A New Spin on Spring Cleaning:
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Not just the kind of spring cleaning we're used to.. .
Spring Gift Boxes Adorable hybrid boxes for gift giving
April's Inspiration Spring & Renewal gallery picks to inspire seasonal layouts.
Issue 10: April 2010
OWNERS Traci Murphy Gina Miller EDITORIAL Managing Editors Traci Murphy Gina Miller Editor Joy Kuoha DESIGN Joy Kuoha STAFF WRITERS Gina Miller Traci Murphy Joy Kuoha GUEST WRITERS Danielle Donaldson Vivienne Oestergaard ADVERTISING Julie Barrilball
4 INTERVIEW WITH FEATURED dESIGNER Melissa of Melissa Bennett Designs By Traci Murphy 7 exclusive free download Get your “Blossom” Kit For Flourish Subscribers Only 9 A NEW SPIN ON SPRING CLEANING By Danielle Donaldson Are you ready for spring? 12 SPRING GIFT BOXES By Vivienne Oestergaard 16 Gallery Picks April’s Inspiration: Springtime Renewal
cover layout:
Hop Into The Spring by Tinci
Credits: -Mystique Designs and Marypop Desings - “Hop into the spring”
We welcome your feature-worthy layouts and ideas for articles. Please send your submissions and suggestions to: flourish.msa@gmail.com If you would like assistance with your subscription to Flourish, please email to: flourish.msa@gmail.com Advertising Inquiries can be sent: flourish.msa@gmail.com
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What about scrapbooking interests you? We are excited to announce the “Help me Flourish� column: an opportunity for us as a newsletter to hear from all of you. Let us know what you want to read more about by sending us your interests and ideas for future articles and features. Email us at helpmeflourish@gmail.com. Selected interests and ideas will be featured in future issues. We are looking forward to hearing from you all!
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Melissa of Melissa Bennett Designs: Designer at Sweet Shoppe Designs & Melissa Bennett Designs By Traci Murphy
Melissa has a beautiful style that is easy on the eyes. She has a talent for color combinations and fun elements. We wanted to get to know her better and find out what makes her shine.....
Q. If you were an animal, what kind of animal would you be? A. Boy this is a tough question. I guess I would have to say a monkey. I’m kinda spazzy, I like to have fun and I can be a tad bit goofy. Q. What is your favorite color? A. I love all colors and love putting together color schemes, but I always seem to be more drawn towards green shades, so I think green would probably be my most favorite color. Q> What is your favorite drink? A. Anyone who knows me, knows without a doubt it is Diet Pepsi. I have a serious habit and I am afraid there is not help for me. LOL!!
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Featured Designer
Find Melissa . . . Sweet Shoppe Designs MelissaBennettDesigns.com Design blog Newsletter Facebook
Q. What is the last book you read? A. Well it has been awhile since I have sat down and read a book but it was The Host by Stephanie Meyer Q. If you could have dinner with one person, famous or not, living or dead, real or fictional, with whom would it be? A. Edward Cullen, need I say more? *sigh* Q. What did you want to be when you were little? A. I wanted to be a nurse and even pursued the medical field when I joined the military, but soon learned I could not stand the sight of blood and figured out fast that I needed to change career paths. Q. Is there anything else you’d like to tell us about yourself? A. I am 42 years old and have been married to my wonderful Air Force hubby for 18 years now. I have 3 beautiful children that I was blessed to be able to adopt after struggling with infertility for many years. I currently live near Charleston, South Carolina and love living in the south!! I started designing 3 1/2 years ago shortly after I tried digital scrapbooking. I love the creative outlet!!
Featured Designer (continued)
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Q. And the basic, how did you get into digital scrapbooking and designing? A. My SIL is into digital scrapbooking and kept telling me all of the fun things she was doing with it. I had been a paper scrapper for 11 years and swore I would never go digital. One day I decided to sit down and try to do a page digitally and I was instantly hooked. I love that you can create a page so easily with such beautiful detal on the computer and if you make a mistake you can fix it so easily.
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Featured Designer (continued)
Just for the valued subscribers of
We want to express our appreciation to Melissa of Melissa Bennett Designs for sharing this beautiful kit, “Blossom!”
Click below to download
“Blossom” Elements Papers Alpha
Featured Designer (continued)
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Featured Designer (continued)
A New Spin on Spring Cleaning by danielle donaldson
BEFORE: An uninspiring space in the kitchen...
It’s time to put a new spin on this whole “Spring Cleaning” thing. (And not the kind that is on the dial of your trusty washing machine.) Let’s pull out the emotional shop-vac, plug ‘er in and suck up some of those dreadful feelings we all have about reorganizing our living space right along with the dust bunnies that have been hanging out under your couch since last Easter. Are you ready to put on those ugly yellow gloves and discover something new? Great, because I think that the following ideas will help you tackle a mental, physical and creative mess all at once. Spring Cleaning of the Mind:
AFTER: Clean, uncluttered, and peaceful
Take a moment to identify an area of your house that you cringe every time you pass it. Got it? Good. Write it down. Now ask yourself, “Why is it important that I clean this area?” 1. Identify an area to be cleaned. (This will probably come to mind quickly and involve one of the following words: slob, disaster, energy-suck, or even embarrassment.) 2. Ask yourself why it’s important. 3. The answer will probably be general - now ask yourself again(keeping that answer in mind) why is “answer #2” important 4. Now ask, why is #3 important? 5. Now ask, why is #4 important?
AFTER: Organization rules!
Each time you ask “why” you should get to the root of the My Scrapbook Art Page 9
problem and end up with a true motivating statement on why you should tackle the big task. Once you have that you’ll not only be more motivated but you will also have a reward of a clean space at the end.
Supply List: Background Paper from Playful, by Nancie Rowe Janitz @ ScrapArtist, Gnome from Gnifty Gnomes, by Wish Bliss Studio @ ScrapArtist, flower and bullets from Bliss Bits: Happy, Lucky and Perfect, by Wish Bliss Studio @ ScrapArtist
Spring Cleaning of the Heart:
Supply List: Elinor, by Aja Abney @ ScrapArtist, Templates Bundle #1, by BioGraffitti @ ScrapArtist
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Create a heartfelt mantra to help you stay the cleaning course. Take a few minutes to clear your mind of the negative impulses that keep you from completing a task by writing down why a clean space help you to be a better person (to yourself AND those you love). Once you are happy with your mantra, tackle your space with energy and enthusiasm. And,
if your mental or physical stamina wanes, revisit your mantra and try again. And last, peel those yucky gloves off, grab a tall glass of iced tea and enjoy the fresh vibrancy of life and energy the Spring always seems to bring in your sparkly, clean and happy place.
Extra cleansing love for you to try out or share: • Spring clean your art by throwing on the color. –Aja
Abney, ScrapArtist • Clean out your heart by forgiving. Kolleen Harrison,
heartwing sisters
• Spring clean negative energy by skipping down the
street. – Elizabeth Halt, Retinal Perspectives • Get rid of the cob webs and replace them with a sweet breeze of affirmation, Marilyn Brown, friend • What can you add to the list?
Danielle Donaldson has worked in the digital and paper scrapbooking world for more years than she can count. In 2005, she was named a Hall of Fame scrapbook artist by Creating Keepsakes magazine. this honor opened up some great creative doors for her including publishing and design opportunities. She has created paper products for Deluxe Designs, Memories Complete and Frances Meyer and has been published frequently in Creating Keepsakes magazine. She was also a featured artist in two publications: Elsie Flanagan’s 52 Scrapbooking Challenges and Brenda Arnall’s Easy Patterns for Scrapbooking. For the last two years, Danielle has focused her deign efforts in the digital scrapbook world. She has recently opened Wish Bliss Studio at ScrapArtist and Etsy. Both feature her unique illustrations and fine art.
Wish Bliss Studio at ScrapArtist Wish Bliss Studio at Etsy Scrappybetties Blog Supply List: Spot background border from Seeing Spots, by Wish Bliss Studio (release date April 6), Paper, flower and frame from the Homey Kit by Dianne Rigdon (release date April 6)
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Spring Gift Boxes By Vivienne Oestergaard Spring finally arrived in my corner of the world and what a better time than now to create some gift boxes to have ready for any occasion coming up! My first box was created using Kelleigh Ratzlaff’s Hexagon Box Template available at the DigiChick. I used the large template. You can use her patterns in any program since it comes with png files. In my case, I use Photoshop so I opened up the psd template. I also used ViVa Artistry’s Eclectic Primavera kit.
Viva Artistry’s Eclectic Primavera
I wanted the stripes to go vertically on the box bottom, so I “cut” a piece to fit across the bottom of the box. I duplicated it three
times and rotated it so that each piece is positioned vertically on each side and then clip each piece to the template. Then I “cut” a piece of floral paper and clipped it to the box top. Kelleigh’s templates have score lines marked on them. Go onto that layer and slide the opacity and fill to 50% each. The lines will almost disappear so it doesn’t show up on the printed piece. Save as a jpg and print onto matte photo paper (it’s thicker than normal copy paper). If you wish to have a sturdier box, print on normal copy paper and glue it to cardboard. Cut the box out. Score the fold lines by using a knife and ruler. I don’t put a lot of pressure on the knife as I’m only scoring the paper to help it when I’m folding. It should just be a slight score. Use your preferred adhesive to form the box. If necessary, paperclip the glued areas so it will stay together. You can remove the paperclips later when the glue is dry. For the flower, I used three different papers, a cardstock in plain lilac, and 2 mulberry papers in lilac and white. Cut a 5 cm (2 inches) circle of the cardstock and then smaller circles of the mulberry papers. Crinkle up the circles and stack them. Insert a brad thru all three and form a flower. Apply some glue in the center and sprinkle with glitter!
Madame Wing’s Paulino Page 12 My Scrapbook Art
cut and fold lines on the white part of your paper. Cut the box top, cut and score the fold lines. Again, apply adhesive and glue to the inside of the box. Tags are easy to create. Take the brown scalloped frame in the kit, change the brown color to blue (select color, control U, check colorize box). Add in flower to decorate. Print the tag, cut, and hole-punch (I use Creative Memories rectangle hole punch) for the ribbon. Prima flowers are great to decorate the top of the box. I used 2 flowers from Essentials 4
For the second box, I used the free ScrapArtist’s Hybrid Treatbox. I also used Madame Wing’s Paulino kit, also available at the DigiChicks. Open the file for the inside of the treatbox. Clip the yellow paper from the Paulino kit to the template. To decorate the box, use the music notes element, reduce 50% and duplicate it 4 times for each box side, and clip. Save and print. Cut the box, and score along the tabs and also bottom of the box and fold. Use an adhesive on the tabs and stick it to the inside of the box. Again, if you want a sturdier box, use heavier cardstock as the base. For the top, open the png file and clip green paper onto it. After printing, mark
and inserted an eyelet thru both. Wrap the ribbon around the box, insert tag and flowers (thru the eyelet) and tie a bow! My third box uses Kelleigh’s Silhouette Box Template. I love her templates as they are very easy to use. I used Heather T’s Happy Go Lucky paper pack. I did almost the same thing as the first box. I “cut” a piece of the selected paper,
Heather T’s Happy-Go-Lucky My Scrapbook Art Page 13
and clipped it to the box bottom. You can turn off all the other layers. On the fold lines layer, slide the opacity and fill to 50% so that the lines are not obvious. Save as jpg and print out, cut, fold, and glue! bow and topped it off with a glass pebble.
I made a fluffy
All three boxes were simple and easy using things you have already in your home. Be creative with the toppers. Either use pieces in the digital kits or create a flower using bits of paper you may already have! Not only will you have great looking gift boxes, you’ll be recycling too!
Vivienne is 1/2 of the ViVa Artistry team alongside Vanessa selling at the DigiChicks. She is an ex-pat American living in Denmark at the moment with DH and 2 girls (ages 14 and 10), missing her Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and trying to learn Danish so she can communicate with the Vikings Visit Vivie’s blog at vivaartistry.blogspot.com Page 14 My Scrapbook Art
Inspiration:
Springtime Renewal
Click on graphics for credit info. Featured Layouts found in the My Scrapbook Art Gallery.
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