Whew! It's Summer Break

Wow. Not quite sure where the last ten months went.

I've updated my creative team links here on the page. Since my last post, I've added Chelle's Creations and ForeverJoy Designs to my teams. Also, I'm excited that I was selected to be part of The Scrap Nerds store creative team. It's been fun working with a store launch and have been busy discovering brand new to me designers and making a lot of layouts. I finished off 2012 and have all my layouts in my scrapbook. That was a major digi accomplishment. My yearly number of layouts created has almost tripled as I've become more involved in the digi-scrap community. I'm still designing layouts for Little Rad Trio and Dream Big Designs. And have been working with Amber Shaw on Facebook marketing and that's been keeping me busy.

If you are on Facebook, I invite you to my new Enjoy Your Pix page.

I plan on being back soon. There are big things happening with all my designers this summer!!

Back to School -- Thank Goodness?

Sweet Dreams by Amber Shaw at Scrap Orchard

Whew ... just a few more days until school begins. In some ways I want summer to continue, yet I look forward to the kids heading back to school. Actually, they are upstairs quiet right now, so I change my mind. I don't want school to start. Part of me wants to rewind 14-16 years to the snuggle-y delicious days of babyhood. The days of playgroup and anticipation of which preschool we would attend. Now the realities of SAT tests, GPA, and possible colleges looms on my horizon. Do you think maybe I can go hide under my blankie???

I've had a few productive scrapping pages and have been happy with how the pages have turned out. It definitely helps to have great kits to inspire me.

Sweet Dreams by Fiddle Dee Dee at Scrap Orchard

First up is Amber Shaw's Sweet Dreams. It is sweet indeed. In fact, I think the little fuzzy bear and cute sheep gave me a bit of a cavity. New now to Scrap Orchard, Amber teamed up with the talented Cheryl of Fiddle Dee Dee and we have divine coordinating templates!! The blendy masks are perfect for big pictures or even blending your papers. The templates were soooo easy to use and I had a coordinated lush page in a fraction of the time it would normally take.

Layout by enjoyyourpix using
Sweet Dreams by Amber Shaw and template by Fiddle Dee Dee

Dream Big Designs New Discoveries

I loved the templates so much that I had another play with them and used New Discoveries from Dream Big Designs to scrap some old school pictures of my son's hero day when he was in second grade. Cheri's little light bulb was the perfect match for my pint sized Thomas Edison.

Dream Big Designs New Discoveries Graffiti

 










Don't forget the graffiti packs! I love how Cheri has the graffiti bits and pieces separate so I can customize my page and shadows. There is a bundle in the market for your shopping convenience. :)

Layout by enjoyyourpix using
Dream Big Designs New Discoveries Bundle and
Fiddle Dee Dee Sweet Dreams templates

Little Rad Trio's Run in Circles Template

If you missed the news earlier this summer, Little Rad Trio is now selling at Gingerscraps in addition to MScraps. It's been fun getting to know the new community. There sure is a lot going on there. One of these days, I'll get my act together and try their book club!

This week, Jennifer is releasing some new templates aptly named, Run in Circles. I love the look of circles on my pages, but I really have a hard time with circular pictures. These templates are a great solution. As I was looking through my pictures, I stumbled across this picture of my dog. My dogs are rarely out front so it was fun to grab this picture of my furry friend pondering the world outside our house. I used the lovely Afternoon with Grandma kit.

Layout by enjoyyourpix using
Little Rad Trio's Run in Circles templates and Afternoon with Grandma kit

That's it for now. I'm heading upstairs now to give "advice" to my daughter about what to wear to the freshman dance. By advice, I mean answering whatever question I am asked with my opinion and then being told why I'm wrong. I *know* I'm just a sounding board and it's her way of talking things through to reach her own decision, but man oh man, I am quickly understanding the semi-dazed look on my parents' face as I breezed in and out of the room during my high school years. Parenthood  truly is a marathon!

I guess I don't really want to rewind all those years and start over again. I think maybe just scrapping some more baby pictures and school pictures will be a nice way to reflect on their growth and how far they have come since those innocent, angelic baby days. With the first day of school just a few days from now, I think my dear sweet Golden Retriever shows it best. She's ready to walk into the sun, tail up, ready to meet the great big world. I pray my two not so babies go forth and conquer their new year. And while I'm at it, I'll say a prayer for all the other mommies out there. xoxo

Happy Independence Day Weekend

I love summer. The hot weather and laid back attitude is just my style. Some of my best childhood memories are from the summer and I love the little snippets of those memories that wash over me when I walk across grass at night, or drive to the grocery store at 10:00 o'clock with the windows down. Oh! This makes me want to make so many pages to document those memories.

I have a few pages to share with you and some great digi news. First up ... Amber Shaw is moving to Scrap Orchard on August 1st.  I am over the moon thrilled for her and happy for me too. Scrap Orchard is my favorite store and my little digi-home. She has a ton of products she is retiring and they are marked down 70% until her Pickleberrypop shop closes. Don't miss out, there are some cute cute kits that are going away. SHOP HERE

Boom Boom Sparkle by Dream Big

Cheri at Dream Big Designs is on her final countdown. She has a sweet baby coming at the end of the month and in the meantime is turning out amazing kits left and right. I had a July baby once upon a time, and can totally empathize for how she must be feeling right now. That, I must say, is a huge disadvantage to summer. I think it's much easier to be pregnant when it's cold outside.

Her newest release Boom Sizzle Sparkle is full of great firework goodness. Perfect for Disney, Sea World,  baseball games, and of course the 4th of July. I decided to play with the journaling cards and InstaLife cards. I can never decide if I want the square or rectangle, so I'm delighted to see that Cheri includes both in her BUNDLE.

{Side note. If you want to print out the cards to use in hybrid projects, pocket scrapping,  or note cards, use the full bleed, untextured versions and send them to your favorite printer. They are untextured so you can pick your favorite paper texture. For my scrapbooking, I use the textured cards so I can mix and match them with my paper. If I wanted to do a more glossy, magazine, "flat" page, I'd use the untextured cards.}

For my page, I used a Scrapping with Liz template, the cards, word art, and little embellies. To keep the patterns small, I merged some of the cards together to give me a larger mat. As long as you make sure that you apply your shadow AFTER you have merged the cards, you should be good to go. I'm so happy that I now have this bundle in my stash, it will be used for many more pages in the future!!

April Madness using DBD's Boom Boom Sparkle

Jennifer at Little Rad Trio has also been busy. In addition to renovating her house and dealing with the aftermath of a storm that decided to strike just as the roof was removed, she has some new releases. This is for the MScraps monthly Memory Mixer where designers create papers and elements in the same color palette for easy mix and matching. The more purchase, the greater the discount is. Jennifer made an adorable kit called Simple Pleasures that highlights all those things that we love: our coffee, chocolate, books, pets, and just relaxing. The pinks, browns, and blues in the kit are very soothing as is the softly muted palette. I made my page to remember a lovely morning at one of my favorite local restaurant/coffee houses. It's always very busy and I wanted to make sure we grabbed a table overlooking the street, so I went a little early, had coffee, and digiscrapped until my friend arrived. It was such a nice day. It's always fun to drink your coffee out of a bowl!! LOL. Good thing I didn't spill.

I must disclose that I cannot believe that I forgot to use the graffiti on my page. I LOVE graffiti and paint!! What was I thinking??? Never fear though, I am currently revising my page for the Bring it Challenge over at Scrap Orchard. This month, you have to scrap on the diagonal. The new and improved page will be on my July Challenges board and will be on the diagonal with lots of this great graffiti.

Friends using Little Rad Trio's Simple Pleasures

Once I finish this post and then go outside to check the chemicals on my pool, I'm going to get started on my Iron Scrapper Week 1 layouts.  I completed my digi shopping and picked up the North bundle and some Fresh Fruit. I cannot wait to see what I make! I don't think I ever know what my page is going to look like before I start. You never know, it just might be an EPIC page!

See you later! :)

So much Scrapping Goodness

I have several fun pages to share with you this week! The designers have been super busy. It feels like every time I go online, there's a new kit! Now that school is out, I feel like I'm getting a handle on everything again!

I made a freebie for Dream Big Designs. It's on the Dream Big blog. Grab it soon, before the link expires. I made the card to go on a page in my kids' school albums. I hope you like it.

Amber Shaw teamed up with the dynamic duo Bella Gypsy. Their Wild Boy kit is awesome. Because I'm still trying to finish up the cheer trip to Disney in March (I have a free Shutterfly coupon that expires on Tuesday!), it was perfect for the parade at California Adventure.

 

Wild Boys by Amber Shaw and Bella Gypsy

It's also Pickle Barrel time again. Amber created a super fun Geocaching kit called Cache Me. Grab the elements, papers, and a coordinating template.

Dream Big Designs released super cute InstaLife and Journaling cards that coordinate with the Splash Zone kit. If you don't have the kit already, you really need to grab it. The orange and blues are fabulous for your summer pictures.

Splash Zone by Dream Big Designs

Little Rad Trio has been super busy as well. The move to MScraps is complete and Jennifer is quickly filling her store with new kits and templates. I made a page with her new template set Seven-Eight Don't Be Late. As for content, it's mainly the Way to Go kit with a little bit of Retirement thrown in. 

Little Rad Trio's 7 8 Don't Be Late and Way to Go

 This next kit is a newer release from Little Rad Trio. It's called Is the Grass Really Greener? Isn't that chevron paper awesome? If you are a lover of green and browns, you need to add this to your collection.

Little Rad Trio's Is the Grass Really Greener?

 I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before, but I LOVE the challenges at Scrap Orchard. In particular, I love the MIS challenges. (Make it Snappy). This one was from last week. It was the template challenge where Fiddle Dee Dee donates a template and then everyone who participates gets a 40% off coupon. She is so generous and makes lovely templates too. I was super excited to use a new kit that I actually bought! This is Once Upon a Time by Megan Turnidge with a Fuss Free Freebie from Fiddle Dee Dee. One more page closer to finishing Disney!! Yippee!!!

Good Day Sunshine

Morning Walk with Good Day Sunshine by Amber Shaw

Amber Shaw's Good Day Sunshine

Have your digi shopping eyes completely and totally glazed over yet? This year of iDSD is ON FIRE crazy busy with challenges and games. It's a busy time indeed. I want to slip back to a quieter time and share with you a page I made with Designs by Amber Shaw's newest release, Good Day Sunshine, available at Pickleberrypop. Through this weekend, Amber's store is 40% off and the kit more than 50% off.

Morning with school aged kids are crazy and  stressful. My son and I very easily slip into a bickering banter all the way to school and by the time I open the door, push him out, and race away drop him off at the high school, I am pretty frazzled. To keep myself from going home and crawling back in bed, I often stop somewhere between the school and my house and walk for about a half hour. My winter walks help me keep the winter blues in check. In this layout, it was a brisk December morning. I parked my car in an unfamiliar neighborhood, grabbed my camera, and took off for a walk. We have some gorgeous, huge oak trees around here and I love staring at them in the winter.

I have another reason why I love this picture. My dear friend, Allison, from All About You Photography had just given me some lessons on using manual settings on my camera. I have a long way to go but I'm so grateful she took the time to help me.

I will definitely use this kit again. I love how cheerful it is and all the cute little summery embellishments.

Have a great weekend! I'll be back soon with Dream Big Designs. Cheri has three brand new kits in the Scrap Orchard Farmer's Market.

Beach Get Away

Serenity Beach Cottage by Amber Shaw

Oh how I wish I was relaxing at the beach with all the troubles and worries of the world gently washed away by the waves. My page with Designs by Amber's Shaw's new release reminds me of one of my favorite places to be. Through this weekend, Pickleberrypop's monthly collab sale -- the Pickle Barrel features all the store's designers with products in this same gentle color palette. Best of all ... each piece is just $1.00. See below for full kit images. Have a great weekend.


Link to kit

Double New Releases & Scrapping Disney with Off Theme Kits

Both Dream Big Designs and Designs by Amber Shaw have new releases this week. Today's post will highlight the kits and show you how you can use them waaaay off theme.

There is so much buzz about Disney in the digi world. There are site and stores that specialize in all things Disney and designers are releasing mega collections capitalizing on the craze. The stuff is very cute, but I think at heart I'm just a more practical girl. I like having a multipurpose digi-stash. I took my daughter to Disneyland last month for a cheerleading competition and amassed quite the collection of Disney pictures, so when the designers shared their new releases, that's kind of where my head was.

Starting off with Dream Big Designs' Down By the Banks, I was inspired by the nature theme and my personal lack of duck pictures to pull pictures of my DD and Dale to create a Disney layout. If you buy the bundle (on sale 20% off this week in Fresh Fruit at Scrap Orchard), you receive the kit, graffiti, and journaling cards (not in preview). The awesome graffiti has great breadcrumbs, mesh, and leaves that are attached to the graffiti and are separate elements so you can create your own effect. Cheri does great graffiti elements and there are always great treasures in that folder.

Down by the Banks by Dream Big Designs
Scrapping with Liz template
Linked to Scrap Orchard Gallery

To create the cut outs (The cute flower cut out in the journal card is part of the design):

• Use the kit's alpha to spell out "SMILE". 
• Merged the letters of the word together (Cmd E on PSE 11 Mac) then Cmd click the layer in the layer panel to bring up the marching ants. Next, click on the eye to hide the word layer to make the alpha "disappear".
• Select the journal card layer in the layer panel and click on the mask button at the top of the layer panel.
• If the cut out doesn't appear, hit Cmd i to inverse the mask selection.
• If you don't like what you see, you can delete the mask layer and start over again.
• Repeat for the arrow. In this case I created an arrow from the custom shapes in PSE 11.
• If you need additional instructions or clarification, comment and I'll hook you up with more details!
  
  

I was further inspired to go Disney when I saw the cute bright colors of Designs by Amber Shaw's In the Clouds. All the talk of dreams coming true reminded me of Fantasy Land. When I found these pictures of DD and the magical Disney churro, I knew I had the right combo. I found this template from Amanda Heimann that she shared last fall that worked great. I started with the pattern of solid squares and filled the left side up completely (Cmd G is my BFF). Once that was set, I merged together squares together to make the larger photo spaces and clipped my pictures on top. It makes the pattern look haphazard when in fact the pattern is consistent. I like to try to do little things like that when I'm making busy pages. I brings a little bit of order to the chaos.

Designs by Amber Shaw Up in the Clouds
Template by Amanda Heimann

Left Side Up Close up in Pickleberrypop Gallery
Right Side Up Close up in Pickleberrypop Gallery

That's it for today! Please let me know if you found my post helpful, or feel free to share with your digi scrappin' friends!

Sneaky Peak

Designs by Amber Shaw has a new kit releasing later this week. You have a chance to win it by commenting on her blog post before Thursday, April 11, noon EST. Find her blog here.

New Release from Amber Shaw & Stretch Your Stash

Designs by Amber Shaw is releasing a new kit this week. Enjoy the Ride is a lovely kit in brown, red, gray, blue, and yellow. It's a multipurpose kit and I'm certain I'll be creating a few more layouts with it. It's 20% off for a limited time.

New Release 4/5/13

Created with Enjoy the Ride

I scrapped a few of the pictures of my girl at one of her cheer competitions. I love the movement and joy that shows through while she performed. In addition to Amber's lovely designs, I used one Little Green Frog's Fab Five templates (and removed 2 of the clipping masks).

Stretch Your Stash

 Don't forget to look to your stash for color inspiration and move beyond the theme of your kit. When I started thinking about Amber's kit, above, I went looking for bike and phone pictures because of the adorable embellishments. Ultimately, I ended up using the kit for cheer pictures. You can't get much more off theme that that! I love the page though because the colors work nicely with the navy blue in her uniform.

Another recent page that went totally off theme was a layout I made for our latest trip to Disneyland.  The bright colors were PERFECT for a page highlighting Lightning McQueen. As you can see, the kit is a super hero kit. Normally I wouldn't get past the "booms" and "pows" to make a Disney page. It's a busy and loud page, but I used the little bit of craft paper to give my eyes a rest around my picture. It also provided a convenient place to journal.

Amber Shaw's Kinda Super

Kinda Super Release 2/28/13

I hope you have a wonderful weekend and make some time to EnjoyYourPix! See you next time.

What Am I Doing? and Digi Challenge Thoughts

Why in the world am I blogging? Do I think that I have some oh so important wisdom to share? Heck no. I see so many blogs and ideas out there that I have a difficult time even dreaming that I could come up with something new and interesting.

In the past month, I have been given the fun opportunity to join the creative teams of two digi designers. I've only just started, but so far it's been pretty cool to get to know other talented scrappers and see a bit "behind the scenes" of the digi world. I have to confess that there was a tiny bit of a thrill to see a newsletter hit my inbox and see one of my pages pop up.

I will use my blog to help promote the designers I work with ... it's part of the gig of being on a CT; but, I do want my blog to more than that too. I'm not entirely sure what it will look like, but hey it's a blog and I'm excited that I have a place to share what I'm thinking about regarding scrapbooking and family storytelling.

That said ... here's my first "big" thought. Get ready for it. It may rock your world. Uh, no ... it really won't ... sorry. Here goes anyway:

Digi Challenges

Do you do them? I do! I LOVE them and I have three reasons:

Dream Big Designs Party Girl Shop

1. You get free stuff. Most of the digi stores that offer challenges have some sort of reward in place for doing them. My favorite place for digi challenges is Scrap Orchard. I earn Plum Perks which equates into cash off of future purchases. I'm a sucker for free. Each day there is a new challenge. Since joining Designs by Amber Shaw's team, I've started doing a few challenges at Pickleberrypop. There you earn percentage off coupons based on how many challenges you do. That's cool too and they post the month of challenges all at once. Several other designers have their own challenges where you get the opportunity to "win" a gift certificate after the month is over.

SO Vintage Sprout March Mega

2. I hate looking at a blank page and the challenge gives me a framework for making the page. The challenge I'm looking at for today at Scrap Orchard is to create a page highlighting a personal struggle using a lot of layering of elements and papers. I totally dig this! I'm still figuring out what I'm going to do but I have a couple thoughts mulling over in my little ol' mind. I often add another layer to the challenge and figure out a way to make a page that works with one of the albums I am making. It may seem weird, but I find the challenges to be freeing. The rules of the challenges help me become more creative. I zero in on the content, template, and theme of the page.

Captivated Vision and Laura Banasiak

3. The most important reason I love the challenges is they help me dig back into memories from my youth and bring out important pages I never would have made. Sometimes they bring some tears to my eyes, but those are good tears. The cleanse the soul kind.

***

Thanks for reading my rainy Thursday ramblings. I'm off to throw dinner in the crock pot and see if I can whip up a page for today's challenge. I'll be back tomorrow with Amber Shaw's new kit. Oh, and don't forget that Dream Big Designs' sale at Scrap Orchard starts today and continues through Tuesday, April 9th.

Sneaky Peak ... Chance to Win

Designs by Amber Shaw has a sneaky peak chance to win her new release on her blog through Thursday, April 4 at noon EST.