Scraplex: 2009

Quick!!! Jen, as in, Jen of Graham like the Cracker has some AWESOME clearance sales going on!!! She is an incredible designer and her kits are the shiznitty!!! (*GASP* can I say that on a blog??) Here's the flyer...

Hey everyone!
Time for a lovely new scrap page!!! Here are my two little bumblebees having a secret moment of sibling bliss... except I caught it on camera!!! Don't you just looove these moments? I also took some updated pics of my little girl! Isn't it amazing to see their personalities really start to emerge!!!!??? Ahhh... another pretty page... down.

 

So... if you are my friend, odds are I've already pounced on you and gave you all the details of my new found passion for digital scrapping... but the best news I've received lately is that Jen and Char from Graham like the Cracker and Wyld Web Designs have chosen me to represent them both on their Creative Teams... or... CT's as is said in the digital scrap world. I'm super excited because both of these designers are AMAZING!! I've downloaded a couple of their kits as you can tell in previous posts and have been setting myself up in the digital networking world... and wow! I never knew that things could be so complicated. I know that there is a learning curve to everything, but I'm trying to force myself to learn FAST so I don't let anyone down... especially myself. So... the reason I've been a little MIA lately is because I've been creating accounts, gathering info, learning ins and outs and just plain trying to get myself organized. I work best when order has been established... so... I'm sure that soon I'll get all this down and it'll be a walk in the park for me! Until then... here is my latest addition for the creative team. I used Wyld Web Design's Soft N Sweet (click the preview of the kit and it'll take you to the store so you can snag this AWESOME goodness!)

This layout was created from a picture that I took of my little sister snoozing away with my brand new daughter on her chest. Aren't they so... soft and sweet?! hehehe... I made the photo black and white and tinted it plum to match the colors in the set. Keep a lookout for freebies coming up. I created a couple elements to match the set as well... until then...

Here is my second layout I have made using the Little Sighs kit created by Graham like the Cracker... simply gorgeous. I am loving being able to play around with it willy nilly like this. I took these pictures of my gorgeous little girl yesterday and I'm so pleased at how well I was able to display her burgeoning personality. Click on the preview of the kit to go to her store to snag a copy for yourself. And please... comment if you can... I loooove getting comments... hehehe

I think I sighed five hundred times at least while I was putting together this page. My son is now 2 1/2 years old, but I remember this day as if it were yesterday. I'll never forget the look on my husband's face as he saw his boy for the first time. I'm beyond thrilled that Jen from Graham like the Cracker decided to create a kit incorporating my most favorite colors and styles... it was like she did it just for me! hehehe You can get the kit in her store, click on the preview and it will take you to her store. You can also download my quickpage by clicking on my scrapped layout. Thanks for looking and I hope you enjoy this kit as much as I do!

Check out this gorgeous new kit at Sunshine Studio Scraps called Safari Stampede! It's awesome... you can get it here

Because its been a while... I'll be back to update with more scrap pages!

THE EVOLUTION OF A MOM

Yes, parenthood changes everything. But parenthood also changes with each baby. Here, some of the ways having a second and third child differs from having your first.

Your Clothes
1st baby: You begin wearing maternity clothes as soon as your OB/GYN confirms your pregnancy.
2nd baby: You wear your regular clothes for as long as possible.
3rd baby: Your maternity clothes ARE your regular clothes.
The Baby's Name
1st baby: You pore over baby name books and practice pronouncing and writing combinations of all your favorites.
2nd baby: Someone has to name his or her kid after your great-aunt Mavis, right? It might as well be you.
3rd baby: You open a name book, close your eyes, and see where your finger points.
Preparing for the Birth
1st baby:You practice your breathing religiously.
2nd baby: You don't bother practicing because you remember that last time, breathing didn't do a thing.
3rd baby: You ask for an epidural in your 8th month.
The Layette
1st baby: You perish your newborn's clothes, color coordinate them, and fold them neatly in the baby's little bureau.
2nd baby: You check to make sure that the clothes are clean and discard only the ones with the darkest stains.
3rd baby: Boys can wear pink, can't they?
Worries
1st baby: At the first sign of distress--a whimper, a frown--you pick up the baby.
2nd baby: You pick the baby up when her wails threaten to wake your firstborn.
3rd baby: You teach your 3-year-old how to rewind the mechanical swing.
Activities
1st baby: You take your infant to Baby Gymnastics, Baby Swing, and Baby Story Hour.
2nd baby: You take your infant to Baby Gymnastics.
3rd baby: You take your infant to the supermarket and the dry cleaner.
Going Out
1st baby: The first time you leave your baby with a sitter, you call home 5 times.
2nd baby: Just before you walk out the door, you remember to leave a number where you can be reached.
3rd baby: You leave instructions for the sitter to call only if she sees blood.
At Home
1st baby: You spend a good bit of every day just gazing at the baby.
2nd baby: You spend a bit of every day watching to be sure your older child isn't squeezing, poking, or hitting the baby.
3rd baby: You spend a little bit of every day hiding from the children.

So this week, my bootcamp exercise was to incorporate shadowing into my layouts. It was very difficult since I was also learning a new program in the midst and exemplifying classic ADD symptoms that accompany learning something new and exciting. I played a little too much with the photo editing and all the neat, cool stuff I could do and didn't hunker down and get my assignment done until late!!! But... I just made the deadline... so its all gravy baby. I used a couple free kits for this one and used a picture of Rowan from last year... I love these pictures of him... its amazing to see how much of a baby he was just less than a year ago... *sigh*

Look at this amazing new kit created by Moonscraps and Madame wing. I love the playful color pallette and the ample use of whimsical elements perfect for all your girl's night out photos!!


















It's going for a steal at $6.00 here: ­Find it here

So... in bootcamp, we are doing this thing called "white space"... its a tutorial on using white space to draw attention to your subject... here is what I came up with:

I snatched up this free mini kit today (and one day I'll start giving credit when I get more organized!) and had a picture of Juni sucking her thumb from earlier... I thought it was simply adorable... so I went ahead and scrapped it!!! I think that the page turned out cute, even though the elements weren't my favorite. I went ahead and added a few from a couple different sets I had as well... so that kind of beefed it up a little. Eventually I'll stop updating my blog at 1am and actually spend some time typing again. Tomorrow we have the air conditioning repair dudes coming over to completely replace our air condition... I can't wait! It's so friggin hot in here, my digi scrap pages are starting to wilt!!

Today's post is dedicated both to my son and also to my digiscrapping boot camp challenge on the Gingerscraps forum. I created a clustered layout that I call "memories." I wrote the little poem for my son also on the side... melding two talents into one... Looking back over the few years he's been here, it is certainly incredible to see how he's grown. Pretty soon I need to take another beach picture to add to this one... now these shorts he's wearing go a few inches above his knees!!! How amazing!!!

Erin showed me this website for this new child's product called color me table and chairs. I think I might consider doing something like this for Rowan's next birthday party... it looks really cool!
http://www.colormetables.com/home.html

Today was a pretty constructive day. I put chicken and dumplings in the crock pot this morning, cleaned the kitchen, moved laundry around, fed babies, changed babies, played with babies... once the kids were down for a nap, I got into the thick of it. I steam vac'd my carpets with the new Oxy deep steam cleaning solution. It was awesome! My carpets are gleaming white again. Yes... I moved furniture around, turned on a fan and got to it... it only took 30-40 minutes once I got going and boy does it make a difference. I then paid bills, filed paperwork and decided to do some upkeep on the group I run locally for moms who get together. Once that was done I edited some pictures, made a siggy (posted below), finished my bootcamp project and cleaned the lunch and breakfast dishes. It's amazing how I can do all that work and then look around and feel as if nothing has been done! One of these days I'll take that big black garbage bag I always talk about and go around collecting random items to just donate. I want clean. Clear. This is why I've moved towards digi scrapping. The name of the game is consolidation and streamlining my mess... at any rate, I was then asked to take over another group, so I started some work on that before the kids started getting up in waves. Tomorrow I'll attempt a momvan trip to Staples for copies and faxes and to the grocery store for some food stuffs. Yay. Then I can come home and start it all over again... one of these days... one of these lovely days... I'll be completely organized!

Currently I have joined a scrapping boot camp. The goal of this is to help me hone in on my scrapping and photo editing skills while having the option to collect great freebies along the way! Every Sunday we are given an assignment by our drill instructor and it is due the following Saturday. It's been quite a while since I've been in "school" so this is kind of fun for me. And... I always like a challenge.

Here is this week's assignment:Using a photo editing program, crop a picture and adjust it so that it looks better... be it colors or sharpness or cloning. I also chose to do another portion and did the tutorial on black and white photo editing... which you can see in my main page's large pic.

Before:

After:

So... here are my first few digital scrapbook pages... please be kind to me... I'm a total newbie with digital scrapping... I do, however, have some experience with regular scrapping... so this is very touch and go for me... I'm loving what I see so far...

My scrapping story began in 2005. I found myself back home with my mom after having felt the liberation of "going it alone" for a year out of college. Maybe it was the fact that my brother had a heart attack that pulled me back or that I was tired of being alone. Either way, something was pulling me back home. I had given up on the notion that somehow I'd be able to find someone that would fit me and my lifestyle and that would also be willing to be with me for the long haul. It was another Friday night at my mom's boarding house. All ten housemates squeezed into her tiny living room. My mom spoke first, "Crystal... you really need to get out. I know that you are focusing on your classroom and getting things in order for the school year, but really... you need to take some time to yourself." I had been milking a rather difficult heartbreak from the previous year and had spent that time heartbroken in Jacksonville. The last thing I wanted to do was "get out." I sighed and looked at the nine other members of my family, who were all staring at me expectantly as my mother aired my dirty laundry. "I've been going to karaoke... some nights..." "Well," my big brother piped up, "We are planning on going tonight, too... so come with..." I nodded and exited the room.
Three hours later I endured the screeching of some drunken cowboy wannabe in the background of the dimly lit room where my family sat and threw back tequila shots. We always had a couple people that we didn't know join in on our festivities... after all, once you added in boyfriends, girlfriends and just good 'ole regular friends... we were easily a group of twenty strong. Together, we were a bartender's wet dream. On this particular night, I met a guy. He and I quickly became friends and cheered each other on as we made utter fools of ourselves on the karaoke stage. I hung out with him a few more times before I found out that he was moving to another city. I was really bummed out because... well... I wasn't really attracted to him, but it was certainly nice to have a friend who wasn't an extension of my family. The last night that we sang karaoke together, he invited me to his going away party at a local hangout in the art district of town. I told him that I would go, but deep down I was unsure. I knew I didn't want to go somewhere with my entire family, so I just told them I was going and left it at that.
I had no idea that when I attended that going away party, that I was going to meet my husband. I showed up dressed in jeans and a nice purple shirt and planned on just forgetting everything and having some fun... all by myself. I found my friend in the room and went over to talk with him. He was happy to see me and told me that he was going to take me out to meet a couple of his single guy friends that were upstanding men in his opinion. He seemed very adamant about that fact. I met the guys and talked with one that I found particularly handsome for a bit before deciding that he and I didn't really jive all that well. So I sat in a chair and sipped the most disgusting beer I had ever tasted in my life. His other friend moved in front of me and we started talking. He kept putting his hand over his face, like he was shielding his eyes from the sun. "I'm sorry," he said, "but you are in front of that floodlight and I can't see your face." From that moment on... my life has been like that... I've been blinding him with my super awesomeness.... hehehe... but really. It's been amazing. If not for the love of my life, I'd have no reason to scrapbook... well... at least scrap as vehemently as I should be. We've been crazy together for about four years and now have two children. Rowan, my true Einstein. Seriously, this kid freaks me out with how intelligent and quick he is. And then there's Juniper... or... Juni Bean... the little girl in my life. As of now... they are my true reason for my scrapping obsession.