Entry without Pictures (or Ideas of how to get through my picture backlog.)

I've been making great progress on my goals. I took the month of February off and enjoyed working on the Love Album which was a lot of fun and was really a stretching and growing experience. So for March I decided to really focus again on my chronological back load of pictures. I like being able to pick great pictures that go with the kit I need to work on with my CT work but I also wanted to make sure I don't scrap the same pictures twice or leave an event out. So I came up with a great solution. The next album I needed to work on was the Family 2005 album. So first I checked my layout files and made a list of any 2005 events I had already scrapped. Then I went through my 2005 picture folder and made a list of each of the events that needed to be scrapped and the date. Now when I open up a new kit I've downloaded I can match it against my list of layouts needed for 2005. So I can feed my need for order and still be creative and work "out of order". I'm doing other current layouts here and there as well and when I get ready to work on that album straight through I can just mark off the events already completed. So if you are a bit OCD about wanting to create chronological albums but still want to be a bit creative this might be the solution for you.


Second decision regarding the 365 day project. I love it and really want to use all of DigiTreats great kits this year. So I decided that I wanted to take full advantage of all the great stuff that comes out during the month. I've had a couple of times where after I've finished the layout for the week the perfect element comes out. So my decision is that from now on I will wait until the end of the month and then scrap that month's worth of photos. I've also thought about doing a month in review layout as well and this would make the process really quick and easy. So watch next week for the final layouts for March. Then the beginning of May watch for a month's worth of April and so on.

Taking Time to Remember

I had a close moment during a worship service the other day. And for once I decided to take the time to record that memory. So many times we have moments that strike us as meaningful and we think we will never forget the feeling of that moment but we get busy and those memories fade. Because I think that remember is important I wanted to take the time this once to do just that.


The layout features Stacey Crossley's Spring Fling, Racketty Scrappety Template, and the fonts Script MT Bold and Snap ITC.

Pretty Scrappy Love Challenge

I have until March 5 to finish up the Love Challenge over at Pretty Scrappy but here are a few more of my favorites I've done so far.

Love Daughter -- Pretty Scrappy Love, Template Lyndsy Jane, Font Palatino Linostyle - I love this one because it really shows off all of Hannah's many moods.

Love Internet Friends - Teri and Stacey's Hankey Pankey, Just 2 More Text Path, Font Viner Hand ITC. I think it speaks for itself why I like it.

Love Nature - Stacey Crossley Victorian Gypsy, Andrea Gold Template, Font - CK Summer. I like this one because I was playing with my new camera and I really loved some of the shots that I got.

Love Groom - Creations by Rachel Family Matters, Andrea Gold Template, Font Gothic Century. Sharing why my husband was special to me almost 21 years ago.

Love Wedding - Creations by Rachel Family Matters, Andrea Gold Template, Font Gothic Century. The funny thing was as Hannah was looking over my shoulder while working on it. She kept looking and looking. Finally she ask who is that. Then she said well that looks like you but you are fatter. (ouch) But who's that with you. I said that's Daddy and she looked again and said but he has lots of hair and its red. Age is a terrible thing when pointed out to you by a 7 yo.

Love Smiles - Stacey Crossley Spring Fling, Liz Design Template, Font Arial Black. When Hannah was 17 months old she had to have her front 4 teeth removed because they had no enamel and were breaking off. It was replaced with a bridge. Within a few weeks she fell and bent the bridge and she had the cutest crooked smile. A couple of years later her bridge broke and had to be replaced. The boys missed her crooked smile. Well now its time for it come out to make room for her 2nd teeth. So I took a before and after picture and this layout was the result.

CT Just Passin' Thru - Storytime

I picked up this kit to work with the idea that I was going to use it for our library's storytime. But I forgot my camera and the next one isn't until April so I decided to try it with a couple other layouts I needed to work on. I was very pleased with the results. One of my favorite elements was the giant open book that you could add a picture and journal on the other side. This kit has lots of great ribbons, frames, and papers.

My first layout is Love Journaling. This was another layout for the Shaken n Stirred Love Challenge over at Pretty Scrappy. This one explains why I love to journal on my layouts. The font is Harrington.

The second layout is Love Zoos. And you guessed it this is another Love Challenge layout. This one features some old pictures of a trip to the zoo. It reminded me why I loved going to the zoo and I think I need to save up and renew our zoo passes this year. I used some of the techniques I have learned over the last few months. I have the giraffe leaning out of the frame, the birds have been extracted in color and laid over a black and white version of the photo. I used several of the papers to make a layered mat under one of the photos. The font is Algerian.

You can pick up this great kit HERE at DigiScrap Station. And finally here's a preview of the great kit.

CT for Stacey Crossley - Hankey Pankey

Stacey Crossley and Teri's Thing-O-My-Jig have teamed up over at Pretty Scrappy to make one great collaboration kit. It has so many cute elements that you just have to check it out.

I used this great kit to complete 2 more pages for the Pretty Scrappy - Shaken n Stirred Love Challenge. These two pages feature my love of Sunrises and Sunsets.

Sunrise uses a template from Andrea Gold and the font Candara.

Sunset uses no template and the font is Cafe Rojo.

You can pick up Hankey Pankey HERE.

CT Stacey Crossley - The Victorian Gypsy

Well I've taken on quite a challenge over at Pretty Scrappy. Its the Shaken and Stirred Challenge. The whole month will focus on the theme of love. You are given a choice of 4 words each day and you must make at least 1 layout per day with one of the words but you can do more of course.

I used Stacey's The Victorian Gypsy kit for the 1st two pages. I loved the rich colors and the great elements that can be found in this kit.

Page 1 is the cover page. I was even brave enough to put a current picture of myself. The font is Vivaldi.

Page 2 was for the word Family. I used an Andrea Gold Template and the font Kristen ITC. I used two pictures one of most of us at Christmas and one of Jacob who isn't at home.

You can find Stacey Crossley's The Victorian Gypsy kit HERE.

A Challenging Challenge

I haven't really spent much time over at GDS (Go Digital) but I do check Andre Gold's blog regularly because I love her templates. Well she is hosting a new challenge and if you used her kit there will be a posting bonus of 2 brand new template grab bags. So I decide to give it a try. Here's the link to the Spiritual Challenge. You were to do a layout about what is unpleasant in your life right now.

I started with an idea of what I wanted to do and as I worked on it I started feeling lots of stuff coming out but as I worked on I felt that still small voice speaking to me giving me a scripture verse that I hadn't really thought about in a while. As the focus of my layout seemed to changed I was tempted to take the other stuff off. Why leave that darker stuff if a great hopeful lesson was learned. But then I realized that the lesson was meaningless without the struggle that proceeded it so I left it all on there. It is really clutter compared to what I usually do but then life right now is cluttered and complicated.

The layout was created with Andrea Gold's My Imperfect Life kit. All of the elements and title words can be found in the kit. You can find the link on the challenge thread. The template is Andrea Gold template 309. The font is a new one for me Schol-Hudson Bold. The photo looking through the whole in the wall was taking in the backyard of the Oldest House in St. Augustine, FL. And in bold move I even included a very little picture of me. This was taken the same day at Ripley's Museum in St. Augustine.

Advent Starts

This is the season of preparing for those of the Christian faith. For me part of the preparing also includes reflection. Especially this year when we have been hit hard economically I still have much to be thankful for and more wonderful things keep happening everyday.

My goals for this season of preparing are to stop by and share one or more layouts each day and share some thoughts. Some days I might get more than one post and well knowing my life I might miss a day or two.

So blessings in the last few weeks that I want to be mindful of include both in real life friends and my cyber friends who have been as special to me as those IRL. So some recent blessing came in the form of a long call from a friend both IRL and online. It was wonderful to just have a great chat. An online friend has offered to send to barely used CD players for my youngest two one blue and one pink which is just perfect. My oldest called to say he was sending down a box of stocking stuffers since he won't be home for Christmas. A friend at church had some "extra" stocking stuffers that she didn't need for her grandkids and passed them on to me. My church is allowing me to work in the nursery 2 days a week for $50 and they even paid me for the day I was gone on a retreat. A wonderful retreat experience where I received the blessing of service to others. My #2 son agree to go on the teen retreat. Him having a good time and expressing that he was glad he went. Our church surpising us by paying his retreat fees. Friends who wrote him wonderful letters of encouragement. Another friend who gave us $100 in grocery store certificates when I know this represent a sacrifice on their part. The blessing of being on some really great CT teams who make very nice comments on my work. It really brightens my day. A great designer who decide to bless me with her newest kits for free because we have become online friends this year. My husband's paycheck that was just enough to make November's mortgage. A side job that he did that was almost enough to take #2 out to celebrate birthday #18. And for his brother who chipped in the $10 he earned this week taking care of the neighbors dogs plus his $10 Christmas bonus. Just when you think they are totally self absorbed the surpise you.

And the list continues. I pray that I keep my eyes open for the blessings that God is providing daily in my life.

Today's layout is Cousins. It was taken in 2003. Its funny to see how little they look back then. This was one of the last times we had all of them together. Now the oldest has his MA the youngest is 7. There as been a new cousin added and he is 2 already. The kit is Lisa Minor - Quilted. It is a beautiful kit with great papers and wonderful rich colors. I love everyone of her kits and find them to be great to use for a variety of layouts. Click on the side bar link for her blog and there you will find a link to her store Scrapdebris where you won't believe the great prices. To make hit easy click here for Scrapdebris. The template is Racketty Scrappity #56 and the font is Calligraphy.

And speaking of Racketty she has recently given birth to premature twins. One of the baby did not survive and the other is going through the roller coaster of NICU. She has a blog about her son Crew here.
Plain Digital Wrapper is offering a Charity Kit where all proceeds go to the family. It's a great deal at $10. It can be found here.

Look at My Wonderful, Wonderful New Design

Thanks so much to Hippo Scraps Design. She is having a great give away over on her blog. Click here for a quick trip to Hippo Scraps. Or if you look at the bottom on the left side you can click on her design blinkie. She used my blinkie to create this great blog look. I have been having a really tough time lately with everything that is going on. The last few weeks have been a real struggle so to be given this great new look was a real boost. I was so excited when I found out I had won one of the gifts I started scrapping again with new energy. I completed 8 layouts last night and once I finish checking emails and doing lesson plans I hope to get even more done today.

For those of you that come by for the freebies I have a kit I started and need to finish but right now I really need to focus on getting some layouts done. The next week will be really crazy as I have a board meeting on Monday, a doctor's appointment and evening meeting on Tuesday, my daughter has her Camp Fire class on Wednesday as well as Kid's Choir and my work in the church nursery. Then I will be on a Women's retreat Thursday - Sunday. So what ever I hope to get done will have to get done in the next two day.

Again a great big thanks to Hippo Scraps you made my day. Make sure you check out her site because even her paid services are very reasonable and the results are priceless. Just check on the blinkie on the bottom left side.

I Have A Blinkie

If you will take a glance to the left you will see that I am now sporting a Blinkie. I feel so offical now. Thanks to kjconners designs for this great blinkie. I'm so excited. We had a great field trip Monday and I hope to great a kit from some of those pictures. I have a really busy couple of weeks so be patience but something new will be coming as soon as possible I promise. I have to design more now that I have a great blinkie right? Need a blinkie of your own click on the blinkie below to head over to KJ Conners blog for pricing and other information.

I hope to be back with more freebies soon

My off site back up is down to about a week more of backing up. Then I can get back to designing and scrapping. I've been trying to really limit my computer time and them just mostly to check emails. I'll be so glad when these is done but it will be nice to know that what I have created is a bit safer. I do have a few Digitreats add-ons just about ready to go so I should be able to get those up quickly. I'm pretty I won't make the collaboration kit for September worked on but we'll see. I've also started my first completely original kit that I can't wait to finish up and share with you. So I do promise more will be coming soon.

Public school starts back up next week here so hopefully we'll be more consistent in our own homeschooling.

So by the end of the month back ups should be done and creating should have gotten a new start.

More Freebies Coming Soon

I have been working on some new stuff both totally my own and DigiTreat add-ons and hope to have them posted soon. But after several of my designer friends have computer failures and virus and loosing lots of stuff I decided to take out "insurance" by backing up to a remote site. I know I'll be glad when its done but the first major back up takes forever as in days and days to accomplish. To try and speed things up I'm trying to keep computer time to a minimum so I can leave the back up speed at full. And because of my low amount of RAM the max my machine will accept PSE will not really run at all unless I complete stop the back up process. I know this because I locked it up Sunday night trying it. So I promise more freebies soon and if the back up is still running this weekend I'll pause and get something done this weekend as its my only Saturday free for the next several months.

I figured I'd better give my subscribers and new visitors a quick update.

Layouts for the Crazy Diamond

Crazy Diamond has a great new kit called Believe. I created two very different layouts using this kit. The first layout is from Palm Sunday 2006. The font is Calligrapher.

The second layout is from an average day of doing school at Harbor Light Academy. The journaling font is CK Keystroke. The title font is Copper Plate and makes use of clipping a paper from the kit with the text.

I created my own journal boxes for both sets. I used parts of both kits and the add-on. Make sure it check it out its a beautiful kit and was fun to work with.

Well I tried ScribeFire and I like being able to move the pictures around but the way the pictures uploaded when you click on them you don't get a larger image which I don't care for. So I think the solution will be to upload and write on the regular blogger page and then reopen in ScribeFire and do any editing I want for the pictures and such.


WHAT HAPPEN TO THE FREEBIES:


And for those who have discovered my blog with my freebies I do plan on doing more. I would like to be able to post something at least once a week. I will continue to do things with the ADSDesign group, DigiTreat add-ons, and some of my own creations. I will be participating in a retreat in November as part of the leadership team which will mean most of my Saturday's will be taken up between now and then. So I need to come up with a different schedule to make time for scrapping, designing, school with the children, fixing dinner, and keeping the family in clean clothes. If I can prod the boys into taking care of the rest of the stuff I might just make it work. I will have a freebie August 1st as part of the ADS Design set. In the meantime I hope you enjoy my layouts.

Sorry I've been MIA

Things are going to be rather hit or miss over the next few weeks. My 17 yo who I suspect of having sensory issues for a while is finally having some more visible symptoms in the form of some muscle ticks. We have an appointment with my doctor in a couple of weeks. I think that this will be a blessing as we'll finally have something on paper that may help him get more help to complete his studies at the VoTech. But I have been gather medical records from his pediatrician, eye function evaluations, auditory evaluations, and hospital records from a head injury he had as a toddler. This will be the first time everything has been gathered into one package which I think will really prove to be beneficial.

In the meantime my 13 yo has expressed an interest in attending the local public military school for high school. Not sure how I feel about this complete but toward that end of making sure he's well prepared and well grounded before he goes off to a school setting I decided we need to change things up. So I've ordered some new things and as soon as it gets here I'll been spending a few days getting it input on the computer so he can get started as soon as possible.

So yesterday I decided I really needed to have a scrapping session. I actually got 6 pages done for our 2006 school album. I plan to show them off in pairs so this will be the 1st of 3 entries today.

This first layout today is a page to highlight Jacob's trip to Africa to spend a semester there as an undergrad student. I created the background paper myself using colors from the elements set I was using. The Elements are from An Anonymous Life's Etosha set. I took the Africa shaped frame and lowered the transparency and then tucked the photos up under it. I was in such a hurry that I forgot to right now which font I used.


The second layout is from our field trip to the National Weather Station in Ruskin, FL. It was a really interesting field trip. The paper is from A Work in Progress's Baby Boy set. And I again forgot to write the font down.

I've Been Tagged

Well I've been tagged. I'll have to come back and finish all the steps but get started now and add more latter. Step 1 - Done
Step 2 - Random facts --- 1. I am a Florida native and on my dad's size since the late 1600's. 2. I saw snow for the 1st time when I was 44 years old. (now I'm 46). 3. I have 5 living children. 4 boys aged 25,17,13, and 10. 1 Girl 6. 4. I didn't get my driver's license until I was 22. 5. I love history and visiting historical sites. 6. I didn't start really liking coffee until I was in my 30's. 7. I'm an organized messy. I love order but never seem to be able to maintain it. I'm always working out a system to keep my clutter in order.
Step 3 - coming up.

Jacob's Application to MCC for African Jobs is in the mail

Well Jacob's application for the work in Africa went in Wednesday morning so I thought I would share another one of his African pictures layouts from the collection I did for his Christmas present. Like I said before I collected a bunch of stuff before I knew about giving credit and keeping track so no credit. Sorry. I love the simplicity of this photo. Because of the low level of Lake Victoria they would often loose power without warning and could be without power for a day or two. Because of that candles were a very important part of Jacob 's life the 4 month he was in Uganda. Coca-Cola was a very popular drink and according to an article I read one of the few words recognized in almost every language. In keeping with the simple theme of the photo I made the layout very simple too. I used a plain black background paper and a very simple journal box. I really loved the quote I found for this page.

Another layout from Jacob's book

Here's another layout from the book I made for Jacob. Since the Olympics will be starting soon here is a layout from one of his pictures taken in China. I really loved how this photo turned.

Flash Backs

I have decided that about once a week I'm going to share one of the layouts I did for my son from his travels. He started his word travels with two mission trips to the Dominican Republic with our church. These were life changing for him. He began to feel a pull to Africa. He was able to spend a semester than in 2006 attending the Christian University of Kampala in Uganda. He loved his time there and has long to return ever since. Since then he has been able to spend a month in South Africa and a month in China through programs with his seminary. He will be graduating in May with a MA in Mission and World Christianity. He is currently working on an application with MCC for a few positions opening up in Africa. So while he works on his application and waits for word if he has been accepted I will be sharing some of my favorite photos from Jacob's travels. Since I did these layouts before I really knew about keeping track of what I used I can give no credit to the papers I used. They were almost all Freebies. I hope you enjoy some of these early layouts I created.

I love this photo for several reasons. I love the fact that it was taken in Black and White. Some photos just lend them selves well to this. Second I love the contrast of the more traditional dugouts next to the more modern style boat. And finally I love the peacefulness to the picture. It just has a very reflective feel.

Stone Accent - Life's Musical Moment's Challenge

Well this one was a bit different. We had to make a layout with the #1 song from when we were born. This turned out to be more fun than I thought. We ended up looking up everyone's #1 songs. The funniest was Hannah's. The number one song the day she was delivered breech was Bootylicious by Destiny's Child. I thought that was so funny I included it on my layout along with both of our baby pictures.

I used Template Club Template #44. Booland Designs Serenity Spa available from SAS. I used 3 fonts - Song - Papyrus, Story - Georgia, Title - Arial Black.

Having Fun with True or False

I had challenged my homeschool group members to play along with a game of true or false. I made 3 statements about myself and ask them which they thought might be true and which might be false and why. As I was working on the Blast from the Past Challenge set for Queen of the Crop yesterday along with the 14 things about me challenge I got the idea to create a layout that answered the question of which things were true or false. I already had the Groovin' still open in the Editor and my albums still laying around to scan from so I decided to go ahead and make the layout. The 3 statements were 1. I was born in Clearwater, Florida. 2. In college I sang with a worship band. 3. I didn't see snow until I was 44 years old.
So here is True or False:

As I said I used the Groovin' paper set. The font is Eras Demi ITC. The only element not from Groovin' is the arrow sort of. The arrow its self is from Tiptoe studio's Dirty Day set but I layered it over with paper from the Groovin' set so it matched. The first question was sort of a trick questions because most people know I'm a Florida native and that I was born on the West Coast but Clearwater is the town north of St. Petersburg. So while the general area was correct the actually city was not. 2. I sang with the Worship band for one semester and then return that summer to go on tour with them. Since I wasn't coming back that let me keep the vest as a keepsake of my time with the group. We had a full praise band and about 20 singers. We wore blue jeans and oxford button down shirts. Most all of our music was original written by our chaplain Chris Hughes and one of the band members Mike Bryant. 3. While I had seen a few flakes in Florida I felt I hadn't really seen snow until we got to Norway. And yes I was 44 at the time of the trip although I turned 45 about six weeks after our return. So there you have the true and the false about me.