Lovin’ the Fall

/ LivE / Leave a comment

The season, that is. I love the rich earthy colors, love the dance of falling leaves, love the cool breezes that leave whispered secrets in their wake.

And the season is the inspiration behind my newest product on my shop’s shelves: Falling for You!

Now you can bring the splendor and glory of fall to your layouts and creations with this pack of 36 real leaves, lovingly and oh-so-carefully scanned and extracted so that all the delicious texture and detail is preserved. You’ll have loads of fun creating with these… and then watching your friends as they reach out and try to touch the leaves to see if they are indeed real!

{Click on the image above to grab it at my shop}

Oh, and did I mention that these are going at 25% off till midnight tonight (Eastern Standard time)? Go grab ’em if you want ’em (and you know you do ;)).

And here are some super-awesome layouts created by the most amazing artists of the JessicaSprague.com Creative Team!

Falling for Miki’s Layout:

Miki also used my The Joy of Childhood Paper Pack, Loopies Vol.1 – Flutterby Rub-Ons & Brush Set, and Needs + Wants: Eyelets Galore 01 on her layout above.

Falling for Amy’s Layout:

Amy also used my Paint Swashes Vol. 2 on her layout above.

Falling for Antonia’s Layout:

Antonia also used my Livin’ It Up Mini Kit, Livin’ It Up Paper Pack, and Paint Swashes Vol. 4 on her layout above.

Hope you have an awesome day with lots of things to fall in love with today, my dear friends! 🙂

Two more hours…

/ LivE / Leave a comment

That’s right. Two more hours to take advantage of these Wonderful Wednesday deals! (Yep, am getting right straight to the point to make the most of your time >teehee< 😆 ).

Just a Buck

One-Buck Wednesday brings you this today for… just a buck! (I crack myself up).

{Click on the image above to grab this at my shop for half the price till midnight Pacific time today!}

square one – (noun) the situation in which you begin an endeavor and to which you return when all else fails.

My Square One collection contains mini-kits that you will turn to time and time again whenever you need to get your scrapping mojo going. Each set in the collection comes complete with everything you need to create quickly and differently (perfect so you can use and reuse the items, combining them with the rest of your goodies in your digi-stash).

Square 1 No. 1 – Dream Big is the first in this collection, and it’s particularly special because you get an overflowing serving of goodies: there are two 12×12 highly-textured, distressed papers with just a touch of grunge and 13 elements, including crumpled foil stars, stitches, doodled stars, glitter trails, and painted chipboard circle embellies, with and without shadows for your ease of use. Get creative with the tons of variations you can do with the elements! (Hang stars from the stitches, pile up the circle embellies, scatter glitter trails where you wish—the world of creativity is yours to explore!)

To give you an idea of how wonderful and versatile this mini-kit is, here are some awesome layouts by the JessicaSprague.com magical artists:

Layout by Becky

Other liv.edesigns items used by Becky on her layout above are: Washi All About Tapes – Lilac, Mask Me Photo Masks, Winter Breeze Paper Pack 1, Heart Puffies, Line Art Rub-Ons & Brushes, Loop-D-Loop Labels, and Squiggle Borders. Awesome! 😀

Layout by Miki:

Miki also used my Afternoon Stroll Paper Pack on her layout above.

Layout by Heather:

Layout by Miki:

Miki also used my Softly, Gently – Solid Papers on her layout above.

Layout by Erin U:

Erin also used my Loop-D-Loop Labels on her layout above.

Layout by Miki:

Miki also used my Hush Labels from my liv.esimply collection on her layout above.

Layout by Joan:

Layout by Heather:

Other liv.edesigns products used by Heather on her layout above: Warm Wuv, Soft Hugs – The Elements, Softly, Gently – The Kit Elements, and Alpha Clips.

Layout by Erica:

Other liv.edesigns products used by Erica on her layout above are my Swirdles Stamps & Brush Set and Windsong Paper Pack.

Layout by Miki:

Miki also used these liv.edesigns products on her layout above: I Sing for Spring! – The Kit and Winter Breeze Paper Pack 2.

Layout by Jana:

Jana also used my Winter Breeze Alpha on her layout above.

Layout by Joanne:

Joanne also used my Tabby Tabs and Sketched Framers on her layout above.

Layout by Margje:

Margje also used these liv.edesigns products on her layout above: GrungeaRound Vol.1 Masks & Brushes, Livin’ It Up Paper Pack, Whispers of Spring Paper Pack, I Sing for Spring! Kit, and Alpha Clips. Wonderful!

Layout by Heather:

Heather also used my Warm Wuv, Soft Hugs Kit and my Softly, Gently – The Kit Elements on her layout above.

Layout by Miki:

Miki also used my I Sing for Spring! Kit and Winter Breeze Kit on her layout above.

Layout by Joan:

Layout by Miki:

Miki also used these other liv.edesigns products on her layout: Joy of Childhood Paper Pack,  Joy of Childhood – Kiddos, Warm Wuv, Soft Hugs – The Elements, A Whole Lotta Love Rub-Ons & Brush Set, Sketched Framers, Paint Swashes Vol. 3, Snippets Word Pack – Rub-Ons & Brushes, and I Heart Doodles 2. WOW, right?

Half-Price!

And because Wednesdays are truly Wonderful, I’ve got this paper pack going at half-price till midnight Pacific time today:

Here’s a view of what each paper looks like:

{Click on any of the two images above to grab these at half-price till midnight Pacific time today!}

This paper pack contains ten deliciously-textured 12×12 solid and patterned papers. Each and every one of them echoes the soft, gentle colors of nature and the quiet comfort of spring awakening. And, take note! Even if they’re spring-inspired, they do a fantabulous job all year round (imagine those whites and blues on winter layouts, or the greens and blues on summer-y layouts… you get my drift ;)).  These should be the perfect complement to your fabulous creations, guaranteed to make your projects shine!

And again, some awesome layouts by the absolutely-awesome JessicaSprague.com Creative Team, to show you these papers at work:

First off: Margje’s Layout

… and if it looks familiar to you, that’s because it was just featured above: a great way to show how different items from different packs and kits can be combined! (Scroll up to see the other liv.edesigns products that were used on this layout).

Layout by Emily:

Emily also used these liv.edesigns products on her layout above: Click! – The Elements, I Heart Doodles Rub-Ons & Brush Set, and Needs + Wants: Stitchies Vol.2 {Spring Garden Collection}.

Layout by Miki:

Layout by Lisa B:

Lisa also used my Paint Swashes Vol. 2 and Nature’s Canvas Paper Pack on her layout above.

Layout by Carol:

Carol also used my I Sing for Spring! Kit, Afternoon Stroll Paper Pack and Alpha Clips on her layout above.

Layout by Lisa C:

Lisa also used my EZ-PZ Template 08 – And Then, Needs+Wants: Stitchies Vol.2 {Spring Garden Collection}, and Maskerade {Photo Masks} on her layout above.

Layout by Lisa B:

Lisa also used these liv.edesigns products on her layout above: Paint Swashes Vol. 2, Brownbagger Paper Pack, Needs + Wants: Stitchies Vol. 2 {Spring Garden Collection}, and Circle of Life Template {Fit 2 a T Vol. 1}.

Layout by Carol:

Carol also used my Softly, Gently – The Kit Elements on her layout above.

Layout by Miki:

Miki also splashed color on her lovely, lively layout above with my paint swashes collection: Paint Swashes Vol. 1, Paint Swashes Vol. 2, and Paint Swashes Vol. 3 !

And a little surprise: I’m featuring two layouts done by our wonderful ladies at the Spraground who used my Whispers of Spring Paper Pack! Thank you, dear robyn47au and linny6, for your awesome work!

Layout by Linny6:

Layout by robyn47au:

Have an amazin’, awesome, wonderful Wednesday!!!

Seriously Awesome

/ LivE / 9 Comments

Once in a while you stumble across something so incredibly awesome, it would be almost sinful to not share the joy and the thrill of the discovery.

And so from my piano-loving home to yours (is there anyone who does not love music?), here’s a seriously awesome work of magic.

All You Need Is Love

/ LivE / Leave a comment

… 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:

Emily also used these other liv.edesigns products on her beautiful layout above: Joy of Childhood Paper Pack, Loopies Vol. 2 – LoopyLove (Rub-Ons & Brushes), and EZ-PZ Template 10 – The Story of Two.

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:

Jen also used these liv.edesigns products on her layout above: Brownbagger Paper Pack Vol. 2 and Needs + Wants: Eyelets Galore Vol.1 .

And may today be filled with LOVEly moments for you, my friends! xoxox

Back in the Zone

/ LivE / 1 Comment

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:

Credits:

liv.edesigns Summer Solstice Patterned Paper
liv.edesigns Roundabout Photo Masks & Labels
liv.edesigns Paint Swashes Vol. 1
liv.edesigns Paint Swashes Vol. 4
liv.edesigns Paint It Up Vol.1
Fonts: Peoni Pro, Petita

Speaking of comfort food, what’s yours? (Perhaps I’ll find I have a craving to indulge in yours this afternoon, heehee ;))

May your Saturday be filled with luscious delights too, my dear friends! And now, back to work I go… Over and out!

Livin’ It Up and Totally Circled!

/ LivE / Leave a comment

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!

This one, by Jen P:

This one, by Miki:

This one, by Jana:

And another one from Miki!

Woohoo! Have a Wonderful Wednesday, my friends!

Great Ad, Powerful Message

/ LivE / 4 Comments

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.

Here’s to our living more! 🙂

Round and Round We Go

/ LivE / 2 Comments

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!

This one, by Debra:

I just love Debra’s lovely showcase of her gorgeous grandkids! She also used my Brownbagger Vol.2 Paper Pack, Loopies Vol. 2-Loopy Love Rub-Ons & Brush Set, and Paint Swashes Vol.4 Rub-Ons & Brush Set on her super-fab layout above!

This one, by Chrissy:

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!)

Here we go loopy-loo!

/ 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

/ 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! 🙂