Spraground

More In Store Monday ~ Paint the Town Blue!

/ LivE / Leave a comment

It’s Monday, and you know what that means, right? New goodies in the store! Yay!

I’ve always loved painting. I love the feel of the brush swish-swashing across the canvas. Love splashing colors. (Hm. I guess you can tell that I generally like making a mess… with paper and art materials, that is. :)).

My preferred medium is oil (I like the slick texture of oil and the way you can apply it thinly or thickly to achieve different effects). Here’s one of my paintings (the hubby’s favorite! :D):

The Blues

I haven’t painted with oil in a long time, though, because I have such difficulty finding the time (with five kids, I find myself cleaning up messes more than creating them :lol:). Oil requires time-commitment (not the least of which involves the drying time and the time spent on cleaning and washing the brushes!)

So these days I find myself generally limited to messing around on a much smaller scale LOL!:

A Smaller Mess

Which brings us to this Monday’s new product in my shop 😉

Singing the Blues

If you love the effect of paint but hate the clean-up after ;), now you can get that artsy goodness without having to worry about smeared paint on your tabletops or spilled water containers or paintbrushes to wash over the sink! 🙂

My newest goodie in my shop lets you turn your layouts and projects into works of art with these 6 real swashes of paint!

liv.edesigns Paint Swashes Vol. 1

I’ve handpainted all these swashes and then lovingly extracted them so that they retain their awesome texture, in various sizes, with the largest one measuring about 10inches (Feel free to resize as you desire!). Each swash comes in its original blue color and in a greyscale version, so that you have maximum versatility. They come in .png format (transparent files) so you can use them with whatever program you create your magic with!

You can use these as photo masks or masks for paper or as artistic accents for your layouts and projects. (If you use these as photo masks and you work with Photoshop, I suggest clipping your photo to the greyscale version of the paint swash, merging it, then setting your blending mode to soft light and duplicating it a couple of times so you get the awesome texture and effect of paint. 😉 ).   Really, there are no limits to these; let your creativity soar as you play with these!

Oh, and this set is Vol.1 … which means we’ve got more painting goodness coming up soon! 😉

Guess what else? This baby is 25% off today, so if the painting without the mess rocks your boat, go row quickly to my shop and grab this off the shelf before it goes on regular price again!  Click HERE or on the product image above to get some shopping therapy :).

The Best Messes

I just love-LOVE-L.O.V.E. the awesome masterpieces that our JessicaSprague.com creative team members have come up with using my Paint Swashes. Prepare to feast on these stunning works of art!

Sarah used my paint swash both as an accent and a background for her journaling. I think it’s just A+wesome! (Pairing it up with the torn paper effect also works major wonders!)

Layout by Sarah

Monica turned my paint swashes white and used them to give her layout that awesome “messy” look, perfect for adding that “boyish” feel to her wonderful layout  (“Messy” in quotes because as you can see, everything is really perfectly put together!)

Layout by Monica

I love how Jana incorporated the paint swash in her layout so that it looks like an extension of the water in her photo. I think it’s just simply amazing and maaahvelous!

Layout by Jana

And I love how Renee demonstrates on her layout that using the paint swash in its original greyscale version totally works wonders as well! (It also gives her layout a totally pulled-together unified look! Fab!).

Layout by Renee

So you see, you can really use these paint-y babies in a kajillion ways and in all the colors of the rainbow! Now excuse me a moment while I go searching for these creative ladies to give them humongous hugs for their amazing art :D.

Happy swish-swashing around, and go paint the town BLUE! (Or red or green or orange… you get my drift… :lol:)

Join the STAMPede on this marvelous Monday!

/ LivE / Leave a comment

Every time I’m on vacation, I have a bit of a problem keeping track of what day it is; do you have that problem too? 😆

Good thing I remembered not too late that today is Monday, because Mondays aren’t manic around here… Mondays are Mahhhvelous! Because Mondays on the Spraground are More-In-Store Mondays! And what that means is: Mondays are when our shop comes alive with new schtuff! Yay!

STAMP your feet in joy!

Or… maybe let your fingers do the stamping? 😉 My newest product in the shop, debuting today, will help you do just that, so that you get the real goodness of stamps but without the mess, without the smudges, without the clean-up! How awesome is that? 😀

Even more awesome, this baby is going into the shelves at 25% off just for today! Wheeee!

CLICK HERE TO GET THIS BABY AT 25% OFF TODAY, Monday, Nov.7th!

And if you haven’t used your coupon yet, you can get this baby at 25% off + 35% off = 60% off? Ohmygraciousgoodness, can this Monday be any more awesome or what? 😉

With my Alpha Stampede 1, you’ll find yourself reaching again and again for this most basic and essential all-caps alphabet and number set. It comes in separate .png files for each letter and number, all of which are sized just a teeny bit larger than half an inch. They’re easy to resize too! And you can stamp in whatever size you want if you use the brushes (.abr files) included in the set! The possibilities are really limitless, my friend.

These were extracted lovingly from real stamped goodness, and I hope you take the time to check this baby out because I promise you these stamps will prove to be loads of fun to use!

Stampin’ Great Eye Candy!

Our creative team ladies did a super-fabulous job of using these brushes in the most creative ways!

I just love how Jen used the stamps to bring humor and reality (and create leading lines too) in her layout!

Layout by Jen P

Other liv.edesigns products used by Jen on her layout above: Tape It Up Frames, Needs + Wants: It’s a Date (Date Stamps), and Alpha Clips.

Below, I love how Monica used the stamps in different sizes to give her layout amazing title-work!

Layout by Monica

Monica also used my Needs + Wants: Stitchies Vol.1 (Crayon Box Collection) on her layout.

And right here, I love how Reeta used the stamps to add a subtle pattern-like beauty to her layout:

Layout by Reeta

Reeta also used my Brownbagger Paper Pack on her layout.

I love our awesome ladies on the creative team… they are just so out-of-this-world amazing!

Now doesn’t all that eye candy that make you want to play? By all means, let the Alpha STAMPede begin! 😀

Oh and before I forget… here’s more Monday awesome-ness!

FREE? Who doesn’t like FREE?

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to dip your toes into digital scrapbooking? Wonder no more, because my dear friends, the great Jessica Sprague, is offering a wonderful FREE webinar on Friday, November 18th!

Wait. That’s not Monday. LOL! Yeah, the webinar isn’t today but registration for it IS! And because the slots are limited, you’ll want to rush over and get your name listed right away!

She’ll be holding two sessions (so if you can’t make it to the first schedule, you have a second option – isn’t that wonderful?). And she’ll walk you through the process of creating a digital layout using Photoshop Elements. (Don’t have Photoshop Elements? You can download a free trial version right HERE). She’ll even give you a free quickpage to play with (‘cos yeah, she’s awesome that way). And when you’re done, you’ll have a beautiful layout with your photos and your journaling that will wow not just YOU but your friends and your family and anyone who happens to lay eyes on your amazing creation.

Convinced that this is something you shouldn’t miss? Just click on the image below to find out more and get yourself enlisted for the webinar. (And have I mentioned it’s free? 😉 )

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR JESSICA'S FREE WEBINAR!

Just look at my gorgeous dear friend there… doesn’t she just look super-friendly? That’s because she IS, all that and more! She’s a darling, she’s the original Awesome, and she’s one of the most hilarious people I’ve ever known (and have had the  pleasure and honor of calling friend and sista).

So don’t wait… run to get yourself listed! You won’t regret it, I promise. 🙂

And with that, I wish you a happy Marvelous aMazing Monday, dear buds! Mwah!

Last Few Hours to Grab My DSD Freebie!

/ LivE / 1 Comment

Hi there! Just dropping by real quick to let you know that there are just a few more hours left to grab my DSD freebie, if you haven’t included it in your weekend loot yet 😉

Click on the image below to get it!

GRAB NOW! Link Expires at 12 midnight Pacific time!

ETA: Link to my DSD freebie has expired. 😥

My coupon is also still active (just in case you’re still raring for some shopping therapy):

CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO USE THE COUPON CODE IN MY SHOP! 🙂

And now to get back to working and maximizing my last day of the semestral school break. Tomorrow regular life begins again. 😐

You’re invited! Be deliciously, deliriously, digitally delighted!

/ LivE / 2 Comments

Because today is Digital Scrapbooking Day! And all over the world wide web, there are amazing sales going on, blogtrains running at full speed, and loads of giveaways being handed out, and… well, I just couldn’t resist the temptation to join the celebration and come up with a little goodie to add to your digital stash! 😀

YAY! Freebie Time!

Inspired by my love for grids and large focal photos and by my belief that less is more, here’s what I’ve prepared for you:

HAPPY DIGITAL SCRAPBOOKING DAY, DARLINGS!

ETA: So sorry, link has expired.

Here’s a little layout that I made real quick to show my digi-goodie in use 🙂 :

My Little Piano Man

It’s called Simply Stylish, and it’s purposely designed to be basic and minimalist (yes, less is more indeed!) so that your words and your photos speak out from the silent white space. But if piling on embellishments rocks your boat, then you can definitely add on the goodies from your stash as well! This works really great that way too. 🙂

To download, click RIGHT HERE (ETA: Link has expired) or on the product preview above (the first image, yes; not my piano man :)), and you’ll find yourself in my shop at JessicaSprague.com where you can grab this sweet baby. Make sure you download it before 12 midnight Pacific time, Sunday, because after that the links will be disabled and the Template Pack will move into my shop’s shelves. 🙂

Stroll along the Spraground and get the chance to grab a giveaway!

As with all the shops I’ve been to, you may have to register (if you don’t have an account yet) before you can download but it takes less than a minute and it’s absolutely free!

While you’re there, you might want to have a look around and say hello to the peeps in the forum and check out our Spraground Challenge, which my dear friend Linda is leading this week (she and I take turns managing the challenges, along with our darling Kari, who takes care of hybrid challenges every 4th Friday). Our challenges are open to everyone – newbies, cruisers, and advanced scrappers alike and we would all be so thrilled if you would come and join us! (After all, at JessicaSprague.com, we take our “Grow Your Skills” motto to heart, and you know what they say about practice making perfect, right? At our Spraground, you could safely restate that as “Playing makes perfect” 🙂 ).

Feel right at home as you stroll along: a more friendly, warmer, more welcoming community than this I have never ever found on the web, I tell ya. You can be sure everyone on the Spraground will be running to you with open arms to welcome you into our growing family and to help you out with even the simplest, smallest question (There’s only one rule on the Spraground, and it’s this: There is no such thing as a stupid question. So ask away if you need anything, even directions to the nearest swing that you can sit on, and maybe you’ll find you want to paint your name on it too! 😉 )

But FIRST STOP has to be right on the homepage, where you’ll find the awesome giveaways from me and my designer-sistas at JessicaSprague.com! Here’s my contribution to the giveaway loot:

Grab the chance to win liv.edesigns Click Mini Kit this weekend!

You can click on my Click Mini Kit image above and it will take you right to our JessicaSprague.com Homepage!

I love me some eye-candy, don’t you? Here are some awesome layouts from our creative team ladies using my Click Mini Kit!

Layout by Lauren

Layout by Smitha

Layout by Nicole

Layout by Carol

Layout by Mindy

Layout by Linn

Layout by Meg

Layout by Miki

That’s not all! It’s coupon time!

Oh and wait! There’s more! I have prepared a special DSD coupon for you to use in my shop, if you happen to find anything there that catches your fancy!

CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO USE THE COUPON CODE IN MY SHOP! 🙂

It’s good for the entire Digital Scrapbooking Weekend… and a day 😉 so just make sure you use it between today, Saturday, until right before midnight Pacific time on Monday, November 7th, when it expires.

Be awesome! Be heard!

I would love it, too, if you would take a couple of minutes to leave a comment or a hug (go on, hit that Comment button below, you know you wanna 😆 ). And if you’d love to share with me some suggestions for a particular theme for a kit or element pack that you’d love to see in my shop, I’m totally open to hearing your requests… who knows, perhaps you’ll find it on my shop shelves some time in the future (and if you happen to be the stimulus that made my creative muse dance, then I promise I’ll send you the kit or pack for free! 😉 ).

Voila! And with all these goodies, I wish you a super-duper thrilling Digital Scrapbooking Day weekend! May your arms be filled with goodies and may your digital delights overflow!

Big, warm hugs to you all!

One-Buck Wednesday: Spring Into Winter

/ LivE / Leave a comment

I’m back from a 4-day vacation! (And boy, did I miss you… but up in the mountains, we were net-less so I had to sit on my fingers and wait till we got back to civilization 🙂 ).

But what better time to come racing back to my blog porch than on a Wednesday, when a buck goes far in the quest for something awesome! 😉

For this entire Wednesday (till 12:00 midnight Pacific time), you can grab this paper pack for just a buck instead of the usual $4.99! (What a steal, right?  :D)

liv.edesigns Whispers of Spring Paper Pack

(If you don’t have this in your digi stash yet, and your fingers are itching to pick up this whole pack of 10 papers, a single click on the preview above will take you right to my shop where you can grab this for a buck! ;))

Here’s a full view of the papers included in this pack:

These solid and patterned 12×12 papers form a pack that I named Whispers of Spring, but you know how I love versatility, right? 😀 So don’tcha worry, even if spring is over, these are designed to work well throughout all the seasons; yep, even through winter!

And as proof that these will work for anything your heart desires: here are some uber-wonderful layouts from our awesome JessicaSprague.com Creative Team members!

Layout by JessicaSprague.com Creative Team Member Emily

Layout by JessicaSprague.com Creative Team Member Miki

Layout by JessicaSprague.com Creative Team Member Carol

Layout by JessicaSprague.com Creative Team Member Lisa

Have an awesome Wednesday, and I’ll see you real soon! xoxox

One-Buck Wednesday: Point It Out, Baby!

/ LivE / Leave a comment

Arrows: Universal, with their uncanny ability to point out direction no matter where one is in the world, never mind if one doesn’t speak the native language of whatever piece of this earth they have their feet planted in at the moment.

And therefore, yes, arrows do have a place in your marvelous creations!

Best of all, you get an entire set of them in digital form for just a buck today (the whole of this Wednesday till midnight Pacific Standard Time).

In case you feel the need to make a point or, you know, point out something ;), you might want to grab these for a buck:

JUST A BUCK TODAY! liv.edesigns Points of View Vol. 2 - Pencil-Thin Arrows

(Image is linked to my shop, so if you’re in the mood to spend a buck, just click on the image above 😀 Easy-peasy, right? 😉 )

This pack has 26 arrows (13 designs in black and white versions in .png format plus a complete brush set in .abr format for those who use Photoshop or Photoshop Elements).

And here is some wonderful eye-candy from the Amazingly Awesome JessicaSprague.com Creative Team!

Layout by JessicaSprague.com Creative Team Member Brenda

Layout by JessicaSprague.com Creative Team Member Sarah

Layout by JessicaSprague.com Creative Team Member Jen P

Layout by JessicaSprague.com Creative Team Member Reeta

Ah. I just love the gorgeousness these wonderfully talented ladies come up with!

So go ahead, grab these arrows, and use them to call attention… it’s perfectly legit (and awesome) to do it this way! 😉

And have a happy, ONEderful ONE-Buck Wednesday, my lovelies! xox

More In Store Monday

/ LivE / Leave a comment

Mondays begin the week (mine began with a sleepless night, working on a joint kid-parent school project… sleepless since the entire weekend was spent taking care of my littlest one who was beset with fever ~ do I hear moms around the world groaning in empathy? :lol:)

Mondays are exciting, though, sleep or no sleep, because it’s the day our newest products debut at our shops over at JessicaSprague.com!

This week, I have three new products (related to each other, like triplets doing a debut 🙂 ):

Anyone who knows me knows that I love writing… though I must confess that my pencils and notebooks are covered with sketches of layouts and design ideas and plans leaving the rest of my literary writing adventures in the care of the keyboard (the fact that my chicken-scratch, long, pointy penmanship sucks is only one of the reasons why).

So it probably won’t come as a surprise that my latest products seek to bring the actual-writing-on-a-notebook dimension into the digital world. (My OC-happy desire to highlight and underline and ring around stuff is equally to blame, haha!)

Presenting the triplets: Highlight It!

First, the soft, gentle version:

liv.edesigns Highlight It Softly {Text Highlighters}

Next, the stronger, more-excited, bold version:

liv.edesigns Highlight It Loudly {Text Highlighters}

And lastly, the mother of all highlighters:

liv.edesigns Highlight It {Text Highlighters} Brush & Rub-On Pack

And here are amazingly squeal-worthy layouts of Sarah and Monica with the highlighters put to work!

Layout by JessicaSprague.com Creative Team Member Monica

Layout by JessicaSprague.com Creative Team Member Sarah

So in case you’re feeling the Monday-itch to get some shiny new goodies, do feel most welcome to take a stroll at my shop (the images are linked!).

Hope your week is filled with happy highlights! 😀

One-Buck Wednesday: 4ever!

/ LivE / Leave a comment

Well, it’s Wonderful Wednesday again, and you know what that means! It’s that day when you really can buy happiness for just a buck! 😆

This Wednesday’s Buck’o’Happiness is pretty awesome because our shop is filled with coordinating stuff from 9 JessicaSprague.com designers! In case you didn’t get to snag our birthday bloghop collaborative project last June, each of us is now offering our mini-kit for a buck so that you can actually pick one, two, three, oh heck why not all nine in the series, for a song! How awesome is that?

Here’s my part of the 4Ever Collab kit:

CLICK HERE to get liv.edesigns 4Ever Mini Kit for $1 today!

And here’s some awesome eye candy from our fabulous ladies on the Creative Team!

Layout by Jana

Layout by Miki

Layout by Jen P

Another Layout by Miki

Layout by Sheri

Layout by Kelly

Hybrid Card by Camille

Oh I just love the masterpieces that these marvelous ladies create! *happy sigh*

It’s always so inspiring to see memories preserved and stories told with my designs (hand on heart, it truly is an honor), so if you’ve created anything with my products, be sure to leave a comment with a link to where I can ooh and aah, alrighty? 🙂

And just in case my 4Ever Mini Kit isn’t part of your stash yet and you’d like to grab it for just a buck, you have till midnight today, Pacific standard time. Go right ahead and click RIGHT HERE (or on the preview of my kit) to go straight to the special 1-buck shelf! 😉

And have a happy rocking Wednesday, my dear friends! xoxox

One-Buck Wednesday! ~ Day by Day

/ LivE / Leave a comment

I love the everyday, ordinary day. There is so much treasure that lies hidden under the most common, routine things, if we only choose to see with eyes wide open with wonder and amazement: the early morning sun whispering its wake-up greeting from behind the drawn blinds. The sweet fresh-morning-dew breath of the young child softly snoozing (cherish it; when they grow up, that sweet breath disappears, haha). The perfect sweetness of the orange that, squeezed and emptied into a glass, sacrificed itself so you could drink its delicious essence (oh, to feel like an orange after a day of serving others is to know it was a day well spent!).

So much of what is special and precious in our lives lies tucked in moments that look suspiciously ordinary. And some of us choose to preserve these memories in photographs or layouts. Which brings me to one of my favorite products…

Day Brushes – Reloaded

The first version of this was created about the time I started selling my designs at JessicaSprague.com (there were just two of us selling our designs back then – Jes and I 😆 Then we grew and grew and now we’re privileged to have so many awesome designers in our team!). The brushes were popular back then (thank heavens!), but –and here is where the learning curve began– I realized that since I had put in the year as a background to the brushes, they weren’t really very useful once the year was over. 🙄

So I re-designed and re-created and enlarged the original pack, and this is what came out of the oven (and now you can use them year after year after year…) :

liv.edesigns Daybrushes - Reloaded ~ just $1 today!

Here’s a closer look:

You can “stamp” these directly on to your photos, or you can use them on layouts. If you’re a Photoshop or Photoshop-Elements user (or if you use a program that allows the use of .abr files), you’ll be glad to know that the .abr files allow you to stamp in whatever color and size you want. If you don’t use Photoshop or PSE, you can still totally use these because the whole pack comes with transparent .png files!

Oh, and did I mention that you get 4 complete sets in this pack? That’s right: you get a bunch of solid and dotted-line stamps and rub-ons in clean and grungy versions! They come with 8 built-in basic labels plus a blank one so that you can customize it with your own labels. How awesome is that? 🙂

More awesome-ness: Eye Candy!

I just love the wonderfully-creative masterful ladies on our JessicaSprague.com Creative Team! Here are some of their layouts using my Daybrushes-Reloaded:

I love how Jen P filled the empty spaces in the stamp with patterns and stickers! Even more awesome, she used the stamps themselves as frames for her daily photos. Can you spell awesome? *Happy sigh* 🙂

Layout by JessicaSprague.com Creative Team Member Jen P

I am in love with the way Miki used the stamps, both fully on her photos and then overlapping the photo and her background paper! Wheee!

Layout by JessicaSprague.com Creative Team Member Mikki

Jenn M turned her stamp into a tag – amazing! 🙂

Layout by JessicaSprague.com Creative Team Member Jenn M

Brenda used the dotted-line stamp which goes perfectly with her dotted-line border around her entire layout. Sweet!

Layout by JessicaSprague.com Creative Team Member Brenda

And Renee used my stamp for the bottom layer of her clustered elements. Marvelous!

Layout by JessicaSprague.com Creative Team Member Renee

Seriously. These ladies are just so awesome.

Wait! One more awesome thing!

liv.edesigns Daybrushes - Reloaded ~ just $1 today!

My Daybrushes-Reloaded pack is normally priced at $4.99 but today (until midnight Pacific time), you can grab it for just a buck! Woooohooo! Just click on the image on the left to grab it (you’ll go straight to the sale page), if you don’t have it in your stash yet.

Now isn’t it such a joy to grab stuff for a song? 😉

Speaking of songs… here’s one that matches today’s One-Buck Wednesday product from me. (Okay, so I guess I’m totally dating myself here, but I truly enjoyed this way back in the 70s… though I didn’t have the era’s famous big hair :lol:)

Happy One-Buck Wednesday, my friends! With huge hugs! (And may your every day be awesome beyond words!)

One-Buck Wednesday

/ LivE / Leave a comment

When my kids were little, they had this nursery song that went:

Wednesday, today is Wednesday
Wednesday, Wednesday, what a happy day!

And so it is! Wednesday and a happy day, indeed! If you’re not familiar with One-Buck Wednesdays yet, it’s the day of the week (yes, that would be every week) when the designers at JessicaSprague.com put a product (or two or three) on sale for a song! Well, actually, it’s a buck but wouldn’t that kind of glorious sale make you sing? 😉

There are an amazing number of products on sale this Wednesday, and in my shop, you’ll find my En Route {Traveling In Style} Paper Pack – Solids on sale!

En Route (Traveling in Style} Solid Paper Pack

Here’s both a full view of the papers and a closer look at the details. (I just love texture on paper and strive to create papers that are realistic enough for you to want to reach out and touch them 🙂 )

En Route Solid Papers - Full View and Details

I created these papers with a travel theme primarily in mind, but I love versatility in digital products, so these would work perfectly with any and all memories that you hold dear to your heart. And just in case you need a bit more of a nudge to convince you that you’re getting a steal with this (shameless promotion, I know… forgive me! :lol:), here are some absolutely awesome layouts created by the even more awesome JessicaSprague.com Creative Team members (I just loooove these girls!)

Miki's Layout

Kelly's Layout

Joan's Layout

Miki's Layout

Chrissy's Layout

Kelly's Layout

Miki's Layout

Shell's Double-Page Layout

Carol's Layout

Chrissy's Layout

*Sigh* I just love seeing all these precious moments documented for posterity; it always wraps me up in warm fuzzies. 🙂

Hope you take a look at this paper pack if you have the time today! (Psst. The image above is clickable… it will bring you to my product page in a jiffy! :))

Now off to cook some dinner… but I’ll be back soon! xox