Layouts Using HGD by Laurie Ann

White As Snow Kit

My daughter Pam as we walked her down the aisle -- such happiness.



Heart Song Kit

My granddaughter Tayler.

Paper Rain shot

My grandson Tristan.

Swoon kit

Tayler --loved by me, Mom & Dad

Boo kit

Our little golfer out Trick or Treating

Heirloom Rose Kit

My Grandmother Rdna at her graduation with her sister

My son Gage and his prom date Eunice

The Fish Story

Gage on the Beach in NC

Storybook Christmas

Photo booth photos from Christmas Eve 2010

Some Kind of Wonderful kit

This old and very worn photo found in my Grandfther's wallet after his stroke.
. It had appartantly been there for many many years. How romantic.

Heart You to the Moon

Me and my boy Tristan on  Easter 2008



Beautiful Table mini kit

A photo of our Thaksgiving table -- so much to be thankful for!



 Miss Bliss kit

 

Me and Gagie-Mo



Wedding Bliss kit

The Bride and Groom

The flower girl Tayler

The Bride, my beautiful daughter Pamela

Her handsome groom Michael

Birthday Love

Tristan

Tayler and the birthday cake she decorated

Miss Bliss Wordart Bits

Little Miss Lia at her first birthday photo shoot

Raindrops on Roses

Tayler on the monkey bars



Knock Knock

The grandkids

Hands Across the Gulf After 5 Collab kit

Gage and I on Atlantic Beach

The Gulf oil spill

Cute as a Bug

Tristan in hw bug car



Happy Face

Blowing bubbles



A Thing of Beauty

Pamela at 4 years old at the Pumpkin Farm

Summer Beauty

My summer beauty, Tayler



Heart You to the Moon Kit - moon, stars
Raindrops on Roses - metal clouds, green ribbon, cloud paper (blended), green paper
Snow Angels - hanging stars
Little Angel - light beam, wordart
November Road - pocket watch
Blue Skies paper - blended
Songbird Ave Charity Kit - clock hands

Tristan, day one



Songbird Avenue Charity kit

My lovely Lynnea at 15

Mini Mask Wordart 4
Plain Jane Cardstock Aged         Cute As A Bug
Trim Time          He Loves Me rose petals

Tayler going to her first dance



Cute as a Bug       Raindrops on Roses
Summerville          Little Angel Wordart

Lia

After Five Collab: Optimistic

My resolutions

Pam & Mike on their first anniversary 

I've been away a long, long time...

I am still a terrible blogger. It;s been a year since my last post. I must do something about that.

I am going to try to update once a week and see how that goes. (Don't hold your breath, tho.)

OMG -- has it really been 4 months since I posted here????

Well, the kids are fine. I have had a much needed break from football, although Gage has started weight lifting in preparation for next season.

Work has been kind of slow during the week. At least the weekends are still busy. The economy is certainly hitting the restaurant business.

Tristan and Tayler grow cuter each day.
I had Tayler here last weekend to hang out with me. She had fun doing some crafts, including painting some suncatchers and making them into a mobile for Tristan and decorating a suitcase.

Several years ago I had bought her a tiny Dora the Explorer suitcase for her travels back and forth to her grandparents. When I went to pick her up last week, she carried it out of her room, plopped it on the floor with clothes half hanging out of it and procaimed, "Uh, I think I need a bigger suitcase" as she dramatically tried to smoosh the clothes down to fit inside. She did manage to close it but on the way home we stopped at the store and bought her a new, bigger, blue one (she said blue is her favorite color). We then bought some Sponge Bob ribbon, glitter paint, gems and a rainbow applique that we used to decorate it the next day. A fun and useful project!

Tristan, meanwhile, gets bigger and sweeter each time I see him. He looks so cute when he sucks his thumb or jumps in his little jumper seat. I just want to love him up. I sooo wish they lived closer so I could see them more often.

Welcome Tristan!

My daughter Pam and her dear husband Michael had a new baby boy on Oct. 20 -- which just happend to have been my father's birthday (he died when I was 5).




He is such a cutie! His big sister Tayler just loves holding him and giving him lots of kisses!!

How many have YOU done?

If you want to play, just copy and paste this list on your blog, and highlight which ones you've done.

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band -- I sucked at violin
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland -- Well, Disneyworld
8. Held a praying mantis
9. Climbed a mountain
10. Sang a solo --- 4th grade school play
11. Bungee jumped - no, but I did jump off the top of a telephone pole attached to a harness -- does                       that count??
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch --- several
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning ---ugh!!!!
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty -- it was closed all 3 times I visited!
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France -- no but I DID see it in Washington DC's Smithsonian when it        was on tour. Tiny!
20. Slept on an overnight train --- in Italy
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked (stupid me)
23. Taken a sick day when you're not ill -- who hasn't???
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset (both)
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Learned a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelos David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted (does a charcoal drawing count?)
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie  - no but my son was.
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching - no, but I have gone dolphin watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check (not intentionally)
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job -- at 17, after just one week -- they said I didn't fit in :(
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House -- I've seen it from outside twice.
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating -- Lobster
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone's life (my youngest son almost drowned in a swimming pool)
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Read an entire book in one day

My Scrap LOs

So honored...

to be asked by Jen U to make Quick pages using her designs!! I can't tell you how flattered I am!!! The very first digi kit I ever bought was from Jen U -- her Wild Longstems flowers, which I still use all the time!! To think that she likes my LOs enough to ask me to do this is unbelievable to me!! It is so easy for me to create LOs using her stuff -- it is sooo my style!


Here are the two latest I have created, a pair for Mother's & Father's Day, which are available in Jen's store JenU-Designs:




These LOs were very emotinal for me. My Dad died when I was only 5 years old, so I have only the briefest of memories of hi. I small mamory of sitting on his lap as he watched an army movie, hearing him whistle "Strangers in the Night" as he came in the building after work, being in a cabin in Monticello on a cold morning as he warmed my clohtes in the oven for me. Little things like that.
And I lost my Mom at just 26 years of age (she was buried on my 26th birthday). I can;t believe it's been over 20 years... I still miss her every day...

This week I am the featured CT member at The Loft: The Tangie Baxter CT Blog, where there was a short Q&A about me. Make sure you visit Tangie's store too -- she and Vintage Flair , the talented Sherrie Drummond, have done an amazing collab kit called Studio Remnants, which is actually nine kits each based on artists paint colors. Buy the complete kit, though, for a fabulous deal -- and get a free bonus pack too!



Speaking of the Tangie CT -- I got the sweetest gift from Katrine, one of the other CT members.
She awarded me this:

Read more about it on her blog Skrapedilla. Thank you sooo much Katrine!! You don't know how thrilled I was to get this from such a talented scraper as you!!!! I am so happy I have inspired you, as you have me! Now I have to think about who I can pass it on to!

Meet my new Grandchild

My daughter Pam is pregnant!! Yayy!!

She and her husband Mike had been trying to get pregnant for about 8 months and had just strted to get discourgaed, when lo and behold, she's expecting!

She had a sonogram done (it is the one they do in place of all the other prenatal testing) and she sent me these great photos:



She was only 12 weeks so she won;t know the sex of the baby until she has another one at around 5 months. Personally, I'd rather be surprised, but they really want to know what they're having.
Tayler is sooo excited to be a big sister! She is nine years old so she will be a big help too.


Pam was eight years old when I finally had another baby. She couldn't wait to have a baby sister. She was a bit diassapointed that it was a boy, but no big deal. She was a great big sister to Shane.
Then two years later I was pregnant again, This time she was sure she'd get that baby sister. But nope, another boy, But KC was sooo cute with those bright blue eyes, that she was happy anyway.
Then two years later I was again, expecting. She was adamant that she HAD to have a sister this time. When Gage, another boy, was born, she was so disappointed that she refused to pay any attention to him. Really! She wanted no part of him. It was sad. (She tortured him for years, telling him that I was not his real mother, that I had found him and other mean things like that.)When I FINALLY had a girl, Lynnea, a year and a half later, it was too late. By then, after already having three little brothers in her stuff, she decided she was better off as an only child!!

Looking thru the Window ...

Jen U recently added some great Old Window Frames to her store. And they have started a creative streak agalore! I think I have a series going here --- check out my latest LOs. Images are clickab;e to see credits.)

I should have extracted one of the small swags that I made to hang on the chairs at the wedding for this LO, but these digital flowers were just too pretty not to use! Maybe I'll redo this LO.
I used flowers and branches from Jen Ulasciewicz, New Life Dreams, Natali, Annie Manning, Bluebird, Laurie Anderson and ON Designs.


Everything in this LO (except Gage!) is form Jen U.


Along with Jen;s window, everything else here is from
Gisela B's Nature Calls kit.


Here is my Amazing Digi Scrap Race Challenge 5 LO. We had to "interview" an inanimate object. So I chose the restaurant where I work. I've been wanting to scrap it for a while so this was a fun take on it. To print it I might take out the interviewing parts, and leave it as regular journaling.


And finally, Tayler and I shared a birthday cake at Cheesecake Factory and I loved this photo of the two of us blowing out the candle! She's the best birthday present ever !!!

The Freebie has landed...

Yup, this morning I posted the free INSPIRED kit from Tangie Baxter Designs over at our CT blog The Loft.

If you downloaded it, don;t just let it sit there --- create a LO using at least 4 of the products in the freebie, post it to any gallery, and link us up here and the creator of the most inspiring LO will get a $10, yes $10, gift card at Tangie's shoppe!

And you will be wanting that GC to pick up some of her awesome and FUN new DIGISTRATIONS! What's a Digistration?? Well, check out TBD!

OK, I'll give you a tiny preview:

They are basically a way to set the scene on your LOs! And let me tell you, once you try them, they are addicting!!!

Up for a Challenge? and a freebie????

I am hosting this weeks challenge over at The Loft (the blog for Tangie Baxter's creative team !!
Lucky me, I get to give away a freebie mini kit for yu to create your challenge LO. Be sure to check The Loft on Friday, March 14th to grab this lovely kit that will Inspire you to create a memory.

In the meantime, wanna see my latest LOs?? I got quite verbal this week!
Both challenges for ADSR required a LOT of journaling. For someone who was at the top of their class in English and writing, I, for some reason, haven't translated my love of writing over to my scrap pages. I seem to get so involved in the visual part of my pages that I forget to leave room for the journaling! But there was no escaping that this week. Another big change for me was that I did both pages about, get this, myself.

The first LO shares my fear of dying young like my mother and leaving my children without a mother. It's hard to write about something that most of us are afraid to talk about. The response I got from other women who lost their Mom's has been so touching. It was comforting to know that I am not the only one who seemed to view my life expectancy in terms of how many more years I had until I reached the age of my Mom's death. That number sort of looms over you like an expiration date. That scary number. I am relieved that it is now behind me -- now on to the rest of my life!

For this Challenge LO, it had to be about yourself, and fill at least half the page with journaling
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The journling is my Pushing 50 blog entry. I love love love those Vintage Frames from Jen U!

Challenge 4 for ADSR was from OScraps. It required: at least one large Picture, some blending and Spill It Journaling (at least 1/4 of the page had to be journaling). I've always loved this conversation between my daughter Pam and I right after she gave birth to Tayler.

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Journaling: I had gone to visit my daughter Pamela just three days after she had given birth to her daughter, my first grandchild Tayler. I was just sitting there as Pam gazed lovingly at the baby sleeping soundly in her arms. After a few minutes, Pam looked up at me with that “baby love” look and said, “Oh, Mom, I’ve only had Tayler for three days and already I love her sooo much. I can’t even imagine my life without her. Did you feel this way about me when I was I born?” Without a pause I said,“Pam... I still do.”

It was at that moment my daughter finally understood a Mother's Love.

I did this one, too, because I wanted to use Kathryn Wilson's Stripped tranparency and word strips (only $1!), Tangie's new Threaded Ribbon and Jofia Devoe's Diamond Rain. Hey, why not use them together???

ADSR Challenge 2

submitted their Challenge 2 LO last night for the Amazing DigiScrap Race. I think it came out awesome!! We decided to do a He Said-She Said Lo about our realtionship with our husbands and scrapping. Check it out:

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--- JOURNALING ---
CATHY SAID: Honey, can you come look at this?
KEITH SAID: Be right there...just one more minute...
CATHY SAID: Does this look better here . . . or here ?Which color background, pink or yellow ? Which looks better. . .flowers or hearts ? Should I put the journaling here . . .or here . . . or is it better here ?
KEITH SAID: Okay... uh huh...yeah...
CATHY SAID: Should I move this photo 1/4" left or 1/2 inch right? Do you like it better like this... or this?
KEITH *THINKING* You wanted me to get off my video game for THAT?? Why don’t you get off that stupid computer and do some laundry??
STEPHANIE SAID: Hey, look at this layout. What do you think? Does this cardboard look OK or should I skip it? Something is missing... Does this drop shadow look realistic to you?
BRAD SAID:What is it supposed to be? Cardboard?What is it there for?I think you should try something else...
BRAD *THINKING* Why is she waking me to look at a piece of torn cardboard? Since when is trash a decoration ??
STEPHANIE *THINKING* Why did I even ask?He just doesn't get it!If he only knew what it takes to do this...
BRAD SAID: zzzzz....

I guess some other scrappers like it too, since just minutes after I posted it at DST it was listed as a Gallery Stand Out and won Layout of the Day at Digitals.com today!

I am sure many of you ladies can relate... LOL

Oh, and a big thank you to CZNY who RAKd me her fun Thought Bubbles when I did an ISO forum at DST. Look for them coming soon in her shoppe.

A Coupla LOs

Last night I couldn't sleep. My sweet son KC had brought me home a Haagen-Daz ice cream bar and the caffeine in the chocolate kept me up all night. So what did I do? Scrap of course!

I did this LO using Tangie's new kit The Bounding Main and Pink Sea. Her kits always have the coolest names! I added some items from JenU's Down by the Sea and the greenery is from Lorie Davison's gorgeous new Water Spirit kit. If you've ever seen Lorie's kits you know they are packed with tons of whimsical, beautiful papers and elements !!

The photos were taken on a sunset cruise I took with the kids this past summer in North Carolina. We left from Beaufort, passed the Rachel Carson Reserve with its wild horses, passed Fort Macon, under the bridge, went up toward Morehead City and came back under the bridge at Atlantic Beach. I love this photo of Gage.

I also did this one of my sweet NINE year old granddaughter Tayler and I blowing out a birthday candle. My daughter and SIL took us to the Cheesecake Factory for my birthday a few weeks ago and of course they came out and sang to us!

Tayler's birthday is the day before mine -- she's still the best birthday present I've ever gotten!! (even if it was a few hours early.) Funny story about that too:
Pam was in labor and didn't want to push. She felt it all in her back. It was already evening the day before my birthday.
So I told her "OK, don't push -- then you'll have the baby tomorrow and we can share a birthday."
Pam said, "This baby is going to have its OWN birthday" and pushed her out before midnight!

New Scrap Goodies

Have you been to Jen U's new store yet??? No??? Well hurry and get over there --- you know how gorgeous her designs are and right now she is having a Grand Opening sale -- 25% off !!
Her latest toy for me to play with --- these:

Jen bought some vintage Italian frames to put in this kit!

Recently there was a Designer/Scrapper thread over at DST were scrappers could offer to create a LO for a designer. The scrapper could request a kit, or the designer could offer one. Well, I was given two amazing kits!!! The first was from NewLife Dreams ofering me her beautiful annd jam-packed Something to Remember kit

I used several elements on my ADSR Challenge 1 LO that you saw in my last post.

I also used the butterfly pin from this kit on this LO
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The other offer i got was to create a LO using the kit of my choice from Gisela B over at Scrapbooking Heaven. Have you seen her stuff --- wow!

I chose her Nature Calls kit and created this outdoorsy LO of my baby Bear --- isn't he soo cute!!! He looks like such an old man with that white beard. He actually turned 7 on Martin Luther King's birthday.

Gisela and Mareen liked my LO enough to invite me to be on her CT! I can't wait to get my hands on her new spring Kit JOY.

Speaking of CT's, the other fabulously creative ladies I CT for have some new items you should see:

Mikkel Paige has the adorable clear acrylic alphas -- two kinds! Did you see them on my First Frineds LO??

And Tangie Baxter has these cuuuute children Silhouettes

and these versatile mix-and-match Round Tags with a bunch of frames, backgrounds and fasteners -- I know I;ll get a lot of use out of these! I used the Silhouettes in the First Friend LO too.

So what are ya waiting for --- get off my blog and go grab some of their stuff!!!!

.

Prom LO

So in June my son KC took his first love, Taylor, to his high school prom. They were such a gorgeous couple -- they looked like they stepped out of a fairy tale! She even wore a tiara and a blue dress reminiscent of Cinderella!
So I finally got around to scrapping some of the photos (here is my LO)
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The only problem is, they broke up a few months ago and now he doesn't even want to see the photos!
Oh, well, they did go to the prom together, and it was memorable for us as well as him, so hopefully one day he will look at the photos taken that day and remember it with wistful memories instead of hearbreak...

ADSR

So, Stephanie (HapEScrapr) and I have entered the Amazing Digi Scrap Race.
I didn't enter for the prizes (although they are a great bonus!) but rather for the chance to get to know Steph better, find some great new digiscrap websites & designers, and mostly, to spark some major creativity.
Challenge 1--
1. You have to use this template:

2.Use your favorite color on the layout. Try to make at least half of your layout in your favorite color so we can all see what it is.
3. Share with us a picture of your favorite person or animal to scrap about on your layout. I want to know who or what is closest to your heart.
4. Go through your collection of digital elements and pick out one of your favorites. Then use at least three times on your layout.

So here is the Lo I came up with: (my favorite color is pink, but I was feeling kinda silver that day!) And I have 8 people closest to my heart (I am missing DH Keith but he is OK with that).
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And here is my partner Stephanie's LO:
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Cute kids, huh?????

The last Scrap event I entered was the Stand Up & Scrap Challenge -- I totally shocked myself by coming in 5th in the Intermediate division and tied for 12th overall out of over 250 entrants. Not too shabby for someone who had just begun to scrap digitally a few months before. But when I entered, I set a personal goal to get into the top 10 once during the 6 weeks of the contest ---and I did it!!

BUT the real reward of entering was seeing all the wonderful, creative LOs made by the other contestants. Every week they just got better and better, influencing me, teaching me, and inspiring me.
So ADSR participants -- are you up to that challenge???