PLxSU Trio Challenge - Week 16

I can't believe we're nearly half way through July already! Hopefully you're having lots of fun doing summer activities :)

We thought it would be a great week to post the pages we're working on. It's always fun to see what everyone is up to and get new ideas. I'm still working on our vacation pictures so I was pretty excited to see that the Let's Get Away kit was released in the PL app. I have the paper kit as well, so I can mix digital and paper pages in my albums and it will all coordinate!

Here are just a couple of pages that I've finished. I used the Rhonna Designs app on these pages as well.

If you haven't already, stop by Cori and Holly's blogs to see what they've been up to and then post your creations on our FB page. See you next week! 

PLxSU Trio Challenge - week 16

Welcome to another week of the Trio Challenge! If you're in the US I hope you had a great time with family and friends celebrating July 4th!

In honor of Independence Day, we thought it would be fun to use stars on our pages this week. That doesn't mean you have to do a patriotic themed page - we'll leave the creativity up to you. :)

My page is patriotic, but that's because we just got back from a vacation to Williamsburg, VA and I want to document everything before I forget.

I used the Americana themed cards in the PL App, but there are tons of cards in other kits that can be used in a red, white and blue theme. 

This weekly challenge has been so fun and motivational for me - I hope it is for you too! Make sure to visit Cori and Holly's blogs to see their pages and then post your own in our Facebook group! 

PLxSU Trio Challenge - week 15

Hi everyone! It's great to start another week and another challenge!

This week we'd love to see you use a calendar on your page. Here's mine:

Originally I thought I would try to find a card or a graphic in Rhonna Designs with a calendar and then I remembered that I'd used a picture of a calendar to announce that we're expecting and I thought it would be perfect. I created the calendar in MDS which was a piece of cake. It took me longer to decide on fonts than it did to actually put the calendar together. ;)

For this page I used the SU kit Love Story and the Desktop edition in the PL app. Hopefully they'll release some of the new SU editions in the PL app soon! 

Holly and Cori have amazing pages to share with us this week so don't forget to stop by their blogs! You can also post your pages on our Facebook page - we love to see them! 

Thanks for stopping by :) 

PLxSU Trio Challenge - week 14

Welcome to another week of the Trio Challenge! This time around we'd love to see you combine two of our past challenges. I think it'll be so fun to see what you each come up with!

For my page, I chose to combine stripes and b&w photos. As usual, I created the page in the PL app and then opened it in the Rhonna Designs app to add some extra text and graphics.

I love the simplicity of this page and the way the photos stand out. I think it really helps to tell the story. I used cards from the Kiwi and Seafoam editions and the Cathy Zielske kit. 

Here's a list of our past challenges: 

1) 3/23 - Use one photo in multiple pockets

2) 3/30 - Use a list

3) 4/6 - Stamp on a photo

4) 4/13 - Use arrows

5) 4/20 - Banner/Flags

6) 4/27 - Selfie

7) 5/4 - Sketch

8) 5/11 - Create a Card

9) 5/18 - What are you working on?

10) 5/25 - Black & White photo

11) 6/1 - Use Memorabilia

12) 6/8 - Use stripes

13) 6/15 - About Dad

We can't wait to see your pages this week! Make sure to post them to our FB page and stop by Cori and Holly's sites for more inspiration!

PLxSU Trio Challenge - Week 12

12 weeks! That's 3 months! Can you believe it? The time has flown by and I've had so much fun doing this weekly challenge with all of you. Thanks so much for playing along each week :)

For our challenge this week we wanted to keep things simple so we decided to create layouts using stripes. What is it about stripes that are so fun? Love them. There are a ton of great cards in the PL app and I had a hard time deciding what to use. I finally chose from the Project 52 Edition, Strawberry Edition, Kiwi Edition and Teen Boy Themed Cards. I love combining different kits together!

I used the Rhonna Designs app once again to add a graphic and text onto this cute card. I love doing that - it's super easy and is a great way to personalize my pages. 

We really love seeing what you come up with each week so don't forget to post your page(s)! And be sure to check out Cori and Holly's blogs for more inspiration! 

MDS Blog Hop - Christmas Traditions

Hello! Can you believe it's December already? Crazy how the year flies by. Today on the blog hop we're sharing our Christmas traditions with you.

Last year in our house a cute little elf named Christopher started coming by to visit and ahem...caused some mischief while he was here. When he first came the other toys weren't too thrilled to be sharing their territory. They chased him all over the house. But this was one of my favorite days - we found him playing a game with a few of the guys. Looks like he's finally fitting in.

My boys are so excited that I'm creating a book of all our Elf memories - a book for each year that he comes. "But where are we going to keep all those books?!" they asked. Well, on the shelf of course! 

I hope you're enjoying today's hop and love taking a peek at all the fun traditions our blog hop team is sharing! Cindy is up next :)

MDS - Project Life (PLxSU)

Thanks for joining us on the MDS Blog Hop today! You may have just come from Monika Davis's blog; she's our guest designer this month and we're super excited to have her! I've admired her work for a few years now so it's fun to have her post some MDS projects with us.

This week we're working on Project Life layouts - have you caught the PL bug yet?  I think the concept is fantastic and it's so cool that Becky Higgins is collaborating with Stampin' Up to create these adorable products! 

The only reason for my hesitation is that PL is just different from my usual style. Change is hard, no? But it's growing on me - especially when I know I can finish albums quickly and get caught up on my kids' scrapbooks. Simplifying can be a very good thing. For now, I'm trying to combine my style with the PL style. It's still a challenge for me but with any luck I'll find a happy medium and keep getting better with practice! 

I chose to start with some pictures from our summer vacation to Utah. In the few years that we've been gone, my parents decided that they wanted to raise chickens for the eggs and to help cut down on the bugs in the garden. With my brothers' help they built an adorable chicken coop.

I knew Andrew and Simon would be excited to see the chickens, but I didn't expect it to hold their interest for long. Boy was I wrong! The boys loved gathering the eggs, feeding the chickens and of course - chasing them around the yard. I think the chasing was Simon's favorite part. I have about a bazillion pictures of the boys and the chickens, so a PL layout is definitely the best way to scrapbook all of them. 

Cindy is up next on the hop and I can't wait to see what she has to share with us! Hope you enjoy our layouts :)

Once again Blogger isn't cooperating and it won't let me add the link 

into our next button, so please click here for Cindy's blog.

MDS Blog Hop - What are you working on?

Hello everyone! Hope you're feeling inspired by today's blog hop!

Currently I'm trying to play with some of my new downloads! I'm really excited about all the Project Life goodness coming our way. I love the concept of PL, but I still really love to make traditional layouts so for this layout I used the PLxSU downloads but stuck with my usual style. I had fun cropping the different cards and grouping them with other cards for a whole different look. There are so many fun things in the PLxSU kits that it'll definitely keep you busy for awhile!

Next up is Cindy! Have a great day! 

MDS Blog Hop - Love is in the air!

Good morning everyone!  Hope you're ready for some inspiring projects today!

It's been awhile since I pulled out any of the awesome templates in MDS.  I've been struggling to find inspiration lately - thank goodness I knew exactly where to look :)  I found this lovely page in the Pinwheels on Parade kit and it started the creative juices flowing.

At first I thought I wanted a completely different color scheme, different papers - everything.  But once I had my pictures on the page I really liked the bright pop of color.  I did change the background paper and did some rearranging with the embellishments, but overall I kept it pretty much the same.  Thank goodness for the templates - I don't think I ever would have chosen this kit for this page.  Let's hear a round of applause for Stampin' Up for helping us to think outside the box!

Now, on with the show!  We're really excited to have Cori Kozak as our Guest Blogger this month.  She's super talented and you'll love what she brings to the hop.  You can see more of her projects at MyDigitalStudio.net.  While you're there, make sure you friend the rest of us from the hop - we'd love to keep up with you and your projects!

1. Amber Meadows 2. Jeanna Bohanon 3. Julie Leblanc 4. Rochelle Gould 5. Aly Schilling 6. Mandy Grant 7. Kimberly Van Diepen 8. Holly VanDyne 9. Erica Shaw 10. Cindy Schuster 11. Cori Kozak - guest blogger!

InLinkz.com

MDS Blog Hop - Circle Circus!

Wahoo! It's Friday! This week went by incredibly fast for me - maybe because the kids were only in school for 3 days instead of 5.  We weathered Hurricane Sandy without any serious damage or injuries and for that I'm extremely grateful.  It wasn't nearly as bad here as it was for others on the East Coast.  My thoughts and prayers are with them.

Today Kimberly challenged us to use circles in our layouts - how fun!  I could have easily created something new with all the great free downloads from Stampin' Up this week - do you have yours yet? - but I remembered a page I'd done for the display boards at Convention and realized I never posted it. It's perfect for this week's challenge.

I used the Storytime kit for this page and it was a lot of fun.  I liked layering all the different zoo pictures to show children taking a trip to the zoo.  

I hope you enjoy the rest of the hop today - I know I'm looking forward to seeing what my friends have designed!  Oh - and just FYI, I am working on a new desktop background for this month.  I hope to have it finished and posted by tomorrow  :)

1. Jeanna Bohanon

2. Rochelle Gould

3.  Mandy Grant

4. Julie Leblanc
5. Amber Meadows

6. Terri Mongeon

7. Aly Schilling

8. Cindy Schuster

9. Erica Shaw

10. Heather Summers

11. Holly VanDyne
12. Kimberly Van Diepen

MDS Blog Hop - CASE'ing each other!

Surprisingly, I was able to add my page for today's blog hop!  Today we have an exciting challenge - CASE a layout from the designer after you (in the hop). For me that's Terri!  It was so fun looking through all of her designs - and it was so hard to decide! I finally settled on this one, a page highlighting her beautiful daughter: 

Pretty great page for inspiration, right?  Here is my take on the layout.  We recently came back from a great vacation to Orlando.  I took so many pictures I haven't even looked at all of them yet!  I need a vacation just to catch up from my vacation  ;)  This was the perfect opportunity to get started on our vacation album.  My kids are huge fans of the recent movie, "The Muppets" and if I'm being honest - so am I.  We listen to the soundtrack all the time.  My boys are always quoting the line from Kermit the Frog, "Didn't you see our last movie? We drive!"  I used that as inspiration for our trip and made them some signs for pictures with the quote. You can't really see it in the picture, but that's what it says :)

So sorry to be late with my post this morning - but it's up and hopefully I can get back on track.  I've missed playing along each week!  Can't wait to see what everyone else did.  Have a great weekend! 

1. Jeanna Bohanon

2. Rochelle Gould

3.  Mandy Grant

4. Julie Leblanc 
5. Amber Meadows

6. Terri Mongeon

7. Aly Schilling

8. Cindy Schuster

9. Erica Shaw

10. Heather Summers

11. Holly VanDyne
12. Kimberly Van Diepen

MDS Blog Hop - Foodie!

Alright! It's Friday and my page is finally up! I've been working on an Angry Birds party invitation for my little guy who is turning 5 next week and I don't even want to admit how much time I've spent on it.  I'll post it in the next couple of days, but that's the reason for my lateness this morning.

I was pretty excited about our subject this week - food!  I have no problems admitting it - I'm a foodie. Have you seen the newest Jim Gaffigan special on Netflix? You know the part where he talks about all the pictures we take - including our food?  I laughed so hard I nearly choked.  It describes me to a T. My poor kids are going to remember me as being stuck behind a camera and/or cell phone.  Sigh.  I am preserving their memories though...

Ok, since I am an admitted foodie, I have a bazillion pictures of food and I wasn't sure how I would narrow it down.  Then...I went to a friend's house this week for our bi-weekly craft day and she made this A-mazing salad! Lemon Orzo Salad.  She said it normally has asparagus, but she substituted zucchini  (yum!)  this time around.  Of course I snapped a picture of this colorful dish and now I've scrapped it.  :)

I borrowed a layout idea from Jessica Sprague and now I will forever remember how much my friend Julie inspires (and spoils) me.

I was hoping to put up the links for all the downloads I used (there are several), but right now I have an almost 5 year old little man begging for my attention.  Enjoy the rest of the hop!

1. Jeanna Bohanon

2. Rochelle Gould

3.  Mandy Grant

4. Julie Leblanc 
5. Amber Meadows

6. Terri Mongeon

7. Aly Schilling

8. Cindy Schuster

9. Erica Shaw

10. Heather Summers

11. Holly VanDyne
12. Kimberly Van Diepen

MDS Blog Hop - Summer Fun!

Well, I'm still having issues with MDS 2. I can't figure out why, but when I try to select an object either takes several seconds to respond or it just doesn't do anything at all. Frustrating. I'm trying to be patient though; I know that Stampin' Up is working to fix the bugs.

My page is mostly done, so I'll post it now.  I'm trying to figure out how to add a text path all the way around my page, but so far I can't get it to work.  Maybe it's not possible?  I'll keep playing with it.

*UPDATE* Thanks to a comment from one of my readers, quirks59m, I was able to figure out how to create a text path around the page!  It still takes some tweaking to get everything just right (especially around the corners) but it works!  Here's the finished page:

I'm off to the beach today, but I hope you have some summer fun by checking our designs today!

1. Jeanna Bohanon

2.Rochelle Gould

3. Mandy Grant

4. Julie Leblanc

5.Amber Meadows

6. Terri Mongeon

7. Aly Schilling

8. Cindy Schuster

9. Erica Shaw

10. Heather Summers

11. Holly VanDyne

12. Kimberly Van Diepen

MDS Blog Hop - Holiday Catalog Inspiration

Wahoo! I was finally able to finish my page! I'm a full day late, but who's counting right? I'm still not sure what was bogging the program down, but hopefully it won't be that painful every time I design a project. You'll notice that we have a new member on the design team - Kimberly Van Diepen; she's very talented. Welcome Kimberly! We're so excited to have you join us!

Now, if you started following the hop yesterday than you'll know that the theme was to use products or samples from the Holiday Catalog as inspiration. I chose to use the Hostess Content Disc Eventful Year. It's a great kit - full of some really fun stuff. I also used the Howlstooth and Scaringbone paper - it was included when I purchased MDS 2+. Love it!

The Eventful Year Disc includes a great overlay as well - it's kind of a splotchy paint look, but against the black DSP (also included in the disc) it looks kind of spooky - like fog, don't you think?  I also used the Spooky Bingo Bits stamp set on my page which was included with MDS 2+.  As I was designing my page I had the idea to add a moon and I kept wishing I had a haunted mansion to set in the background.  I found one in the Spooky Bingo Bits kit, but was bummed out that the images are so small.  Then I remembered - the stamp images are now SVG files which means that I can resize them as large as I want!  So, if you're like me, and you were a little disappointed to see so many older stamps included in MDS 2 - remember that it's because they've been converted to SVG files and that, my friends, is AWESOME!

Despite my system being slow yesterday, I am having fun with all the options in MDS 2.  I was able to recolor my baker's twine and my stitching! I love the new punches too - do you see the grass at the bottom of  my page?  Yeah, that's a punch.  :)

In the Holiday Mini, you don't get much of a preview of what's included in the disc other than the paper, so I thought I'd show you some of the embellishments. I've resized them to fit, some are actually larger than this.  I hope that gives you a good idea though.  If you want this ensemble, make sure to schedule a workshop with me - you're elegible for Hostess Benefits once your workshop orders hit $150. You can also see a bit more of a preview in my online store.

Thanks for stopping by - see you next week!

1. Jeanna Bohanon

2. Rochelle Gould

3.  Mandy Grant

4. Julie Leblanc
5. Amber Meadows

6. Terri Mongeon

7. Aly Schilling

8. Cindy Schuster

9. Erica Shaw

10. Heather Summers

11. Holly VanDyne
12. Kimberly Van Diepen... Welcome!!!

MDS Blog Hop - Punches!

Happy Friday to you!  I've been looking forward to this day all week - my hubby has the day off {YAY!}  Any extra time we get to spend with him is a good day.
Our theme for the hop today is Punches.  I love punches - I can create all kinds of layouts with them and one of my favorite things to do is fill them with paper then manipulate the paper size to change the look of the paper.  It's like having a million different papers at your fingertips.  I've also been experimenting lately with combining papers from different collections.  I've amassed quite a collection of downloads and one of the great things about Stampin' Up is that they have a core set of color families. What does that mean to you?  Everything coordinates!  I can mix and match papers and embellishments to my heart's content and never worry about whether or not the colors will work together.

To get started, I pulled up my Pin Boards and found a layout I liked.  You'll notice that I head to my Pin Board a lot for inspiration {sometimes I outright copy the layouts - shhh...}  I'm trying to actually do something with the ideas I pin. It's just a little goal of mine :)  What really jumped out at me on this layout was the circle border, but I'm kind of in love with the whole thing.  {Layout by Kelly Noel}

Lots of tweaking and fussing...and Ta Da!

I took these pictures of Simon at the park the other day while waiting for Andrew to finish soccer class.  The park was nearly empty and it was heaven.  I'm not much for crowds.  I love being able to snap away with my camera without worrying about who's going to wander into my shot.  I drive my kids crazy with the constant camera in their faces, but as I was explaining to them this morning - I am preserving their memories. And they'll thank me later.  They laughed and laughed.  I'm dead serious though - they'll thank me later!

I hope you have fun hopping around this morning - enjoy your weekend!

1. Jeanna Bohanon
2. Rochelle Gould 

3. Mandy Grant

4. Julie Leblanc 

5. Amber Meadows
   {nice to see you!}

6. Terri Mongeon

7. Aly Schilling

8. Cindy Schuster

9. Erica Shaw

10. Heather Summers

11. Holly VanDyne

MDS Blog Hop - Color Challenge

Happy Friday everyone!  The weeks are flying by this summer - I wish I could slow it down.  Last night I realized we only have 6 weeks left of summer vacation. Yikes!  I still feel like it just started.  I've been trying to capture a picture each day so we can scrapbook and journal about our summer and today's page features pictures from a recent trip to the dentist office.  Not exactly my idea of good time, but it must be done!

It was my turn to choose the theme this week, and as I was perusing some kits from my favorite digital designers I came across an adorable color scheme that I was dying to recreate in MDS.  I'm hoping that the other blog hoppers found it as fun as I did.  I suggested we use some or all of these colors in a layout: 

I found an adorable layout idea on Pinterest and set to work.  Here's what I came up with:

Have you seen the new Family Fun Photobook Template?  I didn't realize it until I was creating this page, but several of the colors I had chosen were also in the color scheme of this download.  I had to have it and couldn't be happier with my purchase.  This download is ADORABLE!! There are some fun twine accents, half circles and stitching - can't have enough stitching :D  I also used some papers from Patio Party, Walk in the Park, and Berry Blossoms.  I created the title with the Lauren's Letters alphabet punch and added some accents with the Washi Tape.

I ended up using Lucky Limeade instead of Wild Wasabi because I really wanted to use the Washi Tape and it just didn't look right with Wild Wasabi.  All in all, I'm happy with the result!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Now it's time to hop on and see what my talented friends have created - Enjoy!

1. Jeanna Bohanon
2. Rochelle Gould 

3. Mandy Grant

4. Julie Leblanc 

5. Amber Meadows

6. Terri Mongeon

7. Aly Schilling

8. Cindy Schuster

9. Erica Shaw

10. Heather Summers

11. Alesha Walls

12. Holly VanDyne

MDS Blog Hop - Monochromatic

Well, hello there!  When I said I was taking a couple of weeks off I really thought it would be a couple of weeks.  It's turned into much longer than that - I'm sorry  :-/  I am still trying to get back in the groove and although I'm working on my project, it's not quite finished.  We're headed to the water park today and I thought, Why not bring my laptop along?  I could finish up my project while the kids play.  My hubby was quick to veto that idea so sadly, I won't be able to post it until later today.  Never fear though, I'm back on the hop and super excited about it.  I've missed posting with my favorite MDS gals!

*Finally!  I'm finished with my monochromatic page.  It's funny how you can have a clear calendar and then your time seems to fill up before you realize what's happening. This was definitely a challenge for me - I had to resist the urge to add more colors, but overall I think it turned out well.  Hope you like it :)

 While you're waiting for me, why not check out the rest of the group?  I'm excited to see what they have in store for us today!

1. Jeanna Bohanon
2. Rochelle Gould 

3. Mandy Grant

4. Julie Leblanc 

5. Amber Meadows

6. Terri Mongeon

7. Aly Schilling

8. Cindy Schuster

9. Erica Shaw

10. Heather Summers

11. Alesha Walls

12. Holly VanDyne

MDS Blog Hop - Vacations

Good Morning!  I hope you're enjoying today's blog hop.  This week our theme is Vacations, and I'm pretty excited to see what everyone came up with.

I had several pictures to choose from, but in the end I decided to scrap a few pictures from a recent visit to Monticello.  We didn't have much planned for Spring Break, but when my hubby suggested he take a day off so we could go to Monticello I jumped at the chance! I've been wanting to go for some time. The drive was beautiful and it was a perfect spring day. Even the kids had a blast.

I pulled the background paper from the Tickets and Tags kit - I liked the idea of the grid paper since Thomas Jefferson was an architect, among other things.  If you're ever in Virginia, make sure to stop by Monticello - it's so tranquil and absolutely breathtaking!

Make sure to stop by the rest of designer's blogs today and don't be afraid to leave a comment.  We love to hear feedback on our designs!

1. Jeanna Bohanon
2. Rochelle Gould 

3. Mandy Grant

4. Julie Leblanc 

5. Amber Meadows

6. Terri Mongeon

7. Aly Schilling

8. Cindy Schuster

9. Erica Shaw

10. Heather Summers

11. Alesha Walls

12. Holly VanDyne

MDS Blog Hop - Sketch Challenge!

I didn't get my project posted Friday afternoon like I'd planned - sorry.  It's a good thing I was late though, because I misread the list and thought that we were supposed to be doing a page on Vacations.  Turns out that's for this coming Friday.  I have a head start on that page though, so it's ok :)  


I personally love Sketch Challenges - and never get tired of them - but just so you know, we are changing it up a bit in the coming weeks.  I hope you're as excited every Friday for the MDS Hop as much as we are!


Here's the sketch we used:

And here is my version of the sketch:

Lately I've had a lot of fun combining elements and papers from different kits.  That's not to say I never design that way, but I've made more of an effort to really change things up - try something I wouldn't ordinarily.  I like the results so far  :)

1. Jeanna Bohanon
2. Rochelle Gould 

3. Mandy Grant

4. Julie Leblanc 

5. Amber Meadows

6. Terri Mongeon

7. Aly Schilling

8. Cindy Schuster

9. Erica Shaw

10. Heather Summers

11. Alesha Walls

12. Holly VanDyne

MDS Blog Hop - Sketch Challenge

Happy Friday everyone!  It's been a crazy week, so I'm glad that the weekend is finally here :)  It was my turn to pick the challenge this time around and since I am in love with sketches - they really get my creative juices flowing - that's what I picked.  I found this one on BHG's www.scrapbooksetc.com.  Such a fun site!

Here's the sketch:

And here's my take on it:

Generally I follow the sketches pretty closely, but this time around I had a picture bigger than what the sketch showed.  No worries - it was a great starting point for me and the page came together rather quickly.  I wasn't sure what I wanted to scrap at first, but then I found these pics of my little guy standing so proudly next to his potty chart. Look closely - the potty chart was made using MDS! So it's an MDS page within another MDS page - awesome.  I had already started designing with the On the Go kit and wouldn't you know - it worked out perfectly for this page!

Get the supplies needed for this page:

On the Go kit	Check this Out	Punch Shapes	Taffeta Ribbon Color Pack
Simple Stitches and Corners	Corduroy Buttons	My Digital Studio software

InLinkz.com

I hope you have a great time on the hop this morning and that you get some great inspiration for your own MDS projects.  Have a great weekend!

1. Jeanna Bohanon
2. Rochelle Gould 

3. Mandy Grant

4. Julie Leblanc 

5. Amber Meadows (so glad you stopped by!)

6. Terri Mongeon

7. Aly Schilling

8. Cindy Schuster

9. Erica Shaw

10. Heather Summers

11. Alesha Walls

12. Holly VanDyne