5 Photos you should take this Easter!

My favorite holiday to scrapbook is Easter. I love the frilly Easter dresses, brightly colored plastic eggs, fresh flowers popping up out of the ground and pretty pastel candy! this feast of springtime color is perfect to capture in photos. Before you head out (or host) this years Easter Celebration here are some photo tips for you!

Tip 1: Don’t Pose…Compose!

When photographing kids capture them being kids, chasing after eggs, playing and having fun. Check out this photo I tool last Easter of my nephew. My sister set him in frount of her flower garden and let him play and I got a great natural shot!

Don’t forget the candid action shots too:

Of course when you do have the family together and all dressed up it is a great time to…

Tip 2: Get a semi-posed family photo!

Tip 3: Do some still life photography:

Notice the photo of the baskets of eggs only, this after the hunt photo make a perfect embellishment for the page. Also consider taking photos close up in macro mode of jelly beans, easter grass and other candies for nearly free scrapbook embellishments and they will be authentic too!

Tip 4: OK this is a scrapbook tip-try kraft colored paper for your scrapbook pages, it looks great with pastel springtime shades (see above photos) a swipe of pastel paint adds a nice touch too and best of all you keep the focus on the photos!

Tip: 5-Photo the Pre-Easter Events.

This year I bout a Spin-an-Egg (Target/ $5) and we used that to color our eggs, what fun, get a photo of the pretty colored eggs:

Note: If I had to do it over I would have taken the photo outside with no flash 😀 Sometime your photos are not perfect but you should still scrap them, that’s what is important. You kids will not care that the lighting isn’t perfect, they will be glad to have the memories. Here I took a bunch of egg dying shots and used a egg-shaped puzzle template to make this page. Also I saved the egg-dipper and used it as an embellishment!

Here are some of the digital products from Lindsay’s stamp Stuff I used in the above pages and some other springtime goodies:

And some freebies for you!

These projects qualify for the following chhallenges: Amber’s Crafts and Stuff, Creative Belli, Creative Card Crew, Creative Craft World & Papercraft Star (recycled egg-dipper on last page), For Fun Challenges, Paper Pretties, Sisterhood of Crafters, and Going Grey With Scrap-Creations (digistamps)

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Summer Lovin’-Had me a Blast…

Wow, I just realized that summer vacation is just 2 months away! Wow, where did the year go!?! Last summer was awesome weather-wise, we went swimming almost every day and I actually (gasp) had a tan! I’m hoping for another warm sunny summer again this year and while I was on this train of thought I came up with the new Summer Fun SVG & Printable template set!

I love the 3-D flowers, I think I might make some out of felt and put them on hair clips 🙂

Last weekend I bought bubbles for my kids and I snapped a few pics of them playing outside with them…oh yes, I feel a scrapbook page coming on!

You get this whole set of Printable and SVG crafting Templates including:

• 3-D Paper Beach Pail Favor
• 3-D Hibiscus Flower
• Flip Flop Card and Single left and right flip-flops
• Beach Ball Card and plain Beach Ball die cut
• Beach Pail Card
• Bubble bottle and Bubble wand paper piecing die cut.
• Happy Sunshine with sunglasses layered die cut.

The SVG files have been tested in Sure Cuts a Lot (SCAL), Make the Cut (MTC), and Fairycut software and will work with your Cricut TM and other compatible die cutters with the above software.

You get the entire Summer Fun set for $5!

Thanks for Stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Mother’s Day Photo Display

Happy Friday folks! I seem to be mostly over the illness that knocked me down yesterday and here is a Photo display I made with the Gothic Arch SVG templates from Lindsay’s stamp Stuff:

It was so easy. Using Sure Cuts a Lot software and my Cricut machine I welded some of the arches that came in the kit to make the base and die cut the borders, frame and legs out of contrasting paper, added a photo and some of my homemade buttons and viola! A mother day card and gift all in one!

Here is a look at the Gothic Arch Template kit:

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Photocopy Transfer Tutorial and a Freebie!

Well, hello there folks! I have been playing in my studio and wanted to share a quick and easy project I made. First I printed out some digital stamps from the Fancy Flower set from Lindsay’s stamp Stuff, then I had a photocopy made so I could transfer them on to tiles. Wouldn’t thse make a cute Mother’s Day gift?

I colored the tiles with my new ProMarkers, it was so easy! Here is a video showing you how to do it:

Here are close-ups of my favorites:

EDITED TO ADD: the background on this tile was done by coloring it with a blue marker, then dabbin the same marker randomly on top. If you marker is not juicy enough you can use a q-tip to drop denatured (or rubbing) alcohol on top for the same effect. Just play around until you like the look!

And here is a peek at the Fancy Flowers digital Stamp Set I used:

With easter on its way I thought you might want a handy little basket to make so for this weeks freebie I give you a basket and notecard, click the pic to download.

It coordinates with my new Basket Bonanza set, 6 baskets in all including a covered picnic basket (that is my favorite!)

And the Egg Basket Templates:

Today’s project qualifies for the following challenges: Amber’s Crafts and Stuff, Clear It Out!, Top Tip Tuesday, Tuesday Throwdown, Paper Playtime, Stamp with Fun, Stamps R Us, Aly’s Sunday Challenge, Crafty Pad, Creative Inspirations, Make it colorful, and Wee memories.

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

A lil’ Scrapbookin’

I have been printing photos like a mad-woman the past two days, when I cam across these roller skating pics I snapped last year I had to make a page with my new Skate Card SVG kit, the die cuts work on a scrapbook layout just as well as on a card:

None of the shots are that great so I used ShapeCollage software to randomly arrange and print them, then I cut them out and adhered them to the pattern paper. I cut all of the shapes and letters with my Cricut and SCAL software. The fonts are from Lettering Delights and most of their sets are only a dollar right now!

This page qualifies for the following challenges: Anything Goes Challenge , Tuesday Throwdown, Gingerloft, Let’s Ink It Up, Secret Crafter , Fashionista Friday, Charisma Cardz and Digi Doodle Shop’s Best

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Well, Hello Dollar Days!

I’m downright giddy, it’s dollar days at Lettering Delights and that means that all fonts, papers, doodlebats (I love these for cutting with my Cricut and SCAL software), graphic and clip art sets are on sale for a buck! And all of their new SVG sets are on sale for $2 a set and mini albums are just $3! Here I used the new Balloon Fun SVG set on this card:

But wait, you can save more! Early Bird savings from March 15-March 18th. Save 10% on a $15 purchase or more with code: InBloom. Save 25% on $35 with code: BiggerBloom.

How about some freebies too? Yeah, I thought you might like that 😀 Sign up for a free account and get over $40 in free product including the set of SVG cutting files shown below.  If you already have an account, you will find the new product available in your library.

PLUS Sign up for the newsletter and get 9 free fonts-boy that was easy! And you get $5 off if you refer a friend who signs up for the newsletter.  You’ll both receive a $5 coupon good on any purchase of $15 or more. Their newsletters are really fun too and they usually have a nice juicy coupon code inside 🙂

Don’t miss Dollar Days at Lettering Delights, this is the time to stock up! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Got Spirit? Well, Let’s Hear IT!

S-P-I-R-I-T!!! {Yes I used 3 exclamation points!} The days are getting warmer and I am thinking about Spring! I walked the dog this morning and actually broke a sweat-usually I am freezing my buns off and gripping my coffee mug for any additional warmth I can find LOL. This has got me thinking about baseball, all 3 of my kids play (heck, they can make up half the team 🙂 ) and so I decided to scrapbook {gasp-yes I scrapbooked} last years photos. I used the SVG artwork bonus from my new Baseball Party SVG & Printable kit:

I used a shape collage software to cram in all of those photos-it really takes the brainwork out of putting photos on a page and let’s face it, not all of the photos we take need to be enlarged but it is still nice to be able to include them 🙂

The baseball party kit includes all of the layered die cuts for decorations, crafting, cardmaking and scrapping but also it has die cuts for cupcake wrappers and toppers, drink flags, party hats, invitations, favor bags and the fun and festive bunting/banners that are so popular these days.

But that is not all, there is also a full size printable kit included that has printable sheets (that you can add text to if you like) of all of the SVG templates plus water bottle wraps and more! These are full color printables and I squeezed as much as I could on each sheet to save you money, time and supplies. Here’s a look:

This kit was so much fun to design that I decided to make a little freebie set to go with it:

I think it would be fun to print out the sheet of name tags on sticker paper so the kids could wear them on their shirts. Especially if you are having a baseball theme party at a park or sports arena, that way you can easily identify kids from your party 🙂

Attention Dollar Deals!

Have you checked out the dollar bin at MyGrafico? Every week I will put a few older sets on sale for $1, they will go on sale Wednesday and be on sale for 1 week only. Check out this weeks Dollar Deals! Get them while you can because they will be back to regular price next week! Be sure to check each week for new Dollar Deals!

Now lets see what the Lindsay’s stamp Stuff DT has made for us this week:

Margie Visnick

Tracey Allen

Leanne Garner

Tamara Bennett

Cindi Hooks

Micki Harper

Karin Martin

Jennifer Bliss

Rhonda Walker

Diane Bove

phew, that was a long post! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

40% off everything today only! {Happy Valentine’s Day!}

Let me be the first to wish you a happy Valentine’s Day! I love Valentine’s day, I always have, I mean what’s not to love? Also since it is February 14th that means that this (the shortest month of the year but in the North it feels like the longest!) is half over and I don’t know about you but I am ready for March to roar in and bring with it some spring! This has been the snowiest winter I can remember-and living in Maine that says something! Anyway, back to Valentine’s Day, here are some gifties for my peeps:

I wrapped the presents in this beautiful birdcage paper (dollar spot at target, it will be cheap tomorrow LOL!) and made some quick tags using my Cricut & SCAL software and the SVG files in the A Little Lovin set from Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff….

Did I mention that EVERYTHING in my shop is 40% off today only!?! What are you waiting for? SHOP 🙂

I hope you have a wonderful day with your loved ones, I can’t wait to see all of the lovely Valentines my kids will bring home from school today and I hope they enjoy the gifts from me…

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Crafter’s block {when the “muse” goes away}

I tell you, I have not been able to get out of my own way in my studio lately! It is clean and organized, I have time to create but where is that darn muse when you need her? Well, today instead of waiting for inspiration to strike I was just going to force myself to make something, my expectations were not high, mainly I just wanted to get inky and enjoy myself and here is what I made:

To kick myself into action I checked out the weekly sketch at Oriental Stamp Art (OSA is a great stamping yahoo group, the ladies there are so inspiring and it helps to surround yourself with like-minded stampers either in real life or online) and decided to grab some stamps and go from there. I used stamps from About Art Accents/Art Neko. Another way to overcome crafter’s block is to use colors you don’t normally reach for, in my case SU! Orchid Opulence (there is a reason they discontinued this color LOL!) I inked up the Chinese Coin Border stamp with that somewhat hideous purple, rocked the edges of the stamp in Elegant Eggplant and then used my rose red brush tip marker to color the coins-just be sure to scribble your marker on scrap paper after to remove any ink you may pick up from the stamp. I stamped that 3 times on white bristol board (Strathmore) then I colored the coins with my mustard and yellow-green copic markers. I was pleasantly surprised that the ink underneath did not smear.

Stamps: About Art Accents, Paper: Basic Grey, Ink: SU!, Markers: Copic, Die Cuts: Lettering delights

I decided that the card needed some die cuts so I used my Cricut and SCAL software to cut pretty tags-one for the happy birthday sentiment, one for my label on the envelope and one for the inside of my card. I lined the inside of my card with an “experiment” from a few months ago. The die cut labels are from an SVG set called Delilah Tags from Lettering Delights, they look like the new Spellbinder tags and labels that arte hot right now but these are $5 and you can cut them any size you want!

So there you have it, sometimes you have to force the creativity…when I started a project with orchid ink and mustard markers I seriously doubted I’d have anything post-worthy but you never know, get inky and enjoy the process! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!