Celebrate Digital Scrapbooking Day Two Peas Style!

Happy Digital Scrapbooking Day!

The Peas are hopping for Digital Scrapbook Day and this is my post on the journey.

You should have come from Polka Dot Pixels and your next stop will be Jen Martakis but if you get lost along the way you can pop along to the Two Peas Digital Blog to get the complete list. At each station there will be part of a code for you to collect. At the end of the line (so to speak) you will have a complete code that will allow you access to the fabulous collaboration FREEBIE (limited time only) in the Two Peas Store. The part of my code you are collecting from my page can be found at the end of this post :)

My own contribution as part of the Creative Team is this template

and my sample page using it (plus goodies from the collaboration)

As well as this freebie there are a range of challenges to inspire you, each of which gives you the chance to win a $5 gift certificate to the Two Peas store. The challenges can be found here. My own challenge is a Theme Challenge, based around the word Reflection 

I hope you enjoy your freebie and find time to join in with our challenges.

The part of the code from my stop is - p

I just want to give myself a little toot!

There's a new blinkie in my side bar over there! I got invited over to join the digital creative team over at Two Peas in a Bucket! Talk about heart palpating with excitement! I've got oodles of their digi kits on my hard drive already, plus I'm on Emily's (Polka Dot Pixel's) creative team (who sells at Two Peas) but to be asked to join in and play with the lush creations of ALL of the designers over there is thrilling! Thanks Erica!

I'm just starting to get into the swing of things over there and will share with you three pages for now.

Falling for Digital - DSD collab by the designers at Two Peas in a Bucket 
Template - Gridz by ChrissyW 
Fonts - Roundslab Serif, Jellyka Saint-Andrew's Queen 

Template Mixin' It Up 9 by Chrissy W 

I Hope by Edeline Marta 
A Vintage Affair by Polka Dot Pixels 
Font - Enhanted Prairie Dog

Fashionably Fall papers and elements by Tricia Chapman 
Font - Bud Hand 

A freebie fruity framework for you!

I do love alliteration lol!

Things have been incredibly hectic this end. Seen far more of the Royal Derby hospital than I ever felt I needed to, and for far too many times too!

Josh's birthday came and went as has Mia's (my baby is TEN! - how did that happen?!) Chiara's is next on the list in May. FIL is still very poorly in hospital (thank you everyone for all your thoughts and wishes, they do mean a lot to me).

I have been doing a lot of creating in some form or another, whether it be baking and decorating, creating party pieces, cards, paper scrapping or digital scrapping. I just haven't really had the time to sit down and get all my thoughts together and bits and bobs organised for sharing properly.

Updating my slide shows is moving up my list of priorities (as should be clearing my paper scrapping space).

Just for now though I wanted to share a digital scrapbook template freebie with you. Bear with me, I haven't shared a download on my blog before so I am really hoping that I have it all figured out right. It's a .psd layered template, based on this digital page:



Credits:
Two Peas in a Bucket: Eggstravaganza and Kitschensinque by Polka Dot Pixels
Owl Tree Studio: Iced Cookie Alpha by Wild Blueberry Ink
Sweet Shoppe Designs: Itty Bits alpha by Danni Mogstad
Fonts: Dancing Script OT and Vintage Typewriter

Which, in turn, was based on this paper page made for A Trip Down Memory Lane for a monthly DT gallery using My Little Shoebox papers:

Scraplifting your own pages is in no way cheating! Nope, it's making the best of what you've already done and can be a great timesaver too.

Download the digital template here

Please let me know if you have any problems and I'll try to figure them out.

Oh and, if you don't digital scrapbook, here's the sketch for you instead :)

Two Peas Winterfest

Do you love to stamp? Winter is the perfect time to hunker down and get inky! Peas are gathering on the Stamping board and inviting you to participate in an event members have organized and named Winterfest! There will be challenges and chatter you won't want to miss. Two Peas in a Bucket will also be sponsoring prizes and giving you badges by participating. Interested? Just head on over to the General Stamping message board and dive right in! See the master thread for an index of challenges and details if you have questions; challenges begin March 5th. Have fun!

Now I'm not a master stamper by ANY MEANS of the imagination. In fact, the main times that I stamp are when I fancy joining in challenges like Winterfest. I love challenges, the chance to try new things and be inspired by the projects submitted by other people. I will be hosting a challenge at Winterfest myself, with a randomly drawn prize winner to get a $15 gift certificate to the Two Peas store.

The challenges take place from 5th to 13th March so there is plenty of time to join in.

Got to start clearing my desk ready to make samples for my own challenge!

Quickie share

Been feeling rough all week so that, coupled with the dire weather, has made half term with the kids rather a wash out in more ways than one :(

We did manage some baking, the girls made a marble maze game from an empty chocolate box, bits of cardboard, cut out holes and some marbles out of Kerplunk! So creative, must take a photo and scrap about that! I'm thinking of setting them some sort of treasure challenge tomorrow, but as the weather has been given as bad again, it is going to have to be an indoors one, I think. The one I'm favouring the most at the moment is a 'fit as many items in a matchbox as you can' challenge, though it's a larger than normal size matchbox they will be filling, and the girls will be working together as a team as it would be too unfair otherwise given the big difference between them.

Today has been half term hair cut day. No photos yet (unfortunately Mia had her hair curled after cutting today and they fell out by bed time). Chiara has gone for a more 'grown up' cut, reflected in the fact that they tried charging as if she was 14 - she's still 11 lol! Josh has had the normal blade 2 and bog brush on top style. I keep trying to talk him into something more on trend, but he's not terribly fashion conscious - until it comes to jeans (of which we had to buy two more pairs today - he's growing way too fast still!)

I've been playing digi whilst I've been poorly, using the laptop in the warmth of the lounge (when I've been able to wrestle it out of Josh's clutches). As it's up with him now I can't share my projects for Owl Tree Studio (which was my original intention) so I'm sharing this page using Two Peas products (including the weekly freebie template available here). As you can see, I kept pretty faithful to the template, though I straightened out the frame as I thought it being wonky gave it a playful look and the photo I used didn't match that mood at all.

The photo is just a fortuitous snap taking whilst the girls were out playing in the garden last year - I altered the colour tones to match the more wistful look captured on Mia's unposed pose (if you follow me).

Credits all Two Peas in a Bucket

Template freebie February 2011
Summer's Edge kit by Scrap Originals
Boho Chic (freebie) Brandy Buffington
Live Well word art (freebie) Jo Hanna
Font Angelina (freely available on the web)

Who knew?

I was playing with a digital page the other day and found out that you can use a brush in conjunction with the eraser tool to create a punched effect. Adding a drop shadow increases the 'depth' of the cut out. How cool!

I created this page with a free template over at Two Peas in a Bucket and using the Apple of My Eye kit (it's such a beautiful kit) by Vinnie Pearce, also at Two Peas. I altered the template slightly to included two photos rather than three, added a photo mat, the butterflies and moved the title down a bit.

Oh and that title effect - I re-coloured a tag from the kit, used a standard font (Georgia), made it bold and added a Simple Pillow Emboss effect layer style. I love that this gives a debossed effect to the text.

Counterfeit Kit pages

A while ago on It's a Creative World, I wrote about a new blog I'd discovered, The Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog. My original post at IACW lists all the goodies I used putting together the January kit (together with links to the original kit we were counterfeiting) and can be found here if you want all the details.

This is the kit I put together

So far, I've created two layouts - I've put off doing more as I am wanting to take the kit to crop with me tomorrow. I used everything from the kit. I added a different coloured thread and also used the doily stamps with versamark and and Distress embossing powder on this first page (which was part of the Stamping and Scrapbooking class challenge for February over at Two Peas).

Here's a close up of the heat embossed image - I used the Tattered Rose Distress embossing powder, it was a perfect match for the pale pink on the clothing tag I used on the page.

And this close up shows the clothing tag I used (as part of another Two Peas challenge), just the perfect addition to a page talking about how much fun my daughter had shopping for new clothes for her new High School (no school uniform!).





This second page I added some Cosmic Shimmer mists to the background (hence the slight crumpling to the background paper). Also extra to the kit are the alpha stickers for the word 'so' which, in the spirit of the challenge blog, are by Creative Imaginations and must be six or seven years old! 

I also punched out one of the digital elements, I think it adds yet another touch of whimsy to this page.

And I used some of the border stickers as journaling lines (again for a Two Peas challenge - to use border stickers creatively on a layout).

I really enjoyed working with such a mix of products from so many manufacturers. It did take a while to put together (in no small part due to the huge stash I have and which I trawled through), but all I have to do now is look for a few more photos to 'fit the kit' and I've got another two or three pages all planned for tomorrow.

I'm also going to be putting together the February Counterfeit kit too based on this kit

I have to say I'm not too hot on the colour mix here (rather I can't think of anything I would be scrapbooking with those colours) so I will be changing the colours up a bit - which is one of the great things about putting kits together this way.

Lucky Me!

I won a cute digital kit for a facebook comment this week. It's this one here at Two Peas Me and You kit by Edeline Marta. And here's a quick page I did with it as I was eager to play (and also I used a freebie template by Chrissy W, also at Two Peas ). I love this kit and I can't wait to play more with it, but I have other things I have to do first! And, unfortunately, tomorrow I'm at the Accountant's so no time to play *sulk*.

I've done lots of scrapping over the weekend, enjoying the challenges over at Two Peas as they celebrate CHA. Lots of new goodies coming out, I can't wait to see what Mel and Jill get in over at A Trip Down Memory Lane. Lots of lush stuff to be added to my wish list I'm sure.

Here's a couple of the pages I have done. I admit to starting them at crop but not actually getting very far with them. For all of these three I used the Sugar Rush collection by Basic Grey (a wonderfully generous prize pack sponsored by Basic Grey and issued by Two Peas for another challenge quite a while ago).

This snap of Chiara posing in a replica turtle shell at Chester Zoo a couple of years ago came out great (with a little PSE tweaking!). I love the look of pure enjoyment on her face. The colours of the kit were perfect for the photo and I couldn't help using that corny title! The journaling is about how Chiara was growing in confidence at that point in her life, so the title did double duty.

I used some Hot Off the Press stamps (that I seem to recall were another prize, I know, I've been so lucky in drawings and challenges!) to add part of the title to a handcut banner, to fit the Scrapbook Stamping class that was running over at Two Peas in January (to include stamping in your title and journaling). This is a year long class (February's is to add heat embossed images to a layout) and I'm already getting a lot more use out of my stamps than they have seen in like .... ummm .... forever!).

I loved these fun pics of Mia at a local park last year and, of course, the purple dress was another great match for the papers. I always get a bit 'blah' over journaling these park play photos, just how many times can you talk about having fun playing on the swings or whatever? So for this one I used the photos as a link to something that is very dear to Mia's heart and that is animals. She loves all animals, but has a special dream of having a horse, or pony, or donkey or dog! Like the title says ... Dream on!

These photos are from the same day as the Dream on layout. We don't always get the chance to go out much as a family (and even on this day, Josh didn't want to join us at the park - not fun enough for a fifteeen year old any more I guess) and especially last year as it seemed to be permanently raining! Mia is such a happy and loving little girl and she really is a joy to be with (well, mostly!).

These layered embellishments from Basic Grey are such fun, I thought off setting them was perfect for the cloud shape and it gave me more room for the title too. As you can see, I'm working my older stash a lot at the moment. These rub-ons are by Crate Paper and the paper flowers are years old and by Making Memories - I love them and happily bought a lot when they were on clearance.

xxx's
Suzanne

Another scrapping frenzy

Paper scrapping this time. Spent the last couple of days scrapping up a storm for challenges over at Two Peas in a Bucket CHA Social event.

And without boring you with any more waffle, here's all the stuff I did! Erm, actually, I think I will split the share over a couple of day's worth of posts because there is quite a lot!

For the altered project challenge, I decorated another Maya Road container. This time it's for Chiara to fill with photos and messages and stuff for her friend who will be going to a different high school.

Products used:
All Cosmo Cricket Girl Friday papers and chipboard
Fiskars Apron Lace punch
Ribbon, twine, gems, button

This was for the challenge to be inspired by a project in your faves folder. I chose this page by findingnana. And what a mess I made originally. I had the bright idea to add the stamped journal block directly to the page. At the first attempt the image didn't come out cleanly, so I went to overstamp it and dropped the stamp onto the page! I had to take it all apart and build the whole page up again. At least the end result was worth it!

Products used

Patterned papers - Making Memories, My Mind's Eye, Little Yellow Bicycle
Die cuts - My Mind's Eye
Stamp - Autumn Leaves
Punch - Fiskars
Stickers - 7Gypsies
Alphabets - American Crafts and, erm, other!
Button, pearls and brush marker

I always wanted a sister myself so I am excited for the girls - not only for the bond and fun they share now, but for all the things they can enjoy being to each other and doing together in the future.

All the smaller hearts were cut out of a piece of patterned paper from the Sweet Love range by Little Yellow Bicycle. Gorgeous papers, all with a wonderful shimmery finish to them.

This next was for the challenge to scrap a family relationship. Again I chose the two girls. I know, but I have SO many wonderful photos of them, plus I was in the mood for lots of pretty papers.

Products Used

Patterned papers and felt die cut - Fancy Pants
Flowers, metal tab, journal spot, word tags - Making Memories
Epoxy love sticker - Creative Imaginations
Crystals - Prima, Basic Grey
Chipboard frame - K&Co
Chipboard letters - American Crafts
Sticker label - Jenni Bowlin
Clear phrase sticker - Cloud 9

LOTS and lots of old stash being used up here!

Final share for today was for the be inspired by a garden girl project. I chose this page by Shannon Tidwell. Honestly! I flipped the design and added my own spin to it, but I loved the blocked design, the bracket shape and use of scalloped edges.

Products used

Patterned Papers - My Mind's Eye, Making Memories
Alphabets - Adornit, American Crafts, Scrapworks
And lots of flowers, buttons, brads and bling!

This page also meets the challenge over at How Much is Too Much - I check this blog out a lot because I love the inspiration but I am not good at sticking to the numbers usually. This time I managed it!

I did struggle with the two ribbons I have to admit ... just squeezed a tiny bit of the second ribbon on the focal flower look!