The Countdown Begins!

2 more hours!

Just two more hours—and the minutes are ticking by—before I host (for the very first time) the Speed Scrap at JessicaSprague.com! This is part of the four-day party we’re having to celebrate my being in the Designer Spotlight this weekend. It’s wild (with a 40% off discount on everything in my shop), it’s wonderful, and it’s guaranteed to make you go WOW! 

So join me, please, in two hours? It would be awesome if you would! (Plus a little birdy told me there will be a little sumpin-sumpin for those who do ;)).

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Happy Twenty-Twelve (and Wonderful Wednesday News)!

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!

You! Yes, YOU! We want YOU!

That’s right! YOU.

Want.

We. Do.

Want.

You.

We want you!

To be part of our team! Come and try out for our Creative Team at jessicasprague.com! We love our present Creative Team so much–they are *seriously* A.W.E.S.O.M.E.–and we’d like to spread the love and grow our precious family even more!

Our design team has grown more branches! We now have Eric and Echo Park doing their Hybrid and Digital lines with us, and we have Jody and Cosmo Cricket too! And let’s not forget Elle of Elle’s Studio (Are you jumping up and down with joy yet?).

Here’s more reason to jump up and down with joy! We love trees with lotsa branches, and we’d love our Creative Team to grow more branches too! All it takes is for you to heed our Creative Team call! It’s really simple: all you have to do is upload three (3) of your best projects (digital or hybrid) to our special CT Search Gallery between now and October 3rd! Oh and here’s a little tip: it really helps if you read the official rules, so …

Click on the image above to go directly to the official rules posted on jessicasprague.com!

Be there or be square! Hope to see your awesome creations in our CT Search gallery!

PS. Whatchawaitingfor? Go forth and try out! 😆 … love ya!

You. Are. Awesome.

Truly, you are.

Thank you so much for partying with us and joining us on our first-ever birthday bloghop bonanza! Thank you for taking the time to hit the Comment button and leave some love. Thank you for coming a while and sitting on my blog porch… and I hope you know that you’re always welcome and I’ve saved your little spot for you with a cup of hot cocoa or a tall glass of iced tea anytime you feel like passing by for a chat or two. 🙂

In case your bus / train / cab got a wee bit delayed and you’re coming in just now, and you’re feeling sad that the bloghop party’s over, don’tcha worry my friend! Most, if not all, of the You Are Awesome mini kits that belong to this wonderful mega collaborative kit are going to resurface in our shop today! And pssst! Here’s a bit of good news… today (Monday the 21st) is also the last day of our storewide sale, so you have the chance to grab these already low-priced bloghop mini kits at a further 20-off discount! Now how’s that for some cheering-up news? 😉

Here are the mini-kits that will be in the shop today!

You Are Awesome by Linda (In the Making Design)

You Are Awesome by Kari (iKari Designs)

You Are Awesome by Nisa (Splendid Fiins)

You Are Awesome by Jan (The Queen of Quirk)


and You Are Awesome by Liv (Liv.Edesigns) … (wait. that would be me! 😆 )

(Images are linked to the shop pages to make it easy for you! 😉 )

And here’s a fabulous layout created by the uber-talented CT member Miki, right on time for Fathers’ Day yesterday!

Party (Freebie) Hangover!

And just because everyone knows what it’s like to have a bit of party hang-over, here’s another wee freebie for you!

Click on the image above to download (and thank you in advance for the love you leave! It just thrills me to hear from you in the Comments section! 😉 )

It coordinates with this larger pack of huge Summerific labels, also available at my shop. (Image is linked to the shop page)

And here area couple of layouts created with them by our uber-fave and uber-fab JessicaSprague.com Creative Team!

by Miki

by Jenn

Keep Updated!

In case you’d like to keep updated with my blog (and … ahem… give me another awesome reason to come out and play on my porch more often) — you can click on the RSS icon over there on the top right side (yep, that would be the little green icon right below “Keep me updated”, or subscribe via your email inbox (right under the RSS icon)  and get notified each time a new post comes out.

Now if anyone knows a way to spread my arms around the entire world so they can reach over to you and give you a GREAT BIG SQUEEZE, let me know! Because I sure would like to give you the most humongous hug ever! Again, many thanks, and see you soon!

33 Freebies to Celebrate 3 Years!

I love birthdays! I love goodie bags! And I love that my favorite playground / Spraground in the entire world is turning three years old this month!

Man, it seems like just yesterday when we beta girls crashed Jessica’s site for her first-ever Photoshop class (Up & Running). I stayed awake for close to 24 hours just to sign up for a course that was probably intended for 20 students–but quickly grew to about 200 (or was it 2000?) in the first five minutes that the registration gates were thrown open. And now, we’re a family of… guess. It’s way beyond 2000, that’s for suuuure. 😉

Three years after, (3 x 365) days filled with overflowing creative passion and tight friendships formed around the world, and here we are! For me, the journey has progressed to courses that I am honored to co-teach with Jes (Type+Writer 1 and Type+Writer 2), a growing chest of digital design work that I am thrilled to be able to sell at the best shop (with the best team of designers and the most awesome Creative Team), and an ever-growing family of the most awesome Spraground fellas ever!

Thank you, Jes and Jared, for creating this home for all of us. Thank you, my awesome Spraground family, for being so caring, so amazing, so absolutely awesome! And thank you, YOU who are reading this, for coming to my little blog-porch today and sitting a while. You are awesome.

And no, I have not run out of adjectives that begin with A… the repetitive use of the word “awesome” is intentional, meant to lead you to…

(drum roll)

THIRTY-THREE awesome FREEBIES to celebrate three years of jessicasprague.com magic… and to celebrate you, because YOU ARE AWESOME!

(Yes, I am screaming! And yes, I am jumping up and down! And yes, I am handing out birthday trumpets and throwing confetti and popping the caps off cases and cases of… you guessed it! Diet Mt. Dew! 😆 )

And they’re all yours to collect from 10PM (EDT) tonight all the way till 10PM (EDT) Sunday! Just because we like celebrations that last an entire weekend! 😉

Here’s how the game goes!

See? We love you so much that we decided it wasn’t enough to just give you 33 birthday goodie bags this weekend! There’s more! We’ve included a little quote strip in each of our bloghop freebies (so make sure you unzip those goodies right away! 😉 ). Collect them all as you unzip each freebie from each of our 33 blogs.

Then, as you struggle to hold all your goodies in both arms at the end of your bloghoppin’ bonanza, take those 33 quote strips, play around with them, and arrange them in the correct order. When they spell out the quote that reflects our fondest wish for you, type it out in an email… then seal it with a kiss and send it to tori@jessicasprague.com. This AWESOME friend of yours and mine – and an amazing Spraground admin officer who just *loves* support tickets 😉 – will gather all the correctly-arranged quotes and include them in a raffle for some really amazing prizes! So don’t forget to grab your chance at winning too! (Just make sure you send them in before 10PM Eastern on Sunday! 😉 ).

And now, in case you’re shifting weight from left foot to right, thinking “Right. Now let’s get on to the freebie, girl!” … I hear ya!

Here’s my goodie bag waiting to jump into your arms!

Click on the image to download my part of the mega collab You Are Awesome kit!

If you happened to arrive right here on my blog porch first thing this evening, you’ll need to know that you’ve landed at the second blog out of 33. You’ll want to go to the beginning of the bloghop to make sure you didn’t miss a single one of the 33 freebies… so head on over to the Blog of all Blogs that belongs to the Queen of Digi-Skill-Growing and the Diva of Photoshop Fridays and one of my very best friends!

Click on the image below to go to Jessica’s Sprague Lab!

When you’re done a-grabbin’, hop on over to the next blog, which belongs to… my dear, dear cereal-lovin’ friend and super-talented designer-mate, Nisa Fiin!

Click on the image below to go to Nisa’s blog (feel absolutely free to click your heels too! 😆 )

Remember to keep hoppin’ till you get all 33! And if you need to rest, you’ve got till Sunday to hop around! 😉

Oh, and if you could take a minute to leave some love on my blog, that would be… AWESOME! (Did you expect another adjective, maybe? 😆 )

Now, after you’ve unzipped all the goodies, you’ll probably be dying to start playing with them! Have I got the perfect excuse for you to  tear the wrappers off your birthday gifties from us and play with them: come join our challenges, going on at the same time, right on our General Forum area! Click on the image below to get to the Spraground!

Happy Hoppin’ my dear sweet friends! 😀 And thank you for the love you leave on all our blogs! ❤

ETA: If you have difficulty downloading (the download links should work for macs and pc’s alike :D), the likely cause would be kinks from simultaneous multiple downloading, so please try the links again… and remember you have till sunday 10pm EST to grab the freebies! 😀 Thank you soooo much for your patience and for playing with us!

Grab a free class! Challenge yourself! And grab more freebies!

Have you ever looked through the card aisle at the bookstore or stationery department and thought, “Nope, nope, that doesn’t quite capture what I want to say…” Or perhaps, with a wistful  sigh, whispered to yourself, “Mmmm… I think I could do that, if I only knew how…”

Well, let me tell ya, YOU CAN capture exactly what you want to say on a card, and you CAN make your own cards, and best of all, your cards will come with a lot of love and not a lot of cost! Too good to be true?  Blink your eyes, pinch yourself, and let’s see… yes! You’re still here, and yes, it’s true!

If you haven’t registered yet, come to jessicasprague.com and get your name on that ever-growing list of avid learners! Because you get in for FREE (yep, that’s right! Spell it with me, F-R-E-E!) if you register yourself between now and the 28th of June, which is when the class goes live!

Read more about Jessica’s newest and latest (and did we say, FREE?) class, Computer Tricks for Cards!

Click on the image below to get to our homepage where you can learn more about how to grab this free class!

Birthday Bonanza Times Two … This Week!

We’re celebrating three years of awesome-ness at jessicasprague.com this month of June, and here’s what’s happening this week!

Challenge Yourself!

We’re having not one, not two, but THREE back-to-back 24-hour daily challenges (cos we love the number 3 this year! 😉 ), where you get to tickle your creative instincts, grow your skills, and make new friends (or play with old ones!).

Beginning Friday at 10AM Eastern, check out our General Forum Spotlight Area for the first challenge, to be led (for the first time!) by our Creative Team member Chrissy! You’ll have 24 hours to do the challenge (digi, paper, or hybrid scrapping at its best!) and by 10AM Eastern the next day, my challenge goes up! Then on Sunday, as my 24-hour challenge ends, Linda’s 24-hour challenge begins!

What an awesome way to get three layouts (or more) done in an entire weekend, right? And that’s not all! We’ve got prizes to give out via a random.org raffle to all those who participate in our challenge!

If you’re a challenge veteran at the Spraground, this is for you! If you’ve lurked and read about the challenges but never got the guts to actually participate in one, this is for you! And if you’ve never ever participated in a challenge before, well, then, this one is for you too! And because our Spraground is full of love, we want you there, whether you’re a beginner, an intermediate, or an advanced scrapper!

Click on the image below to find yourself in the General Forum … remember, it starts on Friday morning at 10AM EST!

And FREEBIES GALORE!

Who doesn’t love a freebie, huh? We all do! And best of all, we love giving them out at the Spraground to celebrate our third birthday! Goodie bags galore! A major goodie BOX is more like it, filled with AWESOME (wink, wink) goodness for you to play with the entire week… and forever (we like “forever” at jessicasprague.com… take any of our courses, and you have them–tadah!–forever! 😉 )!

The designers of the jessicasprague.com and the creative team members have teamed up to produce a mega, super, awesome bloghop bonanza for the entire world! Our bloghop begins on Friday, 10pm Eastern and ends on Sunday at 10pm Eastern!

We’ll have a special add-on game while you grab the freebies, and I’ll tell you more about how it all works on Friday! So be sure to come back here (set your alarm clocks, ink it in your calendar!)

For now, I’ll leave you with this little teaser:

Don’t forget… I’ll see you right here on Friday morning, 10AM Eastern for the challenges, and 10PM Eastern for the birthday bloghop… and we’re going to PART-AY the weekend away! WOOOOOT! 😀 😀 😀

Are you wearing your party hat yet?

My favorite place in the whole wide webworld, JessicaSprague.com, turns three years old this June! WHEE!

JessicaSprague.com Turns 3 in June!

Have you heard about all the awesome activities that have been going on? Lots of goodness overflowing at the Spraground!

* All current digital products in our shop and self-paced classes are 20%-off till June 21st! (Twenty percent off for two whole weeks! Grab what you’ve always wanted! :D)

* A brand-new FREE (spell it with me, F-R-E-E) class, Computer Tricks for Cardmaking, will open its registration doors on June 14th! Mark your calendars and make sure you sign up for this great class (and for the great company too! heehee).

* MORE fun-filled activities are lined up for the coming weeks so be sure you hop on by! You won’t want to miss the awesome party games and the goodie bags too! (And don’tcha worry, cos over at the Spraground, we’ve got cookies! 😀 )

Just click on any image above to find yourself in party-land… and don’t forget to put on your party hat! 😀

See you there!

Day 2 challenge and a freebie!

Just getting off the speeding work-train for a minute to call you all to join Day 2 of our 7 Days in May Challenges at jessicasprague.com!

The challenge today is … well, I’ll let you read all about it HERE… 😆

Remember how I said yesterday that there’ll be random freebies given our during this week of special challenges? Ya never know… today might be the day… 😉

Awwww okay, I’ll let you in on a little secret: today *is* the day (or at least one of ’em… more are coming! 😉 ). But you have to hurry if you want to grab the freebie, because during this week, the freebies for the 7 Days in May challenges will only be up for 24 hours… so grab this one before 10am EST tomorrow! 😀

Here’s a little sneak-freebie-peek:

(Image is linked to the jessicasprague.com General Forum challenge thread… just click and you’re there!)

See you there! (she says, chasing the speeding work-train as it starts to round the bend… 😆 )

QUICK! Run! Only 24 hours!

… for you to take this challenge! It’s one of two special challenges especially created for this week, and participating in it is guaranteed to bring lots of benefits! You get to grow your skills, you get to make new friends and connect with old ones, and you get a chance to win in the drawing of prizes!

But run, because the challenge is only up for 24 hours… from 10:00 pm EDT tonight up to tomorrow evening, when another exciting new challenge comes up!

Read all about it HERE! (Or click on the image above). And JOIN US! (It’s open to all, so if you want to play, we’ll meet you with open arms!)

{{{ BIG HUGS!!! }}}

PS. Be sure to check the HOMEPAGE for super delicious freebies from our designer team! (It changes every 24 hours for the entire weekend, so be sure you grab ’em quickly!)

Old Photo Restoration & Digital Design

Sometimes it’s fun to have entrees, salads, soups, and appetizers, and other times you’re hungry enough to want to forgo everything and jump right into the main course. Today, we are hungry. 😆

So, right on to the main course of today’s blogpost, which I am so excited to tell you about!

We have three new courses over at the Spraground (otherwise known as jessicasprague.com).

This Old Photo: Restoring Vintage Photos:

First, a class that has rated high on the in-demand list: old photo restoration! Do you have boxes full of old photos stored somewhere (now if I could only remember where…), perhaps in the attic, perhaps in the basement (hopefully free of humidity), and have always wanted to somehow save the lives of those precious mementos of those dear to us (and part of the reason why our hair and skin color are as they are)? Have you looked through them, marveled at them, and then sighed with slight despair upon seeing scratches, old-age stains, perhaps some acid from those nasty magnetic albums rapidly eating away at the dear smile of Great-Grandma carrying 3-year-old Mama?

Fear no more! In a two-week instructor-led class (led by no other than the master guru and one of my dearest friends, Jessica Sprague), you will learn from Jes herself how to restore those vintage snapshots to their former glory! (And considering how we can never go back in time and re-shoot those old photos, this is the next best thing to getting them looking like they did back then!)

Click on the image below to learn more about the class, This Old Photo: Restoring Vintage Shots:

This Old Photo: Restoring Vintage Shots

The class begins on April 26 and ends on May 9. Registration is ongoing! There’s a special price for this beta course (isn’t it great to be among the first to learn? heehee), and if you’re signed up for the email/newsletter, you get a coupon code with extra bucks off! Isn’t that awesome? 🙂

But wait. There’s more goodness!

The Art of Digital Design

Have you ever wanted to learn how to create those awesome digital papers and embellishments? Wondered what goes into the process? Been curious enough to want to dip your toe into the design pool and learn the secrets of creating, packaging, uploading, marketing, and selling digital product? Or maybe you don’t want to really sell your product but want to create your own and maybe keep your options open for the future?

Here’s another of the most in-demand courses doing its debut at the Spraground!

Click on the image below to learn more about this awesome course, The Art of Digital Design:

The Art of Digital Design

This is a 5-week class, led by no other than the fab Jessica Sprague, and it’s perfect for advanced digital scrappers who want to learn about creating and marketing digital product! The class will start on May 24 and runs up to June 28. Stay tuned for future announcements re: when registration will open… or you can click on the image above, then hit the Notify Me button to get the news about class registration once it opens, delivered right to your inbox!

Want to learn how to draw digitally?

Or learn how to tackle that program that’s been sitting on your hard drive for so long because you needed a hand to hold yours and show you the ropes? Or wanted the perfect complement to the process of designing and creating for yourself? In a  follow-up to her fabulous first course, Illustrator 101: Designing for Yourself (in which you learn how to use Adobe Illustrator to create and build your own products, templates, cards, and more), the awesome Carina Gardner is now offering  Illustrator 102: Tips and Tricks of Drawing.

Illustrator 102: Tips & Tricks for Drawing

Carina’s class is self-paced, which means you can register *and* take the course immediately. Learn more all about it by clicking on the image above!

Looking for inspiration?

Seeing the fabulous layouts created by our Spraground Creative Team with my product never fails to both excite and inspire me! Check out the latest eye-candy!

Here are some layouts created with my Swirly Words Elements Pack…

… and my Swirdles pack too:

Can you tell I’ve been loving swirls lately? 😆 { NOTE: Images are linked to the shop, for those who are interested in knowing more 😉 }

I just looove the fresh look and the pretty little girl on this fab layout by Miki:

{ Her papers are also from my Gentle Morn Kit HERE }.

This wonderfully whimsical layout is by Chris:

And yet another one from uber-talented and uber-productive Miki:

Remember my Not Quite White Paper Pack from two posts back? Here’s what Miki made using it (just love the warm home-y feel of this layout):

And because these girls super-inspire me, I decided to create a layout which was inspired by Linda’s Spraground Challenge two weeks ago (We hold our challenges weekly… come join us? It’s open to everyone and free and fun! And you get the chance to win 5 Spragbucks!):

Looking for inspiration? (Part Two, lol)

We just wrapped up our Creative Search 2010, and boy, I have to say, I wish we could take in everyone who applied! The talent in the CT Search Gallery was just overflowing! Have a look here, and see for yourself… I’m pretty willing to bet my two little pinkies that you’ll come away from it totally inspired to take up your mouse, pen and tablet, or Cropadile (whichever your inclination is, :lol:) and start creating layouts left and right!

Check out the CT Search layouts HERE.

And stay tuned for the announcement of the final cut! (Biting your fingernails? I am, too! So exciting!)

Well, gotta get crackin’ on creating more schtuff! See you soon, my dear sweeties!

Beam me up, Scotty! 🙂