My Christmas Cards!

Here are my two Christmas cards for 2008! The first one for family and friends...the second one for our wonderful vet who has taken such wonderful care of my (rather un-amused) sweet Kayla! I hope you are all enjoying the holiday season thus far and getting your shopping done and presents wrapped!

Credits for top card: Background from Wide-eyed wonder by Misty Cato; Sparkle frame from Weeds & Wildflowers.
Credits for bottom card: Quickpage by Snowflake Beach Designs; Tag by Erica Hite; everything else from Weeds & Wildflowers.

New Geocaching Kit and Freebie!

Here's a new kit dedicated to all those Geocachers out there! I've been reading about Geocaching for awhile now and finally took the plunge and found a few close to my home. I can see how this new sport can become very addicting! You can find the Papers and Elements sold separately in my store. Now for a free sample...here's a logbook frame. Enjoy!


Logbook Frame Freebie

Dog and Cat Freebie!

A couple of months ago I set out to make a dog kit and never finished it. Got busy with life! I revisited it the other day and remembered I made these wood frames. They're just too cute not to share so I decided to give them away with a few cat and dog phrases. Thank you to my friend Christie at Digital Daisy Designs for the frame idea! One of these days I'll finish my dog kit (not too sure if I'll make a cat version since I don't have a cat) but until then, enjoy these! For those of you who left comments on Kayla's layout below...thanks for keeping me in your reader even though I'm scarcely here anymore these days *wink*

Dog version
Cat version

Happy NDSD! Sale!

Happy National Digital Scrapbooking Day! I'm a little slow getting my sale going this morning but my entire store will be on sale for 50% this weekend! Have a fun day shopping the sales and grabbing goodies around digiland, I know I will!

Happy Birthday Kayla!!!

Wow, I haven't posted to my blog for 2 months!!!!!! I can't imagine anyone even visits here anymore but just in case you're stopping by...here's a layout of my girl, Kayla! She's 11 years old today. I snagged this free QP and just thought it was adorable and perfect for this photo. Hope you're all having a wonderful Autumn!
Credits: QP by Madae using a Sunflower's Garden kit by Silvia Romeo; Alpha by Viviane; Font-Larger mime

School Spirit- Gold and Black!

For those that requested it, I now have the Gold and Black version of the School Spirit Alpha and Wordtags in my store Here! I'm still taking requests for more colors but I would at least like to have 2 or more requests for the same color so send them my way! Oh, and specify which color you want as the top color!!!! Thanks!

New kit and a Freebie!

Credits: S'mores kit by Calico's Digital Designs; fonts- AndrewScript and Really Bad typewriter

Can you tell what's on my mind??? The inspiration for this kit is obvious, I'm sure!! My boys love this ooey, gooey, oh-so-yummy camping snack!!!! I seem to have lots of S'more-making and S'more eating pictures and I'll bet I'm not the only one out there that does. I'm not sure how popular THIS SNACK is outside the USA but if it's not, you're missing out! You can pick up this kit in my store HERE!

You can grab this coordinating Freebie by clicking on the link below! Enjoy!

S'mores Frames

School Spirit Alpha and Wordart

I can feel it in the air...back to school is quickly approaching. I refuse to say goodbye to summer! I have been inspired by all the school sports stuff I start seeing this time of year so I made these goodies. Ah, high school football, homecoming, pep rallies, cheerleading tryouts. Almost makes me ready for fall...but not quite! This will only be free for a limited time and then it will go into my store. Once this is in the store I'm considering making it available in other school colors. If you have colors you would like to see, leave me a note and I'll start with some of the more popular requests. These were my high school colors so I started with that. Enjoy!

**This product is no longer free but it is available in my store by clicking the link below!**

School Spirit Apha and Wordart

Happy Birthday Riley!

Actually his 4th birthday was Tuesday, July 15th and we had his party on Sunday. I made some green monster cupcakes just for the occasion! My little guy is really growing up fast! I wanted to scrapbook these pics before posting them but at the rate I scrap these days that didn't happen.

Gift Certificate Offer!

Thank you for all the wonderful comments on my camping video! I mentioned a while back that in addition to selling digital scrapbooking kits I also sell Usborne Books. If you have children or know anyone that does, I highly recommend checking out all the wonderful things this website has to offer HERE! As you can see from my ad above, I'm running a special through next Tuesday. If you have any special occasion coming up, these books make great gifts and if you browse the site you will see there is lots more than just books. Lots of activities to keep the kids busy during the summer doldrums! As a bonus, you get a gift certificate for $15 to use in my digital scrapbooking store with any purchase at my Usborne site. Limit one per customer. Hope you're all enjoying your day! Please e-mail me if you have any questions :)

I made a video about our camping trip!

We spent two nights at one of our favorite RV parks just outside of Estes Park last weekend. We like to take our first trip of the summer here every year since 2005 when we got our pop-up. It's called Spruce Lake RV park. We had a great time and I made a little video of the highlights! It has background music if you'd like to turn on your sound but I had a little trouble lowering the background music when there's talking so I apologize for that...I'm still learning :)! Enjoy! (WARNING-there's s'mores involved!)

My Technique for getting a good photo of my boys!

When the time rolls around for me to get a decent photo of the boys like for a Father's Day gift for example, I always get a little stressed! If you have young kids, you know how difficult it can be. Sure, I can plan ahead and bring them to a portrait studio and let them do all the work but no, not me. I prefer the 'waiting until the last minute, cross my fingers and hope to get a good photo, then print it at home method.' I find that I have about 5 minutes from the time I start taking pictures until the boys become uninterested and then there's no hope after that. This time, I grabbed the hair gel, put on their coordinating shirts, put my camera in "muli-shot" mode, held the shutter down and snapped about 100 continuous photos. 99 of them turned out like this...

or this...
or this...
But I was lucky enough to get one just like this...

We're good until next time anyway! Ciao for now!

New Quickpage Album and New Designer Intro!

Allow me to introduce The Digital Daisy! Christie has recently taken the plunge into the world of digital scrapbook designing. She has a new blog and has already given out her first two freebies, Southwest Style and Budding Artist. Hop on over to her blog to grab these great freebies and welcome her with a nice comment! In addition to her designing, I've recruited her to make an 8x8 Quickpage album with my latest kit! I'm thrilled with the wonderful job she did and hope she will be doing more albums for me in the future! Here is a preview of the album which can be purchased HERE!Here is a layout I did with Christie's Budding Artist freebie:

The pacifier has left the building!

The night before last my 3 year old (almost 4) decided of his own accord that he was ready to give his binky to the binky fairy in exchange for a toy! He assured us he was too big for it and didn't need it anymore. He only uses it for naps and nighttime. So, he put his beloved stash on the chair and awoke to not only one but two toys. All was well until he went to bed last night and realized the gravity of what he had done. He cried and begged in his most pitiful 3yo voice for us to give his new toys back to the binky fairy in exchange for his binks. I laid beside him and distracted him with stories of castles and dragons until he fell asleep. These moments are always bittersweet for us. On one hand we're glad to see our little guys take steps toward growing up but on the other hand those pacifiers have been a permanent fixture of our household for almost 6 years so I'm going to miss seeing them lying around. Now, on to potty training....which Riley has demanded he is NOT ready for! Growing up is hard but at least he still has his bear :)

Credits: Sweet kit from 3 Scrapateers

...and another layout!

Ah! What's summer without a Slip-n-Slide???????? This was taken one year ago and my boys really didn't have the hang of using this thing yet....it was more like running, jumping and landing on theire faces! This summer however, they're really getting the whole sliding concept. What really helped them learn was THIS. After trying them at my brother's last week I had to go out and buy a 4 pack at Target! Gotta go take more pictures!
Credits: Funshine kit by Calico Designs; Template by Racketty Scrappety; Fonts-Planet Benson2 and Ziggy Zoe.

2 new layouts!

There are so many pictures of my boys that I had in mind when I made my latest kit, so I made myself sit down last night and scrap a couple of pages. I have one more in progress that I hope to finish tonight.
Credits: Funshine Kit by Calico Designs; Font on both layouts-Dupree; Template used in top layout by Heather Besnon.

New Kit and a Freebie!

Hey there scrappers! Depending on the part of the world you live in you're heading into the summer months, right? Well, I just made a kit to help you scrap those summertime memories! It's called Funshine and it's on sale in my store this week for 20% off Here.

I also made a coordinating freebie that I hope you will find useful during these lazy daze of summer...Enjoy! (personal use only)

Funshine Frames

Good News and layout to share!

Happy Memorial Day! I hope you all have fun plans and have been enjoying your weekend! I would like to thank you for the positive thoughts and concerns over my "lump". I have good news to share about that. Originally my appt was scheduled for this coming Friday but I was able to get it pushed up a week. I went in this past Friday and after my exam he wasn't concerned at all and diagnosed it as possibly a cyst but most likely a clogged duct. It had gotten quite a bit smaller over the past two weeks so he didn't even feel the need to aspirate it. What a relief!!!!!
About my layout, I thought this free quickpage by Stuffed Pretzel Designs (Digital Freebies) was so cute that I just had to snap a few photos of my son and hubby putting up our flag for memorial day! Font on the date is 28 days later, journaling is Amanda's Hand. Until next time.......

Just a reminder to women...

Don't forget to have regular mammograms and do your monthly breas*t exams! I just had a mommogram in Jan but I found a lump a few days ago. I had my Dr check it out and she is fairly certain it is just a fibrotic cyst however she referred me to a surgeon 'just in case'. My appt is on the 30th so I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, I was told to eliminate caffeine from my diet and as you can see from my blinkie over on the right....that is going to be difficult :) I'm running on half-caf today and so far so good.

National Scrapbooking Day Freebie!

Grab this freebie and enjoy your Day!!!

Baseball Quickpages

I lOVE these children's books!

So...I went to a home show the other night at my neighbor's house. I've been to many home parties....Pampered Chef, Party light etc...but this was for Usborne books. Now I know these books have been around for ages and I've heard the name many times but until now I've never actually seen the books. All I can say is, if you have kids you will LOVE these books. I left the party wanting to buy everything in the catalog. The quality is outstanding and the prices are very reasonable. I just had to share this picture my son drew with the help of this book I Can Draw People (you can peek inside the book):He has never really drawn anything more than a primitive stick figure so I was very impressed to say the least, lol! To make a long story short...I am now selling Usborne books and I would love to share my site with you HERE. Please feel free to browse it, ask me about it, place an order, sign up to host an eShow to earn free books or become a consultant like me!!!! Phew!!! You will not be disappointed! If you would like to receive e-mails of upcoming specials, please send me your e-mail address and I'll add you to my mailing list! (I promise I won't abuse it!)
Now, about scrapbooking....NSD is Sat as I'm sure you're well aware of and I'm going to try very hard to get a freebie made for you all! Thanks for stopping by!

Commercial Licenses Available!

Happy First of May! It was 82 degrees yesterday and snowing today..gotta love Colorado! I took this picture of Kayla last year and never scrapped it. She just loves to be out in the front yard watching the world go by. I used Misty Cato's blog template 12; Happiness papers and background paper by me; Atomic cupcake Felt and Gemstone actions font-Cheltpress Trial.
I've had quite a few requests to use my products for commercial/professional use so I've finally put some licenses for sale in my store HERE. Have a wonderful day!

Thanks for the birthday wishes!

I had a wonderful day, the weather was gorgeous! Hubby made one of my favorite dinners with strawberry shortcake for dessert, yum! Thanks for the suggestions on the papers, too! It seems the majority of you think they look like quilting fabric. Funny, being an ex-quilter I didn't even think of that but now that I look at them, they sure do! I guess the quilter in me will be there forever! I'll try to come up with some elements but I may move on to a whole different thing since I already did the quilting thing with my Quilter's Stash series, lol!

Freebie Paper Pack!

I think it's high time I get on here and post a freebie for you all! What's the occasion, you might ask??? Well, it's my birthday!!! These papers are not really my style (I was trying to boost my inspiration with something a bit different) but maybe you can find a use for them, lol! I may try to make some coordinating elements but so far I'm struggling with a theme to match these crazy looking papers....any ideas? I chose the name this morning after watching "The Pursuit of Happyness" last night (wonderful movie!). I was going to name it "Happyness" but figured everyone would assume I don't know how to spell!!! Have a wonderful day, I know I will!!!!
Download 1
Download 2

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Wow, it's been awhile since I've posted! I hope you are all having a happy green day today! I managed to snap a few photos of the boys in their green today with the help of a candy bribe, lol!
The reason for my absence is because of something I found in the basement last week. No, it wasn't a big hairy spider that bit me and sent me to the hospital if that's what you were thinking. I found a box of VHS tapes that I've been hanging onto for many years now, trying to protect and preserve. One of the tapes contains home movies of my early childhood that were converted from film (you know, the ones that had no sound and you needed a projector to view them?) The rest of the tapes were from home movies that were recorded on the early camcorders that recorded right to VHS. Anyway, I've decided to transfer them to DVD format and make copies for my family members. It has become a very time-consuming project but I've had lots of fun watching them and editing them. After I'm done with the VHS tapes, I'm moving on to all the rest of the videos I've taken up to present day and get them all on DVD. Just one of those things I've wanted to do for a long time now.
Credits for the layout: Quickpage by LindsayJaneDesigns(recolored a bit); Alpha by GABhappyscrap; Font-Marketing Script

A layout and E-bay!

My goal this year is to get a calendar page done every month so I can print out 2009 calendars at Christmas for the grandparents. I'm already running behind but if I can squeeze in my Feb page before the end of the week, I'll be right on schedule. I really never got a decent picture of the boys this month so it may be difficult. They're both in desperate need for a haircut and my 5YO goes into "goofy face" mode whenever I get the camera out.
Credits: Template by Andrea Niehaus: Kit -Win'tree Weather by Linda Walton: Font-Larger Mime
On a non-scrapbooking note, I put my very first auction up on E-bay this week! I found my box of maternity clothes in the basement and thought I would give E-bay a shot. If it doesn't work out, they will go into the donation box :) Until next time...Happy Scrappin'

The "stuff" has found homes

Thanks you all for the wonderful suggestions for donating my quilting, scrapbooking stuff. I've managed to sort through all my quilting stuff and I contacted a lady at Firehouse Quilts that is kind enough to come pick up all 9 boxes this week! This group of ladies make quilts for women and children in crisis. I would also like to thank a blog reader, Julie that lives locally for coming this week to pick up my scrapbooking stuff (at least all but the stuff my boys wanted to keep for art projects). She's going to donate it to her Creative Memory consultant that visits the cancer ward at children's hospital and lets them make cards and have fun with the stuff! I'm going to donate all my books (and there's a lot of them) to the library today. Now onto the baby stuff....that's going to go to the consignment shop :)

Back to the subject of clutter...

A few posts back I mentioned my basement and the fact that we are getting ready to remodel so the clutter needs to be de-cluttered. I decided to take pictures and scrap the way it looks at this moment in time. I can almost hear you saying..."Ack, what a mess!" It has actually looked worse than this before we de-cluttered a couple of years ago. Quite a bit of this mess is leftover quilting supplies from when I had my quilting business. I have boxes and boxes of fabric, and half-started projects, etc that use to fill a room now just fill boxes and space. Another good chunk of this chaos is all my unused paper scrapping and rubber stamping supplies. Then there's all the boxes of outgrown clothes from the boys not to mention carseats, cribs, etc. Finally, a big chunk is also DH's RC hobby stuff that went by the wayside, temporarily after the boys were born. After careful consideration, I have decided to get rid of all my quilting and my paper scrapping supplies. I just figured I haven't felt like making a quilt for about 5 years now so I'm not going to hold onto that stuff anymore. I know for sure I will never go back to paper scrapping again so I may as well let someone have it that's going to use it. The only thing that's stopping me from getting rid of the baby clothes is I wanted to go through them and keep a few sentimental items then they're outta there! Stay tuned...this is not the last time you will see pictures of this basement! BTW if you hav any ideas on good places to donate quilting and scrapbooking supplies other than large donation centers, I'd love to hear them. I want them to go where they will be loved and appreciated!
Credits: April template by Tracyb; Kit-Terre d'Argile by Scrap-shop.fr; Stick-em-up Songbird alpha by Linda Rechtin; Blue chipboard alpha by Tracy King; Frames by me; Font: really bad typewriter

Happy Valentine's Day

Did you have a nice V-day? Mine was wonderful! I had set up little V-day goodybags for the boys last night so they were thrilled with the sweet treats and such this morning! DH and I exchanged cards before he left for work so I was pleasantly surprised when these beautiful 24 long stem roses were delivered from him mid morning! Aren't they beautiful??? I also got a Starbucks gift card from my MIL who loves to feed my addiction! I hope you enjoyed your day of love!!!!

Remembering Dakota.....

My brother and SIL had to say goodbye to their sweet Dakota Rose yesterday :( Dakota was a sweet, spunky, spoiled, mischievous girl that loved bananas and ice cream. They got Dakota when my Candy was about 2 1/2. A few years later, we each got another dog (Kayla and Bailey). All four dogs have grown up together and have had many playdates, hiking trips and camping trips together. Dakota was 12 years old and her health was failing so it was time to let her go. She lived a very full and happy doggy life. She will be missed!!! I just know Candy and Dakota are romping around at the Rainbow Bridge, happy to be together again :)

Credits: Spring Fling Template by Traci Sims; Kit-Down to Earth by Kimberly Stewart; Font-Sweetheart Script.

I'm drowning in clutter....

...and I must do something about it! It must be the time of year with a hint of spring just around the corner. Spring cleaning and especially de-cluttering needs to be done. I haven't posted, designed or even scrapped anything since my last post because I decided to take a stand against 2 cluttered areas of my life. First, the boys and I started tackling the playroom. I think I've managed to hold on to every toy and every item of clothing since my first son was born (5 years ago). Second, I also decided to face the daunting task of organizing my digital scrapbooking supplies. I've been using Picasa up until this point and although it's a wonderful program for the price(free!) I needed something new, something a little better. I decided to download the trial version of ACDSee Photo Manager. I'm sure I will end up buying it because so far I really like it! I've managed to categorize my previews together, then I further categorized them into themes and then into color schemes. I've also deleted a lot of stuff I know I'll never use. A little at a time, I'd like to go further into tagging everything eventually but for now, I have a good idea of what I own and can easily see it, find it and hopefully use it. As for the playroom, well it's a work in progress. It looked good until I opened the closet, not to mention I still have to bring up all the toys they got for Christmas that are still in the living room, ack...it never ends! I donated 4 boxes of toys with the boys permission of course, since they are keeping watchful eyes on the donation boxes at all times (I would've donated so much more). I've added 4 more boxes of clothes to the basement to donate at a later time. Ah, that brings us to the basement...the cold, unfinished, very full and cluttered catch all of a basement. We will be tackling that soon and will have no choice since we are having someone come next week to give us an estimate to finish the basement and hope to have it complete before summer arrives. I see a lot of donating and E-baying in my future and of course a yard sale!!!! Goodbye clutter! Oh, we also decided to decorate the boys' bedroom into an outer space theme since it's a mishmash of themes right now. I'll post some pictures when it's done. I have to order most of the stuff online so hopefully most of it will get here this next week. Thanks for listening to me babble!!!!!!

First tooth has been lost!

Credits: Template by Racketty Scrappety; Tooth Fairy kit by Amanda Mcgee; Font-Ziggy Zoe

My little guy is growing up! He lost his first tooth Sunday night. He was very excited to put it under his pillow for the tooth fairy. It seems she didn't have any bills smaller than a five so that's what he got! We told him she must've given him so much since it was his first tooth :)

Valentine Freebie!

Last week, I set out to make a free quickcard using my new kit XOXO and Conversation Hearts. Seemed easy enough until I kept changing it and tweaking it, unable to decide which version I liked best. I sat on it for a week and when I re-visited my versions I still couldn't decide, so.....you get to have all 4 cards and the the word art is separate to be used or not! The adorable baby in the picture is my son Riley taken in Feb 2005 when he was 7 month old (now 3 1/2 years old). Font is Really bad typewriter

Download Here for personal use only, please!

I got published in an e-zine!

I was very excited to get an e-mail from Creatively Obsessed stating she had submitted the above layout to an e-zine at 3Scrapateers and got chosen! I think she did a wonderful job using my Doodle Pets kit to scrap this adorable photo, don't you? Scrapstyle is a new e-zine and you can get the Jan/Feb isssue HERE! In honor of this, I've decided to put Doodle pets on sale for 50% off for one week and you can get it HERE!

Conversation Hearts!

I'm on a roll now, LOL! I set out last night to try and create some digital candy hearts and this is what I came up with! Don't you just love conversation hearts and all the cute little sayings? I can almost taste them now. These are available in my store but if you send me a layout with my XOXO page kit, I'll give you these for free!

Painted Doodles Freebie!

Thanks for stopping by to grab this freebie! While you're here, check out my new Valentine kit below :) It will be on sale for 1 week HERE!

Painted Doodles Freebie

New Kit and a layout

WooHoo! I finally got a new Valentine kit in my store called XOXO! I'm actually not a big fan of the colors I used since I have 2 boys but I thought I would design out of my comfort zone and give this a try. I always have the hardest time working with purple, LOL! I wanted to release a freebie with this kit but I haven't made one yet... that is my goal for this weekend so keep checking back! As you can see below, this kit doesn't have to be used just for Valentine's day, it can be used with pictures of boys/men or even pets! I was playing with my new camera and ended up with this adorable picture of my son with his dad :) The font I used is Milk & Cereal. This kit will be ON SALE HERE for one week.

Happy New Year!

I hope the new year finds each and every one of you a year filled with happiness, health and wonderful memories to scrap! My resolutions this year:
-Move my exercise bike out of the basement and start using it
-Spend more time with my 97 year old grandma
-Create a will
-Back up my photos to an off-site location and move all my videotapes to a safety deposit box
-Design some kits
-Drink less coffee
-Try to have less worries and more gratitude
Here is a layout I did of my husband and I. It seems the only time we get our picture taken together is on Chritmas eve...so here is our annual Christmas eve picture :)

Credits: Quickpage by Little Dreamer Desings; Bow by Merkeley Designs; Tag from my Touch of Brass kit; Font-Arcadian.

This is totally off-subject but for all you homeschoolers out there...have you seen this funny video? HOMESCHOOL FAMILY