Our Spread the Love Contest starts today and goes through the end of the month.  All the details are on our message board.  The first two challenges have been posted by design team members Teresa Matz and Berta Ramsey.

Follow THIS link to Teresa’s sketch challenge, and check out Berta’s “What do you Love?” challenge HERE.

Have fun working on these challenges over the weekend.  We’ll post three new challenges for you in a couple of days.

When you think of February you think of LOVE! At ScrapMuse we are going to dedicate the month of February to spreading the love. “Spread the Love“ will be a month long contest held on the ScrapMuse message board.

We are going to spend the first 5 days of February getting everything ready.  You will have the rest of the month to earn points by spreading the love about Scrapmuse, participating in weekly challenges, joining our Blog Hop, and posting on the message board. Since the contest is all about love…..there will also be random “love“ points handed out! You will find a complete list of rules and ways to earn points on February 5th in the “Spread the Love” section of the message board.

The grand prize for the scrapper with the most “love” at the end of the month will be a Brand New March 2010 Mega Muse and a July 2009 Mega Muse. We will also select a second place winner from a random drawing who will win a March, 2010 Mini Muse.

A fun use for those kit scraps is to make bookmarks. My little granddaughter loves using these in her books as well as I do.

First you need an 8.5 in. long x 2 in. piece of cardstock to use as a base. Then, you will cute 2 pieces the same size for the front and the back out of your choice of patterned papers. Next, I added the smaller leftover scraps and torn one piece and used a border punch on another. Just fit these on your bookmark as you would like. After inking all the edges and glueing everything down I pulled out my leftover embellishments and started placing those. Inked a chipboard flourish and some alphas. Then, pulled some other small alphas from my stash. After it’s finished I placed it in the plastic cover and added some leftover ribbon at the top.

I hope you’ll find some great uses for all the wonderful kit scraps. I can’t bare to throw any little scrap away!

(Sorry, there’s a glare as I already put it in the plastic cover before scanning.)

~Deanna Deaton

Even though the January ‘Parisian Nights’ kit is sold out you can still buy the paper addon in the store. What a great deal on those too! I’m tempted because I’ve nearly used all my kit papers!

The January “Sweet Nothings” kit is still available as shown here. WOW! Amazing pretty goodies there! The paper addon is also available!

And, don’t forget to check out the January ‘Space Cowboys’ kit that is just perfect and fun in every way! The paper addon is still available for that too.

Don’t miss out on all the fun while these are still available!

~Deanna Deaton

Our January monthly theme was about the resolutions, goals, or word we were working on for the New Year. You can read more detail about it in my article for the Jan. Newsletter. If you haven’t already scrapped a page about it I urge you to do so today. Get those thoughts down on paper.  I wanted to share with you some of the layouts the design team worked on using the ‘Parisian Nights’ kit.

My layout is about having more Patience throughout 2010. This is something I struggle with daily, but work hard on improving.

Chiqui started out with a list of ‘High Hopes’ for the New Year and has journaled about each point.

Valerie has chosen one word “Less” in hopes of simplifying her life overall.

Janet has kept hers sweet and to the point of spending more time with her friends and family. She created the layout “My Resolutions” with photos of her family and friends.

Teresa’s goal is to spend more time with her oldest daughter as she documented in her “My Daughter” layout.

~~Deanna Deaton

Today I’d like to share with you my favorite layouts from our Mega Muse design team using our January 2010 Mega Muse Parisian Nights.

This Layout by Deanna, is a favorite of mine this month with her inovative use of the jewels from our embellishment add-on. They look so great on the patterned papers above the photo.

Valerie’s new year’s resolution layout instantly captivated me with her fun, thoughtful journaling and her use of color. I also love that there are no photos on this layout.

Janet’s cards are always amazing and this one is no exception. Her use of ribbon and stamping are fanatastic and I know that I will be using some of my kit scraps to make a card just like this for a friend of mine.

I am a lover of all baby layouts, maybe because of their sweet inocent look, or maybe because I have two little ones of my own, but this adorable layout by Chiqui went straight into my favorites folder. She is a master at adding just the right amount of embellishment to finish a page and I love her use of white space.

I love this layout of Teresa’s this month because it shows that even though your first though with this kit may be to make girly or baby layouts, it can easily be used to showcase a relationship with someone special in your life.  Her photo trio used on this page is just perfect!

Finally I love this layout of Tricia’s this month because of her amazing ability to transform little more than pattern paper and cardstock into something truly stunning. If you look closely the only embellishments used on this page are the sequins and the chipboard shape under the flower, but with her ability to transform the ordinary into something extraordinary this page looks like a million bucks!

I hope you have all enjoyed a peek at my favs from this month. Please check back tomorrow as we review our favorite layouts from our Specialty Design Team.

- Missy

Today is the big day!!!

……its time for the Design team reveal!

Head over the the gallery and check out all of the beautiful work that the Ladies have done.

~Teresa

Every month the scrapmuse kit includes a “technique” item, and this month is no exception!  This months MegaMuse contains a bottle of Tim Holtz’ “Rock Candy Crackle”.  After you recieve you kit this month, check out our full color newsletter.  Check out this months article on Rock Candy Crackle, you will find tips on usage as well as idea from the DT.  Here are a few sneak peak showing some of the ways the DT rocked the rock candy

~Teresa

I have a favorite saying….”come to the darkside, we have cookies” A friend of mine always teases me about my scrapping being from the “darkside” because I like to use alot of ink and distressing……she is, of course, only joking! Today I wanted to show you what I called “the other side” of the kit. This months kit is full of beautiful, soft papers….but, it can also be used to create a fun and funky colorful Layout.

I added a little paint, gesso and mist to the Layout. Don’t be fooled by “Webster’s pages” they can make a fun freestyle page just as well as they do shabby chic!

~Teresa

This month’s kit combines some of my favorite things…pink, webster’s pages, & the vintage look! Here’s a sample of what I mean.

Hope you like it!
*Chiqui*