Happy Thursday, blog friends! Holy cow...I can't believe its been almost a week since I last posted!!  My engagement session ended up being postponed until Tuesday due to all of the rain we've been getting here.  (It's crazy, BTW.  I've never lived anywhere with such dramatic weather.)  Tuesday was finally a nice day (and then it started pouring again yesterday) & I had a great time with my clients and my very first engagement session in Fargo!  The only bummer....I've counted 17 mosquito bites from that evening.  And two of them are on my hip...which was completely covered in clothing.  Fitted capris to be exact...I'm not even sure how that is possible.  I wonder how my clients fared?  Lol. :)

Since I haven't had a chance to post to my blog this week, I wanted to share two of the projects that I've made for this week. My first project is a card that was up on the Scraptastic Club blog this past Monday.  We used a baby quote from Pinterest as our inspiration, and I'm actually in dire need of adding baby cards to my stash.  (It seriously seems like everyone around me is having a kid!)  So, this was perfect timing for me! I've combined the Best Day of my Life kit & add-on from Scraptastic this month to create this sweet baby girl card.
 Instructions to recreate:
1. Make A2 card from white cardstock.
2. Cut a blue bow paper block & a striped paper strip.
3. Layer them together, and tuck an orange tab & heart transparency underneath the top of the striped paper.
4. Zig-zag stitch along each seam, then adhere the entire stitched paper block to the front.
5. Stamp the sentiment to the top of the striped paper in black ink.
6. Adhere the vellum banner through the sticker frame, & add the glitter letters spelling "baby".
7. Add the bow topped clothespin to the right side of the frame, then adhere the entire piece to the front.
8. Tuck the diecut "sweet" under the top of the frame accent, and the vellum "girl" arrow under the bottom.
9. Accent with a pink jewel & enamel dots to finish.



Card Challenges:
-Sketch Saturday #314 - sketch
-The Pink Elephant #255 - photo inspiration
-Simon Says Stamp & Show Monday challenge - anything goes

Up next is a digital layout I created for the Glitz Design blog this week (I highly suggest checking out this week's Focus on Digital post....the layouts using 77 are AMAZING!!!  Click on that link...I promise you will be inspired!).  Apparently I was on a baby kick this week....because this is a photo of my sweet "niece" Emmalyn.  She is the daughter of our closest friend's, but they consider me aunt Lea...which I love!! :)  This is a photo from the first time I met her...when she was about 10 days old.  I used the digital "77" collection, and a couple of random digital items from Studio Calico & Two Peas.
I just love the orange watercolor card with that sweet quote on it...it seemed just perfect for this photo of her sleeping so sweetly.  Isn't she the cutest?!  (You should see her now...she is SO big & full of personality.)


That is all I have for you today!  I hope that you enjoyed both of my baby themed projects....please let me know if you have any questions about them at all.  I also love to hear what you think about my projects...so leave me a comment if you have the time!

Until later,
~L.

Happy Wednesday, blog friends!  Have you had a good week so far?  Mine has been good...just pretty typical.  Nothing very exciting happening around here.  Before I share my layout today, I just wanted to remind you that I have a giveaway on THIS POST.  A Glitz Design "77" 12x12 collection pack is up for grabs...I will announce the winner this coming weekend! Check out that post & leave a comment for your chance to win!

Today is One Buck Wednesday at Snap Click Supply, and Glitz Design has two kits on sale for an amazing price!!

•  Dapper Dan paper pack…$4.99  $1.00
• Dapper Dan element pack #2…$3.99  $2.00

Dapper Dan is such a great masculine line.  I love all the woodgrain included in it, and the blue & green added in is the perfect touch of color.  It went perfectly with this photo I snapped of my husband one day while we were out & about in Fargo in May.
I really wanted a more colorful paper to pop underneath the wood veneer circle accent in the background.  So I put a strip of paper underneath it, then added a layer mask to it.  I filled the layer mask with black (which makes the paper go away), then used my white brush tool to bring it back just in the circles.  I have no idea if this is the easiest way to do it, but it is what works best for me!

I also used a Two Peas cut file to create the brush script that I've added to the photo.  I love that cut files (as long as they are in PNG format) can be used for so much more than just on your Silhouette!  I use them all the time in my digital layouts as clipping masks, brush files & stamps.  If you do both mediums of scrapbooking, cut files are an especially worthy investment!

I'm entering this into A Blog Named Hero challenge #45, which is to create anything but a card.  It also fits Use Your Stuff #139, which is all about circles.  Hopefully a digital layout is an okay submission!




I hope that you enjoyed my layout today!  Don't forget to pick up these Glitz Design digital kits at a great price.  The sale prices are only good for today!  Well...that is all I have for you.  I hope that you have a great rest of your Wednesday!

Until later,
~L.

Happy Monday, blog friends!  How was your weekend?  Ours was full, but really fun.  We had an amazing baby back rib dinner with our real estate agent & her husband on Friday night.  On Saturday we did some landscaping to our front yard, then had dinner with our neighbors, Mitch & Sammi.  On Sunday we had church, did some shopping and went to to the new Godzilla movie with Mitch & Sammi.  The movie theater closest to us just got new luxury seating in their UltraScreen theaters, and I may never be able to go to a movie again without a reclining leather loveseat to sit in.  Lol!

Today I have a lot of digital layouts I want to share with you.  I haven't been good about posting them to my blog, and rather than create lots of different posts...I'm just going to share them all on this one.  And THEN be good about sharing them in a timely manner.  Lol!  :)

This first one uses Glitz Design's "All Dolled Up" collection, which just released digitally this past Friday.  We are giving away one complete collection on THIS BLOG POST.  Click on the link & leave a comment for your chance to win...winners will be posted at the end of the month.
This is me & my best friend, Meagan on New Year’s Eve in 2012!  When we lived in Montana, we started having parties at our house where we would get all dressed up, eat appetizers & drink sugary sparkly cocktails and ring in the New Year safely.  The All Dolled Up collection was perfect for the theme of the photo!!

Supplies:




My next layouts will all feature product from Deena Rutter.  This first layout uses the newly released Layered Layouts and this month's Every Little Bit kits.  Check it out!
 These are some snapshots from my mom's birthday dinner & celebration last year!  It makes me a little sad that we just can't pack up & head over for a day when we have birthdays & small celebrations...but I do treasure the fact that we got to do that for so long.  And I love that photo of me, my mom & my little brother.

Supplies:




This next layout also uses some of the brand new layout templates, and the Roots & Wings collection released last month!  The watercolor brushes & gold mists were from some free kits I've procured this year....I'm sorry but I don't have links for them.
This is a cute snapshot of Josh & I at a charity event that our real estate agent invited us to called "Claws for a Cause".  It benefited a charity that does work on the homes of veterans that they would otherwise not be able to afford.  While most ate lobster tails, I opted for chicken as I am not a seafood fan.  We had a couple drinks, did fake horse racing & kind-of dressed up.  The theme was supposed to be "tropical", so Josh wore his linen shirt, and I put a flower in my hair.  Lol- that's all we got for tropical, because I wasn't busting out a bikini during March in Fargo.

Supplies:




This layout uses the Every Little Bit kits from April, and the template challenge from Pixel's & Co. in April.
Our church wanted to bless members on Easter Sunday with a couple of family snapshots, and they asked me to be one of the photographers.  I got a great brick wall with spring painted chairs as my backdrop, and LOVED it.  I threw my camera on its tripod before heading out that day and took a couple cute photos of Josh & me as well!!  I love how this one turned out!

Supplies:




This next layout uses the Every Little Bit kits from March!  So many FUN elements in these kits...some of my faves!!
I loved going through these older photos from 2012!!  I still had SUPER curly hair, Grant & Meagan weren't married yet, and moving to Fargo wasn't even a thought on our radar.  We had a great time on St. Patrick's Day eating corned beef & cabbage, rainbow cupcakes & adding green dye to our drinks!! 

Supplies:




This layout features some older Deena Rutter product that was featured in April.  I also used a freebie template from Pixels and Company!
These are snapshots from my birthday dinner with my parents, brother & grandma last year at Lydia's in Butte.  We also went up to The Acoma for lemondrop martinis.  Like I said before...I really do miss getting to see my family more often, but moving is a part of life.

Supplies:



And we have made it to my final layout....how are you doing so far?  Lol!  Deena does a feature on her blog called The Wednesday Variety, where some past kits are used digitally, hybrid & for Project Life.  I did the feature digitally in March:
 This is one of my favorite photos of us from our trip to Texas last year.  We took a couple days & went to Galveston, and made sure we took some beautiful photos on the beach.  I love the boardwalk in the background....it was perfect for this product!

Supplies:



You've made it to the end!!!  If you were able to stick with me this far....I appreciate it so much!!  And I really hope you enjoyed my digital layouts...I'm happy with what I've been learning & how I've been doing so far.  Thanks so much for checking out my post today!!

Until later,
~L.