Brine Design has a new store!

Brine Design has moved to 9th and Bloom!  Her first release here is today and is a wonderful collection called Birdhouse Ruffles. It's a huge kit with 3 paper packs and 3 element packs.  Here is a preview:

And here is a layout of mine. We were recently visiting the family farm. The dogs love it there, but they get so exhausted playing on the farm.

It's Exhausting Being a Part-Time Farm Dog
Birdhouse Ruffles Collection by Brine Design available at 9th and Bloom;
Fonts: CafeRojo

Backyard Blog Party at Unforgettable Moments!!

The backyard blog party is still going on at Amy's blog. And today, Amy is giving away a freebie that I made. (Preview shown above.)  It's my very first freebie. Head on over to Amy's blog and pick it up here. 

Scrapping Survivor Week 2

The Week 2 challenge for Scrapping Survivor over at GingerScraps was a recipe challenge. Our recipe box is a hard drive. We keep all of our favorites on my computer or my husband's computer.  The ones we use a lot, we eventually print out and place into page protectors. So I decided to "print" my recipe on dot matrix paper. I had to make my own scrap of dot matrix paper and then I went back and looked at the challenge guidelines and I had put the recipe on a recipe card. Ugghh. And I slaved over that piece of paper. Here are the challenge guidelines:

• The LO must have at least one photo of your favorite recipe (a photo of the actual food)
• You can not use a photo from a cookbook or online. It MUST be a photo you or a friend of family member has take. A photo from your personal collection.
• The LO must have a Recipe Card *With the full recipe written/typed on the card*
• Your LO can have additional photos BUT the Recipe must be the focal point
• The Recipe Card must be fully visible, although a bit of overlapping is allowed.
• In your description box in the gallery, you MUST type out the complete recipe.
• Remember NO TEMPLATES in this challenge.

Here is my original layout, with my scrap of dot matrix paper:

Reverse Engineering Gabriels' Guacamole Recipe
Kit: French Bistro by Pixels by Jen and Lilacs in Bloom
Staples from Remember the Moment by Unforgettable Memories with Amy Peck
Title Font: Uncle typewriter
Journaling Font: sf Jeff
Recipe Font: JD LCD Rounded

Reverse Engineering Gabriels' Guacamole Recipe
Kit: French Bistro by Pixels by Jen and Lilacs in Bloom
Staples from Remember the Moment by Unforgettable Memories with Amy Peck
Recipe Card from Cooking with the Heart by Sus Designs
Tomato by Pattie Knox from Penscappers May 11 kit
Title Font: Uncle typewriter
Journaling Font: sf Jeff
Recipe Font: LB Lisa B

The journaling reads:
We love the Guacamole Especial at Gabriels. We love it so much we decided to make it our guacamole recipe, so we went to Gabriels over and over and paid special attention as  it was made. Some ingredients were easy, like the juice of half of lime, some were harder as we'd argue over how many onions they put in: 2 teaspoons? One tablespoon? We'd go home and make the guacamole and tweak the ingredients until we had it perfected. And then we'd go back to Gabriels to compare their version to ours. Imagine our surprise when we rushed in for take-out one evening and noticed that they had the guacamole recipe posted on the wall. We were going to snap a photo, but we didn't have a camera. Someday we will have to compare our recipe to their official recipe.

And the recipe is:
Reversed Engineered Recipe for Gabriels' Guacamole Especial.

4 Large Hass avocados, halved
4 TBS tomato, diced
3 TBS onion, diced
1 TBS jalapeno, finely diced
1 tsp garlic, minced
3/4 tsp salt
Juice of 1/2 lime squeezed
1 TBS fresh cilantro (optional)

Place all ingredients into a molcajete and
mix vigorously with a spoon and whisk.

We love this guacamole so much we even went out and bought a molcajete to make it in.

LYM Week 38

This is my first blog post from a smart phone so it will be brief. The weekly challenge at LYM this week was a Reflection Challenge: Recall a time when you pushed the boundaries or accomplished a goal that required significant effort.

Just Relax

Circle and Square Templates by Key of D Designs
Sealed With a Kiss by Key of D Designs
April Showers by Key of D Designs
Pop! by Key of D Designs
The Grass is Always Greener by Key of D Designs
Fonts: CK Allison and Throw My Hands Up in the Air

LYM Weeks 36 & 37

I'm way behind in my Log Your Memory Challenges. To be honest, there were no guest designers for the summer and I really need the motivation of earning a complete kit by completing all of the monthly challenges to actually do them. The September Guest Designer is Scrapping With Liz and I love her stuff. I was not that happy with my layout for Week 36 to be honest, so I fixed it up a little and here is the new version:

My Father
Penelope Layered Template 50 by Brine Design;
Outback by Brine Design; Moving House by Brine Design;
Wish Your Heart Makes by Brine Design;
Passionflower by Brine Design and Danielle Young Designs;
Fonts: Century Gothic, CKBella
Wrinkled Paper brush by PSHero

The theme for September is personal growth: Education • Exploration • Creativity – Take a closer look at how you arrived at this point in your life and where you want to go next. The challenge for Week 36 was to write a letter to someone who has played a role in your quest for knowledge. I chose to make a layout about the things my father taught me.

If you are interested here is the layout, before I fixed it up. I made it in one evening and I'm always happier with my layouts if I come back to them on another day and tweak them a little.

My Father
Penelope Layered Template 50 by Brine Design;
Outback by Brine Design;
Moving House by Brine Design;
Wish Your Heart Makes by Brine Design;
Passionflower by Brine Design and Danielle Young Designs;
Fonts: CKBella, Century Gothic

Why was I not happy with the original, you ask? The journaling is barely visible, the title is too small, and frames lacked oomph. I had "made" the frames by texturizing the frames in the template and I just wasn't happy with them. Rather than searching through my stash for actual frames, in the new improved layout, I placed a wrinkled paper brush over them to make them look distressed.

I liked my layout for Week 37 however, and so did someone else–it's layout of the week at LYM this week. The challenge for this week was to use photos or images to capture your creative or learning process. I made a layout about enhancing the photo I used in the first GingerScraps Survivor Challenge. Here it is:

I Create
House of 3 Sampler Brushes
TTV texture is Texture-Fake TTV #1 (bus stop window) by Steffen Jakob
Photocorners by PSHero
Old Tyme Junque by Cari Cruse

The journaling is about changes in the way I scrapbook. It reads:
When I first started scrapbooking, I fell in love with it immediately. I loved preserving my photos and my memories. I began scrapping at a monthly Creative Memories crop, so I was quickly trained in the CM way. It had to be acid-free, ligin-free, and non-bulky. I did everything I could to preserve my photos. Everyone at the crops scrapped in a clean and simple, graphic style so I adopted that style as correct. It was frustrating though, in that I've never been very coordinated so I'd bring a layout home and my husband would ask "Why is that crooked?" So when I first discovered dig-scrapping, I was delighted that I could align and center things. And I discovered I could put "bulky" things on my layouts without bulk. And then I realized I liked the distressed look. Torn papers, wrinkled photos. And I loved crooked. The possibilities with digital scrapbooking are endless. There are always new techniques to learn.

Scrapping Survivor

Scrapping Survivor began on Wednesday at GingerScraps.  I've never watched Survivor, so I'm not sure how this works, but I know people are going to be eliminated. I'm not even sure that my first layout meets all the requirements as I "interpreted" them a little. Here are rules for the first challenge:

• The LO must have at least one "Aged" Photograph.
• The "Aged" Photograph must be shown twice on the LO, the original and the aged version.
• Your LO can have additional photos BUT the "Aged" Photograph MUST be the largest and the focal point of the LO.
• Remember NO TEMPLATES in this challenge.

And here is my layout:

White Boots
Layout Credits:
Friday Afternoon by By Becca;
Just Dis-Stressed Out Samples by JustJaimee;
House of 3 Sampler Brushes
Fonts: Printcess, Porcelain
Photo Aging Credits:
House of 3 Sampler Brushes
TTV texture is  Texture-Fake TTV #1 (bus stop window) by Steffen Jakob
Photocorners by PSHero

The journaling reads:
When I was in third grade and making my First Communion, I wanted to wear white cowboy boots with my dress and veil. My mother refused to allow it and forced me to wear shoes. In a fit of anger I told her that I'd wear white cowboy boots when I got married. She said that would be fine. They weren't exactly cowboy boots, but they were close enough to live up to the dire predictions of an eight year old.

Backyard Blog Party at Unforgettable Moments!!

Hello! Today a backyard blog party starts on Unforgettable Moments blog. Head on over to Amy's blog to grab freebies, play games and have a lot of fun. During the days of September 16 through September 28 you will find many awesome "party favors," on Amy's blog. The "party favors" are freebies created by Amy's CT using her products.  Whenever a party favor is offered there will also be a coupon code to pick up the corresponding kit for 50% off. And on some of the days during the blog party you will be offered a piece of a full kit that hasn't been released yet called An Autumn Afternoon. Head on over to Amy's blog and check it out!

More Shanghai

I made this layout a couple of weeks ago during a slow, speed scrap:

Destination Shanghai
A Little Me time by Audrey Stromberg;
Crazy Beautiful by Fei-Fei's Stuff;
I'm Outta Here Word Art by Captivated Visions;
Ianthine by Captivated Visions;
Echoes of Asia by Jessica Sprague;
Sheng Xiao by ViVa Artistry;
This is Me by Captivated Visons;
The Joy of Life by Captivated Visions;
Fonts: OldNewspaperTypes

The instructions were:
1) choose your photo(s) (the amount is up to you) and choose 2 background papers. Attach one of your papers to the other paper some how with one or more fastener element(s) (with stitching, buttons, tape, staples, etc).

2) Arrange your photos on your layout, and tilt at least one. Matt, frame, OR stroke your photos however you want.

3) Add a title to your layout with an alpha. You can also add tags, WA, or font to enhance your alpha title if you'd like. Choose an element that can be placed over your title.

4) Add some journaling on your page. You can journal on the background paper, on a matt, or a journal tag- it is up to you. If you are not a "journaler" at least describe some details in the photo(s).

5) Choose 3 different elements and use each of them more than once. Use them however you want: Spread them around, cluster them, and tuck them all over your layout and around your photo.

6) Add some string and a scatter (spill, splat, etc.) and add two more things- anything you want.

7) Include any finishing touches.



I was very happy with the minimalist look I had going up until step 5. I worked hard with the minimum of 6 elements, plus string and a scatter until I was happy again. Thank goodness it was a slow, speed scrap! I'm not sure if I should strip out the clusters of flowers and string and scatter before printing or leave it as is. 

I recently purchased a credit tracker script by Anna Forrest Designs. It is amazing. It keeps track of every product you use and generates the credits for you. It will even do BB Code.  It has freed me up to scrap the way I used to.  I digiscrapped for about a year before really discovering galleries, and I freely scrapped with any product I wanted to from multiple designers  and didn't keep track of what I was using. When I truly discovered the world of online digital scrapbooking, I started keeping track of the products I used and I quickly found that sticking (mostly) to a kit made my life easier. I love this credit tracker, because now I can search through my stash and pick whatever product I want. Just look at how many different kits I used in the Destination Shanghai layout. I purchased the credit tracker with the add on panel that is only for PSCS 4 and 5 only , but there is also a credit tracker for PSE as well as one without the add on panel for PSCS 3 and above.

Cool Doggie & Urban Rebel by Monkey Mesh Designs

Monkey Mesh Designs is releasing a wonderful kit today. I saw the kit preview and immediately knew that I needed it to scrap my 2000 Halloween photos of my dog, Blue. Here is the kit preview:

Urban Rebel By Monkey Mesh Designs

And here is a page of my dog:

Cool Blue
Urban Rebel By Monkey Mesh Designs

The kit had a couple of pretty cool background papers with dimensionality. I had never seen background papers like those before. They inspired me to scrap totally outside my normal style. Here's a paper I fell in love with:

See what I mean? It looks like it has a floor. (And don't you just love that grunginess?) It inspired me to extract a photo of my cool dog, Blue and make this layout:

Blue
Urban Rebel By Monkey Mesh Designs

Now I've never extracted photos for a layout or cast shadows before, so this layout was a challenge for me. And the cast shadows are mostly off the page, but I was OK with that. I found some great tutorials for casting shadows on the web, they are here and here if you are interested.

Making the Most of Challenges & Final Body of Art Challenge

This is the final week of the Body of Art Challenge at DigiScrapConnect. The challenges must all be completed by September 7th, if you want to win the Sponsor Membership for the year. The final week focused on the brain and the challenge was "Our brain has two sides, which respond to things differently. Show us two sides in one layout". I chose to scrap about my schizophrenic scrappin' style.  One half of my brain likes clean & simple/graphic layouts and the other half likes lots of flowers, ribbons and layers. Here is my challenge layout.

What Is My Style

Pickles and Ice Cream by Digilicious Designs

Fantasy Cupcakes by Binty Design 

Daydreamer by Bintys Designs

Chocoholic by Starving Artist Designs

Ocean Breeze by Digital Harmony Design Studio

Fonts: StampActJumbled and Garamond

Now these are pictures taken during our last trip to the zoo and I need a double page layout for my album. I actually started this layout as a double pager about the zoo trip and when it was around 85% done, I cropped out this page and made the challenge layout. Later I returned to my zoo layout and finished it up. Here is the final zoo layout:

ABQ ZOO (click for larger)

Pickles and Ice Cream by Digilicious Designs; 

Fantasy Cupcakes by Binty Design; 

Daydreamer by Bintys Designs; 

Chocoholic by Starving Artist Designs; 

Ocean Breeze by Digital Harmony Design Studio; 

Buttoned Up by Farynar's Wings;  

Fonts: Garamond, CKJournaling

I'm still not sure what my style is, but I got another album page done and a challenge too! 

GingerScraps September Buffet

Today is September first and you know what that means, it is time for a fresh buffet at GingerScraps. Every month the GingerScraps Designers release a slew of coordinating products; such as mini-kits, templates, paper and element kits, etc. with a common theme and color palette. And on the first day of each month, all of these buffet items are on sale for a dollar each. However, this month, it is GingerScraps third birthday and in honor of that the buffet items will be $1 each for the first week of September. The theme for this month is birthdays.


I combined two of the buffet items to make this layout, a template by Unforgettable Moments and a mini-kit by Pixels by Jen:

Made with Love

It's My Birthday Template half-pack by Unforgettable Moments; 

It's My Birthday by Pixels by Jen;  

Fonts: Chalkboard, AYummyApology, CKJournaling

And here are the product previews:

It's My Birthday by Pixels by Jen

It's My Birthday Template Half-Pack by Unforgettable Moments

Continuing the 4th Vacation and Grab bag at GingerScraps

I am continuing to scrap my way through our Fourth of July Vacation layouts.  One of our very stops in DC was the Natural History Museum to see the Hope Diamond. The Hope Diamond has been removed from its traditional setting and placed in a more modern setting to celebrate its 50 year anniversary of being on display at the Smithsonian.  While we were there we took in the rest of the mineral and gem collection which includes:

The Logan Sapphire, which at 423 carats is the second largest known faceted blue sapphire.

A gold butterfly set with 333 fancy-colored Montana Sapphires.

A platinum flower brooch made of tanzanites surrounded by diamonds.

A natural sandstone formation from Fontainebleau, France. 

The Portuguese Diamond, the largest cut diamond in the collection at the National Museum of Natural History.

A veritable rainbow of minerals.

An ore specimen from Bayard, New Mexico of Chalcopyrite. The large brassy crystals of chalcopyrite were covered with black sphalerite and white dolomite.

And a gold nugget from the Maxwell Land Grant in Colfax County, NM. 

All of these can be found in my layout below.

Rocks (click for larger)

Block Party Template by Unforgettable Moments from the GingerScraps Free With Purchase grab bag; 

Smile For the Camera by Unforgettable Moments from the GingerScraps Free With Purchase grab bag;  

Fonts: CenturyGothic, CKPirateHand

And close ups of the two sides:

I had photos cross the half-way point in this layout, which I have never done before. I guess I'll find out if it was a good idea after it gets printed!

I used the new September "Free with 10 dollar Purchase" for this layout. It's by Unforgettable Moments with Amy Peck and it is free with a 10 dollar purchase throughout the Month of September. Here is the product preview.

And here are detailed previews of what's inside! (Click for larger images)