Brighten Up

We've had quite a bit of rain here in my neck of the woods. Not that I mind. I really enjoy the rain! But, I also enjoy the sun at this time of the year. So, I figured I would do a little digiscrapping to brighten things up.

This kit from Laitha's Designs fit the bill. It's called Glowing Mind...and boy, does it GLOW!

So I dug around in my photos for a little something colorful. While I was in Ohio this Summer to visit family, my two best girlfriends did their first 5k, The Color Run. PERFECT! Then, a few weeks later, one of their daughters did a similar 5k called Color Me Rad. So, armed with some great colorful photos, this is what I came up with. 

Colorful enough?? Even though I LOVE color in my every day life, I usually shay away from such bold colors in my digiscrapping. But, I figured I'd give it a shot. Turns out, I like it!! :)

Purple Delight

Purple is my favorite color. I love it. Now, I'm not one of those people who love a color so much that everything I own is that color, but I do seek it out from time to time.

I was thrilled when this kit from Laitha's Designs plopped in to my lap. It's called Purple Delight, and, well, it's delightful.

First up, it's my friend Lynn and her Hubby celebrating their 10th wedding anniversary. 

Then, it's my friend Renita, and she's pretty much unstoppable.

Autumn...again and again, Autumn

Honestly, I would be happy with Autumn year round. I'm sure I've said that before, haven't I?

Autumns here in the Silicon Valley area are very different from the Autumns in Ohio, where I grew up. In Ohio we had the leaves, the colors, the cooler weather, the frost....ahhhh!! I love all of it! Here, we have a tiny bit of colorful leaves, but we do have weather changes...the hot dry days of Summer give way to cooler days, with clouds and occasional rain. The cooler nights start first, then, before we know it, there's light rain, washing off the dust that has been sitting around since July.

I love it. After 13 years here, I'm learning the seasonal patterns, and falling in love with them. The migratory songbirds started showing up here a few weeks ago. White Crowned Sparrows spend the winter here in the trees and bushes beside our patio. Their cheery song and striking head stripes are always a delight to me, even when they wake me up at the crack of dawn after only two or three hours of sleep. I can't help it, I'm a bird girl.

13 years. Yup. October 9th was our 13th anniversary...yet another reason why I love Autumn.

I've been drooling over the Project 365 kits from Digilicious Designs. When I saw the October edition, I fell in love!!! Luckily my longtime friend, Jaymie, sent me some Ohio leaf love with her adorable sons!

What's your favorite season??

Autumn Garden

My big, ongoing project for this year has been my patio garden. We live on the second floor of a two story building, just our apartment up here, and five single car garages below us. Part of our place includes a 12' x 12' patio, and this Spring I decided to start my own patio container garden up here.

In the spring I grew a few edible veggies, mostly leaf lettuces and also some heirloom carrots. Everything else has been flowers. I chose my plants to draw in native bees, butterflies, and other beneficial insects. I also have a bird feeding station out there that is frequented by the neighborhood Goldfinches, Scrub Jays, Mourning Doves, House Sparrows, Oak Titmouse, and the occasional California Towhee.

Now that Autumn is upon us, I know my garden will start to fade a bit. I have made sure to include plants that will be beautiful year round, but the splendor of Summer's blooms will fall prey to the wind and rain that will start soon enough. I'm OK with that. I love the seasons, and all that they bring. I enjoy watching the changes that happen, I find beauty in the dried blooms, the seed heads, and the fading leaves. I also look forward to the renewed growth that will follow next Spring.

For now, here's my tribute to my Autumn Garden. I created it with the Blustery Day Collection from Aimee Harrison. It's a beautiful kit full of natural elements that fit perfectly along side my garden!

 

A little something for Mom

Phew. It seems like this year is flying by for me. I can't believe it's already the end of May!

We do holidays around here without much fanfare. Mother's Day is no exception. Mom and I got to pick what exactly we wanted to do on our special day. It had been a while since we've all gone to the beach together, so we thought it would be nice to do that. We headed down to Pacific Grove to Asilomar State Beach. There are lots of little inlets there amongst the rocks where we always manage to do some beach combing. Mom and I plopped ourselves down in the sand and proceeded to pick up lots of little bits and pieces to use in our crafting adventures. Shells, driftwood, and bits of sea glass, too!

After that, we headed down to the small sandy patch of beach to walk and watch the sunset. The weather was perfect and there were lots of folks there to enjoy it. There always seems to be a bunch of dogs on that stretch of beach, too. I love watching them running along in the surf playing and splashing about, they always looks so happy! Naturally we had to snap a few pictures.

I used the oh so appropriate kit You're the Best Mom Bundle, a Collab from The Digital Scrapbooking Studio for my Mother's Day LO.

 

I thought this beautiful kit was also perfect for a picture I took of Mom in her new patio garden! 

                                   Font used on this LO is Pea Bhea from kevinandamanda.com

Pretty As A Peacock

I have to admit it, I love peacocks. There's just something about the beautiful colors in those feathers that capture my eye every time. So, naturally I was thrilled to work with the Pretty As A Peacock Bundle from Digilicious Designs! All of those great blues and purples with a ton of yummy accent colors, and even a perfect collection of glitter styles ta boot. 

Spring Flashback

In 1998 I took off for the weekend with my good friends Dedra and Nichole for a camping trip at an Ohio music festival. One of our favorite bands, Ekoostik Hookah, was hosting a weekend campout/music festival on Memorial Day weekend and we decided we needed a break. We packed up my big ol car (Myrtle the Rockabilly Love Machine) and headed out!

In short, we had a BLAST. Seriously. It was a weekend that we will remember for the rest of our lives. Music, sun, people, and lots of fun. So much fun that it started a tradition for us. Every Memorial Day Weekend and Labor Day Weekend for the next couple of years we headed to Hookahville.

This is just the first of the layouts that I'm creating with some photos from various trips. For these two pages I've used the mini kit "No Boundaries 1" from Sweetmade Inc. over at the Digital Scrapbooking Studio. The bright colors and funky feel were perfect for this project! 

More February Creations

Created with the All About Me Bundle a collab between Nibbles Skribbles and SCrappyCocoa over at the Digital Scrapbooking Studio

Love is in the air...

It's February, and naturally the digiscrap world turns it's eye (and ear!) towards Valentine's Day. I'm not normally one to celebrate Valentine's Day, it's just not my thing. Never really has been. But, when I saw the Je T'aime Bundle from Aimee Harrison Design Studios...I kind of fell in love!

The colors spoke to me. There's red and pink in there, of course, but the dark blue, black, and grey really put a great spin on the traditional V Day colors. Once I got my hands on the bundle, I got to work!

One of my best girlfriends was having some fun on a rainy day with her youngest girl and the camera. I love it when they do this! It's hard being across country from them, but adorable pictures like this help!

This is a photo that Hubby and I snapped in October. For the past few years, we've gone tot he beach on our anniversary and snapped a picture while we're there. This one is from 2011, our 12th anniversary.
 

Last but not least, the kit has some really pretty pale colored elements and papers that have a rustic/vintage feel to them, in my opinion. So, I found this great old photo online and tried to tell their story. I have no idea who they are, or what their story is...but I thought they were adorable!

This kit really is fun and versatile. I can see it being used for lots of things other than Valentine's Day!

So. Since we're talking about the big V Day...what are your plans?

Got it!

I figured out what to do for my second LO with the Spectrum Collection!

Kit Conundrum...

Part of my duties as a Creative Team member over at The Digital Scrapbooking Studio, I get to pick a kit from a list to work with for that month. I was really excited when I saw this awesome bundle from Nibbles Skribbles called Spectrum! It was full of color, which is a BIG thing for me.

I. Love. Color. I mean, look at it! It's NOTHING but COLOR!

I was looking forward to creating all sorts of amazing LO's with this kit, inspired by its beautiful colors. But. I didn't. I floundered and stalled. I have NO idea why. But I did. Maybe my brain was burnt out from the Holidays? Maybe I was overwhelmed with all of the awesome colors?

Who knows.

So I let it sit for a while, then came back to it today.

This is my first LO with this kit. It seemed natural to use the concept of Chakras for this colorful kit. Colors are used to symbolize the 7 energy centers in the body. Each one with its own color.

The fonts I used are Samarkan and Old Typewriter.

We'll see what I can come up with for my second LO with this kit.

So, my question is....what you you other digi scrappers (or other creative types) DO when you're stuck?

December's Turquoise

In my other creative pursuits I'm a beader/Jewelry Artist. One of the things I love most about making jewelry is using all of the amazing stones that come out of the dirt beneath our feet. I was excited when I discovered Aimee Harrison Design Studio's Birthstone Kits! Each month has its own birthstone themed mini kit. I was instantly in love!

December's birthstone is Turquoise. I created these two LO's with the December's Turquoise Kit! The first one features my lovely niece Kelsey Mae. The second one features a vintage photo that I scrounged from somewhere online, I can't remember exactly where. Oops!

 The font used on this LO is Old Typewriter from DaFont

I know I will find myself coming back to this kit. This particular spectrum of blues speak to me like no other. It's icy, or bright, or deep....so versatile!

I hope you're all staying warm this month and gearing up for the holidays!

Brighten Up!

With the recent rains and cooler weather here, things were starting to look a bit drab outside my window. So, I decided to play with a kit that was nice and bright. The kit I used is called Funky Friends from Ruby Lane Designs over at The Digital Scrapbooking Studio. It's bright, and, well, funky!

Of course, I had to use a picture of one of my best funky friends and her beautiful daughter!

And another LO using a photo of my adorable niece. She's such a cutie!

With Thanksgiving then Kiddo's 14th birthday having just passed, I'm in recovery mode here. Gotta take it easy so I don't over do it and end up making myself have a flare. I did a couple of layouts with the theme of thanks. For me, I'm thankful that I know some of the most amazing and beautiful women. They inspire me in so many ways.

For these two LOs I used the November Mega Kit - Give Thanks. I really liked the "non traditional" colors used in this kit. Lots of purples and warm oranges. It's a beautiful combo, and it suits my beautiful friends perfectly!

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! Now it's on to Winter and all of it's Holidays!

Fall Goodies at The Studio

As of a couple of weeks ago I am now a member of the Creative Team over at The Digital Scrapbooking Studio. Part of my duties as a CT member is to create with new products from designers at The Studio. With Fall being in full sing now, both of the kits I am featuring today are Fall themed. :)

First off, I created a couple of layouts with the beautiful Autumn Grove Bundle from Digilicious Designs. The subtle colors of this kit really spoke to me. It has a very vintage feel to it, but in a modern kind of way. Does that make sense?? Anyway. First off is my niece Milora and one of my favorite pictures of her.

Isn't she a cutie? Her mom (my sister in law) made her little outfit for her. I thought it was perfect for the modern vintage feel of the kit. Up next, one of my best girlfriends and her little boy. He's now two years old, and I've been holding on to these photos for a while now. They're just so precious.

 

I think the kit worked perfectly for a more masculine theme as well. This yummy brown paper really pulled me in. It's so simple, but the color is just divine!   

Up next, a really fun and funky kit, Autumnal from Ruby Lane Designs. I'm a huge fan of the rich jewel tones in this kit, they remind me of autumn in southern Ohio. Ruby Lane will be a guest designer over at The Studio in November, so check back for links to her beautiful creations! 

Another page featuring the lovely Milora! That smile is infectious, isn't it?

This LO features a vintage picture of Maude Fealey. She was an actress in early silent films and also in "talkies", she starred in nearly every movie directed by Cecil B. DeMille. On top of that she had a somewhat successful career as a playwright and stage actress. Her beauty is, to me, quite captivating. 

 

So, what are you working on for Fall?