New Release and a blog hop! (That means FREEBIES!!)

   Hi everyone! Hope you've been having a good week. Wednesday, otherwise know as HUMP DAY is here!! I've been having a great and bad week all at the same time. I woke up Monday morning sick. Just like that...BAM, you're sick! I was fine Sunday and Monday was feeling bad, which got worse throughout the day and got even worse by Tuesday. Sigh. Stupid sinuses. On a much, much brighter note, I started working out yesterday and it felt great! I'll be going at least 3 times a week, if not more. I really worked hard and because of the type of machines at Curves, resistance machines versus high-impact machines, I'm not one bit sore. And that's saying something because I know I worked my hiney off. I'm not kidding around here with this working out stuff! I actually enjoy exercise and when I do it I go at it guns blazing. It's finding the time to work out, and I just decided I HAVE to make the time, because Maylee will appreciate a healthier Mommy in exchange for me being gone from the workday an extra 45 minutes.

   Anyway, on to the good stuff! Melanie, or Jumbbumble Designs, has a new release today! Look at this beautiful kit she designed:

Check it out here! 

I'm LOVING the blue and orange! The blue is, well, soft (like the title indicates! Haha), and that orange makes a great POP! I have another one in the works, but here's a LOs I did with this kit:

   So pretty! (The LO, and my dear friends Val and Carrie, too!)

   Now let's move on to the FREEBIES! Yay! Polkadotplum is having a great blog train!

   Check out what Jumbbumble Designs is offering! Oooh, I love her templates!

   You can download this awesome template pack >>here<<

   Here's a LO I did with one of these great templates:

Check out what the rest of the Polkadotplum ladies have for you!

Farynar's Wings

Sweet Tomato Designs

Laughing Sun Designs

Designs by Sweet Mesquite

Sugar Pie Scraps

Rhonda Sunflower Designs

Tree City Studio

Kat's Creations

Pixie Keepsakes

Polka Dot Plum Designs

  GO! Go now! Come on ride that train!!

   Enjoy everybody! Have a great week! Love to all!

Sneak peek from Jumbbumble Designs!

Hey everyone! Wanted to let you know you have a chance to win this awesome new kit, Sweet Soft Blue, being released by Jumbbumble Designs this week!

Check out the sneak peek:

Oooh, look at those colors! Looks fantastic! If you want to win, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post over at Jumbbumble Designs' website by Wednesday at midnight (CST)! Feeling lucky?

Love to all!

Bumblebee busy-ness

   Ok, I've been super busy, but man do I love it! Being on a CT is so much fun! I've made some really good friends and boy, has this put my scrapping mojo in high gear!! I'm so inspired by the templates and kits I've been getting to work with! I love working with Melanie's stuff (a.k.a. Jumbbumble Designs) and I'm loving all the stuff I'm buying over at polkadotplum, (further to be referred to as PDP) too! The challenges they have over there really help me get ideas (well, they tell me!) for what to scrap. It's great to get so many LOs done that I truly love. There's only one LO I've made in the last couple of days that I'm not really happy with. I'll tell you about it further down...

  So, here are some LOs I've made lately. And I have even more, but can't show them yet because the kits and/or templates haven't been released yet **wink**

  I whipped this up for the PDP March Journal challenge, where we were supposed to journal about how we were feeling right now.

 Credits:

A Fresh Start by Sugar Pie Scraps
Font: Pea K*Rayn

  I made this LO for the PDP March Quote challenge. 

Credits:

Granny’s Attic blog train (Polkadotplum)
       Love the Piglet by Utski Designs
Font: Jellyka, Saint Andrews Queen 

   This is the LO that I'm not too happy with. I LOVE this photo of my mom with my two nieces. I made this for the PDP March White Space challenge. If you're not familiar, white space scrapping is smaller photos and showing a lot of the background. I've done very few of these kinds of LOs, mainly because I like my photos to be the main attraction of my LOs. But this is very popular, and since this LO, I've done a couple white space LOs that I HAVE been happy with. Anyway, lemme know what YOU think. I think...blech.

Credits:

With Love From Sarah by Jumbbumble Designs

  This LO was for the Weekly Newsletter challenge. We had to use this one little element offered as a freebie in their newsletter (This time it was that little piece of scalloped trim behind the photos). This was a fun LO. I'm trying to branch out and not just use photos of Maylee (though she will ALWAYS be my favorite subject to scrap). This is my nephew Grayson. 

Credits:

Crazy Templates Volume 1 by Jumbbumble Designs
Spring is in the Air by Sugar Pie Scraps
Music notes: Birthday Girl by Julie Bullock

 And this last LO I did for the Weekly Photography challenge. We needed to scrap spring pictures. Well, I was in the mood for spring, because we HAD been having wonderful spring weather, but that witch Mother Nature changed her mind and winter's back in my neck of the woods. Woke up to snow this morning! I asked a photographer friend of mine if I could use some of her beautiful nature photos and she kindly obliged! I really like how this one turned out.

Credits:

Crazy Templates Volume 1 by Jumbbumble Designs
Spring is in the Air by Sugar Pie Scraps
Photos by Shawntae’s Photography
Font: Palatino Linotype

  

  Notice that the last two LOs where done with the same template pack (2 different templates, but that same pack with the same "feel") and the same kit? Could those two LOs be any different from one another?? Nope! See what you can do with templates? Change them up to suit what you want your LO to be!

Well, this has been a fun post! I love that I participated in all these challenges and got so many LOs done! I love being a Jumbbumble Bumblebee and I love my new home over at PDP! I'm just.....in love!!! (I know, I'll shut up now.)

Love to all! 

**Note. All the images in this post were linked from my Photobucket account, which is not usually the way I do it. It's kind of a trial. If I don't like it, I'll go back and edit this post with photos instead of links. But I can tell right off the bat that it's much easier with Photobucket. Lemme know if you have any viewing problems.

The rest of it

  Well, better late than never, huh? It's still technically tomorrow. I promised I'd post the rest of the LOs I've done, and I'm here to do just that!

   But first, gotta share about our day. We went to a good friend's daughter's birthday today. My friend's name is Amber (Amburger, according to Maylee LOL!!), and her daughter's name is Skylar. Skylar and Maylee get along pretty well, even though there's a bit of an age difference. Skylar turned 5 earlier this week and her birthday party was at a gymnastics studio. Maylee did pretty well...she didn't want to do any of the organized stuff and just wanted to dance and bounce. I had to keep reminding myself that she's a bit younger than the other kids, so I'd give her a little leeway when it came to following directions. One activity she found she did like was a the trampoline. This wasn't a regular trampoline, but a really long, narrow one that ran along the whole length of the back of the studio.It wasn't too bouncy, which is why I think she liked it. The bouncy, bouncy one scared her.

   Boy, I just read that previous paragraph and it was really poorly constructed and kind of ramble-y, but it's getting late and I'm not going to correct it. Sigh.

   Now to the good stuff. As promised, recent LOs I've done:

This is another CT LO I did, because I just love being on a CT and I love doing LOs for it!! I hope the shine (of the CT) doesn't wear off too quickly!

My little girl when she was still...little! Sweet!

Credits:

Template: Crazy Templates Volume 1 by Jumbbumble Designs
Kits: Missing Spring by Designs by Kat
Font: Courier New

Missourians, remember that ice/sleet/snow episode a while back. Yeah, I don't think Brandon's going to forget it anytime soon. 

Credits:

Template: Shabby Princess Project Scrap Month 2

Kit: Shabby Princess Seasonal Sampler - Winter
Font: Pea Stacey’s Doodles

 Credits:

Template: Shabby Princess Project Scrap Month 2  

Kit: Happy Go Lucky by Shabby Princess
Arrow (recolored) from Bright and Cheery from Double Dutch Designs
Font: Tekton Pro 

Don't know why, but I'm not crazy about this LO. Hm.

Credits:

Template by Shabby Princess Template Challenge #10
Barefoot by Shabby Princess

(This kit's on sale right now! Go get it! And hurry!)

Now, I love how this LO turned out! And it's pretty much a kit-less LO!

Credits:

Frames from Shabby Princess Template Challenge #10
Font: Pea Bitt Bitt

And this kit?? Well, I've had it in my head for about a week now, and I LOVE how it turned out!

 Credits:

Kit: Love the Piglet by Utski Design
Word art: Vector Alpha by Angel Hartline Designs
Font: Calibri

   Whew. I think that's it. Stay tuned for Jumbbumble Designs new template pack coming out at the beginning of April (can you believe it's already April? That is crazy.)!

Love to all,

So much catching up to do!

   You know, I used to decide not to blog because I didn't have any LOs to share. Then I thought, well, I don't have to share scrapbooking stuff on EVERY SINGLE post, do I? And I decided, no, I certainly did not. Well, I kind of have the opposite problem right now. I have so many new LOs to share, but I don't want to do it in one HUGE post, so I'll post some today and some tomorrow. So stay tuned for more!

First, because I'm still on such a high about getting on my first CT, I'll share my first CT LOs with you guys. One of the awesome things about the designer I'm CTing for, Jumbbumble Designs, is that not only is she a kit designer, she's a template designer. Love, love, love me some templates. So I get to use her kits to do LOs and I get to use her templates to do LOs, either with her kits, or another designer's kits! Isn't that awesome!? I'm still showcasing her work, even when I use another designer's kits, because she designed the amazing template I'm using! It's like win-win-win!

Credits:

Kit: Flowerpower by Jumbbumble Designs
Font: Journal

 Credits:

Template: Crazy Templates Volume 1 by Jumbbumble Designs
Kit: Love Who You Are by Captivated Visions
Font: Word Art: Journal
                 Journaling: Iskoola Pota

    And guess what?! Jumbbumble Designs is still looking to fill some CT spots! Check this out:

 OK, I HAVE to mention this, because those of you who know me know how it's bugging me. Now that Melanie has some good CT girls, we'll be sure that her ads going out are all translated well, with correct spelling and grammar. That's one of the things we're there for! 

   On the top LO, My Star, I used the "Seventies" photo action by Pioneer Woman. I love that one! Isn't it cool how it really looks like a photo from the '70's? (I guess that's the whole point, huh?) Since I'm mentioning the Pioneer Woman, I'll share the LO I made from the photos I took from our night out to see the Pioneer Woman.

Credits:

Template: Girl Talk
Kit: Dinner Party by Shabby Princess
Font: Myriad Web Pro

   OK, ONE more LO, then I'll do another post with the rest of them tomorrow. Remember the other day when I was telling you all how nice Day, from Inspirations from Day was, and how she did me a wonderful kindness even though I was stupid?? Well, here's the LO I made with the kit I purchased from her.

 Credits:

Spring Kissed by Inspirations from Day
Chocolates: Sweet Stuff to Scrap by Honey Designs
Font: Pea Aimee

   So, that's all! Well, not all, but that's all for today! More to come tomorrow, so stop by then and see the rest!

I'm a Jumbbumble lady!!

    Hey everyone! I've been accepted to my first CT! It's for Jumbumble Designs at PolkaDotPlum! I'm so excited!

    For those of you who don't know what a CT is, it's a Creative Team for a designer. The designer designs her kit, then us, her CT, create layouts for her to use in her promos and to showcase the kit. I've been debating on whether or not to apply to a CT. I knew I kind of wanted to, but didn't know if I had the time to dedicate to it. I decided I wanted ONE CT spot, but I was very particular about who it would be. I wanted a great designer at a really well-respected shoppe. And I got it!

   So, yes, you'll be seeing a lot of Jumbbumble Designs on my blog from now on. But it won't really be much different...I'll still just be posting LOs! I love to digiscrap, as you all know, so this is just a win-win situation!

   Stay tuned for my first LO using Jumbbumble Designs! I'm off to go work on some as we speak!!

Multiple Sclerosis Charity Collab

   March 14-20, 2011 is National Multiple Sclerosis Awareness week, and in honor of that, 34 designers got together to create a mega-kit called "Movement." MS stops people from moving, and we're raising money to make sure that doesn't happen.

This HUGE kit includes 190 Papers, 419 Elements, 3 Alphas, and there is a matching set of QPs sold separately.

100% of the proceeds from the sale of this kit and the matching set of QPs go to the National MS Society, more specifically, Mandy's BikeMS ride.

Go get this kit at GingerScraps!

 

The QP/Template pack includes 42 QPs, 1 Brag book, and 6 templates. Get it here!

 Ooooor, you can buy them both in a bundle for a great $15 (for MS Charity!!) here!

 

And look at this kit in action. This is a layout done by my friend, Star. Isn't is just adorable?!

   This is something I just love about the digiscrap community. The way we all come together for a greater cause is just amazing. This isn't the first charity collab I've bought and I'm sure it won't be the last. Designers donate their talents for charity all the time, and that's just awesome!

Bucket List

   Yes, I have tons of LOs to share with you all, but I feel like I've only been posting about digital scrapbooking lately, so thought I'd give ya'll, me dear friends, some personal insight. Inspired by my wonderful friend Star, here is my very much impromptu, unofficial

Bucket List

1.  Finish my degree (OMG, this is taking forever. Someone get me off my butt!)

2.  Be out of debt (this is kind of hard with #1. Student loans for the rest of my life. For reals. And owning a house kinda makes this one hard, too.)

3. Be financially stable (This seems easier than #2. Not easy, but easier...)

4. Instill in my daughter how important education and learning are without sending her over the deep end.

5. Keep my happy marriage happy.

6. Go to Nova Scotia. (My love of NS started with Anne of Green Gables.)

7. Learn how to use my digital camera really well. Like out of auto mode.

8. Read Atlas Shrugged. I've tried. Honest I have. I just can't seem to make it past the first 20 pages!

9. Meet...somebody famous.

10. Buy a dSLR and learn how to use it (yes, I know I just typed #7, but SOMEDAY I WILL have a dSLR!)

11. Go to Disneyland (yes, Disneyworld is closer to me, but if we go to Disneyland, my sisters will be closer and their whole families can come, too!)

12.Do karaoke. Yes, I'm a singer. No, I've never done karaoke. (My Missouri friends...help a sister out!)
13. Take my Mom to Rome. (She's fascinated by all things Catholic...well, religions in general).
14.Learn digital scrapbooking even better. Yeah, I kinda know what I'm doing, but there's always room for improvement.
15. Throw a successful surprise party. (Sounds fun, huh?!)
16. Be a Cardinals Baseball season ticket holder.
17. Grow a vegetable garden.
18. Write a children's book.
19. Refurbish/refinish and old set of furniture.
20. Be in the audience at the Ellen Show (I know, right, Star!!!)
21. Get a total makeover by someone who really know what they're doing. Clothes, makeup, hair. The works.
22. Exercise at the gym/exercise class/some form of exercise for 6 months straight.
23. Learn to cook steak well.




I'll be adding and crossing things off this list for a while. This is all I could come up with right now. I'm sure there's quite a few important things I'm forgetting...

Face Swap

   I've been editing photos almost as much as I've been scrapping lately. I love photography, but don't know very much about it. So since I'm not the greatest photographer, I have to edit my photos to bring out the best in them quite often. I'm getting much better at this. You can see one of my edited photos here, that I entered into the I Heart Faces challenge last week. I didn't win, but a lot of my wonderful friends voted for me. Thank you if you did! You're all the sweetest!

   A photographer friend of mine, Valerie, is always talking about her photo edits and how she swaps faces. The thought intrigued me and I knew just the photos I wanted to try it on. I have this set of photos I took when I was up in Washington for my sister's wedding. There was one with us all together, but one of my sisters didn't have the best look on her face, so I wanted to try to put her face from another picture in that picture. Thus, the "face swap." (You can click on any photos to make them larger.)

Here's the photo of all of us:

                                                                                       ^ (not the best look)

Here's the photo that I borrowed my sister's face from (LOL)

BTW, I love this photo so much. I wanted to try to put myself in this one instead of doing the face swap, but that was TOO HARD!!

OK, so here's the face swap with more edits needed, but you get the idea.

Another problem I was running into was glasses glare. My mother, me and all both my sisters wear glasses, and as you can see, the glare from the flash is pretty bad, especially on the face swap. So I took the time to edit the glasses glare. To be honest, this took longer than the face swap.

So here's the finished product, with face swapped and glasses glare fixed. Hot dog!!

 

It might not look like a very dramatic change, but I promise, if you look at them original size and sequentially, there's quite a difference.


Here's the page I scrapped with my hot dang newly edited photo:
                                (apologies to my brother-in-law Jon, whom I unmercifully cut from the photo)

Credits:

Template from Shabby Princess Template Challenge #9
Kits: Sun Porch and Plentiful by Shabby Princess
Word art: So Thankful by Miss Tiina

   I was so please with how the photo edit came out, and like the LO as well. Sometimes when you try something new, it's a relief to get it right, just to make the next time not so intimidating, you know?

   Thanks for stopping by today!

Inspirations by Day

 So the other day, I got a freebie from one of my favorite sites, Hand Picked Freebies (under new ownership! It's back pretty regularly, now!), and I saw a freebie that I wanted. I've been very picky about my freebies for a while now. I used to just download ANYTHING if it was free. Now that I actually know what I'm doing (LOL), I don't do that anymore! So anyway, this was a few elements from the kit Spring Kissed by Inspirations by Day.
In the freebie download was a coupon for $2 off the whole kit. Now that was nice to begin with, so we'll call this 'Nice Thing from Day # 1." So I decided to buy said kit. I really liked it! Here's a preview of the kit:

Pretty, huh? I have scrapped with it yet, but I can't wait! The colors are just so vibrant!

So when I bought this kit, I liked the alpha that went with it, so I bought it, too. After I had paid and had the downloads going, I realized that I bought the alpha, but the alpha came WITH the kit, as well. What a duh!! moment for me! It's pretty unlike me not to notice something like that. So I was bummed, but just chalked it up to "Oh well. It was your stupid mistake!"
   So a couple days later, I got an e-mail from the designer herself, Day! How often does that happen? We'll call this "Nice Thing from Day #2." This is what her e-mail said:

"Hi Kate, I saw that you liked my kit Spring Kissed, thank you for supporting my store! I also noticed that you purchased the alpha in addition to the kit. However, the kit comes with the alpha so now you have it twice! Since I know how hard we all work for our fun $ I hate to see it wasted, so here's a $2 coupon to my store so you can buy something other than the alpha that you already had :)"

Now, how nice is that? And thus, the coupon is "Nice Thing from Day #3." And with that coupon, I got a lovely set of templates. Love me some templates!!

I wanted to share this story with you guys. Day in no way asked me to post this on my blog, but when you receive such care from a vendor, you need to share that! Word of mouth speaks volumes, my peeps! So, go visit Day's blog and shop. As we've established, she's REALLY nice!

Prayers

(¯`v´¯)

 `·.¸.·´

¸.·´¸.·´¨) ¸.·¨)

(¸.·´ This balloon heart is traveling around the world for all the victims in the Japan Earthquake & Tsunami. Please pass this balloon on & show your support & prayers for them all during this devastating time. ♥

 

 Hug the ones you love and send prayers to those who need it...so many do right now. 

Thank you Shawntae.

I Heart Faces

  I've never entered one of these challenges. A photographer friend of mine, Shawntae, enters all the time and does a really good job! One of her photos (see it here--such a great photo) was recently chosen as one of the favorites, and I was so proud of her!! Anyway, I saw the challenge this week and though, oh what the hell. I'll enter.

People's Choice Photo Challenge | Best in Face February.

So here's my entry. I absolutely love this photo of my dear daughter!! I can't help but say what a cutie she is!

 

Thanks everyone for stopping by!

EDIT: Thought I'd include the SOOC shot, for those that are interested. I tried and tried editing this photo, and not sure if I'm even satisfied with what I ended up with, but after about 10 different reincarnations, I just had to decide and do it!

So this is the original photo:

Putting it off

   I don't know why I've been putting off blogging. I've actually had an interesting couple of weeks. Well, maybe not interesting to you, dear followers, but a little out-of-the-ordinary for me!

   I was so excited to to to a q&a/book signing event for Ree Drummond "The Pioneer Woman" at St. Louis County Library headquarters. And I went with a couple friends/cousins of mine. First off, let me say how nice it was to go out with grown women and have decent conversation. The library is in a very nice part of St. Louis, the Plaza Frontenac area, and we went to a nice restaurant that I never would've gone to otherwise. Being mommies of young children, we of course talked a lot about our kids and husbands, but there was plenty of other conversation, too. It was very nice. And of course, getting to see P-Dub was awesome! I've been following her for a couple years now, and she's talented, beautiful and very funny! She talked a little, answered some questions, and then started to sign books. Since there were so many people, we were given line tickets when we came into the event. We were group 8, so we sat for a LONG time and waited. But, we talked and passed the time nicely. Even though Ree had been signing books for over 2 hours, she talked to everyone and had a smile on her face and was so gracious. It was well worth the wait. I'm so glad I went!

Me and Ree Drummond

Me, Carmen, Ree, and Mandy

   Let's seeeeee. I've done quite a bit of scrapping. I got a whole bunch of Mah's (Dream's Place Atelier) kits and I finally got inspired! I've been kinda in a drought. Haven't had any ideas and wasn't really into it. But I got these gorgeous kits and the pages just kept coming!

 Credits:

Kit: Mail for You by Dream's Place Atelier

  Credits:

Kit: Come to the Jungle by Dream's Place Atelier
Fonts: Pea Seelekish and sf Scribbled

Credits:

Template from Vintage Love bundle by Queen on Hearts (collab w/ Dream's Place Atelier)
Kit: Black Tie by Dream's Place Atelier
Blue flowers from Tweet in Blue by Dream's Place Atelier

   I've really been editing my pictures, too. I've been using Pioneer Woman's PSE actions like crazy, and I really love all of them! I'll give you an example of a pictures I used an action on. There are many different ones that give all give different effects to the photo.

My goofy girl:  Straight-out-of-the-camera (SOOTC) (OMG, don't mind the mess in the background)

 

My goofy girl: Using PW's "Boost" action

   Isn't that just awesome! There are so many cool ones. Will share more with you later. And yes, my daughter takes after her father.

  Just a quick quick about what else I've been doing...I got new tires on my car. Much needed, but the $$ made me cry. Almost $700. Ouch. Maylee and I had a playdate/mommy get-together with a good friend of mine from high school. I finally got to meet her bestie, whom I've heard so much about, and we got along famously! She's great. She's got a son a little younger than Maylee and they had a great time. Here's proof:

  Playing piano together. They got along great. At one point, Maylee was playing piano with her foot...she's so talented!

   OK, I'm going to stop now. I'll blog more tomorrow. I have a couple more LOs to show and some more to blab about, but I'll shut up now.