autumn splendor and a photo shoot

Fall is such a gloriously beautiful season. The days are cooler and shorter. My jeans and sweaters come out of the closet. It is the weather for bonfires, trick-or-treating, pumpkin picking, and many other outdoor events. But my favorite part of this time of year is the world bursting forth with riotous color and leaves twirling down from the heavens. 

Today I got to revel in this beautiful aspect of the season with my dear, sweet friend Rebekeh. We headed to a local nature preserve and spent a few hours enjoying the gorgeous scene laid before us, laughing and sharing stories and events, and photographing each other and our beautiful surroundings. These are just a few of our favorite photos from the day. :)

Be sure to check back next week. Rebekeh and I have a challenge going on to scrapbook some of these photos before we scrap next week. I will definately be posting some of them soon!

Back to Blogging

Again I have let life get in the way of my blogging. This month has been absolutely crazy! Lots of stuff going on and major life events to share....

• I guess the biggest piece of news is that Renee and Zach got married on October 3rd. The wedding was beautiful and Renee and Zach looked fabulous. I was a bridesmaid and I LOVE the dresses that Renee picked out for us. No pictures back yet but when they do get back I will post a few of my faves. :)
• Last week my Uncle Jerry passed away. It has been an emotional time for our whole family, especially with it being so close to Renee's wedding. He had brain cancer and even though he fought bravely, he lost the battle. We will miss him very much. He was a great husband, father, grandfather, brother, uncle.....our hearts are heavy but he is whole again!!! We will miss you Uncle Jerry....we love you.
• I started my job at Archivers. I am really loving every part of it, especially getting to share my love of this fabulous scrapbooking hobby with others. I am not loving working retail again and I could do without the weekend and evening hours, but this is where my life is taking me at the moment so I will enjoy the present.

I have also been busily working on some scrappy projects this month. My creativity is holding out and I have gotten a lot done this month. Here are some of my favorites.

This was one of my October projects for the If It's Groovy blog. We were challenged to scraplift a sketch and use autumn photos or products. I was able to find these gorgeous photos of the tree in our front yard in full autumn colors with a gorgeous sunset behind it. The photos were perfect with this new Basic Grey "Indian Summer" line. The felt embellishements are my favorite part...they added just the right touch to my page.

This layout has some of my favorite photos from a local fall festival. I took these photos in 2007 and love the feelings they invoke in my heart. I used my cricut to diecut the cute little apples and added some felt letters and transparency frames to complete the look.

This is a photo I took of my dad in 2007. I scraplifted a page from Kelly Goree and used the new Basic Grey "Junebug" line. The colors lended themselves very nicely to this masculine page and even though I have flowers and ribbons on it, it complements my dad's photo perfectly.

I also took an online sketch class from my good friend Valerie Salmon called Got Sketch Doubles. I found the class totally inspiring and made some really cute pages from it. :)

These photos are from the Harry Potter book 7 release party that was held at our downtown library. They had people dressed as characters, games and events based on the books, and even a Daily Prophet to read as we waited for midnight. The pocket on the left page holds my copy of the Daily Prophet and Maurader's Map.  I also used some great patterned papers from SEI and glitter Halloween stickers from Doodlebug to get this fun, yet spooky look!

These are pictures from our Labor Day BBQ in 2007. I got some great shots of the family and I really wanted these photos to take center stage so I put all of my embellishments on the outside edges of the page. I even got to use up some BBQ stickers from Pebbles that I have had for a few years. Gotta love using up supplies!

These are pictures of my friends and I hanging out at a local park.  The title and monkeys are a play on words and I love the playful look they give to the layout.

This page showcases photos from my friend Cassie's wedding. I helped her make the programs that are on the page and I also included the invite to the page instead of a larger photo. I really like the way this one turned out and I got to use up some of my KI paper to boot!

Wow, this turned into a super long post and I still have more to share, but I will save that for later. :) Night all!

Saturday Scrappin'

Well, its Saturday and as usual I can be found down in my scrap room and the paper is flying! :) I finished a new layout and I thought I would post it along with some of my other scrappy creations this week.

I had a lot of fun creating with this bright and funky travel line from American Crafts. The elements were perfect for these photos at the beginning of our little road trip in Florida. :)

These are just the miscellaneous photos from our days spent at the beach. I really like the fun bright colors that are in these papers from Making Memories and I used a technique called masking and some glimmer mist to create the hibiscus flower and date on the page.  :)

These are photos of Emily and I on the OceanWalk at Daytona Beach. I love this page for so many reasons: the photos are really bright and fun and I was able to find the perfect patterned paper to match my layout. I also had a lot of fun playing with my Cricut and new Life Is a Beach and Don Juan cartridges to create a lot of the page elements.

A Busy and Productive Labor Day Weekend

This weekend was filled with lots of fun, laughter, creativity, relaxation, friends, and family. :)

On Saturday, I helped my dad get landscaping bricks for our house.  I then spent the rest of the evening down in the basement creating, cleaning, and organizing. The basement is definately starting to look much better. Now I just need to go through my stuff and get rid of some of the things I know I will never use. That's the difficult part because I don't like to get rid of stuff...

Sunday was just a bit crazy. It started with church at Pathway, which was great and I got to see lots of my friends. Then that afternoon we headed to my aunt and uncle's for a cookout, but I left before they actually ate. I did get to see my cousins Holly and Mike and their sweet little one, Kayla. :)  I then headed to my friends' Mike and Bethaney's anniversary party. It was a blast even though it did rain. And Emily and I went around and took some great photos with cool old farm backdrops...I swear it is one of the best places to take portraits...cool backgrounds to give visual interest.

Monday was creativity central. Emily and Angela came over and we spent almost all day creating in scrappy goodness.  I finished 3 layouts just that day! Woo-hoo! Gotta love being creative. :)

When the afternoon storms ended, Emily and I headed down to the beach. It was amazing to see the difference there after the storms moved through. There were really deep spots near the shore and further out it was only ankle deep. In the photo, Emily is standing about 25 feet from shore and it is still that shallow. Also there were shells everywhere!

Pictures from our hotel in Daytona Beach. I created this for a sketch challenge over at Scrapbook.com and I had a lot of fun creating this.  I love this line from KI Memories and it was perfect for these photos.

Just a cute photo of Emily and I at the beach. I used lots of fun accents on here. I colored the Heidi Swapp ghost flower with Alcohol inks and then rubbed stickles on the back of it to give it shimmer. :)

Picture that my friend took of me just looking out at the ocean. It totally wasn't planned so I was surprised and happy when I got home and uploaded my photos. I used a poem for my journaling called "Ocean Breeze" frim Patrick A. Whistler.

"I love to feel the ocean's breeze as it gently touches my face
To feel the water's warm caress as it moves from place to place
To watch the sunrise, to feel it's warmth
As night turns into day, to see the wonder of it all, the miracle of God's way
To feel the sand beneath my feet as I walk and contemplate
And know the footprints left by me will soon be washed away
So soothing is the ocean's call, so gentle, yet so strong
To feel deep down inside my soul that this is where I belong
To know that I, just like the waves, will move from day to day
And yet return without a doubt, another time, another way
The song the ocean to me mere words cannot describe
But in my heart I know the truth, it's steady as the tide
So I will come to walk the sand and spend my time in peace
Understanding all the while the gift God gave to me."
I totally love what the poem speaks of and it truly reflects who I am and what I was thinking about at that time. :)

Show Us Your Funny Faces on the If It's Groovy Blog

This month over at If It's Groovy, the design team was asked to make a layout showcasing funny faces.  I had a blast creating my page and being challenged to scrapbook newer photos. (These are from a trip we took to the zoo about a month ago!)
 
Here's my work as part of the design team on the blog. 
 

 
These pictures are all from a day I spent at the zoo with my friend Rebekeh and her kids. They all hammed it up in front of the camera and I got some really fun shots to use for the challenge. :)  The paper is all from Scenic Route's Grafton collection. It was originally meant for beach layouts but the colors were perfect for my photos. I used a square punch to punch all of the small photos to the same size and created a grid to contain all of my photos. Buttons with jute threaded through them and some zoo stickers from Me and My Big Ideas finished off the layout and gave it this fun, graphic look!
 
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If you want to get in on the challenge and create your own funny faces layout too, check out the information below and be sure to go to the blog and get inspired by all the other funny faces out there. http://ifitsgroovy.blogspot.com/
 
"Ladies and Gentlemen it is time that we see some smiling faces, not just any smiling face though, we need to see some FUNNY FACES! Choose one model for your pic or many. Enter as many times as you like, but make those faces look funny.
Goodies will be sent to one winner chosen at random so please expect to email your mailing info once the winner is announced on October 1 on If It's Groovy."
A slideshow is up and running on the If' It's Groovy blog ( http://ifitsgroovy.blogspot.com/ ) showing the work of IIG's Uber Talented DT!!! Email yours to groovydeb@yahoo.com so we can add it there too :)"

Now get out there and start scrapping those funny faces photos!

Scrappy Goodness! :)

Not a long blog post today, but I did want to share a few new layouts that I completed this week. 

I am totally loving how this layout turned out. The colors are so beautiful and peaceful and I really wanted my patterned papers and embellishments to reflect that. I found this dark blue paper from K and Company's Sea Glass line and I incorporated the light blue and text papers from Making Memories' Passport line.  I finally added this striking orange paper from Autumn Leaves to bring in the intense color of the sun as it peeked over the horizon.  I added a few embellishments and journaling over one of my photos to tell the story.  And my favorite part of the page? I am totally loving how the photos cover most of the page and reallly make a statement. :)

I am totally loving this layout as well.  While we were eating at Bubba Gump's, I noticed that their food liners were printed with this really cool newsprint type that had stories that all pertained to the Forrest Gump movie.  So before we left the restaurant I asked our server if I could have one of those papers to take with me. They were so nice and gave it to me.  It ended up making a great background piece for my layout. I just sprayed it with some Krylon Make it Acid Free! spray to neutralize the acid.  I also cut the restaurant's logo out of a phamplet I picked up while we were there. It made a great embellishment and also served as part of my title. So my challenge to you for today is the next time you are out somewhere and taking pictures or making memories, open your eyes and look around you for pieces of your world that would help you to tell your story in your scrapbooks. :)

Scrap Happy News and a Layout to Share

Well, today's the day I can reveal my scrappy news.....

I have been asked to join the design team over at the If It's Groovy Blog. The fabulous lady who is in charge of the blog contacted me on scrapbook.com and asked me to join the team as a 2-page designer. The whole thing went public today so be sure to check it out here!

http://ifitsgroovy.blogspot.com/

Keep checking back because I have some really fun layouts coming up and the rest of the ladies' projects are fabulous too!

In other news, I applied to work at my local Archivers and today I had my interview. :)  Everything went really well and unless there is a major snag, I will probably start working there next week. So if you're ever in the mall down by Macy's, come on in and see if I'm there.

I was also inspired by some new Bo Bunny Press products while I was in Archivers this week and used their new "Flutter Butter" line to create the layout below. The colors are so beautiful and they really brought out the feel of my photos.  If you get a chance to play with Bo Bunny's stuff, give it a shot. It is so beautiful and whimsical and fun!