Autumn Babies by Marissa

The picture was taken this weekend. Christina, my daughter, and her cousin Stephanie, the birthday celebrant, the one with the necklace, were both born in the Fall. They are Autumn babies. Time really flies so fast, they were just babies and now... here they are. Ready to take on the world!

For years I've been creating Halloween birthday layouts for DD. As a kid, she and Stephanie always wanted to dress up in halloween costumes for their birthdays. It is so refreshing to see pictures of them as normal teenagers and making scrapbook pages that are not eerily cute! Beautiful Autumn is a warm refreshing kit. I re-colored and re-sized the flowers and put one on top of another. I just love that one of the frames turned to be a perfect tag for a very short journaling message. And that scarecrow is just so handsome! I love it!!

A Happy Place

Hello everyone... still on vacation. We're back from Springfield and Oglesby, Illinois and what a surprise to find that Cay has this beautiful kit - Alexandra's Garden! Lots of flowers in this one! I just want to use them all. I keep telling myself to save some for later... LOL!

Anyway, here's one I whipped up real quick for today we are hitting 3 places to visit - Field's Museum, the Adler's Planetarium and the Shedd Aquarium. That means.... more pictures to download tonight.

Thanks, Cay. Beautiful, beautiful kit! TFL!!!

Sensational

Finally, Im able to post this for Marissa.
Check her gorgeous LO's from the " Sensation Kit"






Check her blog here:

Summer Livin'

Hello everyone.... I'm hoping to catch up with other responsibilities now. Here are 2 layouts I did in a rush last night (the very first one I started sometime ago when I first received the kit got lost in cyberspace!). Both LOs are about DD's trip alone to Monterey, CA to visit her cousins.

Cay's Beachin' Fun kit is just perfect for these pictures! DD said it was cloudy and cold when they went to the beach. The kit gave the pictures some color! I'm sure I'll be using this kit for other beach [or water] layouts. You have to check it out. There are almost 100 elements in this kit!! TFL!

Happy Birthday, Lee!

Meet my sister, Lee. She is the youngest of the girls. When she was born she was sooo pink. We called her Pinky-Lee. Her favorite color was pink [although I don't know if it still is] that's why I re-colored one of Cay's papers to pink and the crown into purple to make it more visible.

I lined up a few diamonds to cover the butterfly's body, cut the swirl in half and put one on each side of the picture. Elements in this LO are from Cay's Ice Diamond kit, except for the yellow flowers.

TFL!

If All of the Raindrops...

Here's another LO using Cay's Ice Diamond Kit. Can you tell I had a super-duper fun doing this?
The diamonds reminded me of rain and I thought it would be wonderful to see myself having an awesome diamond shower! However, I do not have a picture that goes with that thought. I found one of my daughter's instead.

This is a picture where she and her friends were having fun in front of the camera doing silly things. I just chose her to be in the layout alone. In this picture, I used one of Cay's papers for the umbrella. I decreased the opacity a little bit so the umbrella structure will see through it.

Adding the umbrella gave the feeling I wanted to convey... a shower of diamonds [and flowers]! The journaling is about the song "All the Raindrops", the wording of which I changed a bit to fit my layout.

If you want to know the complete lyrics to the song and also to listen to how the song goes, visit me here.

TFL!

Best Friends, like Diamonds, are Forever

They've been best friends since the 7th grade... Anna, Kelly, Christina, and Connie. College life did not keep them apart. If they don't see each other in person, there's the texting, instant messaging, and visiting each other on Facebook.

I do hope that their friendship lasts forever...!

As soon as I downloaded this new kit from Cay, I created my first layout right away. It is such a lovely, lovely kit! It makes even the simplest layout stand out! The pretty orchids gave the layout a splash of color. Yellow and blue, and a splash of pink, are really a great combination! I scattered a few diamonds all over the flower-patterened paper. I really love that effect! As for the title, I used one of the fonts that came with CS3Ext and the pattern came from the swirly frame. Can you believe that?!

TFL

Nani's Prince

This is a simple LO of my nephew, Jan [again]. I don't have baby pictures anymore so I borrowed a little prince from my brother Nani. My son's baby pictures, they being taken long before digital cameras were available for public consumption, are all faded. No matter how much photoshop-fixing I do, sadly, they just can't be fixed. Even the scanned negatives were of no help.

In this LO I lined up Cay's hearts in a row, depicting how much Jan is so loved. Aside from the color blue, I added the color red for a striking effect. The red hearts were made using Photoshop shapes. To subdue the white pattern of the background paper I re-colored them green. I also used one of those fun buttons from the kit! I just love how versatile those buttons are!

This is a kit I would love to use again for some of my son's layouts. Thanks, Cay.

TFL!

Before You Were Born..

Here's my take on Cay's "My Little Prince" kit. I think I got carried away again, experimenting on a lot of different things. And yet again, I wanted to use everything that came with the kit because ideas just came pouring in.

First I cut a strip of the striped paper and used those as a border that framed my entire layout. I used one of Cay's round templates that she gave away as a freebie. I cut that in half and separated the halves. I didn't want the flower border to get distorted by transforming it to oval.

I used the teddy bear shape as my journaling tag, made it look like I pinned it on the layout, I made it look like I tied the ribbon to the safety pin and hanged the hearts through the pin! Aren't those bling-y hearts just gorgeous? I recolored one of the hearts from blue to pink.

Now the fun part! Cay made this pretty blue button so I got this idea of putting some art on the button! Of course, the art came from the kit as well. I extracted a baby face and a crown from one of the patterned papers and pasted each one on the button.

So here I have a baby + crown = a baby prince! These are my nephew, Jan Rafael, and my sister-in-law, Maria Theresa Ibarra...who bears my maiden name! Isn't that just awesome?


Journaling on tag reads:

Dear Jan Rafael, we don't know you yet but we love you...you are new beginnings, new life; you are family.. the gift of tomorrow belongs to you.

(quoted from Judy Janish)


TFL!

Spring LO's by Marissa

I used paper-tearing technique. Again, I used Cay's freebie borders to embellish the bottom of the photos. The flowers really made this LO so Spring-y! The brown paper background went well with the colors of the photo and of course brown and yellow always look great together!



NO MORE PICTURES!

This is a playful layout. It goes well with my daughter's photos. I saw that she dressed herself up, and the paparazzo in me couldn't resist taking pictures.





I used one of Cay's round scalloped paper templates and positioned the flowers in between the scallops to give the look of a flower garland surrounding the photos. I love templates!

They give versatility to any LO. Since I chose two pink papers from the kit, I added a circular mat between the two pink sheets to give emphasis to the scalloped mat.

I cut the butterfly in half, well not quite even so that I can carve out the legs from a piece of the other wing.

Awesome!
What a versatile kit!

Only One Mother by Marissa

For the second LO I chose the poem ONLY ONE MOTHER by George Cooper.
I wrote this over and over as a background on the pink background
paper that came with the kit using Kuntsler Script. This LO
is for my Mother. She is one of the supermoms of the world,
bringing up 8 kids of her own... she didn't stop there.
She also is mother to grandkids and greatgrand kids.





Journaling:

Hundreds of stars in the pretty sky,
Hundreds of shells on the shore together,
Hundreds of birds that go singing by,
Hundreds of lambs in the sunny weather.

Hundreds of dewdrops to greet the dawn,
Hundreds of bees in the purple clover,
Hundreds of butterflies on the lawn,
But ONLY ONE MOTHER the wide world over.

Marissa,

WOW SuperMOM! by Marissa

The new Supermom kit is truly super-duper! It's like being in a scrapbooking store! I couldn't make up my mind what to pick. I kept telling myself, "it's OK... I can always have more fun later..."




It's Mother's Day again. I thought of making a layout about my mom. But then everybody does that. Perhaps a layout of myself since no one makes a layout of me as a mother? Well, both can be done later. My sisters Josephine, Blesilda, and Imelda are all supermoms as well. Cay's Supermom Kit will cover all of that sometime soon.

Today, I chose Lee, who I know is juggling between being with husband Toym's activities, her children's activities, and house responsibilities. I don't know how she does it, yet still she has time to make wonderful traditional layouts.

Cheers to you, Lee!

Techniques I used in this layout:

I erased the white areas of the blue paper which I used as a mat to make it look like it's torn and tattered. I "tore" the lower portion of the paper and "stitched" it back together with stitches that came with the kit.

I cut off a corner and used another paper from the kit as the corner fold. Of course, the stick pin came in handy. I inverted the word "MOM" to spell "WOW" and placed this on top of the word MOM to make a mirror image. I cut off the "mom" from the word "super" and made this part of my title: WOW Super MOM.

Thanks, Cay! Love it!

Marissa

WHERE'S THAT EASTER SMILE? By Marissa

Here's my first LO using the Spring Blossom Kit.As usual I have my favorite items in this kit which I realized I have used in more than one LO!




I just love the sticker embellishment that came with this kit.I used 2 flowers, one smaller than the other and put the smaller one on top of the other to make a Spring bouquet.

I also used Cay's border freebie to decorate the edges of the journaling mat which is also one of the papers that came with the kit. I just love freebies. [LOL]

Thank you, Cay!

Life Springs Forth by Marissa

I colored some of the leaves of the tree and made it smaller to make it look like a colorful bush. Re-colored some of the flowers to have different varieties of color. Such a lovely, lovely kit! There are so many different things one can do with it!




Journaling:
After blanketing the earth with cold
white sheets,, putting all creatures to sleep,
Mother Nature, once more, brings us
surprises of colorful life springing from tiny
nooks and crannies..


Visit Marissa's blog

Renew by Marissa

Cay's second Easter Kit is as beautiful as the first one! It took me sometime to decide which elements to usem but no fear...! I have lots of pictures to put on layouts using this kit.



This LO is about the other side of Easter - the real side of Easter!

Journaling reads:
There's this side of Easter that some people forget about.
It's not just about bunnies and chicks and chocolates and such.
It is the forgiveness of sins and renewal of life!


Visit her blog at

Easter Eggs-citement by Marissa

After painting the eggs, Diego and Sarah went hunting for them.
Hunting??! they're all spread out in the front and back yards... for lack of shrubbery at Xavier's new house.



Just like I said... the paper I used for the mat is one of my favorites, so I'm using it again.
...and oh, what fun to use the round frame for a basket. I was like an Easter egg hunt for me too, gathering the different eggs in this kit and putting them in the basket. Love the little birdie. Isn't she cute?

Marissa

The EGG-perts by Marissa

Cay's Creations It's Easter is another eggs-citing kit!
It's another kit with lots of pretty things in them.
As usual, I had fun creating this layout that right after I was done,
I started on a second one!



If you can't read the journaling on the LO, here it is...

Boil a dozen or more eggs. Wait for them to cool down.
Taste a couple or more to see if the consistency is just right.
Bring out brushes and paint.With egg on one hand and paintbrush
on the other,choose the perfect color and dip brush into the paint.
Start with a downward stroke,the nupwards, and sideways.
Then go swish, swish, swish, until all areas, including all
fingers are covered with paint.Don't let the fun stop now.

Use more paint and splatter some on the kitchen table.
Don't forget the floors... your faces and clothes!
Add a dash of shrieks and lots of laughter!


The EGGsperts:

Diego
Christina
Sarah

I made the template for the borders and used one of the papers in the kit.
I did the same thing for the journaling tag. Other fonts used, Chick, Quigley Wiggly, Bradley Hand ITC, and Vivaldi script.As for the green mat behind the pictures, I just used a green piece of "paper" and reduced it's opacity so that the background paper's design shows through.

I just love the background paper! It's one of my favorites!

Marissa

Marissa's -Pretty In Pink LO's

Here is Marissa's take on our Pretty In Pink Kit




Fonts used are Segoe Print [texting] and Vladimir Script for the journaling.

She used one of the papers to create the bracket.
And used the other half of the flower-patterned paper
as a semi-stamp on the picture by decreasing opacity.
How cool is that? It's simple, uncluttered and creative.


Here's her second LO and her comment on this one.

This kit is really packed with fun! I enjoyed making the
second LO so much, I want more!

The stamped flowers with the green swirls made it so colorful!
I cut a portion of the swirls and positioned them at different
angles to give the LO more splash of green. I used one of the
papers for my scalloped border.

As for the fonts used for the title, I used the same alpha fonts
that came with the kit, only I recolored them purple (from the purple bow)
and pink (from the pink flower).I threaded the pink dotted ring through
the brown ribbon.

Perhaps I should have threaded 2 more..hmmm.... bright ideas just
keep popping up! TFL!!!


Thanks Marissa for Creating this Creative Creations.

To know more about Marissa visit her blog at




Toodles!

Cay