Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Template Time

It's time for another template! This one was inspired by a Speed Scrap hosted by Becky of SAHM Scrapper over at the Stuff to Scrap forum. I had so much fun working with the layout! Here is my interpretation of the scrap.



















Kit used: "Beautiful You" Collab by DigiDesigns by Nicole & Jacabean
Extra papers from Flutterbye Fairy & Scraps by Andrea
Font: Pea Hannah Vanilla by Kevin&Amanda

And here is your template.
**This Link is now EXPIRED**
Purchase this template HERE.



















As usual, the template is a layered 12x12 PSD file. Have fun!

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

December Blog Train: Homespun Christmas

This blog train was so hard for me! I debated ALL MONTH on what I was going to do. I was originally just going to do papers, but then decided to throw in a couple basic elements. I even made the trees all by myself! hehe So here it is... my addition to the blog train. Hope you enjoy it! Let me know what you think! (especially since its my first mini-kit ever...eeek!)


Also, watch for Kerry's Scraps on the blog train. She made you a cute brag book page using my part! Thanks Kerry!

And here are the rest of your stops:

Nibbles Skribbles
Becky aka SAHM Scrapper
The Scrappy Kat
Quiltifications
Scraps N Pieces
Mommy Me Time Scrapper
Bubblescrap Designs
Little Red Scraps
Ginger's House
light's digiscrapworld
Grandma's Templates
Jensen Motley Crew Designs
Scrap Me Silly
Shel Belle Scraps
Crafting at Your Special Delivery
Saphira's Scrapdesign
Scrap Attack Scraps
Scrappin' Serenity
Ányi + a digitális scrapbooking
Life is Not a Cereal
Kerry's Scraps (brag book page using my part!)
Rainamoon Scraps
Lotsofprettythings
Rucola Designs
DigiScrapz by Christi
Nita's Things
Funky Time Designs by Amber
Midnight Scrapping
Desertgirl Designs
moms unique possiblities
CityGurl Creations
This Little Missy <<---You are HERE
Let Me Scrapbook
A valóság tükre - OsDesign
Ayu's Scrapping
Adriana's Cafe
Altered Sea
Flower Scraps
Kori's Scraps
Always Be Neighbors Designs
JW-DigiScraps
Mad Genius Designs
A Fish Design

Monday, November 23, 2009

Template Time

I have another template for you today. This one was also inspired by a Speed Scrap, this time over at Inspiration Lane. My daughter is sick today and I was struggling to help her and scrap. So instead of completing my layout in time I turned it into a template. That way I can share it with all of you (yay!) and I can go back and scrap it later when I have a little more time. The file is a layered PSD and each layer is labeled with what should be clipped or placed on it. Have fun!



Thursday, November 12, 2009

On my list

I have a list. Many lists actually. Things I want to do and be. Goals and dreams and ambitions. Some things are fairly simple, daily little tasks that I'm trying to make a habit, like flossing every night. (I had six cavities fixed in the last two weeks and decided I better make that a better habit.) Other things are a little harder, and some days seem a downright impossible to me. It seems as thought I always have so many things I wish I could do... and not just do, I want to do them flawlessly. I want to take beautiful pictures or create the most delicious meal for my family. I want to craft and create and make things that look like they took hours....but didn't. I want to be a designer and make wonderful creations. I want to run a business out of my home incorporating all the talents I wish I had. I want to do it all! haha And there in lies my problem.

I've been editing wedding photos for the last month. That's right month. My cousin got married in October and asked me to take pictures at her wedding. I borrowed my moms nice DSLR camera and snapped my little heart out. I was so excited! My enthusiasm quickly faded though when I uploaded the pictures to my computer and saw the results. They needed work.... a LOT of work. Poor lighting and the gym floor had put an ugly yellowish tint over everything. I didn't know anything about white balance or have an external flash handy. Heck, I didn't even have my own camera! Thankfully, I know a little about photo editing. But still, I expected myself to create these amazingly beautiful portraits on my very first try. Realistic....probably not.

This is where my mind drifted earlier today as I sat on the couch, face half swollen from a before-mentioned dentist visit thinking about all the things I wanted to do and be. And feeling a little discouraged about how I was ever going to do any of it. My 20mos old daughter was playing in the living room... or rather destroying the living room. A whirlwind of toys covered our floor in a chaos only a toddler can create. I hadn't been sitting there thinking THAT long had I? Some how she navigated her way over to me with a basket of books asked me to read to her. And so we read. My numb tongue stumbled and sloshed my words around a little, but I don't think she cared. Somewhere halfway through the 3rd book Jack Johnson's "Better Together" came on my iPod mix. "How fitting," I thought as we read each and every book in her basket. As she climbed back down and the melody of Ben Folds' "The Luckiest" sang through the speakers and my epiphany hit me.

I may not be good at everything I want to be right now, and quite frankly, I don't need to be. But I don't want to risk missing the chance to be good at the things that I can do right now. I may not serve exquisite meals for my family each night, but I am able to cook and serve meals my family can enjoy together every evening. I may not be able to take breathtaking portraits or cute digital scrapbook kits. But I can make memories with my little girl and I can record those memories for us to share again later. I may not be good at everything on my list, but I can keep trying and enjoy the opportunities I have to even try. I guess I just need to be reminded of that every now and then and just work on being the best I can be right now. The rest will come with practice.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

FREE Photoshop class!

**If you are looking for the STS Blog Train scroll down one post.

Jessica Sprague is offering a FREE class over on her website. She is an amazing and talented teacher and scrapbooker. Most of her classes require a fee, but she is offering a final holiday course this year for absolutely FREE.

I took the opportunity to sign-up last time she offered a free class, and I LOVED it. I learned a ton of new skills and got to brush up on some old Photoshop techniques I had forgotten. I would highly recommend her classes to anybody who uses (or wants to learn to use) Photoshop. Plus, whenever you take a class the course materials and videos are available to you forever. You can go back and review the tips whenever you like! Registration for the class started yesterday and class begins November 16th. Click the preview to head on over to her website to sign-up. You'll need to create a free account and enter a coupon code to join. Hope to see you there!

Sunday, November 1, 2009

November Blog Train: Morning Solitude

I jumped in at the last minute again this month. I just couldn't resist this BEAUTIFUL color palette. ohhh....

So today I have a lowercase alpha for you. It has all the English letters A-Z, plus numbers 0-9 and some punctuation. I was originally going to do the Alpha in mixed colors, then I decided I'd just chose one or two, and in the end you get one of each! hehe So you'll receive 5 copies of the same Alpha in each of the different colors (except brown, because its the base color). Yay! That way you can mix them yourself, or keep the ones you like and throw the others away. Enjoy!


And as an extra bonus I also have 2 WordArts for you. (I told you I love this color palette!)
Download them HERE

And of course, here are the links to all the other fabulous designers!
Don't forget to leave your love along the way!


Scrap Like Crazy
Manda's Scrappin' Creations
Rainamoon Scraps
Becky aka SAHM Scrapper
Scrappin' Serenity
Life Is Not A Cereal
light's digiscrapworld
Christin's Creations
Scraps 'n Pieces
Midnight Scrapping
Kori's Scraps
Desertgirl Designs
Farrah Smith Designs
Little Red Scraps
Always Be Neighbors Designs
Ányi + a digitális scrapbooking
Grandmas Templates
The Scrappy Kat
Digi-Scrapz by Christi
Jensen Motley Crew Designs
Ginger's House
StashHappy Designs
My Scrappy Heart
Dream Big Designs
Shel Belle Scraps
Adriana's Cafe
Mommy Me Time Scrapper
momsuniquepossiblities
A Fish Design
Nibbles Skribbles
A valóság tükre (Osli's blog)
Knittinjen
Borsmustár
Saphira's Scrapdesign
CityGurlCreations
ThisLittleMissy <---You are HERE
Let Me Scrapbook!
scrapattack
Crafting at Your Special Delivery
Flower Scraps
Every EverAfter Moment
Nita's Things
Craft With Me
Mad Genius Designs
The Latest Scoop, Too
ABC Scraps
JW DigiScraps

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Template Time

As I mentioned before, I've been a fan of the Speed Scraps over at the Stuff to Scrap forum. One week I decided to scrap a photo from my daughters 1 year portraits and I completely LOVED how it turned out! I may have bent the SS rules a little, or a lot, to fit my idea, but I was so happy with it! (and that's what counts right?! hehe)So after bedtime today I decided to try my hand at making a template for all of you! It is a 12x12, 300ppi layered PSD file. I tried drawing out some of the elements I used (like the button and staples), feel free to swap them out for better ones. I also left on the stitching. It is a free download from an amazing designer named Gunhild Storeide. You can get your own to use in you LOs here along with many other goodies. Or if it doesn't fit the style of your layout just delete it and replace it with some other frame or border. Anyway enough chit chat, you can download this template HERE. ::Link is now EXPIRED::
Purchase this template HERE.


Enjoy! And let me know if you use it. I'd love to see what you do!

Oh, and I should note I used products from the following designers in my original layout: Maurine Stettler, Jessica Sprague, Gunhild Storeide, Daisy Trail, Every Ever After Moment, Jacabean, and Christin's Creations.

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

October Blog Train: Afternoon Delight

Choo Choo! I'm so excited to be participating in my very first blog train! I've always admired all the amazing designers out there (and maybe secretly hoped to be one someday). I have followed the Stuff to Scrap blog train before and decided on a whim one day to jump in! I've never designed any scrapbook items before so this was a stretch for me. I founds some great tutorials online and started trying different things. I'm not going to lie it was a lot of work and I have a whole new admiration for designers that put together whole kits all the time! I was able to come up with some RicRacs and Fuzzy Fibers that looked pretty decent. :) Hope you can use them! Leave some comments and let me know what you think!


Download the RicRac set HERE
Download the Solid Fibers HERE
Download the Mixed Fibers HERE

And here are the links to the rest of the Train! Have fun and don't forget to leave some love along the way!

Digi-designs by Nicole
Life Is Not a Cereal
Stuff To Scrap
Becky aka SAHM Scrapper
Scraps N Pieces
Grandmas Templates
Desertgirl Designs
Shel Belle Scraps
Tonisha's Playground
Ginger's House
Ányi + a digitális scrapbooking
Seal Scraps
Craft With Me
Midnight Scrapping
Tricia's Treasures
Always Be Neighbors Designs
Jensen Motley Crew Designs
Dream Big Designs
a thousand words by Brooke
Adriana's Cafe
Digi-Scrapz by Christi
The Scrappy Kat
moms unique possibilities
Chubby Bird Blog
This Little Missy <<---You are HERE
Borsmustár
Saphira's Scrapdesign
A valóság tükre (Osli's blog)
StashHappy Designs
light's digiscrapworld
Citygurl Creations
Lovin' My Scrappy Life
nitasthings
JW-DigiScraps
The Latest Scoop, Too
Let Me Scrapbook!
Little Red Scraps
StrawBearyDesigns
Mad Genius Designs

Friday, September 25, 2009

Speed Scrapping

Have you ever tried it?! I'm going to admit I've only done it twice and we definitely have a love/hate relationship going on. For one, it's great because I'm a little motivated to actually get some scrapping done (amazing what a time limit and a prize will do!). However, when it comes to putting my pages together I've been known to spend WAY to long debating and tweeking and playing and debating some more. I don't know that I DARE tell you how long I can spend on just picking the photos and papers. In speed scrapping you get 10 minutes to perform each step. Just 10 minutes. That's torture! But I love it. hehe Here's my last Speed Scrap layout.


If you haven't tried Speed Scrapping yet Stuff to Scrap is hosting one Monday, September 28th at 1pm MST (12p PST, 2p CST, 3p EST). Just join the Stuff to Scrap forum and log in to the chat section just before the scheduled time. You'll get 7 steps to completing your layout (one every ten minutes) and then have one additional hour to get everything polished and posted online. Hope to see you there!

Special thanks to Scrappin Cop, Gunhild, DigiDesigns by Nicole, Grandma's Templates, Summer Driggs, Maurine Stettler, & Shabby Princess whose elements and products were used in my layout. :)

Friday, September 18, 2009

Sick Day

I've been having a sick day...or couple of days. Blah! Darn colds are starting early this year. I guess it's a been a good excuse to hunker down and sort and maybe, possibly USE all of these digital scrapbooking supplies I've been collecting. I always seem to spend all my time downloading new goodies and have neglecting to get any actual scrapbooking done. (Anyone else have this problem??) hehe And now, in the midst of all that, I'm considering actually designing something for the Stuff to Scrap Blog Train. My daughter is going stir crazy from being cooped up with a sick mommy all day, my house is a disaster, and... I think I'm going to try designing something I've never done before that hundreds of people will see. Crazy...yes. Must be the medicine. Bolstering my courage or something. hehe We'll see if I can get something together in time... or if I just end up face down at my desk, drooling on my keyboard. Regarless, I know I'll be making my rounds Oct. 1 to download all the goodies that will be on the Train! :)

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Chatter

As I sit here, I'm listening to my 15 month old daughter talk to herself in her crib. She's been in there an hour. She SHOULD be sleeping.

I could hear her drop her blanket, pacifier, and stuffed bear out of her crib one by one. Each followed by a loud "uh-oh". I could hear the scrapping noise of her pulling the picture frame off of the bookcase next to her and into her crib. Its a picture of her daddy and I. And now she sits jabbering and chattering to the faces in the picture... when she should be sleeping.

It's times like this that I think about how a like we can be sometimes. How we both seem to have so much to say even when no one is listening. A good 70% of my day is spent talking to a toddler... who in turn talks back... in her own language. And while I love every minute of it some days I find myself talking to...MYSELF... just to have a little adult interaction! I was having one of those conversations one day when I realized that maybe if I typed to a blog instead it wouldn't be quite so weird. HA! So here's to my attempts at normality and sanity. Where ever they are. Perhaps someday we'll be friends!