Taking a breather!

Ok I had planned on posting my latest creations and stuff today but we went biking this morning and I am so tired! We went out with Janry, Meilani and Orn. It was so good to catch up with them! I haven't been riding for a couple of weeks, and honestly wasn't sure about going today as I've been fighting a bug the last few days, but I went. Really thought I'd done the wrong thing too as I fell off twice today... on the easy bits too! But thankfully part way up the mountain trail I started to feel better. Took these pics at the top. Bob, Orn, and Meilani & Janry.

Had a great ride, great morning for it as it was nice and warm, but I am so tired now! Oh and I just discovered I have a bruise on the inside of my calf, nice and purple too! All in all a good day!

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Sharing...

... the article I did last week for the Everyday Digital Scrapbooking blog.

How to create flow using photographs

Scrapbook pages should be pleasing to the eye, drawing the attention through the layout. One way to achieve this, is to create flow on a layout using the photographs themselves. I created this layout using a series of photographs of my friends son playing at the local park.

supplies: papers + journalling tab - shabby princess (wonderful kit); chipboard alpha

- Kim Hill CG essentials (recolored); font - SP wonderful wendy (scrapsupply.com)

• The vertical paper behind the photographs draws the attention to the photo's, whilst uniting the page elements and photo's
• Three 4x6 photo's placed in sequential order draw our eye across the page
• Note also how the subjects movement draws our eye across and down the page toward the title and journalling

• I find that using photographic flow for layouts works well with action shots such as these where the subject is constantly moving.

A simple page with standard 4x6 photo's can become something wonderful with directional flow through the layout. Try it yourself!

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Here is a layout done with the digital template I provided for this sketch article! The details for which we included in Wednesdays newsletter, and in the newsletter for the EDS blog.

Digital Layout by Krista Pearl

Credits: Vertical Mattes - Faith True, Green Dots, Faith, Hope, and Charity; Background - Faith True Circles, Faith, Hope, and Charity; Photo Matte - Faith True Stripes, Faith, Hope, and Charity; flower Petals - Traci Sims, Flower 1, Summer Lovin'; Flower Centers - Traci Sims, Gem 1 and Gem 3, Summer Lovin'; Edge Overlay - Linda Gil Billdal, Textured Edge 7, Textured Edge Overlays; Word Art - Vicki Stegall Designs, Blessed Shadow, 52 Inspirations Oscraps Week 10; Title font - MA Sexy by Margarete Antonio with stroke added;Template - Di Hickman, March-Flow (March Template 2)

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Spring has Sprung!

Its the latest contest at Treasures to Scrap! We start in April but sign up NOW cos spots are going FAST! The April contest will involve finding a partner to form a team. One partner must be digital, the other paper! Fun huh? Anyway full details can be found on the forums, so hurry and sign up cos the prizes ROCK!

Prizes:

1st place: Paper Scrapper team winner: will recieve one TTS kit per month for one year free!!!!!!!!!!! Digi Scrapper team member will recieve a $25.00 gift certificate to Shabby Princess and a $10.00 gift certificate from Kim Johnson!!!!

2nd place: Paper Scrapper team winner: will recieve 6 TTS kits (one every other month) throughout the year!!!!! Digi Scrapper team member will recieve a $15.00 gift certicate to Shabby Princess and a $10.00 gift certificate from Kim Johnson!!!

3rd Place: Paper Scrapper team winner will recieve 3 TTS Kits (one every third month) throughout the year!!! Digi Scrapper team member will recieve a $10.00 gift certicate to Shabby Princess and a $10.00 gift certificate from Kim Johnson!!!

Told ya the prizes ROCKED! Get over to Treasures to Scrap and SIGN UP NOW!

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Want to win a RAK?

Boxer scrapbooks blog is ONE YEAR OLD today! To celebrate they are having a RAK giveaway on their Boxer blog! To be in with a chance of winning the goodie box stop by the Boxer blog, and leave a comment! Trust me their boxes are awesome! Great products too! So what do you have to lose? Go comment! You gotta be in it to win it!

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Card Sketch March #7

Last card sketch for March! This one has tons of room for personal interpretation! The three panels, the horizontal strip, and I even left off the sentiment cos there were so many places to put it!

Supplies: Heather Ann Designs Summer Fun kit.

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Card By Pearl Liu
supplies: Bazzill Bling cardstock; Paper Salon Blossoms paper ;
die cut tags , Prima Sprites & Pop Ups; Q&CO brads; Felt stickers from Spotlight;
Card by Krista Pearl

Credits: Backgrounds from Holly McCaig "Ain't No Sunshine" kit : My Digital Muse;
Beads from Nancie Rowe Janitz; Glass Bead 2 from "Beautiful Harvest" from Scrap Artist;
Font - Pea Superamy by Fonts for Peas;

Card by Linda Flinders

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Emails are sent!

The sketches are on there way! I divided into layout/card and did two groups of each. I had NO IDEA that this would be so popular! Yikes! Not that I'm complaining! This is gonna be SO FUN on reveal day! If you are on the card list you should have 2 card sketches each. If you are on the layout list I think so far I just sent out one sketch each, I have the other emails ready to go expect them tomorrow. Right now I need to finish up tomorrows newsletter...
So to recap. If you emailed me about sketches you should have at LEAST one sketch sent to you. If you didn't get one, email again me cos my email account ate it :)

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WOW!

Well the response was kinda overwhelming! I emailed a few people yesterday morning and I've had a ton more emails since. If you haven't been emailed yet its because I am trying to figure this out so everyone gets a chance to play. And I'll be honest we had a TON of paperwork to do last night that took priority over all this scrappin thing. I have about 15 more people to email today so bear with me, but YOU WILL get an email from me today or tomorrow (hopefully today) with a sketch.

Ok, I hope to update later with more info and maybe a proper post for today! lol!

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Looking for some layout/card sketch samples!

I need a few girls to provide samples for Aprils layouts sketches for my blog. Digital templates ARE available now! There are 5 sketches but feel free to do as little or as many as you'd like. These will be uploaded to my blog each Monday in April, but must not be put in any online galleries until they are published on my blog... so can you keep a secret?

I also have all of Aprils card sketches ready so if you're a card maker and would like the chance to have your cards featured on my blog. I've seen some GREAT cards from the sketches so if you'd like to be a sketch girl just let me know!

Interested? email me:- dihickmanblog@gmail.com telling me which you'd like to provide samples for, cards or layouts, or both!

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Card Sketch March #6

Having a good weekend? Last of the bonus sketches today. This one can be used lots of ways. The circle can be as an embellishment on the front of the card or you could cut out the circle and put the flower on the inside of the card. Lots of possibilities.

Supplies: Heather Ann designs Kit

Ok I know I have another card in my files SOMEWHERE with this design! I just have to find it! For this life of me I just don't know where I save it to! Annoying as that was the paper card I based the darn sketch on! Oh well...

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Card by Pearl Liu
Supplies: Die Cuts With a View Glitter Cardstock;
Queen & Co brads; Flower Die cut; Provocraft letter stickers

Card by Tammy Gray

Supplies:Easter Cards KPertiert; Papers Welcome Spring Freebie W&W
Card by Libby Mac Neilly
Supplies: BG Patterned Paper; Bazzill Carstock
FooFaLa Button; DMC Floss; EK Success Punches

Card by Linda Flinders

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Update: this weeks news

Lots of things have been happening this week! I hinted to a few in the newsletter. I think I already mentioned I am Aprils guest design team member at Scrappin Trends? Well I found out yesterday that I won first place in their online crop last weekend! Yay!

Wednesday I was asked to be a Design Team member for Shelle Pukas. I am so happy to say that I accepted and I can't wait to get started! Shelle has some AWESOME products in her store and from what I've seen "behind the scenes" lots of great stuff coming. I need to get downloading and creating for her. So happy to be part of her team!

Thursday Julie Ann asked me to write a short tutorial for the Everyday digital scrapbooking blog! Totally shocked and I was so happy to do this. The blog is awesome for anyone who does digital scrapbooking or is interested in learning. My tutorial went up yesterday so go check it out!

Oh and little update: I just noticed some of my projects for 3 bugs from this month (and previous work) are up in their gallery! Yeah! You can see the 3 bugs gallery here

Its been a fun packed week!

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Review: Heather Ann Designs

The March Digital sponsor at Treasures to Scrap is Heather Ann Designs. She was extremely generous and we got to pick our own products. Now I always struggle with this because usually I end up wanting the kits I didn't pick (especially once I see what the rest of the design team did with them!) and end up buying more kits anyway! This time though I can honestly say I am completely 100% happy with the products I chose. And that is probably a first! Heather Ann has lots of beautiful products to choose from and I was spoilt for choice but I made a decision and got stuck into designing with them. It was so easy! The kits make the layouts themselves! And the templates ROCK! Loved the template I chose! You only have to go to her website to see the beautifully designed site to get completely inspired!

The first kit I chose was the Summer Fun kit. Totally fun colors and I knew I had PERFECT photo's to go with this kit, so I had to have this one! The embellishments in this kit were so cute! Loved the flowers and chipboard squares but my favorite were the popsicle sticks! The alpha is an outline alpha which is just so cool and some fun doodles too! I've already shared some layouts and cards this month using this kit but here are a few more....

Supplies: Summer Fun kit Heather Ann Designs; Font SP wonderful wendy

Supplies: Summer Fun kit Heather Ann Designs; Font SP wonderful wendy

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The second kit I chose was Spring Sweets kit. I decided on this kit because it was full of colors I loved. The reds, the flowers, and the doodle words just called to me! The only thing I didn't like much out of this kit was the alpha. I'm just not a circle alphabet scrapper, more of a chipboard or font fan. I did use it though (see calendar page further down) so maybe I just need to broaden my horizons a little and get out of the font and chipboard phase? lol! Again I've shared cards with this kit already this month (see the sketches this month) so here are a few layouts featuring this kit...

Supplies: Spring Sweets kit Heather Ann Designs; Font cafe rojo
Template: misty cato

Supplies: Spring Sweets kit Heather Ann Designs;

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Heather Ann also has templates in the store. I really like how she sells them in bundles as well as singles. She also has card templates too! I really fell in love with template #29 though. What a great layout for recapping the year! I still think its a versatile template though because you could easily make it for a specific month rather than using one photo per month.

Supplies: Heather Ann Designs template + spring sweets pp

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When I saw CD calendar kits in the store I knew I had to try one! The one I picked is the modern edition but they come in different styles. I figured they would be perfect for a gift, and they were fun to make! I haven't done it yet but I think the calendar part would be great on a scrapbook page too! The pages should be printed and put in a flipped open CD case. Definately doing this as gifts for next year!

Supplies: Heather Ann Designs Calendar kit; spring sweets kit; Lucky kit

Supplies: Heather Ann Designs calendar kit; summer fun kit;
ribbon - nitwit collections (recolored)

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The final kit I got was a small kit called too cute clipboard kit. I was drawn to this because it was different from other things I'd used before, and I liked the papers in the kit. I used the papers on some cards and little peices on layouts. I shared a layout I did with the clipboard on Monday but I'll reload it here also.

Supplies: Heather Ann Designs clipboard; everything else Holly McCraig

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Heather Ann's digital products are awesome! Thoroughly enjoyed working with them this month (and more to come next week). If you want to sample some of her work she does offer a few freebies, which are great. A nice sample of her designs. Love the halloween stuff.

To see more examples using Heather Anns work you can go to our sponsor gallery and see what the rest of the design team created!

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March Layout Sketch

Happy March! As promised here is the monthly layout sketch. The digital template is available for those on the newsletter mailing list. If you want to get on "the list" just email me and I'll send it out to ya! Love this one! Totally seems to be my style lately of using multiple photo's. I'm also very into journalling lines right now. Seem to be using them alot. So with that in mind here is March's layout sketch.

Supplies: Heather Ann Designs Summer Fun Kit; Font SP wonderful wendy

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I sent out the sketch to the girls on my list and here is what they came up with! Some awesome layouts and so fun to see the different interpretations of the sketch.

Tammy chose to use the digital template, and I love the papers she chose, perfect with those photo's. I also like how she did the journalling in a heart. I had something like that in a recent kit. Fun layout!

Layout by Tammy Gray

Supplies: Papers dmSK8 - Shabby Princess and Gina Cabrera;
Alpha dmSK8 Word Art Bad Candy;

Libby rocked the sketch this month! Just look at the awesome layout she did! Cute photos! She changed the 2 smaller photo's on the left one larger one. I love the big title, and all the button! Great choice of accents on this page! (isn't the boy a cutie?) When I saw this in my inbox I know she'd rocked it! Awesome layout!

Layout by Libby MacNeilly

Supplies: My Mind's eye signature Life Patterned paper and die cuts;

Foofala buttons; Maya Road Chipboard;Bo Bunny Rub ons;

QK Katie fons and star shaped dies; Ink and floss from my supplies

Lucy chose to use one single photo which shows great versatility of the sketch. Love the flower/heart accent instead of the 2 smaller photo's. The stitching on both sides of the layout unites the page together. Great layout Lucy!

Layout by Lucy Chesna

Supplies: Dream Street PP- sandra faye colletction; HS Chipboard;

Fancy Pants chipboard heart; prima flower; mm bling; bazzill cardstock

Linda did a great job with the sketch. She hasn't been scrapbooking long and showed great initiative. She used one smaller photo instead of the two, she opted for a subtitle instead. The floral accent balances the page well.

Layout by Linda Flinders

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Card Sketch March #5

Happy Wednesday! I am bright eyed and bushy tailed today! Took a day off from blogging yesterday, and I am back with vengence today! I got some digital stuff done yesterday and have sketches and templates ready if anyone wants to create! Below is this Wednesdays card sketch (another coming sunday!). As always the digital template is available for the mailing list subscribers. If you want to sign up just email me the newsletter will be going out later today. Tomorrow I have a layout sketch coming so keep checking back!

Supplies: Piggy tales frog prince collection; stamp from Joanns

supplies: heather ann designs - summer fun kit

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Ok onto the creative team! This week I want to welcome a new member to the card crew - Pearl! If you haven't seen her work before well its AWESOME! Trust me, go check her out! Here is a card she made for this weeks sketch! Isn't it just gorgeous?

Card by Pearl Liu
Supplies ; ColorMates Light Beligium Blue Cardstock , Bo Bunny Play Hard patterned papers,
Play hard Clip, ribbons , round cardstock stickers , brads, SEI Paisley & Petals stickers, gel pen .

Card by Tammy Gray

supplies: Paper mterasawa Flutterbutter

Ribbon KPertiet golden cording; Flower Dawn Inskip Watercolor Daisy

Card by Robin Blankenship
Supplies: Kim Johnson’s “Tuscan Spring” kit from DigiScrapDivas.com

Card by Lucy Chesna
Supplies: sassafrass pp; bazzill cardstick; american crafts ribbon;
stamped flower image/sentiment from g groups stamps from Micheals

Card by Linda Flinders

Remember I am always looking for new creative members! If you would like to have a card featured on the blog email me and I'll send you the sketch in advance! I love seeing what everyone does with the sketch!

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a productive weekend!

This weekend I took part in the online crop at Scrappin Trends Had a great time! Lots of creating done, and fun and games too. Not sure who won overall but I think we all got lots of scrapping done. I got a card picked up for the scrappin trends ezine.. and... I was asked to be the guest designer for April! Whoohoo! So all in all a GREAT weekend! We didn't go biking as Bob helped his friend move house (hence my weekend at the crop!). Anyway here are my projects from the weekend...

Challenge to scrap not so good photo's
Supplies: heather ann designs clipboard; everything else holly mcCraig

This one was a scraplift challenge, loved the design on the layout I lifted by TinaC
Supplies: heather ann designs spring sweets kit; shabby princess flowers; jason gaylor brushes;
fonts: 2 peas crazy pooch, steelfish + SP wonderful wendy

Ad inspiration challenge
supplies: heather ann designs summer kit; ribbon by lori barnhurst

Ad inspiration challenge
Supplies: cardstock DCWV; offray ribbon; computer fonts

As inspiration challenge
Traci sims template; Ztampf pp; jan crowley tab; font: SP wonderful wendy

card from scraps on table
supplies: christina cole pp + sticker; joanns rub on; dcwv cardstock

scraplift challenge, menu challenge and a few other challenges combined
supplies: christina cole pp; DCWV cardstock; Heidi swap chipboard; maya road flower

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