Do It Digi Wednesday . . . Mardi Gras Masking

My father is in a local Mardi Gras association, so he and his fellow Krewe members are very busy with last minute preparations for the upcoming parades. We can do the same thing with our layouts, too! Brushes are a great way to add additional interest to a page, but let's take it a step further. Use a brush with a clipping mask to create one-of-a-kind elements for your layout. For technical information, Jessica Sprague has an awesome tutorial for Photoshop users that you can check out here: http://spraguelab.squarespace.com/imported-archives/2006/4/21/photoshop-friday-issue-no-2.html. Let's see what you can mask this week!

In my example layout, I used three different brushes. The hearts and the doily underneath the photo were from a set of Victorian Valentine brushes I downloaded as freeware from the Internet and the swirled frame brush is by Rhonna Farrer [complete credits for the layout in the gallery]. I clipped the same orange-toned textured paper to each brush after I "stamped" it. I used layer duplication, bevels, and drop shadows to achieve the final effects you see on the layout.

Get ready for Mardi Gras . . . get those brushes out and mask them! I'm so excited to see what you create! Cheryl

Love Is In The Air . . .

Oh yes. It's getting to be that time again. The time of year when we drop our subtle hints to our dearest ones about what we would like for Valentine's Day and just hope that they caught on! Shops are filled with flowers and chocolate - ahhhh chocolate. Our gallery is no exception. Stop in and take a peek at the lovely cards and layouts that are being created just with love (and sometimes chocolate) in mind! You'll find lots of inspiration to help you celebrate your love this year (even if it's chocolate). I know, I need a chocolate intervention. LOL.


Here's one to get you started . . . this is me and my dear husband this past Saturday.



Have a great time over the next couple of weeks creating your LOVE-ly cards, layouts and altered objects! Cheryl

A snowy northern day

Well everyone it is a very cold and snowy day north of the border.  Time to pull out some stamping supplies and try a new technique.  I found this really cool template on the Splitcoast Stamper website and thought it would be a cool challenge to try.

http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=77971&d=1200303991

Give this beautiful Valentine's card variation a try and post your card to our gallery.  We would love to see what you come up with.

Until next week stay warm and enjoy a nice warm mug of cocoa!

Monday Card Challenge

This Monday's card challenge is make a tall card, either 4x9 or 3 3/8x 6. Tall cards are easy to make and fit right into no. 10 and no. 6 3/4 envelopes that often have in our home for letter writting or bill paying.

After you take the challenge post it in our gallery, we would love to see what you've made.

Jan 27 Sunday Sketch This!

Here is the sketch for this week...
you have one week to attempt this sketch...
if you chose to take this mission your book will be one more page complete! lol!

Show us what you have done
place it in our gallery
place it in your blog...

just please don't steal... share the love by sending someone here to see our sketches :) Thanks!

Digi Sponsor + Crop Showcase

I just had to add in one of my favorite layouts from the crop:

Learing to Walk by Mel




























Also, there have been some wonderful additions to the digital sponsor gallery. Check it out and often! Here is one of many:

Warm Winter Day by jenbalding

Inspire Me Thursday and Crop Notes!

Hello!! We've had a really busy and fun weekend over at The Shaker Box!! Our crop was full of fun, games, challenges and classes! I was really excited about the amount of participation that we had! Here are a few of my favorite layouts, from some of the challenges we did!

New Driver by silvia


Let It Snow by sassyscrapper40 (from my Clear Card Class)


Way to go everyone that participated!! I had so much fun "meeting" you all!

Now, for today's Inspire Me Challenge!I was inspired, yet again, by the 2007 Autumn Leaves calendar!! The idea was to use old cards you've received and recycle them into new cards! I love this idea because I am big on recycling and I have lots of old cards laying around!! Here is my EXAMPLE. Can wait to see everyone's take on this!! When you're done, make sure you post it in our MEMBERS GALLERY!