We have our 1st Winner!

Hi! Amber here as a guest blogger while Amy is on vacation. I am so excited to get to show off our very first winner in the "Get Caught" contest. There are SO many wonderful layouts in the galleries using Amy's Designs & Templates, but congratulations to SusieU.K. !!!!! Her layout layout featuring Daddy's Girl was really a stand out for me & the CT. I love the repeating rows of flowers and her daughter is just adorable!


Click ~>here<~ for credits and to leave Susie some love and congratulate her on winning! I would love to see some more layouts with Daddy's Girl. Just leave a link to your layout in the comments and you might be the next person to "Get Caught"!!!

While Amy is away....

...her CT is gonna play!! Yes, I have access to Amy's blog, and I think we're gonna use it while she's out of town for her month-long vacation!

We (her CT) have a few things cooked up for you, to make the time go faster until Amy comes home again. We have a few contests coming soon, where you can win fabulous prizes (like coupons and gift certificates, oh my!)... and a few of us will be posting to the blog in her absense, so it doesn't get TOO dusty around here.

Be sure to visit again SOON for more details, because while Amy's away, we're gonna PLAY!


ETA: Here is our first contest:

"Get Caught"!

If you can't see the image, here is the text:

Get Caught!

Amy Bleser is out of town on a nice LONG
summer trip. While she's gone, we (her
CT) will be on the look-out for layouts
that feature Amy's designs. If you GET
CAUGHT using Amy's designs on a layout,
you just might win a prize!!

The Get Caught contest will run from
July 9th until Amy gets home sometime
around the 1st of August.

So, get busy, use Amy's designs, upload
your layouts, and GET CAUGHT by Amy's
Creative Team!

Where has the week gone? Seems like they just go by quicker and quicker now. Just 17 days till our big family adventure and I have a million things to do! Ugh! Sometimes I find it hard to get back into blogging when I have been negligent for a while, so I decided to just start with the Hot of the Presses topic from The Digi Shoppe!

The topic of the day is home remedies for being sick. Well I can't say that I have a lot of them but I always find wonton soup or thai chicken soup has seemed to help. Don't ask why - maybe it is just a mood adjustment but whenever I am feeling lousy that is what I want. I just love Asian food so it's probably mostly an excuse to have more! Hahaha!

Lots of fun things going on and new products. My most exciting news right now is the new title and blinkie that I am sporting! Want to see?

In case you don't recognize it - it is a Scrapbook-Bytes Design Team Member blinkie! I'm so excited to have been asked to join the DTM of Scrapbook-Bytes. SBB is the first site I started digiscrapping on and it has a special place in my heart! I remember at the time being in awe of the DTM's. And now, woo hoo, 3 years later I get to play with them! Very exciting for me!

I have a new template pack out - Starting Blocks II. It is available in .psd, .png and .jpeg formats and is on sale for only $2.49 till Thursday.

You can find them in my SBB store.

Oh and one more fun thing! Yesterday I was asked by Karah Fredericks to serve on her Guest CT one month in the Fall! I am sooo excited! I love Karah's paper folds and can't wait for the chance to work with more of her designs!

See - now that I've started blogging (or typing to myself as the case may be) I can't stop! Thank you to the wonderful layout designers who applied for my CT. I will be making decisions and sending out offers today! I am so excited and just a little nervous - hoping all these ladies will accept and will love my designs when they start working with them!

I better stop rambling and go and do something around the house. Thanks so much for stopping by! Leave me a comment and say Hi! I love to hear from anyone who stops by! Have a great day!

Guest CT Call!

Happy Tuesday! For some reason I am completely confused about what day it is this week! I woke up yesterday thinking it was Tuesday! As a result, I'm all off. I guess it is because school is out and I don't have to keep track of what days Aidan has to wear what or needs a lunch etc! The lack of craziness is so nice.

Swim team was cancelled this morning because of weather so it gave us the opportunity to have a quiet day at home. We have painted, played and painted again. Currently the kids are bugging me about whether their race cars are dry or not! They are anxious to put the stickers on them and race them! Once they are dry, we will have a few races, do some of our Summer Bridge activities and then we are going to start our rock garden! I have this cute little book called "Summer Dailies" and it has "Fun, educational activities for each day of the Summer!" One of the ideas is to go on a scavenger hunt for the prettiest rock in the neighborhood, bring it home and start a rock garden. And then to do this each week of the summer and watch your garden grow! The perfect thing for our very poor Texas soil here!

I start water aerobics tonight! And I completely ordered the wrong bathing suit for it! The tank bathing suit does not have enough support for all sorts of jumping and bouncing in the water. Guess I'll have to buy another one which is a total drag because I certainly am not pleased about the way I look in a bathing suit these days. Maybe water aerobics will help with that!

Well before quiet time expires and Eli wakes, I need to get some things done so I better get off here, but before I do, I have a couple things to share! First, is that there is one more day to save on my Daddy's Girl kit! It is on sale at SBB for just $4.50 through tomorrow. And secondly, I'm having a Guest CT call! I am excited and nervous at the same time! I sure hope someone out there applies! :)



Okay, off to get our activities pulled together and a few other mundane things! Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you have a great day!

New Designs, A Coupon and A Way to Help!

Aaaaah! Can you hear that? The world is just a little bit quieter now that my 2 youngest are down for a nap and the oldest is playing with his K'Nex for quiet time! This is definitely one of my favorite times of the day! It's quiet, no little nuts hanging from the ceiling fans or running through the house like wild animals. Aaaah!

I had to take a little break yesterday from scrappin' to design a little! Afterall, I have to pay for my scrapping habit with something! LOL! So, I put together this little Trading Card Album Templates. These little albums are so cute! They are fast as anything to put together and a big hit with everyone!



They are available here at Scrapbook-Bytes for just $4.00. However here is a little coupon for you good for 25% off through the end of June: 25offtctemplates. They are a super cute Father's Day gift!

Oh and before I forget, I want to share with you a really easy way to help out "Reading is Fundamental." If you go to the Scholastic website and sign your child up for their Summer Buzz program, for every 4 books you read and log, they will donate 1 to RIF. My kids love to read so we are avid readers and it would be hard to log all the books we read, but whenever we do a big sit down and read session, I pile the books we read up and then go to their website and enter in what we read and approximately how many minutes! Yesterday we read for a solid 55 minutes! Spread the word - the more books children have the more they learn about their world and can be inspired to challenge themselves to achieve their dreams!

Today has been pretty quiet so far. After naps and quiet time we are going to do some of our Summer school work and then head back to the pool for some afternoon exercise. Tonight I am hoping to make a layout with Kristin Cronin-Barrow's newest kit - it is soooo beautiful! Take a look:



Isn't it just beautiful! And with my crazy Zoey girl - it will make just the most amazing layouts! It went in the store this morning, you can find it here!

And one more thing - if you haven't already applied for Traci Reed's CT call - do it!!!! She is an amazing designer and is incredibly nice and fun to work with! You will really enjoy working with her and being on her CT. Here's the her CT Call ad and if you want to check out her designs, see them here!



Are you still with me? Thanks if you are - this was one long post! :) I did some cardboard polaroid frames over the weekend that I hope to put together and put up as a freebie! So do check back in a couple of days! Thanks so much for stopping by and getting this far down! Have a fabulous day!!! ((hugs))

Gosh it has been so busy around here lately I never got back to report on how Aidan did in the swim meet, do any enabling or show off some new layouts!

First, the swim meet! Aidan did great at warm up and was looking like he was going to have a good swim. Then I don't know if they unilaterally decided that the 6 and under kids would use a kickboard or if that was an option. Either way it seemed to totally throw Aidan off. He didn't seem to understand that it was a "race" so he pretty much took his sweet time, looked around and enjoyed the swim! He's 6 - it was totally fine and amusing! In fact, my Mom has a story that she tells about me doing pretty much the same thing on the soccer field. It's all good! I got some good photos and we had a fun experience all around. Zoey had a fabulous time playing along the fence where the trees are looking for bugs and playing with a friend! All and all - it was a fun way to spend a Friday night!

I did get to scrap some this weekend already - in fact 3 layouts. Let me show you or you can see it here!

This is using Dani's new kit titled Sweet Summer Pop! I got up yesterday morning and the first thing I did was go to the Sweet Shoppe to see what new kit Dani had out and grabbed it up! Of course that is pretty much what I do every Saturday morning! If you haven't seen the kit yet, lookie here:

I just love that sun and the cloud! And the fabulous colors - well it is a Dani kit - need I say more! I did the Cookie Decorating challenge at Sweet Shoppe using the kit too - see:

And then the 3rd layout I did was with Jessica Bolton's Homelife Kit! I have become a real fan of her work! Here is my layout:

I bought a couple other things yesterday too! I bought Shawna Clingerman's newest kit and 2 things from Meredith Fenwick.

Daddy's Girl and more!

Good morning! Tonight Aidan has his first swimteam meet! Yesterday they had that poor boy swimming up and down the length of the pool so I think he is ready physically but I am sure he doesn't know what to expect tonight so we will see! You can be sure I will have lots of photos to share!

Today's "Hot Topic of the Day" at TDS is "Why we scrap." This is such an easy one for me today! On Wednesday, Aidan's last day of school, my Mom told me that on my last day of schools she always took me to the Village Green for ice cream! Unfortunately, I have no memory of this and if she wasn't here to tell me, I would not have known that she had this nice tradition for me! And now that I do know it, it makes me feel just a little more loved. I scrap so that my children have this! So that they remember (or are reminded) of the little things and traditions that we have. I scrap about me and my feelings for them so they know they are loved and that I am proud of them. My life is so much better with them in it - I want them to know that and feel that through their scrapbook pages.

Okay, that's enough sappiness even for me at the moment! I am so excited to share with you my newest kit - Daddy's Girl! (See picture above.) I have so many pictures of Zoey and her Daddy that I want to scrap with a feminine kit but so often they are just a little too feminine for pictures of Daddy too. So along came "Daddy's Girl". It's on sale at Scrapb00k-Bytes through Wendesday for just $4.50. You can take a closer look or purchase it here!.

I have the best Creative Team! These ladies are both fabulous scrappers, CT members and friends! Here's a small showing of what they have done with Daddy's Girl!

Layout by Kris Baker

Layout by Alane (aka marnie4two)

Layout by Maria LaFrance

Aren't those just fabulous! I have more to share but I will do that later! Thanks so much for stoppin in and taking a look!

Any fun plans for the weekend? We are headed to a little town called Hondo for a "Fly-In". More fuel for my sons interest in airplanes of all kinds! Other than that, the meet tonight and tons of laundry! I love reading your comments and learning what everyone else is up to - so what about you? What are you up to this weekend? Thanks again for visiting! I hope have a great weekend!