New Month = New Challenges and a Freebie for You!

Tomorrow begins the last full month of summer. My son Jason is returning from Ireland tomorrow, and Joseph has been in Argentina for a week now. David, of course, is still home but he travels in packs, so he's either gone with his friends, or they are all here. It's been an interesting time and kind of feels like we have a revolving front door, but I have to admit I do love it. I enjoy having the kids at the house, and they've informed me I'm not like "normal" adults. I think that was meant as a compliment...

I'm back to hosting the Clutter It Challenge at Digital Scrapbooking Studio. Many thanks to my dear friend Sherah of Skrapper Digitals for filling in for me during my leave of absence. She is such a sweetie-pie and a great designer, too.

Here's the layout I made for this month's Clutter It Challenge. I finally scrapped a few of the photos I took when my cousin Rocco came out for a visit, nearly a year ago.

And here's the starter page (which you can snag for free, even if you don't do the challenge). Get the download link and instructions HERE, which will direct you to the DSS forum.

This page was made using my Summer Vacation mini-kit, great for scrapping those photos of lazy summer days, ice cream and watermelon-eating fun, etc.

Because it's summer and many people are traveling and having some beach fun, I thought I'd make a Quick Page freebie for you using my California Dreamin' kit. Here's a preview:

I made this layout of the gorgeous Monterey Peninsula using California Dreamin':

And finally, here is your Quick Page freebie.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Please, no sharing or hotlinking. Send your friends to my blog to download. Feel free to drop me an email (info inside download) if you use this page. I always enjoy seeing what people come up with.

Happy Scrapping!

Buy My Store Sale and This Week's Freebie!

I goofed! I didn't realize when I marked both of my stores 35% off for the entire month of July that my "Buy My Store" coupon was still active at Digital Scrapbooking Studio. It wasn't until I noticed a few sales that I saw it and also noticed that IT was also marked down 35%. I thought about taking it down, but then thought oh, what the heck... I'll leave it up until the end of July. So if you're seeing this, you can snag my ENTIRE store, including commercial use items, for only $13.00. This is a STEAL so hurry up and take advantage of this while you can! Simply click HERE to be directed to where to add this to your cart. After checkout you'll be given a download with a coupon code and instructions on how to download everything in my DSS store.

A very special thanks to my good friend Kimberly of Kimberkatt Scraps, who created this week's freebie for you using my Ciao Italia kit. It's a great kit for not only your travel photos, but for pizza night, spaghetti feeds, etc. And it's only $3.58 for the entire kit, through the month of July.

Click on the preview to download. Have fun but please do not share this freebie - send your friends to my blog to download. :)

Here's a layout Kimberly made using this Quick Page. Isn't it fun?

Another layout using Ciao Italia by Nani:

Happy scrapping, see you next week!

She's Baaaaacckkk...with a Freebie!

Wow! I've been on leave from designing for a few months so I could prepare for several things going on in my personal life. First, I started a new job after leaving HP 10 years ago to be a stay(work)-at-home-mom. My boys are all "older" now, the youngest will be starting his senior year in high school this fall. I can hardly believe it! But my new job is going well and I think I have a pretty good handle on things.

Some other recent happenings... Jason left for a missions trip to Ireland. He'll be gone for 5 weeks. We're really proud of him, he raised all the funds (with the help of some awesome and generous friends and family) by soliciting donations and also working his tail off to earn money. I don't have a photo of him on his trip yet (they have very limited Internet access) but here's a recent photo of him.

David has been keeping us busy and entertained with all his summer concerts. He's enjoying a break from college studies for the summer but is busy earning money doing what he loves most, playing music. Isn't he cute?

The group he plays with is called Todd Morgan and the Emblems. They do mostly 50's and 60's rock but in the last couple of years have also included a lot of their original songs in their shows, and I've recently heard some Michael Jackson music... a very talented, versatile group! If you're interested in hearing some demos of their music, check out their Facebook fan page HERE.

My oldest son Joey just graduated from the University of the Pacific with a BA in Psychology. He was invited to join Phi Beta Kappa, the oldest Liberal Arts Honors Society in the US, dating back to 1776. Plus he was magna cum laude. So proud of him! He'll soon leave for Argentina to teach English for several months, then (hopefully) will be accepted into grad school once he returns.

Here's a photo of me squeezing the life out of him. Love the expression on his face, but he's used to me by now, really he is.

Okay, enough personal stuff... here's the latest on the digi-scrapping front. To kick-off my return, both my stores are on sale at 35% off for the entire month of July! You won't want to miss this great savings. (I noticed Scrapbird is not marked down yet as I type this, but it should be soon.) Find my goodies right here:

Digital Scrapbooking Studio Store

Scrapbird Store

My Terms of Use have expanded and now all my previous Personal Use products will be available as Scrap 4 Hire. (The exception - FREEBIES are still personal use only, please!) You can read my S4H and Commercial Use terms HERE.

I have a new vintage-themed kit called Memory Lane. It's really lovely for all your heritage photos.

I do have an exclusive Memory Lane sampler/freebie coming out in the next DSS newsletter. If you're not yet signed up to receive the newsletter, you can register HERE.

Here is a Quick Page freebie I made using Memory Lane. Please remember that freebies are for PERSONAL use and should not be shared or redistributed. Just send your friends to my blog to download. You can click on the preview to download.

This is a layout I made using this quick page. I used two papers in the kit and adjusted the blending modes, and I really like the background I came up with. Kind of hard to see the details on the preview, but it really is pretty. This is my uncle and my dad, respectively - the only two siblings in their family who immigrated from Italy to the United States, many years ago.

Have a great week, I'll be back soon!