April CKC kit..."Secret Garden"

Welcome everyone! And welcome spring! Spring is my favorite season, and always has been, with the blooming trees, the lighter, longer days, and the mad hustle and bustle of the end of the school year.So, I loved it when we were given a very flower heavy kit to be inspired by. And, let me tell you, these kits can be turned into quite a stash busting extravaganza!
The kit we were given to be inspired by this month is: http://cestmagnifiquekits.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/cest-magnifique-february-kit-reveal.html



Here is the kit that I made , using this kit for inspiration:

And I made a video, showing my choices, and why I selected them from my stash:

C'est Magnifique had several add ons, and I did a pretty good job of using my kit last month, so I went ahead and "counterfeited" the add on kits as well. Here is their mixed media kit:


And mine:

Their flower kit:


And mine:

Their Embellishment kit:

And My Embellishment kit:

Here is the video I made for my add-on kits:

The hop list for the designers making kits from their stash for you to be inspired by:
Louise (GDT) http://scrapbook-me.blogspot.co.uk/
Clair: http://obstinatepursuit.blogspot.co.uk/
Jemma: http://just-jimjams.blogspot.co.uk
Julene:  http://julenebydesign.blogspot.com
Kelly: http://66.147.244.112/~honeysv0/
Leslie: http://lcsmithsaved-outofthemire.blogspot.ca
Lisa: http://lisahausmann.blogspot.ca
Margie: http://scrappinmargie.blogspot.com
Susan: http://littlethingsbigdays.blogspot.de/
Stephanie:  http://skylinepaperie.blogspot.com
Susanne: http://snapsandsnippets.blogspot.com

It's Time for a Throwback Thursday(An Evolution in Scrapbooking)

Just for today, I thought that it might be fun to re-share the first layout that I shared on my blog. It was an 8x8 layout, that I shared in February of 2009, and I am not really sure where it is now.

I still think that I like it, even though my scrapbooking style has taken many swings in many different directions since then.

I went through a diecut heavy phase, back when I used to scour the internet searching for hours for the perfect free file:

(I posted that one in May of 2010) Which also was the beginning of a flowery phase-I didn't like a layout unless it had some sort of flowers on it!

October 2010:

February 2011:

April 2011:

During April of 2011 sometime, I realized that bigger pictures=a good thing on my blog, so my pictures got bigger, and my layouts just kept getting heavier. 

I still love this page, though!

September 2011:

(more flowers)

November 2011:

(My layouts for that year or two were very heavy, and filled about 2 scrapbook albums very full each year!But, that's what I loved right then, and I didn't care)
After that, I went through a phase for about a year where I used a sketch for nearly every layout or card that I made. Partly because I wanted to enter a bunch of the contests that the websites ran, partly because I felt that I could scrap more quickly that way. Until I discovered Shimelle's classes/Glitter Girl videos on 2Peas, and I finally started to find a style that just flowed for me. I loved layering, I loved using up my bits and pieces, and she was just so easy and inspiring to listen to. Here is the first Glitter Girl inspired layout that I shared on my blog:

One from Shimelle's Pretty Paper Party class:

One of several that I made inspired by her Scrapbook Remix Class:

One of many inspired by Shimelle's Return to the Collection class:

Shimelle got me interested in watching all of the other garden girls videos on two peas, as well, and then I fell in love with Wilna's dreamy, artsy style.
Here's one of my favorite pages inspired by her Art and Design class:

And finally, one of my most recently completed pages, using my April Fantastic&Fabulous kit:

I definitely used bits and pieces of inspiration that I have gathered from both Wilna and Shimelle in this page, but it just sort of flowed out for me. No sketches, just me, some fun products (the flowers were printables from Wilna's Art and Design Class, and the lightbulbs on the previous page were cut files from that same class-so I guess this falls in the "sharing my homework" category as well).

Thank you for stopping by today, I hope you have been inspired as I have reminisced through at least my online scrapbooking history today!

Monday Morning Mood Booster

On my first weekday of Daylight savings time, I look out onto a dreary and chilly, drizzly Monday. And I have so much on my agenda for today, that I feel the need for a bit of a pick me up and inspiration this morning. With that being said, here's a bit of sunshine from around the web this morning.

etsy

Bethany Canon Watercolor

etsy

shoes

dress

And to add some warmth of my own, heaps of sunshine and roses from the Ringling rose garden, taken on our vacation to Sarasota FL last year:

I was so entranced with the beauty of this English rose garden in Florida that my husband took the kids to Starbucks so that I could linger and photograph the flowers and statues-so grateful for this opportunity. I am thinking that these rose garden photos will be in a stand alone mini album seperate from our vacation album-they don't need much journaling, just a place to put them so that they can be appreciated.