Hi everyone!

Kelly (kenandbelly) here with a little digital scrapbooking challenge for you.  We love challenges here at Weeds and Wildflowers and they’re a great way to collect Petal Points as well.  (Collecting 10 Petal Points earns you a $10 Gift Certificate to the Weeds and Wildflowers Shoppe!)

This challenge is a journal prompt challenge.  You may be familiar with the idea of negative space in a layout.  Well, the idea with this challenge is to make a negative statement layout.  I’m challenging you to make a LO about something that’s NOT.

For example, I recently made a LO with the title “These are NOT my real bookshelves.”

I made ya some wordart to get started. (I used Heidi Williams’ Itty Bitty Alpha!)

You can download the wordart here.

You don’t have to use this wordart– the idea is to feature the negative statement.  I’m excited to see what you come up with! 

REMEMBER - in order to earn Petal Points, all layouts must include the following:

• use at least 80% W&W goodies
• post your layout in our challenge gallery and leave a link to your layout in this challenge forum.
• layouts must be posted by Sunday, March 21st at midnight, E.S.T.

They say spring comes in like a lion and out like a lamb. You can turn someone’s day around too with these fun new FREE cards. These simple, kind greetings will make anyone happy. 

“Spreading Cheer” is a bright colorful collection of whimsical hand drawn and chalked elements that are sure to bring a splash of color to your layouts! Mix the fun, bright elements with the earthy toned neutral papers and you will love the fun contrast!

Download your Spreading Cheer cards HERE.

Enjoy,

Iowan

Hello there! Well we’re in the beginning stages of Autumn here in the Southern Hemisphere. Today as I drove home from seeing a movie with my mom, I even noticed there are a few trees whose leaves have already started to change colour. :o(  I bet those of you up North of the Equator are looking forward to Spring after a very cold winter? I’m hoping your cold winter is not going to be a reflection on what ours will be here this year!

I rarely go to movies, but my mom had the morning off work so we went to see “It’s Complicated” with Meryl Streep & Alec Baldwin. If you enjoy a really good giggle, I suggest you see this movie. It really gave me a smile. Furthermore, the scenery was beautiful and Meryl Streep’s quaint house and country garden are so beautiful, not to mention her absolutely perfect veggie patch.

I was going to ask you to take a photo of something in your garden, but I think in view of the fact that many of you still seem to have loads of snow, I think I’ll go with another theme – LIGHT. (Just to brighten your day! ha ha)

You need to take a photo incorporating the theme of light in your photo in some way. You can take a photo of light at night, or simply take an interesting shot with sunrays in it. Perhaps you want to try taking a photo using a lightbox or using natural light from a window to illuminate a portrait. Have fun playing around!

For a quick tutorial on shooting photos in low light without a flash, take a peek HERE.

And here are 4 fabulous Digital Photo tips for the year ahead.

Here’s a photo that I took last week one morning when we were awake really early. I loved the beautiful pinks and purples the early dawn sunlight was casting across the sky and the clouds were perfect too.

Before I run off again, I need to announce that the lucky draw winner is #90 (from our Petal Points list) and that is Lila. Congrats, you just won an extra Petal Point.

So now go snap those shots and upload them to the Challenge Gallery and post a link in the forum HERE so we can see them and give you that 1/4 Petal Point.

Have fun with your photography this week!

Happy March Weedsters! Gina has been at it again and has created some more beautiful products for March. Act quick as they are all on sale right now in the shoppe here.

She has created the new Sweet & Simple #3 Papers & Elements. I’m totally in love with all this GREEN & I can’t wait to scrap some pages with it.

For all you Life 365-ers, Gina has created her Sweet & Simple pages that are ready-made. Everything is on seperate layers so you can add/move/rearrange as you’d like. Talk about making it easy! She has 3/4 photos/page or 7-photos/page. Take your pick!

Or what about the 3/4 or 7 photo templates? These are great for scrapping pages quickly that are not 365-related. Or you can add the March Elements & Papers and create your own 365 pages for more creativity.

Ok - now is time to write those comments, weedsters. Share your love for Gina and one of you will be randomly selected to win some *FREE* March products! Comments must be submitted by Wednesday, March 3rd, at 11:59pm.

Have a great week!

***UPDATE: Congrates to random #51: BOBBY!! Here is what she said:

Top o’ the morning to you weedsters.  It be the lucky month of March which means leprachauns, clovers and all things Irish.  So, enjoy this free desktop to start your luck off strong.

I created this Irish themed desktop using the the Wearin’ O’ the Green kit by by Gina Marie Huff.  Looking for some Irish charm mixed with some W&W Style whimsy? Then The Wearin’ O’ The Green is just the kit for you! - You will feel lucky as you scrap your day of the Green!!

Download here.

Enjoy,

Carol O’Iowan

Hi everyone, welcome to another Photo Prompt and the last one for February.

Firstly, I would like to share a tutorial I found on Exposure and the 3 elements which affect exposure. This will be particularly interesting to those who have DSLR’s, but still use “Auto” when snapping their photos or are (like me) sometimes still unsure of what they are doing when experimenting with “manual” mode.

Take a peek HERE and discover the possibilities… I’m certainly going to try to practice using Manual settings more often!

The Photo Prompt for this week is “Housework”. Yip something we all have to do each and every day. Be it a simple thing like washing the dishes or wiping down the kitchen counter to spring cleaning the entire house! So include a photo of this rather mundane task (in my opinion!) in your Life365. I haven’t taken my photo yet, but today is the day I have to clear out the kid’s playrooms, so I may just snap one today.

Here’s a couple of quotes to get you inspired and put a smile on your face.

My second favourite household chore is ironing. 

My first being hitting my head on the top bunk bed until I faint.  ~Erma Bombeck

Nature abhors a vacuum.  And so do I.  ~Anne Gibbons

Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing

is like shovelling the walk before it stops snowing. 

~Phyllis Diller, Phyllis Diller’s Housekeeping Hints, 1966

Housework is something you do that

nobody notices until you don’t do it.  ~Author Unknown

Our house is clean enough to be healthy,

and dirty enough to be happy.  ~Author Unknown

Remember to upload your photos to the CHALLENGE GALLERY and also to leave a link to your photo HERE in the forum so you can grab that 1/4 Petal Point! The points add up quickly and before you know it, you’ll have 10 Petal Points and receive a $10 gift certificate to the shoppe.

Have a great week!

Have you noticed that the February Sweet & Simple LIFE products contain two miscellaneous pages?  The reason for that is to make an even number of pages - because with an even number of pages, your month will always start on the same side of your book.  Now, some of you may choose not to do monthly summaries, or may not even feel that a monthly title page is necessary, but you probably still want to have an even number of pages.  Or you might just want more and more pages because you love the Sweet & Simple Life system!

Here are some ideas to consider if you need an extra page to fill in for a month, or if you just want to include more LIFE in your book:

• Did you take any pictures of yourself this month?  If not, you can throw in a page about YOU!  Maybe even do this every month!
• Take a page to document your motivation and goals for your Life365 - What does it mean to you?  Why did you start? What do you think you will get out of it?  Is it still fun?  Have you made any changes?
• If you traveled a lot this month, you could list all the places you’ve been.
• If you had a very busy month, you can list all of your activities.  If you keep a daily planner, photograph it or scan it and put that into your Life365.
• Did you work really hard on dinners this month?  Scrap about those new recipes you tried!
• If you started a new hobby or club, make a page about that.
• Did an anniversary occur this month?  Maybe it’s not one of the “traditional” anniversaries, but something else that is meaningful to you.  Take this opportunity to put your feelings down on paper.
• You can make a page every few months as a quarterly review.
• Are there parts of your life that just never get photographed - because you just never have the camera with you?  Like your exercise routine, your work commute, your morning routine because you’re just frantic to get to work or get the kids on their way, you can’t stop to take a picture!  Well, you don’t need a photo.  You can scrap about it anyway.

And with that last one, I segue into your FREEBIE:  Gina kindly made up this wordart set to use for scrapping something that didn’t get photographed:

DOWNLOAD FREEBIE HERE

Thank you, Gina! I was blown away when I saw what she made for us!  And this set includes both the 2010 and 2009 Life365 styles of wordart!

I love that Life365 can be whatever you want it to be - simply a photo a day, or you can expand it to document as much of your life as you want.   Even if you’re working only with the layered quickpages, I’m sure you can get creative with them to build more coordinating pages for your month!

Enjoy your freebie, and enjoy your day!

Just a quick post to announce the winner of the template challenge.  The CT voted and this was the favourite:

Congratulations ChickieShannon - you win an extra petal point!

Hey There! So in keeping up with photos thanks to Sweet & Simple LIFE 2010 I have been finding more and more ways to use my hobby to keep life a little more organized and SIMPLE. One way has been for my husband’s extra income from preaching/speaking, I have always tried to keep the stubs in a basket and then reconcile to tax forms that come in at the end of the year but still some can get misplaced and I always worry that I may miss something. This year with my camera on my phone it hit me that I could take a picture of each check before I take it to the bank and keep a folder with all of those images…then next year when the tax forms come in, I will delete the images that I receive tax backup for and any that are left I will print and attach for the accountant and know for sure when we are all set for the not so pleasant process of tax filing.

Well so from that I started thinking of all the big things and little things that one day I will like to look back on with my family and remember…we redid the house last fall so I want to take photos of the new parts and journal what we picked…whose favorite it was and how much it cost so we can watch inflation and the changes 10 or 20 years from now.

So for our challenge… take INVENTORY of something. I did not do any of the elaborate plans because this can be detailed or SWEET & SIMPLE!!! Since it is February and lots of talk about the people we LOVE…I am taking inventory of the girls favorite toy right now and the games that go with it!

Find something in your world to take INVENTORY…scrap a page and come share it with us! For a Petal Point it needs to have at least 80% Weeds & Wildlflowers goodies! The team will vote on a favorite and that winner will get an extra Petal Point. When you earn 10 Petal Points you get $10 to go shopping in the store!

Post layouts HERE in the Challenge Gallery and link in the forum HERE.

Have a great day!!!