Summer goings on

This summer has been a whirlwind!  Right after school got out, AJ and I left for summer camp (me as the camp nurse).  Poor Sydney did not come since she had a cast on her arm still and it would have been a drag to miss out on so many activities.  It was fantastic, but I’ve never worked harder than those 2 weeks.  Literally I slept about 4 hrs a night for the first week!  Between getting organized, storms, sick/injured kiddos, did I say storms?…  When we got home I had just under two weeks to get them both ready for their Grandparent TOUR of California.  Sydney thankfully got her cast off before leaving!  Now they are hopping between grandparents and other friends/family in Cali until Aug 3, and my DH and I are renovating our front yard!!  UGH it’s too hot to be doing that kind of work!

We are in full swing with another renovation… ScrapMatters newsletter is becoming a quarterly magazine!  I’m so excited to bring this baby to fruition. I’ve brought in 3 new contributors and our regulars have brainstormed new angles and articles.  Such a great resource this will be!  Be sure to sign up if you are not already a SM subscriber!  The first issue comes out Sept 1 (fingers crossed for no snags to the plan).

I’ve also been creative…

For Chrissy W

For Sahlin Studio

For Cindy Schneider

For Lauren Reid

For The Tattered Pear

and for Heather Hess

You need to know…a feel good opportunity (with benefits)

I want to help spread the word about Lauren Reid’s Donate + Win Raffle.  Check it out here at Lauren’s blog post …she is raising money for the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America in honor of her 9-year-old son.  She is enticing everyone to donate by offering fab gifties in a raffle of both her own designs and those of other amazing designers. I love the digital community rallying behind her and donating products to make it a truly spectacular raffle!!

While I am here I’ll share that yesterday I got a GSO at the Finger Pointing Blog for this layout using “On My Honor” by Lauren Reid and Jacque Larsen at The Lily Pad. It is always such an honor to be noticed within this massive digital community – Thanks to Crystal Livesay my day was made!!  Image is linked for credits.

Mental Health Scrapping

When I journal about a difficult subject, it forces me to think things through.  The process if often cathartic and helpful in dealing and sorting through my feelings.  Lauren Reid (one of the designers I’m creating for) is having a month-long series on her blog called “Therapy Scraps” which addresses this exact phenomenon.  Week 1 is up now, go check it out!

I’ve been busy scrapping lately, but not a lot I can show right now <grin>

I did this one for the February Girl vs. Scrap Challenge – click image for credits…It uses Cindy Schneider’s new Got Your Number Scallops…so fun!

Spring is breaking here… so nice!

Had to share this quick video…

I love General Mills – for their Box Tops program that gives back $1500 a year to my children’s school – and now for this promotion to give children in Africa laptops!  Talk about being able to make the world smaller and differences in education less.

http://www.boxtops4education.com/earn/winonegiveone/

For every 100 views they will donate a laptop over the next 2 weeks.  Please check it out!

Babypalooza! 2-11-11

It’s here and you are still on the right path! You’re likely arriving from Val’s blog http://www.chocolatecoveredpolkadots.com/

In case you picked up the Babypalooza blog hop here… HERE is the new kit creating such a stir! — “I’ll Love You Forever” by Sahlin Studio

I love the vintage baby patterns and elements, so original Krista Sahlin!  This was amazingly easy to use and create a bounty of diverse layouts. Below is the first page I created. Here I’m also using “Cindy’s Templates: Single #3 Five Things” *coming tomorrow* by Cindy Schneider at Sweet Shoppe Designs.  It is really a fun one!  The photo is of my DD back in the hospital 5/02 ❤

I have not forgotten what you are seeking… here is what I made for you.  Two word art clusters using “I’ll Love You Forever” by Sahlin Studio.

Link on image -or- here – http://www.4shared.com/file/-eHspNsS/norton94_sahlin_studio_ILYFclu.html

Your next stop is Becca – http://digi-scrap-aholic.blogspot.com/

If you get off track anywhere you can always find your way by checking out the Sahlin Studio blog too.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!

Something great is coming tomorrow!!!

Tomorrow is the day that Sahlin Studio and Britt-ish Designs are hosting a fab new blog hop called Babypalooza… and I’m along the way.  Got a sweet giftie freebie coming your way if you come back in the morning!

CT News

I’m sorry for the late notice, but I had some computer issues the last couple of days…Krista Sahlin of Sahlin Studio has an amazing quickpage event going on right now with 25% off all her QP packs.  This is sure to help me with my holiday gifts!

Here is one of the brand new QP packs that has a few of my pages inside…I think “So Grateful” may be my all-time favorite kit, since I made 7 layouts with it!  The work is done for you here. Check it out while it too is on sale!

For making some super holiday gifts Cindy Schneider has teamed up with Dani Mogstad for some fab calendar and brag book template and QP packs… you can have your choice of templates or QPs.  Can’t decide?  Get both in the bundles!  Better yet, the calendars come as 8×11 complete pages, 8×11 with 2-pages to complete the month, and CD size!  Talk about variety!  There is also a month by month brag book.  Holy cow!  Images are linked to the whole collection… and these are available either bundled or separately!

–

–

 

Another huge CT happening is Leora Sanford’s upcoming 25 days of giveaways from Dec 1 until Christmas!  Amazing sponsors…

I also have a layout to show off… it got Finger Pointing on November 16th at the Gallery Standouts Blog (http://www.gallerystandouts.com/view.php/area/1/standouts for some reason wordpress is not allowing me to make any text links! UGH). The image is linked to my gallery for full credits – the template is Cindy Schneider’s and the kit is Erica Zane’s.  It is always such an honor to be recognized as something to see 🙂

Whoo Hoo

So excited:)  Just got word that my layout was picked and highlighted on today’s Story Board at Log Your Memory.

Here is my layout – linked for credits.  I did it showing Cindy Schneider’s template set Cindy’s Layered Templates – Set #74 in use. Cindy’s templates always help me make layouts I’m pleased with…

After 6 winters…My List Reads:
1- It’s great to have kids big enough to help shovel!
2 – Sometimes trash barrels get buried
3 – If you don’t dig out your mailbox, you don’t get any mail
4 – School does not generally get cancelled for snow if you live in town. Ice however is another story!
5 – A 4” snow prediction could mean anywhere from none to 18” depending…
6 – Harder to shovel if you drive on it 1st
7- 50 degree days in October feel a lot colder than they do in March
8 – Don’t go buy groceries if they expect snow – the lines will be killer!
9 – 4-wheel drive is not a scam…
10 – Sometimes snow boots are really a necessity – even they look funny with what you have on!

Holy Buckets!

My goodness, this may be the opportunity of the year!?! You know Kevin and Amanda of Fonts for Peas (Yes, the site with the most amazing and fabulous handwritten free fonts)? Well they are hosting a give away of Sahlin Studio’s ENTIRE store to one of their lucky readers… that is over $575 worth of amazing designs. You have got to check it out on their blog, but hurry!  Contest ends in just over 24 hrs (Tuesday Oct 5th at 8pm CST)… zoom on over to give yourself a chance!  Enter HERE!

Some CT Updates

Just wanted to pop in and make a few changes since this last week I’ve had some CT movement.  Krista of Sahlin Studio packed her bags and moved to The Lilypad.  Her designs are as gorgeous as usual.  As part of the BYOC (build your own collab) they have over there at TLP she made a color coordinated kit of Autumn Mixed Media and Autumn Word Art that is totally drool worthy!  Here is the page I made with it, using Rachel Young’s BYOC supplies that coordinate:) Isn’t that clever! Image linked for credits.

Leora Sanford happens to be a guest this month at TLP, so she too has a few BYOC products!  More of these yummy colors!! Her kit is called Sweet Pea and can be purchased as elements, papers, and alpha separately.  Here is the layout I did with this kit, again image linked for credits.

Now my last bit of news is that I’ve accepted a new CT position with Cindy Schneider at Sweet Shoppe Designs.  I’ve done some casual freelance work with Cindy’s designs for several months. I’ve enjoyed working with her and her designs so much that I jumped into the fun of being on her CT! Cindy is a magnificent layered template designer.  She has an amazing sense of flow on a page and her templates make it really easy to compose a page like a pro!  You can add as much or few of the embellishments as you like and personalize the style.  She has each layer pre-shadowed for quicker pages!  Here are a couple of my pages using her templates.  Images linked for credits.

Anyway…hopefully I will come post sooner than later…it’s just that I like to scrap so much!