Santa's Little Helper

Another picture of Brandon in his elf suit.

Page made with bits and pieces from the Christmas Sleigh Ride Blog Train, but the train ran on December 8th. I don't how long most designers keep their files available so you might want to hurry to get them. The list begins here.

Brandon's First Christmas

My sweet little man dressed in his elf suit enjoying his first Christmas. This picture was taken while waiting for dinner on Christmas Eve.

The kit is a freebie you can find here.

Remembering an Old Friend

I believe you only get one truly great dog in your lifetime. You may get ones who are smarter, or prettier, or better at playing fetch, but really GREAT dogs are few and far between. Buddy was the best friend I ever had. And he's probably the main reason I'm a cat lover now - because I know that no other dog would ever match up to him in my eyes. His personality was more human than dog. He got me through the toughest years of my childhood. He was just an old mutt, we never could figure out the myriad breeds that made up his bloodline, but he had more heart and soul than any purebred dog I've owned.

The kit used is Paw Prints, a PTU collaboration kit you can purchase here.

A Wrench in the Works...

I was going through the graphics I used in working on my kit and found that I had misread the original designer's TOU for a couple of the key elements of my kit! :( So I'm putting it on hold until I can find or make some replacements because the last thing I want to do is violate someone's copyright. We already have too much of that going on these days. I'm not sure when I'll be able to finish it now, but I'll keep working on it. I'm just glad I caught the mistakes before I posted it...

Working on a Kit of My Own

This is just a little preview of my very first kit. Something a little sparkly and swanky for New Year's. The papers are done, I'm working on getting the elements finished tonight, tomorrow I'll start the alpha set - so hopefully I'll have it posted by this weekend. Yes, it will be free...and the list of credits will be longer than my arm ;)

Can't wait to get it finished so I can share it with everyone!

A Great Way to Scrap a Day Trip

We went to the Cleveland Zoo and Rainforest back in April and I'd been trying to figure out what to do with all these pictures ever since. Originally, I had planned to do one or two per page and make an album. But while looking through my stamp collection last night I had a spark of inspiration - Stamp sheet!

Instead of the normal 12x12, I made this one up as an 11x14 so I can have it printed and framed.

The stamp frame is pieced together using this free stamp frame set from Papier Pieces.

My Christmas Angel

When Amanda tried on this dress the first time, I said she looked just like an angel. So I couldn't resist making this layout. :)

Kit used is Golden Nativity, with the exception of the wings which came from Good Sleep (this kit is going to be retired soon).

A Gift for Those Who Drop By :)

I make no claims to being a great designer, but I've always enjoyed playing with graphics even long before I got bit by the scrapping bug. So after playing around in Paint Shop for a while, I came up with a pretty set of grungy, glittery papers. I offer them to you all as a freebie. It's not much, but still nice to share :)

Here are the previews:

Part 1 is a nice grunge set in 5 colors.

Part 2 has a grunge checkered overlay.

Here are the download links. I'm a Mediafire newbie so let me know if there are any problems with the download.

Part 1

Part 2

Hope you enjoy these papers as much as I enjoyed making them. If I get a good response on this, I might make some more freebies. We'll see how it goes.

Random Act of Scrapping :)

My sister-in-law and her fiance have been having a bit of a rough time lately. He was assaulted and spent several days in the hospital. Someone hit him over the head and caused bleeding on his brain so things were a little dicey for a bit there. I wanted to do something nice for her because she's been there for my husband and I when we've needed it. She loves Americana and birdhouses so I found the perfect kit and embellished a picture of her and Shawn, had it printed out and framed it in a nice distressed frame. I took it over to her this morning and we both ended up being a bit misty eyed. Feels good to have a hobby that can brighten another person's day :)

The kit is "Empty Nest" by Snickerdoodle Designs, a PTU kit you can purchase here

Jack & Brandon

Hubby and the baby. Brandon was 2 months old in this picture. Unfortunately, we were getting ready to go a funeral when this was taken, but I couldn't miss the opportunity to get a picture of my man in dress clothes ;) What a proud Papa!

The Kit is Miki Ferkul's Midsummer Dream

Toothless Grins :)

Been a busy past couple of days, but finally got a chance to make another page and get it posted. Found the word art on Donna's blog (thank you again, Donna for your wonderful freebies) http://donnasdigitalcreations.blogspot.com/2011/09/freebie-for-today_18.html .
The kit is "The Sweetness of a Summer Day," a freebie you find here: http://lapucedesign.blogspot.com/.

That smile wont be toothless for long, though. He's currently got 4 teeth trying to break through. I'm thinking by the time he has teeth, I wont have any hair left to pull out. But I wouldn't trade him for his weight in gold...

My Smiley Guys

My sons; 4 month old Brandon in the larger picture and Cody, who is 16 now (where does the time go?). I love their cute little grins. They were both about the same age when the pictures were taken, right around 3 days old.
The kit is "Inner Storm" from Creative Victorian Designs. http://creativevictorian.com/boutique/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=129&products_id=1706

Playing with color settings

I took this picture of my Step-Daughter Brittnie at a company picnic last year. After watching the movie "Pleasantville" one night, I got the notion to make a picture similar to how they used color in the early parts of the movie. This is the final result:

The kit used is "Black and White" from this blog: http://moja-grafika.blogspot.com. I re-colored a couple of the elements and added scan of the frame I had originally purchased for the picture.

A Couple More Scrap Pages

This is my Mom with my son Brandon - Look at that happy little baby, he's too cute!  The kit I used to make it is called "Ombre et Lumiere" from this site: http://www.digiscrapbooking.ch/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=22_26&products_id=6515

My Niece Denielle posted a pic on Facebook last night and the pose was so perfect I had to embellish it. I like the way it almost makes her look 3D, like she could reach right out of the frame. Kit used is "It's Five O'Clock" from Digitalcrea:  http://digital-crea.fr/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=129&products_id=8317

Pachelbel's Cannon in D

 

This is my favorite song, and possibly the most beautiful thing I've ever heard. I wanted this song to be played at my wedding, but we ended up getting married at City Hall, so I'll settle for having it played at my funeral :)

My Favorite Scrap Designer

I absolutely LOVE Miki Ferkul's kits! Check them out here:

http://shop.scrapbookgraphics.com/Miki-Ferkul/

Her designs are absolutely gorgeous, so naturally they comprise half my wish list at Scrapbook Graphics. The first kit I bought was "All Hallow's Eve" and used it to make this page.

That's my husband, Jack, and our youngest daughter, Amanda. The smaller pictures are of him helping her get ready for Trick or Treat.

Is it still Scrapbooking if You Don't Journal?

I just got into digital scrapbooking a few months ago. I had seen the paper scraps in Jo Ann Fabrics and Wal-Mart, but knew if I ever got into that, I'd bury myself under all the clutter (yes, I'm a bit of a packrat if I don't keep it under control). But I had always enjoyed working with graphics in Paintshop Pro so I thought "why couldn't I do it digitally?" Lo and behold, it turns out there's a whole section of the interwebz carved out and devoted to Digiscrap! I've been like a kid in a candy store ever since digging up freebies and spending my petty cash on layout kits.

I'm not sure if what I do still counts as scrapping though. It seems most scrap pages have some type of journaling. Maybe I'll just call it "photo embellishing" :)

At any rate, the picture above is of Glenna, my wonderful Mother-in-Law (I was blessed with one of the GOOD ones, if not the best!), my nephew Mason and my son Brandon who was three days old in this picture. The kit I used is Botanical Bliss from Raspberry Road Designs (probably the last kit I'll ever buy from them, but that's another story and I wont go there).

First Post

I'm really writing this blog for myself, but if anyone else wanders by and gets something out of the time spent here, then that's a win/win and it'll make it all worth it. 

Basically I'm just looking for a place to share a collection - Digital scrapbooking pages, art and pictures I find interesting, pretty things that catch my eye and whatever else ends up in these posts.  I wanted something a bit quieter and less cluttered than my Facebook page.

So if another warm body happens by, say hello and enjoy your stay. I'm going to go digging through my files and start looking for things to post - the walls are a bit bare here :)