Old School, Bella Scraps, and new Shoppe and a FREEBIE!

I have so much going on these days that I have totally been neglecting my blog. Here it is in a nutshell:

Mitch has been in Boston since Sunday and I am SO ready for him to come home tonight. I'M ready, but the house isn't. Hee, hee! I've got some work to do!

The September issue of the DST Insider is in the final stages. I'm so excited!! The Insider is free to anyone with a membership to Digishoptalk (and membership is free), so make sure you go over there and register so you can see my first issue as Editor-In-Chief!

Dianne Rigdon released some projects I had been working on at her store at ScrapbookGraphics. See?




They were pretty fun to put together!!

So, last night I thought I would make a notebook for Grant to practice his letters in:



Isn't it CUTE!? I love how this turned out! I put together some brag books with another of her AMAZING paper packs, and I'll let you know when those are released. SERIOUSLY gorgeous. Perfect for baby pics.

Hmm . . . what else? Oh, yeah. Bella Scraps Magazine (an online mag) contacted ME and asked me to be an Instructional Team Member!! That means that I will contribute to the magazine by writing tutorials along with taking pictures of my projects. I get THE BEST free kits. Seriously. All the best designers are featured in Bella Scraps!!

So, to celebrate, I will be giving away one August issue of Bella Scraps Magazine!! I'm not in there yet, but it is GORGEOUS!! You'll come away seriously inspired! Just leave me a comment here in this post by midnight Sunday (Pacific time), and my random number generator (or maybe Grant) will pick one lucky winner, which will be announced on Monday!

If that's not all, I've been working on even MORE projects (when hubby's away, Kelleigh will play!) that I get to post tomorrow, including a truly hybrid layout that I just love, and a few cards.

And, this is perhaps the biggest news of all, I will be selling my templates in a SHOPPE! I'm going to be putting together card templates, mini album templates and regular ol' page templates. I'm so excited! I have SO many ideas whirling around in my head right now. The shoppe will open at the beginning of September (oh, my gosh! That's next week!!), and I'll BE SURE to let you know when that happens!

In the meantime, I thought I'd give you a little freebie to show you the type of thing I'll be putting together.

Here is a card template. (ETA: This template has been removed! Thanks for downloading it! You made my day!)



This is a standard sized card, meaning that it is 5.5 x 4.25 and you should be able to fit 2 of these cards on one piece of 8.5 x 11 paper, which makes these cards VERY economical! Use these templates as you normally would in digital scrapbooking, then flatten and drag the finished product onto a new 8.5 x 11 canvas. Turn the cards so they open correctly. Print. Done. OR, go a little nuts like I did!


Click here for credits.

On this card, I just printed, cut out a little element from the kit, added my own, blue background paper, eyelets and red card base.


Click here for credits.

On this card, I didn't flatten. Instead I merged my paper layer and template layer (clipping mask) and then dragged it onto my page to print. I did this for each layer of the template. I cut out each piece of paper, inked the edges, then glued them down and added my own embellishments.

I DID fit both of these cards on one sheet of 8.5 x 11 paper, thus saving paper, ink and money! Pretty cool, huh?

So, feel free to download my template! I'll be taking the link down on Monday, so HURRY! After this, you will only be able to get the template in my shoppe! (No, I'm not spelling that wrong!)

If you use the template, link us up!! I would love to see what you do with it!