More In Store Monday

/ LivE / 4 Comments

Happy Monday!

I am really excited about my first product for 2012, out in the shop today, because it’s something that I’ve long wanted to do. Years ago, I used to paint with oils and canvas, and I loved it! Loved the mixing of paints on the palette, loved the feel of the brush sweeping across the canvas, loved even the smears of paint on my old battered jeans (and all over the easel as well). The clean-up afterwards, the washing of brushes – not so much. 😆

I haven’t painted in years, though, because painting takes hours and somehow life just got too busy (and I definitely didn’t have much time to spare for cleaning up after, what with having to chase after my 5 boys).

So I guess it doesn’t come as a surprise to know that I’ve long wanted to be able to bring the world of paints and canvas to the digital realm – to get the same texture, the same look, but without the mess and the lengthy clean-up after. And that’s how this pack of ten deliciously-blended and highly-textured painted canvas papers was born:

Here’s another “full-sized” view of them:

Did I mention that this baby is on sale for 25% off this Monday till midnight Eastern Standard Time? Whee!

P.S. If you’re into the art journaling craze going on, this could serve you well too! (I am and I am taking the Digital Art Journaling class of my dear friend Jessica, which includes a delicious mega-200-piece kit by Nancy Rowe-Janitz (another super-friendly lady whom I had the honor to meet at the first Digital Scrapbooking Event at Utah a couple of years back). The class is out-of-this-world awesome and incredibly inspiring, and I wish there were 200 hours in a day so I can get to work on creating my art journal layouts! (Soon, soon, soon! Hope springs eternal! haha!)

Eye-Candy Time!

And of course, what would Mondays be without some delicious eye-candy from the ever-awesome JessicaSprague.com Creative Team ladies?

Here’s a lovely layout by Miki (all that attention to details is amazing):

* Miki also used these liv.edesigns products on this layout: Mask Me Photo Masks, Windsong Kit, I Sing for Spring Kit, Softly Gently Patterned Paper Pack, Scribbled Words Rub-ons  & Brush Set, and Needs + Wants: Stitchies Vol. 2.

My dear friend Lisa created this wonderfully sweet layout. (Love the subtle effect of  layering)!

* Lisa also used these other products of mine on her layout: Whispers of Spring Paper Pack and some of the goodies I gave as freebies for our Spraground Challenges. 🙂

Lorrie made this layout to honor her beautiful mother (I am always deeply touched by layouts that honor one’s parents):

* Lorrie also used my Scribbled Words Rub-ons and Brush Set and Paint Swashes Vol. 1 to create her layout above.

And this majestic layout was created by Nancy (I think it truly displays the beauty of nature’s canvas!):

Aren’t the creations of these ladies just amazing works of art? Love them. Love our JessicaSprague.com Creative Team members even more! 🙂

And now it’s your turn:

 What place have you been to that has made you sigh in rapture over the beauty of nature? Do you have a photo of it? Feel most welcome to link me up in the comments so I can ooh and aah too!

PS. Have you signed up?

I just sent my first newsletter out with a special subscriber-only coupon for my shop, good till the end of March. If you haven’t signed up yet, go for it! (The “Sign Up for My Newsletter” button is right over there on my sidebar – go ahead and hit it! :D)

And have a wonderful day!

WoW – Wonderful Wednesday!

/ LivE / Leave a comment

Just passing by real quick because it’s Wednesday and it’s a wonderful one, and because I didn’t want today to pass by without reminding you that (breathe, breathe, pant, pant) …

this pack of paint-swished paper is on sale for half its regular price!

My Paint Play-Swishes paper pack has 7 highly-textured paintbrush-swished 12×12 solid papers in delicious, juicy colors, and all are guaranteed to bring a bright splash of color to your creations. Here’s another look at them:

And here are some amazingly awesome layouts created by the marvelous ladies on the JessicaSprague.com Creative Team!

Layout by Jana

Layout by Carol

Layout by Meg

Layout by Lisa

Layout by Amy

PS. Some of these layouts use the coordinating paper pack, Paint Play – Splats, which are liberally sprinkled with paint splatters. (That one’s not on sale today, though. 🙂 ).

Ooh now aren’t those WONDERFUL layouts just stunning works of art? Love me my CT girls!

If you don’t have this in your stash yet and you want to grab it while it’s half-priced (good till midnight Eastern Standard Time), click on the product images above or click HERE, and have yourself some WOnderful Wednesday shopping therapy!

(((hugs)))

And the decision is… Launch!

/ LivE / 3 Comments

I’d been thinking about it for the past couple of days.

Today I thought for about 30 minutes more, then finally made a decision. One that can be summed up in three words:

Why not?

Yes.

(After all, what harm can it do to add one more thing to add to an already-full plate, if it’s guaranteed to be both fun and a stimulus for greater growth and development? 😉 )

And with those three words, I now launch myself (bad pun intended, ha!) into WordPress’ Weekly Photo Challenge.

The theme for this week, in case it isn’t obvious yet 😆 , is Launch. Here’s my take on it:

Wordpress Photo A Week Challenge - 52.01

May you launch into this day with loads of love and laughter!

12 – 4 – 2012

/ LivE / 9 Comments

Twelve for twenty-twelve.

Twelve plans for the new year.

Do you have plans? Resolutions? Dreams you want to turn into reality this year? Why don’t we share? I’ll tell you yours and you tell me mine, and that way we can keep a friendly eye on each other (perhaps even whisper a gentle reminder in each other’s ear in case either of us comes in danger of flaking off on one or two). Sounds good?

I’ll start. Here are my 12 for 2012:

1. Prioritize prayer.

Too often, too many things fill up the day, like different ties clamped onto my body pulling me in this and that direction… and all of these things I have to do every single day matter not one bit, and all of those points on the To-Do List will not be as successful as they could be, if I don’t stop to spend some time in conversation with Him who gave me my life. This fact is not easy to remember, especially on the busiest of days: I know that by experience. It is a struggle. But a sweet one, and one that I want to apply all my energy to, because He comes first, after all.

2. Send a newsletter every month.

Just because I love ya and would love to keep in touch with you more often. And maybe pester you in your inbox. 😆

Nah, seriously. I would love to be able to share more, and I see my newsletter as a way of achieving that goal… with the side benefit of staying in touch with updates that might not find themselves into a blogpost. Also, I love learning a new thing everyday, so it was a total thrill to learn how to create sign-up forms and set up a whole newsletter system! Took me more than 24 hours — close to 48, actually — to set the whole thing up, but it was an awesome experience learning it!

And so do check out the right sidebar, right over there –> and DO sign up! You know you want to… 😉

Or if you visit my Facebook page HERE, you’ll find it on the left sidebar too.

Now why would you want me popping into your inbox? Uhm… cos you love me? 😆 Seriously, though, I’m planning to hop by perhaps once a month (unless there are more delish things to share after I’ve sent the monthly newsletter). I’m really excited about this, because not only do I get to bore you with my random thoughts (mwahaha), but I also now have the perfect way to share more goodies with you!

Here’s what you can expect from my newsletters (in case you find yourself wondering “Should I or shouldn’t I?”) – the latest news on the homefront (think: be the first to find out about sales and freebies and events!), my newest creations and products, news about classes (exciting ones that I would highly recommend as well any classes that I might be coming up with this year 😉 ), perhaps a few samples of my photographic adventures, quite possibly some random thoughts, and while we’re at it, why not throw in some special subscriber coupons and freebies as well? *Squeal!*

3. Release freebies through my Facebook page.

Remember that Facebook page I talked about? Well, I’m presently working on setting up the systems that will allow me to give exclusive freebies to liv.edesigns Facebook fans (or, in Facebook lingo, those that “Like” my page).

The work that I’ve been doing on this behind the scenes constitutes part of all the Geekifying-Liv Adventures that I’ve been enjoying since the new year started. (If you sign up for the newsletter, you’ll be among the first to know, too, if and when the freebies are out on my Facebook page! How’s that for incentive? >tee hee<)

4. Put up a new product in my shop every week.

I sometimes suspect that I have Designers ADHD – and no, there’s no such thing in real life 😆 . I just invented it as an excuse for all the half-finished projects that I have in my work folders on my computer. Plus all my projects-to-be that are still sketches in multiple notebooks and boxes and artwork that needs to find its way onto my scanner… that kind of thing. Sooo I need to actually get them off the physical (or mental) plane and onto the digital drawing board and then into my shop. Every week. For all the 52 weeks of this year.

Keeping my fingers crossed (and toes… and eyes thrown in, for good measure) that I make it! 😉

 5. Create one layout every month.

I looked back on the layouts I created for 2011 and discovered that these weren’t even enough to complete an album (whereas I could easily fill 16 pages of an album with one of Jessica’s three-week classes in the past). Maybe part of it is taking more photos (I completed Project 365, yay!), maybe part of it is having my three youngest kids in school (and therefore I’m a driver-mama in the mornings and tutoring-mama in the afternoons till evenings), maybe part of it is taking on parent-projects from the said schools, and maybe part of it is growing old and losing the ability to exist on 3-hours of sleep night after night on a regular basis. 😆

But I do feel the need to scrap more, even if it needs to be a “quickie” kind of thing. Just because there are all these stories that need to be told, not just in photos, not just in words, but in a pretty triple combination of words+photos+art.

 6. CreART.

By this I mean I want to stretch my boundaries, artwise. Learn something new. Get my hands dirty with paint and glue and stuff. (Or find a way to do it digitally! ;)). Experiment with something, even if it’s just sewing paper or painting a frame or putting together a miniature chair.

Another thing I really want to get into: create an Art Journal. (More on that soon! ;))

7. Do Project 365+

Last year was my first attempt to take a photo a day for each day of the year. And I am so thrilled to say that I actually did it!

This year, I’m attempting to do it again because it’s a fab way to document life as it happens (even if you may not have the time to scrap a page about it, at least you’ve frozen the moment in a photo that you can always go back to). Also, since practice makes perfect, I truly believe it does wonders in helping one constantly develop one’s photographic skills. And beyond that, the biggest reason why I love Project 365, is this: it forces you to look at everyday, ordinary moments and see the beauty, the miracle, the joyful wonder that might not immediately be visible on the surface.

(I am also considering trying my hand at the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge, where you choose a photo to interpret their theme for the week. Read more about it HERE).

 8. Use my Bind-It-All.

I confess. I’ve had this for hmmm, three years? And I’ve never used it. Geesh. I can be hopeless that way.

So this year, I plan to actually use it instead of looking at it on my shelf and promising “One day, BIA, you and I are going to be good friends.” That day must come this year. 🙂

9. Maintain serenity.

In the midst of attempting to put all these plans into action, I would like to be peaceful. Calm. Serene… whether the day is just like any other day or the world is spinning madly and I’m doing all I can to hold tight.

A very wise person once said “Be like the duck: all calm on the surface but paddling like hell under the water.”

Yep, I want to be a duck. I mean, not literally, but… you know what I mean. 🙂 (And somehow I’m pretty sure that if I stick to Plan #1, I won’t have much trouble sticking to this one 🙂 ).

10. Send a family newsletter at least bimonthly.

Because life today is such that we find that the people we love very dearly and the folks we grew up with are living in different areas all over the world. And life can get so busy that sometimes months pass without any of us managing to sit down and trade news and hugs with family and our closest of friends. So this year I want to consciously make time for that. Time to remind my brother and sister and aunt and uncle, who all happen to live in different parts of the globe, all oceans away from me, that I miss them and I love them and I think they’re precious.

11. Blog three times a week.

Because I love you! And I love spending time with you on my blogporch!

‘Nuff said. 🙂

12. Cook something special once a month. Or maybe cook up a new class.

Who knows what surprises the year holds in store, right? Wink wink.

Phew! Whattalist! Thank you for reading through that! And as your reward for sticking it out till the end, I have some super-fab news for you! Do you love templates? If you do, you’re in luck, honey!

Fifty Free Templates

… are yours for the taking! Fifty of them. I’ve got to be kidding, right? Nope. Fifty free awesome templates from the JessicaSprague.com Admin and Creative Team are just waiting for you to grab them, if you don’t have them yet.

Just in case you’re not a regular on our Spraground (in which case I would say to you, Aww, come on! You’re missing half of your life by not joining us there! ), these 50 templates were given out as freebies over the course of more-or-less fifty “Template Tuesdays” in 2011.

The last Template Tuesday was done on the 26th of December last year (sounds so far off, can you believe that’s just 2 weeks ago?) and guess who made the last of templates? 😉

Here’s Template Tuesday #50, by yours truly…

… and if you click on the image above, it will bring you to the page where you can download it (along with #49 which was created by our Creative Team Member, my friend Chrissy Guido).

You can use the template any way you want to (for your personal use, of course) since it’s a layered file (you can move things around if you wish, clip more than 1 photo to the masks, etc)… and as a special bonus I threw in a 12×12 textured background paper ;). Sweet!

Here’s what I created with my template:

To download the rest of the Template Tuesdays, you can read my dear friend Kari’s instructions and get the links on the page where you grab my template…

Or you can download the latest templates HERE (Templates Nos. 28 to 48)

and HERE (Templates Nos. 21-27)…

and the earlier templates HERE (Templates Nos. 1-26) .

(So sorry for having to give you all these separate links, but they ended up in separate areas since these were first given on our Digi Lovely Blog and then moved to our homepage blog at JessicaSprague.com).

And if the prospect of getting FIFTY FREE templates isn’t enough to make you squeal, here’s a little more interesting info: if you download these templates and create with them, and then upload those creations in our Template Tuesday Gallery HERE, you get not only a kajillion awesome layouts created by YOU (plus get those marvelous photos and memories documented, finally! 😉 ), but if you upload 10 layouts created with 10 different templates from the Template Tuesday collection, you also get the chance to win a $5-coupon to use at our JessicaSprague.com shop (so you can buy those yummies you’ve had your eye on for the past weeks).

Seriously, does that not just ROCK? (I have to insert here that I totally {heart} the JessicaSprague.com Admin and Designers and Creative Team! I’m pretty sure you will too, and when you see the awesome templates they’ve created you’ll love them even more!).

Here’s the only catch: Since Template Tuesday has been around all of 2011 (the last one ran last Dec. 26th), you only have till the end of this month (January 2012) to download those template babies as well as to upload your layouts with them to be eligible for the coupon. And if you end up being so busy these days that you can’t create 10 layouts, then you can still hoard those amazin’ templates and create with them later on! Just don’t forget to grab them before the end of this month, okay? 🙂

Voila! All good things must come to an end (you still awake? :lol:) so now it’s time for my little Tell-Me Bunny’s last postscript:

Okay, your turn: What are your plans for 2012?

But wait! Before you hit that comment button and tell me what your plans are (are we embarking on some journeys that are the same? I’m excited to know!), don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter.

And… that’s it, folks! See you real soon!

(((hugs)))

Happy Twenty-Twelve (and Wonderful Wednesday News)!

/ LivE / Leave a comment

Hey hey hey, ho ho ho, happy new year, my dear friends!

Remember last year I promised to be back with surprises? Well, since Twenty-Twelve began 4 days ago, I have been working hard on the initial setting up of all that good schtuff planned for you–stuff that will unfold  throughout the next 366 days of this new year. I am so excited! 😀 So I hope you’ll take the time to come around and sit on my blogporch throughout the year so you don’t miss out on goodies!

In fact, why don’t we start it right now? 😉

What a Wonderful Wednesday!

Beginning 2012, we will be having Wonderful Wednesdays at the “awesome-est” place in the world, JessicaSprague.com! Every Wednesday, we’ll be giving out super-special deals for you to grab within 24 hours. Is that wonderful or is that wonderful?

To begin the first Wonderful Wednesday, I have put up not just one but two of my favorite products for you to grab at 50%-off if you don’t have them yet! (And yes, I realize this is coming a bit late in the day 😕 , but you do have until 12:00 midnight – so give or take about 4 hours more?)

First off, we have my EZ-PZ Template #07 – I {Heart} MoMA at 50%-off:

(Click on the image below to get to this half-priced baby!)

PS. My EZ-PZ template collection come with all that you need to create a page in a jiffy – and all those little extras can be used for other pages that you make in the future too (we’re talking background papers, masks, embellishments, type paths, that sorta thing, cos I love packing my products with stuff that will make you smile 😉 ).

And secondly, I’ve put this wonderful stamped date brush and rub-on set from my liv.edesigns Needs + Wants Collection. At 50%-off too, here’s It’s a Date!

With days, months, and years from 2000 to 2012, in both rub-ons and brushes (.png format and .abr format), this is definitely a must-have that you’ll reach for again and again! And at 50%-off, that’s a total steal! 😉 (Click on the image above if you want to grab it for your stash).

Oh, and if you’d like to check out the rest of the Wonderful Wednesday items that my amazingly-talented co-designers at JessicaSprague.com are offering this Wednesday, click on the image below.

Now let me not take any more of your time so you can go check out these goodies! Say, aren’t great deals such an awesome way to start the new year? 😀

Happy 2012, dear friends! Enjoy!

Merry Christmas to One and All!

/ LivE / 2 Comments

On this most wonderful, most magical, most holy of nights, I wish you, my dear friends, the very best of the holiday season and the most blessed of new years!

Isang dalaga’y maglilihi, batang lalaki ang sanggol
At tatawagin siyang Emmanuel, Emmanuel!
(Kahuluga’y Nasa atin ang Diyos).
Magalak! Isinilang ang Poon! Sa sabsaban siya’y nakahimlay.
Nagpahayag ang mga anghel: Luwalhati sa Diyos!

And for my friends across the oceans, here’s the translation of the song:

Behold, a Virgin shall be with Child and shall bring forth a Son
And they shall call His name Emmanuel, Emmanuel.
(In other words, God With Us). ~Matthew 1:23
Rejoice, the Savior has been born! In a manger the Christ Child is lain.
All the angels throughout proclaim: Glory to God! 

PS. I will be spending the rest of these last days of this year in the bosom of my favorite blessings in the world (my hubby and my 5 boys) and our families. I will see you after the first day of 2012 with the promise of lots of happy surprises for you throughout the new year!

Have a wonderful time bonding with those you hold dear, and may the coming year be filled with even more love and laughter for you and yours!

((((Big warm hugs!!!))))

Resurfacing (aka: The Struggle for the 3 S’s)

/ LivE / 12 Comments

Well hello… it’s been a while, hasn’t it? I hope you’ll forgive my sudden drop from the face of the earth, but I’ve been on an adventure (one whose departure date I learned of only 3 days in advance, hence my inability to leave word that I wouldn’t be around for a bit).

And what an adventure it was. Amazing. Awesome.

From the very first day, a few hours after take-off, I knew exactly what this adventure would be all about: The Struggle for Silence, Solitude, and Serenity.

And yes, though I had no previous inkling that I might have needed to engage in this particular battle, it became apparent to me soon enough that it was one fight I needed to wage and that now was the best time to do it. Too long I had been chasing speeding trains (and you know how noisy, crowded and stressful real trains can be; my proverbial ones were just as bad). Too long I had been wading through a cacophony of voices, deadlines, everyday duties and responsibilities. Too long I had allowed myself to get caught up in all the myriad little things that make up that bigger thing called “Real Life” (when in fact all those little things can be dealt with easily if you just have the 3 S’s. But somehow I lost sight of that secret, and so my life had been for far too long one insanely noisy circus).

No wonder then that it had been quite a struggle to stay serene and calm and peaceful (I admit it, I had been struggling in a major way. Have you ever woken up in the morning feeling like you have 30 seconds to hit the ground running? Like you’re panting with your tongue hanging out even if you’ve barely taken off? Like your train just sped past you and you’ll have to grab that sandwich and chomp on it as you run furiously trying to catch up? Yeah. That was kinda what my mornings were like not too long ago).

And you know, when you’re constantly running and there’s noise all around and your hair’s flying all over your face, it’s just a hop, a skip and a jump away from turning into a bunch of nerves, flustered, impatient, and easily agitated. I felt like I was getting to that place real quickly, and I knew that when I did get to that point, it would make others like me less, and it would make me like me less.

So I changed direction, with the ticket provided at short notice for me by my wonderful friend J, and arrived at Station STOP.

And I stopped. Got off. Changed directions and went a different way.

And embarked on a retreat. Literally. 🙂 A three-day spiritual journey in which the first order of the day was to find silence and solitude, and finding those (in prayer), perhaps discover serenity too.

And I’m oh so glad and oh so grateful to have been granted the grace to find all three with Him, who holds us in the palm of His hands and calls us to Him when He knows we need it most.

He says, “Hey, come to Me and rest a while. Just be with Me completely, totally, fully… and I’ll take care of everything else. You can count on Me always.” And if we hear His call and answer it, it’s just totally astounding how much He gives in return for the “little” that we offer to Him, as long as that “little” that we offer is our everything. 🙂

And so I am back, fresh and refreshed, and ready to take on the world’s trains. And even if they rush at the speed of light on some days, I know I’ll be okay, as long as I remember to keep moments of silence, solitude and serenity in my daily life. (And because we’re friends, you’ll remind me when I’m in danger of forgetting, right? 🙂 ).

Aaaaand it’s good to be back with you! What about you? How have you been these past days? Drop me a line because I’ve missed you so! And I promise I’ll be back on my blogporch regularly once more.

Big big (((hugs))) to you!

Stock photos by dolar, 13dede, and criswatk at sxc.hu: Many thanks!

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!