Bon Voyage ... heading out on our Mediterranean vacation

Hi everyone! I've been gone on vacation and then been sick for the last couple of weeks so that why I've been silent for so long! Did anyone notice? LOL! Life is getting back to normal again and I was sitting here on the couch tonight as kids are coming to the door trick or treating so I thought I'd put together a page - my first page relating to my recent mother/daughter vacation.

I used a bunch of digi goodness from Splendid Fiins to complete this page. The journal cards are part of the November BYOC at The Lillypad. They're coming out tomorrow if you want to check 'em out!

My recent trip was with my mom and sisters so I'm waiting to get memory cards with everyone else's photos so I can start putting together a vacation album. That'll be fun ... we saw a lot of beautiful and memorable places on our trip! I just couldn't wait ... so I thought I'd make a page for my family album ... just because I guess! 

Materials Used:

Splendid Fiins:

Kthnxbye Journal Cards

Snail Mail Bundle

Evidence Date Stamps

Very Krafty Bold Move papers

Creashens:

Dirty Pockets

And finally ... random snapshots from the 50th anniversary celebration

This is it. I've now officially finished scrapping my photos from my inlaws 50th wedding anniversary celebration this past May. Time-wise, it was only a couple hour event, but photo-wise I had a ton of photos. It was such a big family event that I wanted to include it all! (Besides, I love two-page, multi-photo layouts!) Yesterday I posted the pages I created using the photos taken by the photographer we hired for the event. Tonight's pages are just a bunch of random casual snapshots taken by my sister-in-law and me. I felt like the fun shots needed to be included too to make the event complete!

I used a TON of random things to create this page. I'll include a full list of credits after the images.

Credits:

Photo Clusters No. 17 by Katie Pertiet
Picture This kit by Anita Designs
Keep Calm and Snap On card by Jennifer Hignite
Click kit by One Little Bird
Camera Love Journal Card by Splendid Fiins
Cut Ups Photography word strips by Katie Pertiet
Life 365 Stamp Sheet by Karla Dudley
Ashbee (Photo Journalist) by Karla Dudley

Celebrating a 50th wedding anniversary (Anita Designs & Wishing Well Creations have joined Pixels & Co.)

I'm heading out on a mother/daughter vacation in a couple of days (a trip with my mother and my two sisters). I didn't think I'd have any more time to scrap this week but I sat down to watch some TV tonight while the kids did homework so I put together these pages. I really prefer to be productive when I'm watching tv! Four pages in one night ... I'm pretty proud of myself. (Well, to be honest, it's only 3 pages. I created one of the pages the other day, but wanted to put them all together as a four page spread, so since they all go together now I'm giving myself credit for 4 pages.)

Have you visited Pixels and Company lately? They've added a couple of new designers to their already awesome list of designers ... Anita Designs and Wishing Well Creations/Laura Passage. They've got some great stuff that I used to create these pages. I'll include a full list of credits after the images.

These four pages all focused on the photos taken by a photographer we hired for the event. I'd already scrapped two other pages (that I'll share later in this post), and I still want to scrap some of the random snapshots I took that night. Geez, I could almost make a small mini album from this event. LOL!

Credits for all 4 pages:

All available at Pixels & Co.

Photocentric v. 3 template by Crystal Livesay

Picture This kit by Anita Designs

Today kit by Anita Designs

In Stitches Neutral Basics by Robyn Meierotto

Everyday Life v. 4 template by Wishing Well Creations/Laura Passage

These are the other two pages I'd already scrapped (and posted) from this event:

Digi Project Life | Week 41

Have I told you before how much I LOVE Project Life? I think it is just so awesome to document the ordinary moments of our lives! It's only October, but already I'm so anxious to get my book back. Only 2-1/2 more months. I can wait. I suppose I really don't have a choice but to wait, do it?! LOL!

Laura Passage (Wishing Well Creations) joined the Pixels & Co. store a short time ago. I've been eyeing up this kit of hers since she released it in the shop! I loved using it for this week's Project Life pages!

Credits (Pixels & Co.)

These Moments Collection (papers, elements and journal cards) by Wishing Well Creations (Laura Passage)

My son's visit to Washington DC

This page has been in the works for a few weeks now. I started it quite a while back and for some reason never got around to finishing it. That pretty much never happens. Typically once I start a page I just work on it until it's done. It's usually a one night (or a couple hour) kinda thing. I'm not sure what happened with this page, but this afternoon I noticed it sitting half done on my computer so I thought I'd finish it up.

The story behind this page is that my son (who as you can see is quite self sufficient - I'm quite proud of him BTW!) visited Washington DC this summer. He flew out there by himself. He toured the museums on his own. He had a great time! He of course wasn't in DC by himself ... my husband was there for work. I'm so glad he got the experience of being able to tour such an awesome city (this is his third visit there so he's getting pretty comfortable with getting around - he's my directions kid!) and then got to hang out with Dad at night! FYI, the reason he was there was for a robotics conference on Thursday and then Friday he and Dad toured the sights together. I'm glad they got some father/son bonding time too! (And I got some mother/daughter bonding time back home with my daughter.)

Happy Friday!

Materials Used:

Well Traveled kit by Carina Gardner

In Neutral Stitches by Robyn Meierotto

About a Boy elements (plane) by Mye De Leon

Clear Essentials elements (staples) by Karla Dudley

Editorial Inspiration 092610 (circle tag) by Katie Pertiet

Editorial Inspiration 070911 (postage stamp border) by Katie Pertiet

Our family portrait (new product by Crystal Livesay @ P&Co.)

Good morning and happy Friday everyone! Do you know what today is? It's new release Friday at Pixels & Co. There's lots of new digi awesomeness released at P&Co. today. I wanted to share with you a page I created this week using one of today's new releases - Photocentric v. 3 by Crystal Livesay.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Credits (all products from Pixels & Co.):

Photocentric v. 2 by Crystal Livesay 

Picture This kit by Anita Designs

Today kit by Anita Designs

In Stitches Neutral Basics by Robyn Meierotto

Digi Project Life | Week 40

Another fun week of project life. For this week's pages I used kits from  Mye De Leon at Pixels & Co.

It was a busy week ... getting ready and having a birthday/sleepover for my daughter, volleyball (I've really got to get a volleyball photo one of these days!), another bat issue (hopefully - cross my fingers and say a little prayer - our last!), and other than that, just a normal week!

Credits (all available at Pixels & Co.):

Happiness Lies Within bundle by Mye De Leon

Puzzled journal cards by Mye De Leon

Birthday Party Invitations & Thank You Cards (Can I call these hybrid - kind of?)

Last night my daughter had a birthday party/sleepover with a bunch of her girlfriends. They had a great time! I heard lots of giggling and chatting. Last Sunday I created the invitations for my daughter to hand out on Monday and then this morning I put together a thank you note, using photos from last night's party, for my daughter to give to her friends at school on Monday.

I made both of the cards as 5x7s so I could print them easily at Costco. I matted the invitations on brightly colored cardstock (left over from my paper scrapping days!). When I get the thank you photos back from Costco tomorrow morning I'm going to attach them to the front of a 5x7 card and my daughter can write her thank you on the inside of the card. 

Knowing I wanted to include a group and individual photos on the card (and just because I of course wanted those photos), I took a photo of my daughter with each of her friends at the party last night. Each girl will get a personalized thank you note with a photo of them and my daughter.

Here's the thank you note:

And I shared this last week already, but here is the thank you note we sent out:

Credits for the thank you note:

Made of Awesome (frame) by Gennifer Bursett

Chalkboard Journal Cards (living life to the fullest) by Karen Funk

About a Boy papers by Mye De Leon; 

Remarkable (click/photo rubon) by Karla Dudley

Kinda Sketchy template by Splendid Fiins

Eclectic Mix paper pack by Splendid Fiins

Tween Add On (file label) by Splendid Fiins

Flea Market brads (camera brad) by Splendid Fiins

Occasions (Thank U) by Shabby Princess

Credits for the invitation:

Made of Awesome paper pack (chalkboard paper) by Gennifer Bursett

Chalkboard Elements by Sweet Caroline Studio

A couple pages (using Mye De Leon & Splendid Fiins designs)

I thought I'd share a couple of recent pages with you.

Mye De Leon released an amazing kit at Pixels & Co. with the October Company Stash. The kit is called Felicity and it's just so pretty! I created these two pages using the Felicity kit:

Credits:

Effortless v2 by Crystal Livesay

Felicity papers, embellishments & smears by Mye De Leon

Credits:

Felicity papers & embellishments by Mye De Leon

Leathers Love by Gennifer Bursett

Clear Essentials by Karla Dudley

Everyday Life Definitions by Karla Dudley

Dreamer Brushes by Karla Dudley

Also, here are a couple recent pages using designs from Splendid Fiins at The LillyPad. The first page uses Splendid Fiins' new BYOC kit called "Organic":

Credits:

Organic papers, elements and journal cards

And, finally, one more quick page...

Credits:

Splendid Fiins

Mixed Bag Quick Page 2

Evidence Date Stamps

Evidence Label Stickers

Make a Mess Vol. 1

xxx

Scrapaneers Peers | FREE online digi class

I’m excited to share with you that I’ve joined the Peers team at Scrapaneers! Have you visited Scrapaneers yet? It’s a new online educational site where digi scrappers can grow and share their technical skills. It’s really pretty awesome!  They offer classes for seasoned digi scrappers as well as people who are just thinking about trying out digital memory-keeping - and all things in-between.

The first class I'm going to tell you about is called Keeping it Real. Here's a page I put together last night for that class (using a paper tear and a paper fold ... just like paper scrapping).

Credits: 
All from the Keeping it Real class materials:
Krafternoon Delight kit by Creashens; template by Tiffany Tillman.

Like I mentioned, there are a bunch of different classes available right now - and new ones coming up all the time! Here are just a few:

Keeping it Real – This is a FREE class!

DESCRIPTION: Time and time again, I hear scrapbookers (digital and paper) say they don’t want to sacrifice the tactile look of their paper pages by building pages digitally. Well, I’m here to shout from the mountaintops that you don’t have to sacrifice the look — just the messy clean up!

Anyone can create digital scrapbook pages that look as real as paper pages. You just have to know how! In Keeping it Real, Scrapaneer founder and instructor Tiffany Tillman shares classic techniques mimicking tearing, curling, shadowing, pinching and more using Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. By the time you print your page, you will pick it up and run your fingers across just to see if it’s real! Tiffany will share that going digital is NOT a death sentence for realistic art. Rather Keeping it Real can be a solution to a freeing and more satisfying digital artistic expression.

How about a class for those of you who are new to digi scrapping, or who are just starting to think about trying out digi scrapping. You might want to check out Sans Paper Scissors.

DESCRIPTION: Calling all paper scrapbookers, newly minted digital scrapbookers or hobbyists who have never scrapbooked at all! Recording your memories, creatively displaying your photos, and sharing good times with friends and family just got a lot easier. Join Aria Andrus in Sans Paper Scissors for Beginners, which takes a step-by-step approach for learning the absolute basics of digital scrapbooking. In just under two hours, you’ll learn the easiest tricks for scrapbooking sans, a French word meaning without, traditional paper and scissors! Via high-quality video lessons you can enjoy at your leisure, Aria will show you how to use custom made digital paper, embellishment files, and digital cutting tools available in Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Elements to preserve your precious memories. Included with the video lessons are PDF reference guides and the digital supplies you’ll need to follow along with Aria and complete your scrapbook pages. You’ll also receive other learning materials designed to help you gradually and effortlessly master new digital scrapbooking skills.

How about a class for those of you who are trying to figure out what the heck to scrap now that your kids are out of the house? If that sounds like you, check out Empty Nest Scrapbooking!

DESCRIPTION: Scrapbooking in the empty nest. Really? Is that even possible? What (and who) in the world are we supposed to take photos of now that the kids have graduated from high school and are off to college, have moved out of the house to enter the work force or have married and started families of their own? Many us who have enjoyed this passion of memory keeping for years are often left wondering what are we going to fill our albums with now that the kids are gone. Do we just give up on our beloved past time? Are our supplies destined to become fodder in the next neighborhood yard sale? Veteran scrapbooker (20+ years!) and graphic designer, Kelly Sill says, “Absolutely not!”

So much of this industry revolves around children and documenting their milestones. We often forget that if it wasn’t for us–their parent(s)–they wouldn’t be here in the first place!  Just because our kids aren’t leaving their socks on the floor, involved in extra-curricular activities or eating us out of house and home, doesn’t mean we empty nesters are out of things to scrap!

There are lots of other classes to choose from. Here’s a link to all the class offerings.

Digi Project Life | Week 39

Another week of digi project life. Time is flying by! Can you believe it's October already? I didn't seem to have a lot of variety of photos this week. Good thing we had a family party to celebrate my daughter and my nephew's birthdays! I just used a bunch of photos from that weekend. I love project life.

FYI ... I absolutely ADORE the fun journal cards in Wishing Well Creation's Happy Days kit and I can see using Karla Dudley Designs' Pause Sentiment Cards a LOT!

Have a great week!

Credits (all from Pixels & Co.):

Happy Days papers, elements, journal cards and alpha by Wishing Well Creations

Pause Sentiment Cards by Karla Dudley

It's time for the October challenges at Pixels & Co.!

It’s October 1^st. Do you know what that means? It means it's time for another month of challenges at Pixels and Co! I created a page as a sample for the Design challenge and I wanted to share my page with you.

Remember, the challenges aren’t just fun … you also earn points for a percentage off your purchases at P&Co, PLUS if you complete all the executive level challenges you could earn a guest CT spot for the month. How great is that?!

Here’s a link up to the October challenges. If you’d like to read more about how the challenges themselves work and how you earn points, I’ll link you up here.

Have fun!

Credits (all at Pixels & Co.):

Up in the Air kit by Wishing Well Creations

Summer Sun frame brushes by Karla Dudley

Polaroid frames from Rough Draft by Audrey Neal

Zephyr Place font by Karla Dudley

Clear Essentials (staples) by Karla Dudley