Sunday's New Release Faves

I have decided to try and do a weekly post on Sunday's featuring some amazing products that were released in the digi stores throughout the previous week.  So, grab your coffee, tea or whatever your sipping pleasure is and join me while I recap these great finds!

At Scrap Orchard, Lucky Star by Laura Banasiak:

At Sweet Shoppe Designs, Country Cuties by Kristin Cronin-Barrow and Lliella Designs:

Also at Sweet Shoppe Designs, Majorly Big Monogram Alpha by Shawna Clingerman:

At The Lilypad, Haunted House Printable by Kaye Winiecki:

At MScraps, I {Heart} Flairs by Studio Basic:

At 9th & Bloom, The Witching Hour by Secret Stash:

Be sure to check out these coordinating Stickers too....that can also work well independently:

At After Five Designs, At The Pumpkin Patch by Jady Day Studio:

At Scrap Matters, Return to Oz by Viva Artistry

At Gotta Pixel, Days Ending in Y by Bella Gypsy:

That's about all I have for you this week.  Maybe one of them is calling to your PayPal like they were mine.  ;)

Have great rest of your day!  Hugs!

Just Another Saturday At The Labaya's

Yep, just another typical weekend.  Everyone doing their own thing....Jonathan is hard at work on my poor wittle car.  He drives it to work since it is better on gas mileage than his Tundra.  However, on his way home Tuesday night, it died on the highway while he was driving home.  A $55 tow fee later, it was home waiting for him to work on this weekend.  He thinks it is the fuel pump but unfortunately, he has a day of troubleshooting ahead of him.  Hopefully he gets it fixed though because I am going stir crazy cooped up in this house.  I ran out of tea on Thursday and couldn't get any!  Besides Chunky is really missing me driving her to school and I really need to get to the gym next week.  I need the steam room! ;)

Chunky had her BFF Myra over last night and after going to bed at like 4 a.m., they are now up at 10:45 this morning and eating the breakfast tacos I got for them when I went out to get that tea I was out of from the grocery store.

I have the curtains open leading out the sliding door to our backyard and the Bassetts,  Maggie and Buster, are pacing out on the patio hoping someone will come out to play.  Actually, Maggie who is a HUGE titty baby is whining and crying a ridiculous amount today.  She seems to know when her Daddy is home and thinks this is going to get his attention.

And me?  Well, I just finished making this scrumptious looking Layered Pumpkin Cake!

And now I am about to start working on organizing my digi stash supplies that I have downloaded over the last week.  Some of them have been scrapped with and some of them were things I bought or freebies I found (more on this below) for using later.  I have a total of about 100 files to organize!  Ugh....how does this happen so fast?

I didn't get a chance to do any more layouts this week as I spent most of my day yesterday redesigning my blog.  What do you think?  Pwetty, isn't it?  I absolutely LOVE it!  It suits my personality perfectly.  I think it's my fave blog I have ever had.  And it was SO EASY to do.  No idea why I haven't done it sooner.  I hope you all like it too!

I had so much fun sharing with you the other day the great finds I have come across in digi land that I thought I would share with you a few more I have found!

Lita, of Litabells Designs is having a great sale!  You have to enter the coupon code at checkout to get the deal.  You can check out the details and see her latest kit on her blog HERE.

Darcy announced the details of her So You Think You Can Font Challenge 3.  Man, after seeing the winners from previous years...I don't know that any of mine are good enough to enter!  LOL

Have you heard of Little Green Frog Designs?  If not, you don't know what you are missing!  This girls templates are phenomenal!  I mean seriously.....just look at some of these that I fell in love with.

And that's just two of them!  She has a store full of great products and they are all even CU ok so you designers out there can use them for creating quick pages!  

I perused her blog and grabbed all the freebies!  Here they are and all linked to their original posts on her blog.

  

Of course, I have no idea how long those downloads will be available but, if you happen to miss these, keep checking out her blog for more goodies both in her store and free samples.

And lastly today I want to leave you with some AMAZING inspiration.  I have become quite the fan of zoebearsmom.  I swear she creates some of the most beautiful layouts!  Here are a few that she has done that have left me with my jaw open.

The colors in this are simply amazing, so fresh and fun.  And I love all the bits and bobs she put together from various designers to create this.

This photo.....seriously?  I mean how fantastic is it?  And I LOVE the blended text stamp on the left lower side.  Gorgeous.  

Look at all of the attention to detail in this one!  I mean all of the tiny scattered elements are just phenomenal!

All of the images are linked to the original image in her gallery and HERE is a link to her gallery at DST and here gallery at Me So Scrappy is HERE.  Not only is this girl an AMAZING scrapper, she has got some mad photo skills too!  Sigh......

Well friends, that digi stash is calling my name so I better get to it.  I won't feel like I can start creating layouts again until I get all of that organized and I already see some great things in the works from my designers next week!  I will be back in a few days with more gibberish ;)!  

Have a great weekend!  Hugs!

Around Digi Land

One of my goals for my blog is to share some of the great things I find around the digital scrapbook community that I think are great finds, news and all around cool.  I really do love being a part of the communities, have made so many great friends and want to support some of these great people.  I also want to help share and spread the knowledge about digital scrapbooking.  Hopefully, some of you who visit my blog may find some of my posts useful and the thought of that makes me warm and fuzzy inside. ;)

So, here are some nifty things that I have spotted in some of the communities this week so far.....

Sweet Shoppe has a thread going about creating awesome titles.  You can find the post HERE if you fancy reading through it.  Or, here are the links I have grabbed from the thread that will help me when I am working on my next page to create that perfect title.
Peppermint Creative - Title and Phrase Guide
The Perfect Title
9 Surefire Ways To Create Dynamic Title Work 
Thank you to Tracyfish, Kjersti and MommaTrish for these links!

I am admittedly a HUGE fan of Zoe Pearn's.  Maybe even a bit stalkerish at times but not in a creepy way.  ;)  I absolutely love her style and have begged her a few times for a spot on her team even.  No luck yet but, I still continue to keep the dream alive.  Well, she just happens to be one of the sponsors this month at The Daily Digi (a big fan of this site - wealth of scrapbooking information!).  You can check out her adorable kit and awesome interview HERE.

Her feature at The Daily Digi showcases a few of Steph's (owner of The Daily Digi) favorite products of Zoe's.  So for fun, I thought I would share my favorite Zoe items.

Not to mention that my blog is one of her Blog In A Box products!  You can find those HERE.

I also love her other flash card sets, Alphabet Soup for Girls and Alphabet Soup for Boys.

Do you know about Chelle's Creations?  She is an amazing designer who I have known for years but, just in the last year or so she has really become one of  my fave designers.  I am a huge fan of the felt elements in her kits.  Well, she just happens to be having a CT Call right now!  Yep, that's right!  Don't waste a minute, take a chance and get that application in today!  

How about The Lilypad?  Are you familiar with it?  There are so many amazing designers there.  Well, you can actually WIN a guest spot on their CT by participating in their challenges.  They have this drawing every month!  It is super hard to get a gig on their CT so this is an amazing chance to play with some of the best digital designers out there and a wonderful community.  You also get an awesome 30% off coupon for completing all of their challenges.  You can't go wrong!  You can check out the details on the challenge HERE.

And last but not least, Darcy Baldwin announced a teaser of her upcoming So You Think You Can Font 3 contest!  She holds this contest each year.  She allows you to submit a font or two and then she chooses several from all the entries that she will sell in her shop along with some other fun prizes.  I haven't played along yet but, I think I will this year!   

I know there is lots more fun going on out in the digi communities but, this is about all I can share with you today because after all, I need to pimp some of the amazing designers that are generous enough to let me play on their teams.  So, onto my layouts (so far) for this week.

Chef

For the Log Your Memory Weekly Challenge #42 - In My Experience

Sunny Side Up by Nikki Beaudreau

iNSD Freebie by Busy Bee Designs

Pumpkin Patch

Pumpkin Spice by Kay Miller

Pieces of My Heart Templates 7 by Kay Miller

Halloween 2010

Jeepers Creepers by Kristin Aagard

Pierced

Hocus Pocus: The Bundle by Cluster Queen Creations and geniaBeana Scraps

Crazy Boy

You're A Hoot 

You're A Hoot Boy Paper Pack Add On

So Sketchy: Scribbled Alphabet

all by Captivated Visions

Scrap Strip Temps by Scrapping With Liz

*all images are linked to my gallery so you can get hooked up with links to these products if you wanna!

I really intended to update my 30 Day Photo Challenge today and do some work on my digi supply organization project but I woke up with a migraine this morning and it has not let up all day.  So, I will save those updates and work for tomorrow.  I hope!  Either way, I will at least be back on Saturday with a few more new layouts from my wonderful girls over at Sweet Shoppe Designs that I CT for.  

Until then - have a great rest of the week.  Hugs!

Alyssa's Visit Was Awesome

Our visit with Alyssa was wonderful! I have missed her so much and really I didn't realize just how much until she got here! All of her little antics and expressions, her laugh, her smell, everything about her beautiful little self. We did a whole lot of nothing, just hung out and watched movies. I cooked her lots of her fave meals and bought her fave snacks. It was just like old times. My birthday was in September and she brought me my gift. I started collecting Willow Tree figurines 10 years ago and I haven't had a new one given to me in about 5 years and she was thoughtful enough to get me one! She said it represents John Isaac! It made me cry!  Here it is:

She is in the best shape of her life. She is so muscular it's crazy. I couldn't stop looking at her. She is back in her running shape and currently running a 7:30 mile! She comes in first place when they run at all her PT practices. She is also 2nd in her class at Tech School! I can't believe how well she is doing.

She got her 1st duty station orders too. She is going to Hickam Base in Hawaii. We were planning a vacation to The Bahamas in June as a family but now we are going to Hawaii instead.  She finishes Tech School in February. She is soooo excited about her station. We are excited for her too. Jonathan grew up in Hawaii and still has sisters there also.

Of course I cried when she left. Saying goodbye is so hard to do. 

I have still been keeping up with my 30 Day Challenge photos so let me bring that up to date for you.

DAY 11 - SOMETHING BLUE

DAY 10 - CHILDHOOD MEMORY

DAY 9 - SOMEONE YOU LOVE

I got that Henry doll for my 4th birthday.  ;)  He was my best friend, there for me in the good times and the bad and I have kept him with me ever since.  He now relaxes in my bedroom on an antique chair that belonged to my Grandmother alongside Jonathan's childhood stuffed animal, a Curious George that he rescued from a drainage ditch when he was just a little tot as well.  Priceless memories.

I haven't had any time really to work on my digi organization since my last post.  I did however spend Friday night organizing my photos.  They are a total mess as well.  I have now moved them over to Year folders.  I just need to organize them within those folders into Months.  A little at a time.....

I have completed 3 layouts so far this week and I will have those to show you on Thursday.  So I will see you then!  Until then, have a great week!  Hugs!

Best News in Weeks

Happy Friday everyone!  It is an awesome Friday for me because I got the best news this morning when I woke up.  Jonathan told me that our oldest daughter had called at about 5:30 this morning (he is always up that early to go to work so she knew she would catch him) and told him that she will be here tomorrow!  I haven't seen her since she left for Air Force Tech School on July 24th!  Two and a half months without seeing my baby girl is WAY too long!  She made her menu requests too, ha ha.  We always love our Mom's cooking, don't we?  She will be leaving on Monday morning so I plan to spend the entire weekend just doting on her and relaxing so I won't be around again until early next week.

But, before I sign off for the weekend here are some layouts I did this week:

Captured 

Fall Delight by Melissa Bennett and Studio Flergs 

Fall Flavors: Candy Corn by Busy Bee Designs

Comfort

Made With Love by Meghan Mullens 

and Bad Sewing Machine 12 by Traci Reed

Halloween 2009 

Bippity Boppity by Libby Pritchett and 

Layered Templates Set 93 by Cindy Schneider

Tomb Raider

Frankenmonster's Halloween Party by Shawna Clingerman

Happy 1st Birthday

Hot Halloween and Hot Halloween Trashed Papers by Lyndsay Riches

All images are linked to my gallery so you can get linked up or leave some lovin'.

And now to bring my October 30 Day Challenge up to date.  I am really enjoying this project.  I love playing with and editing my photos.  

DAY 7 - FRUIT

DAY 6 - FROM A LOW ANGLE

DAY 5 - FROM A HIGH ANGLE

With that I will sign off for the weekend.  I hope you all have a great one yourselves!  Hugs!

30 Day Photo Challenge

I have decided to participate in a 30 Day Photo Challenge that is going on over at Sweet Shoppe Designs this month.  I was a bit hesitant to do it because I am horrible with follow through on these type of challenges.  I have started P52 two years in a row and fizzled out after just a few weeks!  However, I thought if I could do this 30 day challenge and actually stick to it, maybe it would be good practice to get ready for next year's P52.  You know, start creating a habit.....?

Here is the list we are using:

I am super duper excited to do this!  My plan is to take all of my pictures from the month and make a 2 page layout documenting the full month.  Plus, this will really help with photography skills and get me thinking more creatively!  

If you would like to join in the fun, you can click the image above or click HERE to go to the posting at Sweet Shoppe Designs.

Now, let's start seeing some of these fun pictures!  

DAY 4 - SOMETHING GREEN

DAY 3 - CLOUDS

DAY 2 - WHAT YOU WORE

DAY 1 - SELF PORTRAIT

I am still whittling away at my EHD cleanup challenge.  I have condensed my WORD ART and DATE TAGS folders to the new system!  Those two were easiest of my choices to move over.  I am working from the easiest up to the hardest, in terms of the time involved in making the switch.  I have over 500gb of goodies to work through so this is quite a chore!  I hope the completion date I set for the end of October was not being too optimistic on my part.  ;)  

These are the folders I have set up in the new system (so far - will add more as need arises):

KITS

PAPER PACKS

ELEMENTS

ALPHAS - done

DATE TAGS - done

TEMPLATES

WORD ART - done

FONTS

HYBRID

I haven't had time to get any layouts done yet from my Unused Kits folder.  I did 4 CT layouts for some of my designer's new releases so, that has kept me busy.  Those will be posted tomorrow so be sure to come back and see what I've been up to.  

Have a great day!  Hugs!