Happy Anniversary

Happy Anniversary to me. I have been a Creative Team member of The Digichick for one year this month. I can honestly say, without exception, that this has been the most wonderful scrapping experience of my life. I am so blessed to be on TDC's team. I have had the incredible opportunity to scrap with so many wonderful designers' beautiful creations. My scrapping has become faster and I hope better. I feel more confident in my pages and journaling. Along the line I was invited to join a few other designers' personal CTs as well. I thank each one of them for having faith in my pages. I have been honored to be published in various newspapers, magazines and blogs. And most importantly, I am having so much fun!

One of the things I am most pleased with about my gallery over the past year has to be the wider variety of pages I've made. The majority of my pages are by far still about my children and family. But I've dabbled in art journaling and all about me pages as well. Here's one about my first crush. Okay, so my first three crushes. Even now I look at these pictures and my heart makes a little leap.

papers and elements from Fangirl Scream by Simply.Scraps by Laura Banasiak
page template is from Easy Breezy pt 13 by Busy Bee Designs
font is TerriCherie

 

This week I ended up using Busy Bee templates for all my pages. Can you say addicted?! I know I need to branch out again into bigger photos. These templates are just too much fun!

 

papers and elements from Morning Dew by K Studio
wordart from Wordart 1 by K Studio
page template is from Easy Breezy 18 by Busy Bee Designs
font is Pea Jack and Jane

all papers and elements from Follow Me by Allison Pennington
page template from Easy Breezy 18 by Busy Bee Designs
font is Pea Jack and Jill

Behind the times

I've recently started watching Ugly Betty. I know that program is probably ancient history for my American friends. But we get American things quite a bit later here in Japan. (Don't even get me started on how long I still have to wait for Eclipse!) Sometimes I feel like I am just so far out of the American loop.

I can't believe its Friday already. How does one week fly by so quickly. And its not like I even had a crazy busy week. October is usually my least favorite month of the year. I'm not a big fan of Halloween. When I was a little girl, we would go trick-or-treating with the neighbor girls and to a party or two. But even then it was never my favorite holiday. Since coming to Japan and teaching children's English classes, October has become a dreaded month. When most of my students were kindy and elementary school age, I would have to plan, prepare and host up to 5 Halloween parties in one week. I never had the energy left for my own children so they would come along to one of my class parties. Most of my students are too old for costume parties, but I still try to prepare games and activities, and of course sweets. I am usually on pure survival mode during the last week of October. My own kids don't dress up for Halloween either, although I suppose they would if we had a proper party to go to. Just don't ask me to host it! So I had to dig into my photo stash from several years back to find a Halloween picture to use for this week's new release.

papers and elements from Treats by Wendy Page Designs
alphas from Monsters in the Closet alpha pack
page template is from Easy Breezy pt 16 by Busy Bee Designs
font for journaling is MTF Sweetie
action on photo is Nearly Black and White by My 4 Hens Photography
worn overlay by Lynn Marie Favreau

This next page is for this Friday's hidden journaling challenge on The Digichick Blog. That was a true challenge! Paper scrappers have many ways to hide their journaling on a page, but how do you do it on a digital page. Make sure to check out the blog challenge. Some of my journaling is "hidden" on this page. Or should I say hiding in plain sight.

papers and elements from What I Am by Laura Banasiak Designs
page template is from Easy Breezy pt 17 by Busy Bee Designs
sparkles are from You and MeDude by Laura Banasiak Designs
font is DJB gimme space

Last but not least, here is an art journaling page I made for the September Artisan Notebook. This is my darling daughter several months ago. I'm happy to say her sense of style has already greatly improved.

Papers and most elements from Art Stomp by Roben-Marie Designs and Tangie Baxter
some elements from Altered Art Bits by Roben-Marie Designs
Pink glitter alpha is Tuesday Afternoon by Diane Rigdon
Curly alpha is Signature Doodly by Shabby Miss Jenn
Date stamps by Amber Clegg
Font used for journaling is DJB Jenna

Thank you so much for coming over to my little corner of the web. I hope you'll be back!

Playing favorites

Do you have any one scrapbooking item that you use over and over again? Even before joining any CT I had soooo many kits that I only used once (or Gasp -- never!) before I was buying yet another new one. That's one great thing about Digital Scrapbooking. When you need something you can have it instantly. That's also one bad thing about digiscrapping. Its just SO easy to go shopping and forget what you've even bought. I am incredibly guilty about this.

Then came along CTs. Isn't being on a CT like a dream come true. You want me to scrap? You want me to make whatever pages I want to and you want to give me free supplies? Oh, Heaven. Now I'm even more guilty of one-time using. Each week there are so many wonderful new goodies that I just have to play with.There are a few kits that I have used twice, even three times. There are some I keep on my hard drive because I love them and want to use them again when I get the time and the right photos.

And then there are my favorite alphas that I find myself using again and again and again. I've always been a huge alpha fan, just never very good at using them. When I started as a CT at TDC, one of the first items that caught my eye were Dotty Gel Alphas by Mari Koegelenberg. Ohhhh, I LUV these alphas. And she has them in so many colors too. I love the depth and the roundness and the gloss on these cute little alphas.

They are just so happy and fun to use. I recently added the Red Dotty Gels to my growing collection in order to add the finishing touch to this layout. I love how it turned out! Its another page in my "She Loved You Too" series for my daughter. I'm just going to keep making these layouts until I run out of photos.

used page template from Easy Breezy pt 16 by Busy Bee Designs

papers and elements from A Perfect Day by Kaye Winiecki and Flergs

alpha brushes by the incredible C.D. Muckosky
wonderful Dotty Gel alpha in Red by Mari Koegelenberg

Because of my lazy streak last week and the fact that The Digichick was closed for annual maintenance for a few days, I have only two other pages to share today.

papers and elements from Flavors of Fall by Wild Dandelion Designs - guest designer at The Digichick October
page template from Ingrid's Templates - Set.12 by my friend, Ingrid Fasquelle
clear alpha from So Grateful collaboration between Sugarplum Paperie and Sahlin Studios

all papers and elements from Home of My Heart by Studio Gypsy
page template from Fuss Free Photo Play by Fiddle-dee-dee Designs
glitter style from Pale Glitters by ViVa Artistry

As always, thank you so much for stopping by. Please come again!