New Digi Kit = New Blog

I so fell in love with Jen Martakis' new digi kit:  Snowy Day .  So much so that I changed up my blog with some of the elements from the kit.

It's so easy to use digi kits to dress up your blog.  Many of Jen's products are perfect for this.  I used her frames for this one a while back:

{The little birdies are an American Crafts image that I altered}.

Every new release I have to stop myself from changing my blog again.  Changing up your blog can be a bit addicting, can't it?

Snowy Day has these sweet soft wintery images:

Besides using kits for your blog headers, Jen's frames can be used for sidebar headers:

and a pretty swirl or border can help indicate changes in subject matter on your blog like this:

soooo . . . now onto a different type of kit . . . the Jenni Bowlin Mercantile kit is revealed and goes on sale tonight.  There have been a few sneaks here and there . . . check out the Inspiration Blog .

I'm loving the kit.  I just can't post anything yet because I'm a very.slow.scrapper.  But I am making one of my favorite layouts with the kit right now.  I was inspired by Doris' layout here to use an older photo.  Ahhhh, such sweet memories!

and here's what's going on for giveaways and challenges with prizes at Jenni Bowlin:

May Arts Giveaway (deadline Friday)

JBS Inspiration Challenge (deadline Dec 5th)

JBS Red/Black Challenge (deadline Dec 12th)

Have a great day!  and thanks for visiting!

Thankful for this New Digi Kit :)

Jen Martakis has created a lovely new digi kit for fall and Thanksgiving:  Thankful For

Love the colors and little hanging elements.  I've got lots of plans for this kit!

We've been spending a lot of time with family lately and I used the kit to create this layout for my boys:

Jen Martakis Thankful For digi kit; PSE shape (starburst) and basic brush

Using type as a mask for digital  pattern paper is one of my favorite digi techniques right now!  Love the look!

I was inspired to create this layout from a challenge issued for the Masterful Scrapbook Design Class this month on Details.  I'm amazed by the inspiration from the teachers on the site.  Amazed!

Treat Toppers and Spooky Shadows

Before I get to those toppers, the winner of the Ranger stuff, as picked by my sweet ds, is:

Rhonda Nickol

Rhonda - email me your address - for some reason I was having trouble accessing your email . . .   :)

Jen Martakis has created an adorable Hallowe'en digi kit: Not So Frightful and I used it to create these easy treat toppers. Why are they easy?  Because they don't involve any cutting! I used Jen's circle frames, patterned paper, and hallowe'en elements to create toppers that I sized to fit one of my circle punches.  Real easy!

Just add some googly eyes, an eyelet, and ribbon and you're good to go!  If you want directions on how I made these in PSE, look at the How To! tab on my blog.  There's a pdf there!

The spooky shadow was real fun to make in PSE.  That's in the directions too, but I also have a screen video below illustrating this.  Once again, I think the spooky shadow was a mistake that lead to an idea.  Those kinds of mistakes are great, aren't they?


sorry - no matter how i try, the audio isn't synching up with the video!

Oh! Check out the new Jenni Bowlin release here!  You know, Jenni's stuff reminds me of classic Rock and Roll.  Always a classic - never out of style.  Can't wait to get my hands on those journaling cards! 

thanks for visiting! - betsy

Hybrid Hump Day: Jen and Jenni (and a Ranger Giveaway)

Jen Martakis has released a beeeeaaaautiful fall digital kit: Feels Like Fall.

I combined the digital leaf with my Jenni Bowlin papers and embellishments to make this hybrid layout:

Supplies: Jen Martakis Feels Like Fall digital kit; Jenni Bowlin Aunt Grace patterned paper, JB chipboard button, JB Vintage Sew On button, JB journaling card, JB tickets, JB Chalkboard letter stickers, May Arts Crochet Ribbon and string.

The leaves were made by taking the digital leaf and changing its color in PSE:

They were printed out on cardstock and the edges distressed.  LOVE my computer!

The Ranger Ink Warehouse!

On Saturday I was kidnapped a friend took me to the Ranger Ink Warehouse sale in NJ!  Boy was that cool!  There was quite a line, and as I made my way to the ladies room before going in, I caught a glimpse of the whole line of Jenni Bowlin  products.  What gorgeous colors!  I think the guy in charge thought I was a little wacky because I asked if I could take a picture of them with my phone.  Unfortunately, I have no idea how to download them!

My friend Jennifer got a HUGE load of stuff.  Let's just say, the guy in charge was very happy she came. LOL!  Jennifer teaches kids how to create journals and other things and that's what she'll be using her lot for.  She's very passionate about helping kids in this way and she has incredible ideas!  Thanks for kidnapping taking me, Jen!

I have some extras to give away:

I've got various Dabbers, ink pads, glossy paper, pop dots, and pens.  Leave a comment by Friday 8pm and I'll chose someone to get this lot!

thanks for visiting! - betsy

Jen Martakis Creased Kraft + One Sweet Photo = Vintage Charm

I was just fooling around with some great Jen Martakis digi paper when I found a simple way to give your photo some instant vintage charm.

It's quite simple and I'm sure all you Photoshop experts have been doing this forever . . .   :)

Here's my photo - mine happens to be a scan of a print.

and using 2Peas Jen Martakis Creased Kraft digital paper,  it became this:

Isn't this just so sweet?

It's real easy to do:  (sorry about the video quality - i've been having trouble today with YouTube and Blogger):  If you can't see the video, click "read more" at the end of this post . . . 

I applied all the versions of Jen's Creased Kraft digi paper to the same photo so you can see the differences:

I love it when you get cool results with something so easy!

Hybrid Hump Day and Nature at its Best

What do you do when you have photos of one adorable niece playing in the grass?  Scrap them, of course!

This one is hybrid and was published in ScrapStreet Magazine in August.  And here is how the layout evolved from a template:

Starting with this gorgeous Katie Pertiet template:

I moved elements of the template around to better accomodate my photos and added gorgeous digital paper to create the digi base:

and then embellished with flowers made from Jenni Bowlin Crepe Paper Ribbon:

Supplies: template by Katie Pertiet for DesignerDigitals.com, Jen Martakis Creased Kraft digi paper, Jenni Bowlin Crepe Paper Ribbon, Jenni Bowlin Rhinestone Buttons, Jenni Bowlin Stick Pin

I think my nieces were made to be photographed!  They can work the camera already!

If you're interested in making crepe paper flowers like those above, I've put my ScrapbookChallenges class on this blog.  The link is up top.

Now, something really amazing happened when we were in Rhode Island in August.  There were about ten of us sitting around at dinner.  DH had a north facing window right in front of him.  

dh:  Wow, there's a lot of dragonflies flying around out there.

eating and conversation

dh:  Wow, there's really a lot of dragonflies flying around out there.

more eating and conversation

dh: OK . . . I mean there are a MILLION dragonflies flying around out there.

dh gets up and goes outside

dh:  OMG!! You gotta see this!

We all rush out to see hundreds thousands millions! of dragonflies flying in a south/west direction.  Looking east, we could see the giant cloud of more dragonflies coming our way.

I took photos, but this was really hard to photograph.  Here's one bad photo:

and they were all flying this way:

I never knew that certain species of dragonflies migrate.  Incredibly cool.

thanks for stopping by! - betsy

A Wonderful Digi Kit and the Coach that Won't Quit

Jen Martakis has a new digi kit out that is just adorable. I love the colors and the whimsical designs.  Combining it with her White Space No. 7 template, gave me somethin' like this:

The strips on the side of the main photo may have been meant for digi paper, but who says you can't insert photos in there instead?  I have a layout in the August issue of BHG Scrapbooks, etc that shows this point also.  I LOVE templates - there's so much you can do with them!

Supplies:  Jen Martakis Everyday Fun digi kit

Jen Martakis White Space No. 7

Kate Pertiet Stamped Stitches

My Fabulous Flowers Class is up and running!  It's free!  So head on over, sign up, and download some handouts and watch some video!  I really don't have such a raspy voice with a lisp, so can you just ignore how I sound?! Jeepers! LOL!

And leaving you with a little bit of funny . . . 

The boys have been playing in a competitive baseball league this summer.  They sooo enjoy the other boys and the coach is such a character and cracks them up!  There have been ups and downs, laughs, and tears, wins and losses with this team.  So when the coach looked at me and said, "This team is gonna KILL ME!"  he really wasn't kidding - look at him now:

Broke his hand at practice.  Just hours after surgery he was on the field coaching.  Had to rework all his third base signs though . . . 

Have a wonderful and creative day! - betsy

Plant Whimsies!

Jen Martakis has created the sweetest digital kit for spring: Celebrate Spring. It was perfect for sprucing up a little plant I was giving as a gift and was so easy to do.

I loved the whimsical butterflies in the kit. I opened them up in PSE, and copied a bunch of them, varying their sizes. I also loved the tag and “spring” graphic and created my own little spring tag. I printed all the elements out, cut them out, and attached a length of wire to each one with a glue dot.

Then, the real fun begins as you wrap and shape the wire to simulate the fluttery path of a butterfly.  I love this so much, and it looks really really nice in my sun room, that I just may keep it for myself!

and leaving you with this lovely picture of spring  . . . a field near my house:

have a great day and thanks for visiting! - betsy

Jen + Jenni = one sweet layout!

Here's another way to use the products over at ScrapHD.com!  I used Jenni Bowlin patterned paper downloaded from ScrapHD.com with a new Jen Martakis template.  I LOVE that you can download all the digi papers you want from ScrapHD to use anyway you want. Such a great way to use the site.

I used  Jenni's Drawing Paper for the background, and her Cabbage Flower and Red Bookprint for the accents in Jen's template to make this:

Two of my nieces. Can't believe the older one is graduating HS this year. Love them.

Also used digi paint splats and stitching from Katie Pertiet.  The 3-D stuff are Jenni Bowlin scalloped notecards, chipboard buttons, memo books, embellished butterflies, and Heidi Swapp chipboard letters.

I think Jenni's bookprint pattern is one of my favorite patterns ever. I just LOVE text.  And she has 6 colors of that pattern over at ScrapHD right now.  And now I have them all to use any way I want.  Cool stuff! So.much.fun!  And Jenni said she's uploading 25 more designs this month.  Can't wait!

And leaving you with a couple more photos from my Thelma and Louise field trip last week.  I totally ignored my motherly duties and drove right by my house, over hill and dale, crossed state lines, to get to another antique store.  This one's called "Antiques & Tools of Business & Kitchen" in Pound Ridge NY. It's the coolest place. And the owner will talk about politics and life with you. I love places like that.  And the "junk" is everywhere - you really got to search. I love that, too.

It looks like this outside. Can you believe neighbors complained about this? This is BEAUTIFUL!

Cool storage stuff

I was very tempted to get a muffin tin . . . 

You can find anything:

Love birdcages:

I really think I became a pharmacist because you get to play with things like this:

And there are a bunch of these outside:

And the owner threw daffodils here and there . . .

 

I ended up buying these 2 things:

I'll use the tin for storage and the key itself totally inspired a mini book I'll be making for ds!

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great day! - betsy

Spring Has Sprung!

*** Pamela - i drew your name for seam binding - check your email ***

Here are a couple of springy layouts I did using Jen Martakis' kits:

Did the hYbRid thing again: Used Jen's Simple Starts template with digi elements from her Notebook paper kit, March kit, and new Robot kit.  Had it printed off and added the Creative Cafe buttons and American Crafts letters.

This one used Jen's newest March Quick Page - they are being released today! Simply added my photos, a bit of journaling,  had it printed off and added the Making Memories flower, brad, and American Crafts glitter letters.

I got those glitter letters and a TON of other bling from an American Crafts challenge. Did you know they post a challenge every Friday on their blog?  You can win cool stuff - check it out!

And this photo for some reason, makes me happy:

thanks for stopping by! - betsy

Jen Martakis digital + Jenni Bowlin stash =

 

Used Jen Martakis' White Space1 and February Gingham. Have I said how much I love the February stuff Jen put out?!!

Embellished with gorgeous Jenni Bowlin stash: chipboard buttons, bingo cards, and that beautiful Core'dinations Cardstock. My favorite Martha butterfly punch, and Technique Tuesday stamps along the edges.

Caught the boys reading together years ago and took this shot. Sooo cute, huh?
thanks for visiting! - betsy

Jen Martakis digital kit + girly 3-D stash =

I just love the February kit from Jen Martakis. Really, really, really tempted me to do an all digi layout.  But I've got this 3-D stash at home I'm tryin' to use up, too   ;)

                         

Used Jen's February kit,  add on papers, and her photo-a-day template.

The large frame with photos, partial title, and journaling was printed out on white textured cardstock. I mounted it on pink Bazzill, and embellished with Heidi Swapp hearts and chipboard letters, Prima flowers, Maya Road pins, and brads.  Swiped white paint around the edge to finish.

Thanks for stopping by!  The sun is finally shining here - but not for long, so I hear!