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Thursday, March 29, 2012

HUGE Birthday Sale



Scrap Orchard is having their birthday sale!!! Can I get a whoop whoop? EVERYTHING is 35% off. And if you spend $10, you get Digiscrap Apalooza kit for free! Spend $5 more and you also get the add on. Now THAT is a deal!
If you have anything on your wish list from my shop, now is the time to get it. The sale only lasts until April 1st.

I will be back next week with a new release for ya. ;)
Have a wonderful weekend.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Tuesday Layout Highlights!

Sometimes bigger is better!  Like when you want all the attention on your layout to focus on 1 over sized photo. Having a photo that stretches from edge to edge really captures your interest and draws your eye straight in.  While I was browsing Cheri's ScrapOrchard gallery, I found 2 fabulous examples to highlight today.

First up is this gorgeous page called Princess Rian by Britaneejean showcasing her daughter's precious face.  The close up photo zooms you right into those beautiful eyes!  All the attention is centered at the innocence of that little girl's face.  And what an amazing photo blend she did.  This layout was made with 'A Charming Party'.


Next is this wonderful beach scene called At The Beach by Jak using 'Harbor Bay'.  The action in the large photo makes it seem like he's going to walk right off the page.  There's so much wonder and beauty having this photo extra large.  Imagine now if it was resized to a tiny 2x2inch rectangle.  It just wouldn't have the same impact.


So don't be afraid to GO LARGE with your photos!  Thank you ladies for sharing your extra large inspiration with us today.  You'll find 'A Charming Party' and 'Harbor Bay' in the Dream Big Designs' Store at ScrapOrchard.




Monday, March 26, 2012

Monday Freebie

Here's our weekly freebie - created by CT Roxanna - using Submerged
- check it out!
the bundle
the kit
You can pick up your freebie here on Roxanna's blog - make sure you leave her some love!

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Sunday Helper - Cool Statistics Tracker For Your Blog

If you have a blog, did you ever wonder how many people are looking at you, how did they get to your blog and what pages are the most popular on your blog?  Well, there's a cool tool that I use called StatCounter that tracks all that information about your blog in a very easy to read format.  StatCounter is free and easy to install.  On my blog, it was a few lines of code to add and it's all invisible to your readers.

You can check out their demo and see this main summary page that shows how many people visited your blog each day.  Pretty cool, huh?


There's lots of other information you can see about your blog.  Things like which site they came from to get to your blog, what countries they're from, how long they stayed at your site.  Lot's of neat statistics.


So if you're looking for a free tool to track your blog activity, you might want to check out StatCounter.  Hope you have a great week!

Friday, March 23, 2012

More CU Awesomness

While I am partying it up in Vegas, I decided to release some fabulous CU for you.
I am a little biased, but I LOVE my CU Paper Flower collection. I have found that I have only been using my flowers in my kits lately. They are just too easy to recolor and have amazing detail. Plus, they are not just the same image recolored over and over. It is different items in original color.
I spend a LOT of time making sure that the images are perfectly in focus and quality extracted. I even have my very own Quality Checker (Meagan) who is my little Nazi with perfection. (Wub ya Meagan!)
So, you end up with a perfect set of CU for your kits, Layouts or any digital project. Enjoy, and have a fabulous weekend. :)

CU Paper Flowers Vol. 3


CU Squished Ribbon Vol. 1

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Sneak Peek!

Cheri's got another great stash builder coming out this week.  Stay tuned!



Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Tuesday Layout Highlights!

Time for our Tuesday walk through the Dream Big Designs' gallery!!  One thing that adds lots of drama to your page is stripes and waves.  But sometimes bold stripes can be very intimidating.  Or even something like the starburst paper in Cheri's 'Lucky Day' kit.  How can you use it?

Take a look at this gorgeous layout by Catgoddess.  You eye is quickly drawn to the bottom of the starburst rays to the pot of gold, and then you drift upwards on the diagonal to follow that cluster trail.  Just a spectacular arrangement of elements!  What a fun way to use that paper as your background.

Lucky Me by Catgoddess



The delicate rainbow waves surrounding the main circle photo adds lots of playful color to this layout by WendyW made with 'A Charming Party'.  The flowers match perfectly to the rainbow stripes.  The clustering is beautiful and the scatters are so dainty.  Outstanding!

100% Princess by WendyW


Thank you ladies for sharing your pages in the gallery for us to admire!  Certainly 2 pages you'll want to scraplift for inspiration.

Monday, March 19, 2012

*Freebie*Freebie*Freebie*

Freebie~~~cluster frame~~~pizza party~~~What do we get when we combine all three? Today's awesome freebie - created by CT Jenn!
Check this out:
Isn't that amazing? Here's the pieces used to make the freebie~
the bundle:
the kit:
the alpha:
the wordart:
You can pick up the freebie here on Jenn's blog - Make sure you leave her some love!

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Sunday Helper - Blending Papers

I love textures and patterns!  Even on a solid paper, I love for it to have a texture to it.  The textures add a fabulous depth and richness to your pages.  When you start stacking papers together, the textures and patterns help to differentiate the colors.  Sometimes with a solid paper, I like to liven it up by blending 2 papers together.  Many times I like the color of the solid paper, but want to add a slight pattern to it.  Blending papers is such a simple task.  

So let's start with a fun and bold kit like Dream Big Designs 'Pizza Plus Games'.  And if you've ever been to Chuck E. Cheese, you know that loud, bold and noisy is the norm!!  


We'll start with this pretty solid yellow paper and find something with a pattern to blend into it.  


Looking through the papers in this kit, I like the square windows in this paper.  I also made sure that the patterned paper is somewhat coordinating in color shades.


So I place the green checkered paper in a layer above the solid yellow paper.  I change the blending mode to "Overlay" and then soften the opacity quite a bit down to 43%.


And here is the resulting blended paper.  A solid yellow paper with some square checks to it!


Let's try another example.  We'll start with this solid cardboard purple paper.


I spotted this cool paper with lots of stars on it.


I place the white star paper in a layer above the solid purple paper.  I changed the blending mode to "Soft Light" which has a slightly lighter feel than Overlay does.  And I slide the opacity way down to 39%.


And here you go.  That same purple cardboard paper but now decorated with a few stars.


Easy peasy, huh?  Give it a try sometime and experiment with different blending modes!  Blending 2 papers together gives your kit a lot more versatility!  Hope you have a fabulous week!

Friday, March 16, 2012

Wanna Take a Trip Off Road?

In our family, we LOVE our Big Boy toys. My husband always said that he would have a Truck and a 4 Wheeler before he was 30. - Well, he got his wish. lol. About 5 years ago he bought a brand new truck and 4 Wheeler.
He loves both of his "toys". He takes us camping and goes on trails, up mountains, to the Sand Dunes, and even climbs up rocks at Moab with it.
My kiddos love it too. They love to go fast and jump over the sand dune hills. Yep, we love our speedy toys. And so of course I just had to make a perfect kit to capture all those family memories.
I loved the pallet and feel of this kit so much, that I decided to make a whole collection to go with it. You can find it all in my Scrap Orchard Shop. Enjoy!

Off Road (the wheelers and motorcycle come with multiple colors)



Off Road Add On


Off Road Graffiti


Off Road Word Art


Off Road Bundle


Make sure to check out all the Eye Candy from my Dream Team: