Living The Dream

35mm...

First, I apologize for not blogging my layouts sooner. Things have been busy. What's new, right? ;) I wish I could manage my time better, but something always has to give and blogging seems to take the biggest hit. Anyway, I'm back :) and wanted to share my layouts with Studio Calico's April kit, 35mm. 

This was my main kit only layout this month. I adore the colors in this kit...blues, greens, and yellows? YES, please!! I snapped this photo of the boys walking down the boardwalk towards the beach a couple of weekends ago and it ended up being perfect for the kit. The SC exclusive fabric hexagons from the kit were so much fun to play with. I misted them here with Dewey and then used the main kit stamp inked with Tin Can to add some detail to them. I used my Silhouette to cut the title out from white paper, then backed the negative image with some green paper from the kit.

This page was a struggle from the get go. It orginally started out as my main kit only page, but it just wasn't coming together. Adding a couple of embellishments from Lomography really helped to finish it off and I'm finally happy with the outcome. ;)

I think this layout is my favorite this month. I loved the Polaroid-esque paper from Lomography and immediately knew I wanted to cut it up and place some small photos inside. I cut the Heidi Swapp Color Magic Border into two pieces and used Turquoise Stone chalk ink (my new FAVORITE ink!!) to color the pieces. A few splatters of Clay Mister Huey finished this one off. 

This layout uses almost exclusively Brownie, with a few things from the Main Kit thrown in. I love those little sticker letters for making longer titles. I added the "hello there" stamp and the heart pin for more detail. I loved this newsprint paper and knew right away I wanted to dress it up a little. I used Mister Huey's Taxi to paint the little circles onto the newsprint paper. I simply sprayed some of the mist into a plastic cup and added a tiny bit of water to create a watercolor like paint.

And finally a couple of cards just becuase I always feel guilty not using lots of the kits ;)

Happy Tuesday, friends!! :)

Monday Monday...

Our supposed to be busy weekend ended up not being so busy after all due to some crazy rain. Brady was able to get his t-ball game in before the rain came Saturday, but we had to reschedule his birthday party because the storm was definitely coming! He was so bummed. :( And Jackson's baseball game got rained out yesterday, which he was upset about, but we did enjoy having a day off. Our weekends are usually packed with 2-3 baseball games...such is the life of a baseball family, right? ;) And we must be insane, because Jackson has also started playing basketball (on top of his travel baseball)! Oy. He has wanted to play forever, but we could never find a league for littler kids...he's finally old enough and his good friend, Sammy, is playing so we couldn't put it off any longer. He LOVES it!! And he's actually pretty good...must be all those Hoosier basketball games he watched this year. ;) This league also has a summer basketball season, so I figure if he continues to want to play it'll be something that can keep him busy this summer too in the baseball off-season ;)

And, I've got some Studio Calico 35mm sneaks for you today!! I had so much fun with this kit. It's super easy to work with (the main kit especially!!) 

This one uses, Lomography, my favorite add-on this month for sure!! 

More sneaks later this week...happy Monday, friends!! :)

This Family... {Tampa Family Photographer}

I've photographed this family at least 5 times, but it never gets old. They are fun and hilarious and our sessions are full of laughs. We had our first session at this same location back in 2008. It's amazing how much the kids have changed since then. They are naturals in front of the camera now...a huge bonus to being loyal to your photographer, the kids are comfortable! :) Enjoy your sneak Stantons and Greens! xo

Project Life {Week 12}

I am still slowly but surely catching up. We're coming off of a crazy busy weekend though and going into an even crazier week and upcoming weekend, so we'll see if I can keep it up. ;) 

Week 12 was exciting...we had family in town, went to our first hockey game, saw the Hunger Games premiere! I had plenty of photos this week, which always helps speed up the process. 

Still loving Geralyn's journaling cards...they are so easy to use and seem to match every one of my photos. Also a big fan of the new Calendar Smash tape...so cute! 

Quite a bit of new Studio Calico in my spread this week too...LOVE the new Classic Calico letter stickers & Take Note Addy stickers I used in my Hunger Games pocket title! Plus the new Lullaby Thickers are definitely going to be a new fave!

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Thanks for stopping by! Happy Monday, friends :)

Jackson Family {Tampa Bay Area Beach Photographer}

This family is so much fun! I photographed them waaaaay long ago when I was just starting out and Tenique was pregnant with their second baby. (here) and then again when little Tsai was born. (here) Tsai is now three years old and their little family is as cute as ever. The Jacksons' sessions are always full of laugther. Enjoy your sneak guys! :)

Five...

Today the "baby" of the family turns five. FIVE! How on earth did that happen so quickly?! It seems like just yesterday I was so happy to finally be off of my months of bedrest and finally be able to meet this little one.

He has been an complete and utter JOY since the day he was born.

He's a natural entertainer...he loves to make people laugh. He's got a swagger about him that's all his own. When I pick him up at school, everyone yells and hollers "Bye Brady!" "BYE!!"...he's like a rockstar there, which just makes us laugh.

His confidence is unbreakable...he thinks he's the best at everything he does all without coming off as cocky at all. He's a rule follower and we still call him the Sheriff because he's constantly telling everyone about the rules and what they should be doing. 

He is really quick to understand things and is super smart in the common sense department, especially. He "gets it" is what we say a lot. He is learning to read and learning about math. He loves to do "math problems" at the dinner table where we ask him simple equations and he adds or subtracts them up. He can count by 5's, 10's and 20's. He's very proud of the fact that he can read Hop On Pop and Are you My Mother all by himself!

He takes things very seriously...everything he does has a purpose. In baseball, when he gets up to the plate, he is like a machine...he measures up, gets his stance correct, swings that bat and hits it straight up the middle every single time. The other day he told me that when he's at school, he doesn't talk while doing his work, because it's "important to focus and get my work done". I love that about him.

He loves sports and watches ESPN in the morning with his big brother. He's very good at playing Madden football and MLB on the xbox. He's obsessed with basketball right now and asks to go outside and "shoot" every single day when we get home from school. 

I cannot believe he is FIVE today. Just can't believe it. There are no more babies in this house...only big kids. I'll admit, this one is hard on me. In the fall he'll be heading off to kindergarten and it will be a new era for us. The last five years have been amazing and I can't wait to see what the next year brings for him. 

Brady, we love you infinity! xoxo

His "official" 5-year photos coming sometime next week :)

Tea Party {Lutz Children's Photographer}

This session was just dreamy...3 beautiful cousins, a *perfect* Florida spring evening, gorgeous light and a tiny tea party. What could be better? Enjoy your sneak, Christie :)

 

Project Life {Week 11}

**Studio Calico Abroad Collection Pack giveaway is still open below!!**

I'm still plugging right along with Project Life. I've definitely streamlined my process a bit with printing the photos all at once and then sitting down for maybe an hour to get all those pockets filled. :) This week is super simple...I didn't use a lot of embellishments, since I was trying to get this week done quickly. I'm still obsessed with that Dear Lizzy paper with all the little polaroid-esque squares (see "week 11" pocket, top right)...and I think I'm now determined to use every single one of the ones I have left. ;) 

I used quite a few 4x6's this week, which I love. I made the process even simpler by adding the journaling right to the photos on the first page. I used the text tool in Photoshop to journal, printed them out and they were all set to go. Also loving my Studio Calico stamp sets this week...I used the You Are The Best Set here...

One of the highlights this week was Jackson's second 5k for school. He beat last year's time by 4 minutes and finished the 5k in 28:01 and 4th in his age group! He was so proud of himself. Definitely a big deal, which is why I dedicated 4 pockets to this one event. ;) I also used Geralyn's NEW journaling cards, which are AMAZING! Super simple to use and they look fantastic! 

Here are some of the products I used for week 11...Hope you all have a happy Wednesday! :)

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Studio Calico Blog Blitz!!

***Giveaway is now CLOSED! The WINNER of the Abroad Collection pack is MARINA H.!! Congratulations, Marina!!! ***

Studio Calico (AKA the best scrapbooking kit club & manufacturer EVER! ;) is celebrating their new releases with a giant blog hop today! I just recently got my hands onto all of the new lines...Take Note, Abroad and Classic Calico Vol. 2...and I'm so in love already! They have been SO easy to work with. The addition of so many great embellishments, Thickers and stickers to these lines was just the icing on the cake. The papers alone are amazing and so versatile. I love how well the lines mix with each other. For my layout, I used bits of all three collections...

 

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Studio Calico is being super generous and offering a collection pack giveaway on each of the designers' blogs today. I'm giving away and Abroad pack here. To enter, just leave a comment letting me know your favorite paper or embellishment from the new lines and you'll be entered to win. I'll keep the giveaway open until Thursday (the 12th) at midnight and post a winner on Friday. Good luck! :)

And be sure to keep hopping along to the other designers' blogs. The next stop on Blog Blitz is the ever so talented Ms. Kelly Purkey. If you get lost, you can always head back to the SC blog to make sure you haven't missed any stops. ;)

Project Life {Week 10}

Taking a break from spring break to share my week 10 spread. I am SO happy with my current progress...finished with week 10, 90% done with week 11 and I have weeks 12 and 13 all planned out. Whew. I had a lot of photo editing to do for clients this week and while I was waiting for actions to run and batches to edit, I hunkered down and planned for Project Life. I have to say, it is SO much faster and easier when things are planned out. Then it's just print and embellish. 

For week 10, I didn't take a ton of photos, even though it was a pretty busy week. I find I do a lot better when I have more photos, but I'm happy with the way this turned out nonetheless. The biggest event from week 10 was Jackson's Odyssey of The Mind competition, which fortunately filled up 4 pockets for me. ;) 

Jackson was also the star student in his class during week 10. With that and his OM competition, I had a lot of memorabilia I wanted to keep for this week. Rather than try to scan things or cut them down to fit into pockets, I added an insert. I used a KI Memories 12x12 folder to hold all the star student and OM stuff from the week and stuck the folder into a 12x12 page protector. It worked out really well! 

Here are some of the supplies I used for Week 10....

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Okay, back to spring breaking ;) I'll be back in a couple of days with week 11! Enjoy your holiday weekend!!