5.5 iNSD Farmer’s Market Playdate

Hi everyone. Chelle’s Aunt Sari here. Hope you are enjoying iNSD Weekend. What a shopping paradise! This week Chelle has absolutely outdone herself. My debit card is really glad today was payday! Cha-Ching! My DNN38 (dear niece or nephew #38) Zion turned 2 in March. He loves DUCKS! The yellow rubber-ducky kind. My DS6 (dear sibling #6, Barb) and I gave Zion a stuffed yellow duck for his birthday. He promptly named him “Ducky.” Zion got a new baby sister (DDN39) in December and he was all UP on what Ducky would need as a new member of his family. Ducky needed his own blankie, a ride in the baby swing, and then in the bouncy chair. When it was time for bed, Zion got dressed in his green sleeper pajamas and went to his room to look for a bed for Ducky – which ended up being zipped in his older sister’s (he as 4 older sisters) PINK Barbie backpack. Then Zion put the backpack on and put his cowboy boots (on the wrong feet) on over the sleeper feet and he was ready for bed. (Yep, still wearing the backpack!) When I saw Rub-A-Dub, I thought of him, and of course, it’s my favorite “new” product of Chelle’s. I seem to change favorites on a weekly basis.

My FAV LO of the week is a tie – with 3 winners. I couldn’t decide on just one with all the fun “new” kits. So for Rub-A-Dub, I picked Jenn S’s “Whale Of A Time.” For First Foods, I picked Carol’s “Love @ 1st Bite.” For Happy, I picked Karen S’s “BFFs.” Ladies your designs continue to amaze me. I also wanted to say welcome to Shannon and Patty, our new guests to Chelle’s Creative Team. Have a great week!

5.1 Perfect Pairs: Grandpa’s Garden & Gnome Sweet Gnome | Digital Scrapbooking Kit Combinations

Hi everyone! Chelle’s Aunt Sari here. Today we are looking at some LO using the perfect pairs of Grandpa’s Garden Bundle & Gnome Sweet Gnome Bundle.  Let’s start with Mary (plum dumpling) and her backyard renovation. What a great transformation. Look how well the pictures show the improvements. I bet she’s sure glad all this work is done! You’d never know this LO was done with 2 different bundles.Erica’s provides some great pictures of her Dad and son. Her Dad used the same tractor when he was young and quickly jumped on. Everett wasn’t far behind his Grandpa; both enjoyed his explanation of what each gear was for. Last Carol provides us with a glimpse of her husband’s garden in Washington state compared to what he grew in Iowa. Love the use of white space and circles. Carol combined “real” veggies with Chelle’s “designed” veggies.  I also love the “Gnome” poking out.

And here’s a look at the products they used from Chelle’s store: Hope these great ideas have your just itchin’ to dig up a few LO in Grandpa’s Garden and color them with Gnome Sweet Gnome.

4.28 Hole-In-One Playdate

Hello! Chelle’s Aunt Sari here. Knock-Knock-Knock-Knock-Knock-Knock-Knock! When I was completing some volunteer service for our church between 1991-1993, I was living in western Montana. It was pretty cold in the winter and we would knock on doors. It was really hard on your hands and if you knocked with your gloves on, it sort of muffled the sound of the knock, making it less than helpful. One of the tricks I learned from previous volunteer’s was to carry a golf ball in your pocket. (Mine was a bright, blistering, Caribbean orange and I still have it! LOL) When it was your door to “knock,” you’d pull out the golf ball out of your pocket and use it to do the 7 quick raps on the door. (Two rules: (1) never knock in even #’s and (2) never use a doorbell because “friends” knock. “W-h-a-t? W-h-y?” I was taught that salesmen knock in even #’s and they ring doorbells. I’m not sure that’s true, my Dad was a door-to-door salesman, and we knocked.) The golf ball was really effective and when I saw Chelle’s Hole-In-Bundle, I could immediately “feel” the gloves on my hand, my winter boots and coat, the chill in the weather, the cold air I would breathe into my lungs, and the golf ball in my hand making those quick taps on door. What stories could you scrap that are off-topic with this week’s designs? Hugs!  On to my FAV LO of the week. It’s Kayla’s “Yard Work” LO. Congrats Kayla! I thought your LO design was very eye-catching with the pennants and the flower & ribbon cluster framing that large picture of your son.

Now for Chelle’s new products for this week. First up, we have her Hole In One Bundle and the FWP is the Hole-In-One Word Art. Followed up by the Hole In One Kit and Putt-Putt Kit. Don’s miss out on the Blog Freebie Hole-In-One. For those of you needing a pick-me-up for your favorite gal, Chelle’s put together a Girly Brag Book with 18 eye-catching Quick Pages made from her TuTu Cute, Girlfriend, Girl Power & Cowgirl Up kits. Last, for those who like to create their own items, Chelle offers CU Wonky Chevrons.  Chelle has created another YouTube Class/Tutorial called Using Align & Distribute to help you improve your scrapping skills is Photoshop & Photoshop Elements. She has an amazing 23 FREE classes on her YouTube Channel so check those out if you haven’t. Have a great time using these bright and “fun”derful designs!

Here’s what’s new from the CT this week! Aren’t their LO’s great? I found myself ignoring my phone and my sister (DS6 – Dear Sister 6) as I scrolled through them. What a great use of color! Love ‘Em!

Grandma’s Garden | Digital Scrapbooking Classics

Hey Scrappers!  Today we are taking a walk down memory lane in the garden with Grandma’s Garden.

This fabulous collection is perfect for those floral-garden-mother’s day-mom-grandma-spring-summer layouts…

Here’s one from Mary:

 

And one from Jenn:

But you can stretch your stash even farther by using the more generic elements & papers in Grandma’s Garden for other layouts:

See this Biker layout by Roxana:

& this one by Lynett:

Take another look at Grandma’s Garden!

Gallery Standouts | Digital Scrapbooking Inspiration

What fantastic fun I have had perusing Chelle’s Gallery today looking at all the inspirational posts peeps have made in the digital scrapbooking community! I have found some incredible pages there. Take this one by djp332, for example. Her large photo as a background takes my breath away and gives her page that “wow” factor, and the perfect number of embellishments from Chelle’s Big City kit are tucked in nicely around some stunning photos of Pittsburgh in bloom. March-picnic_web-2-djp332I was also impressed by a couple of layouts with lots of white space. The first one was a page called The Castle made by nadauh. I love the layered papers for the background and the felt castle tucked in behind the photos of friends enjoying that magical place. 14_Het_kasteel_naduah The next page I love for the subject of the photo as much as the layout itself. Look at that cute little bottom! I remember the days when my babies tucked their legs up under their little bodies when they slept, and yet, I probably didn’t have the foresight to snap a photo of it like Kimberly Morris did. I love that banner and the little frog!  Frog-Legs-Kimberly Morris Finally, a page that caught my eye because of a custom shape used on the layout was this page by becks177. Look at that shape of Texas used for the title! They say everything is bigger in Texas – I guess it’s true with scrapbook pages, as well!! But, look at that little guy’s dance poses. Those are awesome snapshots. Texas-2-Step-becks177

Need some more inspiration to get your scrapping mojo back on track? Check out Chelle’s Gallery, and while you’re there, leave some love for the layouts you see. Be sure to post your pages in Chelle’s Gallery so we can leave you some love, as well.

4.21 Darling Stitched-A-Bet, Wet Paint Alpha, & CU Stitched Blooms Playdate

Hello Everyone! Chelle’s Aunt Sari here. Chelle has a couple of fun new alpha’s you’ll want to be sure to get. I’ve heard a rumor that she’s considering other colors & fonts for the Darling Stitched-A-Bet series, so keep your eye’s out for what’s to come. She also has a Wet Paint Alpha & CU Stitched Blooms that were released this week. If you buy Chelle’s Darling Stitched-A-Bet, you’ll get the Wet Paint Alpha for FREEEEE through April 26th.  You’ll want to get these, they’ll really add dimension to your designs.

  • Darling Stitched-A-Bet: Hand-stitched titles & monograms are a sure-fire method to add beauty & realism to your layouts. Stitch your words in an instant with Darling Stitch-a-bets. This premium alpha includes uppercase, lowercase, numbers and some punctuation in five trendy colors: cool coral, passion peach, honey gold, leaf green, & robin’s egg blue. Meticulously hand-crafted for project excellence.
  • Wet Paint Alpha: Add a carefree painted look to your layouts…and NO MESS!  Wet Paint Alpha by Chelle’s Creations includes uppercase, lowercase, numbers & some punctuation in 10 colors: red, blue, green, yellow, pink, brown, white, black, orange, purple.
  • CU Stitched Blooms: Your papers + Your colors + CU Stitched Blooms = “handcrafted” flowers for your designs.  CU Stitched Blooms includes 6 flowers & 1 center.  Each shape includes a mask & grayscale stitches.  Try vellum…kraft…crumpled…  The possibilities are endless.  CU Stitched Blooms is a treasure in your CU collection

I was sitting here trying to think of a funny story to share about “stitches” or “paint.” My sister kindly pointed out that I needed to share about my graceful fall in our kitchen. Chelle was still in Illinois when this happened, so I don’t know if she’s even heard the story. LOL!! In 1995, my sister, Barb and I moved into a house. We basically painted everything, and hung some wallpaper borders. One day we were working on hanging a border in the kitchen. It was a square room, but one wall was cabinets. My sister, Ellen was on a ladder in one corner, Barb was on a ladder in another corner, and I was at the other corner. We didn’t have another ladder, so I was balancing on a folding chair with two 5-gallon buckets of wheat of top of it, and I could just barely reach the ceiling. We wet the wallpaper border and Barb & Ellen had their corners pressed into place, waiting on me. I had the wallpaper border in both hands and was standing on 1-foot stretching up on my tippy-toes while using the other leg for balance. I am NOT a graceful person and I’m sure you can imaging the results. I think I must have clawed at the air for 5 or 10 minutes – which of course, was really only 1-2 seconds. (like Wile_E-Coyote did in cartoons!) Meanwhile, down on the floor, we had paint cans everywhere in all the different room colors. Our bathroom was being tiled and the porcelain toilet was sitting on the kitchen floor also. When I started to fall, and started grasping at air, I knew I was in trouble. I could land on all the gallon-paint cans or the toilet. Well there was a large crash as me, all that wheat, and the paint can’s all flew. (Tip! Wheat in “Wet Paint” is not a good thing!) LOL! What-a-mess!

My FAV LO of the week goes to Lynett. I loved the colors, the blocking and a nod to the excellence of student-worker’s everywhere. The Wet Paint Alphareally “pops!” Great job Lynett! I also want to mention Shanell’s LO. Love the way she used the CU Stitched Bloom’s flower outline without the actual flower. Check them out!Here’s the Creative Team’s designs for the week. Enjoy!

4.17 Perfect Pairs: Toadally Add-on and Gnome Sweet Gnome | Digital Scrapbooking Kit Combinations

A great way to make your digital scrapbooking stash seem even larger is to create pages with more than one kit.  Today we are looking at how you can combine Chelle’s Toadally Add-on and Gnome Sweet Gnome.  The creative team has been busy mixing the kits to create some gorgous pages.
I love how Kayla uses a large photo to showcase her beautiful flower garden.
What a cute little help Carol has to make sure her vegetables are growing.  I love the stitching used on this page.

I love the way Erica arranged the photos on the page. Just look at those silly glasses.

Do you own one of these kits?  If you do pick up the other so you can combine them together to stretch your own stash.  Head over Chelle’s store to check them out!  Here’s a better look at both kits.


Also be sure to check out the Gnome Sweet Gnome Add-on.  Chelle is the featured designer at DST this month.  Go check out the Toadally kit there.  Even more goodies to make you stash grow.

4.14 Traveler Playdate

Hello Again! Chelle’s Aunt Sari here. This week we’re looking at the Traveler designs from Chelle. My eye’s teared up a bit this week when I saw the traveler designs, they instantly made me think about my {our} Great-Grandfather John William {Chelle’s 2nd Great-Grandfather if you’re keeping track.} He was born in 1871 and died in 1938. We’ve a wonderful picture of him standing beside a ship in Ipswich, England around 1920. He was called on a mission for our church. He and his wife had 12 children. When he left on the mission, his oldest 5 children married, but 7 were still at home, ages 17 down to 2. Our Grandpa Melvin would have been 12 at the time and was the 9th child of Mollie & Will. I hurried and e-mailed Chelle and asked if  she had time to do a LO? I knew I could attach the pictures, but Chelle has a talent for making pictures and stories come alive with her designs. She has also included a picture of Mollie & Will’s family. Their youngest daughter is not in the picture. Our Grandpa Melvin {my Grandfather, Chelle’s Great-Grandfather} is on the 2nd row, far right side, where the picture is sort of dark.Travel down this post to see her designs for the week. The quickies are FREE with purchase of the bundle. Don’t miss out on the Freebie either. This week Chelle partnered with Cheri of Dream Big Designs and they created a great CU (Commerical Use) bundle this week. With the CU Grungy Paired Bundle you will get 2 sets of six grungy, creased overlays and matching papers. Papers and overlays are 12 x 12 size, 300ppi. Each set is distressed perfectly for any scrapbook project. You can use the sets 3 ways; papers alone, overlays alone, or papers with matching overlays. That’s a combination of 36 different paper creations. She even did a FREE sampler if you want to try them out. It’s a great opportunity to expand your scrapping skills.

Here are the LOs Chelle’s Creative Team designed this week. My personal fav for the week goes to Karen S’s “Hyde Street Pier” LO. I loved the way she used two-tones of blue paper and especially the bead-board effect on the bottom. I really liked her use of “circles” and how well the typewriter key alpha placement worked together. Great Job Karen!

Slam Dunk | Digital Scrapbooking Classics

Chelle’s Creative Team Members have been making some great pages for you with her classic digital scrapbooking kit, Slam Dunk. It’s a versatile kit suitable for pages with a hoops theme as well as pages of many other themes.

Heather was extremely fortunate to be able to go to several 76ers games in 2001, and she got a great shot of Iverson after a game. I’m sure it didn’t hurt that she had a courtside seat! Chelle’s Slam Dunk kit is perfect for such a unique photo.sixers2001_600Heather Mary also made a page with one very special photo. I am certain her little guy will one day play basketball at least as well as Allen Iverson. Isn’t this adorable? keptoptimism-webMary Still with a basketball theme, Kairyn made a terrific double page spread with photos of her boys playing hoops at home. They show the shear joy of the little guy getting to spend time with his older brother at Thanksgiving. 2008-11-27SlamDunk-2pgKairyn And, here are the left and right pages separately for a closer look. 2008-11-27SlamDunk-LKairyn2008-11-27SlamDunk-RKairyn

Remember I said this kit is great with lots of themes? Jan proved it by using Slam Dunk to document her story about the pumpkin carving at Halloween. The details on the jack-o-lanterns is truly incredible, and the orange and black paper and elements in the kit match her photos perfectly. frightdelightJan

And, finally, do you think it’s true that what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas? Well, it might if you don’t put it on a fun scrapbook page like Jennifer did. She was one of the lucky ones who spent time at Scrap Orchard’s Digiscrapapalooza a few weeks ago, and she has proven that she and her friends can sing YMCA as well as the Village People. OK, maybe not, but her page made me think they can. webYMCAJennifer Looks like so much fun!

I think the team has done a superb job showing off Slam Dunk. Makes me want to pick up my camera, take some pictures of my boys playing HORSE on our driveway, and make a great scrapbook page with this kit.

4.7 Gnome Sweet Gnome

Hello Fellow Scrappers! Chelle’s Aunt Sari here. Can you hear the guitar strumming along to “Oh Give Me A Home?” When I look at this kit, I hear that tune in my head. “Oh give me a “gnome” where the butterflies roam, where the bugs and the caterpillars play…” This the most amazing kit. My favorite element is the gel interlocking circles. They just make me cheerful and happy. There’s a home in Grace, Idaho that has truly “decked” out their yard. They have gazing/reflection balls all over the yard, seriously, like 15 of them in different sizes. There are gnomes, wishing wells, & a little rock path for a tiny stream with a bridge over it. It’s so whimsical and full of joy. I encourage you to decorate your “outdoor” home with Chelle’s Gnome Sweet Gnome. Don’t miss out on,“Throughout The Year” it’s the item that’s is FREEEEEE with your purchase of the Gnome Sweet Gnome Bundle. My fav LO of the week goes to:  Ronnie!! Congrats! I loved the use of the gnome, wheelbarrow and the seasonal tree. See you next week! Hugs! Sari

And now, for the LO’s from Chelle’s Creative Team: