this is why

I just love my sweet little girl, she is the light of my life :) Design credits: Fantastical Papers, Fantastical Elements, Journal Me Beautiful Brushes, Glitterati Strokes by Sherrie Piegdon, all available at pixelgypsydesigns.com.

angelic

Just a quick scrap of a pic I found floating around one of my folders, I think it was actually taken last summer.
Design credits: Fantastical Papers, Fantastical Elements, Whit's Sassy Lassie Elements, Cherries Jubilee (mini kit) all by Sherrie Piegdon and available exclusively at pixelgypsydesigns.com. Thanks for looking :)

My Friend

My husband actually took this pic with his cell phone! I don't think I've ever even attempted to scrap a pic from a phone, they usually come out pretty icky, but I fell in love with this one (great job honey!!) This was Lauren's first time at the beach, and she's with her step sister having a blast....Thanks for looking :)
*All products used available exclusively at pixelgypsydesigns.com.* Design credits: Into the Twilight paper pack, Artisian Frames; Word Artistry - Friends; Whit's Sassy Lassie Element Pack; Fantastical Element Pack by Sherrie Piegdon.

Euphoria

I already posted this one in a couple of my online galleries, and then decided to make changes to it (so it might look a bit different if you've seen it elsewhere). This is really one of my all time fave pics of my daughter. We were at Disney on a little vacation a couple months ago and she was having a blast at the hotel pool. The sun was setting and there were water fountains spraying everywhere which, as you can guess made for the coolest photo opps! I used a lot of masking techniques in this page, I wanted it to be really different, so instead of keeping my elements & title outside the photo, I put them inside the photo....aren't I tricky, lol!
Thanks for looking!

Design credits: Autumn in Sedona Mini Kit & Negative Space Frames by Sherrie Piegdon, Inspired Element Pack by Ami Collofello, Celebrate Papers & Summertime Mini Kit by Amanda Carlson- all available exclusively at pixelgypsydesigns.com. Title font by: (fonts for peas) kevinandamanda.com.

shine

Lauren got a Tinkerbell costume for Easter, and now she's obsessed with being a princess. It's really cute because she has never liked to dress up, and she's a total tomboy. I'm so happy that she likes something girly! She runs around in full garb singing "I'm a magical princess!!" at the top of her lungs...it's hysterical :)

*All products used on this page are available exclusively at pixelgyspydesigns.com, (Each product listed has a direct link - be sure to visit the site today!) Celebrate Papers by Amanda Carlson, Negative Space frames by Sherrie Piegdon, (green polka dot paper) by Abish Allen "My Garden" freebie add on.
Thanks for looking :)

sweetness

So, I'm really excited to tell all of you that I recently joined Pixel Gypsy Designs as a design apprentice! I am absolutely thrilled to be apart of their community, and so grateful for the opportunity. If you've never checked out the site, jump over right now! They have amazingly talented designers, and it's a really friendly community with a wide range of digital products, freebies, fun forums, challenges and lots more :)

Here is a link to the shop where you can find the products used on this page: Pixel Gypsy Designs Shop. Design credits: Serene Papers by Sherrie Piegdon, Journal me Beautiful brushes (frame around photo) and film strips by Sherrie Piegdon, paper strips, stitched flower element and border from Ami Collefello's Inspired collection, button element from Abish Allen's My Garden collection. "Impervious" font by kevinandamanda.com.
Thanks for looking, and I hope you check out the site!

This is my beautiful sister and her wonderful husband. In case the journaling is too small to read, it's from Corinthians, Ch. 13; "Love is patient, Love is kind, It does not envy, It does not boast". I made this word art a while ago with some other famous & inspirational quotes, and this is the first page I've actually used it on. Thanks for looking :)

it is love...

Another page I put together using my own goodies :) This picture of her cracks me up, it's pretty rare that she smiles for the camera, so this one definitely earned a page. Thanks for looking!

Cherry Vanilla

Hi everyone :) I know it seems I've been MIA lately...and it's not because I'm a slacker, hahaha... I've actually been totally engrossed in teaching myself to make digital scrapbooking kits that any time I've spent online has been with PS tutorials. Teaching myself photoshop has been one of the most challenging and rewarding personal experiences of my life. It has definitely had it's ups and downs, and when I started messing around with photoshop back in October, I really had no idea how into it I would get. Everyday is a new challenge, and I still have so much to learn - I feel like I haven't even scratched the surface of what the software is capable of.

Anyway, here is my first page using only my own designs - it's from the first kit I created called Cherry Vanilla. I really hope to show the kit somewhere soon, and will let everyone know when and where I show it ;)

I really need to get online and make up for lost time in all the galleries and blogs, I really miss seeing everyone's awesome work, and will visit soon :) Thanks for looking!

Oops!

Hi everyone,

I was just going through my e mail and deleting my spam folder, when i pressed delete I saw a message from someone with the message line "I like your blog" (or something along those lines). Before I could get it back, it was permanently deleted.
So, whoever you are, I apologize! I didn't get to read the message, and I would feel terribly rude if you took the time to e mail me and I didn't get back to you...i lose a lot of e mails that automatically go to my spam folder :(
Please feel free to e mail me again, and hopefully I will get this one. Thank you again for taking the time to write, I always appreciate hearing from people :)

~Rachel

with love....

I finally decided to do a page today, even though there are about a zillion other things i should be doing (sigh!)...anyway, here's my little angel at the pool, i think this is one of my all time favorite pics; the sun was setting and there were fountains spraying water everywhere, which of course made for awesome picture taking!

Design credits to: Kate Pertiet (paper), Kitty Designs (word art) and brushes from B.Silvia & Seishido biz.

purity...

I found this page (well, at least part of it) in my files while I was posting my "thank you" page yesterday. I started it a few months ago and never finished, I'm such a scatterbrain! So I made a few changes and think I really like how it turned out - It's funny how much digital is like paper - your style changes/evolves and you look back at something you did and all of the sudden know just how you want to change it. I've never done it with my paper pages, (definitely thought about it!) but with digi it's just so much easier to open it and start throwing stuff in, lol..and I tend to use techniques that I learn and love, like this and my "thank you" page - I open a pic, use a cool paper to clip it, adjust the style/filter and then clip it again onto a mask, and then plop it down on another coordinating paper to begin the page.
This mask is by my favorite Annie Manning collection, called "Paint the Moon" which I got at oscraps.com. I used various brushes, mainly from B. Silvia's BorderLite collection, Word art (collab kit) by Vicki Stegall and Taylor Made, and the background paper is by Danielle Young.

thank you...

Life has been crazy lately, it was so much fun to actually sit down and finish a page! We moved a couple weeks ago, and I'm still unpacking, it's been nuts! Anyway, here is my little one, she actually wanted me to take her picture which was a rare opportunity for me. I just realized I'm always partial to the shots I get of her profile, maybe because that's all I can get most of the time, haha!
I've been doing a lot of practicing with photoshop, mainly learning how to make my own digital elements/papers and stuff and while it's been really frustrating, it's definitely been beneficial. I really wanted to just get a page done because it's been soooo long, so I just used my stash of stuff from my fave designers to do this one. I promise soon I will show my own goodies (with free downloads too!)
Design credits: Taylor Made, Vicki Stegall, Fei-fei's Stuff, K. Chen, Kate Pertiet, NinaScrap Designs.

WOW, i finally got to do a page! I definitely lost my mojo for a while. Anyway, this page was inspired by the*amazing* Amanda Taylor's (taylormade designs) work. I could stay in her gallery all day long, just in awe of what she does! while i was browsing her gallery i realized that i had never tried a clipping mask - so here is my first go at it, the photo mask is by Annie Manning (oscraps.com), and you just plop that puppy right down over your photo and voila! (sorry, but i was amazed, haha!) I used a background paper by fei-fei's stuff, some swirly elements by kittydesigns (oscraps.com) and a hodgepodge of brushes, including some of the most incredibly beautiful brushes I've ever come across at amadaun.net. The journaling is obviously from Peter Gabriel's In Your Eyes (my all time favorite song, like,*ever*). Thanks for taking a peek :)

Hi everyone! I have been taking a bit of a rest from my computer lately (haven't been feeling too great b/c of *awful* TMJ headaches). I wanted to post a big thanks to Jill (scrap-pit) and Renee (scrap-o-holic) for leaving me this super sweet blog award, thanks ladies! so for my part, here are my (top) 5 addictions:

• Trying to learn Photoshop (of course, hahaha!)
• Candles
• Sprite with tons of ice & a straw
• Brownies, well actually anything chocolate...I gotta have it, everyday.
  
• (and the newest) crocheting.
  

I know, pretty exciting stuff huh? I suddenly feel the need to go get something pierced or tatooed because I feel lame!

This page is for my CT role @ bwscrapbooking.com; Its from their Grateful Bounty Kit, which I really like :) I cropped the pic with my elliptical tool, made a work path, feathered my selection and placed it onto the frame (using the multiply filter). I also distressed the edges of my paper and elements using the burn tool, and embossed the frame to give it a little depth. This kit is really fantastic, definitely go check it out!

sweet baby girl

Yes, I even though she just turned 3 I still call her my baby girl, haha! When I came across this word art in my stash (that i totally forgot I had!) I just had to use it...Anyway, I got some awesome shots yesterday with my new camera (thanks mom & dad!) when we went outside to play. Thank goodness for this camera, my old one was dying for sure, and it didnt have half the mp's this one has, im totally in heaven! This was fun to do, a little tricky since im so new to photoshop, but really fun. I used the mag. lasso & magic wand tools to crop the background out, and then zoomed in really close to use the eraser and smudge tools to refine the edges, which was a little daunting because her hair, but I just played around with the strengths of each tool and I really ended up liking the result ;) I also adjusted the brightness/contrast of the photo and used color burn for my layer options. The word art is a collab. by Taylor Made & Vicki Stegall (endearment kit i think) @ oscraps.com and the background paper is by ScrapKitten Designs (Shabby Spring Parfait Kit) @ scrapitsassy.com.

sweetheart

I did this page with the awesome freebie kit (in the Jan/Feb issue of the Scrap N'art Ezine) from oscraps.com. the papers and word art are by Taylor Made Designs, and the "glitzsplat" in the bottom corner is by Vicki Stegall. As i was putting this page together, I was laughing to myself thinking that Angelina Jolie's got nothin' on my kid - her lips have been full and beautiful from the second she was born (she can later thank Dad for that!) Anyway, thank you to Scrap N'art, Oscraps.com and all the designers that put this kit together, i love it!

i do...

here is another one of my pages for my CT role @ scrapitsassy; it was created using a kit called Spring Parfait by ScrapKitten Designs. (Please click on the kit name to go to the kit.) I really loved working with this kit because (well, its obviously very pretty!) but its large too - there are lots of cool elements to choose from, and the colors are very soft and pretty. I am still trying to get my wedding scrapped, so i thought this kit would be a good choice for some of my photos. Ive tried to scrap this pic soooo many times, with no luck...its really the only photo that is somewhat close-up of me, but i remember my sister taking it and i smiled REALLY big and cheesy, so i have mixed feelings about it, lol! Anyway, this kit was a blast to work with, the only thing i added were drop shadows on all of my elements (im a drop shadow girl i guess) so go check out this kit, you'll be pleased!

best friend

This is my 2nd page using this kit - (It's all about the Grunge) by (Kari) Relocated Dixie Girl. (Here is a link to the kit @ scrapitsassy, and her blog is in my faves). Im sure everyone will be wondering if I lost my mind scrapping a stuffed animal...but this little animal is my daughters best friend. She literally carries him everywhere, and has been for almost a year now..its kind of funny, we joke that he's our 2nd child.
I used drop shadows, some color burning on the ribbons, and I used the magic wand tool to cut the animal out of another photo and place it on this layout, I absolutely love that tool now that i've gotten the hang of it. At first all it did was frustrate me because it only seemed to select everything i didnt want selected, (but i think i figured it out, so HA! magic wand tool!) Really though, if you dont usually use this tool, give it another try, its pretty amazing - just zoom in on whatever you want it to select and be sure there is a color difference between what you want selected and do not want selected, otherwise it will pick up stuff you dont want it to. With this one i bumped up the contrast of the whole photo considerably before I used the magic wand, and it made the background deeper and that's how it came out the way i wanted...then I switched the contrast back to normal when i was done :)