Happy Harvest

I've been wanting to scrap these pictures for a long time now.
I've been wanting to use this kit for a long time now.

So the light bulb finally went off and I put two and two together.





And for the journaling... whenever I get stuck and I'm not sure what to say or I feel like I don't have enough room for the whole story - I simply make a list. I always love how that turns out. In this case:
a hayride
a pumpkin patch
a corn maze
a giant slide
tractors to "drive"
ice cream
a chill in the air
crunchy leaves
Zach & Clara
Miles & Max
Nadiya & Leilani
good friends
celebrating fall

{everything from "Harvest Spice" kit by Shabby Princess, "Jane Austen" & "Century Gothic" fonts}

More Olympics

100 M Race - this was held last Saturday. A sketch was posted at 9:00 a.m., and the first three people to post their finished layouts based on the sketch won a prize. It wasn't me - but it sure was fun to speed scrap! I think this took me about 15 minutes... I'm slow.


Archery: create a page with 6-12 picture squares that are the exact same size. Line up the squares so that they are lined up straight and evenly distributed wherever you decide to put them on your page


Gymnastics: create a layout that utilizes basic principles of good balance


I've still go four more to go... wish me luck!

{everything is from Digital Scrapbook Memories; for full credits go here, here and here}

Sweet

A layout from our trip to Hershey's Chocolate World:



As you can see, I did get a chance to use Kelley's new kit - I stayed up way too late working on it, but oh well!

{everything from "Cowgirls Dream" kit & freebie by Kelley Mickus, "Harting" font}

Freebie!

Kelley just released a beautiful new kit, Cowgirls Dream, and she's offering a cute little freebie to match!



Just click on over to the All Things Visual blog to pick it up. Also, pick up the full kit for 20% off - but hurry, the sale ends Tuesday. I have yet to scrapbook with these lovely papers and elements, but I hope to sometime before the weekend is over...

My First Post!

I posted a fun little tutorial (with some new layouts) over at Kelley's team blog, "Get Inspired". Go check it out! NOW! Do it! :D

Going for the Gold...

Here are my layouts so far for Digital Scrapbook Memories olympic challenge. I busted these out in a few days, but I haven't done more in the past two or three - all scrapped out I guess. I hope to jump back in and finish the rest of the challenges soon. All products used are from DSM CDs unless otherwise noted.

Diving: "dive into scrapbooking" - create a page of your choice.

{stitching by Anna Aspnes}

Pole Vault: take your creativity to new heights using clipping masks


Tennis: create a page with rounded corners


Rowing: create a page with straight lines


Cycling: create a page using circles


Sailing: create a layout using cool blue colors

Let The Games Begin!

Go here to see what all the fuss is about. It will be FUN!

Just For Me

Of course all my pages are just for me, but it's been a while since I just scrapbooked without a specific kit/designer in mind or for a particular challenge... no constraints. I used products I love and it's probably as close to what I'd call "my style" as it gets. Here's the story:

"we were anxious and excited as we started our journey in philadelphia in the fall of 2004. these other families became our instant friends and "philly family". the guys carpooled and spent their days at school together, studying and surviving each exam. the girls worked and had babies and spent a lot of time together for play dates and girls nights, supporting each other and trying to stay sane. four years seemed like a long time, but looking back it was but a moment. two months out and I am missing so many things about our dental school/philadelphia experience. I miss these wonderful friends we made who mean so much to us, and the wonderful times we had bonding through our shared experience. during out time in philly I grew more than I ever have before. I became a mother and I was tested in strengthened in many ways. I'll always have many fond memories of that place and time."

The main thing I love about this page is that I'm just telling my story. To me that's the most important aspect of scrapbooking, and I'm constantly having to remind myself of that. It's easy to get caught up in the wonderful product and the different scrapbooking trends out there... which are fun, but I always want to make sure my story is there first before I focus on how "cute" something is, ya know? I really liked this post that reminded me yet again of that fact. But enough rambling! TTFN!

{notebook & red paper, stitches, felt flowers, alpha, brackets, wordstrips, tree&leaves, acrylic flower & pear, from Emily Powers "Blossom" kit, felt branch & birds by Tiff Brady, clip & label by GG Digital Designs, "Paulhino Pedra Azul" font}

Catching Up

Phew! Just got back from a week long vacation and I'm still in recovery, lol. We had a great time seeing family and camping in the mountains of Utah. So of course I came back to loads of fun scrapping things... here's a few I wanted to share:

- Our Kelley Mickus team blog, "Get Inspired" is up and running, and we just posted the first challenge! It's a fun one (and super easy!) so check it out and play along. There's also some great freebies!

- I did another page, this time using Kelley's "lil' lovin" kit...

- Digital Scrapbook Memories is having a very fun olympics challenge. (Remember the torch? Pass it if you haven't yet!) It starts 8.8.08 (just like the real olympics) but April posted a couple of the challenges early in case you want to get a head start. Go here to see them, or you can go here to read more about the contest. It should be a lot of fun!

- Also going on at DSM... a quick page exchange! You can see all the details here and here. This month quickpages are being made using the Benjamin's Slide kit on The Playground CD. It's one of my favorite DSM kits; I played around with it this morning and created this:



And here is what I did with it:



And one more layout I recently did, before I go:



I also posted this as inspiration for yet another challenge over at DSM. So if you need a boost to your creativity, check some of these out... Happy Monday & Happy Scrapping!

{"Good Buddies": papers & elements from "Benjamin's Slide" kit on The Playground CD by Digital Scrapbook Memories; "Elise", "Georg" & "Times New Roman" fonts}

{"Proud": papers & alpha from Digital Scrapbook Memories "Family Ties" CD, stitching from "The Playground" CD, "Century Gothic" font}