Last 2 Minutes to Snag a Great FREE Course!

Monday, 16 November 2009Monday, 16 November 2009 / LivE / Leave a comment

Well, not really the last two (more like the last 24 hours), but do rush, do hurry, do run and sign up for this year’s final awesome FREE class at our Spraground! Registration ends at 11:59PM Eastern Standard Time.

Click on the image above and you’ll find yourself in our magical Spraground with all the EASY info you need to sign up for this awesome course. Did I say it was FREE? F-R-E-E! Wooooot!

You don’t have to have any special skills as pre-requisites for this course. You’re a digi scrapper? Come join us! You’re a hybrid scrapper? A paper-only scrapper? Come and join us too. Not a scrapper at all? Come join us too. You’re strictly into photography and nothing else? Or into just blogging? Or into just journaling and writing? There’s lotsa room for you too!

See? Everyone is welcome! Seriously! That’s because the main aim of Jessica’s newest (and this year’s last) course is to capture both the past and the present magic, memories, and wonderment of all that spells Holiday. And then come up with an album project as tangible evidence that we certainly have so much to celebrate and be thankful for.

What better way to prepare for this most awesome of all seasons? So tarry no longer, and click on that image, and join us for an amazing seven days of fun and frolic and falalala’s!

See you at the Spraground!

Happy Day!

Saturday, 5 September 2009Saturday, 5 September 2009 / LivE / 4 Comments

Some days just turn out to be serendipitously happy ones, for no particular reason except that … it’s a happy day! 😀

Am celebrating it with this song!

And this!

Dance with me? 😆

Today’s Funny

As my son J and I were riding home from school today, he was (as usual) telling me about his day in school. Our discussion revolved around a classmate who probably had a bad day and ended up dealing a few punches and a kick to my son. (Ah, boys!)

So naturally, mama took the opportunity to talk about the importance of using words, not hands or feet, to express oneself.

Me: Maybe you can tell your friend to use words next time he’s upset. Only babies use their hands and feet because they don’t have words to express themselves. Grown-ups use words.

J: I know, Mama! I used words today! (said proudly)

Me: Really?

J: Yes. Someone told me “Hey, you, poopy-head!” So I said, “Hey… you! Back at you… poopies!”

ROFL. I think this kind of boy-talk I can tolerate. 😆

Today’s Freebie!

And because it’s a happy day for me, and happiness is meant to be shared, here’s a freebie for you! 😀

This large (approximately 6×8 inches) grungy frame brush can easily be resized if you need a smaller frame. It comes in .abr format and .png format (so if you use a program other than Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, you can still use the frame! Yay!)

Preview Stock Photo Credit: Ayla87 at stock.xchng

{ Click on image to download. Please see Terms of Use included in zip file. 🙂 }

Here’s how I used my frame on one of our class projects done for my dear friend Jessica’s awesome Photo-Editing 2 course at jessicasprague.com!

PhotoEd2-proj1-w

Spraground Shoppe: My Newest Baby

I’ve got a new product up in our shoppe! YAY! 😀

(Image is linked to the Spraground Shoppe. Click on it and find yourself in our awesome Spraground candy store! :D)

My Storyboard Album Template Pack will help you create your own album with a graphic, storyboard look in a jiffy! It comes with twenty-one 12×12 layered templates (in .psd format), including a title page (with optional text path included), filler template pages which work well if you use them side by side in order (or you can also jumble them up and mix and match them), and a special template page for the last page of your album. I’ve included text boxes and text paths which you can use as is, or you can also opt to replace these with your own.

Because the Storyboard Album Template Pack is done in graphic style, you can use it for virtually any album theme you want! Use clipping masks in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements to clip your own papers and photos of choice. You can choose to use all the masks for photos, or if you’d rather clip patterned paper on some of the masks, that’s totally fine too! Add a bunch of your embellishments if that’s the look you want, or use just a few if you prefer the clean and simple, minimalist look. Don’t you just love all the freedom you have at your fingertips? 😉

Best of all, you can use it again and again for as many albums as you wish to make! 😀

And… that’s it for today, folks! It’s back to the drawing board to create more stuff for you!

Have a wonderful day, my sweeties! (((hugs)))

Feeling Creative? Join Us in June!

Tuesday, 2 June 2009Tuesday, 2 June 2009 / LivE / Leave a comment

I’ve been multitasking 😉 in a big way these past few days (Read: working with more than 10 Firefox tabs open, and we’re not even talking about the other windows I’ve got floating around on my PC monitor space). And I’ve been having the time of my life, because most of the windows and tabs that are open are all related to one thing: the passion for creating and challenges! YAY!

We just finished our first-ever Spragweek Challenge: 7 Days in May at our Spraground, and we had a great number of Spragbabes who showed up to participate in the layout-a-day challenges that we (my friends Janie, Linda, and I) cooked up. Our Challenge Gallery was a virtual eye-candy art exhibit, what with all the great layouts being uploaded by the hour!

And… because wishes do come true on our Spraground, in response to the request of our members to have a month-long daily-layout challenge session, we are holding Create-A-Day in June, where challenges and prompts will be provided every single day for this entire month! And as always, it’s open to everyone! (So if you haven’t joined us yet, consider yourself formally invited… by me! 😆 )

Here’s your invitation:

w-CADflyer

Credits: Painted Edges overlay by Flergs@ScrapbookGraphics.com).

So hop on the challenge train, and if you’re seeing this after June 1st, it’s totally okay! We have the Challenge Archives for those who want to catch up, and if the thought of going back in time doesn’t appeal to you and you’d rather just jump right in the middle of things, that’s totally fine too! Whichever day you decide is best, you can still come and join us at any point (can you tell we just love company? 😆 )

Pssst. Just a little secret: you really may want to be around the Spraground on the week of June 22-27, which is when we celebrate our 2nd birthday! We’ve got loads of treats in store for you, and that includes surprises for those participating in our June Create-A-Day challenges! (Now, isn’t that a great incentive to come join us now? 😉 )

Wait for more exciting stuff coming up in future announcements about our Second Spraground Birthday! 😉

PS. If you need a map to get to the Spraground, click on the swings right up there on the top right and voila! Find yourself in the most magical place in the virtual world! 😉

My MayDay Three

I don’t normally have the time to create layouts along with leading the challenges, but the energy and excitement last week were so infectious that I just couldn’t help myself! I was able to get layouts done up to Day 3, but couldn’t go further as I had to buckle down to work on the ongoing June challenges.

So here are the ones I made:

Day 1 was a template challenge, with a template made by… me! heehee!

This was the template we used:

folder

And here’s the layout I made:

{ Click image for a larger view }

Credits: Lorie Davison @ SBG: Flying Dreams: Background Paper, Moon / LivEdesigns: Layered Template, Grunge Brush / Font: Anivers

Day 2 was a challenge based on my dear friend (and our Spraground mama) Jessica’s Photoshop Friday tutorial on Burning an Image into a Colored Accent Block… with a twist! This one was really challenging for me, as I had no idea how to twist the tutorial! 😆 But hey, that’s what’s great about challenges, right? They stretch your horizons and give you reason to push your skills further and further! (Gotta love that!)

Here’s the layout I made:

w-LivE_7DiM-D2

Credits: Jofia Defoe-The Smell of Summer paper / Ziggle Designs-If Only in My Dreams paper (slightly recolored) / Katie Pertiet-ScriptedOverlay, WateryOverlay, MessedUpOverlays2, FilmedOverlays2, ScriptedType brush, GrungedUpAlpha1 brushes, StitchedChipStrips / Kellie Mize-PaintedLove brushes, PanosFX puzzle action, snf modtype

And Day 3’s challenge was to create a layout about an inanimate treasured object. This one also made me think… I have treasured friends and treasured family… but treasured objects? (I couldn’t do a layout on my computer or my camera because they’re not objects… they’re appendages to my body! hahaha!) So, after thinking and thinking, and at one point staring at my cabinet as I was deep in thought, I had a eureka moment and voila! Thus was born this layout celebrating my love affair with… tadah! My jeans!

{ Click image for larger view }

Credits: Natali Design: Swirl / Gunhild: FrayedFabric mask / Jen Wilson: LittleTags-Boys / Katie Pertiet: LilBitTags stitch, SewnStatements tag, WateryOverlay / Anna Aspnes: StitchedbyAnna stitches (recolored), TexturedOverlay / Amanda Rockwell: HomeSweetHome heart / FeiStuff-Pindated pin / Dana Zarling: Timeworn paper & Lynn Grieveson: Barcelona paper (blended) / Fonts: Artistamp & Lights Out

Back to the saltmines

Yep, gotta get off this blogporch swing and start marching back to the saltmines. Lots of work to do (but fun, fun, fun work!) Stay, make yourself at home, have all the iced tea you want, and I’ll see you around in a bit! ((((hugs)))))

Life on these islands…

Friday, 17 October 2008 / LivE / 18 Comments

… is funny. It’s great almost all of the time; sometimes it gets poopy (really now, what country has things going great for it all of the time?). But mostly it’s funny. The people are funny.

That’s one thing I love about these beautiful 7000 plus islands. The people have such a great sense of humor. There is a saying we have which, loosely translated, means, “Everything can be solved if it is communicated properly.” (hmm. Somehow the English version loses much of the flavor of the native language, but it’ll have to do). Anyway, the point is: part of that communication, no matter how serious, is always offset with the lightness of humor. I think it’s the belief that if you can laugh about it, it can’t be *that* bad yet. Something can still be done. There’s hope.

Yep, this same sense of humor is what we ride on in the best of times, and it’s what carries us through the worst of times.

And many times, it’s apparent everywhere you look.

Case in point:

Remember this character? (He’s been around since the early 1900s apparently):

Felix the Cat

Now, check out the name of this barber shop, as featured in one of our biggest dailies:

How funny is that? (I’ll bet the barber’s name is truly Felix, too!… Wonder if he’s both barber and manicurist?) 😆

A Freebie, Sweetie!

It’s freebie time! Time to reveal what this was all about:

It’s a layered template for you! 😀 Here’s the full view:

LivEdesigns-Time of Year Template

Click on the preview to download.

The template comes with a curved text path, and you can absolutely change up the hanging strings and the bottom accents with stuff from your digistash so that it fits your taste. 😉

Here’s the layout I made with it:

LivE - Time of Year (Christmas Layout)

(Yeah, I know, it’s a Christmas page… what can I say? Gotta get those Christmas photos scrapped before new ones come flooding in, in about 3 months! 😛 )

CREDITS: (all from ScrapbookGraphics.com)

Meredith Fenwick: Crazy Beautiful-paper; Antique Paper Swirls (recolored)
Natali Designs: Christmas Needful Papers-paper
Studio Flergs: Denim Blues Strap; AptD Screw & Glitter; Rough & Timple Gemstone & Staple
Traci Sims: Flourish Date Stamps

Update on the Fall Into Fall Freebie

Yep, the last set is still being worked on, but check back in a few and we’ll have it for you! 😉 (Hey, that rhymes. Bahaha!)

Have a happy day, my sweeties!

The Secret Is Out!

Saturday, 11 October 2008Saturday, 11 October 2008 / LivE / 18 Comments

It’s October 10th, friends, and you know what that means! Sneak peeks have been unveiled, the story has been handed over 😉 , and now it can be told to all the world!

Over at our Spraground, we’re having a huge, big, major course party, and you’re all invited! (Yes, that’s you, you, you, you, and you! And you too!)

COME JOIN US ON OUR SPRAGROUND! It's FREE! And it's for YOU!

I have a feeling you’re going to be seeing this wonderful reminder quite often on my blog! (hehe) Don’t you just love how the words form a heart in the hands? That’s how awesome our stories are… the stories of our lives are the stories of our hearts… and we can do nothing less than make sure they get told, somehow. And that’s exactly what Jes is going to do with this course! She’s going to take us by the hand and give us some fab, fab ways of making sure that our stories get told… by us!

Find out more about it on the Spraground! (The image above is a link… Click on it and it will take you to our Spraground homepage where you’ll find the awesome Why’s, When’s, and How’s of this latest super-goodie!)

Oh, and don’t forget to grab the course updates via Jessica’s blog too!

And oh (again), did I mention that this is FREE? And that there’s no limit on registration? And that registration will begin on October 20th? And that it’s open to ALL! Photographers, scrappers, non-scrappers, young and old, with children and grandchildren and without, as Jes says: as long as you have stories to tell (and who doesn’t?) this is for YOU.

So please join us as we party on for a week! We’ve polished the swings and slides and we’ve put up extra lemonade and cookie stands just for you! I hope to see you and your friends over there! (Yeah, in the spirit of “the more, the merrier”…let’s spread the word, folks!) 😆

Latest Scrapped

Over at Oscraps, Shaui of Feistuff Designs is featured as the designer in the spotlight. The challenge she gave (as well as the awesome freebies she shared with us so we have all we need to complete the challenge) grabbed me by my collar and didn’t let me go till I produced a layout! hehe

So here’s my latest scrappy thing:

I wanted to keep it really simple and make it look like an artist’s palette. So major restraint used with supplies. LOL. This was absolutely fun! I loved creating the little paint-daubs on the left. (For once, it felt great to be “mixing” paint without having to go through the clean-up after and the washing of my brushes–I think that might have been the part I least liked about oil painting, which I really should start up again one of these days… but I digress 😀 ).

If you want to join the challenge, head on over to Oscraps and get your layout uploaded! You have till October 12th to join.

CREDITS: Everything by FeiStuff, plus Nancie Rowe Janitz’s Inked Overlay. Font is AvantGarde.

Speaking of free…

Here’s the next set of our Fall into Fall freebie collab kit! Everything in Set 2 was made by me… keep looking out for Set 3 which will carry more of Lynne’s great stuff!

What you’ll be getting here is five more of the highly-textured 12×12 papers (you might have noticed by now that my favorite thing to create is papers! At least for now, haha!) plus a complete alphabet (with uppercase and lowercase letters) along with numbers and some of the symbols we use most often when we create pages. Since the items are highly textured, the downloading may take a wee bit more time. So I’ve taken the liberty of separating the paper set from the chipboard alpha set. That way, hopefully, it’s not going to take as long downloading them in two separate sets as it would’ve in one single zip.

Oh, and if you can take the time, please do leave me a note and a link in the comments section of my blog (right here. Press that button, you know you want to! 😆 ) in case you’ve used the goodies on a layout or project! It totally thrills me to see your great work! (And if you give me permission, I’ll hang your creations on the walls of my little blog too! 🙂 )

Thank you also for the warm fuzzies you leave on my blog as you download 😉

Set 2 of Fall into Fall Friendship Freebie Collab:

LivEdesigns - Fall into Fall Freebie - Set 2

Click on the preview above to download the papers.

Then click HERE to download the alpha.

Okay, now I really must go to bed… I’ve been nodding off here and there for the past hour or so.

Have a very happy day today, my friends! 😀

Where We’re At (and other W’s)

Monday, 25 August 2008Thursday, 25 September 2008 / LivE / 25 Comments

Technorati Tags: digital scrapbooking,freebies,Type+Writer

This is where we’re at right now… in other words, this is what you’ll see in any given room at any time of the day if you walk through our home:

Wall-E & Friends

In fact, even other toys are transformed into Wall-E Wannabe’s: (Sound byte: “Mom, look! I made my own Wall-e!” )

Wall-E, Version 2

(That’s actually a toy that can be transformed into virtually anything, but its basic parts allow you to create dinosaurs and vehicles. Cool toys. We only had Lego when we were kids. hehe)

Work

I’ve been totally wrapped up in work on Type+Writer, our up-and-coming first-ever journaling and typography course on our Spraground! I’m extremely excited to be team-teaching the Type+writer course with the ever fabulous Jessica Sprague!

Type+Writer at http://www.jessicasprague.com

If you love making layouts but struggle with putting down the words to go with the photos, this course is for you! If you love writing, and journaling on layouts comes easy to you, this course is also for you! If you want to explore new techniques for getting those words onto your layouts with Photoshop’s awesome arsenal of tools, this course is for you! If you’ve taken any of Jessica’s online courses, you’d know that she is the absolute Best at everything she does, and you wouldn’t want to miss this latest course that she’s teaching! (Yep, in other words, you, you, and you… we’d love to have you in our course! 😀 )

So if you haven’t heard about it yet, read all about our Type+Writer course here! Registration will be on September 1st and our first day of class will be on September 8th! Jes and I promise that it’s going to be a fun-filled, very inspiring, creative two weeks that you’ll be spending with us when you decide to sign up for our course! So come, hop, skip, jump, run to the Spraground on September 1st and be counted among the beta Type+writers! 😀

Where Is He?

My sister left a comment asking me where the photo of Jun was on my blog… the one that he loved, the one that he said he’d use for all publications that request a photo of him. Well, sister dear, this is for you 😀 :

The Photography Master

The Photography Master, Take 2

Wow, It’s About Time!

I’ve been wanting to release a freebie for the longest time… I took a break (a mental breather) and found some time to design a little paper pack for all you sweeties!

These aren’t the usual kind of papers that I normally make, but it’s always nice to push the envelope and explore horizons, right? (To my friend, Veevs, if you’re reading this, I hope I’m not too far off the mark when I say that I think these would be the kind of papers you might want to use! 😆 )

So here is a mini paper pack for all of you: highly saturated and textured, for all those layouts that need an extra punch!

LivEdesigns Wild Grafix Paper Pack

Click on the image to download.

Thank you so much for the love you leave on my blog as you download! I totally love reading your comments! 🙂

Well, that’s all for now, folks! It’s back to the saltmines for me! 😆

Have a happy, scrappy day, my sweeties!

Well, hello there…

Saturday, 5 April 2008Tuesday, 14 October 2008 / LivE / 26 Comments

…good old friend(s) of mine… (are you singing along with me? :P)

Man, it’s been AGES! I am soo soo sorry for being absent from my porch swing… I’ve gotten a number of emails asking me why I’ve been quiet… I’ve been wanting, panting, hankering to come here and post freebies but ~sigh~ life has just been moving at full-speed ahead!

The kids are out of school, with summer officially here for the past month… and you who have school-age children just know how that means mom is also officially the Boredom Buster and Head Entertainer and Day Planner. It’s a total pleasure and it’s really my first job description (being wife and mom, hehe), so “working” on the “peak period” of this job has been keeping me busy… 😛

Then of course, there are the fabulous courses at our Spraground! Now that’s what keeps me on my Summer Mom toes! WHAT FUN!

We just finished up with the March run of the Up & Running beginners course… and I love that we have a lot of new Spraground family members who are joining us on the Dark Side! heehee! (And that includes my own sister and her three friends! Whoopeedoo!!! 😆 ) I have to say I looove moderating because nothing beats the pleasure of working with the incredible tandem that Jes and Jared are, and being able to helping others and being part of the incredible A-ha moments! It’s totally awesome to be part of the learning journey of new (and some old) friends, to see them grow in their Photoshop skills, to marvel at their creations and to be privileged to see them enjoy telling their life stories… the joy is just so overwhelming.

Right after wrapping up the U&R course, we began (and are now heading towards the end of the first week) of our beta Digi: In Deep, my dear friend Jessica’s advanced course for digital scrapbooking. I have to say, each day, when that email comes into my inbox, I am floored by the AWESOME activities and lessons that Jessica has planned for us! It is just so FABULOUS, so wonderful, and geez, I could run out of all the superlative adjectives, and still that wouldn’t come up to describing how much I love this course! Wow!

It’s an action-packed course, and I love every minute of it! But it also means that no matter how excited I am to design new stuff for you (got a whole list of things I want to create for you!), it’s going to have to wait a little bit till I’ve gotten hang of my time management. (Yo, that big compound word that really just mean I-would-give-anything-for-more-than-24-hours-in-a-day 🙂 )

We’ve also come up with our Spraground Weekly Challenges, which are open to everyone who’s registered at our Spraground (registering is free; come play with us!) We’ve been seeing a whole load of awesome layouts coming up on our galleries, and, really, nothing beats playing AND learning at the same time!

As if to tease me for my long absence, I open the door to this little place of ours on WordPress, and I am astounded. WHOA. This is totally rocking! A whole new face, beautiful clean colors of cool blues, greys and whites, a totally modern interface… WordPress is ROCKIN! Whoopee!!! 😀

Anyway, today I’ve pushed aside all other pressing matters to sit with you a while… because I’ve been suffering withdrawal symptoms from not having been with you for what feels like forever!!!

I do want you all to know that I have been keeping you in mind and missing our porch conversations for the longest time! So I’m so glad to be with you today!

Layin’ It All Out

Here are some layouts I’ve come up with since the last time I posted:

Jammin’ in My Jammies:

CREDITS:

Lisa Whitney – ArtsyFartsyPaper ; Katie Pertiet – StarGazers Flourish; Michelle Coleman – Glow Gold Dust Edge ; Chere Edwards @ digiocd.blogspot.com – Scribbles Alpha

Home

This was done for our Spraground Weekly Challenge Designer Spotlight, where our designer was none other than our fabulous Jessica Sprague! The challenge required us to use nothing else but her Home Away from Home kit, which is fabulous, and the theme “Home”. You can get it Jessica’s fab kit for free on her blog! (Link is on my right sidebar!)

CREDITS:

Jessica’s Home Away from Home Kit (papers slightly recolored); FONTS: Zapfhumnst BT, Tagettes

The Magic of a Child

This was done for our Spraground Weekly ColorLift Challenge, where we are required to do a scraplift (this one by heathert at DD) using a particular color scheme. Totally had fun with this one! (Then again, I have fun with each one! 😆 )

Journaling (Quote by Francis Thompson):

Know you what it is to be a child?

It is to be something very different from the man of to-day. It is to have a spirit yet streaming from the waters of baptism; it is to believe in love, to believe in loveliness, to believe in belief; it is to be so little that the elves can reach to whisper in your ear. It is to turn pumpkins into coaches, and mice into horses, lowness into loftiness, and nothing into everything, for each child has its fairy godmother in its own soul.

CREDITS:

One of my few top favorite designers, Meredith Fenwick’s AfternoonSerenade Paper & Antique Paper Swirls; Jen Wilson’s ExtraSmudges (recolored) & Variety Alpha; NatashaWhiteley’s DiffusedGlow action (used on background curtain)

Simple Joys

This was done for our Spraground Merry Go Round Challenge, which required us to use photos that were taken in available light:

Journaling:

everyday you teach me the beauty of simplicity. you reveal to me the treasures that hide within the smallest things. you run free and carefree, the afternoon breeze playfully tussling your soft hair, the crunchy grass embracing and cushioning your little feet, the warm glow of the sun bouncing on your chubby cheeks. you teach me that true happiness doesn’t cost a thing. it’s found in purity and innocence and, yes, simplicity. you need nothing more than empty space to frolic in to have the time of your lives. and i need nothing more than simply being with you for my heart to be filled with pure, unadulterated joy. ah, true happiness at its very best… yep, it really is that simple.

CREDITS:

Meredith Fenwick – EasySilence apple paper; TwilightDreaming Butterfly, JapaneseTree; CrazyBeautiful-PaintedFrame (recolored) & Alphabet
Annie Manning/Paint the Moon: Charmes d’Antan – Butterfly (altered) & Butterfly Wings
KimChristensen – Spelling101 Kit: Black Inked Overlay

DID I Say…?

Here are the two layouts we worked on for the first week of DID… Absolutely ROCKIN course!!! 😀

Lesson 1A: Of Friendships & Brotherhood

Journaling:

how totally wonderful to see the three of you working together, helping each other. one minute your faces are scrunched up in intense concentration; the next minute your eyes crinkle delightfully as you brust out in silly, boisterous laughter. today you build sandcastles; tomorrow you’ll build even greater things. what i hope remains the same is the spirit of love and friendship that you have for each other as you work and play together. because, my dear sons, more than any tangible thing, you build best when you build bridges of love.

CREDITS:

Everything from the DID Course Materials by Katie Pertiet, Jen Wilson, Trish Jones, Linda Gill Billdal, Nancie Rowe Janitz, Mary Ann Wise, Lynn Grieveson. Fonts: Texas Hero, One Fell Swoop, Problem Secretary, English111 Presto BT

Lesson 1B: My Everyday Miracle

We had to create our own layout from scratch, using the techniques we had learned in Lesson 1. Here’s what I came up with:

CREDITS:

Meredith Fenwick-GrungyBaby papers(blended);Cowboy Papers; CrazyBeautiful-stitched eyelets/Paint-the-Moon Annie Manning-TheNaturalsRibbons-LeavesTie&Shadow/ Dani B-BlackFriday Button/Mary Ann Wise-AlaMode Flourish/Fonts: Porcelain, BeautifulES, SandraOh

As you may have noticed, I am very into Meredith Fenwick’s stuff… that’s because she just re-opened her store at ScrapbookGraphics.com and when I went to get her grab bag (among others, hehe) that celebrated her return (man, was that AWESOME!) Mer was soooo generous that I got an additional 50-off coupon to go crazy with in her shoppe again! Woohoo!!! Of course I got all that I could manage to get my itchy digi hands on. hehe.

I asked Mer if I could show you here the items I bought from her SBG shoppe, and she said YES! So… here’s what I’m totally loving right now!

From her Posh Collection:

I also got her Everyday Inspiration collection, her Grungy Baby kit, and her Legible Notecards set. They’re all as wonderfully textured and beautiful as the Posh collection you see here!

And since you made it this far…

and because I’ve been gone for so long, I have a little something for you! I’m sharing with you the circle template that I created for our DID Lesson 1B class. It took me a huge amount of time trying to translate what I saw in my mind onto my monitor… but I am so thrilled that I was able to get it done!

This is a very simple template: I have not added strokes to any of the items (because it’s better to add the stroke after you’ve pulled in your papers and photos to clip on), and I’ve left the drop shadows out so that you can have absolute freedom in deciding where your light source is. I’ve also left the entire thing very basic so you can choose which accents you want to add into your own layout. I hope you find some use for this, and thanks for the love you leave right here on my blog! 😀

Here’s what you’re getting (the layout I made with it is above):

And you can click here to get it!

EDITED on October 14th:

I’ve received word that the old link is no longer valid. I’ve re-uploaded and changed the link upon request… you may now click on the image of the template to get the new link for it! 😉

Now I really need to get back to my work on the DID course… so I hope to see you soon!

Have a great day, my sweeties!!! I promise I’ll do my best not to stay away so long again! 😀

She’ll Be Comin’ Round the Mountains..

Tuesday, 18 March 2008Wednesday, 24 September 2008 / LivE / 25 Comments

when she comes… 😆

Hello from the mountains!!! I’ve been stuck here (happily, I must admit–mostly. I’d be in heaven if I had my desktop here with my CS3 and my dsl connection) for almost a week, spending vacation time with family. I’m writing now from my dinosaur laptop, which doesn’t even have 1GB of RAM (yeah, yeah, sorry isn’t it?)… so, much as I’ve been dying to design and scrap some layouts, I just don’t have those options open to me right now. But you know what? I’ve been scribbling on my notebooks my ideas for more designed freebies, and I promise you when I get back down to civilized lowlands, I will have a lot of gifties waiting to be created and shared with you! Woohoo!!!

I am posting here though on quick notice, upon request from my friend and fellow Spraggirl, Susan. She referenced me on her blog (bless her!) regarding how I keep track of my layout credits, and she has requested me to repeat the instructions for those who have been wanting to know more.

So… here they are, my dear Susan, and many thanks once more!

The Importance of Credits

I really believe that listing credits is a hugely important habit to form, especially in the world of digital scrapbooking where we often share our layouts on galleries, on our blogs, or even in magazines if we’re lucky enough to get published. I have never yet come across a TOU (Terms of Use) from a designer who says “Please, whatever you do, don’t give me credit and don’t say that I’m the one who created this item you’re using to create your layouts!” 😆 Some do say “credit is not necessary” but they’ll also tell you that if you do decide to give credit, they will certainly be appreciative and grateful.

Considering that it only takes a minute to list these credits down, why not take that extra step to express our gratitude and appreciation for the hard work that designers put into making these designs that we happily use to display our fondest memories with, right? (Because it really is not easy to design stuff… fun, definitely–I love it!–but it is a lot of hard work that goes into the littlest thing that is created… and a lot of love! So it’s always nice to give love back when it’s given to us in the form of the digital schtuff that we’re using).

So… credits. Love ’em. Keep them. Announce them. You know the saying, “Give credit where credit is due” ? Lot of wisdom in that one. 😉

So how do I do it?

I’d like to believe that everyone in the scrapping world would love to give credit (scrappers are an amazing bunch of loving people)… the problem, I think, comes in when we have used items, changed our minds, replaced those items, and then at the end of it all, we forget from which folder we pulled out this paper and that element… 😆

So I think the easiest way is to keep track of the credits as soon as we pull in the background paper (which I assume is always the first thing we get onto a new document) and then keep adding to that… and editing the credits to reflect changed items either as we go or at the end when our layout is complete.

There are a million ways to do this–and I think this ability to do the same thing in different ways is what makes digital scrapbooking rock! It’s simply a matter of finding which way works best for you! Some people keep a notepad open where they list the items; other people make a new layer and write all the info there; etc. I’ve tried several ways as well (including making an Excel file to keep track of everything), and through trial and error, I’ve found the best way that works for me is to use the File Info option in Photoshop. (I’m sure also that I’m not the only one who has discovered this, so I can’t take credit for thinking up this process! 😀 )

Both Elements and full-version Photoshop have this File Info option.

This is how I keep track of credits:

1. Go to File (on Photoshop main menu)) > File Info. Bear in mind that we need to have a document open in order to have this option open to us. Otherwise, with nothing open on our workspace, we won’t see this option open to us).

2. In the dialog box that opens, we can put in the title of our document or layout, we can put our name as the creator, and in the Description box, we can also type in all the materials we’ve used, together with the designers who’ve made them.

NOTE: Screen shots are from PSE5 since that is the only program I have loaded on my dino laptop. 😉

The great thing about this is as I work, I input the information in the File Info box instead of having to open another document or file to keep track of the credits. And when I save my layout, the File Info gets saved along with the document. YAY! No more having to save and store together two different files referring to the same layout!

Then, when we need to put in the credits (say, if we upload our layout into a gallery or onto our blog), all we have to do is click on File > File Info, highlight the content in the Description box that contains our credits list… then copy/paste the information onto the Description area on our gallery upload dialog box, and voila! It’s all there!

What I love about this is that it’s kept separate from the LO itself, but in the same “drawer”– if you will– so that it never gets “lost”. Also, if midway I decide that I want to replace a particular item that I’ve used on my layout and inputted into my File Info, all I have to do is delete that item from the list in my File Info box and add in the replacement details. Then when I hit Save to save the file, everything is replaced as well with the updated credits list. Awesome, isn’t it?

Hope this is of help to anyone who can use the info! (By the way, the File Info of your photo files already contains all the EXIF details pertaining to your photo–isn’t that marvelous?)

Alrighty then, back to the mountains! Catch you again soon!

Coming Up for Air…

Monday, 10 March 2008Wednesday, 24 September 2008 / LivE / 21 Comments

… after being on a self-imposed exile for the past few days, working feverishly on getting my Round 2 Challenge submission for the Apprentice Program at Little Dreamer Designs done. Thank goodness for a very understanding hubby: “Shhh, J,” he tells our son, “Mama’s working hard…” Priceless man! 😆

And thank God for not letting me come down with the virus that hit my 5-year-old dearie 3 weeks ago and that, hopefully, is on its way out our door 2 weeks after hitting my 2-year-old honey. I lost my voice for a day and felt really sick for about three, but other than that, I’ve just been sooo grateful that I haven’t had to lie down and nurse the illies. (Totally helps that I’m also downing really strong vitamins like an addict, just to make sure I can function well enough to do all that has to be done).

Actually, I kind of feel like I could give the Energizer Bunny a run for its money. 😆

So… I just finished uploading my kit and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I make it through the next round. I’m just counting on making it through each round alive. 🙂 This sorta reminds me of the relationships I had when I was young: unlike so many of my friends who used to count (and celebrate!) anniversaries with their boyfriends by the month 😆 I always used to just look forward to just celebrating the days till they eventually turned into years. Call it crazy, but I like living each day fully, and then having the option to look back one day and say, “Wow!!! Those were some ultra-fabulous 365 days!” instead of “That was a great year!” 365 days sounds so much more than a year, right? Hmmmm. (If you haven’t noticed it in the past, by now you should be fairly certain that I have some strange ideas. 😆 )

So… anyway… it’s been an awesome week. Crazy-busy, more than ever before, with the 3rd run of my dear friend Jessica’s fab beginners’ class, Up & Running… (on the 3rd day of the course, there were 400 layouts I needed to go and leave love on… I can imagine how many masterpieces are waiting for me to marvel at!) The galleries at our Spraground are seriously ROCKIN’ too, with all the great great creations of all my Spraguemates… and WOW! Have you seen the LDD Apprentice Gallery??? Man, all (and I’m not exaggerating here, but I mean ALL) my friends who uploaded their layouts there really ROCKED the kit and the gallery!!! And I was soooo happy and proud to find that one of us, dear, dear Carol, was the very first one who won the very first $10 coupon given out by Michelle at Little Dreamer Designs (if you haven’t yet uploaded a layout using any of the apprentice freebies–hopefully, mine! 😆 — in the gallery there, go run! Michelle is giving out two $10 coupons each week for the four weeks that the apprentice program is running, and the only thing you have to do is (1) be a registered member there (it’s free!), and (2) upload a layout into the Apprentice gallery using any of the kits that are there for exclusive download.

Then there are our wonderful Spraground Weekly Challenges, which are really so much fun, especially now that everyone is playing excitedly. I can’t even begin to tell you how RICH our galleries are with inspirational materials! These girlfriends of mine are ROCKIN!!!! I AM SO PROUD OF THEM!!!! (Okay, I had to shout that out, because … the words just aren’t enough, you know??? My heart is bursting with pride and affection for each and every one of them!!!)

It’s also the end of the school year where I live, so you know what that means? Oh, just tons of final exams for each of my 3 kids who are in school. It also means that all the schools schedule as much parental-involvement activities as they can in these last few weeks (probably cramming what they can fit into the remaining few breaths of the school year)… I almost think it’s a conspiracy. 😆 End-of-the-school-year also means entrance exams for kids to enter the next level (my 3-year-old S had to take an entrance exam to enter Kinder, and my 5-year-old J has yet to take the entrance exam for Prep… and then my first two sons have to take summer review programs to prepare for the entrance exams for university and high school)… SIGH! Exams, exams, exams. Thank goodness I’m done and over with schooling! 😆

And then… summer. Kids with me, beside me, around me, by my head, by my feet, by my hips, on my lap… 24/7. Love it. I need to find some worthy activities to keep them busy so that they aren’t tempted to speak the Unspeakable: in our home, the three words that are among the most forbidden are “Mom, I’m bored.” 😆

Then there are a number of other projects as well, which I’ll surely let you know about as they come closer… and … the long-awaited DIGI IN DEEP at our Spraground in a few weeks!!! WOOHOO!!!

But so that I don’t let you suffer further with all my blah blah blah, please tell me that you forgive me for being absent for most of this past week… on the Spraground, on my porch swing here… I do peep in once in a while to say hello, but haven’t had much time to really sit and talk (and regret that GREATLY… if only I could find 48 hours in a day to do all that I want to do!) 🙂

So anyway, forgive me? Please? And let me give you all a HUGE HUG for all the warm fuzzies and the awesome layouts and the wonderful support that you’ve given to me while I am embarking on this huge design adventure of my life! I promise you I will never ever forget this incredible show of support and love: it’s written on my heart forever. And even beyond that. 😉

Speaking of design adventures, here’s the latest!

This is my submission for Little Dreamer Designs’ Apprentice Program Round 2 Challenge:

I can’t say much because it’s all private and propriety information that we get, but this much I can say: I have truly enjoyed slaving away at the challenges… it’s playing, learning, creating, sharing all in one blow… really, how much better can it get?

So here now comes the sharing part!

What you’re getting: a mini-kit of elements in what I called my ElementaLove (the love is there for you, you know. 😉 )

1 glitter foliage accent – in two versions: one without shadows and one with its own shadow… I chose to apply the preshadowing to this element because I felt it was the hardest to do a shadow on… the other elements are easier, but with this one, I did my best to apply a drop shadow so that various parts of the wildflower seem to be at different heights from the paper base

1 shiny chrome / metal photo corner – there’s one png file, but you can use it to put two on either sides of your photo or journaling block, or you can use all four, or… 😉 Just flip and rotate and have fun!

1 stitched border – a little trivia: this took me the longest to create, because I made my own new stitches and stitch holes from scratch, experimenting a bit here and there and playing around with Photoshop… I worked on the first set for roughly 48 hours. I went to sleep at 6AM, with the sun just about to rise, last night/this morning… and when I opened my kit on my compy to get ready to upload it at LDD… I took a look at the stitches and decided I didn’t like them much. So it was on to creating a new set of stitches and stitch holes from square one… experimenting some more… and this time I came up with something that I really liked. So I hope you like them too. And you know what? I have even greater appreciation for all the designers who put stitches in their kits: let me tell you, these little bits of thread are not easy to make. 😆

1 metal and glass triple-frame – I’ve included instructions in the download folder on how to work with this in the easiest way. If you’ve downloaded and used my pocket page from the first Apprentice Round Freebie submission, it’s pretty much the same technique you use… easy-peasy! 😉

All items have no shadows (except for the pre-shadowed version of the foliage accent, but you also get the shadow-free one, in case you want to apply your own)… so that you have absolute freedom in deciding where and how you put it on your layouts.

Here’s the preview, in case you haven’t seen it yet on Little Dreamer Designs (click on Apprentice Gallery Round 2 if you want to leave love… there are some awesome kits over there! Have you seen the company I’m in? Man, seasoned designers and newbies, all in one room! It’s a GREAT mini community we have going there for these next few weeks!)

Okay, enough talking! (See what happens when I don’t see you for ages? I’m unstoppable! 😆

Here’s the preview:

{ Click on image for larger view }

And you can download it HERE.

PS. The preview paper isn’t included in this mini kit, since our challenge for the week was all about elements… but if you want it, leave me a note in the comments, and I’ll upload it here for you in the next few days. Just give me a few hours to get my lost hours of sleep back, hahaha! 😉

Thanks for passing by, and thanks for your continued support, thanks for all your warm fuzzies, thanks for keeping your fingers, toes, arms, legs, and eyes crossed that I get as far as possible in this adventure… and just, wow, a million kajillion bazillion THANKS. From. The. Bottom of my bottomless heart.

Have I told you that I love ya? I have? I’ll say it again. I do. 😉

YEAHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Monday, 3 March 2008Wednesday, 24 September 2008 / LivE / 14 Comments

If you will allow me this one little toot…

I made it! 😀

I made it to the first round of the LDD apprentice program!!! WOOHOO!!! So so so happy!

In the acceptance email that I received from The Dream Team, they informed us that there accepted 40 out of the “over 130 applicants”… so I am truly glad that I was lucky enough to make it through the first round!

I need to give a huge SHOUT OUT to all my sistahs at the Spraground –and all of YOU who left such kind words of support… I can’t even begin to describe how MUCH you mean to me. You inspire me, my dear friends. Truly. THANK YOU.

The freebies are exclusively available for download at Little Dreamer Designs… so if you’re interested (and I hope you are, fingers crossed!), you can hop on over to Little Dreamer Designs; click on Freebies in the top menu. Scroll down and at the bottom right you’ll see the Quick Jump dropdown menu. Click on the triangle beside it and choose the category Apprentice Round 1 Freebies and click Go. The submitted kits are arranged alphabetically, so if you’re interested in mine, please scroll to the 3rd page and you’ll find it there. 😉

Also, Michelle left a note on the forum that they would love to have you upload any layouts that you’ve created with the apprentice freebies on their gallery, with the added sugar cube of being able to qualify for a $10 coupon to their shoppe, which they will raffle off to those who’ve uploaded their layouts. (They will be giving two $10 coupons for each week that the apprentice program is running). I would LOVE to see what you create with my kit, if you use it!

To upload your layouts, choose the Apprentice Layout Gallery.

To those of you, my sweet, sweet friends, who have been asking me how the program goes, here’s the way I understand it:

There will be four weeks of challenges, with the first one beginning this week. At the end of the 4-week program, 5 finalists will be chosen by the Dream Team to submit a full-size kit to sell in the shoppe. Each kit sold is equivalent to one vote for the designer. The sales generated by the kits will count for a little over half of the final score of each applicant. The person with the highest score wins the coveted option of selling kits in the LDD shoppe.

Or something like that. 😆

Wish me luck, my sweeties! It’s your support that carries me through!!! 🙂