Back to School - Rheagan and Reese

My dear friend, Heather, recently asked if I would be interested in doing a back-to-school shoot with her two daughters.  Those of you who know Heather - know that she is immensely talented and creative.  I am in complete awe of her skill with all things scrapbook and paper related.  (If you don't know Heather, trust me, you have to check out her BLOG.  Seriously, do it!)  So, of course, I jumped at the chance.  I knew that a photo shoot with any member of her family was sure to be fun.  And I was not disappointed!  Heather's girls showed up with bright colorful outfits, lots of sweet smiles, and a little bit of sass!  

We started by setting a scene with a school desk piled high with the girls' favorite books...

...and included a few fun props like bright pink glasses.  Little Reese looks both smart AND stylish!  

Big sister Rheagan is a girl after my own heart...

Why, you ask?  Well, not only did she have a super cool book selection, but check out her feet.  That's right, her shoes are OFF!  She was determined to enjoy the freedom of summer and no shoes until the very last second!  I can definitely identify with that!  

She also scored an "A+" using the pink glasses as a fashion accessory.

We made sure we took photos of the girls together.  (Don't you adore their coordinating outfits?!)

And, of course, we took lots of individual photos, too...

Heather wanted an extended photo session with the girls, so we did an outfit change and then it was off to the park...but that is a story for another day...

Don't worry!  I will be back soon with Part 2.

To be continued...

(I am now booking Fall and Christmas sessions, and I am still doing Senior sessions.  For more info, please feel free to check out my website - www.kcmckeephotography.com.  Or you can contact me directly by email at kristinclarkmckee@gmail.com.)

GIVING BACK SOME LOVE

This morning I wanted to quickly share a layout I worked on, off and on (well, more off than on) over the weekend.  I used Elle's Studio Love You More Collection that I got during a recent fantastic sale at the My Scraps and More Online STORE.  I also used a gold doily and a heart punch to make my gold hearts that are scattered across my layout.  Now, I gotta tell you, I am new to the Elle's Studio party.  My interest was piqued when I saw my friend HEATHER playing with this very line at our last ever Archiver's crop (still crying over the loss of that store).  But, in playing with these papers and all the coordinating journaling cards and strips that I can fussy cut to my heart's content and then use however I want - well, call me a fish because I am hooked!  This Elle's Studio collection is some awfully sweet bait, though!!!

Can you tell I had a lot of fun layering?  Repeat after me: layers are our friends...

Now, you are probably saying, "Yes yes your layout is pretty but who won the sweet Pretty Little Studio gift certificate?"  Using my fabulous random method of asking my youngest daughter to pick a number between 1-18, THE WINNER OF THE GIFT CERTIFICATE IS SUE DOWNEY!  Sue, I will order your gift certificate today and email the code to you once I receive it!

Thank you to everyone who played along and who left some love and kind words, not only for me but for others!  Words of kindness leave such an incredibly large impact on our lives.  Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

I hope you have a happy crafty week ahead of you.  And if YOU have created something you would like for ME to see and comment on, leave a link in the comment section.  I would love to leave YOU some love, too!!!

My First CHA - A Recap

I am usually NOT a lucky person.  I never win raffles; I don't even win at Bingo.  So imagine my surprise when the incredibly talented TINA WALKER invited me to attend CHA Winter 2014 in sunny Anaheim, California.  I am a h-u-g-e fan of Tina's.  Not only does she make all sorts of lovely things as a design team member for MY MIND'S EYE, but she is an incredibly talented mixed-media artist and the owner of FROG DOG STUDIO, a monthly mixed-media kit club.  Tina and I have been "facebook friends" for quite a while, and I jumped at the chance to meet her in person!

For the two or three of you who read my blog and are NOT into scrapbooking or crafting, CHA is a huge trade show that happens twice a year.  The newest lines and the next big thing in the crafting industry are made available to buyers so that they can determine what products they want to stock in their stores or provide in their kits.  And in addition to the new products on display for you to touch and drool on admire, all the big names in the industry are there!  The icing on the cake?  Quite a few of my crafty friends were going to be there, too.  To say I was like a kid in a candy store was an understatement!  There are not enough thumbs-up or like buttons in the world to convey just how excited I was - seriously.

Of course I INSTAGRAMMED all about it!  And, just in case you missed the flood of pics on Instagram or Facebook, I am sharing a few of my faves here. 

I am pretty sure I took a picture of every single piece of paper and ephemera pack that was being displayed by every single manufacturer.  I won't make you sit through all of them - pretty sure Blogger would ban me for life if I tried to upload all of my paper pics here!  But I will share one of the crate wall at HEIDI SONBOUL'S booth - simply because I have so much fun saying the name of her new company.  Chickaniddy.  chick-a-niddy.  chickaniddychickaniddychickaniddy.  Yep, it makes me smile saying it.  And all those fun crates made me smile, too.

So...what made my very first CHA so incredibly special to me?  These people (and a fun lil' adventure or two):

I flew in from H-town with my wonderfully talented friend, HEATHER LEOPARD.  Before we even got to our hotel, we had to make a stop here:

Say what you will, but I am a huge luvah of the double-double with a chocolate shake!

I spent a lot of time hanging out with these two wonderful ladies - Tina and Melissa - who renewed my love of all things mixed media:

So many light bulbs went off as they answered my mixed media questions that I am positive you could see my head lit up from outer space!

I loved hanging out with the friends I knew and making new ones, too:

And it was super cool to meet my Facebook friends "in real life" like the CHIC TAG girls Malika Kelly and Jennifer Haggerty:

Yep, that would be me with my eyes closed.  Maybe I was trying to show everyone my expert application of eyeshadow?????

Heidi Swapp taught Melissa and me how to expertly apply mist on a stencil:

She even graciously signed my work and posed for a picture with me...

...as did my idol (because she designs many of the MY MINDS EYE papers that I hoard as well as does all sorts of cool home design/decorating projects) JEN ALLYSON (nicest.person.ever.)

See that dazed look in my eyes?  Pretty sure my brain had just finished short-circuiting...

And...most totally adorable picture?  The one of me with Baby Jack...

...oh, and his mom, Amy Tangerine.

And, of course, you haven't fully experienced CHA until you've had your picture taken with Tim Holtz...

...who, as it turns out, is just as fond of the cheesy grin as I am - ha!!!

And...there were purple cows...

And Disneyland with my besties...

...where we rode rides, and talked, and laughed until our sides hurt...

Until next time...I'll be back.

Dancing in the Street (Happy Family Together)

I want to share this fun little layout that I completed this past weekend at a crop I was at with the amazingly talented HEATHER LEOPARD.  She inspired me to play along with Lily Bee's "Tag You're It" Series that began with a fabulous sketch (also created by Heather), which can be found HERE!  The "Tag, You're It" week may be over, but the sketch looked like so much fun, I had to give it a try!

I know everyone is focused on Christmas right now, but these two pics of my youngest child and my oldest child (aka, the Hubster) were so adorable I could not wait to scrap them.  Seriously?  How often do you get to scrap people you know dancing down the sidewalk - and in perfect sync no less?  Right?!!  Besides, LILY BEE'S Motto is "Everyday Loveliness" and that is EXACTLY what this is - everyday loveliness!

I love the We R Family Collection; however, my local scrapbook store was out of almost everything I wanted to use.  But - I am a lemonade out of lemons kind of girl, so I reached into my stash and pulled out my papers from the Pinwheel Collection, which just happened to coordinate beautifully with the We R Family double deck cards.  See?

To give my layout a little extra dimension, I added pop dots behind these 3x4 cards.  I also made a journaling pocket out of the first card and stuck a little tag made with paper from the Pinwheel Collection into it.  I love it when different collections play so well together, don't you?

I think this will be my motto for 2014 - Happy Family Together.

Seriously, I was able to fussy cut to my little heart's content with the 3x4 cards and papers...

I loved making this layout and hope I have inspired you - inspired you to use bright colors, to mix your patterns and collections, to take pictures of the silliness and everyday moments, to make lemonade from lemons, and most of all to enjoy your happy family together.  

Merry Christmas Eve, y'all!