Lettering Delights Giveaway!

The people over at Lettering Delights have been putting in a lot of long hours. They have totally revamped their website with all sorts of new features and products. I think one of my favorite new things is that the site remembers everything I've ever purchased from my account, and I can access it anytime, and save individual images from the "Try Me Now tool." No more downloading! And it will be WAY easier to search on their site than through my messy folders full of other folders of scrapbooking paraphernalia.

One of their divine new collections is the Oriental Garden Collection. I made this from it:

I love those papers, they're totally sazzy zen - if that's possible.

Well, on behalf of Lettering Delights, I am offering $20 worth of product for free to one lucky person! All you have to do is leave a comment on this blog and tell me your favorite scrapbooking/crafting tool or supply. (Mine would have to be papers or fonts. I'm totally a sucker for cool digital or printed papers.) Leave your comment by Sunday, August 2nd at 10:00 pm Mountain time, and a winner will be randomly selected and posted on Monday. Happy commenting!

Usurped

In most of my scrapbook layouts, I think it crucial to mark the date. I'm all about the historical documentation. Maybe it makes me feel more important, I don't know. For about a year now, my favorite way to mark the date was with the Post Stamps. Love them! They easily were winning the race in the dating game.

My personal favorite was the middle "Good times" stamp with LD Post. It's irresistible!

But now there's another competitor in the field...

It may take a few more layouts, but I think DB Captured Calendar is trying to usurp the title of Favorite Date Marker. It's pretty close...

Goodness, there's so much design potential there, it makes me giddy!

What do you think?

Photo Tip: Add drama with off-center focus

I love taking pictures that tell a story. So often, it feels automatic to put the subject of a photo in the center of the frame. I've learned that you can add drama and make photos a lot more artistically interesting by putting the subject of your photo off center.

Imagine your frame is cut into thirds vertically, like a tic-tac-toe board. Take the photo so the subject of your photo is in the middle of one of those lines that are cutting the frame into thirds.

If you use automatic focus, put your subject in the center of the frame of the camera, then hold the button down part-way, until it focuses. Then, while maintaining the part-way push of the button, shift the camera so the subject is off-center, then click the button all the way to take the picture.

It makes for a more interesting and more dramatic photo! Try it! You'll look like a pro.

Here is a layout I made using the off-center photo centering technique.

I used Scrap Casual (LOVE this font, it's a current freebie on SNF), LD Carefree Black and DB Weather Doodles

Other Credits: Far Out Posie Paper Pack from Letteringdelights.com.

The power of suggestion

So during the week of the Parade of Products, I posted a blog about how American it is to celebrate food. Well, the next day I saw this pie baking competition for my city's Independence Day celebrations and thinking about how American I would be (and how fun it would be), I decided to try it! I toiled and cooked, and made pie crust from scratch (gasp!) but it was all for naught! I missed the deadline! I was so pleased with how my pies turned out, I decided to scrap about it.

The journaling says this:

When I found out our city hosted an apple pie contest for the 4th of July, I was super excited. I ran to the library and got an apple pie cookbook, then to the store to get all the ingredients. I found out about the contest just a day before the deadline, but I thought I had plenty of time. I started working on the two yummy Cherry Apple pies for my submission the day of the contest. When I was half way through, I realized I had badly misjudged how long it took to make a pie. Holy cow, it took me three and a half hours! So, I missed the contest deadline. On the up side, I had two delicious pies all to myself!

For the title, I used LD Grandpa and LD Petticoat Black. The journaling is LD Grandpa again.

Other credits: Cherrylicious collection, JDT Heartland Pride and JD Flag Post from LetteringDelights.com, background paper is In Living color from allthingsvisual.biz

- Britta

Congratulations, Cynthia!

The winner of our DB Geo Deco - Solid Layout challenge is Cynthia from Kentucky. Congratulations! She won a $10 gift certificate to ScrapNfonts. To see her layout in the gallery click on the image below.

Thank you to all who participated!

First ScrapNgal Challenge

I know there are oodles and oodles of creativity out there just itching to get out. Let those creative juices run free! In honor of our first ever layout challenge, ScrapNfonts is offering you DB Geo Deco - Solid for free, but we want to see what you can make from it. Any and all projects using this DoodleBat are welcome! Please post them to the ScrapNfonts idea gallery by Monday, July 13th for a chance to win a gift certificate to ScrapNfonts.

I thought I'd take a stab at this challenge myself and this is what I came up with.

I started with the background paper. I used Geo Deco "s" and "y" to make the repeating damask background. Then I used "r" for the little circle frame. I had a lot of fun with it!

Other credits: DB Dainty Swirl, TXT Delicate Script, Lettering Delights JDT Tags clipart.

Reasons to celebrate

The Fourth of July is classified as a time to celebrate with bells and whistles, lights and explosions, fanfare of all kinds, and it sure is fun! There's always something to look forward to on a holiday like this.

When the holiday is over and I go back to the daily grind, I tend to get into ruts and only look forward to the next "big celebration" as a time for fun. Lately I've been re-evaluating and realizing how many little things every day I have to celebrate: when I try a new recipe and it turns out better than expected, waking up in the morning and realizing I can lay in bed for another half hour, seeing the sweet moments between my husband and daughter, my health, my freedom... The list could go on and on.

The layouts featured today celebrate those little moments. The first is by Jaleese, using SNF Jasper Hand, in the Parade of Products today.

The next layout is by Rani and it uses LDJ Go All Out and DB Brush Bursts, also both in the Parade today.

Thanks for visiting! Have a fabulous Fourth of July holiday weekend!

Family and Frills

Today's featured layout is by Nicole LeBlanc. She used the following scrapNfonts products: Scrap Rhapsody, LDJ Fanciful, DB Fleuries, DB Painted Paisley and TXT Sloppy Script. All these products are on sale today during the Parade of Products.

Patriotic Freebie

Get these adorable candybar wrappers free for the 4th of July! To download the pdf, just click here, but hurry, this offer expires July 5th.

A big slice of American

What's a fourth of July without a good barbecue, or some cold popsicles? Boy, am I glad that so many holidays are defined by the food we eat. I look forward to certain holidays just for the food! They say that some people eat to live and some live to eat. Well, I'm definitely one of the "live to eat" kind, and perhaps that's a quality that many consider patriotic. As American as apple pie? Yes, please!

Keela Fox is the design team member featured today with this great layout about one of my favorite topics: food! Not just any kind of food, but ice cream!

The ScrapNfonts products she used are on sale today during the Parade of Products (all food related, I might add). They are: LD Kiss the Cook, TXT Soda Shoppe, DB Picnic Party and DB Food Fun.

Other credits: By Miss Mint at Peppermint Creative--Sk8r Boy Papers/Elements, Curled Frames, Wild Weekend Coordinated Kit and Rainbow Joy Elements