2008 Christmas Card Photo Shoot

Whoo-hoo! I finally got a scrapbook page done! Even though it's been 3 months since I scrapped anything for my girls, I seem to be stuck in the popular style of the worn page laying over the background. I created the papers and then spent too much time digging through all my new kits - I've been so busy I haven't become familiar with all my latest stuff - and then got bits & pieces from different places and had to recolor everything except the satin bow which just happened to be the right color green to match the paper I made. I know there isn't any green in the photos, but I think it sets them off anyway. There were lots of good photos of Alena this day, so there should be more pages from this annual photography session. I really wanted to create a mini kit for the holidays and made some cute papers for someone's Christmas cards, but I've run out of time to make any elements. Oh well, maybe next year.



Pattern Paper Overlay from GettinFancy 15 Overlays by Royanna Fritschmann
Worn Overlay from Instantly Worn Freebie by Lori Barnhurst
Satin ribbon, button and glitter splatter from Persimmon by Zoe Pearn
Swiss Dot Ribbon from Whimsical Wonderland 2 by Designz by Kristi
Stitched Bow from Wub by Christy Lyle
Lace from Lots O Lace Snippets by Gina Caberra
Clip from Cute Clips II Snippets by Gina Caberra
Tag from Whimsical Wonderland 1 by Flergs
Font: CK Handprint

Grandpa's Girls

I finally got time to finish my latest free kit that's been in the works since the girls' birthday in May! All the right things aligned to make it work out - my hubby took care of the kids for LOTS of hours yesterday, I found a template this week for which I had the perfect photo, and I was determined to create a perfect LO using my own kit. I threw away a lot of stuff on this one, and I'm sure I could have created more elements if I'd given myself more time, but my house turned into the wake of a tornado while I've holed myself up in my office.



Template - Cookie #42 by Cindy Schneider at Sweet Shoppe Designs
Kit - No Boys, Just Girls by Scraps from Sarah Belle

The name of the kit is No Boys, Just Girls. The day of their birthday, the girls said "No boys, just girls can eat cake" and it was so cute it stuck. The color scheme is from their napkins. Bright & cheerful - while it says its Just Girls I tried to make some papers that would work for both sexes, although its going to be a bit skimpy on the element side. If I get enough comments, maybe I'll make a little boy add-on. It's got 24 papers and all the elements aren't shown. Enjoy! I really appreciate your comments and seeing LOs using my kits.


There are 4 files - Solid Papers, Patterned Papers, Elements & Alpha.
Pick up No Boys, Just Girls HERE.

added August 5Everything seems to be working just fine, so if it doesn't work the first time, please try again. And it seems as if someone used my account to "save" something in this folder that required a password. It has been deleted, and I apologize to anyone who got the 5th file because it was huge and it wasn't from me.

added July 31 - I received a few comments that the patterned paper pack link wasn't working. I'm traveling right now and don't have many options to check, but was able to save it on a borrowed computer. My only advice is to try again. I will be back on August 6th and will look again to see if anything seems out of order.

Cake Anyone?

I knew I had to scrap this picture when I took it, and I came to my computer with ideas of clusters & swirls and just more stuff on the page. I browsed through some galleries for inspiration and nothing. So I just laid some stuff out on the page and simple just seemed right. I modified the alpha a bit by changing the color the stroke inside the letter from it's original white to a color from the patterned paper.



Kraft Paper from Freestyle Paper by Kimberly Giarrusso
Block Paper from Trendy Pop Add-on by Cori Gammon
Alpha from Promise Collection by Shabby Princess
Clip from Miss the Bus by Britt-ish Designs
Fonts: CK Ali's Writing, CK Journaling, 28 Days Later

All American Girls

I got some great photos of the girls this morning all ready for the parade - our mother's of multiples club participated and a group of us walked the route together to promote our club. It was HOT, but the girls were troopers during our 3 hour ordeal.

I think this is the first time I have scrapped photos on the same day they were taken and it hasn't even been 12 hours since I took the photo. Using the template made it pretty easy, but can you believe I still spent about 3 hours on this? I think there were numerous interruptions, but still...



Circle & Stars Template by Kristin Aagard Designs
Blue paper from Primary Shimmers by Tracy Lee Designs
Bobby Pin by Mira Designs
Glitter Styles by Flergs
Shadow Styles by Flergs
Fireworks & Skip Star Sparkle Brushes from Adobe site
Font - CK Journaling
lyric from Carrie Underwood's All-American Girl

The Perfect Pair

I've found the perfect song to scrapbook to - Bon Jovi's (You Want To) Make a Memory. My husband has this aptitude of turning to HDMusic and finding some Bon Jovi special and first it was Jon's duet with Sugarland and now his duet with Leanne Rhimes that he likes, but I like everything about Make a Memory. ok, enough with the side-bar.

A few weeks ago (or possibly a month) I mentioned Ann from The 3 Chickens found me and I'm so glad she did. Her blog is so fun to read and its such a time saver for finding the best freebies & sales. She posted this wonderful template and I just took these fab photos of the girls - so I had to make them work together.

I got to use some of the things I picked from from my April win over at the Digi-Chick. Can you believe I just finally finished my shopping spree? Now I need to go purge my freebies folder cause I'm just getting too much stuff to remember and I'll need the extra memory sooner than later it seems.

My computer is really dragging these days - don't know if I need to increase RAM or video memory or both - as long as I don't need a new computer - DH would probably flip at that thought. I wish one of us was more computer geekish - I don't know how much I trust those guys at Circuit City or Best Buy.

I'm hoping to work on my new kit soon, so no freebies for a little bit yet. If you haven't picked up a July desktop yet, the one from Shabby Princess is too adorable to pass up.



Template 03 by The 3 Chickens
Background Paper, frames & tags by Scraps from Sarah Belle
Graph Paper from Spring Denim by Scraps from Sarah Belle
Bird Element from Tweet Love by Fei-Fei's Stuff
White Lace from White Lace by Gunhild
Orange Lace from Crocheted Lace Collection Two by Shannon Lee Designs
Date Tag from Pinned & Dated by Fei-Fei's Stuff (modified)
Swirls from GXEmbellishments by Abneil Software Ltd (Andrew Buckle)
Glitter Swirls from Swirl Therapy by Jofia Designs
Flowers from Kayleigh's Kleidescope by Flergs (recolored)
Glitter Style from Glitter Freebie 1 by Flergs
Stitched sequins from Sequins by Sarah J Designs
Brush from Point to Grain by Sheishido
Actions - Distressed Edge by Atomic Cupcake
Fonts - Century Schoolbook, Century Gothic

Out in the Rain - redo

If you're a regular reader, first you're probably asking "what the heck happened to her?" and second "didn't I just see those pictures?". As to what happened to me - I think the answer is three year old twins - they are just awake longer than ever and just need me, and then my obligations to my twins club are big this time of year. For the rest of the month I'll be busy putting together my first issue of the twins club newsletter. It fun to do some newsletter design, but its hard because the info from all the club members just trickles in - so nothing is "done" until I send it out. We don't have a historian this year so I'm scrapping for the club too. At least with that I'm doing double duty - once I get the page scrapped I'm just going to include it in the newsletter.

And yes, you did just see these pictures, and as much I like the original LO, I decided I wanted to include the 2nd picture and so I went back and rescrapped. Since the background paper is lighter I added a border of glitter to the acrylic letters so they would stand off the page a little more.



Page Idea from Silly Girl by Tracey at Sweet Shoppe Designs
Papers from Bohemian Summer by Michelle Coleman
Rain from Diamond Rain by Jofia Devoe
Alpha from Acrylic Alpha by Vicki Parker (A Work in Progress)
Glitter from Glitter Freebie by Flergs
Actions - pinking shears & scalloped dot by Atomic Cupcake
Font Problem Secretary, CK Ali's Writing

Out in the Rain

I've had quite the struggle this week to find time for my computer. My girls are really not wanting to nap and we've been going to the pool for a few hours most days so in addition to not getting much "me" time during the day, I'm also just exhausted by the time we get them in bed that I'm ready to fall into my own. My darling husband has them at Home Depot this morning for the kid's workshop so I spending the time on the computer instead of cleaning my house which really needs to be done as well.

A very straight forward LO to get the creating flowing again. I'm trying to use things from my April prize at the digichick - $10 per designer doesn't go as far as one might think, and its hard for me to buy something without knowing specifically what I might use it for, so I tried to stick with basics. I was reading an interview with one of the Treat Of The Month at Sweet Shoppe Designs and she said she almost always does a LO and then finds a picture to go with it - maybe someday I'll be so far ahead that I can do that. I think I've scrapped 4 pictures from this May though and there are Easters and Birthdays waiting to be done.

I said I wasn't going to the Benevolent Boutique charity kits this month, but then Crystal sent out the color palette and the themes and I couldn't help myself. Plus I want to work on a kit for myself AND I've gotten started on the newsletter which is going to eat up a lot of time. I'm hoping that I get just one page scrapped each week now that I've committed to these other things.

I'd also like to mention a great blog I found by way of a comment on Spring Swing. Ann goes by "the3chickens" and not only does she create amazing LOs, but she has a great list of freebies each day and does a lot of sale shopping to point out the great deals out there.



Page Idea from Potty Training by Sari at Sweet Shoppe Designs
Blue Paper from Shimmer Primaries by Tracy Lee Designs
Rain from Diamond Rain by Jofia Devoe
Stitching by Natali
Alpha from Acrylic Alpha by Vicki Parker (A Work in Progress)
Font Problem Secretary

Swinging Under the Sycamore

Great inspiration this week over at the Sweet Shoppe for some photos I took while we were back in Missouri. My dad planted this tree when I was in grade school, and now it's big enough for my girls to swing under it. My parents are trying to sell the farm, so we may not have many more chances for the girls to fly under this sycamore.

My colors for this LO came from the cute flowers & birdie that I got with some of my winnings at the digichick. Then I needed red & green to pull the colors out of the photo and next thing you know I'm making papers - which is good for everyone because here comes my next little kit.

The only little tricks I played on the template were to use the layer->modify->contract and then apply a stroke on that contracted border so that I could erase the stroked line and get that cutout look. I use the contract/expand and stroke combo on quite a few things now. Then I made a custom shadow for the tree so it looked like it had a little more life in its leaves.



Template #35 from Cookie Decorating 101 by Cindy at Sweet Shoppe Designs
Paper from Spring Swing by Scraps from Sarah Belle
Kraft Paper from Backs:Brown by Amanda Heiman
Paperbag frame from You've Been Framed by Lindsay Jane Designs
Ribbons from Give it to me Straight by Amanda Heiman
Flower & Bird Embellishements from Sugar in Heaven by Jeann Gaidecki
Paper Overlays from Grungy Overlays by Misschifis Scraps
Stitching from Stitches by Jasmin Olya
Glitter Frame from Strawberry Delights by Flergs
Glitter Style from Glitter Freebie 1 by Flergs
Action - inked edges by Atomic Cupcake
Fonts - Aubrey, CK Ali's Writing, Century Gothic

Being able to make your own stuff is both a curse & a blessing I've decided. I love to make it and truly customize my LOs, but I hate not to share my creations so I spend a lot of time creating other items to actually make it worth sharing. Its good practice for me I guess, but it does take additional time to do the packaging & whatnot. The papers for this seemed to come together really well and I actually like this preview.


Pick up the Paper Pack HERE.
Now to see what I can come up with in the way of embellishments - I'd love to hear some ideas in the comments. They are disabled in 4shared, so please leave them here for me.

Happy Birthday Sweet Girls

Seems like its been forever since I've scrapped. It's been a busy past two weeks between the girls birthday followed by a trip back to Missouri to visit all our family. Good news is that I my scrapping juices came back quickly - the first 5 minutes or so I got a little scared because I was actually having to think about PSE commands.

I finally made my own scalloped mats - I just made a circle brush and drew the outside and then filled it with a rectangle - a littler easier than I thought it might be. Then I made the template, so it was easy then to find some papers that coordinated with the picture and then just clip away. I fiddled around some with the elements - didn't have anything that just "went" so I had to do some creating and modifying there. The paper kit I used was a Christmas one and I made the black papers using an overlay and brush. Right after I finished the template I thought, I'll be able to do this with just a few things, but now that I've finished the credits I realize that it didn't end up very simple.

I have two bits of "news" that I need to share. Originally this blog was just for me, but I have a few loyal readers now and hopefully they will be excited for me too.

I try to participate in at least one challenge each week at the digichick. In April, anytime you completed a challenge your name was entered in a drawing where the prize was a $10 gift card from 19 digichick designers - and I won!!! I found right before we left on vacation so hopefully tonight I'll be able to go shopping and get lots of fantastic stuff. So head over to the digichick challenges - they really do provide lots of inspiration. My favorites are the color challenge and scraplift challenge.

The other tidbit is that I'm going to be part of a design team at Benevolent Boutique designing kits for charity. The first kits are scheduled to be released in June, benefitting the Make a Wish Foundation. There are going to be two kits - one each for boys & girls, with toddlers in mind since June is National Potty Training Awareness Month (who knew?).



Page Idea from You are so Handsome by ZaCola3 at Sweet Shoppe Designs
Kit - Silly Seasons by Zoe Pearn
Sequins from Sugar in Heaven by Jeann Gaidecki
Brush from Paper Damage by Adobe
Overlay from Grungy Overlay by Misschifis Scraps
Glitter Styles from Chocolate Berry by Flergs
Stitching by Circle Stitching by Natali
Button ties from Lots of Button Ties by Designs by Shannon
Buttons - scanned in & edited by Scraps from Sarah Belle
Actions - Pristine Chipboard by Atomic Cupcake
Fonts - Tangerine, Pea Kate

Building the Swingset

My scrapping has really slowed down now that the twins are in a big bed. I've lost about 3 hours a day of "me" time due to earlier wakeups, shorter naps, and later bedtimes. I'm sure in time it will straighten itself out, but now I'm still adjusting to being tired again, so there are some days all I get done is check e-mail and other critical tasks, and never make it to my scrapping. I miss it.

This LO doesn't strike me as one of my best, but its ok. A month ago I had never used a B&W photo, now I think I have done three LOs with B&W. Odd - but on this LO it really helped tie the pictures together because they were all different colors and it was hard to find papers that worked for everything, so changing them to B&W fixed that issue.

I'm also trying to challenge myself by using a single kit, in this case a mini-kit. I think it helps me better understand what people might want in a design. This is also a color combo that I normally wouldn't use, and it was a good test to feel a little uncomfortable.



Page Idea from May Page Maps by Becky Fleck
Papers from Renewal Sampler by Michelle Coleman
Screw Fastners by Simka
Stitching from Basic Stitching by Britt-ish Designs
Action - Medium Bottom Tear by Atomic Cupcake
Fonts - Soopafresh, BlackJack, CK Ali's Writing, 28 Days Later

Now for the my latest freebie kit - sorry its taken so long. It's been ready for a few days, but with our swingset project this weekend I just didn't have a chance to get a LO scrapped and my DH is traveling out of the country this week.

I'd like to say a big THANKS to those that left comments with the last kit, and especially those who left comments between freebies - those truly warm the heart.

Please, if after you open the kit, you think "Darn, I could use this if it just had _____", then come back and leave a comment and I'll try to put together an add-on with the requests. I could always keep adding to a single kit, but I don't want to put all my design eggs in one basket.


Pick up Little Athlete HERE

This weekend is the twins 3rd birthday - they are so excited - they ask every day to go pick up the birthday cake! Hopefully I'll get lots of good pictures this year.

Dripping with Goodness

I finally made a LO using a bracket thingy - they are everywhere in the galleries and so I had to use a template to get inspired, but I did it!

I also don't think I've ever done a LO just using two colors - it almost seems Valentine's Dayish, but I wanted to use some of my next kit I'm working on to make sure it would work for LOs. I always start these things with one idea and then they just seem to morph into something a little different. This was a good test, even though its a simple LO, I'm going to go back and add a few things to the kit.








Template - Template Challenge #10 by Chrissy W
Kit - Little Athlete by Scraps from Sarah Belle (available soon here!)
Actions - Chalk by Atomic Cupcake
Fonts - Aubrey, CK Ali's Writing, IKHIOOGLA3

I did another little test with the kit - I made some desktop calendars. I had hoped to get these done before May 1st, but my kids had other plans. There is so much more than is showcased in these two desktops - but still a little more to complete before I roll it out.


You can pick up the desktops HERE

Friend for Life

This LO consists of 5 components - background, frame, picture, quote & date. I tried to make it snazzier (is that a word), but ended up deleting anything I added, so I decided just to leave it simple.

I did edit the photo with a filter plug-in for PSE from Optikverve Labs, its really neat (and free!) and you can get it HERE



Papers from Organic by Kay Miller
action - inked edge by Atomic Cupcake
font - CAC futura casual


Now for Part 2 of From a Little Baby. I have a few ideas for some things, so an add-on will definitely come as well. I really appreciate those that cared enough to leave a comment - those are truly inspiring, and make it feel as if the effort is worth while to someone.


Pick up Part 2 HERE

Like a Little Chick

My first LO without a picture. Seems a little strange, but I didn't have a good picture to go with the LO, and I couldn't come up with a way quickly to add one, so I just did without - besides, their MDO teacher, Ms. Debbie does these great sketches. I have another spring one with their fingerprints I need to scrap yet too.

Funny, I bought these Straight Set ribbons a while ago and wondered if I'd ever use them and now I can't stop using them.

The color challenge over at the digichick this week was orange, which inspired me to get this LO done - their challenges have been great for getting my most current LOs completed.








Folded Paper Brush from Paper Damage by Adobe
Ribbons from Straight Set by Natalie Braxton
Stitching by Manu
Grid Overlay from Basics Overlay by Pton Designs
Knot by Knotted Stitches by Katie Hadfield
Alpha by Dirty Feet Designs
Heart Brush from Endlessly by Seishido
Actions - inked edge by Atomic Cupcake
Fonts - 2peas chatterbox, stamp act, kid print
chick sketch & saying by Ms. Debbie @ MDO

Now for another little freebie. Last week I revisited one of my older LOs that I had done in Powerpoint and wanted to do in PSE. Decided to make a small kit which I have broken into 4 pieces and one template. By the time I give it all away I'm sure I'll have an add-on too. Here's a preview of what I have so far - 14 papers, and elements in all the colors, the labels go all the way to 10 years. You can click on the image to see a larger version, some of the items I had to make smaller to fit in the preview.

Pick up Part I of From a Little Baby HERE

Texas Wildflowers

This LO was inspired partially by my desire to create a kit called Denim Spring and the design was inspired by the pictures chosen for the LO - hence a circle since the whole thing just kept feeding itself. I'm really happy with some of the papers & elements - still trying to work on the right ratio of items when creating a kit. I love how the floral sheet turned out and I figured out how to make ric rac - at least for today using Distort->Wave, we'll see if I can remember the next time I want to do it.








Glitter Frame from Paper Bag Frames by Lindsey Jane Designs
fonts - Jane Austen, Death, 2Peas Hot Chocolate
Papers, Elements, Word Art from Spring Denim by Scraps from Sarah Belle

this kit was made possible by the fabulous
designer resources of the following people.
Andrew Buckle
Atomic Cupcake
Misty Cato
Pton Designs
Robyn Gough
Seishido Brushes


And it's a great day, because I'm giving it all away - a kit and a template! Happy Friday! (I'd love it if someone could tell me why all this white space shows up when I use a table to put photos side-by-side.)








Download the template HERE
Download Papers 1 HERE
Download Papers 2 HERE
Download Elements 1 HERE
Download Elements 2 HERE

I'm not a huge fan of 4shared, but until I have time to figure something else out, it's my choice. The files are big, but I didn't have the patience to break them down further.

Chilly Willy Fun

We only got one great picture of the girls while we were out at Copper Mountain this winter. It was SO cold - it never even made it to freezing (32°) the whole week we were there. But the girls enjoyed their brief outings anyway and can't wait to trying skiing in 2009 - that should make for some great photo ops.

This page stays pretty true to purple & silver because I was inspired to scrap it this weekend because of the color challenge over at The Digi-Chick.

No new tricks or creations here - just a lot of color manipulation - I haven't accumulated much in this color scheme.



Glitter Border & Ribbon (recolored) from Strawberry Delight Mini by Flergs
Star & embellishments from Funky Stars by Flergs
Swirl (recolored) from Funky Swirls & Overlays by Flergs
Date brush from Dated by Fei-fei's Stuff
Background paper & folder tab by Scraps from Sarah Belle
Fonts - Fontdinerdotcom Sparkly, Arial

Spring is made for Strings

Tried some new things and learned alot with this LO. It seems a little squareish, but with 4 photos the current trends aren't as easily followed.

My biggest accomplishment on this LO was making custom shadows for all the photos, so that they don't just look flat with a shadow, but actually have some movement. I found a short tutorial from Christine Smith and it used the Filter->Distort->Liquify tool which I had used before, so applying it to this was pretty easy and I love the results - it does add a bunch of layers to the project though.

I'm getting the hang out of making papers now and used several commercial paper textures. I was hoping to make all of the papers, but in the end I searched through my stash and found something that I could alter (the circly dot one) - the pink was originally orange and I used a photo filter to make the whole thing bluer than it was.

I made my own staple and grommet for this page - many thanks to Atomic Cupcake! The journaling strips I also made and then used the Modify->Contract to add the small white border.

The string which kinda makes the whole LO is part of what I got with my "prize" for winning the color challenge over at The Digi-Chick a few weeks ago. I think their challenges are great, even though I don't get to do them that often.








Commercial Use Paper Textures by petit moineaux
Patterned paper from Run by Digitreats
Polka Dot Paper from Dreams do Come True by Britt-ish Designs
Stitching from In Stitches:Basics by Britt-ish Designs
String from My True Valentine by Dani Alencar
Tag from Whimsical Wonderland by Flergs
Staple & Grommet by Scraps from Sarah Belle(that's ME!)
Actions - old painted metal by Atomic Cupcake
Fonts - 2 Peas Evergreen, Luna Bar

I've also decided to offer a freebie now & then, so here's the first one. The file is large because it includes the custom shadows I created.

You can pick the freebie up HERE. Enjoy!