My Project Life layout this week is something just a bit different from my norm. There have been lots of questions during the last few months on the Two Peas message boards about beginning and end pages for Project Life albums, so I decided to make that the topic of my video there for September- Confessions of a Cover Page Failure.

While I'm pretty good at getting the weeks in my album scrapped, the front and back cover pages of almost all of my albums are blank. Or they were, until I tackled that portion of my 2012-2013 album and made these layouts to start and finish it.

Supplies:

InLinkz.com

The whole process is on video, of course, and along with scrapbooking the layouts I've included a short introduction to using digital brushes and show how you can also use the PNG files in Two Peas' digital cut files as digital stamps. There's also a tip about an app to split large photos into several smaller ones that you can have printed at a regular photo lab- just perfect for simulating the look of a cut-up enlargement, but at a fraction of the cost!

It's a Two Peas sort of week around here since tomorrow is the reveal of the October Garden Girl projects, and I'll be back then to share a new mini album!

Geek Girl - September 29, 2013

I blinked and the weekend was gone- how does that happen? I can't think of a better way to end it, though, than with some Yoda Soda, a gold Dalek cookie, and rumors of new Stargate movies to come (fingers crossed for more Joe Flanigan)!

Enjoy!

From the top left:

• This Super Mario Bros. themed bedroom is done up right- in classic 8-bit style!
• With the 50th anniversary special of Doctor Who on the way in just a month or two, what better way to celebrate than with gold Dalek cookies!
• This Star Wars themed 16th birthday party featured on Hostess with the Mostess is filled with practical and fun ideas for adding a little bit of Jedi to your celebrations.
• Finally, a use for all of those geeky silicone ice cube trays that have been coming out lately! They're also perfect for use as polymer clay molds, and the fine folks at Our Nerd Home used a Han Solo in Carbonite version to make their very own cabinet door pulls.
• How awesome would it be to have a TARDIS bookcase and a Dalek dresser of your very own?
• A concept for Sherlock themed Legos sets is up over on Cuusoo, Lego's fan community where ideas for new sets can be pitched and voted on. The sets have reached 10,00 votes, which means they're now officially being reviewed by Lego!
• It looks like Independence Day isn't the only movie franchise Roland Emmerich is looking to resurrect. Rumor has it that he's in talks to reacquire the rights to Stargate, as well, and has plans to make two new films. 
• Looking for a Halloween costume for your little one? Poppytalk has rounded up a bundle of adorable geeky onsies, sure to induce much squee-ing over all the cuteness.
• Peapods cookie shop on Etsy is filled with all sorts of delightful goodies available to order, including these edible video game controllers.

Tonight's video pick is one that my brother sent to me a long time ago, and somehow I've never posted it here! Watch as this charming German school teacher builds her own TARDIS- she has a lovely sense of humor, too!


MTFBWY!

Giveaway - Glitter Girl's Scrapbooking Survival Guide by Shimelle Laine

There's a new workshop up at Two Peas in a Bucket, and it stars everyone's favorite scrapbooking superhero, Glitter Girl! In Glitter Girl's Scrapbooking Survival Guide, mild-mannered scrapbooker Shimelle Laine has traded in her cardigans and vintage dresses for a mask, cape, and more than a dash of glitter to help scrapbookers conquer their crafty questions. She's scrapped 42 brand new pages (including several two-page layouts!) and filmed 10 brand new start-to-finish videos just for the occasion, and the workshop is getting rave reviews from the Peas, especially in this particular thread on the message boards.

And, guess what? I have one seat in the workshop to give away to a blog reader! I'll be using Rafflecopter again for this giveaway, so if you leave a comment or enter in any of the other provided ways, make sure you sign in to the widget (if you're in an RSS reader, you might have to click over to the main blog site to see it) and tick off the various way that you've entered, since I'll also be using Rafflecopter to select the winner. Entries close next Saturday night, and I'll contact the winner on Sunday and get started on the process of getting you set up for your class!

If you've already purchased the class and happen to be the winner, Two Peas will refund your class fee, so if you simply can't wait until the contest ends to see the Glitter Girl goodness, by all means go ahead and sign up!

Scroll on down to the bottom of the post for the Rafflecopter widget and your chance to enter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Friday Favorites - September 27, 2013

Hello, and happy Friday, everyone! It's time for another roundup of crafty links, and many of this week's picks lean in the more artsy direction. You'll find tutorials for watercolor, stamping, and misting, but there are also photography tips and a bit of clean and simple pocket scrapping thrown in for good measure. Enjoy!

From the top left:

• Janna Werner's layout is a great idea for using leftover alphabet stickers.
• Aren't these watercolored 3x4 cards lovely? See how they were made over at Gossamer Blue.
• I love this gorgeous travel mini album at Antilight, and you can also see an adorable stop-motion video of it here.
• Pocket scrapbooking is the perfect format for getting vacations into albums quickly, and Amanda Caves's Disney album is a lovely example of that!
• Want a visual reference of how your watercolors will look mixed together? Then you'll want to check out this post at Jenny's Sketchbook, showing how to make your own!
• Nichol Magouirk's bokeh stamping technique is so lovely! And she shows you how to get the look, too.
• Jennifer Larson's recent post on how she photographs her layouts is full of great tips for getting good images of your pages.
• Stock photos are great to have on hand for the times when you need to make blog banners or Facebook graphics, and How About Orange has linked up a great free resource for some crafty ones!
• Learn how to get this boxed letter look with a tutorial by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer.

TTFN!

Color Me : Fiesta Time

Image Sources: Pinterest (Broken Link) | My Crazy Beautiful Life | Pinterest (Broken Link) | Jaypore | Tobi Fairley

Layout - All Is Calm (Lawn Fawn)

I'm back again today with another layout using Lawn Fawn's new Peace, Joy, Love Christmas collection! For this page I decided to go with photos that fit in with that first word- peace- and scrapped pictures of our house on a calm evening close to Christmas, when everything was clean and decorated and ready to go (sans pile of wrapping paraphenalia on the dining room table).

Supplies:

InLinkz.com

I'm completely smitten with the font used in the Peace, Joy, Love stamp set- especially the swashes that end in festive branches and leaves. I stamped the three main words as an accent under my photo block, and then used the tiny snowflakes and hearts to mix in with a few sequins from the collection to add some sprinkles down the page.

This tiny Merry and Bright tag is from the cut apart sheet in the collection's 6x6 paper pad- The 12x12 version of this paper is a set of large tags, and Lawn Fawn restructured it a bit at 6x6 to make it really usable on a small scale, too!

I cut the title using Lawn Fawn's Cole's ABCs dies and felt- such an awesome substitute for Thickers, and I never have to worry about having the right color or running out of vowels!

The Lawn Fawn blog is filled with tons of yummy Christmas inspiration today, so be sure to hop on over and check out what the other fabulous Fawny girls have been up to!

Project Life 2012 - Week 52 (Lawn Fawn)

Lawn Fawn is celebrating Christmas a bit early during September's Inspiration Week festivities! The design team has created a pile of projects using the new dies and Christmas stamps and paper, and today I've got a Project Life layout to share using the Peace, Joy, Love collection.

Supplies:

InLinkz.com

For a few months now I've had one lone little week in my 2012 Project Life album that wasn't complete- the week of Christmas. It wasn't that I didn't want to scrap it or was avoiding it...more like saving it for later since I knew that I'd likely need a Christmas week at some point to show off a new collection for one of my design teams. Lawn Fawn was the first Christmas assignment I've had this release, so they got it, and with this layout my 2012 album is complete!

Often my Christmas photos end up with lots of black in them (a side effect of taking photos of lights and events at night), so the pops of black in Peace, Joy, Love were just perfect to match up with them. The coordinating flair and sequins made for quick and easy embellishments, and I put the Cole's ABCs dies to work (along with a 6x6 self adhesive cork stack from DCWV) to make a few custom titles. I love these alpha dies for making unique letters, and you'll be seeing more of them on my other Inspiration Week layout tomorrow!

You can hop over to the Lawn Fawn blog to see what the other fab Fawny Girls have come up with this month, and I'll be back tomorrow with another bit of Christmas cheer to share!

A New(ish) Video

Hello, and happy Monday, everyone!

Lawn Fawn is in the middle of another fantastic Inspiration Week, and I have a Project Life layout for them that will be going up tomorrow and another traditional layout on Wednesday. Instead of doing my usual Monday thing, which would mean posting two Project Life layouts back to back, I thought I'd share a recent video that I did for Citrus Twist instead! When I do videos for them they go on the Citrus Twist YouTube channel and not my own, but I do always try to add them to my Process Video playlist, accessible from the main channel page.


If you'd like to see the layout that the video is based on, you'll find it and all my other kit layouts for this month here.

Thanks for stopping by, and have a fantastic day!

Two Peas Gardener's Digest - September 2013

 

Hello, and welcome to the September edition of the Gardeners' Digest blog hop! This month the Garden Girls at Two Peas in a Bucket are gathering once again to share a little about what's inspiring us at the moment, what's caught our eye in the shop recently, and what we have coming up soon! I also have a little giveaway this month, and you'll find details on that at the bottom of this post.

If you found your way here from Lilith's lovely blog, then you're making your way around the hop! If you're lost or just want to see all of the links in one place, then the Two Peas blog is the right place for you.

 

Next Saturday it's my turn again to host the weekly Project Life video at Two Peas, and I'll be tackling those pesky first and last album pages that I never seem to get filled in. There'll also be a short lesson on using digital brushes and tips for faking the big, cut-up photo look if you're like me and send almost all of your photos off to a developer who prints at 4x6.

I've assembled some fun products to play with, including the Wonderful Day collection from Fancy Pants along with the Chalkboard Albums Made Easy kit  from We R Memory Keepers (I am so in love with these cards that it's not funny!) for my pages, and I hope that you'll join me next Saturday, the 28th!

 

The layouts that are inspiring me in the gallery this month are reminding me that small is good! Aleksandra Gadji, LimeDoodle, MissSmith, and MarthaB have all taken 3x4 and 4x6 pocket scrapping inspired sizes and put them to beautiful use on layouts and cards, and the layout by GeekGalz featuring the Chalkboard collection by We R Memory Keepers shows how smaller 6x6 papers can be used to create beautiful layers.

Linnea @4 by Aleksandra Gadji One Perfect Day by GeekGalz Pocket Cards by LimeDoodle Perfect Macaroons by MissSmith Perfect Day by MarthaB.

InLinkz.com

 

I'm loving small things in the shop this month, too, with just one sheet of 12x12 in the mix- and even that (this particular sheet it from Amy Tan's Cut & Paste collection) I love using in small pieces! There are several new Albums Made Easy kits by We R Memory Keepers available now, with a smaller number of cards, smaller number of duplicates, and a smaller price point than the large Project Life kits. Pebbles journaling pads never disappoint, and flair (the Studio Calico Thataway designs are calling my name) and gold glitter Thickers (from the new Dear Lizzy Polkadot Party) are always perfect accents.

InLinkz.com

 

Speaking of small things, there are a whole bunch of new exclusive flair designs in the Two Peas shop right now! I have a small selection of 9 of them to give away to one reader today! The giveaway is open to both US and international entrants, though if shipping is exorbitant I may get in touch with you about sending a Two Peas gift certificate instead.

I'm trying something a little different and using Rafflecopter to run the giveaway since I know that some people have trouble leaving comments through Disqus. With Rafflecopter I can give you multiple ways to enter (and, yes, feel free to use all of them!), so hopefully this will work a little better.

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Thanks so much for stopping by my corner of the hop today! The always fabulous and funny Lisa Dickinson is next up!