Friday Finds

Happy Friday, Dawn here  with Friday Finds. I don’t know about anyone else but I am looking forward to this weekend and working with all those cute kits I got during the iNSD blog hop. I wanted to share this Living social deal this week, Winkiwoo helps you retrieve all those photos you have on Facebook that you have forgotten about and has a way to print them into wonderful photobooks.

Thursday Tidbits: Random Acts of Art Kindness Postcards

Hi there all of you lovely, artistic readers! This is Melissa T. here with your weekly Thursday Tidbit. This week, I would like to share with you a concept that I learned on the website Milliande: An Art Community for Women. Everyone has heard of Random Acts of Kindness, but have you ever heard of Random Acts of Art Kindness (RAAK)? This concept is pretty simple to accomplish and is sort of a karmic pay-it-forward. First, you pick a random person in your art community (on Milliande there is an entire group with people signed to send and receive RAAKs), then you send them a little piece of art to brighten their day.  You always get bills, sales flyers, and more bills in your mailbox. How wonderful it is to open the mailbox to find a lovely piece of art from a total stranger! I love it so much that I have an entire memo board filled with these Random Acts of Art Kindness in my bedroom to remind me that you do not need an occasion to celebrate the artist that resides within yourself.

Unfortunately, the price of postage keeps rising and not many of us have the time or energy to prepare large numbers of Artist Trading Cards or Matchbox Shrines to send to total strangers.  So, at Milliande, the members have instituted a group that sends Postcard RAAKs.  Can you imagine getting a whole new piece of art for $0.32?  To do this you will first need to pick the size of your postcard. I usually use a 4″x6″ template because you can fit two on a vertical 8″x11.5″ piece of cardstock, and it gives you more room for your creation. I have created a PDF for you to use for the front of your postcard. Simply design the front of the cardstock, cut out each card, flip it over, address the back, place a stamp, and write a short but sweet message to whomever you choose.

Now, you may ask,”Melissa T., what has this to do with scrapbooking?” Recently, I have discovered that by using GIMP 2.0, my template, and all of the “Outside Content” downloaded in my scrapbooking file on my computer, I can create a lovely postcard digitally without ever having to break out my drawing pens or sketching pencils. I don’t know if this is cheating, but I put as much time into it as I would have if I had created the postcard manually. If you would like to try this technique to send a RAAK postcard, simply follow the steps listed.

1. Open GIMP 2.0.
2. Click the File tab and select Open from the dropdown menu.
3. Select the template for the RAAK Postcard Front from wherever you have saved it and click “Import” into
the new document.
4. Click the File tab again and select Open from the menu.
5. Choose a background paper from your “Outside Content” scrapbooking file. THis will open in a new window.
6. Shrink the size of the paper to 4″x6″, click on the edit tab, and select copy.
7. Paste the paper onto the template and resize it accordingly. Once in place, you may begin adding embellishments,
word art, or extra papers as you see fit by following the directions 4-6. GIMP 2.0 allows you to manipulate the images
in many ways, so use your creativity just as you would if creating a page in a scrapbook.
8. Save the document and print it on white cardstock.

Postcard Template Front 4X6

I have created a sample for you to print and use from Simplicity from Missy’s Bits which may be found at MyMemories and Divine Digital.

Serenity_Postcard Front 4×6

You may use it to start your own RAAK train. My fingers are crossed, hoping that one will end up in my own mailbox soon.  And as always, make a memory today, and be sure to have a camera on hand to capture it!

Proudly supporting Cystic Fibrosis month-Kara’s Story

Did you know that May is support Cystic Fibrosis awareness month? This disease is very near and dear to our hearts here at Scrapping Artistry. Our very own CT manager Kara battles this disease every day and has for her entire life.

Kara’s Story

In support of her we have decided to do something great to recognize this disease and support finding a cure. For the rest of this month we have a challenge here for our readers. This challenge is go to Kara’s BabyDoll Photography and Scrapping Facebook Fanpage and “LIKE” it. After you “LIKE” her page she is challenging each of you to support CF by posting a picture of yourself (recent or nonrecent) wearing PURPLE. For completing this challenge each person will receive a CF kit made especially for Kara by her friends here at Scrapping Artistry. Below you will see the previews of this amazing kit you’ll receive, but first another great offer to help support this cause…..

SugarMoon and Missy’s Bits have put their kits offered at With Love Studio on sale for $2 through the end of the month, and better yet all the proceeds made on these kits sold will go directly to the CF Foundation to support the research needed to help find a cure for this disease. Please stop by their shops and purchase a kit at this great discount and help support this cause!

For showing your support by posting a picture of yourself wearing purple Kara will send you all of this:

If you’d like to make an additional donation click the button below (or on the side of our blog) to go directly to the CF Foundation to make your donation in honor of Kara Doerfer.

Look at this great layout Marilyn made for Kara today!!

Tuesday Treasure~ Birthday Bash

Hi Amber here with your Tuesday Treasure. I don’t know if you’ve heard but Sugarmoon has the Download a Day at 3scrapateers.  It is her awesome kit Birthday Bash which you can purchase HERE if you don’t want to wait for all the peices at 3scrapateers.

Here is a preview of the kit! I think it is adorable and such a great birthday kit! It is perfect for a boy or a girl it has tons of embellishments and tons of awesome papers. Even though there aren’t any solid papers shown there are some included!

I have made an adorable QP for you guys today! I hope you enjoy and please post your finished products so we can see!

Here is my layout made with the QP

{DOWNLOAD HERE} 

Enjoy and Happy Scrappin!

Monday’s Meal: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies

Hi everyone!  It’s Cammi bringing you Monday’s Meal.  Today I’m sharing a recipe from Betty Crocker for Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies.  They are so simple and delicious!  Enjoy!

Happy Mother’s Day

Happy Mother’s Day!!!

Christie here today to brighten up your day.

Found these on facebook

Friday Finds

Happy Friday, Dawn here with your Friday Finds. This week I wanted to share a couple of cute kits by Sugar Moon Designs and Missy Bits that can be found at With Love Studio.  This first page was made by CT artist Angi, using Sugar Moons Design kit Sea Jewels.

you can find Sea Jewels at WLS here

And my second find this week is Missy Bits Skylar Dreams made by CT artist Kara

You can find this cute kit at WLS here

Thursday Tidbits – Cookie Box Template Hybrid Project

Hello, there! Melissa T. is here to bring you another tasty morsel in the form of hybrid art using digital scrapbooking supplies and GIMP 2.0. I sincerely hope that everyone enjoyed last week’s introduction to GIMP, Moleskine, Milliande, and the freebies I created. I know that it was a lot to absorb, so this week I have another hybrid project for you to enjoy.

For those of you who don’t know, this week is Teacher Appreciation Week, plus Sunday is Mother’s Day. Those are two great occasions in which sentiment (and even gifts) are appreciated.  Today we will be creating a Cookie Box (fill with your own recipe for your favorite cookie) designed in GIMP. I suggest printing out the template on white paper first and cutting it out before printing the finished one on cardstock. That way, you know exactly where to fold and glue your box edges.

1. Open GIMP 2.0 and click on “Open a New File.”

2. Once opened, you will click on the template format for the cookie box wherever you choose to save it on your computer.

3. Pick out the paper from your “Outside Content Folder” on your computer or external hard drive. Click on the File button and select “Open a file” and import it into a new document. From here you will want to shrink the size of the paper and copy and paste it into the background of your template. You do not have to stick with one color or style of paper since it is your project. Using this template, it is rather hard to use the “Fill” option, so you will have to cut and shrink the paper, move it, and rotate it to fill in all of the rectangles.

4. Choose an embellishment or word Art to add to your cookie box and select “Open a new file” to import it into GIMP. You will want to shrink the embellishments, word art, or even pictures that you open before copying and pasting onto the first template.

5. Repeat this step as many times as necessary until you feel that you have completed designing the front and back of your box.

6. Once finished, save the file and print it on heavy cardstock. Cut out the template, fold, glue as directed, and allow to dry before inserting your cookie or gift of choice (this is the perfect size for a Post-It pad for a teacher gift).

For my sample template, I created a design from Divine Digital’s Blog Hop this past week on Women in Creativity in which Sugar Moon participated. You may either use my PDF or create your own using all of the freebies and “Outside Content” you can find.  The world is your proverbial creative oyster!

All of the tools are here to start your cookie box hybrid project.Cut out the template along the solid lines, fold along the dotted, and glue along the diagonal lines.Allow your box to dry after gluing before closing the cookie box completely.This is what your finished Cookie Box will look like!

Cut out the template along the solid lines, fold along the dotted, and glue along the diagonal lines.

Allow your box to dry after gluing before closing the cookie box completely.

This is what your finished Cookie Box will look like!

Cookie Box Template PDF

Women in Creativity Cookie Box Template

Go make a memory today, and make sure that you have a camera on hand to capture it!

Wacky Wednesday

Hi, Amber here with your Wacky Wednesday Challenge. I don’t know if you saw, but yesterdays freebie was a QP made with Sugarmoon Designs new kit Sea Jewels.

Here is a QP made by Shanna with Missys Bits kit Skylars Dream

.

And another one made with the same kit by Amber

So today my challenge for you is to make a QP with your favorite kit. I can’t wait to see what you all make! Happy Scrapping!

Tuesday Treasure

Hii Amber here with your Tuesday Treasure once again! First I want to talk about iNSD weekend… Who all had a blast joining in on games and challenges? Did you make a budget that you weren’t allowed to spend over? If so did you break that budget or spend only what you said you would spend. Did you join in on any blog trains?

I didn’t end up spending much money but I did join a few blog trains and had a blast doing challenges and games over at With Love Studios. I have so many kits to unzip and organize! I hope you guys enjoyed the weekend and also picked up some great stuff from Missy’s and Sugarmoon’s Sales!

Sugarmoon had a new release this weekend over at With Love Studio’s called Sea Jewels. I love all the colors in this kit!

Here is a preview of what you will be getting today, a layout of me using the QP and your download link. Enjoy Have a great Tuesday!

{DOWNLOAD}