Christmas Ornament Tutorial

Merry Christmas ! You will be hearing that a lot from me this month, because this is one of the happiest times of year for me, and I like to really enjoy it and spread the joy as much as I can ! I noticed that the Christmas Edition of The Daily Scrapper is up – check it out, you don’t want to miss this one!! As you may know, The Daily Scrapper is a FREE online newspaper filled with great articles, tutorials, inspiration and more. This month’s special edition includes two tutorials by me . There are actually five tuts in there this month plus lots more ideas for hybrid gifts and cards. One of my tutorials shows how you can make a 3D star-shaped Christmas Tree ornament using the Golden Star Mini Album (on sale for only $1.50 right now) plus chipboard stars. If you’re feeling really creative, you could make your own star-shaped digital pages and use them with cardboard or heavy card stock if you want to just use supplies you have on hand . Click HERE to see the full tutorial !

P.S. Another great reason to check out the Christmas Edition of TDS is the huge Christmas Bazaar section which is packed with special coupons, sales and of course feebies !!!

Where’s Jess?

Hi everyone ! Just wanted to drop in and say thanks SO MUCH for your encouragement and support as I have been trying my hand at designing!!! I appreciate you all more than you know – and I want to say a sincere and heartfelt THANK YOU for purchasing my first kits!! Now that the block party at CRD is over, my kits are no longer available at this time… but I have enjoyed designing so much that I am pretty sure you can expect to see more from me in the future !!!

Some friends recommended this awesome class by Amanda Rockwell – so I used some of my earnings to sign up. I’m so glad I did!! It is well worth the money because you get tutorials, a forum where you can learn from other designers, and TONS of great “commercial use” downloads! I know several of you are now designing too – so I wanted to make sure you heard about this cool resource. If you sign up, make sure you tell Amanda your forum username – because that will get you quicker access. And please let Amanda know I sent you ! Hope to see you there!

In the meantime there are always the hybrid projects, quick pages and templates I have for sale still at Christina Renee Designs and Weeds and Wildflowers – but those will be going away at the end of the year to make room for the new in 2009!

Sale Extended

Since I didn’t get a chance to blog about the Camping Out Quick Album sale until late Saturday, we have extended it through the end of today. So there’s still time to grab it for 20% off if you haven’t already !

Here are some more pages from the album, using photos from a hike we went on with my sister a few years ago. Yes, I’m way behind on my scrapping – better late than never, right? It made me so nervous to see my sister sitting right on the ledge like that, but isn’t it a beautiful photo?

Hope your week is off to a great start!!

Quick Album Sale!

Just wanted to let you know that the Camping Out Quick Album is on sale for 20% off this weekend at Weeds and Wildflowers ! I’ve been playing with some of the quick pages from this album, and made a 2-page layout with photos of Chris and me from over 10 years ago. Back in high school and college we had all the time in the world for hiking and camping. Those were the days .

In that first photo I was tickling Chris to make him smile, this was the summer the romance between us first began – when I was 15 years old! In 1997 we were just friends (as far as I knew). In 1998 we were friends, but secretly in love . It wasn’t until 2001 that we started dating again! Isn’t it fun to look back at old photos?

Tip: To make the “1998″ text look like it is behind the twig frame, I just right clicked the text layer title (not the thumbnail) in the layers palette, and selected “rasterize type”. Then I used the eraser tool to erase the areas in front of the twig (you can lower the opacity of the text layer temporarily if you need to).

P.S. Don’t you love my hot pink leopard t-shirt?

Camping Out Quick Album (and a FREEBIE)

Now that summer is winding down and fall is on the way, it’s time to get your summer camping photos into a scrapbook ! Even if you aren’t really into camping (I’m not) you still might have a lot of great outdoor photos that will be perfect for this new quick album I designed for the Weeds & Wildflowers shoppe!

(Click Here to Purchase the Camping Out Quick Album)

 

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I tried something new this time: two-page layouts! It was fun, and I’m happy with how they turned out. I also tried really hard to make this album as pink-free and flower-free as possible, so it will work with non-girly photos. Buuuuuut I couldn’t resist adding one set of pretty pages (if you are making a guy album you can just leave those out, OK?), AND I included two options for the cover page one with flowers and one without! Here’s a little more info about this album, as seen on the Weeds & Wildflowers site:

Here’s the perfect album for your photos of the great outdoors; camping trips, hiking, you name it! Created by Jess Gordon using mostly elements from Weeds and Wildflowers Collaboration kit: The Great Outdoors, this quick album will help you turn those photos into a keepsake scrapbook in no time.

There are 12 print-quality pages (including two cover page options, one with flowers, one without), which are pre-made for you using highly detailed papers and beautiful one-of-a-kind digital elements. This album is designed with two-page layouts in mind – there are a total of 5 two-page spreads, which will compliment each other perfectly when placed side-by side in an album.

To create your album, just place your photo(s) behind the cutouts in the .png files, and any text or additional embellishments on top, flatten – and you’re ready to print them out! This album can be printed at 8″x8″ size, or it can easily be resized for smaller albums too. A bonus campfire-themed page is included as well (not shown in the preview).

I also put together this super fun campfire quick page to go along with the album – ever since I made it, I’ve been in the mood for s’mores, LOL! Have you ever had those things? Yummy! Anyway, please grab this if you like it, it’s a freebie . Enjoy!

*Click Here to Download the Campfire Quick Page Freebie*

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The BIG Three-O (and a Giveaway)!

Credits: Papers by Traci Reed; crown and banner by Michelle Underwood, worn overlay by Danielle, of Something Blue Studios.

Today’s my birthday and I’m no longer a twenty-something . I have had such a fabulous birthday!!!!!! Not only did I get to enjoy birthday celebrations earlier this month back home in CT, and go on a little getaway to Cape Cod with my sweetheart, but the happy birthday treats have just kept coming all the way up until today !

I even got some scrap-related birthday gifts:

DigiShop Talk emailed me a birthday greeting packed with coupons from digi designers, so I did a bit of shopping this morning and picked up goodies from Traci Reed and Michelle Underwood (thanks ladies)! And the other day I bought the worn overlays by Danielle, of Something Blue Studios, which EVERYONE is using lately. I usually don’t like to use something if I’ve already seen it a million times, but these are just too cool to pass up!! I got subscriptions to Creating Keepsakes and Digital Scrapbooking Magazine from my mom – YAY! Chris also got me single copies of Scrapbooks Etc and Simple Scrapbooks, PLUS my favorite scrap-related gift of all: ArtRage! Wow, I loooooove it!!! I have been having so much fun playing with it – here’s a little tribute to my new fun toy LOL:

But the sweetest gifts of all were not scrap-related! I got an adorable hand-made birthday card from Gabe and THIRTY emails from my awesome husband (sent from work) telling me why he is so glad to be my man (click here to see the list). Sigh.

So can you can see why I’m just over-the-moon happy today and feeling so generous !?! That’s why I decided last minute to have a fun giveaway right here on my blog – just leave a comment on this post for a chance to win!! I will randomly choose five winners to receive one of these Weeds & Wildflowers quick albums designed by me . Thanks W&W for donating these!!

Doodly Flourish Album Pics

Yay, I finished the third flourish album ! This one is my favorite of the three – the Doodly Flourish Album :)!!! I know I took waaaay too many pics, but I just couldn’t stop myself . Didn’t my niece make the PERFECT flower girl? My wedding was almost 5 years ago, but I still never get tired of looking at these photos. I totally had a “vision” of what I wanted my little flower girl to look like, so we bought her a basic white dress and I made everything else by hand - the floral wreath for her hair, the sash around her waist, her petal basket - and I even curled her hair myself. Everything was exactly as I had imagined it, and the best part was that she was a little angel all day long !

Credits: Doodly Flourish Album, available at Weeds and Wildflowers; “flourish” chipboard album and brads by Oriental Trading Company; flowers and crystals by Prima; other: glitter glue and ribbons.

To read more about the flourish albums available at Weeds and Wildflowers, *Click Here*

To purchase the Doodly Flourish Album, *Click Here*

Blissful Flourish Album Pics

Hi All, hope you’re having a great weekend!

I just wanted to pop in here really quick to show you the photos of the Blissful Flourish Album I just finished . Don’t forget that the flourish albums are on sale at Weeds and Wildflowers this weekend ($4 each or $8 for all three).

Credits: Blissful Flourish Album  from Weeds and Wildflowers; “flourish” chipboard album from Oriental Trading Company; flowers, butterfly stamp and crystals from Prima. Other: Glitter glue and misc ribbons.

Tips and Tricks

• Once you cut out the flourish album shapes you usually need to make some adjustments to get them to fit the chipboard pages. For the first one I made, I used scissors to trim the pages, then sanded the edges after adhering them. For this album, I adhered the pages, then I used a craft knife to trim off the excess paper. Lastly, I used the edge of a pair of scissors to distress the edges.
• Using StazOn ink, I stamped a butterfly onto clear transparency, cut out the image, and folded it in half before adhering it to my page. I also used the same stamp on some of the Prima flowers. 
• Notice that there are plenty of “imperfections” in this album (the messy journaling, the crooked edges around the grommet, etc) – you will have more fun and be happier with the result if you focus on creative expression and not perfection when making hybrid albums .
• Glitter, “bling” and brightly colored embellishments look awesome on an energetic album like this one, so don’t hold back !! 

New Flourish Albums (SALE)!

How’s everyone doing? I hope you’re having a fabulous summer – or whatever season it is in your part of the world ! Things are wonderful where I am, but the days are going by way too fast, as always!

Soooooo…. are you ready for some NEW quick albums? I know it has been a while since I have released anything at Weeds and Wildflowers, but it’s because I really wanted to put these three albums together in the store and sell them as a set. Now that I have pretty much gotten the hang of square and rectangle albums I am excited to start making some SHAPED albums!!!!! These things are all the rage lately, I’m seeing them everywhere I couldn’t wait to make some of my own. When I saw the flourish chipboard albums at Oriental Trading Company, I immediately knew I just had to have them lol! For less than $9, you get three different flourish album shapes, with 20 pages each. Since I usually only use 10 pages per album, I will get 6 albums out of this set – yippee !  So I made some quick page albums to work with the different shapes in this set. Of course you don’t need to have the chipboard albums to make these, you could always just mount them on cardstock or your own homemade chipboard shapes too .

You can buy each of the flourish albums separately, OR if you want to get all three, you save a bunch (it’s like a buy two get one free deal)! You can click on the images below to be taken to the Weeds and Wildflowers store . Oh, and they are all 20% off through this weekend too!!

I have just finished making the Cosmos album and I’m still working on the Blissful and Doodly Albums. So fun! Here are pics of the one I made so far, stay tuned for more !

So have you made a shaped album? What shapes are your favorites? Please share links to some shaped albums you love – I can’t get enough of these things lol! By-the-way, if you like these as much as I do, you are gonna looooove the next featured scrapper I have lined up . Any guesses as to who that might be ?