my marketplace favorites

So. Marketplace went live last night. I LOVED this kit. In fact, there was quite a bit of gushing from the design team over the November kit - and I think it shows. I love how each designer takes the kit and makes it her own, and it never fails that i sit and think "how did she think of THAT??" as I page through the gallery.

I was up for the reveal last night and did a quick peek through all the galleries, but saved my seriously browsing for this morning, once my big kids were off to school, I had a diet coke in hand, and I had convinced the littlest to watch Curious George. Something as important as picking my favorites takes concentration. ;)


First up, November's guest designer, Jen Jockish. I love the bright houses, and the simplicity of the color blocked bottom. The wee birdie perched on top of the photo is the perfect finishing touch.


This page from April just makes me happy. I love the stamping on the photo. I love the use of the negative from the Sassafras chipboard alphabet. I love the detail of the arrow and buttons. but for some reason, the way "love" is lined up and stitched along the top just makes my day.


The background. AH, the background. Love the negative stars, love that one's backed with the striped paper. The house and tree on the labels is the perfect finishing touch to Celine's layout.


That yummy May Arts ribbon against the veneer is a beautiful combination - and Davinie takes it another step by adding the border punched patterned paper underneath. Gorgeous. And she made those scarves! Too cool.

I loved Emily's brilliant use of the SC exclusive paper for her title - the stitching is divine. This is a beautiful, classic 2 pager, with all the right details. And Emily is too cool for pulling old pics from her files - I really need to do this, too.


I didn't think I was going to pick this one as my favorite - but the more I look at it, the more I know that it is. It's so soft, so pretty, and it just *feels* twirly. I love the lightness. Perfect.


Okay, I'll admit I giggled at the photo. It's nice to know I'm not the only one to whip out the camera when my toddler breaks out the tears. I love Joy's sweet photo against the calm, balanced background. The scattering of punched flowers is the perfect embellishment.



Oh, the PHOTOS. Love. So sweet, a daddy and his boy, just hanging out. I love the warm and cozy colors the Kelly pulled together to finish this off. She totally pulled the feeling from the photos into the rest of the page.



I went back and forth on a favorite for Kirsty - but in the end, this one won. I LOVE how she used the sewing machine. LOVE. And then the little scattering of embellishments near the title did me in, and I had to pick this one.



Those photos!! And the way Maggie cut the SC exclusive paper. Brilliant. Add in the scattering of yellow hearts and the yellow flower at the bottom and I'm in love.


I'm a sucker for circles. I love how Nicole H layered the border punched strips and alphabet border stamp over the circles. And the subject matter is just awesome, along with the photos.




I loved this mini from Nicole S, our new mama of 4. So much texture and color, and every page is perfectly finished. The leaf transparency layered over the veneer is divine.

I adore how Stephanie has kept up with monthly layouts as Sadie grows - I really wish I'd been better about this! These photos totally capture that toddler spunk, and the Sassafras flowers are a wonderful pop of color to her calm color scheme.


I love the layering of the photos, and I love the little grouping of bits and pieces. The journaling is beautiful, and I love how the colorblocked background balances out all of the funky embellishments near the photo.

I still have lots of November's kit left, and now that I've gone through the gallery, I'm totally inspired to play with it some more. And i *really* can't wait till it's in all of your hands, so that I can be inspired by you as well. =)

A Twist on the DT Favorites

I was going through the design team gallery, trying to decide which ones were my favorite to post here. I was having a hard time, so I went directly to the sources and asked the DT members to tell me their personal favorite. Most of them responded, if they didn't, I was forced my favorite of their work.

Our October Guest Designer, Lisa Truesdell's favorite layout is Steadfast.
It turned out exactly how it looked in my head. i've held that pic for so long and those are sometimes the hardest pages for me to do, because i get so many preconceived notions of how i want it to look, rather than just going with the flow. but everything just came together and the colors of the kit suited that photo perfectly.


April's favorite layout this month was Kayaking.
I thought it was clever of me to type "Bowling Green, Kentucky" right on top of the Kentucky portion of the map.



Scarlet's favorite was Over the Rainbow.

As soon as i saw the rainbow paper, i knew that i wanted to cut out part of it and journal around it.

Davinie's favorite was Unplanned Harvest

The whole project was inspired by the event. We were sleeping in my stepmom's quilting room while we visited, and we picked fruit from the trees in her yard. As soon as I started snapping photos I knew what I was going to do and started creating the layout in my head. The quilt pattern was actually quite easy, fun, and has become addicting!

My personal favorite was Don't Forget 2 Pray

The misting actually worked this time! And the masking turned out exactly as I'd hoped, I even got to reuse the "p", turning it into the "d." I love that it's a message to my daughter, I don't often journal directly to someone.

Jenn says:

I guess I like my Happy Home layout...mostly because it is a little different for me. Then because I could put most of the things I hold dear all on one page. It started out a little differently in my mind, but I ended up liking the end version better than my imagined version.

Joy's was 2872. I think it's awesome because of the huge misted numbers and the fact that there are no pictures, yet the story is so very obvious!


Kelly said

Cars and Trucks is my favorite because it came together so quickly! I immediately saw those little red circles on the Sass paper as wheels and the little cars sparked from that idea. :)

Kirsty loved all of hers the same but picked her

1st day layout because of the way I used my envelope... just differently. I adore the happy stamp so I gave it an airing on that layout. The pencil paper was perfect, no? Good excuse to use that on y layout too. I cant say why i love it, but it just came together perfectly with the aeiou pattern and the pencil cut outs.

Maggie's favorite was Pumpkin Patch. I love it because of all the circles, and it looks like it was such a fun day!


Nicole's favorite was Life is a Test

because of the message...shocking for me, eh lol?!

Nicole's favorite was You Monsters. Here's why:

1. it actually turned out like it looked in my head. For once. LOL

2. We've been dealing with yucky behavior around here since school started up again. Mostly just due to getting readjusted to long days, etc. And journaling about my kids' inner beasts in a tongue in cheek sort of way was sort of cathartic, you know? It reminded me that for the most part they are all great kids and I'm so blessed. I'm willing to put up with some little monsters here and there if I need to! :)

Stephanie's loved Faking Fall. Reason being:

Ii love the way the colors all worked together and i think it really looks fun on the light background. I'm happy it gave me the opportunity to finally scrap these old pics of Harper. Plus I used my favorite color of paint, and that makes me happy.

Tina A. loved her Journey layout. I think the flowers peeking out from behind the picture are brilliant.

Finally, we have Tina C. and her elegant "A Note to My Son." I love that even though there is no journaling in view, you know this page is full of love.Tomorrow, we'll have our layouts based on the challenge for you, as well as the random winner. Both Lorie and I have been floored at the layouts this challenge produced. You guys went above and beyond! It's also fun to realize that we're not the only ones who hang onto the SC labels and tags. So thanks for playing along :)

They Just Keep Getting Better.

Today we're going to take a peek at some of Nicole H and Davinie's older layouts. I had fun soaking in their pages this afternoon...picking out a few representative pages to share here. It's so cool to see how they have both stayed true to themselves while staying current with the trends and new products available. I love that I can look at their pages from 2006 and right away pick out the same things I love about their work today.

First up, Nik. Here's a couple of her pages from this month's gallery.

One of my favorite things about Nicole and her pages....she wears her heart on her sleeve. And it's a big heart! :) Full of love for her family, daughter, friends, life. With each layout, you can get a glimpse into her heart. I so admire that, as I struggle with getting my feelings down on paper. I also love how she uses paint and makes it look so effortless. How she uses little bits of product in ways I would never have thought of. And her designs that draw you right into the photo. So, when I went back in her gallery...guess what? I loved her old pages for all those same reasons. Here are a few...

Next up, Davinie! Here are a couple from the August gallery.

I think the thing that always strikes me first with Davinie's work is the stitching she does. Whether it's handstitching or machine done...it's always perfect. And it always just finishes the page in just the right way. She also is a master at mixing up patterned papers in ways I never could and the details in her pages always wow me. They are subtle, but when I look closely, it's like I'm finding a little gem that I didn't notice at first glance. :) Here are a few of her pages dating from 2006...and like Nik's...I love them for the same reasons I love the ones today! The product styles may have changed a little, but the signature Davinie touches are still there.

I hope you all are enjoying this blog topic of looking back. :) Have a great weekend...more from Jenn tomorrow!

Summer's Almost Over!

Maggie and I are sharing blog duty this week and we thought it might be fun to talk about all things summer. It's hard to believe summer is already almost over...it always flies by way too quickly! I think I saw that some kids are already back in school?! My oldest starts Kindergarten on the 24th, so I'm relishing these last days of summer for sure! :)

Anyway, in the spirit of getting all those summer photos scrapped before you're snapping "Back to School" photos, I snagged some amazing summer layouts from the member gallery to inspire you.

I always love gluestickgirl's use of embellishments...look at all those little bits of goodness on this layout!

Cute new papers from Lily Bee and an adorable summer photo...love this layout from katrina!

Don't forget to scrap the non-sun related summer things too! Check out this great summer reading layout from Linda Sobolewski...

2-pagers are such a challenge for me...Reyasunshine makes it look so easy! Check out all those photos!

This layout from amyjk totally caught my eye in the gallery! The summery color combo is so bright and fun and I adore the way she used the yellow paint.

Here are a few of my personal favorite summer layouts...

This one is from way back in 2006!

Check out the member gallery for even more summer inspiration and stay tuned for more summer goodness here on the blog for the rest of the week :)