JBS Welcomes Jill Sprott to the Team!

Hi, all! I’m from Oahu, Hawaii, where I live with my husband Rob and daughter Zoe. I was born and raised here, though being blonde-haired and blue-eyed, I often get odd reactions when I share that. I don’t look “local” but I grew up speaking pidgin with everyone else here. Fo' reals! By day, I am an English teacher, surrounded by students' papers, and by night, you will most likely find me surrounded by patterned paper. I started scrapbooking over seven years ago out of curiosity, and although it took me a long time to shake off the fear of “messing up,” I kept at it, and I’m glad I did. When it comes to trying to explain why I scrapbook, I always quote Robert Frost. He was referring to poetry, but I think the same holds true for scrapbooking: it is “a way of remembering what it would impoverish us to forget.” The ultimate inspiration can be found in the desire to do just that. It’s a sense of play that ignites and motivates my creative process. I can’t create with an “I-have-to-do-this” attitude; instead, I approach each page with an “I wonder what might happen if...” attitude. One of the most satisfying things about the process of creating is that "click", that moment when everything comes together and you just know.

"From the Desk of a 13th Year Newbie" is my favorite October JBS Mercantile layout. This is my thirteenth year of teaching, but it is also my first year at a new school. That transition has been challenging and gratifying, affirming my belief that teaching is a vocation, a calling. It is difficult and wonderful and important work, but because it can be so personally demanding, a teacher must constantly make a choice to answer that call. On a constant basis -- each year, each quarter, each week, each day, each period -- I say "yes" to teaching.

One of my favorite photos right now is a shot I took of my daughter at Bellows this summer. It was early in the morning, and the whole family had gathered on the windward side of the island for breakfast on the beach. Every time I look at this photo I marvel over the blue of the ocean, the wide expanse of sky, and this child, opening her arms to take in the wonder of it all. It's an endless ocean before her, but she moves toward it. It reminds me of e.e. cummings: "It's always ourselves we find in the sea."

Spotlight on Michelle Lanning!

Today we welcome back our September Customer Spotlight superstar Michelle Lanning! She has three lovely projects to share with us. What a treat! Thanks for the inspiration Michelle!

We'll be announcing a new customer spotlight winner on October 5th. It could be you with a box of JBS happiness arriving in the mail and a bonus spot on our Inspiration Blog, so get your projects loaded in the customer gallery ASAP!

Guest Star Jennifer Johner!

Coolness! Thanks for the inspiration Jen!

JBS Mercantile October Peeks!

Betsy Sammarco

Keisha Campbell

Doris Sander

Here are a few October kit peeks for you. Lots of fun colors to work with this month including some sweet pink and green in the exclusives.

Guest Star Debbie Hodge!

Hi, I’m Debbie Hodge. I live in a small town in New Hampshire and take a lot of outdoor photos. I love layering and mixing patterned papers, and these Jenni Bowlin papers are great for the photos recently taken at my parents’ farm. On “Moment” I used one of my favorite techniques for layering a variety of patterned papers. I double matted the two pieces that back up my photos. My preference is to use a very narrow black mat and then a slightly wider white mat as I’ve done here. I like the definition this gives to a patterned piece when it’s layered right on top of another pattern. You could also get this definition with an inked edge or stitching.

I rarely make layouts with one photo. The design on “Hayride” is one I turn to frequently when I want to get several photos on the page. Three 5 x 3.5” landscape photos are accented by three smaller, supporting photos. Since the photos contain so many different colors, I desaturated the smaller photos just a bit. When designing layouts with several photos, I make sure to crop my photos using “repetitions with variety.” Here, the three larger photos are all the same size and orientation (repetition). The supporting photos are smaller (variety), with the two on the right of the same size (repetition). Note, also, that two of the smaller photos are of portrait orientation (variety). You can download the page sketch with measurements (as well as two complementary designs) for “Hayride” at my website Get It Scrapped!

Debbie Hodge is the author of the Memory Maker’s book, Get It Scrapped!, and the owner of a website with that very same name. You can find new articles and tutorials on both the practical and creative aspects of memory keeping by Debbie and the Get It Scrapped! teachers several times each week. Debbie also hosts a monthly design series at Masterful Scrapbook Design with Jenni Bowlin Studio designers Doris Sander, Lisa Dickinson, and Dina Wakley teaching this fall.

Guest Star Lisa Truesdell!

Hi everyone! I'm excited to be here sharing a page today - JBS is one of my favorite manufacturers. Playdate is my probably my favorite JBS release to date - Jenni's vintage vibe + bright colors = the perfect mix for me. For this page, I mixed bits of the Playdate line with some of Jenni's newer releases.

I'm trying to be better about incorporating memorabilia into my pages, so I made a little pocket out of vellum to hold our game tickets.

The Pennant Banner stickers were one of my favorite items from the winter release, so I was super excited to see them show up in chipboard form. I layered the two for some added dimension, and then added smaller flags made from vintage book pages to my banner.

Take me out to the ballgame! Great page! Thanks for the inspiration Lisa aka Gluestickgirl!

JBS Blog Treats!

I've spotted lots of bonus JBS goodness on my jaunts through blogland lately and thought I would share them with you . . .

There is Christmas joy on Ranjini's blog.

There's a rainbow of Ranger goodness on Kerry Lynn's blog.

There are some fabulous folds on Betsy's blog.

There's a scraplift extravaganza on Doris's blog.

There is stunning elegance on Keisha's blog.

Oh! and Shimelle sent me a link to this truly madly adorable butterfly page on the blog of a friend.

Enjoy!

JBS Mercantile Updates!

We wanted to give you a little heads up that we are putting a few more of the September Project Kit up for sale. This was the Halloween mini-album. We are out of the 7 Gypsies house, so these kits are of the papers and embellishments only. The price has been adjusted to reflect this change. You will find them HERE at 12:00 noon CST today.

We have also found a handfull of past kits and put them back in stock as well. Those can be found HERE if you missed out the first time around.

Betsy Sammarco joins the JBS Mercantile Gallery!

Betsy is already a vital part of the JBS team, contributing many paper and hybrid projects to our blog. Now we are pleased to announce that she's going to be making monthly contributions to our Mercantile gallery as well! Yay for even more Betsy goodness!

Back to School with Stephanie Howell

Stephanie Howell is going back to school with Two Peas in a Bucket! You can read more of her first day adventures HERE. Thanks for the inspiration Stephanie! :)

Fold-Out Postcard Holder by Betsy Sammarco

This “postcard” holder displays your 4x6 photos and is modeled after vintage fold-out postcard holders. Here’s how you can make one:

Cover a piece of cardstock 6-1/2” x 11” with patterned paper on both sides. I use Helmar Premium Craft Glue as my adhesive for this. Score your covered cardstock at 1”, 5-1/2”, 5-3/4”, and at 10-1/4”. This is your postcard holder cover.

Make an accordian fold out piece for your photos using another piece of cardstock cut to 6”x12”. Score one piece at 4” intervals and the other at 1”, 5”, and 9”. Cut 2 inches off the second piece. This piece of cardstock has 2 - 1” flaps. One flap is used to adhere to the first accordian piece and the other 1” flap adheres to the inside of your holder.

The holder can be closed in a variety of ways. I used a Vintage Sew On Button and trimmed the top flap so it secures under the button.

The small bottom flap is folded toward the inside of the holder and secured on both ends to form a small faux pocket for a journaling card.

Add your photos!

Decorate the front of the holder. I used a Journaling Card, Ledger letter stickers, Star stickers, and a Tim Holtz stamp.

Fabulous! Thanks for the inspiration Betsy!

September Mid-Month Releases!

This month we have a Halloween Treat Topper Kit designed by Jenni . . .

A Halloween Vintage Papercrafting Kit . . .

vintage coupon booklets . . .

and vintage green leather mini books! These will all be available under our mid-month releases button at 10 a.m. CST TODAY! HURRY!!! Supplies are very limited!

Guest Star Paula Gilarde!

Here's another fabulous Christmas layout featuring Family Tree! This one's by Paula Gilarde. I especially love how all her great photos capture the moment so well. Thanks for the inspiration Paula!

Guest Star Lisa Pace!

Imagine how thrilled I was when Jenni released her Acrylic Paint Dabbers this summer at CHA. I must tell you the paint colors match her paper lines perfectly. So when I was asked to create a project for her blog the first thing I did was grab her paints and get to work. I painted the outer cover of my binder using Lemon Drop and Malted Milk and the inner cover using Chili Powder. I then accented the edges using Fountain Pen. As you can see these colors work perfectly with her Family Tree Mini Papers and other JBS embellishments.

JBS Products Used:

Acrylic Paint Dabbers – Lemon Drop, Malted Milk, Chili Powder, Fountain Pen

Family Tree Mini Papers

Family Tree Journaling Cards

Old School Alpha Minis – Black, Red

Butterfly Stickers – Black, Red, Yellow

Plain Chipboard Elements - Butterfly

Red Memo Book

Self Adhesive Pearl Buttons – Orange, Red, Yellow

Stick Pins – Garnet, Cream

Lisa Pace is the author of “Delight In The Details”a technique based book that incorporates a variety of materials, from simple paper and fabric scraps to glitter, ink, modeling paste and of course vintage finds. She is presently the Special Projects Coordinator for Maya Road. In May of 2007, Lisa was picked as one of 5 master scrapbookers in Martha Stewart’s scrapbooking contest and August of 2007, was chosen as a 2008 Memory Makers Master. Her work has been published in magazines such as Memory Makers, Scrapbooks etc., Better Homes and Gardens and Scrapbooking & Cards Today as well as numerous idea books like Holiday Home, Scrapbook Trends, Paper Trends, Paper Creations and Scrapbooking & Beyond.If you would like to see more of Lisa’s work, check out her blog “It’s In The Details” at www.lisapace.com

Gorgeous! Thanks for the inspiration Lisa!

Weekend News . . .

Danielle Flanders is featured in the September issue of Ellaments in an article titled "Girly Guaranteed." A free must read if you're a mommy to girls or just like using the lace and bling.

Doris Sander has been busily tidying up the JBS blogs. Did you notice that this blog finally has labels? Now with a click you can see all the work by your favorite designers and all the projects using your favorite products. There are also now links to our twitter and facebook pages as well as to our new blog. New blog did you say? Why yes! We now have a second JBS blog. This one focuses exclusively on JBS product and is an excellent tool for store owners and customers looking for ideas on how to use our lovelies or how to recreate projects that they see here.

September Gallery Updates!

Wilna has five layouts in her gallery . . .

Ranjini has a new layout, two cards, and a project in her gallery . . .

Michelle has a new layout in her gallery . . .

Lisa has a new layout in her gallery . . .

Kerry Lynn has a new layout and two projects in her gallery . . .

Becky has a new layout in her gallery . . .

and Doris has a new layout and project in her gallery . . . Enjoy!