What's New at Paper Popsicles ??

I'm a bit behind in blogging the last days as I've been cramming to finish some assignments and putting in some killer hours at work. Its the beginning of the month and there's lots of stuff going on at Paper Popsicles.



* First, our September kits are available now. Free Time is chockful of Daisy D's and A Bit Stuffy has tons of Little Yellow Bicycle and K&Co. There's the adorable Happiness kit with lots of Making Memories 5th Avenue as a mini kit. Lynda, Tricia and Jackie will be designing this month's kits so I can't wait to see what they come up with.

* Paper Popsicles is also looking for their October Guest Designer. This months requirements are:

Create 4 Birthday Cards and envelopes using materials from the Paper Popsicles store. Adult or child birthday - anything goes but Happy Birthday must be included somewhere on each card.

You need to be an active member of our message board with at least twenty posts. You must be able to continue to be involved on the message board and gallery during your "month".

Submit your layout to melissa@paperpopsicles.com and be sure the image is NOT larger than 900 pixels. Please include your full name, address and message board name in your entry.

Entries will be accepted until midnight of August 28th.

The winner will receive a package of goodies and her assignment in early September. Our Guest Designer will have until September 28th to submit her assignments, a short bio and picture. This will be used on our website, on our blog and in your GDT album in the gallery.

* Want bragging rights? Is your project/layout going to be our new "Weekly Discovery"? Starting Monday, August 4th and every Monday thereafter Paper Popsicles will be doing a search throughout the gallery and posting our "Weekly Discovery" on our blog. So, get yourself registered and fill up your album in the Paper Popsicles gallery!!! You may just be discovered.

* My friend Tanya is August's Guest Designer and you gotta go see what lovelies she's created with her kit for Paper Popsicles! She just debuted her August 1 reveal in our gallery so please come over and give her some love!

* Stayce, our resident instructor, has also just debuted her amazing How-To class for August. Come see how to make this adorable ATC holder with incredibly detailed step by step pictorial instructions. If you're not into ATC's, this could easily be adapted to be a card holder. Here's a little sneakie peek at Stacey's project:



* Finally, I'd like to share my Design Team ICEE tip of the week with you here...

I've been really enamoured with circles lately and I found a way to combine this new crush with my other love of combining and layering patterned papers ====> Making my own customized journal circles for a more whimsical and personalized look vs. using mfg prefab or punched out circles.

Here in this picture, you can see that I preplanned my journalling on post it notes. I did this since I knew I wanted hand writing instead of computer printed journalling so I needed an idea of how much space each of my cluster of thoughts would take up.



I then took out a sharpie marker (I decided on my Creative Memories journalling black pen because the thickness of the pen point was most complimentary with my layout...I didn't want the tip point and thus thicknes of outline to over power the serene colors of the main patterned paper) and randomly drew circles on the light blue 7 gypsies patterned paper that came in the August Telling Secrets Kit.

Then, I used the same CM pen and hand wrote each of my cluster of journalling inside each of the circles. I made sure to select various sizes to add visual interest when I was planning the procession of which circle came after the last one.

Then, I hand cut each of the circles along the OUTSIDE of my hand drawn circle lines because I wanted the outlines to be included for that more whimsical and more personalized look.

Here is the result on my layout, which I love. :)



Here's another example of hand drawn circles in which I used a thicker tipped sharpie marker to make my own circle embellishments. I did this in order to combine the patterned papers to create a fun and masculine feel.

Whew! Lots of fun stuff huh? I haven't even told you about all the new challenges that Samantha and Valery have planned for the month of August. You'll just have to come over and read about it and hopefully play along.