Round Candy Bag

This is a personal favorite. I'm giving these to my family members with lot of love and chocolate! (Because those of you who read this blog regularly know how I feel about chocolate!) The one shown above is about 2 1/2 inches tall, but can be created in any size, but to about 4 1/2 inches. And here's the proof these will be well loved.

Kisses

I promised products made from the Valentine's Day kit, now available on my website. This is a lil' candy bag, cut with the Cricut "Platin School Days" cartridge and accented with red ribbon.

Purchase the kit and make your own, or order them ready made.

Think of how original your Valentine's could be this year!

Basic Grey

Even if you didn't, I have loved the cards I can now make with my new Cricut machine. Only problem was, I ran out of paper. So I went to the store. Crazy, I know.

Anyway, I came home with a bag full of envelopes (made with a die-cut compliments of Archivers) and a package of Basic Grey paper!

Basic Grey? you wonder.

Oh yes. My favorite product line.

Made even better by the fact that I have an angel policy with this company. That means I can create products, cards, pages, whatever without a contract from you, the customer.

Coming soon to the Designs of Mine website: Pre-made Basic Grey EVERYTHING...

New!

Oh fun stuff! I have a shipment of Valentine's Day materials just waiting to be crafted and created! Its a cute line of curly-cues and harts, hand-drawn flowers, and raised cardstock.

There are some other sheets as well, but the above is a kit I'm offering on my website, Designs of Mine. I spent some time creating from these papers and I'm excited to share some ideas with you soon!

So, if you've been thinking about those photos now you're ready to take it to the next level : ).

The Winner!

Congrats to Janna, who won the thank you cards give away hosted here last week! Janna will recieve four, hand-made cards created with a paper line called "della Fantasia" by the Paper Studio.

Like 'em? Head on over to Designs of Mine for some of your own!

For example

This morning I took some time and worked with a couple of photos of my own the way we discussed yesterday. (Nothing like practicing what you preach!) Here is my favorite!

Old photo:

New photo:

By cropping close and changing the color tones I have a brand new picture! One that's perfect for the inside of the card I'll make for my husband.

Ready or Not

The other day I went shopping for groceries. Already the stores are filled with pink and red harts, boxes of chocolate, and flowery cards. I am still recovering from Christmas!

However, if you plan to share your love with any hand-made item, now is definitely the time to begin. Coming soon will be a post with ideas for creating a card for your husband, children or any loved one, but today lets talk about one of my favorite subjects-- pictures!

Planning photos to take now will allow you time to create just the right set-up, as well as develop the film and still have time to make a card. But do you want just any old photo?

Think of things that make your relationship special, funny, memorable, personal, etc. Then decide on the best way to capture them. Grab a shot of a book you and your child enjoy reading together, the restaurant where hubby took you on your first date, you get the idea. Set up a tri-pod or get someone to take some of the two of you together. Choose a high resolution setting so you can crop. That will allow you to create an up-close picture of just your hands or a kiss. Or choose the humorous route. One of my favorite photos is of my husband standing in front of his truck with me pulling is arm, trying to get him away from it. (He didn't budge.)

It's not cheating to browse through the card aisle and get some ideas. You can even swipe a saying, if you can give credit.

Anyway, its something to think about. Valentine's Day will be here soon, ready or not!

Inspiration

Yesterday I shared a tip for scrapbooking when you have more photos than time. ( Designs of Mine: Organization)

Today, I'm going to leek another secret.

Scrapbooking is all about creativity-- but not all of it has to be yours. Some days, when I just need a jump start, I start with a sketch of photo layouts. These can be found in scrapbook magazines, at craft store websites, or at http://www.pagemaps.com/. I love these maps!

Change what you need, add where you want and have fun! Here are some of my favorite inspired by PageMaps.

Organization

If you're like me, you are probably still in the whole "working on my New Year's Resolutions" phase. Most Americans have quit working on them by Valentine's Day, but that is still four whole weeks away.

So, helpful person that I like to be, I'm posting tips for organizing your memories.

This funny looking page protector is actually 12"x12". It fits in your typical scrapbook. And it is the greatest way to quickly add charm to your memories.

For example, I have about a million Christmas photos. (Possibly a few less...) So, I can create a scrapbook page that showcases four or five of those photos and add that to my album. But what to do with the other 995,000? You could continue to create more pages, adding them three, or four at a time to a HUGE Christmas album. Or, you could place them in one of these fancy holders and insert next to the page you made. Viola! 12 pictures added to your scrapbook with no effort at all!

Or, if you'd like, you can "upgrade" using this spectacular page protector. Add a tag to a photo before you put slide it into a slot. Use one 4 x 6 space for your journaling. Staple a ribbon to the outside or add a few brads for interest. So much creativity... so little time!

So good luck with all that organizing! Now that I'm done with my scrapbooks I've got time to tackle the kitchen cabinets.

Or take a nap...

Free, free, free!

Today I made and mailed thank you cards for all the Christmas gifts my family received. (At least, I hope its all the gifts. If I missed you, let me know ; )

To celebrate the completion of this task, I'm giving away a set of four thank you cards FREE!

Leave a comment, link this post to your own blog, make a purchase from the Designs of Mine website, or do all three. Each will enter your name into the drawing. Also, please make sure to leave your e-mail so I can contact you!

Names and links must be posted by midnight, January 16th.

And thanks : )!

Done!

Last weekend I attended a 12 hour crop at Archiver's. It was so much fun! And even better, I used those 12 hours to completely finish all of my scrapbook pages for 2008! So as I begin my new year all of my photos are organized and saved on both my hard drive and flash drive, I've printed all the photos I want for pages and those pages are done! (And just think... I could do all of that for you ; )!

Happy 2009

Since I've raved so much about my new cricut and what it can do, I suppose I should show you! The letters and leaves on this layout were cut with my new toy!
Check out more cool pages in my gallery!

Also, since its the first day of the new year I want to let you know some of the things to be looking forward to!

Just Do It Discount: get 10% off in January as you complete that resolution to organize your photos!

Valentine's Day kits: Paper, embellishments, and ideas all ready to go in a simple package. Then you can have all the fun of creating without the confusion!

Memory Boxes: Keep your pictures and your trinkets in the same place!

And keep on the look-out for more craft fair, festivals, and shows!

Happy 2009!