Friday, December 31, 2010

Layout of the Week by Cheryl

This weeks LOTW is a layout is "Our 1st Noel" by Cheryl aka C_Mom_Go.  She made this gorgeous using a cute picture of her two daughters.  Melinda chose this layout because of the wonderful distressing and it's elegance.  She also loved Cheryl's amazing trees that are decorated with pearls strands.  Huge congrats Cheryl!!!

Posted by Mandy :)

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Showcasing Charlotte

I was so excited when Charlotte Jenkins agreed to be the Guest Designer for our December kit, Time Flies.  Well, let me tell you, she did not disappoint!  She has done some amazing layouts with this kit, and is a very talented artist.  I'd like to share her beautiful work to you today.  I've already shown you her sketch layout in a previous post, so I thought I'd show you what else she has done...

Believe
Charlotte did this layout based on her own Sketch 120410

Reflect

Departure

Discover

She Is Free


I hope you've enjoyed seeing her work as much as I have, it all truly is an inspiration!

As an end note, I thought I would let you know that we are having an End of Year Clearance Sale in our shop.  Stop by and see these great deals!

I hope you've all had a wonderful and safe Holiday!

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Layout of the Week by Smashley

This weeks LOTW was picked by Celina.  Her favorite was a layout by Smashley aka Ashley called "Love".  Celina chose this layout because Ashley used the bold steampunk kit to create a beautiful soft layout.  The photo is beautiful and the lovely cursive title adds a very romantic touch.  Congrats Ashley!!  
Posted by Mandy :)

Monday, December 20, 2010

Meet our new Design Team members!

Our first official designer call has ended.  We received submissions from some very
talented artists, and had such a hard time narrowing it down to just one.

So hard, that we weren't able to, so please meet our
two new Design Team members!


My name is Lisa a/k/a Raining and I am hopelessly addicted to the art of scrapbooking. As well as cataloging memories for my family, I consider what I do to be scrap- art. I love taking a flat piece of paper and packaged products and turning them into something beautiful and unexpected. I could devote my entire self to this art but alas I have a husband and two children. They are my primary subjects in my art and my life and do sometimes cringe when I mention the words "photo shoot."
I have always been a creative spirit and have delved into many different areas, sewing, rug hooking and needle arts. I hope to inspire all of you with my designs from this wonderful kit club "Scraps of Darkness". I define my style as unexpected. I can be shabby chic, artsy or eclectic but always strive to be different.
I am honored to be a member of this wonderfully talented design team and look forward to sharing my work with you!




Hello everyone.  My name is Nancy Hanttula.  I am a Registered Nurse by day...and paper crafter by night (when my little flying monkeys and husband are in bed.)  I have been totally enamoured by all things scrapbooking and papercrafting since my very first layout...and who would have guessed...it was like finding a missing piece! and I have never looked back.  When we moved to a bigger house, I organized my scrap space before I unpacked my closet....and I can spout off paper designers quicker than I could ever identify a clothing designer. After all, a girl has to have her priorities! I have a lot of Scraps of Darkness to get glued down...and I am looking forward to every single minute of it.  






I know you'll enjoy their work, and hope you will join me in welcoming them to the SOD Design Team!

Sunday, December 19, 2010

December Sketch Layouts

I'm a little late!  I said I'd post these days ago, but you know, it is less than  a week until Christmas, and things got hectic!
I just wanted to share some of the gorgeous layouts our Design Team created with this months sketch by Craftysprinkles.

This is her fabulous sketch, created for the December Time Flies kit:





And here is what Charlotte Jenkins, our Guest Designer this month, created based on the sketch
Timeless Moments

Mandy Harrell did a gorgeous winter scene layout
Winter 2010





This is what Amanda Kurtz created with the sketch, such a sweet lo!

Sweet Bun

Celina Matthews did a beautiful layout of her cousin with the sketch
Alice



And I did one of my younger daughter's prom pictures
Prom 2010

If you'd like to see some of the other fabulous layouts by our Design Team, please visit our Design Team Gallery.

And don't forget, tomorrow we will be announcing who our newest Design Team member is!

Friday, December 17, 2010

Layout of the Week by Vanillabliss

This week's Layout of the Week is by Joy aka Vanillabliss.  Manda picked this layout because of the fun accordion folds around the circle and how the pink jumps right off the page! And misting? Well, we all know I love that!!!  This has such a cute photo I love how everything goes so well together.  Huge Congrats Joy!!

Posted by Mandy :)

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Time Flies!

Where does the time go? 2010 is quickly coming to a close, and with that, we bring you our December kit, Time Flies.


This month's kit was designed to show off those holiday photos! With 9 double sided patterned papers from My Mind's Eye's Lost and Found Collection, 7 Gypsies' Paddington Collection, and Kaisercraft's After 5 collection, plus one sheet of flocked paper from Kaisercraft and one Prima Paintables paper, you can create beautiful layouts and projects for both your holiday photos and those everyday photos that prove Time Flies!We've included some fabulous items to embellish your layouts, as well, including our signature pin from Craftysprinkles and products from 7 Gypsies, Prima, Vintaj, Dusty Attic, and more.


We are also offering 3 Add-On Kits that compliment our Main Kit:

Our Romance Add-On Kit is comprised of embellishments that coordinate beautifully with the Main Kit to give you double the fun! Included are 7 Gypsies Aviation Clocks, Kaisercraft bling, My Mind's Eye Lost and Found Brads, Clearsnap Design Adhesives and Designer Foil, Prima Swallowtail Butterflies, Stickles in Chipped Sapphire, and more.
Our Patterned Paper Add-On Kit includes one extra sheet of each of the papers included with the Main Kit, as shown.
And, of course, our Cardstock Add-On, which includes 2 pieces of each of the colors shown.


The lovely Craftysprinkles has given us another beautiful sketch to use with the Time Flies Kit:



I really hope you like this month's kit!  Tomorrow I'll be posting the layouts done by our talented Design Team, using this sketch.

And don't forget, today is the last day to get submissions in for our Design Team Call!

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

There is still time...

Tomorrow is the last day to get your submissions in for our Design Team Call.
We've received some amazing applications, don't forget to add yours to them!
Details can be found here:  Scraps of Darkness Design Team Call.

Friday, December 10, 2010

Layout of the Week by Cheryl

A big CONGRATS to Cheryl aka C_Mom_Go for having a second layout be chosen for the layout of the week!!  Cheryl's "Despair" was chosen by me, because of the gorgeous design and amazing photo!!  This layout has such a heartbreaking story behind it and my heart goes out to Cheryl for this one.  I love Cheryl's trademark technique of weaving and how well she does it.  Her gorgeous flower cluster and broken heart is a perfect touch for this beautiful layout! Way to go girl!!
Posted by Mandy :)

Sunday, December 5, 2010

A contest and our December Guest Designer!!!

We are having another contest, which is open to our kit subscribers and anybody who has purchased either our November or December kit (which will be available on December 15th).  Get the details here .

And I'm so excited about our December Guest Designer, that I couldn't wait until kit reveal on the 15th!
Charlotte Jenkins, aka Suepup, will be working with our December kit to give you inspiration and eye candy!  I'm so thrilled that she accepted the Guest DT position, because I am a big fan of her work.  So if you haven't already, meet Charlotte:

I am Charlotte, AKA Suepup in the virtal world. I live in central Ohio, born and raised in the heart of an Appalachian coal mining town. I live with my husband, a Doberman Pincher, a Rottweiler and a Pharoah hound/Doberman mix. I am addicted to art and crafting!. My current loves are scrapbooking, mixed media, photography and printmaking.
I guess my creative journey began as a young child, when I began oil painting, drawing with pastels and beading. As a child, and still do, love anything that is rusted, weathered and distressed. I find beauty in things most people find ugly or consider junk. I am fairly new to scrapbooking and had been very reluctant to try the "art". For many years, I thought scrapbooking was only a craft, and not art. I now laugh at that thought, I was so wrong. A couple years ago, one of my friends dared me to just scrap one page. Well I did, and now I addicted. I find scrapbooking is a way to create smaller pieces of mixed media artwork! I love Distressed, Steampunk, Shabby Chic and Grunge style scrapbooking. I consider myself an artist rather than a crafter. I often find that my scrapbooking style does not fit the traditional scrapper. I have a passion for Modern and Renaissance Art. My favorite artist is Kathe Kollwitz, a German Expressionist whose work expresses empathy for the less fortunate, embraces the victims of poverty, hunger, death and war during the first half of the 20th century. I am also addicted to the Tudor and Edwardian era, I really any time period of great social change.
I am THRILLED and feel SO BLESSED to be invited as a guest designer for the Scraps of Darkness. I have been so inspired by all of the wonderful talent surrounding Scraps of Darkness.

If you haven't seen her work before, you can see her awesome creations on her blog:  A Pretty Pile of Paper Chaos .


And lastly, I just want to remind you all that we are looking for another Designer to add to our Design Team!  Get the details here.

Friday, December 3, 2010

Layout of the Week by Amy

This weeks Layout of the Week is by Amy aka moey!!  Her layout called Cutie-My Little Pepper was picked by Melinda.  This layout was chosen for it's beautiful elegance and distressing all in one.  We love how you worked in those gorgeous details and fabulous colors!!  Plus how you can pass up a pic that adorable!!  Huge Congrats Amy!!!
Posted by Mandy :)

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Layout of the Week by Cheryl

Congratulations to Cheryl aka C_Mom_Go for winning the LOTW!  Her layout "Boogie Nights" was picked by our DT member Celina.  Celina said, "Look at the way all the patterned papers create movement. The way these papers are put together screams fun! The music notes stamping brings the music to the page and the photos show a great time was had by all! Boogie on down, Cheryl!" Here is Cheryl's layout!!  
 Posted by Mandy :)

Friday, November 19, 2010

First Official Designer Call for SOD!!!

We are having our very first official designer call for the Scraps of Darkness kit club! If you love the alternative side of scrap booking or would love to venture into this realm, then I encourage you to try out!!

Commitment is important, so we want to be straight forward with what we are looking for. We want to see ambitious, outgoing, forum savvy scrappers that share in the same love as we do. The DT position will be from January through June of 2011 and we are looking for one more person for this term. At this time we are only accepting applications from US residents.

Here is what we will need from you:

1. You must complete 4-5 layouts/projects per month which will be ready to go by reveal day, which is the 15th of every month. These layouts need to be
placed in the SOD gallery, blogs, scrapbook.com, and any other public galleries.

2. Daily participation on our forums and a daily check in on our Design Team forum as well as keeping up in the galleries is a must. Questions of the week and other DT some responsibilities will be rotated amongst our DT and we would also like you to start new threads that encourage posting.

3. You must complete at least 2 tutorials within the 6 months you are a DT for SOD. These can be either photo or video tutorials.
In return for your commitment, you will receive the entire main kit, as well as, two additional add-ons free of charge!! You will also have first dibs on any other additional add-ons, featured throughout the months you are a DT, at a 50% discount.

Here is how to apply:

Please send all applications and attachments to

Please include the following:
1. Name, Address, Phone Number

2. Submit three layouts total - Include two layouts that show us your
alternative side or the darker side of you. For example: Grunge, Steampunk, Mixed Media, Dark, etc. Then also include a third layout that you would say is your favorite and this can be any style.

3. Tell us why you would like to be on the SOD team

4. Links to blogs, galleries, and any resume you may have

5. List of all current DT commitments
 
All submissions must be received by December 15th and we will have an official public announcement by December 25th!!
Mandy@scrapsofdarkness.com

Layout of the Week by Frances

This weeks LOTW was chosen by Manda.  She went with a layout called Lord Kensington by Frances.  The title is named for Frances' nephew Kenny, which is what his friends call him.  Manda chose this layout for the fun colors and great picture.  Congrats Frances!!! 

Posted by Mandy :)

Sunday, November 14, 2010

November Rain

Ah, nostalgia...Remember 80's spandex and glam metal bands? How about 90's grunge bands? Here at Scraps of Darkness, we love them both! So we've combined both era's into one fantastic, fun kit!  Our November Kit is filled with awesome papers from Prima, Glitz Design, and Bo Bunny.  Along with these fabulous papers, we've included our Signature Pin by Craftysprinkles, and a variety of fun and wild things to embellish your layouts with, including items from Prima, Shimmerz, Vintaj, Magistical Memories, and more!


And we have these super fun Add Ons available to compliment the main kit...





AND, to go along with this kit, a fantastic sketch by Craftysprinkles!




I hope you like what we did with this months kit, and I hope you'll visit our gallery to see what our talented design team is doing with this kit.

Thank you for stopping by, and I hope you all have an awesomely good day!

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Layout of the Week by Vanillabliss

When I saw this I knew it had to be the layout of the week for Scraps of Darkness!!  I just couldn't pass up an Aragorn layout!!  This beautiful page was created by Joy aka Vanillabliss and the handsome Aragorn is her hubby.  Joy and her man dressed up as Aragorn and Arwen for Halloween and I would imagine they wowed everyone with their incredible costumes!!   This layout is spectacular in design and detail!! I love the touch of subtle colors with a the dark masculine feel!!  Well done Joy and Congrats!! 
~Posted by Mandy~

Friday, November 12, 2010

Our November Guest Designer

Release Day for our November kit is rapidly approaching, and we've got an awesome announcement to go along with it!

I'm thrilled to let you know that Anna Valentin will be Guest Designing for us with the November kit!

Anna is a very talented scrapbooker, I've been admiring her work since I began scrapping, myself.  You can imagine how excited I was when she accepted the Guest Designer position for November.  If you haven't seen her work before, be sure to stop by on November 15th to see what she's done with our kit!

So without further ado, meet Anna:

Hello everyone, my name is Anna Valentin and I am 41 years old and from Hot Spring, Arkansas.  I have been scrapbooking for 2 years and a half.
I love scraping my beautiful family. I am newly divorced and I have 5 wonderful children, all boys:  Nikko 20, Marc 17, Gabriel 16, AJ 10 and Jeremy 9.

I love working with dark colors and love trying new techniques.
I am so grateful for all the wonderful and talented friends I have met through scrapbooking.

It started out for me as a escape...and ended up as a obsession. lol
I am honored to be the Guest Designer for the November Scraps of Darkness Kit!!!
Thanks, Anna, I can't wait to see what you've done with the kit!

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Scrap Caps Tutorial

I'll give you a little glimpse of something you will find in our November kit offerings... In our Grunge Add On, we have included some wonderful black bottle caps.  This being said, I thought I'd show you something fun to do with those bottle caps!



This was my first time trying this, and I had a blast, and think I will be doing it alot more.

What you will need:



*Resin (I use Castin Craft Clear Resin).  You can find this at any major chain craft store.
*Catalist (I use Castin Craft Catalist)
*Something to mix it in, I found that 3 oz unwaxed Dixie Cups work great for this - they are disposable, and flexible.  I'll tell you now, disposable is good, because your resin will dry fast, and it's nice to be able to just toss the cups once this happens.
*Something to mix the resin and catalist, like a popsicle stick.  As I have no popsicle sticks, I found using the wrong end of a paintbrush works just as well!
*Bottle Caps

Fill your 3 oz paper cup about a third of the way up with resin, so you have approximately 1 of resin in the cup.  Next, add 15 drops of catalist to the resin and stir for about a minute.



Your resin is ready to use!  Depending on what you'd like to do with your bottle cap, the steps are different, with endless possibilities.

If you simply want a nice background, cut a circle from the patterned paper of your choice about the size of the inside of the bottle cap.  I used a piece of Graphic 45 paper for this one, and just cut a rough circle around the area I wanted to use.  Place the circle, face up, inside the bottle cap and cover with a layer of resin.  You are done, all you have to do now is follow the resin manufacturer's instructions for allowing the proper time to harden and dry.


If you want some color in your background, it's very easy!  I am sure there are many different ways to get color, using the products of your choice, but the way I did it, which was very easy, was to pour a thin layer of resin into the bottle cap, allow it to begin to harden for about 15 minutes, and then I just dropped a few drops of Alcohol Ink over that.  Remember, you only want a thin layer of resin, you want to be able to add some embellishments, and you will need room!


Now, depending on the effect you want, you can allow the ink to dry before adding embellishments, for a solid background, or you can add the embellishments immediately for a bleeding effect.  You can see the difference in the end result in this picture:


The fun part is adding the embellishments.  If you plan to add embellishments, please remember that is important that your first layer of resin is THIN, so that the embellishments and another layer of resin will fit in the cap.

The possibilities with embellishments is endless!  Simply add whatever you want over the first layer of resin.  But you must allow the bottom layer of resin to harden to a thick gel consistancy before adding embellishiments, or they will just sink to the bottom of the cap.


Once you have arranged the embellishments to your liking, pour enough of the remaining resin from your cup over them, so that they are covered completely.  Allow to dry according to the resin manufacturer's instructions, and you have a fun and unique embellishment to add to your layouts!



I hope you have fun with this technique, I sure did!


Friday, November 5, 2010

Meet our newest designer...

I'm thrilled to announce that Celina Matthews has joined the Scraps of Darkness Design Team!  She will begin her term with our November kit.
You may also know Celina as Forevervampress or Scrap Vamp.  She has Guest Designed for Scraps of Darkness previously, and she does some really fantastic dark and Steampunk layouts.

Hello, all. My name is Celina Matthews. I am 33 years old, a military spouse, stay-at-home-mom of three, and a college student working on a Master's degree in Business Administration. I have been scrapping for a little more than a year now and I can tell you it has quickly become a passion. I scrap or think about scrapping all the time! I look at everything with a scrapper’s eye because you never know where inspiration will come from. I believe scrapping is therapeutic and a benefit to all. Scrapping is not just about recording your memories but about using and developing your creativity. My scrapping style is eclectic at the moment. I haven’t developed “my style” yet but I think it’s coming along beautifully. The styles that really call out to me are steampunk and the darker side of scrapping; including darker colors; a lot of distressing; and subjects like gothic, punk, and Halloween. These styles allow a lot of freedom, diversity, and creativity, and I suggest every scrapper give them a try! 




Welcome to the Design Team, Celina!


 I'd also like to let you all know that I'll be posting a Design Team Call for one more designer, who will be joining our team in January.  Details will be posted after the release of the November Kit on the 15th!

Monday, November 1, 2010

We have a winner!

It's November 1st, and I hope you all had a fabulous Halloween.  We certainly did at our house, and I am sure I'll be sharing some of the pics on some layouts in the near future, and hope to see some more wonderful layouts in your galleries.

I loved seeing all your entries in our October Blog Challenge, and wanted to announce the winner. I assigned each layout a number, then asked my husband to randomly choose a number.  He chose #3.

So without further ado, here is the layout that was assigned to #3...



Gotta Believe in Magic, by Marie (aka Mazz).

Isn't this layout just wonderful!  There isn't one thing I don't love about this layout, it's so creative and beautiful!  Congratulations Marie!  Please email me with your address, and I will ship our Simply Steampunk Kit (shown below) to you!



Thank you all for entering, and please keep an eye out for our next challenge!

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Only 7 more days!

To enter our October Blog Contest!  For details on how to enter, please click here !

In the meantime, I just thought you might like to see the entries we have received so far.  They are all fabulous, and I hope you enjoy seeing them as much as I have!

by Charisma3103



by Tjhelser



by Byondbzr



by ScrappininAK



Thank you for these wonderful entries, ladies.  I'm hoping to see alot more over the next week!