XOXO Scraplift Challenge

I've been wanting to participate in the XOXO monthly challenge for awhile, but just haven't found the time. I found the time this month and was able to scrap a very special photo at the same time.
I used Katherine Blue's page as the inspiration:

This is my scraplift:



I tend to be leaning towards very simple layouts lately. But, this just makes the picture take center stage, which is what is most important.
Now it's your turn. Play along with the lipstick chicks at XOXO and you could win a fabulous prize from Candy Shopped Designs!

LUBD does St. Patrick's Day!

My friends Sara and Jayson always throw a raging St. Patrick's day party. Actually, it's usually pretty laid back and mellow. This year they asked Level Up Beat Down to play the party. They set up in the small space in the living room and seemed to enjoy the change of venue. They had learned some Irish songs especially for the occasion and impressed everyone with their mad music skills! They were asked to play their first encore and they gained a couple of fans! It was their first time playing in the East Bay and this made it possible for my parents to make it to a show! All-in-all, it was a good, fun show. I hope to hear the Irish songs again. Please don't take them off your playlist!

NVS Challenge!!

I am so in love with this month's challenge!! First it is extremely blue. I loooove blue. It also had lots of hearts and a cute, ruffly dress. I'm usually not girly, but I loved the girliness of this collage. What wasn't to like about it??

Since blue and black are really happy colors for me, I decided to use pictures from my birthday. My husband bought me an instax camera for Christmas. If you haven't seen one of these, it is AWESOME! It's like Polaroid, only the pictures are smaller. It's completely different than my usual digital camera, where I can take 500 pictures and not worry about deleting them later. You have 10 pictures on a roll of film and that is that. Take a picture you don't like? Sorry, it's yours forever. I love the thought process that is involved with this camera. You don't see that in any of these pictures, though! It was my birthday and I didn't take one instax photo all day!
All right, enough about my new camera. You came here for the scrap page! I used a lot of elements from the collage. I started with the wonderful color palette, grabbing a beautiful black background and some sparkly blue cardstock. I actually used the slice to cut our a title from the blue cardstock, but didn't like it and ended up using the sparkly, black cardstock letters over the blue paper. I, of course used the hearts, the film strip, butterflies, the small pictures and the ruffles on the blue dress as inspiration for my ribbon.

I had a great time pleating the ribbon and stapling it in place. After doing that, I glued it to the page. I thought the page was pretty with just the black background and the ribbon.


you've seen what I've done. Now it's time for you to show your stuff! Create something wonderful...doesn't have to be a scrapbook page...using the collage as your inspiration. Then post it at Nerdy*Victorious*Scrapbookers. You'll have a chance to win an awesome, scrappy prize. Also, we're looking for guest designers. If you'd like to be one, mention it in your post!

LUBD at the Phoenix

I'm not sure how these things happen, but they do, and quite often. The guys were booked at the Phoenix with a bunch of hardcore, death metal bands. I was pretty impressed with the chick dummer of the band that played after Level Up Beat Down, but was only able to watch one song. The guys did a pretty good job of clearing the room. Their mellowness just couldn't be handled by the supporters of the other bands. And, Lady Gaga only helped to allienate the audidence even further.
The lighting at the Phoenix is pretty good compared to many other places. I was able to boost up the ISO and get some good photos without flash. I just love the ones without flash.

LUBD at Unity Music in Santa Rosa

This was a some show. There were MANY bands playing and while one was playing on stage, the other set up on the floor. This continued throughout the night. I only watched Level Up Beat Down because the other bands were a little more harder than my liking. I did, however, meet a mother whose son goes to Novato High. What a small world! It was a fun show. The guys seemed to enjoy themselves. And, the teeny bopper girls came running in when they played Lady Gaga. They at least gained one fan from the show, which is what it's all about, right?




I loved the big sun rug behind the stage. It made for some great shots.