Some Etsy Finds

If you're not familiar with etsy.com let me just say that it is a great site for ordering all things handmade. It's a great site for small business owners specializing in different crafts to sell their things and set up a shop via online commerce.

So I made a couple of fun purchases today that I thought I'd share.
First I bought this cute little hat from THIS SHOP.

Can you tell I'm really looking forward to taking newborn pictures of our upcoming arrival?

My other purchase actually hasn't gone through yet.. I'm waiting on verification that the seller can customize it the way I have in mind. For Mother's Day I really wanted a hand stamped necklace with the kid's names on it. But at that time, we hadn't picked a name for baby boy yet. We now have a name, so I'm placing the order for this:

Ok.. so this isn't the one I'm ordering, mine will be a little different and obviously have 3 tiers with Natalie, Abigail, and Jonathan. I just thought it was cool that I found this one with my girls names on it, so I'm using it as a sample. :) The one I'm ordering will most likely be coming from THIS SHOP.

So if you've never been to etsy, it's a really fun place to shop. It's like the biggest craft show you've ever been to!!

Scrapbook Sussies July Reveal

I've got my Sussies July Reveal for you today! I know I say this quite often, but there is really so much stuff in these kits. If you're looking for a kit with a great variety and a good value, this is it. I have tons of stuff left after doing these layouts.

So here's what I did:

The journaling on this one says: This is one of those times I get a subtle reminder that you watch everything I do. Of course you're oh so cute, but I also take note that I am your ultimate example. I pray everyday that I'm the kind of mother I should be.


We've also had a bit of a redesign on the Sussies blog. There are some fun things being planned over there. We have a new blog manager and you'll be seeing more frequent posts from the team. Be sure to check that out!

Say Cheese!

Just thought you needed to see my sweet girls smiling faces!
Happy Wednesday!

Dixie Pieces Reveal - July 2010

I am so behind with my blogging! I've only done one update on this pregnancy and I've only got 8 weeks left, Abigail turned two, and in scrappy news I had a layout with pictures of Natalie published in a magazine. I hope to do some posts over the next week going into a little more detail about some of those things, but for now on to the task at hand!

It's a new month and a new kit over at Dixie Pieces!
Hand sewn; Vintage; Beautiful patterns and designs; all of these things describe the new July kit "Antique Homemade" from Dixie Pieces. This kit is filled with beautiful vintage patterns and sewing designs from well known manufacturers like Cosmo Cricket, Pink Paislee, and October Afternoon. Along with this kit you will receive a wide assortment of coordinating embellishments to make your crafting experience truly homemade.

Here are my creations:

This first one is about my grandparents who have been married for 65 years! They are truly an inspiration and you should be able to click on the layout to make it a bit larger if you'd like to read the journaling.




Make sure you head over to the Gallery and see what the rest of the team did!

Scrapbook Sussies June Reveal

I'm not sure how this month has just totally gotten away, but it has! I realized I never shared my pages for Sussies June kit! So without further ado, here they are:





The first and last pages are using some older pictures I had in my stack that I hadn't scrapped yet. I find for the most part I tend to scrap the most current stuff, or at least pics within the last year. I really liked doing these older ones from a few years back. I may have to go back through my picture files and see what I didn't scrap the first time around!

Hello!! It's the 15th of the month which means it's time for another Scrap Whispers Blog Hop. Thanks to Kelly for sending you this way. If you did not start at the beginning, you may want to head back to the Scrap Whispers Blog so you don't miss anything.

Helen has shown you a great tutorial on how to make your own patterned paper, and once again I am behind and haven't had a chance to do this. :(
So for now, I am going to share with you my layout for this week's challenge. This week the challenge is to create a layout about a party or celebration and use some kind of ephemera.

Here is the layout I created.This is about the "party" we had we Mickey Mouse and friends! It's been a long time since I've done a double pager, but I had so many good pictures, that's what worked best this time around.

Thanks for stopping by! You can head on over to Helen's blog to see hers as well as the rest of the SW team's.

Snapshots from the Gulf 2010

I planned a VERY last minute trip to Gulf Shores. When John got his schedule for June and he had 6 days in a row off, I knew this would be our only chance to take some kind of vacation before the baby gets here. So.. I found us a pretty decent deal on a condo and off we went.

Our first full day there was perfect. Sunny and hot! We spent the majority of the day out on the beach.

A

It took Abigail a bit to warm up to the sand, but once she did, she had no problem being covered in it from head to foot. She wasn't crazy about the water though. At one point we went down to the water to fill up some buckets for sand castles. On our way back up the beach, she stepped in some seaweed, and had what I thought was some dog poo on her foot. I took her back down to the water to rinse it off, but it would NOT come off. She was pitching a fit about being in the water and I was completely baffled as to why I couldn't get it off. Even trying to rub it with my hand and using a handful of sand I just couldn't get it all off. When we got back to our spot I used a towel to wipe her foot off. It then dawned on me that she had to of stepped in a tar ball. But we didn't see any more signs of them. Until the next morning... and the beach (where the tide came in) was COVERED in them.
We didn't let that ruin our fun. We still set up on the beach and let the kids play in the sand.

My brother-in-law and sis-in-law came down with us for the weekend. I think one of the best parts was some of the great food we had. I've always enjoyed the seafood down there, but this time seemed extra good! Maybe because I'm pregnant, I don't know. :)

(Waiting in the condo for Uncle Alan and Aunt Kelli to arrive before going out to eat at LuLu's.)

(My nephew Wyatt, with his pretty blue eyes!)

(Posing for a pic while enjoying a cracker at LuLu's.)

(Some fun with Daddy's sunglasses)

(Every time we drove by the souvenir shop, Natalie wanted to go inside and see the purple Octopus)

(The last good fit of the trip, largely due to lack of naps!)

(Dolphin ride at the souvenir shop.)

(Family shot on the condo balcony.)

We had a great time, despite the oil coming ashore. Can't wait to go back!

Dixie Pieces Reveal - June 2010

Time for another kit reveal over at Dixie Pieces.

Floral and Feminine is what describes the new June Precious Pastels kit from Dixie Pieces kit. This kit arrives just in time to scrapbook all of your Mother's Day photos; spring garden luncheons; days out with the girls; or possibly some of your "not so feminine" photos. Whatever you decide, you definitely will want to add this kit to your scrapbooking collection.
Here's what I created this month.




Head on over to the gallery to see what the rest of the team did!

Scrap Whispers Challenge #64

This week's challenge over at Scrap Whispers is to use a favorite movie as inspiration.
One of my all time favorites is Back to the Future. I used the song The Power of Love (Huey Lewis and the News) from the Movie as my title.
If you scrap, come play along. There's a great prize up for grabs this month!
If you take a peek at the Sussie Blog today, you'll see this LO over there too. I used LOTS of leftover Sussie supplies for this one.
Have a great weekend everyone!

White Balance, Low Light, and a Gray Card

*A small tutorial on White Balance*
If you're here for the Scrap Whispers Blog Hop, scroll down or click HERE.

If you have a camera that you can control the settings on, one of the main things you want to have right is your white balance. There are other things too, but for the sake of this post, we're just talking white balance. Most cameras have several auto options for this, but since I learned how to set a custom white balance, I try to do that as often as I can.
Having a correct white balance (WB) ensures that you won't have unrealistic color casts, so that objects which appear white in person are white in your photo, as well as getting a "true" rendition of all other colors too. The "color temperature" of a light source, will greatly affect color casts. It's much easier to get a proper white balance in natural light, and when taking pictures indoors with low light situations, you can very often end up with a very orange/yellow color cast.
Here's what I mean:

Before I set a custom white balance, I snapped this picture of my daughter.
To set a custom WB, your camera's manual will tell you exactly what to do. It usually involves taking a picture of something white, finding the custom WB setting on your camera and setting it to the picture of the white object. I recently purchased a gray card. So I snap a quick picture of it in whatever light situation I'm in and then set my WB to that picture.
So after I set my WB, this is how it looked:
Notice how the yellow cast is gone? I really do love this new gray card because my house gets practically NO natural light inside. We have very few windows AND are completely covered up in trees. I am not a fan of using a flash at all, so being able to set a custom WB (along with a few other settings that need to be right), I can take pictures under bad lighting conditions and get results I am happy with.
After my new gray card came in the mail, I played around with my camera a bit. These are all straight out of the camera (no editing) and NO flash. It really helps to have kiddos who don't mind the camera in their face all the time :). I actually had to tell her to quite posing and just let me take pictures.





Often times when people first start trying to learn how to shoot in manual mode, setting the white balance gets lost in the mix and often ignored. So find something white and set a custom white balance. :)

Scrap Whispers Blog Hop

Hello!! Thanks for joining me on the Scrap Whispers Blog Hop. Thanks to Kelly for sending you this way. If you did not start at the beginning, you may want to head back to the Scrap Whispers Blog so you don't miss anything.

I have several friends with upcoming new arrivals so I chose to make a baby themed waterfall card. Here's how mine turned out.




Thanks for stopping by! You can head on over to Helen's blog to see hers as well as the rest of the SW team's.

Scrapbook Sussies *May Reveal*

*Edited to add one more page.. scroll to bottom of this post for Scrap Whispers Challenge*
This month's Sussies kit features Pebbles and K&Co. I'm sure I've said this before, but one of the things I love about these kits is that they have 2 themes, or two color schemes. So it's like getting two kits in one!

So here's what I did this month.



Just a few days before we found out the gender of the baby, we had a challenge over at Scrap Whispers to do a page related to the future. This was the perfect chance to journal about our upcoming arrival.


Be sure to check out the gallery and see what the other girls did with this kit!

*Edit*
I whipped up one more page using the May Sussies kit for the Challenge that went up just a bit ago at Scrap Whispers. Come play along.. there's a nice huge Bo Bunny prize for this month's winner.