New Products and a New Home!

Hello everyone! It's been a little quiet around here as I was preparing for an exciting product launch at a new website. I've been hinting around about my big announcement, and the time has finally come... I am Guest Designing for... The-Lilypad.com!! How great is that? I am so excited to join this fabulous group of designers, and the GREAT community that it is! You can find me here at The-Lilypad.

Check out these new releases:

For Document Your December (or your December Daily or Journal Your Christmas Projects):

Modern Merry Paper Pack

Modern Merry Element Pack:

Modern Merry- Flag It

Or how about some card templates for your Christmas Cards?

Come visit me at The-Lilypad!

More Projects To Share

My Hybrid team has been hard at work again, and I have a few more project to share using A Very Vintage Christmas.

From Terri:

From Cara:

AND the winner of the giveaway for this kit (bethieJ) has shared this adorable project:

Aren't these ladies the best? They are true masters of hybrid goodness!

Etsy Greetings Blog Hop:: Holiday Traditions

This post is part of the EtsyGreetings Team Holiday Blog Hop.
Our theme is Handmade Holiday.
Happy reading!

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So this week I am participating in a super fun Blog Hop sponsored by the Etsy Greetings Team! Our subject for the hop is sharing our Holiday Traditions...in true handmade fashion! I don't know about you, but for me, one of the best things about the Holidays is the anticipation...the build up, the count down.. the excitement of what's to come! In our family, advent calendars were always a part of the excitement of Christmas, whether it was the chocolate-a-day kind, or the little mouse calendar from Avon, that moves closer to the Christmas Tree each day.

Now that I have kids of my own, I am continuing the tradition of advent calendars to build up the excitement of Christmas. For the last few years, I have been looking for an advent calendar that has the little drawers or doors so I can fill each day with goodies of my own choosing. Each one I've found though has been expensive, and just not quite what I'm looking for. So, being the DIY crafter that I am, I decided to make my own this year! I thought I would easily find a DIY advent calendar at Michael's, but this beauty is the only one I could find:

 

Hmm. Not really my style, or what I was looking for. Luckily, I noticed that the santa frame was just glued to the box with the doors- and that's the part I really wanted! So.....bye bye Santa! And this is how I began the transformation:

Step 1: Rip off the Santa frame. 

Step 2: Remove the knobs (will re-attach later)

Step 3: Spray paint the advent calendar a nice creamy white 

Step 4: Give the knobs a blast of gold glitter spray paint ('cuz every Christmas project needs some glitter)

Step 5: Using your holiday papers (I used papers from my new digital kit A Very Vintage Christmas), plan your layout, and then bust out your Modge Podge Glue and glue your papers to each door.

Step 6: Using a paper piercer, I punched through the door frames to open the holes back up where the knobs go. However, the knobs didn't go back into their holes that well, so I ended up just hot gluing them back to the doors. 

Step 7: Adhere glittered number stickers to each door

Step 8: Hot glue ribbon around the edge of box. 

...and enjoy! Here is the finished result:

 

I can't wait to fill each little door with goodies, and see my daughters' anticipation build up for Christmas Day! 

So that's my Holiday Tradition, but don't stop here, because there are LOTS more Holiday Traditions from my fellow Etsy Greetings Team Members, including holiday stories, yummy recipes, and some fabulous printables! Click on the arrows below to continue along our hop!

Tutorial:: Journaling Around An Embellishment

Today I am bringing you a video tutorial (my first one!) showing you how to create journaling around an embellishment on your page (as seen in the this layout):

The tutorial is shown using photoshop CS4.

To enjoy the video at full size, after you click play, click on the little computer screen icon in the lower right corner. Otherwise, you won't be able to see what I'm doing. Oh- and please ignore the random sounds of my cranky one year old in the background. ;-) Enjoy!

A Very Vintage Christmas- Now Available!

Now it's really beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Introducing- A Very Vintage Christmas- the newest digital scrapbooking kit by Amy Jaz Designs. I would normally describe my design style as two parts modern, one part vintage (you know- if style were a martini), but for this kit I knew I had to switch it up and go two parts vintage, one part modern. There's something so delicious about vintage Christmas style. It's steeped in tradition and just takes you back to when you were a kid awaiting the arrival of Santa Claus (or as Juliana calls him- Christmas Claus).

Inspired by Ali Edwards to create a December Daily album this year, I set out to create a kit that I knew I would use to create my album with. Now that this kit is done, I can't wait to create my foundation pages for my album (stay tuned for that one).

This kit is ginormous- It contains 17 papers, over 40 elements, an entire month of date stamps for December, and a glittery alpha. It's the size of a collaboration kit, but it's just little old me behind this one. I hope you enjoy the kit! Click the add to cart button below, or click on the "shop" tab to purchase.

Some inspiration from me:

Some inspiration from my creative team:

 Macy

Stephanie

Nat

Crap in a Crock Pot- and the Giveaway Winner!

I've only recently discovered the magical little kitchen tool called the Crock Pot. Yeah- I know, I'm WAY behind the times on this! But for some reason, the crock pot recipes never appealed to me. I thought it was only for baking a big hunk of meat all day. But recently I've changed my tune and I've been using this magical little tool like twice a week. It's funny though- every time I put the ingredients in the crock pot, the thought runs through my mind...."you just put a bunch of crap in a crock pot, and a few hours later you have dinner!". So as I journey through trying all these new recipes out, I'll be sure to report back my thoughts in a blog series I will now affectionately call "Crap in A Crock Pot".

I found this crock pot recipe for Chicken Enchilada Soup on penniesonaplatter.com.

I will admit- I am so not a soup person. I never feel like it's really a meal- there's something so lunch-ish about it. But my husband loves soup, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. So here are my thoughts...

YUM! I totally loved this soup! And the hubby loved it too (he even packed up the leftovers for lunch). My three year old...well, she ended up eating spaghetti-o's because this was a little on the spicy side for her. Things I would do differently next time... the recipe calls for three chicken breasts, and my breasts were REALLY big. Next time I will use small breast fillets, or use only 2 large ones. There was a LOT of shredded chicken in my soup. There was an optional step to add some cornstarch to thicken the soup and I did not do that. I don't think it needed it- it was perfect as is.

So there you have it my friends- my first "Crap in a Crock Pot" review was a success! Carry forth and make yourself some Chicken Enchilada Soup!

In other news that I know you are all waiting for.... I have selected a winner for the A Very Vintage Christmas Kit!

One Night- 8 Lessons Learned

My original title for this post was going to be "Epic Fail", but then I realized that tonight's activities were more of a learning lesson than a complete failure.... But let's back up a little and start at the beginning. My plan for tonight was to try out a new recipe for Pumpkin Mac and Cheese that promised to be the creamiest Mac and Cheese ever. Excited at the prospect of discovering a new recipe for some good comfort food, and excited about blogging about this fabulous new dish I discovered, I set out with my ingredients and my camera.....If you judge by the pics, this looks like a successful venture....

Yum? Looks good right?    *sigh* Wrong. So while you scratch your head and wonder how this delicious looking dish could possibly be bad, I give you- The Lessons Learned:

*Lesson Number 1: Apparently I do not like pumpkin. Eating this actually made me nauseous afterward. It was creamy, but it also wasn't cheesy enough. The pumpkin was over powering and bland. Blech.

*Lesson Number 2: Don't dump out the noodles before you check that they are done. Because refilling the pot with water and waiting for it to boil a second time because the noodles are undercooked sucks. 

*Lesson Number 3: Three year olds do not like pumpkin mac and cheese either. Juliana kept asking for "real" mac and cheese, followed by "I don't like this one. "

*Lesson Number 4: Even though your sweet husband eats his plate full of Pumpkin Mac and Cheese, the fact that he discreetly threw away the left overs and did not keep it for his lunch, followed by a "snack" of peanut butter and jelly crackers later on- are both good signs that he does not like it either.

*Lesson Number 5: One year olds love Pumpkin Mac and Cheese. Ironically, the only one of us who actually liked this dish, is the one who only has two teeth and eats most of her food out of a jar.

Hmm. Oh well.

In other news, I learned a few more lessons tonight that were good things! Over the weekend I took advantage of the Persnickety Prints fall sale, and I ordered over 35 layouts. I received my order today and I am impressed!! So here are those lessons learned:

*Lesson Number 6: I have a print lab crush on Persnickety Prints. I am such a print snob. I mean it. I refuse to print at Costco (too green), I refuse to print at Target (too red, and glossy- ick). So when I got my first order from Persnickety, I reviewed my layouts with a super critical eye... and I was not disappointed. I can't wait to print my first photo book with them!

*Lesson Number 7: I don't think I love putting my layouts in a 12x12 post bound album. I thought that with a hodge podge of layouts, I wouldn't like a photo book because it wouldn't flow. But I don't like the glare of the page protector, and how some of the pages buckle a little. I know that's super picky but there you have it- the real me. I think I'm going to try to just do a photo book for 2011.

*Lesson Number 8: I love white space! Out of all the layouts I printed, my absolute favorite ones were the ones with a lot of white space (or a light background).

So there you have it- one night, 8 lessons learned- some good, some bad.

While you are here, don't forget to enter the giveaway for A Very Vintage Christmas! It ends tomorrow night!

More Chances To Win!

So I decided that for the A Very Vintage Christmas kit giveaway, I would host the giveaway on my facebook page. But then today I had the thought... "what if someone doesn't have a facebook account? They can't enter to win!" Well, this would not be very fair of me! So I decided to open the Giveaway for comments here on my blog as well! Take this opportunity to enter the Giveaway more than once, and leave a comment on the blog in addition to your comment on facebook. And just in case you forgot what the awesomeness that I'm giving away looks like, here's the sneak peek:

 And in other news, my creative team is still creating amazing things from my You + Me kit! Check out this completely adorable baby card from Terri:

I love those paper pieced ears the most!

A Holiday Sale!

It's the first ever Holiday Sale for Bean Sprout Studio! I am happy to say that I am participating in the Etsy Greetings Team Holiday Boutique! All christmas photo card sets are 10% off in my shop from now until November 14th. Use coupon code EGHOLIDAY to redeem your 10%. It's best if you hurry, because I will not be having another sale in my shop for the rest of the year! If you don't have your photos ready quite yet, you can still purchase your cards in advance, and then just send me your pics when ready. Here are a few of my favorite designs for this year:

 

Be sure to check out the other items on sale from my Etsy Greetings Team Members by using the search tag "egholiday"!

Free Template

Do you like free? Of course you do! In celebration of my new facebook fan page, and Digital Scrapbooking Day, I have uploaded this free template to my page.

To download the template, visit my facebook fan page, become a fan, and click on the "Exclusive" tab to download.

Happy Digital Scrapbooking Day!

Happy Digital Scrapbooking Day everyone! I hope everyone is having a blast shopping, scrapping, and taking advantage of all the MASSIVE freebies out there in the blogiverse today. I was really really hoping to be releasing my new kit- A Very Vintage Christmas today, but it's just not quite ready and I want it to be perfect, so I am releasing it this Friday instead. BUT- I DO have a sneak peek of my new kit and the Giveaway that starts today over on my facebook page. Here are the deets:

To enter the giveaway you must:
1. Visit my facebook fan page and leave a comment on the giveaway photo
2. For an additional entry, share the photo link onto your facebook page. Make sure you are become a fan first because if you are not a fan, I won't be able to see your share!

The giveaway ends on Wednesday, November 9th at 9:00pm PST.

Good luck to everyone, and Happy Digital Scrapbooking Day!

Cards, Tags, and a Baby Buggy??

Wow, my Hybrid Creative team has come up with some really great projects, but today's projects really take the cake. Check out this UH-MAZING little baby buggy by Terri. She created this adorable little shower favor using my You +  Me kit. Check out her entire process on her blog.

Next up, Cara got creative (haha- I like how that sounds!) with two really fabulous cards. First she made this card for her hubby (aw!)

And then today, she came up with this card using a Mojo Monday sketch:

I have a really great group of talented ladies on my hybrid creative team, don't I?