Swirlydoos DT Announcement

I'm sure you've heard of this "little" scrapbook kit club called Swirlydoos?  If you haven't, then let me fill you in... They are a terrific scrappy kit club that ship elegant kits, featuring the hottest products, right to your door EVERY month - and they have asked me to join their rockin' design team!  I will start in February, for the February kit reveal.  I am thrilled to be joining the talented ladies over there and getting to know everyone on the forum.

Well, between last Friday's Pion DT announcement, having spent a wonderful birthday weekend in the mountains and now this announcement... you could say that my New Year's resolution of "more laugh lines, less frown lines" isn't very hard to fulfill these days, LOL.

Pion Design DT Announcement

I am so excited to share that I've been asked to return for another year on the Pion Design DT. Not only do I get to work with some of the amazing ladies from last year, but... the line-up of guest designers for 2012 is out of this world talented. All of our parcels are in the mail and you should be seeing a lot of Pion gorgeousness with the new "For Father" and "From My Heart" collections very soon. I can't wait to see what everyone creates! In a few months, a few of our guest designers will be asked to join the team for the rest of the year too. Congratulations to all (a special whooo-hoooo to my scrappy online buddies - you know who you are :)

Dream Layout (Green Tara/Pion Design)

My Pion Design and Green Tara projects just seem to be a match made in heaven. I truly feel blessed to be on such wonderful design teams that I can combine assignments for. There are always so many gorgeous projects posted on these manufacturer blogs too from the other designers... so be sure to check them out!

Here is a layout I made using TCR palette #92, along with a sketch that Nadia Cannizzo designed for the January C'est Magnifique challenge. The papers are from the Pion Design For Father collection and I used some Green Tara white petals, cream roses and apple blossoms, as well as some of their divine lace trim. I soooooo love their lace - thick and gorgeous!

The photo is of my son a few years ago asleep on the couch. I just can't seem to do a boy layout without flowers, LOL Here is a close-up of the beautiful Green Tara embellies:

This is the fantastic sketch that I rotated like so:

Here is TCR inspiration palette I used:

Guest Design for OUAS

I was thrilled when Nadia asked if I would have time to create a layout with her gorgeous sketch for the Once Upon A Sketch Jan 1st-14th challenge. The criteria along with the sketch is to share your thoughts/feelings or a memorable experience regarding New Year's Eve. For me it used to be about the party. Now that I have kids, it is usually a night we hang out and have a lot of fun together  - but this year was different. 2011 was an exhausting year for me and I wasn't feeling up to doing much celebrating. We spent a quiet evening watching a movie and after the kids went to bed I made my first New Year's resolution (first one ever!).

Here is my layout interpretation of the sketch and the journaling is on the back. I used a few Dusty Attic chipboard pieces and I made the flowers using Green Tara petals and lace, then added some bling. The papers are Bo Bunny (timepiece collection) and those gorgeous butterflies were a beautiful gift from:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/KarlasKreativeKorner

Journaling reads: "This is me 3 years ago, the last time I didn't mind being photographed. As the years go by it is inevitable that more lines start appearing on our faces. I'd like to say that I have more laugh lines now... but the truth is the frown lines seem to be more prominent. My motto for 2012 is more laugh lines, less frown lines. This means some changes in my lifestyle will need to occur. I don't do well with change - but life is too short to not have the time to truly enjoy the moments that make you smile".

Here is a close-up of the flowers:

I rotated the beautiful sketch like so:

It's not too late to enter the challenge!

Farell to Scrap That!

As Scrap That! transitions to new ownership in 2012, I have decided to step down as a design team member as well as their kit design coordinator. After almost 2 years on the team, it is time for me to explore new opportunities and fulfill a few other scrappy goals. I have met so many wonderful ladies through the kit club/community and designed alongside some of the best designers in the industry - for that I am truly thankful. This is not goodbye as I plan on dropping in on the forum from time to time to catch up with everyone.

New Pion Design Collection!

Ohhh I just can't wait to get my little paws on this amazing Pion Design collection - "From my Heart 2". Pinks and browns and butterflies - oh my! It is available in 12x12 and 6x6 sizes too. Perfect for all those upcoming Valentines projects. My DT package just can't arrive fast enough, LOL.

Little Angel (Pion Design/Green Tara)

Happy New Year! (I just can't stop saying it, LOL)

The papers I used for this layout are a mix of Pion Design "fairytale of spring" and "studio of memories" collections. The lace, purple gardenias and cherry blossom as well as a pink apple blossom (used as the middle of my handmade flower) are all beautiful Green Tara blooms. The handmade flower was designed to surround and blend with the pink Green Tara apple blossom in the middle. I will be doing a tutorial on this gigantic flower soon so stay tuned :) The bling is ZVA (thanks again to my friend Bonnie for custom ordering!). The title is a wonderful Dusty Attic piece - I will have more in my shop in just a few weeks.  The picture? That's my daughter when she was 9 months old in an egg prop. Thanks for stopping by today!

Once Upon A Sketch PRIZE Sponsor

Happy New Year! I am thrilled to be a sponsor for Once Upon A Sketch for the start of 2012. Not only do I love the sketches and the incredible design team interpretations, but I am also proud to sponsor a site that my scrappy friend Nadia created. It is one of the top sketch challenge sites in industry and definitely embraces the true meaning of preserving memories.

All entries will qualify to randomly win this Dusty Attic chipboard prize pack. You can find a selection of chipboard in my Etsy shop at http://www.etsy.com/shop/vickyalberto. Please note that I have ordered and will be receiving the newest released chipboard styles mid January. I will also be restocking my shop with the most popular pieces at this time. They sell out fast so be sure to check back often!

Here is the beautiful sketch and criteria:

Journalling Criteria/theme: New Years Eve!
New year's Eve is the theme. We would like you to journal about your feelings around this time of year, or tell us about your most memorable New Year's Eve. Where were you? Who were you with? What did you do? Why is this one memorable? Note: the photo that you use for this challenge does not have to necessarily be from New Years Eve. For example, if you spent New Years Eve with your family you can have a photo of your family taken ANY time of the year.
Remember that you are allowed to also create a card or altered project based on this sketch and instead of the journalling criteria you need to use a quote. You must combine our journalling criteria/theme with this sketch.

Cherish Layout

Yes I do still scrapbook! I was so focused on projects other than layouts before Christmas that it really felt good to get back to my "roots",  LOL. Now that Christmas is over, I had the itch this week to do a tropical vacation style layout. As soon as I saw TCR palette #91, I was determined to get it done. I found these awesome Prima "Shabby Chic collection" papers in my stash and decided to give the BAP sketch a go too. This isn't my typical palette style but it was so much fun to do. How can you go wrong with a cute toddler picture too, right? The papers are pretty busy so I kept the rest simple. The title is a Dusty Attic chipboard piece and all the flowers are Prima. I used chalk ink on the chipboard and stippled gesso on the edge of the picture.

Here is the awesome December Prima BAP sketch:

TCR#91 palette I used as inspiration:

BTW - I have ordered and will be receiving the new Dusty Attic chipboard releases mid January for sale in my Etsy shop.

I can't believe this is my last post of the year! Have fun celebrating tonight :)

Dusty Attic Update

My shipment with the new Dusty Attic chipboard has been slightly delayed and I am now anticipating it to arrive mid January - instead of this week. In the meantime, I have loaded most of my personal scrappy stash into my shop (40 listings added today!) for those of you who need some chipboard right now. That's why most quantities are only of 1 each... and some of these I will not be bringing back for a little while. My delayed shipment includes most of the brand new releases as well as I will be restocking some of the popular styles (yes, loads of chicken wire :)

Thanks for your patience and continued support.

I TRULY do appreciate you!

Check it out at:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/vickyalberto

Merry Christmas! (Pion Design/Green Tara)

A few little "Merry Christmas" tags I made with some of my Pion Design scraps from the Waiting for Santa 2 collection. I thought these would be cute for my boys this year. The beautiful red roses, white buds, silver stars and red bead string are all from Green Tara. Make sure you head on over to both of these manufacturer blogs and follow them. There are so many wonderful projects being presented by all of the talented ladies on these DT teams (especially this magical time of year). I am amazed at the creativity and can't wait to see what 2012 will bring!

Wising you a very Merry Christmas!

Adventure Layout (Pion Design/Green Tara)

I couldn't resist making this layout for a few reasons... TCR palette #89 was perfect for use with my brand new Pion Design "For Father" papers  - so I knew I had to squeeze some creating time into this busy week. It was also a really good excuse to use The Dusty Attic December sketch and some gorgeous Green Tara flowers. This layout just seemed to fall into place in no time at all!

This layout is of my sons during a camping trip in the mountains two years ago. I am fortunate that all 3 of my kids love the outdoors. There is a mix of Pion Design papers (For Father and Studio of Memories), Dusty Attic and Tattered Angels Chipboard, plus I've layered some gorgeous Green Tara flowers on here. Sometimes on a boy layout, a little "flowering" goes a long way. Here I have used two layers of the new Green Tara white petals and a cream cherry blossom to create each flower.

Here is the gorgeous TCR palette this week:

And here is the DA sketch this month:

Thanks so much for taking time out of one of your busiest weeks of the year to visit me today! BTW I will have the new DA releases in my Etsy shop mid to end of January :)

Santa Sleigh (Pion Design/Green Tara)

This a was a fun project that I stumbled accross. I was searching for a kid's craft project (www.busybeecrafts.com) when I found this cute little sleigh template at that I just had to try out for myself.

I slightly modified their template (enlarged the template and put a deeper curve) used some Pion design paper and Green Tara metallic swirl embellies and trim. Makes a cute and easy little candy dish for the holiday season!

BTW, Pion Design is looking for guest designers. Scroll to my next post for the details!

Pion Design is looking for designers!

PION DESIGN DT CALL

We are looking for crafters from all over the world who love to create with Pion Design papers!

To start with, we are looking for guest designers, and later some of our guest designers will have the chance to become Pion Design Team members for the rest of 2012.

As a team member, you will receive a generous amount of Pion Design papers to work with. What we would like from you are a minimum of 2 project posts per month on your personal blog as well as for our blog and to promote our products on at least one major online gallery. Anything extra is appreciated.

Please send your application to jenny@piondesign.se Write a little about yourself and tell us why you want to be a member of the Pion Design Team. Link to your blog and let us know if you have any other design assignments. Send us 3 pictures of projects made with mostly Pion Design papers in size 1000x1000 px. These projects do not have to be newly created for this call and may be older projects. We just want to get a sense of your design style and how you use our papers.

(If you are from a country where we do not have any retailers it is ok to apply with projects without Pion Design papers)

Please write Pion Design Team 2012 Application as your e-mail subject.

This DT call is open until the 8th of January 2012.

International applicants are welcome.

Just for me!

I took some very good advice from my friend Tara Orr. She once told me that "sometimes you just need to craft for yourself, no DT deadline, no specified product to use... just something for you". That's what I did! I actually made 5 of these pretties for my Christmas tree. I have a "thing" about ornaments being in sets of 5, 7 or 9 - all exactly the same.

The round crochet doilies and foam balls I had bought on clearance from Michaels last Winter and the cameos are The Girl's Paperie. The cameos are actually buttons, so I threaded the seam binding through (2 strips) and tied a bow - no glue required! I bought the seam binding off Etsy at http://www.etsy.com/shop/Bluebirdlane because I was too lazy to tint and crinkle some myself, LOL. I love them and since I got really good sales on all the materials, they didn't cost me much more than $3 each to make. I'm, thinking these would look pretty with Bo Bunny or Prima Trinkets too! Hmm, now to find more doilies :)

Got my old blog back!

I am thrilled to report that ITKUPILLI at http://blo64rt.blogspot.com resolved the issue of shrunken backgrounds and she updated ALL of her backgrounds with new code to fix the issue and comply to the new blogger ways (Oh Blogger!). She is so wonderful to have done this and her backgrounds are truly the BEST! OK, so I have my old template back... but I'm keeping the pink links (used to be blue). Small changes - baby steps (LOL!).

Scrap That! Dec Reveal/Blog Hop

Welcome to my new blog for this wonderful Scrap That! "Waiting for Santa" hop. Blogger issues earlier this week forced the change - I miss my old blog (but at least this was one of the templates I could actually get to work). Let me know if you see anything weird on here though, LOL.

Well... the cat's been out of the bag on this Dec. kit, hee, hee... yup the fabulous Pion Design Waiting for Santa 2 collection. I've said it many times but it is seriously the best holiday collection I've ever seen! I've made so many DT projects for them and was still thrilled to work with the papers again for this reveal.

If you have just arrived here from Tina’s blog you are in the correct and final place of this hop! If not, head back to the Scrap That! blog for the blog hop order. The hop starts at 10 am MST today, Friday Dec. 9th and ends at midnight MST on Sunday, Dec. 11th.

For my first layout, this is my eldest son as a toddler enjoying the massive dump of snow we had - great for now forts! Other than a doily and some beads, everything on here is from the main kit this month. This layout is so special to me not only for the photographed memory but because my 8-year old son picked the papers for this layout himself!


Here is a close-up of my handmade flowers - a variation of the technique used in my wild roses - using 2 punched out 6-petal daisy layers (instead of using a rounded tip 5-petal flower punch). I also extra pinched the pointed tips and glued in various pearl beads in the middle. All of my flower tutorials can be found in the right sidebar of this blog.


This is the gorgeous sketch for this kit, that I used, designed by our very own Robin Shakoor.


My next project is a matching Christmas card and tag set made with the main kit contents and some ribbon from my stash. There is still time to enter the 12 tags of Christmas at Scrap That! (ends Dec 24th). See details HERE. There are so many wonderful graphics in this paper collection to play with!


Pretty Petaloo flowers and Dusty Attic chippies in the kit.


This is another card and tag set made entirely with the main kit. I love that antique gold lace trim, don't you?

Don't forget the project I already revealed this month... I actually used all my paper scraps from this kit (but I just couldn't tell 'ya at that time, LOL). It was made for the Scrap That! advent challenge - ending Dec. 15th. See details HERE. All the embellies were from my stash on that one though. The kids are really enjoying the treats I leave each day!


Here is a peek at the main kit...


And this is the gorgeous embellie add-on...


As you can see, I still have the add-on and a few sheets of paper left to create another project.. stay tuned!

Do not forget my secret word, it is TEAM!

Just to remind you of all the ways you can win:

STEP ONE: First of all, you will need to visit all EIGHT blogs and leave a comment on each blog :) Take your time!! Our designers have beautiful blogs :) **This is important so we know you have been to all the blogs **. There will be a randomly drawn comment winner from each blog, and one of those lucky ladies will be selected to win a fabulous package of Prima! How easy is that?

STEP 2: Once you’ve done that, you’ll need to swing by our * facebook page, and LIKE us, and then head over to our social community and become a MEMBER. Once you’ve done that you will be eligible to win a Scrap That! store gift certificate.

STEP 3: If you want to enter to win the Grand Prize of a Pion Design "Waiting for Santa" Prize Package generously provided by Jenny at Pion Design, then head over to our COMMUNITY for details on our monthly challenge. The challenge will run from Dec 9th to Dec 29th so you have LOTS of time to post your creations. You can enter as many times as you like. You do not need to be a subscriber to participate. The more entries, the more chances you have to win!

STEP 4: Who doesn’t LOVE some Dusty Attic? Who wouldn’t want to win some Dusty Attic?
Then, while you are hopping, you will want to be looking for the “special” word on each blog. Once you have visited all the blogs and collected all the special words, they will create a sentence. Email the sentence to friends@scrapthat.ca. All correct entries will be entered into a draw for the Dusty Attic Prize Pack.

If you got lost along the way...

Scrap That! - http://scrapthatchat.blogspot.com/

Lisa - http://kaye2222.blogspot.com/

Natasha - http://www.moments-of-tranquility.com/

PION Design - http://blog.piondesign.se/

Robin - http://robinshakoor.blogspot.com/

Shona - http://suchawonderfulmess.blogspot.com/

Tina - http://tina-mypaperpantry.blogspot.com/

Vicky - you are here!

We hope you all have good fun hopping with us today, thank you so much for playing along! Watch the Scrap That! newsletter on December 26th to see if you are one of the lucky winners!

Card and Tag Set (Pion Design/Green Tara)

I'm sharing a new matching card and tag set I made using the Pion Design Christmas vintage image sheet and their new "For Father" papers. The masculine papers were perfect to make this card and tag for my Father-in-Law. The beautiful white lace, blue cherry blossoms and white sprays are Green Tara products.

HELP! blogger issues

Please note that I am having background template issues with blogger right now so I just deleted it. My background template shows up as a shrunken square in the middle of the blog when I try to paste the code. If anyone else has had the same problem and knows how to fix it, please e-mail me at vickya@shaw.ca.

Thanks!

Vicky

Scrap That! DEC Sneak

Join us on Friday for the full kit reveal and DT blog hop.

We have THREE amazing prizes up for grabs. This kit is just gorgeous and we have an amazing Guest Designer. The fun all starts this Friday Dec 9th at 10 am MST.

Dusty Attic Prize Pack

Pion Paper Pack "Waiting for Santa"

Prima Prize Pack

We are excited to share with you our sneak peek for this month! See you at the HOP!