Summer has been here in full force, and she’s an angry angry woman. I’ve been feeling sick so often because of this silly heat.  We’ve had a couple “cooler” days now so I’m starting to feel human again. Sort of. All I know is that I’m dreaming of snow, and that crunch crunch crunch under your feet when it’s iced over. Bring on winter.. she’s my favourite season.

With summer comes the olympics of course.. I’ve never been really big into the whole thing, but I decided last night that I was going to force kiddo to watch the opening ceremonies. Oye. He angrily went to bed after a while.. needless to say 8 year olds are not really impressed by all that weirdness. It was nice though– before the stomping off part. I’ve been trying to spend a lot more time doing regular boring *stuff* with him. It’s just he and I round these parts.. but it’s easy to forget to spend special quality time with a person when they’re in your space 24/7. He’s getting older and soon enough won’t want much to do with his mum.. So have to squeeze in all this special mommy and me stuff now! With life, and work, and other friendships/relationships.. sometimes things just swirl around and you forget what is important. I’ve got a little dude here who thinks I rule the world and I’ve got to make sure I at least try to live up to the glory he puts me at. It’s all about the little things to an 8 year old. Playing minecraft.. having a nerf gun shooting competition, snuggling up and watching a movie.. listen to him re-tell the star wars story second for second  for the umpteenth time…. sitting here bored off my gourd watching the mens road race because for some reason he finds it interesting ^__^ Cherish your kids. Cherish every second and every moment– even the annoying ones… because one day you’ll wake up and you’ll have a 30 year old who you barely get to spend any time with.

Another thing we’re doing together is learning spanish. I have this big plan of spending some time in Spain after kiddo turns 18. I figure 10 years time is plenty to 1) save up for an extended vacation that I may or may not want to last several months and 2) completely master the spanish language. I took the standard 3 years of spanish in highschool, but I’ve apparently forgotten everything.. Except maybe gato. I’ve started using this site duolingo which I think is possibly THE coolest site ever. Learn another language for free? Yes please! We’ve only just begun using it– and well, it’s mostly been ME using it with kiddo sitting beside me repeating spanish words, but it’s way cool and everyone should check it out. Yesterday it kept making me say we are turtles– which was bizarre.. and probably not at all useful (you never know.) but I think it’s rad and we’re totally going to keep going with it!

Of course it’s the weekend.. so that means there are some rad goodies at TLP that are 20% off all weekend long. This week I have a new kit No More Monsters Under the Bed. Not just for those fears our kiddos have.. but great for scrapping about your own personal demons too! This kit was actually inspired by.. suggested by.. ? miss annie bananie after I said something in regaurds to my recent divorce.. It was the PERFECT theme.. to cover so many topics. I love how it turned out and hope you do too!!

Anyway.. that’s all for now! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!

<3 la

Today is the first day of the rest of your life.

I am celebrating independence day in a big way this year. Today marks the begining of a new journey for me. My own personal freedom. After many years I am finally able to BREATHE. To be safe, and to be free. I feel truly blessed and relieved today and just want to share the day with all of those important to me. Life is amazing. Don’t ever forget that! The clouds will clear and there will be bright skies ahead.

Life has a way of showing you it is amazing. Even if you feel trapped by the darkest of days, know that one day you will be free.

To celebrate enjoy a super awesome 30% off sale at scrapfasticdesigns.com today through July 7th!

and as a special bonus.. How about we give away a free gift way early this month! I apparently have never made an independence day themed product.. ^__^ however I’ve reached into the vault to bring back this kit, I’ve been waiting for this moment. Grab it here for FREE this week ONLY <3 Links (below preview) will expire July 11th so grab it while you still can!

** This download is no longer available Thank you <3 <3**

I’m off to spend the day with my favorite little dude and some great friends! I hope you all have a wonderful day ahead!

La

I’ve learned a lot the past few weeks.. about who will be there for you when you really need it……. and who well, simply won’t. These friends don’t need to be old friends, or even friends that are right within your reach. They can be brand new friends, or friends that are 3000 miles away. I’ve had a pretty unpleasant time the past few weeks. Life drama.. you know, fun stuff. In the blink of the eye.. I had the greatest pals on my side. One I’ve barely known for long showed up at my house in the middle of the night so that I had someone to talk to. Another has been carting me around town, distracting me and keeping me away from the stuff that was hurting me. Others live far far away and were there the second I needed to talk to them over IM or text and talked me down to planet earth. I treasure my friends.. They are the rocks in a shakey world. The other people? Pfft. I don’t need people who just help me sink anymore.

I’ve been feeling pretty alone lately. This is what happens when your heart gets cracked in two.. but I need to remember to stop and open my eyes and realize I’ve got some AMAZING pals all in my corner that would go for bat for me in a moments notice. Friendships come along right when you need them the most.

To celebrate friendships I have a new kit this week TLP specifically about friendships around the world. The digital scrapbooking community is full of great supportive people who have sparked amazingly strong friendships online, grown together, and become the best of pals.  You never know where you’ll find a new best friend.  True Friends Know No Distance-  20% off all weekend at TLP. As a bonus use coupon code: hothot15 and save an extra 15% off your order TODAY ONLY on any of my goodies (including the new kit! super savings!)

To my four closest and truest friends..thank you for being here for me the past few weeks. Thank you.

I’ve been having so much trouble not only finding time to design (this is going to be the craziest summer ever I swear :/ What happened to relaxing and enjoying the summer?!) but also I’m totally lacking inspiration and mojo… it’s a very very bad mix. I went browsing pinterest for some inspiration  and instead of searching for you know  pretty images, or things that would actually inspire me to design..I type in some not positive words that will in absolutely no way spark a pretty kit theme. No no instead we get this :p

haha. This is how i’m feeling. I will undoubtedly snap out of this funk soon enough. Maybe tomorrow. Today though.. it’s debatable. Brain.Paralyzed.

I’d ask for inspiration, but I’m seriously eyeballs deep in inspiration, and products I’m supposed to be making, and doodie doodah .. Nothing seems to be hitting that creative part of my brain. Someone give me a word puzzle to sort out. Who knows.. Maybe there’s a HUGE draw out there for “people suck” and “bite me” type kits. I’d certainly scrap a few pages with one. Well maybe. I grabbed some goodies from the TLP retirement sale the other day and just stared at them instead of scrapping. It’s the thought that counts right??

I did at least put the new releases up in the store here at scrapfasticdesigns.com So if you missed out on my summer bundle products at TLP this past weekend you still have a chance to scoop them up for 20% off  right here through thursday

I really love how this set turned out and hope you do too! You can buy them individually or save a ton and buy the bundle!

It’s also SOSN time at the-lilypad. Something old Something new is that rad day mid week that you can snag some AMAZING goodies for 50% off ONE DAY ONLY. I’ve been slowly bringing over some of my favorite products each SOSN and this week is no exception. Key to Change, LUIY Flowers and Can’t Hold Me Down are re-debuting themselves this week at TLP. Scoop them up while they’re on sale! <3

That’s it for now folks. Hopefully I snap out of this funk ASAP and start doodling away some pretties soon! I’ve got some amazingly rad friends (new and old) that I am sure I can find some quality inspiration in their awesomeness :] People out there who suck? Well, I’ve got no time for you anymore. :D Forward and upwards- the only way you should be moving! <3 La

Every once in a while I get this wild hair.. that I want to start up my own personal blog again. Chitter chatter away. I was never a very consistent blogger, and ended up many years ago now just letting my creative team take over my then blog and used it soley for designy stuff. Which is great and fine and all….

 but.

boring.

and kind of overwhelming for my team after a while. Who wants to never get to talk about stuff THEY want to talk about and just post some random previews and layouts and what not for their team. Bleh. I don’t. That’s just boring.boring.boring.

So after some thought, I’ve decided it’s time to change things up again around here. Now I get to babble. I’m lifting the pressure off my amazing team and taking over. (Run awaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay! hahah jk)
One of the biggest reasons I stopped writing my own blog posts was that constant argument – about designers keeping their personal/private lives PRIVATE and being strictly business on the outside. This is also boring. I was thinking, just now (while I was cooking dinner, how’s that for breaking the rules! I eat!) that this is absolutely bonkers, especially in the days of facebook and twitter where i may actually be telling you in detail what that dinner is comprised of. You know.. last year my “personal/private” life was thrown into the forefront.. because you know, I had to go get all sick and almost die. Was there some ugly backlash from that? NO. People were AMAZING. This is a beautiful caring wonderful community and I’m glad everyone was “up in my business”. Having people all across the world WORRYING about you, is rather- woah. It’s all about boundaries. Like say….. don’t post your address online and what times you’ll be away from home. Do tell people that you saw the coolest lightning show just outside your window just now though.
So that’s what I’m going to do. I’m not committing to any particular # of posts. Because we all know, in a week.. I’m going to be like pshhhht. Blog. Shmog. But I’ll be popping in from time to time.. Sharing things that are inspiring me, maybe telling you what I’m working on… etc. I’ll of course still include the boring stuff. Like HI I created these digs today go buy them please! But I really just want to have a place of my own to ramble :p If you want to read along SWEET! if you don’t, that’s ok too ^__^ I talk to myself alllllll the time normally ;)

Also here’s a pretty picture that I totally saw on pinterest after searching “pretty”. :p

credits: samantha lamb photography. image is linked :]

I have new design digs at TLP today.. but seeing you’re probably coming here from my facebook you already know this so I’ll spare you the advertising spam ;) IF You missed the new product rarah you can check out this album on FB for deets

peace out
La

Sorry everyone, I totally spaced on posting a new one of these last month!

This month is this super cute kit called It’s a Girl Thing!!

This freebie  is no longer available for download. Thank you so much!

Enjoy!!

It’s summer and for many that means summer family road trips! I have many fond memories of my childhood road trips and I bet you do too. If so, La has the perfect template for you (and rumor has it, there are similar templates in the works…). Just look at what I found in La’s gallery at The Lilypad today. Makes me want to hop in the car and drive across the USA right now.

There’s so much that you can do with Lauren Grier’s Layered Up In You Maps USA!

by AmberR

By neeceebee

by ltarbox

by charmedeebob

Hi, scrappers! LeeAndra here with this week’s La goodies!

First of all, let me remind you that La’s hosting a 20% sale at Scrapfastic today and tomorrow only, so be sure to pick up everything on your wish list before time runs out!

On to this week’s newness!

La’s got these awesome scallop cuts. So fun, so versatile, so perfect for all your scrapbook layouts:

http://scrapfasticdesigns.com/scrapfasticdesignsstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=115&products_id=360

Check them out in action:

by Heather

La is guesting at One Story Down this month and has this superfun kit up for grabs there and at her SF store:

http://scrapfasticdesigns.com/scrapfasticdesignsstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=115&products_id=361

Check it out in action:

by Denise

by Lita

by Terra

What are you waiting for?! Head on over to Scrapfastic and get your La on! Her sale is only through Thursday, so get while the gettin is good! :)

Happy scrapping! :)

Hello, Hello and happy Friday!  Loni here, to bring you just a tiny glimpse of  my own creative process.  I gather ideas and inspiration much like most folks gather kindling for a fire.   Always keeping one eye roving for anything that might offer even the smallest spark of creativity.   Then once I’ve found it, I love trying to work out exactly what it is that drew me in and how those ideas can be altered and/or applied to what I’m working toward.   Here are a few things that really struck my fancy this week with a brief description of why.

I love the patterned background, the repeated spheres and the bold division of the page.

This one is so beautifully simple by design and I love the message.

But this is the one that really struck a nerve for me. I just kept thinking about it and loved the idea of how the odd slices of fruit would translate wonderfully into a stack of wonky cut paper strips.

Which was all I needed to get my home fires lit and to dive right into a page.   In the end you probably don’t actually see much of the initial design in my finished layout… but that stack of wonky shaped papers are still there, masked by patterns and buried deep within the layers.

I think most of the ideas I collect are simply used as a sounding board on where to start and I usually find that most of the original concepts get warped pretty significantly along way.  Which is where most of the fun lies… taking just a morsel of an idea, reconstructing it in your own voice, and making it your very own.

So how about you?  How do you seek and interpret the inspiration you find?

*(all images are linked for proper credit)*

What could BYOC, a special saturday release, and a 30% off sale mean? (inter)National Scrapbooking Day of corse!!!

Heather here to show give you the run down on all the amazing La goodies to be snagged up this weekend.

It would’t be the beginning of the month without an amazing color palette inspiring goodies over at The-Lilypad and La has rocked the house on these pieces!

First up is The Strip Experiment. 7 doodled 12×12 papers full of stripy goodness perfect for setting up a bold background or adorable accents.

Next up is Tag it. Journal it. 10 doodled tags in 2 versions. A perfect addition to jot some journaling.

Last up in the BYOC category is Summer Noms Doodles. In true La style, these doodles are cute enough to make you want to eat them up!

Today’s special Saturday release is not to be missed! This is My Moment is a bright fun kit packed with gorgeous papers and elements to instantly become a go to stash.

A bunch of iNSD themed events are happening over at The-Lilypad including 30% off La’s entire shop! So if you have been eyeing something on your wish list, now is the time to snatch it up!! There is also a pick your prize giveaway happening in the Forum for each designer so be sure to check that out as well! Be sure to check the forum for all the fun!

Hope you have a happy scrappy weekend!!