Here we go loopy-loo!

Tuesday, 31 July 2012 / LivE / 2 Comments

Here we go looby light… (Admit it, you were singing along, weren’t you? ~teehee~).

It’s a Monday, and you probably know by now what that means: it’s time for some More in Store Monday Madness! Toot the horns and break out the confetti cos here we go Loopy Love! 😀

{ Click on the image to grab Loopy Love from my shop }

Loopy Love is the second volume of loopies, which I hand-scribbled, scanned and carefully extracted for you. They’re perfect for adding a delightful whimsical look to your creations, and I’ve included outlined and filled hearts in this set. They come in individual .png files (transparent background) which are easily recolored, and in a complete brush set so you can stamp in any color of the rainbow.

And because it’s Monday, that means you get these set of 30 babies at 25% off all day Monday till 12 midnight Eastern Standard Time! (You can click HERE or on the image above in case you feel the need to include these in your stash of goodies).

Curious about how these can work wonders? Here are some totally awesome creations by our extremely talented JessicaSprague.com Creative Team members:

Barbara’s Layout:

I just love the colors on this layout, and the way Barbara flawlessly combined all the individual items on her layout to create a wonderful unified whole! Barb also used these other liv.edesigns products on her layout: Brownbagger Paper Pack Vol. 2, Paint Swashes Vol. 2, and A Whole Lotta Love Rub-Ons and Brush Set.

Margje’s Layout:

Margje’s portrait is so artfully done and so original, it literally takes the breath away and leaves one delightfully awed. Margje also used these other liv.edesigns products on her layout: Smudge It Vol. 1 Stamps and Brush Set and Needs + Wants: Alpha Stampede 1.

Meg’s Layout:

I think it’s so cute that this adorable little boy looks so much like my friend Meg, who created this oh-so-cute and oh-so-happy layout. AJ’ssuper-sweet smiles are just to-die-for too!

Amy’s Layout:

Amy‘s heartwarming layout is a precious testament to motherhood. Love her choice of very gentle, muted colors too.

Eye candy on a Monday: it’s the perfect start to the week, isn’t it? 🙂

Have a madly wonderful Monday, my dear friends!

The Color Purple

Saturday, 28 July 2012 / LivE / 29 Comments

Whew. Getting back on the boat after falling into the water can be difficult, especially if the waves have pushed you farther and farther away from the shore. Or more specifically, it’s quite a challenge to get back on the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenges when Real Life’s duties and demands have taken one away from one’s computer long enough to make one fall back by about 7 challenges. Yikes!

But there’s only one thing to do when one falls off a boat, and that’s to swim like heck and try to get back on.

So this is me, trying to get back on, and promising that I’m going to row through all the challenges I’ve missed too! (Tie me to the chair and insist on it if I don’t!)

For this week, the challenge was truly challenging with Purple as its theme. First of all, I don’t really like the color purple (the color itself, not the movie). No offense meant to those who do love it; in fact, it happens to be the favorite color of my mother-in-law whom I hold very dear to my heart. Personally, I prefer the more “boring” shades of white, browns, and blues. But I digress…

Luckily, just yesterday, a few hours before I sat down by my computer and checked out this week’s WordPress Photo Challenge, I happened to pass by a Filipino restaurant and couldn’t resist buying Guinataan, which is a Filipino dish whose name comes from the word gata, which is Filipino for coconut milk. (I love anything that has coconut milk!).

Guinataan is a dessert made with fruits (large bananas and jackfruit are musts), glutinous rice flour, sago or tapioca pearls, root crops (gabi or taro, kamote or sweet potatoes, ube or purple yam—add loads of it and you get the purple color), all mixed in with sugar and that heavenly coconut milk. Served hot on a rainy day, it’s the perfect comfort food (perfectly fattening too, I fear).

Voila! Comfort food, and purple one at that, left me with no further excuse for not getting back on track with the challenges.

And so, here we go:

{ Click on the image for a larger view }

Do you know how difficult it is to find a song that isn’t Purple Rain? 😆 But I did find one! From the original soundtrack of the Broadway musical Spring Awakening by Duncan Sheik, here’s The Song of Purple Summer:

With lyrics that go:

A summer’s day
a mother sings
a song of purple summer
through the heart of everything
and heaven waits
so close it seems
to show her child the wonders
of a world beyond her dreams…

I do think the message of hope and wonder is beautiful, and that makes the completion of this Purple challenge a joy for me. 🙂

Have a purple-summer-wonder-filled day, my dear friends! I’ll see you soon! 🙂

Beautiful Mess

Tuesday, 24 July 2012 / LivE / 6 Comments

If one looks deeply enough, one will find beauty—often the most profound kind, even—amidst what might otherwise seem to be, on the surface level, nothing more than clutter, disorder, chaos. And thank goodness that it is so, for in the middle of a mess—whether it’s something as small as spilled milk on the floor or the bigger mess of a broken heart —it is often that glimpse of beauty that provides the thread of hope that we cling to (the sweetly-whispered apology of the milk-spilling culprit or the slow smile that finally breaks through copiously-shed tears).

Yes, there is often beauty that can be found in the midst of dire straits. Plus, to be perfectly honest, in a home dominated by five rowdy boys, it really helps to think of any kind of mess as beautiful. Especially when you think about the clean-up that inevitably comes on its heels (heehee 😆 ).

So you see, I’m no stranger to a little bit of mess. In fact, I think it belongs right at home in works of art too.

And so I’ve found a way to bring it to the digital world of creation while sparing you the discomfort of the post-creation clean-up! Awesome, right? 😉

These three new products are debuting in my shop today:

Splatters Vol. 1 Rub-Ons & Brush Set is a collection of large splatters:

Splatters Vol. 2 Rub-Ons & Brush Set is a collection of single splatters and a few widespread splatters for those times when you want just a little bit to use as an accent, or when you want to combine a few splatters with the larger splatters

Splatters Vol. 3 Rub-Ons & Brush Set is a collection of clustered splatters.

These are really fun to use, and you can choose one, two, or all splatters from each individual volume… or you can go have all-out fun, combine the splatters from all three volumes, and have a totally splatterrific time (hm! splatterrific is cute—i think that’ll be the name of my next splatter product! ;))!

Each product is linked to my shop (just click on the images above) … and have I mentioned that these are 25%-off today (Monday till midnight Eastern)? Woot! 🙂

To see these splatters at work, check out the absolutely magnificent artworks of our super-fab JessicaSprague.com creative team below! (Have I ever mentioned how much I just adore these ladies? To little bits and pieces, I tell ya).

This one is by Linda:

Linda is my dear-designer friend (of In the Making Design) who is taking a hiatus from designing and has rejoined the best-ever JS creative team! She used Splatters Vol.1 on the layout above, along with my Beach Party freebie that I gave away during the recently-ended JessicaSprague.com Birthday Bloghop.

This one was created by Sarah:

Sarah created this super-fun layout by combining Splatters Vol. 1 and Splatters Vol. 3. She also used my Brownbagger Vol. 2 Paper Pack and my Freedom Is Good Paper Pack – The Solids.

This one was created by Miki:

Miki created this to document her lunch with another one of our CT members Julie (we love to get together in real life ;)), and she used Splatters Vol. 2 on this layout. She also used my Swirly Words Stamps & Brush Set, Storyteller Frames – The Bundle , Livin’ It Up Mini Kit , and Warm Wuv & Soft Hugs – The Elements.

This one was created by Margje:

Margje’s wonderful work of art was created with Splatters Vol. 1 and with my Nature’s Canvas Paper Pack too.

This one was created by Jen F:

Jen’s adorable Seussical layout was created with Splatters Vol. 1. She also used my Smudge It Vol. 1 Rub-Ons and Brush Set.

This one was created by Meg:

Meg created this super-summer-y layout (and wonderful documentation of her son’s perfect frisbee form) with Splatters Vol. 3. She also used papers from my Beach Party Birthday Bloghop freebie.

This was created by Amy:

Amy created this swimmingly wonderful layout with Splatters Vol. 3!

Here’s hoping you have a splatterrific week, my dear friends!

Perfect Imperfection

Tuesday, 10 July 2012Tuesday, 10 July 2012 / LivE / Leave a comment

An oxymoron?

I think not.

There is a Chinese proverb that says:

A diamond with a flaw is worth more than a pebble without imperfections.

Though I do believe it is important to strive to work toward perfection (in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, it’s called self-actualization—thank you, Psych101 ;)), I just as strongly believe that there are many beautiful, wonderful things that are amazing not in spite of but precisely with the little things that make them not-so-perfect. The sweet little freckles on your niece’s pretty face. The little twitch in the nose of my youngest son while he concentrates on a Math problem. Your best friend’s little personality quirks that can be both infuriating and endearing at the same time. Ah yes, there is perfection in imperfection (and doesn’t God’s perfection shine brightest in His children, greatly imperfect though each one of us is?).

I like the idea of imperfection in art, too. Which is the inspiration behind my latest product in my shop:

If you love the handmade, realistic look on your digital creations, you’ll love this easy way to get all that great texture and realism on your projects and layouts.

Smudge It Vol.1 Rub-Ons & Brush Set has 18 smudges that I created in real life with real art schtuff, then scanned and extracted lovingly so that all the little details are retained in each smudge. These are perfect for adding that handmade look with just a little messiness and a whole lot of goodness! Perfect imperfection! 😉

And here are some amazingly perfect layouts done by the awesome JessicaSprague.com Creative Team!

This one is by Jana: