Thursday, March 26, 2009

Carousel Rides

Kelley Mickus has another new kit, "Just Breathe", which I used for this layout:



You can see it here at The Digi Chick!
xoxo,
{papers and embellishments from "Just Breathe" by Kelley Mickus; blue alpha from "Flower Patch" kit by Digital Scrapbook Memories; "Pea Sarah Cute" font}

Monday, March 23, 2009

St Paddys Day


{green background paper from "Bungalow Blossoms" by DeCrow Designs; black mat from "Roughed Up Mats" and paper block templates by Emily Merritt; alpha from "Sugar Baby" by Valerie Brown Designs; glitter shamrocks from "Lucky Charm" and yellow paper from "Happy Helpers" by GG Digital Designs; rainbow sticker from "Magic Rainbows" by Rhonna Farrer; lucky day tape strips by me; "GF Halda Normal" font}

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Revisions

The other day I was listening to NPR and someone mentioned the famous quote, "Art is never finished, only abandoned" by Leonardo Da Vinci. I have been thinking lately how true that is for me with my scrapbook layouts... not that I think they are major works of art, but that I never really feel finished with one, I just decide to quit working it. Often I'm not completely happy with the end result but just don't know what else to do with it and so I abandon it. I have the general rule that the story is more important than anything else so I don't get too hung up on it, but I went back and made some revisions to two of my recent layouts...





... and although I think I like them better this way, I still don't get that feeling that they are "finished". I guess Leonardo was right!

xoxo,


{"Peekaboo": acrylic alpha & stars by Meredith Fenwick; everything else from Digital Scrapbook Memories; "Harting" font}

{"Three Things": white paper by ScrapKuts; scallop pattern paper by Rhonna Farrer; everything else from Digital Scrapbook Memories; "Taylor_MacKenzie" & "Slab Tall Medium" fonts}

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

In the Knick of Time

Today is the last day of the Lucky in Love contest! Here is my final layout.

Love to Learn
Create a page with photos of 3 THINGS you love or are lucky to have. These cannot be people. Think about hobbies, interests, collections, etc. Choose items that really represent you. Crop your photos to the same size.



{scallop frames from Digital Scrapbook Memories "Moods" CD; bows from Digital Scrapbook Memories "Easter Hoppiness" kit; tags from Digital Scrapbook Memories "Back to School" CD; background paper by Kelley Mickus; "Taylor_MacKenzie" and "Slab Tall Medium" font}

Monday, March 16, 2009

Easter is Coming...

And look what arrived just in time! Digital Scrapbook Memories has this adorable new Easter kit, Easter Hoppiness:



And what's even better is that for the first time ever, they are offering this for download - no ordering CD's and waiting for them to arrive. Instant gratification. :) You can find it right here. Here is a layout from last Easter I did with it:



{everything from DSM's "Easter Hoppiness" kit; "luna" font}


I can't wait to play some more... I'm thinking I could use this for some cute decorating projects as well...

Also, Digital Scrapbook Memories has some new downloadable photo textures that look very cool, moody photo textures and mostly antique photo textures. Check it out!

xoxo,

New Kit + Scraplift

Kelley Mickus has returned to the designing world after a little break, with this:



Although the All Things Visual store and site has closed, she is still offering her designs at The Digi Chick. I got a chance to play with it today! It is a scraplift of this layout... I marked this as one of my favorites months ago and I have been waiting to find the perfect thing to scrap so I could lift it. I'm loving the all paper block designs lately! And aren't the colors of this so fun? You can pick it up here.



{papers and elements from "Our Story" by Kelley Mickus; "Harting" font}

xoxo,

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Pot of Gold

I'm almost done with all the lucky in love challenges - only one more to go! Here is my latest:

Pot of Gold
You have two journaling options for this challenge. Choose either one.

1) Create a scrapbook page about what you would do if you found a pot of gold. You can substitute the words “found a pot of gold” with anything similar such as, “had a million dollars”.
2) What is worth more than gold to you? Create a scrapbook page where the journaling involves explaining your answer. Again, you can substitute the word gold with diamonds, money, jewels or anything similar.



{everything from Digital Scrapbook Memories "Moods" CD... except the stitching is from Digital Scrapbook Memories "Playground" CD; "Pea Times New Camelion" and "CK Ali's Writing" fonts}

Friday, March 13, 2009

The Digi Dares

I can't remember how I found about this site, but I think The Digi Dares is pretty awesome. Each week they post a "dare" or scrapbooking challenge. If you participate, you usually get a coupon for some scrapbooking goodies, and if you win you get a gift card for some goodies. I don't visit their site often, but I recently signed up for their facebook group and so now I get a message in my inbox each time they post a new dare. Today I decided to play along.... the rules of this dare were:

choose a person/thing in your life and list five reasons why you love them.
- use at least one photo of the thing your layout is centered around
- white space on each side of your layout, so center it and fill the center 1/3 of the page from top to bottom
- journal each reason a different way. use tags, stickers, scrap pieces of paper, etc.
- use red on your layout somewhere but you can NOT use hearts anywhere on the page.

My attempt:



I love a good challenge, especially ones that deal with the design of the layout. I get stuck in a rut and have a hard time thinking outside of the box, and I thought this design with everything down the middle and space on the sides was so fun. Go try it - I digi dare ya!

xoxo,


{background paper, notebook paper, staples from "Art Nation" by Emily Powers; acrylic stars by Nikki; number tag from "Happy Go Lucky" and brad from "Festival" by Shabby Princess; red alpha from "Enjoy the Journey" by Dirty Feet Designs; circle alpha from "Wonderful" by Michelle Coleman; white label from "Funky Love" by Megan Turnidge; colored paint strokes from "Different Strokes" by FeiFei's Stuff; circle label from "Journal Me" and red scribble from "Hugs and Kisses" by Lauren Reid; ink stain from "Something Springy" by Anna Aspnes; "Pea Jenny Roman" and "Typewriter" fonts}

Monday, March 9, 2009

Lucky Rainbow

Lucky Me
Create a scrapbook page that documents at least one of the lucky moments in your life. You can be liberal with the definition of the word lucky if you like.




Follow the Rainbow
Create a scrapbook page with an arch of some sort. For example, you could round off one side of a picture.



{lucky me: everything from Digital Scrapbook Memories... background paper from "Oh Boy" CD; bead alpha from "Family Ties" CD; orange papers, flower stings, blue string from "Moods" CD; "VTPortableRemington" font}

{temple: everything from Digital Scrapbook Memories "The Garden" CD; "Pea Karen xoxo" font}

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Family Tree

Here's my latest challenge for the Lucky in Love contest:

Lucky Idea
You are so lucky! You get to take a fun class from Alisha Shaw! Join us as we learn how to create fun shaped photo collages on our pages. Complete the project given in class.



To do this challenge you had to take the online class to learn how to fill a custom shape with pictures. This page took a lot of thought and effort (and time), but it was fun to learn something new and try a different technique.

{papers, flowers, buttons, and alpha from Digital Scrapbook Memories "Family Ties" CD; fence by Tara Dunstan; bird by Kelley Mickus; "donna" font}

Decisions, Decisions



For the past couple of years I have been downloading the free, monthly computer desktops from the Shabby Princesses blog. All was well... until today, when I saw Katie Pertiet's free, monthly computer desktop on the Designer Digitals blog. Oh how will I choose?