Crafty Project: Dry Erase Board

Hi!

Celeste is a lovely lady I know at the Sweet Shoppe.  She is full of amazing ideas & inspirational sources that she readily shares.  Recently she showed off an idea for a DIY dry-erase board - the type you write on with a special pen then rub off when you're done with the message, again & again.  Very environmentally friendly :)

... and I can honestly say I don't think I've tried a simpler, cheaper or easy to personalise project!  Here's what I did:

I went all digi for my first attempt: a small memo board for Alex to use.
First I bought a very, very cheap clip photoframe - seriously it cost me less than £1 from ASDA.  Next I created a file in Photoshop the same size as the frame aperture, then the best bit: I had fun with the papers, banners & elephants from Alphabet Soup for Boys & School Days, both by Zoe Pearn.

After printing, I put the finished page into my frame, and let Alex loose with a dry-erase pen.  This is a perfect way to encourage him to keep track of all the things he has to do or take to school! ...and when he gets fed-up with this image I can simply create a new one from my ever-growing digi-stash!

Loving Alex's board, I had to make one for myself to pop next to my craft space, using a slightly more expensive frame - this one cost just shy of £3!  Again, I started by opening a file in Photoshop sized to match the frame's aperture, but this time I wanted a more grown up look, and chose to play with the gorgeous Everyday Moments from Lauren Grier & Jenn Barrette.

After printing, I added a little ribbon, glitter glue, a Doodlebug Designs flower plus button - and then popped it into my ever-so-expensive frame, & ta-da!

Andrea, of The Ribbon Girl on-line store, and HybridBabe extraordinaire, has just added this article to her blog, showing you how to make the most gorgeous dry-erase board I've seen. Her blog is always worth a peek for card inspiration, but this post is a definite must-see!

I made a LO!

...I know its only a very simple one, but hey its still a LO - there's a photograph and everything! I made it using Ju Kneipp's new collaboration kit Everyday Love with Valerie Wibbens, over at The LilyPad where Ju is guesting for the month. I have to admit a bit of an addiction to Val's designs so I was delighted that Ju got to collab with her!

Just one more thing to mention before finishing this post. Many of you are aware that Lauren Grier has been very ill recently. La is an amazingly talented lady, who creates some of the most original, fun & funky doodle-icious kits, alphas & element packs out there. A huge group of her friends within the digital scrapbook community have got together to create a not-to-be-missed kit which will be sold to help La & her beautiful boy, Ce.

The contributors, led by Shawna Clingerman include everyone at the Sweet Shoppe plus too many others to mention (except I will mention Kate Hadfield 'cos I love her). Its going to be sold at the Sweet Shoppe for sure, but I have a feeling it will be available elsewhere too including DigiScrap Addicts. The kit is called 'With A Little Help from My Friends'.

I promise you, its too beautiful a kit to miss, and you'll be helping out a lovely lady & her son too.

Hybridy blog post to share

Hi there! Quick post to say I've a blog post up here, on the Sweet Shoppe Design's blog that I think you'll enjoy - especially the bookmark idea! No more hints, just go & read all about it :)

Sara x

PS If your mojo is in need of a kick start you should have a peek at the Sweet Shoppe's monthly portfolio challenges, which a packed with a variety of prompts, & ideas for you to spark off. Well worth making a coffee & taking 5 minutes to relax & wander through!

Hot off the Press

Look what I made! I have never made an 'explosion' box before - the number of photos have always intimidated me 'cos I am lousy at taking them - but Heather has a huge release scheduled for tomorrow morning, and needed her team to make up examples. I got to make the hexagonal & pentagonal boxes as you can see, and I loved it. Heather's templates are (as always) a breeze to use, and these boxes only required the minimal equipment to assemble: a printer, a knife & ruler for straight edges, my Scoreboard for neat creasing & some adhesive. As Heather wanted printables that were already good to look at, I didn't add any 'real' embellishments - but the possibilities are endless! My mum will love them as a gift for sure. ...well worth looking at when they hit the Sweet Shoppe store! Sara x

Starting the year over...

Hi! Its been months & months since I last posted - all for sad, heart-breaking family reasons I'm afraid. I'm not going to go into details - this is not that kind of blog, but I'm doing this quick post simply to say that I'm starting 2011 over from today, the very first day of April... I know its All Fool's Day, but I figured that its as good a day as any to take a deep breath and begin blogging again!!! :)

I've been crafting throughout the time I've been absent here, and there's lots to share, which I think I'll do in a little side bar slide show, but let me quickly show you something NEW, and that I'm beginning to post around the digi-community today:

The card above & this cute alternative party treat presentation idea were made with a kit by Ju Kneipp & Dunia Designs, called A Boy's Diary - and the easy-peasy hybrid template is by WendyBird Designs. She's a CU hybrid template designer I've just found, and I've already bought several of her designs to play with!

The digital stamp is from DigiStamp Boutique, and is coloured with my preferred medium of chalks. A few layered flags & ta-da!

Miss Evie Witchy...

Doesn't she make a cute witch? This cute character is called Miss Evie Witchy - she's one of a set that I've started collecting from Squiggle Stamps. If you like digital stamps, this store is a gold mine - their entire rubber stamp range is available digitally, which is wonderful news for people like me who are totally challenged by doing neat, unsmudged ink stamping...

Like a regular stamp, you simply start with a black outline of the digital character - I coloured mine using two methods: cutting & pasting of digital papers for the clothed, hat & boots using Photoshop, and then once she was printed I used my chalks to colour the rest. I finished Miss Evie off with a little glitter glue on her petticoat & star accessories! After all, what girl doesn't like a little sparkle?

The papers I used throughout the card (plus the Boo tag, clouds & moon) are from Fee Jardine's Spooky Ooky - one of my all time favourite Halloween kits!

Next, I wanted to show off this cute set of printables I put together for SuzyQ Scarps recently - I adore this time of year as there is so much orange about. The set is in her store at Scrap Orchard, as is the Lil' Spooks kit I used to decorate the set:

How about something a little more Autumnal? I wanted to share this adorable Fall Fairy card with you. It was made with a kit called Basic Fall by Ju Kneipp. When I opened the kit, the first thing I saw was a simple flower with drooping petals - I saw it and thought it would make the perfect skirt for a flower fairy! I know, strange, but true. I already had the pretty fairy stamp by Claire Keay (a wonderful illustrator) in my ever-growing digi-stamp collection, and you can see the resulting card below:


My little fall fairy was coloured in exactly the same was as my witch at the top of this post :)

Finally, I know I've mentioned the wonderful KevinandAmanda.com as a great source for free fonts (and recipes and other interesting bits 'n bobs!), but the very talented Miss Tiina also generously offers lovely free fonts for people to use too, right here. If you do pop over for a look, you should also take a moment to browse her store at Sugar Hill Co., as I guarantee you will find it v-e-r-y tempting :)

I think its time for a cup of tea! Bye for now...

My fabulous new siggy & links to FREEBIES!!

This is one of two cards I recently made using the designs of Dani Mogstad. I simply wanted to make feel-good cards to make someone smile. I think it worked :)

You can find the full card details here, but the little girl image is one I found at Clipart and Scrap - she is one of a set, and is 'dressed' by layering papers from Dani's kit and using Photoshop to make them fit, plus a little chalk to finish her face and hair once she had been printed and cut out.

On a side note, Dani recently gave birth to a beautiful baby girl and is taking time to enjoy her with the rest of her family. Lovely, happy news :)

Yesterday, I made my first post on SuzyQ Scraps blog. I'd love to know what you thought of it! I was showcasing one kit, Pumpkin Patch, which from the name alone has a distinctive Autumnal/ Fall flavour. I was trying to demonstrate that it can be used for so much more than the obvious theme. I think it worked - but I would be interested in your opinions! The post included this pretty, purple presentation idea:

If you like it, you are very welcome to download the freebie file, for both the pillow box and tag, directly from Suzy's blog, here!

I'm hoping to do this sort of thing again with more kits in the future - I'm signed up for the January hybrid post on Suzy's blog and have a 'lets get organised' theme (appropriate for the New Year!) rattling about in my head, but want to do it with a not-so-obvious choice of kit.

Well, that's my current plan.

Maybe.

....truthfully, I am totally subject to my whims & fancies, and regularly start cards and projects with one idea and finish with something completely different! I'd love to think of it as my 'artistic nature', but its probably a lot more accurate to say I am easily distracted by pretty, shiny new things :) I'm 6 at heart.

On to other news now: In my blog post for the Sweet Shoppe this month, I also had a little giveaway - this time card templates for you to play with! They are definitely meant as starting point templates - aimed at those of you who insist that they can't make cards! Honestly - if you can make layouts, I promise you can make cards too! Have a look at my post here, grab the templates and see for yourself :) These are a couple of examples I made using the templates:

You can find full credits for both cards in my gallery at Sweet Shoppe Designs, and yes the cute owl is sat on a hand stitched 'branch' - I really must learn how to use my sewing machine! ...though I actually prefer the rough 'n ready look of handstitching here.

Now, take a look at this:

I am very proud of this little tree, my family {apple} tree, as I called it in my galleries. It was made for the current issue of The Fix from Digiscrap Addicts to showcase a sweet kit by Pixel Perfect Designs. I used a template by Heather Roselli for the tree itself, and then added the apple frames as you see. It was a little fiddly to make, simply because of the reduced scale - and if I do it again I would print the photo frames onto photo quality paper as I think it would have a better finish.

I'm rather hoping Heather makes a similar Christmas Tree template - but if she doesn't I may try to adapt this one :)

Finally - just look at my FABULOUS new signature!!! I am so in love with it, and just had to show it off here! I 'bought' my siggy candy (as its known) from Fizzy Pop Designs over at 9th & Bloom - I definitely recommend a peek!

...and actually, thanks to Lizzy of Fizzy Pop fame, I've started looking at this site for colour ideas recently. Its just a nice site to browse around for pattern & coordination ideas if you've 5 minutes and cup of coffee!

Wishing you sunshine and fewer September showers :)