November Pep Rally

Hi and welcome to the November Clique Kits Pep Rally! You should be coming here from Caroli's blog.

With this month's kit, I made 4 layouts. Three of those four were about our new love, Chipper. We adopted him in September, and the whole Deutsch family is head over heels in love. As I wrote in the journaling, it's not like we were very serious before, but with Chipper in our lives, there is a lot more giggling in our home. It is not a sound one generally associates with teenage boys, but we get to hear it.

And, in case you missed some of the other Chipper layouts.

I even have one that I made with the October kit, too. This one is about the day we took him home.

I should probably remember to scrapbook about my children at some point.

For the record, if you have a child who is a senior in high school, and you are feeling sad about his impending departure from your home, a dog is a great surrogate for all your love and affection, and a wonderful distraction from your pain. 

Thanks for stopping by! Next stop on the blog hop is Janet Zeppa's blog.

Here is the whole line up for today's hop:

Clique Kits

Gia

Erica

Kim

Justyna

Kim Allen

Candace

Donna

Marcia

Caroli

Aliza

Janet

Leeann

Melissa

Charity

Hannah 

Leigh

Evie

Emma

Tarrah

Wendy

Sandy

Megan

Write.Click.Scrapbook November Gallery

Hungry Anyone?

That is the theme for this month's gallery at Write.Click.Scrapbook. I love using the gallery themes to get layouts done. I had some photos from this summer's road trip that I wanted to scrap. Nothing terribly exciting, but photos that captured a little moment about how we prepared for Shabbat (the Sabbath) while spending the weekend in South Carolina.

Traveling while keeping kosher and observing the Sabbath require a bit of planning. Dave mapped out which cities on our route had Kosher meat available, and we made sure to stop there. Sometimes there were several hours of driving before we had access to some hot food. Often our meals consisted of yogurt, cereal, and crackers, Just writing about it makes me hungry.

Anyway, I turned the above two photos into this layout. It was enough for me here simply to record where we got out food. A small detail that I want to remember.

Thanks for stopping by!

October Pep Rally

Welcome everyone to the Clique Kits October Pep Rally! You should be coming from 's Maryam's blog.

My layout today is kind of a continuation of this layout which I shared at the beginning of the month. In that one I wrote of my dream to live on or near the beach one day. If this would ever really happen, it would not be for a few decades. But a girl can dream.

As much as I love the ocean, there are other places I'd like to be as well. Being surrounded by green forests are pretty good for the soul too. 

Now, all I have to do is get super rich so I can afford to retire to many different locales.

I'll get right on that.

You can now scoot off to Megan 's blog.

Here is the full lineup:

Clique Kits

Gia

Erica

Lee Ann

Maryam

Aliza (That's me!)

Megan

Emma

Melissa 

Kim

Leigh 

Renee

Kat

Sandy

Tyra

Marcia

Kim

Candace

Rhonda

Hannah

Evi

Janet

Melissa

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the hop!

New Clique Kits Team

Hi! And welcome to the Clique Kits blog hop featuring the new  team for the new year! If you're going in order, you have come from the blog of the fabulous Amanda O'banion.

This layout tells about just one part of me. It's a part that comes up in a lot of my scrapbooking. I live in New York City, which is fabulous, and a great place to raise kids. But there is a part of me that always craves a bit more of nature and the outdoors. Sometimes I don't notice it until I am out of the city, and I realize how good it feels deep in my soul. While traveling in South Carolina this summer, I fell in love with its coast, and by the end of our two week road trip, I was talking about retiring there. It's partly a joke. Who knows where I'll be in a quarter of a century (give or take). But the part about really, really loving it there is true.

I often work slowly on my scrapbook pages, so that I am careful to leave space for my words. But the photos were really important to me on this page, and I had so much fun adding the embellishments from the kit, that I soon realized that I would need more space than a mere 12x12 inches. Rather than create a two pager, I made a 1 1/3 page, using a Project Life divided page protector. This is something I would like to experiment with more.

What would you like to try more of in your scrapbooking?

Next stop is Maryam's blog. Enjoy!

Here is the full blog hop line up:

Elisabetta
Carolina
Donna
Justyna
Melissa 
Kat
Marcia
Candace
Kim
Leigh Ann
Sandy
Amanda
Aliza (That's me!)
Maryam
Lee Ann
Sandra

Thanks for stopping by!

Clique Kits September Pep Rally

Hi, and welcome to the September Clique Kits pep rally! You should be coming from Sandy's blog.

A while back I made this layout, and I blogged about it here.

Since that day I have managed to take two (count 'em, two!) whole dance classes. Which is not that many, but it is a start. When I went through my bag after my first class, I forgot that I had my dance shoes in there. And it made me happy to see them. So, I snapped myself a little photo, and turned it into this:

I thought I would throw a few lines of journaling in there somewhere. I suppose a better scrapbooker would have planned out exactly where before hand, because I could not figure out where said journaling should go, and once I started typing my journaling, it turned out I had way too many words. So, I decided to go for a two (count 'em, two!) pager. Which meant I was really free to write as much as I wanted. 

I think you will all love the October kit coming up, but this September one sure was something special! I still have a lot left, so I have a feeling I will keep using it for a little while longer.

Your next stop in the blog hop Caroli's blog.

And if you need it, here is the full lineup:

Clique Kits

Gia

Erica 

Sarah

Sandy

Aliza (That's me!)

Caroli

Cassandra

Kat
Tyra
Marcia
Evi
Hannah
Charity
Emma
Kim

Enjoy!

Clique Kits August Pep Rally

Hello, and welcome to Clique Kits August pep rally! 

You should be coming from Donna's blog. This month is my favorite kind of challenge- anything goes. It's nice and easy for the summer time. 

While summer is sadly coming to an end, this layout is about the very beginning of summer when Sam began his first job. That first day of work sure tuckered him out. But he went back everyday, and he is already talking about it again for next summer. As a parent, I am proud of him choosing to work this summer.  In the long list of things to teach your kids before they leave you, I feel like I can look at "work ethic," and know that he is on his way. 

I used the main kit and some paper add one for this simple layout, and I used my silhouette for the title. I loved this kit, and now I am looking forward to the next one!

Next stop is Kim's blog! Have fun!

Here is the full line up:

Clique Kits

Gia

Erica

Sophie

Sandy

Megan

Emma

Mariah

Cassandra

Donna

Aliza (That's Me!)

Kim

Tyra

Karrie

Evi

Hannah

Write.Click.Scrapbook. Time

Yes, everyone. It's the moment you have been waiting for. The moment that I reveal my latest layout for Write.Click.Scrapbook's July gallery!

The theme this month is "seven," since we are heading into the seventh month of the year. So, I decided to use seven photos. I used a similar strategy as I did in my most recent post, which included 6 photos. I arranged them in a grid. Printed them all out, and then treated it all like one big photo. Super fast and easy.

Thanks for stopping by!

Clique Kits Pep Rally!

Hello and Welcome to Clique Kits' June Pep Rally! You should be coming here from Kim's blog. The challenge this month is to use at least three photos on your layout. I am a good rule follower, so I did just that. In fact, I included 6. To make life easier for myself, I arranged my 6 photos in a grid, using photoshop elements, and I printed out the whole grid. In that way, even though I incuded 6 photos, I was able to treat all those photos as 1 large element. 

See what I mean?

                          

This is the only travel themed layout I have made with the June kit, despite the kits' many themed items. I love the embellishments on this layout, and they support my story perfectly.

And, here is a little design tip that I once learned (and it was kind of eye opening for me). When I arranged my photos for printing, I made sure that the people were facing inwards, so that they would not lead  the eye off the page. Who knew?

So, onward to the rest of the blog share with you! Nest stop is Sandy.

And here is the full line up:

Clique Kits

Lacey

Annelie

Tyra 

Brenda

Kim 

Aliza

Sandy

Donna

Sarah

Marcia

Mariah

Megan

Charity

June Challenge at Clique Kits

Hello! Clique Kits' June challenge is now live. It's anything goes, so any project will do. You can link up here until June 30th.

I am super excited for my project here, because I got to use the cute little deer that came in the kit. I know that deer, along with pineapples and flamingos, have been trendy for some time. But I can be a little slow about things like that. However, here it fit perfectly, because I have photos of actual deer. Go, me.

Here are a few details to go along with this month's challenge:

• You may combine our challenge with other challenges.
• You may enter our challenge up to 3 times.
• Link up your projects by June 30th, 11:55 pm CST.
• You are not required to use a Clique Kit to link up.
• Create any type of project.
• Link directly to your challenge project entry post.

As always, you can get 10% off anything in the Clique Kits store using the code ALIZA10.

Good luck!

Clique Kits and Waffle Flower Craft Blog Hop

Hi, and  welcome to the Clique Kits and Waffle Flower Crafts blog hop! Hop along and comment on each blog to increase your chance of winning a fabulous prize pack!

 I am not by nature a huge stamper. Mostly because I'm too chicken to stamp directly onto a layout. What if it doesn't come out all the way? What if I need to move it over?! So when I do stamp, I am most likely to use stamps on a separate piece of paper, so I can cut out the image and put it where I need it to go. Which is exactly what I did here using Waffle Flower Craft's circle doily stamp set. I love the way it turned out. I used clear Versa Mark embossing ink, and then embossing powder. Each time  I poured off the excess powder, I gasped at how pretty the image looked. Like, literally gasped.  

Everything else on this layout is from the June Clique Kit, which happened to coordinate smurfingly  with the stamps.  

Thanks for hopping by here! Here is the full line up for the blog hop.

Clique Kits 

Sabrina Alery

Donna Espiritu

Katie Gehring

Aliza Deutsch -THAT'S ME!

Lorena Cantó

Marcia Dehn-Nix

Tessa Wise

Mayline Jung

Tyra Babington

Write.Click.Scrapbook June Gallery

Hi! It's ahrd to believe it is June already, though I am not complaining. I am excited for summer.

This month's gallery theme over at Write.Click.Scrapbook, is "inspired by year 6." Which mean I got to look at everything from the past year at WCS, and choose a project that inspired me. I did not have to go too far back to find this layout by Marnie.

I love how clean and simple it is. It actually took a little work to keep mine simple too.  I am accustomed to adding more and more to my layouts, so I had to break the habit. I love the way it came out, so I'm glad I did the work. 

Learning Something New

Since I am trying to slowly crawl my way back into the blogging world, it means that I have lots of projects that I have yet to share here.

Like April's Write.Click.Scrapbook gallery project. This month is mini madness, which gave me an excuse to try out one of those adorable 4x4 We R Memory Keepers albums. I have long admired all the gorgeous pocket paged scrapbooking out there, but have not been able to successfully implement it myself. I find myself uncomfortable with the format, which make me give up pretty quickly, and I head back to my good ole' 12x12 paper.  But when a new format or technique is a challenge, I have always found it easier to start small. When it come to pocket page albums, 4x4 is about as small as it gets. I also kept the journaling to just the first page, which gave me one less thing to think about in the later pages. Without worrying about journaling, I had a little more brain space to practice making pocket pages look pretty. There were also times in the making of this album, where I felt like I was just copying other people's style. I decided I was okay with that too, because imitation is a great way to learn. I encourage my preschool children to learn from their peers, so I figured I should give myself the same permission.

While the format and the style is all a little new to me, the subject matter, that is my family and our love for sitting on the couch  is something that I am quite familiar with.

Clique Kits April Challenge

Every few months, I have a great burst of blogging. Then a few months later, I blog less frequently. Then a few months after that, I stop altogether. 

It gets really hard to start up again after that. It's like exercising. Except, returning to exercising after a dry spell is easier for me than returning to blogging. Seriously. 

Anyway, here I am, slowly making my way back here. I am here to share this layout with the lovely April Clique Kit. I made this layout for Clique Kits' monthly challenge, which is an "Anything Goes" How easy is that? 

This month's challenge is sponsored by Fancy Pants Designs, and the winner will receive a Me-ology prize pack!

You still have until April 30th to link up to this challenge.

Good luck!

Write.Click.Scrapbook. February Gallery

Happy February, everyone. I am kind of excited to share this layout. It took me a while to figure out what to make for this month's theme, "Love is in the Air." I am not so good at romantic layouts. I like my layouts to be a little bit more specific than "I love you." And, all my recent pictures and stories are Bar Mitzvah related. I was at a loss for a while. So I searched through my phone and found this photo from early December, and then, as it often does, it all came together. For the photo, I used my most favoritest filter in my PicTapGo app, called Mama's Tap Shoes. With those colors, the photo worked deliciously with some items from my stash, from January's Clique Kit, and from the Clique Kits store. And, most importantly, the story emerged. It isn't big, or eventful, but it captures the little fact that I like coming home to people every day.

Clique Kits Pep Rally!

Welcome to this month's pep rally, all the way from Danielle's blog! Congratulations on making it to the end of the line. I hope you are enjoying all the inspiration out there this month.

In the spirit of this month's kit, Tailor Made, the challenge is to create something sewn, stitched, crocheted, embroidered, quilted, or knitted. 

This is not my forte.

But, I do have a card on which I tied some of the lovely black twine that was included in this kit:

And I personalized the inside, since I used this card for a friend's bridal shower:

There is an extra credit challenge for this month's pep rally, which is to include a goal for the new year. Since I am just coming off of my son's Bar Mitzvah, I have one goal and one goal alone. To just be. (Wish me luck.)

Here is the full line up for the blog hop:

Clique Kits

Erica

Jody

Lacey

Sarah

Bonita Rose

Nicole

Cari O.

Carolina

Sandy

Charity

Kat

Kim

Mariah

Alisha

Danielle

And, me.

Enjoy!

Holiday Moments

I'm going to go all the way back to Thanksgiving for this first one. 

After all the  preparing and eating of food, we headed to the living room, as we always do, and the conversation, as it always does, turned to politics-Israeli politics in particular. In that moment I found it funny that we were having the same conversation that we have had a million times before, and that we will probably have a million more times. Because that is how it goes. So after all the close up photos of people preparing and eating, I stepped back to take a bigger look at the room and the people in it, and I saw this one conversation as one of many, many more.

Clique Kits January Challenge

One of the goodies in this month's Clique Kits is a set of wood veneer triangles from Creative Embellishments.

The kit is chock full of these triangles. Every time I thought I used most of them, I found a few more scattered around my desk. So they will keep popping  up on future layouts.

This month's challenge is "anything goes with a twist," and the twist is to use some products from Creative Embellishments. The twist is not required, so you can enter any project for a chance to win this $25 gift certificate.

Here is my project, which I rather love. I mostly used the January kit, with some letter stickers from the November kit for my title, and a couple of Evalicious stickers, which were available as an add on to the December kit. And I love them.  A lot.

I can't wait to see what you create!

Hello 2015 and Hello 40

Happy New Year!

I'll make it brief so you can get back to fulfilling your New Year's Resolutions. I am just here to share this month's layout for Write.Click.Scrapbook's January gallery. The theme, as it often is for January, is "Decades." And since I turned 40 just a few days ago, it seemed pretty fitting to scrap about that.

Leading up to my birthday, I didn't really have all that much to say about the number. I have been pretty busy with Bar Mitzvah planning, so the big birthday was just at the back of my mind. But then there it was, 11:30-something PM, on December 26th, and suddenly I felt a little sad that I will never be in my 30's again. Not that it matters much, but still. You just get to do it once.

So that little moment,and the thoughts that followed make up this page:

At first, when I wrote out the journaling, I thought, "That's it? 10 years, and you can sum it all up in 14 lines?" But the topics covered there are family, work, scrapbooking, and Israel. So, yes. That pretty much sums up everything I do. (Except for some synagogue work, but that is a longer story, so I decide to leave it off this page.)

Thanks for stopping by!