Lots of Buzz, and TWO freebies!

Hey everyone!

I hope you are off to a great start with the new year. I know I have been busier than a one legged man in a butt kickin contest.

I have been enjoying some family time, hubby has had a major chunk of time off work with the holidays and he finally goes back tomorrow. I can't wait for the excitement to finally die down lol. I do love to have him home, but I love to have him go to work too. It sure changes up the routine when he is home. It's really hard to find time to scrap lol.

But, I have been designing still. In fact, I have been working on a few really different projects in addition to the Live in Color collection I am still focusing on.

One>>> A very good friend of mine, Trish, has been wanting to start up her own web site offering a really cool thing to digital scrapbookers. She created a site, http://www.digiscrapdiscounts.com/ is the url. The site is a place for designers like me, or maybe you, to post ads in a gallery. The idea is that if we all post our sales ads, discounts, specials, coupons, etc. there, a digital scrapbooker could go look at the ads all at once, kinda like browsing a newspaper for coupons. I think it is a great idea. I subscribe to a lot of yahoo lists, but I really like the idea of going and seeing all the actual ads in one place. I am a visual person, so seeing the ads makes a difference for me.

So as part of her starting that site, I have been working with her to also offer a gift on her site that gives scrapbookers a taste of my designs for free. This is the result:

You wanna go get it for free? Just go to Digiscrap Discounts and click on Gifts.

Now a shout out to my fellow designer friends: She's giving away 100 memberships for free to designers. You can share your ads for free. All you have to do is go to the site, Click on View the Ads, and sign up for the gallery and send her an email on her site to let her know you are a designer wanting to share ads. It's free. It's advertising. And we all need some more of that.

Two>>> Acrylics. Oh I love Acrylics. I love taking a acrylic element and adding it at the last minute to a layout lol. I love using them for neutral elements on just about any layout. I love that I can combine them with any kit under the sun. I love that I can put them on top of a picture and still see the picture through them. OK you get the point.

I set out to make a set of amazing acrylic elements. I wanted it to be big and I wanted it to be one that had enough elements that I could use them on several layouts and not duplicate. I wanted frames, I wanted pretty much a dream element pack lol. So, I set out to make a bunch. And I ended up with over 50. And more to come.

Here's Acrylic Madness, a set of new acrylic elements that I created. What do ya think? Want a sample? You got it! Download the sample shown below here.

And on a final note: I purchased a new domain name today. My blog will be moving soon. I will let you know where, but please be advised, I am planning some big things. You can still find me at My Scrap Shop, of course.

Live in Color: Freebie, It's a big one.

I have been just UBER inspired lately while working with the Live in Color collection. I absolutely love bright, vivid colors. I love primary colors, especially red and blue. I shy away from green and yellow, but lately have even been finding a love for some greens.

I am trying new things, looking at different color combos than ever before.

I have a lot of ideas and a lot of mojo.

I love it.

So to give thanks to the mojo gods, and to say thank you to my dedicated blog friends, I am going to share something pretty big with ya. It's a full set of Live in Color papers with a fancy and delicate bit of trimwork to it. It kinda combines my love of color with another love I have, acrylic and plastic embellishments.

This paper pack has 17 papers. The paper is textured, and then the acrylic top layer with fancy little foliage doodlies was plopped on top. I would LOVE to see what you do with this paper. Also, you will want this paper because any time I make a Live in Color product, it will of course mix and match.

So I know, 4 downloads is a lot for you, but please grab these papers, use the heck out of them, print them and roll around in them, just enjoy them. And if you are looking for some things to mix and match with them, check out my Live in Color collection here.

Download the freebie here:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Happy weekend to you!

The Color Green, freebie, and new products

While working on the Live in Color series, I am gathering lots of color todbits to share. I have been focusing on Green the past few days.

The color green is associated with nature, peace, and money.

Green is often used in decorating for its calming effect. For example, guests waiting to appear on television programs often wait in a “green room” to relax.

Green is thought to relieve stress and help heal. Those who have a green work environment experience fewer stomachaches.

Dark green is associated with ambition, greed, and jealousy.
Yellow-green can indicate sickness, cowardice, discord, and jealousy.
Aqua is associated with emotional healing and protection.
Olive green is the traditional color of peace.

The color green for me is also associated with olives, as in the olives in my favorite drink, the classic martini.

As part of my Live in Color series, I am creating several booster packs in the various colors and combinations of them. Today I want to show you the new Green package I made in honor of the almighty Martini. And you can get this free Martini paper here at MSS. It's absolutely free, I promise. Just go grab it and use it if you are a martini fan like me!

New Products in my store at MSS:

New Challenges and Prizes at MSS:

A new round of challenges started at MSS yesterday. You can get some gorgeous kits just for particpating in some of our fun challenges, like the template challenge. Click here to get a good look at our prizes.

New Designers at MSS

Did you know we have new designers at MSS? Come see what they brought to our scrap tables and welcome them aboard!

Sales at MSS:

• A little bird tells me that you can save 75% off of Sir Scrapalot's designs. That's HUGE. He has some awesome kits, great doodles, fantastic CU. You can't go wrong at that price.
• EAL is having a grand opening sale, come check out a new designer at MSS and save 30%
• Pillowgirl, that's me, has her whole store at 40% for the holidays. Happy New Year, it's almost all over!
  

Sources:

About.com

Color Wheel Pro

Live in Color

I recently started reading a lot about color theory, our emotions and how they are affected by color, and so on. It's really always been an interest to me, the psychology of colors. I think as an artist, there is often a reason I choose the colors I do. I also think as scrapbookers, we choose certain colors on some of our layouts because they convey an emotion too.

Anyhow, all this Color Theory thinking inspired me to create a series called Live in Color. This collection is made up of 16 colors (plus the occasional white or black) and I will be creating several smaller kits and sets of elements or papers in this series.

Just this week, I released 6 packs of Live in Color products. Over the next while, you will see many more as I have several projects started in this color scheme. I also plan to share some Color Theory with you here on my blog, so you might see how colors impact you from day to day too :)

I hope you enjoy the project. If you don't, you will still find my normal stuff on the blog too.

Here's a link to the whole line of Live in Color products that I am offering at MSS exclusively. And watch the blog, there's a freebie coming out shortly that ties into this whole series.

ENABLE ME: CU Templates for Albums

I have recently realized... I have a little miniature obsession for small albums.

I have made several hybrid or paper albums, with and without photos. I have one right here on my desk that is a paper bag album and is literally a blank album with just background papers, waiting to be filled with whatever project I decide to use it for. But I like looking at the empty paper bag album and just enjoying the papers I chose. They have little doodles and details on them so they are pretty just as they are to me :)

I have one small problem. I have a little trouble with creating layouts without some sort of visual inspiration. I am your typical Template lover. I really love to work with a template and then make it my own. I love to take a nice balanced starting point and move forward, confident that my layout will look good no matter what I do because it started out with balance lol.

As a scrapbook designer, I am always looking for good templates for commercial use as well. Especially the kind I could use to make miniature albums with my scrapkits for my customers with.

So, friends, I need your help. Enable me. Leave me a note in my comment box with your favorite commercial use template linked up. It has to be something I can use to make a album with, whether it be a quickpage album, a bracet album, a bragbook, etc.

Everyone who suggests a CU item and leaves me an email to contact them at will get a little thank you from me, up to 40 people. Please I really want a lot of options to look at! I have a lot of albums to work on, and like a variety.