Friday, February 20, 2009

Amber's Layout: Man oh Man!

Amber used the GingerScraps kit, Man Oh Man to scrap this great layout.


Rough and tough, Man Oh Man is the perfect kit for getting’ dirty.
19 Papers
1 Duct Tape Alpha
Tires
Nuts and Bolts
Chains
Belts
Ropes
Barbwire
Hinges
Alligator Clips
Brads
Staples
Splats
Zippers
Lots of Duct Tape embellishments
Click HERE to see LO's with Man oh Man


Don't forget!


and here is the participation prize that Jen made!

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Our Newest Feature: Let's Meet a Designer! Amber LaBau of Stolen Moments

Hi everyone, this is Jen from Ginger's CT, we all met Tuesday. Our new weekly feature is going to be: Meet the Designers. I sent a list of questions to some great designers and they said they would answer them! Enough about me, let's get to the good stuff!

What's your name and digiscrap blog address? Amber LaBau aka Stolen Moments at http://stolenmomentsdesign.blogspot.com/
Tell us a little about your family. My husband and I have been married for almost 5 years. We have a beautiful little boy - who is the focus of most of my scrapping - who just turned one. We also have two cats who were the babies first! We're living in Kansas City, MO while my husband finishes up his MFA.
Do you work outside the home & if so what do you do? Nope - I'm lucky that way. :D
What other hobbies do you have besides scrapping and designing? I love music and play the piano and sing. I also do - well, did - a fair share of acting before DS was born {my degree is in theatre}. I also go through phases of crocheting, sewing, and other miscellaneous craft projects....
When did you start Digi-scrapping and who taught you? Last June I was looking for things to make a coupon book for Father's Day. I remembered a cousin of mine had blogged about digi-scrapping, so that's where I started looking. No one really taught me, I just look and try to apply what I see....
When did you start designing and how did you learn? July of last year. Also, no one taught me, I just looked at the other designs out there and tried my best to do what they had done. Once, again, observation is the best teacher - seeing what's possible, and actually working with my own kits challenges me to keep progressing and learning.
How did you pick your companies name? I actually had a poll on my personal blog, but vetoed the winning moniker. I decided on Stolen Moments because in thinking about all the time I spent scrapping, it was mainly when my baby was sleeping and a few moments here and there during the day when I could sneak away from "real life", and they were very decidedly "stolen" moments.
Who are your favorite three designers? This is a really hard one! There are SO many talented designers out there! A few that I really admire are Sara Belmont - Sweet Blossom Designs, Jessica Edwards, KimB, Vicki Parker.. the list could go on and on!
What are your favorite parts of a kit to design? I love designing papers! Each kit I do always ends up with several papers thrown out or saved for something else just because I always end up with too many!
What's your favorite kit that you've designed? I really like how Alphabet Remix turned out - it was a remake of my very first kit, and it was so exciting to see how much I'd grown. I also love the colors in Sophisticated Grunge and Someone to Love.
What's your least favorite? That's not fair! :P Honestly, looking back, it's probably Alphabet Soup - my first kit - simply because it was SO bad! (Although I was really proud of it at the time).
How do you get started on a kit? Palette first? Rough idea on what you want your papers or elements to look like? I definitely start with colors first. As I'm laying in bed each night before I go to sleep, all sorts of color combinations float through my head. I pick one, and depending on what it makes me feel - or what I think I could name a kit with those colors - that's the direction I go... It's very organic.
How long does it typically take you to make a kit? Depending on how much time I have to devote to it, if I'm doing other "projects" and how "inspired" I'm feeling, anywhere from 1-2 weeks. Once I did 2 kits in 1 week, though! {I was very inspired that week}.
What is the one word that best describes you? organized - although sometimes all this creative energy makes me a little scatterbrained! How about A-type or OCD? ;)
Who is the most important person in your life? my husband
What is something that not many people know about you? I've had my license suspended twice. :D
If you could travel anywhere where would you go? I would love to go to Europe someday.. I know - not very specific, and very cliche, but what can you do? ;)
When you were little what did you dream of being when you grew up? a teacher or an actress
What is your favorite food? chocolate and ice cream - in no particular order
What do you like doing with your family? We play board games - the good German ones.. none of this Monopoly and Life crap!... and we watch 24 ;)
Where is your favorite place to be? curled up in bed during a thunderstorm, or after sleeping in.. which never happens anymore!
What are three things that are important to you? my family, my friends, my faith
Is there anything you would change about your life? not a one... except maybe getting into scrapbooking sooner! ;)
What are you afraid of? things that go bump in the night, or that something will happen to my husband while he's away from home..
Do you collect anything? I used to collect thimbles, but not so much anymore.. they're all still back at my parent's house. My husband would say I collect hobbies, or better yet - un-finished projects! ;)


Amber, I totally get you on the collecting of un-finished projects... I have a knitting and paper scrapping grave yard in my garage! Thank you so much for answering my questions!

Amber sells her kits at Digital Candy. Here are some previews of my personal favorite kits of hers.





Not only can Amber design, but she scraps very well. She did this layout during a speed scrap the other day!

Credits: Sweet Dreams kit - A Work in Progress, Sweet Dreams add-on - Sweet Blossom Designs, Fresh alpha - Stolen Moments

Tomorrow we will have another great feature for you, and we will show you what happens when Amber gets her hands on one of Ginger's kits!

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Speed Scrap Tonight!!!!

Hey all- Speed Scrap tonight at GingerScraps!! Rachel made the CUTEST Participation Prize!!
Hope to see you there!!

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Let's Meet GrahamLiketheCracker, Jen!

We are starting a new feature here at Gingerscraps. On Tuesdays we are going to profile a Gingerscraps CT member or forum member. This week we are meeting Jen Graham, one of our Gingerscraps creative team members.

What’s your name and digiscrap blog address? Jennifer, but most people call me Jen unless they don’t know any better. My blog is GrahamLikeTheCracker

Tell us a little about your family. I’m a happily married SAHM. My husband and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary last October. We have a 20 month old son named Alton. We live in Southern California, and are lucky enough to live close to most of our extended family.

Do you work outside the home & if so what do you do? No, I have been blessed to be able to stay home since we got married.

What other hobbies do you have besides scrapping? I love to read and bake. It has been hard to find anything good to read since I finished reading the Twilight series. I have now read that 5 times! I tried to go back and read the Harry Potter books again, but they just aren’t the same. I also make fabulous brownies and my husband swears he married me for my chocolate chip cookies!

When did you start Digi-scrapping and who taught you?
I started in August of 2008. My Scrapland BFF is Charmaine and she taught me how to digi-scrap. She makes STUNNING LOs. To this day if I don’t know how to do something I ask her and she is the first person I show my stuff to.

Are you on any creative teams? I am very lucky to be on CTs for Ginger of Gingerscraps, Amber of Stolen Moments, and Chanin of Snowflake Beach Designs. I just applied for a fourth so I can do another CT gig with Charmaine. I think I might need an intervention soon! I still can't believe my luck that so many designers like what I do. I was FLOORED when I got the acceptance letter from Amber. I was stunned when I got one from Ginger. With Chanin I was little more sure that I am getting better at this, but it was still nice to get the affirmation, "Hey we like your stuff, come play with us!" you know?

Do you design at all? I am doing the BrownieScraps 6 week design training. My first and second kits are up on my blog. I LOVE my second kit. I am sure 6 months from now I will be embarrassed by it, but for right now it is like my baby.

What is your favorite challenge here at GingerScraps? I love speed scraps when I can get on to do them. My scrapping time is limited to after Alton goes to bed though, and being on the west coast makes it hard to do as many as I like. Where else are you going to get an awesome LO done in an hour? I am a horrible perfectionist and take FAR too long to do a LO if I don’t have a some sort of time restriction.

Who are your favorite three designers? Ginger of Gingerscraps (Beach Glass was one of the first kits I ever downloaded), Amber of Stolen Moments and Kami of Ziggle Designs.

What are some of your must have elements? Stars, frames, and beads on string or wire. I need more beads on a wire!!! If a kit doesn’t come with a frame, I make my own.

Whose gallery here at Gingerscraps do you just love? I adore Harmonystar’s gallery. She makes the most stunning layouts! If I started a “to be scraplifted file”, she would be in it!

What’s your favorite kit in the store right now? I LOVE the New Year kit and the Chocolate Kisses kit. They both have such beautiful color palettes. Plus the New Year kit has those gorgeous swirls with the stars on it, so I LOVE LOVE LOVE those.

Out of all your lo’s so far, what are your favorite 2 & why? My favorite two are my Beautiful Life layout (kit by Stolen Moments) and my New Year layout (kit here in the Gingerscraps store). I ADORE the colors in the Beautiful Life layout, and my son just looks soooo adorable in those pictures. In the New Year layout I love that I was actually able to layer and cluster in a pleasing way. I wish I knew how to cluster better and I think I did an okay job on this LO. (BTW, I have a freebie QP on my blog for both of these layouts.)



If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be?
Most people would probably say lose weight, and while I would love to do that, I would much rather change my singing voice. I can’t carry a tune in a bucket and I for one am grateful that my son doesn’t know the difference. He thinks mommy rocks the Itsy Bitsy Spider.

What is the one word that best describes you? Creative. Is it wrong to say that? I am very thankful that I have been blessed with creativity.

Who is the most important person in your life? God. I can’t do anything without Him.

What is something that not many people know about you? I used to run track in high school. I was decent and I really enjoyed it. I would run bleachers for fun. Oh to have that kind of energy and stamina these days, not to mention that tushie!

If you could travel anywhere where would you go? Ireland. All of Western Europe really, but if I had to choose, it would be Ireland for sure.

When you were little what did you dream of being when you grew up? I always thought I would be a mommy or a teacher. Now that I am a mommy, I want to be on the Food Network when I grow up.

What is your favorite food? Mexican food, hands down.

How did you pick you user name? Okay my husband and I dated for almost 7 years before we got married. His Aunt Laurel and I became really good friends. I used to tease her because telemarketers always horribly butchered her name, “Can I speak to Lore-Ell Gray-ham please?” It never occurred to me that they would do the same thing to me once I was a Graham. “Thank you Mrs. Grah-haam.” Are you kidding me? So I usually gently correct with, “Graham, like the cracker.” When I was thinking of something to call my blog, I wanted something creative but memorable. So GrahamLiketheCracker was born!

What do you like doing with your family?
Hiking in the local mountains and traveling. I LOVE to travel. (The best place to take pictures for digi-scrapping of course!) Alton and I go to Disneyland once a week for the exercise (I swear!) because we have Disneyland annual passports.

Where is your favorite place to be? With my husband and son. They are the lights of my life.

What are three things that are important to you? My relationship with God. My relationship with my husband, and my child. Alton is the best thing that happened to me since Travis.

Is there anything you would change about your life?
I love my family, but I wish my husband could be in a different line of work. It’s a tough time for real estate agents right now.

What are you afraid of? Snakes. I get the heebie jeebies just talking about them.

Do you collect anything? I am a hoarder. A huge hoarder. When I paper scrapped, I would buy papers fully knowing that I wouldn’t scrap with them because they were too nice. Now I hoard freebie kits that I probably won’t use because they are so pretty I don’t want to disservice them with a lame layout!

Wouldn't it be fun to be interviewed for this feature? Sign up in the Gingerscraps forum! Don't forget to link a couple of your best layouts to be featured! And, stop by Jen's blog... she has a lot freebies!

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Monday's Freebie List!!!

We are going to have some new things going on here at Gingerscraps! So make sure you come back every day this week because we will have something fun for you every day!

And now for the part you have been waiting for, The freebies!

Alphas and Word Art

Klund_forbiddenlovealpha_pr

Elements
Folder

Kits and Mini-Kits



Up, Up, and Away
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y243/charmedeebob/Scrapbook%20pages/folder2.jpg
Freebies
Freebies


Quick Pages
Freebies
Enjoy!

Speed Scrap!







Yaaa hooo!! It s time for a Speed Scrap!! And check out this super cute PP Jen made for you, you get it just for joining in on the fun!!

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Speed Scrap!!

Yaaa hooo!! It s time for a Speed Scrap!! And check out this super cute PP Stephanie made for you, you get it just for joining in on the fun!!







Sunday, February 8, 2009

Free Kit

February is here and we have have a new challenge format. Starting this month you can get our full sized featured kit for FREE if you complete 4 challenges for the month. It's super cute and it's that simple. This month's kit is called "Chocolate Kisses". I hope you come on over and hang out with us :)

*Note*

*Some freebies only last for 1 day... and depending on your time zone by the time you get here you might only have a short time to download. If you like something get it ASAP! You just never know some freebies last a long time and some expire very quickly. If you get to a page and the freebie is not there most likely it has expired.*