Happy Monday, everyone!  This is Kim here to start the week with our layout of the week!  Right now is a great time to browse through the gallery and see all the layouts.  There are some really wonderful layouts for our Template Challenge Twenty.  And I saw that many of you are getting started on Project Scrap 2012.  There is so much inspiration going on all the time.  Thanks to everyone for sharing your layouts with us!!

This week’s winner posted a layout that perfectly expresses it’s title.  Congratulations to kris_t and her peaceful layout.

I know many have already admired this layout and it’s sweet photo.  kris_t has framed the photo perfectly with just the right layers and elements to express the peaceful feel of a sleeping newborn baby.  She has done a great job with the Gracie kit and I especially like the way she’s layered some of the flowers to give them a unique look. 

Thanks for sharing your layout with us, kris_t!  Be sure to check your email (and your spam folder) for your $10 gift card to the Shabby Shoppe.  We hope you enjoy a little ‘shoppe-ing’!

That’s it for today, but be sure to stop by the blog tomorrow as Kylie will be hosting an extra-large product spotlight.  There will be a lot of LOVE-ly kits included in the inspiration (hint, hint)!

KimLayout of the Week, Uncategorized 8 Comments

Hi all, it’s me again, Casharina, bringing you yet another fairly simple Hybrid Post!  As you know I love simple hybrids, especially when there’s little to NO cutting involved!  So with Valentines JUST around the corner, yah I know…I can’t believe it either, anyway I’ve decided to share two simple projects with you that I plan on doing this year for my kiddos.  First off I’ll share a Valentine Card and then VERY simple treat bag toppers, made from 4×6 prints, easy peasy!

 I’ll start with the most time consuming, the card!  I have the hardest time putting together cards like this because I have sooo many ideas in my head about how it should look and what it should say, etc. that I get carried away and can’t choose just one.  So this year I decided I’d use the Shabby Shoppe’s Gingerbread Card Template Collection to get me started.  I chose to use a 5″ x 5″ template which I then altered to a 3″ x 3″ and added in papers from the Darling Paper Collection as well as some flowers and buttons from Sugarplum Dreams and Twirl Collection.  The word art is found in the Sweetie Pie kit!  I chose to have them printed as 4″ x 6″ prints from Wal-Mart so that I could take advantage of the cheaper cost, rather than using so much of my personal printers ink ~ that stuff gets pricey! ;0)

Tip: After mine were printed, the borders had been cut off on each side; so if you make a border be sure to leave room for the lab bleeds.  I will just go ahead and cut off the remaining white borders and you won’t be able to tell, but for future references it’d be nice to remember!

~*~ 3×3 Valentine Cards ~*~

•  Open the template, adjust the image size to 3 inches x 3 inches and then complete it to your liking with papers and embellishments! 
• Create a rectangle around the full template and choose Image, Crop. This will prevent the extra sides from being transferred to the final layout.
• I chose to sharpen mine a little prior to saving it as a JPEG!
• Save document as a JPEG.
• Now you’ll open new 4 inches x6 inches layout.
• Next, you’ll bring in your SAVED card (the jpeg file). Place one at the top corner of your document and then (CTRL+J) duplicate it to create a second copy to place on the other side of the layout.  
• For myself to know where the cutting line is, I chose a light color to use on the background layer.  This will provide the line for cutting since my layout has a white background.
• Save this as a JPEG and it’s ready for printing!

Tip: I know here at my Wal-Mart, they will even trim the photo for me if I ask before I leave, so keep that in mind when you pick them up!

After they’re printed I had Kaytlynn to sign the backs of them for her classmates and teacher.

 Are you still with me? Hope so…we’re moving on to the second project!

 ~*~ 4×6 Treat Bag Toppers ~*~

• Open new 4 inches x 6 inches document (standard photo size).
• Choose a digital paper that you would like to use.  For mine I mostly used papers from the Sweetie Pie collection, I love the bright colors of the kit and they’re perfect for Valentine’s projects!  As well as a few non-themed papers again from the Twirl Collection.  You’ll simply drag the selected paper over to your document. You may want to resize it to fit the 4×6 a little better.  If you do, be sure to use Shift and or Shift+Alt to keep it all in the right proportions.
• Once you have your paper (background) exactly how you want it you’ll want to add word art or text, or simply leave it as is.  If you choose to leave as is skip a few steps to see how to finish it for printing! ;o) For my toppers I chose to use the Yours Truly Expressions to add a little extra character.  This is a simple addition that can make your toppers really stand out and be personal.  You may also choose to simply use text to place a special note to the receivers of your gifts.  I also left room on each of my toppers for my daughter to sign her name…I thought that would make it a little more personal.  Tip: Be sure to add a horizontal guide to the middle of your document so that you’ll know where the photo will be bent and clipped to your bag so that your text/embellishments fit within either side (unless of course you want it to be that way!)  I chose to add a few with words and some without, taking advantage of the fun hearty papers from the kits.
• Once you’ve added your text you’re almost finished, YAY!  All you need to do now is save this image as a JPEG.  I like to save mine at a high resolution, above 10.  When saving things that I know will be sent to a lab, I like to place them in a folder together so that they’re a little easier to find when I’m uploading them.
• Once you’ve finished your designs you just need to have them printed.

•   I found some pink, clear, and blue party favor bags at Wal-Mart for less than a dollar for 20 so I picked those up for the Valentine’s Day Treats…I figured I could do some pinks for the girls and blues for the boys.  Then, I plan to stuff them with a few cookies and/or candy!
• Attach your printed 4×6 photos onto your filled treat bags using staples or a piece of tape on each end…and then we’re done!

I hope you’ve enjoyed these super simple projects and if you choose to do some too I’d love for you to share them in the gallery!

Have a wonderful weekend and we’ll see you back here on Monday for Layout of the Week!  Until then HAPPY SCRAPPING!!

CasharinaHybrid Projects, Uncategorized 4 Comments

Hi all…it’s me Casharina, and I am here to share a little about what inspires my digital scrapping.

Inspiration…well it can come from all over.  Most of the time, if I’m being completely honest, I get inspiration from others.  I love to look at other layouts that have themes similar to something I’d like to scrap about, or the colors I’d like to use.  I love to use our very own inspiration gallery here at the Shabby Shoppe ~ there are so many fantastic scrappers who post their finished projects!  I also like to search the internet.  I’ve even been attempting to use Pinterest lately to find new inspiration for digital scrapbook layouts.

One of the best ideas I have ever come across was finding a layout about the “EVERYDAY”.  This layout meant a lot to me because I seem to only scrap the big events in our life, however I want to remember the everyday moments…the way my girls dress up and have their hair a mess, or how on other days they’ll lounge around in jammies all day but Kaytlynn will work for twenty minutes to fix her hair, other times they’ll play all day with their baby dolls – carrying them around in their shirts or pushing their strollers to the store or church!  LOL…these are the memories I never want to forget.  These are the memories I really need to remember to “catch” on camera and then scrap.  Little things that I know I’ll forget.

Some of the ideas I’ve found through the gallery and online that have inspired my everyday scrapping include:

• making a page with baby’s first words…there are words that my kids have pronounced so cute and I never want to forget them
• another idea is doing a layout about my daughters “binky” (our cuddle blanket that she’s had since she was only 6 months old and she has slept without him twice in the past month at the age of 6.)
• I want to remember the way that Khylea Ray will dance to any tune and sing at the top of her lungs in the living room, but ONLY after someone has “introduced” her as: “Princess Khylea Ray.”

These are the important things that I really need to focus on more…things I need to remember.  I hope this little post sparks some creativity and challenges you to create a layout, NOT about a big event, but about a small important memory that you never want to forget!  Here’s my first layout focused on the “small” stuff…it’s a picture of my girls after a full day of playing together like best friends.  Sadly, that doesn’t happen a whole lot around here and I thought it would be one of the best memories to start with!

Thanks for reading!  Join me again tomorrow for some Valentine’s Day hybrid projects…I can’t wait to share!

CasharinaInspiration, Uncategorized 4 Comments

Hello fellow scrappers!  Rosy here with one of my favorite little digital scrapping tricks.  A few of you have been asking about how I turn stripes to plaids in my layouts.

I have no idea if this is the “proper” way of doing this, but I’m going to show you my method.  It’s super simple.
First I open my striped paper. (this one is from the Tropical Winter kit)

Then duplicate it.
Rotate the top layer 90 degrees.
Turn down the opacity of the top layer to 50%.

Merge the two layers together.
Right click on this layer and select “layer from background” and then rotate it 45 degrees and you have a plaid paper!

Just remember not to permanently save your paper this way or you will lose your original striped paper!

I often use this when I want the linear look of a stripe, but don’t want it to be directional (like when I use it to mat a photo).  A lot of SP’s kits have a beautiful plaid in them already, but I’ve found this a handy trick when the papers I’m using don’t have a coordinating plaid in the kit.

Here are a few of my pages where I’ve done this. (linked to the gallery for credits)

I hope that answers the questions that anyone had about it!  If not, just let me know in the comments and I’ll try to clarify.

Thanks for checking out the blog today!  Casharina will be with you tomorrow to share some of her scrapping inspiration with you.

RosyTips and Tricks, Uncategorized 23 Comments

Inspiration in Action?  Scraplifting Yourself and More?  What Inspired Me?  Rosy here and I can’t decide what this post’s title should be?!…but hopefully you’ll find something to spark your creativity nonetheless!

There are so many ways to go about designing a scrapbook layout.  Today I’m going to share two of my layouts and how I was inspired in designing them.

The first one uses a method I call “scraplifting yourself”.  I’ve done this numerous times and it’s a great page starter!  I browse through my folder of digital scrapbook layouts and pick one that I like.
This time it was “you are loved”.

Then I copy all of the photo and paper spaces onto a new layout and clip new photos and papers to them.  Play around with the rotation, placement, and embellishments and you have a brand new layout!

You’ll notice that on this one I rotated the main photo and papers to better fit my photos.

I love doing this because it gives me a little head start on the page, yet keeps my own personal style and I’m pretty sure to end up with something that I love.

Sometimes I’m inspired by a simple embellishing idea.  For my summery layout (one of my last 2011 pages to scrap!) I knew that I wanted to keep the photo large so as not to lose the lazy summer day feel, but I wasn’t sure where to go from there.  I remembered some e-mail ads I’d received and stuck in an inspiration folder (yes, I subscribe to junk mail because they’re pretty, lol!).

Here’s what I noticed and liked about these ads.

ads are all from here

Using these little bits of inspiration, I came up with this layout.

I know many of us are going through winter right now, but this one is for you on the other side of the world!

I did (again) turn a stripe into a plaid on this last layout.  I’ll be back tomorrow to show you how I did it!  Thanks for stopping by!

RosyInspiration, Uncategorized 16 Comments