Friday Quick Page

Since my last freebie was very girlie, I thought I’d offer something very boyish this week. Crystal’s kit, In a Boy’s World definitely fits the bill.

I’ve created a quickpage for you. I hope you enjoy it. Click the preview to download.

A Total Standout!

The GSO (gallery standout) I'm sharing with you today was seriously a "no contest" LO (layout). It really is outstanding in every possible way. Not much else left to say about it really. So, my congratulations to Cardinalskate on her LO entitled Thoreau. Now, without further ado:



Don't forget to click on the LO to head on over to the gallery to leave this GSO some love!

Get Scrappin',
Tobi-Dawne.

Monday Miscellany, Sharing Seger

Good morning everyone, Casey here and I am running late with this post.  So when I thought about a quick post that would actually be something that I wanted to write about I immediately thought about music. My husband treated me to the best concert every on Saturday...Bob Seger!  It was my first time seeing him live and it was AWESOME!!!

So just in case some of you have never heard of him I wanted to share a few of my favorites so you can be exposed to great, old school, Heartland rock and roll!  My ultimate favorite is Against the Wind.  Below is a link to You Tube that has the audio...there is no video...the song pre-dates slick music videos, and MTV.  Some other favorites are Old Time Rock and Roll,  Chances Are  (from the movie Hope Floats...duet with Martina McBride), and a more recent tune Wait for Me (with a real music video).

I encourage you to take a listen...and see if you are like me and love some Seger;)  I hope you have enjoyed Miscellaneous Monday!!  Oh and I am sure that there will be some LOs dedicated to the concert...be sure to let your music find a way in to your scraps too:)

Monday Mayhem...Pandora

Hi everyone!  Casey here to share something totally non-scrapbook related.  I am now blessed with DSL Internet.  We had previously used satelite Internet.  The satelite service had several restrictions most annoying of which was upload and download limits per day.  I was forever breaking the quota and being put in the 'Internet penalty box'.  No more!!  

With this new found Internet freedom I am loving YouTube, E-How and Pandora radio.  Today I want to share about Pandora.  This is the best thing sine sliced bread! Being a music lover and having rather eclectic taste this website is right up my alley.  The premise behind Pandora is that it is trainable radio.  In other words you can teach your personalized station what kind of music you prefer and it plays only those songs that fit your profile.  Training is so easy you wither give a song a thumbs up or down.  You are allowed a certain number of skips per session and there are details about each artist and song available.  So I may hear Bob Seger, AC/DC, Steve Miller, Bad Company, or The Four Tops...at any given moment;)

For me this is so much fun...especially while scrapping!  So check it out...it is free, fun, and easy-peasy:)

1 Year Designiversary Blog Train Freebie & Sale!!!

Today is my 1 Year Designiversary!! I am so excited and I have a lot of fun things planned for this weekend!! First of all, the voting has closed for choosing the theme of my Designiversary kit and the winning theme is..."Fathers and Sons". I am really excited to get started on this kit!! I hope to have it ready by April 27th!

Join me tonight at 9 pm EST in the Polka Dot Plum chat room for fun, games & prizes!! Also, my entire store is 40% off Friday-Sunday!! Wear my blinky in the PDP forum and you might just get RAK'd by my CT! We're having Bingo...or as we like to call it SPSGO in the PDP chat room on Sunday. I hope you can join us for all of the fun!!

And now...to kick things off my CT has made some fabulous goodies for you in celebration of my designiversary! I am hosting the freebie made by Lorianne. Click image to download. Enjoy!

Make sure you visit all of the other stops on the blog train to pick up all the goodies!!

Sugar Pie Scraps <--YOU ARE HERE

Sugar Pie Chef Bobbie

Sugar Pie Guest Chef Kate
Sugar Pie Chef Blogger Casey
Sugar Pie Chef Mira
Sugar Pie Chef Jessica

Sugar Pie Chef Becky 

Can't "Overlook" this GSO!

Hey Everyone! It's me, TD. Long time no post. LOL But I'm back at'er, with your weekly Gallery Standout.

My pick this week really is a standout, in every possible way. I absolutely love it! The journalling along the side is fabulous. I love the paper strips running both vertically and horizontally behind the text. I love the fluidity of the layout. Love the clustering behind the photos. And love the use of the circular photo masks. It really is just an all around fabulous LO.

So congratulations to Kimberly (Gypsyk) on her lovely layout entitled "The Overlook". Nice work Kimberly!


The image is linked, so click on it to leave Kimberly a little gallery love. After all, don't we all enjoy a little flattery? :)

New Release & Template Freebie!!

I am so excited about today's new release, "DYEing for Easter". The main reason I am excited is because I made most of the themed elements myself! Once I started going...I couldn't stop..so this is one HUGE kit! There are 14 papers & 75 elements!!! I have seen a lot of kits for Easter, but none specifically for dyeing eggs....so I made one! I hope you like it!

Don't miss out on all the fun this weekend! April 15th is my 1 Year Designiversary and the CT and I have a lot of fun things planned! We will kick off with a chat on Friday night at 9pm PDP. And don't forget the 40% off sale Friday-Sunday! Get spotted wearing my blinky in the PDP forums Friday-Sunday and you might get RAK'd by my CT!! See the ad below for all of the details!!

And...here is your template freebie. Click to download. Enjoy!

Sneak Peek and Voting Is Still On!!

Happy Monday everyone! Casey here to share some sunshine! Crystal sure made my morning a bit brighter by allowing me to post this Sneak Peek for your ogling pleasure. All those fresh, bright, Springy colors always make me smile...and smiling is what you are going to be doing on Wednesday when she releases this kit...which is very appropriately themed for a certain Holiday that is fast approaching.  (Huge Hint given)

Until Wednesday you will just have to bide your time and maybe enjoy one of the other great products Crystal has waiting for you at her Polka Dot Plum Store.  Sugar Pie Scraps is teeming with gorgeous designs that are sure to help you make your memories look wonderful!  Oh and don't forget to cast your vote for the theme of SPS' Designiversary kit theme...you can do that here.  Take a look at the winning color swatch and the theme choices...have you voted yet?  Until next time...Happy Scrapping:)

Winning Swatch Announced...Now Choose the Theme of My Designiversary Kit!

Wow I was so excited to have so many votes on the color swatch for my Designiversary kit! Thank you so much to everyone that voted! It was close between several, but the overall winning swatch was.....

This was one of my favorites too so I'm super excited! Now that you've chosen the swatch...it's time to choose a theme. I have 5 suggestions below. Please vote for the number of the theme you like best. Please only vote one time. Everyone that votes will receive a discount coupon to purchase the kit when it is released and one lucky person will win the kit! Voting will be open thru Thursday, April 14th. The winning theme will be announced on Friday, April 15th and I will then begin work on the kit!

Let the voting begin!!

Magically Pink Freebie

Pink. Not a favorite color of mine, but I do like it. Now, my daughter? She’s a pink freak! She has loved this color from a very young age. No shade has gone untouched, light to dark, she loves them all. As she has gotten older, her love for pink has diminished a bit, but only because she wants to be “more grown up”. She deems pink a color for younger girls, not for 16-year olds. When we set out to buy a prom dress this year, she was adamant “NO PINK!” One hour and five dresses later, we left with a gorgeous dress in, you guessed it, PINK!

Once I reviewed the pictures my husband had taken, a layout started forming in my head. I remembered Crystal had a pink kit in the store and set out to use it. I am very happy with how this layout turned out. The selective coloring is perfect to focus on the dress that she so adamantly did not want to be pink, as well as blend with the kit. Here is my final layout.

As a special treat, I have made this layout into a quickpage for you. Click on the preview to download.

Designiversary Celebration!!

I don't have a new release this week...but I do have some NEWS! April 15th is my 1 Year Designiversary! I am so excited!! The CT and I have a lot of fun things planned so make sure to mark your calendars! You can grab my new fan blinky on the right side of the blog...courtesy of Kat's Creations.

And don't forget to vote in my Customer Choice Designiversary Kit! The winning color swatch will be announced Friday and then it will be time to vote on a theme! Here are the colors. Go HERE to vote for your favorite!

Also, this Friday night (April 8th) is 80's Night at the Plum. Join us for a fun chat, games & prizes!!





Grillin' Season Is Here

Hi all!  Casey here to share something totally not scrapbook related.  But hey not everything in life is about scrap-booking...right;)  My husband and I are avid grillers so I am always on the lookout for new ideas and recipes to try.


One of my favorite places to eat out is Red Lobster (for those not familiar this is a seafood place that serves all sorts of fish, shellfish, and they also do steaks and pasta).    Anyway, I think they have the best shrimp scampi on the planet...so when I found this recipe at Food.com I was so excited.  Take a look and just so you know the recipe is rated at 5 out of 5 stars;) 


What you Need

• 1/4 cup light olive oil
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 1/4 cup minced garlic
• ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 1/2 lbs shrimp

How To Do It

1. In a medium, non-reactive bowl, combine the olive oil, lemon juice, parsley, garlic, black pepper and crushed red pepper.
2. Set aside.
3. Thread thawed shrimp onto skewers and cover with marinade for 30 minutes.
4. Preheat grill for high heat.
5. Grill, brushing occasionally with extra marinade, for about 2 to 3 minutes on each side, or until done.

I cannot wait to give this one a try.  If you are a recipe guru leave a comment and link us up to your favorite...I have been needing to expand my culinary repertoire.  Oh and you can read all the comments and see photos of the scampi here at Food.com!

Flow...We Made It

Good morning everyone!  We made it...that is we made it through our series on design principles.  This is the last post where we will be dealing with Flow (remember our acronym ECBARF).  I have enjoyed writing this series and hope that something here has helped you in journey to create layouts that you and your family can treasure for years to come.

OK lets jump right in there.  What is flow?  Flow is really the combination of emphasis, contrast, balance, alignment, and repetition.  It is the concept of all these design theories working together to create a layout that captures the eyes, guides it through your designs and to be honest...pleases the eye.  Since we have already touched on each one of the individual theories I thought it might be a good idea to take a layout from the Sugar Pie's PDP Gallery and point out how a layout achieves flow.

Our example is this gem from Ulrikaulrika.  When I saw this in the gallery I was very taken with it. But after thinking about it terms of ECBARF it made the concepts mesh together in my mind.

Emphasis:  In this layout both the title and photo are emphasized.  The size of the photo and the contrasting alpha colors help draw your attention, or emphasizes these 'pieces' of the design.  Also note now Ulrikaulrika's element placement draws additional attention to her photo.

Contrast:  As mentioned in the emphasis section the contrasting alpha colors help catch your eye and add emphasis...see how these two concepts go hand-in-hand.  But that is not the only example of contrast.  Notice how the bright blue paper really sets off the design...it pops behind the photo and against the background paper.  Don't be afraid of color...sometimes that extra splash is all you need to take a layout from good to AWESOME!  Oh and I almost forgot take note of how Ulrikaulrika has combined different fonts for a bit more contrast;)

Balance:  Moving on to balance now.  This layout is weighted to one side but that does not mean that it cannot be balanced.  In fact it is balanced using vertical balance.  Even though the photo is a bit wider than the blue paper block note how the orange asterisk element is used to bring the layout back in to balance.

Alignment:  When you glance at this layout you immediately notice that for the most part it is center aligned.  The journaling, blue paper block, and photo and elements work together to achieve alignment.

Repetition:  Ulrikaulrika uses color and shape repetition in this design.  Both her photo and paper blocks are rectangular.  Her use of stitching on both these peices adds a bit more rectangular shape repetition.  She also repeats element types with the buttons 'securing' the photo to the page.

Flow:  Lets talk about how the eye flows through this layout and why.

• Z-Flow:  Ulrikaulrika uses a visual triangle to move your eye through her photo by way of the button elements.  This is probably the first thing your eye did when you glanced at the layout.  Don't ask me why...just except it and move on;)  Seriously everything that I have read says that it is a tendency of the eye to follow the triangle.
• Next you probably picked up on the title of the layout...the colors grab your attention (contrast).  
• Then your eye drifts lower to the journaling. 
• Alignment and balance help control how the eye roams too...the key parts of this particular design are constructed in such a way to keep you focused.

I hope this discussion helps some and that if you have read all the posts in this series you are a bit more comfortable with your style, design, and are even more psyched about scrapping!  I'll be back soon with more tips, tricks, and some great Sneak Peeks;)  And don't forget to cast your vote on the Designiversary Kit contest!  Here is a quick look at the color swatches you can vote on!

Build, Destroy, Repeat Collab by Sugar Pie Scraps & Connie Prince

Choose the Colors of my Designiversary Kit!

April 15th is my 1 year Designiversary! I am so excited about all the fun things my CT and I have planned for this month to celebrate. I will be hosting a chat at Polka Dot Plum on April 15th at 9 p.m. EST. There will be a BINGO or as we're calling it, "SPSGO" hosted by my CT member Lorianne at PDP on Sunday April 17th. My CT will be checking the PDP forum April 15-17th and giving RAKs to people caught wearing my blinky. I will be having a sale April 15-17th and I will be creating a kit chosen by you!

From now until April 7th, you can vote for your favorite color swatch from the 6 choices below. Please leave a comment below with the number of the swatch you choose. Please only vote once. On April 8th I will be back to announce the winning color swatch and to give you theme choices. You will then vote on a theme from April 8-15th and then I will announce the winning theme on the 16th. After the color swatch and theme have been chosen I will begin working on the kit and hope to have it ready by the end of April. Everyone that comments will receive a discount code for the kit when it is complete and one lucky winner will get the kit for free!

Here are your color choices. Remember...only vote one time for one swatch. Can't wait to see which one wins!

Spring Renewal - Polka Dot Plum Blog Hop FREEBIE

As of April 1st I will be an exclusive designer at Polka Dot Plum. I am very excited about being able to concentrate all my energy toward one store. With that being said...what better way to start out than a blog hop! The designers at PDP have put together a Spring Renewal Blog Hop just for you! We hope you enjoy our creations. These free downloads are only available until April 15th, then it will all be packaged up & available for sale at Polka Dot Plum!!


Here is my portion! I have also included a coupon in the download that is good thru April 15th so make sure you check it out too!

Download Here

Make sure to stop at every blog so you don't miss anything. Have fun!

Farynar's Wings
Sweet Tomato Designs
Laughing Sun Designs
Designs by Sweet Mesquite
Sugar Pie Scraps <---YOU'RE HERE
Jumbbumble Designs
Rhonda Sunflower Designs
Tree City Studio
Kat's Creations
Pixie Keepsakes
Lilly Lane Market
Polka Dot Plum Designs

Quick Spring Guest CT Call! Ends April 1st!

I am having a super quick call for Spring CT Guests. If you would like to apply please do so by April 1st. Good luck! Ad is linked to my store.

Forgot to mention I also need a link to your most complete gallery...oops :)

Saturday Singles at PDP!!

I am so glad it's the weekend...and with the weekend comes Saturday Singles at PDP! I have two new relelases in the SS category this week. As you know I just released a kit called "Spring is in the Air". These are two add-ons to that kit, one religious and one not. They will be $1 each today at PDP! Make sure you grab them while you can! Also, if you haven't already picked up "Spring is in the Air" you can do so thru Sunday for 20% off! Hope you have an awesome weekend!

Spring Freebie!!

Hi all!  Casey again :)  I have some great news I had to drop back by and share...Crystal has a freebie and a special sale she wanted me to share with you!  Sugar Pie Chef Guest Mira created a great stacked paper freebie using Spring Is In the Air...take a look at the preview below!  You can download here.   And to make a freebie even better Spring Is In the Air is on sale through Sunday for 20% off...so why not shop a little and start the weekend off right?

Repetition...Sometimes Repeating Yourself Is A Good Thing

Hi everyone...Casey back again to pick back up on our design principles blog series.  We are now on R of the ECBARF acronym.  R stands for repetition.  If you are like me you find yourself repeating what you say way too much...whether it is No to the little one or just about anything to the husband I repeat...a lot.  While this is rather aggravating in conversations it is a unifying principle in scrapbook design.  Repetition of shapes, colors, lines and the like in layouts help provide a cohesive appearance.

There are several ways to incorporate repetition into layouts.  You can repeat shapes, colors, elements, and even motif.  Take a look at how scrappers have used Sugar Pie Scraps designs to create layouts that use repetition...

Ok lets look at this layout from lnewhouse.  Notice how the blue color is repeated numerous times but there are lots of other colors mixed in too to break the repetition up a bit.  The blue tone is repeated in the alpha, elements and papers and yet is not overpowering or boring.  Notice also how the green button, red paper punch, and blue paper punch are repeated...creating several visual triangles that lead the eye and also provide unity via repetition!  What a great layout that showcases Sugar Pie and Connie Prince's great collab Build, Destroy, Repeat.

Moving on to this lovely layout from Bobbie76.  Look at how she repeats the purple hues but also adds hints of green so the purples are not overpowering or like we said earlier...boring.  She has also used several rectangles providing shape repetition. Check out the five paper rectangles...some are narrow, some are wider.  Her ribbons give two more and then three rectangular photos and three rectangular frames.  Wow that is a lot of shape repetition but doesn't it look great!!  Also check out how she uses the purple flowers...all this works together to create one beautiful finished product!  

From purple girlie to bright and boyish!  nof007750 also creates awesome layouts that use the design theory of repetition.  Take this this one for example.  Note her repetition of orange and yellow...the striped paper, blocks and ribbon.  There is also shape repetition present...her shape of choice was also the rectangle...her photo, title paper, striped bottom paper, blue background paper, and the green and orange blocks are all examples of shape repetition.  The angles are different for some elements but the shape is the same...pretty crafty...muwhahaha!

OK lets talk about one more type of repetition...thematic or motif.  This can be achieved by using elements and colors that correspond with the subject you are scrapping.  For this lets look at beckyroy's layout Hunter's First Snow.  Her photos of the little one out in the snow are awesome and notice how she continues that cold outside theme with the heavy coat, mitten, hat, and snow flake elements.  This use of theme or motif is also repetition...not overpowering...but way awesome!  She also repeats shapes via her photos and the color scheme repeats the brown and blue tone with splashes of yellow.  A beautiful layout that is another great example of repetition and Sugar Pie Scraps awesome products.  

To read a more in depth discussion of repetition in design be sure to check out the Digi Files blog.  And to see the products used in these layouts and more from Sugar Pie check out her Polka Dot Plum store.  Until next time...happy scrapping!

New Release: Spring is in the Air & Quickpage Freebie

I am so happy that spring is finally here! Today I have a brand new spring themed kit for you called "Spring is in the Air". The kit will be 20% off thru Sunday!

And the winner from the Sneak Peak drawing at DST was CardinalsKate Congrats!! Check your PM at DST for your coupon code!

Here is some creative inspiration from the Sugar Pie Chefs!

Don't forget to visit the Polka Dot Plum store on Saturday for "Saturday Singles". The category won't show up until Saturday and every product in that category will be $1 Saturday only! I will have two add-ons to Spring is in the Air available for $1 each in the Saturday Singles section this Saturday!

And here is your freebie! A quickpage created by my CT member Bobbie. Enjoy!

Download