Bokeh Effect in MDS!

OK, one more layout for this week... 

I don't know if I'll get much of a chance to get some MDS in, as we are having one last blast of summer with the kids and going camping for  three days... and then I'll have to buckle down and make sure we're all organized for school!  Ack!!!

And another confession... I totally CASEd this whole "bokeh" effect from Cindy Schuster... that girl has got some great stuff going on in MDS... I love CASEing her.  You use the confetti stamp image from the Cake & Icecream stamp brush set, blow it up really big... lessen the opacity, and repeat and rotate a few times to move your stamp into different positions!  Her layout was a really spring-y one, but I managed to make a Christmas one using pictures of my girls' gingerbread house decorating forays!  This could be snow falling in the background, or lights for the Christmas season... doesn't really matter to me... I just LOVE the way it looks!

Give it a whirl on your next layout!

xo Anita

Love This!

We're getting to the end of the week again... and I still have a couple more layouts to show you!  Sometimes if I seem to have a bit of a mental or creative block with designing, I just find a layout from someone else that I love!  That's what I've done here!  

I took inspiration from Cindy Schuster's design, and just used what I had to make it my own!  It's so easy to do... and I always love the finished product!  The stamps I used are a little different than hers... in fact, nothing is exactly the same as hers, except the general idea and layout... it's so easy to customize something that you find on Pinterest or someone's blog to fit your own tastes, or fit what you have, instead of buying more downloads... although, I always like doing that too!!!

This is the last page in my daughter's albums... now I am super excited to get them uploaded and printed... although, I may wait until my Mexico book is done, and do them all at once!  Exciting!

Seeyou tomorrow! 

xo Anita

Girly Glam MDS!

Good morning!  I'm back with another layout... this one using lots of girly flowers, lacy doilies, and some glimmer paper, and even some gold brads!  Pretty sure I have never used them yet!  I think this one turned out beautifully!

Do you want to know a secret about this one?  I did this at the airport while I was waiting for my in-laws to arrive home from vacation!  So easy to take anywhere!

Seeyou tomorrow!

xo Anita

Family Vacation-MDSM78

Hi there!  

This afternoon I have yet another MDS layout!  To see all my MDS layouts click here.We'll be taking off again for one last blast of summer camping, so I made some time today for a little scrapbooking!  After this... it's groceries, laundry, all the stuff you do before you take off for a few days, and then when you get back there is MORE laundry!  Oh, the joys...!

Since I had camping on the brain... and the sketch at MDS Monday wanted a map, all in the spirit of family vacays... I turned to some pictures of our last camping trip down to the southernmost tip of Washington State... Cape Disappointment!  I assure you,  the trip was far from disappointing, as the name suggests!  I think it's something to do with Lewis & Clark, or some ship captain who thought he discovered something, but then was disappointed!  There are some conflicting reports... ha!  Although there are alot of things to explore there that are associated with Lewis & Clark... like this interesting boardwalk at Waikiki Beach, that contains all the journal entries from Lewis & Clark's journal!  Cool, huh?  And yes... I said Waikiki Beach ("the 'kicky' beach" according to my three year old!)  This beach has great waves like it's Hawaiian counterpart.... but baby... that water was COLD!

Anyway... that's neither here nor there... here's the great sketch inspiration from MDS Monday!

For may map I went on the internet and found a map of the Washington/Oregon coastline that I liked... then I did some editing so it didn't clash with my pictures.  I made it the colour of sand, and then to highlight where exactly we were on the coast, I did a coloured focal point of that area, and blurred out slightly behind the photo area!  You can see it there where the Columbia river enters the Pacific Ocean!  That's where we were!

We had the BEST time!  My husband has thousands of memories of camping with his aunt and uncle and cousins on the Oregon coast while growing up.  We want to make those memories for our kids too, so we've started going camping with his sister, her husband and their kids.  And although we didn't go as far as Oregon this year... my husband and brother-in-law are making plans for a big trip all the way down to San Diego next summer!  My in-laws come down for a few days too, although they don't do camping anymore, they stay in a condo nearby, and my sister-in-law and I sneak there for showers and a titch of civilization!  I'm more of a "glamper" than a "camper" myself!

So this layout has just a few shots of our trip down the coast, but there will be many more layouts documenting our fabulous fun-filled days!

Thanks for coming by!

xo Anita 

Two For One!

Good morning to you all!  It's another gorgeous day in the Valley... so without further ado, I will get to what you are here for.  Another dose of MDS!  Like I said yesterday, I finished off all three of my girls' albums for 2012-2013, and the easiest way to fast track that is to use the import feature in MDS.  You can see here that both of my older girls have exactly the same layout, the only thing I switched after importing the layout, was the picture!  Voila!  Two birds with one stone!  LOVE!

I must give credit where credit is due... I CASED this layout from someone... and I can't remember who... but it is pretty much a direct copy!  I loved their layout, and now I love mine!

Take a look!

See, two layouts done... all in the time it took to do one!

 xo Anita

WooHoo! (PMDC-051)

Hello Monday!  I've got a real quick post for you today to start the week off with some MDS.  I polished off my girls' books for 2012-2013... and it feels so good having done that!  So there'll be a couple more layouts to show you over the next few days!

I used the colour combo from the Pixel Maven as a starting off point for this layout... and decided to change my pictures to black and white... despite having the blackboard as a background.  These pictures were taken at night and were all sorts of weird colours and lighting... so I ran with it!

 

Above are the challenge colours.... I chose to use Melon Mambo... and below is my layout!

I found a layout from Jeanna Bahannon where she used these little squares filled with DSP, and I liked that idea... so gave it a whirl!  I really like the way it turned out!  I've done a few layouts now with the blackboard as my background DSP, and it's really growing on me!

Stay tuned for more layouts this week!

xo Anita

MDSM#77-Happy 3rd Birthday!

Hello again!  With summer winding down here a little, I seem to be making more of a point of scrapbooking.... maybe because we're ready to start another school year... and I realize I haven't even scrapbooked everything from last year?!?!?  Yikes!

In any event, I forsook all... except my kids, of course, to do a little designing in MDS again today... I used the sketch at MDS Monday as a starting off point... and it's all about layers and depth there this week... so that's what I went with!

Here's the sketch...

I finally scrapbooked my youngest daughter's 3rd birthday... from last November! Yes... I know!  But look how cute and colourful it turned out!  I did alot of recoloring on here, both with DSP and all the burlap embellishments... I love how 'frosty' and 'ice creamy' looking they turned out!  OK, that totally doesn't make any sense at all... but that's sort of what I see with these colours!  Tempting Turquoise, Pink Passion and Daffodil Delight!  And it's been eons since I even used Pink Passion!

 

She was so excited for her birthday!  After opening her first present... a Leaptop laptop... she didn't open any other gifts!  She was so thrilled at getting "a lap-top just like you, Mommy... except I 'hab' a pink one!"  What a cutie, huh?  Look at her face!

Anyway... sniff, sniff... she's gonna be 4 already in November... it goes so fast!

That's it for me!  Check out the challenge at MDS Monday... they never disappoint with great DT inspiration and challenges!  

xo Anita

Cousins - SC85

Welcome back to another challenge for Stampin' Celebration!  This time we've got this sketch challenge... designed by yours truly!  Hope you have fun with it!  I LOVE all the DT samples... be sure to go and check them out by clicking on over to SCIC.

Here's the sketch...

And since it was my sketch, it resembles my layout almost exactly!  Here you are...

I cannot wait to see what you all come up with!  Be sure to play along and link up below our challenge post, and then come back and vote for your favourite project.... you could be our Pick of the Party!

See you in the gallery!

xo Anita

Ahhh... Mexico! MDSM#76

Hello!  I'm back with a quick post.... just squeezing in under the wire here.  Today was my oldest daughters 11th birthday, and I FINALLY managed to finish this layout.  I've been thinking all week what I wanted to do with the sketch at MDS Monday this week... 

... and then it came to me yesterday night!  One of my pictures from Mexico, with all three photo boxes grouped together!  This will be the cover of my album from my husband's and my trip to the Mayan Riviera last December, so... no journalling.  And I also flipped the sketch so that my title would be in the top left corner.  Now that I knew what I wanted to do, it was just a matter of finding the time!  Well, today was the day... I took the birthday girls to my in-laws pool, then realized my laptop battery was dead, so hauled an extension cord out to run my computer... and seriously... like 20 minutes later... DONE!  Love that about MDS!  Anywhere!  Anytime!  

I colour matched the background to the sand and added a texture overlay stamp to resemble grains of sand.  My font is FFF Tusj... LOVE IT!  It's a great chalkboard font as well... but just seemed to fit the style here as well.  To be honest... I hardly feel like I really 'scrapbooked' because it's all picture!  At first I thought the sketch would be pretty easy... but there were really not a lot of pictures that I had that worked for it... and now I'm glad, because I got my Mexico book in the works.... after 9 months!  Isn't that awful?

Man... that water sure looks inviting doesn't it?

Thanks for stopping in... xo Anita

oh... one little confession... I 'erased' some people walking on the sand in the foreground... they just didn't fit!  That took me longer than actually making this page!

Starting 3rd Grade - SC84

Wow!  This summer is flying by!  I can hardly believe it is August already!  For some people that means school is right around the corner!  For us, in Canada, we don't go back until the day after Labour Day... but that's really only one more month of summer vacation!  Boo hoo!

So to help you kick off the 'back to school' season... we've got a great inspiration challenge at Stampin' Celebration for you!  Check it out...

And, I'll tell you.... that school bus means something to me, because the first day of school for my girls, means the first day of getting up VERY early again to drive that big ol' bus!  Groan...

I didn't make a layout about that though... I chose some pictures of my daughter at 'school store day' getting all settled in her new 3rd grade classroom, wearing her new backpack... all ready to meet her teacher!  And now that we have 3rd grade behind us, she'll be starting fourth grade in a month! 

So, be sure to click over to Stampin Celebration, check out what all the other talented ladies came up with, and then get creative!  We'd love to have you play along with us, link up your project with the linky tool at the bottom of the challenge post, and maybe you'll be the Pick of the Party!  Yay!

Seeya'll later!  xo Anita