Maternity Shoot - Katrina and Jesse

My beautiful niece Katrina and Jesse...

they welcomed baby Harper just last week....baby photos to come soon.

Superior Lens Photography *yay*

Will and I have been working really hard getting our Photography business up and running. We are a creative team preferring shoots in natural light, capturing everyday moments. We just finished up a few senior sessions and wanted to share some of our favorite images. Hayden - Class of 2013

Ryan - Class of 2013

Asia - Class of 2013

Coming up next will be my niece's maternity shoot and newborn shoot! can't wait : )

BasicGrey Creative Team Blog Hop!

I am so excited that I was invited to remain on the BasicGrey Digital Design Team for another term.  BasicGrey was my first love as a paper scrapper so it was only natural to make the transition to their fabulous Digital collection. when my scrapbooking obsession went 100% digital over 4 years ago!

Congratulations to the rest of the team! so excited to be working with you this year. You can see the complete list of Design Team members here! 

Here is a recent layout I created using the Sweet Threads Collection (and a few other pieces) from our trip to the State Fair that got rained out.  I had envisioned the photos I had wanted to take all day and all I got was a picture of some cows (on the way home).

Have you wanted to try the digital BasicGrey products? Now is your chance, enter the giveaway below for your chance to win the Sweet Threads Starter Collection.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Now hop on over to Lisa Storms blog for another chance to win!  

Remember, if you find a link that doesn’t work, you can always go back to the BasicGrey blog  for a list of direct links. Enjoy! 

Layout catch up!

seriously where has the summer gone! only two more weeks until my kids are back in school : ) - I am not one of those moms who can't wait for their kids to go back.  I like my kids at home with us.  Of course this year will be bittersweet with Hayden, who will be a senior.  I keep asking myself how the heck did that happen?

anyway I wanted to share some of creative work over the past few months.  A little bit of Design House Digital, a little bit of BasicGrey and a few from The Digi Dares.

I hope you enjoy!

Design House Digital Creative Team layouts:

BasicGrey Creative Team layouts:

The Digi Dares:

Celebrating National Scrapbooking Day with BasicGrey!!!

Join me on Saturday, May 5th - 12 noon CST! on the  BasicGrey Blog

[inter] National Scrapbook Day – Blog Hop Freebie!

I have always been excited by the fact that a hobby that I love has it's own special day. I think it ranks right up there with Mother's Day in my house. My family has already been instructed that I will not be available to them all day.... This weekend is [inter] National Scrapbook Day, and as part of the celebration at Design House Digital, we’ve got an awesome collab kit from the Design House Designers, Retrospect :

 Did you know that you can grab it for free? YES FREE! And, to make it even easier, it’s right in the shop at DHD, and all you have to do is follow along on the blog hop to grab the coupon code, and then download at your convenience. So fabulous, don't you think? So, if you wandered in to my blog first, you need to stop, head back to the beginning and start collecting your letters!

I also want to share with you a little tip I use when I am creating. Do you love to add a little bit of pop to your photos or elements, but don't always like the idea of adding a shadow? I do - so I stroke it...a pretty simple way to give it a little something. I am using Photoshop Elements 10.0 and all you have to do is select the layer you want stroked, Edit > Stroke Selection. You can adjust the number depending how much you want added. I usually stroke the inside, but you can try outside as well and see what you like better. In my layout, here, that I created for the Retrospect collab kit, I stroked the photo, outside, at 16 to give it the white outline.  I also use a lot of white backgrounds, so I typically stroke the layout as well to give it a little border.

Now a little contest from me...do you want a chance to win a $10 Gift Certificate from Design House Digital?. I created an alphabet (with some bonus words) that you can download HERE.

You have two ways to be eligible for the Gift Certificate, leave a comment here and for a second entry  use the freebie alpha on any layout (recoloring it is fine) and post a gallery link here on my blog for a random chance to win! simple!! You will have until 11:59 PM (EST) on Tuesday, May 8 to be eligible.

Don’t forget to grab your letter, because you’ll need that to get the amazing Retrospect kit free!

If you are participating in the layout challenge, my prompt for you is to: Use a fastener (tape, staples, stitch, etc.) to attach your photo.

Now, head on over to Jen Flaherty's blog to see what she has in store for you!

Happy International Scrapbooking Day!!

Design House Digital Blog Hop

**WINNER** - tapeMar 13, 2012 05:55 PM
congrats! I will send off your GC this weekend! thanks everyone for playing along.


we are starting off March with a bang at Design House Digital. Join us!!

We are also doing a blog hop today including some tips, tricks and freebies. Make sure you visit all the blogs today and collect all your featured letters. Take those back to the correct page at Design House Digital, everyone who correctly enters the letters will be entered into the drawing for a Wacom Bamboo Capture tablet. Contest entries must be received by Wednesday, March 14th at 11:59 PM MST. CONTEST CLOSED.

I love working with templates and decided today to share one I created with you along with a few tips on making it your own.

Here is the layout I created today with it:

a few other ways to use the template would be to flip it, rotate it, resize it and even switch up the layers.

Rotated:

Resized:

Flipped:

Remember, a template is just a starting point, you can do so much to really make it your own.

Here is the template freebie for you to download. If you do download it, please leave me a comment. Those who leave a comment by Wednesday, March 14th at 11:59 pm (est) will be entered into a drawing for a $5.00 DHD Gift Certificate.

DOWNLOAD HERE

thanks for stopping by.

Mary
brought to you by the letter M

other DHD bloggers today:

Liz
Anna
Aria
Audrey
Carey
Celeste
Celeste S
Erica
Gennifer
Jen A
Jen P
Karen
Katherine
Lori
Mandi
Robyn
Sarah
Shannon
Tiffany
Wendy

Project Life and My catch up post : )

love the challenge of keeping up with this project. I am journaling a little bit every day, taking my photos and recording the bits of our life. February is winding down for me, which after the past three weeks of crazy is a good thing. We have had a ton of hockey games, a tournament this weekend and then off to The Soo for State Finals. Madison has been sick with a UTI that is finally getting better and I had to deal with recall attempts, Circuit Court dates and Township Budget prep, but I am getting it done and after the Presidential Primary next Tuesday I will be able to breathe a little sigh of relief.

and tomorrow, we will be celebrating!! I married my best friend 27 years ago!! crazy...just doesn't seem possible that it was 27 years ago.

so, as I said I am loving the challenge of keeping up with my Project Life album. I am sharing weeks 3 thru 5 below. week 6 is almost done and 7 is in my head.

enjoy!!!

Week Three - Jan 15th-21st

Week 4 - Jan 22nd thru 28th

Week 5 - Jan 29th thru Feb 4th

Basic Grey - Scarlett's Letter

When I was asked to create a layout for the Basic Grey blog based on the fabulous design of marieetmichael I knew exactly what photo and kit I wanted to use.  Basic Grey's Scarlett's Letter is still one of my favorite lines.  It worked perfectly with our recent family photo.

 

SUPPLIES : [SCARLET’S LETTER] SCR-D066 Starter Kit, SCR-D067 Patterns,  SCR-D068 Textures, SCR-D069 Elements, SCR-D071 Notes, SCR-D074 Trims, SCR-D075 Baubles, [VAGABOND]  VAG-D219 Quick Page Word Art, [BLITZEN] BLI-D622 Starter Kit.