Sketch Class Starts Monday!

Don't miss our most popular class! Sketchapalooza starts this Monday (March 2nd) and the classroom is already open! :)

Here is what you can expect during the Sketchapalooza Class:

• A full FOUR WEEKS of class running from March 2nd until March 30th
• Detailed sketches made exclusively for you by our design team
• A full 20 sketches (5 per week!)
• New this class! Several double page sketches and more photos per sketch
• Challenges with prizes each week of class
• Plus tips and tid-bits to keep your creative juices flowing
• Fabulous creative examples for each sketch by our talented design team
• A private class forum with lots of support and friendly conversation
• Self paced class - do as much or as little as you would like
• A PDF file including all the sketches from class for you to keep for future reference
• Graduation crop with challenges, games and prizes
• Plus a few surprises :)

Interested? Just use the button in the right sidebar to sign up! Hope to see you there :)

Card sketch and inspiration

Happy Friday! Here's a card sketch for you to try. I love using sketches to get cards and layouts finished quickly. If you use this sketch to create a card, we'd love to see it! Share a link in the comment section so we can see.

Here's a sample I just created using Sheila's brand new "celebrate" stamp and papers from Paper Popsicles:

Here's a sample by Jayne Jones:

I hope you have a great weekend!

Some cookie inspiration!

If y'all are anything like me, the pages shared last Friday made me seriously crave a fresh bash of cookies! Just in case anyone needs some extra prompting to pick up that mixing bowl and spoon, I thought I'd share my all-time favorite recipe for chocolate chip cookies. This recipe uses shortening instead of butter, and I have found the results to be extra chewy and delicious! Enjoy!

Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies

3/4 cup shortening (I use Crisco butter flavor)
1 1/4 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 3/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 (6 oz.) package semi-sweet chocolate chips (1 cup)
1 cup coarsely chopped pecans (optional)

Heat oven to 375ºF.

Combine shortening, brown sugar, milk and vanilla in large bowl. Beat at medium speed of electric mixer until well blended. Beat in egg. Combine flour, salt and baking soda. Mix into shortening mixture until just blended. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.

Drop by rounded measuring tablespoonfuls 3 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheet.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes for chewy cookies, or 11 to 13 minutes for crisp cookies. Cool 2 minutes on baking sheet on a cooling rack. Remove cookies to rack to cool completely.

Let the good times roll!

Mardi Gras is coming up on February 24...time for a little fun! While I've never been to the event, the colors, excitement, music and costumes are certainly appealing.

Here are a couple of sites for you to enjoy:
http://www.mardigrasneworleans.com/ to learn more about Mardi Gras.
http://www.tabasco.com/taste_tent/menu_planning/mardi_gras.cfm for some Mardi Gras recipes.
http://www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/mardigras/ for children's crafts.
http://home.howstuffworks.com/mardi-gras-crafts.htm/printable for more children's crafts.

Hope you enjoy creating a little Mardi Gras fun at home!

Featured Scrapper!

Today I want to feature a fun scrapper we have gotten to know through several classes at Feeling Scrappy...Heather North! Here's a little bit about her so you can get to know her as well.


Here is Heather with her son:



How and when did you first start scrapbooking? From the time I was in high school I used to put stickers and pretty notepaper for my "journaling" in the magnetic albums I had my pictures in, so I would say I have been scrapbooking since I started taking pictures. I "officially" started scrapbooking after my second son was born. I asked my DH to get me some scrapbooking supplies for Christmas just before he was born and about a year later I started.

What is the most important aspect to scrapbooking to you? Keeping the memories. By looking through my scrapbooks I can relive all the wonderful times in our lives. It is a record of our lives. I love that! When I am old and my memory fails I can look through the books and remember. When I am gone my children and grandchildren will have a glimps e of our lives and who we were.


What are your favorite pages to work on? Anything new...new places we have visited, new puppy, new friends, new scrapbooking store. :o)

What if anything do you find hard to scrap? Christmas. We celebrate at least Christmas with at least 4 families each year, that adds up to a ton of pictures and pages to create. Somewhere along the way I got burnt out on doing Christmas pages.


What kind of camera do you use? Do you love it or hate it? I love my camera! It is a Cannon Powershot. I looked at getting a rebel, and would still like one, but I enjoy how easy mine is to use while still giving me great results.

What do you enjoy most about scrapbooking? "Me time". Whether I am scrapbooking with my BFF, a room full of strangers or all by myself, I find that scrapbooking "recharges my batteries" and fills me somehow. I also LOVE the friendships I have made because of scrapbooking.

Tell us a little about your family. I have 2 boys, 12 and 9 years old, a Boxer (mix) Dog, a Ferret, and a wonderful Husband. We moved from Northern California to Southwest Washin gton almost 2 years ago and love it up here in the Pacific Northwest!


Tell us about the things outside of scrapbooking that you enjoy. Every Tuesday that I am free I go to the local Stamping/Scrapbooking store and participate in the dollar demo. I make a card for $1, and it is helping me get a little more comfortable making cards. For some reason scrapbooking comes easier than card making. Doing the card sketches on FS has been helpful also. I LOVE sketches. I also enjoy going to my Ladie's Bible Study once a week. There is something so precious about getting together with other women, sharing our faith, joys and dissapointments.When we lived in CA, my DH & I built a hobby room in the garage to share. Giving up that room was one of the hard things about moving. My DH promised me he would build me another room when we moved into our new house, and he did! I love having a room I can retreat to and can stay as messy as I need it to.

Tell us something about yourself that your Feeling Scrappy friends do not know. I really want to start blogging, but I am not very computer savy and I don't really know where to begin. Any good suggestions?

Here are a couple of Heather's favorite layouts:





I hope you enjoyed getting to know Heather!! Have a wonderful day!!

Milk & Cookies Inspiration

We thought it would be fun to share some layouts centered around milk and cookies with you today. We hope they inspire you to make a similar page or at least to bake up a batch of warm cookies :) We'd love to see any pages you have created revolving around this theme! Feel free to share your layouts-old or new- in the comment section. Have a wonderful Friday!

Amy's Page:
Jayne's page:

Stacey's page:

3D photo technique

Megan, our very talented guest designer for January and February, created the following how-to for all of us this week. This is such a fun technique, and we hope all of you enjoy it!

1) Gather your supplies: 2 identical copies of your photo, foam adhesive, craft knife and craft mat.

2) Take one copy of your photo and using the craft knife, carefully and precisely cut out the object you want to be 3D from the photo.

3) Back the cutout photo with foam adhesive.

4) Make sure all the backing is off of your foam adhesive and carefully place your cutout photo directly over it's mirror image in the uncut photo.

5) The result will be a 3D effect with the focal object coming out of the photo.

6) Use your photo on a layout!