Sweet Shoppe Designs

I know. I know. Many of you are one kit scrappers and I understand that. But sometimes it is fun to get a little crazy and pull from different kits.  Today, I am going to show you some of my go-to kits and some of my fellow Babe choices.

There are certain kits as a scrapper we are drawn to.  Me – hands down primary colors.  I can do any page about anything in primary colors. I love primary colors. So my go to kits trend towards primary colors.  Here are my picks and why:

The Everyday Storytelling collection makes me giddy.  Why?  Office paper, rich solids, perfectly done kraft paper – basics in scrapbooking that can be used on any layout.  Know what is even BETTER? Kristin and Jenn are adding onto this collection with the changing seasons. So far there are 3 additional kits besides this lovely.

2 more of my go-tos are by Zoe Pearn. I have one boy in my life – my hubby, but I have 2 girls that have tomboy tendancies.  PLUS – these two kits are primary colors.

From the elements and the papers to the alphas – these are the perfect add-on kits for me. The pops of primary colors combined with the neutrals in my Everydaystory Telling stash equals many different options for pages.

Nikki E also chimed in with her choices for kits.  She Chose Apple of my Eye because “I love how versatile this kit is. I used it for not only pages about Destiny, but Dusty. So yes, I threw flowers on a page about my husband, doesn’t everyone?” I know I do.

She also likes Miss Merry Sunshine and has noted that she pulls flowers from this kit at least 4 times since Erika put it in the shop.  Here’s what she had to say – “I’ve used the kit as a whole 5 times. I think that’s probably a record for me. I feel like I find new ellies every time I open it. That kit is packed with goodies. Another kit that is versatile enough to get me scrapping about Dusty. lol!!!” I have to chime in and say that I have used this kit twice.  Again, I can pull from this kit as is, but can use the word art and of course, the flowers over and over.  For me, it goes with my theme for go to kits – the primary colors.

Treasured Moments is another kit that Nikki noted as using a few times for it’s timeless quality but can pull off something funky as well.  I agree!

Nikki’s last pick is Believe Me, You are Beautiful. And I agree and need to add this one to my stash. It’s got the perfect word art as well as some neutral papers to make it versatile and the alpha looks like one that can be used over and over.

Juli uses Zoe’s Little Helpers when needing a journaling spot.

Brook mentioned EZ’s With You as one of her go to kits.

Looking over this – there is a common theme going on here – there are some neutrals that can be grabbed over and over as well as patterned color paper that is “basic” enough to use over and over again.  What are your go to kits?  What do you pull in when you need that something special?

Hey Sweet Shoppers – Stephanie here bringing you today’s post. It is hard to believe that we are 19 days into the month of June already. Around here, summer is in full force with the weather being well above 90, the pool is up, and my girls are driving me batty due to their long days together. How about a little extra point for the June Portfolio? All you have to do is Spin-A-Lift fellow babe, Darla, upload your layout to our gallery and mark your June portfolio.You can see Darla’s beautiful gallery here. A Spin-A-Lift is a lift with a twist. Spin the original layout 45, 90 or 180 degrees or flip it vertically or horizontally and lift that layout.

Some of my Babes played along.

Erin lifted My New Kindle

Keely lifted Volleyball Girl

And Keely’s take:

Lex lifted Thankful for You

and this is her layout Dorkface.

Lydia lifted Girl Scout Sunday

Mary lifted Captured

And I chose to lift and spin Best Friends

I cannot wait to see what beautiful layouts of Darla’s you lift to create your own works of art!

♥ Stephanie

Are you ready to earn an extra point for your monthly portfolio?  It’s one of my all time favorite challenges!  Honey I Shrunk the Template.  This will be an easy point especially since SSD has the BEST template designers around.  Go though your template stash, find a favorite, and shrink it!  It’s a great way to use your templates again and make them look completely different.  This is the template by Cindy Schneider that I used:

I made it smaller, added a few background papers and scallops, and came up with this:

The kit I used was Zoe Pearn’s Pretty Little Thing and the font is Darcy Baldwin’s Mia Script.

I hope you have as much fun with this challenge as I did. 

Kjersti

Hi there Sweeties!

With my freelance CT call ending earlier this week, I’ve been spending a little extra time in the gallery checking out what people are doing with my products.  I’ve been so blown away by the awesomeness that has been displayed!  So, for today’s blog post, I decided to take a peek back through layouts posted during the past month in my designer gallery and choose 1 stand-out to win a free kit of their choice from my shoppe. 

Now, I realize we’re heading into summer vacation time and about as far-removed from Halloween as we can get, but I have to tell you that I love this page by Scrapper@heart using my Bippity Boppity kit.  I love how she used Cindy’s template, the title work, her amazing element clusters, and her super cute photos.  It’s just an all-around gorgeous page! Check it out!

I hope you all enjoy her layout as much as I do!  As a thank you for creating this beautiful page, Tamara will receive a coupon for a free kit in my shoppe.  Tamera, be sure to check your PM!

Keep posting those layouts to your favorite designers’ galleries!  You never know when you’ll be the next person chosen to spotlight!

Hi sweet shoppers! Jacinda here to take you back to school for a moment. OK, not really, but my topic today is going to be all about school.

Here in New Zealand, our school year begins early February and finishes mid December. I was searching the galleries here at SSD and around the net looking for inspiration and ideas on how to scrap my daughter’s school report. I found tons of generic school layouts (first day at school, photos with the teacher, etc), but hardly any layouts where the report card or important info was included. I wanted to be able to read the actual teacher’s comments. I wanted to capture what a report card actually looks like today (I know they’ve changed a lot since I was at school).  As I was searching, I began to wonder if people a) scrap school documentation but just don’t upload to the online galleries, or b) don’t scrap them because they just don’t know how to include them nicely in the layout. School documentation could include:

Report card
Teacher’s letter
Award/Certificate etc
Summary of school achievement
School artwork

So that got me thinking. Wouldn’t it be nice to show HOW such records can be scrapped? Then all that great information from the school would be in a photo album and not hidden away collecting dust in a filing cabinet somewhere. Alright. Here’s the layout I came up with. I photographed my daughters report close enough so it’s still readable, and made it into a two-pager with a note from Mum and Dad:

Now don’t you think the kids will love to look back at that over the years? I asked the SugarBabes to help me out with some examples documenting school reports/achievements too. Hopefully you’ll find some inspiration here for your own pages. This first example is by Tracy. A close up photo of the report, and another of her son looking pleased as punch – you can’t go wrong with that combination.

I love this next one by Sheri. She included all the relevant comments from the report in her layout. Now doesn’t that make the page so much more meaningful than just having the child’s photo?

Stephanie captured her daughters spelling achievement in this layout:

Who wouldn’t love to look back and remember what their first library card looked like?

Nikki did a great job scrapping her sons achievements at school. I love how the journalling explains in detail what the photo is about. I see so many layouts in the galleries that just have photos, but no explanation.

Kjersti’s daughter worked hard on her exams to get a 4.0 GPA. She captured that memory with great photos and lots of journalling:

In this layout, although the photo of the award itself is small, Kjersti has captured all the friends, family, teachers and even the principal that were involved in her daughters Honors Assembly. They’re important too, and I’m sure her daughter will appreciate those photos in the years to come.

I just love this layout by Darla about her daughters graduation. She has lots of journalling, and also a list of her achievements:

 And lastly, Lydia captured her sons graduation from preschool with a lovely close-up photo. Don’t you just  love the way she uses elements?

I hope this post has given you some ideas about scrapping school reports/achievements. Don’t be afraid to include close-up photos of the documents – even if it’s just a portion of it. Documents change, and you won’t remember years later what the original looked like. If you’ve scrapped school reports/achievements, link us up in the comments – we’d love to see how you’ve done it.

Hello everyone!  It’s Dana here again  I wanted to pop in today and share some of my favorite layouts that were created for the January Portfolio! If you haven’t already scrolled through the portfolio thread in the forums, you are missing out!  There is a LOT of inspiration there!  So much so that it was difficult for me to choose my favorites!!  But, I wanted to keep this post at a reasonable length – so I decided before looking that I would select only 10 … it was NOT easy!  Robin has also been highlighting some of her favorites on Pinterest – make sure to take a look HERE!

Here are some of my faves – enjoy the inspiration

Sula’s portfolio was full of gorgeous pages – but I “think” this one is my favorite!  It is just so fun and funky and has so much great journaling!

I thought this one by Sara was so pretty! and I love the title work! Such a great mix of alphas and the wire!

This one from Trish is fabulous – the photo treatment is PERFECT for the kit she used, and I love the way i keep finding new goodies everywhere I look!

This one from Kim is great – those pics of her husband and her are so sweet and perfect – I need to take more pictures of DH and me!

This layout by Liz is amazing – the shadows are beautiful and i LOVE the little black flower piece at the bottom of the rainbow of flowers … I hope she is framing this!

Nikki’s entire portfolio is amazing – but I really love this one! Such gorgeous layering, and a clever way to use that kit!

There is something about this one from Sasha that I just love – it’s so clean and fresh!

And I LOVE blocking – so I had to include this pretty little too!  I love the use of the banners and the title work too!

I loved this LO the moment I saw it … the background is gorgeous – and how interesting to put the word-art over the picture ?!  Great LO Akizo!

I just love every little thing about this page from Sarah – the clustering, title work, mix of colors – GORGEOUS!

And I have to add one more LOL! I just love the clustering here – and the title work – swoon!  loooooove!

And don’t forget – the new February pins started going up yesterday!  I can’t wait to see what you create with them!

Hi Sweet Shoppers!  You would think with the gazillion photos on my hard drive, that I would not be short of layouts to scrap, or memories to record. Some days though, I sit in front of the computer and totally draw a blank.

I need fresh inspiration. Are you like that? Do you struggle sometimes to come up with a new topic/layout idea? One of the threads in the SSD forums this week got me thinking about it. It’s not always easy, especially for those who don’t have children to scrap on a daily basis, to come up with a new idea, so I thought today I would share with you my favourite links for journal/layout prompts.

Note: I will quite often take a prompt and do the journalling first. Once that’s done, the layout pretty much comes together on it’s own. One inspires the other, or so I find. Here are my favourite sites:

Squidoo Journal Writing Prompts

Kelli Crowe

Angie Pedersen – Scrap Your Stories

Story Corps

100 Questions to ask your kids

All About Me Journalling Prompts

Journal Jar Prompts

The prompts from Story Corps were what inspired this set of layouts from me a few weeks ago:

If you’re running short of current things to scrap, look back to your childhood and scrap that. What about your parent’s family history? I sent my parents a huge list of family history questions last year which they are currently working their way through. I did this because I got to thinking that if my Mum passed away, there’s no-one else I could ask for her family history. I need to collect the info while I can, and when it’s all in will create an album all about them and their family history.

I did a 6×6 album about my Nana (Dad’s Mum) several years ago. She’s 93 now, so I’m glad I did it before it was too late. My kids now flip through the album and read the stories of their Great Nana and the things she got up to in her childhood. Here are just a few pages of that album. (Keep in mind now that I did this when I was still fairly new to scrapping, and hadn’t developed my shadow skills yet)

I learnt so much about my Nana doing that project. I bet I’ll learn a whole lot more about my parents when they send me their journalling too.

So, that’s my post for today. What do you think? I hope it’s been helpful, and gives you a source of inspiration on those days where you’re just not sure where to start.

It’s me, Keely, bringing you the first Monday in December post. I thought I’d talk a little bit about gift wrapping. It seems to me that people love it and a lot of people hate it. I love it. I think a fun, pretty package makes even the smallest gifts more fun to open.  For along as I can remember it was my job to be “the wrapper”. Even as a kid, my mom would pile up the gifts and have me go to it. There was even a “don’t look” pile, so yeah, I even wrapped my own. (I still give her a hard time about it too)  Between the family wrapping, wrapping for charity and wrapping for retail jobs, I know I’ve got thousands of packages under my belt. You won’t see any seams on my boxes!

So here are a few of my wrapping tips

*Quality paper makes a huge difference in the ease of wrapping, you get what you pay for. Buy after the season for bargain quality, heavy weight gift wrap. Large rolls of craft paper, brown and white, are a great deal and are classic, neutral and easy to personalize. Tissue paper is perfect for smaller packages.

*Use what’s on hand. Scraps of gift wrap, ribbon, yarn, fabric, stamps, cupcake liners and scrapbook paper all make great additions to packages. Use your paper shredder for filler. Whole punched paper on double sided tape makes great confetti accent on tags or packages. All those old shaped scrapping scissors….use theme to edge paper for paper ribbon accents.

*Wrap in sessions. Don’t get overwhelmed by the task and mess of  having to wrap everything at once or a gift at a time. Pick a couple of sessions, gather your supplies and watch a movie or listen to some holiday music to make it festive.

*Make your tags ahead of time. I usually digi-scrap a batch for all the people we give to most, they’re  pre-printed with the to/from info. and just need to be added to the packages.

*Old fashioned lunch bags and large envelopes are great for decorating and gift giving. Toilet paper and paper towel rolls too, roll them up in paper wider than the roll and twist and tie up the ends.

*If you have kids, they can get in on the action by decorating paper, bags and tags too.

*Give your gift in something reusable, a nice reusable shopping bag is a gift in an of itself. Bandanas too.  My DH is notorious for giving gifts in pillow cases. We bough a case at Sam’s one year for about $12, and had a gifts within a gift. They were a big hit.

*Curly ribbon always looks nice and you can get huge rolls at Hobby Lobby for just a few dollars. Paper can be curled too.

*Keep it simple. A package doesn’t have to be elaborate to look nice, in fact some of the simplest wraps are the most pleasing.

Hit Pinterest for some wrapping  inspiration.

And last but not least…here’s our Layout Of The Week by Seatrout

I chose this because it’s so fun, great for a Monday smile. I really like her title work, silly photo, and use of color.

Until next time, Happy Scrapping!

Hello Sweets, My name is Mary and I say that proudly because today I am going to share with you all for the first time since I’ve started scrapping my first ever 30 Days of Thanks. Yes, that’s the truth. I’ve never really been any good at executing a project from start to finish like this, but i was motivated.
I stuck with it mainly because since the loss of my daughter I’ve realized that I took a lot of things for granted. It’s a choice to be Thankful for so many things, it was really hard on some days to even write it or think it but I had to reflect on what I still have and as the title says give Thanks. Some days it seemed like small things but in reality it was big things for my family and I.
I also have to give Thanks to Elizabeth aka mummytothree, the daily thread she started helped keep me focused. I was not deterred because the first 6 days I was without power and then later in the month I was away for Thanksgiving Holiday, I just wrote it down.

So here it is my layout of 30 days of Thanks.

Credit: Autumn Essence by Julie Billingsley, Embellish Holiday Template (Christmas altered) by Traci Reed, DJBJenniferScript by Darcy Baldwin, Numbers and Alpha from A month to be Merry by Lauren Grier

Did you do a 30 Days of Thanks book or layout… Please share here or in the gallery, I’d love to take a peek.
Oh and if you want to collect the December Cookies for Kids check the forum daily
Have a Great day and off I go to get my camera ready for The December Daily pics…

Hi everyone!  Traci here and I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about OTHER crafts I really enjoy. This time of year, I always get in the mood to bake, craft, and generally just homemake.  Are there other crafts/hobbies you enjoy doing besides just scrapbooking?  Here are a few of my favorites, I’d love to hear about yours!

1. Knitting/Crocheting

Oh yes, I can do both! I’m talented that way  I find knitting or crocheting something while watching TV relaxes me like nothing else, but also makes me feel like I’m accomplishing something so that I don’t feel TRULY lazy.  Most recently, I crocheted this owl hat for Finn’s Halloween costume:

2. Sewing

Ok, I don’t do this as often because I find it unnecessarily stressful. But I still pin a bunch of sewing projects on Pinterest and hope for the day I actually LIKE sewing.  I haven’t sewn anything in a few years, but I lovemaking useful things like these pajamas I made a few years ago for the kids..

3. Baking and Cooking

I think I prefer making dinner over baking but I do a lot of both.  I LOVE trying new recipes and discovering awesome food!  This summer we did a lot of pancake drawing and I made these adorable cookie monster cookies.

I dabble in other things, like painting and pastels.  But besides my work (which is a huge creative outlet) I love the above.  What do you do besides scrapbooking to express your creativity?

Finally, here’s this week’s Layout of The Week! I love the journaling on this layout by irish_eyes22 about her first Christmas with her SO. I also love how she took Cindy’s journaling templates and added pictures!