Win the Belle camera bag from PhatStraps. It's really cute! I would love to win this. It's the blue purse. It practically looks like a normal purse rather than an ugly camera bag.
Check out the contest.
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I have been really busy learning new Photoshop techniques and making digital scrapbook pages. The class I am currently taking is Digi in Deep from JessicaSprague.com. It is a lot of fun learning new ways to add detail to a scrapbook page. Below are a few of my recent pages.
 
I made a yellow cake with chocolate chip cookie dough filling and buttercream icing. The chocolate chip cookie dough filling is delicious.

FIRST MAKE EGGLESS COOKIE DOUGH: Cream the butter and brown sugar in a small bowl. Add water and vanilla and mix well. Add flour and salt and stir to combine.
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Stir in mini chocolate chips. Store in refrigerator until ready to use.
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THEN MAKE FROSTING:

(1) In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine 1-1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar, unsalted butter, salt, and vanilla, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula as necessary.

(2) Add milk and continue mixing until well combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula, as necessary. With the mixer running, slowly add remaining 1/2 cup confectioners sugar, mix until well combined.
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(3) Add eggless cookie dough to mixture
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Ta da! Yummy chocolate chip cookie dough filling!
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Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Icing/Filling Ingredients
  • FROSTING BASE:
    1-3/4 cups confectioners sugar
    1/2 cup unsalted butter, chilled
    1/8 teaspoon salt
    1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
    1 tablespoon milk
    Eggless cookie dough (recipe below) EGGLESS COOKIE DOUGH:
    1/4 cup butter, softened
    1/4 cup brown sugar, plus 2 tablespoons
    2 teaspoons water
    1/2 teaspoon vanilla
    1/2 cup flour
    1/4 teaspoon salt
    1/3 cup mini chocolate chips (optional)

Instructions
    MAKE EGGLESS COOKIE DOUGH:
  1. Cream the butter and brown sugar in a small bowl. Add water and vanilla and mix well. Add flour and salt and stir to combine. Stir in mini chocolate chips (optional). Store in refrigerator until ready to use.
  2. MAKE FROSTING:
  3. (1) In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine 1-1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar, unsalted butter, salt, and vanilla, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula as necessary.
  4. (2) Add milk and continue mixing until well combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula, as necessary. With the mixer running, slowly add remaining 1/2 cup confectioners sugar, mix until well combined.
  5. (3) Add eggless cookie dough to mixture
*recipe from Cake Central

I used the filling for the St. Patrick's Cake below, which is covered in fondant and fondant letters/decorations.
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I had a lot of fun this weekend... Watching some tutorials and learning new Photoshop techniques. The first layout is Cooper's daily schedule. He is such a sweet dog and is always licking everyone. I had the challenge of making a layout in less than 30 minutes. I almost made it but my Photoshop was being slow so it took closer to 40 minutes :( In the second layout, I learned many new techniques thanks to JessicaSprague.com, such as how to show color in one spot (the rose) and keep the rest of the picture in Sepia color. Check it out.
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Credits:
ArtWHSE_DogRubOns-2
SP_Promise_Flowers_Green_NOshadow
JGaylor_Valentine_Brushes
SP_Promise_Paper_Leaf
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Credits:
JSprague_StapledHeart
KPertiet_PaperRevealNo2_2
mfen_septemberafternoon_alpha
trishjones_crushbubbles_paper9
trishjones_distresseddiva_distressededge
trishjones_idea_paper8
JSprague_RoundedCorners
JGaylor_Valentine_Brushes
 
So I have been sick for the last week and haven't felt liking doing anything including blogging, baking, photographing, digital scrapbooking, etc. I am super excited about a basic photography class I'm going to take in April at Photographx and the tutorials I've been reading on Jessica Sprague thanks to a referral from my Sister-in-law. I'm also thinking of taking some online digital scrapbooking classes from Jessica Sprague including,
Now We're Rockin' With Photoshop - Class 2 or Digi: In Deep - Class 3. Hopefully, I'll have some digital layouts to post this week.
 
Check out this giveway for a
A BRAND NEW CANON 5D MARK II! OR A $2500 GIFT CERTIFICATE TO SOUTHWEST AIRLINES!!!
This would be awesome to win.

Also I got some new Photoshop Actions. So far I've tried the Golden Vintage look. There are a bunch of Photoshop Actions on the CoffeeShop blog and they are FREE. The tutorials are really helpful too! Check it out.
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Miley looking sweet and innocent!
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My hubby and me on New Years Eve.
 
So we should be finally getting our Wedding Album in a few weeks. We had our photographer design it with our/my input. I think it looks great from the proofs she sent me. I had her match the cover to our wedding invitations that I designed. So part of me wishes we would have saved the money and I designed it myself. So I am going to make albums from scratch with all the pre-wedding festivities and the honeymoon pictures. I am using Adobe InDesign as the program for the albums. I have already started the Honeymoon album. Here's a sneak peek:
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This was our resort..the outside and inside. The room was contemporary and very nice looking. Our view was awesome. We could look straight out into the ocean from our balcony.