Hornung ABCs - 'A'

I'm taking part in a project where you do at least one letter a month (over at Stampin' Scraps). I thought about what word to use for 'a' for a while. I pondered and pondered. If I was seriously going to do 26 layouts, what would I want to do? I thought about the kids ... but all three kids, evenly dividing between the three, one for each kid? I thought about finding all the 'a' words .. but what if I forgot one? I hate doing comprehensive lists because I'll inevitably forget something.

But, as we were eating dinner tonight and I started eating our appetizer of sliced apples and cheese (fancy), I literally thought, "Apples start with A." Deep, right? So, I pondered it over during dinner and decided to do it. Why not do 26 layouts about things that our family likes. Sure, it won't cover everything and it won't be incredibly deep, but it will be fun. I threw this together in a few hours and it gives me practice. And yes, I know the photo of the apples isn't the best. I took it tonight and this is what I got. I could have found a gorgeous, artistic photo of apples online, but this has meaning because those are our apples and I took the picture.

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Credits:
Paper is from Emily Powers at WeAreStoryTellers.com (background - setsoflinespapers4) and Kathryn Wilson at WeAreStoryTellers.com (masked red accents - InkCollectionPolkas_red); green clip, red photo frame, green label holder, and title alphas are from the WaitingToHappen kit by Monica Guerra Leiria at mgl Scraps; Ribbon and Bow is from Michelle Coleman. Fonts are Adler and AnotherTypewriter.
I think that's it. I'm getting better at this :)

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Craft Time!

Hello my friends!

It was great to see my fellow crafters this morning :) You know who you are! I was pleasantly surprised that people actually come and read my blog occasionally, so I want to give you a shout out! Moni, Danielle, Angie, Danae, Andrea and Christina - I love you guys!
I'm already trying to work out the details for February. I'll keep you posted!


I got 1 1/2 layouts done today. Traditional, paper layouts for a project I've been working on for a while. I hope to be done soon and I'll post all about it when I am :) The best thing about today is that I actually pulled my stuff out again and re-acquainted myself with the project and what I was trying to do. Hopefully it won't take so long to get into it again!


Okay, which picture do you like best for my 365 project? The one with me in it or the one I like better (without me in it). I can't decide if I need to be in the picture.

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Design Team Member!

Exciting news!

Tanya, from Little Shop of Sketches and Stampin' Scrap, has asked me to be on their design team for the next six months. I will do a layout (mostly digital) every two weeks based on the sketch that she has come up with.
I am very excited about this opportunity. Of course, it's always wonderful to have someone admire your work. However, I'm looking forward to the push it will give me to create more often. No matter what is going on in my life and how busy I may or may not be, I will have a layout done every two weeks!

I first found their wonderful sketches when I participated in a challenge at Journaling Junkie. You may remember, but this is the layout I created:
based on this sketch:I was subsequently invited to apply for the design team spot. As part of that process, I created two more layouts based on sketches. I can finally share them with you:

based on this sketch:
All of the digital elements are from Rhonna Farrer's Magic Rainbows Free Kit for 2ps.


based on this sketch:I created my own digital elements by coloring graphic texture stock photos (sxc.hu) and using the Dingbat font, Flakey. Pretty simple, but I like it :)

I like how I broke out of the box for each of these layouts. They were for submission, so I did things a little bit differently. I used brighter colors than I normally do :) That's another great thing about digital - if you don't like the color, you can just change it. One of my biggest hangups in paper scrapbooking is wanting it to be perfect. Before I cut the paper I want to make sure that it's what I want! Now I can experiment without worrying about ruining supplies or doing something irreversable.

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I really like sketches. They help get you going. I often create my own sketches, but sometimes it's nice to just have somebody else do the work for you :) Oh, and I often use one as inspiration and change it around to do what I want to do. You don't always have to do exactly what the sketch says to do ... I always want it to reflect a little bit of me.

I'm already working on the next layout. And of course, since it's a February layout, it'll be about my honey :) It needs to be turned in on February 3rd - so you can see it then!!!

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Stampin' Scraps is a scrapbook supply shop and also has a gallery and a forum. Check it out!

FAQs

Just going to answer some questions quickly ...

How did I do my own custom blog design?
Well ... I got the idea from Rhonna Farrer. Check out this post for her instructions. Some of her following posts answer some related questions. I already understood HTML and have designed websites, but it never really occurred to me to make my own blog design. I really didn't care enough *gasp* and didn't want to spend the time. But, reading that post gave me a quick kick in the pants and I threw something together rather quickly. Maybe I'll do something really fancy when I get some more time :)

Why am I backing up on to CDs instead of DVDs or an external hard drive?

Well, I would if I could!
First of all, I did (and still do) back up on to an external hard drive. We had one, but it died! I was shocked! Plus, because my laptop had a limited amount of disk space, I had deleted things off of my laptop fully expecting to be able to retrieve them from the external hardrive when I wanted them. Well, I was wrong. My husband decided to tell me *after* the problem that you should always back up in two places. Well, I didn't know that. I thought I was doing well by backing up! It makes sense now . . .
So, we bought another external harddrive and I backed up the files I still had and then I set to work backing them up to a second location - CDs. Almost 100 because 98% of my 60 GB of memory on my laptop was used.
Wouldn't it be great to have two external hard drives to back up onto? Well, the next time I have an extra $100 ...
Why not DVDs? Because I don't have DVD burner. My drive reads DVDs, but doesn't write to them. My laptop is 2 years old. I don't know how much it would cost to get a DVD-R drive and what it would take to install it, but my computer tech husband has never acted like it was an option, so I assume it won't be happening anytime soon :)
So, that's why I've spent countless hours and 90 CDs of backup. You have the whole story!


I'm working on a big project right now. I NEED to be done by midnight tonight. Head on over the winkflash.com to find out why ... a photobook with up to 100 pages on sale for $20! Must create 100 pages! I hope to post it for you soon :)

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Oh, and I have some really exciting news! I'll let you know when I have more time to write. Big project going on, remember? Hint: It has something to do with the blinkie links in the sidebar.

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Another Masterpiece

Yes, I know it's the middle of January ... but I've completed another calendar. It was a late custom request (beginning of January), so it's okay that it's a little late.
It's for my brother-in-law. He provided me with his photos from 2008 and I combined them with some pictures of our family and now it's one big happy family calendar :)




This is a mosaic that I made using http://mosaickr.com/. I think it's awesome. Kevin didn't like it very much because it's hard to see that it's the Eiffel Tower. I wanted to use one of the pictures that Brett took on his trip to Paris and this was the best landscape one ... I like it anyway even if I like the concept more than the actual result :)

We had a little issue because he didn't get a camera until June, so all of the pictures of his family (except for the one I had in January) are from June-December. It was hard to choose, but I hope I balanced it alright. You'll notice that there are no months on the graphics ... that's because the pictures don't accurately represent that month.

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Oh, and notice that I figured out how to upload more than 5 pictures in one post - I can upload only them 5 at one time, but do that multiple times :)

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New Blog Design

Like my new blog design? I did the background myself ... it's nothing fancy, but I like it.

Swirl border is from Rhonna Farrer.

Hard at work and onesie album

I'm still backing up files. Can you believe it? I'm almost done, though. I've made over 80 CDs on my way to backing up 60 GBs of information. The only folder I have left is Baby Andrew photos.

So, I haven't taken a whole lot of time to create something else. Sure, going through all my photos has created a slurry of ideas and inspiration, but I don't want to be too distracted. It's taken me two weeks to get this far!

Just because I can't post a new digital layout doesn't mean I can't post something else :)

Here's a shaped chipboard album that I made for a baby shower.
I made a template and then cut chipboard myself. Because the chipboard was thin and flexible, I glued two pieces together to make a sturdier page. I also painted the edges a light green.

I used K&Co paper to cover the album and every page has a pocket on the top part and photo mats on the bottom.
I used the K&Co coordinating tags and misc. ribbon to go in the pockets.

Obviously, the baby's name was Jacoby :) I used the K&Co coordinating chipboard alpha set.
I used CTMH brads and spiral clips, MM brads, and MM metal baby charms, MM metal baby words and the K&Co coordinating chipboard words to embellish each page.

The album is held together with binder rings from Staples.

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Project 365 Started!

I've decided to discuss my 365 project in a separate blog. Check it out HERE!

Winter time!

So, I'm still in the process of backing up files. I had to slow down a bit because life happened. Have to clean the house, have to take care of the kids, have to sleep ... you know, the usual stuff :)

But, it's a horrid day outside. Cold and icy - so I finally took the time to create something. I love digital and being able to do it on my computer! I can work a little bit, take a break for the kids and come back to it ...

This is what I did today:


My inspiration was from Paisley Press Designs which is available at OScraps.com. She had a wonderful design template download, but I can't use it because I don't have Photoshop. However, it was rather simple to recreate the design myself in Macromedia Fireworks. At first, I was going for the simple look - just like all the examples ... but it kind of took off on me. It probably all started when I dropped the frilly frame in the background (not sure if I like the placement, either). I changed the color scheme three times, added all sorts of swirls and extra elements ... I don't know if I like it better or not, but it is what it is.
I created the paper myself by layering boxes of different colors and textures. The black just seemed to work with pictures, but I've second guessed myself a million times during this process so I don't know...
The white frilly frame in the background and the blue swirled frame are both from Rhonna Farrer's Color My World kit.
The bow and pink swirly graphic (behind the two smaller photos) are from the Oscraps - Designers collaboration Love Letter kit. I changed the hue and saturation of the bow to turn it from a salmon pink to the turquoise color you see.
Fonts: Adler, CK_Alis_Writing, Lassus, and SA Inkspot.

Too bad the picture of me isn't that good. It's really the only picture of my belly (out of three pregnancies) that I have. I kept putting it off and then towards the end I didn't feel like it and then the baby was born! Yikes! And to think, I thought I looked good that day. Why can't my 'good days' translate on film?
So, I don't know if I like it. I would love any and all input!

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Someone commented that you can't click to view the above graphic in a larger size. So, I've uploaded my digital graphics to my gallery and you can view them (in two sizes) here :)

I WON!!!

I WON!!!
Can you believe it? I won!!! I won the Pagemaps Blog year-end sketch contest!
I'm so excited! I've entered four of their contests before. I just love Becky Fleck's Pagemaps! Kevin even bought me her book!

So, I'm practically jumping up and down and can't think of much else to say :)

Hard Drive Backup

You want to know what I spent all my free time doing yesterday? Backing up files. Fun. And I didn't even finish! Barely put a dent in it!

First of all, I heard the dreaded click of death from our external hard drive while we were up in Maine. Ack! I had *foolishly* deleted a lot of files from my laptop to try and free up disk space because I *foolishly* thought that I had them safe on the external hard drive. I *foolishly* hadn't backed up to a second place in over a year. AAAAHHHH! So, we bought another backup hard drive and after backing up on to that ... I'm working on backing up on to CDs as well. That takes much longer because CDs only hold 700MB. My 60 GB laptop has less than 1GB left, so I need to make room!

So ... I even forgot to take a 365 picture yesterday. *slaps hand* I'll have to take two today :)

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Happy New Year!

I was reading a friend's blog and she had posted her favorite ten pictures from 2008. TEN! How can you narrow it down to just 10? So, I thought I'd give it a try.

Alright, I just spent a lot of time going through pictures and I can't choose. Sure, I chose some, but there are so many more that I love as well! Maybe I'd be able to choose 10 for each kid ...

So, here's to a million favorite pictures (well, at least 365) in 2009!

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Page Maps Contest

This is a layout I did for the Page Maps Blog sketch contest. I love Becky's sketches!
I flipped it because my photos were vertical. It hit me as I was almost done that I didn't have to change the whole orientation ... I could have just flipped the photo section ... but it is what it is :)

I don't remember about Justin (first baby), but Samantha and Andrew both love playing with coffee cups. Maybe it's because they see Kevin (daddy) using his mouth on them all the time. It would be so cool to go inside the mind of a baby and see things the way they do. I wonder Andrew is thinking all the time.

Once again, the background is a download from sxc.hu. The coffee stain and graphic for the brads are from there as well. The striped paper is from Sande Krieger at 2peas. I created the coffee cup tag by myself using a graphic I grabbed from the Internet. Fonts used are Maiandra GD and Got heroin (yes, that's an aweful name). I think that's all ...

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I get to order my 365 project tomorrow! Can't wait!

Winter layout

I LOVE this layout! Snow makes such a great backdrop. The pictures are great, the colors blend and it just flows ...

I got the layout sketch idea from the January issue of Creating Keepsakes. Yes, I scraplifted :)
The background is a downloaded image from sxc.hu that I changed the hue of to blue. The little blue trees and larger white ones are a dingbat font, DB Christmas Trees from ScrapNFonts.com. The title is a font called Flurries. The snowflakes are a dingbat called Faux Snow. The journaling is in a font called Another Typewriter.

I love it! I think I'm going to experiment and send this off to be printed. I wonder how it will turn out ... if it works well, I may print out more digital layouts to put in a traditional album ...

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Digital Layout

As I said in a previous post, I believe I will try digital scrapbooking for a while. I've done some graphics before, but not scrapbooking ones. I use Macromedia Fireworks as my graphics program and there isn't a way to load those magnificent brushes (at least that I know of). I REALLY wanted to because they're amazingly beautiful, but I made do with other things like fonts and dingbats and making my own.
However, I recently discovered that a lot of digital elements are available in .png format (which is the Fireworks format). Yippee! Now I have to decide what would be most practical to buy!

My first attempt at an "official" digital scrapbook page is this:
What makes it official? Well, the square size is the first part. My other graphics were rectangular for a computer wallpaper or a poster printout. I also used official digital scrapbooking elements. The red scalloped background and brown polka-dot 'paper' are part of a free download designed by Sande Kreiger from 2 peas. The swirls are from scrapNfonts. The pointsetta flower is a dingbat font. The notepad paper I downloaded from sxc.hu. The rest is stuff I put together on my own.

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Now, the really important credit goes to journalingjunkie for putting up a challenge and Tanya for the sketch. The gals at journaling junkie have a regular contest and I've always admired but never done anything. I really am bad ... but now that I'm digital, I've already completed two layouts! Yay! I'll show you the second tomorrow!

P.S. I'll elaborate a bit in the next post, but I'm hoping to find out the rules of etiquette for digital scrapbooking and would appreciate ANY hints.

365 project

I'm going to do the 365 project using the kit by Becky Higgins.
I'm excited because I know I can do this and I'll have a completed album of a year's worth of photos. It goes on sale on January 1st, but I've already started because this is the week that the new year starts. Now the biggest challenge will be deciding which photos to use. You don't want them to be redundant and yet sometimes there are way too many to choose ...
My photos are still on my camera, but when I download them, I may share.

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Digital Scrapbooking and 365 project

First, let me share a fantastic opportunity. Rhonna Farrer is offering a huge giveaway of digital items on her blog here. Make sure you head on over and check it out!

It's taken me over a year of agonizing, debating and going back and forth, but I think I'm going to go mostly digital for my own personal memory keeping.


I love scrapbooking. I really do. The problem is that it takes time. Time I haven't taken. I do schedule crop nights and work a little bit at home but that isn't enough time to really catch up the way I'd like to. Some people are good at it. I'm not. It takes me hours to do one layout. I have to get all of my supplies and spread them out. Then I have to pack up and clean up before I'm done! A lot of people have success with seperate craft rooms, but my house isn't that big. I also don't can't stay up until 3 am after the kids have gone to bed.

I tell myself that it's because I have three kids 4 1/2, 3 and 8 months, but it's just an excuse. No matter what the reason, I don't want to get further and further behind.

So, I'm taking steps to try and catch up as well as prepare for the future.

• I'm going to put Justin's baby book on hold because I'm past the 6 month mark. He's over 4 now! Boy am I bad :)
• I'm going to start both Samantha and Andrew's baby books and go through at least 6 months.
• I plan to do a digital photobook as a year in review of 2008.
• I plan to do digital layouts as we go into 2009 (I tend to have more time on the computer than to physically scrapbook with paper).
• I'm going to participate in the 365 project using the kit by Becky Higgins. You take a picture every single day, journal a bit, and DO it! It's a great way to have a year's worth of pictures in one place (not perfect, but really great anyway).
• I plan to scrapbook major events like birthdays and holidays in digital format for 2009. At the end of 2009, I'll print out a digital scrapbook. Perhaps in 2010 and beyond I'll combine paper and digital scrapbooking, but I will not do personal paper scrapbooking until I have caught up with the baby books.
• I will create quick photobooks of the last 4 years to catch up and then decide where to go from here.
• I still plan on creating paper art as gifts and for craft fairs ... got to have my paper fix. Plus, I make more gifts for others than I scrapbook for myself anyway. My mom has more photos of my kids than I do!
  

I know it's a lot and we'll see what I actually am able to do, but it's still my goal!

I've already done two digital layouts of the holiday season. I'll post them for you soon!

Grande finale

Here's the last page:
This is the December graphic for my year in review calendar. I hope you enjoyed it!
Once again, I downloaded all of the background images from sxc.hu. My design inspiration was from Ali Edwards. The font used was CK_Alis_Handwriting. It was a free download from Creating Keepsakes.
No, I didn't do anything incredibly fancy. I enhanced the color of my photos, I collaged a few of them, but for the most part, my design was very straight forward. However, it was all custom. I decided how to place my boxes and how many to use. I worked around the photos I had for that month. You could probably find some great calendar templates out there, but this was my own work and I'm proud of it.
I hope you enjoyed all of the calendar graphics and you can view them all in my gallery here.

Under the weather

The whole family has the sniffles ... no fun.

But, here to cheer you up: The November calendar graphic! I LOVE the photos for this one.

Enjoy!

Visiting relatives for the Holidays ...

Well, I'm off visiting my husband's relatives. Lots of fun :)

Today I'll share the graphic from October. It's one of my favorites. Maybe it's because it highlights my sister's wedding ... gorgeous!


This has the most pictures of any of my graphics. How could I choose?

And, for Kevin's family ... another graphic:


Hope you're still enjoying the Holiday season!