Monday Quote

“One’s philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes. In the long run, we shape our lives and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And, the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.“ – Eleanor Roosevelt

Sunday is challenge day in designer digitals land...or at least it's the day I discover the challenges...the best thing about challenges there is that they come with freebies. Yay! Of course Sunday also has .25 cent items too, which have led me down a spending path the couple of weeks, who wants to charge .50 cents? Clearly I'm not alone, it must work out pretty well for the site or they have a great credit card contract that doesn't charge a fee for each purchase...I digress...the challenge is what this post is really supposed to be about. Secret Desires, what a perfect thing to think about, of course traveling immediately popped into my mind, perfect except that it's not much of a 'secret', so I altered the challenge just a bit.

This great overlay by Anna Aspnes was part of the challenge, it made for an easy page to come together...and who doesn't love an easy page?

Since it's so easy, I challenge all of you in bloggie land to scrap this topic, I promise it will be a fun one. Want to use the template? Go get it here. (you'll need a designer digitals community account to access it, I know one more account blah, blah, blah, but this one is TOTALLY worth it, I promise)
Hope you have a great week!

Ink-a-licious

You know it's a good weekend when your hands look like this at the end of the day on Sunday. With MK's birthday card I seem to have rediscovered my lost love of sponging and other ink and paper combos that I played with all weekend and now my hands look stained.


I also worked in a less mess format on this digi page about Sienna and her ever expanding vocabulary.

Patterned Paper: MTeresawa, Designer Digitals (Beautiful Day floral)
Elements: AEdwards, Designer Digitals (Details), KPertiet, Designer Digitals(Stacked Vintage frames) MTeresawa, Designer Digitals(Ric Rac, Sticker, Tab)


This age is one of my favorites as the vocab expands seemingly on a daily basis and the never ending struggle to decipher what she is really saying. I was also reminded how much toddlers thrive on routine. I stopped by to visit her at her Nana's on my way home from site visits on Friday and it took the poor thing 10 minutes to try and make sense of me at Nana's, that's never happened w/o one of her parents there at the same time.

And as the weekend fades away, I'm celebrating a goal met...check out the number of May posts...33 baby, I did it plus a couple of bonus entries. Yay Me! Bring on the new month...

Bubbly Toes

So this was the layout I started a few days ago and mentioned that it wouldn't really fit with the blog. Distressed and vintage papers on a layout about modern tech just didn't jive, go figure remember I started working on after my bedtime, but with a picture of cute baby toes, what could be better?

Template: Katie Pertiet, Remembering You Designer Digitals
Patterned Paper: Jessica Sprague Thank You Kindly Kit(peachy floral), Rhonna Farrer 2 Peas(Brown Distressed) SBetc. Sweet Country
Elements: J Edwards Smoothie Shop Designer Digitals(Stitching), Ali Edwards Designer Digitals(Blessing of You)

Reflect

"Reflect on your present blessings, of which every man has many; not on your past misfortunes of which all men have some" Charles Dickens

This week my ever wonderful friends at google reader recommended the 'One Little Word(OLW)' blog, I love it! (totally stole the quote from OLW) I wonder if I've been under a rock or so lost my own little world to have missed it for so long. I met the lovely Rhonda P at Emily's house not so long ago, it was great to see more of her work and some other uber-talented scrappers. If you've missed it too, definitely worth checking out. This weeks word is reflect, couldn't be more perfect for my little space of cyberspace, with that as a jumping off point, I returned to my idea of a digi-page celebrating the 100th post and thinking about why I blog. I think it's a little funny to scrapbook a blog that's about scrapbooking.

Despite the fact that it feels like 'little old woman who swallowed a fly...' sound in my head to do this page, it was excellent to really think about this blog, what my goals are and remember why I spend the time to develop it. Hopefully it will be a reminder to me for 'those days' when the last thing I want to do it blog, those are the days I probably need to do it most. Reflection, indeed.

Patterned Papers: JEdwards Designer Digitals(Smoothie Shop:floral, stripe, hotpink) RFarrer 2 peas(green scallop)
Elements: MWise Designer Digitals(Reflect), SBetc(ribbon), JSprague(Scratchy overlay, recolored)

Layout of the Day...

Left to my own devices, this digi layout didn't come together quite as easily as the ones we did in the class. I had several instances of 'paralysis by analysis' going through my digi supplies, so easy to swap papers, photos, etc. I just kept tweaking until I came up with this one and then decided to apply the same methodology I use w/paper scrapping and just walk away.


Patterned Paper and Tags: Jessica Sprague
Other elements: Scrapbooks Etc.

Daily Dose

Here's today's layout, can't remember when I was successful in making enough layouts/scrappy projects to fill a week's worth of posts. How many days does it take to form a habit? 21? Or is it 21 to break the habit... I think I knew that at some point...that seems like a lofty goal. Can I tell you how cute I thought this quick page was from Katie Pertiet(another freebie from my Jessica Sprague class) so I was totally motivated to use it quickly. Add a cute photo of S crashed out on the coach at my house and voila super fast and cute page...gotta love it.



Patterned Paper: Katie Pertiet(Bear's Life quick page)
Frame: Jessica Sprague
Word Art: Jessica Sprague Fonts: Marker Felt, Cracked

Animal Lover

Just wrapping up one of the last assignments for the Jessica Sprague class I've been blabbering about for the past week. Does everyone feel this euphoria when the digi finally clicks? Don't get me wrong, I will always love my paper and glue, but there is something a little rewarding about spending time on the computer and having something to show other than email chats and high scores on silly facebook games.

I'm still struggling with the organization system just a bit, thinking maybe I'll sort by color as I used to do when my regular supplies until I really got to know the styles of the lines/designers. We'll see...

Patterned Paper: Rhonna Farrer(Funky Florals-Pink Floral), Jessica Sprague (blue)
Elements:Rhonna Farrer(yellow flower strip), Tia Bennent(stitches), Carina Gardner (Journal Card)
Fonts:321 Impact, Never Let Go, Allura Script

Another layout

Getting bored yet? sorry...I'm really proud to have finally spent the time to build some digi-competencies. For a gal who prides herself on being fairly tech savvy it was a little embarrassing to not have digi-skills. Now I do...although this LO isn't the best example, it is good practice.


Patterned Paper: Jessica Sprague(Blue, Stripe), Jennifer Pebbles(blue polka dot), ???(green), Katie Pertiet(sanded overlay)
Template: Jen Caputo

Will she, won't she...

I know you're on the edge of your seats to see if I have another digi-layout to share today...will she make it the end of the class?(I wondered the same thing myself, 4 weeks of assignments is tough). So far so good, I'm a little sad that I only have two more assignments left, perhaps I should sign up for another while the mojo is still running or maybe I'll give the paper layout sitting on my desk some love this weekend.

For now, I have this little gem to share from the bonus assignment in week 3. Using templates...I had done this once before, but the results weren't nearly this cool. It's got my mind running and wondering if I can turn some of the sketches I did for the SD blog into templates, that would be so cool.
Don't get too excited I didn't organize my digi files, but did leave PS up so I could give proper credit before closing the files.
Patterned Paper: Carina Gardner(Pinks, 2 Peas May Freebie), Jessica Sprague(Blue, Echoes of Asia kit) K. Pertiet (Sanded overlay)
Template: Jen Caputo as part of JS class supplies/materials.

Even though I'm not, nor ever will be a chronological scrapper, I was still feeling a little guilty for not scrapping a page for Sienna's first steps(really, what kind of aunt am I?) so there's a feeling of relief to have this important moment documented.

Welcome to the weekend, hope it's a great one!

Friday Fun

So way back at the beginning of the year, I set a goal to blog more often overall and bonus points(if you can give yourself bonus points, I'm thinking camera lens) if I blogged everyday for a full month. I made a run in February, but fell short by just a couple of days. Maybe May will be the month as I show off class projects...then again May is crazy so don't hold your breath. In the meantime here's the layout from the 3rd lesson of the Up and Running Class.


fun, fun, fun...hey mom(or anyone else who cares) you can click on the layout for a better look at S.

Branching Out

still rushing home from work to play with digi scrapping stuff. Maybe the fact that the store is closing so the thought of not having some where to go to get supplies is a subconscious reason for the draw to digi this week or maybe it's the new mac that's super fast and has room to store, whatever it's the perfect match for me this week. So the first few layouts were built on templates, I just had to add photos and other elements in, last night we were on our own(by we I mean 'new Mac' and me, it's not a synchronous class) to build a layout from scratch to show off our new skills. What I learned is...for a paper scrapper I have downloaded a lot of digi-elements. Not unlike the person who would walk into a store and say I've spent $xxxx dollars and never made a page(except I haven't spent that much because there are a LOT of freebies out there) here's what I came up with...
I know I should give credits, except I have some serious organizing to do here in digi land(skipped that bonus assignment) and can't remember much other than the patterned paper comes from a kit called whitie tighties(yep really) and it was a freebie with the JS class. Everything else came from 2 peas just not sure of the designers (so sorry)

Mom, Look what I made...

ok, so in terms of digiscrapping these layouts are a little like the proverbial 'ashtray' kid sculpture (do people still say that, if not, what do we call questionable clay sculptures?)

Super easy with Jessica leading the way and most of the template already done...for those keeping track this is 3 layouts in about as many hours, meanwhile a half done paper layout(the one I needed the frames for) sits undone days later.

all supplies came from Jessica Sprague 'Up and Running w/Photoshop' Class.

Digi, who me?

Yes me, so I was on the hunt for some free frames(I blame Paula and Lisa for that) and stumbled upon a sale on Jessica Sprague's site, my credit card number was in before I even knew what was happening. And here's my first layout(technically my 3rd digi-layout) I pretty much stuck close to the directions, off roaded by adding a couple of extra stars and voila...why share...because Jessica told me too (yes really, it's homework and you know I'm a stickler for getting assignments completed) that she thinks I'm awesome doesn't hurt either. Idol will have to wait, I'm on a role, off to lesson 2.