Morning all! Trish here to bring you this week’s Tips and Tricks :)

Now, I’m not necessarily going to show you how to do something this week, but more help you in doing something many scrappers have a difficult time with… journaling. I know many digi scrappers who sort of cringe on the inside when faced with the task of journaling. It’s always been easy for me - but I love to talk, and I see journaling as just that – talking! It’s telling the story that goes along with the memories connected to the picture that you’re documenting. True, a picture can be worth a thousand words, but when you look back 10 years later – will that picture be able to tell you all about why you chose to keep that picture? Will it tell you why you felt it was important enough to scrap? Maybe, but then again, maybe not.  For me, I scrap so that when my children look back at my pages when they are older – they will know WHY, not just where and when. It’s a way for me to preserve a piece of them and me.

Here are a few of my tips when it comes to journaling:

Record it as you think it or as it happens. If you’re anything like me, you carry your camera with you almost everywhere. You probably have a handbag, too. What you do is just keep a small notepad and pen in there, and when you get the chance, you write down what’s going on when you took the picture. Even jotting down a few short words such as “August 8 – Zach, met teacher, shy but very excited.” or “May 20 – Belly, stared out backdoor, watched boys play, very sad could not go out.” This will give you the building blocks for your journaling later.

• Before you start setting up your page, look at the pictures you want to use. Open a word document, or get a piece of paper, or even create text on a blank canvas. Then, really look at your picture. Write down the date, location, and the main thing you want your journaling to be about. After that write down 2-3 things that cover your main thought that have to do with that memory.
• Think about the tone you want to use. Do you want to sound correct and proper, or do you want to sound like you? Do you want your journaling to come off as humorous, or sad, or serious, or happy? Use adjectives and phrasing to help build that. Make up words, Google words, look them up in your dictionary, write them the way your children say them.
• Use your fonts to help tell your story. (You might end up obsessing over fonts… I do. lol) There are millions of fonts out there… and a lot you can get free. Find a font similar to your own handwriting, or pay someone to convert your actual handwriting to a font. It’ll give your page a nice personal look. Look for fun, funky fonts, romantic swirly fonts, serious typewritten fonts. I can go on and on. What you use will not only help convey the tone of your journaling, but it can also add to the design of your page. And never be scared of mixing fonts together in your journaling – a great way to document a conversation between people.

The most important thing to remember is that this is for you and whoever else you scrap for. It’s not for anyone else, so you shouldn’t let that encumber what you have to say. Once you get past that, you will find it just comes so much easier to you. I know this isn’t the Tips and Tricks…but I hope that this helps you the next time you feel stuck on your journaling. Remember, if you can talk to relate a story – you can journal!

Here are some of my journaled pages:

I hope that this information will help to inspire you the next time you work on a layout where journaling is key :)

Join us tomorrow as Karen brings us a new THURSDAY THIEVERY post!

TrishInspiration, Uncategorized 3 Comments

Hello to all of our fabulous Shabby Shoppe Blog Readers!  It’s Anna here with another edition of  “Product Spotlight!”

Do you like our spotlights as much as I do?  I love a bargain so let’s have at it!

The fabulous BELIEVE is on SALE this week for only $3.50!

Did you notice that katiepugmire used believe for her “Layout of the Week” creation?

This kit contains one of my all-time favorite alphas!

I have used it on many non-holiday layouts including this one with my sweet granddaughter

“my oh my ~ cutie pie”

Take a look at what our fabulous Shabby Shoppe Team created with this fantastic holiday kit.

from Beckie

from Kylie

from Karen

from Trish

from Lu

And, I loved this kit so much, that I had to create another…

and last but not least, Denise created these cute Pillow Boxes!

Are you inspired? Go pick up this incredible kit HERE

Drop by tomorrow and Trish will bring you an exciting post on journaling. I CAN’T WAIT!!!

AnnaProduct Spotlight, Uncategorized 3 Comments

When I (Anna) came home from a trip to Hawaii over the Thanksgiving holidays, I wasn’t in a very festive mood.  I live in Utah and was greeted by 14 inches of snow.  That same day I had an opportunity to drive up into our snowy mountains for a Park City Christmas shopping excursion with my sisters. The snow was beautiful! As I drove along I flipped the radio station to the only channel that would tune in – it happened to be a 24/7 Christmas music station.  The sun was shining and glinting off the snow! Suddenly, I was feeling happy and started singing along to the radio.

By the time I arrived at the stores, I was feeling very festive!

So why am I sharing all of this with you?  Mainly because I still had that feeling as I was choosing the LOTW!

Look at this cute holiday card from another newbie in the gallery, katiepugmire!

Congratulations Katie – You have won a $10 gift to The Shabby Shoppe! Check your e-mail and happy shoppe-ing!!!

I’ll be back tomorrow for another great Product Spotlight!

AnnaLayout of the Week, Uncategorized 5 Comments

Hi all!! Kylie here with a Food Friday post! :o)  (we actually have TWO new posts for you TODAY…so don’t miss Denise’s post right below mine)

For me, this time of year is full of many wonderful memories. Today, I’m going to share a very special one with all of you. Christmas time brings so much excitement and a big part of that revolves around FOOD! I love to cook. It’s my favorite thing in the whole world (followed very closely by digital scrapbooking! LOL!) and the way I see it, cooking special treats and planning a Christmas Day menu, well it’s a gift to my loved ones as well as a gift to myself! I really like to try new things but also stick with several traditional family favorites. One of these is Ginger Creams.

My beautiful great-grandmother loved to make all sorts of homemade confectionery around the holidays – fudges, Turkish delight, and other sweet little goodies. She passed on her Ginger Creams recipe to my Mum. And to this day, my Mum still whips up a batch nearly every Christmas. I’m so glad she does – I LOVE GINGER and I LOVE GINGER CREAMS!! Not exactly sure where the ‘creams’ came from as this boiled lolly (candy/sweet) is more like a fudge. The recipe is similar to a basic fudge recipe and only has four ingredients. It’s also fairly quick and very easy to make. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

• 4 cups (750g/1½ lb) raw sugar
• 1 cup (250ml) milk
• 30g (1oz) butter
• 250g (8oz) crystallized ginger, roughly chopped

Directions

• Place all ingredients in a heavy-base saucepan and stir over low heat until sugar has dissolved.
• Brush down sides of saucepan with a little hot water, making sure there are no crystals on sides of saucepan.
• Bring to the boil. Boil steadily until mixture reaches 112C (235F) – soft ball point.
• Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly. Stir mixture rapidly until thick and creamy.
• Pour into a greased, paper-lined 20cm (8in) slab tin.
• When cold and fully set, remove from tin and cut into squares.
• Enjoy – once you start you just can’t stop at one!!

Some tips:

• If you haven’t made confectionery or jams/preserves (etc) before you may be unfamiliar with the term “soft ball” as a measure for when a mixture is at the appropriate setting point. Don’t worry, using a confectionery thermometer is pretty much fail proof. If you don’t have a confectionery thermometer you can test it using a little bowl or saucer of water. You do this by dropping a very small amount of mixture into cold water. When it forms a soft ball when rolled between two fingers it has reached the required temperature and will set when cooled.
• Be extra careful not to burn yourself when making any type of boiled confectionery as the sugar syrup reaches very high temperatures.
• Make sure your saucepan is large enough to prevent the mixture boiling over. I used a saucepan that measures 18-20cm (7-8in) at the base by 12cm (4-5in) in depth. As a rule and to err on the side of caution, choose a saucepan that holds four times the capacity of the amount of ingredients being used. And it is better to use a deeper saucepan than a wide shallow one.
• For this recipe you can substitute the raw sugar for normal white sugar. However the raw sugar gives the fudge a richer color and flavor.
• You can substitute the crystallized ginger for any preserved or candied ginger – glacé ginger, ginger pieces in syrup etc. But do not use fresh root ginger or powdered varieties.
• If you are not a fan of ginger you can try substituting it with another preserved or candied fruit, or even nuts etc. For example, raisins (add a splash of rum for ‘rum & raisin’), clementines and pecan nuts, dried cranberries, dried apricots…be creative.  If you substitute with desiccated coconut - then you’ve made the traditional English sweet “Coconut Ice” – don’t forget the pink food coloring!
• Use a wooden spoon with a long handle to stir. Or if you have a specialty heat-proof spatula, that will work well, too.
• Ginger Creams can be stored in a sealed, airtight container in a cool, dry place for up to 3-4 weeks.

Gift giving – Homemade sweets make ideal gifts any time of year, especially at Christmas – whether it’s just a small token or something very special. Great for teachers, neighbours, friends and family! Half the fun is cooking them up and the other half is the gift decorations themselves. I used the gorgeous Shabby Shoppe  JOY Confection Collection candy wrappers and bag toppers. They came up a treat!!

Here is a FREE recipe card that you can download to add to your ever-expanding Shabby Shoppe recipe box! I created this card using a French Toast easy-as-pie recipe card template and the papers and majority of elements are from the Joyful Tidings kit. (Joyful Tidings is this week’s product spotlight and is currently on SALE for just $4.25!)

click the image above to download the recipe card…or simply CLICK HERE!

Hope this special family recipe adds a little extra sweetness to your holiday celebrations!

Have a wonderful weekend! Bye for now. :o)

KylieFood Stuff, Free (not desktops), Uncategorized 8 Comments

Hi everyone! Denise here, with a hybrid project to start off the Christmas season. I found a pack of generic gift bags at Michaels and thought it would be fun to decorate them up a bit, adding a little sparkle. I was inspired by the hanging ornaments in the ‘Twas the Night kit. I loved the digital sequins on the ornaments and after digging into my craft pile, I found some sequins to add to the project. The sequins also added a nice touch to the “trees” on the second set of bags below.

The gift bag front is really close to 8″ x 10″ so in Photoshop I created a canvas that was 8″ x 10.25″ and added guides at the top and bottom to mark 10″. For the left bag I placed the patterned paper from ‘Twas the Night and masked it so it was 3″ wide. I placed the red polka dot paper behind it and used the Scallops, Shapes and More to create the scallops. An additional yellow paper was added. The layers had an Outer Glow added instead of a drop shadow and the merged strip was placed on an 8.5″ x 11″ canvas to print. I was also able to place two ornaments and a stocking on the larger page for printing. Print the sheet onto heavy matte photo paper and trim the pieces. Glue the strip onto the bag starting at the top and trim the extra at the bottom of bag. Punch a hole in the ornaments and hang the assorted ornaments from the bags with ribbon. The right bag is created similarly, with the scallops being cut after printing with decorative scissors. Sequins and a snowflake were glued to the ornament also.

For the Christmas tree bags, the stitched circles and bits of patterned paper from ‘Twas the Night were printed onto heavy matte photo paper and trimmed. A circular punch works great for this process. The circles were glued to the bag and a rectangle of paper was placed for the trunk. I used sequins to fill in the tree a bit and added a brad or snowflake to the top of the trees. Note the bottom right circles are blank, that’s where I plan to write the names of the giftees.

Here’s some of the products that can be used to make the gift bags; decorative scissors, circular punch, brads or bling, sequins (Darice, 5mm), ribbons, liquid glue and tape adhesive.

I hope you’ll give them a try, it’s easy to create multiple gift bags with the ‘Twas the Night kit at the same time. Happy Scrapping and Crafting everyone! :)

DeniseHybrid Projects, Uncategorized 3 Comments