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Week ending 3-7-09 Journaling reads:

3-1-09       It was a wonderful day but the kids were a bit cranky.  I pulled out the floor puzzle they got for Christmas but never used.  It worked for awhile in distracting them but then they started fighting.     3-2-09 It seems lately I simply must finish the day with ice cream of some sort.   3-3-09  Jayden knows she’s not allowed to touch my laptop.  Her way of getting around that rule is to use my fingers to push the keys.  She thinks it’s really fun.  3-4-09          I had a rare day off.  We went to Lowe’s and ordered our new dishwasher and bought a new toilet.  After that since the kids were so good we went to IHOP.  Trevor insisted on staring at the people behind us and got irritated when we wouldn’t allow him to keep looking.  He pouted through most of our lunch.  For the most part they did really well.   3-5-09     I went to the hospital to see _____, ____’s new baby.  _____ is my lead retail associate.  I will miss her dearly while she is on maternity leave.  _____ is so tiny, only weighing 5 pounds 9 oz at birth.       3-6-07  I have more variety in glasses that I wear every day than I do shoes.  One of the dangers of working in the optical business.   3-7-09     Trevor seems to enjoy showing of for my new camera.  This is my favorite picture I’ve taken so far.

 

Week ending 3-14-09

Well thankfully you can read the journalling in this one.  I went to open it so I could cut and past and I didn't save after doing the journalling.  Grrrrr I'm glad I at least saved once I got all the pictures set, it took forever to do!

P365 Layout week 1

My one and only New Year's Resolution

I'm way excited about an idea I found off of CreatingKeepsakes.  It's called Project365.  It's a way to document a year by taking a photo every day.  A kit by Becky Higgins is the focus of their project.  I was thinking about buying the kit, but knew that if it involve printing pictures in 4x6 fashion I would never do it consistently.  It's perfect for those who work with prints but I was thinking I wanted to do it digitally and was thinking it would be cool if a digital designer would make templates.   I was over the moon excited tonight to sign into my LiveMail blog feeds to find Meredith at Moriginals is creating templates for just that purpose.

And.... One of my favorite designers, Pam at Digitreats is doing a year in review "megakit" in 3 color schemes called, smirk, giggle, and shout.  And she does a monthly calendar template which I will use at the start of a new month so my book will all co-ordinate throughout the year.  So cool! 

And if I run out of ideas of what to take pictures of other than my smiling (or not so smiling) kiddos I found a list of 365 ideas to use. So I think this is a resolution I can keep.  I'm even setting daily reminder in my phonebook to remind me to take my pictures. 

Now I just need to get an Eye-Fi card make downloading pictures completely efortless!

Just playing around

Here's a digi-layout I did. No it isn't Trevor's birthday. It was just the picture I was inspired to scrap. I used freebie kit from Jenlin designs. I love her new bennymac kit. I used a part of her freebie. I'm planning on getting her kit soon. Alpha is jeans by MissScrap. I'm really trying to get motivated to scrap more.

Not that I need to prove anything

especially to myself. :o) Here's a digi layout I did of self portraits. So glad I digi scrap now. This took a long time as it was. I'm a little rusty. But to do something like this on paper... Gah! The my OCD tendencies would have prevented me from accomplishing this in any less than 2 weeks!




Credits: fonts: Hootie! Books, and Cats. Kit: Freebie of course Sara Carling SweetRubbish

Put down the mouse and back away from the freebies

Before I ramble on... don't forget to scroll down in the next week or 2 because I'm going to be posting a bunch-o-stuff. Lot's of things that I've saved as drafts and just need to add pictures. I'm lazy like that don't ya know!

I admit it, I'm a junkie. I'm completely and totally addicted to downloading scrapbooking freebies. Do I use them? Yeah on a limited basis but not nearly as much as I'd like to. I tell myself it's because I don't have time. But if that is really so, how come I spend so damn much time downloading them.

I need to join a support group. It would be called "Collectors Annonymous" I'm sure there's one out there somewhere. It all started when I was little. I collected horses and teddy bears. Then I discovered crafting so I collected yarns and such. It all broke loose when I worked in a fabric store after I started quilting. So then I collected fabric. One fateful day I attended a creative memories party and boy oh boy was I in trouble. It started very innocently with a few small essentials. Very quickly it all spiralled out of control. I would hate to even guess how much money I've spend on scrabooking supplies over the years.

Did I use them? Not as much as I'd have like to. Hmmm I'm seeing a pattern here. I think my passion is not neccessarily the act of scrapbooking. It's the act of collecting and organizing. I'd spend days getting ready for going to a crop. I'd come home with just a couple layouts and spend days reorginizing my space. I'd do a layout or 2 then reorganize again.

I've slowly parted with parts of my old collections. Quilting fabric has been given to my mother in law. I can visit it if I want to. :o) Maybe someday I'll pick up quilting again when I have more time. Teddy bears are going to be passed on to Jayden. Her room is a teddybear theme. Some of my scrapbooking stuff has been passed on to a few friends who scrapbook. Alot of it I'm keeping as it will have purpose in various crafting projects down the road with the kiddos. I'm trying to reduce the clutter in my house. I'm not a pack rat. Actually quite the opposite. My decor is rather sparse and I only get things that I truely have a need for. Unless I suppose it falls under the category of what I'm collecting at the time.

So I decided to take yesterday as a day for me and not lift a finger except for caring for the kiddos. And I actually followed through with it. My only non-essential effort was putting a few dishes in the dishwasher to make a load and turn it on. That's it. Otherwise, my rear was on my computer chair downloading elements. I got caught in the web that is the worldwide web. Just when I'd think I'd exhaust all of my normal haunts for freebies, I'd find a link to another. I didn't go to bed until 1:30! My back hurt and my eyes were glassy.

I told myself today I was going to just finish organizing the stuff I downloaded last night and not download anymore. I had big plans for today and a ton of housework I wanted to get done. I made good on my promise to myself. I didn't download anymore but my collections are uber organized now. I love my digiscrap organization system. Maybe one day I'll share my secret. I can see at a glance what I've got and where it's stored. I'm very thankful for dual layer DVD's and XP that lets you print contact sheets of files! Did you know you can put 35 thumbnail pictures on each 8 1/2 x 11 sheet?

Well for all my digiscrap friends, here are a few links to a few of my favorite haunts for freebies:

A few new ones I found last night:
http://justforthescrapofit.net/gallery/
http://www.godigitalscrapbooking.com/photopost/showgallery.php?cat=657
http://www.stoneaccentsstudio.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=23 (be sure to sign up for their newsletter)

A few of my old fav's:
http://digitalscrapbookplace.com/place/freebies.shtml
http://www.scrapbook-bytes.com/chat/local_links.php?catid=5
http://www.scrapartist.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=538
http://peppermintcreative.com/index.php?main_page=downloads
http://digiscrappin.beyondthedistantstar.com/
http://theshabbyprincess.com/downloads.asp (Her work is my favorite!)
http://www.3scrapateers.com/gallerypp/showgallery.php/cat/559
http://www.thedigichick.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=120
http://www.pagesoftheheart.net/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=566
http://www.designerdigitals.com/ddgallery/showgallery.php?cat=531

Father's Day Creation

I made this for Travis for Father's day.

Evolution of a Scrapbooker

I'm cleaning out my inbox and someone sent this to me awhile ago. I thought it was cute and oh so true! I had to add a few at the bottom. :o)


Evolution of a Scrap Booker
1. "Cut a picture? You've got to be kidding!"
2. "Well those sure are cute pages. I'm not that creative."
3. "You have IDEA BOOKS? Let me see."
4. "I guess I'll need an album, some adhesives, and paper."
5. "Oh, and I'll also need some templates, stickers, die cuts, & one
of those trimmer things."
6. "I can't get my page to look exactly like the one in the book!"
7. "You mean I have to write in my album I will need some pens. What
should I write?"
8. "I finished my first page. Do you like it?"
9. "You know I have a ton of zoo pictures, and Jr. needs his school
pages done; I need another album & some more paper."
10. "You have printed paper? And precut paper? I'll take one of
each!"
11. "NEW STICKERS? I'll take some!"
12. "NEW DIECUTS? I'll need those!"
13. "A NEW TOOL! I NEED THAT!"
14. "A NEW IDEA BOOK? GIVE ME THAT NOW!"
15. "Wow- even bags and binders to get my supplies organized? I
definitely need those!"
16. "Sorry honey, you'll have to make dinner- I'm off to a crop!"
17. "Clean socks are in the dryer!"
18. "HOLD IT! I HAVE to get a picture of that for the scrapbook."
19. "Would you please wear this shirt? I have the cutest paper to use
in my layout and that will match perfectly!"
20. "YES, I came up with the idea myself."
21. "YES, That is my own handwriting."
22. "YES, I make time to scrapbook."
23. "Honey, we need to add a room to the house for my Scrapping
room."
24. "Life is crazy. I just need to crop!"
25. Tax time: "Yes, scrapbooking is a medical deduction-it's my
THERAPY.

My additions are:
26. We have to take the kids to ______ it would make such a good page in the scrapbook.
27. Wow, you can make scrapbook layouts with the computer?
28. Countless hours and late nights spent downloading page elements for digital scrapbooking.
29. "I must have this new computer program!"
30. More time spent downloading elements than actually using them to create.
31. "Honey, I know I just got that program but I NEED this new one because it does stuff my other program doesn't."
31. Purge through scrapbook stash to eliminate stuff I'll never use, keeping only the things that can be used for other projects or kids crafts.
32. Cry over the thousands of dollars wasted.
33. Smile thinking of the future thousands of dollars saved in supplies and photo developing.
34. Resist the urge to redo all the old scrapbooks in digital format
35. Scan in the tons of pictures floating around for future digital pages. With an added perk of being able to create slideshows.
36. Pass on the "hard copies" of scanned pictures once files are backed up in duplicate.

Photoshop magic!!!

I ~LOVE~ photoshop elements. I just learned how to take unwanted objects out of pictures and replace with background. This picture is the original of the picture in the previous post. I think it looks much better without my leg in it!

Here's the link to a tutorial I used

Trevor's Babybook

Here is a few scrapbook pages I've completed. I'm somewhat new to the digital scrapbooking realm so these layouts are fairly basic. But I tend more towards the uncluttered style anyway. There's a few pages that I have left out due to personal details. And I've edited some stuff out of the layouts such as our last name and stuff. But you get the idea of what they look like. I'm going to try and keep up with posting them on here so you all can see them. The kit I used is My Baby Boy Kit by Fee Jardine, a freebie off of thedigichicks site

If you click on the images you should be able to see the detail and read the journaling. Ok so maybe the print is tiny but if you click here you can go to the site where images are hosted and click those thumbnails and see a larger size. You will need to use password blakeyboy and the user id that prefills. This will sign you into the photo hosting site as a guest.

Invites I made

These were what I created for Trevor's invitations for his first birthday party. Created with Photoshop elements. Everyone commented on how nice they were and wanted to know where I got them. I'm pretty proud :o) I'm thinking I should start a business making invitations and holiday cards.