Hi everyone! :o)  Kylie here with our newest GALLERY GIRLS feature…our 12th one!  A year ago SP started sharing these fun blog posts with us…a whole year of AMAZING inspiration and smiles!  So wonderful!  I guess it’s a nice time to remind ourselves what these features are all about - so here is a short, but sweet, explanation:  all of our ‘regular’ gallery posters that we love and feel that we have almost come to ‘know’ – SP affectionately refers to as her ‘GALLERY GIRLS’ :o) – and each month we spotlight a ‘new girl’!  To catch up on all our past ‘gallery girls’ click HERE or on your visits to the blog you’ll find the Gallery Girls category down the right side of the blog…just a simple click away!

These wonderful lil’ features are fast becoming one of my favorite blog posts to work on.  I really enjoy getting to know everyone better and I’m always inspired during the process…and I truly hope you are too!  Of course, this month was no different and I’m thrilled to share our next ‘gallery girl’ with you!  This time, I got to work with the lovely Jessica…though you might know her better as jessg26 :o)

 I’ve always admired Jessica’s gallery…she has the sweetest little two-year old girl, her pages are always jam-packed with lots of adorable pics and pretty things…and her scrapping style just rocks – each page is a joy to see!  I can’t help but smile at all the love and personality she packs into each and every layout.  And, when it comes to her Project SCRAP pages she is an absolute STAND-OUT – I always look forward to those!

Now for the best part…let’s get on with meeting sweet Jessica and get a first-look at all the beautiful pages she has created especially for this post!  Jessica will also be uploading all of the new layouts to her gallery…so you can see larger images and more info about each one :o)

There could be no other way to start off this ‘interview’ but to show you this stunning wedding layout. I can’t help but let out a big sigh! :o) The combination of the beautiful, beautiful photos, the lovely embellishments and sweet pastels…nothing more precious! 

Now, on with the interview…

TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOURSELF…

My family and I live in San Diego, CA. My husband and I have been married for 5 years and we have a wild little girl who just turned two. I am currently a stay-at-home mommy and intend to keep it that way for as long as possible! Prior to my daughter’s arrival, I was working as a Registered Nurse at the Children’s Hospital. I loved my job and thought I would miss it, but being able to take care of my girl is so awesome. In my free time I like to avoid doing housework by scrapping, reading, sewing, or searching for yummy gourmet recipes that my family won’t eat!

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN SCRAPPING DIGITALLY…AND DID YOU EVER GIVE PAPER SCRAPPING A TRY?

 I started out in paper scrapbooking shortly after my husband and I were married. It was summer break before my last semester of college, I didn’t have a job, and my husband was still in school and working…so I needed something to do! I ended up getting all of the proofs from my wedding photographer for free so I got to work. I now have a lovely (and huge) wedding album somewhere in my closet. I started working on an album of my daughter’s first year while she was still very young, but once she became mobile, it was impossible…too hard to clean up everything in between naps, mealtimes, etc. It was also getting too expensive! I was interested in starting digital scrapbooking but had no idea where to begin. A friend of mine actually referred me to the Shabby Shoppe blog for free kits and tutorials, and I got a 30 day free trial of Photoshop Elements. I was hooked! My husband bought me the Photoshop Elements software for Christmas last year.

How about this gorgeous birthday party two-page spread?! Perfect scrapping…lots of photos, lots of journaling, lots of gorgeous little embellishments all in the right places!! And I just LOVE the colours…awesome banner too!! 

HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE YOUR SCRAPPING STYLE?

I really don’t know how I would define my style. When I did paper scrapbooking, my layouts were pretty simple, with just a few embellishments here and there. But with digital it is so easy to add more and more! You never have to worry about using up all your supplies. I love that. I like to use lots of pictures since it is so easy to resize and fit them just the way you want them. It’s hard for me to do a layout of just one picture! I like to use lots of color. I usually like to include some journaling as well.

WHAT IS THE FIRST COMPONENT OF EACH PAGE YOU CREATE…OR DOES IT VARY FROM PAGE TO PAGE?

 For the most part I start out with my photos. I usually have a specific event/memory I want to preserve before I forget all about it. Then I like to try to coordinate the papers etc with either the colors in the photo, or just with the theme I am going for.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LAYOUT (TO DATE) AND WHY?

Jessica says ~ I had a lot of fun with all the color and I just love the pictures, they make me laugh. That kind of drama is pretty much an everday occurence in our house.

And here is SP’s pretty-in-pink pick ~

SP says ~ “I remember seeing this layout for the first time – it just JUMPED out of the gallery at me, lol – and I still love it just as much! I don’t know if it is all of that PINK…the incredibly cute photos…the TUTU…the drop shadows, or what – but it just ‘speaks’ to me :o) It is a true, girly-girl page, and the contrast of the scallop just makes it all POP! So, although it was NOT an easy decision <choosing a favorite> – this has to be it :o)”

WHAT TIP/TECHNIQUE DO YOU KNOW NOW THAT YOU WISH YOU HAD KNOWN WHEN YOU FIRST STARTED SCRAPPING DIGITALLY?

I wish I had known how to recolor! Since I’ve learned to do that, I haven’t made a single layout where I haven’t recolored one or two items. Recoloring greatly extends the use of all my digital elements.

WHAT IN YOUR EVERYDAY LIFE INSPIRES YOU IN YOUR SCRAPBOOKING?

As you can see from my layouts I’m kind of obsessed with my little girl! It’s just so much fun to scrapbook all the new things she is learning and all the trouble she gets into. I guess that’s part of the reason I like so much color in all my layouts.

Another adorable & brilliantly scrapped two-pager to celebrate Leah’s second birthday! ‘TWO’ SWEET!! ;o)

TECH STUFF :o) Tell us about your camera and software!

I have a Sony Cybershot. It is not a fancy camera at all. I bought it because it was pink. And small enough to fit in my pocket. I would love to have a super expensive camera that makes all my photos look professional, but I would never have the patience to learn how to use it anyway! I use Photoshop Elements 9.

FAST FIVE FACTS!

• Favorite COLOR: blue
• Favorite FOOD: chocolate
• Favorite MOVIE: dan in real life, or Pride and Prejudice (the new one)
• Favorite SONG: “How Glad I Am” by the Living Sisters or “Hold on” by Michael Buble
• Favorite MEMORY: My wedding day, and the day my daughter was born :o)

And to finish…a cute, cute, cute PRINCESS page!!!

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So, now you ‘know’ Jessica a little better!  She is such an inspiration for us at the Shoppe and I’m certain you are finding yourself inspired, too!  Be sure to check out Jessica’s fabulous gallery for even more gorgeous layouts and inspiration!  THANKS AGAIN for being a ‘gallery girl’, Jessica :o)

Join us next month for another GALLERY GIRLS FEATURE! Our final one for 2011…so don’t miss it!

Rosy will be with you tomorrow with a post that’s guaranteed to inspire! …and the fun won’t stop there ~ on Friday we have a yummy food post by Casharina, and then I (Kylie) will be back on Saturday with your FREE November desktop!  Bye for now! :o)

KylieGallery Girls, Inspiration, Uncategorized 7 Comments

Happy Tuesday from the Shabby Shoppe!  It’s Beckie here, and I’m super excited to announce that our FAST and FABULOUS speed scrap is BACK!

Kylie, SP and I will be your hostesses for our SECOND ever FAST and FABULOUS speed scrap!  Together we’ll answer your questions, keep the instructions coming, and even chat a little along the way :)

:: How does it work? ::

Grab a beverage and your favorite snack…and JOIN US right here at the BLOG at 10AM Eastern Standard Time on SATURDAY MORNING, November 12th!!!   Over the course of ONE HOUR, we’ll give you basic scrapping instructions ONE AT A TIME, every TEN minutes.  At the end of the hour, you’ll have SIX instructions for creating a layout.  Just scrap along as each instruction is given out! ~ too easy!  Then, you’ll have one additional hour to finish up your layout and get it posted in the Shoppe’s FAST and FABULOUS gallery.

During the TWO ‘fast and fabulous scrapping’ HOURS, you can add any comments and/or questions you may have right on the blog!  Kylie, SP and I (Beckie) will be on hand to answer all your questions as they come in!

These basic instructions will help you create your very own FAST and FABULOUS layout!  The final set of instructions from our first speed scrap can be found HERE!  These simple prompts take out the guesswork but still leave all the creativity up to you :)

 :: Share your finished layout with other Shoppe Speed Scrappers! ::

Seeing everyone’s work is always the best part :) It’s so FUN to see how everyone interprets the instructions and how different all of the layouts turn out. Plus…

post your layout to this gallery by 12 midday EST and you’ll be entered into a random drawing to win one of three $10 Shabby Shoppe gift cards!

You can see the “winning” entries from our first speed scrap, as well as the link to the gallery with all of the wonderful layouts created HERE!  We all had a fantabulous time!!

:: About the date and time ::

We know that the date and time may not suit absolutely everyone (time zones, busy schedules and the like!!)…we promise to keep rotating around the dates and times to make sure that we give everyone the chance to participate!  :)

So mark your calendars and join us on Saturday, November 12th at 10 AM EST!  We’ll be sure to remind you again as we get closer to the event date, too!  We’d truly love to see you back with us again OR for the very first time…to scrap fast and fabulous TOGETHER!

Thanks for stopping by!  Kylie will be here tomorrow with her next Gallery Girls feature…who will it be??

BeckieFast and Fabulous, Uncategorized 11 Comments

Happy Monday blog readers!  This is Kim and I’m excited to be joining you for my first blog post!  And I hope I’m bringing a little joy to someone’s morning by revealing our Layout of the Week, which goes to aconover with her Grins and Giggles layout.  This layout caught my eye immediately when it was posted in the gallery.  I love the use of the blocks of paper here and how they perfectly frame the picture.  And who could resist the cutie pies in the picture or the sweet story in the journaling of how these two would play together?  Love it!!  Overall a lovely layout!

Congratulations aconover!  Look in your email for your $10 gift card to the Shabby Shoppe.  Happy shoppe-ing!

Thanks to all of you who post your layouts in our gallery.  I look forward to seeing your inspiration each time I look through there!

Be sure and stop by the blog tomorrow when Beckie will share a fun announcement about an upcoming event on our blog… you’ll want to mark your calendars for this one!

KimLayout of the Week, Uncategorized 7 Comments

Hello everyone…It’s Casharina here bringing you my first ever blog post - a Hybrid Project!

In all honesty I hardly ever do anything hybrid. I just don’t have the creative hands or the patience you need to cut all the little stuff out, do the stamping, sanding, painting, and everything else that goes into making a hybrid project. But, I have recently found a few FUN and EASY hybrid projects to create. The first one I’m going to share is “easy peasy” (lemon squeasy, as my little girl has now picked up!)

If you have a little princess, or two, you might just love this project. My wonderful Mother-in-law is great at purchasing all the cute little items we need: hair bows, shoes, clothing. Recently she found a great deal on some headbands and got some for each of my girls. So now I have a ton of headbands lying around the house without a home of their own. As I was cleaning out my pantry the other day I noticed that my Oatmeal container would be perfect for hanging headbands on! So that’s where it all began!! ;)

 To begin you must first gather all of your materials! This is such an easy project there aren’t a ton of things to gather up…however the sky’s the limit!

• I grabbed my twice used Oatmeal container (oatmeal and now cornmeal, soon to be headband holder!! Ha ha!)
• Spray paint (optional) – I actually found that in the end it wasn’t really necessary to use the spray paint, because I chose to cover the whole container with the photo paper.
• Photo Paper, or paper of your choice - it’ll take close to 3 pieces
• Designs of your choice.
• For this project I used one of my favorite girly kits from the Shabby Shoppe, the Twirl Collection.  I used the glitter and sparkle embellishments from An Affair to Remember, and the adorable bows and journal tag (re-colored) came from Sugarplum Dreams. The scallop came from Scallops, Shapes, and More and was added to a rectangle shape to create the tall scallop.
• Mod Podge or your favorite type of glue for a project
• Double-sided sticky tape (I found that this probably would have worked a little better adhering the photo paper to the container but I didn’t know if it’d last like the mod podge!)

 Okay now we’re ready for the fun part!

Make your design. For my design I didn’t do any measuring. I knew that it would take a full sheet of paper turned horizontal and then some. (I told you I’m just not into getting all technical!)  I just did a center design on mine (I should’ve made the title a little smaller to fit more front and center, but it doesn’t hurt anything…I’ll just know for next time!)

I chose to place a scallop at the top of my page. On the background paper I placed the words: Headbands (using the Twirl alpha) and then I added a journal tag behind the title and wrote and accessories using another font. I placed all of this in a folder in CS5 so that I could easily remove the center wording to print another sheet of just the background paper and the scallop.

For the bottom edge I made another set of scallops on a third sheet of paper. I also added the extra embellishments, to save paper. When making the scallops for the bottom, I knew that I would need the length of almost two sheets of paper, so I added two sets to one piece of paper. I just flipped one set of scallops upside down and placed them at the top of the page so that I only had to cut the scallop part. (My printer is a borderless printer, and I LOVE it, because many times I can minimize the cutting needed in a project by placing the majority of the edges on the sides of the paper!!)

After I printed each of these pages, (three total), one for the title, one for the back of the container, and one with all the extras, I was ready to adhere.

 Adhering…

(If you chose to paint your container first, be sure to let it fully dry.)

• I used double-sided tape and placed the title page and the background sheet together right on the edge. I then wrapped it around the container to find where I needed to cut and then trimmed off the excess.
• Next, place a good amount of mod podge on the back of the paper, and place the WHOLE thing onto the container. Here is where it might have been easier to use the tape again; I think the roundness of the container made it a little more difficult for the glue to stick to the paper. I just rolled my can until it seemed the glue was drying. After this step the hard part is done, and we’re almost done!!
• Cut out the scallops while the main part is drying. You’ll want to tape the two together just like we did in the step above with the large papers. This time I used the tape and placed a LONG strip of it down the back of the scallops. Lining the scallops up on the bottom edge is a little more difficult than I thought it would be, so be careful and make sure it stays on the bottom edge so that you don’t get a line showing!
• For the top: You can cut another piece of paper to match the container OR use fabric to cover it, OR paint it. I’m going to paint mine, eventually! ;)  I also left enough room on mine (between the top edge and the photo paper edge) so that I could still open and close it. I placed extra hair bows, brushes, rubber bands etc. inside.

 We’re done!!! YAY! You can add any extra embellishment you’d like around the container. After it’s all dry just add your headbands, and NOW they have a home!!

 I hope I’ve made sense?! ;) If you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask by adding a comment to this post!

This wraps up our week here at the Shabby Shoppe…don’t forget to check in on Monday with the beautiful Kim for her first Layout of the Week!! Goodbye and Happy Weekend!!

CasharinaHybrid Projects, Uncategorized 10 Comments

Hello everyone, Kylie here :o) …and, I’m very happy to be sharing the OCTOBER templates with you for project SCRAP 2011!  I always have a wonderful time putting these templates together, but this set was even more FUN than usual!  Maybe it’s the little hint of added whimsy or even the cute mix of colors…probably BOTH!  I can’t wait to scrap them too, as I’m in the unusual position of having more than enough photos already <can’t quite believe that, LOL!> …and we still have a week or so to go until the end of the month.  Well at least there are heaps of photo spots with this set…so that’s a bonus!  How are you going with your picture taking and memory making?…awesomely?  Hope so!!

Alright…how about I share those October templates (two separate templates to create a ’spread’) with you now?  You can simply click on the image below…or, CLICK HERE to download your templates!

Project SCRAP ~ bundle ONE is now available for purchase at the Shabby Shoppe…CLICKING HERE will take you straight there!

PLEASE NOTE: if you participated in project SCRAP 2011 right here at the Shabby Shoppe’s BLOG…you do not need to purchase this product. Be sure to check your hard drive before purchasing :o)

I’m sure I had the fabulous goose bumps kit and its cute and very festive party banners on my mind when I designed these pages.  I love that digi-kit…and it’s the perfect October 31 collection!!!  Although, I tend to use it ALLLLL the time regardless! :o)  Did you happen to catch SP’s fantastic HALLOWEEN SPECIAL product spotlight on Tuesday?  If you did, you’ll know that goose bumps and friends (SP’s other super-cute and not too spooky Halloween-style kits) are ON SALE at the Shoppe for a limited time only!  So enjoy! :o)

New to project SCRAP? …well then, if you are not familiar with our little scrap project (if you ARE familiar with it, skip this paragraph, as always, lol)… THIS POST is a great place to learn more!  Also, if you click on the PROJECT SCRAP 2011 category (on the right side of the blog)…you can ALWAYS easily find ALL posts related to the subject!  It’s your go-to place if you want to keep up with everything! But, as a quick little reminder… here is the project in a nutshell:::

Be sure to post your completed October pages (and any of the other months, if you haven’t already done so) in the project scrap GALLERY!  We LOVE to see how you work with our project SCRAP templates and all those gorgeous Shabby Shoppe products! :o)  SP will be doing her October ‘check-in’ in a few weeks time… and will, of course, be sure to include some wonderful gallery inspiration with the latest templates!  I loooove SP’s check-in’s…they really get me motivated, excited, inspired (the list goes on, LOL!!) to scrap the next month, and the next month after that, and so on…!  You’ll love them too – if you don’t already!! :o)  Until then, have fun scrapping (and photographing)!

Thanks for visiting the Blog today!  The wonderful Casharina will be with you tomorrow to share a sweet little hybrid project (her very first post on the Blog…YAY!!)  Enjoy the new templates and bye for now!! :o)

KylieFree (not desktops), project Scrap 2011, Uncategorized 22 Comments