We had a wonderful grand opening weekend. Did you collect all the pieces to our fabulous blog train? Go get them while you can, the kit goes into the store on Friday!

We had 7 speed scraps this weekend, the world’s longest bingo game, a scavenger hunt, and a couple of VERY fun and revealing games of truth or dare. There are some pretty non-flattering, but highly amusing photos in there. Remind me not to play Truth or Dare with Steph (Scrappy Cocoa) again… 😉

During all those speed scraps, our forum members made some pretty awesome layouts. And, our featured designer from last week, Amanda Heimann made one too.

This is the layout Amanda Heimann did with our collab kit, Blast Off!
AZJakes

Becka

MandyMade

MandyMade again (this one REALLY made me giggle!)

Jen (This one is mine, don’t you love the way the kit matches his outfit? Charmaine accused me of cooking up the whole blog train just to get a kit to match these photos.)

Sarah-ICS

So Tara, my CT member has another Blast Off! freebie for you. A caboose for the blog train if you will. So head on over to her blog to pick up her freebie for you!

Head back here to get the rest of the train if you missed it!

Happy Scrapping! ~Jen

I hope you are all having fun collecting Blast Off!! It is a SUPER cute kit!!!
Did you go sign up for Bingo?? Hurry there is still time!! You have to get your words to me by Saturday April 4th at 9:00 am PST- You can win a $20.00 shopping spree in the GingerScraps Store!! Click HERE to get signed up:)

And the lovely Mary is hosting a Scavenger Hunt!! Check out the prize- an 8 page brag book!!!
Click here to begin your hunt!
We have lots of Speed Scraps this weekend!! ALL with fab participation prizes!!
AND
Don’t forget to head over to Truth or Dare after the nightly Saturday and Sunday Speed Scraps!!
It is soooo funny!!!

Here’s a little Speed Scrap FYI for this weekend at GingerScraps
Friday, April 3
Jen: 4 pm Eastern, 3 pm Central, 2 pm Mountain, 1 pm Pacific
Barb: 10 pm Eastern, 9 pm Central, 8 pm Mountain, 7 pm Pacific

Saturday, April 4
Erin: 11 am Eastern, 10 am Central, 9 am Mountain, 8 am Pacific
Steph: 5 pm Eastern, 4 pm Central, 3 pm Mountain, 2 pm Pacific
Misty: 9 pm Eastern, 8 pm Central, 7 pm Mountain, 6 pm Pacific

Sunday, April 5
Christie: 8 pm Eastern, 7 pm Central, 6 pm Mountain, 5 pm Pacific

Jen’s participation prize is going to be another coordinating plaid paper and a RED ROCKET to go with our freebie blog train Blast Off!

The other people hosting speed scraps have great PPs too! Check one out!

Welcome space ranger! You have arrived at Ground Control. If you get lost in cyberspace, come back to Ground Control, because THIS blog has the map for the whole mission!!

Keep on flying around to all the planets and you will collect this AMAZING collab!! And a bunch more goodies!!
AND look at this wonderful Hybrid project the my awesome sister Julie made for me to give you all 🙂 She is the best!!! Oh any she as more too- don’t forget to stop at her planet!!

Click on the preview to download

These download links will expire on Tuesday, April 7th… so make sure you get them while you can. After that, you can buy the whole kit in the Gingerscraps store.

Are you READY to BLAST OFF!!!!!!!!
Your next stop? Planet Graham Like the Cracker -Jen’s blog!!

And Here is the map in case you get lost along the way 🙂

Jen Planet Graham Like the Cracker
Barbara Planet A Scrap to Remember
Charmaine Planet Wyld Web Designs
Belinda Planet CT Dylabel
Erin Planet Miss Erin
Christie Planet CT Christie
Jodi Planet Statements by Jodi
Sharon Planet CT Sharon
Misty Planet Misty
Julie Planet Word Art Goddess
Steph PlanetScrappyCocoa

Okay, have you ever found a designer and instantly fallen in smit? I am deeply smitten with Amanda Heimann’s Designs. To the point where I think I scared her with my fan girl excitement. She overcame my overt enthusiasm and interviewed with me anyway. Amanda, thank you for ignoring my fan girl excitement. 🙂

What’s your name and digiscrap blog address? Amanda Heimann (design/team blog: https://amandaheimanndesigns.com/designblog/) (personal blog: https://amandaheimanndesigns.com/blog) (Pssst! If you go to Amanda’s blog right now, she has an AWESOME freebie up to celebrate her designiversary)

Where do you sell? Scrap Orchard

*Tell us a little about your family. I have been married to my husband Billy for ten years. We have two amazing boys- Garrett (6) and Lance (4). We also have a dog and a new puppy.
*
*What other hobbies do you have besides scrapping and designing? There are others? I love to bake and have a cross stitch project I have been working on for 10 years. LOL!
*
*When did you start Digi-scrapping and who taught you? I started digi scrapping at the end of 2005. I learned by tutorials and by asking for constructive critism.
*
*When did you start designing and how did you learn? I started designing 2 years ago. I am celebrating my designiversary this month! I also learned to design by tutorials.
*
*Which programs do you use to design? PSCS3 and PSE5. I am slowly learning Illustrator.
*
*Do you draw most of your items with a mouse, or hand draw and scan? All of the above. I also use my camera frequently.
*
*Where does your inspiration come from? Gymboree. 😉 I browse my favorite stores, have tons of home decor catalogs and save ads and brochures that I receive. *

*How did you pick your companies name? HAHAHAHAHA! I added Designs to my name.
*Who are your favorite three designers? Oh that is a loaded question! How about I tell you who has the most real estate in my EHD? Dani Mogstad, Shabby Princess and Christy Lyle.
*
*What are your favorite parts of a kit to design? Papers! I love making papers and ribbons come a close second. (As a user of her kits, I can tell you, her papers and ribbons are AWESOME!)
*
*What’s your favorite kit that you’ve designed? Each new kit becomes my favorite. Pinky Swear has a special place in my heart.
*
*What’s your least favorite? Anything made before July 2007.
*
*How do you get started on a kit? Palette first? Rough idea on what you want your papers or elements to look like? Usually the colors and the idea or theme happen at the same time.
*
*How long does it typically take you to make a kit? Anywhere from 2 days to over a week. Depends on what is going on in my real life.
*
*What is the weirdest thing you have ever made a texture out of? Nothing too weird over here. My furniture.
*
*If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be? My weight.
*
*What is the one word that best describes you? busy
*
*Who is the most important person in your life? God.
*
*What is something that not many people know about you? I have worn glasses for 27 years and contacts for over 20 years. (and I am only 33)
*
*If you could travel anywhere where would you go? Anyplace tropical.
*
*When you were little what did you dream of being when you grew up? A mommy. *

*What is your favorite food? Mustard. Seriously.
*
*What do you like doing with your family? We love to go to the beach. We also love to just hang out with each other and play in the backyard.
*
*Where is your favorite place to be? Matagorda beach.
*
*What are three things that are important to you? God, family, laughter
*
*Is there anything you would change about your life? No, I love my life. There are things I would change about myself but I love my life how it is.
*
*What are you afraid of? My children hurting.
*
*Do you collect anything? laundry? I am starting a collection of camera lens. I also have a collection of nativities that I add to every year.

Okay, for even more fun, here are Amanda’s kits. Normally we show you three. Today we are going to see all of the kits that I have in my external hard drive. 🙂 {Insert fan girl sigh here.} (Sometime soon I hope return to my facade of professional… I am not making promises though)

This kit was the first glimpse I had into Amanda’s designs. I was instantly smitten.

Are you a fan of Disney? Here is the kit for ALL of your scrapping needs…
This was a free-bee Amanda gave away to celebrate selling at Scrap Orchard.

Soon we will have a layout from Amanda using our blog train kit… the blog train that starts tomorrow…. I am excited. Very anxiously excited to see what she did with it. 😉

Hi all, it’s Jen. Ginger is busy so I am sneaking onto the blog to show all of you what we have for you on Friday. Ssshhhh! Don’t tell her I told you.

We are counting down to Friday’s big launch. The new Gingerscraps Design and all of their CT’s have an out of this world freebie for you starting on Friday…. Keep your blog reader’s tuned here!

And tomorrow’s designer of the week is OUT OF THIS WORLD as well, so hurry back to read about A.H. … have a I said too much?

Erin
Erin is 25 and has two wonderful kids, Maddox and Samara. Erin has also been engaged to fiance, TJ for 3 years, although they have been a couple for about 6 years. Erin started digital scrapping in 2007. She started by learning cool photo edits and creating “photo collages” and by late 2007 she realized what she was doing was called digital scrapbooking and she was hooked! By the middle of 2008 Erin was getting curious about how kits were made and that lead to her first attempts at designing. By September, Erin posted her first freebie kit on her blog. She said it was awful, so she deleted it once she moved on to bigger and better kits. Erin is blown away whenever someone likes her work. She is quite modest! Here’s a preview of her beautiful “Rejoice” kit.

Jen Jen is named after Guinevere from that 70s version of Camelot so that her mom could call her Jenny; but Jen has NEVER been Jenny. Jen lives in Southern California with her husband and her little boy, Alton. She used to love to read, but now all of her free time is spent scrapping and designing. She still bakes and makes the best brownies around. Her husband jokes that he married her for her chocolate chip cookies and stays for the brownies. She started digi-scrapping in August of 2008, and started designing so she could give better freebies on her blog. She is a sucker for stars and you will be hard pressed to find a kit of hers without one somewhere. Here’s a preview of her lovely “A Star Danced” kit.

Jodi

Jodi is a loving wife to her husband John and a stay at home mom to an adorable 2 year old girl named Rebekah. Jodi loves to scrap, design, and dabble in photography as well. I She always saw card making programs and even bought a few but they didn’t satisfy her creativity, then she discovered the digi scrapping world! She started designing last year and loves every minute of it! Ginger has been such a good mentor to her and she has learned so much since starting out. Her favorite kit is her “Giving Thanks” kit. She loves the colors and that everything is felt! The “Giving Thanks” alpha is her favorite alpha creation so far. She slaved over it for weeks until it was perfect, so it’s like her “little baby”. Here’s a preview of her very festive “Giving Thanks” kit.

Charmaine Charmaine is wife to stay-at-home-dad and web designer, Stephen, and mom to two amazing kids, Casey-22 months, and Lilah-3 years old. She works full time as a pharmacist and digital scrapbooks every chance she gets as her relaxation time! She started digital scrapping about a year and half ago when she finally realized that she would never be able to paper scrap again when she had children under the age of 12 in her house! She started applying for creative teams and once she got on a few of her favorite designer’s teams, she saw the potential for designing. Jen (another new designer) had her sign up for a design challenge with her, and well, here she is! Here’s a preview of her “toadily cute” kit called “Spring into Froggy Love”:

Lindsay Lindsay is a 30 something SAHM to an adorable 16 month old girl, named Bailey. Her husband, Brandon, and her have been together for 10 years,married for 5 and call Oklahoma their home sweet home. Though she enjoy’s all things creative, photoshop is her creative outlet of choice. She has been playing in photoshop for about 4 years, everything from blinkies to parenting board siggies and scrapping/designing. She has been designing scrap kits since about May of 2008 and started selling in November 2008. Here’s a preview of her adorable kit called “Keston Vol. 2”:

Misty Misty is a SAHM to two sweet boys; 2 year old Ian and 7 month old Aidan. She has been married to her husband, Dan for 3 years and they have known each other for over 10. Misty and her family live in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, Washington State. She began digi scrapping in 2007 and have recently jumped into designing. She is also a creative team member for Gingerscraps, Scrappy Cocoa, Polka Dot Plum, and Sunshine Studio Scraps. Here is a preview of her elegant kit called “In the Spotlight”. This kit is on sale at Gingerscraps for $2.50 through the weekend.

Steph Steph is a 24 year old SAHM. She has been married to her husband, Tim, for a little over 4 years. They have an almost 2 year old son, Brock. Steph and her family are currently living in Seattle while Tim finishes Med school, but they can’t wait to get back to Idaho. She has been designing for about 6 months and is excited to join the GingerScraps team. Besides digital scrapping, she loves to cook for her family and exercise. She is an avid runner. Something not many people know about her is, that although she runs almost daily, she loves to be lazy. If she could stay on the couch, with her laptop, in her jammies all day, she totally would! Nothing is more comfy, for her, than a pair of yoga pants and an oversized sweatshirt! Here’s a preview of her rockin’ “Garage Band King” kit.

Okay, have you ever found a designer and instantly fallen in smit? I am deeply smitten with Amanda Heimann’s Designs. To the point where I think I scared her with my fan girl excitement. She overcame my overt enthusiasm and interviewed with me anyway. Amanda, thank you for ignoring my fan girl excitement. 🙂

What’s your name and digiscrap blog address? Amanda Heimann (design/team blog: https://amandaheimanndesigns.com/designblog/) (personal blog: https://amandaheimanndesigns.com/blog)

Where do you sell? Scrap Orchard

*Tell us a little about your family. I have been married to my husband Billy for ten years. We have two amazing boys- Garrett (6) and Lance (4). We also have a dog and a new puppy.
*
*What other hobbies do you have besides scrapping and designing? There are others? I love to bake and have a cross stitch project I have been working on for 10 years. LOL!
*
*When did you start Digi-scrapping and who taught you? I started digi scrapping at the end of 2005. I learned by tutorials and by asking for constructive critism.
*
*When did you start designing and how did you learn? I started designing 2 years ago. I am celebrating my designiversary this month! I also learned to design by tutorials.
*
*Which programs do you use to design? PSCS3 and PSE5. I am slowly learning Illustrator.
*
*Do you draw most of your items with a mouse, or hand draw and scan? All of the above. I also use my camera frequently.
*
*Where does your inspiration come from? Gymboree. 😉 I browse my favorite stores, have tons of home decor catalogs and save ads and brochures that I receive. *

*How did you pick your companies name? HAHAHAHAHA! I added Designs to my name.
*Who are your favorite three designers? Oh that is a loaded question! How about I tell you who has the most real estate in my EHD? Dani Mogstad, Shabby Princess and Christy Lyle.
*
*What are your favorite parts of a kit to design? Papers! I love making papers and ribbons come a close second. (As a user of her kits, I can tell you, her papers and ribbons are AWESOME!)
*
*What’s your favorite kit that you’ve designed? Each new kit becomes my favorite. Pinky Swear has a special place in my heart.
*
*What’s your least favorite? Anything made before July 2007.
*
*How do you get started on a kit? Palette first? Rough idea on what you want your papers or elements to look like? Usually the colors and the idea or theme happen at the same time.
*
*How long does it typically take you to make a kit? Anywhere from 2 days to over a week. Depends on what is going on in my real life.
*
*What is the weirdest thing you have ever made a texture out of? Nothing too weird over here. My furniture.
*
*If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be? My weight.
*
*What is the one word that best describes you? busy
*
*Who is the most important person in your life? God.
*
*What is something that not many people know about you? I have worn glasses for 27 years and contacts for over 20 years. (and I am only 33)
*
*If you could travel anywhere where would you go? Anyplace tropical.
*
*When you were little what did you dream of being when you grew up? A mommy. *

*What is your favorite food? Mustard. Seriously.
*
*What do you like doing with your family? We love to go to the beach. We also love to just hang out with each other and play in the backyard.
*
*Where is your favorite place to be? Matagorda beach.
*
*What are three things that are important to you? God, family, laughter
*
*Is there anything you would change about your life? No, I love my life. There are things I would change about myself but I love my life how it is.
*
*What are you afraid of? My children hurting.
*
*Do you collect anything? laundry? I am starting a collection of camera lens. I also have a collection of nativities that I add to every year.

Okay, for even more fun, here are Amanda’s kits. Normally we show you three. Today we are going to see all of the kits that I have in my external hard drive. 🙂 {Insert fan girl sigh here.} (Sometime soon I hope return to my facade of professional… I am not making promises though)

This kit was the first glimpse I had into Amanda’s designs. I was instantly smitten.

Are you a fan of Disney? Here is the kit for ALL of your scrapping needs…
This was a free-bee Amanda gave away to celebrate selling at Scrap Orchard.

Soon we will have a layout from Amanda using our blog train kit… the blog train that starts tomorrow…. Stay tuned.

*note* Hi all this is Ginger putting a little note on Jen’s post 🙂 One of my CT pointed out to me that in the blog reader there was a headline that said “Amanda interview is scheduled and “waiting for her if she ever turns in her LO”. This in NO way was met to be offensives!! I hope no one took it that way!! Jen (as you can tell) is a huge fan of Amanda, she actually IMed me the day she got a response from Amanda- freaking out, sooo excited!! Jen wrote up the interview and was anxiously awaiting the arrival of Amanda’s LO. She wrote that little headline as a silly joke…. in her, true to form, rye sense of humor. I hope you enjoy the interview 🙂 And that no one has ruffeled feathers. Thanks , Ginger

What’s your name and digiscrap blog address? Julie https://mycrazylifeasamomandawife.blogspot.com/
Tell us a little about your family. My family is loud and crazy! I have four kids and one hubby! LOL! My kids=1 daughter 16, and 3 sons 13, 4, and 1.5! Things get very crazy around here with 2 teenagers and 2 toddlers! We are always on the go. (She doesn’t mention this, so I will, Julie is Ginger’s sister. 🙂 )
Do you work outside the home & if so what do you do? No, I don’t work outside the home, I do in home daycare so I can be at home with my 2 little ones.
What other hobbies do you have besides scrapping? I love anything creative, I make jewelry, but that has come to a stop with the 2 little ones, I will do it again someday. I Love to be outside with the kids, nature hikes are always fun. I love thrift store shopping, you can find the coolest stuff. I hate paying retail! LOL! My new favorite projects are Hybrid! It’s the best of Digi and Paper together. And when football season starts, my life is on the field as the team Mom!
When did you start Digi-scrapping and who taught you? I think it’s been about a year, I can’t imagine life with out it now, my sister Ginger taught me!
Are you on any creative teams? Yes, GingerScraps…duh! I am also an the Hybrid team at Snap and Scrap, and the Hybrid Blog team at The Digi Chick, also for Jodi another up and coming GS designer.
Do you design at all? I wish I had more hours in the day…I have made some hybrid freebies and some lovely Word Art, I have kits in my mind, but that is where they stay for now.
What is your favorite challenge here at GingerScraps? I love Speed Scraps, although my I have been known to post late…the kids seem to runamuck when I try to Speed Scrap.
Who are your favorite three designers? My lovely sis Ginger of course, Gina at Weeds and Wildflowers has the coolest Life 365 kit. TDC has great ones too! Wow, this is too hard to pick 3! How can I pick 3! There is too many!!
What are some of your must have elements? Ribbons, leaves and flowers, and a really great alpha and word art!
Whose gallery here at GingerScraps do you just love? Wow Jen, another hard one, I think I will go with beckag99, she has awesome LOs with her cute little girl as the star of the show.
What’s your favorite kit in the store right now? My favorite kit is Man Oh Man I have used it so much with 3 boys in the house, and I love Kayla’s Quilt!
If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be? I wish I loved exercise, you see these people who are like, “Oh I just love to work out” What!? I have to force myself, and that doesn’t happen often!
What is the one word that best describes you? Original
Out of all your LO’s so far, what are your favorite 2 & why? That’s hard too…I love this one of my little ones cute little toes.

And this one of Kayla and Tyler

Who is the most important person in your life? My Family..all of them! My family means the world to me, nothing is more important.
What is something that not many people know about you? Hmmm, I’m pretty much an open book, but you might not know that I am actually very shy, but I force myself not to be. If you could travel anywhere where would you go? Somewhere tropical would be nice, but I would love to take my kids on a Disney Cruise!
When you were little what did you dream of being when you grew up? I always wanted to be a Mother!What is your favorite food? Depends on my mood, I love Mexican, Sushi and Mr. Pickle sandwiches, and my sisters pork chops!
How did you pick you user name? juliemomof4…hmm that was easy!
What do you like doing with your family? Anything..we have lots of fun together!
Where is your favorite place to be? Home is Where the heart is 😀
What are three things that are important to you? Kids, Hubby, Family
Is there anything you would change about your life? I wish lots of things, I wish my brother was still alive, I wish my Mom and Sister never got sick..I wish I would win the lottery and could give all my peeps lots of money!
What are you afraid of? Heights!
Do you collect anything? Yes, my dining room is all Cherries, love them, I also collect Milk Glass and heart shaped rocks we find at the river!

Because Julie is the word art goddess of the CT, she has this wonderful freebie for you! It coordinates with the Gingerscraps collab kit, Spring is in the air that you can earn for free!

click the preview to download from 4shared. (EDIT: the link has been moved, you can DL it now)

Have a wonderful day! WE have BIG news on Wednesday, and maybe a freeie for you too. 😉

We have so many great things happening here at Gingerscraps this week! My CT and I have been very busy and we can’t wait to share with you!

But for now, we have a freebie. A quick page made by CT Member Jen with the Gingerscraps Collab kit, Spring is in the Air (which will be available in the store, April 1st!) .

Click on the preview to download from 4shared. 🙂