Back to School *contest*

“Let’s Go Back to School”

Join us for a fun challenge filled contest where we go back to school. Each week we will challenge you to use basic scrapbook supplies to create stunning Layouts or Cards.

This will be a 4 week contest; each challenge will be posted Sunday by noon EST in the contest forum. You will have until the following Saturday midnight EST to post your take on the challenge in the contest gallery.

This is a non-elimination contest. The staff at Timeless Daydreams will be judging you on challenge requirements, creativity, and basic design. At the end of the 6 weeks we will tally all of the votes and there will be a winner chosen. The prize will be furnished by the administrators at Timeless Daydreams.

To qualify for this contest you must be a registered member of Timeless Daydreams forum,. 1st challenge will be issued on Sunday September 12th!

All of your creations for this contest may not be shared on any other site until the completion of the contest. You are welcome to post these challenges on your blog as long as you mention TD contest in the post.

Spread the word, we're going back to school! 

See you there,

Leah

Meet your August guest designer ~ Genevieve Garner

You know Genevieve as Vieve on the Timeless Daydreams forum. We are very excited she is designing with our July/August kit this month. Ready to get to know her a better?


What is your favorite technique?
I am a complete sucker for glitter. I pretty much love any technique that can work it in. Lately, I have been using a glitter pen to outline embellishments.

Where do you get your inspiration?
I get my inspiration mainly from craft bloggers. I follow over 150 blogs that constantly get me thinking out of my normal realm of scrapbooking.

What is your favorite embellishment?
Chipboard. Hands down.

The time of day you are most creative? Does it vary much?
I do my best work extremely late at night. I often find myself looking at the clock at 2 am just as I am finishing up. Hence, why I do most of my scrapbook on the weekends. That wouldn't fly on a weekday.

How long have you been scrapbooking?
I have been scrapbooking for 13 years. I started at the age of 13. My first scrapbooks are so funny, but I love them because it is part of the history.

What advice would you give to aspiring artists today?
Use your products as you buy them. I have way too many things that I loved and saved for a "special" page, but then ended up just sitting in my storage. If your excited about a product, use it now...because every page is just important as the next.

If you could choose one manufacturer to receive a free years supply of product from, who would you choose?
American Crafts. I love, love, love their clean and bright style.

Do you prefer dinner at home, take out, or eat in a restaurant?
I prefer a good home cooked meal.

Tell us about your favorite childhood memory.
My parents woke us up one morning on a school day, told us we had an hour to pack because we were going to disneyland. What kid wouldn't want to skip school and go to a theme park? It was an awesome surprise.

What is your favorite color and why?
I love Red. Probably because I love the University of Utah who is known for their bright red. Go Utes!

What is your best time-saving tip?
Put things away as you go. I am terrible at this, but when I do it, I definitely have more time.

What is your best organizational tip?
Label everything. This is huge if you share your products with others. But even if you don't, it makes things easy to find and easy to put away.

How do you overcome Scrapper's Block?
I turn to sketches. I usually don't get stuck on what products to use with what photo, it is where to start. Sketches definitely help get me moving.

What’s the last song you downloaded to your ipod – or the song you just can’t get out of your head right now.
Lady Antebellum's CD, every track is amazing!

The words that would be describe my style are ……………………………………….
Clean and Simple

If you were a Scrapbooking product, what would you be?
I would be an adhesive runner. One because I love to run. Two because I like being close to the best things, but I don't like to be out in front and taking over the show. However, I think that I provide a much help as I can and am an essential part of the making of a great group.

If you could only have three tools to scrap with - what would they be?
Paper Trimmer, Tombow Tape Runner, and my Glitter Pen

How does your family and friends view your work?
Everyone is really supportive and kind about my hobby. My husband even gives me suggestions when I get stuck.

What is one thing you wish you could throw away?
I don't like clutter, so if I don't want it anymore I give it away or send it to the trash. But I wouldn't mind fixing up a couple of my scrapbook pages.

Name a food in your house you never run out of.
We always have homemade ranch on hand. It's not healthy, but we use it on just about everything.

If you lost your sight tomorrow how would you express your creativity?
I have always loved pottery and took some classes in high school. I think I would get more involved with that, since a lot of it is feeling the clay.

Name something that makes you smile when you see it.
My husband. I can't get enough of him. Cheesy, I know...but it's the truth.

What is the craziest thing you have ever added to a scrapbook page?
I added some pieces of a broken mirror.

Name one thing on your wish list.
A Xyron Creative Station

Is there anything you've lost and still miss?
I had an awesome black marker that I left at a crop once, and I still find myself reaching for it. I can't find it to buy anywhere. It was a freebie giveaway in an expo goodie bag.

 I loved learning more about you Vieve! Check back soon because Vieve has a great blog post coming up, and you'll see what the Design Team as been creating with the summerlicious July/August kit! Don't forget to check out Vieve's blog, Plaid Polkadots.

Happy Daydreaming,
Leah

May Blissful Sunset DT layouts

I must admit to hoarding my scraps from the Timeless Daydreams kits... their so lush and beautiful, I have a hard time parting with any of the scraps. Speaking of, if you haven't checked out the amazing kit gallery, I'll bring it to you here. The kit is bright, yet subtle and will yield you many beautiful layouts.

(you can click on any photo to view it larger)

From Laurajean, our May guest designer

Dolores Cancel

Leah Crowe

There are only a handful of May kits left, so hurry and get yours!

Meet our May Guest Designer ~ Laura Miller

We are so excited to have Laura as our featured May guest Design Team member! 

Let's learn a little bit more about Laurajean!

Hi, my name is Laura Miller aka Laurajean and I’ve been married to my husband, Bill for 19 years and we have two beautiful children together, Danielle (13) and Kaleb (9). My husband is active duty with the USMC and we are currently living in Jacksonville, NC, where we hope to retire and stay.

I’ve been scrapbooking for several years now and am totally addicted. I’d never really heard of this hobby until I was looking through my neighbor’s album one afternoon and was totally hooked. I didn’t really get “seriously addicted” until I moved to Missouri and started browsing magazines and the stores they had out there. And for me it was all about the pattern paper….love ALL of it!!!

My main reason today for scrapping is to leave a piece of my life behind for my kids and family. My mom doesn’t have many photos of my childhood and the ones she does have, she can’t remember names, dates and places. So for these reasons, I started scrapping everything…the good along with the bad.
I'm very excited to be part of Timeless Daydreams and look forward to designing with the awesome kits that both Dolores and Michele put together!! 

Here are a couple of Laurajeans layouts with the blissful May kit.

I feel like I've known LJ for years. She's always so fun, supportive, not to mention a fantastic inspirational scrapbook artist. We threw some questions LJ's way, and here's what she had to say. :)

 What is your favorite technique? My favorite technique would have to be distressing with my scissors..I just about use them on every layout!!

Where do you get your inspiration? I get inspiration everywhere, my photos, online communities, magazines/catalogs
What is your favorite embellishment? I would have to say flowers...ALL of them!!!

The time of day you are most creative? Does it vary much? I usually scrapbook during the morning/afternoon, while my children are outside playing or at school...I'm not much of a night-time scrapper.

If you could choose one manufacturer to receive a free years supply of product from, who would you choose? Prima would be that Manufacturer for me...I absolutely LOVE their flowers, bling, papers, alphas...you get the point!!

Do you prefer dinner at home, take out, or eat in a restaurant? Duh, at a restaurant...if I don't have to cook, I'm good!!
What is your favorite color and why? Its a toss-up between Yellow & Orange...this colors just make me smile, so bright and fUN!!

What is your best organizational tip? My Clip-It-Up Organizer...I LOVE having most of my stash at my fingertips...works for me!
How do you overcome Scrapper's Block? I usually find a good Challenge or Sketch to work on and that usually curbs it for me and if not...then I just do something else for awhile and come back to it later!!

What’s the last song you downloaded to your ipod – or the song you just can’t get out of your head right now? "Not Myself Tonight" by Christina Aguilera

The words that would be describe my style are: All over the Place...lol

Name a food in your house you never run out of. Cereal, my kids could eat it for all three meals :)

Name something that makes you smile when you see it? My children, they are always doing something that makes me laugh!

What is the craziest thing you have ever added to a scrapbook page? I would have to say a pair of pantyhose for a Guttergirlz Challenge.

Name one thing on your wish list. Distrezz-it-all 

Thanks so much Laurajean! You can keep up with LJ on her blog at:  http://laurajeanmiller.blogspot.com/

Stay tuned and keep checking the May kit gallery to see all the gorgeous ways to use your kit!

May kit available now!

Check out our gorgeous May kit

Blissful Sunset

In store now and shipping!

Included in the kit:

7 Gypsies
5 Sheets of 12x12 Double Sided Patterned Paper
1 Sheet of TOP TEN 97% Complete Stickers

Kaisercraft
5 Sheets of 12x12 Double Sided Patterned Paper

Prima
1 Pack of Belle Artes Aquarius flowers
1 Pack of Lilliput Roses Tropocale

Jillibean Soup
1 Pack of Corrugated Green Alphas - 87 Pieces

Jenni Bowlin
1 Pack of Vintage Buttons - 12 pieces

Isn't it a beauty?

While you're shopping in the store, don't forget to check out all the new product.

Smooch, Jenni Bowlin, Prima Pearls & Flowers

and after you check out, come to the Forum and say HI!

Paper distressing techniques part 2 of 2

If you missed part 1 you can find it here. :)

Technique 2: creasing your paper


Continuing from the previous post, we had spritzed our paper with water. Doing this allows your paper to become more malleable, easier to shape and work with. If you want to follow along, go ahead and mist your paper with water. Using your thumb and index finger, lay them down on the paper. Push the paper with your thumb towards your index finger, and at the same time, pull with your index finger towards your thumb.

Doing so creates this lovely crease line in your paper. Play with it a bit by pulling, pushing, folding, until it is shaped to your liking. If you guessed, then this is where the ink comes in. ;) Adding ink is just visually pleasing to me, and it really helps the distressing of your paper to stand out.

Another way to create this on the edge of your paper is to use your scissors while the paper is damp, and run them across the edge of the paper.

This does two things. One, it creates this really fabulous rough edge. Two, it pushes and bends the paper in on itself a bit. Again, experiment to your hearts desire.

 Technique 3: tearing/folding your paper

There are lots of different ways to change the way your paper looks... this is one other technique I use when distressing my paper... and it takes about three seconds. You can do this with your paper wet or dry. I prefer that my paper is damp when I do this because when I stop tearing, the fibers in the paper are wet and actually have a smooth edge where I tore it at.

You can leave it as is, you can ink it, or you can fold it back.
Start with one side of the tear and fold it back behind the paper to hide it.

Do the same thing for the other side.
Ink it.. and voila.

Here's this poor little distressed piece of scrap paper in all its glory. ;)

Have fun with it. In the end, its all about what YOU LIKE, and what YOU WANT on your finished projects!
Until next time...
xoxo
Leah

Paper distressing techniques part 1 of 2

Recently I was asked how I curled, roughed up, rolled, and distressed my scrapbook paper. The easiest way to tell you is by showing you. I will have this available by video soon, and will post it if you would like to see these techniques in action, for now, I snapped some photos. :)

What you will need:

1. Paper
2. Ink
3. Mini Mister filled with water
4. Scissors
5. Glue dots 
6. Heat gun (optional)

 Technique 1: rolling/curling your paper

Get your ink, and ink all around the edges of your paper. As much or as little as you like. Y'all know me, and I like LOVE my ink!

Grab your paper and your mini mister (you can get these in a pack of 3 at Michaels for really cheap) and over your trashcan or sink, mist all around the edge of the paper. (If you used a Ranger distressed Ink, you can rub the edges of the paper to create a lovely smudged look with the water and ink... in these photos, I did not use that ink) You'll notice the paper starts to curl up.. that's what we want! We are going to tell this paper how we want it to behave.

Now, at any corner of the paper, press down with your thumb and index finger, and start to roll it in. If you've ever played with playdough or making a paper cone, it is similar to that.

Roll it in as much as you like.. you can roll it tightly, or very loosely, completely up to you, there are really no rules to this. :) You'll notice your paper is still wet, go ahead and let go of it, see how it is keeping its shape? Now, if you want, grab your ink pad again and ink the top of the paper you rolled in.

Once it is dry, you can leave it as is, or you can adhere it down so it won't move around. Get your glue dots, and place one underneath the edge of the rolled paper. See where the arrow is pointing to? There.

Then press down so it sticks.

You can leave it smooshed down or you can play with it and open it back into a roundish shape.

There you have it. Easy peasy right?

Stay tuned for part 2 tomorrow!

xoxo

Leah