Some More December Daily

I have been working madly on the many projects I've got going this month - here's a sample of life as told in my December Daily album:

Here's the front of day seven's page - a shameless scraplift of this page from Ali's book.


Here's the back side. The pictures weren't so great, but I am working with what I've got, so...


Skipping ahead... here's day 13.

And day 14 - you'll notice that I finished the advent calendar. YAY!

And day 15.

Day 16 - Seriously cold!



Day 17 - One of my favorite pages so far (along with day 7). I made the angel ornaments for friends. I have taken their names of the page for display. Internet security, you know... This is actually a 2-page spread. The split comes about 2/3 across the photo.

Well, Christmas draws ever closer. We're pretty much ready. Are you?

The Best Digital Scrapbooking Site You've Never Heard Of...

Or maybe you have heard of it. But, it is my new fave digital supply shoppe. Why? Well, because of the challenges, of course!

See, Elemental Scraps has these rocking scrapping challenges. They're fun to do - so you should definitely try one or two. A couple of my favorites are the Scrapjack Challenge where you get a specific formula for finishing a page, and the Flip It, Flip It Good Challenge (and I love the Devo reference, don't you?), where you scraplift a page and rotate or flip the design. Very fun. And let's talk about the Bits and Pieces challenge - you get a FREE mini kit and the challenge is to design a page using only pieces from that mini kit...like this one I did:

 

Created using Bunkbeds Mini by Erin Keith

So, besides helping me get a ton of pages completed in a short amount of time, I also earn cash money for completing the challenges! Yeah, you heard me right. Cash! Hang with me.

Each challenge is worth 5 points.

There are 20 challenges per month.

So, if you complete all the challenges you earn 100 points.

And....each point is worth 5 cents.

Complete all of the challenges and you could earn $5 in ES cash every month. Now, I know that may not seem like a whole lot of money, it will buy you one whole kit (or 5 if you wait for Dollar Days!). So, that's a kit that cost you nothing but time spent scrapping, and you were going to do that anyway, right??

Like I said. I love Elemental Scraps. What can I say?

And any of you out there that don't scrap digitally, I am available for private lessons! ;)

Continuing Education

I love learning new things. I love all things digital. I also love FREE! So, if you are anything like me - getta load of this:

Yeah, I'll be signing up on 10/20. 

Now for a layout to share. 

 

Created with Autumn Leaf by Pamela Donnis

 

This one celebrates my $5 Kohl's Door Hanger. I love that thing and look forward to September 21st every year so I can hang it up. It stays up until the day after Thanksgiving when the Christmas wreath makes its appearance. I really should get something for the other seasons, but I haven't come across just the right deal yet!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Given the current political and economic climate of late I decided that I needed to focus on my blessings. Here are a few:

 

Created with BeautyFall by eNKay Designs at enkaydesigns.com, nuts4digi.com, and digital-scrapbook-art.com.

Shades of Blue

I love blue. All shades of blue. I don't know why I am so drawn to the color blue, but I am. Party Boy even has blue eyes. :)

Here's a blue paper pack for you all. Moonlight Sonata.

Enjoy.

Coffee Talk

When I was growing up my parents did not drink coffee. My grandparents did. They drank it black.

I did not drink coffee. Even when Starbucks came to town I only drank hot chocolates and the odd cappuchino. Not really coffee. And never black!

And sometime after Small Fry was born my Mom went over to the dark side and started drinking coffee. I blame the pod machine that made custom coffee stocked in every flavor imaginable with unlimited cream and sugar supplied for free in her office at the time. French vanilla coffee with french vanilla creamer. Oh, it was good. And when I ended up at the office with her she introduced me to the beloved, wondreous coffee maker. Never mind that I was pregnant with Tater Tot at the time. I checked with the OB/GYN and one or two cups of coffee a day was approved and so it began. My on-again, off-again affair with coffee. French Roast with Irish Cream flavored creamer and three sugars. So what if it was more cream and sugar than cream? I needed the dairy - pregnant remember?

But then I left that office for another job. A job that sadly did not have a personal cup of coffee machine brewer. But there was a Starbucks next door. So the daily coffee habit became a twice monthly iced coffee habit. Starbucks is expensive!

And then I left that job and became a Stay-At-Home-Mom (SAHM) without a coffee maker. So the coffee habit died.

And then....my mother the dealer :) made coffee last Thanksgiving while we were staying at her house. Sweet mom made a cup the way she likes it for my sweet SSCB (Super Sonic Cheeseburger).

Two months later I had to go to Wal-Mart and buy a coffeemaker, French Vanilla Folgers and creamer because my husband was craving coffee. It is now a daily addiction for both of us. Sad. But, I still won't drink it black!

Now? McDonald's is my new dealer. Their vanilla iced coffee? Oh, it's GOOOOOOOOOOODDDDD! Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

I try to make it at home and can only create a pale washed out version that passes for iced coffee but it lacks the richness of the McDonald's version.

The point of this post? Thanking Mom for getting me addicted. Thanking Mom for getting SSCB addicted. And forcing me to buy a coffee machine. The first hit's always free, right?

And you want to know what the real injustice here is? Mom quit coffee! Can you believe it? Now she's pushing Chai tea! Oh, the humanity. Thankfully I can brew the tea in my coffeemaker. Mmmmmmmmmm, chai tea. With milk and sugar.

But I'll wax nostalgic on the chai some other time!!

:)

Here's a little Freebie for you!

Excuses, excuses

I apologize for the unexpected (and unannounced) hiatus. Life gets in the way sometimes, you know? I could come up with a ton of excuses, but, truth be told, I was catching up on some things I let slide... like housework, laundry, dishes. Nothing like a threatened mutiny of the rest of the household to reset your daily to-do list!

No, really, things weren't ALL that bad. Really, we have been busy with school and Junior Burger has decided to go and get all mobile and everything. That means I have to spend a LOT more time chasing him down and checking the floor for things like Barbie shoes and hair bands (not Motley Crue or Poison, silly! ponytail holders!). Okay, that was a bad joke...

We went to the Botanic Gardens last week. It was great fun! We had started out thinking that we would go to the zoo, but when we got there we noticed that people were parking over a MILE away from the front gates. So, we nixed that and decided to go on a day when the general public would be back in school. So shoot me, I forgot it was Spring Break and Good Friday to boot. Duh.

Anyway, here's a few pictures for your enjoyment, with apologies to any of you that are not experiencing spring yet...it is wonderful...I know you can't wait.



Was that exceptionally cruel?

Well, hopefully the belated appearance of the long-awaited Second City Elements will make up for it!

YAY!

Yes, the torn papers are part of the package. I really enjoyed this one. I am hoping to get some more designing done in the future. Mainly, I am waiting for inspiration to strike.

Enjoy!

P.S. Good Luck Mom and Bro in your race on Saturday!

P.P.S. Thank you all for your wonderful comments and support on my last post. It meant alot. I was really afraid that I was going to put people out when I posted that. Whew!

P.P.P.S. Erika - Thank you for being concerned about me. That was so sweet of you to check on me!

Sickness, Scrapping, and Thinking. Oh My!

This has been a challenging week in many ways for me. My little guy, Junior Burger, has been fighting his first bout of the "crud." So, he's not sleeping well and has been needing lots of extra cuddles and TLC. Thankfully he seems to be on the recovery side of things now and his outlook has improved dramatically. Yay!

The other challenge that I have been dealing with has been in relation to "the seamy underbelly" of the scrapping world. Scrapbboking has certainly changed since I started my hiatus back in 2003.

Maybe I was oblivious, but there seems to be more emphasis on the scrapbook "celebrity" now. Layouts need to have a certain "look" to avoid sharp criticism if they are published or displayed online. Many of the online communities have become quite mean. There seems to be a very real "us vs. them" thing going on here. The crafty scrapper vs. the simple scrapper, the kid page scrappers vs. the edgy scrapper.

It feels like for many, instead of enjoying their hobby there is a real need to scrap a certain way, be that like the LOs online, in magazines, or the way their fave celebrity scraps. Scrapping has become more about competition and the pursuit of perfection than about relaxing and recording memories.

It makes me sad.

I flatly refuse to endorse a certain style of scrapping. I can't anymore, because I think we all scrap for different reasons, don't we? I scrap for several reasons.

I scrap to record memories. I have seen too many old pictures where those in the photograph are no longer remembered. I look at these pictures and wonder why those people were there? What were they feeling? Was there a reason for the pictures? A birthday? An anniversary? A reunion? What was their life like? Pictures and (my sometimes too vivid) imagination have the power to transport me. I want to know what was going on, I can hear the echoing of laughter behind the image on the paper in front of me. It touches me. I want those that I love to have the answers to those questions when they look at my pictures.

I scrap to leave a legacy. What I wouldn't give to have a written record of my ancestor's lives. To know how they felt, what they thought about, their ideas, their dreams and hopes, their disappointments. I hope that someday a descendant of mine will stumble across my scrapbooks and be thrilled to get to know me. To see my life through my words and pictures on a page. To know me even through the distance of time in a way that I can never know those that came before me.

I scrap as a creative release. I love mixing colors and working a visual medium. Playing with the layout of a page, finding the right papers and elements. Striving to strike the right balance between decorative and focus on the pictures. Writing the memory down. Trying to capture the emotions behind the pictures.

I scrap because I love it.

We all have reasons to scrap. Maybe your reasons are the same as mine. Maybe they're different. Does that invalidate your pages, does that invalidate mine?

Not all of my layouts are one page, embellishment heavy, one word, single picture layouts. But I do have some of those. I also have tons of two-page, picture heavy layouts. I have a few that are mostly journaling because I had a story to tell.

Not all of them are worthy of being published, but that doesn't make them any less worthy of being made.

My biggest struggle this past week has been in trying to avoid taking a side. I think I have finally found the balance that I need. Part of this means that I have to take myself less seriously.

On the freebie side of things - I will still post freebies, though probably not daily. In using my own kits I decided that I want to make sure that what I am putting out there is high quality and usable. In order to do that I need to sit with my freebies and use them a couple of times to make sure that you all are getting everything that you need in my kits...

I'll be posting the Second City Elements early next week! (How's that for cutting to the chase?)

Looking Forward to...

I have gotten out of the habit of watching TV. Thank the writer's strike for that one.

We have mostly switched to watching movies. Or shows on DVD, like "The Office." When we've caught up on that one we'll start on "Lost" and "24."

Anyway, I am so psyched about this summer's movies. "The Dark Knight" for one. I have been looking forward to that one since I saw "Batman Begins."

I am also looking forward to the next installation of the Narnia movies. And finall, this week some good DVDs are coming out. I hate it when my Blockbuster Queue gets low because there's just noting good coming out. Of course it doesn't help that we tend to trade our movies in at the store all the time rather than mailing them back... but, there wasn't anything good on TV, so do you really blame me?

Here's today's freebie, the papers for the Second City Collection.

Scrapping Memories?

First, the Silly Bear elements:

Now for the bonus items! As I was scrapping yesterday I noticed that I wanted a few more things to go with what I had already created. So.......

Here is an add-on for Grungy Girl, containing a chipboard arrow, a chipboard frame, a paper scrap, a pink photo corner, and a set of paper strips.

Grab the burst-through photo frame from my Little Boy's Joy layout above - here!

The Office

How is it that I have missed this show? After hearing my Dad, my Brother, and my Pastor RAVE about The Office for probably 2 years I finally decided to see what all the fuss was about. And I am not the least bit sorry. We got season 1 and 2 on DVD from Blockbuster.

I Love The Office. I have laughed so hard. My sides hurt now.

I just finished Season 2 last night. Wow.

I can't wait to get Season 3. Seriously, it's like an addiction.

Anyway, here are the Silly Bear Patterned Papers.

Now go scrap. And watch the Office. You won't be sorry.

100 Miles!

I am so proud of SSCB - He has run over 100 miles since he started running at Christmas. What an accomplishment!

I think I have probably driven at least 100 miles since Christmas. He drives more often than I do. And we have elves to fill our gas tank, too. It's magic. I drive one day, and the tank is nearly empty. The next day it's all full again. But, I digress.

This kit is in colors inspired by my favorite cartoon character. Be aware, these only contain similar colors. There will be no images or anything to imply the images of the unspoken characters. Honestly, as much I would love to do a kit for these characters (and several others that my kids love) I can't because, well, let's just say that the copyright makes it cost prohibitive.

Hopefully someday the owners of all my favorite characters will release digital scrapbook kits containing my favorite characters. I think that they haven't yet because there are still so many issues in digi-scrapping with piracy. While these corporate conglomerates certainly have the incentive and power to go after pirates they probably are left asking if they really want to. I am holding out hope that someday the digital market will be big enough that we won't be ignored anymore by these copyright holders.

Until that day comes, please enjoy my Silly Bear kit.

Snow?!?

What in the sam hill is going on around here???

We must've gotten 3 inches of snow last night. Bizarre because on Saturday it was 80 degrees out. Of course it only stuck in grassy areas, and it will all melt off today. Still, it was fun to watch it come down. It's so peaceful.

And I know that all of you that live in snowy areas are aghast that I can speak that way about snow, which by now must be driving you crazy... Well, all I can say is that when you live in an area that gets snow about once a year, it's pretty exciting.

Don't hate me, 'kay?

Here are the Heritage Neutral Elements. It's a little smaller than my usual kit size, but it is all part of the grand plan...

Enjoy.

We had a great weekend!

I love weekends. On Saturday, we went to a nearby park and had a picnic lunch. Then Junior Burger and I walked around while SSCB and Small Fry and Tater Tot played. It was such a beautiful day.

After we played for awhile we went over to feed the ducks. Ducks which have obviously been overfed. Or have had a very bad experience with bread. Not sure which. Anyway, it was the first time in my life that I have seen ducks swim away from a free meal! I was shocked. SF and TT chased the ducks for quite awhile to try and get them to eat, but, alas, the ducks were so horrified at the thought that they ran from any human contact. I was sad. I love to feed the ducks. When they're appreciative, that is.


Yesterday I worked on my kit offering fo today a little bit and was able to surf the net. Then I went and shopped at CVS. I love CVS. I always spend too much money there though.

Today, I am proud to introduce my Heritage Neutrals Collection. I love using muted neutral colors in my heritage layouts to accent my black and white and sepia-toned photos. Somehow, brights just don't work for that.

P.S. Hi Mom! :)

Spending the Weekend Scrapping

I get to scrap this weekend. I have so much to do (don't we all?). I need to catch up on Junior Burger's book, start SSCB (that's Super-Sonic Cheeseburger, my DH) a race book, add some to the 2008 book... the list goes on.

I know there is a movement to get away from scrapping chronologically and start scrapping moments. I don't know. I like scrapping moments chronologically...does that make sense? I scrap events, and I scrap the day to day stuff that we do, I just like the pages in order. Am I missing the point here?

Here are the Race Day Elements. Just in the interest of full disclosure, the Race info piece does NOT have holes in it. I did that to add tot he interest of the preview. There is a safety pin in the kit (for pinning on the racing bib, of course!). I can post a tutorial on how to "punch holes" and how to "thread a safety pin" if needed. I just didn't want anyone to be disappointed that the stuff didn't come that way!

Errand Day and Who Says You Can't Get Anything for Free?

Oh, how I despise errand day. I do not like grocery shopping. Especially with the skyrocketing bill that seems to come with it these days.

After last weekends race I decided that I needed a kit that I could use to scrap SSCB's race pics, because he needs an album right? I mean, each of the kids has an album, but my poor DH is album-less.

So, I made this set of papers and some simple elements. I am sharing them here, well, because with the rising cost of groceries we all deserve a little something for free. Don't we?

The elements will be posted tomorrow and are very running specific, but I tried to keep the papers generic, although the colors were inspired by the colors of the racers clothing. There are three gradient papers in there too.

Hope you guys can use these!

Wednesday...what a day.

Does it feel to anyone else that the week is just dragging? Sometimes, by Wednesday, it feels like I have lived two weeks, when in reality it's been 3 days.

This is one of those weeks. I don't really know why, it just feels like a really long week.

We went to the library yesterday. I love the library. All the books...ahhhhhh. Our library was recently upgraded and it has been really nice. They added radio chips to speed check-out and everything. It was all great, until yesterday. Yesterday, I couldn't get out of the library. Everytime I tried to walk out the alarm started going off. I had to pat myself down and take the stroller apart to prove that I wasn't trying to steal a book or something. Talk about embarrassing.

What's worse? When the librarian got up and carried my book bag through the alarm did NOT go off. It didn't go off when I walked through sans books. Or when the kids came through.

Must've been my magnetic personality.

It's a burden.

And now - today's freebie: Grungy Boy Elements. Enjoy!

Recovery is Brutal.

I am officially a race junkie. I had so much fun on Saturday! It was so neat to watch the runner's cross the finish line and cheer for them. The first place in the 5k went to a runner that finished in 15 minutes! That's 5 minutes per mile. Wow!

I can hardly wait for the next race.

In the meantime I have more kits to make. Today is the Grungy Boy Collection Papers. They were inspired by an outfit that I saw. I fell in love with the colors. So me. I love jewel tones in general.

Happy scrapping everyone!

Whew! What a Weekend!

We were so busy the last part of last week and over the weekend. Between the big church musical (and setting up for all of that), and the race that SSCB ran in on Saturday - he ran a 5k and I am so proud of him!

I finished the Grungy Girl Elements. I like them. I have some pictures to use with them and I am excited about that!

Enjoy...

A Little Bit About the Girls

I was inspired by my laundry for this kit. I don't think you will often hear that.

I have two girls. They are very girly. They loves princesses, butterflies, flowers, and dirt. At least, that is what their clothes tell me. They're girly, and.....well, they're grungy. Blown out knees in their sparkly jeans. Grass stains on their flowery elbows.

As I was pretreating yet another stain I was musing to myself about just how grungy my girls are and the lightbulb came on! I need a grungy girl kit. So I made one, and I let my girls pick their favorite colors. And they approved every paper design.

I hope you enjoy it. I'll post the elements tomorrow, and I hope to have a grungy boy kit ready to go on Monday!