Do you ever see a technique on a layout you just love? We had lots of people comment on just how much they loved designer, Erin Yamabe's rainbow of ribbon on her layout created with our Enchanted collection. This beautiful project was created for our booth at the summer CHA trade show. Here's a closer look and some tips from Erin today.

Designers tip: Focusing on the gorgeous papers and the new rolly diecuts, I created a template for a partial rainbow, traced, and cut out different papers to add to the background.  Adding those new flowers I think really makes them pop.  I added just a bit of stitching and sewing to showcase the papers even more.

Erin also created a beautiful altered birdcage with Enchanted Garden you can see here.

We just realized that we forgot to announce our Freebie Friday winner! Let's all congratulate...

Have a great day!

That's right, we're giving you a bit more time to create your entry for this fun contest! Here's all the info:

Your next My Little Shoebox layout could be our AD in one of Northridge Media’s Magazine!

We love seeing what our fans create with My Little Shoebox products so we have a fun challenge with a fabulous prize for you all!

1. Simply create a 12X12 layout using 1 5x7 photo and  90 % of any of the My Little Shoebox Summer 2011 collections.
2. Please choose a great photo that you have personally taken and scrapbook your memory including  journaling and email your creation to us at dt@mylittleshoebox.com no later than midnight pacific time on September 10th!
   

Your layout must be your original design and never published anywhere online including your blog, online galleries and message boards.

We will look over all the entries and choose one layout to be featured as our AD in a an upcoming issue of Scrapbook Trends, Cards or Create Magazine from Northridge Media.

There is no cash compensation for this layout. Winner must be willing to sign a release to allow MLS exclusive rights to publish the winner’s layout for the sole purpose of advertisement of My Little Shoebox products in an upcoming issue of Northridge Media’s publications. Winner must ship their layout and signed release within 7 days of notification.

Good Luck!!

Hello MLS fans! We hope you all had a fantastic weekend! We are so thankful that many of our friends on the East Coast came through Irene all OK but sad that some states have severe damage due to the rains. We know lots of prayers were said and friends and neighbors were coming together to help one another through this very scarey weather. We know that those affected by the damage of Irene will rebuild and prevail. The human spirit is amazing and it's in our darkest hours that we shine the brightest.

It's time for a new week of inspiration from our Design Team so let's kick it off with some cards!

 Melinda Spinks

Daughters card with Sew Cute collection

Love Melinda's use of the negative images on her card. Melinda's work always delights us!

Becky Willliams

"Let's Hang Out" card mixes City By The Bay and Summer Breeze. 

Designer's Tip: This fun line offers simple ways of creating a little pinwheel as the focus, set against our pretty B sides.  

Rocio Duran

Happy Birthday card with our Enchanted Garden collection

These ladies gave us some beautiful card inspiration today! We hope you'll be inspired to create a card for someone you know who was affected by hurricane Irene in anyway. It's the smallest kindnesses that mean the most!

Have a great day!

 Hello MLS fans! Hooray for Friday!! It's been a busy week and we can hardly believe it's Friday! On our Facebook page we asked our fans what their weekend plans were and many of you told us scrapbooking, crops and meet ups to scrap with a friend. We'd love to see what you are creating with MLS so share your work with us on our Facebook page. Today we're sharing some projects from designers Beckie and Zoe and offering up your chance at some free product!

Helping at Imkerhof Cafe by Beckie Dreyer   

I loooove all this pink! I never thought to mix up Garden Party and Farmer's Market. It's a great combination and makes for a really fun layout!

Sew Cute by Zoe Nemburt                     

Love that silly mustache!

Designer's Tip: Don't be afraid to add a little splatter of paint to add dimension and interest to your layouts.

We spotted some fun projects on our Facebook page this week. Thanks to everyone who shared their work with us. We thought this layout using papers from our Holly Jolly collections from Barbara McEneaney Mahlmann that was posted on our Facebook wall was fun!

Keep sharing your projects on our wall and you never know when you'll be spotted.

So what's the free product this week you ask? How about a mix of our yummy sprinkle glaze stickers!

Leave a comment telling us your favorite use for these letters and we'll draw a winner!

How about another freebie? Paper Crafts Connection is offering up our Playtime Collection for their Freebie Friday Bonus Blog Hop post. Head over here for your chance!

take the Blog Hop and comment for your chance to win this special issue

Have a great a weekend!

Hello MLS fans! It's been fun having Linda Auclair join us this month as our guest designer. Linda's projects have been beautiful and inspiring! We can hardly believe how fast this month flew by. Here's one last project from Linda.

Project Title:  In the Garden sign

Materials used:

Wooden shadowbox frame
MLS "Farmer's Market" collection patterned papers:  Cherries Jubilee,
Fresh From the Field
MLS "Farmer's Market" collection cardstock stickers
MLS "Carnation" Glitter Alphabet stickers
MLS "Lollipop" Mini Alphabet stickers
pink gingham ribbon
Stickles Glitter Glue

Linda's notes: During the summer, we spend a lot of time out of doors, especially in our backyard garden.  This little sign is a handy little reminder of where we've gone to alert visitors and delivery people.  I love the veggie stickers that coordinate with the "Farmer's Market" collection- so cute!

Thanks again Linda for all your amazing work!

Have a great day!

Hello MLS fans. Summer is coming to an end and in some places many kids have already started back to school. Here is California we still have a few more weeks before we send our kids off for another year of memories to make.

In the meantime we've all got lots of summer travel pictures to scrap right? Our Destinations collection is perfect for any summer memory and our design team has created some fun projects using this versatile collection. Let's have a look

Activity Book Norine Borys

This fun book is laminated and has several different games inside the pages to keep the kids busy on those long car rides.

On the Road Mini Album Shemaine Smith

Designer's Tip: Mini albums are a great way to share your travel photos and create a lasting memory of your special vacation . Use stickers to make your journaling interesting and fun.

Thanks for these fun projects ladies! Tomorrow we say goodbye to our August Guest Designer. Join us tomorrow for one last look at Linda's creative projects!

Have a great day!

Hello MLS fans! It's Tuesday tutorial day and we have another fabulous video tutorial from Mandy! Today she is showing you another embellishment technique you can create with your patterned paper.

So grab a cup of coffee, or whatever your morning flavor is and enjoy!

Chrysanthemum Tutorial with Mandy  

Here's the winner's list!!

Thanks to everyone that participated in our Blog Hop!

First our Design Team Treats giveaway winners:

pls email them via their blogs with your addresses so they can get your prizes to you.

Kristine Berc-Luz Maria Bruna

Ilene Tel- Cassie

Mandy Starner- scrappychic77

Rocio Duran- Carol Lassak

Becky Williams- Ann Greenspan

Rosangela Philippsen- Zilca

Zoe Nemburt- Sue Sykes

Erin Yamabe- Tina phillips

Linda Kretz-Leah Crowe

 ***********************

Now for our

Grand Prize Winners

Erin Colby

What a fun and cute blog hop! Happy Halloween to you all too!!!! =)

Friday at 1:32pm

Shannon Colburn Blinn

Thanks for a fun blog hop! HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Tina Phillips Happy Halloween!! I made it thru...soo much fun!!!

Friday at 8:35am

 Congratulations ladies!!! Email us your addresses to dt@mylittleshoebox.com and we'll ship out your Trick or Treat collections from our warehouse!

Well...it was quite a busy weekend on our Facebook page. We are so excited that you all really enjoyed the Trick or Treating! Thank you to all who left comments and blog love to all of our participating designers. We were all overwhelmed and touched by so many comments! Keep watching the MLS Facebook wall. We'll be announcing the winners of all the Treats later today!

Today Ilene is sharing a beautiful layout she created with our Garden Party collection.

Celebrate Spring

Oh this layout has sooo many beautiful elements and the black accents are perfect.

I love the little butterfly from our clear stamp set used here on the banners...so cute!

Designer's Tip: To make the most of your stamps, you can use them to create custom embellishments! Just stamp using the stamps that go with whichever collection you're working with using Staz On ink on Shrinky Dinks and then color with permanent markers, using whatever colors would suit your layout best. Then bake according to instructions and within minutes, you have really cute matching embellies for your layout. Here, I made little butterflies for the banner and centers for some of the flowers using this method. It's a technique that's quick, fun, easy, and very cost effective.

Have a great day!

Hello MLS fans! It's me Helen Chu, owner of MLS! Thank you for joining us for a little Blog Hop fun today!

I am so pleased with how my Trick or Treat collection turned out! When I was creating this collection, I couldn't help but remember my first Halloween. I was 15 and attending boarding school in Canada. All my classmates were excited about Halloween but I had no idea what to expect since we don't celebrate Halloween in Hong Kong. Every one was getting excited about their costumes and I found myself searching for ideas...

So I went thru my closet and found a black trench coat that I cut to look like bat wings and picked up some fake vampire teeth and off I went as a hybrid bat! Aren't homemade costumes the best!

That's where I drew the inspiration for this little cutie. Of course I did not add the vampire teeth as I thought he would look too scarey. (laugh)

For the rest of the Trick or Treat collection I used traditional color combinations like the b side of Spooky Treats, that's a favorite color combination of mine.

I also love the way the spider webs turned out on the Itsy Bitsy Spider Die Cut.

So that's a little background information on how Trick or Treat came to be. Now it's time to get on with the

My Design Team has created some fun projects to share with you on your journey today. There will be lots of Treats and some Tricks too! Oh and a little work on your part but the end result will surely make it worth the journey! So let's GO!

Start your Hop at

Pearl's Blog

Here's the complete line up in case you get lost in a haunted house or eaten by vampires...woo ha ha ha...

 Pearl Liu

Shemaine Smith

Zoe Nemburt

Mandy Starner

Pattie Beltran

Linda Kretz

Keely Yowler

Beckie Dreyer

Ilene Tell

Becky Williams

Rô Philippsen

Rocio Duran

Kristine Berc

Erin Yamabe

Hello friends! It's time for another fun project from this month's Guest Designer, Linda Auclair. If you've been stopping by every Thursday you've seen some inspiring ideas from Linda.

Today Linda is sharing a quick tutorial. Let's take a look!

Here's the bracelet put together

and a few closer looks

Linda Says: This is a project that I put together very quickly.  I used the
"Something Tweet" stamps along with some "Farmer's Market" scraps for
this quick and easy bracelet project.

1.  Stamp your images on Shrinky Dink film.  Color & cut out, and be
sure to punch a small hole in each one.
2.  Shrink according to the manufacturer's directions.  I like to use
a heat gun for mine - it works really quickly on small charms like
these.
3.  Using paper scraps, roll several paper beads.  I found the
directions online, and made a whole handful of beads in no time flat!
4.  Attach the charms to the bracelet with jump rins, and thread the
beads onto eye pins and attach to the bracelet with jump rings as
well.
5.  Voila!  A project that is fun to make and fun to wear!  (and great
to do with kids!)

Thanks Linda for sharing a fun idea with us! We say goodbye to Linda next week so make sure you visit us for her last day of inspiration.

 Join us here tomorrow on the MLS blog!

We're having a fun blog hop for all our fans! Our design team has created some fun projects to inspire you using our Trick or Treat collection . And to add to the fun, as you hop from blog to blog each of our girls will be sharing tricks and tons of treats!! Bring your candy sack and please join us right here on our blog Friday August 19th!!

Hello MLS fans! Our Playtime collection has been a fan favorite since it's release. At the summer trade show, people were really loving this collection for their fun summertime pictures and other outside events. And Playtime is not just for girls but makes for great boy layouts too.

Today we're sharing some fun Playtime projects created by our very own Design Team Coodinator

Gettin Goofy

My Little Teddy Bear

Pattie also created a few fun cards

We'd love to see what you're creating with our Playtime collection. Share you work with us on our Facebook wall and you could be spotted for our Free Product Friday posts.

Have a Great Day!

Good Morning MLS fans! We hope you're enjoying your week so far. We really enjoyed all your comments on Friday's post. Be sure and visit us every Friday for another fun Free Product Friday post!

Today we are sharing a cute altered album created by designer Linda Kretz using our Pretty Little Things collection. Linda is a grandma and what grandma doesn't love a brag book? Check out this adorable creation that's sure to inspire you to make one for your mom or grandma to carry!

 
Pretty Little Girls Mini by

Designer Tip: Cut out images and layer them over the same pattern to create dimension like I did with the flower pots.

Designer tip: The great thing about mini albums is that you don't have to add a lot of photos to you pages. Keep it simple with some fun stickers and embellishments and you've got a beautiful keepsake to share.

Thanks Linda for sharing this special project with us today!

Don't forget our Trick or Treat Blog Hop happening here this Friday!!

Have a great day!

Your next My Little Shoebox layout could be our AD in one of Northridge Media’s Magazine!

We love seeing what our fans create with My Little Shoebox products so we have a fun challenge with a fabulous prize for you all!

1. Simply create a 12X12 layout using 1 5x7 photo and  90 % of any of the My Little Shoebox Summer 2011 collections.
2. Please choose a great photo that you have personally taken and scrapbook your memory including  journaling and email your creation to us at dt@mylittleshoebox.com.

Your layout must be your original design and never published anywhere online including your blog, online galleries and message boards.

We will look over all the entries and choose one layout to be featured as our AD in a an upcoming issue of Scrapbook Trends, Cards or Create Magazine from Northridge Media.

There is no cash compensation for this layout. Winner must be willing to sign a release to allow MLS exclusive rights to publish the winner’s layout for the sole purpose of advertisement of My Little Shoebox products in an upcoming issue of Northridge Media’s publications. Winner must ship their layout and signed release within 7 days of notification.

This contest begins today and continues thru midnight Pacific time August 31^st 2011.

Good Luck!

Hello MLS fans! Hooray for Friday!! Today we are sharing some fantastic projects using our Enchanted Garden collection and offering up your chance at some free product!

First we have some inspiration from Norine

12X 12 layout: Cute

4 x 5 1/2 Card: Love

Next Rocio shares a layout: My brother My friend

and a beautiful card with a simple sentiment

Erin Yamabe created this beautiful altered birdcage utilizing many of our new 3D Roll up flowers.

Are you Enchanted with these beautiful projects today?

We've also been inspired by all of the amazing images that are being loaded up to our Facebook fan page! Thank you for sharing your work with us. Each Friday we'd like to spotlight one of them and share it here on our blog. Please keep sharing your work with us and you never know when you might be spotted by us

This layout titled: "Punta del Leste" using our travel collection, Destinations was uploaded by Maisa Mendonca.

You can see more of her beautiful work here on her blog.

We mentioned that we had some free product to give away today! Leave a comment telling us what your weekend plans and you could win a mix of our Mini Alphas.

Post your comment by Sunday August 14th at midnight Pacific time and we'll announce the winner Monday.

Have a great weekend!

Hello MLS fans! it's Thursday and that means more inspiration from this month's Guest Designer Linda Auclair. Today Linda has some cute cards to share.

Making cards is my favorite way to use up scraps.  I have gotten into the habit of quickly putting together a couple cards while I still have the materials for my scrapbook pages out, and every once in awhile I'll get inspiration for another page from the combination of products I use!  I use the Mini Alphabet stickers all the time for my cards, because you get a whole lot of alpha stickers in each package, and can use them generously without worrying about running out of "E's" or "T's" - I love that!

Thanks for these tips today Linda! Join us next week as we share some more of Linda's fun projects!

Have a great day!

Hello MLS fans!We're mixin it up again today on the blog and this time we're showing you some fun cards our Design Team created.

Let's start our Mix it Up inspiration with Ilene

Ilene mixed in a neat moon and star along with our City by the Bay collection to create an artistic Father's Day card.

Next we have a card Pearl created with our Heartfelt collection and mixed in some yummy shabby chic feel embellishments. Love the bling and puffy glitter letters!

Next we have a super fun card where Zoe mixed in all the different parts of the City by the Bay collection on a fun way.

Next is a Super cute mixed canvas project that Beckie created with out Garden Party and Oasis collections.

and finally we're sharing a beautiful shabby chic card from Ro. We also love Ro's style and attention to detail.

The added white lace and handmade flowers are so pretty and soft!

That's it for today's inspiration! Be sure and visit us tomorrow when we bring you more inspiration from our August Guest Designer, Linda Auclair!

Have a great day!

Hello MLS fans! Today for our Tuesday Tutorial we're sharing a fun video created by our very own Mandy Starner. You might remember this project Mandy created from our Project Friday post.

Well today Mandy is going to show you how to create that fabulous flower!

She makes it look so easy! Thanks Mandy for that great video! We hope you're inspired to create something fun today!

Don't forget about our fun Trick or Treat blog hop on August 19th that starts right here!

Have a great day!

Hello MLS fans! We are so excited that our Audrey Collection is being featured over at the Moxie Fab blog today.

We loved the response we got at the Summer show to all of our collections and the special attention that Audrey captured was a treat. Our design team created some really beautiful projects for our booth and today we'd love to share them with you so you'll have some inspiration for creating with this beautiful collection.

From Nicole Wragge

From Shemaine Smith

 From Shelly Berg

This collection is so perfect for little girls, girlfriends, grandmothers and more. Head on over to the Moxie Fab blog today as Cath is giving her readers a chance to win the entire Audrey collection!

Have a great day!

Hello MLS fans! TGIF!! What's everyone's weekend plans? The summer is flying by so fast it's hard to believe that it's already August! Last Friday we featured projects created with Imaginisce's fun i-Rock tool and flowers and we have a winner to announce! Thanks for leaving the love over at their Facebook page! Let's all Congratulate...

Savannah O'Gwynn

MLS sent me!! LOVE the Reindeer--super cute:) July 30 at 5:00am ·

Savannah please email us your mailing address to dt@mylittleshoebox.com to claim your prize and we'll get that mailed out to you!

Today we are sharing some Trick or Treat Treats with you!

Two Sweet Treats by Erin Yamabe

Designer's tip: Create your own embellishments to add dimension to your pages.

Next we have some Cuuuute cards from Mandy Starner

And how fun is the baker's twine and design of this card!

This altered home decor project from Pattie Beltran is awesome!

Designer's tip: Don't be afraid to dig into your stash for older product to coordinate with your new collections.

We hope you enjoyed these treats today! Look for this collection at your favorite scrapbook store and if they aren't carrying it yet tell them to contact us!

Now for a fun announcement!

Trick or Treat Blog Hop Friday August 19th

Want to see more Trick or Treat inspiration? We're hosting a blog hop Friday August 19th starting here at the MLS blog. There will be lots of tricks and even more treats for you, our fans!!! Don't miss out on all the fun so mark your calendar!

Have a great weekend and make sure to spend a little of your time crafting!

Hello MLS fans! It's time to introduce our August Guest Designer...

Linda Auclair

Bio:

My name is Linda Auclair, from New Hampshire.   I’ve been married for 12 years to my wonderful husband, Tim.  We have 3 great kids:  Jonathan, who is 24 and heading off to grad school in the fall, Brigid who just turned 11 and is quite the crafter and photographer herself, and Aileen who just turned 9 who loves kitties and color pink.  My family is my inspiration and my greatest source of support.  I have been a paper crafter and scrapbooker since I was pregnant with my Aileen, so I’ve been at this for about 10 years now and have enjoyed watching the papercrafting industry evolve over the past decade.  I’ve been fortunate to work for a variety of online retailers over the years, and have represented a number of different manufacturers on Design Teams as well.  You can find my work in the Gallery at 2Peas as well as on my blog: http://elendae.wordpress.com/  Please stop by and say “hi”!

Here's a look at some layouts Linda created

Happiness Grows created with our Farmer's Market collection

Designer's tip: The "Farmer's Market" collection was a perfect backdrop for this photo
of my daughter enjoying one of the apples we picked last season.  I
used the coordinating stamps and the ledger paper to create my own
patterned paper for the borders.  I used floral die cut tags from the
collection along with some simple stamped shapes to create a fun
dimensional border along the lower edge of the page.

We love a parade created with our Sew Cute collection

Designer's tip: I went a little out of the box for my 4th of July page.  I love the
colors and patterns in the "Sew Cute" collection, and thought it would
be fun to do a patriotic page with them.  I used the stamps again to
create a pattern on my background paper, and embellished the stamped
button flowers with real buttons.  I used a shape  from the
coordinating Journaling Die Cuts and embellished it with lace trim for
my "4th"  tag.

My Fair Lady created with our Farmer's Market collection

Designer's tip: The colors were perfect for my page about my cutie's experiences at
the Town Fair.  I created a hidden journaling tag to capture my story
and preserve the clean lines of the layout.

A big thanks to Linda for the inspiration today! Please join us every Thursday all this month for more peeks of Linda's beautiful work!

Have a great day!

Hello MLS fans! It's already Wednesday and we're in the mood to mix it up a bit today! One of the best things about all of the My Little Shoebox collections is that they can easily be mixed and matched to create any theme you are looking to scrapbook!

Every year our Design Team members figure this out right away and start mixing and matching different collections whether it's creating cards, altered projects or layouts. This year's team has already created some fabulous inspiration with our Winter 2011 collections just to show you how easy it really is! 

"Wonderful" by Kristine Berc

Designer's tip: It is really fun and simple to mix and match the MLS collections.  Would you believe there are products from 5 different collections on this layout?  Sew Cute, Garden Party, Oasis, Farmer's Market, and Heartfelt are all represented here.  I added some white cardstock and a brown gross grain bow from my stash.  I enjoyed using several different border punches and butterfly punches on my layout.

"Summer Days" by Ro Philippsen

Designer's Tip: It was easy to mix and match patterns from Home Tweet Home and City By the Bay for my Summer Days layout. I like to choose a color scheme and draw my inspiration from there. Then I can easily add embellishments to enhance my layout and other mediums like mists.

"Daddy's Arms" by Melinda Spinks

Designer's Tip: I love how everything matches regardless of what range you use which creates such a versatility within the product and means that you can keep going back time and time again to use up every last piece of paper.

"Pink Popsicles" by Becky Williams

Designer's Tip:"Pink Popsicles" was created using a mix of City By the Bay, Cute as a Button, Home Tweet Home and Farmer's Market. One thing that I really like about My Little Shoebox products is that you can mix different collections, old and new, and they match perfectly.

"Summer Days" by Keeley Yowler

Designer's Tip: Dig into your scraps to easily mix and match patterns to create with like I did here with Garden Party and Heartfelt. You can easily create a layout with only a few elements, border punches and finish with mists!

Well ladies you have certainly shown us some fabulous inspiration today! We've got lots more "mixing and matching" inspiration to share so check back with us next Wednesday and we'll showcase some card ideas!

Have a great day!

Once again our Latest and Greatest from My Little Shoebox class sold out at summer CHA! Our very own Design Team Coordinator Pattie Beltran designed our fun class herself and with the help of design team members Erin Yamabe and Linda Kretz, they kitted all the materials for the mini albums so our students could create them quick and easy.

When we arrived they were excited to get started and Pattie and Erin led them step by step.

Everyone was enjoying creating their mini books!

One of our happy giveaway winners!

I think Helen's  favorite part of the class was giving away the prizes!

We had lots of happy ladies at the end of the night and many left raving about what a great class Pattie gave.

Here's a look at Pattie's mini album project featuring our Playtime collection and acrylic album that was sponsored by Maya Road. (Thanks a million for your continued support of MLS!)  

A big thank you to all the women that attended our class. We hope to create with you again at Winter 2012 CHA!

Hello MLS fans! We are excited to share some of the work our design team girls did for the booth at CHA today! Helen did an amazing job with all 6 of her collections but there is one that she adores and it's Pretty Little Things. So we thought we'd share what designer Mandy Starner created with this collection.

First a few cards

Now a look at a few layouts

and a fun Welcome banner...



These projects are adorable and getting to meet Mandy at CHA was a real treat for Linda, Shelly, Erin, Pattie, Norine, Helen and I. It was good times for all!

We are also pleased to introduce August's Guest Designer Linda Auclair!

My name is Linda Auclair, from New Hampshire. I’ve been married for 12 years
to my wonderful husband, Tim. We have 3 great kids: Jonathan, who is 24 and
heading off to grad school in the fall, Brigid who just turned 11 and is quite the
crafter and photographer herself, and Aileen who just turned 9 who loves kitties
and color pink. My family is my inspiration and my greatest source of support. I
have been a paper crafter and scrapbooker since I was pregnant with my Aileen,
so I’ve been at this for about 10 years now and have enjoyed watching the
papercrafting industry evolve over the past decade. I’ve been fortunate to work
for a variety of online retailers over the years, and have represented a number of
different manufacturers on Design Teams as well. You can find my work in the
Gallery at 2Peas as well as on my blog: http://elendae.wordpress.com Please
stop by and say “hi”!

Please join us every Thursday this month for a look at Linda's Guest Design work with My Little Shoebox's collections!