JULY Design Team Reveal

We had an awesome challenge for our Design Team reveal this month. Cathy sent us each a group of products in our kit.... we all received exactly the same stuff to make a layout with. 5 scrapbookers, 5 items. Then to add another twist, we had to make our page using an awesome sketch by our very own Debbie Gaydos. So, here are the products that we got to use.

3 pieces of American Crafts AMPLIFIED patterned papers. All were double sided and just gorgeous!
Synthpop
GoGo (this paper was so pretty and pre-scalloped)
Boom Box (embossed... yummy)
A big pink Bazzill flower.
One super big black Bazzill brad.
A fun yellow bling arrow by Glitz.
And black loopy lou letter stickers by Doodlebug.

We were also allowed to add a few items from our stash. Just a few... and the girls did really well with this... BUT I was a huge cheater pants, using quite a few things from my stash. (Don't tell them though, hopefully they won't notice!)

So you want to see the sketch?? It is so cool, and was so much fun to work with. We all used it in different ways; as is, upside down, mirror image, etc.



Here are our takes on the sketch, I always find it so interesting to see how DIFFERENT layouts can come up with the same items and a sketch too. Every single one of them is just awesome.

Silly Girl by Trish



Camera Ready by Dana



Cheeky Girls by Morag



Angel in Free Flight by Debbie



Top Ten Reasons by Kay



Thanks so much for checking out our Design Team reveal! (Kary's on vacation this month, so we will post hers when she gets back.) We hope you will be challenged to use the sketch (and maybe try to these awesome products)... to see what you can come up with!

~ Dana

Dream Street, Maya Road and Paper Bliss

Anyone else feeling like Christmas in July?

Well you wouldn't be the only ones. There is a lot of Christmas fever going around and Ally Scraps is no different.

Wonderland from Dream Street Papers has beautifully co-ordinated double-sided paper to give you that head start.

Fun and Games also from Dream Street Papers are a gorgeous colour combination good for any time of the year.

We have just added a brand new line of school papers from Scrappin Sports. This great line will take you from Pre School to Graduation, and they are here just in time for school!

If you're looking for that finishing touch or something totally cute then look no further than Paper Bliss. We have also added more gorgeous chipboard and rub-ons to our Maya Road section. Check them out!

And remember even though the price of gas, and postage has risen, Priority Shipping at Ally Scraps is still only $4.95 within the US.

Thank you all for your comments. It's really helped to get the blog moving. OK, so I've used a random number generator (random.org) to pick a number from the 31 comments we received.

Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:

11 Timestamp: 2008-07-28 18:04:38 UTC


Wendy - you're the winner! If you could send me your email address/contact address to allyscraps@freeuk.com, I'll send you something from me.

Thanks again all. I'm sure this won't be the last time so please continue to comment - it means so much to us all!

Morag x

Book of Me

We are generally the least featured person in our scrapbooks. However, future generations will want to know about us too. What did we like? What did we do? This is why a Book of Me (BOM) is such a great idea.

We've been running a bi-weekly 'challenge' to get us going with our BOM. We have had some wonderful inspiration from guests. This week was the turn of Tracy.

{Prompt #11: My Travels}

Here's what Tracy had to say:
Sometimes I forget that I did have a life before I had kids. Even though I only started scrapping about 3 years ago I have done LO's from the time my first ds was born 7 years ago, but very few from before that. For that reason I wanted to document something that was very specical to dh and I before we had kids. And that was traveling. We tried to go somewhere every year, and now I see how special and precious that time was for us. So I have done an initial LO describing that and a LO from one of our trips. I plan to do a few more LO's from other trips we took before the kids came along.

Tracy has created a 'title' page for her travels.



As well has creating a wonderful LO about her travels to Alaska.



I chose to make the most of the Making Memories Road Sign paper and document a trip to California. I had so many photos that I created an accordian album to hold more.



By simply folding a strip of patterned paper into an accordian, I was able to hold another 6 photos and journalling.



So why not join us this week and create a LO about your trips?

Today is the last chance to add a comment. I'm going to be picking one lucky winner in the morning for a RAK. So don't be shy!

Happy Scrapping

Morag x

Make Your Own Flower Embellishment

Hi Everyone!
I love to find new techniques for making one of a kind embellishments from scratch, it makes me feel so crafty!

While surfing the web the other day I found this fabric flower tutorial:
http://http://blairpeter.typepad.com/weblog/2006/03/fabric_flowers.html

I did make a few out of fabric and then I figured I would try with paper. (instead of using two of the larger flowers as directed on the tutorial, I traced and cut only 1 for the base). Here is my result:

You can "kick it up a bit" by printing the patterns at 50% for smaller flowers or at 100%+ for bigger flowers. You could also try the same effect using premade flowers of the same type (or get funky and use different types!).

Have fun making your own flowers!

Stamp of Approval

Stamps are such a great investment. You buy them once and use them again and again. Using different coloured inks or mediums can change the whole look of an image. Colouring in an image can change the look again.

I noticed that Cathy has a huge selection of great stamps here. With such a great selection from the ever popular Maya Road, Basic Grey to new manufacturers such as My Favorite Things.

There is also a huge range from the classics such as Autumn Leaves. The latest stamps are all here as well as the favourites. Gypsy Style is one of my personal favourites.



I love the mixture of decorative corners, really hip images (I'm a real sucker for birds) as well as the great labels. Rhonna Farrer really knows how to make anything look great.



Trees are a reallly hot item at the moment and they look set to stay around for a while. Love Grows has some unique tree and flower images which would look fantastic clustered together in a corner of a layout or stamped on its own on a card. This one is definately hitting the basket!

So grab a coffee and have a browse through all those lovely stamps at AllyScraps.

Don't forget to leave a comment to be in with a chance of a RAK from me!

Happy Scrapping.

Morag x