My four year old daughter, soon to be five, recently got bangs for the first time. Much to the distress of some of my extended family members I never caved in and gave her big sister bangs. And I’m glad.

But, Raeleigh has curls! And her hair is for some reason much more fragile, so it is breaking off at the ponytail. Anyway, I decided to get her hair out of her face with bangs and skip the pony tails until her hair is stronger. I had to cut off a few inches of her curls to blend in with the broken hairline. But it looks adorable.

As you can tell by the look on her face she loves her new look! It was a big moment for the whole family. The hair salon gals probably thought we were nuts!

This layout was mostly done with a kit by Joyce (who closed down her store…sorry.) The doodles are from Lauren Grier. The journal box is from Bella Gypsy. And the final finishing touch was a Freebie photo action from The Pioneer Woman. Her “Colorized” action made the layout come together beautifully. Here it is before the photo action so you can see the difference:

I’ve had my eye on some Florabella actions. They are a little pricey though for the average scrapbooker! Maybe I’ll put them on my Christmas wishlist! I almost bought the Color & Haze actions tonight. But, I decided to go see what The Pioneer Woman had first. And, it satisfied my photo action craving for the moment. If you have never tried using actions on your photos you should definitely give them a try! The Pioneer Woman even has these sets for Photoshop Elements users!

Christmas of 2008 we took an extended family ski trip. It was right after I got my Nikon D90. I wanted to see Cadillac Ranch, and was excited that it looked like we’d get there about sunset. It turned out to be a race against sundown, literally! I shared the photos and the story on my blog when we got back.

Tonight I scrapped the family photo. It was really taken at dusk, not sunset. And, the light sensor of the camera and the 50mm 1.4G were put to the test. The only way I could have gotten a better photo was with a tri-pod. But, I still adore the photo. And the story.

So, here is my layout, finally! I tried to make it artistic, to match the mood of the the graffiti splattered cars. And, to disguise the photo quality.

Credits: MK Designs-Cotton Candy and Kitty Designs-Spring-a-Ling

It has been a very busy month! A month ago tomorrow I started a new job at a B2B publishing company. They have about 40 magazines and conference events. I am Digital Product Manager for the websites of three of their magazine brands. One of them is a 100 year old magazine that my dad, a Petroleum engineer, subscribed to his entire career. My other responsibility is Mobile Products across all of their brands.

One of my projects is putting their first magazine on an iPad app. While going through the iPad vendor selection process I started discovering all kinds of iPad apps. One of them was “Sketchbook Pro”. I downloaded the Adobe app but there was no comparison in the current versions. Sketchbook Pro has a large variety of brushes and Adobe does not. Surprising. I don’t know why Adobe would even bother publishing the current app.

Last Sunday I had some down time and I played with Sketchbook Pro. I was inspired by a blog I found from the Art Journal Caravan. The biggest downside of the app is that the illustrations will only export at 72 dpi. It is also limited to 6 layers, but when you know you are only playing (due to resolution limits) it kind of frees you up to work within the 6 layers. I found that by playing with opacity you can actually cover up any mistakes, similar to painting with oil or acrylics.

Anyway, since I’ve been too wiped out when I get home to do anything creative and my poor blog has been lonely I decided to share this little creation. I have not bought a stylus yet, so this was totally done with fingerpainting! Which gives you a total lack of control….and lends itself to this type of childish style.

I was talking to Nikki Epperson the other night on the phone. I’m lucky enough to live in the same town as Nikki! Anyway, she was talking about how she bribed her kids with a special treat if they were cooperative in her photoshoot. I laughed because I do the exact same thing.  The promise of ice cream can do a smile wonders!

Well, last year I had to resort to bribery for swimming lessons. My littlest, Raeleigh, did fine the first day. But, the second day she was very uncooperative. I forced myself to sit there listening to her cry the whole time (and you know at that age crying is contagious.) My friends assured me, almost holding me back that it was what the  “water exploration class” was all about. I talked to the teacher afterward. I said, I knew you’d send her to me if you didn’t want to deal with it.  The teacher asked if there was a toy she could bring next time.  So, from lesson three onward the little blue duck came to class. Then she didn’t cry. But, she didn’t pay much attention to the teacher either, she just sat playing with her duck for 45 minutes. I also promised that if she did what the teacher said when it was her turn then we’d go get candy after each lesson.

We are wrapping up swimming lessons this year, and I’m happy to say the little duck stayed home! We have continued the candy tradition. But, now it is just a fun summer treat, and not a bribe.

This page uses a collaboration kit from Recherché by KH Designs and Jennilyn Designs. And a template from JennCK.  Tomorrow I’ll post the opposite side of this two page spread with a little story about friendship!

When I saw the previews for Nikki Epperson’s half finished kit “Basically Basic” I instantly thought of these photos from my daughter’s first dance competition! This costume was so cute I could hardly keep her out of it until the season was over. Now it is in the dress-up drawer.

I love Kraft papers paired with a bright color accent! Nikki’s “Sassy Chick” was the perfect choice. And, the “hound dogs” seemed to fit with the simple brown paper.

Talk about simple, I’m LOVING scrapping with templates these days! In this case I used Totally Braggin, but I just made the photos a tad taller.

I’ve been wanting to do some Kraft layouts since I saw the emerging trend in the summer of 2008 at CHA in Chicago! That means it has been a hot commodity since the winter of 08/09. And I’m just now using it?! How did that happen?

Oh well, this kit has so many cute Kraft papers I’m sure you will be seeing some more used at my blog! I may just pair it with everything, kinda like peanut butter.

I created another Freebie Quick Page using a template by Scrapping with Liz and two kits from the new store Recherché by KH Designs. Thanks to both designers for so generously donating their products!

The Bohemian Blush paper pack was perfect for achieving the “folded paper” effect in Liz’s template. I’m happy to buy templates like this because I would never have taken the time to build all of those folds into my own layout!

I hope you like the Quick Page freebie! I think it is very flexible in that you can easily make use of the paper filled squares like I did in the sample below. By the way, the balloon I added is from MK Designs. And the number “2″ is from Kiki Halbert’s “Rainbow Alpha.”

Today I posted the second featured digital scrapbook template designer, Scrapping with Liz. I personally love her templates because she uses a lot of nice sized photos in creative ways. The first featured designer was Nikki Epperson. I love her designs because they make it super easy to make great clustered layouts. Featured advertisers can post whatever they want to in the right hand column. Both designers generously offered coupons!

I also utilized some functionality that I had custom developed for my website. I can “feature” a tag or group of tags. So, under the “Feature” menu right now you will find “Happy Birthday USA.” It showcases all of the patriotic templates and quick pages I could find. Designers, you can still have your layouts featured here, just register, suggest yourself as a new designer, and tag the layout with “Patriotic USA” then it will automatically show up on this page! Scrappers go have a look if you are looking for a way to get your Fourth of July photos scrapped quickly!

This weekend I caught a boatload of great digital scrapbooking sales! I bought a ton of $1 kits from Kitty Designs! Last year I was only buying Scrap For Hire stuff and her kits require an additional fee. So, there were many, many kits I didn’t have. Her S4H fee is only $5 though, so if ever I need to use one of her kits I can pay that fee.

Anyway, I stayed up way too late after the fireworks playing with her “Around My Home” kit. I have always wanted to make a “window” layout! These are a couple of straggler photos that have not been scrapped because they were not part of an event. I took these photos because I wanted to remember how my kids hang out in bed with us when I’m old and grey. I used to go grab them a cereal bar or a bag of cereal with a sippy cup, turn on the TV and go back to sleep. Now I trust Raeleigh downstairs with Danielle. So, I usually go down and make them breakfast and go crawl back into bed. The problem is that Raeleigh gets up early no matter what time she goes to bed.

So this layout already represents an era that is almost gone in our lives. And Raeleigh is in her footed PJ’s which she no longer wears. Sniff, sniff.

Here is another layout I did with Recherché by KH Designs‘ new Bright Skies Ahead kit. This kit is packed full of summery goodness! Don’t miss the Grand Opening sale, you’ll get 30% off until midnight on the 4th!

Our vacation spot of choice has been The Great Wolf Lodge for the past 5 years since we live in Oklahoma and there are not any beaches within a day’s drive. There are two Great Wolf Lodges to choose from though! This summer we are thinking of going to the new Schlitterbahn in Kansas City. I have a friend in New Bruanfels were the “original” Schlitterbahn is located. We’ve been dreaming of going down for a visit, but I just can’t imagine that long of a drive with my four year old yet! So, the “fake” river will have to do!

Like my layout and want the frames? Good News! I made a freebie for you! Disclaimer, I’m not a designer! I used a template by Flergs and an Atomic Cupcake action. And, I kept them all in one file in order to minimize file size. Just use your selection tool to grab the frame you want!

Recherché by KH Designs finally opened today! And, in case you were planning on some holiday weekend shopping…..all the brand new products are 30% off through July 5th! Cute banner, huh?! I love the new logo!

Today I will share my layout for the kit I named! Bohemian Blush. I really enjoy giving a little input on a new kit! Isn’t it fun?!

My layout is about potty training! The kit matched the PJ’s my daughter is wearing, aren’t they adorable? I’m so sad she will be outgrowing them soon. She was a little late in the second stage of potty training. We finally remembered the Dora playset we’d bought a piece at a time for our oldest. So, we recycled it and used it as incentive again. It worked like a charm. I gave her little pieces, promising the big house when she finally went number two. Her smile in these photos says it all. It was a big day. We even made up a song!

Other Credits: Balloon and swirl are MK Designs. Template is Studio Nee.