New Release - Monkey Fun

A new release has hit the store today and it's perfectly silly to help capture the the curious adventures of your own little monkeys.  In soft and fun colors the entire kit features 24 papers and a collection of elements that will keep you busy.  AND it's 25% off until Monday, so be sure to grab it while it's on sale.
Here's some images to entice you:

New Release - My Handmade Valentine

Yes, it is indeed February.  Yes, I've already devoured two bags of candy hearts.  I should be ashamed but it's only a seasonal addiction. :)   I'm excited to share my new release that is perfect for Valentine's Day scrapbook pages or projects, but will also be perfect for any time you scrap a page about something you love.  The color inspiration actually came from a Christmas package I received, but I think it works well for Valentine's Day too.  This kit includes twelve papers and a variety of elements, including a brush set and some fun, unique embellishments.  So check it out and have some fun.  Perfect for making some special valentines for the ones you love.  But if you are short on time, I've got a Valentine's Day card set ready for you to print and send out in store too.

New Release! You Are All Boy

I'm excited to put out my newest kit - You are all boy- because like so many of you out there, I am often drawn to the girly scrapbooking supplies of which there are tons.  It's harder to find something that speaks just to boys but this kit does just that.  There are 14 coordinating, lightly grunged papers and a set of 31 elements featuring fasteners, frames, word art, epoxy buttons, and stitches.  You can pick it up in my store and to celebrate this new release it is 25% off for the rest of the weekend. 

New Release! A Cute Hoot

Now that my very busy December is over, I am excited to get back to designing once again!  No, I don't have the Christmas decorations put away BUT they are all in one place ready to be put away. :)  So I figured it was a good time to finish up a fun and cheerful kit I've been working on over the last couple of months or so.  The new release, A Cute Hoot, is a fun and girly kit with two coordinating paper sets with 13 papers each and an element set.  They are bright, fun, and something to wake you up from the dull of Winter!  I hope you enjoy them.  And it's 25% through January 4th so head on over to my store.

And I've also put together this fun quick page which is absolutely free!  All you need to do is add the perfect pictures.

It's Naturally Guilt Free Thursday!

That's right!  Another NGFT is upon us and today you can snag both the Boho Chic Stickers and Naturally Blue Elements for only $1 each.  Check them out in my store.

Get scrapping!

Now that the halloween fun has come and gone it's time to get those pages scrapped while the memories are still fresh in your mind.  I've just finished my last page using my kit "Altered Art Halloween".  Feel free to check out this layout and other in my gallery.

We had a TON of fun this year with our cute little sock monkey!!  And we are looking forward to next year when he'll be running around the neighborhood with the rest of the kiddos.

New Release!

A new release is in store today!  It’s time to party!!  This cute little elephant is coming out ready to celebrate.  The perfect kit to document any party, but especially a birthday party.  This bright and fun collection will provide many scrapping options but is also perfect for making printed party decorations.  As an add-on you can purchase the party printables and templates to make your party celebration come to life!

Papers:  Eight solid colored cardstock papers and nine patterned slightly distressed papers. 

Elements:  47 fun elements to adorn your scrapbook pages or brighten your printed party projects.  The element set includes: three arrows, five colorful balloons, four banners, binderclip, two borders, brad prong, two word art, elephant, elephant birthday tag, three epoxy buttons, single photo frame, double photo frame, two glitter splats, seven journal cards, paperclip, two party hats, glittered starburst, staple, three colored stars, star overlay, swirl overlay, swirl, two circle tags.  

Alpha: A fun upper case and numeric cardstock alpha

Printables and Templates:  A perfect complement to the Elephant Party Scrapbooking Kit.  Get everything you need to throw your own fun elephant-themed party with the printables and templates package.   You will receive a PDF file printable for a HAPPY BIRTHDAY banner, placecards, invitations, and toppers.  The toppers include both a front and back design so you can piece them together.  For example, place a toothpick between the two parts and you have the perfect cupcake decoration!

Also included is a PSD template to personalize your very own party banner, invites, and toppers with a fun star design.

Right now my entire store is 30% for the rest of the weekend!

Happy Halloween!

Are you having a frighteningly fun Halloween?  Halloween is such a fun holiday and our neighborhood celebrated yesterday evening with trick-or-treat.  So much fun to see all the little kiddos out in costume having a fun time.  But unlike the saying goes "Trick-OR-Treat", today I have both a trick and a treat for you!

Trick: Removing unwanted shadow areas
For the most part applying shadows to your elements is pretty straight forward but at times you end up getting a shadow in places you really don't want.  I mostly see this happening in my layouts when I put a frame over my pictures and part of the shadow hangs into my beautiful picture.  However, there is a super easy way to resolve this issue while keeping the rest of the shadowing on that element that you love.  Simply hover your cursor over the layer style (in this case "drop shadow") and right click.  A menu will come up and you will want to select "create layer."  Now your shadow will be on it's own layer in your layer palette!  Simply grab your eraser tool and select the right brush, generally a small, hard, round brush, and remove the parts you don't like.
Treat: Free Mini from the collection Boho Chic, available here.  You will get everything I used to make this page:

To check out the rest of this collection or my other kits, please visit my store.

Ready for a treasure hunt to find some freebies??

See this cupcake?  Well, there are 22 of them hidden throughout the forums, store, and gallery at ndisb.com and each of them has a freebie to download when found.  If you search well, you will find all 22 gorgeous mini kits from our Color Me Beautiful Collaboration.

See head on over there now and celebrate with us!  And don't forget, my store is 40% off all week and the blog train full of fun freebies starts on Wednesday!

Today only - Sweet Avery Stickers for $1

That's right! You can pick up this super cute element pack in my store for $1 today only.  While your there, be sure to check out the other Naturally Guilt Free Thursday deals in the shop.

New Release - Boho Chic

Feminine.  Elegant.  It’s Boho Chic.  A collection of coordinating papers, elements and brushes suitable to scrap the everyday to the very special.  Comprised of three paper packs, each with nine papers, you will find elegant patterns and beautiful solid color distressed, texturized papers.  The brush set is available as both .abr files and .png colored files that perfectly coordinate with the collection but are sure to be useful in a wide variety of scrapping and artistic needs.  

The elements are comprised of the following pieces:

·         37 stickers

·         2 banners

·         3 borders

·         8 epoxy buttons with metal rims

·         2 paper flowers

·         5 frames in black for your personal re-coloring

·         5 pieces of word art in both color and black for personal touches

·         5 ribbons

·         1 brad

·         7 tags

That’s a total of 27 papers, 75 elements, and 3 brushes which will provide you with a versatile palette to beautifully capture your precious memories.  Available separately or as an entire collection.  Personal use only.
Head to MY STORE to pick it up!

Hybrid Halloween Project

I had some fun this morning decorating for Halloween.  Unfortunately, AJ is scared of some of the decorations so those went back to storage for next year, but oh well.  I decided to have some fun and try out a few simply hybrid projects.  I have just started to get into this hybrid world, espeically now that I have a super cool printer to work with!  I pulled up my kit Altered Art Halloween and here is what I made:

Not too bad for my first project!  For the candles, I used battery operated candles instead of the real thing so that there is no danger that the paper will catch on fire.  I picked out one of the papers and printed it onto 8x11.5in white cardstock.  Then I cut 2 inch strips and wrapped them around each candle.  Next I picked out a few elements I liked for this, printed them, and adhered them to the strip wrapped around each candle.  Pretty simple but it really adds to the display.
For the banner and flower (on a candle) I chose two differnt papers and printed them onto each side of white cardstock.  I cut the flags out and placed some old sticker letters I had on them.  I went around each letter in black ink to ensure they stood out.  Next I sprayed them with glitter spray to add a little sheen and also to get them to curl up a bit and not lay so flat.  Using brads I secured each one to my ribbon and ta da!  With the extra double sided paper I cut out four different sized circles, alternated the pattern by later, and then folded each lite a pie crust to give it that crumpled look.  Then I added a simple pearl to the middle to finish it off.
It was really a lot of fun to see this come together and it went rather quickly.  Have fun making your own holiday decorations!
If you would like to purchase my kit Altered Art Halloween, you can pick it up in my shop by clicking on the image below. 

It's Naturally Guilt Free Thursday

Did you know that by signing up for the Natural Designs in Scrapbooking Newsletter you will get our weekly Naturally Guilt Free Thursday ad where you can find amazing specials?  No, then head on over to http://ndisb.com to sign up!
This week I have two items to offer you for just $1.00.  So drop by my store to check them out!

Anatomy of a Page

Halloween is almost upon us.  It is this holiday that I miss being a kid the most!  Costumes and parties just don't seem to come my way as often now that I'm all grown up but I still love to delight in the holiday.  Although this year, I've been slow to get out the decorations.  See my first one didn't go over so well.  I picked up this singing and dancing broom at a craft show last week because it seemed so fun.  I also thought it would keep the dog busy, and I was right about that.  What I did not anticipate was the terror it would cause little AJ.  He doesn't like it at all.  If the music goes off in another room, he cries.  If he sees it, he turns away.  If you take him near it, he trembles.  Oh boy, hopefully next year AJ and the broom will be on better terms.
Well, that's the story behind the page.  Here's a look and a few things I want to point out.

The papers and elements are from Altered Art Halloween.  To create a border for the page I placed the golden tan paper on top of the gray paper and shrunk it down by 5% of it's original size.  I had selected two plain papers to start knowing that I would add in some pattern and interest with the circles and elements, but when I got done it just looked a little plain for my taste.  So I grabbed a pattern paper from the kit and placed it on top of both of the bottom papers.  I changed the blend mode to 'overlay' and changed the layer opacity to about 75%.  The blending mode and opacity you choose will depend upon the paper you start with. 
The overlay mode is a contrast mode.  This means it both darkens and lightens the layer to which it is applied.  Using any one of the contrast modes - soft light, hard light, vivid light, etc. - will generally help the pattern on a patterned paper show up best.
Lastly, I wanted to further add interest to this layer by taking away some of the pattern.  I added a layer mask and choose a grunge brush from Sara Schmutz to knock out some parts of the pattern.
Hope you can try some of these ideas on your own pages! 

New Halloween Release

I've been working on a fun Halloween kit that I hope you will enjoy for those spooky, frightfully fun photos you capture this trick-or-treating season.  I know we are looking forward to getting our little one all dressed up and while he won't be trick-or-treating we hope he'll love seeing all the neighborhood kids out in their costumes as well.  You can pick up this new kit, Altered Art Halloween, in my shop!
Here's a look at the goodness in action...Happy Halloween everyone!