Sunday, December 20, 2009

Simple Special Stunning - December '09

The purpose of "Simple Special Stunning" is to show how each issue of SheetLoad can be adapted for papercrafters of all levels. Whether it is sticking exactly to the sketch, or adding some extra bling.

This cards in this month's edition were created by Denise Wallace and feature the sketch from our December '09 issueof SheetLoad of Cards.




• Followed sketch, but only used one (1) cardstock and patterned paper for everything else.




• Sponged all edges with Stampin' Up! Close to Cocoa ink
• Added shrink plastic sentiment
• Added vellum swirls around the bow
• 'Fluff' was added to Santa's cap and some sparkle to his beard





• In addition to all of the 'special' additions pearl flourishes and faux snow on the snowflake were added.
**To make the pearl flourishes, Denise placed them on a transparency, cut them out, then adhered to the card.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

And the winners are... November SUYS!

Thanks so much to everyone who participated in our November '09 Show Us Your SheetLoad! It was great to see everyone's creations using our free printable quotes.

The winners are...

Grand Prize:

Runners Up:

Ladies, please send an email to sheetload@comcast.net with November SheetLoad (GrandPrize/Runner) Up in the subject line, so I can get your prizes to you. Congrats!

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

December '09 - Show Us Your SheetLoad!


It is time for one final round of Show Us Your SheetLoad and two lucky winners this month will receive free digital stamps from our December sponsor - Doodle Palace!!

What you have to do...
- Create one (1) card using the sketch from the December '09 edition of SheetLoad of Cards. Download the issue for FREE here.
- Upload your card to an online gallery or your blog.
- Visit the Doodle Palace online store for lots of eye candy. http://doodlepalace.com/
- Come back to this post and leave a comment with the following... Direct Link to your card online and let us know some of your favorite Doodle Palace digital stamps.

What you can win...


GRAND PRIZE:
Three (3) Digital Stamps of Your Choice


RUNNER UP:
Two (2) Digital Stamps of Your Choice

Two lucky winners will get their choice of the shown amount of stamps from Doodle Palace's online store!

The deadline...
Upload your card and leave your comment here no later than Midnight CST on December 31st.

Make sure...
To do your best work, as the SheetLoad artists will be voting on their favorites to determine the winners.

The "fine print"...
- The link in your comment MUST go directly to your entry in an online gallery, or the blog post containing the entered card. (Any comments with indirect links will be disqualified.)

- Make sure to include your favorite stamp(s) from our sponsor.
- If your comment does not link to a blog with "contact me" info, you MUST leave your email address in your comment. You are free to add spaces to avoid spam bots.
- Only one entry per person.


Playing so far...


Tuesday, December 8, 2009

It's Our Blogaversary - But You Are Getting The Presents...

Today is our 2nd Blogaversary and we are going to be the ones GIVING the presents. :)

One lucky reader will win the following...

Four (4) Assorted Clear Stamp Sets
by Three Bugs in a Rug


(actual sets shown)

&

Nine (9) Assorted Packages of Thickers

(Image above is for illustration only and does not show actual assortment.)

Here are the ways you can enter to win...
Make sure to leave a separate comment for each entry into the drawing.

1. Comment Here: For one (1) entry into the drawing, just leave a comment on this post.

2. Comment There: Visit any/all of our artists and leave a comment on one (or more) of their blogs posts. Making sure your comment adds to the conversation. Come back here and leave a comment, with link to the applicable post(s), to each blog post you commented on. You can click on any artist's name on the left to be taken to their blog.

3. Become a Follower: For one (1) entry, visit my personal blog, Call Me {Crafty} Al, and publicly follow me by using the Google Gadget in my right Sidebar. Come back here and leave a comment when you have done so. (Yes, this is pretty shameless, but how else will we keep in touch after this month?!?!)  :)

4. Tell All About It: For two (2) entries, blog about our special day (and this contest) on your personal blog. Once you have your post published, come back here and leave two (2) separate comments with the direct link to your post.

Contest ends at Midnight on Tuesday, December 15th.
International players are welcome.

Friday, December 4, 2009

Time for one final Shout Out to SheetLoad (and win)!

Would you like to win some scrapbooking goodies?!?! Of course you would. That is why this month our sponsor, Doodle Palace, is offering up a great prize to one lucky winner in our Shout Out to SheetLoad challenge!!

In return for helping us get the word out about our December '09 issue, you will be entered to win the following...

Doodle Palace Ad
A Scrapbooking Goodie Box!!
Doodle Palace will put together a box filled with high quality items such as paper, flowers, embellishments, buttons/brads, ribbons, punches, etc.
Around a $40 Value!!!


Here is what you have to do to be entered to win...
- Create a Blog or Message Board* Post titled "Shout Out To SheetLoad". *Please make sure this is a Public Message Board and posting about SheetLoad does not violate any TOUs.
- Your post must include a little verbiage about SheetLoad, a picture of the December '09 Cover, and a link to the current issue (December '09). (cover image URL: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs_GnFaeYuG4OBx0WFzTZtcWYWc08F2GlXcP04HJwzjvkxyptPbWK2lGjhFwsT1H6GegBO1bmm5-Pryb-cQ8H8RUCMBVALKoV2ISaXCyovdXe6FT__X422BNrplVghibdGpvG83LkUwVw/s320/Dec09_Cover_Web.jpg
- Once you have posted your message, come back to this post and leave a comment with the DIRECT link to your "Shout Out" post.

Rules and "the fine print"...
- Post must be up, and your link must be left here, no later than Sunday, December 20th at Midnight CST.
- Failure to link directly to the November SheetLoad issue post will result in disqualification for the prize.
- Failure to put a DIRECT link in your comment will result in disqualification.
- One (1) winner will be chosen at random using http://www.random.org/.
- Open to all Domestic and International readers

Good luck and get to shoutin'! :)

Thursday, December 3, 2009

A walk down memory lane...

As you may have already read on Tuesday's post, the December '09 issue of SheetLoad of Cards will be the last.



It is a very bitter sweet time for me. While SheetLoad of Cards was a HUGE JOY in my life, it was also adding to my heaping pile of 'to-dos'. Something had to give, and it couldn't be my family. The decision was made to close down ShortCuts and finish out the year at SheetLoad.

When the first issue of SheetLoad of Cards was posted on my personal blog, Call Me {Crafty} Al, I had no idea that 2 years later it would have grown to what it is today.

I always enjoyed using sketches and once I found one I liked, I usually stuck with it for (quite) a few cards. When I found my first One Sheet Wonders template on SCS, I thought it was the best thing since sliced bread. The first issue of SheetLoad of Cards was a combination of both of these.



Debuting in August of 2007, the first issue featured a sketch by Carla Peicheff. I had met Carla on a (now-defunct) card-making magazine message board and was thrilled when she allowed me to use her sketch for my little experiment. This issue included four total samples photos - all created by me.

It wasn't long before I was recruiting family and friends to join me in creating samples. What had originally been thrown together 'for fun', was now being 'published' monthly and more than just a few crafters were downloading it.



January '08 brought a NEW look and a NEW home to SheetLoad of Cards. Our readership and design team had both grown by this time, so I decided to make it 'official' by spiffing up the layout and starting a dedicated blog. This issue included six total samples, from the same amount of artists, and an Advertiser Directory!

I really didn't think things could get any better/bigger with the magazine. We had a design team, a blog and paying advertisers. Was I ever wrong... SheetLoad continued to grow and in March of 2008 we had our first sponsored issue and a celebrity sketch!!!



Not only were we thrilled to work with gg designs' stamps, but we got to create cards based upon a card sketch provided to us by THE Becky Fleck - of PageMaps fame. To this day it is one of our most downloaded issues ever!

SheetLoad's design team and readership have grown consistenly since the beginning. We were thrilled each month when new readers found us and previous readers returned for the new issue. We were honored to be able to use products from so many great sponsors.

Along the way we changed our look, and the faces on our design team, but our main goal was always the same...
To help you build your on-hand card stash using one great sketch, a few sheets of paper and a little bit of time.

**********************************

I TRULY could not have done this alone. Over the years I have worked with some amazing people and would like to send out a HUGE THANKS to the wonderful artists below. Without their time and talent SheetLoad would not be what it is today.

Current Artists:
Alma Olhava since Aug. '09 • Alicia Ekermans since Aug. '07 • Ann Seleshanko since July '08 • Barbara DeBose since Dec.'07Denise Wallace since Jan. '08Heather Strenzwilk since Jan. '08Jessica George since Aug. '09Katie Skiff since Jan. '09Kelly Landers since Aug. '09Kim Beinschroth since Aug. '09Linda Bowman since Oct. 07Melissa Machado since Jan. '08Nicole Anderson since Aug. '08Nikki Tanner since Aug. '09

Past Artists:

Guest Artists:

Each of the artists above helped us spread the word about SheetLoad. Without their hard work, time and promotion, we would have never been blessed with so many sponsored issues. Thanks to the following companies for allowing us to showcase your product in our eZine...

Sponsored Issues:

And last, but definitely not least, thank you to all of you, our wonderful readers!! Without each of you, there wouldn't have been such a great audience for our eZine each month!!

All is not lost, though, the archive of all past issues will be available until at least May 2010. This will give you plenty of time to download any missing issues and if some new readers find their way here, they will still be available.

I look forward to finishing out the year strong, here on the blog. We have some challenges coming up, our monthly Simple Special Stunning and a 'spotlight' on our last sponsor - Doodle Palace.

(If you made it through the whole post - thanks. It was a long one...)

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

The FINAL Issue - December '09 - Sponsored by Doodle Palace

This month at SheetLoad of Cards is full of BIG... big issue, big announcement and big prizes!!


(click on thumbnail above to download your FREE issue)

BIG Issue
At 22 pages, the December '09 issue of SheetLoad, is the biggest one yet! We also had a huge design team, as almost all 16 of our artists participated, along with six artists from the sponsor's design team.

The cover this month features a card by Nicole Anderson and the issue features a sketch by 'moi', Alicia Ekermans. We were thrilled to be able to work with lots of awesome digital stamps from Doodle Palace.

As always this FREE issue shows you how to create multiple cards using a few papers and a great layout. If you follow the cutting guides this month, you will end up with twelve (12) cards. This would be a great issue to use for your Christmas or other holiday cards.

Big Announcement
As you may have gathered from the blog post title, this will be the final issue of SheetLoad of Cards. Even though it is our final issue, it won't be the end of your access to our archives and we will still be putting 100% into our final month here on the blog.

Check back later this month for a post with more details on the archive and why/how this decision was made.

Big Prizes
As always our sponsor will be providing some great prizes for our monthly challenges. You will be able to enter to win a chance to create with some Doodle Palace digital stamps of your own!!

Since this is also our Blog-A-Versary Month, there just might be an extra challenge and prize thrown in as well. ;)