Meet the Team: Stephanie

Today you get to meet team member Stephanie!

Tell us about your “real world”

I'm a full-time SAHM with twin 3.5 year old boys, Ian & Jake. My husband, Tim, works full time & is heading into his last year of law school; he'll be taking the bar next February which is a huge relief to all of us as it's been a long journey. I love to read history & play Angry Birds, Pinterest is the evil website I just can't get enough of but I love it for ideas. We are looking to bring a puppy into our family in the fall, we lost our dog last year & life just hasn't been the same without her; looking forward to the crazy puppy stage & training!
 
How did you get started with scrapping?
I got started back in the Fall of 2009 when the grandparents were complaining that I wasn't putting enough pictures on our blog. I was looking for something cute to do with the pictures from Ian & Jake's 1st birthday party & found digital scrapbooking through a search for regular scrapbooking. It really appealed to me becuase we don't have a large house & having everything nicely contained on a hard drive was ideal. I've been scrapping ever since then & am now designing templates to feed my habit!

Tell us something strange or unusual about you.
Let's see, the strangest thing about me would be that while I have twin boys, I am also a twin myself! I have a twin brother, Mark, who is 1 minute older than me. We always drove our parents crazy when we were growing up & when I told my parents that Tim & I were expecting twins it took a while for my Mom to stop laughing. But it's nice because I had an idea of what we were getting; it was still crazy but I was prepared for the crazy.


Stephanie shared her favorite layout with one of Becky's kits...Shine Down on Me.  She said she loves how the bright colors perfectly complemented Jake's face popping out of all the toys.  Super Cute!

New Release: Polka Dot Garden

Today I am releasing my collab with Flutterbye Faery Designs called Polka Dot Garden.  We created this kit for the Brownie Scraps Addicts club a while ago and I'm just now releasing it at Stuff to Scrap.  I love the colors in this kit!  The feel of this kit is so rich!  Take a look at Polka Dot Garden.

There's also an add on and a set of Quick Pages.

The Quick pages are brand new!  All the kits will be 30% off for one week.

Take a look at what my CT has done with this kit.  I love their layouts!  First is a layout by my new CT member, Laura.  The next one is by my CT manager Bren.

Then one by Daphne and one by Thao.

Finally a layout by Stephanie and one by Brooke.

I made a layout for a speed scrap at STS a couple days ago.

I made a freebie for you using these kits!  You can download HERE.

Wednesday Tips/Tutorials

Filling and Offsetting Outline Word Art Letters with Patterned Paper

Create a new document the color and size of your choice, then open a piece of digital paper.
Open a PNG outlined word art image and drag it onto your new document.
With the word art layer selected, get the Magic Wand tool.
Select the Add to Selection icon and tick Contiguous in the Options bar.
Click inside each of the letters. Marching ants will surround each of the selected sections.

Ctrl Click (Mac: Cmd click) the Create a New Layer icon in the Layers Panel. This places a new transparent layer below the text layer.

Now open a piece of digital paper and press Ctrl A Ctrl C (Mac Cmd A Cmd C) to select all of the paper and copy it.

Now switch back to the word art document and choose either:
• Photoshop: Edit > Paste Into or Edit > Paste Special > Paste Into
• Elements: Edit > Paste Into Selection

This fills your letters with patterned paper with the “fill” on its own layer.

Rather have a solid color? No problem! Select the patterned paper “fill” layer and choose Edit > Fill from the Menu bar.
Tick the “Preserve Transparency” box. From the Contents section, choose Color, then use the color picker to grab a color you like. Click OK to fill the layer with color.

If you like the offset alphabet look, you can switch to the Move tool and drag the outline layer to move it slightly away from the color or patterned paper layer.

$2 Tuesday

Did you figure out what kit I put in the $2 bin today?  If you guessed Zoobilation, you would be right!  This is a HUGE discount.  Don't expect this one in the $2 bin anytime soon again, so make sure to grab it now!!

Want even more good news?  I put the Petting Zoo add on and the QPs in the $2 bin as well!  Hurry, go shopping!

Need some more inspiration?  Here are a few more layouts using these kits.  First one is by Daphne and the second on by Thao.

I just recently found this layout by filandstef in the STS gallery and I love everything about it!  Just beautiful.

Sneak Peek Monday

I have a new kit out on Thursday.  It's one you may have seen before but it will be new to STS on Thursday.  Here's a sneak peek.

I have a HUGE HUGE HUGE $2 Tuesday kit tomorrow.  This will be the biggest discount I can ever give you for $2 Tuesday!  Are you ready??  Can  you guess what kit I'm putting in the $2 bin?  Here's a layout that gives you a hint :)

My CT member, Daphne, made a freebie for you!  You can download HERE.

Sunday review: Templates Doubled Up

I just wanted to give you another look at my new templates: Doubled Up.  These templates can be used as double page layouts or can be used as single page layouts.  Take a look.

Here's a layout that Thao made with one of the templates.  She used my kit Squeezed.

I made the templates based on some layouts that I made.  The first one uses my Winter Charm kit.  The second one uses my A Little Christmas Whimsy kit.  I also added pictures to the second template.

A Mother's Love

Happy Mother's Day to all of you who are moms!  I know it's not until tomorrow but I'm showing you a fabulous Mother's Day kit today so I figured I would wish you a happy day today!  My daughter has an ear infection so who knows how my mother's day will be tomorrow!  Scraps by Andrea has a beautiful new kit out called A Mother's Love.  I love the soft colors with the newspaper print in this kit.

Here's a layout I made for the recipe challenge at STS.  This was a tough challenge!  I had to use 7 pictures, 4 papers and 8 elements.  That's a lot of pictures for me to put on a page. But here's how it turned out!

Saturday News: Happy Birthday STS!

Happy Birthday Stuff to Scrap!  We officially turn 3 today, come over to the STS forum and help us celebrate this weekend and all month long.  Don't miss the storewide sale that is going on today and tomorrow only & you have a few more hours to get your BINGO card posted for the game that will be later tonight.  Hope to see you at the celebration!

And don't miss the Birthday Chat tomorrow being hosted by Meagan's Creations!

Jensen Motley Crew Designs is hosting a speed scrap at Stuff to Scrap on Saturday.  Be sure to join them in the forum and chat room for some fun.

The participation prize is a pack of Edgers to go along with a new kit coming out called Cherish

I hope you can join us!

GSO

Wow, I have been checking out the AMAZING layouts at Stuff to Scrap using B2N2 kits. I have chosen 4 GSO that really blew me away..
The first one is called SMP 2008 by filandstef....Love the awesome long photo and her title work is awesome!

The second one is called My Little Sunshine by Shelly...I love the way she layered the papers and the photos are too stinkin cute!

The third one is called Challenge of the Week by lovetolearn...I love her clustering and her journaling is great!

And last but not least,Eggs by Becky 22...I love the split papers and the elements between the papers!

New Release Thursday: Templates Doubled Up

I have recently started making tons of double page layouts.  I decided that I might as well make some of them into 2 page templates!  Here's a look at my Templates: Doubled Up.

Take a look at what my CT has done with these templates.  This first one is from Daphne and uses my Stars and Stripes kit.

Next up is a layout by Bren that uses my collab with Flutterbye Faery-Monkey See, Monkey Do.

The next two layouts are by Brooke.  The first one uses Someday by Flower Scraps and Scrappy Cocoa.  The second one uses Forty Weeks by Queen Wild Scraps.

I love what Daphne did with the next 2 layouts.  She took one of the templates and broke it up into 2 different layouts. Each of these double pages could stand on their own, so you really can make 8 layouts from this template pack!  This first one by Daphne uses my BAK pieces: Gentle Summer Breeze.  The second one uses Khaki Splash.