I know that I’ve been a little MIA this past week and I’m sorry.  The end of football season and sick children have really been…well…kicking my tail for lack of a better description.

This weekend though, while I was caring for some of the sickies, I was able to do a little scrapbooking.  Simple stuff, but because of these beautiful papers, they turned out so pretty.  Here’s the one I want to show you…

(Papers Ana Flor’s Bothanicals)

Featuring none other than my beautiful 6 month old niece with that incredible smile I love so much!

As I sit at the airport preparing to board a flight headed to New York, there’s not a whole lot to share.  Like the little pop-up box told you, you can definitely follow me on twitter to get all the latest up to date details on my travels.  I do plan to post this evening about everything I see and do today!

In the meantime, instead of boring you with my airport experience (how exciting can they really be?), I thought I’d bless your day with just a little sugar and sweetness in the form of my absolutely, incredibly adorable niece who is now a waaaay too old 6 month old.

Both of these layouts were created using SAS Designs’ brand new Nature’s Garden kit!

Of course, I have to do a tip for the week if I feature a scrapbook layout…..today, it’s about creating a 2 Page layout.

Rarely, if ever, will you want to create only one page of something.  Every single scrapper I know wants to have a beautiful and coordinating layout for each page that is turned.  That does not mean that every single page in the book needs to be the same colors, theme or kit (though some have done that nicely as well)…but it does mean that for every single layout you make, you will want to create a coordinating 2nd page to go with it.

That idea is displayed perfectly with the 2 page layout that I featured above.  Honestly, I usually make one more elaborate page, with a matching simple page for the opposite side of the layout.  This time I went elaborate with both since I was using this gorgeous kit for SAS Designs’ CT.

Have a question or thought?  Feel free to leave a comment, I love talking to my readers!

Remember the less is more tip from a week or so ago?  Well, believe it or not, because of the variety of artists and styles out there, you can make a “Scene” layout almost as easily as a very simple “less is more” layout.  Here’s an example:

(Kit: Nature’s Garden by Designs by Angel…Font: Liorah BT)

There are definitely a few more elements (or repeated elements) used in this layout and I had to use a technique called “extracting” to get the photo of my son (he had been sitting on a lounge chair eating an apple).  The technique is a little more advanced, but totally doable depending on the program you have.  If you have Adobe Elements (I have version 7) use the selection tool adding and subtracting until you have precisely the part of the image you want to use.

I wouldn’t do this for all my scrapbook pages, although if you were making a “Fairytale Story Album” as I call them, this would be the way to do it and the type of kit to do it with.

After I was done with the layout I found that perfect quote.  I personally like the quotes to look like they are part of the overall layout.  In this case, it never did quite blend completely, but the overall effect was nice and I enjoy looking at my sweet little guy eating his apple and watching the butterflies play in the light.

Happy Scrapping!

Well, it’s week two for the Scrap Star challenge at Gotta Pixel and to be honest, this week was even more difficult for me.  The strangest part is that I adore doing white space layouts.  Yes, it’s kind of a newer thing for me to do, but I’ve been having a lot of fun with it lately so it was a bit odd to me that I found this one so challenging.  Anyhoo, here it is….

Featuring Little Miss and CJ (adoring her as usual).
Kit: Spring by Heather T.
Font: Liorah BT

I have been busy this week…maybe it’s the nervous energy from CJ being at Jr. High Church camp this week (aaah), so here’s another page…or two .

Featuring CJ (guess who he’s looking at LOL).
Kit:  Suburban Grunge by Digital Compilations by Cinda

Last but not least…

Featuring Bugs when he was 5 Months.  To this day he is definitely a thinker and tends to be on the serious side.  I’m fairly convinced that even back then he was thinking about all he needed to do as soon as he was able!

Kit: I’ll Fly Away Mini Kit by Dragonfly Beach Designs
Font: Countryside

I kind of had a hard time choosing again this week…there was another one of Little Miss, but I’ve been sharing a lot of those lately, so I thought I’d best choose something a little different and this one definitely fits the bill…

Ok, so first off let me tell you who is in the photos…the first photo is of my mom holding me (I’m her oldest), the second photo is of my sister (the one that visits here often) and I both pregnant (it was my 4th and her 2nd)…and the third photo is of my mom pregnant with the same sis that’s in the photo with me (the little girl is me).  Kind of fun huh?  Oh and in the photo of my sis and I, I’m the one on the left (notice Princess’ little head in the photo too, so cute).

Credits: The layout was made for a template challenge, so the template is by TMA Designs (www.faithsisters.com).  The kit used is Hidden Treasures by 4 Shades of Blue.

About: I extracted Monkey and Bugs from a photo taken during our annual family fishing trip to create this very fun little scene!
Kit: Kristin Aagard’s Pond Play (@ Gotta Pixel)

I know that I haven’t shared any Digi tips for a while, so this week I want to give you a simple and fun one…participate in challenges!  What is that you ask?  Great question…

…but you’ll have to wait for a second because I am bursting to share this week’s favorite digi page with you!!!  I cannot resist this adorable little girl (though it had a very strong contender who will be featured below in the challenges section)…

Kit: Dollhouse Garden by Chelly Designs and yes, this is my Little Miss (niece)

Most of the great scrapbooking forums (challenges are always in the forums – usually connected to stores – I’ll list a few of my faves at the bottom of this post) have fabulous challenges.  I personally love the challenges at Faith Sisters most, because I am so time-challenged, their challenges are actually the only ones I currently participate in.  But more than that, I love them because they challenge me to incorporate our faith into as many aspects of my childrens’ scrapbooks as possible – LOVE IT!

For instance (and because it really is kind of fun to show you a few more layouts) here are a couple of challenge layouts I did just over the last two days and they were super fast and fun to do because with challenges the basic guidelines are laid out for you .  (more…)

I am LOOOOvin’ this kit!  Just released it’s called “Your Planet or Mine” by 4 Shades of Blue!

You may notice that many of my digi WW layouts are by 4 Shades of Blue…well, she’s having a great sale through the 4th that you’ll definitely want to take advantage of if you like to do digital scrapbooking.  This is a great sale and 4 Shades of Blue offers some great style for creating beautiful pages for almost anyone!  Happy Scrapping!

Just my Sweet Princess!  I used an amazing set by Verena Karolyi (from www.PolkaDotPotato.com) called A Fresh Day.

The picture in this layout was taken summer of 2006 and is our Tater giving one of my nephews a ride on his little quad .

Kit: Let’s Ride by Michelle Batton!