… because what makes the world go round is… love, actually.
And maybe some heartfuls of love too? (Shameless plug, forgive me :P)
New in my shop today… and 25% off till midnight Eastern (with a few more hours left to grab, if you want :)):
Perfect for adding heArtfuls of love to your creations, this pack of rub-ons & stamps has 30 hand-doodled hearts in full color, and in stamped, slightly-distressed, and painted-with-texture versions.
And you knew I couldn’t leave you with a couple of LOVEly layouts, right?
This super-sweet one, by Emily, with a beautiful, touching tribute to the love of her life:
I just love “back-photos” and photos of silver-haired lovers holding hands, and so it’s no surprise that I think this layout by Jen F is absolutely poignant and heartwarming:
After what feels like centuries of not scrapping a layout, I stole a bit of time today to create one for the JessicaSprague.com Weekly Challenges (which I head along with my good friend Linda). I must say: it feels great to be back in the scrapping zone!
The basic requirement of this week’s challenge, Shades Of… , was to create a monochromatic layout. A monochromatic image or work has shades of limited colors or hues, usually one particular color and all its shades and tints (lighter or darker versions of it). I think monochromatic images hold a particular appeal because in them, light and darkness, highlights and shadows, and color tones (both shades and tints) work together to communicate a particular mood and emotion.
It’s been rainy for the past weeks, and two weeks ago in particular were pretty gloomy, what with the floods caused by “the storm that wasn’t even a storm.” It was on one particular afternoon during that week that my boys at home and I indulged in the perfect comfort food, designed to brighten hearts and tummies with a bit of edible sunshine. The photo that I shot of our mid-afternoon snack (before it got gobbled up) just begged to be the subject of this challenge, and so here’s what I came up with:
It’s a wonderful Wednesday, and you know what that means! 😉 Shopping therapy, woohoo!
These are on sale for half the price (that’s right, 50% off!) till midnight Pacific time today (you have about 4 hours from now to grab these if they aren’t in your stash yet):
{ Click on the image above to grab it at my store for just a buck! }
My Livin’ It Up Paper Pack has twelve deliciously-textured 12×12 solid and patterned papers in the yummiest and juiciest colors, and all of them are full of joie de vivre (French for a hearty and carefree enjoyment of life)… you can almost expect these papers to break out in song!
Here’s a full-page view of each of the papers in this pack:
And here’s a full-serving of super-awesome eye candy from the marvelous JessicaSprague.com Creative Team!
Margje’s Layout:
Deb’s Layout:
Kelly’s Layout:
Lisa’s Layout:
Margje’s Layout (another one, whee!)
And Miki’s Layout:
And because it’s a super-wonderful Wednesday, I’ve also got this on sale for just a buck today till midnight Pacific time!
{ Click on the image above to grab this at my shop! }
This pack of rub-ons/stamps contain 24 superlative rub-ons in clean and grungy versions, ready-made and ready for you to customize… totally!
And another wonderful serving of super-delish eye-candy!
If my silence around here has been any indication, it’s been an insane past couple of weeks, what with the Great Rains from the tropical storm that wasn’t really a storm (except it caused a Great Flood which was an eerily reminiscent of the Ondoy Disaster of 2009), helping out those who suffered most from the flood-caused devastation, deadlines, work, more deadlines, and generally everything else that falls under the heading called Real Life: Urgent To-Do List.
But every once in a while, despite the barrage of responsibilities and an ever-growing to-do list, you come upon a serendipitous discovery that’s just too good to just keep to yourself. So you stop for a few seconds and steal a few minutes of your time because this is just way too special to not share.
And so I am doing just that right now. Stopping the world’s quick-spin for a few moments so I can share this with you (and thank you, dear friend of mine—you know who you are—for piquing my curiosity which led to this exact discovery just this morning).
( I must mention this here: in a world where ads can be found everywhere, and not all of them great, the fact that today’s discovery is a great ad with a great message adds to the happy surprise!)
And so, my dear friends, I invite you to get off your speeding trains for just a moment and check this out:
My favorite line:
… to spend your precious time on the small things because your time is your life and the less of it you waste, the more of it you live.
Never mind that it’s an ad for a phone. It’s nevertheless one with a great message for each one of us. One that I suspect we can all relate to. One with a lot of heart. A simple but profound invitation to Live More. Powerful, isn’t it?
And so, as we climb back on our speeding trains or our rushing boats or our spinning carriages on this quick merry-go-round of daily routines, I wish you many opportunities to find precious time to spend on the little things. Because, as Marian Wright Edelman said,
We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily differences we can make which, over time, add up to big differences.
Quick poll: how many of you smile and go skipping down memory lane when you hear this?
Ah, those days of youth. (Insert wistful sigh here). Dreams then, memories today: isn’t it amazing how music brings both together in a seamless, wondrous mix?
Anyway (before I get carried away with memories of those days of big hair and rebellious teenage angst), it was precisely Spandau Ballet singing in the background when I created this newest product in my shop:
{ Click on the image above to grab it in my shop: It’s 25%-off till midnight Eastern Standard Time today (Monday) }.
With my Roundabout Photo Masks & Labels, you can now blend your photos and even your paper accents beautifully and naturally with just one click (an alt-click on your clipping mask ;)).
There are 12 unique and individual circular masks with some yummy grunge. Each one has been hand-created and scanned, then lovingly extracted so that you get absolutely REAL grunge! The masks each measure between 3-5 inches (though as always, these are incredibly easy to resize to fit your specific needs) and come in black (transparent-background) .png files.
And because versatility and having options is a great thing, I’ve also included 12 pre-measured circular labels to go with your photo masks if you wish!
I’ve also included a few tips for use right on my product description page in my shop.
Here’s a little example of how these work for photos and for accents (love the quick and easy blending with the background, all with one click!):
And here are a couple of amazin’ layouts by the JessicaSprague.com Creative Team ladies!
Love how Chrissy’s very bright and colorful fun layout uses an enlarged version of Roundabout Photo Masks, and I love how that fab photo just blends into her background papers so naturally.
Et voila! I hope you had a fun time checking out the eye candy and probably bobbing your head to Spandau’s music, and perhaps even smiling at a suddenly-recalled memory or two of those 80s days. (If you feel the urge, please DO share those memories with me in the comments below. I’ll bet we’ll have a fun time remembering together!)
liv.e simply 