Earth Day Inspiration

Happy Friday everyone! As you all know this week we had Earth Day.  This has inspired our Goin’ Green challenge for this month and it also inspired us to do some other earth friendly layouts.

Jamie

With all the recent talk about our earth and environment, it has inspired me to make a couple of layouts about our switch last year to cloth diapers. 

Brianna

I was inspired to use some earth friendly products and packaging that came with felt shapes. I would have normally just thrown this away when I opened the product, but I thought I may be able to copy the design.

I traced and then cut out the design on my layout below.  I also “went green” by using patterned paper from Jillibean Soup, which is all made from 100% recycled stock.

We originally had this idea to use some non-scrapbooking related supplies on our layouts. We wanted to show you all that you do not have to have “fancy scrapping supplies” in order to create layouts.  Then we saw this great post over on The Scrap Review that shows lots of inspiration from Ali Edwards using junk mail.  You all know that there is no way to compete with Ali’s genius-ness (is that even a word?) so we just decided to link you all over there to check out this post to take a look some of the other neat stuff that the Scrap Review staff created. 

In honor of Earth Week, we also wanted to share a few links of other scrapbooking companies that make an effort to keep our earth clean and friendly so here goes…

• Jillibean Soup- Kraft Collection
• Die Cuts With A View- Green Line
• K & Company- Lotus Collection & Remake Collection
• Piggy Tales
• Tinkering Ink – Becoming Green Line

What are some ways that you are trying to stay “Green” with your scrapbooking?
Leave us a comment below and share some of your earth friendly products and ideas with us!

Oh and do not forget to enter the Goin’ Green challenge this month, you have until Thursday (April 30th) to get your submissions in!!

The Word Is Out!

Happy Friday!  We hope you are having a great week.  Thanks so much to everyone who helped us “get the word out” with our recent contest.  We truly appreciate all the kind words (and blinkies) that you all posted and sent out.  With all that said the time has come to announce the winner of our contest so here goes…

Karen

Thanks so much!  You won by posting a blinke on your blog.
Please email us – Brianna or Jamie – with your address and we will mail out your goodies.

We also want to remind everyone about our Goin’ Green challenge this month.  Have you checked out the gallery lately?  We have lots of new scrappers sending in those fun “green” layouts.  Remember you all have until Thursday, April 30th to submit your entry.  Oh and are you wondering what the winner will receive this month? 

 
Why a kit full of GREEN goodies of course!

See you next Friday!

Real Life Tip – Getting the most out of your paper

Since we are “Goin’ Green” this month, we want to share some quick tips on how you can make your patterned paper go further and save some money while your at it!

Happy Friday Everyone!  This is Brianna.  I have been inspired by all the cute designs out there and have started cutting out the shapes or borders to make my own embellishments. A piece of patterned paper is a lot cheaper than a pack of embellishments.

Take a look at this patterned paper from SEI.

When I saw this great paper line, I knew I was going to cut out all those beautiful flowers! I used them as embellishments in a vacation book I recently made.  Other that that I did not need much else on my pages and I used more of the paper out of the pack than I would have if I bought different embellishments.
Here are a couple of the layouts.

 

When cutting out flowers for this next page I only used half of the patterned paper, I plan on using the other half on a different layout! Just one more way to make that piece of paper go further and save some money!

 

I want to show you one more layout where I cut out some borders and a flower.

I have been using my Coluzzle on a self healing mat to do the cutting. It has a blade that swivels and is so easy to use. If I need to get a little more intricate, I use my Cutter Bee scissors. So next time you see a cute piece of patterned paper - think embellishments and try to make your paper go further!

Don’t forget to join in our Goin’ Green challenge this month. 

Oh and did you know that it is Garden Week?
Look at this cute layout that Jamie made for a little extra inspiration this week. 

Challenge #3 – Goin’ Green

It is the first Friday in April and that means it’s time for a new challenge here on Real Life Scraps! This month we were inspired by Earth Day on April 22nd. We are all looking for ways we can preserve the earth and become more “green.” Whether it is switching to high efficiency appliances, planting a garden, or recycling more. Well, we want to challenge you to “Go Green” with your scrapbooking too! All you need to do is make green the main color in your project this month.

Here is a look what we came up with…

 Brianna

 Jamie

Just a few details about the challenge:  Feel free to submit any type of layout (paper, digital, or hybrid) or any size.  It is all a personal preference and we want you to feel the most creative with what you are used too.  You have until the last day of the month – April 30th - to submit your work.  Just leave us a comment on this post with a link to your work.  If you do not have a blog or online photo gallery, feel free to take a picture and email it to us – Brianna or Jamie – by the deadline.  We will be posting all of your projects over in our gallery each month.  Oh and yes, feel free to submit more than once this month.  If you get inspired and want to keep creating with green, then by all means keep those projects coming.  We will pick a winner on May 1st and of course there will be some fun scrappy prize involved!

We are looking forward to seeing all of your green projects! Keep checking back each Friday for more inspiration and a look at the prize! Also, don’t forget to help us get the word out about Real Life Scraps!

Get The Word Out…

Real Life Scraps has been up for a couple months now, and we want you to help us get the word out about our site! So we are going to have a little contest – starting today and ending on the 15th of this month.  There are several ways you can enter to win.  Here is what we want you to do:

1.Put our Real Life Scraps blinkie on the sidebar of your blog – or blogs for some of you.  :)

Here is the code you will need to put us on your blog...

<p align="center"><a href=http://www.RealLife-Scraps.com target="_blank">
<img border="0" src="http://www.JoshJamie.com/Header_2_Small.PNG" width="225" height="64"></a>

2. Create a blog post about the Real Life Scraps website – talk about our new challenge this month (revealed on Friday) or just talk about how much you love us.  :)

3. Post a message about Real Life Scraps on one of your favorite scrappy message boards (where allowed).

4. Send out a mass email to all your scrappin’ buddies telling them all about the Real Life Scraps website.
(Make sure you forward a copy to one of us - Brianna or Jamie.)

Which ever option you choose, please make sure you leave a link to our site – www.RealLife-Scraps.com. 

When you do any of these, just leave us a comment below (or email us) with a link to where you posted it and you will be entered into a drawing for a scrappy prize!! You will get one entry for each thing you do. So say you have a blog and you type up a blog post, put our blinkie over on your side bar, and send an email out to your friends.  That would be 3 entries.  How about someone that visits 2 message boards.  You got it 2 entries.  You can enter as many times as you would like.  Sound good? 

So you want to see the prize??

Remember, we will leave this contest open until midnight April 15th – Tax Day!

We are having a great time over here and we are so thankful that so many of you keep coming back for our challenges, tips, and ideas.  Thanks for helping us get the word out about our little site.  We appreciate all of you!

And the winner is…

Submitted by:  Desiree

Congratulations Desiree!!

Thanks to everyone who used up their stashes this month and played along.  We had so much fun watching your projects roll in. 

Be sure to come back Friday for April’s challenge.