Making a Scene

First on the agenda, I just have to let you know about the August Out of the Egg challenge on the Digichick blog. Why? Well, because I'm the host and I want you to come play along. The challenge is to scrap a memory that you don't have photos of -- by recreating the scene. This is my page. It wasn't an easy page. How do you cut and paste photos from various times and events and make a congruent page? The memory I scrapped was about my kids' pet beetles escaping and all of us just being too shocked to even try to stop them. Looking back it was really funny. I will never, ever forget the incredible sound!

You can read more about the details of the challenge and my journaling on The Digichick blog post.

In other scrapping news, Busy Bee Designs has a Fall Freebie template in her shop at MScraps. I just had to use it -- I love the leaf cutouts. Go grab it and please show me your pages too.

Easy Breezy Fall Freebie by Busy Bee Designs
Persimmon Pucker by Studio Gypsy (sadly, not available at this time,

but I HOPE she'll bring it back to her new store.)

I think most of us are "celebrating" Back to School. For Americans that means a new school year, for Japanese that means the start of the 2nd semester. The Digichick is having a Back to School sale for Moms this week. It all reminded me of when my son had an interview with the principal of the kindergarten he was enrolling in. Funny story.

Busted Stuff by Dysfunctional Designs
Easy Breezy pt 2 by Busy Bee Designs

And continuing with my daughter's kitty album, I have another page to add. This was the photo that started it all, that inspired me to start the album.

Easy Breezy pt 12 by Busy Bee Designs

Prima by K Studio

As always, thank you so much for stopping by.

Coming home

I took a week off and went to China again. I have mixed feelings about our trip to Hainan. The hotel we stayed out was so new that we were the first guests to stay in our room. There was a simply divine breakfast buffet every morning -- I'm sure that is my favorite way to start the day.  The restaurants were wonderful and we spent so many happy hours in the incredible pool! I have to say this was the nicest hotel I've ever stayed in.

Because it was so new (literally it had just opened its doors the week before we arrived) there was still a lot of construction. Nothing loud and intrusive, but the beach was fairly unfinished. Out in the water there were still huge jagged rocks so it wasn't a very fun swimming area. Since I'm not an ocean swimmer anyway it didn't bother me so much, but the kids and hubby were disappointed.

Its a developing country and island and there is still construction and poverty all around. The country really needs to improve its trash disposal and recycling systems. The biggest downer for me was when we went "snorkeling" which ended up being scuba diving. It was a short dive, one on one with a licensed scuba guide. We re-use the air tanks until they are empty, but of course each diver is given a new mouthpiece. As we were getting into the ocean from the jetty, the guide would take off the previously used mouthpiece and just throw it into the ocean under the jetty. It was sad. There are similar cases of just tossing out the trash like that everywhere you look. The section of beach just in front of our hotel was clean, but when we took a walk down the coastline it was literally covered with every imaginable kind of trash - so thick we couldn't even walk in certain places! Its always good to come home.

Unfortunately, I've had to step down from a few of my CTs. I loved the designs and designers, but need to focus more time away from the computer right now. I hate to quit something, I have feeling like I'm letting these wonderful designers down. A friend of mine told me not to feel too badly about it though - I am opening the door for another scrapper out there to become the next CT member. I love that way of thinking!

I thought I would miss scrapbooking so much that I would jump right back in, but I didn't even turn on my computer for 24 hours after we got back. It was a weird feeling. Of course I couldn't stay away from scrapping long and was back into my happy little bubble after a few days. So without further ado, here are my pages from the past two weeks.

using Vita Fortunata by Quirky Twerp

page template by Studio Dutchie

using Evening Bloom by Studio Gypsy

page template from Ingrid's Templates set 5 by Ingrid Fasquelle

page template from Easy Breezy pt 11 by Busy Bee Designs

also used Teen Spirit by K Studio

page template from Easy Breezy pt 10 by Busy Bee Designs

also used Sweet Ladybugs and Love is in the Air by Boutique Cute Dolls

page template is from Inspired by Sasha by Darcy Baldwin (limited edition at SSD)

also used Walking on Sunshine by Tracie Stroud

Thank you so much for stopping by!

Drive by blogging

Where did this week go? Seriously?! I took the month of August off from my job of teaching and let me just say if I'm not working I have a hard time keeping track of time passing. I can't believe its Friday. Very happy it is though, tomorrow my family and I are off on a little mini vacation.

So today's blog posting will be short and sweet and to the point.

First I want to make sure you know about the wonderful template challenge on The Digichick blog. Tracy has made a beautiful template for you to download for free. So why not try it out and come play along in the challenge with us. I flipped the template over on its side and still I love how the page turned out.

using You are my sunshine by Danielle Engebretsen

and free template by Tracy

This next page was a layout I made for the July edition of the Artisan Notebook. We were supposed to try our hand at Art Journaling with a theme of what we dreamed we would be and what we actually became. If you're in interested in reading the journaling, please click on over to one of my galleries.

most supplies from Altered Closet and Altered Girl Talk by ViVa Artistry

The rest of my pages this week are with some new releases around digiland.

using Cherish by Jennifer Labre Designs and

Grow with love Marriage template from Sarah Gleeson and Crystal Livesay

using Summer Love Mini Kit by Elise's Pieces Designs

using Freshen Up by Edeline Marta Designs

As always, thank you so much for stopping in on my little corner of the internet. I hope you'll visit again soon!

Cover Girl

I consider myself an average scrapper. I have pages that I make that I personally absolutely love, and others that I don't care for. The ones I don't care for are usually ones that I've made where I have been limited by the supplies I was able to use. Sometimes as a CT member we have to use supplies from one kit and one kit only. I don't mind so much because I am basically a kit scrapper, but every once in awhile I venture out and mix kits and designers.

I know I've mentioned that I'm on the Just Write team for the Artisan Notebook. My monthly layout for each month's new challenge is usually the hardest layout I make each month. I am not limited by designer or kit. I just have to use designs from The Digichick because I am their representative for the column. Sometimes I do stay with only one kit, but most times I have at least mixed kits if not designers as well.

I just now downloaded the August edition of The Artisan Notebook. I saw the preview image on  facebook, I saw it again on the AN download page and yet it wasn't until I opened up the magazine pdf on my screen that I really saw it. I saw my layout, on the cover. Talk about being floored and excited. I squealed and my daughter had to come rushing in to see what was the matter. When I told her that my layout had made cover of the magazine, I got another reward -- a big hug from my babe.

The challenge for August was "Less is More"or "More is More." We were to choose between minimalism or clustering on a page and to design a layout to support our choice. I like to make layouts using both styles so I didn't want to choose just one. Call it indecisiveness or call it the rebel in me, but I chose both. I chose to make a page with an overall simple and balanced design, but to fill the layout with hundreds of elements. Just how did I manage that, you ask? Yinyang.

In other news, I also have three layouts appearing in the August issue of Scrapbooking.com Magazine in the Creating with Kits feature. I was thrilled when the editor contacted me and asked to use not one, but three of my layouts. Yipee!

I also have a few other pages from this past week. Orange seems to be the color of choice recently. Maybe because it just feels so summery. I got a few more pages done for my daughter's kitty album as well.

using A Perfectly Ordinary Day by Sugarplum Paperie and Lauren Grier

page template from Gimme Clusters by Nikki Epperson

using Friends are Forever by Creations by Rachael

and Easy Breezy pt 9 by Busy Bee Designs

using Color Me Happy by Jennifer Labre Designs

and Easy Breezy pt 2 by Busy Bee Designs

using Easy Breezy pt 9 by Busy Bee Designs

and Flutterby by Creashens

using Repository 2 by Studio Gypsy

As always, thank you so much for stopping by.