Wow!  It’s the end of August already.  Our Design Team Members who live in the U.S. have their children back in school and our Canadian and UK Design Team Members are enjoying the last bit of time with their children before they go back.

What a special time of year and what a fun month August was to reflect upon:

Beauty by Tya Smith 

Featured Collection: Stella & Rose – Mabel

My word for the month is Nature. This month my family had the opportunity to go to some of the most beautiful National Parks in the world, and they were right here in my own backyard! We went to Zion and Bryce Canyon National parks and spent the days hiking and splashing in the streams and just enjoying the beautiful scenery around us. I am always so moved at the beauty that Mother Nature gives us.

I used the Stella and Rose Mabel collection for my layout. The beautiful blues and rusty oranges were the perfect background for the scenery that we saw. The fun flowers on the edge were cut from my Silhouette machine and then I added some crimped circles and some Fine and Dandy buttons to top them off.

Beach by Anam Stubbington 

Featured Collection: Lime Twist 

This months word is “beach” as that is the standard answer my girls give to the question of “what shall we do today?” as in the new house we are only a 10 minute walk to the seafront.

I distressed the stickers by rubbing them with a wet q tip.

Supplies:

Papers are lime twist – Fly s Kite ‘wish’ - die cut paper in reverse, Happy go Lucky ‘Perfect’ – Lines reverse, Happy go Lucky ‘together’ – Dotty, Out of the blue “family”  - Speckle reverse.

Fine & Dandy – epoxy Brads

Lush – Chipboard Alpha

Extra – White pen, q tip

First Day of School by Jana Eubank 

Featured Collection: Lime Twist "Fly a Kite" collection

There is just something nostalgic about the the First Day of School. As a child, I always loved seeing my friends again and having a fresh start with a new class and new teachers. As I help my kids prepare for school each year, I can't help feeling like I need a new beginning, too. I get the desire to clean out the cupboards in my home, get my family ultra-organized, eat better, exercise more, and spend more quality time with the people that matter most to me. On this page, I decided to play up the nostalgic feeling by editing my photo with a worn vintage photo action in Photoshop. The Fly a Kite "Everyday" Alpha Paper is the star of this page and lets the reader know that this is a school-themed page. I used the back of a Life Stories Journaling Sheet as the base of my page. The Kraft color tones down the bright colors of the Lime Twist papers just a bit and compliments the vintage look of the photo.

Lovely by Suzanne Sergi 

Featured Collection: Lost & Found 2 – Blush

August was a whirlwind for my family. With a move thrown in the mix, our days seem to be shorter. However, we were blessed to have family in town for a week. It had been two years since we last saw them. It was so nice to simply spend quiet days together, and a few exciting outing for the kids. I love this photo of my daughter, and niece. It shows how much they have each changed in such a short time. However, with them around, it felt like "home." The Lost & Found Breeze Collection with a small mix of the Blush collection was the perfect combination to document this photo. Our outings may not have been complicated, but they were simply lovely days to enjoy together!

Hey everyone! It seems like forever since I have written a post for our blog and I gotta say... it feels GREAT to be back on here:)

This morning I am sharing 3 cards using the fabulous NEW Lost and Found 2 Collection. It's not secret that this is by far one of the most beautiful collections of papers and embellishments to hit the scrapbook scene in a long time... well, since the first Lost and Found Collection anyways! My favourite thing after playing with it this morning again... I am not covered in glitter! My Mind's Eye did a fabulous job changing the process of glitter application so it stays on the page... LOVE that! Not that I minded it before but if it could get any better... it did!

The first card I created to share with you today is a very simple one. Using assorted papers from the "SUNSHINE" Collection, a die cut, a layered sticker and 3 Decorative brads I was able to assemble this card in a matter of ten minutes.  This card is perfect to give to just about anyone in your life as a token of your appreciation for being able to spend every day with them.

The second card also features the "SUNSHINE" Collection. Again, I layered assorted papers, a die cut, layered sticker, layered chipboard and a decorative brad. I finished it off with a touch of Black LUSH ribbon and voila! Another card complete. Note how I layered a punched border along the right edge of the card to add a bit of visual interest.

Lastly, I created this final card using the "ROSY" Collection. For this card,  I used my craft knife to cut around the beautiful green glittered detailing on the edge of the paper and tucked in a couple of layered papers from this line. I mounted the die cut on a piece of paper and added a decorative brad before attaching it to the card base. I finished it off with a layered sticker and another decorative brad.

With so many beautiful papers and co-ordinating embellishments in the Lost and Found 2 Collection, it was easy to create a few lovely cards. Break out your stash and see what you can come up with this weekend. I am fairly certain you will find it as easy as I did to create a few for yourself to share with those near and dear to you!

Happy Scrapping!

Trisha

With two rugged and handsome young men in my house, there is not a lot of pink being used around here.  I’m not really a “pink” girl myself.  However, I’ve been dying to play with the new Lost & Found 2 – Blush collection.  Maybe it’s because the pink is darker or that spectacular splash of Kraft.  I don’t know.  Whatever it is, I’ve been searching for an excuse to design with it.

While trying to narrow down the project for this month’s Good Things Utah segment, I ran across the Princess Party cartridge from Provo Craft that I thought was so cute but, again, I haven’t had a chance to use it.

Then I thought about how amazing the glittered goodness would look for a Princess Party!  And how easy the embellishments would make personalizing the project.  And… voila!

Cute Décor: Vertical or horizontal crown banner

Party Hats:

Cake Décor or party hats:

and Party Favors:

All ready for that pretty princess in your life!  I have included a supply sheet with pictures included:   Download 2011_08_24_MME.  

We will add the video of the segment when it is ready this afternoon.

Thank you for sharing your talents with us!  What fantastic entries you have created!

We are thrilled to announce this month’s winners:

Layout Challenge Winner: Mary-Ann Maldonado

Layout Challenge Honorable Mention Winner: Lilith Eeckels

Card Challenge Winner: Vanessa Menhorn

Congratulations!  Please email amber@mymindseye.com with your shipping information and we will get your prize on the way to you soon!

We hope you will join us in September for Blog Challenge 27!

I love how individual each of us is.  You can be in a room with all your friends and all use the same products to create a project and they will each be different.  It’s fun to see how others use the same products.  Personally, I am lifted by that creative energy.

Our fabulous Guest Designer, Tya Smith and I tried the same thing.  We each started with the same three products:

1. Lost & Found 2 - Rosy "Ordinary" Adventure paper (can use front OR back)
2. Lost & Found 2 – Sunshine "Lovely" Stamps
3. Lost & Found 2 – Breeze "Precious" Trims

Then we mixed in other products and our creativity.  Here is what we came up with:

Tya Smith: Best Buds

Supplies used:

• Lost and Found 2 Rosy “Ordinary” paper
• Lost and Found 2 Sunshine “Lovely” stamps
• Lost and Found 2 Breeze “Precious” trims
• Lost and Found 2 Rosy “Love” layered chipboard stickers
• Lost and Found 2 Rosy “Ordinary” brads
• Lost and Found 2 Sunshine “Two of Us” Damask paper
• Lost and Found 2 Sunshine “Lovely” Plaid paper
• Lime Twist Fly a Kite “Genuine” Alphabet

Notice how I cut the pom-poms off the trim. They just didn’t fit with the masculine theme of the layout so I cut them off and then glued one pom-pom to the small bow on the bottom left hand corner.

The letters used on the title were made with my Silhouette. I’ve seen pre-made crimped lettering and decided to make my own. I pulled out the trusty old paper crimper and then inked the edges with white ink. I love the challenge of making things all my own to make them work for my projects!

Amber Packer: Ordinary Day

Featured Collection: Lost & Found 2 – Sunshine, Rosy and Breeze

This was so much fun to do, we’ll do this feature a little more regularly.  Want a way to “spice” up your next scrapbook night?  Give this a try and let us know what happens!

Have a great weekend!  Tya & Amber

As you may remember - I am a huge fan of 80's music. Thank you Sirius Radio! I listen to 80's music pretty much every single day. I like to have it on in the background while I clean, cook and scrap! So naturally I had to make some cards inspired by some of my favorite 80's tunes. Next time you are in a rut - use song lyrics or titles. If they are stuck in your head anyway- use them for inspiration!

Don’t You Forget About Me:

Card Size: 4 ½ x 6 ¼

Supplies:

• Grey, red, white and pink cardstock
• Lime Twist Out of the Blue “Boy” Spots
• Lime Twist Fly a Kite “Everday” Alpha
• Lime Twist Life of the Party “Love” Scallops
• Red Ribbon
• Gray Flowers by Kaiser Craft
• Red Bakers Twine
• Lime Twist Life of the Party “Sweet” Accessories sheet
• White bracket background and elephant shape cut from Silhouette
• Font: Delikatessen

True Colors :

Card size: 5X7

Supplies:

• White, light blue, dark brown, and Kraft cardstock
• Lime Twist Fly a Kite “Spring” zag paper
• Lime Twist Happy Go Lucky “Hello” bubble Paper
• Stella and Rose Gertie “Delightful” Sweet Stripe
• Hip Hooray – Hip Hooray “Boy” Charming Paper
• Colored Buttons
• Twine
• Rainbow and Clouds cut from Silhouette
• Background Ticket shape Silhouette
• Font: Courier New and Amelie

Melt with You:

Card size:6 x 5 ¾

Supplies:

• Kraft, red , white , dark brown and teal cardstock
• Lost and Found 2 Breeze “Precious” motif paper
• Tan and brown ribbon
• Red heart button
• Border punch EK Success
• Cream twine
• World shape cut from Silhouette
• Font: SNF Lollihop

Tya Smith

Happy Tuesday! 

I fell in love with the Lost & Found Collection during the first release. I love the full range of papers, embellishments, trims, buttons, and stamps! This collection has it all, and the possibilities of projects is endless! This summer My Mind's Eye introduced the Lost & Found Two collection, and this one is just as gorgeous! My favorite products are perhaps the brads. They deliver a full assortment to mix, and match!

I was lucky to receive the Sunshine Collection, and with summer drawing to a close, it is the perfect palette to document any sunny day!  I designed this page using my favorite paper from the collection. I have a love for simple white doilies, and the background on this paper is perfect for a girl page! 

Memories of You
 

Created with the Sunshine Sunshine Collection

I love these sweet photos of my little girl. She was invited to a Fancy Nancy Party, so I of course, took this opportunity to snap a few photos. The soft layers, and textures of this collection were the perfect backdrop for the photos.

Who does not love the pre printed titles that come with each paper collection? I love that I can always find the perfect sentiment to title my page. I love to use the pre made chipboard embellishments. Sometimes, I love to create my own or making slight adjustments. In this photo, the "so blessed to have you in my life" was actually backed on another yellow chipboard strip. However, I chose not to use it as produced and removed the yellow backing. This sentiment completed my journaling. 

I am always drawing inspiration from the My Mind's Eye embellishments. Here I layered two large scallop circles with pop dots to add extra dimension. I drew this idea from one of the lovely layered stickers packages.

This collection is so versatile, and it is perfect for the "boy", too! You may have caught a glimpse of this page during MME Birthday Blog hop. This page was created for CHA, and I love how this page has a vintage feel!

 Forever

Sunshine Lovely Collection

Finally, I created a simple card using some of my leftover scraps of paper goodness and the 6x6 paper pad!

I used the leftover pattern paper that had the phrase "wherever you are" to complete my card sentiment. Finshed the sentiment with the layered sticker phrase, "It's a Beautiful Day." A simple white doily and white ribbon finished my card beautifully.

I hope you enjoyed my Lost & Found Two projects, and I cannot wait to create with the other paper assortments!

Have a lovely afternoon! 

This month’s “Eye” Catching Find was created by the talented, Laura Vegas!  We love the way Laura methodically layered and pieced her elements to create her masterpiece.

Laura created this layout to spotlight two special visitors of hers.  What a fabulous way to document their visit.  Thank you, Laura for creating such a beautiful layout using our products.

I fell in love with the American Made release - the vintage styling and distressed colors just made me smile.

I could see myself using it for several photos but like everyone else who loves My Minds Eye products but who doesn't live in the USA or visit often, I found myself using the imagery for completely difference reasons.That's one of the reason I love using My Minds Eye products - the versatility of every release!

I added some Lost & Found Brads, Lime Twist Alphas along with some Lush Alphabets and buttons to the papers to make the following layouts. 

The 14th of August is our relationship date - we'd been friends for 6 months previously and we'll be together 13 years this weekend. I used the die cut telegraph shapes as we had a long distance relationship - different countries - for several months so we wrote a lot of letters. 

This is Fay last year right after her ear operation for grommets (tubes) in both ears.  Besides improving her hearing, Fay's speech and balance improved immensely so we're very proud of Fay as she did so well.

I love RocketDog Shoes - cute and comfortable!!

I was blessed to get the chance to go to CHA last winter in LA and I stayed in Little Tokyo where my friends introduced me to the wonders of Yogurtland - yumminess!!

My girls are awesome to me, to each other they are like cats and dogs but some times they behave like angels. We have a running joke in the house that those 5 minutes are "The United States of Sisterhood" so I was delight to see I could use that die cut!

I struggle with "white space" layouts but this one worked out so well. This die cut worked so well because Lily was born in July and the pinwheel covers up the '4th' perfectly.

I hope you feel inspired to use the papers for layouts that are not necessarily Americana themed. 

Have a wonderful weekend.

The challenge: Design a layout based on this fabulous sketch and use “Anything Goes” as your theme (by Anam Stubbington). That means the theme is your choice!

The rules: Use ANY My Mind’s Eye products (current or past) as long as your project has at least 80% My Mind’s Eye products.

The deadline: Add a link to your project to the bottom of this post using inlinkz by Sunday, August 21, 2011 (midnight, MST). Please include your first and last name and project name when uploading. (a photo of your layout or project will show directly in the post)

(For tips on how to best photograph your entry, click here)

The PRIZE: The winner will receive three ENTIRE collections of their choice! We will also award an honorable mention winner with one collection of their choice! All winners will be featured in a blog post and have bragging rights!

Our Design Team has already had fun with this challenge – what will you create?

Tya Smith: Love

Featured Collection: Lost & Found 2 

Anam Stubbington: Fancy That and Birthday Memories

Featured Collection: Lime Twist

Suzanne Sergi: Merry Christmas

Upload your entry here:

Blog Challenge #26 – really!?  Where has the time gone.  We are so thrilled to have you create along with us each month!

The challenge: Design a card based on this fabulous sketch and use “Anything Goes” as your theme (by Anam Stubbington).  That means the theme is your choice!

The rules: Use ANY My Mind’s Eye products (current or past) as long as your project has at least 80% My Mind’s Eye products.

The deadline: Add a link to your project to the bottom of this post using inlinkz by Sunday, August 21, 2011 (midnight, MST).  Please include your first and last name and project name when uploading.  (a photo of your layout or project will show directly in the post)

(For tips on how to best photograph your entry, click here)

The PRIZE: The winner will receive three ENTIRE collections of their choice!  We will also award an honorable mention winner with one collection of their choice!  All winners will be featured in a blog post and have bragging rights!

Our Design Team has already had fun with this challenge – what will you create?

Tya Smith: “Fun” card

Featured Collection: Hip-Hooray!

Anam Stubbington: Fancy That and Birthday Memories

Featured Collection: Stella & Rose 

Upload your entry here:

Have you ever had one of those dreams – no not the one where you go to school and you don’t seem to have any clothes on – no – one of the really good dreams. Well, there was a time when I truly had a dream that I was on the My Mind’s Eye Design Team and it was so exciting, so imagine my surprise when I was contacted to be the guest designer for the month of August! Needless to say – I had to oblige! I am so happy to be here with you all this month. Scrapbooking is somewhat of an addiction of mine and My Mind’s Eye is most definitely my drug of choice.

First off a little history. I have always been artistic. I remember wanting to be an artist when I was in Kindergarten. My sweet mom is one of the most creative people I know and she taught me it was good to be creative and she was always doing some sort of project here and there so I guess I inherited that from her. (Thanks Mom!) I have been scrapbooking for about 13 years. Think back to the good old days of deckle edges scissors and cutting our photos into awesome shapes like balloons and hearts. Ya – that’s when I was introduced to scrapbooking. I started shortly after my oldest daughter was born and I haven’t stopped since (although I have hung up my photo stencils.)

I was fortunate enough to be able to start teaching at my local scrapbook store about a year after that and they haven’t been able to get rid of me yet. If you are ever in the Salt Lake area, come by Heartland Paper Company and say Hi. My first love has always been teaching scrapbooking and paper crafting. I have taught it all from beginning scrapbooking to more advanced techniques. Recently I was named the design team coordinator for Heartland Paper and have loved that angle of this hobby as well. I get so much inspiration from those around me, and because everyone has there own style, I always learn new techniques from them. I have just recently started blogging and am in the process of adding more to that everyday. So it may be a little sparse now, but stay tuned! I tend to keep my designs very simple and clean. I love using sketches when I scrapbook and I really love grid type of layouts also. I am dabbling in card making and altered items but I mainly do layouts.

I live in Syracuse, Utah with my amazing husband Brad. He has always been very supportive of my hobby and I am lucky that he puts up with all the messes that I make around the house when I am in “create mode”. I have 3 super fun kiddos, Ashlyn who is 14, Ethan who is 11 and Madalyn who is 9. They keep me hopping between sports and gymnastics and choir lessons and plays. They are troopers who put up with my “mamaratzzi” phases. We also have a whole bunch of furry friends: 2 horses, 2 cockatiels, a fat old kitty cat and a lovable yellow lab named Boomer. They make me crazy, but I couldn’t live with out them.

Here are just a few fun facts about me:

• I LOOOOVE my Silhouette cutting machine.
• I have recently discovered the marvel that is Pinterest. (Follow me!) I am such a visual person, this was a GENIUS idea for people like me!
• I am a huge Harry Potter fan – or a “Potterhead”. Yes, I am sad it’s over and no I do not want to talk about it. I am such a big a fan, my cute husband even got me my very own vanity license plate – so if you see a ocean blue mini van cruising around Salt Lake with the license plate “MUGLMOM” honk and say Hi.

• I love to travel and have become addicted to cruises. We have taken a cruise every year since 2007.  My dream cruise would be the Mediterranean.
• I listen to 80’s music everyday. It makes me smile and if I break into a little Roger Rabbit while I am cleaning all the better.
• I love to cook. I went to culinary school for 2 years before I settled down and got married. They only course I didn’t finish was my baking classes, so I am not a very good baker. Luckily my husband makes a mean chocolate chip cookie so the baking apron was handed to him.
• I don’t really take myself too seriously. Life is too short to stress about minor details. I guess I am a hopeless optimist and just look for the best in everyone and everything I encounter. Hopefully this will keep me young and happy and maybe get me into Heaven.

That’s about it. Thanks again for letting me stay and play this month. It’s gonna be fun!

Tya Smith

Wow!  Our birthday blog hop has been an overwhelming success!  We are pleased to announce our two winners.

Grand prize winner is:

Melissa Thao

Melissa’s email was sent on Friday, Jul 22, 2011 at 12:01 pm

Hi Amber-
Thanks for the blog hop, it was full of inspiration and eye candy! Can't wait to get my hands on them, either by winning them all or purchasing them!
1-dream
2-cake
3-you
4-surprise
5-celebrate
6-celebration
7-lovely
Thank you!
-Melinda Thao

Our bonus winner’s comment is from Tamara’s blog:

Jamie Hensley

What a beautiful classic Christmas layout! Love the papers!  JamieH

Saturday, July 23, 2011 11:40 AM

Melissa and Jamie, will you please email your mailing information to amber@mymindseye.com?

Thank you to everyone who participated in our 2nd Birthday Blog Hop!  We are looking forward to celebrating our 3rd Blog Birthday with you next year.  We are grateful for your support of our blog and company.

My Mind’s Eye