Christmas Wish

CHRISTMAS WISH by Dream Big Designs

I love when my house is decorated for Christmas. The white twinkling lights on my tree fill my heart with joy and I love driving up my street at night and having my lights welcome me home. Sadly, I'm running behind schedule this year. I desperately want to put up my tree and lights, but I promised myself to finish my chores around the house before I play dress up. 

In the spirit of procrastination, which I am amazingly talented in, I want to share with you a Christmas layout I made with a new release from Dream Big Designs. Until I get things set up for 2014, I'll just have to admire this photo from last year. Thanks to a artificial tree, it's going to look just about the same!! I am pondering changing the location though. We'll see ... 

In a moment of gratitude, I wanted to pause and appreciate the the opportunity to play with these lovely digital designs. I just love the creative teams I have the good fortune to be on. "My" designers are kind, amazingly talented, and just all around AWESOME women.

CHRISTMAS WISH by Dream Big Designs

Isn't CHRISTMAS WISH beautiful? I made the image nice and big so you can enjoy it!! 

Here's wishing you a very peaceful holiday season!!! Please keep your battery full and your memory card empty so you can take tons of family photos!!

All About Dream Big Designs

Cheri from Dream Big Designs has been one busy designer! She loaded up her store for Scrap Orchards iNSD festivitites with THREE releases and this week she has TWO more additions.

Before I launch my post of a million layouts ... I want to wish a very happy Mother's Day to all the rockin' moms out there! This is the gorgeous collaboration between Dream Big Designs and Amanda Heimann: I Heart Mom. Wanna know my favorite part? The water color flowers in the graffiti pack!! Cheri's talented mother water painted them!! How cool is that?!? {Product Previews are linked to the store and layouts to my Scrap Orchard gallery,}

Mother's Love with Dream Big and Amanda Heimann's I Heart Mom Collab

This page uses Cheri's contribution to the mega huge Scrap Orchard Techno Geek collection. Many of the pieces were available free as challenge prizes and freebies over iNSD weekend. Now, it's in her store, along with an adorable keypad alpha in black and white.

I went old-school with my layout. Thanks to the magic of Google, I found images of my very first computer and my three favorite games. It was a fun flash back of memories. I used one of Scrapping with Liz's templates that I collected a freebie. I'm sure it will be in her store eventually.

It Started Here with Dream Big Designs Techno Geek and SwL template

I have so many random pictures, but I have yet to fully embrace the Project Life model of scrapping. Mainly, I think, because I still take so many pictures of events and love to scrap single subject pages. However, I do take many Life of Kimberly shots and usually end up with several pages each month of just randomness. I used Liz's template with the awesome ampersand to make a "This & That" page. I have a doodle from my boy, my favorite yogurt (mix it with honey and bananas ... it's the BEST!), the beginnings of the bow I was making for my girl, and a quick snapshot to celebrate how far I went on my morning walk. Cheri's Roots and Leaves provided great color and nice little touches which complemented my snapshots. This was formerly part of Scrap Orchard's November 2012 Mega and is now available on its own.

This & That with Dream Big Designs Roots and Leaves with SwL template

Not too often can I make a page that uses TWENTY pictures on one page! Dreams and Diaries served as a great backdrop for pictures.

Don't forget to add screenshots of calendars or favorite Instagram posts. It captures a slice of the technology of the day that I am sure you will enjoy reminiscing about in years to come.

August Fun with Dream Big Designs Dreams and Diaries and SwL template

I was very excited by the Fresh Cut collection. I do most of the yard work and it's fun to have such a cute kit to remember my efforts.

Last spring, I was busy in my yard. I wore out my edger and even needed to tape up my favorite gloves because I was wearing them out! I have a thing with my gloves and when I find a pair that fit nicely, I keep them until they die! In this case, I suspect that some of the holes were from my pup. If I need to run into the house while I'm working, I hide my gloves in the barbecue so he can't steal them! Good thing I'm currently out of propane! I might need to rethink my plan when I start using the grill again!!!

Garden On with Dream Big Designs Fresh Cut

I made another page using one of Cheri's older releases: Dressed Up Diva. For Christmas, I made an appointment for my girl to have her makeup done at the MAC store. She learned proper techniques and picked out some great new products. She is beautiful just the way she is, but she's a teenager, and I know I can't fight it. I was sooo appreciative of the woman at the store who insisted on a light hand with the make up.

I have a little photo tip. I took these pictures in the mall, with my phone. Some of the lighting and color was TERRIBLE. It was impossible to get the pictures to match, so I desaturated two of them to make it look like I was trying to set them apart from the others. Shhh....don't tell anyone! :) Oh, and this too is a Scrapping with Liz Template.

First Make Over with DBD Dressed Up Diva and SwL template

Thanks for reading my monster long post. I hope you enjoyed it. :)

Chalking Up More Layouts

Are you here for the Dream Big Designs birthday blog hop? The April 22nd post has all the information for you. I hope you enjoyed my card and all the other goodies on the train!

This week I have two layouts to share with you. Dream Big Designs released a super cute kit called Chalk Art. If you have little ones around with sidewalk chalk and bubbles, it is the perfect kit. Even if you don't, it's still a great addition to your digi collection.

The colors are lovely and Cheri included many great embellies. With the bundle, you get the base kit, stickers, layered graffiti and journal cards.

It's Fresh Fruit at Scrap Orchard this week. Find it here.




I originally tried to take a picture of my patio with April written on it. It was *going* to be the title for a Project Life-ish layout with all my random April pictures. Unfortunately, my sweet pup couldn't STAND not being the center of all my attention. She photo bombed my pictures and then laid down right in the middle of my shot. This is all after she snaked my chalk when I walked into the house to grab the camera. I was all ready to blame my typical trouble maker German Shepherd until I spied the chalk build up in the corner of the Golden's mouth. In all honesty, when I finally gave up on taking any more pictures, I did briefly give her the chalk in the bottom left picture. I figured since she had derailed my original plans, I may as well get a picture of her eating the chalk. Lest you worry about my treatment of my pooch, it was short lived and I only took one picture. I promise!! :) I know for a fact that she's eaten more nastiness than a few bites from the chalk.

Love Her using Chalked Art and Fiddle Dee Dee template

I also used Chalk Art to complete a challenge over at Scrap Orchard. This is for the SCRAPO challenge. The pictures are not that great, but I guess that's what I get for forgetting to bring the good camera to the football game.

Game Time using Chalked Art

I want to share how I made the title. I started with PWSerifScratch font. I used the red flower in the kit and kept duplicating (Cmd J or Alt-drag with mouse in Mac PSE 11) and clipping the flowers over the alpha. I then simplified and stroked the words. (I color sampled to match the cream in the polka dot paper.) I decided that I did not like the spacing, so I cut up the title (rectangle marquee tool and Cmd J) and smooshed it together so it slightly overlapped).

That's all for today. I know that I'll be digi shopping next weekend for NSD (iNSD) and I'll have a layout with a new release from Designs by Amber Shaw. See ya later!!

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!

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.

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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.