LM #152 - Scavenger Hunt Blog Hop!

Longer post than normal, but be sure to read to the end, the Grand Prize information is waiting down there!

Hi everyone!! It is PARTY time at Lasting Memories today! We're celebrating my special day with a "Scavenger Hunt Birthday Hop"! Tmw is my 40th birthday and what better way to celebrate than to have a hop in blogland! Before we get started, you better get yourself a pen and paper because you're going to need it! There are 10 blogs in the hop and each person has chosen an element to use on her layout. Your job is to find all 10 elements, write them down and choose FIVE to include in your layout! Be sure to keep your eyes open because we have sponsors as well as DT members giving goodies away. You may have to do a little something more for the DT candy, so be sure to read every post! Sound like fun?? We think so!!! Ok, lets get to it! You should have arrived here from Lasting Memories which is your starting point and where you'll find the master hop list.

For my 2 page layout today, I chose chipboard for my element (write that down! don't forget!)

Glittered Chipboard "Pool Side"

Chipboard Shapes

In honour of my birthday, I'm having the Grand Prize give away!

CTMH mini medley - pear

CTMH embroidery floss in reds and pinks

CTMH "Later, Sk8r" (gnarly) embellishment

CTMH "Later, Sk8r" C-sized stamp set

CTMH keyboard kraft alphabet

2 clear journal tags

KC & Company baubles

"Thank You" rub ons

adhesive pearls

"You & Me" and "Happy" glitter chipboard

10 chipboard journal jots

How can you have a chance to win all these goodies??

1. **MANDATORY** Enter our challenge and showcase 5 of the 10 elements on your layout - please tell us, within your post, which 5 elements you chose to use
(leave a comment when you've entered the challenge)
2. For a second entry, grab our Hop Badge for your blog and help spread the word! Remember to add the link :-)
(leave me another comment with a link to your blog)
3. For a third entry, PIN this giveaway on PINTEREST and leave me another comment with a direct link to your board

Please be sure to leave separate comments so it's nice and easy for Random.org to choose a lucky winner!! Thank you!!

I also have TWO surprise packs all ready to go to TWO lucky "Featured" entries this week!

Thanks so much for joining us! You're next stop is the super talented Claire! Thank you so much for celebrating with me and have fun hopping along our Scavenger Hunt hop!

LMCB #86 - It's A Treasure Hunt!!

Hello friends!! It's time for a new challenge at Lasting Memories!! We're going on a treasure hunt this week! We're challenging you to scrap about something you Treasure and tell us the story behind it. This could be Family, a Vacation spot, your home a piece of jewelry etc. JULIE is also giving away:

How cool is that! You can't win if you don't play!! One lucky entry will win!!

For my layout this week, I chose to do another Florida (2 pg) layout. Every time we go, Keith gets the kid's out in the ocean and they go on a treasure hunt to see what they can find. This time was really cool. They ended up with their shells AND a baby jellyfish!! We kept him for a small bit and had a good (safe) look at him and then we released him back to the ocean. Pretty cool!!! I created my own backgrounds on these layouts using sand photo's and adjusting the 'opacity'! COOL huh??

pg 2 showing more findings and if you look close, there's a crab in there!

Have a peek at what Treasure Hunts the DT has to show you and we hope you'll come back and play along this week!! Happy Sunday!

SUPER Dragonfly!

Good morning and happy Saturday! It's a 4 day wknd here for the kid's, 3 for the rest of us - except me :) I get 4 to! So, over at RAKscraps, they had a cool challenge where we had to "Use It All". We were given this kit:

and we had to use EVERYTHING in the kit!! Just for playing the challenge, we're receiving the add-on to this kit!! Can't beat that! I was doing great till I came to figuring out where to put that really blue flower. Then I had to figure out what pics would work with the layout and voila!! The SUPER dragonfly of Florida! LOL!! This guy landed on my arm and stayed awhile. Was awesome! 

FBW #185 - Bright Colors!!

Good morning!! Guess what! It's Wednesday, which means a new challenge at Flutter By Wednesday's!! This week Danni challenged us to "get rid of the winter blah's, use bright colors" AND be sure to include a butterfly, fairy or angel. I chose to do a birthday layout from Florida in 2011. Ashleigh celebrated her 11th birthday. Look at that tan!!! I thought this certainly looks bright and fun!!! Be sure to join us this week and remember, get rid of those blahs and don't forget your butterfly, fairy or angel!!

(be sure to see below photo to see how I did my background!)

You can't see the background very well, but I made a "custom" background in My Memories Suite and here's how I did it!

Choose "background" and then "custom" which brings up your photo's

I chose Ashleigh's birthday cake

Was a little too bright for me, so adjusted the "opacity" to 40

And here's what it looked like before I added the pics!

Just Beachy

First off .. a very Happy Thanksgiving to my US friends. May you have a day filled with family, happiness and good food!!

Just a reminder .. there's a GREAT giveaway going on over at my Lasting Memories challenge blog!! Calling all scrapbookers! You still have time to enter .. challenge ends on Saturday at 9pm EST and winner announced with Sunday's new challenge!! Hurry!!!

How cool is this layout!!! On the wknd, I was showing my cousin Nancy how to use My Memories Suite and she asked me what "Custom" was in the background pages area. So we checked it out and super cool!! You make your OWN background page!! So, I got creative with this one and chose a photo of Sand Keys Beach as my background and over layed a couple photo's of ocean fun!! I LOVE this!!! I upgraded to My Memories Suite V3 and really having some fun with it. Hope you like this as much as I do!! Want your own copy? See banner above and be sure to use the code to save $10!!

I'm entering this over at MyMemories blog this week. The challenge is to do a page showing what you're thankful for. My layout shows a recent family vacation to Florida and I'm thankful we were able to get away for some much needed family time .. a time when you truly get back to family.

LMCB #63 - We're Going Sepia and A Little Earthy!

Hello friends!! I'm a little late on this one, but getting back in the swing of things from holidays. This week at Lasting Memories, we have a fun challenge. We're going sepia and earth tones! I had a question earlier about using Earth Tones if you can't get a sepia photo - of course you can. We want to see your layouts and it's amazing how creative we can get when we don't have access to one resource or another. So, this weeks LO is a pic from our recent trip to Florida of my daughter and I. All done in digital using my MyMemories software. Hope you have a great day and get a chance to come on over and join us at LMCB! We'd love to see you!!

Meet Winter from "Dolphin Tale"

Hi all! Well, we're back from our 2 week vacation in the sunny south of Florida. Hurrican Rina did mess things up a little for us - she didn't actually come in to land, but the gulf was cold (about 70* - cold to me lol) and we got a little wind/rain and low temps, but when that sun came out, man was it hot. We all came home with nice tans and relaxed. We did have a chance to get over to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium to meet Winter, from Dolphin Tale, and her friends. What a lucky girl she is, not to mention the others that are there. Ashleigh and Keith have seen the movie and said it's excellent. Was a good experience for Ashleigh to see the props etc as the movie was filmed at CMA and to learn fact vs fiction as far as the movie as well. For anyone that has seen the movie, apparently they amputate Winter's tail - they actually did not. It fell off bit by bit. She's had quite a few different tales and she doesn't wear it all the time. She has learned to function very well without it and when she has it on, she has a trainer in with her the whole time helping her exercise it. Pretty cool to see. She's 6 yrs old now and doing very well!! She's like a puppy dog following her trainers around .. So, meet Winter!! You can see her tail in the one pic .. she's a very lucky gal!! Check out Winter on her WebCam! The last couple pics are of Ashleigh looking at Winter's very first tale as well as (not THE crab trap) a crab trap that was wrapped around Winter's tale. Be sure to click this image and read about Winter .. you'll be amazed. I know I was.

LMCB # 62 - Cherish

Hello from the sunny south!! Today we have a new challenge at Lasting Memories - Using the word "Cherish" on your LO and show us someone or someTHING that you cherish the most! I had a minute last night to sit and do a digital LO for this week's challenge and came up with this one. A couple pics from our vacation. Having a great time, although the weather's been a little up and down - wearing sweaters in Florida NOT COOL as my son says! LOL! We had a friend move in at home, so life is good there but I hear it's cold. Yuck. I don't want to head home. Anyway, have a boo at the other LO's by my very talented DT and hope you can join us!! Have a good day!