More SPRING inspiration from Linda Albrecht!

If you were a birdie... wouldn't you LOVE to live in this house?? I know I would, so colorful and full of spring spirit. :)







Linda started her project with Kaiser Craft's Beyond the Page Birdhouse. It's such a cute shape. She used LOTS of papers to cover it... I love how she can put SO many manufacturers together and they look like they were made for each other. She used Advantus Girls Paperie Cabbage Roses and Paisley papers, Cosmo Cricket's Joy Ride Fast Lane paper and We R Memory Keepers Vintage Blue Blueberry Hill paper. For embellishments, Linda used adorable flowers from Imaginisce Lucy Bird Collection, Maya Road ribbon in scallop dot pink and Cosmo Cricket's Joy Ride buttons. She added in some twigs, artificial berries, eggs, a cute birdie and some leaves.

I asked Linda for some tips... and here are a few she gave me.
* For the top roof piece she punched 1 1/2" circles from paper then cut them
in half for the "shingles".
* She made a mini wreath to go around the circle opening and added artificial
greens and berries.
* With the Imaginisce silk flowers, she applied hot glue to the centers of each flower then squeezed all of the petals together to make them look more bud like and then hot glued them to the twigs.

Wow, thanks Linda! Be sure to check out her blog for even more inspiration, and even though the month is almost over... we're lucky enough to have one more project coming to our blog from Linda, so keep your eyes open.

Oh, and a little hint for April. An old friend will be visiting PLUS someone brand new to AllyScraps. :)

~ Dana

AllyScraps is having a sketch CONTEST!!

Love using Debbie's sketches here at AllyScraps?? Love having built in inspiration for your scrapbook pages? Want to win a fabulous prize? Well, we have the contest for you! It's a sketch contest. Remember Debbie's fabulous sketch from January?? This one...



Well, make a layout using Debbie's sketch for inspiration. You can flip it, turn it, mirror image it, or change it up all together. We just need to be able to see how you used Debbie's sketch to inspire you. Here is how Debbie and I used her awesome sketch.

Finish your layout and e-mail a photo of it to allyscraps@gmail.com by Sunday evening, April 11th at midnight Eastern time. We will judge all of the entries, and choose a winner shortly after. The winner will receive.... wow.... this Cosmo Cricket Material Girl crafting kit!!!



Good luck, we can't wait to see what you come up with!!!

Oh, and before I forget, Cathy has been busy uploading TONS of awesome new scrapbook supplies to the store. My favorite?? 3 brand new lines of Fancy Pants, super cool lines from Jillibean Soup, a fun new Kaisercraft, Fresh Print clothesline by My Little Yellow Bicycle and lines by Bella Blvd and BoBunny too!

Be sure to keep checking back to the blog, as Linda Albrecht's brand new project will be showing up VERY soon!

~ Dana

Another AMAZING Spring project from Linda Albrecht....

Here's Linda! (I'll let her tell you about her lovely project!)







"The Spring Set includes a framed patterned paper collage, pinwheel
garland (can you tell that I'm crazy over garlands right now?!?!) , and
notepad with container."

Directions:
The FRAME is one of the easiest ways to make a favorite scrapbook paper
into a home decor piece. I just removed the glass then cut down my
paper as desired and placed it in the frame. Once I backed the paper I
made a spring collage by adding the bird nest, eggs, and some handmade
crepe paper flowers. I also added a few snips of artificial greens,
some rub ons letters for the sentiment, and buttons with rhinestones
added to the bottom edge. Easy!

To make the GARLAND: Punch 1 1/2" circles from papers. Cut 1"x 12" and 1
1/4"x 12" strips from papers then accordion fold them and form into
pinwheels which you adhere 1/2" punched paper circles to the center of
each side. String the pinwheels onto cotton string using a large needle
and glue 1 1/2" circles onto the string (2 circles each-- one on each
side of the string) between the pinwheels, as desired.

NOTEPAD with container: Paint container or cover in patterned paper (I
did both). Add buttons along the top open edge and tie a fabric strip
on handle to make a bow. Use chipboard or book board to make the holder
for the notepad paper by cutting slightly larger than your pad and long
enough so that you can make 2 folds to wrap over the top of the notepad
paper. Cover chipboard in patterned paper then punch 3/8" holes through
the notepad and holder and tie together with a fabric strip. Use
acrylic stamp to add images to the corner of each sheet of paper in the
notepad. Add color with watercolor pencils, markers, paint or ink.

Supplies used:
We R Memory Keepers Vintage Blue Clear Stamp "Berries"
We R Memory Keepers Vintage Blue "BlueBerry Hill", "Sugar
Plum", "Simply Wonderful", "All a Twitter" and "May Flowers" paper.
Cosmo Cricket Joy Ride "Fast Lane" and "Are we there yet?" papers
Cosmo Cricket Joy Ride Buttons
Advantus Girls Paperie "Paisley" paper
Jenni Bowlin Red Black Line "Micro Dots" paper
Melissa Frances Pink Rhinestones
Maya Mist "Bubblegum"
Other:
Metal wall container
Photo frame
Cotton string
1 1/2" circle punch
1/2" circle punch
Watercolor pencils
3" twig nest with eggs
Chipboard or book board for notepad

Hi, it's Dana again. I'm sure you will want to check out more of Linda's work, so head over to her blog... and be sure to check back soon for MORE of her tremendous work! :)

~ Dana

A journey...

The nicer weather always gets me thinking about vacation. :) I am really behind at scrapping vacation photos, whether it be to Disney or Niagara Falls. So, finally... I got busy on some of those photos. Whenever I have scrapbook products with a theme, I never feel compelled to use them for that theme. These Cosmo Cricket Garden Variety papers have the best patterns on the BACK! Perfect for my colorful vacation pages. (The garden themed papers are adorable too!)



I used lots of journaling blocks from the elements paper. Letters were a perfect match with Cosmo Cricket's new tiny type in red and ready set chipboard in blue line. Oh, and I LOVE that I used one of the very oldest embellishments in my scrapbook stash... that epoxy bottle cap that says "what a view".

Thanks for stopping by the AllyScraps blog! Stop by later this week, for a new project from Linda Albrecht.

~ Dana

Spring has SPRUNG!

Spring has sprung here at AllyScraps and we're so excited to have one of our very favorite guest designers on board for March. Linda Albrecht is back! Here she is...



"My name is Linda Albrecht and I live in Minnesota. I have 4 wonderful
children (that range in ages from 11 to 27) and one very supportive
husband. For the majority of my life I have been a lover of the creative
arts-- everything from needle work, to painting and paper arts have
fulfilled my need to express my heart and soul as an artist.

After having children I found another purpose to be creative, for it was
then that scrapbooking became the way that I chose to preserve memories
and organize life's many memento's in a beautiful form. My love of
scrapbooking and altered arts turned into a part time career 6 years ago
when I began working for several scrapbook manufacturers.

Currently I do design work for BasicGrey, Art Warehouse and Creative
Cafe, Tattered Angels, and Melissa Frances. My work has been printed in
magazines and idea books throughout my scrapbooking career and I have
taught classes for several events."

Hi Linda! so glad to have you back. So, I'm sure you're waiting to see the absolutely stunning project that Linda made to inspire us. I'll give you a hint... it's a FRAME, but I think it would make an awesome layout design too.






Wow, wow, wow! Linda used so many different lines of patterned paper, it's perfect. She used papers from Girls Paperie , Cosmo Cricket Joy Ride, WeRMemory Keepers Vintage Blue, and Imaginisce Lucy Bird. Her embellishments included flowers by Imaginisce, WeRMemory Keepers Robin stamp, Melissa Frances pink rhinestones and Cosmo Cricket buttons.

I asked Linda about those butterflies... they were made with an Accucut die cutting machine. But, you could use your Cricut or a punch or even handcut them. That butterfly garland is amazing, I NEED to make one of those!

Thanks Linda, you're the best. Can't wait to see what she'll come up with for next week, hope you'll stop by to see too!

~ Dana

Real life scrapbooking.

Sometimes, the pictures you take in your every day life aren't of beautiful smiling faces or gorgeous scenery or your favorite things. Sometimes, real life gets in the way, and the pictures you take are just for FUN! :) Here's my take on some real life scrapbooking.



I finally got to Debbie's sketch #3 from last month. (told you I would!) I flipped Debbie's sketch to a mirror image for my page. Here is Debbie's original sketch... love it. I'm going to have to use this one again.



I used papers from Scrap Within Reach for my page. Their carnival ride collection. Love how these papers are double sided, and the colors are really rich. You know how I love journaling cards? well, these ones are super cute! I used Lily Bee rubons too. Thanks for taking a look, and as usual, thanks to Debbie for her inspiration.

Not to change to subject, BUT new scrapbook supplies are an important topic. Cathy's been busy adding brand new stuff to the store. Some brand new BoBunny, and some My Little Shoebox too. She said that there are more new products to go up tonight, so be sure to check back, you can find them here.

Have a great day! Dana

Is Easter a month away??

Holy Moly, Spring is almost here! The sunshine feels great, especially to those of us who have gotten pounded by FEET of snow over the past few weeks.

With all the new Easter paper and embellishments coming out this time of year, it's usually hard to choose a favorite. BUT, it wasn't for me, hands down I love the brand new WeRMemory Keepers Hippity Hoppity Collection. It's fresh and fun and colorful and the embellishments are awesome too! Here's what I came up with, a fun Easter egg decorating layout.



I love it when I don't have to do much work for the title. No choosing letters or finding something to match. I just used a strip of the Easter Fun glitter paper and a chipboard title too. So easy. The embossed stickers were really fun to use, and I lifted them up with pop dots for even more dimension. Gotta love that those glitter brads match perfectly. I used the 4 x 6 paper pad for my journaling. There are so many cute journaling spots in that pad, some titles too! Every single paper is gorgeous, but wanna know my favorite? Egg Plate, that paper is TOO cute. I love that this collection is mostly 2 sided papers, SO many options.

Well, thanks for taking a peak. Oh, and Linda Albrecht just e-mailed me... she just got her kit and will have a new project to share VERY soon! Have a great day.

~ Dana