My Blog

A new Simple Stories sketch!

It's almost Valentine's Day! Yay!

The funny thing is that I don't really care so much about Valentine's Day itself. I just like hearts and heart shaped things. Seriously, I'm addicted to hearts. (I think I can see a future blog post sharing my heart obsession with you and the many heart-shaped items in my life.)

So, it no surprise then that this love for hearts often bleeds into my scrapbooking as well. (See what I did there?) I especially loved working with the Simple Stories Hugs & Kisses collection. There is a sheet of patterned paper that is covered with hearts in different patterns that I was instantly drawn to. It became the focus of the sketch and the background on the left page.

Be sure to head on over to the Simple Stories blog to see the close up details of my layout and to download the new sketch!

 

New sketches for National Scrapbook Day!

I know it's not National Scrapbook Day just yet, but Scrapbook Generation is having a week long celebration. So, it's National Scrapbook Week for us! I'm all for celebrating a little extra for a hobby that I love so much!

Both at our store in Springfield, MO and at our online store we have sales going on all week. Each day we reveal a new special sale and once it reveals, it's on sale until Saturday! Yesterday it was 20% off the new My Mind's Eye collections. Today it is 20% off all downloads including my online classes, our sketch books, the bundles, etc. Everything that you can download is included!

I even made three new bundles for the NSD celebration!

NSD Mini-bundle #1 - 1-2-3-4-5 One-page Sketches - $2.29 $1.83

This mini-bundle has five one-page sketches with 1-5 photos. The first sketch has one photo, the second has two photos, the third has three photos, etc.

You can get more information or purchase by clicking here.

NSD Mini-bundle #2 - 6-7-8-9-10 Two-page Sketches - $2.29 $1.83

 

This mini-bundle has five two-page sketches with 6-10 photos. The first sketch has six photos, the second has seven photos, the third has eight photos, etc.

You can get more information or purchase by clicking here.

NSD Bundle - Pocket Page Sketches - $4.29 $3.43

This bundle has nine two-page sketches that combine traditional scrapbooking with Pocket Page scrapbooking (think Life Documented, Project Life style). Each sketch is designed to work with the Simple Stories Pocket Pages, Design #2-10. (Design #1 is just a single pocket for a full size layout).

Don't do Pocket Page scrapbooking? Don't worry! These sketches will work great as traditional scrapbook layouts too!

You can get more information or purchase by clicking here.

Last week we added several more new sketches to the online store during our usual monthly download day. All of these (all the sketches in the store actually) are also at the 20% discount! Here's a look at those:

• Mini-bundle: Birthday (one-page sketches) - $2.29 $1.83

Five birthday themed one-page sketches. You can get more information or purchase by clicking here.

 

• Mini-bundle: Birthday (two-page sketches) - $2.29 $1.83

Five birthday themed two-page sketches. You can get more information or purchase by clicking here.

• Four Pack (11 Photos) - $1.79 $1.43

Four two-page sketches all featuring 11 photos. You can get more information or purchase by clicking here.

• Trio - $1.29 $1.03

Three two-page sketches from our Boy Crazy Kit Club. (The sketches are from 2013 - May, June, and July.) You can get more information or purchase by clicking here.

• Double Take (Square photos) - 99¢ 79¢

Two two-page sketches that feature only square photos. You can get more information or purchase by clicking here.

• One-page sketch - 49¢ 39¢

One, one-page sketch. You can get more information or purchase by clicking here.

• Two-page sketch - 49¢ 39¢

One, two-page sketch. You can get more information or purchase by clicking here.

There are so many more sketches in the store too! Bundles are only $8.00 and classes are only $12.00!

Have a Happy National Scrapbook Day!

April CREATE Magazine

What can get better than a magazine filled to the brim with awesome scrapbooking inspiration? How about the fact that it's free!? It is 227 pages of awesome. Enjoy!

Here's the link to the magazine page on our new Scrapbook Generation website. You can also check out past issues at the same link.

Don't forget to go download the new free sketches that are featured in the April issue.

A new sketch!

I always love starting the month off with a new Life Documented/Simple Stories sketch to share!

I used the sketch with the super cute Sn@p! Dog set (one of my all-time favorites) to make my layout.

It was fun to make a layout with our chocolate lab, Chewy, as the star. He's such a sweet and lovable dog (and quite photogenic to0!) Sometimes I get so busy making layouts about the boys that I forget that I need to document how important our dogs are to us, their personalities, and the relationships we have with them.

If you want to see more pictures of the details or download the sketch, be sure to visit the Simple Stories blog!

New sketch downloads

It's download day and there are a ton of new sketches available for download! I am hoping that maybe these Spring downloads will encourage the weather to be more Spring-like. It's been so cold this week so far! Fingers crossed that this is the last of it until next Winter.

• Mini-bundle: Spring (one-page sketches) - $2.29

Five Spring themed one-page sketches. You can get more information or purchase by clicking here.

• Mini-bundle: Spring (two-page sketches) - $2.29

Five Spring themed two-page sketches. You can get more information or purchase by clicking here.

• Four Pack - $1.79

Four two-page sketches all featuring 10 photos. You can get more information or purchase by clicking here.

• Trio - $1.29

Three two-page sketches from an Allison Davis kit. You can get more information or purchase by clicking here.

• One-page sketch - 49¢

One, one-page sketch. You can get more information or purchase by clicking here.

• Two-page sketch - 49¢

One, two-page sketch. You can get more information or purchase by clicking here.

The next one isn't a new bundle of sketches but I wanted to share it too since it has a Spring theme.

• Spring bundle - $10.00

The Spring bundle has 6 one-page sketch, 6 two-page sketches, 6 embellishment sketches, 4 card sketches, Spring title ideas, and Spring quotes.

You can get more information or purchase by clicking here.

The March issue of CREATE magazine is here!

 

And, it's packed with beautiful layouts, card, tags, mini albums, and more! Here's why you need to check it out:

• There are 223 pages of awesomeness (including projects from the Teresa Collins design team and a stellar reader's gallery.)

• It's free!

What more reasons do you need!?

Click here to check it out. If you haven't had a chance to look them over yet you can also find the January and February issues on the same page.

Enjoy!

Sneak Peek

Monday is the big day! The March issue of Scrapbook Generation's CREATE magazine will be available! There is so much to see in the whole magazine from so many people. These six little pictures are just from some of my articles (Do you see that circle picture? Who says cutting your photos into shapes is out of style!?)

Just wait until you see everything else that our contributors did! It's going to be another fantastic issue.

A new Life Documented sketch.

I've got a new Life Documented sketch available to download at Simple Stories right now!

If you want to download the full sketch with measurements and placements be sure to visit the Simple Stories blog and check out my post. You can find the link to download the full sketch right under the picture of the sketch.

With 10 photos, this sketch allows you to include not only a good amount of photos but also a wide variety of photo sizes. I especially like the photo block on the left page. You could play around with a lot of different photo combinations in that space. I look at photo blocks as a puzzle and try to find out what combinations will work in that space. For example, with this sketch, the photo block is 7 x 9" so here are some more photo sizes and combinations:

• 7 x 5", 3 x 4" and 4 x 4"

• 4 x 4", 3 x 4", two 2 x 2", 3 x 2", 3 x 3", and 4 x 3"

• four 2 x 2", two 3 x 2", and two 3-1/2 x 5"

• 3 x 5", 3 x 4", 4 x 3", and 4 x 6"

There are so many ways to add more by using smaller pictures or if you need to use less photos, just simply use larger photos. Photo blocks are always a great way to incorporate you own ideas into a sketch!

Here's a look at my layout based on the newest sketch:

* You can see more pictures of the details in my post at Simple Stories.

Last year after we wrapped up our annual Christmas card photo shoot (that the boys love so much), Drew and Jackson were being really goofy. Since I already had my camera in tow I snapped a bunch of pictures of them being typical brothers. Drew dancing around, making funny faces behind Jackson. Both of them making funny faces together. Jackson getting a little extra squeezy hug from Drew. It was just a fun little few minutes of them having fun as brothers.

I take pictures of them together all the time but sometimes it's hard to capture certain feelings or relationships when it feels pushed or staged. Especially with little kids, or at least my kids. They tend to freeze up or get annoyed went I ask them to be in a picture or two. (Who am I kidding? I've probably never taken just two pictures of something. A more accurate number would probably be eighty.) I loved that with these pictures, even though they might not be the best quality or the cutest, they are a great representation of Drew and Jackson and the relationship that they have.

I hope you enjoy using the new Life Documented sketch!