It's Friday in the blog world!

I just love Friday's! Normally I off on Friday's but today I do have clinic at work. That's okay it means I get to spend my day with some wonderful co-workers and some even more wonderful infants that need a little extra medical help. I love what our clinic does for high risk children in the Kern County area. I am very proud to do the work I do at the hospital. Most of my time is spent in the High Risk Infant Follow-Up Clinic but I also get to spend time in the NICU which is also a joy. When you see so many children with so many life altering disabilities though it really makes you thankful that you are one of the lucky ones whose children do not have to grow up with these types of barriers in their lives.
This last month my family and I spent some time having family portraits done. We have never done this before. Really NEVER have we ever gone to a photography studio and had a family photo taken. I think I take so many pictures myself why would I need to have someone else take them. LOL I am very glad I did though because now I have wonderful gifts I can give to others for Christmas and some great photo's to work with in my layouts since I purchased the CD's.
I was on a roll this week and I have a new layout for you with Sas Designs new kit. So without further ado time for the layout.

The layout was created with Sas's new kit "Happy Heart". Now I took some of the items and recolored them to make them really fit my photo's I took of my son at the pumpkin patch. I also used Melissa Bennett's Halloween brushes again which I have fallen in love with as well. You can grab Sas's kit "Happy Heart" HERE. Below is what the full kit looks like.

 

Now I have to give you a fair warning. Sas's next kit has quickly become my favorite and I am just dying to show you the layouts I have created using it. It comes out November 2nd and Wowza I am so in love with it!! I wish I could sneak you a little peek but I have to keep my excitement in check for a little while longer. Let's just say it works so well with the season and you know how I love Autumn! I really wish I could show you know, because keeping these layouts under wraps is going to be so very hard. Not to mention I have 2 new freebies for you as well using the kit. Yes, i said it 2 new freebies for you.
So before I spill my guts all over this blog I will bid you farewell and until next week I hope your days are bright and sunny!

A couple new Halloween layouts to share and a freebie!!

My DH and I took my son Wyatt to the Banducci Pumpkin Patch today. If you have been following me long you know this is one of my favorite places to go and photograph my son, because it has so many wonderful colors and I always seem to get pretty good photo's. There is something about Autumn colors that gets me all excited about taking pictures. So, of course when we arrived home I went right to work color correcting and altering the photo's I took.

Here is an example:

I have really been having fun with the 4 Hens Filters I bought a while back. I am also very thankful for the photo editing classes i took at Jessica Sprague.com. I suppose I should tell you that in this picture my son said this was his "Divine" photo. So he is apparently attempting to look Divine. Do you think he hit the mark? LOL

Well, once I finished playing with my filters and editing software I of course had to create a layout with one of the photo's I took while on this excursion.

So I used one of my photo's that i used the Almost Black and White filter on after correcting the photo in photoshop with my editing software. The kit I used is by Kristin Aagard and is called "Trick or Treat". Hope you all like it because I made one for you all to use as well and you can grab it below.

Here: Happy Halloween

I also finished another layout that is definitely out of the box for me. I did not use any of my own images but found an image at one of those free copyright places you all know about. I was having a very dark day and decided a dark layout was the perfect response. So i cam up with the following layout entitled: "Who will hear me screaming"

I used a lot of brushes and some darker papers and such. I actually really like the way this turned out even though it is not my usual style. It helped me to get out of the dark mood. Only now I kind of want to create another similar one with some awesome skull brushes I got at SBG. They are so much fun.

Well that's it for me for now have a great night and I hope you enjoy your QP.

Can you believe it is Halloween time already?

I simply cannot get over how fast this year flew by! I mean Christmas is just around the corner and my favorite holiday Thanksgiving is even closer! I can almost smell the stuffing! Although I am not a big holiday layout maker especially for Christmas for some reason. I actually like to create Halloween and Thanksgiving layouts. So I was really hoping that Sarah (Sas Designs) would create a really cute Halloween kit to play with.
Well my luck held out and she did create a really cute Halloween kit. Matter of fact it is so cute it is titled "Spookily Cute" and it is available HERE.
So i sat down as soon as I got the announcement and created this fun page!

Yes, I am still into this bright orange, I mean I think I am addicted to it. It is so much fun and it really makes me think of Halloween and Autumn and all that fun stuff.
My son wants to be some Star Wars guy this year Darth Maul so we are heading out this weekend to find his costume. Yes, we are a little behind getting it all done but it has been slightly hectic here at our house the last week or so and well it just has not gotten done timely.
I am looking forward to Sarah's next kit though because I am hoping she will create something that I will be able to use with all the awesome family photo's we had taken this year. FUNNY I just realized that I had my son in a shirt with a lot of this orange in it. Ha had not even thought about it until now. Hmmmm now I have more ideas.
I have also started working on some Christmas Presents that I hope to have done in time for gift giving this year. They are very fun and actually pretty simple and my new family portraits come into play here as well.
Well, I hope you all have a wonderful day and a Happy Halloween if I don't get to chat at ya soon!!

Wow! I cannot believe Autumn is here......

You know I will readily admit that my favorite season's are spring and summer. Mainly because I seriously dislike being cold and I am seldom cold during those season's. If you asked me though which season was my favorite to photograph I would absolutely without a doubt tell you it is Autumn. The colors of Autumn are so beautiful, the deep oranges, fun yellows, and burnt red mixed in with the browns and the little bit of greens still hanging around! What isn't to like? Autumn here does no last long. It seems we go from 115 to a couple weeks of 70's to Winter! Now if you asked me what season I dislike the MOST it would easily be Winter. That is in any form of the question as well.

Well, Sas Designs recently put out a brand new kit called "Autumn Warmth" and it has all those vibrant warm colors of Autumn that I just love! I have to admit there is something about throwing some leaves and berries across my layouts that really makes me enjoy creating them. I mean look at all the gorgeous elements and papers in this kit: HERE

So I sat down and created what I think is a very Autumny layout, it actual is making me kind of anxious for Autumn to"really" arrive.

That is my son picking some peaches at Avila Valley Barn on one of our many trips there. Have a told you all how much I love that place? They are Harvesting pumpkins now but we didn't get to stay long enough last time to indulge and really thought it was a little too soon to carve a pumpkin.
Everything you see EXCEPT the word art is included in the kit. The word art is by Carena's Designs. I think those blackberries are my favorite element!!! They look so good I want to pick them up and eat them!!
What is your favorite season and why???

A Great new layout to go with a fun and versatile kit

So you all know that I love kits that I feel are versatile. I want to be able to use and reuse the kits I buy and even though they are digital I am still spend thrift. Thats one of the reasons I love Sas Designs kits. No matter what i seem to be able to use her kits in ways that they may not have necessarily been designed for.
Then every now and again she puts out a kit that is simply designed to be versatile. Now does that place me on cloud nine or what?
This months PU Grab bag from Sas designs is exactly that kind of kit. Check out the great layout I was able to create with the kit.

I have definitely been on a green kick lately. I am loving greens!!! I also used a ton of brushes I have in my arsenal of collections and I really think they added to the fun of the layout.

I do have a couple of extra credits to give though:
Journey-Gold Member Kit by Danyale @ Digichick (Couple of elements)
Journal Blenders Vol 4 by Karen Diamond Designs
I used a couple of elements (The square canvas element in the center left and the tape element on the upper left of the layout. Both by Danyale.
I used a Journal Blender by Karen Diamond to create the text you see in black as well.  Love them by the way!
Everything else you see is included in the kit along with those awesome borders you see as well.
I have to admit this was one of those layouts that I started off on a totally different plane and ended up with what you see here. My intention was to scraplift a layout I saw in an add I got from After 5 Designs but it didn't work out for me because I am simply not creative enough or wasn't in the right mood. Ya know how that goes right?

Well, that's it for me this week. Hope you enjoy and find something amazing to create yourself with this wonderful kit. I woudl love to see what you create!