I know it’s the lazy, hazy days of summer for some of you, but here in southeastern Tennessee it’s back to school time! The kids have been in school two weeks now, and we’re settling into our regular routine of sunrise drop-offs, music lessons, club meetings and general mom-taxi time.

We’ve had a busy summer – I put on two art camps for the museum where I work, Stan got promoted to Director of Marketing at the pro photo lab where he works, and the kids did a thousand things, most of them involving sleeping or playing video games!

The other thing we did this summer is travel to New York to help both of our mothers move to the next stage in their lives. My mother has Alzheimers and needed to move to an apartment with assistance. Stan’s mother is widowed and is looking to downsize her life. So it was a bittersweet trip, filled with poring over family photos, deciding what to preserve and what to share with other family members, and tons of childhood memories as we prepared for the end of our ‘homes’ as we knew them.

We came home with a treasure trove of things which we will share as we work thorough them. There are bound to be lessons in preservation, restoration and more that we’ll share with you. I used one of the photos of my mother in high school for my tips at Scrapper’s Guide this week, take a look. Elements Tip/ Photoshop Tip. If you don’t get the Scrapper’s Guide newsletter to see the great weekly tips, you can sign up on the homepage (scroll down on the right).

Meanwhile, we’ve recorded a few video tutorials you might enjoy. You can access them from the Tutorials menu in the navigation bar at the top of the page, or find our channel on YouTube.

Hope you’re enjoying the last few days of your summer vacation, or if not, hope you’re adjusting to your new schedules!

Jenn

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Our friends at Persnickety Prints have gone above and beyond to keep you folks who don’t want to watch football tomorrow busy – they’re having a print sale!

GREAT prices on prints, AND free shipping – so get busy and finish up all those layouts you have lying around! Then spend Sunday evening making up some new ones!

And for those of you who, like me, will be spending Sunday evening eating “game food” and shouting at the TV, here’s a little mini-kit to scrap your game-day photos! (Click here or on image to download)

So, GET SCRAPPING!! You have prints to order!

Jenn

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Can you believe tomorrow is December 1?  Me either!

But it is, and the holiday season is rushing ahead regardless, so we might as well get on board!

We’re bringing back our popular 25 Days of Christmas feature again this year, and we’ve rounded up all kinds of new goodies!  We’ll have some great scrap gifts, as well as craft ideas, shopping links, recipes and other  suggestions to make your holidays merry and bright!

Be sure to share this with your friends, so you don’t miss a single tip, tot, or jot! Take a look at last year’s posts to get a head start!

Jingle on…
Jenn

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Plans are proceeding apace for the holiday season at the White house…

• Space cleared in the Living Room for the tree
• weekly purchases have been made toward the ‘baking supply stash’
• a few key gifts have been ordered online
• I’m carrying crochet projects with me to try to get something handmade done for gifts!
• I’m researching options for outdoor décor since some vandals stole our light-up deer and wrecked our lighted trees last year.

But most importantly, I’m gathering a whole new set of ideas for our annual 25 Days of Christmas posts!  (Take a look at last year’s posts if you missed it).

I’ve got some fun new things to share with you… but first I want to hear what you have to share!  Link me to what’s on your wish list, send me your favorite recipe, share a layout with your holiday traditions, or share something you’ve always wanted to do during the holidays! Maybe your favorite will be one of our 25 Days of Christmas this year!  Don’t celebrate Christmas?  Never fear, share one of the ways you celebrate whatever holiday you honor.  We can all learn from each other’s traditions!

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We are SO excited to be participating in this year’s Scrappers Give Thanks project, and we want you to join us!

Last year we all made cards for Operation Write Home, and the project was a big success.  Scrappers both paper and digi are most generous people, and we were able to send over 650 cards to service people so they could use them to write their loved ones.

THE PROJECT

This year, we’re focused on kids.  You get to make a 4×6 page to cheer up a sick kid in a Children’s Hospital.  These will be collected into books with 4×6 page protectors and binder rings, and distributed to 10 Children’s Hospitals around the country!

Here are the instructions:

• create a 4×6 page 1200×1800 pixels

INSPIRATION

Take a look at the submissions already in the Flickr group and upload your work there for everyone to see.  (Uploading to the Flickr group does not submit your page for the books, see below to submit).

Try these ideas:

• Jokes!

• Quotes

GET STARTED

We want to help you get started, so ScrappersWorkshop is providing 2 FREE kits for project participants! You have permission to DL these kits and use them for your personal use, as well as for SGT project pages.  Feel free to print extras of your own pages for holiday gifts for youngsters in your life!

Changes & Challenges

This kit was a request from a newly disabled customer, and it quickly turned into one of my favorites! Even without all the medical gear elements, the bright, fun colors make this a very useful kit!

I’m giving you the kit AND the addon, so you’ll have everything you need to make some cute pages.

Download1
Download2
Download3

and in case that kit isn’t your cup of tea, I’m throwing in a second kit with a boyish look:
Rugged Man

Download1
Download2

SUBMIT YOUR WORK

You can find all the details here, but here’s the basics:

Digital Submission – email your high-resolution jpeg file as an attachment to Jennifer Wilson at jennifer@scrappersgivethanks.org

Paper Submissions – mail to:
Scrappers Give Thanks
c/o Jennifer Wilson
718 W. Maple
Champiagn, IL 61820

Everything must be received by Wednesday November 24th.

There will be prizes and giveaways for everyone who participate!

So… who’s with us?  We can’t wait to see how creative you can be!

Happy Scrapping!
Jenn

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