Another speed scrap accomplished!

Aaahhhh. There is nothing better than the feeling of a satisfied scrapping experience. :)

I did another speed scrap at Stuff to Scrap tonight. It is really neat: I love that they give you steps and you can alter them slightly to meet your needs. Just seeing what everyone did was pretty cool, and how people interpreted the steps (which can be somewhat vague or open-ended). In fact, the person who posted directly above me in the forum is also a CT Member of Flower Scraps. She used the EXACT same kit as I did, Summer Garden, yet her page turned out entirely differently! That is the wonder of kits like this, where you're given so many wonderful papers and embellishments that you can really come up with some beautifully creative layouts.



My page was all about Cameron's first haircut. He technically did receive two very small haircuts in the autumn, only to remove the portion of hair on the back of his neck that was quickly becoming a mullet...or a tail, circa 1988 and Jordan Knight from New Kids On The Block (yep, I was sooooo in love with him. I've totally dated myself here, but there you go. I'm a kid of the 80's!). Cameron was well past exhausted at this point, so we really shouldn't have thrown him to the wolves with his first haircut. But he did remarkably well...and since he really doesn't have much hair, she just dry-cut it with scissors for 5 bucks. I guess I can't complain. :)

Waving Hello

So I'm starting to get the hang of digi scrapping websites...which are a world unto themselves. :) The website Stuff to Scrap has lots of challenges, including a monthly color challenge. Within this challenge people can create free kits for others to use. The pull for this is that you have a main set of colors, and by the end of the month you have a huge amount of materials you have collected throughout the month. Its a great way to get a variety of styles as well, as each designer pulls from something you wouldn't have thought of.

My page came from the JeNaSis DeSiGn kit, which Shelby called Grapes From The Park. You can view it on her blog here.


Here is the preview.



And here is what I did.

Yep, totally made my son into a purple page. :) You have to love that! I just really liked that background paper, and it spun from there. And I think its so awesome that I could create this page out of a kit that was definitely more bright spring colors, and that kit came from a color challenge that had more bright colors. Its all in the mind of a scrapper: we see what we want to see. :)

I'm working on lots of new things this week, so I hope to post lots of good stuff! Be sure to check back for the JeNaSis DeSiGn release on Thursday, April 22nd, you'll love her new kit!!!

Hello exhaustion.

I'm visiting family in Dallas...and my son is simply NOT okay with the change. He has not slept at all today. He's too keyed up about seeing his two cousins (ages 4 and 8) and because of it he wouldn't nap, took over an hour to get him settled down for sleep at bedtime...and then the little bugger woke up at 1AM and won't go back to sleep! So both my husband and I are up with him because we're trying to keep him quiet so he doesn't wake everyone else up.

I guess he figured the bedtime was actually naptime, so he now assumes he can stay awake for a few hours then hit the sack again? I don't know. I'm exhausted. Unfortunately we were scheduled to stay here until Sunday, but that might have to change. My husband goes back to work again on Monday (he's had three weeks off after coming home from deployment) and I'm really fearful of how things will be if Cameron is this off schedule! Ugh. And I miss my bed. My really big, super comfy, king-size bed. Sleeping on a rock-hard bed that a 4-year-old uses, next to your kid who is really angry about being out of his own comfy bed and into a pack & play, is just not all its cracked up to be. Ugh. I should have had a rum & coke before bedtime...would have made this all a little more amusing. Come 8AM...I ain't gonna be amused. :-/

Lesson 3 layout

How cute is this?? Seriously, I'm LOVING this Jessica Sprague class!! Not only because I'm learning cool new "tricks of the trade", but also because essentially all of this stuff is now in my greedy little hands for future use! I have to admit, I'm not much of a primary-colors kind of girl. But I (HEART) this layout. Just L.O.V.E. it.

All the pictures were taken the day my husband left for his training last July. We thought he was leaving directly from training to go to his deployment, but fortunately he did come home for a week in August before leaving for 7 months. So these pictures were taken thinking they would be the last together. :(

This lesson was lesson 3 in Jessica's "Up and Running" class. She also has classes that are more in depth, essentially two sequels to this class...which I will be taking. There are just too many doggone bits and pieces to Photoshop, and I like to have someone walk me through it! I'm not the type that just fiddles and messes around with programs. I like direction. Plus this gives me something to do that is structured...and I even like having "homework" assignments.

I've also been working on some layouts for the new release from JeNaSis DeSiGn, which is coming up next week! I'll be sure to post some great stuff on release day from the new kit called Bliss of Both. It is really nice...I was so excited to download it I had to force my husband to put our son to bed so I could play. :)

We will be out of town for the weekend, but I'll have great stuff next week! WOOHOO!

WOOWEEEEE! I'm on a design team!

I'm so excited, I'm on my first design/creative team! Shelby over at JeNaSis DeSiGn had a design team call...and she accepted me! Woohoo! I'm so pumped.

While I'm soooo new to digital scrapping, Shelby was kind enough to take me on and let me grow with her and the other team members.

Check out her blog!

Edited to add: a friend of mine asked what this means. Basically it means I am on a creative team of digital scrapbookers. We receive some product early and create layouts to showcase the great products that are going to be available. We essentially "sell" the cool stuff. :) And I just saw the first kit I get to work with for JeNaSis DeSiGn...it is sooooooooooooooo awesome! I can't wait to get started! :)

Eerrrrrrggggg

I'm in the middle of doing a blog overhaul, complete with a new background, a new header (I think) and some other new things I've grabbed for free on the wonderful thing called the world wide web.

Can someone tell me if they are seeing my header twice? One standard one and one sooped up one that is all purty? Also, is the purty header not really centered, but kind of off to one side? ugh. Total frustration. I had someone design that header a few years ago, when I started this blog. But now its not anywhere near the color scheme that I want for the blog, and its slightly irritating me. I am OCD about matchy-matchy. Yep, I'm one of THOSE bloggers. Sadly, I'm also one of THOSE crafters. My hardest challenge is to veer off my monochromatic color template and add spots of colors to spice things up.

Anyway, so that's my post for today. exciting. I do have two "real" scrapbook pages to post, but I haven't taken a picture of them yet. Nothing new to post from PSE, either. One page in progress, still two lessons to complete in my "up and running" course.

This week is very busy with doctor appts and other things to do, plus we are heading south to Dallas for the weekend. So I don't know if I'll have much time to be creative. Boo hoo. :(

Week 2 Bonus Layout

So this layout came together a lot faster than I thought it would! I'm pretty damn impressed with myself as well. :)

The paper and "brush" (the stamped thingie in the lower left corner) are from the freebies from the class. The strip of Paper is from Jessica Sprague's Echoes of Asia kit, which was free to us for being in the class (not sure if its free to everyone...I suggest you just go to her site and look around). The title is an alpha from a kit called Sweet Romance, as well as the gems on the bottom, which I got for free from Let Me Scrapbook!.

I'm typically not one for plain scrapbook pages which don't involve layers (I'm all about layering cardstock under photos!), but I think this turned out really nice. Very calm, and really helps to get the point across that this was our reunion after 7 months. I could have put a bunch of journaling on there...but why? You all know we're happy. :)

I'm definitely enjoying this class I'm taking...and I can already tell she's probably sucked me in for her two other in-depth classes (which are, of course, more money!) But it is just too convenient for someone to walk me through all of the ins and outs of Photoshop. She also provides a printout of step-by-step instructions for the lessons, so I can go back and find out how to do something. I also believe I will ALWAYS have access to this class, so if I forget how to do something, I can go back and find it in her videos. Nice!!

I'm loving my new foray into digital scrapbooking...and my husband loves that I'm happy about it. And he feels very special for buying PSE for me in the first place. :)