SM Birthday Blog Train!!!!!

Welcome to stop #19 on the SM Birthday Blog Train!! You have arrived in Utah!!


To help celebrate ScrapMatters' 1st Birthday a whole bunch of us (CT members and designers) created brag book pages to share with all of you!! They've all been made using the new (free with $10 purchase) kit "You Say It's Your Birthday". It's an AMAZING kit!! If you follow the links, you'll end up with an AWESOME album! Most of the links have 5x7 quickpages in PNG format - all you have to do is add your pictures and you're good to go! But some have even more, like treat toppers and invitations.

These are the stops you should have already made.
1. www.scrapmatters.com/wordpress (team blog)
2. www.andilynn.wordpress.com (Andrea)
3. www.brittishdesigns.blogspot.com (Britt)
4. www.scrapmuss.blogspot.com (Maria)
5. www.chiascraps.blogspot.com (Andrea)
6. www.digitalcreations.typepad.com (Sharon)
7. www.mommaholly.blogspot.com (Holly)
8. www.stacysbackdoor.blogspot.com (Stacy)
9. www.scrappykate.blogspot.com (Kate S.)
10. www.scrap-stuff.blogspot.com (Sya)
11. www.kimbytx.blogspot.com (Kim)
12. www.zane-escraps.blogspot.com (Erica)
13. www.kandykanekreations.blogspot.com (Lisa)
14. www.neeceebeedesigns.blogspot.com (Denise)
15. www.geekydiva.wordpress.com (Kim - tgmousechick)
16. www.plumdumplingdesigns.blogspot.com (Mary)
17. www.joyrevisited.blogspot.com (Heather L.)
18. www.taterscraps.blogspot.com (Tater)


Whew! Are you tired from all the traveling? (And just think, there are still a whole bunch more stops after mine!) Well, without further ado, here is the quickpage and birthday invite I've created for you.....

You can download my brag book quickpage and birthday invite here.

Also, we're all sharing a birthday tradition from our family. One of our family's traditions (that we got from my family, that came from my mother's family :D ) is to let the birthday person pick their birthday dinner. Whatever they request (within reason of course) is what we eat for dinner. We've had spaghetti, enchiladas, macaroni and cheese, and lots of other special requests. Tonight we're having Italian Crockpot Chicken for Amya's birthday dinner. Feel free to share one of your family's birthday traditions with me (we could use a few more)!!

Next stop on the birthday blog train is www.haynay.blogspot.com (Heather N.)

And please remember, we are an international train, so if one stop isn't ready yet, be patient and wait for it to be posted. The freebie links will be valid for a long time, so you won't miss out.

Have fun guys!!!!!

Scrap Matters Birthday Party

The Scrap Matters website is turning one tomorrow (and Amya's turning 8...ACK!!!)! There is a huge freebie they're giving away with every $10 purchase (and almost everything in the store is on sale), there'll be a chat and a Blog Train with freebies! Lots of fun stuff going on. And I'm participating in the Blog Train, so come back tomorrow morning to see the brag book page I made to give away.

more pages

So apparently, I've been a huge slacker about posting scrapbook pages. I have a whopping 7 that I've done in the last month and not posted. oops!! So here they come......

This is the one I made for the speed scrap I hosted today. I came up with the design all on my own (I've been using a lot of templates lately, so this one took me a little longer than usual!) and then came up with 7 instructions to give to the people participating in the speed scrap. The instructions were:
1. Pick 3-5 photos to use. They must show a sequence of events or be a series of photos. If you want, you can run an action on them.
2. Line up your photos, either horizontally or vertically. The focal photo should be larger than the others (it doesn’t have to be a lot larger, it can be just slightly larger).
3. Pick your papers (no more than three). Your background paper needs to be solid, but the other two can be patterned.
4. Mat your photos. (You can use one of the papers you chose…) Your focal photo, however, needs a frame.
5. Add some elements. You need at least one ribbon, one flower, one “bling”, and one staple.
6. Add your title. Your title needs to be a combination of alpha and font. One word should stand out more than the others.
7. Add journaling on some sort of journaling block (it can’t just be typed on your background paper) and date your layout.
It was a lot of fun to host and not as nerve-wracking as I thought.

If you want to see what the participants did with my instructions, you can click here. Oh and this page showcases Erica Zane's products, which you can find here.

This is one my pages for Sya's CT for this month. It's from when we went to Fort Bridger at the end of August for the annual Mountain Man Rendezvous. Kinda fun! (I'll have to remember to tell you about Maricela swimming in the hotel pool when we were there.)


Being on the ScrapMatters CT means that each month I'm assigned 3 designers from the store. I need to make at least one LO for each designer, showcasing their products. This is my LO for Ellie Lash (you can find her things here). These pictures are of the veggies I picked in about 1/2 an hour at the farm.



This was for a speed scrap back in August. I can't believe I never posted it! I won that speed scrap by the way. :) These pictures are of Keith's niece, Ashley, and her baby, Tenley, at Tenley's baby blessing.



This page was for a Template Challenge at Scrap Matters. While in Hawaii, we went to the Dole Plantation and one of the things we did on the tour there was plant a pineapple bush (are they bushes?). Anyway, I had no idea that all you needed to plant pineapples was the top of a pineapple you've already eaten. Cool!



This one was also for a speed scrap in August. I LOVE my wide angle lens - it's the only way I get to be in pictures, since I'm usually the one holding the camera.



Finally, this one was also for a Template Challenge and also showcases Ellie Lash's designs.

Whew!! That was a lot of information! And because I'm lazy and hungry, I'm only going to post a link for credits once. If you go to my ScrapMatters Gallery you can find all these layouts and click on the individual ones to get credits. I have two more pages from other speed scraps during this month that I still haven't finished, therefore totally missing the point of the SPEED scrap. Once I finish them, I'll post them.

Speed Scrap

So I'm hosting my first ever speed scrap at Scrap Matters this Wednesday at 11 am MST. I am super nervous and way excited at the same time. Hopefully it'll go as smoothly as possible!! So here's the annoucement and a preview of the participation prize if any of you are interested in joining me. Wish me luck!!

good or bad?

The girls were eating ice cream sandwiches today and Keith told Téa to go get one for Maricela. She did, but she brought it to him with a big bite missing. Here's the conversation that followed:
Keith: "Téa, who took a bite out of Maricela's sandwich?"
Téa: "I did."
Keith: "Why did you take a bite out of her sandwich?"
Téa: "Because I wanted to see if if was good or bad. And it was good."

Table Cloth Skirt and Dinner Party Top GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

Okay this is THE coolest outfit I have ever seen. EVER. And I can't believe she made it herself and is giving it away for free!!! You have to check this out...

Table Cloth Skirt and Dinner Party Top GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

September Desktop

So here's the Sep. desktop.....aren't those veggies huge?

And while I'm at it, here's the August one. I just realized I never posted it. Do you like how we're all wearing our Drywall shirts?

And I'm way too lazy to have done these myself....you can find the Sep one here and unfortunately I forgot where I got the August one.

WooHoo!!!!

I am officially a member of the ScrapMatters Creative Team!! They had a CT call and I applied, not really thinking I would make it. But I did!!! So I'll be on their CT until Feburary and will be creating layouts mainly with things from their store, occasionally posting on their blog, and maybe even hosting some challenges in their forum. I'm really excited about this new opportunity!!! And tonight there will be a speed scrap that I'll be participating in....here's the announcement for it:

And this is the cool prize you get just for participating in the speed scrap:

So if any of you who read my blog are digi-scrappers, hopefully I'll see you there!