Hey guys…SP here today :o) As you probably already know (from THIS blog post) – we are slowing the blog down a bit here at the Shabby Shoppe :o)  So, this isn’t really a ‘good-bye’ post…just one to say that we’ll still be here (busy designing, hopefully!) – just not as often!  Our hope is to continue to inspire…with occasional fun and interesting posts and content! We won’t post unless we have something worth-while to say (well, at least in our minds, lol)! Of course, we’ll always share news of NEW PRODUCTS and FREEBIES here…and anything else that might be of interest! As much as I love to cook and bake – no doubt that I’ll be back with foodie posts in the future – as well as crafting and hybrid when I can!

Also – as I mentioned in the last project SCRAP 2012 post…we are bringing a brand new (and really awesome) project SCRAP bundle to the Shoppe soon…so stay tuned to the blog (and our newsletter) for more information on that! I plan to check-in every now and then with everyone…for my own motivation as much as anyone else’s, lolol! Seriously – I have enjoyed the project so much for the past two years and am excited to keep going with it…and hope you are as well!  And again, while there will not be monthly posts for it anymore…that doesn’t mean we can’t all keep on track :o)  So, good luck with it and I’ll be excited to share my pages with you in the coming months (and certainly hope to continue to see yours in the gallery as well) :o)

I promised myself I wouldn’t ramble on too long…so, I’ll wrap it up :o)  More than anything else…I wanted to say THANK YOU with all my heart to all of our wonderfully sweet, caring, creative and beautiful blog friends! Also – a huge thank you and lots of love to the crazy talented Shabby Artist team…the blog wouldn’t have been much fun without them, lol! You all have brought us so much joy – and inspired us to create and craft!  We have ALL grown so much during the past couple of years – and you will all be missed!  YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST!  XOXO…and sincere wishes for a blessed, happy, healthy and creative 2013 :o)  See ya soon-ish!  Shabby Princess :o)

~*~

Hi everyone!! Kylie here as well!  I wanted to drop by and add to SP’s message with my own short, sweet and very heartfelt “bye-for-now!”…how could I not?! ;o)  It’s been my absolute privilege to work with Shabby Princess and the entire Shabby Artist team.  It really has been a true joy managing the blog over the last little while…I’ve loved every single second of it!  The whole Shabby Shoppe community, well it’s just like one big family…the encouragement, the inspiration, the SMILES…so many smiles!!!  And that special (and often rare) feeling of community, well it’s all thanks to SP and her beautiful and generous spirit…all the amazingly-talented past & present team members that have shared so much with us all – Beckie, Nicole, Kathy, Lu, Anna, Trish, Karen, Denise, Rachel, Jenelle, Kim, Casharina, Rosy, Amber, Elisabeth, Emily, Aubrey and Lindsay…and all our loyal blog followers and forever-fabulous gallery members.  It’s been a FUN and memorable journey – all learning and growing together in digi-scrap-happiness!!  So I guess it’s time for me to sign off (before I get too carried away, and to be honest, a little teary!).  I’m looking forward to seeing you all in the gallery from time to time and commenting on your gorgeous creations…and ya never know, I may just pop by with a blog post or two throughout the year…and I can’t wait to help SP with lots of awesome NEW goodies for the Shoppe!! Yay!!  …and on that note - HAPPY SCRAPPING, my dear Shabby Shoppe friends and bye for now!! K :o)

It really is with a great sadness…AND, oddly…at the same time – a wonderful feeling of knowing I am making the right decision…that I tell you that the blog will be undergoing a huge change beginning February 1st.  I have decided (after much thought and consideration and sleepless nights and even a few tears) that it’s time for the BLOG to slow down and go back to a place just for Shoppe/SP announcements and the occasional wordy, rambling SP post :o)  I want to first make it clear that the Shoppe itself (as well as the ShabbyPrincess.com site) is not changing or going away in any way  :o)  This only affects the Blog and daily-ish posts. There are LOTS and LOTS of reasons for this…but foremost is simply scheduling and time…and the ‘wish’ for freedom from the constant need to plan for the next post, challenge, templates, etc.  With the new year, there is always a lot of thought put into how to IMPROVE over the previous year…and one thing that has really JUMPED OUT at me…is the need and want to SIMPLIFY and slow down a bit!  I am sure this is something that we can all understand and embrace :o)  When I think back to my HAPPIEST and most PRODUCTIVE times as Shabby Princess – it’s always when I was just spending all of my available work time DESIGNING and CREATING…and I miss that – a lot :o)  Knowing that I do not have a LOT of design time these days…the best decision was to cut back on all of the ‘extra’ stuff that takes away from design time…and the BLOG was the only real choice for me.

As I said…I KNOW that for me and my family and my schedule and my work…that this is the right decision and I feel a great peace with that (and to be quite honest – am excited at the prospect of getting back to the joy of just designing and being creative)!  However…in making this decision – there were two very difficult components…ONE – the team…and TWO – all of our amazingly wonderful followers, readers and scrappers :o)  Without a blog…there really is no need to have a ‘blog team’ in place…so saying ‘goodbye’ to the girls was not easy or fun (that’s an understatement)!  However, they are an AMAZING group of women (in SO many ways)…talented beyond belief…and most just as busy (and busier) than I am…so thankfully – they understood (though, of course…there was a sadness for ALL of us). While I’ll miss seeing and reading the daily/weekly team emails and seeing all of their amazing inspiration…I have a feeling you’ll still be seeing some of their gorgeous layouts from time to time in upcoming newsletters and my own ‘shabby’ (lol) blog posts :o)  I have to just say it again here…the SHABBY TEAM is truly the best in this industry and I feel blessed beyond belief to have had the opportunity to work with each and every one!  I have really gotten to know some of these girls very well…and they are true friends in my life! On that note…I can’t move on without letting you guys know that our amazing and fearless blog/team leader KYLIE…will still be around (thank GOODNESS) :o)  She has been the most amazing addition to the Shoppe…well…ever, lol – and I am so pleased to say that she will continue working with me, but in the capacity of product development (can you say CALENDARS and TEMPLATES and HYBRID and so on – YAY!!!) :o)  Couldn’t be happier about that!  YES…we are planning to bring calendars back this year…but that means getting started NOW :o)  Anyway, no doubt you will still be inspired by Kylie throughout the year…and thankfully (and selfishly, lol) for ME – I get to be inspired by her almost daily!  She is a true friend and a bright light for me (and everyone that has the opportunity to get to know her)!

Now…the second part of that decision – YOU GUYS…that’s even a bit more difficult – as I know without doubt that you will be sad about this decision…not only for the loss of inspiration – but for the loss of our challenges and desktops and so on (and I like to spread HAPPY…not SAD, lol – seriously)! :o(  Trust me when I say that we went over and over and over it all, trying to decide the best way to ‘slow down’ the blog…and in the end – the unanimous decision was that if we are going to DO THIS…we need to just DO IT (or what is the point of it all?  lol)!  So, as a result – there will no longer be any scheduled template challenges, project SCRAP (YES, we are absolutely finishing out 2012…Kylie and I have been working on the covers – you will love them…I’ll share them towards the end of January), free desktops and so on :o(  So, I know that that will feel like a ‘loss’ – and I am genuinely and truly sorry for that…and completely understand the feeling!  However, at the same time, I sooooo hope that you guys will understand what we are trying to accomplish.  And THAT, is to have more time to add fun stuff to the Shoppe and the SP sites…and get back into that creative, designing groove :o)  With time spread so thin – it’s just impossible for me to do both all the time, know what I mean?!  But, I feel a renewed spirit and creativity with this decision…and I think that will show in the Shoppe over the coming months and year!

With that said – we do still PLAN to share fun stuff with you guys both at the BLOG and the SP sites…but what we will not be doing anymore…is the SCHEDULED ‘stuff’ :o) It will be much more casual…without the prospect of ‘deadlines’ always in the back of the mind!  I hope that made sense…but in essence – I would love to continue things like the occasional Fast & Fabulous speed scrap…an inspiration post here and there…some fun food stuff (always my favorite subject, lol)…and even free templates and so on.  It will just be more sporadic and when we have time to enjoy the process and have fun with it :o)

I know this is a lot to read and take in…and probably even feels a bit sudden :o(  Please know that this has been a much-considered and planned decision, that was never ever taken lightly.  I really hope you will stick around for the next couple of weeks and show the girls some LOVE!  We plan to share and inspire through the end of the month…and there are some GREAT posts coming your way!  Of course, Kylie and I will be helping you guys wrap up project SCRAP 2012 and so on…so please enjoy these last wonderful weeks!  I know you will miss these amazing girls (as will I)…and we’ll all miss YOU, TOO!  For me and Kylie though…we’ll still be right here, working away and checking in from time-to-time!  More than anything – we hope to continue seeing YOUR gorgeous pages in the gallery…because as always – we are inspired by YOU, just as much as you are by us :o)

THANK YOU ALL FOR UNDERSTANDING…and for all of the time you have spent with us!  We’re not ‘going’ anywhere, lol – so this really isn’t GOODBYE…more of a casual…see ya soon, he he!  In the meantime – HAPPY SCRAPPING :o)

XOXO — SP

Hi all!  It’s Kylie here! :o)  The Shabby Shoppe team are taking a little time off to spend with family and friends throughout this holiday season…and we are ‘sending’ the BLOG on a well earned mini-break.  We will be back on JANUARY 14th…yes, back and bloggin’ before you know it!!  We’ll be returning with all your favourites, starting with a mega LOTW post…so don’t stop uploading your gorgeous layouts to the gallery.  Don’t forget, we’ll be wrapping up our PROJECT SCRAP 2012 - so make sure you pick up the December templates we shared recently (or any of the other months, for that matter) so that you can scrap through the holidays.  The Easy-As-Pie Template Challenge #30 – btw, a perfect end-of-year design! – is on right now too…so don’t miss that one!!

And of course, I’ll be back to fit in the FREE JANUARY DESKTOP somewhere before the end of the month rolls around!  Hope you’ll stop by for your free download :o)

MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY HOLIDAYS :o)  We all wish you the best and most wonderful ‘end of year’ and joyous & safe start to 2013!  THANKS so much for your support in 2012 and for being a very special part of the Shabby Shoppe community!  Hugs & Kisses to all!  :o)

Hello everyone!  Kim here today to share this month’s extra-large, extra-sweet Product Spotlight post!  We’re wrapping all the spotlight fun into this one post and giving you a bit of an early Christmas present too!  SP is once again putting ALL of her holiday kits and products ON SALE for a limited time!!  That’s right… everything holiday related!

There are several holiday kits in the Shoppe, each unique but also able to mix and match with other kits as well.  The Shabby Team has put together a bunch of new inspiration to show this.  I’ve tried to be helpful and name the main kits used in each layout.  But please keep in mind that the layouts may include items from other kits as well.  These will all be uploaded to the gallery with full credits, so check there for a closer look at each layout!  Here comes the inspiration…

Still a favorite of mine is the Twas the Night kit.  I especially love the blue ornate paper and the sparkly elements (there’s a star and snowflake too that are not shown here).  For this layout, I mixed these with paper and elements from the new Nutcracker kit.

And here are more layouts from the whole team!

And here’s one final layout by Kylie using the Believe kit.  I do love how the “Naughty or Nice” word art from the new Holiday Wordart and More worked so well for Kylie in this layout.  Don’t we all want to be on the nice list?!

Thanks ladies for all that inspiration!  That’s all for today, but tomorrow Casharina will be here with fabulous food post!  Bye!

So, first and foremost…super excited to say that we just started our second site-wide SALE of the year :o)  We only offer these twice a year (once around the Shoppe’s birthday which is May-ish, lol…and once toward the end of the year/holiday season)…and here we are!

Next…I just had to tell you that we just added a bunch of BRAND NEW PRODUCTS to the shoppe!  We have been so super busy here and hope you like all of the goodies :o) The Shabby Artists have really rocked the inspiration – which you can see in the NEWSLETTER and in the product pages (and of course, the gallery)!

And, finally (and perhaps, best of all, lol) – we have a FREE GIFT with all $10 purchases :o)  Our Fa La La brag book is beyond adorable…and right now – only available as a free with purchase item (you will be able to purchase it individually after November 21st, for $4.95).

I think that will do it for me today :o) I do so sincerely hope you guys enjoy all of our new products, the sale, the gift with $10 purchase…and the newsletter!  We are now looking forward to some time off during the holiday season…to spend with family and friends!  So, while this will be our FINAL new product release of 2012…we are so excited to get right back to it in January, 2013…already so many kit and product ideas rolling around in my tired head, LOL! Thanks EVERYONE…XOXO — SP :o)

Here at the Shabby Shoppe, to celebrate this fun day we would like to share TWO beautiful 2013 CALENDARS with you!

These are year-at-a-glance piece-a-cake calendar pages.  One is 11×8.5 and super bright & happy!  The other is 8.5×11 and beautiful & shabby! Both use the gorgeous Gracie collection.  We hope that one (or both) will work well in your home…they are sure to brighten up any space!  They also make awesome gifts for family and friends…especially at this time of year!! :o)

To download your FREE 2013 Calendars, simply head over to the Shabby Princess site (shabbyprincess.com) by CLICKING HERE or the image above!

Also, I’m excited to share that SP will be releasing a wonderful NEW KIT for the holidays and some other festively-fun goodies…arriving at the Shoppe in the next couple of weeks!  So stay tuned for them…and sign up for the Shoppe Newsletter (if you haven’t already) so you don’t miss out on the Holiday SALE!!

Thanks so much for stopping by today…and for being a special part of the Shabby Shoppe community!  We hope you ENJOY your DSD to the fullest! :o)  See you back here on Monday for Layout of the Week!!!

At the Shabby Shoppe you’ll find, not one but, THREE Halloween-ish kits!  SP’s first Halloween themed kit was the very cute, trick or treat…SMELL MY FEET, then came the not-so-spooky BOO…followed by the frightfully fun GOOSE BUMPS!  ALL THREE are on SALE this week for 25% off!  Not only that, but ALL of our Halloween products are on sale – YAY (be sure to CLICK HERE to see all of them)!!  So, it’s a great time to ‘load-up’ on all of these sweet and whimsical goodies!

SP’s amazing halloween kits are packed full of fun and a spoonful, or two, of silliness…but never-ever scary or creepy!  And, you’ll find them as versatile as possible and super easy to mix and match!!

Tomorrow, Kim has some brand new scrapping inspiration (with a twist!) to share.  But for TODAY, the team and I have picked out some of our all-time favourite halloween-themed layouts from the gallery…to show you exactly how these three awesome kits come to life on ‘paper’!  I have done my very best to group them by kit, but some pages do have a sprinkling of the other halloween kits or a few other Shabby Princess products…please click on the links provided to see all the relevant credits…and to see them nice and BIG!!  Enjoy!!

Cutie-patootie costumes is what it’s all about! ~ SP’s Alien or Monster, and lifeisgood’s Be Anything You Imagine

Noteworthy layouts! ~ KristiL’s Zombiefied! and Ladibugbaby’s Halloween 2011

Some spooky critters!! ~ jenelle’s Spooky Sunday and my spooky disco

—————————————————————————————————

Say it with punchy purple! ~ DeniseD’s Ka-Pow and beckie’s too cute to spook!

Too puurrrfect! ~ iscraptoo’s Halloween and reddoor’s little Tiger

Circles, circles, circles ~ annamarieje’s Trick or Treat and krzymnky’s first halloween

—————————————————————————————————

A lil’ green and grey perfection – SP’s ready for halloween and jasa5′s Little Monster

Make it pop with a little black or white canvas ~ creativesparkmommy’s Boy Story 3 and georgeinci’s This witch…

Going dotty for spots! ~ embellishedangel’s Halloween 2011 and acmckelvey’s trick or treat challenge!

—————————————————————————————————

WOW, that’s a lot of inspiration…just like we promised at the top of the post!! :o)  (also…thanks for being patient and waiting for this huge post to load – we sooo appreciate it!)  We can’t wait to see all of the new HALLOWEEN layouts in the gallery…we sure hope you’ll share with us!  THANKS for stopping by today…and be sure to come back tomorrow for Kim’s Halloween spotlight special!

First of all, we wish to THANK everyone who applied and expressed interest in joining our wonderful little team of Shabby Artists.  SP and I were truly in awe of the quality of applicants…their amazing talent and enthusiasm.  Each and every one of you made this team call such an enjoyable experience, and at the same time, made it all the more difficult for us to narrow down our favourites…beyond tough, and then some!!  In the end it was NOT an easy decision…we thought long and hard about each and every applicant and truly wished that we could ask everyone to join us – WOW what a team that would be! lol!  No doubt there will be more openings in the future, so we invite everyone to apply again at that point :o)

Please join with me in welcoming…

As luck would have it all five girls are already such a special part of the Shabby Shoppe family! :o)  And, we are in no doubt whatsoever, that, if you frequent the blog and inspiration gallery you have long been admiring their gorgeous creations and enjoying the little life-snippets they so generously share…and now they will continue to inspire us as part of the Shabby Artist Team! YAY!  They are all uniquely talented in so many ways…and beautiful and fun and sweet to boot.  We are sooo lucky to have them…and really feel like we have added some truly-special and super-creative ladies to our already amazing team :o)

 Coming soon…a new look team page with all our new and current Shabby Artists…so stay tuned for that!  You will learn a bit more about the lovely girls that make up our (not-so-little-now) team…and you are sure to be inspired by what you see in each artists’ gallery!! :o)  And as for the new girls, they will be here blogging very soon so get ready for weeks of jam-packed shabby-inspiration and shabby-FUN!!

A big THANK-YOU for stopping by the blog today and for saying hi to our new girls!  I will see you back here tomorrow - same time – same place – to share our FREE November desktop…yes?, you read correctly – NOVEMBER!! ;o)

Here at the Shabby Shoppe, we have an amazing team of artists who share their talents and creativity with us via their layouts and blog posts, and we are looking to ADD to our small team. YAY!

Interested?  Again, here’s how to apply! …and we hope you do!

Send an e-mail to kylie@theshabbyshoppe.com (both Kylie and SP will be overseeing the applications and will send a quick reply to let you know your application was received).  Please note that all applications must be received by October 11th.

Be sure to include the following information:

• User <screen> name and real name
• Link to your most up-to-date gallery (or several if you have them)
• Link to your blog (if you have one)
• Prior CT/Blog experience
• Tell us about YOU and why you want to join us!

ALSO, I just wanted to let ya know that we added a bunch of gorgeous NEW STUFF to the Shabby Shoppe yesterday :o)

Don’t forget that our NEW PRODUCTS will be on SALE for a limited time only (sale ends September 24th)

If you are loving the new Shoppe kits…then you must make your way over to shabbyprincess.com and download the coordinating (and FREE) Not Too Shabby Sampler Collection!  They were designed to complement our latest Shoppe additions!!

We’ve all been scrapping up a storm with the latest Shabby Princess goodies (free & shoppe products!)…so please do check out the Shabby Artists’ gallery for all our new pages and all the wonderful scrapping inspiration!

THANKS for stopping by the blog today…we’ll see you back here on Monday for Layout of the Week!  Have an awesome weekend…and happy scrapping!! :o)

If you have been following the blog…you probably know that we (the blog) recently had our 2nd birthday…and our beloved Shabby Shoppe celebrated its SEVENTH birthday!  hip-hip-Hooray!!  So, to help us celebrate we invited one and all to play a couple of  ‘party’ games.  Whooo hooo!! ;o)  Well…sooooo many of you joined in the fun & games…and that of course made our birthday all the more special - THANK YOU, THANK YOU for being part of our special month-long birthday celebrations!!  It just wouldn’t have been the same without you! :o)

The time has come to finish up our two games…but not before I hand out some PRIZES!!!

There were bunches and bunches of fabulously sweet comments and favorite blog posts linked-up for our little Link-A-Post game…and here are our three random ‘WINNERS’ using our friend Mr Random:

• Comment 6: abyhunter linked her favorite blog post ~ “Stripes to Plaid”
• Comment 4: Kimberly linked her favorite blog post ~ “Scrapping Imperfect Photos”
• Comment 34: Candice S. linked her favorite blog post ~ “Project Scrap 2012″

CONGRATULATIONS, girls :o)  You should have each received a $10 gift card to the Shabby Shoppe (be sure to check your SPAM folders) via email – & have fun shoppe-ing :o)  AGAIN, thank you SO much, to everyone, for taking the time to play Link-A-Post!  It was lovely to see which blog posts have been your faves and your reasons why…you’re all sooo sweet!  And if you are interested…here is a lil’ Link-A-Post trivia! LOL!

• So many of you said it was too hard to choose…because you love them all (well, I totally agree!!!)
• Jenelle’s fantabulous Scrapping Imperfect Photos was your fave favorite!!
• You absolutely love all the tips and tricks posts…especially Casharina’s cool Re-coloring tips, Rosy’s neat little Stripes to Plaid and Kim’s top 10 tips for organized memory keeping!
• You are all big fans of Beckie’s awesome photography posts…especially this all-time favorite!
• There have been exactly 500 blogs posts (yes…Jenelle’s Thursday Thievery post yesterday was lucky number 500!!) published since May 2010!
• 24 different posts were linked as favorites…across all the different categories – learning new things with tips & tricks, focus on photos, food stuff, hybrid projects…being inspired and motivated to scrap your heart out as a result of a variety of inspiration posts, our special guests, amazing LOTW’s, gallery girls, template challenges, projectSCRAP…and fun freebies!! ;o)  The Shabby Shoppe Blog is here to inspire and it’s beyond awesome to know that we are doing just that!

I want to also take this opportunity to THANK all those that played Shabby Squiz…our second party game!!  Y’all are SQUIZ-STARS!!! :o)  I received heaps of emails - WOW, it was hard to keep up with the demand! LOL!!  I replied to every single email received within 24 hours…so if it appears that you have not yet received your Easy-As-Pie Invitation templates please check your spam and/or junk folders - it may be hiding out there.  And if you still can’t locate my reply please let me know and I’d be happy to resend it! …here’s my email address again: kylie@theshabbyshoppe.com  …just wanna make sure that you all got your templates! :o)

I hope you had bunches of FUN taking this little trip down “blog” memory lane with the Shabby Squiz questions…and are enjoying your new little birthday bash gift!

——————————————————————————-

Wishing everyone a fabulously happy and safe weekend.  We’ll be back on Monday with Layout of the Week…until then, Happy Scrapping!! :o)

…and, P.S.  Just a quick reminder that the Easy-As-Pie Template Challenge 23 deadline is SUNDAY night (12 midnight US EDT), for all those still wishing to join in the FUN and have the chance to win a $25 gift card to the Shabby Shoppe!  Don’t forget to add your comment/link to the original blog post after you upload your gorgeous layout to the Gallery! :o)