“I’m starting to think this world is just a place for us to learn that we need each other more than we want to admit.”
Richelle E. Goodrich

If, like me, you’re feeling a little frustrated by the constant stream of negativity that surrounds us these days, you’ll want to take a few minutes for today’s blog post. It’s chock full of words of kindness and praise for the awesome members of our sweet scrapbooking community!

Here at the Sweet Shoppe, we love “leaving love” on one another’s layouts in the gallery. In fact, we believe in it so much, we’ve made it part of our monthly challenge-and-reward system. You’ll find the “Show Off & Shout Out” thread in our This or That Challenges forum. When you leave love for 15 layouts in the gallery, share a layout you created this month and want to show off, and share a layout someone else created and posted in the gallery to which you want to give a Shout Out, you could win a free kit or mini bundle up to $15 in value. Our winners for the month of May were Kimberly27 (in the ‘leaving love’ category), bienejen (in the “show off” category), and Ginette (in the ‘shout out’ category, as nominated by Stefanie). And the big winner of our $50 gift certificate for completing all 15 This or That? challenges in May … drum roll, please … is AmieN1 aka Amie!

I asked some of the Sugar Babes to share their our own Show Off and Shout Outs to wrap up the month of May. Here’s what Sarah, Cassie, Krista L., Kiana, Vanessa, and Krista P. had to say.

Sarah’s Show Off

Why Sarah is proud of this layout: “I love the selfie of my boy and me. I made it a goal this year to scrap more photos of me and my boy together. And I love how the kit and template came together in this layout. I love all the pretty flowers here.”

Sarah’s Shout-Out

Why Sarah loves “Flowers” by Mone: “She creates beautiful 2-page layouts, but she masters 1-page layouts as well. I love this photoless layout of hers because of the page design and the beautiful clusters. I love her use of colors and how she combined all those kits. I love the journal in the background as well.”

Cassie’s Show Off

Why Cassie is proud of this layout: “Anyone who knows me knows I’m a Disney freak! I love this layout because it showcases one of my favorite people at one of my favorite places on earth! The colors of the kit match my photos so well and Flergs’ fabulous word art is the cherry on top!”

Cassie’s Shout-Out

Why Cassie loves “Tower Bridge” by Romajo: “I love a good pocket page and this one is patriotic perfection! The bold colors of this page along with the huge title work just grabbed my attention from the gallery. There are plenty of photos to tell the story and her use of just a few elements proves that sometimes less is more!”

Krista L.’s Show Off

Why Krista is proud of this layout: “I am proud of this layout because I have been stepping out of my “box(es)” and choosing non-pocket page templates to work on my son’s elementary school scrapbook.”

Krista L.’s Shout-Out

Why Krista loves “To the Girl I Was” by Ginette: “What I love about this layout is how happy it is with the fun, soft colors. I love the artsy feel and the off centered design. I love the photo strip and the time line of photos she used.”

Kiana’s Show Off

Why Kiana is proud of this layout: “As I don’t have lots of photos to scrap anymore, I love going back and repeating photos in new ways. Especially when I have awesome kits perfect to express my sentiments. Some make it to the albums, but many don’t, I just love being creative with new products.”

Kiana’s Shout-Out

Why Kiana loves “Imperfections” by ClaireG: “Claire always keeps her pages quirky and uniquely her own. I love her fun playful style on this one with clustered title and her awesome photo. The dark background really allows the photo and colors to pop and shine.”

Vanessa’s Show Off

Why Vanessa is proud of this layout: “Honestly, I rarely participant in these show off kind of things, because I don’t feel like I’m the strongest scrapper compared to the other babes. But I do love this page of my daughter at her last winter formal. She looks stunning in these photos and went way outside her comfort zone in the dress she chose this year. The previous years had been such a battle. I love how this kit from Kristin really worked perfectly with what she’s wearing. It’s one of my favorite layouts ever of her.”

Vanessa’s Shout-Out

Why Vanessa loves “Prom!” by 3BluEyedBabi: “I just love this page, the colors match her dress perfectly and the fact that it said the challenge was bubble gum pink, absolutely perfect! I love the details of showing of the her shows and that sweet smile, you can tell how over the moon excited they are to be going to prom. This captured that moment in time perfectly.”

Krista P.’s Show Off

Why Krista is proud of this layout: “I was pleased with this page after combining the deeper tones and changing the photo treatment up a bit to coordinate. I had fun playing with warping the shadows more too.”

Krista P.’s Shout-Out

Why Krista loves “You Are My Sun” by LisaMT: “I love how this page works with the striped background and the deeply clustered floral framing. The shadows and colors are gorgeous. It simply pops off the gallery page!”