Erin Taylor Designs

Last month I had the opportunity to meet Shannon McNab, one of the digital designers that I've worked for over the past two years. We have emailed, FB messaged, Google messaged, called, texted... but hadn't met in person. She and her husband were visiting Florida and I met them for an amazing lunch at Epcot. 

After our lunch, and a quick stop to see the Captain E0 movie, we stopped outside one of the many gift shops for a photo. I love how it turned out, and I used it to create a scrapbook page using the September Gossamer Blue kits. This layout was also featured on CSI Color Stories Inspiration.

When we had our professional photos done in November, I really wanted a few pictures of just Mark and me. And I am so pleased with the results! This photo is especially sweet, and the Pillow Talk collection from Creashens was perfect for it. I also used a digital template from Scotty Girl Designs called Singled Out.

Last month Mark and I took the kids to a professional photographer for a family photo session... our first one in over two years! We had a "mini session" with the photographer, and I am very happy with the photos. A few of them I will enlarge and frame, but most of them I compiled into a 7x7 inch Blurb Book that is scheduled to arrive Wednesday. I haven't used Blurb before, but after reading Cathy Z.'s review, I had to try them out. I created some simple templates in Photoshop, then added the finished pages to the photo book. The whole process took about 3 hours. Not too bad from start to finish for a complete photo book.

These are my favorites from the shoot. Our photographer was Kati Rosado Photography. 
 






I just love this... Jack with his tongue stuck out, and Evan covering his face. Too funny. 


After our photo session we took the kids to a wonderful dinner at The Mansion in downtown Melbourne. It was a lovely afternoon and I am so excited to get some of these photos printed! 

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week! 

Hey there! I have quite a few layouts to share today that I've created for Karla Dudley Designs, Scotty Girl Designs, and Pixels & Co. 

The new kit, Walt's Park, from Scotty Girl Designs is the perfect kit for scrapping Disney photos! And it has the same color combo as Started by a Mouse, so the kits coordinate well. I used several elements from each kit for my layout: 


I was thrilled when Wild Blueberry Ink released Dad's Day Flair last week! I don't use real flair on my paper layouts often (they are so bulky!), but digital flair is fair game! Here I used My Dad flair and My Dad Arrows (digital wood words & shapes? Yes, please!). The digital template is from Simply Tiffany Studios:


Robin Meierotto released a fantastic set of boy-friendly papers last week called Fatherhood. I used several from her her collection on my layout below:


This one's from a couple of weeks ago using Karla's Peachy kit and a different Simply Tiffany Studios template (I love templates...):


The last layout I have uses Scotty Girl Designs' new Ship Shape kit:

Hey guys! I have a few more layouts to share today... two traditional layouts and one digital. I am having so much fun working with my photos again! And of course using some fun product, too. Who doesn't love chipboard banners and cute little letter stickers and Thickers?!? 

But up first is a digital layout using MyeDeLeon's new kit: Carefree. I used a lot of elements from her kit (paper, banners, frame, doily, butterfly sticker, journaling card, and "having fun" sticker). I also used one of her new Page Blenders for the beautiful white frame. 


Up next is a CAS photos + journaling + washi tape + letter stickers layout. Super simple:



Close up of the typed journaling: 


Awesome chipboard Thickers and cluster of elements on the top of the layout: 

Hey there! I hope everyone is having a good week. I have a layout to share today with one of the pictures my mom took before Mark's company's holiday party on Saturday. I fiddled with this layout in Photoshop for hours before deciding to rotating the whole thing on an angle. And I'm so happy with how it turned out! I think this is my first "angled" layout, and I will definitely do it again.

Good morning! Karla Dudley has a fantastic new kit available in her shop today named Jubilee. I used a few photos from the girls weekend I took in June to create my layout. And I have no idea why I was wearing a sweatshirt in the first picture... it was over 90 degrees in Orlando! The bottom picture was taken at the theater before our movie started. We saw Magic Mike and I got to drink a Long Island Iced Tea during the movie. :-)

Miss Karla has a beautiful new collection, Penelopi, available in her shop, and I had a chance to work with it tonight (and last night... I'm a slow scrapper!). Her collection is full of bright papers, colorful badges, stickers, washi tape (yay!), and digital brushes. 

Evan took this picture of Mark and me last summer and I had to use it on a layout:

We are officially in back-to-school mode here... getting up early, packing school lunches, soccer, birthday parties. Throw in a hurricane warning and our week has been a wee bit crazy! Today, especially, was go, go, go for us. Tomorrow we have another birthday party to attend, then swimming + treats with some friends. 

Even with all the running around I still find time to sneak into my studio to make a few cards or work on my Project Life album. I also made it a priority this summer to create a few traditional scrapbook layouts, something that I haven't done in a while. It felt great to create with photos again. I purchased a few products from Heidi Swapp's No Limits collection that I knew would be perfect for the boys. When I posted these pictures of Jack a few months ago, I immediately printed them so I could create a layout with them. Here is the result:


I think I'm going to frame it. And Heidi's new products were so much fun to work with! The banners, photo frames, papers... super cute & versatile. I also used a few My Mind' Eye products and Thickers for the title.




Jack started pre-school two weeks ago, and he is having the best time. Last Thursday was his first show-and-tell, and of course he had to bring Pup-Pup. Mark tucked Pup-Pup into Jack's backpack and Jack clutched to it all the way to school. Adorable. Beyond adorable.




I got both boys backpacks from Lands End last year, and they have held up really well. Jack isn't required to bring one to school, but of course he has to wear one because Evan does. And now Jack is requesting to eat lunch at school, like a lot of the other kids. When did he get so darn big? 

I also want to share a little good news... I was chosen as the Hero Arts Fresh Face for the first half of August. Mark was at work & the kids were at school when I found out, but I did my little happy dance in my office. Definitely made my day. Thanks Hero Arts! I can't wait to get my free stamps in the mail. :-)

Have a wonderful weekend!

Erin.

Jack and Nick played legos together and were so cute together... they have become good friends over the past few months. 

And this cutie is getting bigger by the minute! I love to snuggle him and make him laugh. He is a great baby and so easy to entertain. 

I love, love, love this photo. My little family... surrounded by palm trees and oh-so-happy. Well, most of us. Jack was not happy that I was making him pose for a photo. He wanted to play! 

Family + Dion. We are so happy he was able to join us for the 4th this year. And the kids were happy he brought his iPad. :-)


Liz made this amazing patriotic cake for us to enjoy. Isn't it fantastic? Her baking skills constantly impress me... I am jealous of her talent! And of course it was yummy, too.  

With only 4 weeks of summer vacation left we are trying to cram everything into these precious days before Evan goes back to school on the 8th. This week I'm hoping to take the boys to the park, the water area of our local zoo, and work on a couple of our Kiwi Crate boxes. And of course spend time with Rocket and Miss Lilly. The more pets we add the more I feel like I'm in the movie "We Bought a Zoo". :-)

Have a great week!

The kids and I have been holed up in the house the past couple of days as Tropical Storm Debbie causes damage across the state of Florida. We are not in the path of the storm, but we have still been subject to a lot of wind and rain, and an occasional power outage. Evan was particularly upset this afternoon when an outage interrupted his favorite show: Transformers Rescue Bots. It was the third time he's seen that episode today, so I was quietly relieved. 

While the kids ate their dinner I whipped together a photo Thank You card through Shutterfly... another freebie I stumbled across this afternoon through The Mom Creative. I love making handmade cards, but sometimes I need a generic Thank You note and don't have the time to sit in my office and whip one up, and these Shutterfly photo cards are perfect for those occasions. I included three of my favorite photos of the boys, dragged them onto card and ordered them. Easy peasy.




I am going to curl up on the couch and finish reading the very addicting 50 Shades of Grey series tonight. Goodnight!

* The letter "K" is sticky on my keyboard, so every "K" you see typed in this post is the result of me pounding furiously on my keyboard. I know, I know... first world problems!

* Jack is sick... again. I had a list of things I wanted to accomplish the past two weeks (cleaning, art project with the boys, organizing closets, etc.) but I haven't done a single thing on that list. So not how I wanted to start our summer vacation.

* I have two cards in the upcoming Stamp It! Cards Volume 6 magazine... out June 26th. I cannot wait to receive my issue so I can drool over all the amazing cards (and check out my cards as well!). This is my all time favorite publication and I know this issue is going to be spectacular! 

I also wanted to share a couple of pictures from Evan's award ceremony and his last day of Kindergarten. I am so proud of him and his accomplishments this year. He received the top score in his class on his final math exam, is reading well above the required level to graduate Kindergarten, and has made some good friends. I can't thank his teacher, Mrs. Lintner, enough for providing Evan the skills to be successful this year. She is confident, warm, inviting, and yet held the kids to a very high standard that they wanted to meet (and exceed). She is an wonderful teacher and I am so sad to be moving on from her classroom. All the teachers at Evan's school are amazing and I know we will get another fantastic teacher in August! But we will sure miss Mrs. Lintner. 



I am sitting on pins and needles waiting for another thunder and lightening storm to roll through. I am not used to the storms yet... they are nothing like storms in Washington! And Rocket makes them more fun by barking every time he hears thunder. Gotta love being a dog owner.

Mark and I are coming up on the 9 year anniversary of our first date: June 14th, 2003. I hadn't seen Mark in two or three years, and we had both grown up so much during that time. He took me to see the movie Finding Nemo followed by coffee at Starbucks. He had quite the Starbucks habit back then. :-)


The last nine years have been crazy... two cross country moves, a college education, two kids, and a lot of laughter (and a few tears, too), but it's been so much fun to do it all with Mark by my side. Love you, babe.