Erika

Getting to know our designers

The second question in our getting to know our designers feature -

What is your favorite thing about fall?

Dianne: I love everything about fall!!!!! It's probably my favorite season. I love the cripsness in the air, all of the amazing colors of leaves, the pumpkins, I could go on and on......I love every bit of fall!

Jennifer: I love everything about fall! They are my favorite colors, fall scents (pumpkin spice), fall activities (playing in leaves, leaf hunts, pumpkin picking, trick or treating!)

Laurel: The colors and the cool weather. I am not a sun worshipper!

Jamie: All the colors it brings to the outdoors...haunted hayrides....oh, and corn mazes!

Barbara: Love the fall colors

Enfys: Crisp cool mornings

Sandi C: I love the colors of fall and the crisp, cool days that beg a sweater.

Kim G: The color of the leaves!

Erin: The smell of the air.

Sarah: A reprieve from the hot summer! Cool breezes, walks in the afternoon and the trees all turning lovely shades of orange and red

Christine: Piles of leaves and all things pumpkin flavored

Marjorie: Definitely the clothes! I love getting to wear my sweaters, scarves, and boots!

Angela: The reminder that change can be good.

Kim S: Living in the mountains, I have to say the glory in the color!

Leanne: The leaves changing colors.

Kerri: The smell of the leaves

Heidi: The beautiful trees, the smell of the leaves, the cooler weather, decorating our home with our fall and Halloween decorations, baking sweets and breads, drinking coffee in the evening, chili and soups, and even the rain... It's my favorite season! The only thing is, it doesn't last long enough!

Jessica: The smell of crisp mountain air on a clear day.

Nadya: The cool breeze of fresh air, change of colors... it's beautiful!!!

Joni: Well, growing up in Ohio and now living in Phoenix Arizona (where we don't really have "fall"), I'd have to say I miss all the falling tree leaves...those big piles of color...jumping in them and then having Daddy rake them all back up so we could do it all again. Guess I should scrapbook that too, huh?

Dianne

Just for fun - Getting to know some of our designers better

We asked our design team members (only those chosen before Thursday) to answer a few questions. We thought it would be fun for you to get to know some of them a little better...On to our first question...

What was your favorite childhood Halloween costume?

Dianne: The one that I remember the most was in 6th grade and I dressed up as a girl from the 50's. I had my jeans rolled up, white bobbie socks on, white sneakers, a big oxford shirt and my hair in a pony tail. It's funny, because my mom mentioned that in passing a few weeks ago and said that I really resembled her when she was a teen.

Joni: My mom is a great seamstress so she made most of my childhood costumes. I guess my favorite is the clown costume she made and I wore when I was 2 years old....probably because a few years ago she mailed it to me and Joseph wore it as his costume at age 2. Guess I should probably scrapbook that, huh?

Jennifer: A witch costume that my mom made for me when I was in kindergarten


Jessica: Juliette my freshman year in high school - I was chaperoning some kiddos I babysat at the time and borrowed this great vintage dress from the drama department. Loved it!

Heidi: The one childhood Halloween costume that I remember is a homemade Little Red Riding Hood costume. I especially remember my mom using pencil eyeliner and putting freckles on my cheeks!

Kerri: my witch costume my mom made

Leanne: dressing up as a Gyspy!

Kim S: Princess

Angela: Before my mom went off to work full time, she would make us costumes. I have some sweet pics of me as a ballerina. I remember what the tutu felt like, the itchy crenoline, and mom pinning it together in a fitting. I'd have to go with that!

Christine: My Cinderella costume that mom made when I was five - I want to make my Lucy wait until she's five to be Cinderella

Marjorie: A Scientist in 5th grade. I've always loved biology and physics and wearing my Mom's lab coat made me feel so official.

Erin: It was a cat costume made out of tights.

Kim G: Cowgirl

Sandi C: I loved being a gypsy and wearing my mother's big gold hoop earrings. I thought I looked divine.

Jamie: An elephant costume my mom made

Laurel: Not really a halloween person, dreaded having to figure out a costume but since I was such a tomboy/cowgirl I loved my 'cowgirl' costume (or perhaps is was because I got to go trick -or-treating with a boy I had a crush on - a real life cowboy! LOL)

Julie: I only dressed up a few times, we mostly went to church and just had a fair or something like that, but when I was little I was a butterfly! My costume was the bomb! Mom decked me out as a butterfly, the wings had glitter, and I still love glitter to this day!

Joy

Crystal

Catherine

Amy S

Amy H

Our New Design Team

New Members - Design Team
Crystal
Catherine
Dianne
Erika
Jennifer
Amy H
Julie
Kathy
Robin J
Joy N

New Members - Cricut/Cuttlebug Design Team
Sherri
Amy S

Continuing Members - Regular Design Team
Kim S
Sandi C
Jill
Erin
Joni
Leanne
Jessica
Sarah
Enfys
Barbara

Continuing Members - Cricut/Cuttlebug Design Team
Kerri
Jamie
Meg
Nadya
Jenny T

Thank you all of the applicants - we really enjoyed looking through all your work. We regularly have to fill spots as they open up - so we encourage you to continue to be involved - you never know when we might need you!

Christine's Pick for the Punch Challenge Winner

My pick this week was scrappinpsycho - it combines two of my fave things marquees and red. She did an amazing job combining patterned papers too! Great layout!

Angela's Pick for Punches Winner

Lots of great layouts this week. Wanda's bag is fun and looks like she used a border punch plus the MS punches for the spiderweb and bat etc. Very cute and well done!

Details!?

Janelle - tell us about this layout! I think it's very sweet and I want to know if those are all punches or not. I want details! Email us at practicalscrappers@gmail.com or comment below!

Focus: Punches

Punches have come a long way since I got my first circle punch (see above :). These days it’s pretty fun to consider all the possibilities when you’re standing in front of the display of punches at the store. Some of us might be hesitant to invest, but Christine shows us this week that you can dig up those old punches you’ve had for years, and make them work. And with all the fabulous examples from our DT, you might just rush off to the store for a new one today! What a great challenge for us all.

So I love the texture that punches bring. We want to get the most out of our tool, so making 10 of a shape we have, makes us happy - if we can use it on the page effectively. Christine and Nadya both demonstrate how this can work beautifully. It can be especially great if you pull out some coordinating papers and mix and match.

Nadya’s 'Thinking of You' flower card uses the negative space – something else that is great and easy to forget. Jessica makes great use of negative space. Look closely at her layout this week. Because of the placement of the border punch at the top and bottom, it looks like she has slid a patterned sheet behind. Very cool. Oh, yeah, and Christine’s use of negative space on her Christmas layout is stunning! Very great.

It seems owls are the thing to make with punches. Jessica uses her border punch on hers to create the feather element. Cute. As far as nature goes, Meg uses that cute butterfly punch and then pulls the wings up to give make her card 3D.

Joni uses a tiny circle punch to repeat the circle element on her page. Nice. I thought about using the punched out stars from my border punch, but I’m too lazy to glue them all on. (J They were tiny!)

Layers of border punches are the thing to do these days and Jamie does it very well. Layering these borders is great and we encourage it. The paper you choose to do this can make a big difference. Amy H uses the perfect paper for her border punch on this incredible card (recognizing the strength of a breast cancer survivor - awesome card you should check out).

When it comes down to it, punches can add that extra UMPH to your page, that takes it from hohum, to fab. Pull yours out today and enjoy your supplies!

Post your Punch Projects Here

All projects must be submitted by 5:00 ET on Friday

Altered Projects using Punches

An altered gift bag by Kim S

A cupcake album by Sarah

Simplicity

Simplicity is our new weekly feature. This feature will showcase at least one scrapbook layout that isn't complicated. It has minimal embellishments, makes use of basic supplies, and includes journaling and a title. It of course will always include our challenge item for the week. We hope you enjoy this feature - a slightly different approach to scrapping than we focus on the rest of the week.

Cricut/Cuttlebug Punch Day

Today is Cricut/Cuttlebug Day and they offer up some great inspiration. Check out the different ways they made use of their punches. It's fantastic to see all the different punches being used. I have definitely used some tools that I haven't used in a long time!

Cricut/Cuttlebug Punch Projects

Kerri

Nadya


Samantha


Jamie


Meg

It's Card Day

This card uses two different punches and makes me happy. I used a corner punch I haven't used in ages. I also had that felt candy corn in my stash for at least two years. It never really seemed to fit with a layout. But it certainly makes a cute card - especially when you add the eyes and smile! Submissions are already rolling in - keep 'em coming!

Punch Cards

Kim

Enfys

Lynn

Leanne

Heidi

Brandilynn

Jessica

Chirp Express Update

I thought our readers should be aware of this letter:

Dear Chirp Express members,

It saddens us greatly to report that Provo Craft has threatened our company, alleging copyright infringement. Their position is that you (and we) don’t purchase cartridges, we purchase a personal software license to use the content on a cartridge. Their position is that you are licensing software, like an installable computer program, and not that you are buying a product like a book, DVD, or video game. We disagree with the position that they are representing and believe our business practices to be 100% within copyright law. We believe our business operates under the legal principle of “First Sale Doctrine” and believe also that the Computer Software Rental Amendments Act of 1990 supports our position by excluding “computer program[s] which [are] embodied in a machine or product” from being considered software that is not permissible to rent, lease, or lend. Netflix operates entirely under this same legal principle and there are numerous case law precedents in various state and federal courts that uphold this same position. No case has ever been recorded in relation to Cricut© Cartridge rental, thus we only have similar cases to refer to.

Unfortunately, since Chirp Express is a small business, we do not have legal representation on staff. We will be pursuing various legal options, but in the meantime, we’ve decided the best course of action is to suspend service. We realize that this is inconvenient for you, but ask for your patience with the situation. We will be cancelling all of the PayPal subscriptions today, and ask that you return the Chirp Express rental cartridges immediately. Upon receipt of the returned cartridges we will issue a partial-month refund for the portion of your rental month remaining after October 27^th, 2009.

We plan to obtain some expert legal advice on this matter and hope to resume service again at a future date. If you know of anyone who works with Intellectual Property law and would like to help address some of the anti-consumer policies that Provo Craft represents, please e-mail us at info@chirpexpress.com.

Thank you for your patronage; it has been a pleasure serving you.

- The Chirp Express Team

This week's challenge is punches

We did basic punches before - this week we are challenging you to use any and all punches including border punches. We will also begin two new regular features this week - on Thursdays we will feature an altered project using punches. We will also have a new Simplicity feature. You won't want to miss all our features throughout the week - our designers, as always, have worked hard! Mr. Linky will remain at the top of the page all week long - but there will be new work daily underneath it. I used four punches on the layout above - how many can you put on yours?

Layouts using punches

Angela

Kim S

Sarah

Joni

Jessica

Marjorie

Leanne

Laurel

Kristin

Jill

Erin

Barbara