Hello my lovelies!! Thanks for stopping by! you must have heard about all the super fun party activities over at CatScrap! They are turning 4 and we are having a celebration!!! I have a little quickpage for you today and I so hope you like it!! I don’t have a fancy schmancy preview or anything so I am sorry!! Here’s what you are getting though!

For some reason I couldn’t get box.net to work right today so I had to go a different route! Let me know here in the comments if you have any troubles at all!! You can click on the image or HERE to download.

I hope you like!!! Now make sure you head over to Suzanne’s super fabulous blog to pick up her freebie!!

For more than 90 days, oil gushed into the Gulf of Mexico before the leak was finally “capped” in late July. It is estimated that approximately 4.9 million barrels (or 205.8 million gallons) of oil spilled into the waters. It has been one of the biggest environmental disasters in decades. Hundreds of miles of beaches, wetlands, and estuaries along the northern Gulf Coast have been impacted. The spill, though temporarily “capped”, continues to cause extensive damage to marine and wildlife habitats as well as the Gulf’s fishing and tourism industries. Families are without work and marine and land animals continue to suffer. And there are still many unknowns about the long term effects of the oil and of chemical disbursements used in attempts to curtail the flow and impact upon the regional coastline and waters.

Forty-five designers across the digital scrapbooking community have united with one shared cause: to raise awareness and to support recovery efforts for the environment and those impacted by this tragic disaster.

Participating designers include: Aja Abney, Amy Martin, Biograffiti, Boutique Cute Dolls, Createwings Designs, Deena Rutter, Designs by Cindy Schneider, Designs by Crystal Livesay, Dido Designs, Dunia Designs, Emily Merritt Designs, Fiddle Dee Dee Designs, Fizzy Pop Designs, FruitLoOp Sally Designs, Laurie Ann (Heaven’s Gate Designs), Holliewood Studios, Holly Designs, Holly Spring Designs, Jazzmin Designs, Jennifer Barrette Designs, Jacque Larsen, Juliana Kneipp Designs, Kay Miller Designs, Kaye Winiecki, Kitty Designs, Kristin Aagard Designs, Lauren Grier, Leora Sanford, Loreta Labarca, Micheline Martin, Nikki Beaudreau, Paislee Press, One Little Bird Designs, Sabrina Dupre, Sahlin Studio, Sarah Cornish of My 4 Hens Photography, Shabby Miss Jenn, Studio Basic Designs, Sugarplum Paperie, Tickled Pink Studios, Tiny Toes Designs, Tracie Stroud, Vera Lim, Vinnie Pearce, and zinnias and swallowtails.

Hands Across the Gulf is our heartsong for this cause. This gorgeous kit representing the varied styles of the scrapping community, is positively overflowing with beautiful papers, unique elements, templates and Photoshop actions. All told, designers have contributed more than 100 papers and 200 elements, 2 full alphas, 18 templates, and 4 PS actions to Hands Across the Gulf.

Available for sale for one month only, 100% of the sales from this kit will be donated to the National Wildlife Federation and to the United Way’s Gulf Recovery Fund.

Hands Across the Gulf arrives Sunday 15 August 2010 at After Five Designs.

If you are just joining us that’s ok too! You can find day one HERE and a bit about the rules and guidelines. The only thing that has changed is that you do not have to use all the templates along with the prompts in order to be eligible for the grand prize. That was originally our intention and along the road we both realized that that just might not work for everyone and we didn’t want to stifle people’s creativity too much. It’s hard to scrap when it’s forced let alone with you already have a forced page design. So we opened up and anyone who participates and does all the prompts will be entered into the drawing. You can find a bit more about this change on Sara’s day 17 post.

Let’s go ahead and take a look at the very last prompt.

Today we are going to look back at where we have come since we started this project. Remember the word that you chose at the beginning? Does it still seem to fit or are you thinking you should choose a new one? Maybe throughout this process you struggled a bit and had a hard time with the prompts? That’s ok! Talk about that a bit and maybe what needs to happen for things to change in your relationship.

Here is the page I came up with.

I really just wanted to get the journaling out so I didn’t worry about trying to find a photo or anything. For me doing this project had it’s ups and downs. I confess that I struggled at keeping up some of the time but I am glad I did it. It helped me to reflect a lot on my own actions and the way I relate to my husband and some things that I could be doing better. It also showed me some of the great things about my hubby that I don’t always recognize or acknowledge. Even if you didn’t get tons out of what we did here I do hope you enjoyed it and made some pages that you love. A lot of these stories are ones that your children and/or grandchildren might appreciate hearing one day.

I really think that’s about it for now! Remember you have about 10 days to get your pages done. Be sure to link them up to the appropriate posts on my blog and Sara’s blog so we can see your beautiful work and enter you into winning some GC’s and the photobook from Shutterfly! I am so grateful that you guys who are participating allowed us to help you tell your stories! <3

Hey Everyone! Have you heard the news?! There’s a new and totally fabulous and exciting shop and you can find it at 9th and Bloom! It’s got the most amazing line up of designers and I am so honored to be able to be on the Creative Team. I really really hope you will come by the forum and say hi and maybe take part in the fun challenges we have going on. Make sure you post all your pages you do with the goodies you bought in our gallery! We would love to see your work!

Anywho, we have put together a fun little blog freebie hop of quickpages for you with the amazing store collab. Here’s mine!

You can click on the preview or —>HERE<— to download!

Here is my page (which was for the August: Inspired Impressions challenge!)

Thank you so very much for stopping by! You can snag the next freebie over on Olga’s blog!

I hope that you all are understanding with us as things change a bit (like the prize eligibility). This was our first time doing something like this and there is a lot of trial and error. We have other projects in mind so hopefully eventually things will be running perfectly smooth!

So onto today’s prompt:

Today’s is definitely a heavy one, so please don’t feel like you have to let the world into your journaling. I personally am not always comfortable with that so no judgement here at all. I really want you to dig down though. We all have fears, anxieties, stresses…etc..that we aren’t always comfortable airing to our spouses. For me, I just hate to feel incredibly vulnerable. What if I tell him how I feel and he thinks I am silly? What if he gets mad?? The ultimate thing for me is upsetting him or ending up fighting and saying hurtful things. In general I keep pretty quiet and keep most things to myself not because I can’t trust my husband but because I am not always sure I can trust myself. I have a huge sassy side so I know that sometimes if something comes to an argument I might say something I will regret. So unfortunately a lot of things just sit there inside me. a lot of my fears don’t get out or relieved. I am working on it thought so this prompt was very cathartic for me.

Here’s the page I came up with:

I wanted to go for a journal type feel for my page. As you can see I used a font that is hard to read at this size and made it quite small. Feel free to do that or to blur it or whatever you are comfortable with. This prompt is all about just airing things out and letting your feelings out. If you are up for it try talking to your spouse about whatever you are journaling about. It might be hard but it really will be worth it. The thoughts I journaled here are things I did bring up to my husband and it’s very relieving, although definitely a bit stressful to put yourself out there. Just remember to do what feels right with you!

I think that’s it for now! Make sure you go to Sara’s blog for tomorrow’s post! then I will finish you up right here on Friday! <3