More Projects from Kimber McGray

As you know, we've been fortunate enough to have Kimber as guest designer this month.

Kimber has come up with another stunning project featuring Snorkel from Cosmo Cricket.



Here's what Kimber had to say: "For the sun, I cut a circle from the orange Core'dinations cardstock and used brass stencils to emboss dots then lightly sanded them. I punched triangles from scraps of cardstock for the rays. I used the Kaisercraft gems to create fish bubbles and splashes on the photo and title."

I just love the rhinestone detail!

Kimber has created some awesome waves by layering the papers and cardstock - I for one, will be scraplifting that idea!

Thanks Kimber for the wonderful inspiration. I'm sure I'll be putting it to good use when I scrap my Summer photos this year.

All the latest products can be found in the store here. Remember shipping is still only $4.95 on all orders shipped within the U.S.

Have a fun, scrappy weekend!

Morag x

We're featuring Nikki Sivils here at AllyScraps today!

We're thrilled and excited to feature scrapbook manufacturer and designer Nikki Sivils on our blog today. Nikki is the sweetest person, SO talented and was so nice to spend some time with us here at AllyScraps.

Here's Nikki...

Since I'm sure that you'll want to know more about Nikki and take a look at her awesome products, here is a LINK to her fun site. (isnt' that little doggie cute?) Nikki took the time to answer some questions that we created over on the AllyScraps message board, here's what she shared with us.

1. How long have you been a scrapbooker? How did you get started scrapping?
I started in HS, in the 80's!! I have several scrapbooks with silverware from places like the Olive Garden, where I had my first "car date"!! Along with pictures and memorabilia like school programs. Then in the 90's I made several scrapbooks too, but really it was 2004 that I became obsessed with scrapbooking, you know... collecting, subscribing to every magazine out there and basically sending every waking moment thinking about scrapbooking!! :) I guess I've always recorded my memories!!

2. Tell us about your design studio/scrapbook space.
I love my space(s)!! Yes, I have a couple of them!! I have a 12 foot old farm table that I scrapbook on that's in a great little space upstairs that has these beautiful glass french doors that open into it!! This is where I create anything and everything by all manufacturers. My other space is where I create samples, experiment with my new products and play with just "Nikki Sivils" products! This space is right outside of the french doors and it's a loft over the living room, and kitchen. This is my new space and I've really enjoyed separating the spaces, makes it easier for me to concentrate on what I'm working on. Finally, downstairs in our dining room we have another 12 foot old farm table that my husband and I share for our "desk" I sit at one end and he sits at the other. This is where I work on my business and do some creating, mainly of products and paper lines, not hands on creating!!

3. How long had you been designing papers before you set up your own company?A couple of years ago I began to create many of the papers that just debuted like "My Sweet Cherry Pie". I have a pair of PJ bottoms that have a cherry design on them and one day I thought wouldn't be cool to have cherries and horseshoes together on paper!! (Those PJ's didn't have horseshoes on them but I've always had a horseshoe above my door for good luck!!) And some how the two just came together in my head. BTW I still have the PJ's!!

4. What was it like to go to CHA with your own products?
Let's see if I can find words to describe it...... overwhelming, scary, nerve-racking, exciting, I didn't sleep for weeks (seriously), I thought I was going to throw up every day leading up to CHA and every day at CHA!! Other than that it was great!! On the first day of CHA I made everyone that was working in my booth "huddle up" and I gave a little pep talk and started crying because in that very moment I realized my dream was actually coming true!! I'm choking up right now as I remember the feeling I had!! Exhilarating!!

5. What are your color inspirations? What colors are your favorite to work with?
I'm always inspired by the color red!! It evokes so many different feelings for me. (my wedding ring is even a ruby) My favorite colors to work with are black, red, pink, and brown!! But really there is not a color I don't like. I used to not like the color orange and now I love it, I find that it keeps popping up in my designs and scrapbook pages!!

6. How supportive is your family? Were they skeptical when you first decided to start your own line?
My husband Dan is of course VERY supportive as we are working this company together all day every day!!! I do have a very supportive family, however at first they didn't understand what I was doing, and I had to show them the inventory and explain each item!! (I think a few of them still don't understand, but are supportive still.) My Mom is always asking me why I'm still so busy even after I just finished designing my paper!! If only it was that simple, there are so many factors in some of the smallest details, I had no idea about until I started.

7. Any plans to add to your lines with rubons or stickers or alphabets?
Yes!! I have a couple of new products for the spring in the works right now!! In fact I just approved the quotes for stickers and alpha stickers a few hours ago!! Now I have to start the artwork for them. Shhhhhh..... don't tell!!

8. What advice would you give someone who wants to start out in the industry?
Passion is a must, because I've never worked so hard in my life!! Most of it is fun work, but it can be very time consuming. I can't imagine doing it without my husband, Dan, he's a retired attorney and I can't tell you how great that is for me! Just reading a contract and knowing if it's reasonable or not, that's Dan's department along with everything shipping, marketing, and advertising. Also there is so much "behind the scenes" that takes place daily that we actually had to hire a lady full time to help us out!! I'm a little bit controlling when it comes to my business so letting go of certain things is VERY hard for me but I have to or not enough would get done!! It is normal to not have all the answers, you just have to keep solving problems as they arise.

9. What's coming up next?? Themes? Color schemes, etc.? Will you do a dog line to match the dog on your site??
Hmmmm, what can I tell you that won't give too much away.... I'm not doing any "holiday" themes for the spring. I have some not so traditional colors for spring, like lots of black. (but very fun "out of the box" stuff)
Will you do a dog line to match the dog on your site??
Yes and NO.... I have a "pet" line coming out in the spring, but it's not just dog or cat....... sorry I can't give you anymore than that!!
I'd love to do just an all "Willie-B" (that's my dog's name and logo) dog line, but I'm afraid that not everyone would like it as much as me!!!

10. What do you think the new "hot trends" will be?
I actually try really hard not to think about that question, because I'd like to be the trend setter!!LOL!! Also if I thought about what the "trend" is too much I think I would go crazy second guessing myself, I just try and focus on what my passion is and what I'd want to scrapbook with!!

Thanks Nikki for all of your fun answers to our questions! And guess what? Nikki is a great scrapbooker too. She created a couple of fun projects to share with you.

Here is Nikki's sweet ghost mini album.







Here are some cute cupcakes that she made and a fun card too.



Now, while Nikki was busy designing, Cathy put the AllyScraps Design Team to work... Raechelle, Chris and I also made some fun projects with Nikki's Halloween line. Take a look.

Chris made this awesome layout.


Raechelle made one of her famous bottle sets, this time incorporating candy and a fun "potion" look.






I made a SPOOKY layout and a fun card.



Then one day when I was checking out Jana Eubank's BLOG, I found these super cute projects. (I had forgotten that Jana was on the Nikki Sivil's Design Team!) I asked Jana first of course, and she was thrilled to have her projects up on our blog too!


I just love Jana's work, thanks Jana! (oh and look for Jana at AllyScraps in October!)

Wow! That's a lot of pictures... hope something inspires you. By the way, I'm sure you know that Cathy carries the full line of Nikki Sivils products right HERE in the store. And, just for fun, Cathy has given me some Nikki Silvis Halloween products to give away! Hurray and thanks Cathy. So to be eligible to win the prize, just comment on this post and tell us what kind of products you'd love to see Nikki create. Comment by next Thursday, September 24th and I'll pick a winner. Thanks for stopping by, have a great weekend!

~ Dana

Feeling Fallish?

I am here. Temps are chilly in the morning, the leaves are changing and the kids are back in school. Seems like fall to me! I have to say that scrapping fall pictures is my very favorite season to scrap... papers are so pretty and the pictures so rich and colorful. I was really impressed with My Little Yellow Bicycle's brand new Autumn Bliss line of papers, so I used them as soon as I got them for this fall layout. The papers have the coolest texture, kind of a slick surface. The embellies are really cool too! I especially loved their laser cuts. To look at them, you'd think they're tiny, but NO, they are each 12" long, and super fun to use. The journaling book is awesome too, TONS of pages of journaling spots, all in the fall theme.



I've been really enjoying the "technique" of handcutting lately. I used a big pile of handcut leaves for this project. Leaves cut right out of the patterned paper. A really cheap and easy embellie! Thanks for taking a look.

By the way, keep your eyes on the blog this week. We have some exciting things coming up. Thursday is a special day at AllyScraps, and we will be having a scrapbook manufacturer as a guest on our blog. Nikki Sivils will be here, answering some questions, showing us some of her projects and we'll also be having a Nikki Sivils give-a-way. Check out the blog that day for tons of projects using Nikki's Halloween line from several awesome designers! Kimber McGray will be back this Saturday with another awesome guest post and next week looks to be just as fun. So, we hope that you'll check back often!

~ Dana

Ever heard of Core'dinations cardstock??

I never had... until Cathy came back from CHA raving about it! Super textured colorful cardstock, with a surprise inside! Rip it, tear it, emboss it and the contrasting color on the INSIDE pops right through. What a cool concept, something new in the scrapbook world. Cathy purchased their entire line at CHA, 250!! colors for the AllyScraps store. Luckily for us, our wonderful guest designer this month, Kimber McGray is a member of the Core'dinations cardstock Design Team. She agreed to make some special projects using the cardstock, to show us all how cool it is and what you can do with it. Check out Kimber's BLOG, she has many more awesome projects on her blog to inspire you.



Chillin' Out uses Black Magic with a grey color core and orange color core. You can see that she ran the die cut title through the embossing folder and then sanded to show the grey. The OUT in the title was just sanded to reveal most of the Orange. The circles on the background were created using brass stencils to dry emboss and then sanded to show the color.



Her Birthday Blast card uses Black Core Essentials and Yellow Vintage Core. She loves that you can run this through an embossing machine and then lightly sand to show the color from underneath. The yellow Vintage as wrinkled and then sanded for some fun texture.



Snack Time was created using Chocolate Box papers. Kimber ran the tree through her Fiskars curvy crimper and then sanded the top to reveal the lighter brown color core. She used a stylus on her leaves and then sanded the ridges to create veins. She also die cut her title letters from Core and then sanded for texture.


Here are a few more projects that Kimber shared with us! Love them all.







Big thanks to Kimber... so glad to have you at AllyScraps this month.

~ Dana

October came early this year!

October Afternoon goodies, that is! This is one of my favorite lines. When I saw that Cathy had stocked the Ally Scraps store with OA, I pretty much bought every sheet of their Cherry Hill Collection. These double sided papers are so fun, and colorful, not to mention they're thick, so I was able to use the Egg Basket sheet as my layout base.



The gray with the white polka dots is the back side of Sunday Dishes and the bottom strip is the front of the same sheet (gotta love double sided!!)



I used some of the stickers from the Cherry Hill Collection.



The little bird is from DCWV Green Stack Chipboard Embellishments. The little black alpha's are from Making Memories. For the title I used a bright red American Crafts vinyl letter sticker.



Here I just used some old chipboard pieces that I had in my stash. The nice thing about this October Afternoon line is that you can mix and match with other manufactures. I used the yellow and red colors to coordinate with my paper.

I hope you enjoyed spending an “October Afternoon” with me! Stop by again, and don’t forget to look for that giveaway coming up soon!