Challenge Spotlight – NEW Designer Spotlight Challenge

Good morning, gorgeous scrappy ladies!  🙂  Hope everyone’s week is off to a great start; I really wish it were the weekend already so I could be at home in the A/C, napping and scrapping! 😉

This week I am spotlighting a new challenge here at GS: the designer spotlight challenge! In this new challenge, all you have to do is use 90% products from our spotlight designer (you can use a template from another designer)…that’s it! This is going to be a great way to introduce you to a designer whose products you might not have worked with before and get you going through your stash! 🙂 Our first designer in the spotlight is Rachel of Pretty in Green!

Our rockin’ ad team lead, April, did a great interview with Rachel last week; if you haven’t read it yet, go check it out! Rachel also provided a spiffy coupon for you to grab some of her designs for this challenge. The coupon is in the challenge thread, so scurry over and snag it!

I’m pretty excited about this challenge, ladies.  I love the idea of going through my stash and scrapping with some kits I might have forgotten about. I’ve already got one in mind for PiG…and I’m not the only one! Check out some of these layouts the ladies in the forum have created…

By scrappy_mom

By Lisa

By dillydoodles

I love all of these layouts! Don’t you love the variety of kits used here? Rachel has even more fabulous designs in her GingerScraps shop. There’s something for everyone and some really excellent unique kits you don’t want to be without. My personal favorite kit of Rachel’s is One in a Million:

I just adore the muted colors here and how some of the sentiments look like chalkboard art before chalkboard art was even a trend–so cool! So, you can probably guess which kit I’ll be using for this challenge.  😉  How about you? We’re already a week into July, so make sure you’re got your post up in the July Challenge Tracking Thread. Tally up your completed challenges and at the end of the month, you’ll be in for a rad reward!

That’s it for today’s blog, ladies! Y’all have a wonderful week and I’ll see you back here next Tuesday for another challenge spotlight. 🙂

Challenge Spotlight – Buffet Challenge

Hello and happy May! Is everyone still recovering from iNSD? It’s finals for me so I didn’t get to do a whole heck of a lot of scrapping, but I hit up some chats, got to know some rad ladies (some might have gotten to know me more than they wanted!) and bought awesome new scrappy stuff! If you picked up this month’s buffet pieces while they were on sale, you’re all prepared for this week’s challenge spotlight: the buffet challenge hosted by Rachel of Pretty in Green! If you haven’t seen this month’s buffet yet…what are you waiting for?! Hop over to the store and check it out…

Spring has pretty much sprung at this point (except for that random cold front last week!) and it’s about that time to have pictures of pretty flowers blooming, the kiddos running around in the grass and just being out in the fun! This buffet is perfect for all your fun spring photos.

Just a week into May, the forum ladies are already flooding the gallery with gorgeous layouts using this month’s buffet. The color palette is rather unique and perfect for any occasion  Need some scrapping inspiration? Check out these layouts…

By sgroenke

By megvill

By Lisa

Loving these layouts already! The grey in this buffet is a lovely neutral and goes so well with the bright reddish orange and muted yellow and green. These three pages all have a great energy and capture the colors of this buffet so beautifully!  Wonderful layouts, ladies. 🙂

We’re already a week into May (what?!) so if you haven’t staked your spot out in the May Challenge Tracking Thread, you might want to mosey on over and do that! 😉 There are some cool rewards to be had if you play along with our challenges and tally up your points at the end of the month!

Ok, I’m off to get some studying in for finals this week. If anyone else is in the thick of finals–the best of luck to you! 🙂 Everyone else have a wonderful week and I’ll see y’all back here next Tuesday for another challenge spotlight!

Challenge Spotlight – Mini Kit Challenge

Good morning, scrappy ladies! Can you believe it’s already mid-March? Time really is flying by! It was just Christmas and now it’s Spring Break–crazy how time flies! This week I am spotlighting the mini kit challenge hosted by Rachel of Pretty in Green. The mini she’s created for us is perfect for slowing down time a bit and scrapping a life in the week. It’s called This Week and I am kind of loving the color palette; take a look:

I am really liking candy-colored, stripy kits lately and this mini is just right up my alley!  You know with an adorable mini like this, the layouts have been flying in. Here are a few of my favorites for inspiration…

By MSPeeler

By nagato

By evadraga

I could seriously post every single layout that’s been submitted because everyone is working this mini! 🙂 I’m going to keep this short and sweet and remind you to post in the March Challenge Points Tracking Thread and start tallying your completed challenges so you can snag a sweet reward once the month is done! Even if you just snag this mini and create a layout with it, you are eligible for a reward–sweet deal! 😀

If you have any questions about how this or any of our monthly challenges work, swing by the Cookie Jar and ask away! That’s about all I have for you this morning; hope y’all have a great day and a wonderful week! 🙂

Team Spotlight: It’s a BIG one!

We’re making up lost time in a BIG way!  Today we’re going to talk to not one, not two, but THREE of our incredible designers!

Alright ladies, please introduce yourselves!

 

My name is Jen – I’ve been designing under the name Jen C Designs for 2 years – and loving it! My husband and I will be  celebrating our sixth anniversary this summer and we have two kids: Luke, age 4, and Charlotte, age 2. I started digiscrap    designing when I was creating blogs for friends – I stumbled into DST one day and never looked back again!

I’m JoyLynn, living in Huntsville, Alabama with my amazing husband (seriously, he puts up with me and rarely complains, lol) and the two cutest boys ever (I have pics!).  Tyler’s 6, smart, funny, and just finished Kindergarten.  Hayden is a 4 year old fireball full of awesomeoness (who makes me giggle a bit too much when he calls you a “goose” and completely leaves the ‘silly’ off the front of it) 🙂 I’ve been designing just over a year and a half, having started on a push from a designer friend (*waves at Ryan*), but enjoying the fun of learning more and more as I go along.

Hey I’m Rachel of Pretty in Green Designs, I’m a 27 year old stay at home mom to 2 little kidos Anastasia and Gage, I started designing by just playing around making freebies, but after I won the 2nd season of Ginger Scraps Survivor I was making full sized kits, and the lovely Ginger offered me a spot on the design team! So I’ve been designing now for alittle over 2 years now, and I just love designing even if it is a lot of work, I just itch to get these cute ideas out of my head! My Husband of 7 years works a strange shift, which gives me quite a bit of time to play around , lol.

 

Jen is our Guest Designer this month, JoyLynn of Blue Heart Scraps has provided our Daily Download for May (it’s super cute! don’t skip a single day!) and Rachel of Pretty in Green Designs designed our great Free-with-purchase grab bag!

We opened up the floor to have YOU ask these ladies whatever it is you wanted- here are there answers!

Jen, I’ve been a fan of yours since I started scrapping, even before I discovered GS! How long have you been designing and scrapping in general?

Thank you so much! I’ve been designing and scrapping since April 2010. Though I paper scrapped since I was little  I’ve always been in to creative outlets – but with two small kids, keeping my crafts and hobbies tucked into my computer!

JoyLynn, who is your biggest celebrity crush? 😉 

It changes…often.  Right now? Chris Hemsworth (yummy, yummy Thor — he could [insert racy hammer innuendo! 😉 ] )!

Rachel,  if you had $1,000 to spend ON YOURSELF right now, what would you buy? (Groceries/bills/childrens’ things NOT allowed!)

That’s a hard one, I’m always last on the list, but I did just get my kitchen redone, so lets see….. I guess I’d get some new outfits, I’m a jeans and tee shirt kind of gal, and lately I’ve been feeling like I need a little bit more style lol, so yeah that would be a fun $1000 to spend!

Now for all three of you, if you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?

Jen: Great question! Well I’ve already lived there to be honest. I would love to live in Vancouver BC again – I grew up in BC, moved to Ontario when I was 4 and then met my husband when we were going to grad school in Vancouver. It’s a beautiful city – but alas we moved – and until we win the lottery we won’t be heading back. Right now I love living in Belfast – we are so close to so much – and just a short hop on an airplane to all of Europe.

JoyLynn: Right where I am…but maybe in just a little bigger house.  My mommy is close…I can’t leave her  🙂

Rachel: Oh, I wouldn’t move from here, I LOVE my home, the hubby and I have had this discussion before you know the “if we won the lottery” talk, I would just stay right here and fix up the house more and buy the land behind us, LOL.

What is your favorite kit of your own?

Jen:  That is so hard to choose – I think though that based on it’s popularity and that it’s about my little girl AND my team created such gorgeous work, I would have to choose Divalicious!

JoyLynn: Beep Boop! The bright colors, the adorable robots.  It just screams my boys!

Rachel: Oh do I have to pick! Well right now its the soon to be released kits that are in the “Free with $10 Purchase” grab bag, I really like the diversity I put in to those kits.

This kit will be released in June for purchase, but right now you can get it for FREE if you spend $10 in the store!

 Okay, now, what is your favorite kit that YOU didn’t design?

Jen: I love everything on Connie’s – one of my recent faves of her’s is For You.

JoyLynn: That answer changes pretty regularly, too. But, since the boys are just about finished with TBall for this year…I really need to pick up Batter Batter Swing and make some adorable layouts of them! 😀

Rachel: That’s another hard one, geesh! Designing doesn’t give me a whole lot of time for scrapping, although I should make time! I’d have to say my favorite kit Right Now that I didn’t make would have to be Sublime by Sugar Kissed Designs, I just love the colors and the style… of course that super cute puppy of hers gets me every time!

Okay, one last question for each of you!

Jen, What theme/color palette have you never worked with but would love to?

Black, white and red is something I want to work with – I’ve had an idea in my head for a year – but never got around to it! 

Well, hopefully we’ll see something soon then! 😉

JoyLynn, what is one thing you hate to do, when it comes to actual designing?

Always questioning and second guessing myself.  I do it for myself, first and foremost, so I have to like what the finished product is.  But, I’m also designing for others to enjoy and want to create lasting memories with, so I always wonder if anyone else will agree with adding this paper or that element.  It’s scary to put your personal side out there and then have to wait and see if others approve of it.

I think it’s safe to say, we all approve of your totally AWESOME designs!

And finally, Rachel, where DID you come up with your designer name?

Well, when I created my user name for GingerScraps, it was just a silly play on Pretty In Pink, yeah the 80’s Movie…. lol so as I started playing around with designing everyone knew me as pretty in green so I just kept it, and I think it’s has turned out to be an awesome name! I get to call my beautiful CT team Pretty Girls, and it can also stand for digi scrapping being green friendly so, I’m stickin with it!

It’s a perfect fit! Digi scrapping IS totally green friendly, and your kits are certainly pretty!

Alright, that’s it for today friends! I’d like to thank each one of these ladies for taking the time to answer these questions (and more! there were too many to post!), share a little bit more about themselves, personally, silly and about their designing. Make sure to check out these ladies personal favorites, all of which are in the store right now!

I hope everyone has a great weekend!