

And don't forget this week's Make it Snappy over at Scrap Orchard.

You can win prizes from Ziggle Designs!

I also wanted to tell you that the Scrap Orchard Blog is really happening lately. They have a few new features including:

Short 'n' Sweet Sunday

Mixed Media Monday

Tuesday Tutorial

Word Art Wednesdays

Template Thursday

Find it Friday

iSpy Saturday

You should really check these posts out.....especially last week's Template Thursday. Just sayin' you might find something FREE from me! Happy Tuesday!

How to Change a Template - Video Tutorial

2011-09-12T07:00:00.000-04:00

I know it's supposed to be Sneak Peek Monday but I decided to switch things up a bit. Don't worry, you'll still get a sneak peek & chance to win my new products but you'll have to wait until tomorrow.

I decided to make a really quick video tutorial to show you how to edit a digital scrapbook template. You know how sometimes you have a template you really want to use but there are too many photo spots or maybe the photo spots are too small & you need to change it up a little bit? This little video will help you do that. I realize, after already making the video & uploading it to YouTube, that I totally forgot to show you how to add photo spots....that will have to wait for another post (very soon) but this should help you a little bit for now.

I'm using a template that I made for a new feature on the Scrap Orchard blog called Template Thursday. You can go grab the template now (for a limited time) & try this tutorial out if you want to or if this tutorial is easy peasy for you & you already know how to do this then you can just go on over & grab the template & totally ignore this post. :)

I've finally learned the proper way to upload videos to YouTube & I'm going to work on uploading some of my older video tutorials to YouTube so that they will be better quality....yay! Just to warn you, if you check out my YouTube channel, my other videos out there are of my kids. There is absolutely nothing to do with digital scrapbooking in them.....but some of them are cute! There are also a couple of videos I did for a Scrap Orchard 'Get to know you' thing that we did in the forum, just in case you were wondering why me & my kids are answering a bunch of unimportant questions.

That's it for now folks. See you tomorrow for the sneak peek.

New Double Temps & Fun Fades & Freebie

2011-09-08T07:00:00.003-04:00

The winner from Monday's Sneak Peek was MandaK. Congrats Amanda, hope you have fun playing with the templates and masks.

A mini set of double-page templates and some new faded masks are in the market. Both of these new products are CU/S4H and CT friendly, priced at 20% off through 9/15.

Double Temps - Mini Set 1 has large photos with classic paper-style matting behind the photos and paper. They're prettied up with bold banners and cute element clusters. Plenty of space is reserved for your storytelling, if you so desire.

Double Temps - Mini Set 1

Fun Fades - Masks is a new addition to the line of faded masks. These masks are large (some of the files are 10 inches across). The faded edges are overlaid with the silhouettes of star patterns, flowers, paint sprays or brush strokes. There are so many ways you can use these - simply as a clipping mask for your photo, or you can layer them under your photo with color fills, glitter or paper.

Fun Fades - Masks

Using Fun Fades - Masks

Your freebie is an additional Fun Fade mask to add to your set. Enjoy!

Update! I made a big blunder in my newsletter this week & mixed up the freebies sooooo I'm posting them both here for anybody who might have missed them. This is the one that was supposed to be in my newsletter. Hope you'll forgive me!

The links have been updated correctly even though they have the wrong names!

How do I print my Double Page layout?

2011-09-08T07:00:00.001-04:00

I don’t know about you but I am growing to love double page templates the more I create lasting pages with them! However, there is one question that I keep hearing from people….”how do you take a 24x12 layout and prepare it for sending to the printer?” Liz did a video tutorial on the blog about this very topic recently and I found it very useful as I like her way of doing it better than my way. You can see that video HERE. Still, it is always good to show a few different ways to do things because what may seem simple to one person may not to another. Therefore, I asked Liz if I could create a tutorial of screenshots depicting my “soon-to-be-former” way of trimming your 24x12 completed layout into two separate 12x12 layouts for printing while preserving your original 24x12 layout. By the way, I use Photoshop CS5, therefore, this may differ if you use a different program. So, here goes…

Screenshot #1 – just shows my original 24x12 complete layout….

Screenshot #2 – As indicated by the red arrows in the shot, choose your cropping tool from the left toolbar. Next, type in the width & height to show 12 in by 12 in. And, finally, make sure your resolution is at 300 pixels/inch.

Screenshot #3 – beginning in the upper left corner of your 24x12 layout, hold the left side of your mouse while dragging it diagonally toward the bottom right corner. Marching ants will appear around the left side portion of your layout. When you release your mouse the right side becomes darker. Press ENTER to apply.

Screenshot #4 – after you apply the action the right side of your layout will disappear but don’t worry as we will get it back. Now, save this 12x12 image however you normally do for printing. Make sure to “save as” and name it something different from how you named the 24x12 layout so you do not override it by mistake. Next, press CTRL Z or at the top of your screen choose Edit and then Undo or Step Backward and you will get your original 24x12 layout back……

Screenshot #5 – just shows you the drop down box under Edit.

Screenshot #6 – See? Didn’t I tell you it would come back? Now you just repeat steps #2 - #5 on the right side and you will have successfully prepared your 24x12 layout for printing as (2) 12x12 layouts!!

And there you have it….Helen’s way! I hope that maybe this helps you or someone you know that is looking for a way to take their 24x12 layout and turn it in to two separate 12x12 layouts for printing.

My Pinterest Projects

2011-09-06T07:00:00.000-04:00

If you've never heard of Pinterest it's about time you did! It's a great place to get inspiration for everything from organization, recipes, decorating projects, personal style, kid projects, hair styles, scrapbooking, and the list goes on! Steph over at the Daily Digi did a great post on describing Pinterest. I'll let you read that if you aren't sure what it is but right now I want to show you some of the projects I've done this summer inspired by things I found on pinterest.

Here's the first one:

I saw a this painted stenciled wall on pinterest & 'pinned' it to my 'Home Ideas' board. I knew I wanted a painted stenciled wall somewhere in my house but I wasn't sure where. After thinking about it for a couple of months & realizing that there was NO WAY my hubby would let me paint that pattern in our living room I decided to try a small wall in the my girls' bedroom. After I convinced my hubby that I wasn't crazy for wanting to stencil & paint that pattern on the wall I started the project.....it only took me a week to complete it (can you sense the sarcasm)! I was a little nervous about it, wondering if it would look horrible & thinking that I was going to have to repaint the wall, but I think it turned out looking really good. What's best of all is that my girls LOVE it! Go on over to Trial & Style to see where the idea originally came from & to get instructions on how to do it....if you are crazy enough!

Here's the next project:

Hanging Book Display

My littlest girl was feeling a little left out after I had repainted the older girls' bedroom so I wanted to do something special for her in her bedroom. She has a stack of books she likes to look through every night & so I thought it might be nice for her to have a bookshelf right next to her bed. So what did I do? I went to pinterest and searched for 'bookshelves' & I found a tutorial for a hanging book display. It was perfect for her bedroom & cute! I let my daughter pick out some fabric (with a little guidance from me), had my mom sew it for me (since I don't sew, AT ALL) & then I went to our local hardware store & bought the rest of the supplies. It cost me less the $10 for the whole bookshelf. You can go to Penny Carnival to get the full tutorial on how to make it.

And so that project led to this project:

I loved the bookshelf that I made for my youngest daughter's room that I thought it would be cool for my older girls to have their own bookshelves by their beds too. I didn't really pick out one 'pin' for this project. I just searched for bookshelves & saw the different images & told my hubby what I wanted & he figured it out! So I can't really give you specifics on this project but I'm sure if you went to pinterest & searched you could find a specific tutorial to show you how to make it. Anyway, I love the idea of them each having their own little space where they can put their books, cards, papers, journals, etc...

Another thing that pinterest has is ideas for hair styles. I kept seeing these beautiful, different french braids being 'pinned' by my friends. So I knew I was going to have to try some of these on my girls (and eventually myself, if I can figure out how to braid my own hair!) This is my first attempt at the waterfall french braid on my oldest daughter....I still need a little bit of practice. I discovered this blog: The Story of A Princess & Her Hair during my pinterest searching for french braids. I think my girls are going to become my new test subjects. I don't think they will mind too much. :)

You can also find awesome recipes on pinterest. Here are a few that I've pinned and actually tried. I don't have any pictures of these myself because I forgot to take pics as I was cooking & baking. So I'm just going to show you the pics that I have 'pinned' on my 'Recipe board'. The pics are linked so you can go to the different blogs to find the recipes.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars

Yum!!! These were REALLY good. I mean, hello, cheesecake & cookie dough, you can't go wrong there.
The only thing about these is that you need to make them a day ahead of time.

Crispy Southwest Chicken Wraps

These were delicious and so easy!

So now you know my newest favorite thing.
So if you aren't on pinterest yet go get a friend to invite you, now!
& Feel free to follow my boards if you want to.
Happy pinning!

Guest Spot, Sneak Peek & Giveaway

2011-09-05T07:00:00.000-04:00

First of all I wanted to tell you a little bit about my guest designer spot this month. It's at Log Your Memory (in case you hadn't heard). Yay! They have some great weekly challenges & inspiration, all about scrapping your memories. There are a couple of opportunities to grab some brand new stuff from me that I created especially for this month’s Memory Logbook theme – Personal Growth: Education, Exploration, Creativity. I'll let you go on over there & read all about my guest designer spot. I'll also keep you updated on my facebook fan page about the freebies, chats & giveaways.

Now onto this week's sneak peek.

There it is! Can you guess what it might be? I'll give you two words: Masks & Templates....just in case you couldn't tell. Anyway, both of these sets are super fun & you don't want to miss out on them. If you want to win them just leave a comment here & let me know if you've ever used faded masks....I really would like to know how much you like them. I'll choose a winner late Wednesday night & post the winner here in the comments & announce it on my facebook & blog on Friday.

I'll also be handing out a freebie in my newsletter on Thursday & another one here on my blog on Friday! So be sure to come back to grab those.

Now onto some Scrap Orchard News:

Today is the last day of the Summer Rewind Sale!

Don't miss out. There are a ton of products at 20% off.

I have almost 40 products on sale!

Plus there is an awesome Free with Purchase!

If you are going to the Original Scrapbook Expo in Utah stop by an say hi to my friends.

There will be awesome coupons & prizes from me & the other Orchard girls.

And last but most definitely not least is a reminder about the Scrap Orchard Mega kits.

You can grab this baby for $5 right now! Perfect for your fall photos!

September Blog Template Challenge!!

2011-09-04T03:00:00.003-04:00

Well, hello to you on this fine, first Sunday of September! I just love when September rolls around. Not just because it is my birthday month either. I think it is because there is a little switch inside my brain that gets flipped on. I suddenly begin to transform my thinking from summer to all things autumn. I recently took a trip to Bath & Body Works at my local mall and they had all the Fall-ish hand soap & candle scents on display. I could not stop myself from opening each one and inhaling the intoxicating scents. Sweet Pumpkin Latte was my absolute FAVE of them all. So, anyway, here we are in September, a month you now know is one of my favorites, lol.

Last month I challenged you to download the free recipe card template and create a card using a favorite recipe. I guess this challenge was not a big hit among the fans of Scrapping With Liz. We only had 3 submissions. I will show them all to you and then announce the winner and THEN we will move on to the September template challenge.

by JaneAgain

by Leslie

by Tiscia (sldn7)

I chose Leslie’s Tomato Cucumber Salad as the winner for both the yummy recipe and card design! Congrats Leslie – Liz will be sending you a gift certificate soon!! And, thank you Jane & Tiscia for your participation in the challenge as well. I hope you enjoyed making your cards.

Now, moving on to the September challenge….

This is the template I chose for this month’s challenge:

You can find the entire set of coordinating templates here in this set called BLOCK TEMPLATES.

RULES OF THE CHALLENGE:
1. Download the FREE template HERE
2. Create a layout using the provided template.
3. Feel free to alter the template to your taste, however, the only requirement is you must use a large alpha title on your page.
4. Once your layout is complete, upload it to Liz’s gallery HERE or to a photo sharing site of your choice.
5. Come back to this blog post by September 30th and leave a comment AND a link to your layout.
6. Winner will receive a $10 coupon to Scrapping With Liz & it will be announced in the first Sunday’s blog post in October!!

Here are some inspirational pages from the amazing creative team as well as Liz herself!!

By tpbuffy

By Tiff

By sbg3396 (me)

By my4boys

By Liz

By Kristi8004

By greenmother

I look forward to seeing what you submit – best wishes to you all – have a splendid September!!!

Xoxo,
Helen