Growing my Digital Skills

So this year I have decided I want to grow my digital skills..I feel like I am a bit rusty, lol!!  So far I have taken a class with Jessica Sprague on Digital Art Journaling and picked up some new skills and recovered some lost ones lol!!  I plan on reviewing some of my previous classes...and making some notes on things I have forgotten about.  Here are a few of my favorite layouts from the class:

and then one that I did with Webster's Pages and the WEstern Romance Digital collection:

Something new on this one that I learned was the stamping technique where I masked in some of the patterned paper in the design of the stamp...and the filled alpha.....love it!!

Echo Park and Epiphany Crafts Bog Hop

Sorry.....I am at CHA and my post has disappeared. I don't have my computer so can't redo the post. Your next blog is the fabulous Rhonda Rhonda Van Ginkel http://snapwhiz.blogspot.com/
 I made it home!!!!  Time to fix up this post a bit!  I got to use the fabulous Echo Park Yours Truly line with my Epiphany Crafts tools and this is my layout:

 I love being able to make custom buttons with my Epiphany Crafts Button studio so that they coordinate perfectly with whatever I am working with, this is the Round 20 Button:

 The new square shape is so much fun to play with and when I saw the pattern on the papers matched the size of the square epoxy exactly I knew I found a great match, turning the squares on a diagonal made a great diamond pattern border.  I used the Epiphany Crafts Shape Studio and the Square 25 Epoxys:

 

 Welcome to the Echo Park Paper Co. and Epiphany Crafts Blog Hop! On this hop you'll see the amazing things you can create when you combine Echo Park Paper Co. paper and embellishments with the amazing tools from Epiphany Crafts. Below you will find the blog hop list. Simply hop from one blog
to the next to discover entirely new ideas for using these amazing tools with our beautiful products. Leave a comment on each designers' and company's blog to qualify for the drawing for an Epiphany Crafts Heart Button Tool and Heart Button Epoxy stickers, as well as, two collection kits "Yours Truly" and "A Boys' Life" from Echo Park Paper! We hope you enjoy all the inspiration created by these two amazing teams. Winners will be announced on Friday, February 3rd on the Echo Park Paper blog and the Epiphany Crafts blog. All comments are due before midnight EST on Wednesday, February 1st to qualify for the drawing.

Start at Epiphany Crafts blog: www.epiphanycrafts.com/blog
Then hop to:
Audrey Pettit http://audreypettit.wordpress.com/
Nicole Martel http://www.nicolemartel.blogspot.com/
Aly Dosdall http://alydosdall.blogspot.com/
Keri Babbit http://kensingtondesign.blogspot.com/
Julie Walton http://seejuliescrap.blogspot.com/  YOU ARE HERE
Rhonda Van Ginkel http://snapwhiz.blogspot.com/
Linda Auclair http://elendae.wordpress.com/

Then onto the EP team:

Wendy Sue Anderson: http://wendysueanderson.blogspot.com/
Leslie Ashe: http://leslieashe.blogspot.com/
Amy Heller: http://www.amyheller.typepad.com/
Jennifer Gallacher: http://jengallacher.blogspot.com/
Kandis Smith: http://www.mycreativetreasury.blogspot.com/
Tamara Tripodi: http://happylifecraftywife.com/

End at:

Echo Park Paper Blog: http://echoparkpaper.blogspot.com/




Your next stop is at the fabulous Rhonda:
Rhonda Van Ginkel http://snapwhiz.blogspot.com/

Have fun hopping and thanks for stopping by!

Epiphany Crafts and Echo Park Blog Hop

Sorry guys....I am at CHA and my scheduled blog post has disappeared. I don't have my computer with me so I can't redo it. But your next blog is the fabulous Rhonda http://snapwhiz.blogspot.com/

Favorite Projects of 2011

The last day of 2011.....and I am heading into the scraproom to create my last projects of the year, but I thought I would share  my favorite projects from this last year...

 

 

I wish you a happy happy new year of creating!!!

Favorite Webster's Pages layouts of 2011

It has been an amazing year creating with Webster's Pages digital collections AND working with the Webster's Pages Design Team and Owners.  I have had Design Team spots in the past but I have to say none of them compare with the experience I have had at Websters' Pages.  I have learned so much this year about design, and had so many new opportunities and I have to thank Brandin for that, I even had a bucket list item checked off :)  It is so great to work directly with the owners and creators, definitely a family experience that becomes a part of who you are.

So one thing I like to do each year is to choose my favorite layouts I did that year.  And this year I am going to single out Webster's Pages layouts because they carry such meaning for me :)

The Trendsetter collection was perfect for Jenna's first day of School picture this year:

I love this picture of my daughter Rachel....and it was so funny when I showed her the layout because she had just written a self description of herself for school and it was exactly what I had written about her:

This layout shows my style changing a little bit, something that I have fully embraced now.  As Brandin told me over and over......you need space for your eye to rest :)  This is my baby Ariel....she is a 7 lb Chihuahua and has added so much to my life....she is a love!

I am a sucker for a beach themed collection.  I love the beach and these photos of Jenna taken 2 summers ago continue to be among my favorite of all time.  The Yacht Club collection was also perfect for these photos:

The Winter Fairy Tales collection was calling my name for my Disney On Ice pictures:

One of my favorite lines of all time from Webster's Pages is All About Me, I turn to that line over and over.  My favorite color combination is turquoise/white/lime green and this is one line that does it right!  I feel like Brandin made it special for me :)

This spring/summer I had the amazing opportunity to work with Webster's Pages to create photobooks with Webster's Pages digital collections for their new journey with NovelTree.  This page is created from a page in one of those books, my favorite, The Boy book using the Natures Storybook collection:

The 911 anniversary this year inspired me to create this next layout again using the All About Me collection and photos from Jenna's school performance in May which was patriotic themed:

I had alot of amazing travel adventures this year and one of them was San Francisco with my Mom and daughter Rachel and her guy Chuy for Thanksgiving....Waiting for Santa was perfect for this layout of ME...yep I did a layout of me ;)

Okay now...check out this white space and off the page design...from ME???  Yeppers!

I told you I was a sucker for beach themes and beach pictures ;)  This layout uses Yacht Club once again and is also a page I created from one of the NovelTree book layout pages:

Ahhhh yes, have to include the layout about Sadie....she is a huge life size deer made from cement which my mom and I bought and loaded into my little car...in the back seat...and had to have someone come over and unload it...but she is a great addition to the backyard and the kids love her:

This layout is a fun quirky one that just makes me smile every time I see it....Life as we Know it, outtakes from a family photo session:

And one last layout to share with you...using the brand new line called Sunday Picnic and featuring the Clean & Simple line being introduced by Webster's Pages....and pictures from the above photo shoot with Kimberlee Miller:

And there you have it....my favorite Webster's Pages digital layouts for 2011!!
Thanks for visiting and sharing this time with me :)
Hope that your new year is amazing!!

2011 in Photos

Well...its been quite the year, however after a few trying years this year has been a good one.  Lots of great new memories made, lots of fun adventures, great family time.......and peace for the most part.  Trips this year, Hawaii, Grand Canyon, Morro Bay, Alaska, Reno/Sparks with 3 kids a diabetic cat and a chihuahua, New England/Canada, San Francisco and Disneyland for 3 days.  Milestones, Trevor graduates from Preschool, Rachel graduates from College, Trevor starts school, Jeromy moves to Sparks and then Bullhead City...and loses his first two teeth.  It has been a great year...and here are some of my favorite photos from this year:

See ya in a few days with my favorite layouts from 2011!!!!
Happy New Year to you all!

Handmade gifts and decorations!

Well its the season all right.....and Christmas is just 7 days away.....are you ready??  I am...I just finished my last Christmas present, which I cant share but I do have some decorations and gifts that I created this season!!
First up...I have quite the owl addiction, dont know why but they really draw my attention.  I also happened to have some felt on hand from another project and one night I sat and made these:

 Jenna and Trevor quickly claimed them as their own, and so now I need to make one for me to keep.  They were super easy and I got the idea from Pinterest :)
Check out the eyes...I used my Epiphany Crafts Button maker and the Round 20 buttons to make custom eyes for these guys:

The reason I had the felt was because I made these cute little Christmas trees, in my color theme for the year, pink, turquoise, green....and I thought they would make an awesome gift for my funky hairdresser so again....I dont have my own, but I do have the stuff to make them, lol!

I used my Epiphany Crafts Button and Shape Studios and made ornaments for my trees!
Then came my next love.....making little canvas's, again sticking to my new Christmas color theme:

I made a cute little peacock feather Christmas tree using Bo Bunny paper and my Epiphany Craft Shape Studio and the oval epoxies with a little heart button for the top!

And then I joined in on a challenge that Hobby Lobby put up on their Facebook page for tags and created these:
The first is my owl tag, I used a combination of Webster's Pages papers, in the Botanical Christmas line, and my Epiphany Crafts buttons, epoxies, and felt settings:

And.......this tag won day 5 :)
I created another tag for the challenge using a freebie digital tag from Webster's Pages adding lots of Websters Pages trims and some Epiphany Crafts Round 25 Epoxies:

It didnt win....but it looks great on my tree!!!
And last but not least is probably my favorite new decoration of the year that I made:

I used a very inexpensive shadow box frame I got from Michaels for $5, framed a paper from Best Creation Inc, added some loose jingle bells and then added a title to the front of the glass, using a Epiphany Crafts Heart 25 Epoxy to dot the 'i'.  Tied a ribbon around it and what a great decoration dontcha think?
So I talked about changing up my color theme this year and I am working towards it...last year I got a white tree, this year I started going pink, turquoise, lime green and this is what I have:

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and hope that you are enjoying your season as much as I am :)