Fresh Baked Friday at Gingerscraps for 12/19/25

Less than one week until Christmas. Are you ready? Make sure you have your camera batteries charged and your storage cards empty so you are readty to grab those great pictures on Christmas morning.

To help you get ready, we are having a site wide sale and a Mega $3 sale. Keep reading for a sample of some of the great items in the Mega sale.

Remember any $10 spent in the store gets you this great collab.

Here is just a small sampling of the kits our designers have put in the Mega Sale.

How are your challenges going? The December challenge reward kit is so warm and cozy! If you complete any 10 challenges this month, you get this gorgeous collab (or a variety of other choices from previous challenge collabs) as a reward!

Tutorial Tuesday (Individual Style)

Challenge Spotlight: Bucket List

This week has already started feeling like it’s a month long. I have so much left to do, and disaster is lurking around every corner. But as long as that finger I sprained back in March doesn’t pitch a fit (as it has been for the last few days), you’ll all have a Blog Tutorial to check out while I brave the crowds at Costco. 😉

For this month’s Challenge Spotlight, I chose the Bucket List Challenge, hosted by Scraps-N-Pieces. The prompt: This month we’d like you to read a new book, scrap your favorite book/author, scrap your reading list from this last year. Now, I’m sure you’re wondering how I can shoehorn this Challenge into a box labeled Individual Style. It’s really not that big of a stretch. Creativity begins in the brain, where we process information and formulate ideas. Each of us will take a prompt like this one and approach it from our own perspective. And in doing so, we give others a glimpse into our innermost thoughts. You’ll see!

There are six layouts for this Challenge (so far) and they’re all quite different. I’ve linked each to their spots in the Challenge Gallery so you can see them in greater detail, and perhaps leave a comment or two. Just click on the Scrapper’s name. Here we go!

Grace. has taken the prompt quite literally (pun intended!) by writing a book review. I think her approach is very clever. It took me a bit of time to really see all the thought she put into the layout, even though she had a checklist to follow. The book choice tells me she enjoys suspense, but her review doesn’t really say much about whether the story lived up to her expectations. The *no stars given* implies she didn’t love it, but maybe she just missed that part. She reads on an e-reader, and has a busy life. Oh, and her scrapping style appears to be “clean and simple”, but only if I base my evaluation on this one layout. 😀

Of course, Katherine Woodin is an open book. (Yep, it’s gonna be one of THOSE posts!) To anyone who spends any time in the Gallery or the Forum, Katherine’s daily diary gives glimpses into her life. Her journaling is legendary! She was widowed fairly recently and her Bucket List layout tells me she’s learning how to grow around her loss. <3

If one reads between the lines of KatL‘s layout, you might pick up on the fact she works in a library. It’s not front-and-centre in her journaling, but the clues are all there. She truly CANNOT live without books! 😉 As for her scrapping style, she loves the layered look, with lots of papers and just a bit of grunge.

What vibes are you picking up from MemmieNelleke? It’s obvious she’s Dutch just from her name, and the books in her photos support that conclusion. She reads books in series, has several favoured authors, likes historical fiction and has a special interest in the Holocaust. She likes bright colours and has a love for children.

BriannasScrapper is very serious about her books. She doesn’t just read them, she logs them at Goodreads, she scores them and she basically devours them! There’s a little bit of everything here, from fantasy to suspense to feminist literature and romance. (I thought I was doing really well, having read 75 books this year. I need to pull up my socks!) IT’s impossible to get a bead on her scrapping style from just this one layout, though I would expect her other layouts to be highly organized. 😉

Our last participant is Yvonne55. She’s also reading in Dutch, enjoys reading in series and likes thrillers. (I want to see if I can find an English version of Het Bloemen Meisje; the story sounds really engaging. No, I don’t read Dutch, but Google Translate does.) Her scrapping style is classic, and she likes bright colours.

With Hannukah already underway, only 9 more days until Christmas, then Kwanzaa and New Year closing out 2025, I know we’re all crazy busy. And it shows in the Challenge Galleries. I hope you can all find a few minutes to just breathe. If you’re in the Pacific Northwest and you’re on evacuation from the flooding, or digging yourself out in the snowbelt, please be safe. If you’re travelling in the coming weeks, you be safe too!

 

Gingerscraps Fresh Baked for 12/12/25

Hey scrapping friends. Can you believe it’s just about the middle of December? I have recently found another way to use my digi kits. I have a daily journal and a book journal and figured out I could use all the wonderful designs and print my own decorative stickers. I can’t wait to get started doing this in 2026.

Remember any $10 spent in the store gets you this great collab.

Have you gotten started on your challenges? The December challenge reward kit is so warm and cozy! If you complete any 10 challenges this month, you get this gorgeous collab (or a variety of other choices from previous challenge collabs) as a reward!

Tutorial Tuesday (Fonts)

It’s THAT Time Again! Christmas and Winter Fonts

Fontaholics, UNITE!! I spent some time at Dafont.com looking for some new and awesome Christmas-y and wintery fonts we haven’t seen before. I won’t tell you how many I’ve downloaded though. 😉 But I can tell you that the free version of MainType isn’t adequate for my font collection. 😀 And speaking of MainType (it’s a font manager, for those who don’t know) if you’ve downloaded and installed a bunch of fancy fonts with swirls and flourishes, but when you use them all you get are the boring base characters, here’s a link to a tutorial on unlocking those special characters… I mention this because there may, or may not, be some fancy glyphs with one or two of the following fonts. There are eight “Christmas” fonts, five wintery fonts and four sets of seasonal dingbats coming at you momentarily. They are all FREE! (For personal use, of course.) As always, the name the designer has given the font is your link to it at dafont.com. Just give it a click.

When I saw Christmas Calling, I was immediately transported back to my childhood – doesn’t it just scream Frosty the Snowman to you?

Twinkle Christmas is a pretty, twirly font that can be used for pretty much everything… titles, subtitles, captions and journaling.

I think Christmas Holiday is a more generic font, and would be ideal for layouts about cutting Christmas trees, sleigh rides, toboggan parties, ski trips and the like.

I could totally see this font with red, white and green Christmas Candy cane stripes, with an acrylic or gel Style applied on top to give it some curves.

Amore Christmas is a classic, elegant font perfectly suited to layouts about holiday pageants, choir performances, church service and even prgrams. It’s an all-caps font with both the curly and plain characters.

If you live in a cold part of the world, odds are you’ll have snow for Christmas. (I thought for sure we would, after we got about 8 inches last week, but it’s all gone, it’s 50°F and the forecast is for more of the same. 🙁 ) What I like about Christmas in Winters is that it’s very legible and would be a good title font for any winter layout.

Look at this!! It’s so baroque and capital F fancy! When I look at The Christmas, I so want to have the main parts of the letters a deep, rich red (or maybe green), and the curlicues gold. I’m going to play with it for sure! It has both upper and lower case characters as well as some basic punctuation. No numerals though.

So… I played with this one. So fancy!

Christmas Comeback is a multipurpose font as well, with upper and lower case letters and basic punctuation but no numerals. I wouldn’t necessarily call it “Christmas-y”, but I might want to use it for card sentiments.

Now on to the winter fonts. Frozenland is a good, all-purpose winter font. It’s probably not quite right for journaling but has both cases, punctuation AND numerals. That drippy icy topping on the letters cries out for a pale blue, curvy Style.

Freezing had me thinking about that ombré technique from earlier this year. It all-caps, but in two sizes, No punctuation, no numerals, so mainly a title font, I guess.

Snowby is just FUN!

Snowballs is a demo font. The thumbnail shows letters that are included, along with numerals and punctuation. The full version has an assortment of additional characters; when you click on the name, you’ll see a link to where you can purchase, if you so choose.

This one, Snow Flakes, is my most FAVOURITE! It speaks to me of snowball fights, building snowmen, winter carnivals, skating parties… whatever fun one may have in the snow.

Now bring on the dingbats! Wonderful Christmas Symbols is filled with seasonal silhouettes. There are 159, all different! I could see using them for a border, on tags, with a beveled style to create brads… really, so many options.

Winterlight Symbols is another 52-silhouette collection. They’re a little more stylized.

Last Christmas Symbols has a bit more of a detailed, traditional look. It has some religious symbols mingled with secular Christmas images, winter sporting events and nature.

And finally, Fantasia Decorative is an outline collection with so much potential.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that all of you have downloaded at least one of these… am I right?

 

LAST CALL  50% Off + MORE Special Deals! @ GingerScraps

LAST CALL  50% Off + MORE Special Deals! @ GingerScraps

Happy Scrapping friends!! This is your FINAL CALL to grab the biggest deals of the year at GingerScraps. Our Black Friday and Cyber Monday sale is almost over. Enjoy 50% off site wide (some restrictions apply) and scoop up the special Grab Bags and Build Your Own offers before they vanish. These deals end Thursday, December 4 at 11:59 pm (eastern time).

Our $2 Tuesday & Wednesday sale is also in its final hours, ending Wednesday, December 3 at 11:59 pm (eastern time).
If you are gathering holiday photos, starting your December albums, or planning to scrap all the magical moments ahead, now is the perfect time to stock up. And if you are making any homemade scrappy gifts this year, this is truly the moment to grab every supply you need.
Do not forget to check out the all new December Buffet. It is filled with beautiful designs that will make your holiday projects sparkle. Shop now and happy scrapping!
 Here is a small sample of what we have in our $2 Sale today!

Designer Spotlight (December 2025)

Its The Scrappy Kat!

Seriously? Only 29 days left in 2025… don’t blink! Our final Designer Spotlight for the year is on Katina, aka The Scrappy Kat. She and I haven’t actually chatted before, so it was lovely learning more about her. We talked a bit about her design process and then had a few chuckles. Check it out!

J: Thanks for putting yourself out there for me to grill, Katina. Tell me how you got into digital scrapbook design.

K: As with most designers, I venture to guess that they started out the same way, as a layout artist on another designer’s creative team. After a while, I started to dabble in designing for blog trains and other freebies. I finally worked up the nerve to make my first kit that I submitted to an on-line store and I got the position. My digital scrapbooking design career was born.

J: It seems like there are basically two paths to digital scrapbooking design… belonging to a creative team, as you say, or not being able to find the style/theme of product you like so you create your own. 😉 Whatever the path, you’re all awesome! Is there a story behind your brand?

K: My name is Katina, Kat for short, then just add a cool cat on my logo, and voila, that’s where The Scrappy Kat comes from!

J: Of course, the simplest explanation is usually the best one. What does your design process look like?

K: I always start out with the palette, then makes my cardstocks for the kit. After the cardstocks, I create the pattern papers for the kit. After all the papers are made, I start on the elements. When working on the elements, I try to include both themed elements, but also all the basics for creating a wonderful layout. This includes ribbons, flowers, greenery, fasteners, frames, tags, confetti, banners, and more.

J: The palette appears to be the initial spark for every Designer I talk to. The Buffet always has a specific palette, and most of you create collections for those, so it’s a bit of a no-brainer. I love a Designer who includes fasteners and tags. They’re very necessary for my particular design style, and make me that much more likely to buy a product. Good job! What stimulates your imagination most, especially when you’re lacking inspiration?

K: My number one inspiration is my creative team. When I am feeling stuck or have lost my design mojo, I turn to them for inspiration and kit ideas. They never let me down.

J: That’s fantastic! True teamwork always means back-and-forth-give-and-take. Do you have one kit you’re most proud of? I know… it’s like being asked who your favourite child is, right? 😀

K: My kit called, “My Boy” is my favorite by far. I sometimes struggle to find kits that are boy friendly. I like to have elements that are great for clustering and creating a masculine layout without having to use tons of flowers. That is what inspired me to create this kit, to scrap all the photos of my son, Logan.

J: YES!! This! I won’t say I don’t put flowers on my boy layouts, but if I have more options, that’s great! Browsing your Shop, I see a lot of masculine kits and more androgenous colour palettes. So, all you moms-of-boys, check it out… My grandsons have two very different personalities; the older one is very intellectual, science-y and introverted – but goofy. The younger one is a drama llama, literally – he’s already acted in local theatre – he’s 9 – and he’s a bit of a trickster. Are you the prankster, or the prankee?

K: In high school I was voted class clown. I was the queen of practical jokes. However, one day, my two best friends decided to get me back for years of pranks. They took my jar of Carmex and squirted super glue inside. I didn’t notice until I had smeared it all over my lips. Luckily, I smelt the glue and didn’t put my lips together, or I would have really been in trouble. This was before super glue remover, so I had to wait for it to rub off on its own. It was a mean prank, but in hindsight, I deserved it.

J: Oh dear heaven! That could have been a very bad scene!! Thankfully, the skin on our lips and in our mouths turns over really fast. I’ve glued my fingers together more times than I should mention, and have used skin glue on surgical patients. You were lucky. Oy. My tale of woe? I was catfished before catfishing had a name, and generations before social media. I was 12 and had a huge crush on the boy next door. Looking back, I’m not sure what the attraction was, but it was what it was. I found a note in my desk at school that seemed to be from him, asking me to meet him at the library after dinner. I stayed until the librarian kicked me out into the dark and he didn’t show. Later I found out that the note was written by one of the girls in the next grade who apparently “hated my guts.” She laughed and laughed at how gullible I was. The next year, she was suspended from school for 3 days after she attacked me physically on the ball diamond. Of course, she blamed me, in that abuser look-what-you-made-me-do way. They say living well is the best revenge, and I wound up much more successful than she did. 😉 Anyway… Let’s talk about pets. If you could have any pet, real or imaginary, what would it be?

K: Poodles, poodles, poodles! I have three miniature poodles (Gizmo, Rigby, and Ziggy) and I’ll always have poodles. They all have their own personalities, but they are all loving and live to please me. They are my buddies!

J: We have a white standard poodle somewhere in our neighbourhood. She’s beautiful. Dog people are the best, aren’t we? I’ve met more people just by walking my dogs. They love everybody and can totally drag my up the side of the mountain when they see someone they know. Or someone they don’t know. And then they want to jump up on them so I throw myself in the way. What’s the silliest thing you’ve ever done in public?

K: When we are grocery shopping, I love to dance along to the music they are playing when a good song comes on while I go down each aisle. The whole time embarrassing my husband and son that are with me, as they beg me to stop.

J: I just did that!! I was with my sister and started dancing in the shoe department. She must be used to being out with our brother – she didn’t seem embarrassed at all. Is there one song above all that will get you going?

K: That’s easy. It has to be YMCA by the Village People. If you don’t know how to spell out the letters and sing along to it, we can’t be friends. Just kidding.

J: No worries there! I was barely out of my teens when it came out and can totally sing and dance along! What I lack in talent I make up for with enthusiasm. Oh my, look at the time! My son will be home any minute. I just want to ask one more question. If I was starting out as a new digital Designer, what wise words would you tell me?

K: Find a designer willing to mentor you. The advice they can give you is invaluable and it will make starting out so much easier. It is great to have someone to bounce things off of and answer all your questions.

J: Wise words indeed! Thank you so much for letting us peek into your world. We all hope your Spotlight month is a smashing success! <takes deep breath before launching into the requisite spiel…?

At risk of sounding like a broken record, don’t forget that our Spotlight Designer provides all of us with the Daily Download. For those unfamiliar, the DD is a complete kit, portioned out in bite-sized packets the links for which are posted each day of the month, here on the GingerScraps Blog. The links are good for 5 days, so don’t panic if you miss a day. Want a sneak peek?

There are often add-on packets posted to the GingerScraps Facebook page too. Katina is also hosting the Designer Spotlight Challenge this month in addition to her monthly Journaling Challenge. Make sure you take a look. And as if all that wasn’t enough… she has a sale!

… if your budget hasn’t been blown on Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday sales. 😀

Now I must get back to trying to make our security cameras work again…

GingerScraps: New FREE with Purchase Collab, New Monthly Mix, New Buffet & More!!

It’s a new month and you know what that means. This newsletter has all the fresh goodies you love at GingerScraps:

*A brand new Free With Purchase collab
*A gorgeous new Monthly Mix
*A colorful new Buffet that has a great mix of kits
…and so much more!
Don’t forget to check out the Buffet Bundles. One easy click to add bundles of Buffet goodies to your cart.
The December Buffet colors scream winter and the holidays. There are a great number of Christmas kits in this month’s releases.
Remember any $10 spent in the store gets you this great collab.

Home For Christmas wraps your memories in farmhouse charm and rustic warmth. Designed in a traditional red, green, and tan palette, this kit celebrates everything that makes the holidays feel like home. Enjoy a cozy mix of winter flowers, a glowing fireplace, candy canes, hot cocoa, Christmas trees, presents, pine needles, and other heartwarming seasonal elements. Whether you are scrapping family traditions, quiet evenings by the fire, or the joy of gathering together, Home For Christmas brings the perfect blend of comfort and festive spirit to your pages.

This collab includes: 48 Papers and 91 Elements.

This Free With Purchase was created by Adrienne Skelton, Heather Z Scraps, Lindsay Jane,  and Scraps N Pieces.

Fireside Noel brings the rustic magic of Christmas straight to your pages. This warm and inviting kit celebrates cozy nights by the fire, the sparkle of winter, and the timeless charm of the holiday season. With a traditional palette of red, green, blue, and tan, it blends classic Christmas beauty with woodland touches. You will find winter flowers, delicate birds, a peaceful deer, a charming cabin, Christmas trees, wrapped presents, pine needles, and more. The set also includes 4 beautifully crafted 12×12 templates to help you create festive layouts with ease. Fireside Noel is perfect for capturing quiet holiday moments, family gatherings, and the joy of the season.

This kit includes: 1 Alpha {Uppercase & Numbers}, 41 Papers, 73 Elements, and 4 12×12 Template {page, png, psd, tif file formats}.

This Monthly Mix was created by ADB Designs, Tami Miller Designs, The Scrappy Kat, and Tinci Designs?

December’s Daily Download is provided by The Scrappy Kat. Collect new pieces daily on the GingerScraps Blog.

Take a look at the new challenge reward kit. If you complete any 10 challenges this month, you get this gorgeous collab (or a variety of other choices from previous challenge collabs) as a reward!

Old Fashioned Christmas brings timeless holiday charm to your scrapbook pages with a classic red, green, teal, and tan color palette. This kit is perfect for documenting tree decorating, festive traditions, and the nostalgic magic of Christmas past. Inside you will find winter flowers, ornaments, Christmas trees, presents, pine needles, woodland trees, gingerbread accents, and more. Every piece is designed to evoke the warmth, sweetness, and joy of old fashioned holiday celebrations.

This kit includes: 2 Alphas {Uppercase}, 57 Papers, and 83 Elements.

This Challenge Reward was created by Key Lime Digi Design, Magical Scraps Galore, Memory Mosaic, and ScrapChat Designs.

Here are a few layouts from the store CT using the Free With Purchase, Monthly Mix, and Challenge Reward.

Nov 28 BLACK FRIDAY/CYBER MONDAY SALES @ Gingerscraps!

Happy Thanksgiving to our friends in the US. We hope you have had a wonderful day with family and friends. Holidays like these give us the perfect opportunity to grab those candid photos that no one knows you are taking. Those make the best layouts!

There is a lot going on in the newsletter this week, so make sure to read through to the end.

In our newsletter this week we have:

*The November Free With Purchase collab. It’s yours when you spend $10 in the store.

*Great new releases from our designers in our Fresh Baked area.

*Amazing Black Friday sales and Build Your Own Bundle opportunities from our designers.

*Challenge Reward collab to get your creative juices going.

Here is just a snippet of sales our designers have going for Black Friday/Cyber Monday.

And finally, here is a sampling of some of the Flash Sales you will see over the next four days.

Just a couple of days left to do your challenges. If you complete any 10 challenges this month, you get this gorgeous collab (or a variety of other choices from previous challenge collabs) as a reward!

Tutorial Tuesday (Individual Style)

Challenge Spotlight: Layout Bingo

Today I’m going to do something a little different. The Challenge I’m showcasing is one that I’ve always overlooked, but now that I’ve had a peek, I might have to get with the program! I’m talking about the Layout Bingo Challenge, hosted by Tami Miller. I won’t be linking to the Gallery for this post, though, I’ll just show you the players’ bingo cards. The only “teaching” involved with this is with regard to this Challenge. (But I do have a Quick Trick keyboard shortcut to share later, so don’t go anywhere.) What’s so interesting about this Challenge? Most of us could play along without breaking a sweat! Each month, Tami creates a modified bingo card – it has 9 spaces, not 25, and there’s no Free space – and a bingo is a straight line of 3 squares, or a full card. Each space has a topic prompt, and it’s the only Challenge where you can double up with your layouts. By that I mean you can “reuse” your already-posted Challenge layouts to fill your card. However ONE layout must be specifically created for this Challenge. Let’s take a look at this month’s card.

Looks pretty typical for a November, right? Think for a second. Could you make a straight line using these topics? I could fill 3 squares, but it might be a stretch to have them in a line. 😉 Oh wait… I did take a photo of our turkey last month. Maybe not such a stretch! Anyway. Let’s move along.

There were 8 GingerScrappers who posted their bingo cards in the Challenge thread, and one who has posted two layouts but no card. First up is 5grand. She’s still working on her bingo. She’ll have to pick a lane… she has several options. Left vertical, centre vertical, centre horizontal and bottom horizontal are all possible. Or… diagonal, but that would mean she might as well go for the full card.

CathyS is next. She’s got the upper right to lower left diagonal covered. Woot! She had to do two layouts for that upper corner.

Then we have robinoes66. She chose right down the middle.

KarenDiamond took the top line and she too created two layouts for that top right square.

Here, granny5pics went across the middle and offset her layouts a smidge so the squares’ prompts are partially visible. Very accommodating!

GrannyNKy seems to be going for a full card. Look at that overachievement! I love that one of her layouts celebrates the first time one of her family members voted in an election.

Our most prolific Scrapper, Katherine Woodin took the first vertical line. She keeps an online diary through the layouts she creates, and it’s awesome!

And finally, Branma took the far right side.

What do you think? Is this something you should include in your monthly plans? I’m seriously considering it.

I’ve actually gotten back on the horse… I’ve worked on a couple of Challenges, although I haven’t posted them to the Gallery yet. My Scrap Lift has a lo-o-o-o-ng list of credits, as usual, and I have to be in the mood for posting that. While I was building the layout, I tripped over a keyboard shortcut that I think will be of enormous use. I recall a bunch of comments about how Photoshop Elements likes to put our embellishments where IT wants to, not where we want them. I was getting tired of moving things up my layer stack (CTRL/CMD>]) after Elements dropped it on my background layer instead of on top of the layer where I wanted it, and was using the Layer>Arrange>Bring to Front function when I paid attention to the keyboard shortcut next to it. If you want to move a layer from the bottom to the top of the Layers Panel, use CTRL/CMD>SHIFT>] and in one step it’s right there! Likewise, you can use CTRL/CMD>SHIFT>[ to send something to the back. (Caveat: It’ll end up UNDER your background layer, so there’ll still be one CTRL/CMD>] to put it on the bottom but not under the bottom. 😉 )

Next week we’ll have two Designer Spotlights, and a whole new month’s worth of Challenges. Stay tuned!

 

 

Nov 21 Fresh Baked Friday @ Gingerscraps!

Hello Friends. I hope you had a wonderful week. Do you have plans with your family or friends this weekend. Both are great opportunities to take some pictures to scrap.

In our newsletter this week we have:

*The November Free With Purchase collab. It’s yours when you spend $10 in the store.

*Great new releases from our designers in our Fresh Baked area.

*Challenge Reward collab to get your creative juices going.

* And information on the new Book Club.

I love the new items we have in the store this week.

How are your challenges going? If you complete any 10 challenges this month, you get this gorgeous collab (or a variety of other choices from previous challenge collabs) as a reward!

We have a very exciting announcement to share!

Our beloved Praise Team Lead, Grace, is bringing back the GingerScraps Book Club! That’s right – our cozy community reading time is making a comeback, and we couldn’t be more thrilled!

Starting November 1st, join us as we dive into great books, fun conversations, and a little creative inspiration along the way. We will also have a fun (optional) scrapping challenge specifically for our book club! It’s the perfect way to combine your love of reading and scrapbooking into one fun activity.

So grab your favorite drink, find a comfy spot, and get ready to read and scrap with friends. November’s book announcement is in the forum.