10-10-10 at DSDI and a Speed Scrap

Today kicks off the 10-10-10 event at DSDI. To kick off the holiday season and to wrap up 2010 they are having a 10-10-10 event. It runs from today through December 10th – so it will be over before you get too busy with holiday stuff. Every day there will be a different challenge having to do with a list of 10 things – 10 favorite memories, the top 10 current events, your 10 best pictures – you get the idea. The first one is to scrap what you consider to be your 10 Best Songs of 2010; it doesn’t have to be songs released in 2010, just songs you enjoyed in 2010. Hopefully I can think of a few that aren’t kid’s songs but, sadly, most of them will probably be from Snacktime by the Barenaked Ladies! What a fun way to wrap up 2010 - with a set of pages that reflect what was going on this year. And there are prizes!

There is also a speed scrap tomorrow, December 2 at 9pm EST, with a kit as a participation prize.

Black Friday "Retail Therapy" Blog Train

I'm glad you joined me on this Thanksgiving Day here in the US. For others it's just a normal workday but for me it's a day to enjoy our extended family and relax while eating way too much. It's also a day to plan my crazy shopping for Black Friday. I'm not one that *has* to be at a certain place at a certain time on Black Friday. I can usually find a few things I'd like to have and if they are still around when I get there, I'll pick them up. It's more a fun time with my bff and a break from the boys. In the shopping vein then, here is a quick page made from the great DSDI collab Retail Therapy. There is a coupon included in the download good towards the purchase of this kit so be sure to keep your eye out for that! I absolutely love this kit - the colors rock and the elements are so much fun!





The blog hop actually started at the DSDI blog but if you didn't start there, here is the list to get you back on track. We are all in different parts of the world so be patient if someone doesn't have their stuff posted yet. Thanks again for stopping by and Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!

Digi Scraps Drive-In
Giggly Polkadots
Lukasmummy
Kerry's Scraps <~~~~ you are here
Gail's Moment in Time
The Cute Gets Cuter
Jen C Designs
Daphadilly Art
Mad Genius Designs
Amy!Scraps

DSDI Daily Download

Okay, so I have been the suckiest blogger lately. Things are so busy - so many irons in different fires. But no matter, I have good news. It's time for the daily download over at Digi Scraps Drive-in and it's a great one. Marie of JK Creations is a new Pink Lady over there and she made a lovely kit called Playing in the Leaves. You can pick up the first part today - head to the Drive-by Freebies forum to see how. And if you are seeing this late and missed some, check out this thread to see how to get the missed parts. Hope you enjoy and I would love to see any layouts you make so make sure to post them in the galleries!

Digi Scraps Drive-In Charity Scrapathon Blog Train!

October is Breast Cancer awareness month, and you've probably noticed pink everywhere! So many businesses have been creating products specially designed to raise awareness and funds for this important cause. And the ladies at Digi Scraps Drive-In have stepped up to the plate as well. Not only have they created a beautiful charity collab kit, but they built an entire weekend event around it.

The Charity Scrap-a-thon runs from October 21 to 24. Anyone can play along with us, but to be eligible for the prizes, you need to have purchased the charity collab kit.

And there are awesome prizes! You can earn coupons, a site collab, and two lucky people will win entire stores - one each from Jen C Designs and C.W. Picket and Company's!

When you purchase this kit, your $6 goes entirely to Breast Cancer research (after Paypal fees), gets you stunning collab kit (and it's not just pink) And a chance to win coupons, another kit, and perhaps an entire store (now that's a deal!)

Feast your eyes on the beautiful kit:



You can pick it up at Digi Scraps Drive-In, and remember all proceeds (after Paypal fees) are going to breast cancer research.

Of course we had to get the word out about this even as much as possible, and so we decided to launch the event with a Blog Train where you can pick up beautiful brag book pages and even a set of blog wear. The train starts on the DSDI Blog and ends in the DSDI forums. Some of our team members live in other timezones, so be patient if all the contributions aren't posted yet - they will be.

Here is my contribution:

:: download here ::

Digi Scraps Drive-in
Nibbles Skribbles
C.W. Picket and Company
Kerry’s Scraps <~~~~~~ you are here!
Amy Scraps
Gail’s Moments In Time
Mad Genius Designs
The Cute Gets Cuter
Daphadilly Art
Luksamummy
Bonnie Blue Designs
A Damsel With A Dulcimer
Tricia's Treasures
AnitaW
Giggle Polkadots
Jen C Designs
Melly Scraps
Drive-By Freebie Forum

DSDI Daily Download

Digi Scraps Drive-in has a new daily download and it is just awesome! It's called Falling in Love and it is by Cjoy2Day Designs and Daphadilly Art. It technically started yesterday but you can get part 1 through today as well as part 2. Head to the Drive-by Freebies thread and pick it up!

Here is the layout I made with it - it was for the Blast from the Past challenge - scrap a page of pumpkins past. :)

Stay tuned for a great charity event starting on the 20th and come do some of the October challenges now up in the forum!

DSDI Mystery Collab Blog Hop

Happy October and welcome to the end of the DSDI Mystery Collab Blog Hop. Every month the designers do a collaboration kit and it usually has a specific theme. This month they decided to do a mystery one where all the parts have the same color scheme but each designer did whatever they wanted. And it turned out just awesome! There are so many lovely papers and elements and they actually go together beautifully. You must pick up this kit - click the image to head to the store to buy it. You'll need it to take full advantage of all our freebies!



There is an alpha in the kit but I made another one - capitals only.



Here is the list of participants. If you didn't start at the beginning, make sure you hit them all for your goodies. There are cluster frames, quick pages and a few other fun things.

DSDI Blog
Amy!Scraps
A Damsel with a Dulcimer
Nibbles Skribbles
Mad Genius Designs
Gail's Moments in Time
Kerry's Scraps

And since it is a new month, we have a whole new set of challenges up - come join in the fun and earn points towards a store gift certificate. If you participate in our It's a Fad challenge, you can even get a discount on the Mystery Collab!

September DSDI Template Challenge

It is already September – so hard to believe. And my oldest son starts 3 day a week preschool today. I’m not sure how I’m going to deal with that – he’ll be fine but maybe not me. Just a precursor to Kindergarten though so maybe this baby step is a good way to go. Anyway, on to the challenge. I chose another paper layout for the challenge. I was inspired to pick this one by some “big picture” templates I saw recently. Here is my original layout – it was a matching two pager with the ultrasound as one side and journaling about when we found out I was pregnant and how we told people. Sorry the picture is so random but I took individual pictures of each side and the ultrasound side is totally blurry. I figured you could get the gist of it from this one.

Here’s the layout I did – I used Guy Time by JanetB Designs. This is the mister and J2 – he was almost two weeks old here.

You can get the template in the DSDI Drive By Freebies section.

Come join us and show off those big photos!

DSDI Blog Hop Freebie - Celebrate This!

It's been a year since the Grand Opening of Digi Scraps Drive-In. It has been quite an amazing year and it is most definitely time to celebrate!

First up in our month-long Birthday Bash, we are hosting a Progressive Blog Hop Challenge. Here is how it works:

• Follow our Progressive Blog Hop, picking up each mini along the way.
• Create a layout using at least one piece from each mini (more if you wish)
• Upload your LO to our Birthday Bash gallery, and link it back to the Progressive Blog Hop Challenge thread.
  

The prize for the challenge is a loot bag that coordinates with the blog hop minis.

But that's not all! We will be hosting challenges and events all month long and you can pick up several more loot bags, and have a huge celebration themed mega kit when the month is done. We will be posting new challenges all month, so keep your eyes on the Birthday Bash forum.

You'll probably want to keep a close watch on the store, too. Each week will have a new sale starting with a Toonie sale. (If you aren't Canadian and haven't heard of the Toonie, it is $2 - I guess doubling the $1 coin called a loonie? Hard to say... Our Canadian friends are a bit kooky - but we love them!). There are different awesome sales each week but you'll just have to check back to find out what they are.

Okay, here is my contribution - an upper case alpha, numbers and some common punctuation.

:: download ::

And here are the rest of the participants. You will be visiting designers and other site team members. Remember to snag all the pieces, and check into this thread with your layout. Also, be patient for the downloads since we are scattered all over the world!

Digi Scraps Drive In
Mad Genius Designs
Red Genius Enterprises
Jen C Designs
Melly Scraps
Gail's Moments In Time
DaphadillyArt
Bonnie Blue Designs
Kerry Scraps <~~~~~~ you are here
Graphics Illusions
Charlize Creations

DSDI Daily Download

Great news – the DSDI daily download starts tomorrow! The kit is awesome so make sure you stop by the forum every day to pick up a part. Here is the sneak preview – aren’t the colors fun and summery?

I made a layout with it too – this is J2 at the Children’s Museum. The Children’s Museum has so many cool things to do and look at and both of my boys wanted to spend all their time in this room! They barely looked at anything else.

Also, there are a few more days to learn some stuff at Scrapbook School so check it out – there are some really great tutorials!

Timeless and Timeless Modern

JanetB Designs has done it again! She makes the most beautiful kits and this pair are no exception. The first one, Timeless, is full of soft, neutral colors with small pops of color. The flowered papers are great and the flowers are lovely.

This is my mom and dad on their wedding day – the crop and angle were not my doing but I do love it!

The next kit is sort of a companion kit called Timeless Modern. They go together perfectly but this one definitely adds a modern twist.

This is me and the mister on top of the cruise ship in Hawaii. For the photo, I used a technique Melly of Melly Scraps taught us in a speed scrap. You take a photo, and a copy of the photo, layer them on top of each other and make the top one either black & white or sepia. Change the opacity of the top photo to suit you. I like this because it leaves some of the colors but still gives it a sepia look.

The DSDI daily download starts on Thursday the 19th and I’ll have a layout for you tomorrow so you get a special sort of sneak peek. It is a fabulous kit so you’ll definitely want to mark your calendars so you don’t miss a day!

Space Cowboy

Isn’t that just a fun name? Melly Scraps has an awesome new kit that I just *had* to have. It’s called Space Cowboy and is perfect for all your Buzz and Woody layouts. And believe me, I have a lot of pictures. Check it out. There are distinct elements for space and cowboy but the whole kit works together great. I love the variety of papers and don’t you love those cacti?

It also comes with this great alpha set but you can purchase it separately if you like.

Toy Story was a favorite of J1’s (until Star Wars took over) so we have some great pictures that I was excited to get to scrap. First my cowboy one. J1 was actually supposed to be a pirate this year. J2 was only 5 months old and I found the *cutest* pirate costume for him so I picked one up for J1 as well – so they would match. Well, J1 *refused* to put on the pirate costume – would not try it on even once! Luckily my BFF had passed these chaps, vest, hat and bandana on to us and it was in the attic. It was a bit big but he was pleased to wear it so there you go.

Last year he was Buzz. He picked it out and we got it cheap off eBay so we were all happy. Incidentally, J2 was a skeleton since that was J1’s costume from a couple years back, so again, no matching. This year J1 wants to be Anakin (no surprise there) so I am thinking some sort of fab Star Wars costume is in order for J2 as well. I found a super cute R2D2 costume and in the Clone Wars cartoon, Anakin and R2D2 are great pals so maybe…

Tomorrow I’ll have JanetB’s new kits highlighted – they are truly beautiful!

Seaside Serenity – AKA We Love the Beach!

AnDi Designs has this wonderful new kit called Seaside Serenity. I chose this kit because the mister and I have been going to Lincoln City on the Oregon Coast every year since we met. Aren’t the colors perfect for all your beach photos? And I just love the sparkle and the fish! Make sure to check out the rest of her store while there. I have my eye on quite a few!

There is also a lovely coordinating alpha

I did the layout with pictures of one of our trips – when J1 was just a baby. We started out going in March for the weekend – my boss liked us to take one weekend off in March just to refresh during tax season and prepare for the final push. Later we started going in September for our anniversary. The mister has a friend who owns a house on a lake in Lincoln City and they let us stay there for free – and they are dog friendly so when we had Sitka she could come too. My MIL has a timeshare, also in Lincoln City and coincidentally, usually the same time we are there. This works out wonderfully as she is right on the beach and will also watch the boys so we can go to out to a nice dinner for our anniversary. A lot of times the mister’s sisters also come for the weekend so we get to see them too. Anyway, here is my layout:

We are right in the middle of Scrapbook School over at DSDI and there are some great tutorials. We had a sort of free-for-all chat the first night where quite a few topics were covered. You can read the transcript here. There are also many other great tutorials so head over and join us!

Scrapbook School – it’s time!

Yay, school is in session at DSDI tonight and the lineup of tutorials and challenges looks great! You can check out the list of events here and start your tracker as well and read the nuts and bolts here. I think I am most looking forward to doing some things in PSE that I haven’t done – which for me is pretty much everything since I mostly scrap in Creative Memories Storybook Creator Plus! Remember to pick up the kit too – it isn’t necessary but it does qualify you for prizes and it is just fab! The first chat is tonight at 9 EST – come join us!

Scrapbook School – you know you want to go!

DSDI is having a fun event in a week called Scrapbook School – you can read more about it here. There will be a bunch of tutorials hosted by the great Pink Ladies and after each there will be a challenge. If you used this fabulous kit called Scrap to School to complete the challenges you can even win prizes! I love prizes and I love this kit. The colors are the best (I am a sucker for anything red) and I love the old fashioned school elements. What fun layouts wait to be made with this one! Anyway, it starts on the 12th (next Thursday) so I’ll post a reminder when it is closer. Hope you’ll join us. And there is a whole slew of new challenges up (including my template challenge) so head to the forum and start earning points towards even more kits!

August Template Challenge/Freebie

I am hosting the template challenge (Made in the Shade) over at DSDI again this month. I again used a paper layout I did as my inspiration. I think paper is a different style than the digital layouts so I am hoping my templates are a bit outside the norm.

Here is the paper layout:

and my template:

and my digital version:

You need to go to the Drive By Freebies section of DSDI to pick it up – head there now!! And get the word art I posted a couple of days ago (blogged about here) while you are there.

Flea Market Finds

C.W. Picket & Co. has a new (well newly revamped) kit called Flea Market Finds. It was the first kit she made – two years ago – so she updated it and released it again. I sure am glad she did since it is so awesome! The colors are so great and I love the patterns and the cool and unique elements.

This my niece and I think the kit just made the picture better. I also used a template from DigiDesigns by Denise called On the Grid.

Well, it is a brand new month of challenges over at DSDI. I have my template posted and I’ll blog about it soon. Head to the forums and join in!

My Heart Shines Word Art Freebie

I made some layouts with the wonderful kit My Heart Shines by Mad Genius Designs. I love a kit with red and this one is no exception. Plus, there is glitter, swirls and hearts – guaranteed to make me swoon! Make sure to go pick this kit up – good for Valentines Day, weddings, engagement photos and even cute pictures of little girls!

Look at the lovely layouts I made with it – it even works for boy layouts! This was done for the Cover Tunes (scraplift) challenge at DSDI – you still have a couple of days so go make one yourself.

I did this for the Spice it Up challenge – we were supposed to use a photo mask and this one comes in the kit.

And here is the word art I made!