Land Sakes, but I have been MOJO overdose!

If for the past week you have been staring at a blank screen and can't find the mojo to make a layout, let me tell you, I stole it all! I went on a binge! I mean binge of a ton of layouts! Please realize, I scrap like a video game! I do it for the pure joy! I love the feeling of accomplishment, and to make a page I go, oh yeah, that was fun! I don't print every page, I do most of them, but some are purely for the designer who graciously allow me to have the kits free in return for a layout they can use to promote their designs.  It is a win-win situation, because I find I do not make ANY pages without that release deadline! Crazy I know, but uhm it works for me!

First off, my last week of the fun and hilarious guest spot from The Digi Chicks:

a huge welcome to Danyale to The Digi Chick!

I loved playing with her kit, and this pic of my Abby just flew together!

The kit is called
Childhood Magic by Etc by Danyale and it is delightful!

This is just a taste, there is so much more to the kit!

Next I did two months worth of pictures.  This I hope, fingers crossed and all, I do every month, and will print in one book! Kinda cool!
Another new designer Wishing Well Creations-P365: Monthly Templates

I was able to do January and February!  I like it, cause well, I am a spaz, and to leave some of the dates open, cause well, DUH, I didn't take any pictures those days.  The guilt of the Pic a Day for a Year was over the top! These helped! ha ha

The wickedly wild embroidery is from the ViVa Artistry, an element pack called Bloomin'
and it is Bloomin' fantastic!

 February 2011:

I am starting to see a pattern in my ViVa addiction, I dug through my ViVa Artistry stash and used Silk Road and a retired kit I snagged up a few months back Contemplations! oh my, am beyond excited to be a part of their CT! This is gonna save me a whole lot of money!
Back to Wishing Well Creations, she has these adorable kits for Boys and Girls.  I'm telling you, get the bundle!! You will love it!

I did a boy and girl layout!

Then I sat down with all the craziness of Vegas coming to do a few layouts for my friend and boss Tangie Baxter!  I love working for Tangie, as I make layouts just because it is fun, and she lets me!
I am also on her sister Molly's team, and they have the most remarkable collab out today:

Silhouette {Collab W/ DeCrow Designs} 

 I am a collector of silhouettes, I love them made of wood and painted black! This kit has things that are so outrageously wonderful, and my team mates did some wonderful layouts, I had to go for humor:

 Tangie will be guesting over at the Scrap Orchard for April, and has these delightful little mini kit: Stacy Jane

 I used one of Gone with the Wind (aka Cheryl) templates, she sells as Fiddle Dee Dee Designs at The Digi Chick also, and I got the template free from I think the artisan?  Pencil Sketch, oh dear forgive me Cheryl.

 Whew I really was moving and grooving.  But I had one more to complete, I really wanted to use the new font that Tangie released: Jabberwock:

 .........and play with the fun tutorial she has made.  I had missed her last release due to being out of town:

Layla in La La Land{Collab with Rebecca McMeen} 

 So, I played with the font (along with a few more of Tangie's and some of her older releases) and had a blast making this quirky little gem:

I think that is it!!

NO, wait I did an April Desk Top!

  You can download it for free at The Creative Team Loft blog!

ps sorry for all the caps? can not figure it out?

 

Leaving for San Jose!

Well, I know the general direction, but luckily we have a Garmin GPS to get us there on the right roads!  We have a 3 day Pioneer Pastor's Rally.  I am beyond excited, I have met some wonderful ladies and we get to see each other 2 times a year, so this is a great time! 

We have had so much RAIN!!!!

All of were suffering major cabin fever! I mean ALL of US!  The skies started clearing about 10am, and I declared 1/2 hour break from school, only if they went outside! There was whooping and joy! I watched the clouds roll away, and blue start to break through. I know the storm is coming back in a few hours, so I made the command decision to walk the bridges over the river!
I promised them one day we would walk them both, and today was the day! We parked the van at the foot of the BIG bridge right by the church and took off. We had to pass the car dealer, and we stood by the cars we loved, well the girls did. The boys were being cool.

 

Then we made it to the bridge. This is the main BIG bridge and the street is called Colosa and also Hiway 20.  Some folks call it the 10th Street bridge because when you get to Marysville it is 10th street:

Here is a map of our walk, it is about 3 miles. It took about an hour!

The bridge was very loud and scary due to the large amount of rain. The river is way higher than usual, and running very fast!

After this we walked fast, I really just wanted to get over this bridge fast! It is cement and has openings you can look right down into the river and it moves! Oh it was horrible!

This area is not usually filled with water!

The half way point, I was as far away from the edge as possible, you can see they aren't real wanting to be close to the edge either! It was very powerful.   But look at those clouds! Seeing blue and feeling the sun was worth the whole trip!

Then we went under the big bridge to walk on the levy that runs parallel to the river in Marysville. This is where all the homeless hang out.  You can see the bridge we just walked across.

This is on the levy and we are looking down on where the soccer fields are, but they are underwater.  I took this picture and told the kids it was for handicap boats to park:

 

Anna says, they have handicap parking for boats, and as soon as she said it, shook her head and look at me, and I knew, I had gotten her for just a second...bha ha ha 

Onward on our adventure, and before we got to the second bridge, known as the little bridge or the 5th street bridge that goes from Marysville into Yuba City to become Bridge Street. 

The homeless RV park! bha ha ha...Eric was so wanting the bike trailer that is under the right pile of stuff!

We are now headed West and I liked this bridge a lot better! It was quieter, the walk path was wider and the river was narrower. I liked how safe I felt on it.

There is the little bridge we just crossed and we are on the opposite levy, but back in Yuba City.  I was rather excited to get pics of both boys and girls that look pretty good!

This is looking at the first bridge we crossed but from the Yuba City side! We were almost done! I was feeling so revigorated!

The boys of course were trying to trip each other all the way home, and I was noticing. The punks.  You can still see all the puddles from the rain.  We are expecting more rain, but it was so pretty.
On the way back past the car dealer, my dream car was out, and just washed so the girls took my pic with it:

 

So

The Cadillac Escalade. But I really am content with my Mazda zoom zoom mini van, pay no attention to me laying hands and claiming this vehicle! lol  ha haha
So we get back to the church and we watched a semi-truck pull wires off the poles, I was in shock as he kept driving off, and had my camera in my hand, but did not take a picture.  I did call 911 and we got to see the fire department come and take care of the situation.

The being professionals, recognized immediately it was not dangerous, wrapped the wire up and placed on the side walk for AT&T to come and rehook some very angry customers back up!

We were all ready for lunch, and our adventure had come to a close.  Home for Math and Spanish! The clouds have moved back in and I am glad we took the opportunity to go and enjoy the blue skies!

I took the DARE! What about YOU??

The Digi Dares are a group of scrappers with some fun and challenging scrap pages.  I mean they have some obscure and wild ideas for making pages, and some pretty good prizes too! I have met some wonderful ladies over at the Digi Chicks, and one is HeatherB.  I stalk her.  I think I stalk a lot of people. I think I have major attachment issues.  Like I latch onto you and you can't shake me. 
Oh, oh, oh, back to the Dare!  I had to find a picture that is not good, and only use that picture!  Then add a speech bubble and use the colors of the rainbow!
I admit, my rainbow is rather muted (the colors) but I have a good excuse, you see it has been raining here for over a week.  That is my reason, and I wanted to use ViVa Artistry's mini kit; Silk Road:

from over at The Digi Chick, to go with the photo, since it was taken at Panda Express.  You can see Anna's thoroughly disgusted face at her brother as he is inhaling his chow mien! 

Chengie is LIVE and designing for realS!

In a dark chat room a year ago, I met a group of hilarious ladies.  Kate, the ring leader and so many other people that over the past year have really been instrumental in molding my life in the digital realm. One of the ladies, is Chengie. I have grown to love this lady so much. She is like many other digital scrappers, part vampire, so she doesn't sleep, so many hours on IM, giggling while we scrap and surf the net about digital. Chengie is a sensational scrapper, she has won major competitions for best layouts, and has an eye for color, balance and the obscure.  She has been giving away little kits and templates for a while.  An opportunity for a store opened, and
Chengie is now officially selling at DigiScrap as Studio 68.

I was able to play with one of  her templates In Circles 2.  This is free on her blog.

and the newest release from DeCrow Designs; a collab with Laura Banasiak called Garden Whimsy.  

I added some pictures of my beautiful girls with a bit of actions from the Pioneer Woman, 

and this was the final results:

Busy in the DigiWorld

I did my first real tutorial! I giggle and am kept humble because I am teaching how to make your own bowl of rocks.  Let me set the scene:

Glasses clinking, mummer of voices low, and an occasional guffaw.  Our camera pans on AnneofAlamo and some well established business woman and man. 

"So, Anne, what do you.....well, do? Do? As a career, outside of educate your children at home?"

ME: Well, in my spare time, I tell people how to put rocks in a bowl!  

har de har har!

But I did, and I do! I loved it and Tangie Baxter even made me some 100% original rocks for you to use in your own bowl. Just pop over to the AJC Blog for the FREE tutorial and the FREE rocks!

Now I am really laughing, as this week at the Digi Chick, I was only able to do one layout for the precious designers over there.  It was for my dear friend Julie. It is. of Sherwood Studios. 

 Julie has a gorgeous collab out this week, with Kimeric Kreations called Wish Big. 

 

I was bummed not to have more time, because one of the NEW designers for The Digi Chicks had lots of her things available to scrap with also. Amanda Heimann! I love her work, and she is just beyond sweet!
 

Fun over at the DigiChick!

I have been laughing so hard in the forums of the Digi Chick! There are some hilariously funny people there, not to mention some very talented designers.  Somehow,  I snuck in for a guest appearance as a Creative Team Member for their site.  I am sure the powers that be are confused and bamboozled how I showed up in their backroom.

Now there new releases this week, are wowza woo woo wonderful.  I was able to work with 3 different designers and make 4 layouts in a few short days! Yes, I thrive on deadlines, and love the smell of a freshly opened kit.   Strange, I know, but hey, it's true, and now the designs are in the shop of The Digi Chick and you can go play!! Wait, don't go yet, I haven't shown you what I did with the designs.

First off, oh my, Karen Lewis has a Forever Family Pack.  I almost cried! As you know we are a family through foster and I can not get enough of this genre of designs. 

A dear lady named Liza in my home church took this picture of my kids, it is the first picture of them laughing all together.  I was excited to scrap this photo:

Then, okay, no secret, I love the duo of ViVa Artistry.  I do, I get a smile at each of their kits, and have bought a few of them.  I secretly want to go and download every one of their kits and run away into the sunset, but I have so far contained myself.  

Fabricology.  This is the kit:

 I saw it and I am not joking, a layout popped in my head! I pulled out the elements, and started cutting, clipping, blending and rearranging and out came this altered wonder:

 

Now, I was hesitant to post in the CT thread, thinking I would be run out of the back room and slapped around silly.  NO, NO, NO Anne, that is altered, go back to your hole.

But, they were so sweet and kind, and loved altered! I was relieved, because sometimes an altered piece has to be made before you are allowed to go on and create anything else.  I think it is a law of creativity, but refused to look it up in case I am wrong.  I wanted to make a layout of regular scrapability for this kit, so I did this one:

I am feeling rather sentimental, as Hubby and I just passed 21 years married and love to look at my young un aged nor wrinkled hands from my wedding pics! h aha ha
Remember I said 3 designers? That was just 2, the next one is new to me, and her kit was so full of things to choose from, I think I put the whole kit on my page and made it all fit! Elise's Pieces Designs, and the kit; A Stitch in Time.

I played with some photo's using Pioneer Womans FREE actions! I love them, because at the bottom is a start over button! ha ha...I got the effect I was after, to go with Elise's beautiful kit, and giggled at my children, trying to capture a mole with a string, the red string:

The Digi Chick is a great store and the forum is active and they all laugh at my jokes! Stop by and say hi, or better yet, go to the store and buy things!