Hi everyone, Simona here again for this week’s Grand Theft Layout Challenge!
Today’s choice is sugirox. Her gallery is not very big but it’s really gorgeous so I decided to introduce you to her 
As usual your challenge this week is to browse sugirox’s gallery, find a layout you like and come back here with both the page you picked and the page you scrapped! I really hope you’ll like my pick 

This is the page I lifted:

And this is the result:

Credits: For the love of the boys by Stolen Moments Designs & Jady Day Studio, branch from kit Capture a Memory by Stolen Moments Designs

And more from the uber talented CT ladies:

Ophelia picked:

and made:

September Hullabaloo by Amy Stoffel

Wendy choose:

Credits: Journey of the Heart and Journey of the Heart Add-on by KimB Designs and Elise’s Pieces, Shadow Like Tanya by Crossbone Cuts

Isabel went for:

and created:

Credits: School Memories 4 Big Kiddos by Jady day Studio by Yari, SMD Niki font by Stolen Moments Designs

Manda lifted:

and her version:

Credits: Falling for You by Sugary Fancy Designs

———–

-You will receive TWO points for posting in this thread & in the Grand Theft Layout Challenge gallery. You can receive TWO additional points for using new Scrap Matters products; please make a note of new products in your post. And at the end of the month you’ll be entered into a random drawing that could earn you some bonus points!

-You have until the end of September to complete this challenge to earn MOS points.

-Remember no double dipping… your layout must be unique to this challenge.

-You don’t have to use Scrap Matters products, but remember your SM gallery must contain at least 50% SM product beginning July 8, 2011.

Hi this is Steph, I’m happy to host my first challenge at ScrapMatters!
Here is the template I propose you this tuesday, I hope you’ll have fun to play with it!

My page using my kit “Dis-moi un secret”

And the fabulous layouts of the amazing CT girls !

From Kayla (keepscrappin):

Credits: Jady Day Studios NEW 9.9.11 School Memories for Little Kiddos

From Ophelia (navaja77):

Credits: Jady Day Studio’s Backyard Play and Erica Zane’s Date Spots

From Chel:

Credits: Brown Eyed Girl from the SM Design Team

From Tamara (tsmspt):

Credits: Baseball Kids bundle by Wimpy Chompers

Come play with us at the forum HERE

It’s “just another Manic Monday” at ScrapMatters.com!!! Monday ONLY!! Select items for $2 or 50% off!! Visit theScrapMatters Shop for more details!!

*Manic Monday sales go into the shop early Monday morning and will “disappear” around midnight! HURRY! What are you waiting for!?! *

Simple Comforts

Little Apple School by Jady Day Studio

Love My Doll by Haynay Designs

School Days Extras by WM squared Designs:

Good Day.  Welcome to this edition of ScrapMatters Home Matters.  September tends to be a typically challenging month for those with children returning to school and this September has been particularly challenging for me personally.  My daughter starts kindergarten and I’m not sure which one of us it’s harder on – me or her.

To help me with this big change, I want to make sure that Emma knows that her Daddy and I are thinking about her by including a little note in (or on) her lunch bag.  While I’d like to think that these notes will be cherished for 100 years, I’m more of a realist and didn’t print these to be reused.

Before I dive into my hybrid projects, I like to gather my supplies.  So lets see, I need a ruler, a lunch bag, some ribbon, printing paper and my favorite digital kit.  Today my kit inspiration comes from the new Make-A-Kit series that the design team creates monthly!

Check out these from CrossBone Cuts Schooled – The Elements, Schooled – The Patterns and Schooled – Dots & Solids.

I measured the paper lunch bag to find that a best fit for the bag would be a 4” x 4” square.  I opened my scrap program (PSE 6) and created a document 4.25” x 4.25”.  This way when I got to print on my 8.5” x 11”, I can have 2 bag labels side by side.  When I go to print, my print menu screen will allow me to scale my project to print within the bounds of the printer’s parameters (takes the guess work out of making sure it’s correctly sized to begin with).

If you would like to preserve your note cards, you could print on a heavier paper like a cardstock (though you may find the colors to be muted) and seal it with Mod Podge or even laminate your cards.

Thanks for tuning in to my segment of Home Matters.  If you’d like to include a little something special to brighten your bagged lunches, you can also check out A Time to Learn: Note Cards by Stolen Moments and explore.learn.grow. Printables: lunch box notes by Simply J Studio and Sahlin Studio.  Hope that inspired you to take a printable look at your digi stash!

1. Your screen name? Your real name? SweetTomatoScrapper   /  Cara Dibbs

2. What is your main job/career? I’m a 3^rd grade teacher turned SAHM, graduate student and digital designer. I’m finishing up a degree in library science, and I’d love to go back to work in a few years as a school library media specialist.

3. Are you married/children/pets? I’ve been married to Chuck for 8 years and we have a 6 year old son, Nolan, and a 4 year old daughter, Finley. We’ve finally let the kids get “starter” pets, to see if they are ready for the responsibility of a puppy. So Pedals the fish and Princess Anne the fish joined us this summer.

4. Where is home for you? We are lucky enough to live in Virginia Beach, VA.  We spend a lot of time at the local’s beach.

5. What are your 3 favorite foods? Salmon, watermelon and ice cream…not necessarily altogether though.

6. What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? Just found a flavor called Coconut Cream Pie that is to die for.

7. Snacks…Salty or Sweet? BOTH! I used to work in a movie theater as a teenager and I loved buttered popcorn with raisinets together. Sadly, only teenager’s metabolism can get away with eating THAT combination of food.

8. Beverage of choice? Tea, all kinds, any time, anywhere.  My current obsession is with a Ginger Peach White tea.

9. What’s your least favorite food?  I hate to admit it, but I’m not a natural lover of veggies.  I make myself eat them, but it’s not anything I enjoy.

10. PC or Mac? What program do you use? PC, but I long for a Mac. J  I use CS4 photoshop and illustrator, plus a few extra programs.

11. How long have you been digi-scrapping? How did you get started? I’ve been digi-scrapping since the summer of 2008. My BFF drug me into one of Jessica Sprague’s beginning courses and I was hooked…I would go in nursing my youngest and trying to finish layouts in the middle of the night.

12. What was your 1st LO about?

This is one of the first layouts I did with Jessica Sprague.  I loved the idea behind it and still will randomly pick a day and take some photos and document our ordinary day.  It’s the real reason I scrapbook. I’m not a big moment kind of scrapbooker.
13. Do you have any other hobbies besides digi-scrapping (are there other hobbies)? I read like a maniac.  I’m reading a series by Laura Childs right now, a cozy mystery book, that is set in a New Orleans around the owner of a scrapbook store.

14. What is the most challenging part of scrapbooking for you? Finding time to get my own pages down and get my thoughts out before I forget all those little details.

15. What would you like to learn to do (or do better) not related to scrapbooking? Cook.  Seriously.  I am not a natural chef, but I want to expose my family to lots of different foods and cultures and making the same meals each week is just not cutting it.

16. What are your favorite movies/TV shows? I sheepishly admit to liking reality shows like American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance.  I’m most addicted to crime shows like CSI and Bones.

17. Describe your “scrapping” environment. Music? TV in the background? Drinks? Snacks? Where? In our office, with HGTV on in the background, a cup of hot tea on the side table and if I’m bad some chocolate somewhere!

18. If you only had 2 elements to use on a LO, what would they be? Not a big element fan, I’d rather scrap with just patterned paper.  But I do like flowers and scatters!

19. Would you like to share a little known fact about you…? I took up Irish Dancing as an adult and even competed in competitions, winning a few medals along the way.  I don’t have time to do it now, but it’s never too late to learn something you’ve always wanted to.

20. When did you start designing? What prompted you to design? Towards the end of Jessica Sprague’s classes in the summer of 2008, we designed a few papers and I was hooked.  I am addicted to paper and making my own gives me so much enjoyment.  I then began taking classes and learning everything I could about this business.

21. How would you describe your design style? Definitely realistic with a splash of doodly.
22. Where do you get your inspiration/motivation? Color is my biggest motivation, and I get a lot of it from kid’s clothes, circulars and the internet.

23. Which of your kits showcases you style the most?

Clean Slate, available @ SM now, is a great representation.  I did some of the doddles, but there are tons of realistic elements and strong papers.

24. What is your favorite color scheme to design with? Anything with blue in it.  If you look in my store, most of my kits have some shade of blue in them.  I have always adored that color.  Right now my house is decorated in peacock blue with orange accents.

25. Favorite kit you’ve designed?

It’s my Bookish kit, it is a perfect representation of myself.

Congrats to twinsies for this incredible layout!  I just love this – the photo blend on the polka dot paper, the cluster down the side, just gorgeous! Simple, but stunning!

This image is linked!  Please leave her some love!

Shelle (DreamyNest)

Not only is this Wooden Block Calendar set charming, but so useful!!  I should know, when I was teaching I had a similar one on my desk!  LOL!  Heather (isaacsmom) has made this for her son’s teacher and I’ m sure she will be thrilled!  Congrats, Heather, on making POTW!!

This image is linked!  Please leave her some love!

Lisa (Kelseyll)

Happy Saturday! I hope everyone’s had a great week! Day from Inspirations here and today I’m going to share with you one of my favorite tricks for making a quick title to coordinate with any page or kit you are working with!
I’ve worked this in PS CS4 but you should be able to do similar with other programs

1. Choose a chunky font and type out your title in the size you want. Don’t worry about color as that’ll be changing! Once you’ve got it, right click the layer in the layers palette and choose “Rasterize Type” (This is called “Simplify Layer” in PSE)

2. Pick a paper to fill your alphabet with and drag it onto a layer above your title. Right click the paper layer in the layers palette and choose “Create Clipping Mask”. (In PSE group the layers by pressing CTRL+G with the paper layer selected)

3. You should now see your paper in the shape of your title. You can move around the paper layer to get whichever part of the pattern showing that you like. When it looks the way you want it, right click the paper in the layers palette and choose “Merge Down” to make your title all one layer.

4. Now you can use your title as is if you like, but you can also play around with some effects to make it pop a bit more. In the effects menu (the little round f button at the bottom of the layers palette) inner or outer glow or shadow, bevel and emboss and stroke would be my main choices.

5. For this I’m using a stroke to give the alphabet a sticker-like look. Adjust the size of the stroke, the placement (in the letters, out or straddling the border) and the color.

6. Now add your title to your page, give it a drop shadow and finish your LO!

Here’s mine, I used the colab kit Vintage Surf Shop, a few elements from my kit Catchin’ A Break and my Tiny Alphabet

and here’s some inspiration from the SM creative team!

Kayla

Tamara

Ophelia

Look What’s New at ScrapMatters.com 9/09/2011!!

Hello wonderful newsletter readers! I hope you’ve have an excellent week and are ready for some amazing new wonderfulness from our design team. This week we have THREE awesome new collabs from the ScrapMatters design team. They share a common gorgeous palette and are ready for you to mix and match and scrap to your hearts content.

Are you in a scrapping rut? There are some GORGEOUS new templates in the shop this week that will blast you right out of that funky scrapping mojo. But enough from me, you have a newsletter to peruse.

Hi there! Melanie here with the first It’s in the Cards challenge for September! I made a pretty simple template this time to allow your creativity to really flow on it. Here it is – just click the link to download the card!

And here’s some inspiration from our fabulous creative/admin team!

Wendy {Neverland Scraps} put together this super cute card using Tea for Two by geniaBeana Scraps

Sylvia {SylviaB} made this fun birthday card using Imagination Creation: Collection by Stolen Moments & Studio Flergs

Tamara {tsmspt} made this oh so cute card using the ScrapMatters Mega Collab Warm Fuzzies

Cathy {scrappycath} made this rockin’ birthday card using U Rock by geniaBeana Scraps

And last, but not least, Tracy {sunshinetk} made this fun back to school card using School Zone by Jennifer Labre

I hope all the inspiration, along with the template, got your creative thoughts flowing! If they did and you want to play along, join me in the forum for this challenge!