Scrappy Canary: Sneak Peek

June

April Sneaks are here!

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March Jellybeans Kit

March Sneaks!

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Charities & Donations

February Polly! Kit Sneak Peek

A message from Carol

Who wants a sneak peek at the February kit? I know I do!! I was very excited when Ruth sent through this photo...I spy with my little eye:

A February veneer to match the January month veneer in our Raspberry Shortcake - January Pocket Kit, some super cute arrows and paperclips and a stamp I know I desperately want that I know will work PERFECTLY with my style

I can't wait until the full kit reveals - watch this space or our Facebook page for release!!

Special announcement

This February Polly! is teaming with Caroline Brown to help raise funds for the annual Ovarian Cancer Australia campaign to raise awareness of the symptoms, risks and impact of ovarian cancer, and to support their work in awareness, support, advocacy and research.

Let me introduce you to Caroline who will share a little more with you.

First I’d like to say a HUGE thank you to Ruth for letting me write this guest post. It’s about a topic that is very close to my heart.

Cancer. It’s not really something we like to hear about. Breast Cancer, Prostate Cancer, Lung Cancer – we hear so much about these but it’s not one of these I want to talk about today. I want to talk about Gynaecological cancers, more particularly Ovarian Cancer.

Did you know that every 10 hours, a woman in Australia dies of ovarian cancer? Frightening thought isn’t it? Out of the 1400 Australian women diagnosed every year, only 20% of these women will survive for longer than five years, compared to breast cancer which has an 80% survival rate. In 2009, ovarian cancer was the second most commonly diagnosed gynaecological cancer in Australia yet we hardly hear about it.

Ovarian cancer doesn't have a screening test – yes that’s right Pap Smears won’t pick up Ovarian Cancer. The CA125 blood test alone cannot be used as a screening or diagnostic test as it can be affected by many other factors including menstruation.

So it is vital that women are aware of the symptoms. The four most common symptoms of ovarian cancer include:

· Abdominal or pelvic pain.

· Increased abdominal size or persistent abdominal bloating.

· Needing to urinate often or urgently.

· Difficulty eating or feeling full quickly.

These are symptoms you may have had at one time or another BUT if they are symptoms that are new to you or last for a significant amount of time (for example over a four week period) it may be wise to check with your doctor. Download the free Symptom Diary or Ovarian Cancer Australia iPhone app to keep track of your symptoms, making it easier to discuss these issues with your doctor. Don’t make yourself sick with worry though as most women with these symptoms will not have Ovarian Cancer.

Each year in February, Ovarian Cancer Australia runs a national Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month campaign to highlight the symptoms of ovarian cancer and to raise funds for their programs. During the month one of the main events held is Afternoon Teal fundraisers.

 If you would like to know more about Ovarian Cancer and Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month please check out http://www.ovariancancer.net.au and if you are interested in donating, please check out my (& my mum’s) Afternoon Teal event page – Scrap Teal You Drop 2014 or buy a teal ribbon.

This month Polly! scrap kits is donating 50c from every February kit to Caroline's fundraiser! We have incorporated some gorgeous teal products, a sneak of a couple are below for you!

If you would like to make a separate donation please click on the Scrap Teal You Drop link above. On behalf of all of us here at Polly! and Caroline, thank you.

Love, Carol xoxo

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Ruth Bonser

Main Kit Layout with Ruth

Hello, Ruth here, sharing a couple of layouts I made with the September Main kit. They are quick and photo focused, I just loved the kit and although I have been busy, I couldnt wait to sit down and create with it. Unfortunately it took me a little longer to get them onto the blog here.

The first is this one with the geometric paper as it's base and some of the gorgeous rainbow paper as a feature. I used the grey chevron paper to cut out the individual arrows and direct the eye to the photo, then cut them even smaller to make some flower embellishments.

The second one is another quick one (all of these were created together in a couple of hours when I had some babysitting, I love to mix it up, taking longer for some layouts and then making some fast and fabulous ones when I am short on time.

Starting with a busy paper gives you a headstart on your design, this one has so much going on in the bottom half that I only added a few buttons and flair to add some colour, but mostly left it alone. The gorgeous green paper set the happy calm tone of the layout and the hero of this page is the flags at the top

Here is a close up of the main embellished part of the layout, but it was really easy and quick to make, with the twine simply threaded through the MME chipboard buttons and the stitched accent added on top of that.

My third layout is actually the one I made first, the 3x5 photos and patterned block are an effective way to add several photos on a layout without looking too crowded, It is amazing how much difference an inch of trimming on each side can make to your photo, when you want to add more than one or two to a single page.

The feather is fussy cut from the paper and the heart is punched out. The title was part of the kit and I do love an easy title! The next Polly! release is not far away, the 15th of October is not far and the sneak peeks have already started. Here is a sneak for the upcoming main kit:

Do you think you recognise those gorgeous dark wood veneers? I'll give you one extra clue.. there was so much unique loveliness in that pack that I did not want to separate it so you will be getting a whole pack of that particular veneer in each main kit this month. If you guess right in the comments I promise to confirm it for you!!

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December Daily

2013 Polly! December Daily Preorder

Hello, come on in and have a cuppa, I want to tell you about something I am really excited about. For the last 3 years I have taken part in December Daily, a community project led by the amazing Ali Edwards, who started it as a class for Creating Keepsakes and also by Shimelle Laine who runs Journal Your Christmas every year. For me this means documenting every day from December 1st till 31st in a mini album, which has lots of our end of year and holiday traditions in it.

The Polly! December Daily kit colour palette

(plus a heavy handed dose of GOLD of course!)

The moment I decided to become the new owner of Polly! I was excited about the idea of a December Daily kit. I wanted to keep it affordable but also full of fun stuff to play with because it is a whole month long album. Lots of colour, a colourful and vintage feel to it, with exclusives like stamps, letterpress cards and exclusive 3x4 journalling cards included.

Here is a little peek at some of the goodness that is coming in the kit. There is MORE, crazy right? I mean that photo is already packed with stuff, but there is still more to add. You can see the exclusive stamp in the middle there, but here it is nice and close up for you.

I plan to do my December Daily as a daily mini album with pocket pages in it, so it is a little bit like Project Life on a small scale, but with a daily, holiday theme to it. Other girls in the Polly! DT will be using the kit for their December Daily, or perhaps for 12x12 layouts or within their regular Project Life album. So you will see a variety of examples on the blog, several times a week from late November till early January. We will motivate you to get it done right along with us and inspire you to get out that kit and start creating.

Album Add-on - Choose Your Favourite!

Since the girls in the team had all different ideas about their favourite album, I wanted you all to choose which ever is YOUR favourite (or use one you've got at home!) Do you love the new BasicGrey Capture collection, the bigger ring that you get in a Studio Calico Handbook (both in the Christmas Trees and the woodgrain versions), the luxurious leather in the new Sn@p albums (red or green available), the all patterned insides of the Heidi Swapp memory files album or the budget friendly yet still gorgeous Amy Tangerine Woodgrain daybook?

You Choose!

When you buy the Album addon, you get a bonus free set of page protectors for that album plus FREE SHIPPING. You can find all the options here (and if any are sold out, just let me know and I will restock them for you asap).

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Challenge

Polly Scrap Kits Challenge #1 and an Announcement

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Project Life Layout

What is Project Life?

There has been so much hype about Project Life lately. It made me wonder for a while what all the hype was about. Why was everyone converting to this style of scrapbooking and why?

I know there are still some people in the dark on this style, so I thought I might put together a brief post on what it is all about.

It all started with Becky Higgin's Project Life System. This can be explained better with this video:

So now we know what Project Life is...how do we go about it? It's such a big project to start and there are so many options.

First...let's talk albums & page protectors.

You can use ANY album you like as long as it's 12x12 in size. I am using an American Crafts album from the Dear Lizzy range. (I will post more on this later)

As for page protectors, the idea of Project Life is to scrap within the divided page protectors. Many companies have now got on board with making these from; Echo Park, Becky Higgins, American Crafts and We R Memory Keepers. They all come in a variety of layouts and sizes. I have seen people use a mixture and variety & even incorporating 12x12 plain layouts, 8.5x11, 6x6 & 6x12. I love that Project Life gives you the ability to do this.

What else do you need?

Some 3x4 and 4x6 cards, a journalling pen, some photos ~ and you are set to go!

Here is a good post by Becky Higgins for Project Life Newbies.

So what does Polly! offer you?

We have got on board with this trend after many requests from companies. We are excited to now be offering Project Life subscriptions/kits.

The kits will be $23.95 per month but will be just $22.75 for subscribers.

Here is a little peek at Polly!'s first Project Life kit (which sold out...but the next one will be available in just a couple of weeks!)

Having a kit means we have taken the guessing out for you and combined a whole heap of new products that work well together.

This is just an example of what our future Project Life kits will be like.

We are excited to be organising exclusive goodies each month including; exclusive stamps, die cuts and flair.

How can you get a kit?

Kit's will be available for purchase through the store. You can also subscribe to the kits to ensure you don't ever miss out. This is a cheaper and easier way to secure you kits.

You can find more information on subscribing here.

An example of work from the kit.

Here is a little look at what I did with the above kit. This was my very first Project Life kit and having a kit sitting in front of me to work from made it so much easier.