Don't Forget!

Consider this the string around your finger!!

My giveaway for that awesome Studio Calico Soda Fountain kit ends tonight! Hurry so you can be sure to get your name in on this post to be entered to win!

Today is Field Day for the biggest and we're busy winding down the rest of the school year. All kinds of things are finding their way home.

All. kinds.

The middlest brought home this for me yesterday and I completely adore it. It has a home on my fridge right now, but really want a funky cool, ornate frame for it to go somewhere in the house. He's only 6! My aspiring artist! (Makes this creative mama so very proud! ;))

TGIF!
xoxo,
k

Soda Fountain!

*******Contest Now Closed. Please Check back for Winner! Thank you!**************


The big reveal of Studio Calico's June Kit, Soda Fountain, went live last night at midnight eastern time! And you know what that means! It's GIVEAWAY TIME! Whooooo hooO! So please leave me a comment here telling me what your favorite part of the kit (or add-ons) is by 11:59 pm (eastern) Friday, May, 29th and you'll be entered to win one of your very own! And in the meantime, here are a couple of layouts I did with mine. Oh how I love this kit! :)



(This bottom one is yet another Becky Fleck sketch - how I love that woman's sketches!)

Have a Happy Thursday!

xoxo,

k.

Home from Orlando!

Don't let this photo fool you. It did nothing but rain the entire time I was in Florida. The entire time...oh, except when I took the town car to catch my plane! Of course! Why is it that the last day you're some place is always the nicest? And then I flew back to more rain at home, but anyhow...

Rain or not, I had the most incredible time with the ladies at Scrappy Boutique, an adorable little store in Orlando. The owner, Stacey, and her amazing manager, Amy, were so gracious and made me feel more than welcome. It was such an honor to be there and meet every one of them. Their love of BasicGrey is unparalleled! (Seriously - you should see the store!) ;)

Here they are working hard on a Porcelain mini album! That little miss on the left hiding behind her album is Deb - she also helped me by being a TA during one of my Expo classes a couple days later. (THANKS, Deb!)



I also enjoyed meeting so many of you at Orlando's Scrapbook Expo. We had an amazing venue at the Gaylord Palms and the classes were busy but a lot of fun! Thank you for coming out and spending some (or all in a few cases!) of your day with me! The next Expo is in Duluth, Georgia (right outside Hotlanta) in July and hope to see you Georgia/Tennessee girls there! :)

One more thing! I have been playing along with the girls over at Studio Calico and am drooling over their June kit, Soda Fountain! It's absolutely amazing and what's even more amazing is that I'll have one of those yummy kits to share with YOU! Stay tuned for the details and in the meantime, here are a few sneak peeks to tide you over! Remember - the big reveal is TONIGHT at midnight eastern time!! Hop over there and join in the reveal nite fun!




Happy Hump Day, all!

xoxo,
k.

New BASICGREY - JUNE BUG & LEMONADE!

Today's the day!!

*************************
A panorama of savory summer designs, June Bug is a walk through a wildflower garden of color. This newest double-sided collection is where eclectic, energetic shades merge in quilted patterns of rich, seasonal colors. Like wildflowers, June Bug is a bit untamed and a tad unruly, but a gorgeous addition to any creative project. Spot this June Bug in your next design.

Who wants Lemonade?! Parched for something to quench your summer scrapbooking thirst? Try some Lemonade‚ the refreshing, revitalizing elixir of cool color that is the newest collection. Brightly tart and sensationally tangy‚ beat the heat with a glass or two of Lemonade.

Each of our newest lines includes your BasicGrey favorites like 18 incredible papers (note: June Bug is double-sided), collec­tion packs, 6x6 pads, and mono, mini mono, alpha and element stickers. We've also included favorites in the chip department: chip sticker alphas and shapes. There are two bitsy clear acrylic stamps and one regular acrylic stamp, followed by oodles of loved items‚brads, glazed brads, buttons, two single-sheet designer rub-ons, and a five-page Olio rub-on book, plus the popular card kit. Phew‚ that's a lot to drink in!

Warning: reading the following may cause uncontrollable bursts of happiness (but we knew you were craving more!) Welcome our newest additions to the BasicGrey arsenal of creativity: Woolies, Pops, Take Note, cardstock stickers, Doilies and Do Me A Favor box kits!

No more self-accessorizing felt (or trying to find an adhesive that holds). Woolies are self-adhesive, layered felt stickers that include all the embellishments, from wire to stitching to ritzy rhinestone accents. No additional work necessary‚ just pick and stick!

You've gotta have some Pops! A pop of color, a burst of pizzazz, Pops are layered cardstock stickers that add an intricate dimensional look to projects. Rhinestone accents adorn these Pops-of-perfect-color that match our newest lines‚ June Bug and Lemonade collections.

You'll want to Take Note. That's why we are launching Take Note‚ beautiful journaling blocks with coordinating printed trans­parencies that can be stacked and used together or separately. Take Note journaling spots are perfectly mini-sized spaces to note the important moments, jot down a few thoughts and simplify journaling into effortless, beautifully brief notes.

Try our new 6x12 cardstock stickers! These extra large, super intricate stickers are available in designer solid colors. Use an entire design or cut, crop and break down these stickers to adorn photos, pages and more.

These aren't grandma's Doilies! No offense to grandma, but we've put a modern twist on a timeless creation. Our Doilies are intricately-cut papers in detailed designs, available in many patterns and colors. Border your page or photo, trim to suit your style and add a distinct accent to your next treasured page.

Do Me a Favor? The Do-Me-A-Favor party favor box kits will have guests at your next party oohing-and-aahing with delight and wondering, “How did she do that?" Each kit contains six delightful, ready-to-assemble favor boxes. Pack them with candy, notes or party trinkets for guests. Detailed step-by-step, illustrated instructions are included for easy assembly.

Long-awaited and finally available are our new Designer Cardstock packs. These packs of 24 double-sided solids (four each of six colors) are just what BasicGrey lovers have yearned for. Never run out of your favorite cardstock colors again. Use as a backdrop for your favorite BasicGrey patterned papers, create cards and altered items. Why use boring cardstock when double-sided, designer-distressed papers are at your fingertips? Give your next page a fabulous look with our new designer cardstock.

JUNE BUG:


LEMONADE:


And a few projects:

June Bug: (These cards are going to be part of the Card Kit released with June Bug)




Lemonade:
These layouts are based on sketches by my awesome friend Becky Fleck. Love her PageMaps site! And a huge Thank You to Ms. Steph for allowing me to use pics of her adorable Sadie (love you!)





Have a beautiful Wednesday! I leave out of town tomorrow to teach at Scrappy Boutique in Orlando and to teach at Scrapbook Expo! I'll be checking in as I can! I hope to see a lot of you there!

xoxo,
k.

Meet: June Bug & Lemonade!

Peeks to come right here tomorrow!!:)





And now for the winner of the Green Tangerine kit, the random number generator picked #153 so that means Ms. Angelia, you're the gal! Just email the awesome Green Tangerine girls at kitclub@mygreentangerines.com and tell them you're my winner! Your kit will be on it's way. Enjoy and thank you all so much for playing!

My Green Tangerine

*******Contest is now over. Please stay tuned for WINNER! Thank you!*******
Oh how I love that song! But that's not quite the point of this post, I promise! What I did promise was a giveaway and that's just what I'm gonna do! And here's how...

A while back, the girls at Green Tangerine wrote me to ask if I'd help them promote their brand new kit club. I had met them a little over a year ago at CHA and had commented on their stunning logo for their store. Their t-shirts definitely were noticeable and too adorable. So of course I told them I'd be happy to play along and share a bit of Green Tangerine with all of you.

To get their club started off on the right foot, they are having huge blog party that started May 8th and will continue through July 1st! That's almost two months of partying and over $1000 worth of free scrapbooking products that they are giving away!! And every Monday, Wednesday and Friday during that time brings you two more new chances of playing along and winning! How's that for a kick-off?!!



And as you've probably already guessed, tonight is MY turn to host the blog party and share with you the fun things I made with their incredible kit! And trust me, I'm not just saying that. This kit was so up my alley, filled with gorgeous bright colors, 2 sheets of SEVERAL colors of cardstock, coordinating brads and embellies, two full alphabet sets and more!

This first layout is of Turner and Carson and our recent face-painting encounter at the zoo! These papers were just perfect for my brightly colored tigers. (and check out that embellishment in the lower left - that's a custom embellishment done by the girl's at Green Tangerine. Fun, isn't it?!


For this next one I was trying to channel my inner Kelli (Crowe, that is!). I love Kelli's use of circle punches of different sizes onto neutral cardstock. I'm a bit too reserved to really do the magic she does, but I had fun just the same! This is Carson on his 100th day of school (could you tell?)! Dig those rad glasses, man!



And finally, here's a fun little card featuring October Afternoon's little monsters. I have to admit it started as a "thank you" for teacher's appreciation week and then even mother's day related. Appropriate, no? ;)

Ok, so now's where YOU come in...simply leave me a comment telling me what your favorite part or technique of my projects are and you are entered to win a kit of your very own! And if you visit the girls at Green Tangerine on their blog, you'll have even one more chance to win! But it's going to be a quick one - you must leave your comment by 5:00 pm EASTERN TOMORROW, MAY 19th to be included in my drawing. The winner will be announced tomorrow night in another post. Good luck and have fun!

xoxo,
k.

Season's End & Stay Tuned!

Good morning, all!

There's SO much going on around here with school winding down, graduations upon us and the end of some sports seasons and the beginning of others...not to mention the new release of BasicGrey coming Wednesday (you didn't think I'd let you forget, did you?! TWO DAYS! TWO DAYS!) ANDDDDDDDDD....I have a fun giveaway coming up a bit later today so don't forget to check back! I promise you won't want to miss it!

To tide you over a bit in the mean time, here's my littest getting his soccer trophy yesterday. He was so very proud! ;) I sadly think I'm glad to see the end of it as it's been one of the rainiest springs we've had in ages and more games got canceled and rescheduled than actually played.

School ends for him this week as well (and then I'll have a big Kindergartener and all three of my babies at the "big" school!) so it's been quite the series of events! Dare I say I'm looking forward to the normalcy of summer? (Hee - I'm sure THAT one will come back to bite me in the butt, eh?!)

Have a great Monday! See you a bit later!
xoxo,
k.

God's Promise...

...never waivers

If you needed proof. :)


This was such a beautiful site it almost didn't look real. And so wishing I had the wide angle lens that is on my wish list as it was a full-arch rainbow. Next time! ;)
The storm has now passed and we're off to soccer! Have a beautiful weekend, everyone.

xoxo,
k.

FAQs

Hi, all, and happy, HAPPY FRIDAY!

Today I wanted to talk just a bit about my camera. Lately I've gotten quite a few emails asking about my photographs and what kind of camera I have/ camera recommendations/ my Photoshop Actions and so on so I wanted to get it all down here for easy reference and to perhaps answer any other questions you might have for me.

But first let me add this disclaimer - I AM NOT A TRAINED PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER so please don't take the things I say as gospel. It's just a compilation of what I have used and what has worked/not worked for me. It's not intended to influence you one way or another. Amen.

With that out of the way let's get to the most FAQ's:

1. My Camera - I have a Canon Digital Rebel XT.

It's the older model (I think now two models back?) but it has really served me well. I've been incredibly happy with it and have had no issues with it's functioning other than what my boys have done to it (don't ask!). I purchased it with a kit lens (the 18-55mm) which I will talk about more later. It was reasonable in cost when I got it as far as DSLR cameras go but if I'm not mistaken you can get the newer models for a reasonable price as well. I am a loyal Canon girl as my first "good camera" was the film version of the same camera and I absolutely LOVED it. LOVED.

2. My lenses

I currently have three (though I want more - badly!). I have the 18-55mm kit lens I mentioned before, the 75-300mm zoom lens I got soon after, and my newest, the 50mm f1.8. There are distinct advantages/disadvantages to each of them and I'll try and list them here along with some examples.

18-55mm - this is a great general purpose lens. It came with the camera when I bought it an was wonderful for everyday, outdoor shots - from close up to mid-range. It's downside lies in the fact that it's not very good in low light situations and I have found it lags just a little with quick motion. It doesn't give the greatest depth of field (you have to work to get it) but it has beautiful crisp focus. I've turned out some of my favorite shots with this lens like these:








75-300mm - This is my zoom lens and my go-to lens for most any event, especially sporting ones when I'm on the sidelines or in the stands. I love that it gets so close and the huge focal distance give great depth of field. It is sadly slower than my kit lens for focusing so sometimes I miss the shot I was really trying to get, but when I get it? It's so worth it! I love love love this lens. The biggest drawback to it for me is it's size and that if I ever *do* want or need to get closer to a subject, I have to stand waaaaaaaaay back or change lenses! It was interesting to get shots of my kids at the zoo but fab for the animal shots below. Here are a few fave shots taken with my zoom...





and finally my newest lens..

50mm f1.8 - I am just now beginning to get comfortable with this lens and see what it can do/can't do, but let me tell you why I got it. I wanted a lens that had clear, super-sharp focus and great depth of field to get portrait shots. I was frustrated that a lot of my portraits seemed much "flatter" than I wanted. This lens is a very inexpensive lens as far as lenses go (around $95-105ish) and had the most amazing field depth. I can take a photo of a subject and things just a few inches from that subject will be blurred just the way I like. It's absolutely incredible, even in low light situations. I see a love affair coming on for sure, but the thing I'm having the hardest time getting used to is the fixed focus. A fixed focus lens means the lens doesn't adjust for me, *I* have to back up or zoom in to get the distance that I want. And you can't get any closer than the 50mm where as when the 18-55mm, I could get very close. I haven't had much time to play with it, but what I have used it for, I've loved. Here are a couple shots. Check out the bokeh (the light "dots") on the Iris image! Love that!




3. My Photo Editing - I use Adobe Photoshop 6.0 and sadly do it on a PC. I used to do some photo editing for a portait studio and had a Mac that I loved but still used 6.0 on that as well (thought they have since upgraded to CS and beyond! Darn it!) I also know that I can have a tendency to "over process" my photos (I'm actually working on getting better with that!) but what I do like that I always want to keep is popping the color of my images in photoshop. I love getting a real vibrancy with an image - if that image calls for it (and with three boys, I have a lot of images that call for it)! For those of you that like the "popped" color like I do, there are a few easy steps that you can do. I got some of this from trial and error, some from Amy Howe, and still others from other photographers I've worked with. For quick editing, here is what I do:

Color "Popping:
- You can either adjust your image for contrast in curves or levels (or both) or you can take the easy way out and "auto contrast." (Auto contrast might not always give you what you're looking for but 8 times out of 10 it does a pretty good job for those "quickie" edits.
- Then I always add a layer in PS and then use "Screen" to brighten up my image if it's too dark. (If not, then I skip this step.) Once I have the desired brightness that I change using a percentage of opacity, I flatten the image again and add one more layer.
- With this new layer, I use "Soft Light". Soft Light enhances the over all color and makes it more dramatic. The colors glow more and becomes more vibrant. I usually only put this no more than a 40% opacity or else I find it getting a bit too "overdone".
- My final step is an unsharp mask. I do it to the entire image first and then if the image is a portrait (any picture of a person), I'll do the mask again to just the eyes to make them sparkle.

So there you have it! I hope I've answered some of the basics but if there's anything more specific you want to know, feel free to ask. I'll try and answer any others within the comment section as they are asked!

Have a wonderful Friday!
xoxo,
k.

Metamorphosing

Metamorphosing. Is that a word?

Anyhow, here's the story: Ethan and Turner started collecting caterpillars the other day. Honestly I wasn't so sure they'd survive the first night in the new makeshift home of Tupperware filled with leaves, but survive they did. And even more, just a couple of days later they started to do this...

Check out that web-looking thing in the upper left (just off center)....that's one of the caterpillars almost completely encased in his cocoon! The boys are over the moon they're so excited!

By the way, did you know you wake a sleeping caterpillar by rubbing his back? No? Well now you do! (That's my 3rd grade science tip of the day!) We'll keep you posted if anything changes!

ETA: I did some research and found that this caterpillar is the Eastern Tent Caterpillar...not sure what kind of butterfly or moth it becomes (or what it looks like but off to look at that now!) Since first posting this, two catey's are now in their cocoons! :) Ok, ewwwwwwwwwwwww....perhaps I shouldn't have found this! ha!

Happy Thursday!
xoxo,
k

Hee! So excited!

I'm just sayin'!

Happy Hump Day!
xoxo,
k

More from the Zoo!

Hi, all!

I'm crazy today between helping my middle build a shark diorama and working on a work project so I don't have much time to post. But I've been wanting to get the rest of the zoo pictures up from earlier this month. I just love going to the zoo and it was such a great day that I wanted to share more here.

Hope your Tuesday is fabulous and please, enjoy the Louisville Zoo via this virtual tour! ;)

Getting ready to head in the gates - bright and shiny and happy (for now ;))


I LOVE the big cats!):


A verrrrrrrrrry satisfied lion:

(and a lioness glad that it wasn't HER turn)


MY little animals making my heart proud!




This is Scotty, our baby African Elephant. He just had his 2nd birthday. Isn't he adorable? :)

And one of the coolest things we saw - NESTING bald eagles! So exciting!


Happy day!
xoxo,
k.