I have been getting more interested in the photography side of scrapbooking lately. I'm getting a new DSLR camera soon and recently downloaded some basic free photo editing software from online. Here a few pictures that I've played around with let me know what you think about them. Thanks for looking.

Die Cut Negatives Challenge

This challenge comes from Karmyn at If the Shoe fits...Scrap It! in the Forum. You can find her challenge here. A while ago I had made some die cut flowers on my Cricut for a spring time swap on Cafe Mom and ended up with a sheet full of cut out flowers. This challenge had already been posted and I knew these "negatives" would be great to use for the challenge. I used one of my favorite patterned papers with it and added a little ribbon and rhinestones and a great sentiment! Hope you like it, I personally love it.

Color Challenge from the Shoe

Today's color challenge from the ladies at If the Shoe Fits...Scrap It! (link in side bar) was black and white with NO color. I just happened to have a card sketch from one of my cafe mom groups that I needed to do and I needed to also use the image of a mountain for a challenge and it kinda just went from there. I found this awesome picture of a mountain in black and white and knew I had the perfect card in the making. So here it is.

May Challenge # 3

This was a challenge from Cafe Mom group Scrap N Moms. We were given a sketch and told to use clouds. I also combined this with a nursery rhyme challenge going on in my Card Swapper & More group, we were given a bunch of nursery rhymes with specific elements we had to use on a project and who ever gets the most done at the end of the month wins. I used the It's Raining It's Pouring rhyme in which we had to use rain or storms. So here it is:

The Sketch (taken from Pencil Lines)

My LO (I flipped it to make the rain go down)

Wednesday Card Challenge revisited.

Okay so I went to my LSS today and found just the thing to finish this card off without overwhelming it. I'm now happy with the look of it and can put it off to the side and move onto another project.

Wednesday Card Challenge for the Shoe

Okay so this challenge was for the blog If the Shoe Fits...Scrap It! (link is on the side bar). They put up the Wednesday card challenge early this week! We were challenged to make a "beach" card. This one was kinda hard. The paper's I had were great but I had a hard time figuring out how to use it. I think it turned out okay but I'm not in love with it. I feel it's a bit plain but I tried a bunch of things with it and with more it just looked to crowded. So here it is hope it's not to boring.

Favorite's Challenge

I got to this one a little late but I still really enjoyed it. This came from the gal over at If the Shoe Fits...Scrap It! Each design team member picked one of their favorite LO's and then we were to take an element from each LO and create our own. You can see their LO's on the challenge post. From Tracey I took the bird and cut up patterned paper, from Lesley I took all the glitter, from Kristi I took the photo corner, from Dawn I took the black & white, from Tanisha I took the heart. Hope you enjoy it!

Blog Candy from Emily!!

Emily is giving out great blog candy on her blog Through Emily's Eyes. All you have to do to enter to win is be or become a follower. leave a comment on her post for her blog candy and post an advertisement on your blog! So get on over there and get a chance to

win this awesome prize package!

If the Shoe fits...Scrap It! Color Challenge 5/15

This weeks color challenge at the shoe was pink, white and grey! Since I have a son and not a daughter I choose to make a card instead of a LO. here is what I came up with! Take a look at their blog: If the Shoe Fits...Scrap It!

Great Find!!

So the other day a couple of my friends and I went up to Williamsburg to do some shopping. My friend Tara was looking for a cardigan for her daughter since the weather is warmer but can still have a slight chill and winter jackets are just too bulky for the spring. Just on the off chance we went into this children's boutique to see what they had. They had one cardigan for her daughter's size (4t) and it costs $60!!!! WOW! That just about blew us away! So we were getting ready to go back to the cars out the back door when we pass the boys section and on the rack is the cutest curious George rain jacket. So I just had to go over and look at the size and price. It was a size 5 (my son is in 2t but I like large rain jackets so I can use them longer) and it only cost $36!! For a rain jacket, a good quality one, that is a really good price!! So I looked at Tara and she told me I had to get it and I did!! I love this jacket and then ladies told me as I was paying for it that it was the last one and the company lost the copyright for curious George so they don't even make them anymore!! It was simply meant to be!! So here is my fabulous find!!

Thanks so much!!

One of my newest and closest friends here in VA is Tara. Funny since my sister and her have the same first and middle name with a difference in spelling! Anywho, for mother's day she made me this super cute altered clipboard!! If you know me you know I LOVE green, well more obsessed with it I guess you could say. So she made me a green frog clipboard which was perfect since my mom calls my son froggy!! Just thought I'd share it with you all!

Woohoo Wednesday Inspiration Challenge

This challenge was from the ladies at If The Shoe fits...Scrap It!. This was their WooHoo Wednesday Challenge, where we were given a set of pictures to use as inspiration. This was a fun one to do and what a great use of those left over silver scraps I had laying around and the great ribbon I bought weeks ago waiting for the perfect project. I like the way this one turned out the only thing I wish I could change is using actual burlap or some other type of fabric that could have given it a little more pizazz and similarity to the inspiration pictures. TFL!

Embellished Clothes Pins

This was a super fun swap that I'm in right now. I have seen these embellished clothespins before and so wanted to try it so when the swap showed up in one of my Cafe Mom groups I had to take a spot, I was so excited about it I took two spots!! The sign ups are still going until the end of the month but I was so excited that I had to get started. So I made 20, the correct amount for who's signed up now. I made them all different because I didn't want them all the be the same it was just too much fun to figure them out. Tip: This is a perfect use for all those tiny little scraps you just can't throw away because you love that paper! So here is a group shot of all 20 and then below that are a few of my favorites up close. I just didn't have the patience or want to crowd the posts with 2o separate pics for all of them. TFL!

Purse Piecing Challenge

This challenge was from my SSMU group on Cafe Mom as well. This is a super easy project to make and so much fun! One of the ladies mentioned wanting to make them for favors for a Tea Party themed birthday party. Here is the pattern, these I made for a set of sisters in our playgroup who are very close in age and have birthdays very close to each other as well. I made them the same so that they wouldn't fight over which one they wanted and put their initials on them so they wouldn't fight over which one was theirs.

10 things I love...

This was a challenge from my Scrapbook Swapping Moms Unite (SSMU) group on Cafe Mom. We were challenged to create a book describing the 10 things we loved about something or someone. So my obvious choice was Thomas. We were to use standard sized note cards as the base of our pages and to use photos that explained or showed what we loved. I tried my best to pick the right pictures and some of them are spot on while others were a little more difficult to depict. Since note cards are somewhat small I decided to make my book longer than others might. I used 20 pages with a front and back cover and placed the photos (full page) on the left pages and the "things I love" on the right side. I found this really cute paper at the scrapbook store up in Williamsburg, Stamp N Memories, it was in the clearance rack which was even better!! Also since it was so small a book I decided not to really embellish it because I wanted it to focus on the meaning of the words and the photos. Hope you enjoy, be warned there are a lot of pictures! TFL!

Tim Holtz Challenge # 3

This tag came from the Tim Holtz Challenge # 3 from the Okay...does Tim Holtz Rock or what?! group in the If The Shoe fits...Scrap It! community. I love all the cool stuff that Tim does so this was the perfect group and challenge to help me fin my inner Holtz. We were challenged to make a tag inspired by Tim Holtz using ink (per his instructions in his November Technique Challenge), stamped images, altered grunge or chipboard, stickles or other glittery accent, and embellishments. Tim's ink technique was super easy to do and made a great look. Unfortunately I have yet to break down and buy any of his masks for fear I won't use them enough. I have a bit of a different aesthetic than Tim although I'd love for some of his to rum off on me. I did use his grunge board cut outs with the key and then just embossed it with my newest color of embossing powder, copper! I really like the way it came out. It was my first attempt at this kind of look.

Double Dose

So I combined two challenges from the gals over at If The Shoe Fits...Scrap It! The first challenge was an altered item challenge. We were challenged to alter a paint can and we had to embellish it at least 3 times besides using the paper to cover the can. You can find this challenge here and the deadline is May 15th. The other challenge I combined with the first was the Friday color combination. This week they choose black, grey and yellow you can find that challenge here. So here is my first altered paint can!

"Mom of the Year" challenge

This LO came via a challenge in my Cafe Mom group ScrapNMoms (if your on cafe mom and not in this group, JOIN!! it's fabulous!). This was the first challenge for May and we were challenged to create a LO explaining why we deserve to be Mom of the Year. At first I found this really difficult because I didn't do anything spectacular to be given such a title but with the encouragement of the others in the group I figured it out. So this is my LO and the journaling is underneath the photo so please take a look and enjoy. This one is close to my heart!

Journaling: I was really nervous about doing this challenge "Mom of the Year". In my mind I haven't done anything extraordinary to be chosen as Mom of the Year. But with the encouragement of others I've realized that I'm a better mother than I thought. One of things that makes me a Mom of the Year is that fact that I'm a Stay at Home Mom who is married to a Navy man who is gone 90% of the time. Tom left during my pregnancy with Thomas and didn't return until Thomas was nearly 5 months old. During the first month after Thomas was born I had help with me but for the following 4 months I was on my own in a new state with no friends. The fact that both Thomas and I survived that time is testament to my worthiness. After Tom returned home he was home for weeks at a time with weeks between that he was gone. But during that first year he was mostly home after that first deployment. Since Thomas wasn't around a lot of adult conversation and I'm not much of a talker with kids he wasn't developing his language skills as quickly as other kids his age did, so despite my shy demeanor I joined a playgroup and jump in full force going to as many as I could make in a week. Although learning this new dynamic of acquaintance but not good friends was really tough for me I stuck it out so that he could have the interaction he needed to learn and grow as a person. During Thomas' second year Tom was gone a large majority of the time. Essentially I was a single mother who didn't have to worry about paying the bills as well as being a mother. It made relating to other moms, even other military moms, really difficult and kept a dark cloud looming over me even in the furthest part of my mind. It's hard to be a mom, harder to be a Stay At Home Mom with minimal adult interaction, and even harder to do it without a husband at home. I have to admit that even though I'm happy with the way our lives are it's a much harder job than I let on and I'm proud that I'm doing it to the best of my abilities at the time. I am definitely the glue that keeps our family together and I do it all without complaining. We have our rough days but we always get through them and I'm happy to be the mother I am but I'm always ready for improvement.

So proud of this one...

So this LO came about via a sketch challenge at If the Shoe Fits...Scrap It!. I don't often have pages with only 2 photos on it but I did have these two photos sitting around waiting to be scrapped. So I knew these would be a great fit for this sketch. I was going to a playdate out in town just down the street from my LSS Picture to Page so I decided to take a trip down after the playdate and get some supplies specifically for this LO (something I rarely do but am doing more often now). I saw this patterned paper (background paper) and it just spoke dad and son to me so I picked the other papers off of it and I love the combination that I came up with. It may be hard to see but the patterned paper behind the photos next to the tan paper says "father" all over it. Recently I just purchased myself a Versamark pen (I've had the stamp pad for a while and loved it) so I used the pen to write the title and then embossed it using black embossing powder. I really like the way the whole thing came out and I'm proud of this one. I hope you all like it as much as I do!! TFL (thanks for looking for those still learning the abbr.)!

Easy Peasy Card Challenge

This was the Wednesday card challenge from the gals over at If the Shoe Fits...Scrap It! We were to create a card with 2/3 of negative space (empty). I had made his mother's day twinchie (2x2 decorated card stock) and was waiting for the perfect opportunity to use it and this was it. I really like the way this card came out and after I figured out what ribbon to use and what color card to use it was done in seconds!!

Tri Fold Frame

This was a project from my Card Swappers and More group on Cafe Mom. This was fun to make and it would be a great gift to make for someone and fairly inexpensive. Here are the instructions.