A Freebie for you?

Well, maybe. If this works. I got PkDoll to check out my link to 4shared. She said it worked for her so I'm gonna try to share it with you! I did the technique challenge over at http://www.godigitalscrapbooking.com/ hosted by Helen Ehrenhofer. Helen is always "challenging" us to do something new or odd or HARD! (*rotfl*) But that's the reason I so enjoy doing them! It's usually something I've never done or do the hard way! Haha. This challenge was to create and use a "word mask" in a layout.



So.............I thought and thought about what word to use. All the "traditional" words popped out at me like FAMILY, CHRISTMAS, and THANKSGIVING. But I wanted something a little different. So I thought of JINGLE and YULETIDE and even SLEIGH RIDE! But those might have been a little harder to find something to scrap with. I mean, really! I love sleigh rides! But how many of us have really taken a ride in one and would have photos? I almost went with SLEDDING because that would fit a lot of layouts but then I thought of all the family traditions we share at this time of year. So TRADITION became my word. You can use this word mask for any of your family traditions whether it be that big Christmas or Thanksgiving dinner or just the Friday Family Movie Night!

Above is my layout using the word mask. I used Studio Lorie's Flitting Fall Faeries for the flowers available at http://www.scrapbookgraphics.com/ The background is my own. Here is the word mask for you if you want it.

You can download it here!

A slightly different look.....

Forgot to tell you, I updated the header a bit. Very simple. Very relaxing. Made a blinkie to go with it but I think I made it too big. Hahaha! Well............. skrapperdigitals gave us 2 different sizes to pick from and I picked the biggest one! I wanted to show it off! Hahaha! Oh, well. I wanted to be able to move the butterfly around anyway so I'll try to resize when I get that part done. So hold off on collecting the blinkie if you would. But at least you can see I'm doing all the assignments! Yes, if you take the course, you have to make up a blinkie, too.

It's really easy with PSE5. It already has the Animation built in so you don't have to use an outside animater. Go to File>Save for Web and another window will pop up. Make sure to choose GIF and click on the Animate square. Colors are at 256 and dither is at 100%. Choose how fast you want the frames to move per second. And Voila! You're done! Save it somewhere on your computer. Then go to photobucket (or the storage place of your choice) and save it there so you can use the html code. (Crops2Dawn had to help me figure out how to add them to my blog so you could click and go there. Thanks, Croppy!) Check out my favorite choices in the column to the right for Places You Just Have To Go To Before You Die!

And I just noticed something about my bows! I must be holding my mouth funny or else I'm leaning too far to the left because the bow is always "bigger" on the left side. Do you see that, too? Right there! That left curved part! It's "longer" or something. Hmmmm........gotta go fix that................

Well......what do you think?

I worked on several things over the weekend. I think I'm almost ready to submit my assignment. I just have to make a decorative border.......hmmmm......nope! No ideas are coming to me yet. Hahaha! But some of you asked to see my ironed flat bow so here it is.

And here's the liquified bow I made. Much better but still needs some............Ummph! I found the liquify works better with the plain bow. The decorations kept "blowing up" and "sliding" all over the place. I quess the flat one would be OK for some layouts as well so I'll keep it, too.

Have you noticed the "Blogs I visit Daily" area over to your right? I fixed it so that I always know when someone has updated their blog and how long ago. That way I'm not spending time hopping around just to see the same blog I read yesterday! If you stop by MY blog everday, you'll know who's updated, too! (snicker, snicker) Then I'll have visitors EVERY DAY!!! Mwahahahahaha!

Thanks to all my new visitors who stopped by to check me out! I hope you enjoyed yourselves and will stop back by again and again! And a very special thanks to all who left comments. You really made me feel encouraged about my decision to start this. Hugs to all of you!

Welcome.......

to all my new visitors! (I hope I have some and I'm not just talking to myself.) Today is the first day that I'VE actually gone out and told the digi-world that I'm here. My fellow CT members introduced me on their blogs and I told my family they could stop in and visit but today I spent a little time letting my favorite sites know that I started this blog.

I, like a lot of digital scrappers, wanted to know how to design my own stuff. I searched for tutorials, took a few classes but never really made any progress along the journey until I took the Design Academy class at Stone Accents Studio taught by Sherah Kraan (Skrapperdigitals). As I've said before on this blog, it's such a well-rounded, all-encompassing course. We got info on how to make everything from patterns and textures to buttons, brads and bows. Yet, they weren't a "copy me" type of tutorial. She taught us how and let us use our imaginations to create our own ideas. But we also got the behind the scenes stuff that truly makes a designer. Quality checks, the essential parts of a kit, making blinkies and blogs, gathering your creative team, desiging your terms of use, how to apply to a store for a position as a designer, resources........so, so much packed into this 8 week course. And, though I say 8 weeks, it's a progress at your own pace class. You can join at any time. Some of us are on week 8 while others are on week 2. We learn from each other's questions and have weekly chats. I highly recommend it for anyone even slightly leaning toward a more involved position in the digital scrapbooking world.

Earlier, I told you I couldn't get the bows right in PS Elements 5. I may have found a way in Real Draw Pro 4 (speaking of which, check out www.esteesbarn.com for a years worth of tutorials for $25 AND, if you buy RDP4 directly from her, it's like getting the first year free as she charges you for the RDP as part of her membership. Then it's just the renewal fee after that.) But at last nights chat, I told Sherah that I found out Elements has the liquify (I didn't know that was there!) and she showed me how I could use that to make my bow........ "puffier" is the technical term she came up with. I can accept that. My bow came out very real looking, according to her, but it looked like it had been ironed flat. Which was EXACTLY how it looked! Mwahahaha! She took my bow and sent it back.....all puffy and flowing and 3D-ish and said, "Now, here! That's what you can do with liquify!" So! I'm going to be liquifying my bow tonight. Wish me luck!

I'm so sorry!

Oh, dear. (sigh) I've left you all hanging for the entire week! I'm so sorry. I was playing football with my 2 grandsons this past weekend and tripped over a hole in the ground (no, I wasn't tackled although, they did pile on top of me after I was already down! Little devils. Hahahaha!) and fell and must have somehow jarred my teeth enough to lose a filling and about 1/2 of my tooth! So I haven't felt like doing much. The tooth didn't hurt as much as the tongue that kept getting cut by the sharp edge on the tooth. And then, of course, the Dr had to poke and prod and make every other tooth sore, too. He did grind off that sharp knife edge that threatened to cut my tongue in half. Then, because I don't go to the dentist unless something is wrong, they had to do a cleaning............Now my gums hurt, too! I had to apologize to the hygenist as I haven't had a cleaning done in about 30 years. Childhood traumas and all that......you know how it goes. But, one good thing, no cavities! I just have to get this broken tooth extracted! Oh my GOSH! Decision time.......be put to sleep or just get knocked loopy and hope I don't remember any of it. If I have them put me to sleep, they can take the wisdom teeth out too. (Yes, I still have them! How do you think I got so smart? mwahahaha!) Oh, well. Taking a page from Scarlet O'Hara, "I'll think about that tomorrow!"

I can't believe it but I got an award! (wipes a tear) It came from my very good friend at Scrapbook Max, Crops2Dawn. Thanks Croppy! It's the "This blog has heart" award which means more to me than most people would think. I'll be spreading this around tonight, I hope. Another one of those things I have to figure out how to do. And I'll have to figure out how to link to everything on here. I've never blogged before, as you know. I've only been on forums where you CAN'T link to another site anywhere. But I just realized..........this is MY site. I can link to everything and everybody if I want to and no one can give me the dreaded "infraction" for doing so! Hahahahaha! So, next post I'll try to remember to leave you "directions" so you can find everything and everybody I'm talking about!

Did you like the sneak peek? Come on! Admit it! You looked, didn't ya. Those are just a small part of the kit. I got started and couldn't seem to quit. I'm still adding stuff. I should have it finished and submitted this weekend and then, after she checks it and I correct everthing, I'll post the homework part and the Add-ons here for you as my thanks for sticking with me.

No Peeking...........

Well.........Ok, just one. You wanted to see what I've been working on and I wanted to get them together to see how well they work. So here's a preview. Aren't they pretty?

Hope you like them. I'll set them up as a freebie after the class so come back in about 2 weeks and you can get them then. The preview was an action from Mega-Doodle Inspired's Designer Preview Action 1 that you can get from MyScrapShop.com Very "professional designer" looking, huh? I love this rolled fabric look.

Look at my slideshow

Well, I worked on adding a slideshow of some of my layouts but didn't have a lot of success. I did get them posted at the bottom of this page (You can scroll down and see my grandbabies) but I couldn't get them to fit on the sidebar. Too wide. And the directions they gave me were to create a new post and publish but I got an error saying it couldn't use the bar brackets around.....something or other. I'm not sure that would have put it at the top anyway, it might just have gone through as a regular post and disappeared after 7 days. But at least you can see them and I'll keep trying. Between trying to get this the way I want it and trying to put together my first kit..........I need a Me moment. "Calgon! Take Me Away!" Do they even still have that commercial?

Whoops.....

I almost forgot to stop in here. I've been scouring tutorials for a good one for making bows in PS Elements. We don't have the warp that all the tuts call for to make that "curve" in the bow. If anybody's got one let me know but for now, Teacher (Sherah Kraan aka Skrapperdigitals) says I can use a photo extracted. That will have to do until I find something else.

We had our weekly chat at the Digi Design Academy last night and I sprung my blog on them. They all seemed to like it even though it's not finished. But they really liked my photo in the header so I thought I'd tell you, too. I took that photo in my back yard. It's down a bank so we've never been flooded but it's a nice creek to go wading or swimming in. Some areas are shallow and slow moving and have a gazillion crawdads (crayfish) swimming around that the grandbabies like to catch in their nets. Other areas are swift and the kids love having their feet knocked out from under them before being carried away on the current. Hahaha! And yet still others are deep enough for some good fishing! And all of these are within a 200 yard area or smaller so we can do any or all of the above. Now......don't you wish you had one?

Yippee!

I'm doing the happy dance. I made a pattern last night for my "homework kit" that I just LOVE! I had to use it to make a paper in EVERY color and then made ribbons, too! Hahahaha! Now, how am I gonna pick which color paper gets to be in the kit? mwahahaha! That one little thing.......just a really nice pattern that I, myself, made........ (from a shape that came IN the software, for goodness sakes) ......... has me so excited I can't wait to show it off. ( shakes head)I'm such a ninny. But, since I haven't yet figured out how to put the slideshow up, I haven't tried the "insert photo here" part of the blogging either. So you'll have to wait until I figure that part out before I can give you a sneak peak. I can't offer it as a freebie until the teacher checks it for mistakes but then I'll share it with all of you.

After the paper-making spree, I had to watch the presidential debate and after that, Ghost Hunters was on Sci-fi. I never miss Ghost Hunters! Even for scrapbooking. LOL! So that's all I got done but I hope to work on those elements I TOLD you I was gonna make LAST night tonight instead.

Elements are HARD! Can I be a designer of just papers? I'm getting pretty good with papers. No, huh? Well, darn. I've got some elements that I'm going to make from photos but I also have to make up some items from scratch. Making them look 3-D in a 2-D environment makes me reject everything I come up with. But I'll keep trying. I'm bound to stumble onto that perfect technique, just like my pattern from last night........... and then I'll want to make one in every color! Hahahaha! See ya tomorrow!

Ha Ha! She found me.......

Must have been when I used my link under "Blogs I Visit Daily" to get to her site. I got one comment yesterday from a good friend from Scrapbook Max. I haven't even told FAMILY that I've started this blog and here Paula left me my very first comment. Thanks, PK! Luv ya! How'd you know it was me?

Didn't get anything accomplished yesterday on my designer journey......well, except for starting up this blog. But that was homework. LOL! The reason being that I found Lorie Davison's new kit at Scrapbookgraphics and I just have to get ALL of her kits. They are always so unusual, so happy, so FUN! But she always includes regular items also making the kits so very versatile. Her "fun stuff" reminds me of Dr Seuss, a favorite author of mine as a child and of my grandchildren, now. Her new kit is called Flitting Fall Faeries and of course I have to get the "Collection with Everything In It" so I spent the evening downloading 16 different zips (most of them over 50 MBs). Can't wait to start using them. Maybe I can add one of those slide shows on here and show you some layouts I make. Hmmmmm........See? Still working on the blog. Told you it would change along the way.

Tonight, I hope to work on my "homework kit" that I have to make for the Design Academy. Got a few ideas for embellishments and want to work on those. I have several papers made already. After completing the class, the next step is to start creating kits for the color challenges done at a lot of sites. That's where I'll get the most exposure and will have to sit back and bite my nails until I get some feed back from the people downloading and USING the kits. Their (your) feedback will help me to continue to work on and improve my style.

My favorite color challenge is hosted by Kim Broedelet (KimB) at digital-scrapbooking.org and Kim has some new CU patterns up in her store there this week. (Gotta think "CU OK" more now than before.) One is of Halloween patterns and the other is a Geometric pattern. I also am on a Creative Team for Words to Delite by Jazzy. Her word art is sold exlusively at DSO also and she's got some Heritage Cards coming up this week probably Thursday. You should check them out!

Well. I will let you know tomorrow how the designer journey went tonight or if I was still on a "layover" from last night. I may not be able to resist using that new kit. Why isn't there more hours in a day?

The start of a new dream......

My first day blogging........and I have no idea what I'm doing. LOL! I'm following a dream to become a designer of digital scrapbook products. This is my journey. Follow me as I learn what it takes to become one (and if I have IT) and hopefully soon, I'll have some freebies to share.

I started digitally scrapbooking in Nov of 2007. I had only done one paper scrapbook before going digital. It was for an album of family stories of ancestors and those still living in an attempt to preserve these stories for future generations so that these ancestors would be more than just a picture on the wall. They would have substance and meaning when we hear their names. The album turned out beautiful......and expensive! My word! I couldn't believe how much I spent on paper products. And if I didn't like it.....Oh Well! It was pasted down. I had no desire to EVER make another album. Then, a lady I ordered some paper products from recommended Scrapbook Max on her site and I bought it the same day. It was so easy! To this day, I'd rather make a layout in SBM than in my PSE 5 or RDP.

The people at SBM's forum were so very helpful in getting me started in digital scrapping. I can't name all the wonderful people who've been instrumental in getting me to this point. But I want to thank each and every one of them. Angelwithin's weekly challenges taught me a lot and the Groove's newsletter monthly challenges, too. Soon, I discovered a whole WORLD of digital scrapbooking sites and there were so many wonderful scrappers out there. I continued to improve in my layout designs with the help of all these people but then I wanted to try my hand at making my own stuff.

I took a couple designer classes, tried a few free tutorials, joined Estee's Barn RDP tutorial site and then I found the Design Academy at Stone Accents Studio. Sherah Kraan (aka skrapperdigitals) is the teacher and her class is so ........well......"complete". She includes making your own papers and elements as well as all the behind the scenes stuff like quality checks, resources, blinkies, essential & optional items in a kit, setting up your creative team, creating your logo...........and starting your first blog. So, here I am.

My blog header is non-existent at this time. I'm supposed to create my own stuff to put on it. That will come along somewhere on this journey. I like this "heritage" color so this is the template I picked but this too may change along the way. I hope to share my journey with some of you who also want to try this designer business for yourselves. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you'll join me again soon for some chai tea and gossip.