We are so glad you joined us today as we get ready to announce two wonderful surprises! Go and grab a coffee, tea, latte or juice and get comfortable, we have surprises, projects and a giveaway...OH MY! Let's get started!
It is with pleasure that we announce the Scrapbook & Cards Today team is growing! We are so pleased to announce that Sarah Hodgkinson and Sheri Reguly have joined our design team! We have worked with both of these amazing designers for a while and could not be more excited to share their creativity with you in upcoming issues and right here on the blog. You can also see their work in our new special issue, CardMaps Today! To continue with our celebrations this week we asked these ladies to share a birthday project with us and were not disappointed.
"Happy birthday, Scrapbook and Cards Today! I can’t believe it was five years ago that I first discovered you at my local scrapbooking store. Your pages - so crisp and clean. Your projects - so beautiful and stylish. You inspire me. You motivate me. And, just when I think you couldn’t get any better, you come out with special issues like calendars and card books to get me even more fired up! I can’t wait to see what you bring us in the next five years.
In honour of your fifth birthday, I created a very special mini-album with some new products from one of my favourite companies – Jillibean Soup. Spotted Owl Soup is a perfect birthday line which includes patterned paper, diecut shapes, journaling sprouts and cardstock stickers. The patterned paper comes in both 12 x 12 and a new 6 x 6 mini paper pad which is perfect for mini-albums and cards.
For the front and back covers of this album I used two pieces of flat LEGO (2 1/5” by 5”). My son, now 9, is a huge fan of LEGO and for his ninth birthday we celebrated with LEGO party games and a LEGO cake. In order to punch the holes into the LEGO you will need a Crop-a-Dile by We R Memory Keepers. The largest hole punch cuts perfectly though the plastic and 1” binder rings then slide through nicely. With this technique under your belt you could also make address books, notebooks, and project books for your own LEGO fans. Another idea for your LEGO fans is to help them create their own blog where they can post images of their creations. My son has a blog so that he has a permanent reminder of his fantastic creations. Here is a look at the inside:
Supplies: Jillibean Soup patterned paper, cardstock stickers and diecuts, Fiskars paper crimper and layering tape, We R’ Memory Keepers Crop-a-Dile, We R Memory Keeper Corner Chomper, Glue Dots (to adhere stars to the pins), Helmar 450 glue (to adhere paper to plastic), other: 1” binder rings, pins, LEGO flat pieces (2 ½” x 5”).
Here’s some great party ideas for your LEGO loving birthday kid (or spouse):
• Martha Stewart’s mini-loaf pan makes a wonderful LEGO brick cake. Decorate with red, yellow, blue and green icing and top with Smarties of the same colour. ½ a brick per guest is sufficient with ice cream.
• Have your LEGO lover take apart a Bionicle or LEGO creation and put all pieces into one Zip-loc bag for each party goer or team of party goers. Put an image of the final project into the bag, if necessary. Have a race to see who can recreate the project the fastest!
• Hide LEGO pieces throughout your home or outside and have a LEGO scavenger hunt. The party goer who finds the most pieces wins!
• Provide each party goer with a supply of LEGO pieces. Have a race to see who can build the tallest free-standing LEGO tower in 5 minutes.
• Build LEGO cars and race them down a slope to find a winner.
• Fill a large jar with LEGO and have the party goers guess the number of pieces inside. The closest to the correct answer wins! (You will need to count them off ahead of time AND record the number show where so you don’t have to recount them during the party. Trust me - it’s a good idea)
On a final note, it is an absolute honour to be joining the Scrapbook & Cards Today design team. I am beyond excited about the direction that Catherine and Becky are headed with this wonderfully inspiring magazine!" ~ Sarah Hodgkinson
Thank you Sarah for the fabulous party ideas! I think many of us can say we have stepped on more than one piece of Lego in our lifetime. Did you also notice that the Jillibean Soup Spotted Owl Collection Sarah used is the same collection you can win on yesterday's post? Be sure to leave your comment!
Next, we would like to introduce Sheri Reguly. Sheri has an incredible eye for colour and the ability to create perfect harmony on her pages while unifying her fabulous photos, journaling and beautiful details. You can see Sheri's most recent work in our spring issue where she completed the Easy, Detailed, Expert layouts which can be seen here. For this week, Sheri created another stunning birthday layout...
"First I would like to say how excited I AM to be a part of this great team! I have enjoyed watching Scrapbook & Cards Today these past 5 years and have many great ideas to share with you. I was very happy to be asked to join in this week's birthday celebration too! Happy Birthday Scrapbook & Cards Today!
We all take photos at our children's birthday parties, however, very rarely are these photos taken in ideal lighting conditions. In addition to poor lighting, they also tend to be taken in the midst of all the excitement, where we don't always have the time to pay attention to cluttered backgrounds, or even our camera settings for that matter.
That was the exact case with the photos that I had taken on the day of my daughter's sixth birthday party. With the exception of the two photos that I had taken just prior to leaving our home, the remainder of the photos were taken with a flash in a dark bowling alley.
Supplies: Cardstock - Bazzill Basics, Patterned Paper - Jillibean Soup, Crate Paper, October Afternoon, Bo Bunny; Brads - Doodlebug Designs, Basic Grey; Photo Turn - 7 Gypsies; Sculpted Flower Accent - Prima; Rub On Stitches - Die Cuts With A View; Flower Punch - Martha Stewart Crafts; Corner Rounder - EK Success; Font - Century Gothic, Arial, Discipuli Britannica
My favorite tip for scrapbooking situations just like this, is to pick that one favorite photo, the best of the bunch, and enlarge it so that it quickly becomes the focal point of the page. Next, I like to select a few supporting photos that are essential in telling the story. By converting these photos to B & W, boosting the contrast, and resizing them to a much smaller scale, they instantly become uniform, look sharper, not to mention, the busy backgrounds (and red eyes) are instantly eliminated. These tiny photos quickly become the perfect scrapbooking embellishment...they can be arranged or grouped as desired, and work wonderfully with any design or color scheme.
Because of the busy patterned papers that I chose for my layout, I decided to keep the actual design very simple and streamlined, with minimal embellishing. I used reversed text to achieve a clean look for not only my journaling, but for my title as well. This was the perfect solution to avoid having my title compete with the bold text on my daughter's shirt. And, speaking of my daughter's shirt...
T-Shirt Supplies: Little Tea House Kit by Mindy Terasawa (www.designerdigitals.com); Twirl Kit by The Shabby Princess (www.theshabbyshoppe.com); Iron On Transfer - Avery
I created the design using a combination of two digital scrapbooking kits, and my image editing software. I simply printed it out onto an iron on transfer, and applied it to a plain white cotton tee. A single gemstone accent applied to the top of each cupcake makes for the perfect finishing touch, and adds that hint of sparkle that every little girl loves.
Again, Happy Birthday SCT! Here is to many more years of fabulous issues!" ~ Sheri
Now to top off this day it's time to giveaway another birthday collection! One lucky winner will win the brand new Nikki Sivils It's Your Day collection! This fun collection is all about the party and could not be more perfect for your celebration pages! You will also receive our favourite cardstock sticker sheet that is full of options for titles and embellishments. You will LOVE this collection!
and wait, that's not all! We also have a birthday prize package from Maya Road too! How generous are our sponsors? Your prize will include all that is birthday from Maya Road! We've got products from their brand new catalogue which includes canvas, stamps, mists, flowers and more! This is a box of scrappy goodness you will love to create birthday projects with.
Just leave us a comment on this post before Thursday, March 31st at 6:00 p.m. and we will choose a random winner to be announced on Friday's post! We are going to have many happy winners on Friday. Did I mention that all winners will receive a copy of the Spring issue too?
Thank you for joining us today and celebrating not only our birthday but the addition of two new amazing designers to our team. Please take a moment to welcome them - we feel fortunate to have them!
Have a wonderful day and we will see you tomorrow. You don't want to miss it ;)
~ Catherine
Hurray for 2 new awesome additions to the S&CT team! Congrats Sarah and Sheri!!
Posted by: PaulaSG | March 30, 2011 at 09:02 AM
Wow! What great prizes! Thanks for the chance to get my hands on these fabulous things!
Posted by: Sara | March 30, 2011 at 09:05 AM
Congrats Sarah and Sherri!!! Beautiful projects! and Happy Happy Birthday SCT!!!!
Posted by: Lindy | March 30, 2011 at 09:17 AM
Congratulations Sarah & Sheri ... they will make a great addition to the team!!!
And thanks for another day of great prizes :)
Happy Birthday SCT!!!
Posted by: Lorelle | March 30, 2011 at 09:20 AM
Welcome ladies! Can't wait to see more of your inspiration! And this new line from Nikki is divine - love party supplies - please send it my way!
Posted by: jennifer | March 30, 2011 at 09:21 AM
Maya Road and Nikki Sivils "it's your day' What a fabulous collection each one is. I love them both and hope I get to see my name on Friday. Happy Birthday SCT.
Posted by: Bevb | March 30, 2011 at 09:24 AM
Welcome! These projects are fabulous.
Posted by: Jean | March 30, 2011 at 09:32 AM
These designer projects are amazing and the birthday giveaway gifts are awesome!! Happy Birthday--the pleasure is all ours. :)
Posted by: Emily Keaton | March 30, 2011 at 09:32 AM
Love the projects, especially the Lego mini. The prizes sound great as well. I would love to win.
Posted by: Leona | March 30, 2011 at 09:33 AM
How great that these two designers have joined SCT. Both their projects they shared are great...love the idea of using the lego for an album as well as the reverse text look on Sheri's layout. Two wonderful sponsor give aways today to help with the birthday celebrations.
Posted by: Debbie C. | March 30, 2011 at 09:34 AM
Happy Birthday! And Welcome to the new ladies.
Posted by: ArlaMo | March 30, 2011 at 09:34 AM
Ohhh... these are wonderful projects...I know my almost 10 year old son would love the leggo mini album...Thanks for the ideas ladies... can't wait to see more of your creations....
Maya Road and Nikki Sivils great give a ways....
Posted by: LaurieW | March 30, 2011 at 09:36 AM
Talk about talented!
Posted by: Dale T (Australia) | March 30, 2011 at 09:37 AM
Happy happy birthday! Projects are great & thanks for a chance to win some happiness!
Posted by: louise #3903 cafelouise blogspot.com | March 30, 2011 at 09:39 AM
Welcome to the new members of the family, they both did an awesome piece of art today.
And thanks sooo much for the chance to win these amazing prizes here again today. Not that I think, I´ll be lucky, but one can hope can´t we? he he he I would sure love to.
Posted by: Maryann | March 30, 2011 at 09:42 AM
Congratulations Sarah and Sheri. Love the lego album. Some more ideas for me to add to my list of things to do! Thanks!
Posted by: Tara W | March 30, 2011 at 09:42 AM
Congrats on the big birthday - and to the new DT members!
Posted by: Sheena B | March 30, 2011 at 09:42 AM
oh we LOVE Leggos here...that is such a fun mini, Sarah!!!
fun stuff, guys! what a birthday celebration :):):)
Posted by: ellen s | March 30, 2011 at 09:43 AM
Congratulations to Sarah and Sheri! I love their work and am so excited to see what they do in the future! Thanks for 2 more fantastic giveaways!!
Posted by: Brenda | March 30, 2011 at 09:43 AM
Happy 5th birthday SCT!!! Woo-hooo!!!!!!!! Welcome to the team Sheri & Sarah :-)Can't wait to see your creations.
Posted by: Jennyfer L | March 30, 2011 at 09:44 AM
Great party and scrapbooking ideas! Great giveaways too! I hope I win!
Posted by: Halliday | March 30, 2011 at 09:46 AM
Great projects for birthday inspiration! And since I'm celebrating mine too, the timing is perfect!
Posted by: MichelleGB | March 30, 2011 at 09:46 AM
What great ideas. I did a lego party for my son one year as well.
Welcome to the new team members.
Thank you for the chance to win.
Posted by: Chelle K | March 30, 2011 at 09:47 AM
Awesome projects!! These prizes would be great to do pages for my daughter's birthday. We have 3 birthdays in our family the month of April, and this would be awesome to have! Thanks for the chance to win!
amandawoodau at hotmail dot com
Posted by: Amanda W | March 30, 2011 at 09:48 AM
Two great choices... well 3, I love Laya Roads too!
Happy b-day!
Posted by: Deanna Woodland | March 30, 2011 at 09:50 AM