I love May!

I really do, especially now that I've made it through dance recital craziness and the end of school is in sight.  Yes, I have many dance pictures to share, but its gonna take me some time to wade through them all - so be patient :)

This month we finally found a puppy for Brodyn and its been chaos and fun ever since.  Her name is Lily, and in true baby fashion, she rules the roost!!  

We've had some great new kits being released at DHD, so I've had the mojo going and been able to preserve a few memories.  Hope you enjoy, it definitely makes me feel good to be a part of the creative process.  Plus I love looking at my pictures and finding the story about our life that needs to be told.

Hope you have a great weekend!!

(layout removed for publication)

Retrospect Blog Hop

This weekend is [inter] National Scrapbook Day, and as part of the celebration at Design House Digital, the designers have an awesome collaboration kit called Retrospect:

Here’s the kicker - Its free!  FREE!  And, to make it even easier, you don’t have to download pieces at a bunch of different blogs!  It’s all right in the shop at DHD.  All you have to do is follow along on the blog hop to grab the letters that make up the coupon code, and then download the kit at your convenience. 

My letter for the code is:

Here is the layout I made using the fabulous Retrospect kit . . .

Then I made it into a quick page for you to download - Hope you enjoy!!

I will also be randomly choosing a name from those who comment on this post and they will receive a $10 gift certificate to DHD!!!

If you are participating in the layout challenge, my challenge is to use the burn tool somewhere on your layout.  To be entered into the drawing for the digital photo frame, you need to use all 26 of the challenges on one layout and submit it by Tuesday, May 8th.

I use the burn tool on almost all of my layouts.  Its simple, but very effective.  I was really glad I had that option with my “Big Branch” layout.  

The chevron paper pieces looked very flat, but I could only add a drop shadow to the bottom piece, or it looked crazy.  Burn tool to the rescue!  The burn tool looks like a hand, after selecting it you can choose your brush size in the drop down menu at the top.

I was able to add a small amount of color and dimension, and it still looked like the papers were stitched down to the page.  Try it on a layout soon - you’ll love it!!

Next in the blog hop is Erica Coombs.  If you run into problems along the way, head back to the DHD blog post.

Don’t forget to grab your letter for the code to get the amazing Retrospect kit for free and have fun scrapping this weekend!!!