New Release: Hypothesis

Do you have little scientists at your house? I know we do! Clark is always telling us one hypothesis or another! So here's a little kit to celebrate the questions and the search for answers! I present: Hypothesis!

Remember: New Releases are 20% through Sunday!



Check out this adorable card by Tamara! Isn't that the cutest?!

Check out what the rest of the CT did with the kit!

Happy Weekend and get some rest because next week is iNSD!!! Woo hoo!

Sneak Peek Time!

Here is a sneak peek of what's coming to Mary's store tomorrow at ScrapMatters!

Inspiration Wednesday: Kit Smorgasbord!

Happy Inspiration Wednesday, everyone! This is Nikki with a few ideas for one of my standby scrappy methods, the "kit smorgasbord." For as long as I've been a scrapbooker I have been a mix 'n' matcher... even as a paper scrapper I rarely scrapped a page using only a single, matching kit. Now that I'm a digi girl, I still love pulling bits and pieces from various kits to create pages and projects. This tendency (technique? habit?) has affected everything from the way I organize supplies to the way I build pages.

I know many scrappers tend to stick to a single kit to create a layout... and certainly storing supplies in kits may be a straightforward way to organize, but there are ways to "have your cake and eat it too"! Experiment with one or two kits at a time, and try the tagging options in your organizing software to see if it can work for you. I use iPhoto and have been thrilled to find that I can store my kits as kits in the main library, and also create a system of folders where at a glance I can see ALL my yellow ribbons, clock faces, torn edges, lined journaling spots, etc., etc., etc. (I've found this also helps me spend my digiscrapping dollars wisely, because I have a good idea of where my supply stash is a bit thin, and in which categories I have more than enough to choose from.)

I've also been thrilled to discover that the kits Mary creates for Plum Dumpling Designs' customers are infinitely mixable! I have especially loved combining Summer Storm with Black & Blue, Serendipity with I Scream, Family Fun with Indian Summer. Here are a few ideas for mixing and matching your favorite kits:

Use your software's brushes to give elements a more similar look. I used PSE's oil paint and watercolor brushes (using the eraser tool set at different opacities) on the sunshine from Indian Summer to make it resemble the "stamped" looking funky flowers from Family Fun. I also eraser-brushed over my font title and some word art to continue the "look."

(uses a Family Fun template)

Don't be afraid to recolor! Sometimes all it takes is a slight brightening or softening of colors to help an element or alpha blend with a kit that doesn't exactly match. There are many techniques for recoloring, and it may take experimenting with "fill layer" or hue/saturation, but it is worth the effort. I recolored the Spiromania elements to work with the Lob-Stah kit, along with the Basically Black alpha and elements from A Photo A Day:

(uses a Family Fun template)

Use the solid-colored papers from various kits to expand the color scheme of a layout. I used solids from Summer Storm and Black & Blue to create a monochromatic-ish layout that uses several different shades of blue, gray, and white. (This can work especially well on a layout with lots of photos, where you may not want tons of embellishment.) This also uses Basically Black and Tiny Vellum Dot alphas, and some stitches and date tag from A Photo A Day:

(uses a Paper Pieces template)

Have fun scrapping, and be sure to share your "smorgasbord" layouts in the PDD gallery at ScrapMatters!

New Release: I Scream & a Freebie!

How's the weather by you? We are experiencing spring in the worst Chicago way. We had snow this week...ahhh! I'm so excited to show you my new kit this week though. I'm looking forward to our summer tradition of Monday nights at Andy's Frozen Custard! This kit really got me in the mood!

Remember: New Releases are 20% through Sunday!



Here's Kent just attacking his cone. I think he liked it!



Check out how much the CT loves cool treats!

And finally, I've made my LO into a freebie quickpage for you too! It's actually based on one of my Group Therapy Templates. Enjoy!

Download here or click on the preview.



Happy Weekend and go grab your favorite frozen treat!!

Sneak Peek!

Here is a sweet sneak peek of what's coming tomorrow to Mary's store at ScrapMatters!

Where to Begin

Hello friends, this is Andi, one of Mary's newest CT members, with your Inspiration Wednesday. I thought it'd be fun to share where I begin and a little of my creative process when creating a layout. Lately I have been working on some heritage pages and Mary's kit "On the Front Porch" is perfect for these pages.

First, I always start with the pictures I'm going to work on, adjust the lighting, contrast, levels, etc. I usually change the heritage photos from sepia to black and white as I love the effects of b/w photos better, but it's totally your preference. Next if I'm using a template, I find the one I think will look best and open it up. I open up the Plum Dumplings kit "On the Front Porch" and include all of the papers and elements so I can choose from everything.

Next, I work with the papers, creating cropped papers if I need, paper frames, or circle shapes where I'd like to place them. Remember to always group things in odd numbers.

Finally, I always love to have layered clusters, such as greenery and flowers, or buttons and ribbons. And don't forget to add your shadows as it truly looks "scrapped" when shadows are included.

Here's an example of what I have created recently with "On the Front Porch". I hope this bit of inspiration and helpful hints have helped you to get your pictures scrapped. Have a wonderful week.

You can purchase "On the Front Porch" Here

Give Away Monday with Jennifer Draut

It's the official tax day here in the US and a Monday, double yuck! That means you deserve a FREEBIE! All yuck has been exterminated. I'm Jennifer Draut, a new member of the Plum Dumpling gang, I hope you enjoy my contribution. Don't forget to share your creations with us in the Plum Dumpling Designs gallery, we love to see what you create!

Plum's newest kit Rabbit Tales makes me think of all the bigger events that I am shying away from scrapbooking. It's so challenging to make a bunch of photos look good together even if they are of the same theme. My page ends up looking too busy or too cramped. So, I thought about what makes a good page when I see lots of photos on it and then made a template for you that will compliment a double page spread.

Here is my sample page using Rabbit Tales, available at ScrapMatters






How do you flip this baby to get the the right side you see above? Complete page one and save, open the template again and save as "file name Right." In Photoshop the path is: Image, Image Rotation, Flip Canvas Horizontal



Download the template here

A few tips:
- Don't use too many embellishments. Let you paper be the "wind beneath the wings" of the photos.
- Avoid having too many different shapes. Too busy pages confuses the eye and make it less pleasant to view. Give your eye a clear path to follow. In this case, your eye goes to the bright orange of my focus photo and then follows to the smaller photos around the edge.
- Be sure to make all of your photos face the center of your double page spread. Everybody on the left is facing to the right and vice versa. Our eyes naturally follow the same path of other people's gaze. If your photo is looking "in" then your viewers eye will too.
- Do something different to provide interest. Don't make all your shapes the same size. Add text in one of your shapes as I did. Repetition with a bit of variation is very important.

Have a great tax day - do something nice for yourself and scrapbook!

Last Week's Release! Spiromania

Hi all! Can you believe that I forgot to tell you about this awesome new release?! I can't! I'll blame it on being sick and then having to host a party at my house. My mind was spinning in circles much like these little spirals!! Presenting: Spiromania!

Special Alert: Spiromania will be 20% off April 15-17! Bonus! Just enter code: spiro_20off at checkout to receive your discount.

And I've created a little slide show of my CT LOs. They really had some FUN with these spirals!

Throwback to Yesterday

Mary's Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow kit is one that I just keep going back to.  Hope you get some inspiration from these layouts 

If you don't have this in your collection yet, snatch it quick.  It is one you will use over and over again!

Spring Cleaning!

Happy Wednesday all you blog readers! This is Dawn bringing you Inspiration Wednesday!

I don't know what it's like at your house, but around here, it means Spring Cleaning! Usually this is started by my husband, and usually it means the start of something BIG! His idea of Spring Cleaning usually involves us rearranging a room or 2! That was the case last year about this time! All 4 of our girls shared one big room upstairs. He decided we would move our room and the computer room upstairs, and split the girls into 2 bedrooms. That was a huge deal! We had to decide which girls would room together, what stuff would go in which room. It was a big mess, but once it was done, we were proud of what we'd accomplished! And our house looked great! Almost good enough to put it back on the market to try to sell. But alas, someone invited the messies to move in (I think it was my oldest), and that was the end of that!

Regardless of what Spring Cleaning means around your house, for digiscrappers, it affects you too! This is a great time to clean up your computer. Scan for viruses, remove cookies and unwanted/ unused files, unsubscribe from e-mails that are cluttering your inbox (but definately NOT ScrapMatters), burn disks and back up your digiscrapping supplies. I know I would be very upset if I lost my digiscrapping kits and goodies....but I would be devistated if I lost my photos. Photos of trips, 1sts, mementous occasions, weddings, births, graduations and more.

This year, make Spring Clenaing mean more than just clenaing out that junk drawer in the kitchen, make it applly to your absolute favorite hobby too! And once that computer is all cleaned up......make sure you go shopping at Mary's store at ScrapMatters.com to stock up on more essentials to build up your stash again!

Monday Giveaway - 4.11.11

Hello everyone,

Kayla aka keepscrappin here. I'm a newbie on the Dumpling Gang, so I've been scrappin' like crazy with all of the Plum Dumpling Designs kits. One of my favorite kits so far is the Serendipity kit and it's coordinating CT Call Freebie, so I decided to make up a Quick Page freebie for ya'll with them today.

Download from 4shared here.

I hope you enjoy the quick page, and remember to please share any layouts that you've made with Plum Dumpling Design products in the Plum Dumpling Designs gallery here at ScrapMatters. We love to see what you've done and want to leave you lots of love.

Well, that's all for today folks. Take care and as always keepscrappin'!

Hello everyone! Here's a little sneak peek of what's coming tomorrow. Have a wonderful day, :)

Inspiration: The Thorn in My Scrappin' Side

Megg here with this week's...

What is your favorite thing to scrap? For me, it's usually the obscure. Crazy, I know. But I would much rather sit down and scrap a day when we played together in the leaves, rather than say a normal holiday that should be scrapped as well. It's like pulling teeth to get me to do anything with Christmas Day. So bad in fact, that my children will probably wonder if we even celebrated it, seeing as they have a huge black hole every end of December in their books. In my defense, those pictures usually have bed head and very bad lighting, so not very flattering um, at all.

So, here's my challenge. Every month, do a page that you really don't want to. I have a list of pages that need to be done, and it's not til I cross one of those off that I allow myself to do the fun pages that I actually want to do...Here's an example. For my little guy, I made sure to do a Valentine's Day page (let's face it, I am not tackling Christmas, but it's still a holiday...)


And because I was good and did that page, then I got to do play with this cute little guy again here and scrap something that I don't want to ever forget...


And I even used the same combo of kits for both pages. Awesome, right? You can click both pictures above to get to Mary's store. Have a great week scrappin!

Give Away Monday April 4, 2011

It is time for another Give Away Monday.  It is a wonderful time of the year here in Oklahoma.  The flowers are blooming, the weather is warming up, and baby animals are everywhere.  I just love Spring.  It makes it hard to scrap because I want to be outside playing.  So as I started to make something for you guys today I wanted it to have a spring feel.  So here is what you get, a nice little frame from Rabbit Tales.

You can download it here

New CT & New Releases: Rabbit Tales, Basket Case Alpha and Blooming Spring!

Another week where there is just so much to show you! Sit back and enjoy!

First I'd like to present my new CT


Next up we have another new kit release! Easter is seriously such a turning point for me. I am really assured that spring is on its way...no unexpected snow storms, no below freezing temps. Just sun, grass, and spring. Ahhhh. I've created Rabbit Tales and Basket Case alpha to celebrate. The Alpha is free with purchase this week only (thru 4/7). It will automatically be included in your downloads. Or you can just pick it up separately too! 

Remember: New Releases are 20% through Sunday!

Rabbit Tales by Plum Dumpling Designs


or if you'd just like the alpha separately...
Basket Case Alpha by Plum Dumpling Designs


And one more thing before we get to the awesome inspiration from the CT! ScrapMatters is starting a fun, new promo called Mix a Kit! It's a Choose Your Own Adventure sort of kit building experience. I'm very excited and this is my first submission! These will be released the first Friday of each month, so stay tuned for more Mix a Kits!! Be sure to check out the other designers' goodness in the Mix a Kit category. All of the products coordinate with the same color palette!

Blooming Spring by Plum Dumpling Designs


And last but certainly not least...a little inspiration from the CT! Bask in th spring goodness here!



Happy Weekend!!