Sketchapalooza 3 starts Monday (and some layouts)

Ok, you've heard me rave about Sketchapalooza before. SO GO SIGN UP!!! It's an inexpensive class and you get a BILLION sketches, the support of an awesome design team, and some chat with a really great and talented community of women. So mosey on over to Feeling Scrappy and SIGN UP ALREADY!!

I'm really not sure howI think I'll be able to keep up with everything in March. We are going on a superfantabulous vacation for part of the month (Spain, Morocco and the Canary Islands), and in addition to Sketchapalooza and the wind down of the photograpy class I'm taking, I'm taking Jessica Sprague's Digi in Deep digital scrapbooking class. Oh, boy. This should test my multitasking skills.

On a completely different topic, here are a few fun layouts I did this week! Credits under each photo.

Credits: layout for the Monday sketch challenge at The Digi Chick; sketch by Mareen (sternrakete); all papers and elements from the You Make My World Go 'Round kit by Lauren Grier and Heather Roselli

Credits: layout for the Wednesday High Noon crop and challenge at Scrap Girls (blue and green color challenge); quote by Brian Andreas; paper and elements from the Life's Canvas collection by Thao Cosgrove; assemble your own Alpha Strings by Brandy Murry; worn overlay by Amanda Sok; stitching and holes layer style by Cheryl Barber; paper tearing action by Melissa Renfro

Credits: layout for the February monthly contest at ScrapGirls (scrap "love" - this is my tongue-in-cheek adaptation); Caffeinated collection by Patricia Yochum; Breathe brush set by Keri Schueller; Friends and Family collection by Amanda Sok; Lily Divine collection by Gillian Hurst; Grungelle brush set by Brandie Valenzuela; String Fling embellishment templates by Thao Cosgrove; Aged Metals layer style by Brandy Murry; Stamped Moments brush set and Photo Cuts template by Katie Pertiet

More layouts!

It's been a fun and busy couple weeks - here are a few layouts from our recent trip to Orlando to visit family and spend a couple days at Disney, and our evening at the beach! Credits under each photo.

Credits: layout template (modified) by Anna Aspnes; background paper and label by Sarah Jones; journaling strips (recolored) by Amy Teets; glossy stamp action by Atomic Cupcake.

Credits: sketch by Jeni Boisvert (modified); all papers and elements by Kristin Cronin-Barrow.

Credits: layout template (modified) by Anna Aspnes; background paper by Pri Rocha; Clip by Lauren Grier; tag by Heather Roselli; alpha by Eva Kipler

Credits: layout scraplifted from LelaFleet at the Digi Chick; date bit by Misty Cato; acrylic circles by Eva Kipler; paper circles by Julie Billingsley; background paper by Pri Rocha; other elements by Pri Rocha, Tamra Burwick, Mari Koegelenberg and Pamela Donnis

Credits: sketch by Suzanne Baird; all papers and elements by Sarah Jones

Have I mentioned I love the beach?

I really, really love the beach. Just hearing the sound of the waves means instant relaxation for me. I left work a little early today and picked up Adam and Alexa and we headed to our local beach (only 15 minutes away!) - although it was quite chilly (it never made it over 72 today - and that was inland), we had a blast. It was late afternoon and the lighting was just perfect perfect perfect for some photos (notice how many feet are on the ground in the last photo - none!). Then we scored an awesome new restaurant find that has the best lobster bisque I've ever had.....does it get any better than this??

{PS - I do have a couple layouts to share this weekend but see earlier posts....I have been so BUSY!! And did I mention that we were in Orlando visiting family and Disney earlier this week??}

Love this park (and more riding)

Last weekend, we went to Sugar Sand Park in Boca. It was AMAZING!! In addition to the best play area I've ever seen (better even than The Boneyard at Animal Kingdom), they have a carousel, walking trails, a big open field perfect for doing cartwheels, throwing a football and soccer, and a small but very cool science museum. These first layouts are of our trip there!

This first layout is from today's scraplift challenge at the Digi Chick and is based on a layout by annetka.

Credits: February grab bag- Candy Floss paper and flowers and black glitter alpha by Mari Koegelenberg; Denim Gal by Mari Koegelenberg; Key to My Heart by MK Designs; grunge brush by Brandie Valenzuela; grunge edge by Penny Springmann

Credits: papers and elements by Traci Reed (Kissable), all grunge edges by Penny Springmann, Atomic Cupcake bracket shape and burnt edges action

Credits: papers and elements by Zoe Pearn (Wild Thing); grunge brush by Brandie Valenzuela; photo turn by Katie Pertiet (recolored)

Thanks, Amy!

I was tagged by my friend Amy (you can visit her blog HERE) and my instructions were to share the sixth photo in my sixth album. I recently pulled all my 2008 photos off my hard drive, so I wasn't even sure I HAD six albums left on my computer! But, if I count the subfolders, it turns out I do! Here it is - a photo of Alexa trotting at her riding lesson - I'm not really sure why she's not looking at the HORSE in this photo - LOL!!! This photo was taken with my little Nikon CoolPix and not my monster camera, so I'm not thrilled with the quality - but oh, well!

I am passing on the tag to: Cali, Colleen, Theresa, Becky, and Nadya.

This Crazy Life

So, I am usually pretty good at managing to keep millions of balls in the air - but time is getting sucked away from me the last month or so! Since early in the year, I've been working out 60-90 minutes every night and my Saturdays are largely taken up by the photography class I mentioned in my last post. Since I work full time and evenings and weekends are really the only time I have to do "stuff," I have been crazed trying to keep everything together! This is the last week of the Jessica Sprague class I'm taking, then I get a month break before her next class starts, and my photography class ends in mid-March. I hope I can hold on until then!

Here are a couple layouts I managed to get done this week...this first one is for last week's scraplift challenge at The Digi Chick - this is a lift of one of scarletsierra's layouts. Yes, that's a baby photo of me!! :)

Credits: background paper by Cinnamon Designs, ric rac and little flowers by Sugarplum Paperie, button string by Danielle Engebretson, background overlay by Jan Hicks, word art by Ali Edwards, sparkle splatter by Katie Pertiet

This next one is another double-duty layout for me - I did this both for last week's Sisterhood of Scrap layout challenge (using the quote) and for Saturday's inspiration challenge at The Digi Chick (they gave us an image to use as inspiration - in this case it was a soda bottle label!).

Credits: paper frame and little flowers by Sugarplum Paperie, button string by Danielle Engrebretson, swirly border overlay by Cinnamon Designs, paper textures by Ariadna Wiczling, background paper (recolored) from the Fresh and Festive anniversary freebie by Sweet Shoppe Designs designers

Classes!

Ahhhhh!! I have homework!! I'm taking a digital photography course at our local community college, and as I've mentioned, I'm also taking Jessica Sprague's Now We're Rockin' with Photoshop online class. The layout below was completed for 1. a photography assignment, 2. this week's 30 minute Saturday challenge for NWR and 3. the Saturday Anything Goes challenge at The Digi Chick.





Credits: background paper by Sarah Jones (Happy Place); hearts by Eva Kipler (At First Sight); background overlay by Syndee Nuckles (Fancy That templates); photo mask/template by Theresa Kavouras (Patch It Up); word art by Amanda Slagle (Happiness)