Hello everyone!  Rosy here to bring you some inspiration in your use of alphas!  Most of the Shabby Shoppe‘s kits include a complete set of alphabets.  My favorite method for making titles is combining one alpha with one font, but I decided that it was time to get out of my box and mix up my alphas a bit!  Using a different alpha for every letter in a word gives a happy, playful feel to your layout.

…and if you’re going for a more funky look, try mixing up design and color too!

Kylie’s page is a perfect example of how versatile alphas really can be.  Not only did she use various alphas in one word, she also layered them on top of each other!  How creative is that?!

Using a different alpha for each word in a longer title gives you a nice scrappy, layered look…and on a page where a stamped alpha would get lost, I’ve made it into a sticker by adding a stroke and shadow.  Using one letter as a monogram element is also a nice touch.

In Kylie’s “Life is a Beautiful Ride” she made her own alpha by clipping some pretty papers to a font.  Using brackets to frame her photos gives visual interest to her page.  I also love her idea of using a circular alpha as a monogram element in the center of a flower!

Some other creative uses would be to use the openings in alphabet letters like o, a, p, d as a frame for a small photo, or mixing a capital letter alpha with a lowercase alpha for proper nouns.

I hope these examples have gotten your creative juices going and I’d love to hear your ideas on more uses for alphas in the comments!

Thanks for stopping in!  SP will be here tomorrow with a Project Scrap check-in.

RosyInspiration, Uncategorized 2 Comments

Happy Monday to everyone!  This is Rosy bringing you the layout of the week.  This week’s winner is embellishedangel with her Haley is 13 layout!

 I love this layout’s happy colors that give it a fresh feel and yet are grown-up enough for a teenager page.  The design is fabulous and the photos tell the story so beautifully!  The little details with the sequins and banner add just the right amount of festivity to this well put together page.

Congratulations embellishedangel!  Look for your $10 gift card to the Shabby Shoppe in your e-mail! …and to everyone, thank you for posting all of your beautiful pages in the gallery!  We love to see what you are creating!

Be sure to stop back on Wednesday for a tips & tricks post by Jenelle!

RosyLayout of the Week, Uncategorized 3 Comments

Hello Shabby Shoppe readers!  Happy Friday to everyone!  This is Rosy, here to bring you a food post all about birthday cakes!

I enjoy making birthday cakes and I think the shaped ones are especially fun.  You can get a great looking cake without needing any special cake decorating skills, and the kids love them!  Here are the few that I’ve done.

This airplane cake was made with one cake mix divided into a heart shaped pan and an oval casserole dish.  Yes, I believe in using what you have!  The oval cake was cut in half and then the top cut off of both halves.  These pieces were stuck together with buttercream icing to form the body and tail of the airplane.  The heart was also cut into four pieces to form the wings. Here is how the shapes looked.

Once the shape is formed I usually freeze the cake before frosting it.  This helps to minimize the crumbs.  For Isaac’s airplane cake I frosted it in yellow and then piped on blue for the windows.

The butterfly cake is very simple.  A double layered heart cake cut in half and then placed with the cut edges out.  (note: a round pan would work just fine for this as well)  After frosting it, I used a hoho cake (swiss roll) as the butterfly’s body and two pipe cleaners for the antennae.

For the fish cake I made one rectangle cake (a common 9X13 cake pan) and cut off all four corners.  These corners were placed as the fins and tail of the fish and frosted with a contrasting color.  The eye was made with a brown M&M.

I hope you’ve enjoyed these cake ideas.  (Please note that these ideas are not original with me.  I found photos online and then came up with my own version, using what I had on hand.)

Have a great weekend and we’ll be back on Monday with layout of the week.

RosyFood Stuff, Uncategorized 10 Comments

Hello everyone!  Are you ready to dig into some scrapping inspiration with me (Rosy)?

When I design a scrapbook layout, usually my goal is to create something that is pretty, fun to create and yet keeps the focus on the photos and the story that they tell.  Have you ever felt like your photos were getting lost on the page?  There are many ways to ensure that your photos are the focal point and I’m going to point out a few of them today using none other than our very own Shabby Princess’ gallery to do so.  (I know that like most of you, I’m happy that SP is using her precious time to design new products for us, but also miss seeing more of her beautiful scrapping.)

~*~ Framing or Matting ~*~
Giving your photos a frame or mat will help them stand out from the rest of the page and not get lost in all of the embellishments. The wider and more contrasting your frame the more your eyes will be drawn to it.  Contrast brings visual appeal to your layouts.

In this layout the contrast of the red frame against the white paper makes the adorable photo quite eye-catching. 

Sometimes we want a main photo to stand out more than the supporting photos and framing works great for that as well.

~*~ White Space ~*~
Having white space on a page gives your eye a place to rest and also emphasizes the photo or grouping of photos.

Having a unique shape to your white space will create even more interest to your page, and this is one of my favorite SP layouts ever!

~*~ Elements ~*~
Your elements (flowers, butttons, leaves, etc…) should support your story and when layered around your photo, they can help draw your eye to the it.

In this layout, most of the embellishments are placed around the photo, giving it more emphasis, even in the midst of lots of color and patterns.

 Even when there are several photos, clustering the elements around them identifies them as the focal point of the page.

I don’t know about you, but I’m totally inspired just by browsing through these beautiful layouts!

Happy scrapping to all of you!  Have a blessed Easter weekend and we’ll be back on Monday with the LOTW!

RosyInspiration, Uncategorized 5 Comments

Happy Monday everyone!  It’s time for me (Rosy) to reveal the layout of the week!

This week it was a tough job!  Lots of beautiful layouts in the gallery and I had such a hard time deciding!  But my final choice is mommytoella‘s march page all about her adorable little boy at 5 months.

 I love mommytoella‘s use of brackets around the main photo.  The black & white photos really pop on the yellow and blue color scheme, and I love all the journaling about her “chubby wubby bubby”.  Isn’t he cute?!

Congratulations mommytoella, enjoy your $10 gift card from the Shabby Shoppe! (…and please check your email spam folder, as it may be hiding in there!)

Thanks for joining us today!  We will see you again tomorrow! :)

RosyLayout of the Week, Uncategorized 3 Comments