365 Week 3

The middle photo was taken on a day when I decided to clean out all the closets in the house. What a huge job that turned out to be!! Well during the middle of it all I hear my 3 year old yell out " I gotta pee." I turned around and there he was running to the bathroom with his pants pulled down. I'm so glad that I had a camera right next to me to catch this crazy moment in our life.

365 Week 2

Week 1 LO

So... here is my first completed LO for my 2012 Life album. This year for 365 I decided to try out Weeds and Wildflowers Everyday {Life} QP templates made just for 365 pages.  The pages are very clean and simple with 1 element and 1 WA on each page. They are designed to put the focus on your photos and journaling. You can purchase the entire year's worth of pages or just one month at a time. You can check out the pages here: http://weedsandwildflowersdesign.com/shoppe/ 

*The shoppe is also giving a way some really cute freebies, so be sure to pick them up!

A New Year!

Hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and are looking forward to the next year.  I know that I am sure excited.  Since it;s the beginning of a new year, it's a chance to start a new 365 book. I didn't complete last years book. I became to obsessed with making sure that each of my children were equally represented in each months photos. With 5  children, , that just didn't work out too well. I became frustrated and just quit. This year I have resolved to just use my fav picture of the day and if I happen to 6 in a row of the same child, so be it! I not only want to be able to enjoy this book later on, I want to enjoy making it. So that means enjoying the art of photography too.

For example, here are two photos both taken on Jan 1. Last year I would have chosen this one because it had 4 of my 5 children in it.

This year however, I'm going to use a picture that I like better. It is my youngest son sitting on his uncle's lap eating cake.

Got Acne? Try Rooibos.

credits: http://www.scrapbook.com/galleries/326267/view/3478705/-1/1.html

I have a teenage son, and like a lot of teenagers (and adults) he has acne. His acne wasn't severe, but it definitely was very noticeable. I could tell that he was self conscious about it and so we decided to try a popular acne treatment that is advertised on TV. He tried it for 2 months and although it helped a little....it really wasn't worth the cost.  SO... I started searching the web, and found somewhere that Rooibos (ROY-Boss) tea can help clear up acne. I'm a huge believer in natural/alternative healing and treatments, but even I was a little skeptical. I figured what did we have to lose so I headed to the store and bought the tea you see in the picture below. 

Well the taste of the tea took a little getting used to for my son. He is not an herbal tea drinker! I didn't mind it. The tea has a kind of a nutty slightly bitter taste. It does go down smoothly though and doesn't leave any unpleasant aftertaste. He hung in there though and has now been drinking the tea for a little over a month. The difference in his complexion is AMAZING! His acne is nearly gone and all that remains are a few darker areas on his skin where the pimples used to be. Honestly this tea works wonders. I even tried it myself. About once a month I get a small break out and so when I felt the beginning of a breakout I decided to drink a cup of tea that morning and one that night. Well....I am happy to say that my breakout never occurred. I'll post some before and after pics of my son as soon as I get a new photo of him. Just so you can appreciate how amazing this tea works!

Rooibos tea is is full of antioxidants and is also said to:

Act as an antioxidant and increase SOD levels
Suppress fasting glucose levels
Act as a bronchodilator and antispasmodic
Help provide cardiovascular protection through ACE inhibition
Improve glucose uptake and insulin secretion after a meal
Aid in liver tissue regeneration
Lower blood pressure
Help prevent DNA damage
Inhibit lipid peroxidation and brain aging

*Alternative medicine herbs have been around since the beginning of human life and hold a strong and extensive history. It's about embracing the union that occurs when ancient wisdom and modern science meet.There are plenty of studies to support the use of herbs and supplements for a variety of medical conditions. The University of Maryland, one of the leading pioneers in the study of complementary alternative medicine, notes that, "used correctly, many herbs are considered safer than conventional medications." You can find them on PubMed. Here is a link to some more info on the healing benefits of Rooiboss: http://www.raysahelian.com/rooibos.html.
Here is another link: http://inhumanexperiment.blogspot.com/2010/04/many-health-benefits-of-rooibos-tea.html

Clean and Simple Challenge

Hi everyone, I am very happy to announce that I'm the new host for the Clean and Simple Challenge over at Scrapbook.com. I just wanted to take a minute, and encourage all of you to join me for this fun challenge. At the end of the month, there will be voting and the winner will recive a small RAK.  I personally love scrapbook pages that are not overly fussy. I believe that a minimal design often makes your  photo the true focal point of your LO.

If you want to submit a page, the rules are very easy.
1. Make a new LO as of November 1, 2011 and submit it over at Sb.com
2. LO must have clean lines and be simple in nature.
3. Paper or digi is ok.
4.You don´t have to sign up, you can enter a LO anytime during the month, but let me know if you want to    play along.
5. LO's need to be posted by November 30, 2011
6. If you receive love, please leave love.
7. Please allow public embedding.

VOTING-Once I close the challenge, participants can PM me their top 3 votes. Please tell me the number of the LO's you are voting for and which number your LO is. You don´t need to vote for yourself, you get an extra vote just for voting.

The Twist- This month the twist is to use a very large title on your LO. When posting your LO, please be sure to let me know you have "twisted" your layout.You will receive 1 extra vote!

If you want to join me here is the link to the challenge: http://www.scrapbook.com/forums/showtopic.php?tid/1566345/


Here are a couple of example LO's
   

Credits for my LO's can be found at my gallery here: http://www.scrapbook.com/myplace/index.php?mod=galleries&u=326267&type=2&page=1

Hope to see  you there.

ADSR Challenge 8

For Challenge 8 we supposed to use the title Family= ( insert word of your choice) I came up with many different different titles like Family = Love, or Family = Change, but I decided to go with Family = Destiny.

Journaling reads: When I was a teenager I read a biography about Josephine Baker. Josephine adopted many children of different races and called them her rainbow tribe. I thought that was the "coolest thing" and dreamt that someday I would have a rainbow Tribe of my own.  As the years rolled by, I forgot about Josephine and her tribe, but i believe that God quietly planted a seed in my heart for a reason. More than a decade later, I married and assumed that my husband and I would have children like everyone else. I couldn't have been more wrong. i discovered that I suffered from fertility issues and that giving birth to a child was not something that came very easily. I grieved and wondered why. Then one day I saw a TV commercial advertising a documentary featuring Josephine baker. Suddenly it all came back to me and I understood. " I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11   Now I have my own Rainbow Tribe... the family that I was always destined to have.

Here are the credits and requirements for my page:
You may choose TWO out of the FIVE options.

Use at least 2 different alphas for your title - done
Use at least 3 pattern papers
Use at least 3 solid papers
Use at least 2 different fonts in your journaling - done
Make a list of the reasons why you answered with that word (your title)
Title of your layout. "Family = (your answer)" - done
credits:
paper by Shabby Princess, flowers by SDS and by me, butterfly by Mye De Leon, Alpha for "destiny" from Kuper Doodles

ADSR

My partner mommdeb  and I are doing really well in the Amazing Digi Scrap Race.  It has been a lot of fun and I have loved seeing all of the talented creative people out there. Challenge 7 was difficult for me because it was very detailed and forced me to include quite a few elements into my page. Here are the items that we were required to include in our LO. I listed my credits after the requirements.

1 paper for your background, but NOT a scenic paper- pp by Flerggs

2 Different Trees- by PK and Everyday mom ideas
2 Different Types of Leaves- from HK Designs
2 Different Types of Flowers- both from AE
2 Different Rocks- both from The Water LO Project
Fence- from Holly Ann at GDS
Squirrel- extracted by me
Chipmunk- extracted by me
Mushrooms- from JD Skrapz
Grass- from Studio 4 Designworks at GDS
Butterfly- AE
Bird- HK Designs at GDS
Sun- from Erin's Dreams
Add one frame and one photo- frame from SDS
Add a title, quote or journaling- title from Design House Digital
 
Here is my LO for the race.  I really like how it turned out. 

For challenge 5, we were to scrap about something that we like to do when we are alone. We were given three different "recipes" that we could follow for our page.  I love negative space LO's, so I chose recipe three. I used an eraser brush on the edges of my photo to make it look like it's blending into the background paper. Here is the recipe that I used:

1 Background Paper
1 Photo
Small Amount of Journaling
1Element of your choice (can be any element)
My paper is from Dancing Princess Designs
 
Here is my LO

Dancing Princess Designs new kit Castles in the Air

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.
Henry David Thoreau

Dancing Princess Designs new kit Castles In The Air is a soft and dreamy kit. It is filled with beautiful light pinks and blues.  Perfect for baby, wedding, and all kinds of other LO's. The kit contains 10 12×12 papers created at 300 ppi, 26 unique elements in .png format including four word art, three frames, two buttons, one brad, four flowers, two leaves, six painted rub-ons, two tags, three ribbons, a butterfly, staple, and a journaling matte. You can pick the kit up at:  godigitalscrapbooking.com

Here is a LO I made with the kit to give you a little inspiration.

Busy Busy Busy and a Broken New Camera!

I have been very busy (as you can tell by the title of this post).  I have been competing for a spot on the CT for NutHouse Scraps, I'm still on the CT for Godigitalscrapbooking.com. and I am competing in the Amazing Digi Scrap Race.  That makes a minimum of 6 LO's a week. WOW! I've really gotten a lot quicker at digi scrappin. The only problem is I don't have any new pictures because my new camera, the NEX-3, had to be sent out for repairs!  I had to take it back to the store I bought it from and yell at  politely ask them to fix it!  They said sure and that I should have it back in about 3-4 weeks.  I was not happy!

I am thrilled that I have made it to the final round of competition at NutHouse-Scraps. They have been having the applicants create QP's with kits from the designer's at their site.  Here are a couple of my QP's.

For the Amazing Digi Scrap Race, my partner, mommydeb, and I are both competing for the first time.  Our team is called the Digi Divas and we are team number 98. Come and check out the race here:  http://ndisb.com/?page_id=258   Our first challenge was to make a LO about your family that included 6 unique facts about your family.  The Round 2 Challenge was to make a LO about someone that inspires you. Here are my pages:

credits for my LO found here: http://www.scrapbook.com/galleries/326267/view/3178345/-1/1.html

credits for my LO can be found here: http://www.scrapbook.com/myplace/index.php?mod=galleries&u=326267&m=view&id=3178229&type=-1&start=1&page=1

At GDS, I just finished the Be Inspired Challenge.  We were supposed to use this picture as inspiration for our LO.

Here is my take on the photo. I used all Studio4 Designsworks products for my LO:

Steampunk

Steampunk has really increased in popularity among scrapbookers and I decided to try making a page. One of the things that I like about the steampunk style is that it can have a feminine or a masculine feel to it.  Steampunk Style, to me, is sort of a blending of old and futuristic. It is a mix of gears, cogs, antiques, victorian images, aeronautics, etc. Just think H. G. Wells style!

I based my page on a great quote from the Dalai Lama.

I picked up some great free Steampunk brushes over at daviantart from Hogret: http://fav.me/d2nseqh

I also got the Victorain Clover lady at Graphics Fairy. For a list of the rest of the products I used, see here: http://www.scrapbook.com/galleries/326267/view/3159607/-1/1.html

March Collab Kit at GDS

Doodly Spring comes to you full of fun and playfulness and happy thoughts of Spring! The kit is filled with soft purples and pretty greens. It's the perfect page kit to scrap all those fun times with the kids!  Love wordart? Lot's of those in Doodly Spring too! From flowers to ribbons and buttons... You'll love creating wonderful keepsakes with Doodly Spring!

•63 papers
•102 elements
•1 Full Alphabet
•6 Coordinating Word Art

The best part is that you can pick it up this kit for free after you spend  $10.00 in the store this month. You can find it here: http://www.godigitalscrapbooking.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_dnld_info&products_id=8468

Here are a couple of LO's I made with the kit.

February Collab Kit at GDS

"Timeless" is a love themed kit created in the soft colors of romance and sweet love! So versatile, this huge collab kit can be used to scrap any type of memory you can think of. Includes coordinating styles from Tricia Designs and Davis Chronicles as well as (5) themed wordart pieces from our very talented Jab Designs. Your first $10+ order .(excluding coupons and gift certificates) qualifies you for this month's collab

Here is a LO I made using this beautiful kit.

Kits from Studio4 Designs

Studio4 Designs kit "School Daze" is perfect for all those class pictures of your children.  It has all the bold primary colors you think of for children and lots of cute school themed embellies.

Here is a LO for some inspiration.

 Studio4 Designs has a brand new kit called "Ryan's Ride". It definitely has the "boy" and color theme to it, great for scrapping young to older boys photos. The kit contains 19 vividly colored papers and 63 elements. All papers are 12x12" and 300 dpi. All elements are 300 dpi png files.

For inspiration, check out this cute LO of my son.

Project 365

I just finished two weeks worth of pages for my 2011 365 Book.  What is a 365 Book? Basically you take a photo a day for an entire year and put all the photos into one album. You document every day creating a Year in Review scrapbook. I thought about trying 365 last year, but just didn't. Now I regret that I didn't create one. I think it would be very cool to have a completely done 2011 album at this time next year. What an awesome thing for my family to look back on, a year of our everyday life captured in one place … the good, the bad, and the ugly. Believe me, there is LOTS of ugly! Dirty dishes, mountains of laundry, 2 very misbehaved dogs, 5 wild kids, a herd of dairy goats… ! But I think doing this project would at least keep me in semi-scrapping mode throughout the year, whereas currently I only seem to scrap when I have a project due. 365 would force me to at least be taking some pics and jotting a few details down on a regular basis. Maybe it will help me remember all the joys we celebrate in our daily lives.  One things for sure, I can't wait to see what this year has in store for us!

My pages were made with the January Collab kit from GDS.  My font for the word "January" is Papyrus and the font for my journaling is ITC Kristen.  You can pick up the Kristen font for free over at DaFont. http://www.dafont.com/

Yikes...I'm so far behind!

Well as I told you a few weeks ago, I decided to participate in Project Love Me.  After only 4 prompts, I am now 4 prompts behind.  HHHHHHMMMMM.  I know the reason... I really hate writing about myself and my feelings.  I guess that's why my LO's are always about other people. LOL.  I am really going to try  to get at least 1 or 2 LO's done today.  Here were the first 4 prompts: Week 1- iDream  Week 2- Flashback  Week 3- The Flip Side  Week 4- Words of Wisdom.  I think I may try to work backwards because I have tried 4 or 5 times to journal week 1 and for some reason I can't write anything that I am happy with.  BTW, this very cool photo is courtesy of http://www.thenotebookdoodles.com/.  Be sure to check them out!


Here it is...I kept my promise to myself and actually did a LO and it was Week 1.

Love Me by Flipp Design

Right now there is an awesome kit called Love Me on sale at godigitalscrapbooking.com.  You can pick this kit up today for only $2.93.

Love Me includes 72 fun elements, 11 beautiful papers, and one QP gift. The colors are just beautiful with all sorts of shades of pinks.  There are also a few papers that look like bokeh lights..one of my favs.  Make sure you check it out!!

http://www.godigitalscrapbooking.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_dnld_info&cPath=29_171&products_id=8114)

My Winter Cocoa Dream Kit

My Winter Cocoa dream is a warm fuzzy Digital Scrap kit with some sparkly elements, rich gold, and 10 12x12 JPG papers @ 300 DPI. Kit designed by SweetMade. http://www.godigitalscrapbooking.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_dnld_info&cPath=29_172&products_id=8044

Some LO's just for me

This page is in honor of my brother.  When I saw this really funny FREE WA over at Ginger"s House , I instantly thought of my brother.  http://gingershouse.blogspot.com/ 

Credits for my LO found here: http://www.scrapbook.com/galleries/326267/view/3058859/-1/1.html

Credits for my LO can be found here: http://www.scrapbook.com/galleries/326267/view/3064753/-1/1.html

January Collab Kit "Winter's Frost"

Winter's Frost comes to you full of frosty wintery fun! It's loaded with all the elements and papers to create the perfect winter's day layout! Love wordart and glitter? Included is a fantastic set of coordinating glitter from Andrea Gold as well as beautiful & meaningful wordart from Jab's Digital Designs!

There are over 290 megs that include the following: •27 Papers (12 x 12) •68 Elements •8 Piece Glitter Style set •6 coordinating WordArt pieces •2 Alphas.  The kit can be found here:
http://www.godigitalscrapbooking.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_dnld_info&products_id=8084

Check out these wonderful LO's made with the kit

Last day of 2010.

Introducing ... Project: Love, Me ...

Project Love me is a project 52 with weekly prompts designed to help you share your personal journey … 52 messages & stories from you to future generations … a collection for your loved ones … signed, “Love, Me.”

Project: Love, Me is much more than an “All About Me” album. It is about you, of course — but not a laundry list of facts or answers to simple questions, or even a chronological history. It’s an adventure of self-discovery as we focus on specific themes and delve deep with prompts to help you get to the heart of who you are and share that with others.

Here is the opening page of my album.

Kami, from Project Love Me, sums it up much better than I can about why I would want to do this.

Here is what she says: "I think about my parents when they were my age and I wonder who they were. I knew them as parents, but not as a people- what they dreamed, what brought them joy or what they feared the most?

I think about my grandparents and realize how little I really know about them at all. I know their names and where they lived. I have a general idea of how their lives were shaped. But I have no idea who they were, what obstacles they faced and how they faced them, what they thought about their world and how they lived in it.

I then look ahead 30 years from now and realize one day my daughter will be me- sitting here wondering who her mother really was when she was 35 and looking at me from a whole new perspective. I look ahead 60 years from now and wonder how much my grandchildren will know about me as a person and the world I lived in.

We are all individuals with our own likes and dislikes, struggles and successes. Life truly is a journey and along the way we learn all kinds of lessons. This project is about leaving our story for future generations, showing them who we are and what life has taught us- up to this point in our lives, so that when our children and grandchildren are ready to know us, we will be there for them. It’s a project you can start at any point in your life and it’s a project that you can repeat throughout your life to see how your perspective has changed and grown since the last time you completed the project."

If you are interested, you can find out more here:  http://projectlovemescrapbook.com/about-project/