Birthday Party Scrapbook Page

Here's the super cute scrapbook page I created from the photos I took at Addisyn and McKenna's Cupcakes and Tea Birthday Party today.

I used lots of cool S4O stuff on this one. The background paper is from the Love Takes Flight kit by Chris Greiser. The small papers, the flower bling, and the staples are from the Pretty, Scrappy, Girly kit by jscrapbug. The title alpha is Shameless re-colored to match the papers by Rachel Sams of Steel City Scraps. The font is Amanda's Hand by Fonts for Peas.

Most of my birthday party packages include a scrapbook page. Contact me to book your party today.

Laugh

Laugh. That's my favorite thing to do. No matter what's going on in my life when I laugh I forget about all the stresses and get lost in that moment of happiness. Today when I was at the tea party...I laughed. A lot. And I smiled. A lot. And I found this photo in the boutique that made me happy.

Don't forget to laugh today. I hear it's good for your health.

Tea Party Birthday

Addisyn and McKenna's tea party birthday was today and I was lucky enough to get to take photos for her. We had a fabulous time playing dress up and drinking tea. The party was at Let's Pretend in Grapevine and if you have little girls, I definitely recommend an afternoon there. We went on Friday morning when they opened and we had the tea room to ourselves for almost 2 hours before anyone else came in. They have Cupcakes and Tea for $8.95 per child, and that includes getting dressed up and makeup on Tuesday-Friday.

We will start with my favorite part...the cake! Aren't these cupcakes gorgeous?

Addisyn tries on a tiara.

Then she picks out a magic wand.

She's telling us that she is three-years-old. (That's her awesome mommy behind her.)

I like this shot with the mirror, the pink tea and the painted fingernails. Everything in this place was pink and purple. It was so girly and so cute. The girls had a blast!

McKenna pours a little milk in her tea. The adults did not have tea so we don't know what they put in those cups but it was so cool when they poured in the white milk in...it turned PINK!

McKenna watches as Addisyn stirs sugar into her tea.

Here are the smiling silly girls with their princess dresses and feather boas. Seriiously this place has ALL the dress-up items. Lots of different dresses, hats, tiaras, gloves, feather boas, purses, butterfly wings. shoes, magic wands and jewelry.

After playing dress-up we went to Chick-fil-a for some lunch and I just couldn't not take this cute photo when McKenna was feeding her mommy ice cream.

I had a great time hanging out with Addisyn and McKenna for their third birthday celebration. If you are interested in having me come hang out with you to take pictures on your birthday, contact me, I'd love to come to your party too!

Vacation Photos

I had some time today to look through my vacation photos for some to share with you.

We left from Puerto Rico just after sunset and this is what it looked like as out ship pulled out to see. The other boat in port was a Carnival Ship. We were on the Adventure of the Seas, a Royal Caribbean Ship.

Our first stop was in Aruba where we went snorkeling.

I loved all the bright colors of the fins on the boat.

Next stop Curacao where we saw this adorable little surfer girl...

...and the famous pastel houses on the waterfront.

Finally, our last night on the ship was leaving St Thomas and this is what we saw as we were pulling out of the port.

It was a great vacation with lots of fun pictures to take...maybe next time I'll take an SLR :)

Another Recipe Card

Here's the last recipe card from last Sunday's Fourth of July Picnic themed Supper club. If you are collecting them all then you have the entire meal now.

buy the Broccoli Salad Recipe Card here.

I hope you are enjoying the recipe cards. The first set was downloaded quite a few times. I don't know how long I'm going to leave the cards up for free so get them while you can!

*I've now changed the links so that the cards are free for a week or so then they go into the store for $1.

The Happy Couple

I've shared with you rehearsal photos, pictures of the bride getting ready, the ceremony, the reception and some wedding details so I guess all that is left is to show you the pretty portraits I took between the wedding and reception.

The botanic garden was very nice and there was lots of open shade and soft light to photograph in. Here they are.

This was a candid moment while the couple was waiting for some of their family members to get ready for a family portrait. I like how they just fit together, her head on his shoulder like it was meant to be there.

This is another candid I caught while another photographer was taking a photo. I like their smiles in this one.

Some alone time.

This was an idea I got from a book that I've been waiting to use and Christian had the perfect dress for it to work.

A sweet kiss.

Finally, I love the dip picture. It's fun and romantic.

Lovely Laurie's Senior Portraits

I spent the morning with Laurie and her mom in Granbury taking her senior portraits. We had a wonderful time and I think Laurie is quite happy with the photos we took. We went to places that were special to her to help give her pictures some meaning.

We started our day down my the lake where the grass was green. Doesn't her pink shirt look fabulous against the green background?

There was a hammock down by the lake so we took this casual relaxed photo.

She loves her hometown and she did some outstanding scouting of locations yesterday and knew exactly where to go to get the courthouse tower over her shoulder with trees around her.

Next we went to her church and took some photos by the columns. I love this one in black and white.

The last place we went was to the softball field at her school. She is the catcher for her team and she brought lots of good props for the photos. We had a jersey, a letter jacket, softballs, a glove, a batting helmet, a catchers mask and even shin guards. We used them in lots of the photos but I like these two myself. The first is simple with just a ball and her jersey.

The second has Laurie in her letter jacket and I made it partial color to show off her school colors of purple and gold.

Finally, this may be my favorite photo of the day. Laurie is really involved in her church and while we were shooting at the church it started to rain so we went up in the youth room which has these awesome paintings on the walls. I love how the lightning coming from the fingertips leads you right to Laurie.

We had a great time today. If you are interested in booking a senior portrait session contact me to set up a time.

Wedding Rings

Of course I always take photos of the rings at a wedding but this weekend I shot several different set-ups of the rings and I can't decide which one I like best.

Leave me a comment and tell me which on is your favorite.

I'm a winner!

I'm so excited. As you know I like to scrapbook, and last week I was surfing the net and came across LBCreations blog and she was having a contest to win a set of CU textures for digital scrapbooking. All I had to do was comment on her blog post and she chose 5 winners to receive this cool prize.

If you don't know how texture overlays work it is simple. You open the photo you want to put the texture on then you copy and paste the texture jpg into a new layer then you change the blending mode to overlay and voila you have a photo that looks like canvas or cardstock or whatever texture you used. Then you can flatten the image and use it in a scrapbook page or just print it out. I like to use the textures to create backgrounds that are not just solid colors. To do that I open a new file that is 12x12 inches and use the paint bucket to make it the color I want. Then I just open the texture file, paste it in a new layer, change the blending mode to overlay, and I have cool textured paper. I can;t wait ot try out my new texture overlays. If you want to get your own set here's a link to Babette's store.

More Recipe Cards

Here are a few more recipe cards from our Fourth of July picnic Supper Club. Diana made the oven fried chicken and it was very good. There was just enough spice to give it a good flavor. To make it less spicy you could use plain breadcrumbs instead of the ones called for in the recipe. Brandon made the corn on the cob and said he got the cotija cheese at Whole Foods in the specialty cheese section.

buy the Spicy Oven Fried Chicken recipe here

buy the Grilled Corn on the Cob with Garlic Butter and Cheese recipe here

Supper Club Recipe Cards

Last night was a wonderful supper club. The theme was Fourth of July Picnic and my assignment was to bring drinks. Since I was busy shooting the wedding over the weekend and I had to drive 6 hours back to the metroplex sunday I needed to make something easy. Here is my recipe card for Cherry Lemonade. Again, the cards are sized 4x6 inches so you can download them and print them out to fit in a standard recipe box.

buy the Cherry Lemonade Card here

My wonderful friend Mercedes was in charge of dessert and she made a Pear Streusel Cake. Yummy. She said you could use apples instead of pears if you like.

buy the Pear Streusel Cake recipe card here

I'm working on the recipe cards for the rest of the dishes and I will post them as soon I get finished. I believe you will see recipes for Spicy Oven Fried Chicken, Grilled Corn and a fantastic Broccoli Salad. I hope you are enjoying the cards. Leave me a comment and let me know.

Something old...

I love the little details at a wedding and my most recent bride had some fantastic details for me to photograph. Here's a little sample. Each one has it's own special meaning and I think having photos like this from you wedding day makes your finished album tell a perfect story.

Something old.

Something new.

Something borrowed

Something blue.

These photos help tell the story of the wedding. Something old: I love that she brought the note with her to the wedding so I could photograph the rings with the words. Something new: not only her wedding dress but the going away dress her grandmother made for her. Something borrowed: a ring hidden in her bouquet. Something blue: you've already seen her wearing the funky blue shoes but I love the moment of this photo while she's waiting to get dressed when one of her bridesmaids comes to tell her that the groom has arrived at the wedding site. It's one of my favorite photos from the whole day.

Brady's Beautiful Bride

Here are some photos of Christian before and during the wedding. I spent the whole day with her and really got the opportunity to make some nice images. It was fun and I really got the chance to know her and her bridesmaids. Christian was such a calm easygoing bride she made taking photos at her wedding truly a pleasure.

Christian smiles at her friends right after her hair was finished.

Sharing a nice moment while putting on make-up with one of her bridesmaids.

Laughing as she gets some help adjusting her dress.

I'm always looking for this photo and I rarely see it. Most brides carry their own dress so I don't see people helping with the train very often. As a bonus to me, right after the ceremony the bridesmaids took off their shoes and were barefoot when they grabbed her train to move to the grass to take some photos. I love the bare feet. It's fun.

A nice emotional shot from the first dance.

My favorite photo of Christian from the day. Her shoes are awesome and she is just amazing!

Christian and Brady's wedding

Christian and Brady's wedding was last night and here are a few photos from the ceremony. It was a beautiful wedding and a fun reception. Oh, and the cake...fantastic!

This is here dad walking her in from the same place I photographed during the rehearsal in the morning. They aren't dancing this time but I think the shadows are really cool.

Christian smiles and laughs as she starts to put the ring on Brady's finger.

I loved this moment where they both reached out to their parents as they walked back up the aisle after being married.

Finally, they share a kiss as soon as they walk around the corner after the ceremony.

More photos to come...