Britt-ish Designs

weekly scarlett update

2012-01-25T11:17:00.002-07:00

Today Scarlett is 45 weeks old. Can you believe it?! Only 7 weeks until she's 1. Holy crap. Everyone tells you that time just flies by and they grow up so fast, and man are they right.

Anyway - I'm still going strong with her weekly photo project. I can't wait to make glossy, beautiful coffee table books for the grandparents and for us too. I had a request to show some of the process we go through to get her photos each week and to see some of the outtakes.

Since its winter, the light isn't the best. So lately, my photos have had noise & some motion blur. But oh well!! I just do my best and that's all I can do.

This morning Scarlett was not in a happy mood. She was a total roller coaster. She was tired and grouchy one minute. (I'm leaving all of these uncropped so you can see the process)

And happy and crazy the next minute!

If I'm lucky (like today), Josh still hasn't left for work yet, so he can help me get her to look up, not roll away, and get a good picture. Today, the method was holding up our Ariel Animator's doll. This seemed to keep her attention.

I was so excited to finally get to use this snowy fabric. We haven't had any snow this season!! I couldn't believe it was the end of January and we are just now seeing any snow!

She's getting so big now I have to stand up on a chair!

I really wanted her to show us one of her tricks, like clapping or peek-a-boo or 'so big'. But she was no cooperating whatsoever. So, we just gotta go with what she wants to do.

And here's the final picture with the photoshopped number. I FINALLY got her a new white onesie this week. She's 10 months old and I was still squeezing her into her same 0-3 month one! Can you believe it?! We had stretched it out to the max.

Some weeks its really easy and I can get the shot I want in a few snaps (well, let's be honest, I've never taken less than 20). But most weeks its a longer process. And then some weeks it's a struggle and I end up frustrated as does Scarlett. One of the hardest weeks, I was on my own (no Josh to help) and had to take over 160 frames to get a good one. But we try to make it a happy, fun project and not get too stressed out about it.

(You can see all Scarlett's weekly photos on my Flickr stream.)

Has anyone out there started a weekly, monthly baby photo project? I'd love to see!

speed scrap on friday!

2012-01-22T22:12:00.000-07:00

I'm hosting a Speed Scrap this coming Friday (Jan. 27) at 3:00 MST. (That's 5:00pm EST/4:00pm CST/3:00pm MST/2:00pm PST/10:00pm GMT.)

It's part of the MouseScrappers.com Speed Scrap Marathon. It's lots of fun! We'll be chatting in the MouseScrapper Chat Room, and the 7 instructions will be posted in the Speed Scrap Forum. After the first hour is over and all the instructions have been given you'll then have 4 hours to complete your page!! Get it done on time and you get this prize . . .

(yes, it coordinates with my "Animal Kingdom" kit.)

The Speed Scrap Marathon is really great. I'm so happy I get to host one of the scraps. There are even goodie bags for those who complete the half-marathon (at least 8 of the scheduled scraps) and an even bigger/better goodie bag for those who can complete the FULL marathon. Find out more about goodie bags and the marathon here.

So - mark those calendars and I'll see you on Friday!! Yay.

i've been workin' on the railroad

2012-01-20T00:00:00.001-07:00

. . . all the live-long day! Trains! Trains! Trains! I think its so funny how we've all probably got a train photo or two (or twenty) in our stash. We all seem to love a good train ride. Or maybe you have a train collector, or builder, or just a huge Thomas fan in your household.

Whatever the locomotive occasion, I've got a brand new kit that will help you scrap it out.

"Workin' On The Railroad"

and a bonus alpha too . . .

"Workin' On The Railroad Bonus Alpha"

And, I do have a little add-on freebie for ya at the end of this post too!!

I, as you may have guessed, have LOTS of Disneyland Railroad pictures to scrap. So I started with Scarlett's first ride . . .

And here are some awesome layouts from the Britt Girls!

Isn't this kit fun?! I tried to make it as versatile as possible. So you could scrap anything from baby photos, to school photos, to Thomas the Tank Engine mania!! :) Hope you all enjoy it.

It's time, once again, to enjoy the Show Offs. So here we go!

Each of this week's Show Offs will get my new Workin' On The Railroad Bonus Alpha as their gift.

Interested in Showing Off!? Learn all about how it works HERE. Our next slideshow/gift will be on February 3rd.

And last, but not least, here's that add-on freebie I promised ya.

{DOWNLOAD HERE}

Have a fantastic weekend, full of scrappin' fun. TOOT TOOT!!!!

last minute sneak peek

2012-01-19T20:18:00.000-07:00

I meant to get this sneak peek up this morning, but I totally spaced it!! Ooops! Well, my new kit will be released at midnight, but I thought I'd pop in and show ya the sneak peek anyway . . .

Are you excited?! Check back in later tonight (or tomorrow morning for those of us who aren't night owls) for the release.

fill 'er up!

2012-01-13T11:11:00.001-07:00

Hi everybody. Sorry today's post and new release is a little later than usual. Scarlett's been sick and I had to take her in to the doctor this morning. Everything is fine though. Big sigh of relief! She just has a virus with "coarse breathing", as the doc put it. Which apparently is normal while she has this virus. No croup, no pneumonia WHEW!

We took a nice long "magic shower", as we call it, with lots of steam and that seems to have helped a loosen things up a bit. She's sleeping peacefully now, so I can get down to business and get you all my latest creation . . .

"Fill 'Er Up Templates"

Lately, I've been obsessed with scrapping these big, over-the-top, FULL pages. Covering the entire paper with photos, stacks, spills, etc etc etc! It's so fun. Just a new way to create a memory page. And I thought you might like to try it too! It's much easier to try out a new style when you've got a template to follow. Here are my layouts using "Fill 'Er Up". You may recognize a couple of them from the past that inspired two of the new layouts. (click images to enlarge)

And here are some incredible creations from the Britt Girls:

Aren't these types of pages fun? Something NEW to try!! I hope you'll try them out and post your creations in the Britt-ish Designs gallery for me to see.

digi-scrap stats: 2011

2012-01-09T21:07:00.000-07:00

There's a trend out there right now of tabulating your 2011 Digi-Scrap stats, and picking your top 10 favorite pages of the year. And well, it just looked like a LOT of fun. So - here we go!

Pages Scrapped: 94
That's almost 8 a month. Not bad. But getting that close to 100 was just frustrating! So my goal for 2012 is to make it to 100 AT LEAST!

Pages Left Unfinished: 0
I'm NOT AT ALL the kind of scrapper who can leave a page un-done. I almost always finish a page in a sitting. Once in a blue moon (like right now, actually) I have to put a page on hold to finish later. But mostly I have to work on a page 'til it's done.

Pages Printed: 20
This one's embarrassing. I'm such a slacker when it comes to printing. But man, oh man, do I love looking at my printed pages. So my second goal for 2012 is to print a LOT more than that!! I just have to put aside a little money each month to do it, then it doesn't feel like such a huge splurge!

And my top ten favorites: This was very hard to narrow it down, but it was a ton of fun looking through all my pages from the year. In no particular order . . . (each image is clickable to see the full, credited version)

Have you done your 2011 Digi-Scrap stats? Link me up or post them here.

Who's with me to get to 100 pages in 2012?!

show off slideshow!

2012-01-07T14:38:00.000-07:00

Sorry this is a day late, but I'm just now getting back to work/emails/etc. Anyway . . . enjoy this round of Show Offs!

All of these Show Offs got a $2.50 Gift Code for my shop. All those emails have gone out, so if you didn't get your code, shoot me an email at myshowoffs at gmail dot com.

Interested in Showing Off!? Learn all about how it works HERE. Our next slideshow/gift will be on January 20th.

Love you guys!! Thanks for all the kind wishes about my grandma. They warmed my heart. Ta ta!

my grammy

2012-01-02T11:08:00.001-07:00

On New Years Eve our Grammy Rodee passed away. It was sudden and we definitely weren't ready. I would give anything for one last hug, one last kiss, one last I love you.

Grammy's hasn't been feeling well for a couple years now, so I'm very happy she's home with her Father in Heaven feeling young and healthy and free once again! She was also in the early stages of Alzheimer's. I feel it was a merciful blessing (for her and for Gramps) that she didn't have to have that disease take her.

All three of her sisters were waiting for her in heaven, and I'm sure they probably had a wonderful New Year's Eve party together. They always knew how to have a good time!

I know she knew how much I loved her. Well, I really hope and pray she knew! I can't even begin to explain or express our relationship. I loved her very much. She was an incredible example of a loving wife, a hard-working mother, and a pillar of strength for her family.

I'm so happy she got to meet my Scarlett and hold her and get to know her sweet personality.

She loved Scarlett so much. She lit up when I brought her to visit.

Hug your grandparents tight. Look in their eyes. Listen closely to their stories. I wish I could go back to the last time I saw her (our family Christmas party) and just revel in her company. It's a comfort to know that she got some quality playtime and love from Scarlett that night. We gave her and Gramps a beautiful photograph of all the great grandbabies and she really loved it.

And the grandkids also did a nativity reenactment, which I know she really enjoyed. I'm happy that we were able to bring joy to her heart for Christmas.

It's sad to think about her not being with us here anymore, but I know its not goodbye. It's see you later.

I'll miss her so much until then.

this year's christmas card

2011-12-23T11:05:00.000-07:00

Our cards should all have been received by now, so I won't be ruining anyone's surprise.

But to all my digi-friends . . . MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

From the whole family - we wish you all a VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

It really is the most wonderful time of the year. We hope you all take time to soak up this magical time with friends and family.

o christmas tree

2011-12-17T15:00:00.001-07:00

We got our tree up this week. We do the REAL tree thing. It's so fun! A mess? Sure. Pricey? Yep! A pain to water. You bet. But, who cares!? Nothing beats a real Christmas tree.

We got our tree at Home Depot this year. Josh had an extra $25 leftover on a Gift Card so it made our tree pretty cheap!!

We picked the most gorgeous tree (its not the one Scarlett and I are standing in front of in that photo above).

But by the time we got our tree home and fed the baby dinner, there wasn't time to decorate, so the decorations had to wait til the next day.

But I did get all the lights on that night, after the baby went to bed. Putting the lights on the tree is definitely the most boring/tedious part of trimming the tree. But one of the most important. I use 6 strands! 1200 lights. Boom baby. Mama likes a lotta lights!!!!

Decorating together as a family the next night was really fun. It's so special to do these things together as a family for the first time.

Seeing Scarlett's eyes light up at each ornament we show her is seriously the best. And she did NOT want to be left out for second. We had to put her in the Snugli so she could be right in the middle of the action.

Here's a little video I took on my phone that shows how excited she was. I don't think she ever stopped kicking her little legs for more than a couple seconds.

(We listened to a lot of Christmas music as we decorated, but during that video you could hear the David Archuleta Christmas album. I highly recommend it.)

And last, but not least, my fave photo of the night . . .

I haven't taken photos of the finished tree yet, but when I do, I'll be sure to share.

santa, meet scarlett

2011-12-15T10:00:00.036-07:00

We took Scarlett to meet Santa Claus last week. We didn't know how it would go. I braced myself for tears and screams. I'm not quite sure why, she really isn't the kind of gal who makes a scene.

While she was a teensy bit nervous, she did really great. We were so proud of her.

And Santa was INCREDIBLE. SOOOOOO cute.

And the best part - it was all FREE!! I got to take my OWN photo. No workers to forbid the use of our own cameras, or phones. No one rushing you through. It was lovely. Anyone in the Utah Country area - go see Santa at The Shops at Riverwoods in Provo. Santa is there everyday Mon-Sat from 6-9pm. Be warned, even though you can't tell because of the cute set up they have, it is outdoors! So dress warm. We saw several people whip off their kids' coats for a quick pic. No harm in that! You'll notice we unwrapped Scarlett down to her sweater for the photos, and then promptly bundled her back up.

Plus the Shops at Riverwoods has an amazing display of Christmas lights!! There are also free carriage rides Mon, Fri, & Sat 6-9pm. It's worth making a trip down to see it all.

Haha! I didn't mean for this to be a Shops at Riverwoods testimonial! It's just, I did my research beforehand to find a place we could meet Santa that would let me take my own photos. And I was so pleased with our experience, I thought I'd share the good find.

Anyway - we had a wonderful Christmas-y evening together as a family. It's such a wonderful time of year!!!!

bring on the presents!

2011-12-14T00:00:00.027-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yep, its my birthday today. I'm 31. And I thought it would be fun to celebrate my birthday with all my digi-scrap friends and throw myself a little party. haha!

So, to start things off, even though its not Friday, I have a new birthday kit to release today. Can you believe in the 4 years I've been designing I've NEVER MADE A BIRTHDAY KIT!? I couldn't either. So here is my very first birthday themed kit!!

"Cake & Ice Cream"

And as MY birthday gift to all of you . . .

Take 31% off (since I'm 31 years old today) your purchase!!
One time use!! Expires Saturday 12/17 (at midnight).
Exclues bundles, but INCLUDES the new kit!! What a steal.

Here's the page I scrapped with "Cake & Ice Cream"! My brother's birthday party a few months ago.

and more pages from the Britt Girls:

Hope everyone has a VERY happy day. I actually have no idea what we're doing to celebrate my birthday. I suppose Josh has something planned. Right, honey? :) *UPDATE* I've been informed that we have reservations at a very swanky restaurant tonight. Good job, babe. I'm excited!!

Oh! Also, this is my last new release of the year. I'm taking the rest of the season off to focus on my family and the holidays!! LOTS to do to get ready, enjoy, and make memories. I'll be back with new products in 2012. But as of now, I'm officially OFF! (I'm sure I'll be blogging a bit here and there, so its not like you won't hear from me for weeks on end!)

Have a lovely wintery week. ta ta!

show offs and slideshows and alphas OH MY!

2011-12-09T00:00:00.002-07:00

This week I've just got one new alpha in the shop . . .

"Winterrful Alpha"

I LOVE houndstooth. And as I was thinking of what to create for this week, I accidentally quick masked a houndstooth pattern to my alpha and inspiration struck!

Ok . . . let's get to this week's Show Offs slideshow.

And you guessed it, all the Show Offs are getting my new alpha as their gift!

(What's a Show Off? How do you join in the fun? Read all about it here!)

*IMPORTANT NOTE*
This has been our last round of Show Offs for 2011. We'll pick it up again starting on January 6, 2012. If you want to send in 1 Show Off between now and January 6th, that'd be great! But just send 1. We don't want 1,000 layouts to sort through when we get back to it.

So no more Show Offs until January 6. Mark your calendars!

Have a WONDERFUL WINTERY WEEKEND.

Joovy Winner!

2011-12-05T11:09:00.000-07:00

A BIG congratulations to Sarah Bennett! The winner of my Joovy Stroller giveaway!! She was the lucky randomly selected winner.

Sarah's expecting a baby! How perfect. Sarah gets to choose between the Kooper or the Groove in her choice of color.

Thanks to everyone who entered! It was so much fun. I hope to have more baby gear giveaways and reviews in the future.

a banner day

2011-12-02T00:00:00.018-07:00

Hi everyone! Happy Friday.

All of my grab bag goodies are now revealed and in the shop!! You can buy each piece individually or you can get it in the collection:

"Holiday Magic Collection"

Also new today . . .

"Build-A-Banner"

Some of you may have picked this up at my Speed Scrap last weekend, but for those of you who missed it, its available in the shop now!

Here's the page I created with it:

And from the Britt Girls:

Aren't they fun? I'm definitely going to be using these over and over again!!

Hope you all have a fun weekend. Only three more weekends and then its CHRISTMAS! Crazy, right?

Ta ta!

feelin' Joovy (giveaway!)

2011-11-30T16:21:00.004-07:00

Hi there peeps! You may have noticed in my pics from our Disney trip Scarlett was rollin' in a VERY sweet new lime green stroller. We recently purchased the Joovy Kooper. We wanted a light-weight stroller that was somewhere in between an umbrella stroller and a larger heavy-duty stroller. After doing our research, we had heard some great things about the Kooper, and we totally loved how it looked, so we went for it!

RIGHT NOW THE JOOVY KOOPER IS ON SALE FOR $99 and FREE SHIPPING!! HOLY SMOKES THAT'S A STEAL. The discount is only while supplies last, so if you like what you see, get it while its such a killer deal! (I'm jealous!! HAHA! I paid full price!)

Taking any stroller on a Disney trip puts any stroller to the test! Rockin' and rollin' around Disneyland is a much more intensive test, than say, a leisurely stroll around the block. We were hoping the Joovy Kooper would live up to our high expectations. And in many ways, it did.

PRO: GREAT LOOKING, BRIGHT COLOR. Isn't it cute?! I love the way it looks. Joovy calls it their "euro-buggy". From the moment we took it out of the box and popped it up were were all oooohs and ahhhhs. I totally love the bright lime green color, which Joovy calls "Appletree". And MAN did that bright color come in handy at Disneyland. Spotting our stroller in the chaos of stroller parking areas was a snap!

PRO: ROLLS GREAT, STURDY, HIGH QUALITY WHEELS. And it rolls GREAT! The wheels seem super sturdy and high quality. It turns and rolls VERY easily. No complaints at all in the way the Kooper handles.

PRO: DURABILITY, CUSTOMER SERVICE. I can tell the Kooper is going to last us a long time. The fabric is super sturdy and all the mechanisms and parts seem really high quality (except for the basket snaps - keep reading - I'll get to that). Plus, even though it seems sturdy and high quality, its pretty lightweight too! And it holds kids up to 50 lbs, so Scarlett can be rollin' in her Kooper for a long long time! And I know if I ever have a problem, Joovy will help a girl out. When I've spoken to them on the phone, a real person answers! No waiting on hold forever, or getting lost in a maze of an automated system! They are really nice and always helpful.

PRO: KID COMFORT, MESH KIDDIE POCKETS. Scarlett always seemed really comfortable in it. I liked how wide the seat was. Plenty of room. Sometimes I think kids look a little squished in umbrella strollers, but not the Kooper. There are also really handy little mesh pockets on either side of Scarlett where we could tuck toys, sippy cups, etc. Its where we always stashed her pacifier so we always knew where it was!

PRO: GIANT CANOPY. And one of my FAVORITE features, the GIANT canopy. This hood is massive and really nice. It totally shades our fair-skinned babe AND also helped keep out some of the noise and goings-on when she was trying to sleep. Joovy is known for their giant canopies. I really like them a lot!!

Now for some things about the Kooper we didn't love as much.

CON: BASKET BLUNDER. First up, and probably Josh's #1 complaint, was the basket at the bottom. It's an ok size, but the little tab that snaps it in place on the right side would NOT stay snapped. I don't know if we got a faulty one or what, but every time we looked down it was unsnapped and our basket was about to fall off and dump all our stuff on the ground. It was very frustrating. Josh just informed me that it was actually both snaps that would come off. I only noticed the right side myself. A large safety pin would have solved the problem, but should't your basket just stay on?! And its not like we had super heavy stuff down there that was pulling it off. It was just our camera, a baby blanket, and a baby sling. I'll definitely be contacting Joovy about our basket!

Also, its a little inconvenient that you can't access the basket underneath at all if the stroller seat is reclined. So if Scarlett was a asleep and I needed to get into the basket, too bad!

*UPDATE* I talked to Joovy and they quickly sent me a replacement basket. Again - Joovy's customer service is SUPERB. They want happy customers!! They said I must have gotten faulty snaps, so this one is supposed to work. I've used it running errands and it hasn't fallen off yet, but we'll see if it stays on our next trip.

MINI-CON: DOESN'T FULL RECLINE. Speaking of reclining the seat, I was a little bummed that the seat doesn't fully recline. It's nearly flat, but not quite (I looked it up and it goes back to 149 degrees). Luckily, Scarlett didn't seem to mind much and slept pretty good in it. But I do wonder if she would have napped better and longer had she been able to lie all the way back. My sister-in-law, who was with us on the Disneyland trip, said her baby would NOT have been able to sleep in a stroller that doesn't lay flat. (MINI-PRO: UNLIMITED RECLINE POSITIONS. I do love how the strap mechanism lets me set the recline at any position you want.) One other thing - when reclining or sitting up the seat, the back flap with the zip pouch and water bottle holders always got caught up and tangled with the top of the seat. I had to always remember to watch out for that. I'm sure I'll get used to it, but it was something I had to be conscious of with each seat adjustment.

MINI-CON: FOLDING. We had read that some people didn't like how the Kooper folds up. But I didn't really have a problem with it. I do wish it had an automatic lock when you folded it, but the little tab that you use to hook it closed is really easy and seems like its good quality and will last. It folds easily and to a pretty flat/small size. The wheels stick out pretty far, and make it a tight squeeze to fit in my trunk long ways, but you can pop the wheels off and that makes it much smaller. Granted, it's not realistic to pop the wheels off every time you need to fold up the stroller though, so that's something to keep in mind.

MINI-CON: HEIGHT. I'm 5'10" and Josh is 6'1" so we were a little worried about having a stroller that is tall enough for us. Especially since we ordered it online and hadn't actually pushed the thing around ourselves. But the Kooper is actually pretty tall. Do we wish it had an extra few inches? Sure. But its not terribly uncomfortable. But if you or your hubby is taller than 6'1", the Kooper will definitely be a (literal) pain! When you're pushing it, the room for your stride is limited by the height of the handles. We were wishing it was either a little taller or the handles came out toward you a little more just for a little bit more ease in walking. But all in all - the heigh is only slightly disappointing, mostly ok.

CON: BRAKE CABLES. There are brake cables near the bottom of the stroller and they are SUPER ANNOYING. I was constantly stepping on them, tripping, and yanking them out with my foot on accident. I don't know if I'm supposed to position them differently or what, but they were definitely always annoying us as we walked. I'll definitely be getting some zip-ties and trying to tie them up in a way that won't let them be in my way!

*UPDATE* Upon further inspection, it looks like our stroller came with a missing zip tie on the left side, or a broken one that fell off. Not sure. The cables seem to normally be pre-zip tied up out of the way. But ours wasn't. I'm going to contact Joovy today about getting another matching zip tie. I'm assuming normally this wouldn't be such a problem when all the break cables are tied up as they should be. I'm positive Joovy customer service will rectify this issue promptly.

CON: BRAKES! I've never used a stroller with such difficult to use brakes. They aren't your typical flip down, flip up brakes. They are big pedals you have to push really hard to lock and yank really hard to unlock. And you can't really tell if the brakes are on or off. The wheels seem to rock a tiny bit even with the brakes on, so I was always a little confused if they were on (there's no locking or clicking sound to help you know if they are on or what). AND if you're a flip flop mom like I am, you won't be able to use these brakes with your feet. Josh and I finally gave up and did the brakes with our hands. It's possible we'll get used to these difficult brakes, but I don't know!!

All in all, the Kooper is a high-quality, excellent stroller. Like I said, I can tell its going to last a long time! There are just some things about it that Josh and I, being the picky parents we are, weren't thrilled about. When you're at Disney, in a hurry, running here and there, the little things like brakes, baskets, etc. seem to add up. So, while I wouldn't say this is the dream Disney or travel stroller, I would say its a GREAT stroller for every day use. I'm REALLY looking forward to using it for walks around the block, to the park, the mall, etc!

Since returning from our trip, and speaking with Joovy about our "cons" list, they said to tell my blog readers that Joovy's newest stroller "The Groove" could quite possibly resolve many of the issues we had with the Kooper. You can read all of the features of the Groove here. So keep that in mind!

And guess what!!! I have a Joovy stroller for one lucky winner!! The winner gets to choose between the Groove or the Kooper in the color of your choice. (I love Joovy's bright color options!)

Want a gorgeous Groove or Kooper of your own? Here's how to enter:

Post a comment on this blog post telling me the first place you'd stroll with your new Joovy Kooper.

Shipping is complimentary in the lower 48 states. Outside winners pay additional shipping costs. One entry per household please. All entries must be in by midnight (Mountain Standard Time) Sunday night (Dec. 4).

I'll announce the lucky winner on Monday morning. GOOD LUCK!

WINNER ANNOUNCED! Congratulations to Sarah Bennett!!! She was our lucky randomly selected winner of a brand new Joovy stroller. YAY!

last day to save & winner announced

2011-11-28T10:23:00.000-07:00

Happy Cyber Monday everyone!! Today's the last day to save 35% store-wide, and the last day to pick up my "Holiday Magic Grab Bag". It's leaving the store tonight at midnight, and will be separated and full-price this coming Friday.

Thanks to everyone who entered my "hat-tastic giveaway" from Carried Away Creations. I've used random.org to pick a winner, and the winner of VERY ADORABLE Mickey (or Minnie) crotched hat is . . .

CONGRATULATIONS to Deanna!!! Please email me and we'll get your hat to you! YAY.

Have a happy Cyber Monday everybody. And come back tomorrow for a BABY GEAR REVIEW & GIVEAWAY!!!!

speed scrap

2011-11-25T14:25:00.009-07:00

Hi everybody! I'll be updating this here blog post to include each step every ten minutes during the 3:00 hour. So, as we speed scrap, hit refresh on this page & you'll see a new instruction every 10 minutes.

1) Since today is the 25th, pick either 2 or 5 photos. You can't have 3, or 1, or 12. Two or Five. Those are your choices.
2) Black. I want to see at least 1 black embellishment or paper on your page. It doesn't have to be the main background. But you do need something black on your page other than text.
3) Large! I want to see a REALLY LARGE PHOTO!! Go big or go home (you can make your large photo blended if you want).
4) A lot. Let's see a lot of something on your page. My page has a lot of flowers, for example.
5) Curly. Add at least 1 curly item. A curly ribbon, a curly string . . .
6) Keep it real. Spend a little extra time working on some realistic shadows. Take time to think about how different items would realistically cast a shadow.
7) Date your page. And add at least a little journaling. Try a LOT of journaling if you want. But you need at least a line or two.

Let me spell out the rest of the Speed Scrap specifics.

As we speed scrap, you can join in on the chat over at the MouseScrappers.com chat room. (thanks MS for letting us play at your place!)

This is the prize you'll be Speed Scrappin' for!

You like?

Well - all you have to do to get it is follow the 7 steps I'll give you during the 3:00 hour. Then you'll have 1 additional hour to finish your page. Meaning, all layouts need to be finished and uploaded by 5:00pm Mountain Time (that's 4:00pm Pacific, 6:00pm Central, and 7:00pm Eastern).

Once you've completed your layout, post it in my gallery. Then email me (designerbrittney at gmail dot com) a link to your layout in my gallery. That way I can email you back with your PRIZE!!

*IMPORTANT NOTE* When you want to link to one of your pages in the Britt-ish Designs Gallery, you need to click on this little icon to make sure that "Display File Information" is on.

Then, below your credits, you'll see the File Information. Use this URL when linking up your page.

You can't just copy and paste the URL that's at the top of your browser window! It won't work.

One more note. I know some people had trouble in the past with the gallery. But all problems were solved by simply trying another browser. My gallery and Internet Explorer don't get along. So, if you're having trouble seeing where to Register, Log In, Upload, or Comment - just try using a different browser (like Firefox, for example) and you shouldn't have any trouble.

Here is my page!!!

{credits here}

GOOD LUCK!!! Be speedy!

hat-tastic giveaway

2011-11-25T11:20:00.010-07:00

Okay - ignore my corny title. I'm working on very little sleep here, people!

But I have a SPECIAL BLACK FRIDAY SURPRISE!!!!!

Carried Away Creations is an ADORABLE little shop that I found while getting lost on Etsy, browsing through darling Disney baby clothes and accessories. I found her Crotched Mickey Hat about almost died!

Does it get any cuter??

I noticed the creator of these cute hats was located in Utah, just like me! So, I immediately contacted, Jen, the shop owner, and asked if she wanted to team up for a Black Friday Giveaway and she said YES!!!!!

So . . . drumroll please!

We've got one hat to giveaway to a lucky winner. And you can either pick the Mickey or the Minnie hat! Winner's choice!

Here's a little note from Jen:

Back in February, I started an online shop at Etsy.com. I named it "Carried Away Creations" because I love to make things, and I get so "carried away" that before I know it, it's three o'clock in the morning! :)

I sell crocheted hats, and scarves, and make aprons, towel/spa wraps, and grocery bag holders! I make all of the items myself and enjoy every minute of it! Just click on this link to go to my shop.

I’m giving away one of my adorable Mickey or Minnie Mouse Hats! They’re perfect for trips to Disneyland or Disney World, and also make fun Christmas gifts and photo props! Both hats are available in all sizes from newborn to adult! They’re both black with cherry red trim. The Minnie hat has a red polka dot ribbon that is attached in between the ears, and the Mickey hat has white in the trim and black, white, and red braids. If you’re the lucky winner of this giveaway, just let me know which hat you want, Mickey or Minnie, as well as what size you want!

Sizing Chart:
0-3 months
3-6 months
6-12 months
1 yr to 3 yrs
3 to 6 yrs
6 to 12 yrs
Teen to Adult

My Mickey and Minnie Mouse hats are made from 100% acrylic yarn and are developed from a pattern by: Speckled Frog by speckledfrogcrochet (www.speckledfrogcrochet.etsy.com). This hat is not affiliated with Disney.

Thanks,
Jen

OK - so there are TWO ways to enter. (Yes, you can have up to TWO entries per person):

1) Leave a comment on this blog post telling me which OTHER item, besides the Mickey hat, you love from Carried Away Creations.

2) "FAVORITE" an item in Carried Away Creations store and then come back and tell me which item you "favorited" in a SEPARATE comment. (So, if you're entering twice, you make TWO comments).

Entries must be in by midnight Mountain Time Sunday night (Nov. 27th). I'll draw a winner on Cyber Monday (NOV. 28).

Prize will be shipped directly from Carried Away Creations. Winners outside the US have to cover your own shipping costs (via PayPal payment).

FUN HUH?!!! I totally have to have one of these hats for Scarlett before our next trip!! Plus, they'd be SO cute for a photo shoot!

Have fun browsing Carried Away Creations and good luck!!

black friday begins

2011-11-25T00:00:00.015-07:00

The clock has struck midnight and its time to SHOP!!! That's what Black Friday's all about, right?!

First up - check out my $1 DOORBUSTERS! Grab 'em before they're gone!!

Then, check out my Grab Bag!! It's only $3 and its packed full of new goodies!!! (It'll only be available through Monday 11/28. After that it'll be going into the shop at full price.)

"Holiday Magic Grab Bag"

After that, shop my store-wide sale. The entire shop is 35% off (excluding bundles and grab bags).

Check out what my Britt Girls and I created with the Grab Bag goodies!!

and from the girls . . .

And before I sign off, let's make sure to enjoy this week's Show Off Slideshow!!

All the Show Offs are getting a cute winter-y mini kit! A Show Off EXCLUSIVE!! No other way to get it. :)

(What's a Show Off? How do you join in the fun? Read all about it here!)

And with that, I'll say see ya soon. I'll be back later today with even more fun surprises.

happy thanksgiving

2011-11-24T08:11:00.001-07:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

I'm overwhelmed when I think of the things I'm thankful for this year. So I'll just name a few.

Motherhood. It's beyond what I imagined and hoped it would be. It was the role I was meant to play. I love it so much. And a lot of that has to do with my sweet Scarlett Ann. She's awesome. In every way.

Josh. Another reason motherhood is so darn good - a great husband. He's my better half, my partner, my best friend. He's more than I deserve.

Working from home. Being able to have a fun job I love AND getting to do it from home is incredible lucky. I choose my own hours, my own schedule, my own everything. I love that I can help support our little family and still get to stay home with the Babe. Plus, I LOVE all my online friends, supporters, and of course, my fellow Disney-nuts. It's a HUGE blessing in my life, this digital scrapbooking. I'm so blessed.

Life is good.

Enjoy yours today. Be thankful.

I'm thankful for you.

let's paint the town BLACK

2011-11-23T08:00:00.010-07:00

BLACK FRIDAY is coming up this weekend! HOORAY!! And Britt-ish Designs is ready to go go go!

That's right! Everything at Britt-ish Designs will be 35% off (excluding the grab bag and bundles). GRAB BAG!?! YEP!! I've got a "Holiday Magic" grab bag coming on Friday, that's sure to get you in the spirit of the season.

Plus, starting Friday at midnight (aka Thursday night) I'll have a limited amount of $1.00 DOORBUSTERS. Some really great Britt-ish Designs products will be $1.00 each. But when they're gone, they're gone, so get there at midnight to grab yours!

Also, join me for a lively Speed Scrap on Friday at 3:00pm MST (that's 5:00pm Eastern, 4:00pm Central, and 2:00pm Pacific). We'll be chatting, and Speed Scrappin' in the MouseScrappers Chat Room (thanks MouseScrappers for letting us borrow your chat room!).

Trust me, the prize is REALLY cute, and all you have to do to get it, is finish on time! So come & Speed Scrap with me on Friday afternoon.

See you all this weekend for LOTS OF FUN!!

Scarlett's First Disneyland Trip (cont.)

2011-11-21T09:00:00.000-07:00

After her first walk down Main Street, Scarlett was exhausted. ("Scarlett Was Exhausted" could be the subtitle to this trip. Without her regular naps, she was pretty much tired for 4 days). She fell asleep in the stroller for a little while, but once she was up it was time to head to Critter Country to meet Winnie the Pooh and Friends and ride her first ride!!

First up, we met Tigger. This was one of the best character interactions we had because Scarlett leaned in and gave him kisses. OK - so she doesn't really know how to give kisses yet, but she let Josh lean her in and it looked like kisses to us!!! She did NOT want to get close to any other character like she did with Tigger. She was very into him.

It was so surprising that she loved Tigger so much because he's so HUGE! Way bigger than any other character she met. Maybe it was because she had been carrying around her own little Tigger plush from home, so she felt like she knew him. I don't know. But she really liked him.

Then came Eeyore. For a brief moment we thought she liked him. She even touched him.

But then she got really nervous and stressed out. Too close? Too much? I don't know. But she didn't want to be close. This picture cracks me up because it shows the difference between Scarlett and her cousin, Maya. Scarlett's like, "no thanks, I'm done!" and Maya's like "Oooooh fun!".

The good thing is she didn't seem to mind being around the characters as long as she wasn't too close.

One more character to go, the silly old bear himself was up next. While we waited in line, we took some cute pictures.

My niece, Maya. She got SO MUCH ATTENTION from these ears. Practically every person we walked past pointed and gawked at her cuteness. She had barely enough hair for two itty bitty piggies on the top of her head on which they clipped the ears to. Aren't they cute?!

When it was Scarlett's turn to meet the big, fluffy, cute, so sweet Winnie the Pooh, she was not excited. She liked to look at him in the distance, but when we got up to him, this happened:

"I'm outta here!"

But we still got a cute family shot!

Finally, it was time for Baby's first ever RIDE!!! We decided on Winnie The Pooh. Small World was closed (my first choice). And Pirate's was closed (Josh's first choice). So, Winnie the Pooh it was. And it was fitting! Winnie the Pooh was Scarlett's first movie. She was Piglet for her first Halloween. So, Winnie the Pooh as her first ride was just right!

Scarlett had a lot of fun on her first ride!! She loved the bright colors and fun music! First ride = success!

Here we all are! We filled up one whole beehive.

Right after Winnie the Pooh we met up with my California digi gal pals, Tanya (Crossbone Cuts, TanyaH666) and Carol (aka Carolc, owner/creator of MouseScrappers.com).

We had dinner (corndogs!!! YUMMMM) and had a GREAT chat! Our visit was short, but sweet!! It's always such a treat to see these girls.

We did a LOT of very fun things our first day. But it all culminated with our first ever viewing of the Soundsational Parade. While we were waiting for the parade, we saw a possum hiding in the bushes. A REAL possum, living at Disneyland. How crazy is that?1

Two cute cousins waiting for the parade! All 4 girls actually had these matching jackets, but we somehow forgot to get a picture of them all together.

The Soundsational Parade was INCREDIBLE!! LOVED EVERY MINUTE. Since it was at night, it was hard to get any good pictures and we mostly just wanted to enjoy and watch Scarlett enjoy, so we didn't bother with pictures. Scarlett totally loved it. She LOVES music, so she was just in heaven (so were we!).

That pretty much wrapped up Day 1 of our trip. Lots of fun.

I'll make sure to start working on writing up more about our trip! :) Probably not going to be tomorrow, but at I promise to keep working on it!

Have a happy Monday!!

Scarlett's First Disneyland Trip

2011-11-20T16:00:00.024-07:00

See! I'm finally posting some pictures from our trip. I told you I'd get around to it!

I guess I'll start at the beginning. Before Scarlett was even born, I started collecting costumes (borrowing, buying on clearance, hand-me-downs, etc.) for her to wear on her first trip to Disneyland. The original plan was to have her dressed up every day for part of the day, and then change her when the costume got annoying or when it got too cool. Little did I know we'd end up getting rained on half the trip. So we did costumes the first two days and that's it. But I was ok with that. Her non-costume outfits were REALLY cute too!

Day 1 was Minnie Mouse. Isn't she the cutest?!

Those of you who follow me on Twitter or Instagram (<-- I'm obsessed/addicted. Come follow me if you're on Instagram, my user name is designerbrittney) have seen some of these pics already!

Needless to say, I had SO MUCH FUN dressing Scarlett up and getting her ready! (I mean, I have fun doing that at home on any given day!! But it was like the ultimate - getting her beautified at Disneyland!

I think it was almost 2:00 by the time we finally got to the park. We drove half-way on Tuesday night, spent the night at a hotel and then drove the last three hours or so the next morning. After a little lunch and unpacking (and dress-up), we headed across the street to the park! (see my LO from Friday for pics of our first park moments!)

After we walked through the tunnels and into the park, who was waiting to greet us?! None other than Miss Minnie Mouse herself. It couldn't have been more perfect!! That was the ONE character I really wanted Scarlett to meet that day, since she was dressed as Minnie!

Minnie LOVED Scarlett's outfit, of course, and made a big fuss over her. And even though it was Scarlett's first character, she seemed to enjoy it. Her nervousness around characters didn't start until the later part of Day 1. (Yeah - one of my fears was realized. Scarlett had a tiny bit of character anxiety when they got too close or tried to touch her! She'll get over it by our next trip, right?!).

Right after meeting Minnie, it was time to get EARS!! I've dreamt of a tiny pair of black ears with "Scarlett" stitched on the back forever! I was definitely ecstatic. Josh was lovin' it too!

Plus, I was getting a new pair of ears for myself too. I've had the same black pair for years now and I wear them every trip. But they are WORN OUT. Literally falling apart. So I gave up and put them into retirement. It was time to get a new pair.

Disneyland used to offer little red bows with rosettes on them to make the plain black ears into "Minnie" ears. They stapled on the bow for you and ta-da! Girl ears. That's what my old retired pair had. But a couple years ago they stopped carrying the bows. You can't get them anymore, which is one of the reasons I resisted getting new ears for so long.

But, duh?! I can just make my OWN bows. So before our trip I made two cute little bows. Then, as soon as our ears were done being stitched I pinned them on. The cast members at the Mad Hatter were actually really impressed! Haha! Didn't they turn out cute?!

I'm so glad I made the bows. I think they look so adorable. I think I'll have to make Scarlett's bow a little bigger for the next trip though (Mama likes a big bow!).

Right after ears, we met up with my brother and his family. My nieces were all very excited to see us (they arrived at Disneyland for a couple days ahead of us).

We all met Pluto, who just happened to be hanging out just outside the Mad Hatter.

I don't remember sensing any trepidation or fear from Scarlett when we met Pluto. She seemed intrigued by his big nose and whiskers (why have I never noticed those giant whiskers before!!?!).

Wow - all this and we haven't even made it down Main Street!! HAHA! But that's a good place to end it for today. Be back tomorrow with more of Day 1!

where the magic begins

2011-11-17T00:00:00.033-07:00

My baby girl's "magic" really did begin on this trip. And I know it's only going to get more and more magical each time we take her to Disneyland (right, honey?). We can't wait for our trip this spring!

This kit was poured right out of my soul (do I say that a lot about my stuff? sorry if I do, I am always sincere when I say that). It's my interpretation of our little one's wide-eyed wonder and happiness and she laid her eyes on the wonders of Disneyland for the first time.
"Where The Magic Begins"

AND I have a special add-on freebie at the bottom of the post, so make sure you read all the way through to get it!

And the lucky winner who entered my "Win It Before You Can Buy It" giveaway is . . .

Jamie (jmdodson)

Congrats, Jamie! I'm emailing you your code for a free "Where The Magic Begins" kit!

Here's the page I scrapped. As per usual, I found it really hard to dive in and scrap my precious "Scarlett's First Trip" pics!! I don't know what my problem is with really special photos - I have the hardest time scrapping them. But I gotta get over it, because when I do its a LOT of fun!! Anyway - I decided to just start at the beginning!!

and here's what the Britt Girls created:

Awesome right?! I can't wait to scrap more and more with this kit.

Ok - here's that freebie I promised ya!

--> DOWNLOAD HERE <--

I PROMISE to get it together and post some pics and stories from our trip. I just have been in a bit of a slump this week. Those of you who blog know the time it takes to get photo-heavy posts written! My goal is to have at least one post with pictures & a couple stories by this weekend.

Have a MAGICAL day!! xoxo

win it before you can buy it!!

2011-11-16T00:00:00.000-07:00

HI THERE!!

I have two fun things to tell you.

#1) I have a new kit out tomorrow and I'm totally in love with it. Here's a sneak peek!

#2) You can win this new kit, before you can even buy it!! Leave a comment on this post with your name and "I WANNA WIN!". Tomorrow morning I'll draw a random winner.

Enter before midnight tonight for a chance to win! One entry per scrapper, please.

Can't wait for Friday so I can show you all the "magic" (<-- hint hint wink wink). XOXOXOXOXOXO

eleven eleven eleven

2011-11-11T00:00:00.009-07:00

Oooooh!! It's 11/11/11. That means something extra special should happen right?!

Well, nothing new from me today. I'm still unpacking, doing laundry, and catching up/recovering from Disneyland. But I do have some awesome Show Offs to share . . .

All the Show Offs are getting a $2.50 Gift Certificate to my shop so they can pick out their own gift!

(What's a Show Off? How do you join in the fun? Read all about it here!)

And that's it for today. Sorry so short & sweet! I'll definitely keep working on my photos so I can share them with you!

Ta ta!

gluten-free kickstarter project

2011-11-08T13:28:00.001-07:00

My sister-in-law runs giftpenguin.com and is currently doing a Kickstarter fundraiser to help her manufacture her gluten-free mixes and pans.

I've personally tasted Stacy's gluten-free recipes, and believe me, they are GREAT!

Take 2 minutes to watch this little video. And the great thing about pledging this project is you actually get some of her product in return for your pledge!!

On Kickstarter, a project must reach its funding goal before time runs out or no money changes hands. Why? It protects everyone involved. Creators aren’t expected to develop their project without necessary funds.

If you know anyone who deals with Celiac disease or is gluten-free, these mixes are the perfect Christmas Gift! Or if you are dealing with gluten intolerance in your family, I HIGHLY recommend trying her mixes. You won't be disappointed!!

Help me spread the word. We've got 9 more days to get GiftPenguin to her Kickstarter goal!

Thanks!

giveaway winners!

2011-11-08T08:56:00.000-07:00

I'm BACK! It was a wonderful trip and I was definitely NOT ready to come home. We were wishing we could have stayed at least a couple more days. I'll definitely post some pictures here soon, but I wanted to pop in and let you know about the GIVEAWAY WINNERS!

I did a random drawing, and the two lucky gals getting $25 Gift Certificates are . . .

CONGRATS to Crystal and Robin! Please email me and I'll send those Gift Certificates right out!

Thank you EVERYONE who shopped my little DSD Sale! I know it sounds cheesy, but it really means to much to me that people support Britt-ish Designs. It's partially how we are supporting our little family. It's DEFINITELY how we get to do things like take our baby girl to Disneyland. So THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to all my customers, fans, cheerleaders, and supporters. You guys rock. I really love you all.

Have a magical day and like I said, I'll be back with more trip photos soon!

Happy DSD (giveaway!)

2011-11-04T01:00:00.018-06:00

Entries to the giveaway are now closed . . .

HAPPY Digital Scrapbooking Day everybody. As you probably know, I'm off having a magical vacation at my favorite place in the entire world - DISNEYLAND. But I scheduled this blog post before I left (thanks Blogger!).

My entire shop is now on sale!!!

Shop til ya drop!

And today I'm doing a Britt-ish Designs GIFT CERTIFICATE GIVEAWAY!!

I'm giving away two $25 Gift Certificates to my shop!!!!!

Here's how you enter to win:

Leave a comment on this post with your name and your favorite Britt-ish Designs product, or a product that's on your wish list, or a product you picked up at the DSD SALE! One comment per scrapper. Entries must be in by midnight Sunday night (11/6).

When I get back from my trip I'll draw two winners!

*ETA* Entries are now closed . . .
The winners are:
Crystal & r0binb

CONGRATS!

Also, I'm going to have an exclusive DSD freebie on Facebook this weekend so make sure you check that out!

Have fun shopping, scrapping and playing all weekend long and I'll see you guys when I get back!

off to the happiest place on earth!

2011-11-01T11:47:00.000-06:00

We are leaving for Disneyland in just a few hours. Scarlett's FIRST TRIP!!! We've been dreaming about this forever. I can't wait!!!!! (You can follow all our fun via Twitter!)

Before I go, I want to make sure you know about something that's coming up this weekend . . .

Digital Scrapbooking Day is this weekend, so starting FRIDAY I'm putting my whole shop (excluding bundles & GCs of course) on sale!

There will be a blog giveaway and a special freebie on my facebook page!!

So make sure you come and play while I'm away this weekend.

TTFN! Ta ta for now!

Happy Halloween Eve

2011-10-30T09:21:00.028-06:00

Tomorrow is Halloween! YAY!! I love Halloween. We threw a VERY fun Halloween party on Friday at our house!! It's a costume party - everyone HAS to dress up. It's so much fun. And its always a big secret what everyone is dressing up as! This year - Scarlett's FIRST Halloween - we dressed up as . . .

Pooh, Piglet & Tigger!

I made our costumes and actually managed to do it all without sewing a stitch! I bought Josh & I gold and orange sweat suits online and turned them into Pooh (with a red tee shirt hemmed up with stitch witchery) and Tigger (glued felt tummy striped and ears on). Pretty simple. Tigger was a little time consuming, but it was definitely not dificult.

Scarlett's costume was a striped shirt I found on ebay. I cut the sleeves off and hemmed them with stitch witchery. Her tulle tutu was one of those classic no-sew tutus. And her pink tights and turtle neck, and crocs, I already had. Her ears are cut out of felt and glued onto clippies.

(I'm planning on dressing her up again on Monday and taking some better photos.)

So there we are. A Winnie the Pooh Family!

(PS - Josh surprised me on Friday with the new Winnie the Pooh movie on Blu Ray! Isn't he sweet?! We took Scarlett to see it for her first movie back when it was in theaters, so we already LOVED it. We watched it this morning and its as funny and sweet as we remembered. I'll probably do a full review soon!!)

new releases!

2011-10-28T00:00:00.002-06:00

Whoa. I've been a little MIA haven't I? Well - I totally have a good excuse!! I am throwing a big Halloween bash at my house tonight. Josh and I invited both sides of the families, so we're attempting to squeeze around 25 adults & kids into our tiny house for our (somewhat yearly) costume party!!! I can't reveal what we're dressing up as yet, but watch for some pictures later this weekend.

PLUS in just 4 short days we are headed to DISNEYLAND for Scarlett's first trip ever! I can't begin to tell you how excited I am. It's ridiculous. So . . . needless to say I've been SUPER BUSY getting it all ready!

On top of it all, I do have some new releases today!! And I know I'm going to make a few people very happy with these . . .

"Build-a-Princess Paper Pack Bundle"

Looking for hair, skin, and fabrics to build your Build-a-Princess? Well, look no further!! You'll find every shade to build ANY princess right here!! Each pack is available individually as well!

"Build-a-Princess Paper Pack: Satins"

"Build-a-Princess Paper Pack: Cottons"

"Build-a-Princess Paper Pack: Hair"

"Build-a-Princess Paper Pack: Skins"

Also new in the shop this week:

"I Love Candy Corn Alpha"

Wordy Paper Pack: Halloween Time"

LOTS of new goodies in the shop today!!!

Here's the page I scrapped with the new princess papers:

And from the amazing Britt Girls - using the new princess papers AND the new Halloween stuff:

Ok . . . on to this week's Show Off Slideshow!!

Thanks to everyone who sent in their Show Offs this week! You're all getting my new "Wordy Paper Pack: Halloween Time" as your gift this week, so watch those email inboxes!

And with that, I'm off!! SO MUCH TO DO before the party tonight! I really hope I can get it all done!!!!!!! Wish me luck!

TTFN.

Halloween Chat on Tuesday!

2011-10-15T11:46:00.005-06:00

Mark your calendars and join me, if you dare, for a fun Halloween Chat on Tuesday, October 18th at 10:10 am Mountain Time at MouseScrappers.com!

That's 9:10 am Pacific, 11:10 am Central, and 12:10 pm Eastern. There will be prizes, gifts, games, trivia, and much more!!

I hope to see lots of you there for some good, clean (and calorie free) Halloween FUN!

frightfully delightful

2011-10-14T00:00:00.026-06:00

I can't believe it, but Halloween is right around the corner! We LOVE Halloween at our house. And I LOVE making Halloween digi-scrap products. This year's kit is probably my favorite so far!

"Frightfully Delightful"

I do have an add-on freebie for you today too, so make sure you read all the way to the end to snag it.

Here is the page I scrapped with "Frightfully Delightful":

And from the oh-so-talented Britt Girls:

"Frightfully Delightful" is so perfect for scrapping all your Halloween memories & more as you can see!

Alrighty - time to enjoy the Show Off slideshow.

Thanks to everyone who sent in their Show Offs this week. You're all getting a very lucky 2nd Chance gift this week. So watch your email inboxes to see which past prizes you get to pick from.

And last but not least, your add-on freebie!

{{ DOWNLOAD HERE }}

Enjoy! And have a wonderful weekend!

eek!! it's a peek!!

2011-10-13T12:07:00.000-06:00

Coming tomorrow . . . .

Check back when clock strikes midnight . . . if you dare!

our little redhead??

2011-10-12T17:36:00.001-06:00

My dad is a redhead, I naturally have some definite red in my blonde hair. And yes, Scarlett's brown hair definitely has some warm tones in it, but she's not a redhead. Except maybe just as the sun goes down.

As I was editing the pictures from her 6 month photo shoot, I noticed the light in the last two frames I snapped made her look like a total redhead! Move over Anne of Green Gables, Scarlett Ann would make the most fabulous redhead ever!!

I didn't edit this to make her hair redder or anything. I promise!! The light was just so RED that evening! Even her eyebrows look red! Isn't that awesome?

I LOVE Scarlett's brown hair. I always told Josh I wanted her hair to be dark like his. But if Scarlett ever somehow ends up with red locks, I'd be thrilled. This photo is like a little glimpse into what that would be like and I LOVE IT!

Wishes Happiness & Hope

2011-10-11T11:52:00.002-06:00

MouseScrappers.com is currently raising money for "Give Kids the World", a non-profit storybook themed resort in Kissimmee Florida where children with life-threatening illnesses, and their families, are treated to week-long, cost-free fantasy vacation!
(photos courtesy of Give Kids the World)

Give Kids the World's mission is to fulfill wishes of children, and to never turn a child away. They work very closely with organizations like the Make-A-Wish Foundation to fulfill these wishes. Make-A-Wish qualifies the families and provides transportation to the Orlando area, and Give Kids the World provides a week of accommodations, food and theme park tickets - all at no cost to the families.

The resort is almost entirely staffed by friendly, loving volunteers (or "Angels", as they are called) who greet everyone with a warm smile. The facilities around the resort were designed with special needs in mind. For example, the carousel (free of course) accommodates wheel chairs. And Disney World, and other theme parks in the area send their characters right to the resort for a visit each week to meet the children!

The more I've read about this amazing place, the more amazed I am by it! I highly recommend you check out http://givekidstheworld.org and see for yourself all the amazing things they do for these families during the week that they visit. From weekly Christmas, to wheelchair accessible horseback riding, it's a dream come true for these kids and their families.

Give Kids the World relies on donations - so MouseScrappers.com decided to create a charity kit called "Wishes Happiness & Hope". It was actually in the works back when I was due with Scarlett so I didn't get to contribute. But, its such a good cause! 100% of the revenue generated from the sale of this kit will be donated to Give Kids the World.

Click on the image above to purchase this kit and help raise money for this incredible place. You'll be able to see example LOs using the kit at the link above as well.

Or go to MouseScrappers.com and click on the orange "Donate" button near the top of the page to make direct donation (without the kit) via PayPal.

Every little bit helps!! Do your good deed for the day and either purchase the kit (it's GIGANTIC BTW!!!) or make a little donation. Thanks so much!

flashback friday: incredi-boy!

2011-10-07T11:44:00.000-06:00

First things first - let's announce the winner of last month's flashback challenge!!

I did a random drawing and the winner is . . .

zippyoh's "The Strip"

Congrats to zippyoh!! Email me to collect your $15 Gift Certificate to my shop!

Alright - it's time once again to FLASHBACK. We're flashing back all the way to July 2009, when I released a collab kit I created with GG Digital Designs. It's a bird, its a plane. No, its . . .

"Incredi-Boy"

And don't forget to pick up the freebie add-on too if you haven't already:

DOWNLOAD HERE

Incredi-Boy is 30% throughout the rest of October!!

Check out these awesome new pages the Britt Girls created . . .

And that's not all!

Create a LO using "Incredi-Boy" before October 31st, post it in the Britt-ish Designs Challenge Gallery and come back to this post and link me up, and I'll enter you in a drawing to win a $15 Britt-ish Designs Gift Certificate! I'll do a random drawing for 1 winner at the end of the month. No matter when you purchased "Incredi-Boy", today, last week or last year - just use it to create a layout and enter it to win!!

*IMPORTANT NOTE* When you want to link to one of your pages in the Britt-ish Designs Gallery, you need to click on this little icon to make sure that "Display File Information" is on.

Then, below your credits, you'll see the File Information. Use this URL when linking up your page.

You can't just copy and paste the URL that's at the top of your browser window! It won't work.

One more note. I know some people had trouble in the past with the gallery. But all problems were solved by simply trying another browser. My gallery and Internet Explorer don't get along. So, if you're having trouble seeing where to Register, Log In, Upload, or Comment - just try using a different browser (like Firefox, for example) and you shouldn't have any trouble.

Ok - have fun with "Incredi-Boy" this month!!! I can't wait to see what you scrap.

6 month photos

2011-10-03T11:19:00.000-06:00

I took Scareltt's 6 month photos out in our backyard, with an ironed white flannel sheet as the backdrop. They turned out pretty great. The sun was going down, giving us the prettiest light!

I can't believe our first year is half-way over. Where does the time go? I squeeze her to pieces every day, but no matter how many time I tell her to stop, she just won't stop growing.

But I have to say, I love every new phase she grows into. I think I'll always think she's too big, and miss the tiny baby days. But I love the ride we're on! I'm never getting off.

nom nom nom

2011-09-30T00:00:00.041-06:00

We are in full-on 'Baby Food Mode' around here these days. I'm way into making homemade veggies and starting yesterday, fruits too! It's such a fun adventure. And Scarlett is a GREAT eater.

Since we're so into the baby food thing right now, I was inspired to create today's new kit!

"Nom Nom Nom"

"Nom Nom Nom Alpha"

If the feel and colors of this kit look familiar, its because I made it to coordinate with "Signature Style".

Put them together for one giant mega-kit!!

I've said this before, but one of the perks of being a digi-scrap designer is creating kits that match your own photos. As you can see from my page, I was inspired to create "Nom Nom Nom" by Scarlett's first bites photos . . .

Here's the journaling from my page to tell you the story of Scarlett's first adventure into solids:

At just under 5 months old, we took the leap into solid food! Scarlett had been watching us eat our food very intently for a few weeks, so we knew she was interested. We got everything set: Covered her car seat with a blanket (she wasn’t quite big enough to sit in her highchair yet), got our spoons & bowls out, bought some cute new bibs, and finally mixed up the rice cereal (I mixed it with breastmilk). With video camera & still camera poised & ready, I fed her the 1st bite. She was intrigued. She took another taste. Ooooh this is GOOD. After a little confusion and squirming, she took to it really well. She actually took some big bites by the end. She’s such a fast learner! And she didn’t even get very messy. What a big milestone. I can’t believe how big she is getting so quickly. Too fast baby! Slow down!

Check out all the fab pages from the Britt Girls:

Can you believe the variety of pages they came up with? From baby food, to girlfriends, to Disney! My girls are the best.

Alrighty - what time is it? It's Show Off Slideshow time!

A great big thank you to all my Show Offs!! I love seeing your pages. You'll all be getting the "Nom Nom Nom Alpha" as your gift this week.

(What's a Show Off? How do you join in the fun? Read all about it here!)

And with that, I'll wrap up today's post. I hope you all have a great weekend, full of fun. Ta ta for now!

challenge reminder!

2011-09-29T17:00:00.000-06:00

Tomorrow is the last day to enter my Flashback challenge for September!! Read all about it on this post.

Tomorrow is also the last day you can pick up "Jackpot" and "Viva Las Word Art" for 30% off!!

If you haven't entered the challenge yet, what are you waiting for? You could win a $15 GC to my shop! Get those entries in!!!!

recent scrappings

2011-09-29T10:01:00.029-06:00

Holy guacamole. I just realized my last "recent scrappings" post was back in JULY!! I can't believe I haven't posted my other layouts since then. Well, let's see if we can catch up (click all layouts to enlarge). . .

Let's start out with some layouts starring my Scarlett Girl.

{credits}

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I have to keep scrapping other subjects too!

{credits}

{credits}

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{credits}

{credits}

{credits}

Whew. That was a lot of pages. Hope you enjoyed and I didn't bore you to tears. See ya!

sharin' the memories

2011-09-28T21:50:00.001-06:00

I realize that I have been REALLY bad about updating the blog about Scarlett. I thought when I first had her, that would be all I'd be blogging about!! But I'm not doing the best job! So, for those who like to keep abreast of the latest happenings in the World of Scarlett, you'll be pleased to hear I'm going to make a conscious effort to blog more about the babe.

My dear friend, Shantell, let us borrow her Jumperoo, much to Scarlett's delight. She loved it right away, but wasn't jumping at first. She'd sit and play in it though, and loved all the animals and lights and music.

But her world got even more exciting and she fell even more in love with the Jumperoo last Friday when she realized what it's really for . . .

Seriously, Josh and I had total parent-googley-eye as we saw how cute she was jump jump jumping. Her chubby little legs hopping up and down. She's just our whole world and we can't get enough.

wordless wednesday

2011-09-21T10:12:00.000-06:00

I haven't done a Wordless Wednesday in a while, so I figured I'd make the time to do one today (ok, so its ALMOST wordless)!!

I'm sure this is obvious, but one of my favorite things to do at Disneyland is meet characters. Here are some of the fun characters we met on our last trip to Disneyland (Oct. 2010).

(click any image to enlarge)

Click the icon above to hop along and see lots more Wordless Wednesday Disney posts!

Have a WONDERFUL WEDNESDAY!! xoxo

some end-of-summer treats

2011-09-16T00:00:00.009-06:00

Summer is on its way out where I live. The cooler temps are here, kids are back in school, the school bus stops right in front of my house. I love it. It's like a little cuckoo clock marking the time! Oh! I hear the bus, must be 7:10 am. Or Oh! I hear the bus, must be 2:30! haha

So - as a farewell nod to summer I have end-of-summer treats:

"End-of-Summer Goodies"

This one was previously my chat gift to those who attended my 1st Anniversary Chat. But if you missed the chat, never fear! It's in the shop for one and all to grab.
I also created a brand new little paper pack to coordinate with these goodies!!

"End-of-Summer Papers"

And I'm also putting this fun alpha in the shop. It too was previously a prize, but now its in the shop!

"Such a Goof Alpha"

Here's the page I scrapped:

And one more from me using the Goof alpha:

And from the fabulous Britt Girls:

Time to enjoy this week's Show Off slideshow!!

Thanks so much to everyone who sent in their Show Offs!! They were FAB this week. Each Show Off is getting my new "End-of-Summer Papers" as their gift this week.

(What's a Show Off? How do you join in the fun? Read all about it here!)

❤ Challenge Reminder ❤

Don't forget about the September Flashback challenge using Jackpot. You've got two more weeks to enter. You must link to your challenge entry in the comments of this post to enter.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone! MWAH.

flashback friday: jackpot!

2011-09-09T08:00:00.008-06:00

It's time for another fun flashback to one of the kits released a while back. It's fun to revisit these older kits and remember how much I like them!!

This month my featured kit is . . .

"Jackpot"

The coordinating Word Art pack is on sale too!

"Viva Las Word Art"

And don't forget to snag the freebie add-on if you haven't already!

[DOWNLOAD HERE]

Check out the new layouts my Britt Girls created:

So, just like last month, the featured kit (and the coordinating Word Art pack) are on sale!! 30% off!

But this part of the Flashback is DIFFERENT!!

CHALLENGE
Create a LO using "Jackpot" before September 30th, post it in the Britt-ish Designs Challenge Gallery and come back to this thread and link me up, and I'll enter you in a drawing to win a $15 Britt-ish Designs Gift Certificate! I'll do a random drawing for 1 winner at the end of the month. No matter when you purchased "Jackpot", today, last week or last year - just use it to create a layout and enter it to win!!

*IMPORTANT NOTE* When you want to link to one of your pages in the Britt-ish Designs Gallery, you need to click on this little icon to make sure that "Display File Information" is on.

Then, below your credits, you'll see the File Information. Use this URL when linking up your page.

You can't just copy and paste the URL that's at the top of your browser window! It won't work.

One more note. I know some people had trouble with the gallery during my Guest Britt Girls contest. But all problems were solved by simply trying another browser. My gallery and Internet Explorer don't get along. So, if you're having trouble seeing where to Register, Log In, Upload, or Comment - just try using a different browser (like Firefox, for example) and you shouldn't have any trouble.

Ok - have fun with "Jackpot" this month!!! I can't wait to see what you scrap.

**PSSSST** One of my collabs with Sahlin Studio, "Around the World", is HER Featured kit this month too!! Check out her post all about it and score another one of my kits on SALE over at her shop!

build-a-princess

2011-09-02T00:00:00.039-06:00

It's Friday! Did you notice that I blogged every day this week? Woo hoo!! Go me.

I have a REALLY really really fun new release today. It's unlike anything I've ever made before, and man did I have a BLAST with it!

"Build-a-Princess"

And I even have some little add-on pieces for you as a freebie at the end of this post! Like I said, I had a blast, and so did my team. We were all like little girls playing dollies this week. Here's the page I scrapped:

. . . and from the Britt Girls . . .

The "It's a Magical Grab Bag" has now been removed and its contents are in the shop!! I decided to combine all the goodies into one big fat kit, and put the templates in separate. So you can grab these in the shop now if you didn't get them in the grab bag . . .

"It's Magical"

"It's a Magical Template Pack"

Are you ready to see today's Show Off Slideshow? Well - here we go!

All of my Show Offs today are getting a gift that's not even available in the shop yet! You'll have to wait to get it in your email inbox to see what it is!

(What's a Show Off? How do you join in the fun? Read all about it here!)

And last but not least, here are your Build-a-Princess Extras:

DOWNLOAD HERE

Enjoy! And have a great Friday.

september kit challenge

2011-09-01T10:05:00.003-06:00

As I was typing my post title it really hit me - IT'S SEPTEMBER! CRAZY!!!! Summer is officially over, isn't it?

Well - on a happier note - I'm hosting the September Kit Challenge at MouseScrappers. It's a fun challenge where you basically get a FREE KIT to play with!! Check out what I'm giving away . . .

And here's the page I scrapped with it:

{full credits here}

And yes, I did make this kit for these specific photos. One of the perks of being a digi-scrap designer!! Making the 'perfect' kit for your own pictures!! I LOVE the photo of my family in the canoe and have been putting off scrapping it FOREVER (obviously - these photos are from 2007!!!).

Anyway - the "Back-Woodsy" kit will be free to download through the month of September. After that it'll be going in the shop. So get it now, while its FREE! And be sure to play along with the challenge. I can't wait to see what you create with it!

Oh and one more note - don't forget to pick up my "It's a Magical Grab Bag"!! Today's the last day before it gets split up and put in the store at full price.

"It's a Magical Grab Bag"

weekly scarlett: 24

2011-08-31T11:51:00.000-06:00

I'm so in love with our weekly photo shoots with Scarlett. This week turned out my FAVORITE week so far! She was just in an adorable mood and I only had to take 28 frames, which is way less than I usually snap!

(click to enlarge)

You can see all of Scarlett's weekly photos here on my Flickr page.

I can't believe we're already at 24. Pretty soon we'll be half way to a year. CRAZY.

Hope this photo makes you smile. It sure brought some joy to my day! Have a good one!!

i scrapped today

2011-08-30T17:03:00.001-06:00

During my constant, grueling, daily battle to get Scarlett to take a good nap, I distracted myself with a little scrapping.

{credits here}

And the extra good news is you can snag this WAY CUTE TEMPLATE from Cindy Schneider for FREE on her Facebook page right now!

Just thought I'd share!!

guest britt girls contest winners

2011-08-29T09:37:00.000-06:00

Oh my goodness people. You did NOT make this easy on me!! It was REALLY hard to pick my winners. SO HARD in fact that I doubled the number of winners from 2 to 4!! So . . . without further ado . . . the winners are:

Guest Britt Girls for Sept. & Oct. 2011:

Roxxygerlie

camijo

Guest Britt Girls for Nov. & Dec. 2011:

kathleena

stanworth

So, ladies, if you're a winner, email me and we'll get you all set up for your guest spot!! Congrats!

And thank you to alllll 42 entries! You are all amazing and I LOVED seeing everyone's anniversary pages. It made my own 1st Anniversary so much fun!!

choo choo

2011-08-27T07:00:00.027-06:00

It's blog train time boys and girls! And boy do we have a sweet one for ya today. At every stop pick up your FREE 12x12 Quickpage!! All of these Quickpages were created using my new Grab Bag! Here's the one I have for ya!!

this download link has expired

Your next stop on the blog train is Melissa's Blog!

Here's the full list of stops in case you get lost along the way:

1) Britt
2) Melissa
3) Christy
4) Tanya
5) Kendall
6) Kim
7) Kat
8) Kelsy
9) Heather

HAVE FUN!!

And don't forget about the chat this morning!! It starts at 9:00 am at the MouseScrappers chat room. See you soon!!

you might just win . . .

2011-08-26T10:00:00.015-06:00

Alrighty folks - are you having fun with the 1st Anniversary sale so far? I sure hope so!!

I'm here to announce a SUPER EXCITING contest!!!

How to Enter: Scrap a LO about some sort of anniversary. A birthday, a wedding anniversary, any type of anniversary at all. Use a majority of Britt-ish Designs products (It needs to be OBVIOUSLY Britt-ish Designs).

Post your LO in the "Challenges" gallery at the Britt-ish Designs' gallery. Entries need to be in by midnight Sunday night (Aug. 28). Leave some comments and love for other challenge entries (cuz we all love comments!!).

I'll pick my TWO FAVORITE layouts and those scrappers will win a BIG PRIZE!

What's the big prize?!

A TWO-MONTH GUEST SPOT AS A BRITT GIRL!!!!!

I'll announce the two winners on Monday Aug. 29th!

To get those creative juices flowin', here are a few anniversary/birthday/etc layouts from my amazing Britt Girls (click all layouts for credits).

What are you waiting for!?! Get to scrapping! Enter your best work!! You might just win a spot as a Guest Britt Girl!

happy 1st anniversary to me!

2011-08-26T00:00:00.022-06:00

It's my 1st Anniversary of BrittishDesigns.com!! I can't believe its been a whole year already! Wow. Time really does fly when you're having fun, doesn't it? But let the celebration begin!!

Yep! My entire shop is 30% off this weekend only (excludes the grab bag and bundles).

I have a very special, very magical, grab bag in the shop!

"It's a Magical Grab Bag"

The grab bag will only be available until Thursday Sept. 1st. So you make sure you grab it before then! After that the products will all go in the store at full price.

Now, I'm definitely giving away too much about what's in the grab bag by posting these layouts, but oh well!! Here's what I scrapped!

And check out what my fabulous Britt Girls created . . .

And speaking of Britt Girls . . . make sure to check back later this morning for an exciting announcement! (tee hee - I'm such a tease, huh?)

Until later today, have fun shopping!!!

come chat with me

2011-08-25T15:14:00.000-06:00

I'm hosting a little scrap chat on Saturday morning. So come in your slippers and PJs and let's chat!!

MouseScrappers was gracious enough to let me borrow their chat room, so I'll see you there Saturday morning at 9:00 am Mountain Time. (That's 8:00 am Pacific, 10:00 am Central, 11:00 am Eastern). Just enter whatever username you want to chat with and click sign in. You don't even have to be a registered MouseScrapper.

See you tomorrow when the anniversary fun begins! I'll be releasing my grab bag (WAIT 'TIL YOU SEE IT!!!) and I have a super fun announcement/contest to tell you about!! Trust me, you won't want to miss this.

See ya tomorrow!

fun fun this weekend!!

2011-08-24T12:51:00.000-06:00

Guess what!? This weekend BrittishDesigns.com is celebrating our 1-Year anniversary! (Can you believe its been a whole year already?) And I'm throwing a weekend-long par-tay!

I'll be back tomorrow with more details. But plan on spending a little time with me over the weekend, shopping, scrapping and chatting!

ta ta for now

Friday Show Offs

2011-08-19T00:00:00.008-06:00

It's time for another round of Show Offs!! Enjoy this slideshow. These are all amazing pages!

All of my wonderful Show Offs this week are getting a coupon code good for one free Date Element in my shop. Watch your email inboxes, ladies!

If you'd like to be a Show Off and get prizes, too just read this post to find out how its done.

Have a spectacular weekend!

flashback - i'm yours

2011-08-16T21:50:00.001-06:00

There's a fun new event happening each month at Britt-ish Designs! Every month we'll flashback to some of our favorite kits of all time!! AND that kit will be on sale. Fun right??

Our first flashback kit is . . .

My fun and beautiful collab with DeCrow Designs, "I'm Yours"!

"I'm Yours"

and . . .

"I'm Yours Word Art"

And don't forget about the freebie add-on!!

{DOWNLOAD HERE}

I scrapped a new page with it. It's so perfect for baby pictures!

and some new creations from my team:

Are you feelin' the love for this flashback?! Have fun shoppin' this deal and I'll see ya!

please enjoy . . . a template challenge

2011-08-13T21:58:00.000-06:00

Hey there, hi there, ho there.

My new template challenge is up at MouseScrappers. Bascially you get a free template, you scrap with it, you share your work. Simple.

This is the template:

And here's the layout I made with it:

{CREDITS HERE}

Come check it out and play along!

holey cow!

2011-08-12T00:00:00.004-06:00

Hi everyone!! We're back from a relaxing and wonderful Bear Lake vacation. It was so much fun to take Scarlett for the first time. I've been going to Bear Lake every summer since I can remember and it was a blast to begin Scarlett's Bear Lake tradition!

Today I have a couple new releases for you! First up . . .

"Jellies: Alpha 3"

"Holey Cow Templates"

Here's the page I scrapped!

And from the Britt Girls:

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!! I've STILL got tons of unpacking, laundry, and cleaning to do. Oh joy!

OH! And guess what else . . . I'm hosting a template challenge at MouseScrappers that starts tomorrow. So check back here on the blog for links and info!

wordless wednesday

2011-08-10T11:57:00.002-06:00

It's time for another Wordless Wednesday! Instagram edition:

here are this week's show offs

2011-08-05T00:00:00.009-06:00

Well, I'm away on family vacation, but trusty old Blogger here knows when to post my posts for me! I had to pop in and post today's AMAZING Show Off Slideshow. Here we go . . .

Every Show Off this week is getting a special treat. They all get a brand new alpha a WEEK before its even available in the shop.

Watch your email inboxes!!

If you'd like to be a Show Off, get prizes, new products before they're available to the public, etc. . . just read this post to find out how its done.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!! I know I will be!

Ta ta.

Tips from Britt: Template Tutorial

2011-07-29T00:00:00.008-06:00

I'm totally addicted to templates. I use them ALLLLLL the time. Plus, I really like to MAKE templates, so I figured it was time to write a tutorial about how I use a template.

Now, this is how I use a template. I don't claim to know the perfect way, or the best way. I just figured I'd share how I do it.

I scrap in Photoshop CS3, so this tutorial will be shown using that program. But using a template in other versions, as well as Photoshop Elements, is a very similar process. I also use a Mac. So when I say "Command", you Windows users replace it with Control. Ok?

First thing first. I open a template that I like!

Once I have my template open, I go to Image > Duplicate and then click OK. Then close the original template. If I don't do this right away, I'll forget and end up saving over my template on accident with my own page. But if I remember to duplicate it, then the original template is safe and I can use it again some day if I want.

**Download this freebie template I used as at the end of this post!!**

(Bonus Tip: It's fun to flip a template, rotate it, shrink everything or enlarge everything and make the template a whole new page. You can get multiple uses out of the same template! To rotate or flip a template I just go to Image > Rotate Canvas. To shrink or enlarge everything, I highlight all the layers - except the background - Command + Alt (or Option) +A and then transform until I like it.)

Next I like to add my photos. I can't really make a final choice for papers or elements, until I see how my photos are going to look on the page so I can coordinate it all.

I open my photos in Photoshop and do whatever actions, editing, etc. that I want to do with them. Once I have them edited to my liking, I simply copy the photo, and paste it into my template.

To copy the photo I hit Command + A, which is Select All. And then Command + C, which is Copy. (To turn off the marching ants, or deselect just hit Command + D.)

You can also drag and drop into your template if that's easier for you. Again, this is just how I do it, and I like to copy and paste.

Then I go to my template and click on the photo layer in the Layers Palette that I want my photo to go on. This way, when I paste it, it will paste on top of that layer.

I use Command + V to paste. When you paste, you'll notice everything you paste goes to the dead center of the page. So you'll have to move your photo around and place it where you like it. You'll also notice my photo is bigger than the photo spot in the template. This is where Clipping Masks come in! Clipping Masks are a template's best friend.

I position my photo above the general area of the photo spot in the template, making sure that in the Layers Palette the photo is directly above the photo spot you want to clip to.

Then click Command + Shift + G (Elements users, you can just do Command + G) or right click the layer in the Layers Palette and select Create Clipping Mask. This will clip the layer that's highlighted to whatever layer is directly below it in the Layers Palette. So this should clip my photo to the photo spot.

Then I move my photo around, shrink it down, whatever I need to do to make the photo look good in the photo spot. (When you shrink or size your photos, make sure to hold the Shift key to keep the proportions and not skew the photo.) If you need to slightly change the shape of the photo spot to accommodate your photo, you can do that too.

Now, see how you can still see the "1" from the template on top of the photo? Those are just markers and are all on the "Delete This Layer" layer at the top of the Layers Palette. You can either delete this whole layer right away, or you can erase parts that start to bug you as you work. I normally just erase the parts that are in my way, or bugging me as I work, but I don't delete the whole layer because I like it to keep my place for the title, journaling etc. until I put those in.

SAVE YOUR PAGE!! Click File > Save As and save that layout. You don't want to lose your work!

I know some people merge their photos with the photo spot layers in the template, but I don't. Because sometimes I like to tweak the photo's position within the photo spot as I work. For example, if an embellishment starts to cover a face, I can move the photo over a little inside the photo spot to make it look better. So I just leave them as clipping masks.

Ok, so then I put the other photos in using the same process.

Next I'll put in my papers. I'll start with the background. I click on the bottom layer, named "Background". I'll open whatever paper I want for my background and do the same Copy & Paste process as I did for my photos. Command + A then Command + C and then paste (Command + V) it onto my template, directly above the background layer.

Then I put papers in all those paper spots. I do this pretty much exactly like I do the photos. I copy my paper, paste it on top of the paper spot, and create a Clipping Mask. Then I move the paper around until I like the part that's showing. I can shrink the papers down if I want a smaller pattern, rotate the paper. Whatever I want!

(Bonus Tip: Try putting extra photos into paper spots instead of papers!!)

(Save!! Save!! Save!!)

Now - a quick mention about shadows. Some templates include shadows, some don't. MANY of my templates do. I like to adjust shadows and make them look good as I go. Some people like to do all their shadow work at the end. If you like the shadows that come with your template, then GREAT! But if you want to tweak 'em, feel free! Change the angle, blending mode, opacity, whatever you want. If you'd rather clear all the layer styles and start fresh doing your own shadows, you can select all the layers (Command + Alt (or Option) + A) the right-click and select "Clear Layer Style".

Ok - all my papers and photos are in place. Time for the best part. Embellishing!! I love to decorate my page. There are place markers for embellishments, but, of course, you don't have to use them if you like embellishments in different places. Make sure you delete the embellishment place marker layer that comes with the template at some point.

I put in my title and journaling now too.

Keep hitting SAVE as you work! It's the WORST to lose your work.

Here's my page, once it's all embellished, titled, and journaled. And that's it! My template page is complete!!

Using templates is so easy! They make scrapping a snap. I hope this tutorial helped!!

Try it out for yourself!! This template is my gift to you!

{{ DOWNLOAD HERE }}

Wordless Wednesday

2011-07-27T11:10:00.001-06:00

Magic on Dumbo . . .

(photos taken on our Feb. '10 trip to Disneyland)

If you'd like to see other blogger's Wordless Wednesday posts, you can click the graphic below to do a little blog hoppin:

gather round, it's story time

2011-07-22T00:00:00.037-06:00

Happy Friday everyone! I'm here to show you my brand new kit and template pack I have coming out today. First - the kit:

"Story Time"

Isn't this fun? I LOVE to read to Scarlett. We read stories at least once a day, if not more!! Plus, you all know I'm in a book club and love to get my book on. It's time that Britt-ish Designs had a book kit!! And I have an add-on freebie for you all at the bottom of the post.

Here are the two pages I scrapped with it:

And here are the creations from the Britt Girls!

Also new this week:

"Pocket Full of Templates"

I created these templates from two of my own pages . . .

Here are some more Britt Girls layouts using "Pocket Full of Templates 7"

Alrighty - let's watch this week's fabulous Show Offs!!

Thank you so much to everyone who sent in their Show Offs. You'll all be getting my new "Pocket Full of Templates 7" as your gift this week.

If you want to be a Show Off, read this post for all the details.

Ok - I think that leaves just one thing. Here's that add-on for ya:

{DOWNLOAD HERE}

Have a great weekend. Avoid the heat, stay inside in the ice cool AC and curl up with a good book. Then scrap it with "Story Time"! haha

little sneak peek

2011-07-21T11:45:00.002-06:00

Hey everyone!! I have a new kit out tomorrow! I'm very excited to show it to you. But until then, here's a little sneak peek!

Miss American Baby

2011-07-19T09:38:00.001-06:00

I know, I know. The 4th of July was over 2 weeks ago!!! But even though its late, I still wanted to share these pictures I took of my little American Baby. (click any image to enlarge)

Isn't her outfit cute? My new favorite thing about the 4th of July is dressing Scarlett up. I've already found myself keeping an eye out for next year's outfit! haha!!

Do you like her bow? I made it!!! I just did a search on YouTube and learned how to do it. Now I'm hooked and I want to make her lots more bows! I made her bracelet too, but you can't really see it very well in any of those photos. Here's a better view of it. It's nothing fancy, but it looked cute on her.

Well - even though its late, hope everyone had a VERY happy Fourth! We sure did. How could you not with a baby that gorgeous?!

Peace & Love.

my poor neglected blog

2011-07-18T20:51:00.006-06:00

Once again, I've neglected the blog. But the battle against the 45-minute intruder is raging in the Leavitt household. Scarlett is a great sleeper, but her naps are always always always interrupted at 45 minutes. She struggles and finally gets back to sleep to finish her nap, but she can't sleep to nap through that 45 minute sleep cycle mark. Thankfully, she's a wonderful night sleeper.

Anyway - right now my days are focused on Scarlett and trying to get her schedule right so she'll sleep through the intruder. I feel like I pray for guidance non-stop, and I feel like we're starting to finally make progress. Hopefully!!

ANYWAY, enough of my excuses for being a bad blogger. Here are a few pages I've scrapped lately! This one is of pictures I just took on Saturday night! After the baby went down, I went right to scrapping them. I don't think I've ever scrapped photos taken in the same day, let alone just a couple hours later.

Scarlett and I were outside on a blanket reading stories, playing with toys. All of these photos were taken on either my phone or Josh's phone. With a little photoshop magic, you'd never know! I LOVE the iPhone 4, simply because it takes GREAT scrappable photos!!

(click all layouts to enlarge)

{credits}

This was a page using one of Cindy's awesome templates!! I love her 2-pager templates.

{credits}

Here's one of my Little Miss Sunshine:

{credits}

These are photos of my nieces I took at Bear Lake last summer! We're going back there for our yearly trip in a couple weeks!! I can't WAIT!

{credits}

This is a page I created for the Speed Scrap I hosted last week! It was a VERY fun night. Thanks to all who came and chatted with me and participated in the scrap!

{credits}

A fun Disney LO! This is from Fantasmic. My FAVORITE show at Disneyland.

{credits}

Another Disney page. I'm still trying to finish this Nov. '07 trip!!

{credits}

And that's it for this round of "recent scrappings". Hope you enjoyed. I'm putting together another post of Scarlett in her cute 4th of July outfit from our fun-filled Fourth. (has it taken me long enough?! sheesh)

happy birthday, baby!

2011-07-08T10:30:00.096-06:00

My man is turning 31 today.

Josh - here are 31 memories I treasure from the time I met you to the present.

1) Waiting for you to kiss me for the first time. I knew you'd do it that night. But the kiss couldn't come fast enough! But when it did, it was fireworks.

2) Introducing you to my family. We had chinese food and your fortune was "You are pretty". I'll never forget that. My family all loved you right away. What's not to love?

3) Seattle. We are crazy. Enough said.

4) The first time you told me you loved me. I was so glad you said it, because I was TOTALLY in love with you too.

5) Remember going to watch that taping of "Joey"? It was so much fun and we laughed so hard. Remember how FREEZING cold it was in that studio??

6) Getting our matching cop costumes for Halloween from the Sony Pictures stock. We looked so good!

7) Chicago. Top of the Sears Tower. You asked. I said yes. My life would never be the same.

8) Our wedding day. Best. Day. Ever. I'd love to relive that day over and over again.

9) Lying on rattan sofas in our air conditioned Villa in St. Lucia watching Seinfeld while it was raining outside. I loved that random moment of our honeymoon!

10) Our first New Year's Eve as a married couple. Josh & Morgan invited us to their hotel and we played Cranium and watched fireworks out the window. I remember I was spazzy and nerdy and I wasn't even self conscious, I'm my REAL self with you!

11) Coming home to you after a long grueling day working on the film set. There was nothing I wanted more than to just come home and hug & kiss you.

12) Our first trip to Disneyland together. MAGIC. I am so incredibly happy (and lucky) you loved Disneyland as much as I do! Remember sitting front and center for the fireworks? We got an amazing spot! Probably the best we've ever had since.

13) At the premiere of Church Ball I have this distinct memory of you looking at me and seeing how proud you were of me. It caught me off guard. You were so sweet and brimming with pride. I felt like a million bucks.

14) Remember the heart shaped hot tub in our room in Niagara Falls?! HAHA!!! SO cliche and funny! I loved that trip SO MUCH! We gotta do that again VERY soon.

15) Playing Pictionary with my family and kicking their BUTTS!! To the point where they don't really want to play with us anymore. We are just too good!

16) Going to Disneyland with Christian, Marci & Eden. I know you agree, that was one of the best days at Disneyland ever. We were there from open to close and loved every minute. Remember sitting on that bench for a LONG time playing the game we made up?!

17) Playing Rock Band for hours. I loved that. We were sort of addicted for a short time. We should get it back out some time and get the band back together. :)

18) Watching fireworks on our balcony from the Owls games!

19) Driving up to the house we live in now on the first day we were looking for a rental house and just KNOWING this was our home. It was love at first sight.

20) Teaching in the nursery with you. We fell in love with those little ones. I loved seeing you on the floor playing imaginative games with them. Remember the imagination CD?

21) Seeing the Red Sox in person in Phoenix. It wasn't the most exciting game, but seeing them with our own eyes was pretty rad.

22) Going to the temple every week. I don't think we have ever been closer.

23) Waking up on the morning of your 30th birthday and finding out that after a very hard 14 months of trying we were Finally pregnant!! Running into the room and waking you up with the news was such an amazing feeling.

24) Remember when we saw "Walk The Line" at the movie theater? You came out so in love with me. I guess the story struck a chord. You hugged me so tight. I felt so incredibly special.

25) Seeing Death Cab for Cutie in concert. Were they the opening act? Anyway, they sang that song I'll Follow You Into The Dark. I held onto you and tears streamed down my face. I was so thankful to be your wife. I'll follow you anywhere baby.

26) Breakfast in the castle at Magic Kingdom. You took charge and got us a better table when you saw I was disappointed in where they originally sat us. It meant a lot that you did that. I know you hate to make a fuss!

27) The birth of our beautiful daughter. You were totally there for me. You were supportive and helpful. It was the hardest thing I've ever done and I could never have gotten through it without you.

28) Bringing Scarlett home. You are the sweetest most loving daddy ever. I love how good you are with her. So natural. The image of you rocking our tiny newborn will be an image I'll cherish forever.

29) Our first family road trip to Zions. I've always loved being in the road with you, but having Scarlett in the backseat was even more fun! That was such a fun trip, and I needed it so bad!

30) Watching our "dance show" together. I don't know if you realize how much I love hearing your critique and opinions. We talk like we are dance experts and I love it.

31) Finding that card on my keyboard the other day. After a seriously hard week, reading your sweet, appreciative, supportive, encouraging words gave me the boost i needed.

I could write a million more. I love you so much!!! We are MFEO. Let's have an amazing day today.

it's time to show off

2011-07-08T00:00:00.000-06:00

Nothing new this week!! But it is time for the Show Off slideshow!! So sit back, relax and enjoy . . .

Watch your email inboxes, Show Offs. This week you'll get your choice of 2nd Chance gifts!!

Thanks so much to everyone who showed off!! If you'd like to start Showing Off, but don't know the how - just check out this post for all the details.

Hope everyone has a WONDERFUL WEEKEND!!!!

speed scrap on wednesday!

2011-07-03T15:53:00.000-06:00

Mark you calendars, scrappers!! Wednesday July 6th I'm hosting a Speed Scrap at MouseScrappers!!

(ad created with "Baby You're a Firework!")

It starts at 6:30pm Mountain Time (which is 8:30pm ET / 7:30pm CT / 5:30pm PT / 1:30am (Thurs) GMT). It's going to be tons of fun! And everyone who participates will get this word art pack as their gift:

Click here to find out more details!! It's been a while since I've Speed Scrapped or hosted. I can't wait!

happy canada day (yesterday)

2011-07-02T14:57:00.001-06:00

First, I'd like to say Happy Canada Day (yesterday)! Josh served a mission for our church in Ontario, Canada. And for our first anniversary we went to Canada and I've been dying to go back ever since!! So, while aren't technically Canadian, we do love Canada around here. Which is why we did this week's weekly Scarlett photo like we did.

So, I secretly got this cute outfit for Scarlett to wear and dressed her all up and surprised Josh yesterday morning with a darling Canada Baby and a present! (it was a Canadian Flag Vinylmation - you can see it in the picture below) He was very surprised!

And while I had her all dressed up so cute, I couldn't resist a little photo shoot. Scarlett was sleepy and not cooperative with the smiles, but I still love how the pictures turned out.

So - a big Happy Canada Day from the Leavitt family to all you Canadians and Canada lovers! :)

In case you missed it in yesterday's post (I added it a little late on accident):

Excluding my new "Baby, You're a Firework!" kit, all of my other Americana or patriotic kits (including A Little Taste of Canada haha) are 30% off through midnight July 5th. So stock up on those patriotic kits to scrap all the pictures you'll be taking this weekend!!

baby, you're a firework!

2011-07-01T00:00:00.003-06:00

New kits two weeks in a row, can you believe it?? I've been working up a sweat getting the inspiration out of my head and into this kit. But I simply LOVE how it came out. It's BURSTING with pop and sparkle. Just how I wanted it!!

"Baby, You're a Firework!"

I scrapped two pages with this kit. Here they are:

and from the Britt Girls . . .

Isn't this a bundle of FUN!!!! Oh and I do have an add-on freebie for you as well!

DOWNLOAD HERE

Last little item of business! Now through midnight July 5th, all Americana or patriotic kits in my shop are 30% off!

Happy shopping!!

Hope you all have a HAPPY HAPPY holiday weekend! Three cheers for the red, white and blue!

surprise peek!

2011-06-30T10:41:00.000-06:00

Since I had a new kit last week, you probably weren't expecting another one this week, were you?? Well, SURPRISE. I have a REALLY EXCITING new kit coming out tomorrow. I think you're going to love it.

Until then, here's a little peek!

(almost) Wordless Wednesday

2011-06-29T10:11:00.002-06:00

I decided it was time for another Wordless Wednesday (ok, almost Worldless).

These photos were taken on our Feb. '09 trip to Disneyland. (As always, click to enlarge the pics.)

Have a happy Wednesday everyone!! And if you wanna see other people's Wordless Wednesday, click on the icon below!

scrap in the backyard

2011-06-24T00:00:00.032-06:00

Well, I haven't scrapped in my backyard yet. But that's what's great about digi-scrap if you have a laptop. You actually can scrap ANYWHERE. Ok - on to my new release.

"Backyard Bliss"

and . . .

"Date Flags"

There's an add-on freebie at the end of the post, so make sure you grab it!

Here's what I scrapped with the new stuff (and yes, these photos and this moment did inspire the kit):

and from the britt girls

Alright - let's enjoy this week's Show Off Slideshow.

Ok - last item of business! Your add-on freebie:

DOWNLOAD HERE

Enjoy! And have a VERY happy weekend!!!

quick peek

2011-06-23T13:06:00.000-06:00

I've got a new kit coming tomorrow! YAY!

I'll see you tomorrow for the release!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-06-22T15:01:00.002-06:00

A fun blog I recently discovered does a Wordless Wednesdays post. She posts photos from around Disneyland and lets the photos do the talkin'. I thought that sounded like a LOT of fun, and I never feel like I share enough of my Disney photos here on the blog.

So here goes my first Wordless Wednesday. (these photos were all taken by either me or Josh on a quick 1-day visit to Disneyland that we were able to go on back in July of 2008. Josh's sister Tami, Josh and I flew out to wish Josh's grandpa a happy 90th birthday and of course we had to squeeze in a quick visit to the mouse. We had just gotten our new SLR camera and were so excited to test it out at the BEST place to take photos ever! Our plane landed at 8 am and by 9 we were in the park!! - wow its hard to be wordless!)

I'll be better at the "wordless" part next time!

i've been a bad blogger!

2011-06-21T18:05:00.000-06:00

Oh my goodness. I had no idea it had been so long since my last post. Bad blogger!

I just thought I'd pop in today and show you some pages I've scrapped recently.

This one I did this afternoon while the babe was napping! I probably should have been cleaning or something, but I just felt like a scrap.

{credits here}

Here's one I did with a really crazy mix of Sahlin Studio products. This is Scarlett when she was just a few weeks old and her cousin who is just 3 months older than Scarlett. They are besties already.

{credits here}

Another page using Sahlin Studio products. This is the same cousin as in the layout above. These photos were taken the morning she was born.

{credits here}

Wow - apparently I'm in a cousin scrapping mood. This page is Scarlett with her oldest cousin Eden. Remember when Eden was just a tiny baby!?! Now she's 4 years old and holding MY tiny baby!!

{credits here}

Hope you've enjoyed these scraps!! Have an excellent evening.

quick challenge reminder

2011-06-13T20:52:00.000-06:00

Hi! Just popping in to remind you that tomorrow (June 14th) is the last day to enter my Scraplift Challenge at MouseScrappers that I blogged about a couple weeks ago. :)

Don't forget!

who's ready to rock?

2011-06-10T06:07:00.045-06:00

Hi there folks! It's FRIDAY and it's time for a new release. Put on your coolest shades and let's . . .

"Rock Out"

I was inspired by a certain roller coaster that so totally rocks! Plus, this kit is PERFECT for Rock Band, Guitar Hero, concerts, teenage boys, and SO MUCH MORE!! Just WAIT until you see what my team scrapped!

But the rockin' doesn't end there. I have a little companion kit as well!

"My Dad Rocks"

I've even bundled them together at a discounted price!!

"Big Rockin' Bundle"

And I do have a little add-on freebie for you at the end of this post, so make sure to read to the end to get it!

I also have a really cute alpha, that just happens to coordinate with the rest of the new kits!

"Jot It Down"

Here's the page I scrapped (click to enlarge):

and from the Britt Girls (click to enlarge) . . .

Alrighty - it's time to enjoy some SHOW OFFS!!!!!

Everyone who Showed Off this week is getting my new "Jot It Down" alpha. Watch those email inboxes!!

If you'd like to Show Off and get gifts too, read this post to find out all the details. The next Show Off slideshow will be June 24th!

Well, I guess that just leaves the freebie add-on! So here you go.

{DOWNLOAD HERE}

Enjoy!

Have a terrific weekend everybody. Ta ta for now.

sneeky peek

2011-06-09T06:26:00.001-06:00

I've got something NEW and totally RAD coming out tomorrow. GET EXCITED!

And if you're on Facebook, head on over to my page and enter yourself in a little drawing I'm having to give one lucky winner a new kit for free!

tips from britt: recoloring

2011-06-03T14:20:00.001-06:00

Hi there! The Britt Girls informed me this past week that they used to really love the "Tips from Britt" articles I used to write for the ScrapMatters' newsletter back in the day. So I decided that I'd start writing them again on the blog!! Once a month (or maybe more) I'll post a Tip from Britt!

Today's tip is about RECOLORING. I wrote about recoloring in January of 2009, but I've learned a lot since then, so while I repeat a little of what I wrote back then, I'll also give you a couple new tips!

I don't know about you guys, but money always seems to be a little tight! And, not that I want to discourage you from shopping at Britt-ish Designs (hahah!) BUT I do want to show you how your digital products can go a long way, making your dollar stretch! Because face it, times our tough these days and we are all being a little more careful. Aren't we?

Recoloring is one of my very favorite things about digital scrapbooking. You can make your favorite papers and elements match in a snap! There are MANY ways to recolor, but I'm just going to share one quick tip so you can use your papers & elements again and again.

(My tips are all related to Photoshop CS3 since that's the program I use. But I know you can do similar things in Photoshop Elements and other programs too!)

"Colorizing". Say I have a patterned paper. I LOVE the pattern, but the color simply will not work for the page I'm creating. Most of you know to try recoloring by playing with the hue & saturation sliders. But sometimes, if your patterned paper has a lot of colors, that just doesn't make it match! Here's one solution - I select the color I'm trying to match (using the eyedropper tool - ctrl + I - makes it super easy to match exact colors in my photo) as my "foreground" color or what you might call your "brush color".

Then I go to the paper I want to recolor and make a duplicate of the paper (we don't want to edit the original paper and accidentally save over it or anything!!). So go to Image > Duplicate Image. Then close the original. With the copy paper open, select, Image > Adjustments > Hue & Saturation. Then on the little window that opens check the "colorize" box.
Before "colorizing":

After "colorizing":

Your paper will recolor itself all in shades of the color you picked. Its not always perfect, I almost always have to turn up the saturation, so play with the settings to get it looking right. And ta-da! You have a new paper that matches your new layout!!

To make the color match even better on this page after I colorized, I turned the saturation up, darkened it a bit, and turned the brightness down (Image > Adjustments > Brightness & Contrast).

Colorizing works great for ribbons, flowers, alphas all kinds of embellishments!

Hope this tip helped!

scarlett's birth announcement

2011-06-02T16:06:00.000-06:00

My friends and family have all received their birth announcements in the mail (like 2 weeks ago) so I can finally post Scarlett's birth announcement here to show all my online friends without ruining the surprise.

Before you ask - NO! I did NOT Photoshop her into the tea cup!! So many people have asked that!! It's a real life giant tea cup. I found it at WalMart in the garden center back in February. It's actually a planter. You'll definitely see it in more pictures of Scarlett because I totally LOVE IT!

Anyway - we had to be very patient to get this shot of her. And let me tell you we really only ended up with ONE that was perfect! Whew. We took this just a few days after she came home from the hospital.

Isn't she just the cutest?! We sure love her lots.

scraplift challenge

2011-06-01T13:15:00.001-06:00

hi guys! I'm hosting the MouseScrapper's Scraplift Challenge right now!! Come check out all the details here.

For doing the challenge you get this prize:

Here's the page I scrapped for the challenge:

{credits here}

Come play along!!

the talented miss scarlett

2011-05-29T09:05:00.012-06:00

Scarlett is getting so big! She can roll over now from front to back, she's been doing it for a week and half now. I thought it might be fun to see a video of my big girl in action.

My poor hubby is sick this weekend, so we're spending our Memorial Day weekend getting him better! Poor guy. Hope you and your families are healthy and out havin' fun!

See ya!

my family is amazing

2011-05-28T15:54:00.000-06:00

Ok, so my family is awesome. I probably brag on them all the time, but I don't care! Last Saturday every single member of my family showed up at 9 am for my little 4 year old niece, Eden's, end-of-the-year preschool performance. I'm pretty positive she was the only kid who had two full rows of supporters there.

I know its not normal for EVERYONE to show up for something so little, but I LOVE that we all support and love each other so much. YAY for family!!!

And speaking of Eden, check out this AWESOME video of her singing Katy Perry's "Firework". It's a CRACK UP!!!

I asked my brother if he taught her how to sing it, and he said no, she just FEELS it like that all on her own! haha!!!

Hope it made you smile. Have a happy Saturday.

get your stack on!

2011-05-27T00:00:00.027-06:00

Hey there peeps. It's time for some new products! Lemme show you what's new in the shop this week:

"Alpha of Tomorrow"

This alpha was included in the MouseScrappers birthday activity bundle. But now its available to all!

And I also have a brand new 'stacked' template pack:

"Stacked Templates 5"

Here's what I scrapped:

using the templates

and using the alpha

And check out what the ever-so-talented Britt Girls scrapped:

Pretty fun huh? I think these are my favorite Stacked Templates yet!

Alrighty - time to enjoy the Show Offs! YAY!! They're back!

Thank you all so much for showing off! You'll all be getting a $2.00 Gift Code from me! So watch your email inboxes!!

If you want to Show Off and get a gift too, just read this blog post to learn all about it!

And with that, I'll say see ya later! Have an excellent Friday!!

some scraps

2011-05-25T14:46:00.000-06:00

I've been trying my best to get back into my Creative Team work. I'm not the best CTM ever, but I'm trying!!

Here's a couple pages I scrapped for Sahlin Studios and Cindy Schneider!

These are some photos I scrapped of Scarlett one random morning. She's just the sweetest.

{credits}

And a Disney page!!

{credits}

Longest title ever! It took me a LONG time to put all those alpha letters on there! haha

Alrighty, that's it from me today. Just wanted to pop in and share.

See you later!

MouseScrappers Birthday Blog Train

2011-05-22T07:00:00.019-06:00

Choo choo!! Welcome to Britt-ish Designs' stop on the MouseScrappers Birthday Blog Train! You might have just come from Wyld Peas Designs' blog. But however you arrived, WELCOME!

HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY MOUSESCRAPPERS!!!!!

Here's the freebie I have for you at this stop:

{DOWNLOAD HERE}

Your next stop is at Natalie's Place Designs.

Have fun blog hoppin' and enjoy all the goodies! If you get lost along the way, there's a master list of all the stops on the blog train over at MouseScrappers. (I've already noticed a couple dead ends - oops- so you'll probably need to use that link!)

ta ta! or should I say choo! choo!

mousescrappers is 2 years old!

2011-05-17T13:31:00.001-06:00

Did you know MouseScrappers has been celebrating is 2nd birthday all month long?! I've been trying to learn how to be a mommy and a scrapper this month, so I missed some of the fun but I was able to squeeze in a few games and challenges! You should all go check it out before its over at the end of the week! It's a lot of fun!

If you participate in 15 out of 22 of the games/speed scraps/challenges etc that are going on this month, you get a big Activity Participation Prize Bundle. I don't think I'm allowed to tell you exactly what I donated, but you WILL get a couple gifties from me in there!!

Plus, its all culminating in a special Birthday Blog Hop this Sunday (5/22) and I get to be one of the stops!! I have a special treat for everyone and the other treats on the blog hop are SUPER cute too (I've had a peek or two). So make sure you check back here on Sunday morning!

AND, the fun just keeps on goin'! I've donated a prize to this Scraplift Challenge hosted by This Dixie Pixie. You have until May 24th to get your entries in and you'll get this prize:

Pretty fun, huh? The only way to get these stamps is to participate in the Scraplift Challenge, so go do it!

I've been missin' Disneyland A LOT lately. I'm SOOOO ridiculously excited to take Scarlett for her first trip this fall. Until then, scrapping Disney pics seems to help the park cravings just a bit. Here are a couple pages I scrapped last week for some MouseScrappers Birthday challenges.

This one was for the Cake Smash challenge:

{credits}

And this one I did for the Bake Me A Cake challenge:

{credits}

Anyone else out there dying to go on a Disney trip?? I suggest some Disney scrapping. It doesn't completely satisfy that urge, but it definitely helps!

Ok - the baby just woke up and she's hungry!! GOTTA RUN! Ta ta!

let the show offs begin (again)!

2011-05-16T14:55:00.007-06:00

Let's start showing off again!!

The Show Offs continue, starting on Friday, May 27, but with a couple slight changes.

Change #1) Show Offs will be every other Friday from now on. You can send your Show Offs in anytime, and it will be included in the next possible Show Off.

Change #2) You will now send your Show Offs to myshowoffs at gmail dot com!

The rest of the rules remain the same! If you're new to showing off, or even a seasoned Show Off, please review these rules and make sure you're sending in your Show Offs correctly.

* Your Show Off can contain ANY Britt-ish Designs product. From a template, to a freebie, anything Britt-ish Designs. Even one little Britt stitch is enough to make it a Show Off.

* Email me your layout or include a link to your layout. Send your email to myshowoffs at gmail dot com. Please be careful to remember to attach your LO.

* If you attach your layout in the email, make sure to size it somewhere between 600 and 900 pixels tall. No larger! (in Photoshop I use File > Save for Web and then go to image size)

* Your layouts need to be in by midnight the Thursday night (Mountain Time) before Show Offs to be included in that week's slideshow. If I get it after that, you'll have to bump to the next Show Offs.

* Please make sure your subject is "Show Off". Two words, and nothing more. It makes it easier for me not to miss any of your emails.

* Please carefully list all the Britt-ish Designs products you used. Please credit the product with its correct name.

* And PLEASE include your name that you want your Show Off to be credited to. Most emails come and show your first name, but many of you used your husband's email or there's no name that comes up, so I struggle to figure out who the emails are from sometimes. I try to remember you all, but with over 70 Show Offs a week, its just not possible.

I think that's everything! If you follow these rules it will make it possible for me to continue having Show Offs every other week!! THANKS!

Can't wait to see your work! Send it in now!! :)

is it already friday?!

2011-05-13T11:20:00.000-06:00

Hi there! So blogger has been down since EARLY this morning. My blog was showing up, but I couldn't get in to make a post. That stinks. I've never seen that happen before. But I'm glad its back up now.

I'm ready to reveal what was in my NSD grab bag! All items from the grab bag are now in the shop:

"Thinned Out Alpha"

"Spring Goodies"

"Spring Sampler"

"May Flowers"

"The Stars At Night"

Also new in the shop this week, a couple items that were free on the blog over NSD weekend:

"Carousel Alpha"

and last but not least . . .

"Pocket Full of Templates 6"

Here's a page that I scrapped with the new alpha and templates:

Check out what the Britt Girls scrapped:

Cute huh?! There's SO much you can do with today's new stuff!!

I know I mentioned last week that I'd explain how and when the Show Offs are coming back. But I spoke a little hastily. I haven't been able to decide/figure out how to do Show Offs, now that I'm only working part time. As soon as I've gotten it straightened out I'll let you know. I REALLY want to start Show Offs again, so I'll get on it and hopefully update you very soon!!

Alrighty, well that's it from me! Have a happy Friday!!!

TTFN!

happy mother's day

2011-05-08T17:18:00.002-06:00

Happy Mother's Day everyone! It's my first Mother's Day. Hooray!! It's been a nice relaxing day so far. Scarlett is still getting over her cold, and guess what. She gave it to ME!!! So now we're both a little sick. Boo!! So we didn't get to go see either Josh or my mother's today. We are holed up at home. But I did get us both dressed up to sneak outside for a quick photo. I couldn't have my first Mother's Day without a picture.

Ok - here is your final NSD freebie!! I hope you all have a happy day today.

"Happy Mother's Day Clusters"

{DOWNLOAD HERE}

Don't forget, today's the last day to shop the sale and purchase the grab bag!

another nsd gift for you!

2011-05-07T19:24:00.001-06:00

Is everyone having a nice nsd weekend? Getting lots of good deals and freebies? Well, I have another gift for you all.

"Pocket Full of Templates 6"

thank you for your interest, this download is no longer available
I'll keep this download active through Thursday May 12. Then I'm putting it into the shop. So download it now!!

Enjoy the rest of NSD! (check back tomorrow for one more freebie)

NSD FREEBIE!

2011-05-06T13:34:00.003-06:00

Hi everyone! Scarlett seems to be feeling a bit better today than she did last night. Thank goodness. The humidifier seems to be helping. She's our angel baby and slept GREAT last night, despite being sick. What a surprise!!

So - I hope everyone is having a great time shopping my NSD sale and has enjoyed the grab bag!

I'm here with my first NSD Freebie for ya!! This freebie will only be available through Sunday (5/8/11). After that it'll go into the shop. ENJOY!!

"Carousel Alpha"

Thank you for your interest. This freebie is no longer available

Obviously inspired by Disney carousels, I realized as I was making this that it would be PERFECT with my "Land of Fantasy" collab. with Sahlin Studio. (on sale right now!!!)

Happy scrapping AND shopping!!

nsd is starting a little early!

2011-05-05T22:06:00.000-06:00

Well, my baby girl has a cold. :( Her second cold in three weeks. Poor girl!! But her dumb parents keep giving her our colds. So, I have to release the grab bag and start the sale a little earlier than planned so I can go to bed and take care of her!

SO . . . let the fun begin!

"NSD 2011 Grab Bag"

The grab bag is available through Sunday May 8 ONLY!! Come Monday the items will be divided up and sold separately. So it's only available for a VERY LIMITED TIME!!

Here is the page I scrapped with the grab bag goodies. My first ever page with Scarlett pics AND my first ever page scrapped in between nap times (I'm such a mom! hahah)

And here's what the Britt Girls created:

Don't forget starting now through Sunday May 6 my entire shop (excluding bundles and the grab bag) is 40% off!!!! This is definitely the biggest sale of the year, so take advantage of the great deals.

That's it for tonight. Gotta get back to my poor stuffy-nosed babe.

I'll be back tomorrow with a sweet freebie for everyone. So make sure to check back! (oh & more info on the return of Show Offs is coming this weekend too! stay tuned!!)

G'night!

makin' a come back

2011-05-04T16:32:00.000-06:00

I'm FINALLY coming back from maternity leave!! With NSD (National Scrapbooking Day) coming up this weekend, I figured it was the perfect time to stop dragging my feet and jump back into work. Ok, so I'm not JUMPING, I'd call it wading slowly back in. But hey! With a newborn, it's the best I can do.

ANYWAY - as most of you know, NSD is my BIGGEST discount and biggest sale of the year. And this year will be no different!

Make sure you stop by the blog AND the shop this weekend! The sale will be killer. The grab bag will be awesome! The freebies will be thrilling!! It's going to be a very fun NSD Weekend here at brittishdesigns.com!

happy easter!

2011-04-20T18:09:00.000-06:00

It's a little early to be wishing you all a Happy Easter, but I wanted to pop in now because we have a VERY busy weekend coming up!!

Hope everyone has a VERY happy Easter holiday!