We have another awesome Hello Spring! projects to share from guest designer Wendy Sue Anderson.  Wendy really has an eye for design on cards, but let's have her tell you all about her projects...

Hi again!  It’s Wendy Sue, back with you again today with another fun “Hello Spring” project!  You know, one of the things I love most about Little Yellow Bicycle is how there are so many coordinating options with each line.  I think I mentioned that last week, but it’s really true, and it’s worth mentioning again!  It just makes the whole process of creating – no matter what I’m working on…cards, layouts, packaging, whatever – go so much more smoothly and I always love the end result when everything matches perfectly!

Whenever I find myself in a creative “rut,” for lack of a better word, I always pull out a packet of coordinating items and just put together a few cards.  It always kicks my mind into “creative mode,” and I always end up with a card, or set of cards, I can add to my files and use at a later date when I need a fun card to send to someone.  But that’s not the only time I like to make cards.  Sometimes when I have oodles of fun product I just can’t wait to look for photos to coordinate, so I delve in and put together cards.  Or when I find a super fun embellishment that I just can’t wait to use, I will probably put together a fun card.  So, as you can see, as much as I love (love, love, love) scrapbooking…I’m a total card-making fanatic as well!

As I was sorting through all of the bright, happy, fun “Hello Spring” product the sweet folks at LYB sent my way, I just couldn’t wait to use the felt flower stickers.  I used one on my layout last week, but I just had to use them again – and that’s how this little card set came to be.

I was able to use several different papers from the 6x6 paper pad, as well as some of the journaling tickets and these super fun banner stickers too!  I added a bit of machine stitching (of course) on the right side of each card.  And I used pop-dots (my other addiction) to pop up the banner word stickers.  I love the way these cards came together so quickly, with the same basic design and elements.  I’m anxious to find an excuse to send one of these happy cards to a friend – I know it will make someone’s day very soon!

Hello Spring! Products:

Hello Spring Felt Stickers

Hello Spring Favorite Pieces Cardstock Stickers

Hello Spring Tear Out Ticket & Journaling Card Book

Hello Spring 6X6 Paper Pad

Thank you Wendy for another great day  of ideas with our Hello Spring Collection!  Please visit Wendy's blog Just Me...and My Little World for more inspiration.

Have a wonderful and crafty weekend!

Liz

We are so excited to introduce our newest guest designer Wendy Sue Anderson for our Hello Spring! collection.  Wendy does such an amazing job with bright, fun colors that we thought she would be a perfect fit for our newest collection.

Let's have Wendy tell you a little about herself...

Hi there!  I’m Wendy Sue Anderson and I am beyond thrilled to be joining all of my fellow Little Yellow Bicycle fans here on their blog!  What an honor it is to be asked to create some projects to share with you. J  Before I share my first project, I just have to tell you how excited I was to be given this new line, “Hello Spring,” to work with.  I love the bright, happy colors and the fresh designs.  The colorful birds and bright flowers are my favorites!

I had a hard time choosing which products I wanted to start with because I loved them all so much.  That’s one of my favorite things about LYB – there are always so many options with every single line they release.  I love that there are always lots of beautiful papers, including coordinating solids, as well as stickers, tags, journaling blocks, jewels, chipboard, and so much more!  It really takes the guess work out of the “coordination” part of scrapbooking…the hardest thing is deciding which fun elements to use first.  Lucky for us, we can create LOTS of fun projects with each line, so we can use all of the embellishments!

Today I’d love to share a layout with you.  Last week I was out in the backyard with my kids (and my camera, of course), just goofing around and enjoying the nice spring weather we’re having.  I was actually finishing snapping pictures when my daughter and oldest son laid down on the grass, then invited the little boys to join them.  It was then that I noticed how “springy” their clothes were – and though totally uncoordinated and unplanned, the resulting photo turned out perfect for this line…so I had to scrapbook this photo with the matching products in “Hello Spring!”

I created a fun little collage in the top corner of the layout.  The banners, along with the chipboard pieces and just a little bit of bling combine to create a fun little playful area that just screams “spring!”  I chose to use the widest border from the Garden Rows paper as the topper for my layout.

The sticker banner was perfect for the transition from “busy topper” to colorful photo – and I used lots of foam adhesive to add dimension and literally pop it off the page.

I loved the “sunshine & smiles” sticker phrase and knew it would be perfect with this particular photo – so I placed the stickers on another banner label and trimmed the edges.  I added one of the super fun felt flowers (which come with the button already attached), stuck in a few colorful pins and added a few fabric flowers (with jewel centers, of course) for the final addition to my layout.

I used two of the coordinating solid papers to build the bottom portion of my layout.  Of course, you’ll spot a few lines of machine stitching, just to add a bit of definition and “homespun” feel that I like.

Of course, I couldn’t stop with one layout, so I have more fun projects using “Hello Spring” to share with you soon – be sure to check back!

Hello Spring Supplies Used:

Tear-Out Ticket & Journaling Card Book

Chipboard Shapes

Stick Pins

Clear Cuts Shapes

Fabric Favorites

Felt Stickers

Jewel Stickers

Fresh Verse Cardstock Stickers

Favorite Pieces Cardstock Stickers

Pretty In Plaid/Tulip Linen Paper

Teal Tweets/ Green Grass Linen Paper

Garden Rows/Lilac Love Paper

Thank you for such a fun project Wendy!  Please visit her blog Just Me...And My Little World for more inspiring ideas.

Have a wonderful and crafty weekend!

Liz

We have one more lovely project to share with our Swoon Collection from guest designer Stacey Michaud.  We are always amazed at how Stacey makes her projects look clean and simple, even though they include many fun details within the design.

What fun I have had designing with the Swoon collection!  I have been scrapping wedding layouts for a special friend and these colors as well as all the embellishments make this a perfect choice.  Swoon is neutral so your photos will pop, yet each layout will maintain a level of elegance and class.

This page captures a special moment in any bride’s evening, the cake cutting ritual.  I was super inspired by the lovely dimensional sticker of a tiered cake.  It resembled the shape of the cake in the photos.  I framed it with a die-cut to draw attention to the theme and the photos. 

I decided to jazz the cake up with some of the sparkling embellishments in the collection.  I grabbed three heart stick pins and placed them at the top of the cake, just like the real cake in the photograph.  Did I tell you how much I love the stick pins??  I also added a row of rectangular sequins.

I prefer clean designs that have interest and this collection allows for that style.  I wanted a few more touches, but nothing heavy.  I simply added a transparency and some pearl bling.  It reminds me of the simple detail on Trish’s dress. 

Thank you Little Yellow Bicycle and Liz for this amazing opportunity!  Your products have made me swoon!

Please be sure to visit Stacey's blog It's Just Paper for more inspiring projects from her.

Have a wonderful and creative weekend!

Liz

We are so pleased to share another project with our Swoon Collection from Guest Designer Stacey Michaud.  She has such a wonderful idea of how to create a special project with our wedding theme, but we want Stacey to tell you all about it.

Hi all!  Today I am sharing an easy to make gift that will brighten any bride’s day!  Think about all the brainstorming and ideas, the business numbers and lists that go along with wedding planning.  I loved gathering a fancy pen and sitting down with a cup of coffee to make notes when I was dreaming about my wedding day.  The notebook is small enough to fit into the bride’s bag, yet has just enough detail to make it feel special.  I included three inserts that can be  taken out and carried individually when running small errands or meeting with the caterer.  To keep the notebook usable, I carefully chose flatter elements like the cardstock stickers.

I integrated the beautiful Swoon pins and dimensional stickers.  The notebook was bought in the dollar aisle at a local store.  I simply grabbed different neutrals in the Swoon 6X6 pad and cut them to fit over the cover.  The 6X6 sheets were also used to make the cards. 

Creating with Little Yellow Bicycles products are so easy because of the beautiful embellishments.  I hope the bride loves using this notebook as much as I loved making it!

Please visit Stacey's creative blog It's Just Paper for more inspirting ideas.

Next week we will have projects to share from our Biker Chicks, Cycling Team and one more project form Stacey.  Have a wonderfully creative weekend!

Liz

We are happy to share another wonderful layout page with our Swoon collection from guest designer Stacey Michaud.  But first we have a few more questions to help our fans get to know Stacey a little bit more.

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LYB: What is your ‘go to’ embellishment?

SM: I would have to say chipboard.  I love the dimension and interest it adds to any project.

LYB: Do you like to go to crops or prefer to scrap alone?

SM: I definitely prefer to scrap alone.  I work full time and have two  young children so I crave quiet time.  Scrapping when they go to sleep is my favorite time to be creative, quiet and calm.

LYB: Describe your biggest scrapbooking ‘mishap’?

SM: I once applied too much mist to a page after my elements were already glued down.  I hated how the background looked.  I had to cut the page elements off the cardstock and start over with a new piece.  It worked out, but it was a pain.

Hi everyone!  I am here to share another layout with you today!  It is quite obvious that the Swoon collection is designed to celebrate weddings.  I decided to use it a bit differently today and go with the idea of love.  There are many little elements that can fit more generic themes like the chipboard shapes and the dimensional stickers.  I enjoyed fishing for those little touches that fit my layout topic.

I went in this direction because I had this adorable photo of my daughter wearing a full purple outfit.  It is hard to find paper to match that much purple so I went with black, white and gray.  There is a powerful trend occurring in the scrappy world that involves these neutrals to create a monochromatic feel.  Swoon is perfect for that!

I used the Truly Smitten paper as my base here.  It has a slight texture on the bottom.  I simply added a chipboard border and a stripe of gray on gray from the Kiss the Bride sheet of paper.  To connect my journaling to the photos, I used the curved cardstock die-cut and flag banner.  I created the flower using the paper flower kit.  I cut a piece of the decorative edge cardstock to hold the LOVE title.  I finished the details with the chipboard butterfly, heart pins and “Just Because” dimensional sticker.

As you can see, Swoon is so versatile and makes a wonderful base for colorful photos of all kinds.

Thank you Stacey for another wonderful layout page idea!  Please visit Stacey's blog It's Just Paper for more ideas. She will be back next week with another project idea.

Have creative weekend!

Liz

We are so excited to introduce our New Guest Designer Stacey Michaud.  She is going spend the next couple weeks showing us some great ideas with our Swoon collection.  Stacey has a unique style that seems simple at first, but upon a closer look is full of fun details. But, we want Stacey to tell you all about it...

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LYB: What are your favorite types of projects—pages, mini albums, cards, altered projects, etc?

SM: Hands downs, I am a layout girl.  Cards don’t come naturally to me so I end up pushing paper around for a hour.  Layouts just kind of flow!

LYB: Any unique tips or techniques you use?

SM: I try to use the paper as my muse.  Before I start, I look for patterns that I can hand cut or repeat on the project.  I try to use supplies in a clever way, keeping an open mind when I am exploring them.

LYB: What is your favorite color (or colors) to use in your pages?

SM: I match the colors of my photos so I am pretty open.  I don’t really love to use brights as they are hard on my eyes.  In my opinion, every page should have a pop of red or orange.

Hi all!  I am so thrilled to be guest designing for Little Yellow Bicycle!  LYB products are among the first I scrapped with when I started this hobby.  They have been perennial favorites!  One of my favorite products is the Clear Cut Shapes.  I ripped the box open and knew these would have a starring role on a layout.   Turns out, I made two layouts, each featuring the different shapes in the collections.

First, I was drawn to the rectangular Clear Cut Shapes.  I love the ornate frames and thought they would make a great mat for my photo.  I started layering and liked that it looked like a deconstructed grid.  I included my photo as one of the rectangles.

I added balance by placing ½ of a frame along the top.  The dark Bridesmaid sticker grounded the frame and added a bit of black.  To give the layout a feminine touch, I layered several of the paper flowers and dimensional flowers to the right of the photo. 

Finally, I created a banner to add a bit more curve to offset all the rectangles.  I used the cardstock stickers and a pretty silver dimensional flower.

I used the Swoon Kiss the Bride and Paisley Smitten patterned papers, Clear Cut Shapes, Dimensional Stickers, Cardstock Stickers, and Chipboard Shapes.

After playing with rectangles, I decided to give circles an equal chance!  Again, my first instinct was to grab the Clear Cut Shapes.  I also fell in love with the pretty curved chipboard frame on the layout below.  I actually placed it above one of my photos, which is a bit of a turn for me.  From there, the idea was born to have graduated circles in different sizes.  The use of confetti is a huge trend right now and this is my interpretation.

The circles and little bits of bling give the layout a dreamy feel that matches the photo.  I am scrapping these pictures for a friend so I want to make an impact without using too many words or journaling. 

I love how the little sticker has the word swoon on it, sums up the feel of that moment.  I love the rich gray in the Swoon collection.  It is so elegant.

To create this page, I used the Swoon Modern Elegance paper, die-cut border from the page kit, Clear Cut Shapes, Chipboard Shapes, Cardstock Stickers and Dimensional Stickers.  For the final touches, I used the Pearl and Jewel Stickers and stick pins.

There are so many wonderful bits in this collection, I felt like I could scrap forever. 

Thank you so much Stacey for sharing your wonderful talent with us!  Please visit Stacey's blog It's Just Paper to see more of her inspiring work.

Have a wonderful and creative weekend!

Liz

We are so pleased and a little sad to have one more post from Guest Designer Corrie Jones with our Saturdays collection.  We think this collection fit her style and personality perfectly.  Here is Corrie with a description of her final project that we think you will enjoy.

Hi all!  It is me, Corrie, one last time to show another project I have created with the really awesome Saturday's collection!  I cannot believe it went so fast!

I am really a layout girl, so I definitely wanted to create another layout using this incredible collection.  I decided to tackle a double page spread.  Honestly, double pagers are not my favorite, but they definitely have their place!  So I have figured out a way to make double page layouts a lot of fun for me.  To start, here is mine.

I had a bunch of pictures of one of my daughters from our beach trip last summer that never got scrapbooked.  I decided they all needed to be scrapped fast and a double page spread is the easiest way to do that.  More space for more pictures, right?!?  But a 12X24 inch canvas is just so much to work with, so when I work on a double page spread I usually take it down to 11X17, so 2 - 8.5X11 inch pages.

Besides the size of a double page spread, the other part that I have struggled with is the matchy-matchiness of them.  Instead of having the same background and design, I like to create my double pagers as coordinating, but able to stand alone as well.

See, each side could be its own page!  This "technique" really makes it so much easier (and fun!) for me to get multiple photos scrapbooked at once, and I never feel overwhelmed or frustrated with having to decorate so much space!



This Saturdays collection was perfect for these photos too.  I knew that even though these unique colors were perfect for adult pages, they really work well for a grungy teen page as well.

For this double page layout I used the Saturday Collage, Pants & Patches, Pattern Play and Well Worn Wood papers.  I included the chipboard shapes, decorative edge double sided textured cardstock, the fabric favorites, stick pins, cardstock stickers, tear-out tickets, clear cut shapes and pieces of the medley album kit.

Thanks so much for the opportunity to show some fun projects using this great collection!  I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I have!

We have been so amazed by all of Corrie's amazing projects.  I get so excited to open the emails from our Biker Chicks, Cycling Team Member and Guest Designers to see their projects and Corrie's emails have certainly been a treat, plus she is just about as sweet as the Georgia Peaches in her home state (bet you haven't heard that before Corrie:)

Please visit her blog You, Me & Crazy for more ideas and inspiration.

Also have a wonderful weekend!

Liz

We are wrapping up another exciting week on the blog with some wonderful inspiration and a surprising desgin call, so it is our pleasure to close out the week with another Saturdays project from our amazing Guest Designer Corrie Jones.  We have a few more questions for Miss Corrie and here is what she had to say...

LYB: Do you have a favorite adhesive? 

CJ: I like to use Beacon’s 3-in-1 glue and American Crafts permanent adhesive dots.

LYB: Do you scrap chronologically or out of order? 

CJ: I scrap out of order.  I just scrap whatever picture speaks to me at that moment. 

LYB: Do you have a favorite quote?   

CJ: “Creative people are seldom tidy.”  I do not know who should be credited with saying it, but I have it hanging in my scrapbook room on a card.

Hey everyone!  It's Corrie here and I am back with another project using the Saturday's Collection.  I told Liz this already, but wanted to share how much I love this collection!  It is refreshing to work with these colors and patterns.  But on to the project.

I got the idea for this project after blog hopping one afternoon.  I read a blog post by an awesome photographer where she was on to simply say that she would be gone for awhile because her hubby was on his way home from Afghanistan after being away for months.  My heart swelled for this woman and her family and this soldier and the fact that they were all going to be together again.  How awesome!  Anyway, I knew then I was going to make a banner with this collection and a "Welcome Home" banner was perfect.



Here are some super closeups.

I do not know this family, but that doesn't matter.  But in the off chance that they see this and know I am talking about them, I want to say WELCOME HOME and THANK YOU for your service and everything you do, all of you!

To create this banner, I used the following from the Saturday's Collection:  All the papers, chipboard shapes, stick pins, clear cut shapes, paper flower kit, both cardstock sticker sets, fabric favorites, dimensional stickers, tear out tickets and the 5-thing envelopes.  In addition, I used garden twine and my Silhouette to cut out the banner shapes.

I hope you enjoyed this banner!  And I really hope you are enjoying the Saturday's Collection as much as I am!

THANK YOU Corrie for another amazing project!  The level of detail  in your banner is admirable and we are so pleased that you used our Saturdays collection for something so special.

Please visit Corrie's blog You, Me & Crazy for more inspiration.

Looks like it's a weekend and I wonder if there are some folks out there who are getting some submissions ready...

Have a lovely one!

Liz

We are so excited to share the next project from our Guest Designer Corrie Jones.  She has taken our Saturdays collection and created some wonderful gift tag ideas.  Let's get to know Corrie just a little bit better and then we can fawn over her project.

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LYB: What kind of music gets you in the scrappin’ mood? 

CJ: I have a crop mix that I like to listen to.  It is an eclectic mix of my favorite songs out of our iTunes library.  There is country, R&B, pop, classic rock, and whatever else!  I like to mix it up with great songs I can sing along with.

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LYB: Any unique tips or techniques you use? 

CJ: I really love layering different textures.  I think it is fun and I love a stacked page. 

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 LYB: Do you use any tools that are not specifically designed for scrapbooking?   

CJ: I use my sewing machine on more pages than not.  When my sewing machine broke I really freaked out about what I was going to do for the week and a half it would take to get it fixed!  LOL.

Hi there!  Corrie here again with you to show you more of what I have created using the Saturday's collection.  The more I play with this collection, the more I LOVE it's colors and textures.  It is so easy to work with it seems like the creations just make themselves!  This week I am going to show you some tags I made.



Making tags is such a blast.  They are small, so each is quick to put together and it is a perfect thing to do with all those scraps that we hate to throw away!

I made these with gift wrap in mind.  I easily could turn them into a tag to write "to" and "from" on.  These though I see as decoration for housewarming gifts or hostess gifts or birthday gifts for my friends or my husband's coworkers.  Sort of like this...





In making this set of tags, I used a little bit of everything from the Saturdays collection. 

I used papers : Vintage Bliss, Enjoy the Ride, Picnic Plaid, Pick-a-Posy, Well-Worn Wood, Rustic Red Linen and Meet Me in the Meadow.  As for embellishments I used stick pins, chipboard shapes, clear cut shapes, fabric favorites, favorite pieces cardstock stickers, dimensional stickers and the paper flower kit.

I hope you enjoyed seeing some fun tags and that you are inspired to make some of your own!

Thank you Corrie for some wonderful ideas on how to use our Saturdays collection.  Please visit Corrie's blog You, Me & Crazy for more ideas.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Liz

We are more than excited to tell you about our newest Guest Designer Corrie Jones.  We have noticed that this Georgia Peach is not only a talented scrapbooker, but a perfect match for our Saturdays Collection. Remember how I told you yesterday that this is a wonderful "adult" collection... well we can't wait to share Corrie's talent with you and especially her take on the collection....so let's get started!  Below are a few questions and answers to get to know Corrie a little bit better.

LYB: What is your ‘go to’ embellishment?   

CJ: Buttons, brads, rub ons.  I like small embellishments.  The more I can layer on, the better!

LYB: What are your favorite types of projects—pages, mini albums, cards, altered projects, etc?   

CJ: My favorite type of projects are pages.  I will occasionally do a mini album. 

LYB: Describe your biggest scrapbooking ‘mishap’?   

CJ: My biggest mishap always seems to be with mist.  I always end up getting it everywhere!  One time I had a mist bottle with a clog.  Trying to clean it out, I took the top off and forced the clog out.  I was not watching where the tube was pointed however, and ended up shooting mist all over my pants and shoes. 

This was a simple page I wanted to make of my husband in a local coffee shop.  It was just a regular moment, nothing really special.  Our girls were with us.  It was freezing outside and we stopped here for a quick pick-me-up before heading back to the car.  This coffee shop is a small independently owned place that is usually filled with "alternative" college kids and ballerinas from the local dance studio.  It reminds me of college more than the normal Starbucks I tend to frequent now.  Anyway, these pictures just made me dream of my hubby and what it would have been like had we known each other back in the early 90's when I was the grungy, coffee house girl that I was. 

The papers from this collection really were perfect for a guy page.  And the worn out look of them worked so well with the memories. 

Needing to tell my story though about why I was scrapbooking these photos from a pretty insignificant moment, I decided some hidden journaling would really work well.  I typed up the story of my "dream" and it is hiding under the middle picture. 

The rest of the page is my tribute to paper stacking.  Layering papers, chipboard shapes, stickers, tags and clear cut shapes, is just my way to love all the supplies.  The different pieces add the texture and dimension I love so much. 

Saturdays Collection Products:

• stick pins
• cardstock stickers - Fresh Verse & Favorite Pieces
• dimensional stickers
• tear-out tickets
• chipboard shapes
• 5 things envelopes
• clear cut shapes
• Meet Me In the Meadow paper
• Easy Breezy paper
• Well-Worn Wood paper

Thank you Corrie for sharing your personal story with us and how you preserved the memory in a hidden journal.  What a wonderful keepsake about the man in your life.  We love it!  Please visit Corrie's blog You, Me & Crazy for more amazing work from her. 

We'll be back next week with more of her work and may even be launching our next round of cyling team members for Saturdays!

Have a wonderful holiday weekend!

Liz

We are so excited to introduce Izzy Anderson as our first Guest Designer for 2012.  We had a little slice of Paradise to share and who better to ask than a Southern girl from Charlotte, North Carolina.  Izzy has been a Little Yellow Bicycle fan for a long time and a participant in some of our challenges.  You probably know her as Izzy Bean and have seen her design work at Echo Park, in Magazines such as Scrapbooks Etc., Creating Keepsakes and CARDS as well as in many online galleries and blogs.  But let's have Izzy tell you all about herself...

Hi, everyone! I’m Izzy and I am super excited to be guest designing for Little Yellow Bicycle for the next four weeks with the beautiful new Paradise collection.  When Liz told me about this line and asked if I would consider designing with it, I couldn’t believe my luck.  I had already seen sneaks for it on the LYB blog and then Liz sent me the catalog. Wow.  This is one of my favorite Little Yellow Bicycle collections.  I mostly scrap my little boy and I just adored the beautiful greens, teals, browns, creams and olives in this line.  Plus, it had this great pop of pink that really made me smile. I’m not one to shy away from a bit of pink on a boy’s page.  Finally, the name of the collection reeled me in. How could I resist Paradise?!

Before we show you Izzy's first project, we had to ask her a few questions so we could all get to know her better.

LYB: What is your ‘go to’ embellishment?

IA:I love stickers. I love letter stickers, phrase stickers, icon stickers, label stickers and  journaling  stickers. I am a sticker collector!  I prefer flat stickers and I often back them with cardstock, cardboard or pop dots to give them a little dimension.  I also like to layer stickers to form an embellie cluster.

LYB: Do you prefer cardstock or patterned paper?

IA: I prefer patterned paper but I usually have a bit of cardstock somewhere on my projects so the eyes will have a place to rest.

Once I had my paper in place, I added the photo and an assortment of embellishments.   The banner at the top originally said, “Free,” but I altered that by using alphas in the collection to spell “Golf” instead. The alphas from the “Fresh Verse” stickers are the same size as the alphas on the banner, so that worked out perfectly. I love that LYB thinks ahead and makes its embellishments interchangeable like this. It makes it super easy to make a little alteration.  

Have you seen the Fabric Favorites in this line? I think they are my favorite embellies of the collection.  They look so rich and add a great texture to any project. I just had to use them.  I picked three fabric banners and turned them into golf flags by adding toothpicks as flagpoles.

Well here I am with the final post for Winter Twig Guest Designer Jenny Chesnick :( ...  Here in CT winter has finally set in. Not too much snow yet since the big fall snowstorm (not that I'm complaining), but we did get a little bit of the white stuff yesterday - the perfect setting for some scrapping with Winter Twig!

Jenny has another layout to share with us today, but I will start you out with a few more Q&A for Jenny!

LYB:  Do you have a favorite quote?

JC:  Nope, again that would be along the same lines as journaling.

LYB:  Are you a neat scrapbooker or is your space a mess? 

JC:  It starts clean, but when I am on a roll it looks like a bomb has gone off!

LYB:  What is your best time or money saving tip? 

JC:  USE PAPER! There are so many things you can do and make out of paper.  Embellishments can eat up your budget, so be picky and be creative and incorporate some of your own.

LYB:  Do you have a favorite adhesive? 

JC:  American Crafts This to That Dots.

LYB:  Describe your style. 

JC:  Clean and Simple with a little cluster of goodies.

Now here's Jenny to tell you about her layout!

Layout, All Bundled Up:

Last year we visited Ice at the Gaylord National here in Washington D.C.  They have you wear these massive puffy coats to stay warm in the below zero rooms.  The title I used from the chipboard words set was perfect for this photo.  I layered the photo with craft foam to give it some depth then tied off my ice skate to give the illusion of a hanging ornament.

Products Used:

TG-107- Winter Words/Brown Skate Scratch

TG-104- Winter Woods/Winter Wishful

TG-279- Chipboard Shapes

TG-165- Chipboard Words

TG-133- 6x6 Decorative Edge double-sided cardstock

TG-134- Journaling Cards

TG-230- Clear Cuts Shapes

TG-309- Confetti Garland

TG-135- Cardstock Stickers

TG-201- Canvas Borders

________________________________

Thanks so much to the amazing and talented Jenny Chesnick for sharing her ideas and inspiration for the Winter Twig collection with us! If you haven't already, be sure to stop by Jenny's blog to thank her!

Hope you have a great weekend! We'll be back next week with more inspiration and more CHA sneak peeks ... plus we begin shipping the beautiful Paradise collection!

-Peg

I always love it when a designer takes a collection that has been designed for one purpose and uses it for something entirely different. That's just what we have here from our Hello Fall! Guest Designer Danielle Flanders.

So even though this collection hit your LSS in the fall, we've got the cutest Valentine's Day layout to share with you today!

Here's Danielle to tell you about it.

10 Things I Love About You layout:

I loved this little pocket from the Hello Fall! line and changed out the word "fall" for the word "you". I scrapped some pictures from last Valentine's Day of my daughter Kati.

Supplies used:
Hello Fall 11.75 x 5.75" paper pad
Hello Fall Fabric Favorites
Hello Fall 10 Things Pocket
Hello Fall Crepe Paper Lace Stickers
Hello Fall Jewel Stickers

_______________________

Cute kid and cute layout! Thanks Danielle! Be sure to stop by Danielle's blog and leave some love!

Happy Tuesday!

-Peg

Hello blog readers! Are you done salivating over those fantastic cards Liz posted yesterday featuring the upcoming Paradise collection? I don't know about you, but I for one can't *wait* to get my hands on it. Don't worry it will be in stores soon enough (psst ... we start shipping it in a couple weeks!), and for NOW I am here with another frosty fun project from our wonderful Winter Twig Guest Designer Jenny Chesnick - and of course you can find Winter Twig at your LSS right now!

Before I get to Jenny's project, let me share a little more LYB Q&A with you!

LYB:  What is your favorite color (or colors) to use in your pages? 

JC:   Yellow!

LYB:  How long does it typically take you to complete a layout? 

JC:   About 45 minutes.  Sometimes as fast as 30.  I am a super fast scrapper!

LYB:   Do you use any tools that are not specifically designed for scrapbooking? 

JC:   A dremel drill.  I stole it from my husband! Along with his wire cutters.

LYB:  What’s the oddest embellishment you’ve ever used on a page?

JC:   A flyswatter, no kidding.  I was in a contest and it was one of the items we had to use!

LYB:  Do you scrap chronologically or out of order? 

JC:   I scrap whatever I want.  I never even knew people scrapped “in order” until a few years ago.

LYB:  Events or moments scrapbooker? 

JC:  Moments.

LYB:  Sit down or stand up scrapbooker?

JC:  I sit down.  I want to stand up, but because I am so tall it hurts my back.

Flyswatter? Really? I would LOVE to see that layout, wouldn't you? And now onto Jenny's project. This CA-UTE little skate mini album-m-m-m!

Here's Jenny to tell you all about it!

I have wanted to make an Ice Skate mini album for a long time.  I have been waiting and waiting for one to be made!!  Well I got tired of waiting and decided to make my own.  Little Yellow Bicycle paper is the perfect weight to create stand alone albums and pieces. I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut out the Ice Skate.  I layered two skates together to make the skate thicker. 

I cut the blade part separately so I could use a coordinating color to create the blades.  Once all the pieces were put together I used eyelet to set my punched holes of the album (just to be safe!) and I finished it off with some distress stickles to mimic ice on the skates.  The skate is fairly large so I plan on using 2x3 or 3x3 photos in the blank backsides of each skate.

Products Used:

TG-108- Winter Plaid/Mocha Java Sweater

TG-107- Winter Words/Brown Skate Scratch

TG-101- Snowy Window/Ski Sweater

TG-165- Chipboard Words

TG-279- Chipboard shapes

TG-220- Fabric Favorites

TG-134- Journaling Cards

TG-230- Clear Cuts Shapes

TG-140- Cardstock Stickers- Fresh Verse

TG-145- Cardstock stickers- labels

TG-219- Snowflake Button Dots

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So cute! Love this Jenny! Listen ... I can hear our blog readers firing up their Silhouette Cameos right now to make their own skates! What a fun project for a winter weekend. Who's in?

Don't forget to stop by Jenny's blog and say hello (also check out the pics of her kitchen which she rehabbed last weekend ... so pretty!)

Have a great weekend!

-Peg

Hello All! Hope you're enjoying the winter holidays, and maybe squeezing a little crafty R&R in the process?

I'm back today with another fun and frosty project from our Winter Twig Guest Designer Jenny Chesnick!

Before I share that layout with you, though I want to continue on with some LYB Q&A to help you learn a little more about Mrs. Chez!

LYB:  Describe your biggest scrapbooking ‘mishap’? 

JC:  I once spilled a very dark mist all over my carpet, not once but twice.  Needless to say I had to rip the carpet out.

LYB:  What are your favorite scrapbook magazines? 

JC:   Scrapbook Trends and Simply Handmade.

LYB:  Do you have a favorite die cutting system? 

JC:   Silhouette Cameo.  I want to marry it!

LYB:  Are you a morning bird or night owl? 

JC:  Both! I like to get up early and get things done before the hubs gets up.  Sometimes I stay up late on a Friday too.

LYB:  What is the funniest topic you’ve ever had for a scrapbook page?

JC:  One CHA my friends and I had this pig that was like our roaming gnome.  It took photos with everyone (Even Tim and Heidi) I ended up making a mini out of its photos.  Believe it or not it was published they loved it so much.  We still take him to shows today.

LYB:   Computer or handwritten journaling?

JC:   Neither, I hardly ever journal.  I know, so bad.

And now, on to Jenny's layout!

Nothing says fun like a ton of snow! This photo of my friend’s daughter is just too much.  She reminds me of a snowman in her little snow suit.  I kept the paper layout simple so the stand out was the snowman layered with chipboard words for a title.  I punched holes in the cardstock sticker to create my own banner. 

I topped off the banner with a sweet little bow.

Products Used:

TG-108- Winter Plaid/Mocha Java

TG-107- Winter Words/Brown Skate Scratch

TG-165- Chipboard Words

TG-279- Chipboard Shapes

TG-201- Canvas Borders

TG-305- Paper Snowflakes

TG-145- Cardstock Stickers

TG-219- Snowflake Button Dots

_________________________________

Thanks so much Jenny for another awesome project! Be sur to stop by Jenny's blog for more projects and inspiration!

Plus a couple of reminders for our blog readers!

1) Don't forget that our SKETCH CHALLENGE ends on Saturday (that's New Year's Eve), at midnight! Post your entries to our Facebook page or email them to "peg@cthruruler.com" to be entered. Click the link for more details!

2) Have you heard about the 12 Days of Giveaways over at Little Yellow Bargains? Every day through January 6th, we're giving away a freebie with your $25 purchase. To find out about the freebies, either check out the Little Yellow Bargains Facebook page, or go to our website to sign up for email alerts!

Be well!

-Peg

Well all good things must come to an end, and today is our final post from our Wonderful Wonder & Wishes Guest Designer Cindy Tobey!

I want to take this opportunity to thank Cindy for agreeing to Guest Design for us. We hope her work inspired you during this busy holiday season!

Here's Cindy to tell you about her last project ... a Christmas layout!

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In the Tobey house we normally have good intentions to put our tree up right after Thanksgiving, however it somehow always gets pushed into December. Not this year! We actually put our tree up and even decorated it the day after Thanksgiving! I thought it would be fun to create a scrapbook page with just a few photos to mark the occasion.

Celebrate Christmas layout Supplies:

Christmas Village Paper (WO-109)

Christmas Text Paper (WO-102)

Dots on Green Paper (WO-104)

Twine (WO-302)

Canvas Tape Roll (WO-222)

Stick Pins (WO-277)

Corrugated Shapes (WO-276)

Chipboard Mini Frames Photo Ornaments (WO-221)

Chipboard Stickers Words (WO-165)

Cardstock Stickers Favorite Pieces (WO-135)

The Chipboard and Corrugated ornament shapes are perfect for pages about Christmas tree decorating! I was going to use all three Chipboard Ornament Frames for photos but then thought it would be fun to add a dimensional paper ball embellishment to one of them instead. 

I love the fun pop of dimension it adds to my page! If you want to keep the dimensional aspect once it’s placed in your album, simply cut a circular hole in your page protector for the paper ball to come through. The embellishment will act like a mini pop-up in your album! 

1. Punch 6 circles from patterned paper. I punched 1 ¼” circles.
2. Fold each circle in half. If you want the colors to alternate, make sure to fold half with green on the inside and half with red on the inside.
3. Take two circles (one green and one red) and adhere them back to back.
4. Continue adhering the rest of the circles, alternating colors as you go. Add finished paper ball to your layout.

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I love the pop up ball, don't you? So cute!

Thanks again to Cindy for riding along with LYB this month! And if you haven't already done so, go on over and check out her blog!

-Peg

Happy Saturday friends! Hope you have carved out some "me" time this weekend ... perhaps to do something crafty?  If so, why not try out these holiday cards, brought to you by our Wonder & Wishes Guest Designer Cindy Tobey!

Here's Cindy to tell you all about them.

_____________________________________

I love to create handmade Christmas cards, and while I usually print a photo card to send out, I always create a few handmade cards as well. For both of my cards I used the same basic sketch, but changed it up with different supplies. Rather than creating multiples of the exact same card, try using the same sketch, but different supplies for each card. Doing this helps me use up extra scrapbooking supplies, as well as enjoy the process much more! 

Joy & Peace Card Supplies:

6 x 6 Decorative Edge Cardstock (WO-133)

Canvas Tape Roll (WO-222)

Chipboard Shapes (WO-279)

Corrugated Shapes (WO-276)

Clear Cuts Shapes (WO-230)

Clear Stickers Cardmaking (WO-190)

Twine (WO-302)

Jewel Stickers (WO-197)

For both cards I used a sheet of Decorative Edge Cardstock and wrapped it around my card. I layered 1” strips of silver tissue paper over the red patterned die cut so that the snowflake and swirl Clear Cuts would pop and not become lost in the red pattern.

For dimension I added the chipboard swirl with foam adhesive and intertwined the corrugated frame, chipboard swirl and Clear Cut swirl.

Merry Christmas Card Supplies:

6 x 6 Decorative Edge Cardstock (WO-133)

Canvas Tape Roll (WO-222)

Chipboard Shapes (WO-279)

Corrugated Shapes (WO-276)

Clear Cuts Shapes (WO-230)

Clear Stickers Cardmaking (WO-190)

Twine (WO-302)

Jewel Stickers (WO-197)

For my Merry Christmas card I layered 1” strips of tracing paper (rather than tissue paper as I did on my previous card) over the green patterned die cut so that the bird Clear Cut would pop a little more.  I also added some red jewel stickers over the berries on the bird Clear Cut for added shine and dimension.

__________________________________

Thanks Cindy for some more good ideas! Don't forget to stop by Cindy's blog and thank her for riding along with us! [Pssst....a little bird told me she might just be giving away some LYB goodies over there!] Next week is Cindy's final post for the holiday season!

Enjoy your weekend!

-Peg

Wow, what a busy couple of weeks it has been on the blog lately! How can we top all of the fantastic work of the talented women on our Cycling Team? How about another Guest Designer?

I'm so pleased to introduce Jenny Chesnick, our Guest Designer for the Winter Twig Collection! I first met Jenny at CHA-Winter last year, and I was wowed by her friendly and vivacious personality and - of course - her talent! So I was thrilled when she agreed to Guest Design for our Winter Twig collection.

In addition to maintaining a blog that is just jam-packed with fun and inspiration, Jenny is a Garden Girl on Two Peas in a Bucket, and on the Maya Road and American Crafts Design Teams. 

To help you get to know Jenny a little better, here's a little LYB Q&A!

LYB:  Do you prefer cardstock or patterned paper? 

JC:  Pattern Paper for sure.  I rarely if ever use cardstock!

LYB:  What kind of music gets you in the scrappin’ mood? 

JC:  It depends on my mood.  I have several channels on Pandora.  Sometimes silence is best too.

LYB:  Do you like to go to crops or prefer to scrap alone? 

JC:  I can scrap at either.  I am one of those crazy people who gets a ton done at crops believe it or not!

LYB:  What are your favorite types of projects—pages, mini albums, cards, altered projects, etc? 

JC:  Altered hands down. 

LYB:  Do you have a favorite scrapbooking snack? 

JC:   Nope! I don’t snack while scrapping unless I am at a crop and then anything within reach really doesn’t stand a chance.

LYB:  Any unique tips or techniques you use? 

JC:  I like quality over quantity.  I feel like projects don’t need to have a lot of stuff on them for them to be amazing.

Jenny has created 4 awesomely wintery projects with this lovely collection and I just can't wait to share them with you.  I'm going to start out with this mini envelope album. You'll find versions of this album in both the Winter Twig and Wonder & Wishes collections - they're wonderful little keepers for your favorite memories - and they make great gifts too!

Here's Jenny to tell you about it:

Little Yellow Bicycle made this cool Medley album for the Winter Twig line.  I am a sucker for minis!  They made it really simple by having the base pieces already cut and ready to go, so all you need to do is embellish! 

I focused on using layers on each page as well as having nice repetition through out.  I used twine on each page to keep the look cohesive. 

I made my own banners from border stickers and the envelopes sticker set. 

I used stick pins to create a cute dimensional embellishment with the banners.

Products Used:

TG-306-Medley Album Kit

TG-165- Chipboard Words

TG-279- Chipboard Shapes

TG-133- 6x6 Decorative Edged double sided cardstock

TG-201- Canvas Borders

TG-220- Fabric Favorites

TG-230- Clear Cuts Shapes

TG-302- Mini Pom Poms

TG-305- Paper Snowflakes Kit

TG-308- 5 Things Envelopes

TG-135- Cardstock Stickers

_____________________________

Love this little mini! Thanks so much Jenny for sharing this beautiful little album with us. I'll be back next week with another project from Jenny. Meanwhile why don't you go head over to Jenny's blog and say hello!

So much fun for a Friday! Hve a great weekend!

-Peg

Happy Sunday Morning!

I'm back with some quick and easy ideas for making your gifts extra special, brought to you by our Wonder & Wishes Guest Designer Cindy Tobey! I just loved Cindy's first layout ... especially the hand-strung pom poms, didn't you?

Well, if you're like me and haven't even finished your holiday shopping (let alone begun to think about wrapping), these little extras will come in handy!

But first ... a few more LYB Q&A with Cindy!

LYB: What is the funniest topic you’ve ever had for a scrapbook page?

CT: My daughter cleaning the toilet. Here’s a link to it. http://www.creatingkeepsakes.com/articles/Create_Accents_that_Complement_Candid_Layouts  

LYB: What’s the oddest embellishment you’ve ever used on a page?

CT: I cut up an old blow up swimming ring and used the plastic to create a circle frame and little flag for a beach page. Here’s a link to that page.

http://www.creatingkeepsakes.com/articles/CK_Shows_You_How_to_Create_Sandy_Looks_on_Your_Scrapbook_Pages__July_August_2010

LYB: Sit down or stand up scrapbooker?

CT: Both. I work faster standing, but if I’m tired I inevitably sit down…and it seems I’m always tired, so maybe I am a sit down scrapper after all!

LYB: Are you a neat scrapbooker or is your space a mess?

CT: Neat. I always put my supplies away after a project…the clutter is way too distracting for me. I need a clean ‘palette’ in order to create.

LYB: Do you have a favorite adhesive?

CT: American Crafts dot glue runner.

And now, here's Cindy!

______________________________________

I love to use scrapbooking products when wrapping gifts – they add such a pretty homespun feel – and  this is a great way to use up some of those scraps from Holiday layouts you’re creating!

Paper Ribbon Tag Supplies:

Home For Christmas Paper (WO-101)

Twine (WO-302)

Paper Flower Kit (WO-305)

Jewel Stickers (WO-197)

To adorn this sweet, oval, raw chipboard box I created a simple paper ribbon tag using one of the fun border strips from the Home for Christmas paper. You can create nine different ribbon tags out of one sheet! I added a flower from the paper flower kit, a few gems and wrapped it all up with some of the Wonder & Wishes twine!

To create a paper ribbon tag:

1. Fold paper strip over at about the half way point, without creasing – you want to create a soft loop to look like ribbon.
2. Fold it back 2” from the soft loop with a creased fold.
3. Fold paper back over to create another soft loop.
4. Secure with staple and add embellishments over the staple.

Lunch Sack Gift Bag Supplies:

10 x 5.25 Paper Pad (WO-180)

Chipboard Mini Frames Photo Ornaments (WO-221)

Felt Flowers Poinsettias (WO-304)

Cardstock Stickers Favorite Pieces (WO-135)

Wonder & Wishes Twine (WO-309)

This little gift bag is actually an inexpensive brown paper lunch sack. I dressed it up by folding a die cut page from the Wonder & Wishes 10 x 5.25 Paper Pad over the top of the bag. Isn’t that curved scalloped edge fun?! I secured it and my gift tag to the bag with a staple.

I created a photo tag using one of the Chipboard Photo Ornament Frames. I’ve always liked the idea of adding a photo of the recipient to a gift instead of a “To/From” tag. I love the way this turned out so much that I will definitely be making more of these!

Reindeer Gift Bag Supplies:

Journaling Cards (WO-134)

Paper Flower Kit (WO-305)

Wonder & Wishes Twine (WO-309)

Clear Cuts Shapes (WO-230)

As you might have guessed by now I do love using Kraft colored wrapping. It pairs so well with just about any bright or bold embellishments and I guess I just love that earthy feel. For this gift bag I used a Journaling card for the tag and decorated the bag with the coordinating reindeer Clear Cut Shape and a few flowers from the Paper Flower Kit. The great thing about this gift bag is that the recipient can either choose to reuse the bag or she can take off the embellishments and use them on a scrapbook page! I just love when the wrapping is a gift too!  

________________________________

What a cool idea for a gift or to hold your home-made baked goodies! I'll be back next week with another fun Wonder & Wishes project from Cindy Tobey!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

-Peg

Hello friends!

Well I don't know about you, but I am positively overwhelmed at all the wonderful projects our Biker Chicks, Cycling Teams, and Guest Designers have been churning out over the last few weeks. But after all ... that is our goal ... to provide you with inspiration that makes you say "Hey! I can make that!" and come along for the ride.

So with that in mind, I proudly announce our Guest Designer for the Wonder & Wishes collection, the fabulously talented Cindy Tobey! 

Here's Cindy to tell you a little bit about herself!

Hi there! I’m Cindy Tobey, a graphic designer turned stay-at-home-mom, turned paper craft designer. Creating art has been a huge part of my life since I was a child and I feel so blessed to be able to do everyday what I love so much. When I'm not creating something with paper, paint, fabric, beads, or fiber, you can find me spending time with my hubby, playing with my kids, taking photos, reading a novel, or in the middle of a reorganization project around the house. I’m a 2008 CK Hall of Famer, a 2009-2010 Creating Keepsakes Dream Team member, and currently a contributing writer for CK. I am also on the American Crafts design team. I live in West Michigan with my husband, Allan, daughter, Moya and son, Elijah.

LYB: What is your ‘go to’ embellishment?

CT: Machine stitching or using some type of fiber – I really love baker’s twine right now. I also use buttons and brads quite often.

LYB: Do you prefer cardstock or patterned paper?

CT: I love patterned paper! But I almost always pair it with cardstock – cardstock really helps make  patterns pop!

LYB: Do you like to go to crops or prefer to scrap alone?

CT: I prefer to scrap alone and meet my friends for coffee or coffee and knitting. I never get anything done when I try to scrap with friends. Of course that might be because I talk too much!

LYB: What are your favorite scrapbook magazines?

CT: Creating Keepsakes of course!

LYB: Do you have a favorite die cutting system?

CT: Silhouette SD – I love mine and don’t know why I waited so long to purchase one!

LYB: Are you a morning bird or night owl?

CT: Night owl, but the older I get, the harder those late nights are to recover from…I still have to get up early most days…something about getting the kids off to school…

We'll have more Q&A with Cindy on later posts ...for now, on to this super fun layout from Cindy!

My inspiration for this layout totally came from the Wonder & Wishes Confetti Garland. I’ve stitched my own garland in the past, but let’s face it – that can be very time consuming! I loved being able to pull it off the card and just add it to my layout. I cut the garland into two separate pieces and layered them. The Mini Pom Poms were just asking to be strung onto some thread, so I did, and added my strand of pom poms amongst the Confetti Garland. I then selected my title from the Chipboard Words Stickers and machine stitched the letters creating a garland title. 

Be Merry Supplies:

Red Flourish Paper (WO-108)

Dots on Green (WO-104)

10 x 5.25 Paper Pad (WO-180)

6 x 6 Decorative Edge Cardstock (WO-133)

Mini Pom Poms (WO-302)

Confetti Garland (WO-309)

Chipboard Stickers Words (WO-165)

Cardstock Stickers Fresh Verse (WO-140)

Canvas Tape Rolls (WO-222)

Felt Flowers (WO-304)

Journaling Cards (WO-134)

Corrugated Shapes (WO-276)

Clear Cuts Shapes (WO-230)

______________________________________

Adorable, isn't it? Thanks so much Cindy! Please make sure to stop by Cindy's blog and send her some love! (Tell her LYB sent you!) I'll be back next week with another project from Cindy. Betcha can't wait!

Have a great day!

- Peg

Every so often you come across something really cool. When I saw this perpetual card my friend Debbie Bonczek made using LYB's Wonder & Wishes collection, I just thought wow ... how did she do that? It is just the coolest thing. Here's a picture of each of the panels:

But you really have to hop on over to Debbie's blog to see the video of this sweet little card in action. One of my favorite parts of this card:  the mini pom poms on the elf's shoes! Cute!

Even better? Deb included a sketch and instructions so you can make one yourself. Go ahead - impress all your crafty friends!

Thanks so much to Debbie Bonczek for sharing this amazing creation with us! Make sure to leave a message on Debbie's blog ... and if you're in CT, you can take a class with Debbie at my favorite LSS ... New England Scrapbook Company in Canton CT!

Have a crafty day!

-Peg

Hello everyone! I'm here to introduce our newest Guest Designer, the wonderfully creative and talented Danielle Flanders, who will be joining us over the next few weeks to share projects featuring the Hello Fall! collection!

Many of you already know Danielle from her design team work, and she's been published many times over. Here's a little bit more about Danielle!

Danielle has been scrapbooking for almost 12 years now, since her first daughter was born. She began scrapbooking to create a memory book for her newborn daughter. Shortly after, a friend introduced her to card making and stamping. In 2007, while a stay-at-home mom, Danielle discovered scrapbooking sites on-line, began applying for design teams and started a blog to display her work.

Currently, Danielle is working for several manufacturers and still blogs regularly at Homespun With Heart. She has been published in over 20 different publications and has taught classes at scrapbook stores, events and trade shows all over the country. Her unique designs and ideas keep her readers coming back for more! She has a love for creating handmade cards for family and friends and always loves to include homespun touches like stitching on them.

Having grown up most of her life in South Dakota, she is a midwest small-town girl at heart. However, she resides in upstate New York now with her husband and 2 daughters, ages 12 and 6. Danielle holds an Elementary Teaching degree and a Speech Language/Audiology degree, however loves being able to stay home with her girls...and design in her spare time.

And before we get to the projects... a little Q&A with LYB and Danielle Flanders!

LYB:     What is your ‘go to’ embellishment?

DF:     I love it all! I think twine and ribbon are my favorites right now, they are a great way to add softness to paper.

LYB:      Do you prefer cardstock or patterned paper?

DF:    Patterned paper gives much needed color to a project!

LYB:    What kind of music gets you in the scrappin’ mood?

DF:    I love anything current/hip hop that is on the radio.

LYB:    Do you like to go to crops or prefer to scrap alone?

DF:    I get more done when I’m alone.

LYB:    What are your favorite types of projects—pages, mini albums, cards, altered projects, etc?

DF:    Cards are my favorite right now, but I love to dabble in pages, minis and altered projects too!

LYB:    Do you have a favorite scrapbooking snack?

DF:    Hot tamales candy.

And speaking of Danielle's favorite ... cards ... she has two to share with us today! 

Signs of Fall card:

Background papers: Hello, Fall 11.75x5.75 Paper Pad

Signs of Fall note card: Hello, Fall Journaling Cards

Fabric circle: Hello, Fall Fabric Favorites

Yellow circle: Hello, Fall Journaling cards

Chipboard leaf: Hello, Fall Chipboard Shapes

Other: Rustic Twine by Papertrey Ink, Fresh Snow ink by Papertrey Ink.

I just love how Danielle layered the elements on the center of the card - and ooh! The stitching on the edge!

Here's one more:

What a lovely way to send a "Thank You"! This card is simply perfect! Here's Danielle's materials list:

Sweet of You card:

Background papers: Hello, Fall 11.75x5.75 Paper Pad

So Blessed circle: Hello, Fall Journaling cards

Sweet Sticker: Hello, Fall 5 Things Envelopes

Lace Sticker at top: Hello, Fall Crepe Paper Lace Stickers

Pin: Hello, Fall Stick Pins

Other: Yellow cardstock, white ribbon, alphabet stamps, brown ink.

And one more close up:

So many layered dots! Adorable!

Thanks Danielle for these two lovely cards. I'll be back next week with more from Danielle ... plus be sure to check back for inspiration from our Wonder & Wishes and Winter Twig Cycling teams! So much going on!

Meanwhile check out Danielle's blog by clicking this link.

- Peg

Hello all! No post yesterday - thought I'd give you a day to take in the wonderful apple tree centerpiece from Shellye McDaniel. Whew! Pretty cool, huh? In case you missed it, you can find it here.

And today, I'm back with two equally wonderful Hello Fall! projects from the very talented Ashley Horton! These yummy layouts will be absolutely perfect for your fun fall memories.

So let's get right to it, why don't we? Here's Ashley!

_______________________________

"A Harvest of Fun"

One of the great things about working with coordinating products, is how quick and easy your pages can be.  You don't have to sit for hours trying to pick out the products you want to use and and lose time working on your pages!!  That's what I loved about this fun page, using the Hello Fall line from Little Yellow Bicycle!  It took less than an hour to get my page completed.  I started by cutting a scalloped frame in the Burnt Orange Knit paper and attaching it to my background Autumn Tree paper.  I then cut 5 inch squares from Golden Flourish, Harvest Rings, Green Splendor, and Walnut Knit.  Then I inked the edges of each of the papers to add a little more definition.  I created a grid with the 5 inch squares and then placed my photos in the center of the layout.  There were a few scraps of paper after cutting, and I used those to create a few border strips under my photos.  There are some adorable alphas included in the Family Tree kit I received, and they were perfect for using in my title.  I adhered each letter to a scrap piece of the Walnut Knit paper to make them stand out a little more against my background paper. 

Finally, I started adding some of the adorable embellishments in the Hello Fall line.  The Chipboard Shapes worked great on the right hand side of my page, and I decided to add a little bling to my border strips with the Jewel Stickers.  I finished my title off with the word "Fun", which was included in the Chipboard Sticker Words package.  There are so many fun banners and penants also included in this line, and I decided to balance out the left side of my page by adding several of the pennants. 

For a little fun touch, I added one of the Clear Cuts Shapes to the center of the yellow pennant and attached it with a brad. 

For my journaling strips, I just used a Desktop Publishing program to type up my journaling and printed it out on a scrap piece of the Autumn Tree paper.

Products Used:

HF-101  Autumn Tree

HF-106  Golden Flourish

             Harvest Rings

HF-103  Green Splendor

HF-105  Burnt Orange Knit

HF-104  Walnut Knit

HF-279  Chipboard Shapes

HF-310  Family Tree Kit (Letters)

HF-135  Cardstock Favorite Pieces

HF-308  10 Things Pocket (Pennants)

HF-165  Chipboard Sticker Words

HF-197  Jewel Stickers

HF-230  Clear Cut Shapes

Other: 

Font:  Plantagenet Cherokee

Brads:  The Paper Studio

Pen:  Zig

Ink:  Memento

"Little Pumpkin Picker"

Since I had so many fun products to work with from Hello Fall, I decided to do a double page layout for my second project.  I began this page by getting my papers cut and layered.  For the background paper, I chose Delicious Autumn Text and then used Burnt Orange Knit, Golden Flourish, Harvest Rings, and Walnut Knit for layering.  Then I placed my photos and added the title and journaling area.  There are some great shapes and embellies in the Clear Cut Shapes package and I used two of the orange flourishes near my title and journaling block. 

Since the flourish on the right hand side was over the Orange Knit paper, I decided to add the Golden Flourish paper behind it, to help it stand out.  I used some of the cute little leaves from the Cardstock Favorite Pieces package to scatter across the two pages and I outlined thiem with a brown Zig pen for more definition.  I decided to add a little bit of Baker's Twine, in matching colors, to give another fun element across the layout.  There are some adorable banners in the Mini Banner package and I LOVE the little owls that are included here and there in this line.  This banner was the only one I had and it was only 12 inches, so I decided to use part of it under the photos on the left side of my page and then used the remainder, for a little emphasis, under the landscape photo on the right side of my page.  I finished off the layout by adding the cute little acorn and tree from the Chipboard Shapes package.

Products Used:

HF-107  Delicious Autumn Text

HF-105  Burnt Orange Knit

HF-106  Golden Flourishes

             Harvest Rings

HF-104  Walnut Knit

HF-161  Crepe Paper Lace Stickers

HF-279  Chipboard Shapes

HF-134  Journaling Cards

HF-309  5 Things Envelope

HF-310  Family Tree Kit

HF-230  Clear Cuts Shapes

HF-135  Cardstock Favorite Pieces

HF-307  Mini Banners

Other:

Pen:  Zig

Baker's Twine:  The Twinery

Thickers:  American Crafts

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Just beautiful, aren't they? Oh I meant layouts ... but those kids are adorable too! Thanks so much to Ashley Horton for sharing her talent with us today! Be sure to hop over to Ashley's blog and leave her some love!

Can't wait to see what this Cycling Team dreams up next! And oh, by the way, it's one week 'til Thanksgiving...will YOU be making an Apple Tree Centerpiece?

Happy Thursday!

Peg

So often I look at the things people create and find myself wondering...HOW did she think of that? (This feeling of wonder is typically followed by a mixture of self-loathing "I am not worthy" juxtaposed with "I am so privileged to work in the midst of such talent") ... which is about how I feel every time I receive "Happy Email" from our Cycling Teams. So much talent abounds out there, and we are so lucky to be able to tap into it and share it with you!

And that is my long-winded introduction to our much-awaited FIRST POST from our Hello Fall Cycling Team!  First up is Shellye McDaniel - who also was a member of the Head of the Class team (if you missed her oh-so-adorable corkboard mini album you MUST see it by clicking this link - MUST I tell you! And while I'm at it let me take moment to urge you to check out Shellye's blog, which is just filled with spectacular paper crafts!)

So here we go and OH. MY. WORD! Wait 'til you see:

I know, right? Who wouldn't love this fall beauty decorating their home this Thanksgiving?

Here's Shellye to tell you all about it!

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Like many, Fall is my favorite time of the year!  The HELLO FALL Collection from Little Yellow Bicycle captures all of the beautiful colors and warmth of the season.  Couple that with cute bird and owl motifs, glittery leaves and you are able to create so many gorgeous projects.

I have always wanted to create a FAMILY TREE that could be used as a centerpiece for my Thanksgiving table or as an accent for the living room.  When I began this project, I had no idea that the end result could actually serve both purposes!

To get started you will need a nice tree branch and a few twigs.  Depending on how you wish to display your tree, you may want to use a large clay pot, decorated box or basket.  I used a wrought iron planter basket, and filled it with floral foam topped with Spanish moss.  Next, insert the tree branch into the floral foam.  

Products used from the HELLO FALL Collection:

Jewel Stickers

Stick Pins

Canvas Tape Rolls

Fabric Favorite (Button Shapes)

Cardstock Favorite Pieces (Leaves)

Family Tree Kit (Leaves)

Chipboard Shapes (Leaves, Bird, Owl)

Paper Flower Kit

Clear Cuts Shapes (Leaves)

Papers:

Autumn Medley (Back)

Happy Fall (Back)

Sweater Weather (Back)

Misc. Products/Supplies:

Hemp

Ribbon

Brads (Also found in the PAPER FLOWER KIT)

Kraft shred

Body Powder

Tree Branch

Twigs

Basket, Pot or Box

Floral Foam

Spanish Moss

Fast-drying Tacky Glue or Glue Gun

Double-Sided Punch (optional)

To create your APPLES:

1.  Punch 1.25”W x 12”H strips from 12x12 Autumn Medley (back) and Happy Fall (back) patterned papers. [I used a Martha Steward Double-Sided 1" punch.] You will need a total of FOUR (4) strips for each apple that you create.

2  Cris-cross the strips as shown above.  Insert a small brad through the center

3.  Bring the ends of the BOTTOM strip to the top and glue together; repeat with each strip.  Your LAST strip will be the inner most strip (shown as the blue one on above photo).

4.  Using a tacky glue or glue gun, attach small twig (for apple stem) to the top of the apple; allow to dry.

5.  Cut a 10” strip of desired CANVAS TAPE; remove backing.  Sprinkle a small amount of body powder to the back…this will remove most of the stickiness. Bring ends together as shown below.  Crimp center and tie with a small piece of jute; trim excess.

6.  Tie a bow from hemp (or other material), select leaves from Chipboard Shapes, Clear Cuts Shapes, Fabric Favorites, Cardstock Favorite Pieces, etc. Select a couple of JEWEL STICKERS and STICK PINS.  Arrange and glue elements around the apple stem as desired.  Don’t forget to add a loop of hemp to the top so that it can be hung from tree!

7.  I used my printer and Typewriter Font to create name tags.  You could use small alpha stickers or handwritten tags.

8.  Next, gently ‘stuff’ the apple with Kraft Shred…this just helps to hold the shape.  Spanish Moss could be used in place of Kraft Shred.

9. Finally, you will want to decorate your tree with various leaves from the FAMILY TREE KIT, CARDSTOCK FAVORITE PIECES and PAPER FLOWER KIT.  I cut some of the leaves from the flower petals, as well.  I also used the cute CHIPBOARD SHAPES birds and owls on the branches.  Tie ribbon bows to add more dimension and texture…think of it as you would when decorating a Christmas tree :)!

And the BEST part, turn these sweet apples into place markers on your Thanksgiving table!  

Use sheets of patterned paper as placemats…just cover with a clear contact paper or laminate.

I hope you enjoy the project!  Please contact me if you have any questions.

Shellye

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See what I mean? Wow! And so simple to create. Now just a quick reminder - Thanksgiving is a little more than a week away ... plenty of time for you to make one of your very own for your harvest table!

Here are a few more close ups to give you some more ideas!

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Have fun creating, people!  If you LOVE this holiday project as much as I do, why not hop over to Shellye's blog and tell her!

I'll be back Thursday with another project from Hello Fall! Cycling Team member Ashley Horton!

Happy Saturday everyone! I hope you're finding some time for crafting this weekend! I have two awesome projects to share from our Game On Cycling Team members KimberlyRae Forde and Cari Locken.

First up is an adorable little mini album from Cari, for all you soccer moms out there. What a great way to save the memories from the soccer season? This perfect, simple little mini album is just right!

And here are Cari's easy instructions!

I created a mini album - with only the paper provided. NO chipboard album or pre-made album was needed.  This was a super easy & inexpensive way to create a mini album with just patterned paper & embellishments.

-  I cut 12" x 6" pieces of patterned papers (5 different papers).

-  I folded them in half so I would end up with a 6" x 6" album. After folding them I just simply put them together to form a booklet.

-  I embellished each page

-  When finished I opened up each page (to 12 x 6 wide) and then punched 2 holes down the center of each page approx. 1" in from the edges.  I then re-assembled the album & tied it together with green twine.  I added 2 smaller pieces of black & cream ribbon to embellish the edge of the album a little bit.

Thanks again for inviting me to help out with this.

It's been super fun!

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Love this album Cari! I think it is so cool, and I just may have to make one for all the pictures I took of my soccer team this fall!  Don't forget to check out more inspiring projects on Cari's blog by clicking the link!

My other favorite fall sport is football! And on those rare fall Sundays when I'm not out coaching a soccer game, you will find me at home with the TV tuned to one of my favorite NFL teams. So I definitely need this:

Coolest-ever Kickoff Gift Set created by KimberlyRae Forde!

Here's KimberlyRae to tell you about it!

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For my second project I choose a Football theme!


 
 Ingredients:

  Little Yellow Bicycle 'Get Your Game On' Collection

• eCraft personal cutter by Craftwell
• Acylic Large Salad Bowl
• Football slip Cup Adult size
• Ball Wide Mouth Canning Lids and Rings
• Fiskars Paper Trimmer
• Jewelers Wire 12 gauge
• Aleene's Collage 'Pauge Matte
• Cork board adhesive Paper sheet
• Hot Glue Gun

Snack Bowl Instructions :
1.  Choose and adhere stickers  and elements you want to show through around the bowl.  You can add the team's name here.
2. Measure from under lip of bowl down to the rim of the bottom.  Mine measured 6"  [I purchased the bowl from Dollar Tree].
3.  Select your papers and trim to 2-3" strips
4.  Modge podge one strip at a time and place at one end and work your way around the bowl.
5.  Modge podge the entire OUTside of the bowl, using your fingers to smooth out any bumps.
6.  Hot Glue Cork paper on the bottom [this will help keep from sliding].

You're done!






Cup Instructions :
1. Measure from just under the lip  of the top of cup down to where the cup rests and trim paper.

2. Measure around cup [mine measured 6"] and adhere paper to cup.

3. Add chip board elements and stickers.

4. Liberally, brush on modge podge.
5. Let Dry and add Banner [the 'football' banner was a perfect fit]!

6. Adhere cork paper and hot glue to the bottom of the base and  you're done!
 

Coasters / Cup Holder Instructions :
1. Hot glue all lids to the inside of the rings-upside down [this is your cup holder base] and set aside.
2. Cut 12" wire and curl with paint brush handle or a pencil.
3. Cut out 6" circles and clip the outsides about an inch around.
4. Liberally, brush on modge podge to the paper circle and place over your cup holder base [that you made earlier]
5. Press the paper inside  the base and smooth starting in the center and bring the pap
6. Now, shape one end of wire in an 'L' shape with the '_' part going underneath the base and hot glue in place
7. Choose a chipboard element and hot glue to the wire
8.  Cut 3.5" circle from the cork paper and hot glue to the bottom of the base and 
Now you're ready to place the cup in the cup holder and you're done!
 

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Wow. Now that's really thinking outside the scrapbook, isn't it? Click this link to hop over to KimberlyRae's blog for more cool projects!

What will the Cycling teams come up with next? You'll see next week, when we kick off posts from the Hello Fall! Cycling Team (did you get that little football pun there? hope so....)

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

-Peg

Hello all! Hope you have lots of fun, family time, and crafting planned for the weekend. To inspire you, I'm back with another project from our Get Your Game On Cycling Team, this time the incredibly talented Carol Monson! If you haven't seen Carol's blog, go check it out! You will love her style - her stitching is really cool - and her photographs are amazing!

Here's Carol to tell you about her layouts:

GO Nathan

The subject matter of this layout immediately made me want to include a repetitive circle pattern somehow.

To keep things moving and fun I decided to punch a bunch of circles and then punch out the middles on most to keep things light.  

I pieced them together before attaching them to my layout so I could stitch around some of the circles.  I find it easier to sew a circle pattern on smaller pieces rather than on the layout as a whole.  Once those were done I glued them down to my finished layout and topped them off with a few chipboard stars.

He's our All Star

This product line has so many fun elements and papers in it that I really wanted to highlight a few of my favorite things.

I loved the sunburst patterns on the sports themed papers so I cut a portion of one out and emphasized that theme with stitching along each ray.  I had one really great picture that needed to shine on its own and I thought that was a great way to do it.  

I also loved all the different chipboards and sticker elements.  I took one of the banners apart and switched things up by adding stickers and different paper patterns to it.  I finished things off with several of the chipboard pieces layered together to make my title.

Thanks again so much for giving me this opportunity......I so appreciate it!!!

Loved working with your products.

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Thanks so much Carol for sharing your beautiful layouts with us! Don't forget to check out her blog!

Tomorrow I'll be back with two more projects from the Get Your Game On and Head of the Class Collections and next week .... it's all Hello Fall!

Have a great weekend everyone!

-Peg

Hello folks! Thanks for your comments on our crazy fall storm. Believe it or not, it was in the high 60s here in CT today and most of the snow in my back yard is gone!

Today I have some more fantastic projects from our Head of the Class and Game On Cycling Teams to share with you! 

First is this adorable "Team Mom Scoreboard" from KimberlyRae Forde. Speaking as a team mom who is also a coach (pardon me while I brag that my U13 boys soccer team just won their league championship...even though our last game was snowed out ... ahem!) ... this is a MUST HAVE!!!

What a super gift for the coach, team manager, or team mom! Here are a few close ups!

Love this! For more inspiration from KimberlyRae, check out her blog by clicking this link!

Next up is Amanda Johnson, who made this adorable keeper for her daughter's kindergarten projects. So cool!

Here's Amanda to tell you how she made it:

My oldest daughter will be going off to kindergarten next year, and I wanted to make something bright and fun to store all of her papers and drawings in...the Head of the Class collection was absolutely perfect for this!!

Supply List:

Head of the Class Dimensional Pop-Up Stickers, Chipboard Shapes, Journaling Cards, Stick Pins, Mini Banners, Clear Cuts Shapes, and Patterned Papers.

Additional Supply List:

Acrylic Paint, Bakers Twine, Chipboard Portfolio

Here's the how-to:

Start by taking apart the portfolio so that you can measure the sides. Next select and cut your favorite Head of the Class patterned papers. Adhere and then sand all of your edges. (I used Modge Podge to adhere all of my papers.)

Next Choose your embellishments, and layer as desired. I chose to keep the embellishing on my project fairly simple, I know my daughter, and this will get opened and closed tons of times, this is also why I chose to only embellish on the bottom half of the portfolio.

Next put your portfolio back together. I chose to use the dimensional stickers for my closures instead of putting the originals back on.

Finally go through and paint all of your seams with a coat of acrylic paint and let dry.

This is a super easy project!! You can of course embellish more or less depending on the look you are hoping to achieve...I wanted mine to be functional and I also wanted to let the fabulous designs on the Head of the Class patterned papers stand out.

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What a great project. For more inspiration from Amanda, follow her blog by clicking this link!

Thanks Amanda and KimberlyRae for today's inspiration! Tomorrow we will be announcing the Cycling Teams for our Wonder & Wishes and Winter Twig collections. Have you submitted your work for consideration?

Have a great evening!

-Peg

Phew! What a week it has been here in Connecticut. Don't know if you have heard, but much of the state was without power for a week or more, and many (including our headquarters in Bloomfield, CT) are into their 11th day without power. As you can imagine, it hasn't been easy! We appreciate your patience as we get things moving as quickly as we can!

Just to give you a quick glimpse, I'm going to share a couple of photos from my town. We received between 1-2 feet of snow on Saturday 10/29. The entire town (and many others) lost power. Any street that had overhead power lines lost at least a few. Branches came down. Trees came down. Telephone poles came down. Here are some pics:

About 2' of snow in my back yard:

Branches and trees down everywhere (taken from my car) - most streets looked like this for several days after the storm - you just drive under the tree, gun it and pray:

Lots of destruction:

These poor people just replaced their roof last spring! Notice also the branch went right through the front window:

Even trick-or-treating was cancelled due to dangerous conditions.

Snow-covered pumpkin:

Snow pumpkin:

Once the power is restored, there will still be a huge clean-up job but we are hardy New Englanders and I believe we are up to the task.

A few things I have learned:

1) Neighbors are a blessing. Neighbors who have generators are a greater blessing.

2) I can never thank my husband enough for purchasing the generator!

3) No matter how often you tell yourself "The power is still out," you will still always flip the light switch when you go into the bathroom.

4) After a week without power, even vacuuming and doing laundry is "fun," and almost nothing beats the sound of a toilet flushing.

5) Each of us, some day, may be dependent on the kindness of strangers. This is important to remember when we have an opportunity to be kind. Be kind. You never know.

On the positive side, because we had a generator, I had the opportunity to spend wonderful quality time with my kids and get to know many of my neighbors better.

Sometimes it's the little things. I ran into a friend who hadn't had a warm shower in 3 days - so I invited her over to shower. I know I made her day. But interestingly, being able to invite her made my day too.

On the negative side ... I am SO BEHIND with blog posts! So today I am going to post Suzanne Sergi's final Guest Designer post featuring the Get Your Game On collection ... and I'll be back with more projects from the Cycling Teams for the rest of the week!

Here's Suzanne!

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Hi, everyone!

Suzanne here with another scrapbook page using the Get Your Game On Collection. I cannot tell you how much I have enjoyed working with these papers. They make creating your pages so simple. The canvas has already been decided, and with a few added details you can complete your sports pages in no time! I have so many sport photos that need to be scrapbooked, so this collection helps me to document them quickly.

I used the Baseball Collage paper as the background to document this photo of my son holding the coveted Game Ball! I cannot tell you how his eyes would light up as the coach would begin his speech as to who the lucky recepient would be! He was secretly wishing each time, it would be him! On this day, he was the lucky one, and I wish I had been quicker to document his expression. It was priceless! However, he did agree to pose for a photo afterward.

Plus here's a bonus football card from Suzanne!

So cool.

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Thanks Suzanne! So nice to think about WARM things like baseball and paper crafting...maybe by the fire...

You can follow Suzanne's blog by clicking here.

See you tomorrow with more inspiration ...and don't forget our call for NEW Winter Twig and Wonder & Wishes Cycling Team Members! If you haven't sent your stuff in, THERE'S STILL TIME! We'll announce the new team members on Thursday, Nov. 10!! Send your submissions to sharon@cthruruler.com!

Have a happy day!

Peg

Hi everyone! It's been a while since I have posted - phew life passes so quickly sometimes. But we have so much creativity floating around over here I am positively overwhelmed!

And...well...you will be too when you see these absolutely amazingly creative projects!

I'm so pleased to present the work of our latest Cycling Team Member, Jamie Cripps. If you are not one of her MANY blog followers, you should be! She is a talented crafty woman!

First up ... a fun and totally cool twist on classroom art:

I am still trying to figure out how she cut those crayons so they would fit perfectly into the "M". Just wow. Here is another angle:

Next from Jamie, a simple, neat and handy teacher gift:

Are there any teachers who couldn't use a few extra pencils? Here's a peek at the top:

And finally, a layout:

A little detail:

Fabric stars layered over a Clear Cut shape makes for a fun title!

But my absolute favorite is how Jamie punched her daughter's name out of the Practice your ABC's paper and layered them for extra depth. What a great idea! 

Thanks so much to Cycling Team member Jamie Cripps for the inspiration!

And I'll be back tomorrow with more projects from the Cycling Team!

Oh, and by they way ... I still haven't announced the winners from our Sweet Summertime giveaway. I'll be doing that tomorrow too!

;)  Peg

Hello,

We're excited to share our first post from from our first ever Cycling Team Member Shellye McDaniel.  Get ready to pedal because Shellye is going to wow you with this Head of the Class Corkboard mini album. I believe you will mark this as a favorite Friday Find. 

The covers are made out of cork.  How cool is this? 

Cork?  Yes. The cork really makes the primary colors pop. Don't you think?

I love the primary ribbon that Shellye uses throughout the album...again, it's all in the detail.

Every page is like this...

A true work of art...

Each page holds special detail. The stitching finishes each page in such a smart way.

Many, many fun embellishments to work with. Chipboard paper clips, dimensional stickers, fabric favorites...  I really want to hold this album in my hands!

A close up for you.

With just the right amount of grunge for good measure.

Even the back cover is a masterpiece.

Here are the detailed instructions on how to create your very own Corkboard mini album.

Supplies:
Little Yellow Bicycle’s Head of the Class Clear Cuts Shapes, Stick Pins, Journaling Cards, Chipboard Shapes, Dimensional Pop-Up Stickers, Fabric Favorites, Canvas Stickers Mini Banners, Alphabet Stickers, Fresh Verse Stickers, Favorite Phrases Stickers and Patterned Papers

Other Supplies:  Ribbons, Baker’s twine, buttons, three loose-leaf rings and two 6x6 corkboard squares

Using a craft knife, trim both corkboard squares to 5”wide; reserve one of the 1” strips.  Dress the reserved piece of corkboard with Fabric Favorites “Ruler” sticker; cut to size.  Punch holes into all three corkboard pieces at 1”, 3” and 5” increments, leave at least a ¼” margin from the edge.  Adhere the ruler piece to the edge of the top corkboard sheet with a fast drying tacky glue (I use Aleene’s Quick Dry).

Incorporating your favorite cutting tool, cut six 4 ¾” W x 7 ½”H tags from selected Head of the Class Patterned Papers.  Embellish as desired before gluing the front/back pages together.  Be sure to line the pages up with the bottom of the corkboard pages before punching holes.  Add eyelets to page holes to ensure stability. 

Finally, insert the three loose-leaf rings through the holes and thread carefully through pages. It may be necessary to enlarge the holes of the corkboard to allow the rings to move freely.  Add ribbons to the rings if desired.

Please check out Shelley's Blog and let her know how much you appreciate her craftsmanship!  Welcome again Shellye to our first LYB Cycling team.  And thank you for sharing your talent with all of us.

Happy Friday!

Lori

Hello friends! I'm back with another inspiring project from our Get Your Game On Guest Designer Suzanne Sergi!

But before I show you the project, I am embarassed to admit, I forgot to include Suzanne's photo with her first blog post! Oops! So here she is, along with a little LYB Q&A so you can get to know her better!

LYB:  What is your "go to embellishment?"

SS:  My go to embellishments are tags, or labels. They are fabulous to stand alone, or to emboss, journal, or ink.

LYB:  Do you prefer cardstock or patterned paper?

SS:   I am a big fan of patterned paper! I am usually inspired by color, so I always begin my design with patterned paper. I do use cardstock, but mainly to add small details to the page.

LYB:  What kind of music gets you in the scrappin' mood?

SS:  I am from Texas, so I am a huge fan of country music! However, I do like to mix it up, from time to time. My library playlist includes pop music, and a bit of classical, too.

LYB:  Do you like to go to crops or prefer to scrap alone?

SS:  I absolutely love going to crops! I love being with friends. However, I find it difficult  to pack my stuff for a crop. I do the majority of my scrapbooking at home. However, anytime the opportunity arises, you will find me at a crop. I am okay to simply sit, and chat! I guess, I love the social aspect!

LYB:   What are your favorite types of projects...pages, mini albums, cards, altered projects, etc.?

SS:  This is a difficult question! I love to scrapbook any type of papercraft! However, if I was to answer it is a toss up between mini albums, and altered projects. I throughly enjoy the creative process of a mini album, and of course, love altered projects especially around the holidays! I scrapbook for my family, so creating pages is definitely important to me. You might see a card from me, from time to time. However, as hard as  I try, they take me longer to create, than a page! 

LYB:   Do you have a favorite scrapbooking snack?

SS:  I rarely snack when I scrapbook at home. You will definitely find a large diet coke with extra ice nearby! (maybe Hot Tamales, too!) If I am at a crop, well that is a different answer. lol

LYB:  Any unique tips or techniques you use?

SS:  Two techniques you will find me using over and over are embossing and inking. I love the instant texture that embossing can give to a premade embellishment, sticker, or diecut. It is an easy technique, and  can add so much detail to your projects. I do love stamping on my projects, too. An easy, and inexpensive technique to embellish your projects.

And now...let's make this fun photo tray!

Hi, Everyone! Suzanne here, to share a project with the new Get Your Game On Collection! I love photo trays for displaying some of my favorite photos.  On my list was to alter one for my football player! I wanted to include a few special highlights of his football season. The new Get Your Game On Collection included everything I needed to create this football photo tray! A few pieces of patterned paper were all I needed to begin. The chipboard embellishment pack included the perfect football details to create fun embellishments in each individual panel!  In a couple of hours, I was able to complete this keepsake, that my son will enjoy for years to come.

Here are a few more pics!

Thanks Suzanne! I just love this! What a great way to capture a bunch of photos from the season ... or even a special game!

We'll be back with more from Suzanne next week ... and meanwhile, be sure to check out her blog by cliking HERE!

Have a BALL!

- Peg

OK, OK I know Lowri McNabb is already rockin' the Guest Designer blog for LYB but what can we do? We're shipping the brand new Get Your Game On collection as we speak (actually as I type...) and so, since it's so perfectly sporty ... we decided to Double Team you!!! That's right ... two Guest Designers for a little extra inspiration. And who can't use a little extra inspiration? Gotta love it!

So allow me to introduce our OTHER Guest Designer - for Game On - the awesome, fun, and of course talented Suzanne Sergi! I was introduced to Suzanne at CHA-W by our very own Biker Chick Liz Qualman. As I recall, Liz told me something like "You have to check out her work..." and so I did, and knew then and there we needed to ask her to guest design for us (click the link above to her blog and you'll see why as well!).

Suzanne hails from beautiful Orange County in Southern California, where she lives with her husband Steven and three children Gabriela (almost 13), Roman (8) and Macie (6). Suzanne has been scrapbooking for about 12 years. Like many of us, she tripped into this hobby when Gabriela was born when she ventured into a scrapbook store to look for an album ... and fell in love with all the possibilities. Suzanne scrapbooks mostly about her family and the special moments in their lives. She loves papers and embellishments and tells us she is "all about the details on (her) papercrafts ... (her) favorite part of the scrapbooking process." She designs for several manufacturers, and has been published in Scrapbook Trends magazine... and we are so lucky to have her!

And now... here's Suzanne!

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Hi, everyone! Suzanne here, and I am very excited to be one of the guest designers this month! I love papercrafting, and I am a big fan of Little Yellow Bicycleʼs products. One of my favorite things about their products is that you will not see only paper, and a few embellishments. No, you are going to have so many possibilities, and a wide variety of embellishments to choose from. A couple of my favorites are the transparency overlays, and I love their journaling notebooks. Their product fits my style of scrapbooking, and makes designing pages fast, and fun to create with.

I had the opportunity to work with the Get your Game On collection. With a few athletes in our household, I am always inspired to document their special “winning” moments. Today, I have my first project to share with you. A scrapbook page featuring my son with a couple of his teammates. My son seems to enjoy all sports from football, soccer, baseball, to basketball. Luckily, LYB has paper for all of these fun sports. I decided to create a basketball page to slip into my sonʼs sports album. This page came together very quickly.

I began with the basketball collage paper for my background. This paper has the large graphic in the upper right hand corner, so it needed very little extra paper. I used a small strip from the grey Bleachers patterned paper, layered on top of the red All Star paper. I also used one of the tear-out tickets for my title. I loved it, and thought it told the story of the photo perfectly. I did cut it so I could use the top portion at the top of the photo. The bottom half of the ticket holds my journaling that I ran through the computer. Love it when you can get more out of an embellishment! Here is a closer look at the cluster of embellishments I created in the lower right hand corner of the page.

I used two more tear-out tickets (these are starting to become my favorite). They are perfect to stand alone, when your page just needs a little something. They are also great to layer more fun embellishments underneath or on top of them. I punched different size circles to layer on top of the tickets. I used some of the chipboard embellishments as well. The #1 element I left alone, but I did add more texture to the chipboard basketball by running it through an embossing folder. This page has a bit of grunge to it, so I used my embossing folders to the circles, too. I simply love texture on my pages, and embossing is definitely my “go to” technique every time I scrapbook! This cluster of embellishments helped to add movement to the page.

Another item that I really enjoyed were the ticket stickers. I used one as an added detail on one of the tear-out tickets. They reminded me of a decorative tape, and I adhered it with a small staple on the page.

In this final detail photograph, you can also see a cluster of the chipboard stars, and do you recognize the brad?

It is from the Zachʼs Life collection, and this is still one of my favorites. Thought it tied well with the page!

Supplies Used:  

- Get Your Game On Basketball Collage/Basketball Court

-Get Your Game On Game Day Words Blue/Grey Bleachers

- Get Your Game On All Star Red/Field Dirt

- Get Your Game On Chipboard Shapes

- Get Your Game On Tear-Out Ticket Book

- Get Your Game On Stickers

____________________________

Thanks so much for this fun layout Suzanne! I'll be back during the next few weeks with more projects from Suzanne, featuring the Game On collection ... plus some fun LYB Q&A with Suzanne!

For now, if you haven't already, why not go check out Suzanne's blog for some more inspiration, and tell her how much you love her work (tell her we sent you ;P)

Peg 

Hi,

We are thrilled with the response and the entries we are getting for the "Cycling Team". If you aren't in on the scoop, be sure to like us here and get the details.  Also, see yesterday's post.

First and Foremost, check out Guest Designer, Lowri McNabb's blog, Paper Vine . Get ready to be lost into a world of inspiration. I'm always happier when I find a blog like Lowri's. I love to grab a cup of coffee and peruse through my favorite blogs as I start my day. I've got Paper Vine bookmarked.  Not only are Lowri's projects gorgeous, but they are doable. She really does make it look "oh so easy".  And, the best part is so many of her projects are FUNCTIONAL.   See. See. See.  Lowri has all of these Head of the Class goodies stepped out for you here.

I promised that I would help you to get to know Lowri better.  It's only fair that we all are friends....

Sit back and enjoy.

LYB Questions for Guest Designer – Lowri McNabb

What is your ‘go to’ embellishment?

I would have to say plain, die-cut chipboard pieces. You can paint, ink or stamp them, cover them with patterned paper, emboss them or all of the above!  I also have a weakness for glazed and fabric brads too..

Do you prefer cardstock or patterned paper?

Patterned paper mainly as I tend to draw inspiration for my projects from the prints themselves. It really depends on the weight of the paper/card as some paper projects  are better with thinner paper (those that need a lot of folding) and some are better with heavier weight cardstock. If using cardstock, I usually start with a white, cream or kraft base

What kind of music gets you in the scrappin’ mood?

When I am scrapping I tend to have DVD’s running on my computer - often favorites like British sit-coms I used to watch as  a kid or old James Bond movies. When I do listen to music you will hear me mainly listening and singing along to some 80’s rock or Kings of Leon

Do you like to go to crops or prefer to scrap alone?

I have always worked on my own – primarily due to my location meaning there is not anyone else within an hour or so in the evenings! I have been to a couple of crops, but I was so interested in what others were doing and chatting about products and new ideas that I didn’t get a single piece of work done. I am probably most people’s  worst nightmare at a crop! If you see me – you might want to take a seat the other side of the room…

What are your favorite types of projects—pages, mini albums, cards, altered projects, etc?

 I would call myself a papercrafter.  I very rarely do layouts and I prefer to use my photos to make mini albums and frames  -  I do however draw heaps of inspiration and ideas from the amazing layouts I see online.   I make a lot of altered items and beyond the page projects – usually as gifts and I also love to make custom stationary, party decorations and the occasional card-set.

Do you have a favorite scrapbooking snack?

Not really – depending on the time of day you are most likely to find an enormous  mug  of tea, Diet Coke or glass of wine sitting on my desk though…

Any unique tips or techniques you use?

I am always on the lookout for items to alter or use. I often look to dollar-stores, hardware stores and kitchen supplies for inspiration. I recently  packaged some gifts I made for Father’s Day (a mini album and a magnet set) in some gorgeous  old tobacco tins

Describe your biggest scrapbooking ‘mishap’?

No major mishaps spring to mind – if I make a mistake I just cover it with another piece of paper! I do get frustrated though when I get time to myself and feel so overwhelmed with the list of things I would like to do that I end up wasting it. With a young and active family, time on my own is a precious resource!

What are your favorite scrapbook magazines?

I really don’t buy many magazines – I find there is so much inspiration on manufacturers and designer blogs that usually I search for tutorials and ideas online.  

Do you have a favorite die cutting system?

I have a cuttlebug which I love to use with my slowly growing collection of Spellbinders.

Are you a morning bird or night owl?

I hate mornings but I have to get up each weekday at 5:45 to get to school on time (after I check my email, drink 3 cups of tea, make lunches etc) so I am definitely a night-time crafter.  

Computer or handwritten journaling?

I don’t do much journaling but I use my computer as a tool a lot in my papercrafting. I love to print onto patterned paper and tags and it’s invaluable for making stationary and other specialist items.

What is your favorite color (or colors) to use in your pages?

That’s a tough one! I find my work is very product driven, and I usually work with only one collection at a time – supplemented by some basics such as paint, stamps etc. I have mainly worked with very bold collections, but I am trying to incorporate more vintage themes now – whilst maintaining my clean style.  I always love green though!

How long does it typically take you to complete a project?

Anything from 2 hours to two weeks. I try to work on a project from start to finish and I usually find the last 10% of the project takes 50% of the time! If I am working on a project that includes photographs – choosing and editing them takes me ages – it’s something I am working on.

Do you use any tools that are not specifically designed for scrapbooking?

I use a few small woodworking tools (mainly files) and various grades of  sandpaper to sand and smooth my wooden projects before starting.  I also have a leather hole punch with various size tips to create holes in paper, card, fabric etc.  I have also made a couple of custom embossing folders with plastic ice cream container lids!

Do you scrap chronologically or out of order?

I tend to create projects according to need as I usually create my items as gifts with a specific recipient in mind

Sit down or stand up scrapbooker?

Sit down – I don’t usually get started until the kids are in bed – and by that time I need a good sit down!

Do you have a favorite quote?

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take” – Wayne Gretsky

Are you a neat scrapbooker or is your space a mess?

I can’t even read this question with a straight face. I am horribly messy but luckily I have my own little room and when it’s really bad I just shut the door and nobody has to see it. When I cannot see any floor space, and can’t make any more by piling up some more junk – I figure it is time to clean up!

What is your best time or money saving tip?

Money saving – create custom albums by cutting cereal boxes into shapes using Spellbinders (or other dies)  and then cut patterned paper again to cover. I usually use 2 layers per page.

Time saving – not really a time saving tip but if you are sitting there and it’s just not working out  – give up and  try again tomorrow!

Do you have a favorite adhesive?

A few – depending on the project. Most of my  projects are fun items designed to be used or handled as opposed to preserved, so often I am more interested in an adhesive being good for its purpose rather than acid free. I use Spotlight Crafters Glue but I think Helmars Premium Craft would be an equivalent product in the US. I recently discovered Dodz too – they are super sticky, clear, dimensional adhesive blobs of glue – I love them!

Describe your style.

Clean and linear with a hint of retro if I can make it work!

 
Friday.

Have a great day.

Lori

Hi all,

We are so pleased to share with you our Guest Designer, Lowri McNabb.  Lowri lives on a vineyard in beautiful Marlbrough, New Zealand with her husband and young family.

She loves to do all types of papercraft and is currently Design Team / Blog Administrator and Marketing Manager for Artfull Crafts, a scrapbooking store in Timaru, New Zealand.

Tomorrow, we will help you get to know Lowri better with some fun Q&A's. You'll smile more as you get to know her...

Until then, I'd like to show off some of Lowri's creations that she has been working on with our latest back to school collection, Head of the Class.  Get ready to be inspired.

Here's Lowri:

Hi Everyone,

It’s a real honour to be here today creating with one of Little Yellow Bicycle’s latest collections –Head of the Class.  The LYB  products are a little hard to come by here in New Zealand so I was thrilled to open my pack and find superb quality heavy weight patterned paper and an amazing collection of matching embellishments.

This collection is packed with fun, bright prints, but also offers some more subtle patterns too.  My first projects have made use of these more subtle patterns and I have decorated a pencil box and desk tidy along with a few extra stationary items, all of which would be suitable for an older student or maybe even a teacher’s gift.

Pencil Box

This box started out as a ribbon dispenser. It comes flat packed as 6 raw wood pieces. I sanded and painted the edges red and then used an old graph paper stamp I had to decorate with white ink and mirror the grid pattern on some of the papers.

I then measured, cut and glued pieces of paper to cover all the panels before assembly.  I have mainly used the Ruler paper (HC-109) as it is such a fun print and reminded me of the old fashioned slide top ruler pencil boxes.

I have used the Back to School paper (HC-101) to decorate the top which again has some lovely ruler detail and also picks up some of the other primary colours used throughout the collection.

The stars on the sides are from the Fabric Favourites (HC-220) pack and just add a little texture and detail to the sides. I gently removed the dimensional adhesive from the ends, cut the strips to size and then used a mini glue dot on the back of each star to glue them down.

Pencil Holder

This again was a plain wooden piece that I painted and stamped like the Pencil Box. I have again used the Back to School paper (HC-101) as the base for the sides and on the front I have used these super-cute mini pencils from the Chipboard Shapes (HC-279) as well as the stars and numbers piece from the Fabric Favorites (HC-220)

You can see the box is stuffed with a few goodies!

Paperclips

These giant paperclips are so much fun. You can use them as bookmarks or just as clips for giant paper! I sandwiched the paperclip between one of the Dimensional Stickers (HC-195) and a piece of plain cardboard backed with paper that I cut to the same size. I used hot glue to bond them all together which makes them durable and easy to use.

Ruler & Pencils

This dollar store ruler suddenly becomes a lot more fun with a great sticker! I removed the sticker it came with and replaced it with this super-fun ruler sticker from the Favorite Pieces Cardstock Stickers (HC-135) I love looking for little fun ideas like this to give as extras with a gift – it makes it just that little bit more special. My son has to have all of his pencils marked at school so instead of trying to write his name in teeny tiny writing, I labelled them by wrapping coloured tape around the top. I have done the same here to create matching pencils for the pencil box. Such a simple idea but would add a lovely touch for a teacher.

Fold-Back Clips

Products Used
Patterned Papers:
Back To School (HC-101), Ruler (HC-109), various scraps from other papers

Embellishments: 
Cardstock Stickers - Favorite Pieces (HC-135), Cardstock Stickers  - Fresh Verse (HC-140), Dimensional Pop-Up Stickers (HC-195), Fabric Favorites (HC-220), Chipboard Stickers (HC-279)

I hope you have enjoyed these and I look forward to showing you some more projects next week. Please post a comment with any questions.Head of the Class