New from True North Scraps ... a new store and a new kit!

It seems this won't be a surprise to many people judging from the comments left in the TNS blog contest this week.   Everybody who thought that TNS was opening a new store was right!

I am very happy to announce that in addition to Scraps N Pieces, you can now buy TNS products at Heritage Scrap.

I think this calls for a celebration, don't you?

HERITAGE SCRAP

Between designing and getting ready to open the new store, Dawna has been very busy the last 2 weeks!  But not too busy to make a couple new releases.  I'll tell you about one now, and I'll tell you about the other one in a couple days.

Stormy is releasing at Heritage Scrap on February 28.  It is a beautiful kit that you can scrap those amazing storm cloud formation photos that we all take.  Do you have some photos of the kids splashing in puddles after the rain?  This kit is so versatile, it will even work for sad LOs.  

There are 30 elements and 12 papers in the very dramatic colour palette that Dawna chose to use.  I think it's so pretty, don't you?  It will be in the store for $5.00, but with that grand opening sale, it will only cost $3.00!

Dawna wasn't the only busy one at True North Scraps.  The North Stars have been working on some amazing LOs to show you:

This is the one I made:  it features STORMY and True North Scraps WHICHEVER WAY THE WIND BLOWS templates

 

We have some goodies for you too!   Stop at Dawna's blog, Kandi's blog and Kirsty's blog and pick up their gift for you!

A new store for True North Scraps

True North Scraps open February 28 at HERITAGE SCRAP

 

Be sure to go check out True North Scraps new store

"13 Postcards from poki"

I'm back to show you all the layouts that I created to go into my "13 Postcards from poki" hybrid accordion album.  You can go to The Hybrid Chick and get a list of products used and some simple directions for making your own version of this album. 

 

The album has an accordion fold-out strip that has 7 panels that are 4"x4".  Images can be put on 13 panels, leaving one panel to attach it to the base, which fits inside a CD jewel case.  You have to use the regular size, not the slim ones, and you might have to do some looking in order to find them.  I buy them in bulk at Amazon.  When I created the panels for the front and back covers of the CD case I took into account that my art piece would need to be trimmed since the CD covers are NOT SQUARE.  I created the artwork square, but left room for the necessary trimming.

 

Here's my cover art:

 

 

and here it is trimmed and slipped into the CD case

 

 

The Digi Chick had a TECHNIQUE challenge for February to do cut outs in an object, and that's where the idea for the inside cover image came from.  (I linked the challenge because there is still time to play in February!)  I cut 13 little hearts out of a bigger heart, to represent the 13 destinations where I left pieces of my heart!

 

 

When you open my album, I put my Yellowstone page on top, since that was our most recent vacation destination. 

 

Yellowstone National Park (2012)

 

 

The other pages in the album were arranged primarily based on the color and style of the page. Here they are in alphabetical order.

 

Adirondack Mountains, Upstate New York

 (May 2007)

 

I really love those photos I took of Mike on the day way drove out of the Mountains by way of the Moose River Rd!  The house in the top photo is one of the cabins that Mike's family owned back when he still lived in New York!  He spent lots of days working around the property, and still tells stories all the time of his "glory days" there.  I'm glad he shared the place with me.

 

 

 

Denver (June 2012)

 

I love the Denver Botanic Garden

 

 

Jersey Shore (May 2008)

 

Our time in New Jersey is significant because it was my 48th state to visit!  And, I really loved the lighthouses that we saw while we were on the Jersey shore! (Atlantic City, Cape May, and Hereford Inlet)

 

 

Key West (March 2002)

 

 

Maine Coast (May 2007)

 

Although this is not the most often photographed lighthouse is Maine, I prefer this photo of Cape Neddick Light  to my photo of Portland Head, which is not a closeup)

 

 

North West Arkansas (Oct 2010)

 

I have relatives there, and we're heading back there soon to visit again.  Sandy and I are planning "children's day out" at Eureka Springs, leaving Mom with Edith and Chuck - can't wait!

 

 

OBX - Outer Banks of North Carolina

(May 2008, and 2009)

 

We both fell in love the these barrier islands in 2008 and returned in 2009 to spend our full two week vacation on these islands!  The beaches are fabulous there, but don't tell anyone ok?

 

 

Ocracoke Island (May 2009)

 

We spent a week of our 2009 vacation on this tiny barrier island at the southeastern end of the Outer Banks!  It was fabulous!

 

 

Rochester, New York (2011)

 

I've been there several times with Mike (2000, 2001, 2007, and 2011) We really enjoyed our two week stay with Pat and Dick in 2011, even though I was in a cast with a broken wrist.  It didn't slow me down all that much!

 

 

Santa Fe ( 2010)

 

We spent a couple of days in Santa Fe on the way home from Denver in 2010 ... I've been there many times and dearly love it! 

 

 

Virginia (2008, 2009)

 

We visited beautiful botanical gardens in Richmond (2008) and Norfolk (2009) on our final days of those trips!  Both were very close to the airports for heading home!

 

 

and

 

Washington DC (2008)

 

Our trip was short, but we were able to see lots of the things we wanted to see by taking trolley trips with the rental car left behind in the parking garage at Union Station.  We did the "Monuments by Moonlight" tour in the evening - fabulous!!! - and also the day trek to get us to the US Botanic Gardens across the street from the Capitol, the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum (to see the Wright Brother's original plane) and to the National Zoo (to meet the pandas).  We also got to ride around in DC all day to get to those 3 things!

 

 

I needed something for the back cover so I used one of my very favorite photos of home - a winter sunset (Jan 2005) of the cove on Lake Belton where I live! 

 

 Who needs a VACATION when this is HOME?

 

(Actually, I do!)

 

 

Digital Credits for the complete album

 

Kimeric Kreations BON VOYAGE

 

Templates - all from Digital Designs by Amber Morrison

JUST PEACHY

LA BELLA VITA

BAD REPUTATION

CHEESECAKE

CONFETTI CONFETTI

GOLDEN DAYS

I'M ON THE EDGE

SIMPLICITY

 

Additional elements - from Sweet Digi Scraps

SET ADRIFT

LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL

HAPPY TO HAVE YOU

FIND YOURSELF: ONE WITH NATURE

FIND YOURSELF: UNDECIDED

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's publication day at The Hybrid Chick

So far, I'm two for two on my goal of  "13 in 13" ... I challenged myself to make 13 lists with 13 items in honor of 2013!  13 is my FAVORITE number, and this will be the only time I see a year with 13 at the end ... so I'm determined to make it special!  In January I did a double page layout with 13 favorite places in Bell County Texas where I live ... took me a while to do all the photos, and building a double layout, especially one with lots of text can take a while, but I was happy with the results.  Here is that layout using Roseytoes Designs HOPES AND DREAMS  and 28 DAYS LATER template. 

 

Shortly after completing this layout, my thoughts "raced over" to the next project for The Hybrid Chick ... and I "found" an accordion album that I had done last year as a class project, and surprisingly the accordion folder had 13 spots for layout art!  That's cool, I could make that book, but then I started searching for the PERFECT kit.  It didn't take long looking in the shop at The Digi Chick to find Kimeric Kreations BON VOYAGE and know that I had found the PERFECT KIT! I loved the color palette, the mix of elements and the POSTCARD just almost jumped off the computer screen and yelled at me "Use me, use me!" 

 

 

I had toyed with an album in my head for years called "Postcards from poki!"  Back in my early adult days of traveling, I didn't have a good camera so I bought postcards everywhere to bring home as souvenirs and memory-keepers!  I have piles of postcards tucked everywhere around my house, and even now with a great camera, I sometimes cannot resist buying those beautiful images!  The hook was set ... I would combine my hybrid project for The Hybrid Chick with my personal "13 in 13" project.  Of course, that meant picking 13 vacation destinations (that was easy, I love traveling, and I had to sort out my list to keep to only 13!) and then I realized that it meant 13 layouts!  (which turned into 16 by the time I was done!) so I started early - the first layout was completed on Jan 30, and the last layout was completed on Feb 13 - how appropriate!

 

Today my album publishes at The Hybrid Chick and I will be back tomorrow to show you all the layouts that I did.  Today, though, I want to share a FREEBIE with you.  I was so impressed with one little trick that I did on the lettering that I asked Kim at Kimeric Kreations to allow me to create a wordart freebie to give away here on my blog!  Here's the preview of the FREEBIE

 

 

and a *.jpg web ready image.  The download is a transparent background *.png file at 300 dpi.

 

 

You can download this FREEBIE

 

HERE

 

I hope you enjoy using it to record your own "grand adventure!"

 

Here is the tablescape photo that I took of my project, as it appears on The Hybrid Chick today!

 

 

Please come back tomorrow to see all the pages that I created for this little accordion album.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New today at The Digi Chick

Both Digital Designs by Amber Morrison and Sweet Digi Scraps had two new products each at The Digi Chick today.  First up, template packs from Digital Designs by Amber Morrison. 

 

ELEMENTARY

 

Another great template pack from Amber ... I was on her Creative Team when she released this last year at Scrapable, and she finally brought it to her new exclusive store at The Digi Chick.  This week I did a layout using ELEMENTARY along with Kimeric Kreations BON VOYAGE.  I created the layout initially to go into my "13 Postcards from poki" album that will be featured on the Hybrid Chick blog on Monday, February 25.  But then I realized that ELEMENTARY wasn't at The Digi Chick yet, so I redid the layout with another template pack!  I'm glad I'm getting to use this layout for Rochester (I really like it better than my #2 version!)  I also added some additional elements to this layout from : ETC by Danyale KASHMIR and Sweet Digi Scraps FIND YOURSELF: ONE WITH NATURE.

 

 

FANCY PANTS

 

This is a brand new release from Digital Designs by Amber Morrison and she has kept up her reputation as a stellar template designer.  Her templates make cluster building so easy for me.  I'm almost not a "MINIMALIST" any more!!! LOL

 

 

I combined FANCY PANTS with Kimeric Kreations BON VOYAGE  (You'd think after making 17 layouts with this kit  for my "13 Postcards from poki" that I would be tired of it, but that is just not the case!  I love the grungy, distressed papers and her flowers!  Such fun!)  Here's my layout with a photo I took last June in Wyoming ... the view was just "grand"  (It's the Grand Tetons!)

 

 

Sweet Digi Scraps has two new kits at The Digi Chick this week ... first up is

 

PERFECT PAIR

 

a sweet little mini kit with my favorite color combination:  lime green and teal!

 

 

So, I just had to do a photo of Mike and me on the beach in Galveston last September, being silly.  He took this photo of us ... it's a good thing he has a long arm, huh?  This layout also features Digital Designs by Amber Morrison FANCY PANTS template (that is new today too!)

 

 

Sweet Digi Scraps second kit for the week is

 

TEA 4 TWO

 

a sweet little tea party kit ... complete with Alice and the Queen of Hearts!

 

 

This kit also has an add-on Alpha

 

 

I used the kit, the alpha and Sweet Digi Scraps LIFE'S LEMONADE SWEET INSPIRATION (templates) to create my layout.

 

 

Of course, there are not many "tea parties" in my life ... but there are LOTS of butterflies!  I just love the butterfly paper in my layout (and I'm "obsessing" about how I will use it next!)

 

 

Be sure to stop by the stores at The Digi Chick while the new releases are on sale!

 

Digital Designs by Amber Morrison

 

Sweet Digi Scraps

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Are you a template fan?  poki POSITIVELY loves templates!!  There are so many ways to use a template and make it your own, and that's what Dawna  had in mind with this set.  You can follow them exactly or dress them up or down, flip, flop, rotate, whatever you fancy.  That has a little to do with the name of this template pack

Whichever Way the Wind Blows

True North Scraps designer Dawna used them  to make a double page LO for ScaryTales 2: Laissez les bon temps rouler

The North Stars were busy trying out the templates

Don't all these LOs look great?  Here is poki's project for WHICHEVER WAY THE WIND BLOWS

 

I combined it with my oh-so-favorite AUTUMN'S RAINBOWS from True North Scraps to feature these beautiful butterfly photos I snapped at Zilker Botanical Gardens in Austin, TX in November 2011.  The kit works so well with these butterfly photos (I think)

 

 

The templates are CT friendly, and come in PSD, TIF, and PNG formats.  From February 21 - 24, they will be on sale for 30% off, then they will go to their normal price of $3.50.  Grab 'em this weekend while they are really cheap!

DAWNA has  a question for you (it's a contest!)  and one of the people who answers it will be chosen randomly to win a one month guest CT term (March 1 - 31) as a North Star!

The question is:

What do you think is her really HUGE news?

 

She can't wait to spill the beans, and it's not long before  she will, but in the meantime she thought it'd be fun to see what people think.   Can't really give you a clue without completely giving it away, and since it doesn't matter if your answer is right or not for you to win, I thought we'd  just leave it wide open and see what people come up with!  Just leave a comment on True North Scraps BLOG  and a way for Dawna to contact you (remember Anonymous can not win) and she'll randomly select a winner Tuesday February 26 at 7 am Central time. Here is  a little sneak peek of one of the kits being released in March to encourage you to enter this contest:

 

New at Bella Zingaro Studio

From Just Simple Papers VALENTINES 3600 (also available in Tagger Size)

 

My layout also features a retired Template from Roseytoes Designs called BIG AND SMALL - photo of Mike and poki dancing at a friend's wedding in 2007 - we really don't do that enough! It was fun!

 

 

From Sunrise Scraps PLAYGROUND FUN

 

 

My layout also features a Jen C Designs template MULTIPHOTO from JANUARY 2013 TEMPLATE GRAB BAG

 

 

It's "my boys" Blake and Chase having fun at the park behind their house this winter! 

 

 

 

 

Creatively Obsessed Designs SNOW IN LOVE templates and Honored Scraps WINTER WISHES

 

 

 

Winter kits always present a real challenge for me since we so rarely have snow in Central Texas.  The first layout is a snowball fight down at City Park when we actually did have snow in Feb 2010.

 

 

The second layout features pictures taken by my friend Pat Kirk in Rochester, NY last month.  The snow is beautiful, but I'm sure glad that I'm in Texas and the snow is NOT HERE!

 

 

Disgiscraps by Tina Campbell CHILDREN ARE A GIFT FROM GOD

 

 

 

My layout also features Digital Designs by Amber Morrison BAD REPUTATION templates

 

 

My layout show pix of my sister's grandchildren!