Great projects sent to us in January

Sometimes we see great lprojects that just don't fit into one of our current calls, so welcome to a new feature for us that will show off just plain great work sent to us by YOU in the last month!

Sue Althouse put together several year in review layouts, this was my personal favorite of them!

 Monique Fox created this fun layout.  I'm always inspired when I see doilies on a layout, I haven't been brave enough to attempt to use one yet!

Libeeti always does such beautiful work and this one makes me feel a little less afraid of the 18 inches of snow headed my way!

Monique is a first timer with us and I'm glad she took the plunge and submitted.  What a beautiful card!

Another newbie here, Michelle, with a stunning layout!  I love how she combined so many different mediums to make a cohesive piece of work.

This darling card comes to us from Sylvia, another first timer!  And now I am officially doily inspired (:

Thanks to all of you who sent in submissions.  We love to see all work and although we can't publish every single item that comes our way, we publish a lot!  So if you haven't yet given it a chance, I encourage you to do so!  

Robyn's Fetish Digi Stamp Giveaway & Tutorial

Robyn's Fetish has opened a new online store!  You'll want to check it out here as they are having some great sales thru the 31st.  Check out these cute winter projects created by our designers.

Kerri 

Natasha created this card using one of the freebies available from Robyn's Fetish

Corinna

Bev

We also have links for you to two great tutorials making hybrid cards using digis. 

 The first is from one of our readers:  Jeannie

The second is from one of our designers:  Smitha

Robyn's Fetish is giving away five digis to one of our readers!  Leave us a comment here telling us what project you are working on right now.  The deadling for entry is February 1st.

Valentines Tutorials

How about some LOVEly tutorials today to get you going on your Valentines fun!

Woven Heart Tutorial from Bev

Today I'd like to share this cute woven ribbon heart. It can be used on  a card or even a great accent on a Layout.  You can do this using either a sewing machine or scotch tape.

If you don't have a sewing machine.. totally scotch tape

each ribbon securing the ends. You could also

hand stitch a running thread around the heart to

help secure it. Do what works best for you.

Draw the heart shape on the ribbon side again for a pattern as above sample.

Here I showed the underside after stitching'.

As you can see I am showing you both at once.

I tried both to prove it can be done.

After you have the Woven Ribbon Heart

you can trim and accent it any way you like.

Mount it on a card or layout as an accent.

I attached 2 cards using the above methods.

Both worked fabulously.

Valentine Fortune Teller from Amanda

January Sketch

Wow, can you believe January is almost over? It seems like yesterday that I was eagerly awaiting Christmas, now Valentine's day is just around the corner! Remember our lovely sketch for January by Pia?

 

A few of you were kind enough to share your creations with us, and we hope you continue to do so, as we love seeing what our sketches inspire!

Here are two very creative and different takes on the same sketch:

Check out the amazing job on that tree trunk!

Debbie Bakk

Mieko Sejima

I hope everyone found time this month for creativity, and hope we helped inspire in some way or another.

Love Mail!

Every year on the 14th of February, Valentine's Day is celebrated world-wide by buying flowers, candy, cards, and other gifts for the ones we love. Children celebrate by share "Valentines" with their classmates in school and even creating Valentine mailboxes for their friends to drop their cards in. With the holiday just a little over two weeks away, we thought we'd share some mailboxes that say, "I Love You" in an extra special way.

We have three great ways that you can create your own little mailbox that you call fill with candy, treat, gifts to send to that special someone and we have some even better samples of how they were done.


Hand Cutting
First up, we have this great little pattern that is available from Better Homes and Garden that you can print out and enlarge to the size you want just like I did in this one below. Now, this is the most time consuming of the three, but all the work is worth it when you see just how adorable they come out!

Border Punches for Layouts

Are your edge punches like mine and getting dusty? Well we've got some great examples from our design team and our readers to get you thinking about pulling out the punches again!

Whether you frame a photo Like Claude or frame the entire page like Jannike,  it just makes sense to rediscover the tools many of us have paid so much for, and used so infrequently.

Jannike

Claude

Cards Using Border Punches

Border punches are the perfect tool for card making. Just a little punching goes a long way to adding detail and dimension to your card. Today's cards will give you lots of ideas to make sure your punches are getting used!

Jeannie shared a series of cards with us that pretty much speak for themselves. Bold colors and bold punches join together to make bold statements. If you let the products do the work, card making can be so satisfying!

One Hour Layout Contest

Let the fun begin! Here is a sketch created by one of newest design team members, Jannike. Jannike joins our team from Sweden and you will be seeing a lot more sketches from her in our monthly sketch challenges.





Here is my sample I did for you...my layout took me 48 minutes (including picture and upload-- I had my darling husband time me). I'll even give ya another pointer....if you have a kit laying around, pull it out. I find it is much easier when doing 1 hour challenges to use up those kits (since everything matches)and just pull out those extras touches you want to add.

You have until 10:15pm EST to have your project linked in the the Inlinkz below! Good luck and have fun!

*Thanks everyone for playing along! All your projects look fabulous. We will announce the winner next week so stay tuned!

Snow Globes, the Enchanting Spheres

Nearly every family has one on display somewhere in their home. Whether it be a momento from a trip, a piece of faimly history, or even just for some amusment/fun these little magical globes have been around since the early 1800's and still remain one of the most popular collectibles.

Here are a few projects from our readers and designers featuring those "watery snow-scapes"...

Carri V

Aymee Gandy

Kerri

Don't forget to stop back at 9pm EST tonight for our one hour layout contest. We already have some international players and hope all of our US followers will join in the fun, too!

Wintery Message Board Highlights

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The first month of the new year is almost over so that means it is time share what has been going on on our message board. Things have been quiet around the board, but hopefully that is all about to change! We got something new in store for you and I know all you challenge addicts will love this (especially those of you who miss our weekly challenges)! Under our "Challenge Category" you will see a new board called "The Monthly Message Board Make Over Challenge". Each month we are going to be featuring a product, tool, supply that we want you to use to create a layout. You have the entire month to create and post your picture in the thread for that month's challenge. The winner will receive a small prize (sponsor or theme related)and their project will featured in our Message Board Highlights article the following month! Are you all excited? Just make sure to hop on over to our Message Board and become a member there. Mark your calendars-- our new challenge begins February 1st, 2011.   To help us decide what our first challenge should be, leave us a comment here and tell us what product, tool, or item from your stash you need to be challenged to use(or has been neglected)!

Onto some of my favorite winter projects that have been posted since last month....

Amanda Bodine

onlycarol1

Thanks for stopping in today....oh, and don't forget 9pm EST this Saturday our one hour layout challenge!  We've got a fabulous sketch from one of our new design team members for you!

Lucky Girl Crafts Kit Feature & Giveaway

It's been a good week for giveaways here at Practical Scrappers and today we've got another one for you!

Lucky Girl Crafts is owned by Jessica, a designer here who's been with us since day one.  One reasons she started Lucky Girl Crafts is because she lives far away from a local scrapbook store.  She was finding that getting her hands on great scrapbooking products and combinations that she liked to work with was a challenge and knew her area friends felt the same way.  So she started putting together these great kits and has taken off with them!  She does a great job of providing a variety of products from different companies and in a range of styles.  Her kits don't confine you to a specific style but open up several different ways you can go with the kit.  

Each month the design team for Lucky Girl Crafts does a "blog party" where you can grab ideas from them and win prizes too!  They also have a new Friday Fun Day Challenge led by their designers.  And on top of that inspiration, Jessica also provides a sheet with designer examples in the kit.  I loved looking at this when I was trying to figure out how I wanted to use certain embellishments!

One other great thing about Lucky Girl Crafts is that Jessica sells off the extras...you can find lots of goodies in her store that are parts from old kits.

Jessica sent over the January kit for me to share with you and here's the projects I created using it.

This kit had some great Pink Paislee canvas borders with adhesive on them already.  I actually cut one in half and used the bottom to make the banner on here and then the top half for the pink border you see at the bottom of the page.  You gotta love making a supply do double duty in an unexpected way!

 I loved using the Making Memories Acrylic paper to make a cute card.  I wish I could've gotten a better picture...but a snow day prevailed (:

 This kit was awesome because it included both cutesy papers as you see here and some shabby chic style papers that you saw earlier.  It also included a lot of great romantic trims.

Now that you've seen what I've done, let's get one of you your own Lucky Girl Kit to work with!  Here's how you can qualify to win:

Be a follower here & leave us a comment telling us if you've ever used a kit from Lucky Girl Crafts before

For a second entry: Be a follower on Lucky Girl Crafts Blog or Facebook Page and let us know

AND for a third entry:  Play along in our one hour layout challenge tomorrow...details are in the sidebar...everyone who plays along will automatically be entered in this drawing!

Deadline for entry is January 27th at 5:OO pm ET.