Etc by Danyale

So catching up on a month of layouts might take a while, but if I chunk it the task will happen much faster. After yesterday's smattering of favorite layouts, I thought I'd finish up a review of the month's pages by designer, since most of my pages are created for CT requirements (though I tweak my CT requirements to fit my personal scrapping needs!).

From Etc by Danyale products last month I also made these pages:

All Smiles
Almost Neutral Grab Bag

 I made this page up with Danyale's neutral grab bag for iNSD. I wanted to use as much of the pack as I could, and thought the pops of orange in John's shirt was a perfect compliment for all the neutral papers and ellies. I had a lot of fun using the paper swirls, and made my own mask to mat the detail work.

Currently 16 Months
My Little Guy Kit
My Little Guy Word Art

 This list of things John does right now was compiled spur of the moment.  They are all things that were on my mind at the time I was putting the page together. He is growing so fast, I can't believe it!

Cap'n Moo
Sugar Sands Beach Kit
Sugar Sands Beach Word Art
Sugar Sands Beach Wood Paper

 This picture of Maggie driving a 70' sailboat from a few years back is one of my favorites. She was so excited to get to drive the boat...and then when the captain stepped away from the wheel she was even more thrilled!  I thought of this photo immediately when I saw those great sailboats, and then rest of the page fell into place from there.

The Story of a Bicycle
Sugar Sands Beach Kit

 This was another page that came together when I saw a piece of the kit. The bicycle paper (which I blended with the sunburst paper) made me think of this photo I had taken of my mom's old bike, which now sits in her backyard. Keeping the embellishments simple keeps the focus on the bike and the story.  I haven't shown this too her yet, and hope this doesn't spoil the surprise! I had intended to print and frame it for their anniversary...but I missed it.

Summer Fun
Summer Fun Quilted Paper Pack
Summer Fun Words Pack
Summer Fun Quilted Alpha Pack

This was just a fun page inspired by the colors in the paper pack. I used the quilted paper as if it was a quick page background and just added a few other pieces from the collection to finish off the page. A really quick example of what can be done when pieces come prepped like this.

Coming tomorrow, I'll catch up on my pages from products by Crisdam Designs, which should also catch me up on Log Your Memory Challenges too.  Tomorrow night, I'll be participating in a blog hop with a kit from JessicaSprague. So lots to look forward to in the next couple days! Happy scrapping. :)

Back from the Dead, it seems

That second half of April, and all of May, really tried to kill me. Finishing up the school year is always stressful, and this year I added getting sick to my list of things to do during the last month. As a result of the magical combination of stressors, my poor blog was completely neglected.  I'm sorry, Blog. :(

But I was scrapping during my silence here, so I'll share a few of the pages I made and we can forget the giant black hole of posts that might have happened in May.

Follow Me

All supplies by Crisdam Designs

Project May Kit

Project May Alphas

Project May Bits & Pieces

 I'm taking a class at Big Picture Classes right now called "Power Scrapping Digi-Style" taught by Katie Nelson, and Follow Me was inspired by the process Katie is teaching. I had already decided I wanted these photos on one page, and when I saw this template, the rest just fell into place.  I love the Project May kit, and have another layout I'll post with it later, but when I used it on this page, I only used the green, yellow, and black pieces, to compliment the photo. What I left out are the gorgeous teal and purpley pieces that are actually my favorites.  To me, this looks like a completely different kit without those pieces. But I love this page. We were on our way to the park, and it struck me how Maggie has adjusted to being a big sister.  She is such a big help to me and her little brother absolutely adores her.

Grow
Old Garden by Etc by Danyale

I took this picture while practicing for Portraiture 101 at Jessicasprague.com (um, yeah, I like to take a lot of classes).  I didn't quite get the lighting the way I was supposed to for the assignment, but I loved the moody look it gave to the photo.  I don't get many pictures of Maggie with pleasant looks on her face, as we are entering the moody-preteen phase faster than I could have imagined, but I liked the softness here. She was actually pretty excited to get to model for me.  I wanted the photo to have center stage on this page, so kept the embellishments pretty simple. This kit had the perfect colors for the photo, and I acutally blended a paper into my photo, erasing it from only her face (so she didn't look like her skin was peeling), which gave the wall behind her some great texture. I was super excited to open my email the day after I posted this page to find it had been chosen as layout of the day at Gotta Pixel.  Yep...super excited.

So Fast
My Everday Kit by Mye de Leon

 These are photos from that same shoot, and I actually put this page together before Grow. I used a template from Mye de Leon as part of Gotta Pixel's iNSD celebration that lasted through the month of May. The journaling refers to a similar topic as Grow, only it is more of me talking about how fast she is growing up. I don't know where the last 9 years have gone!

Sick Day

All supplies by Crisdam Designs

Sick Day Paper Pack

Sick Day Elements

Sick Day Bits & Pieces

I made this page shortly after having to take three days off of school due to a missing voice and yucky cough. It was perfect timing, since Isabel released this only days after that whole episode happened. I had to keep it photoless, because let's face it, there are few photos of me anyway...I'm not taking one when I feel like crud.

Now that everyone in the house is healthy, and school is out... Bring on the scrapping!

It's Spring Time!

The weather is finally starting to feel like Spring here, which means I once again have to juggle being outside in the beautiful weather with my compulsion to sit on the couch with my computer.  There's a balance somewhere in there, I'm sure.

But I have been scrapping even with the beautiful weather, and twice with my friends in real life, which makes any day great! I also pulled the photos off my two memory cards (one for each camera) and used photos from each upload in the pages I made this weekend.  (Also a bonus that our trip to Best Buy today resulted in a new charger for my camera battery, which means new photos with the good camera again!)

It was Danyale's birthday earlier this month, and she celebrated by creating this great party themed kit full of color and texture.

On my point-and-shoot card, I found some photos of Maggie blowing her candles out at her last birthday that are perfect with the colors in this kit.

And the newest installment of Isabel's Project 2011 series was released today, Project April.  I found some great pictures of Johnny enjoying a beautiful February day to use with this sweet kit (and yes, I realize the irony of using April's kit for February photos, but you gotta go with the inspiration!).

There are also matching Alpha and Bits & Pieces kits for Project April.  Now I'm off to scrap a little longer tonight.  

New Etc Shop Opening!

I'm so excited to share that Etc by Danyale has opened up shop at The Digi Chick!  As a member of her team, I've known this for a few weeks now, and have been waiting patiently, well sometimes not, to be able to show off her latest kit, which is only available at her TDC store.

I love the colors (they're some of my favorites right now in scrapping, home decor, and life in general!), so had a lot of fun playing with this kit.

I ended up getting a little deep with my journaling, since I was also making this page for the LYM Challenge titled "Soul Searching," so I apologize for the blurry text, but I loved the page too much to start all over or rewrite anything.

I had another shot of inspiration after a trip to Hobby Lobby this weekend with my mother-in-law and sister-in-law.  I happened to pull out a poster  and said how much I loved the image.  It was a graphic text print, and my sister-in-law reminded me that I could make that!  So I went home and whipped up a similar image, changing the word (the original said, "Imagine") and using some of my favorite fonts.

Now I just have to get it printed and hung up above the desk in my crafty room. :)

Thanks for stopping by today.  I should have some more exciting news tomorrow (if I remember to come back and post)...  I'm trying to make the most of my last week of Spring Break, but here I am with only 4 days left, and I still have a to do list a mile long!  Off to see about crossing a few things off (like maybe, the taxes.  They have to get done still!)

Looking Back and catching up

Catching up on my blog reader this morning, I was reminded of some other layouts I haven't posted here yet.

I used photos of my great grandma that were scanned a few years back to include with my family history research. So far, these photos pretty much sit on my hard drive, moving from computer to computer over the years. Danyale's Looking Back kit inspired me to create with them though.

Created using Looking Back Kit, Looking Back Borders by Etc by Danyale

Created using Looking Back kit, Looking Back borders, and Looking Back Monograms & Decos by Etc by Danyale

Also, I have a freebie cluster available on Danyale's blog using her cute Egg Huntin kit.  It's available here.

Again with the Challenges.

So most of my scrapping this month has been based on completing the LYM challenges.  It was a longer month than I had anticipated, and it feels great to finally be able to come up for air!

The Log Your Memory Forum and Gallery are closed at the moment, pending a server move, so I've linked these pages to other galleries where they are posted for credit purposes.  All materials used are listed and linked in the galleries. (Read: I'm still recovering from the last three weeks, and an up and back drive to Cheyenne, and don't have the energy to post individual links to each product...sorry!)

Week 10

Image is linked to Gotta Pixel gallery for credits

Week 11

Image is linked to DST gallery for credits

Egg Huntin'

The blog silence is broken! It's been a crazy few weeks here, so I haven't made it to the blog in a while.  But I didn't give up scrapping during that time, so I will try to get a few things posted this week to make up for the silence. But first, a new release!

Image is linked to product in store.

Just in time for Easter, Danyale (Etc by Danyale) has released a great kit.  Know what's even better?  It's also been released just in time for Pixel Tuesday! There are matching alpha and word art sets too.

Here's my layout I made with the kit.  I haven't added my journaling yet because sometimes my daughter likes to look at the pages, and I don't want her to read the journaling, as she still believes in all holiday things magical and mysterious, including the Easter Bunny.  It will talk about how this playset was intended to be from the Easter Bunny, but she found it the day before Easter in it's hiding place. There was some frantic searching for a new present, but the Easter Bunny came through after all, and Maggie got two special treats near Easter that year!  (Note to self...must figure out what year that was!)

I hope everyone enjoys their week!  It's Spring Break here, so I will definitely be enjoying some much needed time off (and scrapping as much as I can!), though there are several projects on my to do list that look remarkably like chores.  I guess there's no fun without a little work, right?