Hello! Mary here after a long hiatus, but finally back to issue a new challenge! This one is a layout sketch challenge and you will have one week beginning Sunday, July 15th through Sunday, July 22nd (at 8 pm) to submit your entries for this challenge. To enter, upload a picture of your layout to the comments section of this post, or email the store at info@ourpaperplace.com with a picture of your layout. Winner will be announced Monday, July 23rd and will receive a $10 gift card to Our Paper Place!
Ready to see the sketch and our inspiration pieces?  Ok, so here is the sketch we are working with for this challenge. It features two prominent photos, room for plenty of embellishment and room for a decent amount of journaling (or just a few notes).
 Sarah created this awesome 12"x12" layout. She contained the content within the boundaries of her patterned paper box, and added the embellishments over the top and in the center of the page. drawing the eye in to the photos. And how adorable are those photos?
 Ann created this fun 8.5"x11" layout by compressing the sketch a tiny bit. She still has two central photos, large circle embellishment and title placement in the same general areas as the sketch. Everything is just slightly closer together on the different sized layout.
 And here is my take on the sketch. I apologize for the poor quality of the picture - the lighting in my room at night is not the best. I chose to use one larger photo for the focal point, and added in a second photo with the embellishments. I kept the larger circle embellishment, but moved the three circular elements in closer to the large circle to create more of a grouping of embellishments.
We hope you will be inspired to create something wonderful with our layout sketch. We can't wait to see your work. Remember to submit your entries for this challenge in the comments for this blog entry or by emailing your submission to info@ourpaperplace.com. Challenge ends next Sunday, July 22nd at 8 pm.
...and as always, happy creating!
Sarah, here. I just wanted to express how much I'm in love with the latest Echo Park Paper collection, Everyday Eclectic. 1) This is obviously a gimme for me -- it's fun and bright! 2) It showcases pictures of summer festivities, such as the fair! 3)Lastly, it's created for those "everyday" photos. Check out some of the designs from this collection: With the little time I had to play at the crop last night, I created this 12x12 layout using this collection. Hope you enjoyed looking at my latest project, and hopefully, I'll see some of you all real soon. This paper is moving fast, so don't hesitate to come pick some up for yourself!
Oh, and stay tuned for a challenge coming up later this week. You don't want to miss it!
...and as always, happy creating!
Have you been enjoying your summer thus far?! We have! Why?! Well, we have been getting shipments of some pretty awesome products. Check out the latest line from American Crafts, "Shoreline": For those in the mood for some sweet and cute products, make sure to check out Pebbles, "Sunnyside": We also got in a handful of new baby stuff from Crate Paper! Don't worry -- we made sure to get both boy & girl collections. Come check out both "Little Bo Peep" and "Little Boy Blue": Stay tuned as we continue to receive more shipments for all of your crafty needs!
...and as always, happy creating!
 Hello crafters! Mary here with a quick project share, and a free printable for you to use for your own personal mini album. I'm using this mini album to keep a record of the books I've read this year.
I know it doesn't look like much at the moment - I tend to finish covers last on any project. My book measures 5" x 7" and the pages are made up of printed cardstock (Neenah Solar White in 80 lb). The file for printing your own pages is attached at the end of the post. Now for some peeks at the inside ...
 These are the printed pages. I've just added a few new titles that I've read in the past couple of months. For me, I tend to read in spurts. No books for a month or two, but then I'll read four or five in a week or two. And since I read so many series, I find it a bit difficult to remember the details from the time one book is published until the next is released. Hence the idea for this album. I use the lined space on the pages to 1. give a short review, so I can figure out if reading a sequel is worth it, or if the book will garner a re-reading at some point and 2. give a short description of the book so I can skim back through my notes when the next book comes out.
 Here are all of my pages so far. As you can see, I've written up some of them, but skipped others. I try to sit down and write these soon after I finish a title, so I remember what happened. I need to go back soon and finish up the remaining ones so that the mini album will be up to date and I won't have to worry about forgetting something I wanted to include. I've handwritten these, as I tend to write faster than type, but you could definitely type these out as you go. I also want to point out that I do not write in the margin on the left-hand side of the cards. I score along the line there, creating a little hinge. This is where I will attach all my pages together at the end, and I don't want to punch through my writing. I will probably use small binder rings to bind this, so it will be easy to flip through.
 And what kind of mini album would this be without pictures? On the back of each review, I glue down a 4"x6" picture of the book cover. You can find these through a library's website (I use www.aclibrary.org) or you could just as easily take a photo of the book while you have it with you. I'll try to remember to share the finished mini at the end of the year. If you have any questions, feel free to post in the comments, or email me here.
...and as always, happy creating!
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Happy Friday, everyone! I'm excited that the weekend is finally here. Many of you that are not subscribed to our newsletters have asked, "Sarah, what's new?"
Well... in the past couple of weeks, we've received the following collections:
Little Yellow Bicycle: Splash
American Crafts: Shoreline; Crate Paper: Baby Boy Blue & Little Bo Peep; Pebbles: Sunnyside; Studio Calico: Hey Day Best Creations: Baby & Cowboy There's a handful of new goodies that we have recently received, but we're gonna suggest you come check it out for yourself!
Hope to see you all very soon.
...and as always, happy creating!
We've got details for our summer event this upcoming July. See our flyer below for more information: If you have any questions regarding the event, don't hesitate to contact us.
...and as always, happy creating!
 This is Mary, stopping in with a quick card share. Nothing super fancy, just a simple thank you card.
The background of the card is a piece of black cardstock (folded to 4.25"x5.5"), a piece of yellow polka dot paper cut to 4"x5.25", and a strip of paper from Studio Calico's Memoir collection. I also added in a tiny strip of black cardstock (just a scrap) to add in a pop of color. The "thank you" sentiment is from an Ali Edwards/Technique Tuesday stamp set (Loving Words) and the flower is a Hero Arts cling stamp (Stencil Flower).
 I used Copic Markers to colors in the flower (and I cut away the middle portion of the flower, discarding the outer layer of petals). I used the colors in the photo to the left. Base coat: E0000, then Y00 and Y02 for the flower petals in the center. The center of the flower was colored with YR02 and the outer rim of the petals was colored with Y06 for a bright edge. The flower is attached to the front of the card with foam dots. The inside of the card has a white insert for writing, and is left blank.
Hope you enjoyed this quick share!
...and as always, happy creating!
 Hello! It's Mary, here to share some peeks of my craft room. Most days it is quite messy, as I tend to pull out tons of products and papers whenever I'm in the midst of a project. I don't like starting new projects while my desk is messy, so I will go through and clean up after a major crafting session. My room is rather large, and I may be the only person to think this is less than ideal. I would have preferred a smaller room, so that my clutter would have been better contained, and I would have a set space for furniture.
 I use an old side table with fold out leaves as my craft table. I am planning to upgrade to a new table sometime this summer. I prefer kitchen tables that are open underneath, and typically wider then a desk. I have one shelf above my desk that holds most of my tiny embellishments: brads (organized in small jars by color), gelatos (housed in old crystal glasses), buttons (in a small dish and the rest in a large jar), washi tape and twine (in a fishbowl) and gemstones/candy dots stored in an old library desktop storage box (it used to hold date due slips and possibly a date stamp/ink pad).
 On my desk, I have a basket that holds my crop-o-dile, my October Afternoon sticker sheets (yes, I have many!) and any new products that I want to remember I have. Next to the basket are two smaller wooden crafts that I got at Michaels last fall. They are the perfect size for holding adhesives and stickers.These wooden crates are also the perfect size to hold cards that you've made, but haven't given away yet. I don't have a picture, but I have a large spinner off to the right on the top of my desk. It was meant for screws and nails, but I house my embossing powders, date stamp, spray mists, glitter, stickles, and other often used items here. My pens are stored in a small pail from the dollar store and my scissors, rulers and tools are stored in a desktop spinning organizer.
 Under my desk, I have three baskets (and my garbage can). One basket holds my tiny paper scraps, sorted into baggies by color and my journaling tags/die cuts, which are in two baggies of their own. Next, I have a wire basket that houses my smaller punches. My larger punches are stored in a dresser drawer (to the left of my desk). The dresser is rather large and I'm planning to get a bench with storage underneath to take the place of the dresser. The third basket holds my smaller clear and cling stamps. I didn't want them to get lost among the larger stamp sets, so these live in their own place. My sewing machine is also under the desk, which is pointless as I never pull it out. I'm planning to put it on top of the desk whenever I make the switch to a new table.
 Next to my desk, I have slowly collected these bins. They are also from Michaels (I believe they are the Recollections brand). I love that the open squares are the perfect size for my American Crafts albums, and I use the four-shelf boxes to hold paper. Patterned paper is divided by manufacturer (it's sort of sad that I remember paper by manufacturer, but I couldn't find anything when I sorted it by color). I have my cardstock divided into neutrals, warm tones and cool tones. I have to admit that I don't use many colored cardstocks beyond red and yellow (and maybe an occasional blue). I use mostly neutrals. I would not recommend the draw bins - I have the two, purchased at the same time. The size of the drawers is nice, but they are really difficult to open. The drawers just sit on top of one another - there are no sliders for them on the sides of the container. On the top: the left side holds my desk light and my Canon Selphy printer. I print at home infrequently, but on the occasions I need a 4x6 print, I will use this printer. So far, I have no complaints (except that the finished print is not quite 4x6). In the middle, I have three bins. One holds letter stickers, one holds extra adhesives and acrylic stamp blocks and one hold large scraps.
 If you turn to the right, I have four odd-shaped closet spaces in my room. Two are rather large, and two are much narrower.
I have two old bookcases from Target in one of the larger spaces. These hold my Distress Inks and foam applicators, my paints and painting supplies, extra towels, my smaller paper pads in bins, card supplies and envelopes, my stamps and my 8.5"x11" papers. On the bottom shelves (not pictured), I have many cases with photos. I store most of my smaller wood block stamps in open bins, and my clear/cling stamps are stored by manufacturer in a basket. For my Distress inks, I have a foam blending tool for each color since I use them a lot, and it's a pain to switch out the foam pieces every time I want to change colors. I bought one tool each time I made a trip to the scrapbook store, so it didn't cost a fortune up front.
 In the next "closet" space, I have a small bookcase from Target. I love this bookcase. It is the perfect size to hold my American Crafts albums along the bottom shelf - there are 9 albums now, but another one will fit. On the top shelf I have cloth bins from Target (I have these bins all over my craft room as they are easy to carry and hold a good amount of supply). These house my ribbon collection, which I store by color groups and I take off of the spools. On top of the bookcase I have an old jewelry spinner rack that holds my embroidery flosses. The picture here is crooked - I promise the board isn't really crooked in real life - that would drive me insane! Above the bookcase I have a cork board and on the right wall I have a cloth pin board with favorite photos and ideas.The two hanging strands of hearts I got from a shop on Etsy. They are made of old maps and sheet music and sewn together to create the hanging garlands.
That's about it in terms of my room. The computer and printer sit off to the left in the corner of the room. I don't use these as much in my scrapbooking, as I tend to hand write almost all of my journaling. I do use my Silhouette for some projects, but I'm still learning how to create my own files. Once that happens, I'll probably use it more often. If you have any questions about anything in my room, or how it's organized, feel free to leave a comment after the post and I will do my best to answer your question.
...and as always, happy creating!
We've randomly chosen a winner from the two entrants for last week's sketch challenge.
*drum roll please*
...and the winner is NOEY!
Noey, please contact or swing by the shop sometime this week to pick up your $10 gift card!
A big thank you to both of our entrants - we love how you both interpreted the sketch. We hope to see more participants in our future challenges. Look for another challenge coming in early June.
...and as always, happy creating!
Hope all of the mothers out there had a wonderful Mother's Day! Today, we have a new challenge for you, and this time it's a sketch challenge:Make a card or scrapbook layout (any size) using the sketch below as inspiration. Link your project in the comments for this post or email us a photo of your project to info@ourpaperplace.com to win a $10 gift card to the shop. Challenge starts today, and ends Sunday, May 20th at 11:59 pm.  Here's the sketch we're working with today. You can follow the sketch exactly, or you can take inspiration from some aspect(s) of it and use it more as a starting point for your layout or card.
 Here's my layout - I followed the sketch pretty closely in terms of layout. I used tags instead of one large piece of paper for the background element and I moved the title to cover part of the photo. I only had journaling on the bottom half of the page instead of spread across the top and bottom. I kept a small embellishment in the top right-hand corner, but added in more details with a stamp, brad, ink splatters and label sticker.
 Above is Jeanne's interpretation of the sketch. I love the simplicity to this layout. So simple, yet so fun.
 Last but not least, here is Sarah's layout based on the sketch. The washi tape on this layout looks like a wonderful touch.
For those that plan to participate, we hope you have fun with this challenge! We look forward to seeing all of your wonderful projects using this sketch. Remember to add in a link to your project photo in the comments section of this post or email a picture of your project to the shop directly for your chance to win a $10 gift card to Our Paper Place.
...and as always, happy creating!
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