Layouts from DSD and beyond!

Sorry for the cheesy title, I couldn't help myself. Remember I promised to share some more of my recent layouts? Well here you go - my creations from the past week or so! As always, each image is linked to the gallery for full credits.

The first three I created for the Scrap Orchard DSD challenges. Their theme was "Game On!" and each challenge borrowed its theme from a popular game.

For the Boggle challenge - we had to find our title in the Boggle dice. Tried my hand at the art journaling style, which is very new to me. It's pretty amateurish, but I like it anyway! If you can't read it, it says "I am loved because I am a princess," a reminder to myself that I am God's child.

This challenge was based on, you guessed it, Tic-Tac-Toe! I thought it was a pretty creative template idea.

For the Connect Four challenge, we had to choose four layouts to combine in one scraplift. I found this one quite challenging!

Ahh, the colors! I scrapped these layouts with The Lilypad's November BYOC goodies - I just love this month's color palette! And the products... swoon. A few of my favorites: 

Hometown papers and ellies from Lauren Reid

Magical Splatter 3 by Kitty Designs

Scrap Essentials No. 2 by Jenna Desai

Paint Stroke Chatter: Wee One by CD Muckosky

Finally finished a layout with the gorgeous Catscrap collab, My Life. It worked perfectly for this "Avyn at 15 months" layout!

This layout is for the Catscrap November Torn Up challenge. I used Creashens' Torn Bits 2 as photo masks for my torn element. I love these photos, taken on our first trip to the park this season to require jackets!

I managed to get two challenges done at Design House Digital this week, this one for their scraplift challenge. I love the bright colors of their DSD Blog Hop collab kit!

Che Yang Designs at Mscraps debuted her cute Night and Day kit last week, and it was just perfect for my snapshot of Riah all cuddled up in my blanket.

OK, last one! I didn't quite realize how prolific I've been this week! This one is with Anita Designs' newest kit, Christmas Joy, at Mscraps, showing off my family's Hallmark ornaments for this year. 

In My Life Today

Why hello, blog, long time no see! Did you miss me? Life conspired this month to keep me away from my computer more than I have been in months. I spent a week in the hospital with our youngest, with many subsequent doctor visits. Our Internet has been down more than up this month. And I've simply been exhausted - running around like a crazy woman trying to keep up with the boys, the house, and other responsibilities. And you know how hard it is to re-start something once you've lost momentum. Today I noticed a great inspirational post over at The Daily Digi all about blog memes and how they are a great way to capture a "slice of life," either on your blog and/or in a scrapbook page. I liked the one they shared (borrowed from The Simple Woman's Daybook), so I'm going to participate here! If you decide to do something similar, I'd love to read your meme!

FOR TODAY
Outside my window... it is misty, gray and drizzly, but still in the mid-60s, which was warm enough for Cai to play out on the balcony (which is sheltered) for a while this morning.
I am thinking... of how very much I am behind on. Even with paring back some responsibilities this month, I still have so much to catch up on, and so little energy to do it all. 
I am thankful for... a heavenly Father who knows the long-term plan for my life and my children's lives, and promises that His will is good and perfect, even if all I can see is darkness in front of me.
From the kitchen... I hear uplifting Christian music from KLOVE, our local Christian station, because I'm at my mom's and she plays it 24/7. I love listening to the radio here, because our radio at home doesn't come in well. 
I am wearing... too-big hand-me-down jeans and a purple t-shirt. Also, my feet are bare, which is silly because they are cold, so I've got a comforter tucked around me.
I am creating... this blog post. Duh. Also on the creating to-do list for today: a rough family schedule and at least one scrapbook page (probably scrapping this list!).
I am going... to spend a night in downtown San Antonio at the Rivercenter Marriott next Wednesday with Josh to celebrate our 3rd anniversary. We plan to eat at the fancy Fogo de Chao Brazilian steakhouse too! I'm so excited!
I am reading... The Parent Adventure by Rodney and Selma Wilson, for a small group study Josh and I are participating in at Northeast Bible Church.
I am hoping... that my Grandpa finds us the perfect minivan at an equally perfect price next week. We really need a second vehicle!
I am hearing... Avyn cooing, gurgling, and babbling in his seat on the floor next to me. And sometimes coughing, because he is sick again, poor baby.
Around the house... I don't like looking around our house, because it's a depressing, avoidance-coma-inducing disaster. I need a maid.
One of my favorite things... are Sonic cherry or cranberry limeades. Yum.
A few plans for the rest of the week: Church and small group on Sunday. Taking Avyn to the GI specialist on Monday. Celebrating our anniversary a little early on Wednesday/Thursday. 
Picture for the day:  My two bookworms :)

Thanks again to The Simple Woman's Daybook for starting this great blog meme idea!

Ketchup

As my title obviously implies, this is a catch-up post! Our internet quit on Sunday, and although AT&T says it's fixed, it's not. So I've been visiting my parents a lot this week, which has the added benefit of built-in help with the boys :)! All the time I could get online was spent playing with the lovely, hilarious girls over at Mscraps and celebrating the store's first anniversary. The amazingly generous designers donated lots of prizes for about 20 different games and challenges, so I had no shortage of inspiration this weekend. Here's the pages I completed (and the coordinating challenge):

Challenge: Scraplift Chain

For this page, I scraplifted the person who posted before me, which was tj7933, and I chose her page "Christmas Gala 2010" if you want to go look at it. :)

Challenge: Finish Me Off

This was an interesting challenge - we were all given a .jpg scrapbook page and had to "finish" it, but without changing any of the elements already there. I like how mine turned out! Everything is from the Mscraps Birthday Blog Train collab (which you can still get - hurry!!).

Challenge: White Space Layout

Pretty obvious - we had to create a white space layout. This one came together pretty quickly, one reason I love white space pages!! I absolutely ADORE this kit, too - Sketchbook by Three Paper Peonies. How cute is that pencil?! (Almost as cute as the little boy in the picture, right? :))

Challenge: Topsy Turvy Template

For this one, the hostess gave us a mixed-up template (with the element spots, paper strips, and photo slots all jumbled up on the page in no particular design). The challenge? Use just the bits we were given, nothing extra, to create a layout! Fun and challenging! The papers and most of the word art on this page is from Happy Talk by Three Paper Peonies and designs by Anita. The elements are from all over - I really had to dig through my Mscraps stash for this one!

Challenge: Template #2

Sadly, I missed out on the first template challenge of the weekend because it ended yesterday, and I had no Internet. But I had fun with this one - we gave Avyn his first taste of "solid" food a couple days ago, and he was thoroughly unimpressed. Made for a cute page, though. If you've got a messy child, then maybe you need the kit Messy by Three Paper Peonies, too.

Challenge: Create a new siggy

It had been a while since I created a new forum siggy, so I whipped this one up just in time to enter this challenge. It's pretty simple, but I like it! Also, I got to use that super-cute Messy kit again!

Thanks for being patient with me this week - hopefully we will figure out this Internet issue soon. And I promise a post soon that's not just showing off my recent layouts! Do you have any ideas for topics or tutorials, or burning questions about scrapbooking that you think somebody ought to answer? I'd love to hear your ideas!!

Saturday Inspiration

As I'm figuring out how this blog will work, and what I'll post when, I know I want to have weekly inspiration posts - one post for showing off some of my recent layouts (and maybe others I find around digiland?) and one post for showcasing some of my favorite, drool-worthy new products from various designers. And probably this will happen on Saturday and Sunday. Sound good to you?
Okay, here we go with the first official layout inspiration post! Today it's just my own work, and I included a little bit about each layout or a technique that I used. Hope you can find some inspiration!

"Jordyn Angel" 

This one is for my niece's baby album. I love being able to scrap girly pages once in a while! Isn't Jordyn the cutest? I used Angel Hartline Design's Paper Wings collection, and enjoyed practicing my photo blending (the blend mode is Overlay at 100%). I love that Angel includes glitter styles in her collections - I love glitter, and the styles are so easy to use. I applied them with one click to my title - instant pizzazz! 

"December Day 25"

My plans for a daily December album didn't quite turn out as, well, planned. I hadn't planned on a last-minute 9-day trip to Michiana, or on moving the week of Christmas. Oh well, that's life! I made sure to scrap a page for Christmas day, though, and choose a template that had lots of picture spots and journaling space. I used Mscrap's Holly Jolly Christmas collab, Allison Pennington's Smitten, and Biograffiti's Itty Bitty Dates No. 1. Also, I edited all the photos with My Four Hen's Peace or Hope actions. I rarely use non-edited photos any more, and I almost always use actions - so easy!

"Random Moments 2010"

I like the simplicity of this template - it's an old Log Your Memory (LYM) freebie. This was my page for the LYM 2011 Weekly Challenge #1 - to make a list. Making "top" lists of anything totally stresses me out, though, so I decided to compile a completely random list. I went through my photo folders and grabbed a picture from each month, the first one that caught my eye. Turned them all black & white, added a few cute papers and embellies from Ange and Deca Designs' Revolution kit, and there's my list page! Oh, yes, and the month wordart brush on each photo is from Cinzia Loosemore's Dates and Days (not sure if they are available to buy anymore). One thing to remember when using brushes, create a new layer (Shift-Ctrl-N in PS) before stamping with your brush so you have the freedom to move, resize, recolor, etc.

I'll be back tomorrow sharing some of my favorite new products on the market, and hopefully posting my first Project 365 weekly layout!