My Mind's Eye Blog

Advent Calendar

I am a firm believer that each holiday deserves it’s time in the spotlight. We don’t decorate the house until after Thanksgiving. We even pack up our Christmas DVD’s (we forgot this year and guess what we watched this past weekend – Elf!).

My dilemma comes with crafts. You can’t wait on crafts until after Thanksgiving. If you are like me, they won’t get done – or you’ll be finishing them on Christmas Eve while your husband wraps all the fun gifts.

So, two weeks before Thanksgiving, I found myself creating this darling advent calendar and my boys are so excited to start using it! I am so grateful that on December 1st this calendar is ready to go and know that it will be part of our family’s traditions for years to come.

I wanted this project to be bright and whimsical, so I started with our 12 Days of Christmas collection and the Limited Edition Silhouette Advent Calendar. It was so much fun decorating each box with all the fun embellishments in the 12 Days of Christmas collection.

If you would like to make your own Advent calendar, download these instructions: Download 2011_11_10_MME

I demonstrated the advent calendar today on Good Things Utah. When it’s ready, I’ll upload the segment video here.

Guess what? Want to make your own for a discount? Silhouette is offering our readers a $10 discount if you purchase the advent calendar through their site (click here). You must use the code: EYE to receive the discount and purchase the calendar by November 11, 2011. **note: to cut the boxes, you need to have a Silhouette digital die cut machine**

Have a great day!

Amber Packer

Wonderful Day

Happy Tuesday!

I was thrilled to received the new collections, and could not wait to create with the new Kraft Fun Day! I love the combination of kraft, and black together. I have so many photos from a birthday party my youngest daughter attended. This collection is perfect for them!

On this page I used the new Happy Day, and the Everyday Fun stamps to add a bit of inking to the page. I am in love with the dot border. It added a fun texture to this page, and added a bit more color onto the page.

I created a banner border using one of the stamps on top of a strip of vellum. After I stamped it, it was a bit harsh for the page. I tried stamping off first, but it still seemed too stark. My solution was to simply turn the strip over, and it was perfect. I finished it with a sweet sentiment on the bottom. One thing you will find on the stamps, are wonderful sentiments for cards, too. Also in the border strip package, you will find lovely felt borders, such as the scallop one in the above photo.

Here, I tucked in a piece of stitched vellum that I had leftover from a mini album project. I thought it added some fun texture to the side of the photo.

Finally, a detail of the large chipboard tag found in the Everyday Fun Chipboard elements. I layered patterned paper over the tag. Finished it with a circle of vellum, and a fun chipboard pinwheel!

I definitely see lots of future projects with this collection! We would love to see what you create with it, too! Enjoy the rest of the day!

Suzanne

Blog Challenge 29: Layout

It’s our favorite time of the month. We know how talented our blog readers are and LOVE to see what you come up with each month for our challenges!

The challenge: Design a layout based on this fabulous sketch and use “brown” on the card (sketch by Anam Stubbington).

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, November 20, 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!

The fabulous Suzanne Sergi created this sample to help you get your creative juices going!

We can’t wait to see what you create!

Upload your entry here:

Blog Challenge 29: Card

It’s our favorite time of the month. We know how talented our blog readers are and LOVE to see what you come up with each month for our challenges!

The challenge: Design a card based on this fabulous sketch and use “brown” on the card (sketch by Anam Stubbington).

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, November 20, 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 the collection of their choice and will be featured in a blog post and have bragging rights!

The fabulous Suzanne Sergi created this sample to help you get your creative juices going!

We can’t wait to see what you create!

Upload project here:

Welcome Lori Allred!

We are pleased to announce our November Guest Designer: Lori Allred!

I can’t tell you how excited I am to be invited as the Guest Designer for November. If ever there was a blog I stalk and designers I am inspired by often, it would be here at My Minds Eye. I’ve always found it easy to create with the great options My Minds Eye offers with their collections and my love of all things My Minds Eye started years and years ago with their adorable Frame Ups. And to prove it, here’s a few layouts from long, long ago:

I’ve always enjoyed playing with paper, but started my journey into scrapbooking the way we know it now about 16 years ago when my oldest was a baby. Aside from single handedly keeping My Mind’s Eye in business by purchasing every release they come out with, my relationship with My Mind’s Eye started when I had the opportunity to design samples for them for trade shows and catalogs quite a while back.

As for my background, I’ve designed and worked for several different scrapbook related companies and you can find me blogging for a few these days. My expertise is social media and yes, I do get paid to Facebook. But I’m horrible at blogging for myself. You can find a lot of my work for projects or past publication on my blog at allreddesign.net. Here’s a couple projects I created earlier in the year (for Cricut).

As for working in this industry, my first love is teaching and this past year I’ve been to New Zealand and all over the US teaching classes to others like you that love crafting with beautiful papers. But lately you will find me working with My Craft Channel <link: http://www.mycraftchannel.com>. This new project gives me the great opportunity to work with many inspiring crafters from all types of genres and I LOVE IT!

Here are a few of my more recent My Minds Eye creations and I look forward to sharing more later on in the month!

Let’s welcome Lori in style!  Leave a comment welcoming Lori to the team on this blog post before Thursday, November 10 at midnight.  One lucky winner will WIN Lori’s favorite My Mind’s Eye things!