Layouts | Week of December 8-14

I'm plugging away at my December album, and surprisingly, I'm not too far behind! Here are the pages I made this week for it:

created with Pockets no. 6 by Valorie Wibbens;
Hello December papers and elements by Laurie-Ann;
Bloomin' Pointy by Kim Jensen;
Jolly Ole Buttons by Sahlin Studio;
Santas Workshop kit by Sahlin Studio;
Merry Mess by Michelle Godin;
Pear Tree mini by Sara Gleason;
You and I kraft papers by Rachel Young;
Peppermint Winter by Mye de Leon;
Island of Misfit Toys and Century Gothic fonts

I created two "regular" pages this week as well - one winter & one summer page.

created with Dec BYOC goodies at The Lilypad~
Pretty Planks vol. 2 by Amy Wolff;
Gift Cards by Jacque Larsen;
Rubbed Ink Blot Alpha by Just Jaimee;
Stardust backgrouds and basics by Laurie-Ann;
Don't Stop Believing elements by Little Butterfly Wings;
Snow Evening papers by Rachel Young;
Hosta Holiday tapes vol. 2 by Sara Gleason;
Woodlets by Valorie Wibbens

created with June Storyteller collection by Just Jaimee

Thanks for stopping by!

Layouts | Week of December 1-7

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm attempting a December album for the first time ever. Originally I thought I'd just play it by ear and not worry about the daily aspect, but rather just document the Christmas-y happenings around here.  BUT then I won this really awesome activity advent calendar {Very Merry Advent} - totally worth checking out, even though we're well into December. We're loving it so far! Because of the Very Merry Advent we have at least one holiday related activity each day, so it just makes sense to scrap about something each day.  Plus our elf Fritz is always hiding somewhere new each day so we've got holiday magic practically 24/7! I decided to go with a pocket style format to simplify the design, and I'm not too hung up if I'm a day or two behind documenting.  Also, I'm not going to stick to a page a day or anything - some days will be a full page, others will only take up a couple of pockets. Going for simplicity and flexibility so I can actually end the month with a completed project. (Fingers crossed!)  Here's what I've got so far:

These pages created with the following products: Stitched Grids by Amy Martin; Santa's Workshop kit by
Sahlin Studio; Hello December papers and elements by Laurie-Ann; Bloomin' Pointy by Kim Jensen; Counting the Days Vellum by Pink Reptile Designs; Christmas Past by Polka Dot Pixels; Merry Month by Amy Wolff; Joyeux cards by Allison Pennington; Christmas  Whimsy by Little Dreamer Designs; Merry Christmas by Persnickety Prints; Century Gothic font

I've got a few other pages to share. This one was created a few weeks ago for the Digi Morph game that just wrapped up at Pixels & Co. Ali Edwards did a post on her blog a while ago featuring 10 things about her kids right now, so I took the opportunity back in October to do the same for each of my kids, and recorded them on our private family blog. I'll eventually create a page for each of them using the journaling and photos I took of them in October. 

created with In Good Company collab kit by the Pixels and Company designers

This one is for the December template challenge at My Scrapbook Art (freebie alert!):

created with Fuss Free: My Scrapbook Art Template 4 by Fiddle-Dee-Dee Designs;
Of Wishes, Dreams, and Happily Ever Afters by Stolen Moments

And just for fun, a sweet photo from the summer before last:

created with Childhood kit by Mye de Leon and Anita Designs

Thanks for stopping by!

Layouts | Week of November 24-30

I had a fabulous week - full of family and traditions and fun. The kids were out of school the whole week, which was actually really great. And the weather was unseasonably warm which was a nice bonus! Plus, I managed to squeeze in some scrapping time between all the holiday fun.

This one got me in the holiday spirit - I used bunch of stuff from the December Company Stash at Pixels & Company:

created with December Company Stash products:
So Cozy paper pack by Kelleigh Ratzlaff Designs;
Wish Come True embellishments and Wish Come True smears by Mye de Leon;
Some Flairs vol. 5 by Anita Designs

This page was created for the December Design Challenge at Pixels & Company. If you've never tried their challenges I encourage you to check them out, they're a lot of fun! I did the Management level, which combines the use of triangles and contrasting colors (I chose orange and blue):

created with The Good Stuff: This Month bundle by Mye de Leon

And finally, just a fun girly page featuring my favorite gal - she's really into wearing all kinds of accessories over her clothes and I always get a kick out of the things she comes up with:

created with Something Wonderful kit by Laura Passage and Mari Koegelenberg;
Weekdays Vol. 1 by Karla Dudley;
Bitty font by Audacious Designs

And with that - goodbye November, hello December! For the first time ever, I'm attempting to capture and record our holidays with a December album. I'm not sure if I'll be documenting something every day, but I'm going to try to keep up with the ways we are celebrating the holiday season around here. With four little kids there is a lot of holiday magic! I created my first page already and I can't wait to share it here later in the week.  Until then - happy scrapping!

Layouts | Weeks of Nov 10-23

Huh. Turns out it was a good thing I didn't post last week, otherwise I would have nothing to share today! As it is, I only have two pages. Much of my free/computer time has been eating up by scanning old family photos in preparation for my parents 50th wedding anniversary next month.  I've been wanting to scan them for a while now, but this event was the push I needed to get it done. I'll be making lots of prints to use at the celebration in the decor. I did have some of them professionally scanned, but it gets pricey so I'm doing a good portion of them on my own. And then I got the flu - UGH - which put me down for about three days. So glad to finally be feeling human again!  But anywho... my pages:

created with Peppermint Winter kit by Mye de Leon;
Frame it Up templates by Scotty Girl Design;
Dancing Script and Mongolian Baiti fonts

 

created with
Nov Challenge template by Amy Martin;
Beech Tree papers, elements and alpha by Sara Gleason;
At the Moment Elements by One Little Bird;
Equinox elements by One Little Bird;
Fall in Love papers and elements by Michelle Godin;
Spring Has Sprung collab kit by The Lilypad Designers;
For the Record kit by Valorie Wibbens;
Olive Tree kit by Sara Gleason
The Reed font by Heather Joyce

Hopefully I'll have more to share next week! Thanks for stopping by!

Digi Night Out is Coming Soon!

So, I'm  trying to get in the habit of blogging my scrapping adventures weekly - on Sundays - but I totally forgot this week.  :P But now that it's Tuesday, I think I'll just save it all for this coming Sunday.  Now the suspense is killing you, right?! Well, I do have something to share today, something awesome: Digi Night Out!  It'll be here before we know it, so grab your ticket and join me and lots of other local digi scrappers for an awesome night out!

I hope to see you there! xoxo

Layouts + a Project | Week of Nov 3-9

I've got four layouts, plus a little project to share today.  First up is this sweet photo of my oldest and my baby when he was just a few months old:

for the November Template Challenge at MSA:
Reflections papers and elements by Sahlin Studio;
Memory Collector papers and elements by One Little Bird;
His Grace papers and elements by HGD by Laurie Ann;
Fuss Free: My Scrapbook Art Template 3 by Fiddle-Dee-Dee Designs;
Amatic and OldNewspaperTypes fonts

And this one about my 6 year old who lost TWO teeth in one day:

scraplift of The Not So Best Day Ever by jenny: http://www.the-lilypad.com/gallery/s...hp?photo=81805
created with Toothless Grin collab kit by Jenn Barrette and Valorie Wibbens;
frame from Torquay elements by Kaye Winiecki;
1942 Report font

This one makes me *kind of* excited for winter - well, not sure excited is the word, but sledding is about the only think I like about the snow:

created with Frosted kit by Scotty Girl Design;
DaunPenh font

 This is another of my month by month, yearly pages. I try to do these for all of my kids for each year of their lives.  As you can see though, I'm a bit behind! Most of these photos are from 2010:

created with
Jan 2012 template freebie by Amy Martin (seriously altered);
Shooting the Moon papers by Rachel Young;
Go See Do alpha and Messy Marvin alpha by Amy Wolff;
Wood Veneer: Word Talk and Wood Veneer: Arrows by Sahlin Studio;
Traveling Typewriter font

And lastly, I tried my hand and some iron on shirts for my little guy.  We celebrated his 1st birthday on Tuesday (still in denial over here!) and I wanted to make him a birthday boy shirt.  I thought this little monster was cute, so I made him one of those, too. It's kind of hard to see, it says "Monstrously Cute". They were easy and fun to make!

Birthday Boy shirt created with Sweet Briar elements by Sweet Caroline;
Monster shirt created with Monstrously Cute kit by Laura Passage and Pixel Gypsy designs;
Weston free font

 

 

Thanks for stopping by! Happy Scrapping!

Layouts | Week of Oct 27 - Nov 2

Another successful DSD weekend has come and gone - phew! I was only able to do a little scrapping, and a little shopping because sadly it was still a regular weekend in real life. I mean, I still had to rake leaves and run to basketball games and the hardware store, and cook meals... doesn't the rest of the world know we're celebrating over here?! I fantasize about how someday, when the kids are little bit older, I'm going to book a hotel for the weekend for myself and just hole up in there to shop and scrap! Sounds like heaven....

Ok back to reality - here are my layouts for this week. First up, a page using the fabulous Piccadilly kit:

created with Piccadilly collab by P& Co designers;
Traveling Typewriter and Rochester fonts

I made this one for one of the October challenges at The Lilypad:

created with Oct challenge template freebie by Amy Martin;
Alder Tree kit by Sara Gleason
Road Movie and OldNewspaperTypes font

LOVE this amazing collection from Scotty Girl Design:

created with F-Stop Collection by Scotty Girl Design;
DSD 2013 Grab Bag collab by Crystal LIvesay and Sara Gleason

For this one I used a mix of stuff from the November Stash at Pixels & Co:

Created with Nov. Stash goodies:
Playground Elements by Dawn by Design;
Just Breathe papers by Sabrina's Creations;
Family Comes First journal cards by Scotty Girl Design;
Breathless Templates by Crystal Livesay

And this last one was from the Challenge Me Anything thread in the forum at P&Co:

created with
Fairytale Papers by Ya Yeah Designs;
Mori Girl elements by Ya Yeah Designs;
Stamp Press Life by Karla Dudley;
KD Everyday font

 

 

Thanks for stopping by - have a great week!

P&Co Creative Team Blog Hop + a Quick Tip!

Hi there hoppers, & welcome to my blog! Did you pick up the gorgeous Piccadilly kit yet?! I've got a fun little frame cluster to go along with it that you can grab right here.

Time for a quick tip - when I was thinking out loud to my husband about what my tip would be he said, "Tell them to scrapbook about cute stuff. And to make it look interesting, people love interesting pages!" So, you'll be glad to know I stuck my tongue out at him and came up with something else.  I work in Photoshop Elements 10, though I'm pretty sure this works for all versions. When typing text on a layout, there are three options for aligning your text. (For my examples I'm using a cute journal card from the Piccadilly kit.)

Left Align:

Right Align:

and Center:

Although there are only three options in the PSE options bar, there is actually a secret fourth option - FULLY JUSTIFIED text.  
The keyboard shortcut for fully justified text is CTRL+SHIFT+J (or CMD+SHIFT+J for the Mac crowd).
This isn't something I feel the need to do often, but there are times when it's just the perfect touch or look I'm going for.

Now, this little journal card example probably isn't the illustration of how cool this can look, but I promise somtimes it's just the thing you need. Play around with it on your next page :) Happy hopping and HAPPY DSD!  Your next stop is Mary's blog.

Now here's a list of the Creative Team blog hop, so you don't get lost:

Pixels and Company http://pixelsandcompany.com/blog/
Mandi - http://ryanmandi.blogspot.com/
Jennifer H http://jenniferhignite.blogspot.com/
Anna - http://scrapownia.blogspot.com
Lynnette - http://scrapping-is-life.blogspot.com  That's ME!
Mary - http://justus-photographyanddigistuff.blogspot.com/ 
Becca www.beccanicole05.blogspot.com
Jen F http://jenflaherty.blogspot.com/
Erin T http://erintaylor718.blogspot.com/ 
Sarah http://pinklimeproductions.com/
 Jen E https://www.facebook.com/JensCre8tivity

DSD at P&Co!

Digital Scrapbook Day is here, and Pixels & Co is celebrating in a big way! First things first: this amazing collab kit from the designers at P&Co is absolutely FREE! You can participate in the blog hop to get your coupon code, put that baby in your cart, and checkout - easy peasy! Plus, there's a ton of great tips and tricks you can pick up along the way. I'll be back soon with a layout or two using this beauty:

 

And of course, there's an amazing SALE.  Everything is 35% off, but the more you spend, the more you save! Perfect time to stock up and get everything on your wishlist.

But wait - there's more! Pin your favorite P&Co products and you could win your entire dream cart!  And of course there's the big payoff - one winner each day will be fully reimbursed for their order. Sa-wheet! I'll be back soon with a little freebie of my own ... in the meantime happy DSD!!

Layouts (& project) | Week of Oct 20-26

This week I worked on a few of the monthly challenges at The Lilypad.

This was for the random challenge - we played a game of telephone tag/digi morph (whatever you want to call it) and here's my page.  I actually scrapped it earlier in the month but held onto it for the big reveal:

created with Coconut Tree kit by Sara Gleason;
acrylic flower from This Carefree Day by Sahlin Studio;
Claire Hand font

This was for the product challenge, using wood:

created with
paper from Field Trip kit by Sahlin Studio;
frame from Heart and Hand kit by Laurie-Ann;
string from Leaf Peeper elements by Laurie-Ann;
Needed More Stitching v. 5 by Amy Martin;
wood butterfly from Chin Up kit by Allison Pennington;
butterfly stamp from Messy Marvin Deconstructed by Amy Wolff;
Paintstroke Chatter: Warm Weather Wonders by CD Muckosky;
Traveling Typewriter font

this was for the BYOC challenge:

created with Oct BYOC goodies:
Beechtree papers and elements by Sara Gleason;
At The Moment element by One Little Bird;
Fall In Love papers by Michelle Godin;
Newsy Shapes by Kim Jensen;
Quicktype Condensed II font

I also created this little printable this week - as an LDS woman, each month I visit a few women from my congregation and share a spiritual message with them.  I like to make printables using my scrapping supplies and a favorite quote to share with them.  This is the one I made this month:

created with Equinox papers and elements by One Little Bird; Salamander Script and Slab Tall X fonts

That's it for this week - thanks for stopping by!

Hawaii Album

My husband and I went on the trip of a lifetime last summer - and I finally have something tangible to show for it! For our vacation album I opted to keep it really simple with just photos + words. I created an 8x8 14 page photo book and ordered using this coupon code at Adorama Pix.  I love the quality of their books - the pages are thick and the colors are spot on. And I'm a big fan of the lay flat binding.  I took a some pictures to share, here's Kauai 2012:

It's hard to tell in the photos, but the cover has a cool metallic sheen to it.

Check out those lay flat pages. Love it!

Below is my very favorite spread - photos taken on our helicopter tour of the island.

The spine.

 And the back - I put this on the back of all the photo books I create.

And that's it! I love the satisfaction of completing a project like this. I've got a couple of other albums in the works that will (hopefully) be photobooks soon. I can't wait to share them!