Monday, December 26, 2016

Sale!

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and enjoyed your break!  My family is still gathered and playing with all their new toys (including me, LOL).  No new goodies this week, but I'm having an after-Christmas sale in case you need a little something for yourself :)




You can  visit the shop HERE, and until next time, happy scrapping!

Julie

Thursday, December 22, 2016

Let's get Festive!

We're in the home stretch, now, holiday-wise!  I think I have the baseline essentials done, now, so bring on the cheer, LOL.  I've been trying to make a conscious effort to only include the traditions that genuinely give me joy and let the rest go.  Mind you, living in a new house has added some charming stresses with trying to figure out decorations and whatnot, plus my very handy husband has had some projects of his own that have added whole other levels of figuring things out.  I have to say that I'm glad our daughter will arrive home and maybe the overextended brain can take a rest from "figuring things out."

Maybe your brain feels the same way!

That was part of the reason for these templates - quick, easy, and a classy touch to any album - highlight a special photo, or  add a variety of mood shots - it's all up to you.



I'm still in love with shiny gold frames; if you find them less to your taste it's easy to clip a paper to the frame and make it your own :) I have oodles of beautiful ideas for you courtesy of my creative team as well as the talented team at The Digichick:





Lots of different looks are possible!

I also have a wee giftie for you that coordinates with last week's Sanctuary collection - I've been examining the options for scrapping on my phone or tablet.  I've never really been very intrigued by the results before, because I am a girl who loves dimension and they all look so flat and textureless when I'm finished.  But adding some clustered cards here and there increases the appeal for me so I've been playing with that concept a bit.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear what would help you with your projects!


This pack includes a variety of sizes and textures (the clustered cards are included in 3x4 and 4x6).  Hopefully they will be useful to you even if you would prefer to keep your scrapping on your computer (or printed and cut for an album).  You can download them HERE.


The Photo Project - Festive will be at the introductory sale price through Monday.  And a blessed Christmas (or Hanukkah) to you all :) 

Julie

Thursday, December 15, 2016

Intermingling old favorites with new ones

Late last winter I released one of my favorite kits ever - it was called Sanctuary.  Inspired by a combination of a snowy scene and a winter throw, I was unable at the time to really explore the theme to the depth I wanted and reluctantly moved on.  I'm bringing Sanctuary back to my shop this week, and this time I've added a Christmas -themed kit, some subtly embossed papers, word art, and pocket cards to the original pieces.







I have some wonderful inspiration for you, too.  I really believe the creative ladies have outdone themselves:






So many different looks are possible!
Because part of this collection is new, I've bundled just the new parts together:

But if you missed it the first time 'round, you can still pick up the whole shebang!


Everything will be at the introductory sale price (save 30%) through Monday, and you don't have to go out in the snow to shop ;)  

Until next time, happy scrapping!

Julie

Thursday, December 1, 2016

December Hatchery Time!

!Yay, it's December!  Yay until I remember how I'm already behind, LOL.  No matter, it will all get done somehow :)  I hope you are all coping with your to-do lists, too!

December 1st does mean it's time for a new Hatchery collection at The Digichick.  You will love the color palette for this coordinated release from all of the fabulous TDC designers, and the theme is winter/holidays.  

I loved the red and the teal from the palette.  It made me think of mid-century color palettes (I can't believe we call it that - when I was growing up it was that ghastly old-fashioned stuff from the 50's - how time changes our perspective, LOL), which made me think of the scads of photos of my childhood Christmases.  Candidly, that opened up a whole other strain of feeling guilty about not finding an effective way to preserve some of the photos from my mother's albums in a way that my children can share.  I know there are apps which you can get for your phone (like Photomyne) to elimate removing them all and scanning, and I keep thinking I will do that someday and so far someday has not arrived - can you relate?  

But I digress.  

I chose to use that vintage inspiration to create Ho Ho Retro - just in case I get my act together I can put together a great little book for my girls.  I know they will enjoy rolling their eyes at their mom's adorableness ;)






Now the best thing about the Hatchery collections is the pricing - each pack is just $2, and the bundle (which comes with an awesome free alpha pack) is a swell (see me channel my retro lingo) deal at just $6.  Perfect timing, since we are all spending $$$ right and left on gifts!  And I think this would be a fun collection to use for Christmas cards, too.  

Just to give you an idea of what was in my head, I scrapped one of my photos from long ago:



That fireplace was famous, by the way - my Mother stationed me there for photos for seemingly every event! As I look back on those photo sessions I wonder how she ever knew if she got something good without being able to just look at the back of the camera on the LCD display ;)

I have some inspiration for you from my team and the TDC ladies:


 

Last of all (I hope you made it!) I have a cute retro alpha freebie for you:



You can download it HERE - I hope you find it useful!

That's it for me for now, so happy shopping and scrapping til next time!

Julie

Thursday, November 24, 2016

Black Friday Sales NOW!

Happy thanksgiving to my friends in the States, and happy Thursday to everyone else :)  I'm taking a break from cooking to tell you about my shop sale.  This is the big one!  Black Friday/ Cyber Monday is the only sale that goes to 50% off across the board, including bundles, so it's a great time to plump up your stash.  Not unlike the plumping I did of that turkey in my kitchen just a couple of hours ago :)  I've added in my entire inventory of Christmas kits to my Digichick shop and the coordinating templates; there's also a nice selection of goodies in the $2 Chick Blitz category, so it's a good chance to plump up your stash.



And here's a sampling of the kits I added this week:


Now you will excuse me, because it's time for PIE and a little shopping of my own.  I am so grateful for internet shopping (and so are my feet!)
You can  visit my shop HERE, and until next time, happy scrapping!

Julie

Thursday, November 10, 2016

New Kit. New Freebie. Old me.


I hope you don't mind - I've abandoned all hope of having a professional, smooth, sophisticated presentation of new product.  It just isn't me, LOL.  I'm all lumps and bumps and wry grins, so from here on out it will be just me.  :D 

<---- br="" first="" grin="" many="" of="">

First off, let me say how much I love this palette for Thanksgiving - it's so cheerful and bright and uplifting to me.  And that's what thankfulness should be, right?  It's also refreshing to have color when possibly the vegetation outside the window has  lost every color but brown.

My love affair with gold continues.  You probably noticed.  My addiction to shiny is still intact.  I am unrepentant.

Also prominent are feathers - I'm studying Psalm 91 lately and feathers are so meaningful to me - "He will cover you with His feathers and under His wings you shall trust..."   They also make nifty cutouts for hybrid projects (I still can't believe that the words "Hybrid project" come out of my mouth, but there you have it).  If I manage to get one done for this kit I'll show pix, I promise.

There are also extra bits:



And templates:



I love my turkey.  There, I said it.  I'm going to find a family photo and put it in there even if it isn't a Thanksgiving photo, because let's face it, we are all a silly bunch of turkeys and it will completely make me smile when I see it.  However, if your family is proper and non-birdlike, there's a regular version, too, LOL.  Plus a multi-photo page which helps make a dandy two-page layout.  All of these have strategic stained-glass inserts, but those are optional; you can shut them off and substitute papers or photos or whatever.  And of course, if you aren't addicted to shiny and gold, you can clip a paper to the frame.  I'll still love you.

I'm lucky to have some beautiful examples to share with you as well:






I feel so blessed to see these beautiful layouts with my kit.  I hope they inspire you for your own creating!

Two other items of business - I'm the featured designer at The Digichick this month, and there's a cute little Layout Starter kit there for you to scrap with (and I'd love it if you posted it in the thread and got some headpats for yourself, too!)  You will notice that some of the above examples use the template.  I mean, it has gold.  Just sayin'.

Business item number two - it has been a shocking long time since I have had a freebie, so I have a special little add-on for you:



I hope you find it useful :)  I have every intention of printing the cards.  Will I follow through?  We'll see LOL.  You can download the lot HERE.

Alrighty then.  That's it for me this week.  The Faith Project - A Grateful Heart will be at the introductory sale price through Monday.  And if you want it all and want to save extra $$ there's a bundle, too :)  Have a great week, and happy scrapping!

Julie

Friday, November 4, 2016

Template Talk

I have several sets of templates returning to my shop this week - some of my favorites.  And it occurred to me that it might be interesting for you to have an idea of why I make templates the way that I do, and some of the things you can do with them. 




I'll preface all of this by saying that I started making templates for myself and my scrapping style.  It's no secret that scrapping is my first love, and I do scrap with my designs - maybe it's more accurate to say that I design for my scrapping, LOL!  And I found that while I liked using a template sometimes, I had no patience for a lot of element placement - to me that's the fun part and so I would delete all the elements first thing.  Which left photos.  And often I was only starting with a two or three photo template so it always seemed like I was duplicating photo spots and then figuring out where to add them in.  You might be thinking to yourself, why use a template at all?  That thought did eventually occur to me LOL.  But the thing is, I like to scrap with several photos because I seem to think I need to use most of the decent (used very loosely in this instance) photos that I take because they all portray some detail I wanted to capture and remember.  And my idea of decent is a little iffy - not very many can hold up to much scrutiny if they are large and in charge on my page ;)  Finally, I decided to start with a blank slate and make my own sort of template - photo placement being prominent.  That was when my photo cluster line originated.  Sometimes I like to mimic the look of my mother's old photo albums, with the white-edged photos.  Sometimes I prefer a cleaner look without the edges.  Sometimes I want to put a narrow frame around the photo to help my eye make sense of the layout.  So my photo clusters have "photoedges" for each photo spot that can be left in place, turned off, or have a paper clipped to them and a shadow added for a framing effect.



Note that the "Taped" clusters can be moved wherever you like on your page.  (Thanks to Karen Robinson for the Trick or Treat layout, and Dawn Inskip for the owl example)


And in this one, I used one of the mini clusters at the top, and then a blended photo on the main page.  This is also a good way to disguise a less-than-picture-perfect photo LOL.

Hopefully this gives you some ideas, in case this sort of tool is something you'd like to have in YOUR scrapping stash.  I love that I can re-use them and have a completely different look every time  :)

Big Picture 3 and the entire set of Taped Photo Clusters (available separately or in the bundle) will be at the introductory sale price through Monday in my Digichick shop.  Happy Scrapping!


Julie

Friday, October 28, 2016

Two of my favorite kits have returned to my shop this week:

Tatterdemalion:



This happy kit is shabby around the edges but bright and cheerful.  In fact, it turned out a bit TOO bright and cheerful for the project I had in mind, so I created a companion kit with the same color palette, but just toned back and less saturated:



There are some nice extras, too:






These were the kits I used to scrap with last week's Webbed Templates:



Have a great week everyone, and stay safe  :)