Coming soon to the scrapping world near you . . .iNSD

Can you believe I had no idea what LO, CT, and SS stood for last year at this time? (LayOut, Creative Team, Speed Scrap- for those of you were are like me!)   Since I am new to the scrapping world, I had no idea of the FUN and FESTIVITIES that will happen this weekend, particularly in honor of iNSD (interNational Scrapbook Day) on Saturday, May 1.   Check out this link at Scrapmatters to get to the forum for details on what is going on.   

Although I have never experienced it, I am SO excited for the fireside chat in the chat room on Friday night, the TWO speed scraps on Saturday and especially the Grab Bags.  My husband knows it is his day with our son so I can scrap and chat online all day long! 

As if that wasn't enough DST (Digi-shoppe talk) also has a bunch of activities and freebies as well.  Find this fun here. 

With all the hullabaloo, Sarah is coming out with a new kit and more.  Her grab bag is absolutely fabulous!  You won't want to miss it (or the sale price on Saturday!)  Snag it here.

 On top of ALL of this, Sarah's fantastic products will all be on sale - 40% off until Sunday and 30% off until Tuesday.  Check out here stuff at Scrapmatters now!

A Thursday Freebie too??? You lucky scrappers!!

Hi everybody! This is Kim, and I am so excited to be giving away a freebie I made for the first time! I used the springtastic Go Green Collab Kit from Sarah and WM[squared] Designs to make a desktop freebie that I hope you will like! It was made at 1920x1080 resolution and has space for four pictures. It has been brightening my desktop since the kit came out and I love it! I hope you like it, and don't forget to come over to ScrapMatters for all the upcoming [i]NSD festivities!

(image is linked to 4shared)

May Calendar Freebie

Hey Scrappers, it's Simply Sarah from Sarah B's CT here with a freebie for ya. I've have you a FREE May 2010 Printable 4x6 calendar. Easy to print on either paper or photo paper. Just pop it in a 4x6 frame and you have instant art. :) The calendar was created with Sunday Afternoon by Designs by Sarah Bennett and Trixie Scraps. Hope you enjoy it! Click HERE to download.

A Little Tutorial!

Adi here with a little tutorial for you! I use Photoshop CS3 in case anyone wanted to know. Just an FYI for anyone following this, there's an extra layer that I forgot to delete in my layer palette that's blank. Please don't let it confuse you :) This will be our end product:


1. Pick your picture and your word. When choosing the font, keep in mind that blocky ones work best, as well as making it in all caps.
0.0

2. With your picture layer highlighted, use your marquee tool to make a selection around the word. The edge of the selection has to be right up on the word or there will be a space in the end and it won't fit as nicely.


3. Again, with the picture layer highlighted, copy the selection and then delete it.


4. Now paste it so you have an extra layer in your layer palette.


5. With your word layer highlighted, use your magic wand and click on the outside of it, so that the inverse of the word is selected. Highlight the layer with the copy/pasted part of the picture and hit delete.


6. Delete the word layer and Voila!


Happy scrapping! :)

Celebrating Sarah's Collaborations!

Hi everyone!  Some of my favorite Designs by Sarah Bennett kits happen to be some of her collaborative efforts with other digital designers so I thought we'd take a look at the numerous collaborative kits that she's got in her shop over at Scrap Matters! And, of course, we'll showcase some layouts from each of the collabs to show you just how great they are! I hope you'll go over to the shop and check them out!

#1 - Storytime
Storytime is a fantastic kit that Sarah created with Stacy's Backdoor Designs & Lil' Digi Bits by Jude! It's an amazing kit that focuses on reading and learning. But, what I love most about it is that its extremely versatile!

Layouts using Storytime -

 By Amy (aka Buggie185)

Layout by me (Amy aka anrobe)

#2 - World Traveler
World Traveler is a wonderful travel oriented kit that Sarah created with Haynay Designs.  This kit is packed with goodies for a variety of pages!

Layout using World Traveler:

Layout by Stacy

#3 - Wild Oats

Wild Oats is such a fun kit that Sarah created with Chele's Creations. I just adore this kit and its cute little animals!

Layouts using Wild Oats -

Layout by Li14

Layout by Amy (Buggie185)

#4 - Go Green

Go Green is probably one of my all time favorite kits so I'm excited to showcase it again. This is a collab between Sarah and Wendy of WM [Squared} Designs. It's such a cool kit - and its got so much versatility! There are TONS of different pages just waiting to be created by this kit!

Layouts using Go Green -

Layout by TrishB

Layout by Kendall

Layout by me (Amy - aka anrobe)

#5 - Sunday Afternoon 

Sunday Afternoon is such a fantastic kit that was created by Sarah and Trixie Scraps Designs!  It's beautiful and elegant. The papers are so wonderful and the elements are so varied that you can create ALL sorts of pages with this kit!

Layouts using Sunday afternoon -

Layout by ahillo5

Layout by Trish

Layout by me (Amy - aka anrobe)

Thanks so much for spending some time with me, looking at some of Sarah's beautiful collaborative kits! I hope you'll go over to Scrap Matters and check them out!

Another New Challenge

Amanda here today to make sure you all know about the challenge that our fellow CT member Becky (hoo-rah) is hosting today at Scrap Matters! She has given us an awesome tutorial on making photo vignettes and challenged us all to give it a try. I just had to give it a shot and am really pleased with my results! I will definitely be doing this one again and again. Here are my two color corrected photos I decided to work with.And here is what I did with them.

I am totally loving the way they turned out! I just love how these photo's with Sarah's Sister Sue kit as well. Don't be fooled by the name, this kit has tons of goodies to do masculine layouts with as well. So be sure to hop on over, check out the tutorial and give this a try yourself!
Also uses Fabulously Negative Templates V2 by WM[squared] Designs.

Check out Those Challenges

Hi everyone! Kendall here to share with you some fun and awesome stuff going on over at ScrapMatters. I'm talking about CHALLENGES!! Now, if you've never participated in the SM challenges, you're really missing out. They are super fun and inspiring, and best of all, they force you to "scrap outside the box." I know that I often need a little prompt or two to help me think about my pages in a whole new light, and the challenges really help to do that. Oh, did I mention you can earn points toward free SM gift certificates? Well, ya can!! :)

It's not too late to get in on some fab challenges featuring Sarah and her amazing products this month. First up is the ever-popular Tuesday Template Challenge. Sarah is hosting one of these challenges this month, and as an added bonus for participating, you get a FREE template! Good deal, right? Here's the link to the challenge thread at SM, and here's a preview of the awesome template you can download right away to get started.


Isn't it great?! All you have to do is download the template, create a LO, upload your LO to the SM gallery and link it back to the Tuesday Template Challenge thread, and you're done! Easy peasy.

Another great challenge going on right now is the Grand Theft Layout challenge featuring none other than our own Sarah Bennett. Ya see, in addition to being a fantastic designer, Sarah also has some mad scrappin' skills of her own!

Check it our here and then stalk Sarah's gallery until you find a LO you love (which won't be hard. Trust me.), then scraplift it and create your own page based on Sarah's LO. Upload, link, you get the idea, right?

So, what are ya waiting for?! Get yourself over to SM and get started on some challenges! You will have so much fun, improve your scrapping skills, AND earn free and discounted merch! And don't forget that if you decide to participate--which I really hope you do--link us up to your LO in the Comments section of this post so that we can leave ya some love! You have until the end of April to participate in Sarah's challenges, but there are new challenges constantly being posted every month, so there's no excuse not to do it. :) Hope everyone has a great weekend. Happy Scrapping!

Gallery Standout's

I was surfing through the galleries this morning looking for some inspiration, to do a couple more pages with Sarah's 2 newest Collabs, Sunday Afternoon & Go Green.




It amazes me, how different each person can make a layout, using the same kit. I was inspired and was in awe of these amazing pages.

Especially this Hybrid project that SandyPie did with Sunday Afternoon -Food Gift Card Wallet! Almost makes me want to pick up my scissors and glue and give it a try!


Here is a layout by Pewtertm-Lazy Afternoon, that is just so beautiful. I love the reach out and touch appeal!

These layout's using Go Green and terrific blending by Potsie & Misfitinmn are just gorgeous!

Potsie: Lost in her thoughts


Misfitinmn: Save This

One last layout that caught my eye, was a 2 pager entitled Give A Day by QuiltyMom! Wonderful photos and great detailed journaling!



Please take a moment to leave these wonderfully talented ladies some love! Each photo is linked!

Two Fab New Kits and a Freebie!

Hi everyone, Janine here to show you the amazing kits that Sarah collaborated on that were released yesterday.

First up is a kit with WM[squared] designs for Earth Day or everyday called Go Green:

Her other collaboration kit that came out yesterday was with the amazing Trixie Scraps Designs and it is just gorgeous and very versatile and it is called Sunday Afternoon.

I'm thrilled to say that I have a freebie for you using some amazing things from the Sunday Afternoon kit, I have created two cluster frames for you just click on the image to take you to 4shared to download.  Please leave a little comment if you download I love to read them.

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend, see you soon!

Get ready to drool...

So, I know it's a recession out there. Maybe this recession has eaten into your ability to buy all the greatest new things. Well, now is the time to dust off your wallet because you are NOT going to want to miss this

are you drooling yet? Sarah and a *secret* designer have teamed up to create a GORGEOUS new kit that is to die for. The color palate is SO yummy and the elements are unique and beautiful. This beauty will be in the store THIS Friday. So get ready to gobble up some goodness.