Exciting News (and a sale) from TotallyD Designs

Tamara of TotallyD Designs will be opening shop soon with a second store, this one at My Life and Scrap. I'm so excited to get to know the people in the forums there and participate in what looks to be some incredible challenges. In celebration of this TotallyD is offering 30% off her entire Inspiration Lane Store until September 4th. Click on the ad to be taken to her store to see the wonderful products she has available!

One more new kit from TotallyD Designs

I'm totally loving this washed out style that TotallyD Designs has been doing lately. This one is called Bleached (appropriately). You can click on the preview to go to the Inspiration Lane store if you are interested in finding out more about this kit.


This layout is my favorite layout of all the ones I completed last week. As soon as I saw the patterned paper that I used for the background, I knew the story I wanted to tell. I also tried my hand at blending two papers together so I had a non distracting area for my journaling. I really love the way it all came together.



Tomorrow I begin my weekly blog post at IL, so tune in tomorrow to find out more about that. There will also be a brand new Scrapping the Everyday Challenge (along with a ton of other new challenges) starting tomorrow in the IL challenges forum.

August 29 releases at Inspiration Lane

I've got some new kits and layouts to share from the new releases yesterday at Inspiration Lane. I'm going to start with a couple by TotallyD Designs. This first one is a Christmas kit..I'm so excited to see the fall and winter kits starting to come out! This is by far my favorite time of the year!


This is an attempt at a photo shoot that my sister and I tried with my DD and her DS. Unfortunately we couldn't get them to both cooperate at the same time but I still think we got a cute shot even if they aren't looking at the camera (at least they're sitting still...lol).


I'm really loving this next kit by TotallyD...the papers are just gorgeous.


Here is a layout using Dedicated with a photo of my mom and dad (taken by my youngest sister). I love how it turned out! I think this may be my first ever successful cluster (at least in my mind...).


This next kit is a collab between TotallyD and ScrapperGirl Designs. I love it! Great fall colors and fun elements. I'm really hoping that they do more collabs together because I really love how their two style mesh!


This layout was from the only Thanksgiving we got to spend with DH's family in Canada. With just the three of us, his parents and his sister is was a very quiet Thanksgiving compared to my family's Thanksgivings back home. I love this photo of my DD that we took in front of my inlaws house with all the pretty fall colors behind her. Takes me back to the time when we couldn't get her to smile for the camera...she always looked so somber.

Next up is a kit by Steel City Scaps. Wow, this was such a fun kit to work with. So many cute papers and elements.


This is from a trip we took this past spring to Navy Pier. It was nice to walk along the pier before it got crazy during summer.


The last kit I have for you today is from Jen Yurko Designs. Soooooo cute.

She also has a boy's version.


Here's the layout I did with Pearly Whites. The journaling tells about my daughter accidentally spitting her tooth in the toilet and how she made the tooth fairy a card in lieu of the missing tooth.


I have a couple more products I'm planning on sharing with you tomorrow (including my favorite layout from this past week) so stay tuned!

One more from August 22nd releases at IL

I have one more product and layout to share with y'all from last Saturday's new releases at Inspiration Lane. This time it's a paper pack from TotallyD Designs. The image is linked to the paper pack in the IL store.


I decided that the colors would work great for some Christmas pictures I have from a few years back. Here's my layout.

Pixie Hunt

I've entered a contest at Enchanted Studio Scraps called the Pixie Hunt. They're looking for new CT members so I thought I'd give it a shot. This was the kit that was given to us for the first week's layout. If you want the kit the image is linked to the product in the ESS store. And the best part...It's a Fabulous $1 Fairy Find, so you can get it along with tons of other amazing products for only $1 though Friday.


Isn't it gorgeous? I just loved the colors and all the floral accents and couldn't wait to get started. I decided to pair it with a picture of my DD at two. I love the photo and the expression she has on her face. Here is my layout that I entered into the contest.



Even if I don't make it past week one I got to play with a fantabulous kit and create a layout that I really love! I'll keep you posted as to whether I get to move on or not. Wish me luck!

Polka Dot Plum Grand Opening Announced!

I'm so excited I can hardly contain myself! I've been waiting for this announcement all summer! It also means you'll get to see some more of the layouts I made with Sir Scrapalot's spiffy kits very soon!

More August 22 releases from Inspiration Lane

Yesterday I promised you some more layouts created from some of the products that are newly released at Inspiration Lane. Here are a few more (previews are linked to store page).

First up is this beautiful paper pack from Laura Bozeman Designs. Also available in blue.


Here is a layout I did of my daughter from when she was a few months old.


Next is Summer Garden by Claudi Designs. I love the bright colors and DD fell in love with the bird so I knew I had to use it.


I paired the kit up with a template from Template Set 8, also by Claudi Designs.


And this is my layout. Photos were taken at a recent trip to a nature center.


This next kit is so cool. I love the elements and the color palate is just plain awesome.


This layout is from a trip we took the zoo back in 2003. I love how the tones in the paper worked so well with the photos I had.


And last is another kit with absolutely gorgeous papers from TotallyD Designs.


This is from my brother's wedding in 2004. I loved the photo collage that Tamara put in her kit and just had to use it!

A few new releases at Inspiration Lane

It's Saturday and that means new release day at Inspiration Lane. To see all the great new product click here.

I've got a few layouts I want to share with some of today's releases. I'm going to start with Inspiration Lane's guest designer this month..Valorie Brown. You can click any of the preview images to be taken directly to that product in the store.

I just loved the sweet soft tones in the kit and thought it would be perfect for this photo of my nephews.


Next up is Jen Yurko.


I loved the bright childlike papers and elements. Here's a layout of my DD just after signing up for Summer Reading Club.


Next is a new kit from LemmonCity Production (Steel City Scraps and Christie Lemmon Designs collab team)


And a layout from my nephews first birthday which was a fiesta theme.



Here is a new kit and alpha set by Jen Yurko.


This layout highlights some of the places and things we loved to visit and miss terribly now that we're no longer in St. Louis.



And last is a new kit from TotallyD Designs. I totally fell in love with the kit because of my past life in theatre. The papers in this kit are soooo gorgeous!


This layout is about my career in theatre and the building it all started in. Wilson Hall is the building where I spent most of my undergrad academic career.


photos on the Wilson Hall page were downloaded from the internet.

Believe it or not I have even more layouts from todays releases that I'll share with y'all tomorrow!

July 2009 Project 365

Finally finished up July's 365 pics. Here are some of my favorites.

White Space

I have been struggling with white space in a layout for a bit now. I love the look when other people do layouts with lots of white space but it always seems to take me three times as long to get something I'm happy with. I started a thread at Inspiration Lane and on the advice of a few of the scrappers there I decided to download some templates. Here are the ones I chose.


I paired it with some of Laura Bozeman's fabulous papers.


I started with the template on the top left corner of the preview because I really liked the scalloped paper. I ended up changing the template a bit, but having it as a starting off point saved so much time (the layout took me 40 minutes or so and that was with a band aid fixable dance related injury in the middle). Here's what I ended up with.


Overall I'm fairly happy with the layout. I love the scalloped edge and how well the papers go with my photo and the overall feeling I wanted with the page, but I still can't help feel that something is missing. Maybe that feeling will go away as I do more white space layouts. I really hope so because I do love the look.

It's Wednesday....

and that means it's time for a new Scrapping the Everyday Challenge at Inspiration Lane. This weeks challenge is courtesy of my husband and it's to scrap about an appliance. I chose my coffee pot because it is the appliance that gets the most use in my household (well maybe the fridge...but it's close). Here's the layout I did for the challenge.


Everything is from Art from the Heart by Designs by Sherri Tierney except date tags which are from Art 101 Date Tabs also by Designs by Sherri Tierney.

Pond Life at the Nature Center

Last week Devin got off work unexpectedly early, so we headed to the nearby nature center. We were all just fascinated with the pond on one of the trails. We probably spent a half hour just looking at the pond and taking it all in. Here's a layout I did for our visit.


Everything is from A Cluttered Mind by Joyful Heart Designs.