Challenges and Free Template!

I have been busy with Creative Victorian Designs! Netta has become a friend whose work I admire and her work ethics are just above and beyond.
I am honored to let you in on a freebie kit from CVD via The Daily Scrapper.
Netta is the featured designer this month, for their 20th edition! You get 1/2 the kit now and the other 1/2 in two weeks. I recommend signing up for their newsletter to remember! I will post here too...but it's a good newsletter!
The kit is Feline Splendor, and I did this fun layout of my Feline; Lady Fluffy Pants!
Creative Victorians Shoppe is full to the brim with a lovely kit that Netta did for me!! Indian Rapture! It is East Indian..with the brightest colors..I have only done one layout so far, but I know I will use the kit again and again. This is my goofy girls in the water last MARCH...yes it was cold, yes it was freezing, yes they are weirdo's! Then just when I though I was gonna have a break from this one woman kit producing maniac! ha ha...She pops this one; Hunter out! I had an out and out blast layering the elements...a big thank you to Misty Cato for the freebie alpha...


And the challenges are out for November over at Creative Victorian also! I made this template for ya'll. Please, please, download and enjoy, but would so love to see what you made with it...upload it to Creative Victorian Gallery and join us in the challenge.
Go here for the template.
I hope everyone is enjoying life.

November flies it..............whoosh..........

I am running around crazy and had to just sit and get it all together~my blog is a good way for me to piece my scrap life together~what I have done, and what needs to be done(which the list is bigger, but getting smaller quicker)

What's done:
As you know I am CTing (albeit without an official blinkie) for Alamama's Pressed Petals over at Scrap Matters. She has the most hilarious kit...well, it was for me. It is called 1st&Parkway, it is a city kit, but the colors make it versatile for just everyday things, Like Abby and her show and tell presentation.

But also in the kit is the awesome signal light that I had to scrap my dad getting caught in the red light camera's here in our town! I hope you laugh like I did:

Big News: I am creating for a new designer! Ruby Rynne aka French Ruby; who is actually Irish and lives in France. Ruby caught my attention due to her quick wit and intelligence with the language in explaining the digi world happenings...(some in the dark inner workings of digiland! ha ha)
I love her designs and am wanting to try ATC's~this is my first attempt: Abby doing school work, like a bird set free to learn and see all you can see!
I took a million pics of my kids last night with their hilarious costumes!

A bride, a scarecrow, a domino, and a homeless waif! I used Ruby's kit again and put one of her papers over the whole thing and made it an overlay for a cool sepia orangy look.



One of the perks of Ruby being at SBG, is the collabs! Oh my! I did two heritage layouts with their November Mega Kit; Impressions of Tradition. They are from the pictures I scan this past spring from my mom! I love to look at them, especially my aunts, as I can see myself and my mom in their faces.

I have a few things cooking! Challenges over at Creative Victorian, new layouts with a beautiful new kit made by request for me by dear Netta, Indian Rapture...stay tuned for this all tomorrow (I hope) lol

Golden State

I am not a big picture taker of nature, but sometimes things just grab me, like the walnut groves here as they change in each season...but the one HUGE thing that gets me is the sunsets of California.
When we were in New Mexico, the sunsets were one of my favorites also, because of the pinks and swirls of clouds with the setting sun. There is something about the hue of gold that covers us as the sunsets here in California that makes me just very happy!
Last Wednesday evening we were picking up one of the ladies for church and I saw this as we were in the left hand turn lane on the hiway! Mr. E (my oldest) was in the front. I grabbed my camera and fiddled with it and had E lean back, roll down the window and this is what I got! woo hoo! I love it!
I have been on a sabbatical from a few designers while life gets more in a grove with homeschooling, and Lyndsay Ritchie over at Scrap Orchard, was one of the more patient ones...Thank you Lyndsay!! I enjoy playing with her kits, and this is my debut back with her team!

I have a secret!

I'm real bad at keeping them, but I have to until after Halloween! It is gonna be hard...but I'm excited!
I am also pondering doing some ATC's~so if anyone out there has helpful sites, hints or nifty thoughts, please let me know!!

This is from my heart!

Some of you know that my in real life friend; Christine also known as Alamama is now designing. She has come up with a kit about the trials, pains and ups and downs of wanting a child and going thru it. This kit so touched me, as Christine always, I mean every Mother's Day I knew her before I became a mother, seemed to put me first before herself.
Our church would hand out roses to the mom's as they came in the church, and it seemed like I was running a gauntlet that dreaded Sunday in May. I would try and keep my normal cheery attitude, but some times my emotions were running deep and strong.
Christine kept hope in God and His plan for my life at times when I wanted to just blubber and scream!
I opened this kit, and pulled up all the precious pictures of us picking up all 4 of our kids. Pics of us before kids, pics of us with the kids, and I kept coming back to this picture of Christine.
I tried to put in words the thankfulness I have for the people God has surrounded me with. (eek, ending sentence with preposition).
This layout was done in gratitude for a woman who has jumped into the designing arena at a time that there are 100s of others doing the same. I hope you see just how much she shines above the rest!
Go buy her kit...you will love it! If Adoption isn't something that has touched your life, buy one of her other ones...go..go on...ScrapMatters....she is Pressed Petals, and she is good!
Here is the full kit:She also has this perfect word art, that captures the angst of adoption:

pic from the vault of memories

Carolyn Rose Kite, (I love to use her full name, sounds so glamorous) has a new kit. She is real people, glamorous in my eyes! lol
As one of her creative team members, I am given her kit for free in exchange for making a layout and uploading it to a few galleries.
I put the layout here in my blog, because I make layouts of my memories. I don't get the kit because I blog, or because I talk about CRK. I do this because I love the kit, and am especially proud of the layout I have done and want to share it with the folks (the 8 or 9 regulars and occasional google hits) that come by my blog.
There is a big brouhaha (that is a real word btw), about the FCC and blog endorsements...well, come on over to my house and enforce it! In my little town, we have a new born buried yesterday, that has no name because it was found with it's umbilical cord and placenta attached in the river. Drugs are rampant, and crime is at an all time high, if the FCC wants to shut down my blog because I got a $5 kit for free and then blogged about it...come on down, but I'm tellin' you, you had better pack a lunch!
I step down off my soap box, excited that I am studying the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence with my 8th grader.
That said, this is the layout of our Abby, so proud of the helicopter that saved her life. I pulled this picture up, as soon as I saw Carolyn's kit; Planes, Trains and Automobiles ~I couldn't believe how small my children are...this is 5 years ago! I just stared at them...they have so grown...
I hope you enjoy this layout...if you want the kit, pop over to PickleBerryPop or Elemental Scraps(ES has a better sale right now!!).

Free Template and challenges galore!!

Over at Creative Victorian, I am hosting a few challenges this month, and would love to have some of ya'll come on over and join them. I am doing a quote, font and sketch challenge! Come on over and pick up this free sketch template, made with my little fingers...

The template is free here!

I would love to see what you do with it!! Post it at the gallery at CVD and in the forum and you will recieve this part of a beautiful kit! It is one of 6 parts of a full kit called Hunter that you can collect if you participate in 5 of the other challenges. This kit will go into the store for sale on November 1st and will no longer be available as a posting bonus.
This is the whole kit, together, it is huge, so huge it needed two previews (they are pretty too, huh?)
I hope ya'll pop over to CVD and play, would love to see you there!!