Any Reader's in the Fergus Falls area?

Then you have to come join us to "Escape Your Winter Blues"

It is going to be a blast! I'm so excited to host this event with my fellow demos. And I would love to see you there :)

Here's all the details. Let me know if you want to come!

A Cereal-ously Cute Valentine

Have you started planning your Valentine's yet? Last year I shared the Valentine's I made for a family get together- but since it was the weekend after Valentine's it was too late to help you out. But with the day of love just around the corner, now is the perfect time for you to grab the printable I made for you :)

Aren't they just sweet? And here is a copy for you to save and print out for your own cereal-ously special Valentines. Enjoy!

Simple Scrapbook Layout

Today I wanted to share another page spread from my Glacier Vacation photobook. This is a really simple layout that really allows the pictures to be the main focus. And with these pictures that is exactly what I was looking for.

The page didn't look quite 'done' without the star embellishments added. But just a little sure can go a long way.

Also, I want you to take note of the drop shadow on the yellow lettering. It really isn't noticeable until you look directly for it, but without it those letters really get lost in the design of the DSP behind them. So if you are ever having trouble getting your titles or journaling to show better just give this a try. All I usually do is add a drop shadow (usually with the opacity turned up- but you will need to play with this based on your specific DSP underneath) and I color the shadow to actually blend with the paper behind it. This creates just enough of a haze by the letters that they show up better- without being a black 'here I am' kind of shadow.

Hope that helps you out. Give it a try on your next layout and let me know how it goes :)

Flutterby again for more inspiration.

2014 is here!... WHAT!

Wow. I feel like the past month has just flown by. In the whirlwind of the holiday season I feel like I lost parts of my life! Don't get me wrong, I love the holiday's, but I'm ready for life to settle back down again :) That way I will have more time to inspire YOU!

So what does 2014 have in store? Hopefully a lot more crafts :) Especially MDS- I have so many scrapbooks I want to catch up on and projects I want to make. I actually can't believe my little boy is already 7 months old and I haven't even started his baby book. Then again, with a 7 month old that still sleeps like a newborn I think I'm going to blame him for that one ;)

Also, now that my little girly is getting older she always wants to help me make things. So expect to see many more crafts suitable to complete with kids. Hopefully they will inspire you in some quality time with the little ones in your life. PS- they don't have to be your kids :) Grandkiddos, family friends, or the neighbors will all do.

From Stampin' Up!'s side I'm expecting many great things in 2014 too. Lately they have been great at offering all sorts of new products, kits, and seasonal items. I'm loving this trend and can't wait to see what they bring us in the New Year.

Speaking of new products, have you seen the spring catalog yet? So many pretty new things :) I just love them. I think my favorite of all has to be the new Retro Fresh line. I know, I know that's not picking just 'one' thing, but how can I choose. They are all so fun and fresh, I love the colors, and they are meant to be together. So I can't bear to single just one of them out ;)

Don't you love them to? Seriously, this is my favorite page of the whole book.

I would love to hear what your favorite is in the new catalog. Flutterby again soon. Hopefully once I get the hang of this 'new year' thing I will be back to posting regularly :)

SnowMobiles

I just hosted my first 'Mommy & Me' class and we made some cute little SnowMobiles. I totally couldn't resist the pun :)

I created the top in MDS using the Festive Flurry Digital kit. I love that with these images you can stretch them to be as big as you want without any distortion. It made for an awesome top to hang the strings down from. I actually printed this out twice and glued them together back to back for a little added stability.

For the dangles I used the retired sizzlit snowflake strip. To attach the snowflakes to the strings I used glue dots, and then covered up the otherside of the dot with a small punched circle. On some of the snowflakes I also added a punched circle to the front to give it a little extra pizzaz. I especially liked using the silver glimmer paper to add a little pop to the center.

To attach the strings to the top of the mobile I just punched a small hole and ran a bit of the string through. Then we attached it with a glue dot on the top side (and covered the extra glue with another punched circle). Since the strings are fairly light this was enough to hold it in place.

The one other tip I have for making this is to be sure to spread out your large and small shapes in order to make sure the mobile hangs fairly level. And if it doesn't, just go ahead and add more spots to the center of the snowflakes on the side that isn't heavy enough- it doesn't take to much to get it to level out and that is a good spot to 'hide' the extra weight.

Hope you enjoyed our project. Flutter by again soon!

Merry Christmas

Hope you are having a blessed Christmas Day! I'm sharing my day with our close family and I'm so excited for my little boy's first Christmas :)

I'm loving the trendy chalkboard look this year. It makes me think of Caribou Coffee... and that makes me think of Chai tea. Mmmmm.... Chai.... and now I'm craving one! Anywho, back to the task at hand- I took my inspiration for the back from the chalkboards they have in the Caribou shops. They just give you a header to write about and then leave some chalk out for you to fill up the board. What do you think of my take on it:

There are a couple of good downloads with a chalkboard background in them. This one is the Convention 2012 photobook. It actually has a couple of different color chalkboards in it- Love That!

Then, the key to achieving the chalkboard look is all in picking the right fonts and playing with opacity. For some great chalkboard font ideas I suggest searching Pinterest- it is always a wealth of information :)

Have a Merry Christmas! Hope your day is as Jolly as Santa himself :)

Caution: Elf Crossing

So every month my mom hosts a scrapbooking class and they do a themed page. Just check out this adorable spread they made for December!

Well, when I saw this the first thing I thought was- I wonder if I could do that in MDS. So here's my take on the page.

The layout uses DSP from the Season of Style product line. Then I used a couple of pine stamps (thank you search feature), ornaments, bows, and LOTS of punches. Most of the punches are also featuring some sort of special crop to make them the sections of the punch I want- it is really awesome that we can do this in MDS now :)

Now all I have to do is add some photos on top of the DSP pieces (but behind the ribbons) and I'm ready to go for one of my Christmas layouts. Yay! There is a lot of things going on in these pages- it took quite awhile to get all the details in- so let me know if you have any specific questions on how I did something and I'll be sure to make a post for it!

Hope you enjoy! Let it inspire your holiday scrapping too. Have a blessed Christmas Week.