I got to go to the digi retreat!

Oh boy, it's been a busy month! I can't believe it's Thursday and I'm only now getting around to talking about my weekend.

I was one of those lucky people that went to the Northwest Digi Retreat. Almost 40 of us were there with our computers in tow to spend the weekend scrapping with a bunch of strangers. It was SUCH A GOOD TIME! I had so much fun and I met some great girls.

I went with one person that I already knew, Tracey Monette, who sells her designs at Scrapbook-Elements. We walked in the door and when we introduced ourselves the owner of the house just happened to be standing there. She was amazed that all of us were spending the weekend together and we had never met before. I think she was pretty much shocked that none of us were paper scrappers either, lol.


Well, here is a group shot, it doesn't include everybody that was there, but it's most of us.










Also sitting at my table was: Tracey Monette (mybetride), Shawna Clingerman (user name the same), Dani Mogstad (dmogs), Amy (Fannie) and Julie (aka Juliebee70). Fun, friendly and extremely talented, all of them.

I got to meet some girls from some of my creative teams:

Dani Mogstad and I are on Nancy Comelab's CT together. And Britt (Brittanylyn) and I are on Nancy's as well as Corina Nielsen's CT together. So it was fun to meet them.


So, speaking of Nancy Comelab, she's having yet another contest on her blog. And if you aren't aware of it yet, she gives away the coolest prizes. Check it out here, it has to do with the products in her last grab bag and you only have until Sunday to participate. Check out the layout I did with her cool graphic papers, loved them, so bright and fun.

Taste of summer credits here.




















Speaking of 'grab bag's, Sausan Designs did a really cool one too, only hers was called 'collectibles'. And they are really worth collecting, lol. I highly recommend the purchase of hers and Nancy Comelab's, neither one will disappoint you.

I used some of Sylvie's cool grabbag stuff here in Backyard Adventurer (credits here) as well as in My New York Vacation (credits and journaling here). Love, love, love Sausan Designs' prodcuts!



















Sausan Designs are available at Scrapbook Graphics. (And she's releasing a bunch of REALLY cool stuff today too!)



















Well, I suppose that's enough for today, lol. Have a great day!

A few pages this week

Just a few pages to share:

life size.
This was for the hodge podge challenge: Use three colors of paint, buttons and a really large title. This uses mostly Sausan Designs products. One of the things I love about Sylvie's products is that I feel I can comfortable create out of the box.
Click here to read journaling and credits.
















Easter Grass
I couldn't help doing a page about Elizabeth's struggle with the Easter grass. Here it is almost a week past Easter and I am still finding the stuff everywhere! LOL This uses Corina Nielsen's cool Easter kit, and it's a lift of a page by Moni.
Click here for credits and journaling.
















Star of the game!
A page using a template by Gina Miller! And who doesn't love girls who play with worms?
Click here for journaling and credits.















Easter 2007
This pages uses mostly Tracey Monette products, she has a very cute Spring kit that is suitable for anything with an Easter add-on which has these adorable doodles.
Click here for journaling and credits.

Fire

Ok I couldn't help naming this post fire for two reasons. First, I have a layout called 'fire power' of my littlest miss walking around with some. And second because I have a layout of my youngest brother, the redhead in the family. When he was a teenager all the girls kept giving him the silliest names, LOL. Names like 'red hot' and 'fire god' and you can only imagine how much we liked to tease him about these nicknames, LOL. And I'm certain you can imagine how much he hated us teasing him about it too!

Well first is this layout that I have been dying to post all week. I just LOVE it. And it cracks me up too! It uses the awesome new Kaleidoscope kit by Sausan Designs at Scrapbook Graphics. Let me just say one more time that I really love how this one turned out, lol. Credits here.
















This page cracks me up too, because it's about how my little brother dressed my littlest miss during his last visit. LOL, it was the cutest thing. He is married but doesn't have any kids yet and Rachel just took to him immediately and only wanted him, lol. Funny how kids do that.

So this is Uncle Kevin (credits and journaling here) and it uses Gina Miller's new kit called 'For Joann' as well as her new negative clusters, love them, and one of my favorite curled frames by Nancy Comelab.
















Well the weather has been great the last two days so we have been outdoors until late each night... putting the kids to bed and then sitting on the patio enjoying a fire. But now it's raining and will probably do so tomorrow too.

Do you know what happens to Easter eggs when they are damp? All the colors runs off, lol. So that should make for some colorful photos tomorrow, lol.

Happy Easter everybody!

Spring time in my backyard and more

My littlest miss will be 23 months next week and she has recently discovered that she can reach up on the counter tops. The funny side of this is that she emptied the salt shaker onto my family room carpet. (LOL) The not so funny side of this is that she pulled my newly repaired camera down and broke the casing. (big sigh)

But how can you not love a face like this?
















Or like this photo of her from last year that I just finally scrapped. It uses the new Tropical Visit kit by Tracey Monette at Scrapbook-Elements. View the credits for Beauty Mark here.

Well it is now Spring and the weather is beautiful. This means we will now begin to spend our afternoons in the backyard. And Elizabeth is especially looking forward to this because this means she gets to have a fire in the pit on the weekends. Guess I better buy some chocolate for s'mores, because the season is just beginning.

Here is a layout from last Spring using the new Funky Playground Designs collaborative kit. Click here for Spring S'mores credits.

But part of being in the back yard is also hearing this sweet little voice yell at the top of her lungs, "Momma, push swing!" You gotta love little talkers, lol.

So Angela Powers challenged us on her blog to show her an hour of our day. So here is how an hour of my day, playing in the backyard.

Well, I had just intended to put the photos in the frame so they looked nice, but I ended up just scrapping it, lol. Since it's not in the gallery the credits are: Nancy Comelab (frames, background), Amy Martin (ribbon, sequins), Corina Nielsen (safety pin, grunge overlay), Nancy Rowe Janitz (stamped number), Katie Pertiet (stamped alpha).

Thanks guys, have a great day!

ETA: Nancy Comelab has multiple contests going on over at her blog right now. You should check it out here, because she is one of the most generous and kind people around!

Slacking

Yes, I've been slacking in my blogging, which means I am about to overwhelm you with lots of layouts, lol.

I actually was very productive over the weekend and have several layouts ready to post in the gallery for the week, but I'll wait and show you guys those next time. :)

Anyway, the big news here is that I am a guest for Gina Miller's creative team this month! I have already posted two layouts using her great products; the first is using the collaborative Easter kit she made with Tiff Brady and the second uses the collaborative kit, color me funky, she created with Kate Hadfield. Both very cool kits!













And here are the layouts!

Egghunt credits here.
Fashion Designer credits here.




















This next page I really love. Which is good, because it's me and the husband, lol. But these new elements by Sylvie of Sausan Designs are so cool, and they are so me. She created one paper pack and three coordinating element packs and they are all awesome. I have another really cool layout that I love that I created with them already... but it's not in the gallery yet so I won't share it here either :)













This is just a sample, but you can find them in her store at Scrapbook Graphics. And the kit is called Kaleidoscope, by the way!


Love credits here.
















And I also decided to scrap some fourth of July pictures. Why? I don't know, lol, I just felt like it. :)

Ears Plugged credits and journaling here.
Accessorize credits and journaling here.

And this page was just fun! I used Tracey Monette's new Scategorically Speaking paper pack, which has all kinds of fun stuff scattered in the backgrounds, which can be found at Scrapbook-Elements.

Squirt credis here. My daughter just cracks me up, she is what we like to call 'spirited' and she can definitely hold her own with the boys.

This next layout was a scraplift of Emily Power's 'girl dad'. I'm sure everybody in the digi community knows how talented Emily is, and if you don't you should check out her gallery. I have only ever done three scraplifts, one was a challenge and two were by choice. The two I have done by choice were both of Emily's pages. She is extremely talented.

Here is her layout 'Girl Dad'.

Credits for Central Park here.

Ooooh! Blogger is messing with me. Try as I may, I can't make the paragraphs go where I want them. Blogger just keeps moving them wherever for whatever reason. Ugh.

Well, anyway, have a great day! And don't forget to check out Nancy's blog too. She is have a great contest, giving away an ipod. Check it out here: Nancy Comelab.

So sorry...

I've been back two weeks and I'm just now getting around to updating! It's been a busy two weeks if that means anything, lol.

First of all we had a great time at Disneyland. We stayed for five days and the best part of doing the park for so long is that you don't have to rush around. If you're tired or the kid need a break, you just leave, and it's no biggie because you have more time.

Last time we went Splash Mountain was Elizabeth's favorite ride, but this time it was closed for refurbishment. But when we were there last time Space Mountain was closed and open this time. So this time Space Mountain won the spot as Elizabeth's favorite ride. And you have to see the cute photo below taken on the ride, Elizabeth and her dad are in the front row.

And we had the girls silhouette's done at the studio on Main Street. It amazes me how those ladies can just go snip, snip with a pair of scissors so quickly and you have these cool silhouettes as a result.



















On the scrapping front there is lots of stuff going on, but I won't share it all with you at one time. Exciting for me, but I might bore your poor ears off, lol.

So I'll just start with this exciting new... When I returned from vacation I received the nicest e-mail from Sylvie of Sausan Designs at Scrapbook Graphics, and that sweet and talented lady has invited me to be on her creative team. Talk about a woo hoo, lol.

I'm sure you're all familiar with her, and if you aren't get acquainted quickly because she has the coolest stuff coming out later this week. It's not in the store yet, so I can't show you a preview, but you are going to LOVE it, all of it!

Well, here are my first two layouts as part of her team.

Warm with a slight breeze... find the list of credits here. And this uses the cool kit 'funky, funky' which is so colorful and fun. Totally fun!




















And this is Rachel's first Easter, click here for full credits. This uses the 'funky, funky' add on and her cool new 'happy Easter' stickers.



















Fun stuff!

I have some guest ct news that I can share with you next week... more fun stuff! And this is probably long enough, so I'll try to update more frequently so that I don't overdo each post, lol.

And I almost forgot the best news of all... My brother and his wife are home now after being overseas (in the military) for the last four years. We are all very happy to have him back in the states!

Have a great day everybody!

I'll be back...

(Blogger is driving me crazy with it's making it's own mind up on where my paragraphs should go... sorry.)

As I sit here at my computer, I am wearing my coat and slippers and my hands are icicles. Our heater stopped working last night, ugh! I suppose it wouldn't be so cold if I hadn't had the heater set so low to begin with, but it was nice outside! So, it was only set at 65 degrees to begin with and now it's 59 degrees. And I'm cold.

But the good news is that the repair man should be here any time. They said between 11 and 2 and it's almost one... so any time now would be good. Brrrr.

And my camera stopped working! Now THAT is a nightmare, lol! I took it in to the shop and they are sending it out, but I'll be without my camera for close to two weeks. Can you imagine not having access to your camera for so long? Bad timing too because I really need to be taking photos here pretty soon. Thank goodness for Grandmas and their cameras, lol.

So I have had a bad case of scrappers block all week. I managed to squeak out two layouts, but that is about all that I have, lol. I guess the timing is good there too, because I will not have access to my computer for the next week so maybe when I get back I will be refreshed with tons of ideas. I certainly hope so because I have been lent several graphic design books to read over the next week so I should return with much inspiration.

Here are the two pages that I created.

The first is Rachel in all her cuteness this past Halloween: Indian Princess. Click here for details. This uses some new elements by Corina at FPD, the binder doo hickeys are particularly unique though and I love them.
















And this next page is of Elizabeth and her cousin being silly girls, which is why I called it Girly Play. Check here for details.

This one uses more of those cool frames by Nancy Comelab and some beautiful new papers (celebrating weddings) by Corina.

In fact, if you aren't already aware of it, Corina got married last Saturday. She and her husband (then fiance) won a contest giving them the coolest photographer for their wedding. AMAZING photos. If you haven't seen them yet, you should check out the sampling on the photographer's blog, Jessica Claire. They really are beautiful and she was a beautiful bride.















Here is a sampling of some products I am looking forward to using when I get back...

by Tracey Monette at Scrapbook-Elements













And if you haven't seen this from Sausan Designs... can't wait to add it to my collection!

I'll be back in a week or so!

My one year anniversary

(I am having the darndest time with the new beta blogger getting my paragraphs to go where I want them to. So please excuse the sloppy look, but I can't seem to make my paragraphs stay where I put them. Ugh.)

Boy, what a week! It's been hectic and chaotic and I'm exhausted. I didn't feel like I had any time to scrap at all this week, so when I added four layouts to my blog to share with you I was kind of surprised, LOL.

Well anyway, this week was my one-year digi anniversary. And as a scrapping addict there was no way that I could pass by the event without documenting my growth as a scrapper. LOL

My page started as a display of my layouts from throughout the year documenting how my design and computer skills have improved. Then I thought I should write a paragraph or two about my journey as well. LOL, I guess I was in the mood to write, which does happen every now and again. So here we are with a page of photos and a whole 12x12 page of journaling, LOL, yes I crack myself up and rarely anyone else, hee hee.

If you are interested in reading about my journey (and a few funny things that happened along the way) and checking out the credits, click here. And again I'm using Nancy Comelab's frame clusters which make creating multi-pic pages a snap. Love 'em!

Here's a wintery page for you! We had the best week last month when it snowed hard enough that we were out of school for three days. The kids had a blast and I took more photos than I know what to do with, LOL. So I may have just a few more pages coming.... Click here for credits.

I thought I'd try something new with this page and it was so much fun to create. I knew as soon as I saw these cutouts by Sausan Designs in the store that I had to have them and I had to use them for a New York page. So I just played and had fun. Here is the result, click here for full credits.

And here I am finishing up my tether ball series. I loved doing a series, quite fun, lol. Click here for credits. Oh, a new product in this one that is cool is Tracey's black deckle mattes. Check them out here.

Warning: I'm emotional...

Earlier this week a man came home from work, changed his clothes and went out for a run while his wife and two young children remained at home. While on his run a car swerved to avoid an accident and instead of hitting the car, the driver killed the jogger. This hits a little closer to home than the average accident because he was the husband of a member in my MOMS Club.

What this has me thinking about is how important it is for me to not only document the childhood joys and achievements of my girls, but their relationships with each other and with their dad and me. Meaning I need to journal more and I need to include more photos of the two of us in my pages. So this is my new goal. Feel free to hold me accountable, LOL.

For further inspiration I am looking to Sarahbcmc's gallery. If you are not familiar with Sarah, she recently lost her husband to illness. She is left with two young boys; a toddler and a baby. She has been putting together an amazing gallery of layouts documenting the relationship her husband had with the boys and how much she and her husband loved each other. Her layouts are very worthy of shedding a few tears.

Ok, moving out of the blues and into...

The relationship between my own husband and oldest daughter!

My husband is a wonderful father. He knew that Elizabeth loved to play tether ball at school, she plays it during every recess. So he decided she should be able to play it at home too, and together the two of them proceeded to build a game for her to play any time she wanted.

The first page, Together, documents how they constructed the game together. Click here for journaling and credits (Together). The second page has photos of their first game. Since then they have played numerous games and I'm sure many more are just around the corner. Click here for credits (First Game).
















A couple of fun things...

Sylvie Wagner (Sausan Designs) is one of the sweetest designers! She treated me to this wonderful paper pack this week called Altered Artistry: Artificial Flavor available at Scrapbook Graphics. While I was in her store I couldn't help picking up the new Kidoki element pack too, it's very cool. Can't wait to use them! Thanks again Sylvie!













And my fun news of the week is that Nancy Comelab invited me to be on her creative team, yippee! She is another one of those designers that is just beyond nice. And she is fabulously talented. I love her! And you wouldn't believe the talent on her team, amazing scrappers, all of them.














Ok! Well, I could probably think of more to say, but I've already talked your ear off. LOL Have a great weekend!

Get out in the garden day!

For us President's Day means Get Out In The Garden And Work Day. We pruned all our rose bushes and Elizabeth and I got to work cleaning up the fairy garden.

This will be the summer that the fairy garden blooms! We have roses, clematis vines, hydrangea, ferns, an apple tree, snap dragons and various bulbs. I had more, but I made the mistake of buying from a mail-order catalog last year. The plants were fine, but they were small. And my sweet husband killed them thinking they were weeds, LOL. So we will buy more mature flowers to add to our garden this Spring.

We also have a fairy house made of sticks and twigs and we have three logs for seating. And various little pieces of art. And the whole area is fenced in with a picket fence, right off of the play yard. I really want an arbor over the entry, but I am having trouble convincing my husband why it's a necessity. I will paint the inside of the pickets lavender, lime and turquoise before we add more plants though, so we have some fun color year round.

Well enough about my garden, LOL.

Have you seen this new kit by Corina Nielsen, so full of spring-time fresh colors? It's called Spring Chicken, click here for this design at FPD.











And here is my layout using the kit, New Sister. Click here for full credits. These photos were taken when Rachel was one week old. So sweet!















And here is a birthday layout from Elizabeth's 6th birthday. Click here for full credits and journaling. But the page uses these wonderful frame clusters that make doing multi-pic pages so stinking easy! I love them. They are by Nancy Comelab at My Digital Muse.










And I wanted to tell you about my friend Tracey Monette who sells her designs at Scrapbook-Elements! First off, she is one of the nicest people in the world and I love being on her creative team.

Second, she is a great artist, she is always available to me for constructive criticism on my layouts. Every time she gives me a suggestion and I try it, and it always looks much better. She has a wonderful eye. Her digital creations are full of fun, color and creativity. She's very eclectic, which I love. Check out her gallery and her store.

And she is a digi designer in need of a few more people on her creative team! Here is her announcement at Digi Shop Talk for details. You should definitely check her out!

Here are a few pages I created for using Tracey's products.