Ringing in the New Year!

Hi everyone!
This is my first official Sussies blog post. I am so happy to be a part of this team, and feel so lucky to be able to work with Lara's AWESOME kits!
I had a blast working with January's kit, and used up almost the whole thing! Keep an eye out tomorrow for the design team reveals in the gallery.

For now, I leave you with some quotes and poems that can be used on your scrapbook pages to help celebrate the New Year.

A fresh snowfall in winter
Always brings my heart delight
When I waken in the morning
To a wonderland of white.
--author unknown

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
--Alfred Lord Tennyson

“January”
January opens
The box of the year
And brings out days
That are bright and clear.
And brings out days
That are cold and gray,
And shouts, “Come see
What I brought today!”
--Leland B. Jacobs

"Should auld acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind? Should auld acquaintance be forgot and days of auld lang syne? For auld lang syne, my dear, for auld lang syne, we'll take a cup of kindness yet, for auld lang syne."
--Robert Burns, Auld Lang Syne

"Then sing, young hearts that are full of cheer,With never a thought of sorrow;The old goes out, but the glad young yearComes merrily in tomorrow."
--Emily Miller

"Winter, a lingering season, is a time to gather golden moments, embark upon a sentimental journey, and enjoy every idle hour."
--John Boswell

LOYALTY PAYS OFF!!!

First of all, for those of you who participated in the 2009 Year of the Sussie, THANK YOU and CONGRATULATIONS!! All of you who made it will be getting your January kit for free (not including shipping)!!! I hope the 12 months of kits were worth it to get this free one!! The really cool thing about it is, if you continue with the 2010 Year of the Sussie, your January kit counts as your first kit! So, essentially, you only have to purchase 11 kits this year to get the 2011 January kit for free. Loyalty pays off.

I'm hoping to see more of you than ever uploading layouts to the gallery. Our #'s are increasing again - the word about all the Sussie love is spreading!!!!

But now, on to the good stuff! I used a computer to generate random numbers and select my winners for the 2009 Year of the Sussie drawings!!! Thanks again to all who participated. Here are the winners...

JENNIFER DANIEL won the Twitterpated Kit


CONNIE WILLIS won the Dry Erase Board


ALICIA MURPHY won the magnetic notepads


MELISSA MCNEILL won the American Crafts Leather Album


CORRIE NEVIL won the package of Thickers


MARY ROWE won the 1st SIX MONTH SUSSIES SUBSCRIPTION!!!!

AMY HART won the Cora Roo Memorial Kit


JODIE FINCKE won the My Mind's Eye Tres Joilee Kit


BRENDA VARGAS won the Bo Bunny Couture Bag


VERENA BOGAN won the My Mind's Eye Just Dreamy Kit


KELLY SWOSINSKI won the American Crafts Eclectic Kit


MARY HOGUE won the American Crafts Kit (I have no idea why I don't have a pic of this yet, but it's similar to the Eclectic kit - you'll have to be surprised!!!)

BETH SERRA won the 2nd SIX MONTH SUSSIES SUBSCRIPTION!!!

And, finally, JENN BROOME won the year-end referral bonus package!!!


CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OF YOU! I will be shipping your winnings with your January kit!!!

Inspired

First of all, I am so thankful to be able to post my first blog post today! I was thrilled when Lara asked me to join the team and I have had a blast this month playing with the super fun January Sussies kit! These kits are even more full of embellies and cute little touches than I had remembered and they make creating pages so very simple!

This month I found myself inspired by the "girl" side of the kit and wanted to share a bit about that and some photos I had taken all because of the pretty prints... I apologize that since the snow was falling all day (and will until Wednesday) you will have to see my girl (and boy) pages this Wednesday on my blog or at the end of the week in the beautiful members gallery. If you have not been over to the Members Gallery take a moment and check it out. The work is beautiful and I was amazed by all of the talent you ladies have!!!!!

Back to the INSPIRED part....anyway, when I first received my kit in the mail and saw all of the cute nail polishes and lip sticks and poodles I searched through my photos hoping to find the perfect ones and instead discovered I rarely take photos of those everyday girly moments... the dress up and dolly playing is not in much of any photos and so I knew what I had to do! I made a date with my girls. We picked out the perfect nail polish and dress up and had fun just being girls. A whole night of fun just inspired from some pretty paper and that was a memory I will not soon forget! The gift of that memory and now the pages to add to our scrapbook is the best Sussie of all! ;-)

here is a peak of the "girl" pages and a couple of the sweet photos (not perfect, but of our memory)....











I hope each of you have had a wonderful holiday season and that the December Sussies kit inspired you to capture all of those little moments this month!
Take care!

Last Minute Cards

This is it. The last few days before Christmas gets here. Do you have a couple of people you'd still like to get a card out to? I pulled out my December kits leftovers and whipped up two cards in no time flat.

These two took about 10 minutes each. Pop a stamp on them and get them in the mail today or tomorrow, and you've pulled off a last minute Holiday Wish.
Merry Christmas! Hope everyone has a great week and a great Holiday!

~Leah

Card Book

One of my favortie things about Christmas is all the cards and photos that family and friends mail to each other. I don't really have a place to hang them or set them out, so for the past few years I have been compiling them into mini books. I start by making a cover and back out of cardstock (6x9 1/2 inches.) Then I embellish the front- all those cute Sussies embellishments sure came in handy this year:) I then punch a hole in the corner of each card. I usually can get a decent amount of cards through the hole puncher. Then attach with a ring or chain. It is such a great way to save your cards, and makes for a nice conversation piece on the coffee table for the holidays. May you have a fabulous holiday season and New Year!
-Val

Good Monday Morning!

It's sunny and the day has started off well! I'm making teacher Christmas gifts as we speak! Still working on those Christmas cards though! Have you sent yours out yet? Every year it gets later and later for me!

So I debated about what to write about in my post this month. Do I show you the Countdown Calendar or layouts from December's wonderful kit? Do I tell you how FUN the January boy/girl kit is? I've already made 2 double page layouts using it?

Whe I first got the kit, I was going to beg for someone to send me some boy pictures just so I could use some of the embellishments for the boy side. With 3 girls, I can use the boy side of the kit but miss out on the fun embellies... but I went scrapping with my sister-in-law Saturday night and she does have a boy and she did have pictures I could use so I got to play with some of the boy embellishments!

So, I'm still not sure what I should tempt you with... December or January? Well, since I have yet to scan my January layouts (have you signed up yet? The Year of the Sussie is so worth it! I {almost} wish I wasn't designing for Sussies so I could do it!!), I'll show you some of what I did with the December kit. Not only did I make a countdown calendar, but I made 3 double-page layouts and I have enough paper for at least one more!

So, here is the calendar I made. I used a clipboard and sprayed it with red paint. then I used some little basic grey magnets and put them down in 5 rows of 5 and covered it with the wonderful Crate paper (I'd like to get some more of this line!).



I cut out 75 two inch circles for the countdown part. I used the MM tag maker machine and those metal circles and 50 circlesw (which didn't match up to the two inches as well as I'd hoped so there is a lot of glue holding them together!) to make the tags with the other half of the magnet between and used the FUN crate paper embellies to decorate some of them. I stamped the rest of the circles and placed them on the paper. And that's all!

Here's a collage of close-ups:


Can you believe Christmas is less than 2 weeks away? Are you ready?? Have a blessed rest of the year and I'll "see ya" in 2010!

Welcome Designers!! (And December Sneak Peek!!)

Before I begin, can I just tell you how many so very talented women there are out there in the Sussies world??? I received so many applications for the Design Team! It's my least favorite part of the job - having to turn away such beautiful work. It really is a shame my design team can't be so much bigger.

But, in the end, it came down to two gals who I think will be incredible additions to the Sussies Design Team.

Please welcome to the team - Taryn Stothart and Lisa Wilkinson!!!

Taryn lives in Pennsylvania and has two daughters (I am looking forward to seeing her create with both the girl and boy side! It's always fun to see how people with just one gender of children work with the other gender's paper!) She operates a scrapbook retreat house called The Hamburg Hideaway! Check out her website! It looks just fab!

Lisa lives in New Hampshire and has 5 children!! You count them!!! FIVE!! She certainly has her work cut out for her and I'm looking forward to getting to see those children in her Sussies layouts! She says she loves working with embellishments so those Sussies kits should be just perfect for her!

My little sister is working on their photos (along with Cindy's) and they'll be up on the website soon.

Along with the Design Team news, some of you may have noticed that the gallery has officially been moved to the Member's Gallery. I apologize to those who have been looking for October's and November's layouts these past couple of months. They've been available, but just through the member's gallery. Please start looking for people's work there! AND UPLOAD YOUR OWN LAYOUTS, TOO! We all could use more inspiration and, who knows, the gallery is just the place for me to find that next designer for a guest spot!!!

Finally, the January Sneaks... The January 2010 marks the beginning of Scrapbook Sussies' 5th year in business!! (I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!) It also marks the beginning of the Year of the Sussie 2010!!! Check out all the details HERE.

As always, the January kit is truly a boy side / girl side kits. Not all Sussies kits are done that way, but the January kit always is! The kit will feature the lines Fancy Pants Rough & Tumble and Imaginisce Posh...

Here's your peeks...