Wow!

Can you believe it is the last day of June? It has been such a whirl wind for my family with sports camps, a road trip for a graduation, vacation bible school and family staying with us. I feel like I can catch my breath now! It's been a similar whirl wind at The Shaker Box! Michele is stepping down from running the site to spend more time scrapping and making memories with her beautiful daughter. Linda is taking over the reins and has been busy getting all of our teams reorganized. I can tell you that we are going to be running like a well oiled machine!





Tomorrow kicks off an exciting two week crop where we are celebrating new beginnings! Get ready for games, challenges, chats, prizes and freebies. There will be something for every kind of scrapper - paper - digital - hybrid - just getting started - been scrapping for years...



























If you are a digital scrapper like myself (or even a hybrid scrapper), be sure to stop by The Shaker Box online store on July 4th to grab my Celebrate Freebie. Complete a celebration layout with the mini kit, post it in the New Beginnings Crop gallery at The Shaker Box and link it back to my challenge in The Shaker Box forum to a chance to win your choice of one of my kits in The Shaker Box online store!

Here is a sneak peek of my upcoming July kit!



























And if that is not enough excitement for you, The Shaker Box will be having calls for Kit DT, Digi CT and Hybrid DT! It's a great time to be a part of The Shaker Box!

DO IT DIGI WEDNESDAY - DROP SHADOWS ON ACRYLIC

Digital acrylic alphas and elements are HOT right now and Jessica Sprague has a great PSE tutorial for adding drop shadows to those elements.

Here is the link to her tutorial: http://spraguelab.squarespace.com/blog/2008/4/21/photoshop-friday-on-mondayd-dropshadows-on-acrylic-d.html. When you follow the link, you will notice that there is another link in the tutorial to download an acrylic alpha made by Meredith Fenwick. If you don't already have an acrylic alpha or elements, this would be good to grab as it's so cute - and makes it easy to follow along with the tutorial.

So your challenge this week is to create a page using an acrylic alpha or element . . . try out that tutorial on drop shadows, too!

Here are a couple of pages I've done recently using acrylic elements and alphas:

LINK TO THE SHAKER BOX GALLERY FOR LAYOUT CREDITS

LINK TO THE SHAKER BOX GALLERY FOR LAYOUT CREDITS

DECK OF ME CHALLENGE, WEEK EIGHTEEN

This week's prompt is: NATURE.

What nature surrounds you that you just love? Is it the type of leaf on the tree outside your window? Is it a flower that just makes you smile? Do you love to see the grass all green and stretching out like a carpet in front of you? These are just a few ideas to get you started . . . but anything that focuses on NATURE will do the trick this week!

You can see Emily Falconbridge's card HERE.

Remember to post your cards in the Shakin' Challenges, Deck of Me Gallery with a link back to the forum.

Have fun and happy scrapping!

Inspiration Thursday!

I was inspired by a card that I bought in a local charity shop! See the original and my example below. I'd love to see what inspiration you get from it, so be sure to post back to The Shaker Box Gallery!



Also, don't miss our big New Beginnings Crop and Sale! There is a sale going on in the Shaker Box Store RIGHT NOW! The crop begins on July 1st and runs until July 15th! You can jump in any time you need a challenge, want to play a game, learn something new! There will be prizes!

DECK OF ME CHALLENGE, WEEK SEVENTEEN

Okay, okay, slap my hands already. I should have posted this Saturday morning and I totally forgot. But I'm here now. I'll post Week Eighteen this weekend, and then we'll take a couple of weeks off while the New Beginnings Crop is rockin' and rollin' The Shaker Box!

So here it is . . . this week's prompt is: YOUR BEDROOM.

Your current sleeping space, your childhood room, your perfect teenage hangout . . . document your bedroom. Display a miniature picture, include some journaling in a cute vellum envelope like Emily Falconbridge did about your childhood bedroom, write about your dream space. Let's see your bedroom!

You can see Emily Falconbridge's card HERE.

Remember to post your cards in the Shakin' Challenges, Deck of Me Gallery with a link back to the Weekly Challenges Forum thread.

Have fun and happy scrapping!

It's a CROP and a SALE!!!

The Shaker Box is welcoming our new owner in GRAND, SHAKER fashion.....with a HUGE 2 week crop and a sale in the store!!!!

Come join the fun....we have over 30 challenges planned, as well as games and LOTS of prizes! You won't want to miss the fun!!!!! Stop by and grab your seat at the table today!

Victorian Grunge - Hotel Lakeside

Here is a peek of the newest digi add-on in The Shaker Box online store!

And look what our resident layout goddess, Cheryl (aka gonewiththewind) did with it!

Thanks Cheryl! You rock!

Inspiration Thursday

Inspiration is everywhere, but today I found it in my scrap bin! I just hate cutting into a beautiful full piece of 12x12 paper to make a card! So, out came the pre-folded cards and my scrap bin! It is getting rather out of hand, so I am on a mission to make all of my cards from scraps!

Here is one of the cards I made:


I ended up with about 6 this session! Let me see what beautiful cards you can make with just scraps!! Be sure to post them in our gallery!

Oh, and there are lots of exciting things happening over at The Shaker Box. We have a new owner, Linda. There is going to be a big sale in the store, AND a fabulous New Beginnings Crop from July 1st through the 15th...with lots of fun challenges, tutorials, and prizes!

Click on the links above to be transported to the site!!

Two Quick Freebies at The Shaker Box

First, a Father's Day Starbucks Tumbler Template (photo not included - use your own).

This was created with my Stone Washed mini kit available at The Shaker Box. And the "chain mail" frame from an earlier freebie (found on my freebies blog), inspired by Prince Caspian.



















Secondly, a God's Art Quick Page (again, photo not included).

This one was created using my Arts & Crafts mini kit, also at The Shaker Box.



























You can pick up both freebies at The Shaker Box. You will need to sign in and "check-out" to download.

While picking up your freebies, don't forget to check out the great digi add-ons to The Shaker Box monthly kit club! Jen has a really cute Farm Fresh kit!

DECK OF ME CHALLENGE, WEEK SIXTEEN

This week's prompt is: GET SOMEONE ELSE TO CONTRIBUTE.

Have someone sign your card, give you a little something to put on the card, share an idea for a quote or color scheme . . . this is a great one to get the hubby involved in or the children. It could just be a word someone shared with you this week - I'm not looking to make this hard . . . any little thing will do!

You can see Emily Falconbridge's card HERE.

Remember to post your cards in the Shakin' Challenges, Deck of Me Gallery with a link back to this forum.

Have fun and happy scrapping!

Inspire Me Thursday

Thursday....almost the end of the week! I had a busy day shopping in London, but came across this layout and fell in love with it! So, it is our inspiration piece for today! She has managed to include a lot of items, but the layout is still so clean!!

School's Out for Summer!

At my house it's the official start of summer vacation! I am excited, but pray for my sanity!

With a new month at The Shaker Box it means a new digital sponsor for our Creative Team! This month we are creating for Rikkiscraps. Our team is quite efficient and the layouts are already rolling in! Here is one of mine:



























Rikkiscraps, Left of Center. (I love this paper and frame)! The color swatch was so cute I had to use it too - I just added a little bevel to the circles. Fonts are Dirty Ego and DC Recess. Actions used were Atomic Cupcake Rubon and Traci Murphy's drop shadows.