Gosh the pick this week was soooo hard!! You girls did an amazing job with your creations congrats to everyone, they are all so beautiful!!

We finally managed to narrow it down to 2 sooo …
Heres week ones pick of the GSOs!!
Congratulations girls!

Cozy christmas by mom2peanuts

Homemade holidays by wendyp

Thanks everyone! x

We are so excited to be celebrating international DigiScrapbooking Day, that we have an awesome giveaway for a couple blog winners! Leave a comment here for a chance to win a training CD/DVD from the Scrapper’s Guide.

Learn everything you need to know to become a great digital scrapbooker! These video lessons by Linda Sattgast, Adobe’s Scrapbooking Expert, tell you exactly what to do—in the right order—to make learning drop-dead simple! Video demonstrations and step-by-step written instructions take all the frustration out of learning digital scrapbooking.

The time has come!  We are already to post the July challenges.  So be looking in the Challenge Forum for the details and where to post your layouts.

Up first is our On The House Challenge brought to you by Katrina (a/k/a Twentytinytoes):

Yay the July challenge is here and it comes with a gorgeous freebie by JJ of Lily designs

The possibilities for layouts are endless with this one.
You can pick up this fabulous freebie and challenge details here!.

Next is the Lift With a Twist Challenge brought to you by Shayenne:

Shayenne here-so exited to show you my first challenge! This month’s “With a Twist” challenge is to Scraplift a Page from our own Creative Genius cheryberry aka Tikki.

I am so in love with her creative pages and I think her Pages make great lift objects! So let your creativity flow and scrap a bit outside the box ;-). You can get details here.

And of course we have a July Mixer for you brought to you by Petra (a/k/a milo82):

Well chickas…Summer’s here, at least here it is. It has been over 28 or higher degrees for almost the whole week… It’s nice, but sticky too! The humidity is so different then in like the states. It’s way worse here! Trust me! Anyway I’m up for the mixer challenge, photography based. So I thought since summer is here and the sun is out lots of times, to let it be about the sun!! So I want to see photos with sun flare! Either edited or straight out of the camera. I took this photo for my P365 and love it so much…didn’t do any editing
here!

Come check out details and some great examples here.

Finally we have a House Specialties Challenge brought to you by Sara (a/k/a Scarletsierra):

No matter your style of scrapping, at its core, scrapbooking is all about capturing moments and memories and feelings. The big celebrations, the milestones, the day-to-day, the simple moments, and moments of reflection all have a place in our memories and in our pages. One ironies of our scrapping that we sometimes overlook is the *when* of the moment. For this challenge I want you to capture a moment and use a date element to share when that moment happened. There are no other guidelines. You may use any products you like, you can journal or not, but I want to see a date element with the date somewhere on your page.For examples, element suggestions, and details see here.

So stay cool and scrap away! We can’t wait to see you fill up the After5 Challenge Gallery with your best! We can’t wait to see all your gorgeous pages flood the gallery.

You’ve heard the saying “it’s 5 o’clock somewhere.” Well, at After Five Designs, it’s always after 5! Come relax during our Happy Hour specials.

Spring is in the air! Our new product listings are the evidence. K Studio has collaborated with our guest, Nikki Beaudreau, to create Garden Angel - an amazingly bright and whimsical kit perfect for the season. Kimla of Lily Designs debuts her first solo kit: Mummy’s Treasures. In addition to a sunny kit by Cinnamon Designs, quick page albums, a polka-dotted, chipboard alpha, date stamps and layered photo frames, J Cafe has expanded her Art Gallery Collection with brand new paper packs, photo masks and four volumes of finishing touches - multi-textured element clusters that are the perfect touch to your projects. Stop by and check out our happy hour!

Don’t forget that Week 3 of So You Think You Can Scrap is under way. Friday is the last day to enter. If you do not enter each week, you will be disqualified and removed from the discount list. So get those entries in!

Let’s all toast our memories!

The contest of the year continues with Week 2! Our second kit, ‘Flashback’ joins Nikki Beaudreau, Faith True & Kasia Designs of Shabby Pickle Designs with After Five Designs’ Cafe J & Lily Designs. While anyone is welcome to purchase this kit, all registered contestants will automatically receive it at a 50% discount. Use this kit to create or supplement your entry for week 2 (not required).

Visit our official contest blog for the latest updates, and check the SPD Forums or the A5D Forums for questions and answers. Entry submission for week 2 is Monday - Friday!

The contest of the year is finally here! Week 1 starts today with our first themed kit: It’s So Me. Our own Cinnamon Designs and K Studio have joined Edeline Designs, Holly Designs, and Newlife Dreams from Shabby Pickle Designs to create this beautiful kit for week 1! While anyone is welcome to purchase this kit, all registered contestants will automatically receive it at a 50% discount. Use this kit to create or supplement your entry for week 1.

Visit our official contest blog for the latest updates, and check the A5D Forums or the SPD Forums for questions and answers. Entry submission starts tomorrow!

It’s all about the templates for this week’s Product Spotlight!   Have you ever felt that your creative mojo has left the building?  Have you ever started a page multiple times and ended up trashing it because it just didn’t come together the way you wanted?  I’ve often found the best way to spark my creativity is to snag a template and let it lead me through my design.   That’s not to say I don’t add my own style to the template, but they are great tools to help you ensure you have a well balanced page and then let you take full ownership of making it your own by selecting the paper and elements.

So this week the Creative Team decided to highlight some of the templates from the shoppe.

Here’s one by Joyce (princessj0yce):

She used Amy’s Cocktail recipe No. 2

Chantal created this layout

Erica (pne123) created this layout

Both Chantal and Erica used Kristen’s Appetizer No. 3

Lauren (mlpieters) created this one

She used Kristen’s Project 365 - Template No. 6

Petra (milo82)created this one

She used Amy’s Cocktail Recipe No.1

Here’s one done by Sara (scarletsierra)

She used Camila’s new Recipe Templates 3

We hope these Creative Team pages inspire you to use templates from the shoppe when you’re looking to get your creative mojo flowing again.

Hi Everyone!

We have the pleasure of welcoming Designer X as our guest mixologist this month. She has participated in our new collab kit, Nova Vida. Packed to the brim, this kit will be only a mere $5.00 for 5 days.

Before the collab kit is released (Thursday March 5th) , we thought it would be fun to play a little game.

The rules :
1. Guess who is guesting for A5D in March and write down the name of our guest

2. Guess who has designed each part of the collab : write the number of the image and the name of the A5Ddesigner you think has made that part.

3. Send your 2 answers to catherine@afterfivedesigns.com before Wednesday March 4th, 11:59pm Central Time.

To help you answer the second questions , we have listed below the participating nine After Five designers  :

AH! Designs
Amanda R Designs
Cafe J
Camila Designs
Catherine Designs
Cinnamon Designs
K studios
Lily Designs
Pink Ellie Designs

Hurry! The deadline is approaching fast. Three winners (randomly picked among the good answers) will receive the Nova Vida collab for free.

Have fun and don’t forget to come back on Thursday to meet our guest designer and discover the collab Kit ‘Nova Vida’.

Can you believe that it is already March? That means spring should be here soon for some of us and the start of a new month means new, exciting challenges here at A5D! For those of you new to our challenges, here is the rundown. At the end of each month, you will receive one reward member point for each challenge that you have completed and your reward card will be stamped and posted in the gallery! When your Rewards Member card is filled, you may cash it in for a $10 gift card to the store! But wait…there’s more! Occasionally, we will give you an opportunity to earn double stamps as well, so be on the lookout for more details!

This month’s challenges are sure to get your creativity flowing. We’ve shown you some sample layouts for each challenge, but you can check them out more in depth by clicking on the links.

On the House - Create a freestyle page using a fabulous freebie created just for you by Amanda!

With a Twist - Not your traditional Scraplift Challenge!  We will have a fabulous page by one of our team members for you to lift…with a twist! Come see who we’re lifting this month!

House Specialties - This month’s house specialty is an ‘olive bar’ challenge featuring the creative use of photo masks.

Mixers - Through the looking glass! Scrap a page that incorporates a photo taken from behind your subject.

Well, what are you waiting for? Follow the links above to rush to the Challenge forum! Hope to see you all there!

Be a GALLERY STANDOUT and you might win a $10.00 Gift Certificate

We at After 5 want to see not only the amazing designs you all create, but also what you think are amazing designs.  So post in the Gallery (using 75% A5 product) and then go show us what you think are Gallery Standouts in the GSO forum thread. Then…

Come back on Tuesdays to see if your layout was chosen by our CT as one of the Gallery Standouts of the week!  Then…

Come back at the end of the month to see if you are the Gallery Standout for the Month.  The Gallery Standout of the Month will win a $10.00 GC to the store.  We can’t wait to see your work and we can’t wait to see your favorites.  So post away!!!!

CT Members Kristen and Janelle here to invite you to help us celebrate After 5 Designs by joining us in the new Challenge section of our forum! There will be 4 challenges introduced at the beginning of each month and each participant will have the entire month to complete them. Everyone that joins us in participating will receive a special Rewards Member card!

At the end of each month, you will receive one reward member point for each challenge that you have completed and your reward card will be stamped and posted in the gallery! When your Rewards Member card is filled, you may cash it in for a $10 gift card to the store! But wait…there’s more! Occasionally, we will give you an opportunity to earn double stamps as well, so be on the lookout for more details!

And now, here are the challenges for the month of October!

(click on the challenge title to view that challenge in the forum):

On the House

Create a freestyle page using this fabulous freebie created just for you by Catherine!

. . . and check out this fabulous inspiration page created with it by Joyce!

With a Twist

Not your traditional Scraplift Challenge! We will be lifting Angela’s gorgeous page below….with a twist!

and check out these inspirational example pages by Kristen & Amber!

House Specialties

This month’s house specialty is an ‘olive bar’ challenge featuring the creative use of stitches;

here’s an example page by Janelle to get you started!

Mixers

Scrap something ’scary’ in our October theme challenge &

check out Laura’s beautiful page below to see what she fears the most!

Well, what are you waiting for?

Start HERE to read the House Rules

& then follow the links above to rush the Happy Hour forum! Hope to see you all there!

~Kristen & Janelle~