Christmas Kits

I found some wonderful new Christmas Kits over at Deco Pages. I can't believe all the talent that I am so fortunate to enjoy. Carol Rupley has a new kit called Christmas Cabin Fever. What an awesome new kit it is! I love the quilted stars and gingerbread men. Check out what I did with her kit.... I used a template from Michaele Burkhart that she has highlighted in this month's template challenge.
The word art is from Stacey Truman. I just love how this turned out. Love the colors in the kit and everything. Deb Ammerman has a new kit called Shimmery Holiday that is totally awesome as well.
I love the colors that she has chosen for this kit! The blues are wonderful with the golds. Here are some pages that I've made with this kit.... The first one was done for the Lyrics Challenge at Deco Pages, using the lyrics from the song O' Christmas Tree. I love how it turned out with the snowflake background and the non-traditional Christmas Tree element.
Then the second page that I did was a collage of photos from Christmas's past with my mom. This time of year is always nostalgic for me with her being gone.

There are a few other kits that I purchased as well and haven't made anything with yet. The first one is from SherrysScraps called Sparkling Christmas. Love the glittery things in this kit and the traditional colors.
RoseMadeDesigns has a new kit called In A Pear Tree. There are some non-traditional colors in this kit as well and her elements are totally cool! Love her packages and the pear tree element.
Ilona Hamp has a kit called Let It Snow that has the coolest snow men and elements in it as well. While this one is not strictly a Christmas kit, it is something that I can use all winter long! Jen Hanson has a new one called Candyland Christmas that is full of traditional colors and the cutest little elements in it as well. I love her snowglobe with Santa!
Lori Staton has a new one called Christmas Joy. I love the greens in this kit and that cute little elf she has made for it as well as the snow covered Christmas Tree.
It's too bad there isn't more time in a day because there are just so many kits that I can't wait to use. The one thing that I can't buy this year..... Time. lol.

Chilly!!! It sure is chilly today with a temperature of 28 today. Brrr... Today was my day off of work and I wish I could have stayed in the house all day and not even gotten dressed but I took my best friend for her Chemo Therapy treatment and then we stopped for lunch at a local diner. The owner of the diner is a friend of Bobbie's brother and so we had a wonderful lunch! She always fixes something special for us when we stop there. While we were at the diner (which is right next to a creek) I watched the swans and ducks...it was relaxing in itself even though I wasn't at home in my comfies curled up in front of the fire with a good book (which is how I would have loved to spend the day.) So I took some pictures out the window of the diner of the swans. They were kind of far away and the battery was going dead on my camera so it isn't the best picture, but it was good enough to scrap a page with. I used a new kit by Deb Ammerman at Deco Pages called Tattered. This kit is a wonderful kit with feathers, torn edged frames and so much more. Font is 1942 Report.


Afterwards when I was leaving I stopped and took some pictures of the Mallards. I hadn't seen so many gathered at one place at one time ever. It was actually quite a sight! I used the same Tattered kit for this one as I had used for the Creekside Cafe page. I really like the colors and the elements in this kit!


I also made a page with my grandson from a few photos that I took on Thanksgiving. He was riding his battery powered car and he flipped it by accident. How awesome is it that I had the camera and was able to catch the event, including the look on his face. He was so funny! He thought it was the car's fault that he fell and decided to ride the bike after that and not the car. Kit I used for this is Tyler's Toys by Jen Hanson of Deco Pages. I love this kit for Gabe. They are both so cute!

Yeah, well that's enough for today. It's time to curl up with that book!

New Club Deco Kit - Cabin Fever and Challenges

There is a brand new Club Deco kit over at Deco Pages and it is awesome so far. With only part of the designers having submitted their contributions it promises to be a true "Mega" kit. For the month of December the Designing Team has used the theme: Cabin Fever. You can just imagine the colors and elements that are going into this! It's wonderful! Check out this partial preview of what is already available for Club Deco members!


There are new challenges starting this month and the rewards for them are awesome. There are two challenges that have starter kits available free to Club Deco Members or can be purchased in the Deco Pages store for $1.99.

The December Color Challenge is one of these. If you are a Club Deco Member, the kit is free but if you just want to participate in the challenge you can create your pages with the color pallet or purchase the starter kit for $1.99 in the store. Look at this months color challenge starter kit created by Lori Staton! I just love that Santa Face and the Candles! I can't wait to create something with this great starter kit and to see what I create with the color pallet.
Then there is the "New" Scrap by Numbers Challenge hosted by Marcee Fairchild (RoseMadeDesigns). This challenge consists of adding a certain amount of elements to the page as specified in the challenge guidelines. There is a starter kit that is available for this one but it isn't required to use it. This challenge is connected to two other challenges: the Material Girl Challenge and the Holiday Challenge. The rewards for these kits coordinate with the starter kit and reward. Check out the starter kit for these challenges:
I love the non-traditional coloring of this kit! Stop over and check out the Material Girl and Holiday challenges to see the coordinating rewards!

Then there are a ton of other challenges too. I host the Journaling Challenge in the Creative Team Challenges. In this monthly challenge I offer two quick pages created with a kit from one of the design team members. This month the kit is Merry and Bright by Deb Ammerman. All soft and glittery, this kit was wonderful to use. The theme this month is to journal about Traditions. Check out the QP's that I made for the challenge and my Traditions page as well!
I sure miss my Mom and my tradition has yet changed again since my kids have grown up and left home. I have to decorate the tree myself now and am lucky to get it up by Christmas Eve. Lol! Such is life!

I hope that you'll come over and join us this month in the challenges and share some of your experiences and pages with us! Hope to see you there!

It sure Feels Like Winter

Brrr... It sure feels like winter right now with temperatures in the low 30's but at least there's no snow to speak of right now. I can't believe how quickly fall has come and "feels like" gone. All the leaves are down now and with the temperatures below freezing it feels like winter. Brrr... It hasn't been that long ago that my trees looked like the one you'll see in the page below. Believe it or not I took the picture with my camera phone. It is a little LG Rumor phone. Not too bad but my digital camera would have captured the light coming through the leaves better. I used the color challenge kit "Pumpkin Spice" from Dana Conditt and Lorene Hill over at Deco Pages. It's free for Club Deco Members or during the month of November you can purchase it for $1.99.


Here is the preview to the starter kit!


I've really been having fun with the challenges at Deco Pages...when I've actually had time to participate in them. There is a challenge called scrap by numbers which is three seperate challenges and three rewards but it uses one starter kit which you don't have to use but have to have a set number of elements in the pages. The three different challenges are called Scrap By Numbers, Material Girl Challenge and Holiday Challenge. There is an add on kit reward for each challenge that you participate in.

Here is the preview of the starter kit that as a Club Deco Member you can get for free or purchase in the store for $3.00.


This page below is the page that I created for the Material Girl Challenge. The challenge was to use a recipe card and I thought I would mix it up a little by not using an actual recipe...instead creating a recipe for "Love" The journaling reads: 1 cup of enthusiasm, 1 cup of devotion, 1 cup of unselfishness, 1/2 cup of affection, 1 tsp affection, 1 tsp benevolence, a pinch of attachment. Mix together in a heart shaped vessel and bake a lifetime.


This next one is the one that I created for the Scrap by Numbers challenge. There were a list of elements that you could choose 4 from to complete the page. I chose ribbon, metal brad, scalloped edge, and three papers. It was fun to do too! Of course with a subject like my dear grandson, all the challenges are fun for me.

I still have to complete the holiday challenge to complete the three of them. I can't wait to see what I wind up doing....

Family Book with Color Technique

I have finished the family book that I started with the splash of color technique in the Photography challenge over at Deco Pages. I have never done anything like this before and am learning how to use Photoshop Elements so it was an interesting thing to do. I really enjoyed the experience. So starting with Mary, my grandmother...



She is a wonderful Grandma too! I spend as much time with her as I possibly can and try to ask her questions about my heritage and family. Not to mention that I just enjoy spending time with her. This page was made with the November Club Deco Kit with contributions from Amy Passmore. Fonts used were Engravers and Freestyle Script.

Her oldest son is Dale. He is a great Uncle. He always has lots of funny stories to tell.




This page was created from the November Club Deco Kit: Heritage Blessings with contributions by Dana Conditt. Font used was Freestyle Script.

Then there is Aunt Sis. She is a wonderful lady, I just love her to pieces. It's too bad that she doesn't live close enough for me to see her more than once a year.



Her page was made with the same November Club Deco Kit iwht contributions by JBurkhart of Burkhart Scrapzone Designs. There are so many wonderful pieces in this kit! It has been such fun to work with. The font is Freestyle Script.


Aunt June follows third in the progression of children. This wonderful lady has survived breast cancer not once but twice and currently is being treated for Cancer on her spleen. She is my hero and my friend.



Her page was made with Heritage Blessings November Club Deco Kit with contributions by RoseMadeDesigns. I just loved the rich colors for her. Font is Freestyle Script.

Following Aunt June is Uncle Ronnie. He is so funny as well as talented and artistic. Closer to mom's age, he was her favorite brother.



Same Club Deco Kit: Heritage Blessings with contributions by Deb Ammerman. Font is Freestyle Script.

Last but not least and obviously my favorite is Connie, my mom. She was the youngest of six children even though you will only find five here. Uncle Jack died when he was sixteen playing Russian Roulette.
Moms page was created with contributions from Paris Designs, RoseMadeDesigns, Lori Staton and Jennifer Rassi. Same font was used: Freestyle script.

You can find the Designers at Deco Pages and as a Club Deco member you have access to the monthly Club Deco Kits for Free as well as other kits and gifts that are exclusive to Club Deco Members. There are wonderful challenges that stretch the imagination and teach wonderful techniques such as this one in the Photography challenge. It is a great community, I hope that you will come and join us.

Thanks for looking! Hope to see you at Deco!

Heritage Blessings

Heritage Blessings is the November Club Deco Kit and it is awesome! I love all of it! Just look at what I did with just a few of the pieces of the kit. I used pieces from Lorene Hill, Paris Designs, Deb Ammerman and Amy Passmore. I created this page for the November Photography Challenge: Splash of Color.
The technique of adding the color to the photo was so much easier than I had imagined it would be. Or at least maybe Deb's tutorial is so good that it would be hard to mess it up. I just love the way that this turned out. Who knows, maybe in a few days I'll put the page up as a QP freebie! Stop back and see! :) In the meantime, if you would like more information on the Club Deco kit, stop over at Deco Pages and see what's going on!

Thanks for stopping in!

QP Freebie

I have been working with Early Autumn by Deb Ammerman at Deco Pages and really am enjoying her kit! I created the page Cherish of my DGS and modified it to a 12X12 QP and am giving it free here on my blog. Credits for the page are:

Kit Used: Early Autumn by Deb Ammerman
Sunflowers: Paisleys, Potpourri and Pizzaz by Deb Ammerman
Fall Colored Leaves: Autumn Splendor by Deb Ammerman

I hope you like the page! You can download it here: http://www.4shared.com/file/69801151/5d5085cd/mc_early_autumn_blog_freebie_QP.html

New Challenges, Club Deco Kit and layouts

Well it's November already! I haven't even really realized that it was October and it's already gone! I must really be getting old as fast as time is flying! LOL!

November brings great challenges and a brand new Club Deco Kit which is so totally cool! Fifteen designers have posted their contributions so far and I am sure that there is more to come. Here is a preview of what is already contributed.

With 15 contributors so far this is just a small portion of what's available. Free to Club Deco Members and becoming a member is so easy! They've added one month trial membership to the choices and even if you are only a member for one month it is definitely worth it! You can find membership information here in the forum. There are so many talented designers that contribute to this wonderful kit every month.

We have new challenges too! Some really challenging in and of themselves. For instance in the Photography Challenge this month we are using B&W and color in the same photo! Playing with effects is kind of cool! I've never done anything like that before so I am excited to learn how to do this! The creative team has some new challenges and rewards too! Check out the journaling challenge for instance....Journaling about holiday preparations! Thanksgiving is just around the corner and then there is Christmas and the New Year! What do you do to ready yourself for these holidays? Prizes for participation in this challenge are two QP's made with PatinParis's Art Nouveau Surprise kit.
There are two more creative team challenges that have their QP's from the same kit as well. You can check out the full kit Art Nouveau Surprise here. Here is a preview of just the papers in the kit and you wouldn't believe the amount of elements included. It's huge!

I'm enjoying the fall season so far this year seeing the colors changing and then with halloween! Fall is such a wonderful time! I love the stillness of the water with summer over and the colors!!!! Check out these pages that I did with Deb Ammerman's Early Autumn

Everything in this page is from Early Autumn.

The sunflowers came from Deb's Paisleys, Potpourri and Pizzaz kit and the autumn colored leaves from her Autumn Splendor kit but everything else was from Early Autumn.

kit and her Halloween Treats! My grandson was Handy Manny for Halloween! I had never heard of Handy Manny, I thought it was a fancy name that my son made up for his little handy man but turns out it is a character on the Disney Channel. Who would have known!


He is certainly one of the cutest little handy men I've ever seen!

Thanks for stopping by, I hope to see you over at Deco Pages!

It's Fall

It's Fall! We had our first frost and my house plants are still outside. Bummer. Maybe I can get them in today and salvage them... My lawn is full of leaves that need raked and the trees are nearly bare here. I am not looking forward to winter...but fall is a beautiful time though. The sunsets are deeper and prettier and seem more striking, at least to me. I saw this sunset outside my store one night while the staff was taking out trash and couldn't resist taking the picture, which was with my phone. Gorgeous! I used Autumn Splendor by Deb Ammerman of Deco Pages for this page! Her kit has so many different colors and patterns and was so versatile to work with, I loved it! I also used it for this next page with my nephew and my 5 month old puppy! The look on my nephews face as Zoee was getting him was priceless!
As you can see the colors are lighter and versatile to work with nearly everything! You can find Deb's kit here!

Halloween is right around the corner and promises to be great fun! Candy is flying off the shelf in preparation for the spooky beggars night! I can't wait to see what my DGS goes as this year. Last year he was a spook with his face all painted white and his hair colored. He was so much fun.
I used Lori Staton's Spooky Treats kit for this page of Gabe and Me. I love the bright colors and cool elements that she's put in the kit! Check out this page of my son's friend....this was too funny!

Check out her kit preview! Tons of Halloween fun in this kit!
Have a safe and happy halloween!

Pages and a Freebie

I've created a couple pages recently and I wanted to share about the kits that I used. Every now and then you find a kit that is so versatile that you just love it and I've found two! The first kit is Dragons Warmth by Theta of Deco Pages. Her kits are so rich and vibrant and the elements that she creates are totally awesome. Here are the previews to her kit:

Pretty awesome stuff! I love this kit! The dragons are awesome and perfect for so many different things. I used one of the dragons to indicate what a monster my puppy is in my page called Monster Zoee...

How cool is that! I love it. Then I just used the basic kit for a page with my niece and nephews playing around for my sister and her new camera.
This is a very versatile kit and I just love the rich colors that are in it. The second kit that I loved is Rustic Culture by Dragons Lair Designs.
The colors are so deep and perfect for the fall season. I created one page of my grandson carving his first pumpkin last year. It was perfect for it...

and then capturing this hummingbird in preparation for it's winter journey.

You can find these kits and more at Deco Pages.

I finally put together the elements for the Breast Cancer Awareness mini kit that I was working on. I think this is all that I have gotten finished so far. I hope that you like them. You can click on the image or on the link below. Thanks for reading my page!
http://www.4shared.com/file/67285623/b7e6e00e/mc_bca_elements.html