Design your own kit

This is pretty cool. Jenni from Chaos Lounge is having a contest at ESS



So, here's my entry. It's virtually impossible to find sports kits. So, here's my perfect chance to get what I'm always searching for. I chose colors that match the boys' team colors. I asked for the papers to be grungy and to include leaves and bugs and maybe even a soccer ball.

It was pretty fun to dream up a kit. "Soccer Dreams"...coming soon...LOL!

Freebie from Danielle Corbitt

Go to Danielle's blog and sign up for her newsletter and you'll get this kit free.

It's cute, hey?

Bekah E. Word Art Challenge

I really like doing Bekah Es word art challenges at ESS. Here's mine. This is Ryan taking his first steps. I just love his little face and chubby legs!

Wouldn't it be wonderful if I could go back in time, just for a few moments, and pick my little baba up and kiss his sweet, sweet neck...my goodness...I just love him.

Right now, he's upstairs playing Need for Speed, yelling for me to come and watch...time flies...

I used a pretty little kit- Choukette Simplement.

Finally!!! An extraction!!!

I did it! I have been trying to figure out how to do an extraction for months. MONTHS! Finally...finally...I did it!

This is a little freebie by one of my favorite designers Bonnie Van Esch By the Moonlight.

I know there's not much to this page, but I just wanted to see what I could do with an extraction and I am so freakin' happy! LOL!

I was finally able to conquer this by using the BACKGROUND ERASER tool. I have no idea how I stumbled upon it. Probably because I've spent days in front of YouTube looking for extraction tutorials.

Aj at ESS told me to try the magnetic lassoo tool, which also works good, except around hair and whispy things...so I am beyond ecstatic to finally accomplish this!

Sarah played where Lebron plays~

How exciting is that! The Quicken Arena! Hell...they lost. Nothing worse than a five hour drive home after losing a close game. Poor Sasa. She played pretty well, though. Started off rough with too many turnovers, but the second half she came alive. I wonder if Lebron was watching...

I listened to the game on the computer and scrapped this page of Ryan watching the penguins. I used the kit CRD Block Party from New Life Dream Designs:

Paper to Digi...

I finished this challenge over at Get Digi With It, my new favorite site.

These are two of my absolute favorite pictures of Sarah. The top one is homecoming. She has a black eye from playing basketball, which is so perfectly Sarah...black eyes, bruises and still being able to pull off looking beautiful.

The second one is from her senior prom. I wasn't there...I was in South Africa. And she doesn't let me forget it, either...LOL! Just now, she walked by and read this and said SENIOR PROM, MOM...

Anyway, yeah, I missed her prom, but it doesn't make me love her any less.

Isn't she simply gorgeous!!

This was a scraplift challenge from one of my favorite digi scrappers...Cheryl aka Gone With The Wind, so it was such a joy to do!



Whoops...forgot about credits: Credits: Chou by Petit Moineaux, lace from A work in Progress-Granny's Attic, paper strips (revised) from Nostalgia by Moune, round paper mat Raspberry Road-Victorian Bliss add on

Scraplift from Paper2Digi Challenge Get Digi With It (Gone with the wind aka Cheryl)

Sarah and her bubblegum

Sarah played with this picture and I loved it, so had to scrap it!

I was RAK'd by Chaos Lounge with her collab kit with B VanEsch-Chic Shak (which I've used for several pages...it is an absolutely stunning kit...the papers are soooo pretty and funky and perfect), and I used it to scrap this challenge over at ESS...but...like a dip...I only used 4 papers and was supposed to use 5...ugh.

I know. I could add another paper, but I'm too lazy to re-do and upload...so it's no biggie. I don't know if I'll ever make enough challenge points to win anything anyway...so here it is~



And...I won't even tell you how long it took me to find a "flat ribbon" to use...which I finally found from A Work in Progress. But, the good thing about searching through all my kits is I re-discovered how many gorgeous kits I have!!

Cool template

This template challenge from A+ Designes at Get Digi With It was fun to do. It had tons of layers. I love it. My pictures don't match like I normally try to do...but I've been wanting to scrap Brandon planting trees and this seemed the perfect layout.

And the purple kit from Digital Candy Sweet Tart Team was stunning.

I guess I've forgotten about all the freebie kits I've downloaded over the past few months, because yesterday, I was searching for a flat ribbon, and I started opening some of my kits and WOW!! That's how I ran across the gorgeous purple Digital Candy kit. Here's what I did with it:

Guess what??!!

I was chosen to be on Danielle Corbitt's creative team!

I have been scrapping my heart out with her gorgeous kits. She's actually a unique designer because she doodles a lot. I'm new to doodles, so this is going to challenge me. I'm really excited!

Here are a few pages I've done with her kits:

This is from Sweet on You



This is from Material Girl. With Bekah E's Treasured Children word art Those are Aubree's precious little feet:


This is also from Material Girl.

~Valentine's Day

Does Mel know me or what?

Flowers. Chocolate. Photoshop book.

This man was sent to me straight from heaven~

Here's another Aubree and another Always

I used the kit Always from Digi Overdose because this tree matches the Hollywood News alpha and I've been wanting to do a page with this alpha. Well, I had to tweak the color, but it's a perfect match now.

I desperately want to learn to do extractions. This tree is the PERFECT element for an extraction. I just couldn't get it right, so I settled for a framed pic. I'm not too happy about it, either...but I have to perfect my extraction before I can feel good about putting it in my gallery.

So, here's Aubree swinging:

Another Aubree page

Aubree is my best subject! My precious grandbaby...I really need to look for pics of Colin to scrap...right Ashley! I don't want him to feel left out!!

I used a collab kit from Chaos Lounge and BonnievanEsch-Chic Shak. It is full of beautiful papers! It was hard to choose which to use, that's probably why I have THREE papers on this page!

Another page...practicing my shadowing

I used Raspberry Road Designs-Annie Collection for this page.

This was at the fireworks in 2006. Look how little Ryan is!!

I've been working on getting my shadows looking more realistic. This is my first page doing shadows on their own layer. I like how it looks. Hopefully, my technique is going to keep improving.

I did this for the lyric challenge at Enchanted Studio Scrap. I'm pretty happy with this one. That's me and Mel at the Sand Dunes. Good times...

I used Armina Endless, Amanda Dykan Vintage Sparkle and alpha....yup...you guessed it, my favorite alpha girl Vicky-A Work in Progress-Vinegar and Brown Paper.

Lyrics are from the song Evergreen by Barbara Streisand...gawd...I used to LOVE this song. I was probably only 13 years old when the movie A Star is Born came out. Isn't it so romantic? LOL!!

I did a couple more pages today. I don't really like this one, but I needed to do another page using this beautiful kit by Digi Overdose, American Pride. I was having scrappers block. I finally just settled for what I had because I was driving myself crazy trying to make the perfect page...ANYWAY...here it is. Alpha is Always.

Brand new Alpha from Digi Overdose

HOLLYWOOD NEWS ~~ It's 20% off today so hurry over to ESS to get it.

I love all things sparkly, so this alpha will be used a lot!

Ryan and his football trophy Fall 2008

Here's a challenge I did at ESS. I used the kit Warmth of Friends from Bekah E. She has some gorgeous word art on her blog-FREE and this kit is also free on there...just scroll way down. The alpha is from...who else...A Work in Progress-Vicky. She rocks!

So...yeah...here's my page: Isn't Ryan's face priceless!

Another page using Always

This kit from Digi Overdose is so beautiful!

Here's Sarah and Josh. I love this picture of them, so it didn't really need much to make it perfect! I really, really wanted to make Sarah's lips red, but I couldn't figure out how to do that. Ah, well... Someday, I'll master my photoshop program, but NOT TODAY... I'm still happy with it, though:

Let's talk crack...

CHRISTMAS crack...geez...

This stuff is addictive..hence the name.

I can't make it. I tried once and burned it and the smell did not leave my house for days.

So, Sarah is the crack manufacturer in this crack-house.

First you layer saltine crackers onto a jellyroll pan like so...



Then, you melt 2 sticks of butter, add 2 cups brown sugar and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and boil nicely for 3-5 minutes...this is the tricky part...it needs to look like this...



Now.. you pour that over the crackers Be very careful.. this stuff is hot hot hot.



And bake it in the oven at 400 for about 5 minutes...or less...this is the part where I burned it...not a pretty sight...or smell. So, this is what it should look like out of the oven...



Finally, sprinkle 12 oz pkg of semi-sweet chocolate chips over the toffee, spreading as it melts.


That's Sarah's hand........................................^^^

Let it cool and then crack it into pieces.



Addictive...Divine...

My sweet little Aubree

...is usually so stingy with kisses. She never wants to kiss me goodbye or hello, or ever...I just let it go. Well today, she heard me sigh kind of loudly (cuz I've been having a crappy morning) and she came over to me and asked, "What's the matter gramma?" and I said, "Oh, I'm just feeling kind of sad today."

So, bless her heart, she snuggled right into me and started patting my arm and said, "It's ok gramma, shh, shh...it's ok." and then...

...SHE KISSED ME!!

What an angel baby~



And, how sweet is she, going around shooting people...with a DRILL...

Gramma's little darlin'

Mel and Me~

Don't you love it~ Me and my hottie husband. Brands took this picture. He's turning into out little photographer.

I used Digi Overdose's kit Always. There are so many beautiful elements in that kit! I'm going to do a couple more Valentine pages with it!

Always by Digi Overdose

This is a really pretty kit from Digi Overdose that has a ton of elements and beautiful paper. Seriously, I could do a ton of pages with this one kit. Check it out~

Ryan sleeping

This picture was taken with my old Canon camera with REAL film! Black and white film! Mel just showed me how to scan pics and I am flying high! Whoo hoo! So many favorite pictures I can scrap now!

So, here's my baba. I think he was around 4, so it was around 3 years ago. Total guess. I just love him! He is so precious, isn't he? Especially when he's sleeping!

I did this for the challenge at ESS for the letter "D" (Dream). I used the Black & White kit by Anja J. Designs and the alpha is from A Work in Progress called Dandelion Dreams.

Layout of the day~~

Wow!! I got layout of the day at Enchanted Studio Scraps! for this page I did of my sweet Aubree. How exciting!!

Using kits from Digi Overdose makes scrapping effortless (almost) heh...heh... Tam is so talented!

Freebie from Christie Lemmon Design

Here's a pretty add on to Chritie Lemmon's Little Charmer kit you can grab for free!



I like the blues because I have so many boys!! Leave her some love!

Another April Showers page

Here's gramma's baby. She is so precious. I used April Showers from Digi Overdose again. And, alpha from A Work in Progress...kind of a coincidence that the alpha is Dandelion Dreams.

I am just scrapping the day away today! But, now, I'm taking a break to watch the Pistons. My other favorite thing to do...

Forever Mine Freebie

Here's a pretty mini kit from Digi Overdose that's part of the February Blog train. Go grab it!




I love Valentine's Day!!

Here's what I did with it:


You can get the blingy word art from Digi Overdose at Enchanted Studio Scraps and do the challenge while you're there!