Scrapbook Circle is always growing, and with that comes the need for a few more helping hands. Please welcome, Sara Zenger to the Creative Team!

Sara will be helping Lisa, Tessa, Heather and myself with emails, partnerships and some other fun stuff we can’t wait to share with you. Let’s get to know Sara a little bit better and welcome her to the Scrapbook Circle family.

Hi! I am Sara Zenger. I have loved taking photos and capturing my memories forever! I became addicted to scrapbooking and paper crafts about nine years ago.  My go-to stash of scrapbooking supplies include foam tape/pop dots for added dimension, white and kraft cardstock because it goes with everything, and punches because they work on every layout and can look unique!

I love making layouts, cards and other paper craft projects. I feel the need to make a new banner for each approaching holiday and I adore decorating my own gift bags.

You can find me on the Paper Issues Team, as a Design Team member for PaperHaus Magazine, a member of the GCD Studios Team, and I’m currently a part of the Imaginisce Team.

I enjoy being a part of teams and online communities because I hope that somehow I can inspire someone to try something new and creative that they may never have thought of before — we all need inspiration from some place!

I am truly honored and excited to be a part of the Scrapbook Circle family! Follow me on my blog at www.sarazenger.blogspot.com.

Sara jumped right in and got to working with the May kit, My Favorite. I just love what she made here to help kick off the latest and greatest from Scrapbook Circle.

We are excited to welcome Sara to the team, and we hope you are, too. Leave her a little love to make her feel welcomed!

And if you don’t have the My Favorite kit yet, stop by the shop and pick one up! There’s a fabulous add on this month, too.

More than any other scrapbooking supply, I collect patterned paper. I can’t seem to get enough! One of my favorite ways to whittle down my patterned paper stash is to use an entire sheet as the background for a layout. Is this a technique you’ve tried? If not, or even if you’re a pro, I’ve got a challenge for you! Create a layout with patterned paper as your background. I asked Jennifer to play along and supply us with some inspiration. Let’s take a look:

Jennifer is a pro at mixing patterns! And she used my favorite sheet of patterned paper from the May kit, My Favorite! Those stars just steal my heart!

There isn’t a bit of plain cardstock anywhere! Jennifer used just the right patterns to give the title a place to rest, to highlight her photo, and to back up her journaling. So colorful and fun!

Ready to ditch the cardstock and play along? Here’s how!

1. Create a layout with a patterned paper background. You may use cardstock, just not as the background. We would love to see a Scrapbook Circle kit in action, but any materials will do.

2. Post your project to your blog, a gallery, or our Facebook page. Come back to this post and leave a comment with the direct link to your posted project.

3. Deadline to enter is Wednesday, May 15th, 9:00 pm Pacific.

A $10.00 shop credit will be awarded to a randomly selected player. Good luck and happy scrapping!

Wow! We had such pretty entries to our Springtime Hues challenge! Thanks to all who entered. Our randomly selected winner is…

HEATHER ADAMS

…with this lovely layout:

Congratulations, Heather! Please email me at tessa (at) scrapbookcircle (d0t) com and we will get you set up with your prize!

A new challenge is just around the corner – stay tuned!

Happy May! We are very happy to share our new May kit, My Favorite, with you today!

We love the mix of stripes, florals, chevron and stars. What do you think?

Plus we can’t wait to used those adorable Maggie Holmes mini bows, Jillibean Soup Corrugated People, Tutu Trim and a full sheet of washi paper. Also, don’t forget about the custom printable that comes with this kit!

Kits begin shipping next Monday!

Don’t forget about our Sugar and Spice add-on. We filled it with fabric frames and a 6 X 6 paper pad from Maggie Holmes, an embellishment pack from Lily Bee and a packed set of adhesive chipboard from Basic Grey.

Be sure to stop by our ideas page to see what our design team has been creating with this kit!

Some of my favorite embellishments in this month’s kit are the Cosmo Cricket fabric brads. I asked Daniela Dobson to show us how she used the brads that she received:

I love the title treatment! The brad in place of the “o” is cute, eye-catching and fun! The brad in the center of the layered heart embellishment is sweet, too. Do you see how Daniela created a visual triangle by placing that third brad between the photos? Great design touch!

The brads make for fantastic texture and dimension, as well as color. And you can’t go wrong with Cosmo Cricket designs!

How did you use your Cosmo Cricket brads? We would love to see! Be sure to upload your layouts to our Facebook page. Have a great day!

Today DT member, Jennie, is lifting Erin, who shared her layout with us on the Scrapbook Circle Facebook page.

I love how Erin put the photo in the bottom corner and anchored it with the feather. The picture is adorable and the pennants at the top help the page still feel evened out with so much still in the lower corner. Excellent layout!

Here is what Jennie made as a lift to what Erin created.

I love how she used so many photos in the same smaller corner space and brought in the texture from the feather with the ruffled ribbon in the top corner. Her title is fun, too, using the ghost letters in the April kit.

Thanks, ladies, for the great inspiration to kick our week off right.

Do you want to be featured here on the Scrapbook Circle blog? Just share your work using Scrapbook Circle kits on our Facebook page and you could be our next Lifting You feature.

The one problem with acrylic letters? You can’t use regular ink on them to make the edges stand out. But there are a few options. You could use  Staz On ink. But an even quicker and easier idea is to use Copic markers.

Since Copics are alcohol based rather than water based, they can be used on acrylics and will be permanent when dry. Plus, the brush tip makes it easy to maneuver around letters.

If you don’t already own Copics, you don’t need to invest in a full set to have fun with your acrylic embellishments. Just a couple of basic colors like a black, brown and maybe one or two of your favorite colors to scrap with should do!

Rebecca

Happy Saturday! Today I have a two-page layout to share with you using the “Happy Place” kit. I just love the colors in this month’s kit and created my layout based on photos of my family enjoying a spring day this month. It was finally nice and we were outside all afternoon and evening…it was fabulous!

I added a few embellishments here and there: a Yes, Please journaling die-cut and heart speech bubble, a Scrapbook Circle exclusive tag cut-out and one of the wood veneer speech bubbles.

I also love the Elle’s Studio snippets in the kit – they are perfect for adding a little text to help tell the story better.

Finally, I cut apart the Echo Park patterned paper and used the natural arch to help draw the eye into both pages of the layout.

Thank you to everyone who played along with this month’s sketch. Here are some fabulous layouts to swoon over on this lovely Friday.

Debbie

Diana W.

Jenni

Michelle

Sara

Wendy

I’ll be back next month with another sketch for you all to use with your May kit. See ya then!

Oh, you are going to LOVE Daniela Donner’s take on our current challenge, Springtime Hues. Take a look at this beauty:

My favorite part about this layout is that the steps to create it are simple. The confetti dots are Amy Tangerine stickers from the April kit. Layered over each other, the colors mix in such a pretty way.

The colored background is watercolors brushed onto cardstock. Daniela also colored the wood speech bubble with watercolors.

Have you started your layout for the challenge yet? I’m certainly inspired now! You can find all the details to play along here. You could win a $10 shop credit! Have a wonderful day.