January 8 Sketch!

Hello, Allyscraps fans! I can't tell you how good it feels to be back at Allyscraps for the month of January! I'll be sharing a new sketch and page with you each Friday this month. To kick things off, here is a fun multi-photo sketch for you:



And my page, featuring the rich colors and gorgeous patterns of the Fancy Pants - Trick or Treat line. I love the colors and patterns in this line, and as you can see in my page below, it isn't just for Halloween layouts!



Along with the Fancy Pants, I used some of these new Nutmeg Thickers that I adore! You will be seeing more of them this month, for sure!

By the way, in case you are very picky about the little things, like I am, I wanted to share a tip that I figured out as I was working on this page. Notice how the journaling is aligned? Here is a close-up view:



I wanted it to be justified for very clean, graphic look. However, when I typed it in Word and simply picked "justified", the partial last-line was aligned to the left margin. I wanted the partial line to be aligned to the right instead, so that the "straight edge" of the text was with the photos, and the "indented edge" was with the rounded corner. Here was my solution: I inserted a string of periods, just before the word "the" at the beginning of the last line, until the periods "pushed" the text over to the far right margin (actually, I let it push the text down to a new line, and then deleted the last period). Then I selected the periods and changed the text color to "white" so that they were invisible. Viola! This gave me exactly the alignment that I wanted. Perhaps there's another way... but this worked for me, and I wanted to share it!

Now, enjoy the sketch and be sure to show us what you come up with! I would love to see how it inspires you! And I'll be back with another sketch next Friday!

- Debbie

Hey Debbie!!!! Love, love, love your layout and new sketch. I've set myself a personal goal, and that is to complete a layout inspired by every single one of your sketches this month. Here's my take on #1.



I used paper and embellishments from the Cosmo Cricket Nutmeg line and my very favorite letters of all time, Loopy Lou by Doodlebug. Thanks for the inspiration Debbie!

~ Dana

Jolly Holiday

OK, I know, I know! Christmas is over... but it's still on my mind. I need to keep scrapping Christmas while I'm still feeling it, as I must have pictures to make at least 20 more Christmas layouts! Here's one of my favorite projects from this past year, Jolly Holiday, my daughter is such a cutie.



I used some gorgeous October Afternoon Very Merry scrapbook products. Love, love, love these stickers. Used these awesome thickers too.

Have a great day... and be sure to check back on Friday for some sketchy goodness!

~ Dana

Remembering December

What a great layout title! I took pictures this weekend when we were taking down our Christmas decorations and my daughter was so sad. Linda Albrecht's layout really reminded me how we can remember the joyous month of December in a layout. Now, just to document it like she did, with such beauty.



Linda used the Fancy Pants Christmas Magic line of papers and embellishments for her layout. The background paper is Chestnuts Roasting , and the main papers are Carol and Good Cheer. She also used the glitter cut Hanging Ornaments as a wonderful embellishment. Love her use of tinsel and lots of glitter to add sparkle and lots of texture to her layout. Do you see her hand stitching too, love the blue pop that adds! Oh, by the way, those little blue letters are by October Afternoon.



We were SO fortunate to have Linda Albrecht with us this month at AllyScraps. Her beautiful projects brough us inspiration every week this month... and if you want to see more, don't worry! Linda promised that she will return to AllyScraps, so keep your eyes open and I bet you'll see more of her VERY soon! Thanks Linda!

Have a great week!! Dana

Happy, Happy New Year!

Good morning everyone. The girls and I stayed up until midnight last night to ring in the New Year! DH went to bed at 10, bah humbug.... the girls fell asleep around 11:00, so I woke them up at 11:50 to watch the ball drop. Blew our New Year's horns and went to bed by 12:05, hee, hee.

Hey, guess what! I've been scrapping. I think 2009 was an off scrapbooking year for me, so one of my 2010 resolutions is to scrapbook more often! (love that resolution.) I finished 3!, yes 3 layouts over the last few days, and one more is almost done. Do you have a New Years scrappy resolution? If so, let us know... post it in the comment section, we'd love to see it.

AllyScraps has lots going on for 2010, and January will be full of great inspiration. First of all, Cathy has decided to restore the AllyScraps message board, hurray. I have to say that I'm super excited about this, as I really miss my scrappy friends on the board. So, look for the new message board this month! Also, we'll be having TONS of fresh design inspiration from some brand new scrappy friends and some old friends too.

Feeling sketchy this month? I bet you are, and guess what? we aim to please. Debbie Gaydos, our favorite sketch designer will be back! Hurray. She'll be inspiring us with 4! sketches this month. So be sure to check those out. And, Morag Cutts will be focusing on Valentine's day, to get you all ready for February 14th. She will be working on cards and paper crafts using pretty Valentine products, can't wait to see what Morag comes up with.

So, do you want to see what I've been working on?? I love to keep scrapping Christmas for the month of January, I always feel so inspired by all of the Christmas scrapbook products.



I used Pink Paislee's Mistletoe & Co. collection for my page about my daughter not wanting to visit Santa Claus for the first time. Love how the paper is Christmas themed, but the colors are not so traditional. I especially liked using the punch out tags and glitter alphabets. I really sparkled up my page with stickles and lots of gems and pearls too.

Well, that's it for today, thanks so much for stopping by, and a big Happy New Year to you from AllyScraps!

~ Dana

Merry,Merry Christmas to YOU from AllyScraps!

Hi everyone! Hope the craziness of the season is over, and you are enjoying your family today and this week. A big Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas from all of us here at AllyScraps. :)

But, before we celebrate... here's another super special winter/Christmas themed project from Linda Albrecht. I LOVE how it's a Christmas village, but it's so pretty and wintery that you could leave out all season long.



Linda used gorgeous papers from Basic Grey's Eskimo Kisses collection. The figures and big snowflake are chip stickers. She used the element stickers too. Those adorable pink trees are from Melissa Frances as well as all of the sparkly mica flakes. So pretty!



Linda covered paper mache houses with patterned paper then glittered them
up and glued them to a cardboard box base. Linda! love this project, thank you so much for sharing it with us. Check out Linda's blog for even more inspiration. See you again soon after Christmas, have a wonderful and safe holiday!

~ Dana