HAPPY FRIDAY...

and happy almost-weekend!

Things are really ramping up as we are now one week away from CHA, and I apologize for being rather scarce lately. Luckily I have a great Design Team, and they have literally "had my back" for about the last 2 months.

Ana is surrounded by NEW Lifestyle Crafts Nesting Hearts, and can't stop playing with them. She made a gorgeous card last week with the NEW Scalloped Hearts, but today you'll see a lot of the basic NEW Nesting Hearts used. Ana has used different sizes from the set to unify her page, and mimic the pattern on her paper...

She's started her page with a fitting title, that she die-cut using Die-Verions Candy Corn font {I love this font to pieces!!}. Then she dove into her scrap bins, and started die-cutting hearts from any piece of patterned paper that matched her background. She admitted that it was like a treasure hunt! The embellishment focal point however, is her Nesting Cirlce-on-a-Nesting Scallop as a spot for the cuter-than-cute NEW Baking Die. From that 4x4 die, she turned the tiny scalloped heart apron detail into a plate of cookies! Ana is a whiz at looking past what's regular, and making it extraordinary! The even tinier heart from the oven mitt, also became a repeating pattern on her page. 

She added her journaling on a NEW Nesting Heart that is backed with a NEW Scalloped Heart, and finished off the page with a date die-cut from Die-Versions Mucho Micro.

I have to admit, Ana titled this page perfectly. She definitely has herself some pretty cute bakers! Thanks for sharing your page with us Ana!

If you have any questions for Ana, or a sweet cookie-comment for her, please leave a comment below. We always love hearing from you.

Next week is "crunch time" as Dani, Gail and I prepare for our big California adventure. I will check in a time or two next week, as I have some sneak-peeks to share. 

I'm here for your habit...

THE FORGOTTEN ONE...

the project I left out of last night's post - because I'm an airhead!

Ana made this adorable Valentine's Day card, and she found the most creative way to include a sentiment. And I forgot to share it last night.

But - it's worthy of a Tuesday wee-hours-of-the-morning post. I think you'll agree...

She used the NEW LC Nesting Heart for her card base - and she's used a couple of them. The base-base {ha ha}, she die-cut over the fold in her red cardstock. You'll see it in a second. Then she die-cut a NEW LC Scallop Heart in white, and glued it over the front, so the fold is hidden. She didn't want to cut off any of those big huge scallops!

But she wanted a subtle little, fun sentiment on the front. And she came up with a brilliant {and easy} solution! She used the Die-Versions Valentines Collage. She just snipped off the "hugs & kisses" that she needed, and she was done! Tiny and adorable - this corner of the collage makes a great card-front sentiment.

The front is also adorned with black-and-white Bakers Twine, and four adorable rolled roses that she made using Die-Versions Vanilla Fine Felt. She even tucked one extra red heard beneath her rose and button grouping - a heart from the NEW LC 4x4 Hearts die.

And that was just the front!

Inside she has used a couple of extra hearts, and another little snippet from the Valentines Collage. Here you can see how her red cardstock is the base of the card - die-cut on the fold. And the white scallops from the card-front, show around the edges. The inside, more nesting hearts, and more gorgeous paper from Crate Paper.

Such a great way to use a die-cut collage. And way to pack in the hearts! This card just oozes love and romance. My hunch is it's going to someone very special!

Thanks Ana for the gorgeous display of hearts and lace, and twine and felt.

If you have any questions for Ana, leave a comment below and she'll leave you an answer in return!

I'm here for your habit...

THE SWEETHEART RELEASE...

is here, and it's not going to be around for long! It's super cute, really versatile, very usable, and ready to ship right now!

Here is the image I shared on Facebook the other day...

The Lifestyle Crafts "Sweetheart" release is a small-ish release {in preparation for CHA?!?!?}. But the small release doesn't mean they skimped on great designs!

First and foremost - let's look at the 4x4 dies. There are six in the release, and they are all single-die shapes.  

This is the LC 4x4 Baking die. An apron, a bowl, an oven mitt, a rolling pin and a whisk. And some cute little details for the apron.

Here is an adorable card from Pam, using the NEW LC Baking die...

She's used the LC Baking die, the LC Banners, and the LC Nesting Folders. She used the Die-Versions Cuppy Cake font for her sentiment, and Die-Versions Mister Micro font for the monogram on the apron. She told me she plans to put some "suggestions" in this folder, and present it to her husband so he has some weekend-getaway ideas for Valentine's Day! Her papers are from the My Minds Eye collection called "Love Me", totally fitting!

This is the NEW 4x4 Arrows die. Four arrows, several of which can be mixed-and-layered with a couple of different "feathers".

Here come the diet-friendly new dies...

dies of chocolate and cake, treats and sweets - all with zero calories! This is the NEW 4x4 Cake die, make your cake as tall or as short, as plain or as decorated as you'd like. Icing and fondant, berries and piping - with a cake stand to hold your creation. Cuteness!

and here is the NEW LC Baked Goods die. It's cuppy cakes and donuts, with sprinkles and glaze, cherries and frosting. Just adorable!

Gail saw this die and knew the donuts would be her favorite...

She's used Die-Versions Snowdrift font for her sentiment, both outside and inside...

I love her play-on-words. HAHA!

But while Gail liked the donut, Pam was all about the cupcakes...

She's used two of the cupcake die-cuts, and topped them with whipped cream and chocolate chips. Love the versatility in design this die provides! Die-cut some customer cupcake wrappers to match your layout, and you're all set. Pam's title is die-cut using Die-Versions Little Red, LC no. 73 font, and Die-Versions Missy Micro for her date! Some of the LC Wave Edges also frame her pictures! I want to turn 11 just so I can celebrate with Pam! So cute!

And the next 4x4...

this is the NEW LC Heart Doily. It's detailed and delicate, and looks so pretty...

the 4x4 Doily is the red heart, that is layered with the pink hearts. Also shown here are the three hearts from the Nesting Doily Hearts. But the red heart, that is all-over cut, that's the 4x4 Doily Heart. {Sorry to be confusing - but I myself got confused when taking pictures - hence the doily layered with the nesting hearts!}

The final 4x4 dies is simply called Hearts. Lots of sizes, lots of different widths and outlines.

I can't wait to die-cut this die a kazillion times for a special Valentine's Day box headed to college. Think confetti explosion!

Here's a card Gail made, using all kinds of hearts...

from top to bottom she's used:

• white - Nesting Lace Hearts
• red - 4x4 Hearts
• white - Nesting Doily Hearts
• red - 4x4 Hearts
• white - Nesting Eyelet Hearts
• red - 4x4 Hearts

And the "I" and t he "U" in her pict-o-gram sentiment is made using Die-Versions Igloo font!

I've got lots of pictures showing the NEW Nesting Hearts. To answer the questions about sizes and comparison to the older sets, I have the details...

the top row shows the original LC Nesting Hearts. IT was a four-piece set. The bottom row shows the five-piece NEW LC  Nesting Scallop Hearts. The dies have a wider frame, which gives you some more embossing options. The scallops are also deeper/bigger. And there is one extra die!

Here, I hope you  can see the difference in the embossed edge. A wider die makes for a more dramatic edge detail! Red=old, pink=new.

Here is kind of a neon picture of the die-cuts, layered together. You  can see that the pink scallops are deeper and wider, definitely more scallopy! And the size of the heart is just slightly bigger.

When the shapes are all lined up together...

Lots and lots of hearts! But in my opinion - you can never have too many hearts {wink wink}!

Here are the plain hearts. On the top - the NEW LC 11-piece Nesting Hearts. On the bottom, the older 4-piece Nesting Hearts.

Here are the largest hearts from each set. Pink is the NEW set - you can see that it's quite a bit larger, and then it has TEN dies that fit within it. It's a super-set!

Next up - the highly anticipated Nesting Doily Hearts...

this 3-piece set is just stunning. It cuts like hot butter, and the wide border of doily-esque lace is just beautiful!

Here is a close-up of the 3 edges...

it truly is a beautiful set - and the largest shape is bigger than I expected. Over 5.5" across and just under 5.5" high! We're talking BIG!

 Gail turned the largest Nesting Eyelet Heart into a card front...

She die-cut the heart just over the fold line in her white cardstock, and attached that to a flat piece of red cardstock and paper. Her adorned the front of her heart-card with a Die-Versions "I Love You" Solo Sentiment {shoot - which is currently out of stock!}. It's a perfect fit for this 5.5" square card!

Ana has a family wedding in the very near future, and she decided to use all of her new Nesting  Hearts to document her brother's "big question"...

She used the NEW LC Nesting Hearts, and I think she used every single die! She's personalized the title and the date by using Die-Versions Oh Scarlet! font, and Die-Versions Missy Micro. She's also tucked one of the LC Arrows behind the blank white heart, she's left that space open for her brother to journal his thoughts! What a great idea!

Okay - that might be the longest blog-post EVER! But to answer all of the questions about sizes and shapes, I felt like pictures were a necessity! Thanks to my awesome Design Team for scrappin' all weekend long, and providing great inspiration!

If you have questions about shapes or sizes, counts or content, please leave a comment below! I hope you enjoy the January 2012 "Sweetheart" release from Lifestyle Crafts!

I'm here for your habit...

HAPPY NEW YEAR...

and happy Die-Versions January 2012 release!

{That's the first time I've typed 2012 today, and I did it correctly - yay me!}

I know things have been a little quiet around the ol' Scrapy Land Blog this past week, let's just chalk it up to family, holidays, design teams, dies, plans and products. It's been crazy around here - preparing for January 2012. In all honesty - today is just the start of more craziness. 

But that will have to wait for later!

TODAY - is release day. Die-Versions popularity is increasing each month, and we are lovin' the responses we hear from all of you. We hear, and we listen. We think this release will provide a few of the items you've been requesting lately.

Here is our release, in it's entirety...

you can see all of the dies BY CLICKING HERE! Eleven new, American mad, universally compatible, glorious Die-Version dies! THREE CHEERS for 2012 starting off with a bang!

I'm going to quickly run through some samples, from the Scrapy Land Design Team - feast your eyes on the following:

three new Die-Versions 4x8 fonts - Evergreen, Snowdrift and Magical...

This pages shows you the Die-Versions Snowdrift font - and oh it is definitely one of my favorite-favorites from this release. It's a true handwriting font, a little wonky, and bit askew and a really great size! It's upper-lower-number-punctuation and it's on two dies. I've also used Die-Versions Missy Micro for the date and age. {And that great pink-circly background? It was my very first cut with my new Cameo! A full 12 inches baby - I love it!}

Here are a couple of looks at Die-Versions Evergreen...

oh-be-still-my-font-lovin'-heart! Die-Versions Evergreen totally rocks my socks! It's upper-lower-number-punctuation, on two dies, and TOTALLY AWESOME. I think it's a great masculine font, I love the differences in upper and lowercase letter and it's totally flexible! I also used Die-Versions My Micro for the two years on the page. I just can't stop using the DV Micros, I've accepted it though, and that's half the battle - HAHA!

I mentioned flexible - here is the same Die-Versions Evergreen font, in a completely different situation...

this is an A2 card {4.25"x 5.5"} with a gorgeous heart doily on the front, anchored with a simple sentiment die-cut from Die-Versions Evergreen. Same font, different use - and it looks GREAT! This font is going to be popular - it's going to become a classic. I guarantee it!

But let's not overlook that gorgeous heart doily. Let's not indeed! It's one of the four new Die-Versions "Whispers" line. We call this one Die-Versions "Heart of Hearts". It cuts beautifully and is simply beautiful.

Now, to start jumping around, here is the final 4x8 font and another Whispers...

Gail has used the NEW Die-Versions Magical font, which is our first monogram font. It's an only uppercase font, but it is detailed and intricate and beautiful. You won't even miss the lowercase letters. We pictured this being for monograms, or for embellished first letters in a title. Like old fashioned books would have the first letter of the chapter pulled-out and heavily decorated. That's THIS font. It's fun to work with. Gail just loves it, and she found that LOVE fits perfectly in our NEW Die-Versions "Ring of Hearts" Whispers. A quick and easy card, that looks like it took hours to complete!

I used the DV Ring of Hearts to make a larger card...

this is a 5"x 7" card, and I used two new Die-Versions. The DV Ring of Hearts PLUS the brand NEW Die-Versions "Valentine Collage" Solo Sentiments. When I designed this particular die, I wanted it to be big and bold but also frilly and girly. I am so happy with how it turned out. I die-cut hot pink, heavily glittered paper, and the die sliced right though it. Tucked under the corner is the DV Ring of Hearts. This is going to be a go-to-die for the next couple of months, wait and see!

But I'm not the only one who loves the new DV Valentine Collage...

Gail kept hers a bit more masculine, and I loved how she turned the sentiment block as a whole on it's corner. Whimsical, cute and EASY! She die-cut her collage with white cardstock, then inked it with some Distress Ink and then smeared some Stickles across the surface with her fingertip. She figured a touch of glimmer makes everything BETTER!

And Ana used the exact same die, but kept with a more vintage look...

The black on pinks and browns beautiful. Almost shabby-chic. Such a great look, and the Die-Versions Solo Sentiments make them a snap to create!

Speaking of "snap" to create...

Pam whipped up this card and used some of the brand new Die-Versions Fabulous Felt to do it. She's centered the DV Ring of Hearts Whispers on a square card, and then placed a circle of patterned paper in the middle of it. Then, using her Squeeze, she die-cut a heart from the Poppy felt, found in the "Regals" Felt Kit. A little bit of red bakers twine, and her card was done! Talk about "snap"! 

Another DV Whispers to show you, and it's a great one...

this is the front of a heart-shaped card. There is a heart-shaped window in the front, which when opened reveals...

the NEW Die-Versions "Love All Around" Whispers die-cut. Dainty and detailed, full of love {literally!} and hearts - this die is going to be very popular. I want to decorate my February tree with a gazillion of these die-cut in different glitter papers. I  think they'd look gorgeous!

The fourth of the four NEW Whispers dies is still laying on my table - I'll show you some samples with that in the days to come. It's got a scrolled center, with a full circumference of hearts and eyelet dots. It's just gorgeous. We are particularly excited about this one as it is Die-Versions' 100th die. WOO HOO for Die-Versions. We've aptly named it "Heart Burst", because that's how we were feeling the day it went to press!

Two more fonts to share. The first is one Pam fell in love with immediately...

it's the NEW Die-Versions Igloo font, which is on a single 4x4 die. She's used it on the inside of a 4"x 4", the outside of the card I've temporarily misplaced {I'll have her resend me the picture and will add it soon!}. DV Igloo is an all uppercase-number-punctuation font, and we are all lovin' the big block serifs on the letters, but it's the wide-wonky "O" that makes me smile!

The only font I don't have a project with tonight, is the one we were the most excited to share with you {chalk it up to poor-planning on my part!!}. Everyone has been so excited with our Font-Shadows, {Frank & Sammy and Macaroni & Cheese} that we decided to do another one. Die-Versions Cookies & Milk is a great, regular shadow font, on two 4"x 4" dies. I'd describe it as my husband's handwriting! HAHA - thick strokes and sharp corners, but all in a smaller {9/16"} size. This one is very fun!

I have all of the fonts side-by-side, for a size comparison:

from left to right: DV Magical, DV Evergreen, DV Snowdrift, DV Cookies & Milk and DV Igloo. I jus think they look adorable all lined up like this! 

And here is a picture on a grid, so you can see sizes:

from left to right: DV Evergreen, DV Snowdrift and DV Cookies & Milk {I couldn't get Magical and Igloo unstuck from the pink paper - HAHA!}

Thanks to the Scrapy Land DT for their speedy scrappin' this week. I appreciate it greatly!

If you have any questions - sizes, uses, ideas, techniques - for these fonts and shapes, please leave a comment below and one of us will get you a comment-answer as soon as we can. Every single one of these ELEVEN NEW DIES are in stock, waiting to be shipped to you! No waiting, no clock watching - they're ready NOW! But don't delay, this release is going to be popular!

Happy New Year, from Dani, myself and all of the Scrapy Land Design Team!

I'm here for your habit...

HAPPY, MERRY, HAPPY...

everything! Lots going on this week. LOTS!

Hanukkah celebrations started last night - so Happy Hanukkah if you're celebrating.

Christmas craziness is in full-swing - so Merry Christmas if you're celebrating.

Airport insanity has begun - so happy {and safe} travels if you're traveling.

The Scrapy Land Design Team has a couple of ideas to share that are totally "doable" last minute. Depending on what you need - quick cards or a quick page - we've got you covered...

Gail made this beautiful card using the NEW LC Labels from the "Countdown" release this month. She said that this new label, with slits on both sides, made it so easy to add her ribbon. I love that brilliant addition to this set! She die-cut the shape and then inked the edges with Dusty Concord Distress Inks. I love the tone-on-tone, but two different looks that's achieved, all with one pattern of paper! For her sentiment she has used the Die-Versions Frenzy font. Gail described this font as "very versatile - a little off kilter, but elegant in it's own way! I think she's summed it up perfectly!

The inside of her card says "Happy Hanukkah", die-cut in the same font. Simple and elegant! She's used the "Right-Left Card" pattern for this card. If you haven't tried a Right-Left Card, here is the video showing you the steps - CLICK HERE.

Gail also had need for a quick Christmas card...

Another Left-Right card {I think she's addicted!}, with a bunch of paper scraps from her stash. This card pattern is perfect for using up those scraps! The front of the card is adorned with the LC Be Splendid Joy die, and the LC Be Splendid Snowflake border cut apart into individual flakes. After her card was assembled, she went over each snowflake with a heavy layer of Black Diamond Stickles. I love the elegant look of the black snowflakes, and the red foil letters. Quick and easy, and done!

Beautiful cards Gail, thank you!

Pam needed some "Pam time" the other day, so she broke away from baking and wrapping, working and planning, to make a quick page...

I LOVED this page the second I saw it. Mainly because Pam's daughter is such a cutie in her satin Christmas jammies - but also because I can mentally calculate that this is a quick page! And you all know I love me some quickie-pages!

Pam used the NEW LC Clip It Kit, and she's actually used every single clip in the kit for her title. Each one die-cut from kraft cardstock, and lined up along a 2" wide piece of patterned paper. Easy peasie! Then she grabbed her growing stack of Die-Versions fonts and die-cut letters to spell out her title. The fonts she's used are as follows:

• C = DV Flutterby
• H = DV Landmark
• R = DV Cuppy Cake
• I = DV Tickled Pink
• S = DV A Little Lime
• T = DV Tickled Pink
• M = DV Tee Time
• A = DV Flutterby
• S = DV Cuppycake

All of her journaling is contained on LC Nesting Eyelet Circles and LC Nesting Circles. The little collection of circles with buttons and hearts {the heart is also from the LC Clip It Kit}, anchors the photos in the lower left corner and balances the patterns on the vivid red background. A gorgeous page!

Thanks Pam for giving me a great pattern to scrap-lift next week!

This is a full week, for sure. Holidays, family, cooking and baking, driving and traveling, cleaning and planning. But as the year draws to a close, remember the wonderful memories that are made in the next two weeks.

And YES - even hectic craziness can be photographed and scrapped! 

I'll be back tomorrow with a cute, last minute gift card album. Hmmmm...wondering if it should be a LIVE tomorrow night?!?!?!

I'm here for your habit...