Snow Blush Collab

Love the collab at Plain Digital Wrapper this month! Snow Blush is such a gorgeous kit and it is free with a $10 purchase at the store.


Here was my contribution to the kit:




Happy Scrapping!

Published, Blogging, Template Challenge and Layout Share . . .

I was quite surprised to be selected for inclusion in the January issue of Scrapbooking.com. You can check out my article here on using not-so-perfect photos. Here is the feature layout made using Winter Breath by Southern Creek Designs.

I have been thinking a lot about blogging recently. Reading (stalking) digiscrap blogs used to be a large portion of my daily scrap time (and not just to hunt for freebies, although that was part of it). I had several that I followed regularly and now I can't even seem to keep up with blog owners I have a personal connection with. I wonder if this is just another phase of the digiscrapping addiction or if, as the tweet I saw the other day which I never got around to clicking on the link for said, are personal digi scrap blogs on the way out?

Blogs have been on my mind the last week or so mostly because I was entertaining the thought of starting a new one. I am intrigued by the Project 365/52 idea but with a twist. Project 365 would be a little much for me because, well frankly, I already take way more photos than I know what to do with. Project 52 seems a little more manageable. But I really wasn't entirely thinking about it in terms of just taking a picture a week. My twist I came up with was that I wanted the P in P52 to stand for prayer, as in prayers for my children. In theory, I think it is a good idea and one I would love to execute; a weekly picture along with a related weekly written prayer of my thoughts, hopes, dreams, fears, concerns and so on about my children. In practice though, I already have three other blogs I haven't been all that committed to keeping up with lately and day 8 of the new year is almost over and I don't have week one done yet or the blog setup.

What do you look for in a blog: Freebies (don't be afraid to admit it if that is the case, I have been there too)?, Layout Inspiration?, CT News Sales and New Releases?; or are you looking for something more? What direction would you like to see my blog take? Would you be interested in reading my prayers for my children if I put them on this blog or would you prefer this blog to stay just about digiscrapping?

OK, that's enough rambling for today. This month's free template for my template challenge is available here:


Here is what I have been scrapping:

This was done for the font challenge at Hummie's World using Deep by Southern Creek Designs


Free Fall by Southern Creek Designs


Bit and Baubles by Dani's Delusions:


Sparkle New Year by Southern Creek Designs


And here is what I have been designing . . .

Candy Wrappers: Flavor B


Candy Coatings: Cranberry Snow Alpha


Commercial use also available in my store.

And if you made it this far, I think you deserve a coupon. Hubby turned 35 today so enjoy 35 percent off at my store this weekend with a miniumum purchase of $1.50. CouponCode: BlogFan08Jan.

Don't forget to answer the questions about blogging in the comments here!

The Winners are . . .

Congratulations to the following scrappers who ALL have won a $5 Gift Certificate to Julie.Itis's store at Plain Digital Wrapper!

KikkinKreations
Anne of Alamo
Shayna
Cupcake - please let me know how to contact you!
Mountainmaid

Be sure to check out Julie's newest kits,

Boy @ Play

and Boy @ Play 2 while you are there.



Make sure you stop by Julie's blog too because she has a coordinating add-on and alpha free on her blog.

I made this layout using the freebie, the alpha from Boy @ Play and the dried flowers from Boy @ Play 2.

Win $5 and Spring It Quickpage Freebie

What a nightmare the 4Shared mess has been. Hope it didn't get your computer. I was able to catch it before it did any damage to mine fortunately. So in light of that, I have moved several of my items to a new file host, either box.net or for larger files, MediaFire. I haven't moved all of them because I just don't have time but if you see something you want and don't see an alternate link, just let me know and I will move it over to some place else for you.

I got my new version and MemoryMixer and am pleased. I will write a review about all the new things I love later. :D Right now though, I thought I would have a little contest. I won a $5 Gift Certificate to Julie.Itis's store and being the wonderful designer that she is, she gave me permission to give it away to one of my readers. Isn't that awesome? So I thought I would give you two chances to win. You can do either one of these or both for two chances to win. If you do both, just make sure you leave two separate comments, one for each thing you did. I'll pick a winner on March 22.

1) Create a layout with one of my quickpages and post a link in the comments on this post to where I can see the layout.
and/or
2) Go to Julie.Itis's store at Plain Digital Wrapper, pick out what you would spend your $5 on then come back here to this post and comment and tell me what you would buy and what pictures you would scrap with it,

Easy, right???? Now go, oh wait, don't go yet, I have a freebie for you too. This is from Julie's new kit Spring It.


Here is a little quickpage I made for you from it. (Hosted on Box.net.)


Here is my layout I made the quickpage from. I did it for the Ampersand Challenge at Hummie's World.


Happy Scrapping.

MemoryMixer 3 is here!

Or at least it will be on Wednesday. I am SO exicted.

It is available along with a special printable content bundle on QVC or http://www.qvc.com/ starting Wednesday and will be featured during the craft show sometime between 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. EST.

It won't be in the local stores and at MemoryMixer.com until March 5 though.

They will also be offering an upgrade option at the end of March if you just want to upgrade the functionality and not get the new content.

(Hope they don't mind me sharing this information from their newsletter but here is what I know about it . . .)

What is included with Version 3?

New & Improved functionality like . . .
Fill a Font
Background Builders
Project Patterns
Drag & Drop Photo Panel
Additional Photo Effects
Create Borders & Frames
Fit text to a Shape
View albums before you open them
Embellishment Search
Favorite Embellishments

It is loaded with lots of new content, including:
20+ QuickMixes
1000+ Embellishments
900 Backgrounds (300 in 3 sizes-giving you lots of flexibility)

Seems like my second quickpage was overlooked in my last post as the downloads for the first one are almost triple. So be sure you pick up this one too . . . FOR LINK OTHER THAN 4SHARED if you have concerns about 4Shared, please click here.

Digi-gathering Info

Doesn't this look fun?

If you are free that weekend, go here to find out more information!

Thank you, Julie!

Because of my computer problems, I have only the pictures I have taken in the last couple of weeks and the kits I have downloaded in the last two weeks. Boy, that kind of limits your scrapping ability! But never fear, I still got a page and a thank you card done this weekend.

Card Front:

Inside of Card:

I don't do too many cards and didn't know if you would want it as a quickcard or not so here is what I want you to do, head on over to Julie's blog and tell her how much you love the mini kit I used for this kit. She made it for me as the posting bonus for those who participate in my Themed Quote Challenge on thankfulness at Hummie's World this month. If 5 people leave her a comment, I will turn this into a quickcard for you. Don't forget to check out the quote challenge too so you can have this gorgeous mini kit yourself.

I also got this layout done today using Julie's Colorado Gold. My son and I had a little lunch date yesterday and there was a Tall Ship from Norway at the Inner Harbor giving away free tours.

You can pick Colorado Gold up at Plain Digital Wrapper if it strikes your fancy.

Speaking of Plain Digital Wrapper, CONGRATS to Miss Chris on making their site CT. I am so excited for you! I hope they know what a talented lady they have CTing for them!

Computer Woes, Announcements, a Challenge and a Prize

MIA
Sorry I have been MIA - I have been having computer woes for the past couple of weeks. Just when I thought I had it fixed it turned out the problem was more than the bad drive the bios hard disk test was reporting so I am having to send my computer back to the manufacturer this week.

Speaking of MIA, did you see Anita of Anita Designs (aka Nana's Attic) is back ???? I am SO excited. I love her stuff and have been a little worried about her since we hadn't heard from her for a while.

I Won at Digiscrap 101

So unfortunately, I haven't really been able to scrap since both of my scrapping programs (Memory Mixer and PSE) are on the dysfunctional computer. But I may have a remedy for only having my scrapbooking software on one machine soon. I won a copy of Memory Mixer on Digital Scrapbooking Day over at Digiscrap101. Have you checked that site out yet? Think Facebook for scrapbookers. It is a growing site but has so much potential for learning and connecting with other scrappers. If you haven't been by there you really should take a look.

Anyhow, back to my free software, I was wanting to get another copy for one of my other machines anyway because I had been thinking about letting my son have a go at digi scrapbooking. (He isn't allowed to touch Mommy's computer.) But I also have been thinking about getting a copy for my friend for her 60th birthday in a couple of weeks. She has said a couple of times she would like to have it. So what should I do, what should I do. . . I won the lite version but she really doesn't have a lot of time for freebie hunting so maybe I will keep the lite version for myself and buy her the full version since it has all those great scrapping supplies with it. Decisions, Decisions . . .

I was selected for a Quickpage Team
A couple of weeks ago there was an add at DigishopTalk looking for some quickpage designers for a collab kit over at Pretty Scrappy. The kit, Sunset, was so gorgeous I couldn't pass it up. After I submitted my pages for their collection, they invited me to join their new Quickpage Team. In addition to designing quickpages for their monthly collabs, I get to pick kits from the store, make a quickpage from it and then I can give the quickpage away on my blog for one week before it goes in the store. So that means more freebies for you!

Want this gorgeous mini?
As I mentioned, I haven't been able to design any quickpages for you, but the wonderful Julie of Julie. It is. was kind enough to design a gorgeous mini kit for my Themed Quote Challenge over at Hummie's World this month.



And all you have to do get this beautiful mini kit is to create a layout using a quote with the theme of thanks/thankful/grateful. Find out more about the challenge and some other quote suggestions here.

Hope you had a great DSD and are having a scrap-filled week with all your new stuff you got on DSD.

My Scrap Shop News

Want to win Memory Mixer Digital Scrapbooking Software?

Check out Digiscrap101.

Lovin' the designs by Julie. It is.

I finished two more pages in my nature album.

I took this picture at an outlet mall. The faded background is the original picture with lowered opacity. The smaller one is the same photo but I was playing with Virtual Photographer and really liked how the dreamy effect softened the photo. The elements for this are from Sultry Summer by Julie. It is.



For this one I used Canyon by Julie. It is. and a frame from the Country Roads Freebie by SKrapper Digitals. I actually took this picture quite by accident. I have been trying (rather unsuccessfully) to get some good mountain range pictures so had my camera out in the car while we were returning from my family reunion in WV. We were sitting in traffic (yes, traffic in WV, what's up with that???), and this is what I saw.


This next one was another one of those layouts I had been trying to get done for a while. It was the next chronological page in my son's baby book I needed to scrap. My husband took these photos when we first got our digital camera and was playing with the black and white setting so I had no choice but to have black and white photos. Usually, if I scrap in black and white I have a specific reason for doing so, so I was struggling with finding something that worked with these black and white photos but was still boyish enough for a children's layout. Then Julie released her new kit today, Oh Boy, and I had this layout done in no time. She's got a freebie mini kit which coordinates with the rest of the full kit on her blog tonight so be sure to check that out. It looks like the full kit is on sale right now for $2.00 too.


My Scrap Shop News:
For all those budding designers out there, My Scrap Shop made an announcement today you may want to check out.




Up for one more layout? I did this one last night. It was for a Template Challenge by Sine at Scrap Orchard I heard about it in the away challenges thread over at Hummie's World. I love mulit-photo layouts so I thought I would try my hand at this. I had to recreate the template in Memory Mixer because the psd files don't work in it. That really wasn't that hard though.

However, I found using a template for the first time to be a challenge actually. I kept thinking "I thought this was supposed to be quicker". I am sure it is for most people - so don't let me discourage you because there are some amazing templates out there. I personally love to admire all of them by Simply Sarah Designs and while I haven't used an entire template before this, have been inspired by some of Sarah's amazing photo arrangements and tried my hand at recreating them once or twice in my layouts. I personally found that I felt locked in and a little creatively limited with the use of a template. I kept going from feeling my layout was too plain to being too busy and felt like I spent three times as much time on the layout as I would have.

BUT this was a really great template (and my stressing was, I am sure, really just my quirky need-to-do-my-own-thing personality trait) so I would encourage you to give it a try yourself and see what you can come up.



I used Blossom's Welcome Kit by Booland Designs for this one.

Happy Scrapping.

News from My Little Corner of the Blog World

I have been so busy making gifts for you, I hadn't gotten around to sharing some news with you.

First - FishinmomDesigns now has her own store! You can now find her designs exclusively at http://www.fishinmomdesigns.com/. Plus all of her kits now include a Scrap-4-Hire (S4H/S40) license. All of her previous kits are there plus she has a new kit in the store called Lilac Papillion. The butterflies in this are just stunning!



Second - I got picked for another CT. This one is a site CT - so I get to hang out with all the wonderful designers over at My Scrap Shop. I have been following the venture into the design world of several of the designers who are there for a while so I am thrilled (and still a little shocked) to have been selected for their new site CT.

My first kit I got to work with was from MoveFearlessly Designs and is called Serenade.


Here is the tribute double-page layout of my Great Aunt I made last week following her funeral. This kit was just perfect for a heritage layout.




Third - For those that requested the information about getting started with digital scrapbooking that I had prepared for my class, you can now find that here:

http://www.newtodigiguide.blogspot.com/

I know the name is a little long but the one I wanted was taken already. The site is still pretty basic as far as deign but all the info is there - including the price comparison I did for printing options. There is a Table of Contents on the right side to help you get around.

Have a great rest of the week.