Happy Monday!  Aubrey here with the Layout Of The Week!  It is always so difficult to shuffle through all of the beautiful pages that all of you post on our gallery and then have to pick just one to spotlight!  LOTS of pressure, but I love the process :)

This weeks winner is melo0531 with her page Kinder Grad.

This page just stood out to me in the gallery with the tilted frame and sweet picture!  I loved her beautiful cluster in the corner!  It was so masterfully done!  I also love the color scheme she picked – it totally matches up with Kim’s Color Study post last week.  Congrats melo0531!

Congratulations melo0531!  Have fun shoppe-ing with your $10 gift certificate, which has been emailed to you!  (Don’t forget to check your spam folder if you don’t see it!!!)

Since this is my last post I’d like to say that this has been a wonderful experience and I am so proud to have worked with this wonderful and talented group of ladies!  I will miss working with them, but am glad for even the short time I was in!  I still look forward to seeing your pages in the gallery :)

AubreyLayout of the Week, Uncategorized 2 Comments

Hello and happy Saturday everyone!  Aubrey here with an inspiration post!  Hopefully this helps to get you out of scrapbooking ruts…you know, the times you sit down with pictures in front of you on the computer, but you have no idea of how to put it into a layout?  I get those once in a while and it’s usually when it has been a while since I had scrapbooked, but usually I can look around me and formulate a “plan of action” for those pictures!

I am going to warn you here and now: when I show this to people I know, they look at me like I’m nuts (including my loving and supporting husband!) so don’t be surprised if you think this is a little crazy, but this is literally how I think and see things and hopefully will help you in the future!  Ok, so when I look around I see things in lines.  I will look at a city skyline and see the lines that create it and can see a layout.  See!!! I am crazy!!  But by the end of this I hope to have you all “seeing lines” if only to help you to be inspired for your layouts!  I am going to show you a picture of the “inspiration” and then the layout that was inspired from the picture.  Here we go!

This first one is of my kitchen cabinets (please ignore the mess!).  If you look at the lines of the cabinets, countertops, and stove you will see where I got my layout!

And here is the layout:

Looks TOTALLY different, right?  But the layout was in the lines.  If you are not seeing it, here is how it looks to me:

Now does it make sense?  I find layouts in magazines, house walls, stores, and so many places!  I have been in meetings and had to draw out a layout that I see in front of me because I am afraid I will forget it (did I mention I am a bit OCD?), but this helps me out so much when I am struggling to create a layout.  Here are a couple more examples:

This was in a magazine that came to our house and here is the corresponding layout:

I even copied the shape where I put the title!

I have found many great pages on pinterest that inspire me in my scrapbooking, but I also found the layout of the actual sight as great inspiration for a layout itself!

I didn’t put all the blocks in that you see on pinterest, but that is the beauty of it: you can create the layout to be whatever you want!

This is the back of one of our kitchen chairs. Look at the lines and imagine a layout.  Here is my take on it:

I have blocks of paper across the top like the vertical rungs on the back of the chair and the title is where the seat would be.

This was the opening page of a website.  Are you starting to see the lines now?

I even put little pictures across the bottom just like in the website.  There are some really great “layouts” out there just waiting to be discovered!  I have noticed that newspapers, websites, magazines, and ads have the greatest layout ideas because they already are a layout!  They have GREAT lines!  So am I just a little less crazy?  So, I am challenging you all to “see the lines” and create a layout with something you see around you.  I am even giving you an email ad I received, for a start:

Feel free to use the one I included, or come up with one you find.  We would love to see what you come up with in the Gallery!  Trust me, once you get the hang of this, you’ll never go back!  Thanks for joining us here on the blog and I hope this inspired you!  Enjoy the rest of your weekend and we’ll see you back here on Monday with Layout of the Week!

AubreyInspiration, Uncategorized 9 Comments

Hello everyone!!  Aubrey here and I hope this find everyone in a happy holiday mood!  This is such a crazy time with all of the events and programs and gift buying and everything else that it is hard sometimes to remember to slow down for a moment and take it all in.  I have a hard time with that, but that is why we take lots and lots of pictures so we can go back and smile while remembering the good times we had!

Today I am here with a Tips and Tricks and a bit more of a serious one at that.  It has to do with preserving our pictures forever without risk of losing them.  I am actually writing this because of a very recent and painful experience.  Several years ago our laptop died on us and we lost all of our info on it, including a lot of pictures.  Luckily we had most of our pictures on CDs.  We decided to get an external hard drive for safety sake.  Well…and here comes the painful part…I was not so smart and ended up keeping everything on that including around 10,000 pictures (all of them since we have had digital cameras), all family videos, ALL of my digital scrapbooking stuff (kits, pages, EVERYTHING!),  and much more.  Lately I have had the feeling that we needed to back it up and put it into “outer space” as my mom puts it (online), but we have had a crazy fall with a wedding, 3 birthdays, 4 trips out of town, church stuff, and so much more so I kind of put it in the back of my mind.  Well, 2 weeks ago we were at my in-laws and the hard drive dropped.  It stopped working.  No matter our efforts and other’s efforts we couldn’t fix it: the hard drive is what is damaged.  We lost everything on there.  It took me 3 days to come out of the depression I felt from that and then decided I would write my post on this very thing to keep other people from this same loss.  It hurts a lot!

So why write all of that above?  So you know that it can happen at any time and it is really best to act sooner than later!  So…onto my tips.

My husband and I while talking about this decided that 2 or 3 storage areas are ideal.  There are so many options out there: your computer, external hard drive, CDs, online storage facilities, photo printing facilities, and many more.  I don’t know about you, but my computer storage is just never big enough so it just houses our software programs.  External hard drives are great because they act like your computer’s hard drive and easily accessible, but as shown above are not a fool proof solution and need to be backed up continually.  CDs…well, with trying to back up 10,000 picture onto discs that could potentially get damaged easily, it’s not a good solution and definitely not permanent.  I would suggest that after your computer and any other external source to have an online spot where you download all of your pictures and other files.

There are many different options out there.  Let’s start with online photo storage facilities where you can possibly print off your photos.  Once they are downloaded they will always be there (unless otherwise stated).  These are free, but may be limited in space and you will only have pictures.  Plus, to download high res photos takes a LOT of time!  Options like this include:

• Flickr
• Photobucket
• Picasa
• MobileMe
• SmugMug
• Snapfish

There are also a ton of online storage facilities that have different features at different prices.  These are more like your computer’s hard drive.  Here are just a few examples I found when researching.  (Please note that offers/prices may differ depending on when you might happen to look them up):

• Dropbox: It starts off free for 2 GB of space and after that is $9.99 for 100 GB and goes up from there
• Livedrive: $7.95 per month for unlimited space, it backs up your files as you work on them, and you can view your files anywhere (including smart phones and devices)
• Carbonite: $59 a year, it backs up your files continually as long as you are connected to the internet, and you can view your files anywhere (including smart phones and devices)
• MediaFire: Free for up to 50 GB of storage space (with limitations) and starts at $1.50 per month, you can have access anywhere

There are a TON more, but that would make for a very long post! Lol!  Different features work better for different people so do your homework and see which one out there works best for you!  All I did was Google ‘online digital storage sites’ and came up with tons of different options.  A lot of them even offer a trial version so you can try it out for free.

Gotta love the digital age, but you need to back everything up for the “just in case” moments in life!  Sorry for the not-so-exciting post, but I felt it was necessary to save someone else from the same heartache!

Thanks for checking in with the blog today, Casharina will be with your tomorrow with a seasonal photography post! :o)

AubreyTips and Tricks, Uncategorized 9 Comments

Hello Shabby Shoppe-ers and Happy Holidays!!  Aubrey here and I am so pleased to be bringing you the next Product Spotlight!  Even though we are in full swing of the holidays, I am sure many of you (me included!) are still scrapbooking pictures from this fall and Thanksgiving time!  Because of this, I decided to highlight a kit that works great for this purpose despite being a “girl” kit.  I love Olivia for its rustic feel and warm, subtle colors!  The first time I saw this kit spotlighted I fell instantly in love with its charm and beauty!  I love how versatile it can be as well.  It can be used for anything from spring to fall, girl to boy, children to adult, and so much more!  If you are new to this kit, I am so pleased to be introducing you to such a sweet kit!  If you have seen it, or even have it, just sit back and enjoy the lovely eye candy to come!

For a limited time, the Olivia collection will be on SALE at the Shabby Shoppe for ONLY $5.50!  That’s over 30% off!!

Want more?! :o)  Also on SALE is the beautiful Olivia Piece-a-cake album for ONLY $5.95 and the very pretty BLOGwear banner for ONLY $1.50!

Now, this is where normally I put my own page, but alas, I have an external hard drive that has died and taken my page with it (*sniff*) so I will currently move on to the beautiful pages created by our wonderful team!!! All of these pages are so diverse in their subject matters and times of year that it really shows how diverse this kit can be!

First we have Amber’s page with adorable pictures of her daughter in the spring.  I love the block pattern with the clusters tucked in behind!  Just gorgeous!  And beside it we have a very fun and playful page from Casharina.  I love how this sweet kit can transform into a playful one to be used for a trip to the park!

Summer comes with Rosy’s camping trip with friends.  I love her very subtle hint of paper on the side, leaving you to really pay attention to the pictures.  And that stitched circle picture in the corner: how precious is that!  Fall pictures work so well with this kit and Kim’s page definitely shows that off.  I LOVE the paper pieced sun with the picture of her two sweet kids in the middle!  Such a wonderful page and perfect for fall!

Lego’s wintery page has subtle hints from the Olivia Collection.  This just shows how you can take anything from any kit and really make it work for what you’re doing!  This is such a stunning page with just a pop of red in the ditsy floral paper!  Baby pages are gorgeous as well and Emily has a gorgeous example.  I am so in love with the page with the strips of paper to the clusters of paper flowers!   And who couldn’t love that face!!

Of course this kit works totally for little girls of all ages!  Lindsay’s little 1 year old.  And this precious little 2 year old page by Kylie.  They are just perfect for any little princess!

The Olivia collection is great for boys as well, unfortunately my son’s page is unattainable…hopefully I will soon get access and be able to add it to the Gallery for fun!!

Thanks for joining me today and I hope you enjoyed looking at these beautiful pages as much as I did!  Kylie will be here tomorrow with your FREE December desktop!

AubreyProduct Spotlight, Uncategorized 2 Comments

Hello Happy Scrappers!  Aubrey here for my first blog post!  I am excited and a bit nervous about this, but am so grateful to be a part of this great team!  I have always looked forward to Layout of the Week to see what inspiration that it brought.  I now understand how hard it is to choose!  There are so many beautiful layouts out there, and this week was no different!  I am pleased to announce that Hannah and her family together layout is this week’s winner:

I loved this page from the moment I saw it in the gallery!  I loved the subtle tones of the papers she chose and how appropriate for this time of year it was with all the browns and creams.  I loved how she put the journaling in the confines of the circular stitching.  So fun!  I am also a sucker for blue: LOVE that color and this page just spoke to me with all it’s happiness!!  I also love the subject manner: family.  This time of year we are thinking about how grateful we are for our families, and what a perfect way to portray that than in a scrapbook page!

Congratulations Hannah!  Watch your e-mail (and don’t forget to check your SPAM folders if you don’t see it!) for a $10 gift card to the Shabby Shoppe …and enjoy your shoppe-ing!  Thanks to all of you out there for posting all the lovely pages in the gallery!  It is always a joy and an inspiration to see what everyone else is creating!

Thanks for checking in with the blog today…the super-talented lego will be here on Wednesday for a fabulous Tips & Tricks post!

AubreyLayout of the Week, Uncategorized 5 Comments