At the Honey Run Waterfall

We went hiking at the Honey Run Waterfall in Knox county, Ohio a few months back. It might only be a fraction of the size of Niagara Falls, but it was one of the prettiest waterfalls I've seen. It's not very well advertised and sits off a back road in the middle of nowhere. I had just got my new Canon dSLR so I took a lot of pictures to play with all the different settings.

I made the top layout with Miki's The Grove kit.

The second layout was made with the kit Mossy from Scrapgirls

Another gift for those who wander in :)

I'm offering as a gift the papers and alpha that I had put together back when I tried to make my own kit. Some of the base elements require the purchase of license so those are on hold for the moment but rather than let the papers and alpha gather virtual dust on my hard drive, I decided to go ahead and share them with you now.

So here are the previews:

There are six papers in the set sized 12x12, 300 ppi

The alpha includes 26 capital letters plus , . & ( )  ? and numbers 0 - 9

Please let me know if the are any problems with the downloads. 

Midnight Glitz Papers

Midnight Glitz Alpha

Enjoy :)

So peaceful...

I can't resist snapping pictures of Brandon when he is asleep. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to sleep that soundly?

This was an easy layout. The papers were already beautifully stacked and embellished. I just had to frame the picture, add a few more stars and the "peaceful" tag, and add a wee bit of text. I think it took me all of ten minutes to make (five of which was looking for a font I liked).

Kit used: Moonlit Nights
Font is Tall Paul from dafont

Back to scrapping after technical difficulties...

I love my big beast of a computer, but in PC years, it's a dinosaur. A few months back it started crashing on me, then eventually it refused to come on at all. I would push the power button and it would just sit there and beep. Took a bit of sleuthing to track down the issue - the RAM chips were fried. But hey, good excuse for a memory upgrade :)

So now the beast lives again and I'm back to indulging in what is quickly becoming my favorite hobby...


Last Saturday was such a beautiful Fall day that we decided to take a road trip and ended up at the Marblehead Lighthouse on Lake Erie. I took this picture of my youngest daughter as she sat on the limestone rocks and watched the waves roll in. I think the picture has a very dreamy, hopeful quality to it that I hope I've managed to convey in this layout.

The kit is My Beach
The mask used can be found here
I got the quote from this handy website (I always seem to find a quote that says exactly what I need here)
The font is Treasure Map Deadhand which can be downloaded at UrbanFonts

Frog Prince

Brandon will always be my little froggie. When we brought him home from the hospital, he was such a tiny little guy. When you changed his diaper, he would have this big milk belly, skinny little hips and no butt. He looked like a frog laying there waiting to be diapered. So everything became frogs - his bedding, his stuffed animals, even a lot of his outfits tend to have frogs on them somewhere. Can't wait until he's old enough to sit still and let me read him a bedtime story, because I've got the whole collection of "Frog and Toad"...

The kit is "Night Butterflies".

Forced to Take a Few Days Off Work... Time to Scrap!!

I've hardly had time to sit in front of my computer lately, between work and running here and there with the kids. But I had a bit of a scare this morning. I found out 2 weeks ago that I am pregnant again, but this morning I had what the doctor called a "threatened miscarriage." Scary words to hear when you're expecting. He put me off work today and all next week with strict instructions to relax - just what I needed.

So I'm taking this time to catch up on working with some of the kits I've bought or otherwise stashed away on the external hard drive.

I made this page on Paint Shop Pro 10, which came as a freebie trial with Paint Shop Pro 9. Wow, you can sure tell the difference from how Jasc and Corel handled the program. With Jasc, everything was user friendly and easy to work with. But since Corel took over the franchise, they've needless complicated everything and moved things around that never should have been mucked with. I'll continue to use the older Jasc versions, thank you very much!

I'll get down off my soapbox now...

Mom got some peaches at the store about a month ago. She let Brandon have a bite and his reaction was so cute I had to get out the camera. He had just got his front teeth and every time he would bite into it, the juice would run down his chin. I love watching little ones react to new things...

The kit used is "Sweet Peaches".

I'm sure I'll be posting more over the next few days :)

I'm Still Here...

I'm still here, but I'm finding that Summer is a very hard time to try to scrap! But it's a wonderful time for getting lots of great pictures so that I can spend the cold Ohio Winter snug in front of my computer making lovely digital pages to share with everyone. We've been working, taking day trips, building a koi pond - by the time I sit down at the computer, I doze off within a few minutes :)

So I'll be posting a bit here and there. I have a really nice alpha that I made that I keep meaning to post as a freebie, but just haven't had the time to sit down and make the preview .jpeg and get it uploaded. Maybe if it rains next weekend, I can take another break from pond building and get that posted.

I got a really nice Canon dSLR and I'm saving for a decent macro lens so I can start making my own elements. I don't expect to ever be a "Designer", but it would be nice to try my hand at making some kits and sharing them.

But, I have to find time for all this first. Anyone know where I could borrow some spare time?


The scrapbook page above is my Mom getting to meet her new grandson Brandon for the first time. It was made using Blushbutter's Baby Boy Heart Strings Kit.

A brother is friend given by Nature...

This was taken the day Brandon was born, July 13th 2011. His big sister Amanda is holding him for the first time and he looks very content.  She has been a big help with the baby, even though he gets a hold of her hair sometimes and wont let go, what else are little brothers for? Every time he sees her, he has a big smile for her.

The picture is a still frame taken from video, and thankfully the flip camera takes nice clear images that translate well into scrap projects :).

The kit is Veronica Spriggs' Raw Umber. I fell in love with this frame and bought the kit for that alone, but once I unzipped it, I found there were so many beautiful elements inside.

Asleep in Daddy's Arms...

Hard to believe it's been 6 months since this picture was taken. This was at a company picnic at Malabar Farm. We were waiting to start the tour of Louis Bromfield's house. Brandon looks so sweet, sound asleep on his daddy's shoulder.

Kit used is Tik Tak Tik Tak.

Edit October 8, 2012: Unfortunately the Shabby Pickle Shop has been closed so the above link is dead. The designer who made this kit can also be found at this shop, but I do not see this kit listed under the available products...

Brandon's First Trip to COSI

In Columbus, Ohio there is a place called The Center of Science and Industry (COSI). It is an interactive science museum where kids can have fun and learn about the world them at the same time. It's pretty fun for parents, too! :) We took a road trip there a couple of weekends ago. The girls had a blast, both rode the high-wire unicycle and got their hair mussed up in the wind tunnel. Even though Brandon wasn't really old enough to understand what he was seeing, he was fascinated by everything. The space exhibit had a small remote controlled lunar lander that flew around the ceiling and he loved watching it buzz around. Poor little guy missed the last exhibit hall because he fell asleep. We'll have to take him back to it when he's a few years older.

The scientific notation paper and ribbon element are from the kit "Nerdy by Nature" from this blog.

Finally Finding Time to Blog Again...

Going back to work was hard, even though I knew it was best for my family. But even though it means bills paid on time and more money for fun stuff, it also means less time with the people I love and doing the things I love. It's getting less hectic now that the new routine has been established, so I've found little bits of time here and there when I can work on my scrapping hobby. :)

My girls are both in band, Brittnie plays the sax and Amanda plays trombone (it's almost as long as she is tall!) They had a concert back in January and Amanda had to wear a formal dress for her part of the show. I always enjoy helping her get ready for things like this and she looks so beautiful that I can't help taking a few pictures! :) 

The kit is Tragedic Opera which can be purchased here.

So tired...

Had to go back to work, after almost 2 years of being a SAHM and college student. I'm doing really well, but I'm very tired and sore by the time I get home. Hasn't left me much in the mood for scrapping though, at least until I get used to it so I don't come home feeling like I've been thrown under a bus.

But we're having a pretty good snow storm tonight and a day stuck inside would be a perfect excuse to launch PSP  ;)