… On with the new

Introducing new items in the Simply Fresh Designs Digital Subway Art Shop. If you’re looking for an inexpensive way to decorate with word art, this is the place. These are just the beginning.SUBWAY-ART

 

We even have a custom print option so you can choose the colors, design, and words. Pick your color… pick the size. Then all you do is add prints to your cart and within 24 hours of the payment clearing (through safe, secure, and easy-to-use PayPal), I’ll email you the full-size watermark-free digital .jpg file to print either at home … or at a professional print shop such as Costco. Easy-peasy-lemon-squeasy.

To get you started, I’m offering a coupon for 15% off all purchases until next Saturday, July 16 (that would be my half-birthday!!).  Use coupon code take15 at checkout.

I’ll be adding new items (such as birth announcement prints) so stay tuned for some FRESH ideas.

Check out the Shop now!

Email any questions to simplyfreshdesigns@gmail.com.

Bye-Bye Quiet Books

Update: Please see Simply Fresh Designs DropBox for Download of quiet books.

The unfortunate news for today is thus: I cannot continue to share the quiet books with content from lds.org. Although I’ve tried very carefully to be honest and follow the lds.org terms of use, it appears the LDS Intellectual Property Division didn’t agree. They contacted me and said that images and text from lds.org are for individuals to create their own projects but not to distribute to others. Sharing or distributing anything I create using their images didn’t meet their terms of use, even though I wasn’t making any money.

Also, for your information, the IP Division said that printing quiet books, which contain lds.org content, through a professional print shop, such as Costco, was fine, as long as they were for immediate family only. The sharing of files with others was the violation.

Bottom line, I am having to indefinitely pull all posts and files for Quiet Books and Primary Sharing Time Monthly Themes. The LDS Church does have a process to request permission to use their content in this manner, and I plan to look into that, but I’m not holding my breath that such approval will ever come to pass.

So – for now. I apologize. I’m sad because I know thousands of you around the world enjoyed these quiet books. I feel selfish keeping them all to myself. I hope you can continue the tradition by creating your own books for your families. I’d be happy to create other quiet books in the future with original text and artwork (anyone out there want to volunteer to be the artist?!)… but we’ll see how things go after I have my baby in August.

Keep checking back for updates and new items going into the shop soon.

Meet the Fam

I’ve never really introduced myself on this site and figured now is as good a time as any. Meet the Fam… the Smith fam. I’m Heather… born and raised in fabulous (yet very windy) Idaho. In my married life we’ve lived in Humid South Florida, Roasting Hot Arizona, Beautiful Green Tennessee, and now Mountainous and Chilly Utah. My love, Jimmy, and I were married 10 1/2 years ago. Our oldest daughter is 8 1/2 and saves my life with all of her awesome help and cheerfulness. Next up – 3 boys… ages 7, 3 1/2, and 20 months … lots of adventures daily with those energetic tots. In the middle of August, we’ll welcome a new little girlie to our troop.

So – what’s up with Simply Fresh Designs in 2011. Well… the answer is “not as much as I’d expected one year ago”. Seems like every time I gear up to launch something new on this site, I feel that morning sickness coming on… which reminds me of my priorities as mother. But … if all goes well… I’ll try and post Family Tree Template Downloads as well as Custom Digital Subway Art downloads. Hopefully this summer I’ll also get the Old Testament Quiet Book finished. Always lots of fun ideas in my mind just waiting to get out.

I also wanted to shout out a big THANKS for all the kind comments and emails I’ve gotten from around the globe. I wish I could respond to all the questions and emails I’ve gotten, but alas… my life doesn’t allow for that much computer time (which only really can happen when the littles are all asleep). We’ll try and get some questions answered in a FAQ sometime soon.

There’s the scoop on our little fam and the most recent happenings with Simply Fresh Designs.

Valentine’s Day BINGO Game

Well… it’s not Monday. But considering we’ve had icky sickness at our house…
and potty training going on this week, it’s just better late than never.

I wanted to share this 5×7 Valentine’s BINGO game with y’all.

Download:
5×7 Valentine’s BINGO

(includes 6 .jpg playing boards, 1 .jpg game piece sheet,
plus all 5×7 images formatted in a 8.5×11 pdf document for easy home-printing)

Terms of Use: Personal Use Only. Prints are not to be resold for any type of profit.

Credits:
Shabby Princess Sweetie Pie Papers
Kate Hadfield Doodles & Sweetheart Alpha

Printable Placemats


It’s been a while since we’ve celebrated Merry Monday around here. It’s time to get it going again.

I made these 12×18 Placemats years ago to help teach my children how to set the table. I printed them at Costco, laminated them, and wah-lah… waterproof placemats.

Download
12×18 Placemats

Once you unzip the downloaded folder, you will be able to access the 12×18 .jpg images.

Terms of Use: Personal Use Only. Prints are NOT to be resold for any type of profit.

Credits:
Shabby Princess Digital Scrapbook Kit (the one with the bow)
Janel Kretschman Digital Scrapbook Kits (all other placemats)

Christmas BINGO Game


The Monday before Christmas definitely deserves a freebie.
How about a Christmas BINGO game to give as neighbor gifts… or to play as a family on Christmas evening?
Free Christmas BINGO Download.  #simplyfreshdesigns
Download:
5×7 Christmas BINGO

(includes 6 .jpg playing boards, 1 .jpg game piece sheet,
plus all 5×7 images formatted in a 8.5×11 pdf document for easy home-printing)

Terms of Use: Personal Use Only. Prints are not to be resold for any type of profit.

Credits:
Shabby Princess Sugar Plum Dreams Kit
Kate Hadfield Doodles
Shabby Princess Clementine Alpha

BELIEVE: James E. Faust on Santa Claus


Today’s Merry Monday freebie is a fabulous Christmas quote by James E. Faust about how the way of Santa Claus is the way of Jesus. I’ve been thinking about this topic because my 8-year-old has realized the truth about Santa. We had “the talk” and I shared this idea with her … that what is real is the Spirit of Christmas … of Christ, that is embodied in the figure of Santa. All that is good, cheerful, kind, and selfless is definitely something I BELIEVE in.

To download the 5×7 print, click on the image above to enlarge. Save it to your computer and print away. This would make a great little print to slip in a neighbor gift. Enjoy!

Credits:

Background paper by Shabby Princess (Sugar Plum Dreams)
Santa image by Laurie Furnell at pccrafter.com

Terms of Use: Personal Use Only

winner of “A Merry Little Christmas” book GiVEaway

The winner of
“A Merry Little Christmas” book GiVEaway is…

I hope the Heiselbetz family enjoys this cheerful little read.

Thanks to random.org for providing the random number selection.

Thanks to Mary Engelbreit for creating such a delightful book.

Thanks to y’all for entering. It was fun.

And Thanks, Thanks, Thanks for sharing your favorite Christmas stories. Be sure to read all the comments to get some ideas of some wonderful books to read with your family by the tree.

“A Merry Little Christmas” Book GIVEaway

Because we just pulled out our Christmas books… and because I had an extra of this darling one by Mary Engelbreit… I thought it would be fun to GIVE it away. “A Merry Little Christmas” has darling illustrations that celebrate simple joys of the Christmas season.  It’s a cheery, short read, perfect for little ones.

To enter for the giveaway, all you have to do is make a comment on this post and tell me one (or more) of your favorite Christmas books to read to your children. I’m excited to get some ideas from you for some new fun books to read around the Christmas tree. I’ll pick a random winner on Sunday Evening (say … around 8ish when my tots are in bed).

To go along with this Christmas book GIVEaway, I also wanted to share this Advent Countdown with Books idea by Rebecca Cooper.  She shares a list of some fun holiday books.

Image by Rebecca Cooper

Rebecca writes: “A favorite tradition in our family is our Advent countdown with books. At the end of each November, I go to my bookshelf and pull out 24 holiday books that will be included in the year’s countdown to Christmas. … After collecting the books, I then wrap them all up with wrapping paper. The final book, The Night Before Christmas is reserved for December 24th and is wrapped uniquely from the others to distinguish it so that it isn’t accidentally opened before Christmas Eve. … Once all the books are wrapped, they are placed in a special basket that is placed in our living room. The children take turns selecting a book each night and unwrapping it. Then we read it together as a family.”

Happy Christmas and Happy Holiday Reading ’round the Christmas Tree. See ya back here on Sunday.

Christmas Freebies: Links to Subway Art, Treat Bag Toppers, and Shabby Princess

Instead of posting a freebie of my own, I wanted to share links to other darling freebies for you to enjoy.

Jennifer, Jamie, and Jodie over at eighteen25.blogspot.com are sharing this Christmas Subway Art + Banner. It is a darling holiday print as a 16×20 download. Very cheerful!

Monika at i love it all has oodles of cute downloads inlcuding these treat bag toppers and little moments prints. Click on the images to see the blog post and download links from Monika.

I’ve loved Shabby Princess designs for years.  She has several holiday (Thanksgiving and Christmas) downloads available at the Shabby Princess download page. Click on the image below to get to the dowload of her free Christmas Recipe Cards. Even if you don’t know how to digitally alter them, you can print them out and write the recipes. Handwritten items are a treasure these days!

More info is coming this week on Family Tree Prints. Sorry that it’s taking me so long to get all the details settled. Mothering 4 little ones takes a lot of my time and energy… but never fear… we’ll get it going!

Also – be sure to check out SFD on Facebook. You can get the latest Simply Fresh Designs news there… or by subscribing to the SFD blog feed.

Happy Thanksgiving!  Enjoy all your wonderful blessings.