June 2011 Color Challenge at Ivy Scraps

I have been wanting to use the color Honeysuckle since the moment I saw it as Pantone's 2011 Color of the Year. June seems to be a great time for a color palette based on this color of pink. I really like how many directions this palette could've taken me. Of course it's very tropical, but it could also be elegant, vintage, shabby, whimsical or very girly. I hope you all are as inspired as I was by these gorgeous colors.

Here is this months color palette:

This is the gift you recieve for participating in the challenge: 

Hope to see you at Ivy Scraps June 2011 Color Challenge HERE

New Kit - Seashells On The Seashore

Here is the second of my Guess The Ivy Scrapper series of Midi Kits. Click on the image to go to my Ivy Scraps Store. Thanks!!!

If you can guess the Ivy Scraps Scrapper that was the inspiration for this fun beach kit ~ PM me (Des) in the Ivy Scraps Forum with your guess and I will send you a coupon to get it for FREE!! You must be a registered member to participate in the forum. Or you can leave a comment here and I will send the coupon code via email.

Wishing everyone a safe and FUN holiday weekend.

Sale at Ivy Scraps

New Kit ~ Note To Self

Modern shapes, unique patterns and one of a kind hand painted elements make Note To Self a great all purpose scrap kit. Good for both sexes and all ages. I’m sure you will have lots of scrapping fun with all the goodies in this happy kit.

All items created at 300 ppi and saved in .png or .jpg formats. Some items resized for preview. Shadows for preview only except for slight shadows on clustered or layered elements/papers. All items quality checked by me for clarity and stray or missing pixels.

This full size scrap kit includes:

20 assorted textured and patterned papers.

45 Elements.

Available for 40% till May 24th exclusively at Ivy Scraps.

Dabbling Designer's Program at Ivy Scraps

Ivy Scraps Facebook Fan Page

Timeless Mini - Designs by JMDT

I was pretty jazzed to see Designs by JMDT use my color palette from the May 2011 Color Challenge at Ivy Scraps to make a wonderful mini kit to share. Check it out HERE.
I couldn't wait to make a layout with it to show my appreciation. This layout was done for this month's Theme Challenge at Ivy Scraps. Thanks JMDT for the mini, just love it bunches!!!

**CU Freebie** May 2011 Shapes Challenge

Not sure how I came up with Strawberries from the shape provided by Designs by Gloria in the Shapes Challenge this month  at Ivy Scraps. Here is a preview of the shape-

And here are my strawberries, LOL!!!???!!! Something about it reminded me of a strawberry top.....that and Jessica's Sweet Nothings has a new kit coming soon to the Ivy Scraps Store called "Strawberry Fields Forever". Just love that name, brings back so many good memories :>

Download HERE

Blossom Mega Kit At Ivy Scraps

The new May 2011 Mega Kit - Blossom, in now available at Ivy Scraps.
I couldn't wait to make a couple layouts for our challenges and Love how they turned out. Bright and beautiful, this humongous kit was such fun to play with!!!

Always My Yaya for the Font Challenge. (The cloud and sun shapes are the Weatherdings font).

Rocks Are Fun for the Scraplift Challenge. Scraplift of dear nelleke's Yellow Beauty.

May 2011 Color Challenge at Ivy Scraps

I went searching for color trends and came up with this "Trendy" palette. I really love it bunches and hope you all have a lot of fun with it this month.

Trendy Mini is now available at Ivy Scraps.

Painted Kitties

I had so much fun making the Kitties in my latest kit Kitty Kats that I didn't want to stop!?! lol! I put up at thread at Ivy Scraps for people to post photos of their special Kitty and I will make them a custom hand painted element based on the photo. Here is the first one "Smokey" for my friend nelleke. I'm pretty proud of the way it turned out and wanted to show it off .

And here are the next two

I use PS CS5 and I am really loving being able to create unique elements from scratch. I used the pen tool to trace the outline of the cat and some of it's features. I filled the outline with a medium gray color and then painted it using the mixer brush tool. I used the color picker to pick colors from the original photo and adjusted the colors as needed. I love getting more practice in and I love making special things for special people! I really hope nellke gets a kick out of this!!!

New Kit - Kitty Kats at Ivy Scraps

The perfect scrapkit for all the cat lovers out there! I'm calling this a *midi kit because it's not as large as my regular full size kits but is definitely bigger than a mini. LOL! I do love kitties and had a lot of fun creating these fun kitty kats. I hope they get to meet your kitties soon.
Most of the elements were drawn and painted by me in Photoshop. All items created at 300 ppi and saved in .png or .jpg formats. Some items resized for preview. Shadows for preview only except for slight shadows on clustered or layered elements/papers. All items quality checked by me for clarity and stray or missing pixels.

This *midi sized scrap kit includes:
10 assorted textured papers.
24 Elements
4 cats
kitten
mouse
butterfly
flower with leaves
flowers
leaf
vine
tag
ball of string
string bow
feather
bubble
brad
push pin
dream cloud
heart scatter
3 frames
Word Art

Kitty Kats is available on sale HERE for $1.95 till the end of the month.

**Freebie** Ivy Scraps Shapes Challenge

I used the shape provided by Designs by Gloria in the April 2011 Shapes Challenge to create this little freebie. I used the shape to create a brushed paper. I sorta cut up the shape (Sorry Miss Gloria LOL!) to make the birdie. Not sure how I ended up with a bird from that shape but it reminded me of birds that are painted on the wall of my favorite Mexican Restaurant. Can be used for commercial use, scrap for hire or scrap for others and of course for Personal Use :>

Download HERE

Looking For A Forever After Home

Just don't want anyone worrying about me if I don't post on here as much in the next few weeks/months. We've sold our house in the desert. Yay! I've been really busy packing and moving stuff to storage for the last couple weeks. We will be living in our RV for 2-4 months till we buy a new house. Since we have a limited budget, we decided it would be best to have the down payment $ in the bank before we start looking. That makes it easier to get a foreclosure or short sale property. We originally intended to move back to Southern California, but now we've started looking at places up the mountain by Big Bear Lake. We have family up there in Real Estate and they have been sending us info on these totally awesome mountain cabins. After 6 years in the blazing desert.........my soul longs for the cool mountain air. I've had the feeling the last few days that our forever after home is getting real close to becoming a reality. Going to be very interesting to see how us old desert rats will do up in the mountains. I'm a little worried about our baby dog, Sam. He's a Pembroke Welsh Corgi and I don't think his short little legs will get him thru the snow very well. lol! I already have visions of pulling him around on a sled so we don't lose him in a drift. Or getting him mini snowshoes? So.......I'm off on an adventure at the end of the month. I have no idea what to expect as far as internect connections with the satellite dish on the RV???!!!!! Just in case I fall off the edge of the internet universe, wanted someone to know what happened and that I WILL BE BACK!!!  

Heart's Ease Mini Kit

This lovely mini was made for a Color Challenge hosted by Monika Designs. I've always loved pansies and the colors that Monika chose this month were perfect. I still needed a little inspiration so I googled for pansy quotes. I found this quote by Mary Howitt;

“Heart's ease! one could look for half a day Upon this flower, and shape in fancy out Full twenty different tales of love and sorrow, That gave this gentle name.”

I adore that pansies are known as "Heart's Ease" and that was my inspiration for this mini kit. It includes 6 papers and 12 elements. Shadows are for the preview only except for clustered or layered elements/papers. All items are quality checked by me for clarity and missing/stray pixels.

Now available at Ivy Scraps

Sale at Ivy Scraps

Click on image to check out my store at Ivy Scraps. Thanks!

New Kit - Calico Quilt On Sale till 4/30

What could be more comfy cozy than a Calico Quilt? This scrapkit is chock full of calico patterns and quilted elements. I was inspired by Meegan’s (The Quilted Pixel) love for quilting. It made me think of my beloved grandma Nini. She was accomplished at all types of needlework and created lovely things. I hope I’ve captured some of that love and talent in this pretty and fun kit!

All items created at 300 ppi and saved in .png or .jpg formats. Some items resized for preview. Shadows for preview only except for slight shadows on clustered or layered elements/papers.  There are shadows on the stitching for realism. All items quality checked by me for stray and missing pixels.

This full size scrap kit includes:

20 fabric textured papers, some with quilting and 42 elements.

On sale for just $3.25 until April 30, 2011 exclusively at IVY SCRAPS

April Challenges Up at Ivy Scraps

Hope you'll find a few moments this month to join me in the April 2011 Color Challenge at Ivy Scraps HERE
You do have to register in our forum to participate.
I took my inspiration this month from the Rainbow. April Showers and May Flower somehow lead me to thinking of Rainbows. So here is the color palette:

And here is a Free mini kit available for participating:

Ivy Scraps 2011 Designer Contest Winners

WooooooHooooooo! And a BIG Congratulations to the Top 10!!!!!

I would like to say that every one of the contestants are winners!!!  They completed the weeks challenges and grew so much with each passing week.  I hope they will continue to learn and grow in their designing journey.

Ivy Scraps Design Contest Winners

We are so very pleased and excited to announce the winners of the 2011 Ivy Scraps Designer Contest.

HisKid Kreations aka Cheri ~~ 1st Place: Bamboo Pen & Touch tablet & Ivy Scraps Store

OsDesign aka Orsi ~~ 2nd Place: Scrapper's Guide Premium Membership 4 months & Ivy Scraps Store

Brown Eyed Susan aka Mendy ~~ 3rd Place: AV BROS Page Curl Pro 2.2 Value $49.95

December Daydream aka Beth ~~ 4th Place: All Ivy Scraps Mega Kits from 2009 to Current $100 Value

Moments In Time Scraps aka Jenni ~~ 5th Place: Scrapbooks to Share Gift Certificate 15 prints $30 Value

Diane’s Designs Diane/camperchow ~~ 6th Place: AV BROS Puzzle Pro 3.1 Value $49.95

Lovin Life Gurl aka Denise ~~ 7th Place: Designs by Gloria Val Verde Gift Certificate $25 Value

Scrappy Sab’s Designs aka Sabrina ~~ 8th Place: Waite For The Moment Designs Gift Certificate $25 Value

Lizard Dau Designs aka Liz ~~ 9th Place: Ivy Scraps Designs Gift Certificate $25 Value

Jessica’s Sweet Nothings aka Donna ~~ 10th Place: A Blinkie Package by Carmen aka Lightning Bug Creations

This contest was a LOT of work, but also a lot of fun. I learned a whole lot about what I hope we can do better next year! But the best part was getting to know all the contestants and seeing what they came up with each week. I'm going to miss all the excitement. However, I will be grateful to have a little bit more time to scrap and design. Whew!!!! I think we actually pulled this off fairly well! Thanks to the wonderful Design Team at Ivy Scraps: Meegan, Jan, Gloria and Carmen!!!!!!!! 

Birdsong Mini Kit

I had 4 grandkids, ranging in age from 5 months to 14 years, stay over last night. Took them home at noon today, but I kinda feel like I just ran a marathon!?! Somehow, I managed to get this finished up today. Yay! I made the birdies first and this was one of those projects that was just screaming at me to get it finished. So much fun!!! This is for the Color Challenge at TheStudio hosted by Monika Designs. I love the colors she picks because they are sooooo different from what I would choose on my own. It's really made me stretch out of my comfort zone as far as colors. Thanks so much, Monika!!! Birdsong Mini includes 6 papers and 12 elements. All items have been checked for missing and stray pixels. Items are 300ppi in .jpeg and .png formats. Shadows are for preview only.

 Now available in my Ivy Scraps Store HERE