Samantha's Birthday

I just had to share. This layout has taken me three days to complete (in my spare time).

I wanted it to be really special because it's about my daughter's third birthday. The pictures kind of speak for themselves.



I'm very pleased with the way it turned out :)


I used:
Ann Lang's July 06 Free Kit for 2ps (Flowers, scalloped ribbons and paper)
Marryann Wise June 05 Free Kit for 2ps (Flower pp, flower frame)
Sweet Genevieve Color Splash Doodle Borders
Paislee Park Avenue (orange and gray pp)
Danielle Young Game of Love kit (stitching)
Fonts: CK_Ali's_Handwriting, Oliver, Penshurst
I drew design inspiration from a Pagemaps sketch.

I hope you like it :) I do. I can't wait to have it printed out!

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Just a few updates

Hello everybody!

So, the layout I did for Danielle Young's challenge is up for vote now. If you want, you can check it out here and vote for me if you feel like it :) It's only open until tomorrow, though ...

Also, I'm hosting a mini-album swap over at Stampin' Scrap. Check the details out here. Anybody can join - please consider signing up. It's open until the end of February, so come on! It'll be a lot of fun!!!

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EDIT: I'm rather surprised, but I WON!!! Woohoo! I won $25 to Danielle Young's store at Oscraps.com! Yummy digi goodness! Thank you if you voted for me and make sure you check out my mini-album swap.

Little Shop of Sketches Wednesday!

I design a layout for Little Shop of Sketches every 1st and 3rd Wednesday.

The owner of LSS lives in New Zealand and is 18 hours ahead of me ... but I will post on my Wednesday morning :)

Here is today's sketch:Here is my layout:

To check out what the other wonderful designers did, go here. And ... if you do a layout based on the sketch and upload it to the gallery, you'll be entered to win a fantastic RAK!!! Go for it :)

Credits: The paper is from a free download at 2ps - All Twitterpated by Cherie Mask. The heart swirl was a part of a free kit from 2ps by Ann Lang. The button and glitter heart are from OScraps - designer collaboration called Love Letters. The frame for the large photo is from Paislee Park Avenue at OScraps.com. Fonts are 2ps_Scrapbook, Artistamp, and All Hearts.

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Looking Good at 37

In honor of my darling hubby's recent birthday:
I love this man!!!

I used the Photogenic collab kit from Paislee Press and be Audacious Designs
Date stamp from Thankful collab kit by Kitty Chen & Bren Boone
Fonts: Adler, CK Ali's Handwriting, and SA Inkspot

I'm surprising myself with all of the one page layouts ...

I hope you like it :)

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This one I threw together as I was trying to go through my January photo folder. The Photogenic kit had this really cool trio of frames on the string, so I picked three similar photos and experimented.

It's not my favorite, but I still like it :) Better than agonizing over it forever. Move on to the next set!

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Storytime

Here's the kids at the library for storytime with the librarian :) We haven't been in a few weeks because of everybody being sick, but I'm looking forward to going this week!


I was so inspired by the simplicity of the new collab kit by Paislee Press and Audacious Designs - Photogenic (available at Oscraps). I love how the elements allow you to display your photos without killing yourself about the journaling. It actually states you feel - you captured the moment, you love this moment in time. I have a feeling that I'll really be able to whip out a bunch of everyday life photo layouts with this!

Hope you like it!

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P.S. Do you think it looks dumb that I used the word, 'captured' twice?

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Train boys

My creative drive was in full mode today. I didn't get to work as much as I wanted (the kids do need a mother), but I am happy that I finished THREE layouts!!! Here is the second:
Now, you may not know this, but titles have always been very hard for me. I agonize over them almost every time and then second guess myself knowing that I could have done better. I am so tempted to be jealous of the layouts I see with such creative titles. I've been getting better lately (which might have something to do with looking at a ton of other people's layouts to get ideas ...).
However, this was one of those times where I really struggled. The train idea came to me, but what words to use as a title and the title placement drove me nuts. This is what I've come up with, but I'm still unsure ...

Well, instead of stress over it for another hour (seriously), I'll just leave it unless something comes to me.

I used:
That Boy kit by Danielle Young (argyle paper, blue paper, trains, buttons)
Crystal Clear Alphas by Danielle Young ('boys')
In Stitches by Digi Fingers (red square border)
Thankful collab kit by Kitty Chen and Bren Boone (date stamp)
Rough Riders free kit by Sande Krieger (Authentic word art)
font: Another Typewriter

Hope you like it :)

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Award

I've received my first blog award!
I have no idea what this one means ... apparently it's the Marie Antoinette Award ... I hope that doesn't mean they think I should be beheaded ...
It was given to me by my fellow Little Shop of Sketches design team member, Monique.
So, in the spirit of the team, I'll pass it on to three of my friends ...
Danae
Moniqua
Lisa

and I just got this one from a new friend, Helen.
I'll pass it on to the same three people because THEY are fabulous and to my new DT lovelies.
Helen
Monique
Mieke
Stefanie
Tanya
Vicki

Rubbing Noses

My latest layout. Saw a challenge and just had to go for it :)
EDIT: AND I WON THE CHALLENGE!

Andrew and Daddy
Rubbing noses
Making my heart swell
January 2009


Challenge by Danielle Young's Creative Team:

Scraplift of alb52's (Oscraps) design.











I used:
CrystalClear Alphas by Danielle Young ('&')
That Boy kit by Danielle Young (heart, butterfly, star, journaling tag, buttons, 'a' and 'k' alphas blue paper)
Game of Love kit by Danielle Young (stitches, heart, frame, polka paper, 'I love you' word art)
Photogenic collab kit by Paislee Press and Audacious Designs (polaroid frame, string, 'capture' word art, staples)
Fonts: Another Typewriter & Adler

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Inspiration piece - Philippians 4:8

Over a month ago, we were in the midst of the holiday season, enjoying it while longing for it to be over and thinking about the new year. I wanted this new year to have a purpose. I wanted to accomplish more. Not just anything, but things that mattered. So, I spent some time writing down what those things would be - which is unusual because I've never been big on New Year's Resolutions.

I created this as an inspiration piece. It hangs by my bedroom door so I see it everyday. I need to be reminded what my life should be about!


Forgive the bad picture. I had to use the flash.

I created the it by layering three graphics together - a cement wall texture checked mosaic (original by moi), a sunset and a clock face. I also fiddled with the hue and saturation in order to achieve the desired color. Then I typed the verse in Century Gothic font and really fiddled with the font sizes to get it to get it justified to both right and left.
Here's what it looks like:

I printed it out in 8x10 at Walmart. Then I grabbed some Making Memories chipboard letters and painted them with Tim Holtz Crackle paint (so cool). Mat the print and glue the letters on with CTMH liquid glass then frame and VOILA! My 2009 inspiration/motivational piece.

If you like it, feel free to download the graphic and make your own!

I'm Hands On Creative!

What kind of Creative Are You?

Take this creativity quiz and learn "How creative are you? What gets your juices flowing?" I turned out to be Hands On. It's actually very true. I love making things - all types of things! I would so love to make more things but supply and instruction are in low supply :)

My red felt "I love you" booklet

We're approaching the Valentine season and I thought I'd share what I did last year:
It's a mixed-media booklet.
I got the idea from Ali Edwards. You can see her post about it HERE.

Still working on this years ... I'll post when I'm done :)

Probably not this year, but next year I'll do something FOR the kids. I'll definitely do something WITH them, but I want to start making them something special.

Archiving question

I have a question. A serious question. This isn't one of those questions you ask because you're thinking out loud through your blog. I really want your help! I need your help!!! I've started a project. I'm archiving my old photos (birth until I'm married) and I've come to a big decision.

Here's the history. If you don't feel like reading it, skip down to the big questions below.

I recently realized that my old albums had been water damaged when our basement flooded. The photos held up pretty well (with a few exception), but I need to put them somewhere else. A lot of these photos were of me from my infancy through my teenage years. My mom had made me a large album using those magnetic pages (before we knew about scrapbooking). They were yellowing and becoming less sticky anyway. I was planning to redo them soon, but it's become a priority now.

I need to completely redo over 20 years worth of pictures. They're all film photos (of varying sizes) and not all the best. My first thought was to use a combination of divided page protectors in varying sizes to put the photos in with a bit of patterned paper and journaling. I would mix and match the sizes depending on the photos used and also leave the option open to scrapbook any really important moments or where there's a more detailed story to be told.

I don't want to overdo the scrapbooking. I'm going to go for a simple and elegant look (as well as less time-consuming). I also wanted to include some journaling about my memories ... instead of just photos and dates.

I was all ready to do it. I had got the supplies and then I read that you should never use your original photos when doing a project like this. I see the logic of that. You don't want to work with your only copy.
They suggested scanning them in. I do have one of those printer/scanner/fax machines that is 6 years old and only $100 when we bought it. It's obviously not the best. I've scanned some things in before and been less than impressed with the quality. So, using my scanned images isn't that appealing.
My local Walmart has a photo station where you can scan and copy photos at a kiosk, but I've also been less than impressed with the way that works.
Another problem is that we're talking about hundreds of photos here. I was not happy with the prospect of scanning them all in at home, let alone standing for hours in front of a kiosk.

But, I buckled down and spent hours scanning in photos. I'm missing a few that other family members have. As you can see, they are not ideal:

They're also a pretty lousy resolution - no bigger than 1,000 pixels the longest way.

I've had the suggestion to take pictures of my pictures. I've tried that and there's always a glare from the flash or the overhead light or even the sunlight. It just hasn't worked.

I want to use the originals because they are so much better. But, as you can see from these,there's some water damage. Even though it's not visible on most of them, they smell and the back of some the photo paper is turning yellow. I am concerned about future degradation.

So ... what do you think? Is there a product (like archival mist) that would stop to the decay of my photos so I can use them? Should I use the lousy scans? How would you go about this?

I really want to know!

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.