New Month: New Challenges: New Kits!!

 Last month was SO MANY layouts!!!!

I highly doubt I'll get another 31 pages done, but I am excited about the options both at GS and Sweet Shoppe. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I really REALLY wish Sweet Shoppe had kits as their rewards. If you do 8 pages, you get 25% off a kit, 16 pages gets you 40% off.

At Gingerscraps, however, doing 10 pages gets you an awesome kit- THAT YOU GET TO USE for an automatic next month's challenge. 

Before I explain the challenges I'm most excited about, I want to introduce you to Book Nook, by Twin Mom Scraps. Remember you can join her FB Fan Group for freebies and chances to win her kits. 

As usual, it's on sale.  BUY IT HERE

There's actually a whole bundle if you want a great deal.

Buy the Bundle Here.

OH, did you want to see what I made with it?! Good, because I love this. I do realize the placement of "My Favorite" makes it look like Lorelai specifically is my favorite, but no. It's that Xander and Lorelai are such good buddies. Seeing them together- that's my favorite!!!

I was able to use that page in the Buffet Challenge at Gingerscraps this month. I"m very much looking forward to participating in the Daily Download challenge for the first time (though I did miss 3 days, so I don't have a whole alpha). Other challenges I can't wait for at GS include Year of Blessings, where I'll talk about work, All About Me, where I get to talk about FOOTBALL, Document Your Life where I get to feature my sailor, and the journaling prompt where I'll be sharing a poem I wrote.

Over at Sweet Shoppe, I am excited to particpate in the "currently" challenge, talking about what I'm watching or reading, I'm still trying to decide. I also love that I can do a page about my favorite things I did this summer, plus pages featuring a big ampersand and torn edges. 

It's going to be a great Scrappy month and I also convinced my parents to send me some photos, so be looking for some vintage images!!

Actually, I think I"m going to enter this page into the "happy or meloncholy" page since I feel like my dad and his brothers are your standard oldest, middle, youngest. My dad's being a little silly in the pic, his big brother standing straight up listening, and his little brother wondering why he has to stand there at all. My grandma looks beautiful here, but tired, as I'm sure being a single mom was.

The kit I used for that one was called Adventures in Memory Keeping by K Cronin.

August: Peridot

 This kit felt like a personal birthday gift to me. It's called August: Peridot and it happened to IN my birthday month, yeah. Meant to be.

And as usual with Twin Mom Scraps, when a kit is released it is on sale!!! So go GET IT HERE (or at My Memories if you prefer) and while you're following my links and looking for fantastic deals, you should also check out Twin Moms Scraps FAN PAGE. She has freebies!

Here is a preview of everything you get in this beauty of a kit:

So amazing!!

 You guys! I won Layout of the Week at Gingerscraps with this page:

I am so honored!! (as a reminder, the kit is Gingerscraps Airplane Mode). 

Home Sweet Home

 It's been so long since I've been on a Creative Team. I am just beyond thrilled to be on one now!!!! This kit, I felt, was incredibly appropriate given my scrap goals and our live changes in the last few years. I've been trying to document Lorelai mostly, but really, our whole family. 

Here is another page I did with this kit

This gorgeous kit is called Home Sweet Home. 

You can get it on Gingerscraps (where I spend most of my time) FOR 40% OFF!!!! or on My Memories. And, if you're on Facebook, you can join Twin Mom Scraps Fan group and get FREEBIES!! And she has contests to win her kits sometimes, too!

Want to see what other creative team memories have made with this awesome Kit? Checkadis!

by Tammy

by Dawn

by Kat

by Evelyn

by Robin's Nest

by my adorable friend Lauren

by one of my other friends, Teresa

Ok, now you go get the kit and show me what you make, too!!!

Sweet Shoppe Summer Scrap A Thon

 First, let me say that I am not on any creative teams for Sweet Shoppe, so I'm legit not under any requirement to post these. I literally get nothing from it but sharing my excitement.

So this summer, the site is hosting a bunch of challenges. They post one pretty much every other day. I'm still one or two behind, but y'all know how much I love a theme. This year's theme is games (because of the Olympic Games). So clever.

Scrabble:

This one was kind of complicated to describe, but here it is, lol. The kit I used was from Ponytail Designs. It's called Time for Me.

Scattegories: We picked a letter and did as many things as we could with that letter. I chose the letter S. Stars, Sidewalk Chalk, Sixteen Squares, etc). 

 For that one, I used a kit called A Little Dramatic by Kristin Cronin-Barrow. I actually find myself using this kit a LOT. 

Black Jack: We could only use 21 things and everything had to be B&W.

That's also using the kit mentioned above- A Little Dramatic

Wordle: We used a 5 letter title

So funny thing about this kit- I never would have purchased it because it's so not my style. But I think I've used it a least 3 times, so I'm very grateful I won it. It's called Today's Adventure by Amanda Yi.

Crazy 8s: We had to do 8 of everything. I think I ended up doing 8 things of 8. I don't remember.

 I used Sweet Tea & Sunshine from Ponytails Designs,

Game of Life: This one, I messed up on. I used a kit from GingerScraps, but this competition is for Sweet Shoppe, so this didn't count at all. So sad. It's ok, I was able to use it for a different contest at GingerScraps, but still.

The kit is Airplane Mode by GingerScraps

Chutes and Ladders: This one we had to use a ladder type stacks and also have a curvy element.

 This adorable kit is called Energy Saving Mode by Erica Zane

Ticket to Ride: We were supposed to put our favorite places to travel or our travel bucket list. So yeah, that was kind of a hard one for me.

This was a mini kit that was part of a prize for spending a certain amount at the shoppe. It's called Radiate Joy and it's by Traci Reed. I guess you can't get it now? Weird, because I contemplated getting the full kit eventually. Oh well, live and learn.

Tic Tac Toe: They provided the stitches in the Tic Tac Toe shape. I couldn't help but do a two page spread featuring our fun trip to the Gateway Children's Museum. Fun fact- on our way to the museum that day, it was literally raining mud. I had to pull over a few times to pour water on the windshield because it was so bad.

This is another fabulous kit from Ponytails called Shoot for the Stars

Yahtzee: We go to choose a dice and kind of replicate the "flow" of the face. I chose 2.

I'm sure you're shocked to hear that this is using that A Little Dramatic kit that I've already mentioned twice in this thread....

Candy Land: We had to put ice cream or candy on the page. This one I struggled with. For one, my kids don't eat a ton of candy ever since we did Feingold. So I had these fun pics of my siblings (most of em). As for the kit, it's super not my style. I had won it for free and it had ice cream in it. But yeah, this one isn't one of my favorites (except the people in it!)

The kit is called Adventureland and it's by Sweet Doll

Connect 4: We needed to take 4 photos that may not seem connected at all, but are. These photos were from the same zoo trip, but discombombulated. It's because they're the only cell phone pics I took that day. I'd love to do more zoo pages, but.... I can't find my hard drive that has ALL of my camera photos from 2021 at least one it....

Kit is from Crazy Monkey Designs and is called Zoo-pendous

Tetris: How fun was this?!?! We just needed to use Tetris shapes. So I did. This is the background paper I made first

and then I put this page on top of it.

I'm pretty much in love with it. Also, This kit!!! Can I just say- AMAZING. You'll probably see lots of pages from it. The kit is called All You Need and it's by Blagovesta Gosheva

Anyway, thanks for humoring me. :D

Back in the Scrap Game- kind of

When I first started this blog 150 years ago (give or take a few),  one of the main reasons was because I scrapbooked. I scrapped a lot! I was on creative teams and even dabbled at designing. Then, after Abraham was born, I just didn't have a lot of time and then my hard drive crashed and I lost pretty much every digital scrapbook kit that I had.                                                                                                                   It's literally been almost a full decade since I was in "the game" and Lorelai, who just turned 6, has noticed. I have started a digital scrapbook for her since then. I'm trying to do about a page for each month of her life, with the hopes that I'll get to go back to some of those months and do more for more of my kids (Seriously, Abe only has like 10 pages total and most of Paisley's are as a baby/toddler).                            Part of this, though, means jumping back into the community because without the challenges and sales on kits, I'd have no idea where to start. There are two websites I am currently active on: The Sweet Shoppe and GingerScraps. I've actually been on GingerScraps this whole time, but just recently joined Sweet Shoppe. The main pull there was that is where Ponytails Designs sells her goods and I LOVE her kits. I was on her creative team and that brought me so much joy!!!                                                                                At Gingerscraps, I completed TEN pages in the month of June (technically 11, one didn't count for the challenges because I didn't read the fine print on them), So that's pretty cool.  Here they are:                                                   

                 Template by J.Conlon & Sons, Kit was GingerScraps Fiesta Fun                                                                

                 

Kit is GingerScrap's Fiesta Fun   The brush was by Craft-tastrophic Design                                                      

                     

Jumpstart Designs- Be The Reason                                                                                                                                                        

                     

Kit is Family is Forever Collection by Tami Miller and Aimee Harrison Designs                                                                                                

                                

Over the Moon by GingerScraps                                                                                                                                                                

                     

Template is Pocketfuls 6 by Ponytails

Kit is Roses are Red, Violets are Blue by Memory Mosiacs                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

                                                                                This one is probably my current favorite pages. Kit is Family Is Forever Collab by Tami Miller Designs and Aimee Harrison Designs.                                                                                                        

. 

(It's supposed to. be a 2 page spread) Tracey Monette (Clever Monkey Graphics) School Rules                                                                            

                         I used GingerScraps- Fiesta Fun, except for the staples, which are from Memory Mosiacs.

Template is the Freebie from Tinci Designs for June 2024                                                                                                                        

This kit is Roses Are Red by Memory Mixers. Except the string. That is from Lindsey Jane Designs in the kit Lots of Stars.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Then there is The Sweet Shoppe! I only did 2 pages for them last month and you have to complete 8, I think, to get any prizes, so I didn't even submit them. While I do prefer the format of GingerScraps, I am quite impressed by the designers at Sweet Shoppe. And they are doing a pretty cool summer challenge. Here are the pages I did in June for Sweet Shoppe:                            

                             Template is Ponytails Divided Loyalties #3

Kit is Ponytails Sweet Tea & Sunshine                                                                                            

                 Kit is Today's Adventure by Amanda Yi                                                                                        Which all leads me up to now. For the first challenge on the Summer Scrap Event, they played a scrabble game. I was frustrated at first because it seemed so complicated. I literally had to have Husband sit and read the instructions so he could best explain it to me. Here is my scrabble page:                                                                        

                                                     Long story short, each letter in each word represents something on my page. QUAD - q for QR code, U for unshadowed ribbon (who knew that forgetting to shadow would be a help for the challenge?), A for Arrow, and D for Doily.   STAMP is because I have S- "Sweet Someday" Font, T- tab, A- Adorable photo, M- Mat on photo, P- Pin. Here's the page that allowed that. Here's a shocker, both template and kit are by Ponytails Design. Template is Divided Loyalties (though I did modify a fair amount) and kit is Time 4 Me.        

                 Anyway, thanks for perusing!!! If you start digiscrapping, please let me know. I'm always looking for digiscrap friends. And if you hear of any designers with openings on their team, I might be interested.....