Countdown to Christmas ~ Day 1

Merry Christmas Everyone!!! This is Amber, one of Amy's CT members here to take over the blog for the next week or so! Amy & her whole CT would like you to join us in celebrating while we countdown to Christmas. Be on the look out for the stocking featured in the ad below each day.


Here is today's freebie ~>Day 1 Stocking Stuffer SORRY THIS LINK IS DISBABLED NOW<~ Remember stockings are surprises so you will have to download to see what you get!!

See you back here tomorrow for Day 2 & a special contest announcement!!

Holiday Party at SBB and a Major Sale!

Long time no post - story of my life! I thought I'd get on here and share a few things with you and post about the current sale I am running at SBB. Here's the ad:


There's a lot of fun stuff going on at SBB this weekend and over the next few days! So don't miss it - you can find out more about all the activities here. Plus there is a daily search in the forums for a new freebie every day! Learn more about the search here.

And please, please stop back by later today! My CT is going to be hosting a super cool "Countdown to Christmas" with lots of fun freebies, coupons and more! Look for the first post sometime today!

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great day!

Mish Mash, Hodge Podge and New Templates!

Happy Sunday morning! I love Sunday mornings - the kids know I love to watch the CBS Sunday morning program and generally are anxious to let me do it. One of the kids gets to go to the store with either Dave or I and pick out doughnuts for the family and generally they are lazy fun days. I'm looking forward to the day ahead. I think the kids and are going to make our "Thanks"giving Turkey - can you believe how fast Thanksgiving is approaching?

Except for one end of season soccer party, soccer is pretty much over. Eli did well through the surgery but has had a hard time recovering. Poor little guy he's been miserable. Thanksgiving is right around the corner, Zoey's birthday next and then I'll blink and it will be Christmas. Yikes!

I just added a couple of templates packs to my Scrapbook-Bytes store this morning. here's a preview:

Each is only $2.99 and you can pick them up here.


Oh before, I forget, I have a few things I want to share! First of all, I am hosting a "Alter the Season" challenge at Scrapbook Bytes! Our first project was to make a set of altered blocks and our next project (to be posted today) is going to be a wallhanging using chipboard coasters. Here's a peak at the blocks I made for the challenge.

After the holidays I am going to make a bunch of these up as baby gifts. Wouldn't they be cute with the child's name on them or the word "baby"? The were super easy and fun to make. Come check out the challenge here.

Scrapbook-Bytes new TidBytes is out! If you haven't checked it out - you need to! It is awesome! Jammed packed with fantastic layouts, great tutorials, fabulous freebies and exclusive downloads, digital reviews and more! Don't miss it! I'll come back tomorrow and tell you a little bit more about this photo and project we completed, but in the meantime I will give you a sneak peak.

Aren't those little nuts cute? We made their matching aprons for Thaksgiving from Ali Folendore's "Tasty Tom" kit. I'll come back and talk about the aprons tomorrow!

Well Aidan just walked down the stairs all sleepy which means he's likely to snuggle with Mommy. He won't want to too much longer so I am off! Thanks so much for stopping by - have a great Sunday!

I was reading a post today at My Scrapbook Art about funny kid stories and one of the members said that her funny kid stories are the source of most of her blog posts and I thought - gee - I should blog! So here I am! Once every 3 weeks is good right? LOL!

Anyways, don't know if you heard it this morning or not but that huge sigh of relief you might have heard was me - this is the last week of soccer till Spring season and Eli's surgery is on Thursday. After this week things should calm down at least some. Yes, there is the holiday craziness but at least not 3 nights and/or days consumed with soccer practice and games, add to that birthday parties and cub scouts. Geez - we are always on the go and even the kids have been complaining that they are never home! Life is going to be incredibly nuts when we have all 3 kids in school and involved in different activities! I missed the Digi Dare "Secret" challenge - but if I had done it - my "secret" would have been that despite the craziness I love it. I waited a long time to have kids and be a soccer Mom so now I secretly love it!

Let's see - what's going on in the digi world! If you haven't seen Traci Reed's newest collection - you are seriously missing out! It is amazing - "The Ones We Love" has 6 kits - 3 girl and 3 boy themed - all with amazing elements and backgrounds! And other big news for Traci is that she is now at Sweet Shoppe Designs and has opened her own shop - http://www.tracireed.com/. Here are 4 layouts I did with Traci's new designs!

Zoey at the Duck Pond is using Traci's "Evie Jo" kit and the DSD Template by Rachael Gialliongo.

Obviously I have been in a mood to scrap the boys! Check out Traci's new collection here!

Oh and the some of the biggest news is our house is that I had my birthday last week and even I missed it! LOL! I had planned to have a big sale, a bunch of new products and a freebie! Well, as is so typical of my life, I missed it. My Mom says I was 2 weeks late when I was born and have never been on time since. Well she's sort of right and if missing my own digi birthday party doesn't prove that - I dont' know what. Bottom line - I am going to have a belated birthday celebration and a fun word art pack about getting old free for everyone!

Thanks for stopping by! I hope to have a few things to share with you in the next day or two. In the meantime - have a great day!

Lookie Lookie!!!

How do you like my new look? It is a combination of the incredible designs of Dani Mogstad and Jacque Larsen and a new set of blog header templates that I put together! Let me tell you - Dani's new kit and alpha set - OMG - they are incredible! Soooooo cute!

So, clearly I am terrible about updating the look of my blog. But, I wanted to do something fun for Halloween and one thing led to another and I designed these 6 blog headers. It as so easy and fun - I'll be creating new ones all the time!

You can purchase the header templates in my SBB store here.



One of my CT members Biancka did an awesome header using the templates - check out her header here:




Biancka's blog is awesome! I will link you all up in a little bit when I am back from the Parent-Teacher conference. Aidan's 1st report card comes home today! :)

A little light humor for you all. I spent this morning high pressure cleaning my driveway. It was a real opportunity to be with my thoughts while I washed away the dirt on the driveway and the front of the house. The following realizations made me realize that I am addicted to digiscrapping and designing:

1) While pressure washing the driveway, I was wondering if I should take a picture and scrap the before/after process.

2) We have a welcome mat that has an interesting pattern of "holes" in it - I put it on the driveway and cleaned the driveway between the holes - wondering if there was a way I could turn that pattern into a brush.

3) Texture - lots of texture out there.

4) And then once a lot of the dirt was washed away - I found oil stains or other stains on the driveway and I thought about how cool they would look as a brush or element.

Yes, these are the profound (haha) thoughts of a digi-scrap addict with a few minutes of uninterrupted menial task work. :)

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great day and rest of your weekend! And - check back tomorrow - or at least go to Sweet Shoppe Designs and check out Dani's new kit - it is awesome!!

TTFN!

A Little Treat!

Good afternoon! I have to be very quick - need to pick up my son at school in a few minutes - but I wanted to make sure I got on here and posted a little treat! One of my CT members and friends, Tanya, designed this cute Treat Bag Topper! Isn't it cute!!! She made it with the Hallowbling Kit that my dear friend Traci Reed and I did together! You can see the full kit here! It is such a fun kit! If you download the Treat Topper here, please be sure to leave a little comment! Thanks for visiting! Have a great day!

Lots of Scraps and Good News!!

I've been scrapping! Last week I really felt like I was needing a break so I took a few days off from "work" and just scrapped and hung out with my family. It was great and soooo energizing. We went to the Zoo and to a favorite Pumpkin Patch. I'd like to say it generated tons of great photos - but it didn't! I did get one great photo of A and Z - or so I thought - when I looked at it a 2nd time - I realized that the tree behind Aidan makes it look like he has antlers! Great big antlers! Hopefully with a lot of cropping and some clone stamp work, I'll be able to minimize them.

I am so excited - this month I am Guest CT for Karah Fredericks. Karah is the owner and designer extraordinare at Blue Flombingo! It's been a blast so far and I've created a few layouts using her awesome designs already! Here's one:

I love the colors, alpha and "natural" elements in Karah's September Rain kit. In addition, I used her paper folds and the template that Karah is offering on her blog! Don't forget to run over there and enter Karah's sketch contest. Not only do you get the free sketch but you might also win a gift certificate to her store!

And yesterday I got a pm from Rachael Gaillongo at The Digi Shoppe asking me to be a Guest CT Member for the remainder of the year!!! Wooo hooo - template heaven! Rachael's templates are awesome! Here are 2 layouts I did last night and today using her templates!

Hint, hint!!! This fabulous template is available in Rachael's Grab Bag currently available at The Digi Shoppe. Isn't the kit awesome too?? It is titled "Autumn Mix" by LaWanna Desjardin at SBB. Great kit!

The layout above titled "Intense Beauty" is of Zoey pouting! But even pouting she is beautiful! I used Kristin Cronin-Barrow's wonderful Rustic Autumn kit and a template from Rachael's Round and Round Template pack. The stitching is from Dani Mogstad's "Imperfect Circles" element pack.

Okay - now I must really go to bed - it is very late! Thanks for stopping by! Please leave a comment and say "Hi!" Till tomorrow!!