Star Struck

My 9 Y/O son Wyatt has really caught the acting bug and has been taking every opportunity he can to participate in productions of any type. He has already acted in the productions, "The Polar Express" and "Mystery at Shady Acres" and now he has jumped into even more. Wyatt is already scheduled to take part in "Cinderella" at the Bakersfield Music Theater in July, which he is so excited about. On top of that he decided he wanted to try out for the production "Seussical" at the Bakersfield Community Theater as well. His tryout went well and although he didnt get a HUGE part (I think his young age limits him) he nailed the part of "Thing 1" in the production. My oldest son Corey also tried out for the production and has been given the part of the General (I cant remember his name LOL) which includes a solo performance. In the meantime between all of these, Wyatt also decided to partake in his schools end of year talent show. He chose to sing a song from his favorite movie "Despicable Me." I was so proud of him because he was the only student who did a solo performance, who didn't lip sync, and who did all of this with no music what so ever. He was also the first performer to go on stage. They did not have a winner or a loser it was simply to showcase the students talents and allow them to show off a bit for their parents. The layout below showcases Wyatt on stage performing during the talent show.

Credits:

"This Moment" Creations by Rachael
"Guess how much I love you" By Becca
"Little. Bits and Pieces" By Sue Cummings
 
Thanks so much for looking and have a spectacular day!

Crazy 4 Titles?

If your anything like me one of the hardest parts of building a layout is getting the title work right, or simply picking a title that fits the layout and draws people into the story you are telling with your images without taking over the layout. SimplyKait shared this link with us today from Traci Reed's blog about "Terrific Titles" and I wanted to share it and a few more I found with you.

I also found this great article on titles called "Titles Don't Have to be on Top" at the Daily Digi, which I think is great! It challenges you to place your title in other positions rather then the same ol' top of the page title. She shows some great examples and the pages she created are also inspirational. I love the Family Reunion page. I also found another great title page article at Daily Digi called "Terrific Titles for Scrapbook Pages". This article also includes Katie's "10 Terrific Title Tips" which really are terrific.

If on the other hand your problem isn't the placement or the design, but the actual title itself, then for some great title ideas you can head over to Scrapbooking Page Titles where they have hundreds of title ideas to suit hundreds of categories of layouts. If you don't find your title there you could also try "The Perfect Title" which also has hundreds of title ideas to choose from.

With a title that draws people into the page and accompanies the story your photos are telling you can create spectacular layouts! Can't wait to see the wonderful titles you are able to create with the help of all the articles I have found.

SPECTACULAR FREEBIE- A Full Kit!!!!

So I was in a designing mood and it has been sometime since I actually created my own designs.

Today I decided to sit down and create something springy and soft as a freebie for you all. I actually had not planned on a full kit, but that is what it ended up as. (I threw together the color palette as I went along even. LOL) I have to say I HATE making papers, my papers NEVER turn out like all the gorgeous papers I see on the web and I have never been able to figure out why. Well. this time I am actually fairly happy with my papers, so I won't be afraid of actually using them. I tend to start with the papers first because I hate them so much. I figure if I get them out of the way I might actually finish the project I am working on. You see there is a method to my madness. I kept adding and adding and suddenly I realized I was getting quite a few items in my arsenol more then what i wanted for a small freebie. I considered breaking it up and giving out a piece a week or so, but then I have to keep up with i,t and well, we all know I am not great at that. LOL I even considered talking to some designers I know and asking them if they wanted to do something with it themselves, I lastly considered just starting a small store and selling a few things here and there. (That one flitted for a moment and I realized how much trouble I would have to go through to do it and said NO WAY!) So, after careful consideration you are the recipient of my over zealousness at designing a small freebie.

Below is the preview which I put together quickly.

Notice the cute little owl, I just love them! I suppose owls are nomally a winter or fall kit item, but I figure owls don't hibernate,(at least not that I know of LOL) so why can't they be a spring element?

Fine me if I have broken a particular scrapping rule. LOL

I really hope you will enjoy this kit and share your layouts with me.

The links are below to download both the paper pack and the element pack.

Make sure you get both downloads.

Link 1

Link 2

Here is a layout I made with the kit.

Oh by the way..another thing I hate doing.....Creating layouts with my own kits. LOL

I know its odd.

How would you like to have the QP as well?

LINK

Well, thats it from me today!

Have a great one!

Re-did my Avila Valley Barn Layout

Well, I took some time and sat down and worked on my Avila Valley Barn layout yesterday. I decided a couple things about the layout. I think the photos were too small which subtracted from the overall punch of the layout and I think it needed more interesting elements to look at, especially on the left side of the layout. So I made some additions and enlarged the photos and I really like the final product now.

Much better huh? What do you think?



A Couple New Layouts....

Well, I said I was going to work on a couple of layouts with the new items I got from http://www.scrapbookgraphics.com/ and I finished them on Friday but am just now getting them uploaded here for your enjoyment. I really enjoyed using the stamp action I got from Studio Wendy and I used Dawn Inskip's gorgeous new kit to complete the first layout of my son and niece at the park a couple weeks ago. I also used a cluster template from Studio Buttercup's new cluster template pack available in the store HERE.

The stamps look great in my opinion and I am very happy with how this layout turned out. I love the colors!! They are fun and bright. I am going to have to get with Wendy at Studio Wendy and have her tell me what i am doing wrong in the action because I kept getting a stamp with a opaque white libe around the final image. I ended up having to tweek it myself a bit but it turned out great!

Next I made a layout using some photos I took at the Farmers Market last weekend before we had to leave for home after being robbed. I just love visiting this specific market because it is so bright and quaint. I actually am going to work on this layout a bit more because I just think it still needs something to make it complete. Would love any suggestions you might have.

I feel like the left side of the layout is missing something and the photos just need to pop more off the page. I feel like they are not the main focus of the page. So back tot he drawing board I go to see what i can do to figure it out.

Overall, a pretty productive weekend.

Apologies for not keeping up on my blog posting....

You know it seems that no matter how rightous our plans are "Life" always gets in the way of our intentions. This last couple of weeks have been a little hectic and "Life" certainly has taken a few twists for me lately. I had every intention of being a good blogger and posting at least twice a month, but with work and family it has been a challenge to do, I think I was keeping up with it some what for a while. The last two weeks have found me overflowing with crap in my life and have kept me from the computer and scrapping, much less blogging.

We have been spending a lot of time in our trailer at the beach enjoying our time out of town and away from "daily life" per say. We found our bliss quickly put to a hault last weekend when I got an emergency phone call from my son telling me that our home had been broken into. Needless to say we packed up everything and headed home. I won't go into all the details of the phone calls and the police investigation. I will just tell you that we lost quite a bit of stuff, over $7,000.00 worth of items from our home, mostly in heritage weapons my husband had locked up nice and tight in a gun safe that the creeps searched the house and found the key to. So the guns along with my 9 year old sons piggy bank (Literally a piggy bank) and games, some of my and my husbands jewelry (His wedding band), cell phones, etc etc it was a bit overwhelming. This is the second time we have been robbed by the way. I think what pisses me off the most is that the creeps stole my sons piggy bank in which he had all the money he has been saving for years because he wants to go on a trip to Hawaii. Talk about low life scum of the earth types. Who would steal a childs piggy bank? (ggrrrrrrrr)

To add to all the issues week at work (today actually) three teachers got laid off. (No I wasn't one of them, but since all of them had senority over me, I am slightly worried.) It was a very depressing day to say the least. Last week they laid off an admission representative and we had a feeling more was coming.

I actually feel bad even complaining about this with all the tragedy we are seeing all around the country right now. My heart goes out to those people who have lost loved ones, belongings, homes, memorabilia, etc etc etc in all the tornados and other weather related catastrophes throughout the country. At least I still have my home and my family. (Thank you GOD)


Good news though I am on a weeks hiatus from school so I am hoping to spend sometime scrapping some things and hopefully get some great layouts done. I did go on a small shopping spree today at Scrapbookgraphics, because I WON $8.00 at Studio Wendy when she was having a contest of some sort that I had not even realized I was eligible for LOL. So this is what I got and I hope to use them both soon to make some gifts and scrap some layouts.

I think this Action will work great on some new layouts.

and I think these templates will make great gifts for friends and family.

So that is my life in a nut shell right now and I am hoping to get back to regular posting and participation ASAP at least for a short period of time. I will post layouts for you all to see as soon as I get some done. Have a great night.





A brand new layout..

So I have been checking out a lot of the galleries lately and I have noticed a new trend where scrappers are splitting their BG papers on both sides of the layout and some I really like and some I'm not so sure about but I thought I would give it a try. I actually started working on this layout with some of my photos from Venice, but they just didn't seem to fit into the style so I changed to my Calico Ghost Town photos which I think were much more suited to the style of the layout. I still am not completely happy with the layout, but I really think that its because this layout has such a Heritage Layout feel with the colors and such and I have never really been able to get into the Heritage Style...Well because I dont like the colors to be honest. LOL I worked on this for so long though I just refused to start over by changing all the colors up so here is my Calico Ghost Town Layout that I some what like and some what dislike LOL

So I do like the papers split and I like the lace I added as a last minute detail. I'm not crazy about the title but I couldn't think of a better way to get it in there with the papers split the way they are. I spent hours just trying to get the title right. (I am happy to take suggestions) I added the green foliage in towards the end because I just had to have some sort of color. Ugggghhh.

Well, what are your thoughts and suggestions?

Hugs Kellie