Friday, December 31, 2010

Happy New Year! (and another desktop freebie!)

Hello friends! I hope you had the most wonderful of Christmas's ever!
I can't believe it is the end of 2010 and the beginning of a brand new year! I'm looking forward to seeing what's in store for 2011.

If you're anything like me, you're going to love what I've created especially for you...

I LOVE to change my desktop each and every month, crazy, I know! Usually I find a pretty one online somewhere and just pop in photos, it's really easier than it sounds, honest!

This month, I decided to use the new A Vintage Holiday from Trixie Scraps to create a lovely desktop for January...and to share it with you! Have you seen the new kit? OMGoodness it is amazing! You will love it! Here's a preview:



<-- link to store here-->

Since everyone has a different sized desktop, I created this one in three sizes, hopefully one will fit your needs... All three sizes, 1280x1025, 1280x800 and 1024x768 are included in the download.

Here is what it looks like:


Please download here and enjoy!

Blessings, *Ü* Karen

Monday, December 27, 2010

Happy New Year! (and a freebie)

Hello Friends!
Wishing you a Happy New Year! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas, that you spent time with your family and reflected on the reason for the season! I know we did!

Today I have a desktop freebie for you! The new year is coming, why not celebrate by giving your monitor a new look? I used two of Mary's products to create this special gift! One is her fantabulous new Cut It Out Snowflakes - I just love those!




The other is her wonderfully timeless kit Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow - so versatile!



Here's a quick peek at the desktop I created for you (with my newest sugar plum modeling for you!) ...hope you love it! It comes in three sizes...1280x1024, 1280x800 and 1024x768, there should be one there to fit your needs!



Download here!


Enjoy this and the new year!

Blessings!
*Ü*
merchi

Friday, December 24, 2010

Chelle's Having a Christmas Sale!

Wow!
Look at this! Chelle's Creations is having a Merry Christmas Sale! Woot! What a great
time to grab some of her terrific stuffs from her ScrapMatters shop!



This add was made with her Holly Jolly Holiday kit...isn't it darling? I LOVE it!

Hope you are having a most marvelous Christmas!

Blessings, *Ü* Karen

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

How DO I Do Those Double Pages...

Hello! How are you this fine December day? It’s Triple T Tuesday on the Trixie Scraps Blog, and I’m wrote out some tips and tricks. I'm offering a little freebie, too! I thought I would share all of that here as well...

I was asked to share how I create my two-page layouts. Well, way back when, shortly after I started digi-scrapping, I read a tutorial that talked of “flow”…that particular tut was referring to putting your pages together in a book, and how the colors, story or elements on each page should flow together. At the time, I was only doing single page layouts, and so I started mixing up my pages as if I was putting them in a book…looking for that flow. Pretty nearly at once I realized if I focused on “flow” I was losing the chronological order of my pages – well, I couldn’t have that! lol That is when I decided to do double-page layouts…so I could have the “flow” and not lose the chronological order of things.

Right, there’s some background for you… This is my typical procedure… I pick my photos and my kit and if I want to, I grab a template. Sometimes I use the same template on both halves, sometimes I use two different templates. If I want to use the same one, I will rotate or flip it for the second page so that they are not identical.
Here’s an example using City Girl and Renaissance Romance by Trixie Scraps:






As you can see, I’ve used pretty much the same papers and elements on both sides of the page, but they look a bit different because the one template has been flipped/rotated. Sometimes the flip is obvious as in the above example…and sometimes not so obvious as in the example below which uses the Trixie Scraps kit Autumn on the Lake:






And then a third option is to switch out the papers of the second page – you can do this whether you’ve used the same template or not. When using the same kit, why not get the most bang for the buck by using a variety of papers! If you like the stacked paper look for a background, simply rearranging the order of the stack can give a very different look to each side…see the two examples below…

I used Take Me Away to create this one:



This one was done with Sunday Afternoon




If you are using two different templates you don’t have to flip or rotate one…unless you want too! (And there will be times you’ll want too, but I’ll save that for another time.)

Once I have the general design of my page down, I move on to elements and their placement. Sometimes a ribbon or a scatter crossing from one page to the next is a nice way to tie the pages together. I generally using the same elements on both sides, with maybe one unique element added in on each side. If you look again at the above example, you can see what I mean.

I’m hoping that was clear and straightforward! If you have any questions, I’d love to hear from you…you can pm me in the ScrapMatters forum, and I’ll be happy to talk with you further!

And now on to the freebie I mention at the beginning… (did you think I forgot?) As you know, Trixie Scraps in hosting a December Daily Album with prompts and freebies everyday, all month long! I’ve been working on my album, and I LOVE it! If you are just learning about this, you’ll want to view this post for more information. To go along with all the freebies, here’s my December 21 Daily Download - a frame cluster created with a kit made especially for all the December Daily participants! Hope you enjoy it!




Download here – please remember, the link will expire in 48 hours.

Merry Christmas, everyone!



Blessings, *Ü* Karen

Friday, December 3, 2010

It's been way too long!

So I'm back with a post! lol I'm sorry I haven't been keeping up with this...

I have a new goodie to show you this week, by Mary of Plum Dumpling Designs.

She made these adorable Cut It Out Snowflakes, and I just love them!

Cut It Out Snowflakes

Wendy of wm[squared] hosted the Tuesday Template Challenge at ScrapMatters for November 30, and using her template, I created this layout of my kiddos playing in the snow:

2009-01-07WinterMagic-L

2009-01-07WinterMagic-R

The full two page spread looks like this:



Don't the snowflakes make this darling? I love them!

Blessings, *Ü* Karen