Goodie Time!

It's time for our 1st Blog Give-Away!

But first I'd like to share a couple pictures from Friday's Cupcake Crop!

We had some of the most yummy-licious things ever!

Just imagine . . . . more than 130 cupcakes for us to nibble on all night long!

Next up is our "Sundae on Friday Crop" . . . got any guesses what that might involve?

More yummyness!

OK . . . . So on to our Give-Away.

The Shoppe's blog has been up & running now for 6 months.

As of this posting, we've had almost 7200 visitors!

We've spent alot of time trying to show you all some cute ideas, give you some tips, and maybe bring some oldie but goodie ones back to life again.

We've had alot of positive feedback from customers who've been in.

And knowing that we're helping you with your scrappin' and gift-giving projects, keeps us pushing on . . . wanting to bring you more!

So to say "Thanks for Reading our Ramblings!" we've got some scrappin' goodies to give away to 1 lucky reader!

Just leave a comment on this post . . . Let us know how we're doing, what you like, what you don't . . . . maybe sign up to follow us! & we'll draw a winner on Friday .

Good Luck Everyone!

And THANX FOR READIN' !

Challenge Yourself

Today we'd like you guys to challenge yourselves . . .

Grab 2 or 3 co-ordinating sheets of patterned paper & see just how many layouts, cards, & altered projects you can make!

I used 3 sheets of these papers from Daisy Bucket to make 6 layouts (plus I have a tad bit left yet for a card!)

Now, of course I added some basic cardstock to each of these and did some Cricutting, Sizzixing, & stickerizing, but I got alot of pages finished.

This technique would be perfect for putting together a themed album quickly.

These pages are all 12x12's so just think how far a couple sheets of paper would go if you were making a smaller sized album!

Here's a closer pix of each of them for you to view (just in case you want to lift any ideas!)

(For some reason the greens photographed in different shades, but all of the pages were made with the same bright, lime green stock)

Hope you all find some of these color-blocking techniques helpful & useful for

your upcoming layouts.

Thanks for visiting . . . Please stop by again soon!

Graduation Pages

First of all, we'd like to share another award we found in our email this morning . . .

Thank You to Amanda W. from somewhere out in blog-land!

She wrote " I love the chalk tip on your blog. I used to use mine so long ago, but mainly for shading. I never would have thought to use them on photos or even printing my pix out on stock! Thank You!"

Well, you are very welcome Amanda W. . . . glad to help!

Now then . . . . on to our Graduation Pages for today.

We're gonna share a really easy layout that can be completed in about 20 minutes.

You don't always need themed papers for you pages.

Sometimes, simpler is better . . . .and more elegant.

We used just black cardstock & some metallic gold paper for this page along with just 1 photo and the invitation.

We cut the info from the inside of the invite and mounted it below the invitation.

Then of course, there's the Senior Portrait with the name cards that always fall out and get lost . . .

And if you have an empty corner, add some something simple to enhance the main items ~ not over-power them.

On this page, I laid a plastic stencil down and globbed on a thick layer of glue stick.

Then I covered the glue with gold embossing powder & melted it with my heat gun.

In the center is are some plain white petals with a brad.

It's simple but very nice . . . AND inexpensive!

Didn't spend more than 2 bucks on this one!

So hang onto those invitations and programs & make sure to add them into your memory books. You'll be glad someday that you did!

Chalk Art

Today we'd like you guys to get another item out from the bottoms of your scrappin' totes and put them back to good use.

We're talking about the pallettes of dry decorating chalks that we all started out with.

They seem to have been replaced by the cat's eye chalks lately. But unlike the cat's eyes, these are MUCH more forgiving.

If you make a mistake with these, all you need to do is erase it with a white eraser and start over again . . . . can't do that with the inky kind!

Now most of us use these for shading & highlighting our die-cuts and photo mattes, but today we're gonna show you how to colorize your photos with them.

And all you need is a very basic supply . . . . cardstock!

You'll want to cut a sheet of cardstock to your desired photo size, choose your photo, & set it to print black & white.

You can choose either smooth or textured.

If you print on the textured kind, your photos will have that canvass-y look to them.

Then all you need to do is start coloring in the areas you want to highlight . . . Easy as that!

Here is my finished page of my daughter's graduation . . .

And a couple close-ups of the added embellies . . . .

Here's another way to use your chalk sets . . .

Get out your favorite stamps & emboss them.

Then give the images a dusting of chalk . . .



And you've got a really inexpensive, different style of embellishment for your pages & cards.

So go look for those lost, forgotten chalk sets you know you've got around somewhere and try something new on your projects.

You'll be pleasantly surprised at how it looks!

Quick & Easy

It's time for another Quick ~n~ Easy project . . . .

We've made this one even quicker & easier cuz we've done all the work for you ~ the designing, the measuring, the cutting ~

All you have to do is pick up a kit & glue it together!

So here ya go . . .

Another cute, cute page layout perfect for spring or the special "Tweetie" in your world!

We used some of the new "Pink Lemonade" paper from On The Dot in these kits. There's more on the shelves if you'd like to turn this into a 2-pager, along with other co-ordinating papers & tags in a few different color schemes.

And if you've been thinking about these Mother's Day pages, don't wait to sign up too much longer . . . there are only 3 more seats available!

Saturday, May 16th .. .1p - 3p . . . call The Shoppe to register 706*321*0202

Thanx for joining us today . . . . Stay tuned for more ideas, tips, tricks, and other scrappin' goodness.

****HINT**** we'll be hosting a Blog Give-Away soon, so be sure to check back often for that!