Happy 4th of July!

Just wanted to get on and wish my country a Happy Birthday! I made a layout of my Dad, Bob and a couple of my uncles in their uniforms from World War II. I used Wordart from Words To Delite at DSO called Our Military! And it's on sale!





Here's my 1st layout. May get another done.....if I do, I'll update this.

I used a freebie kit called Celebrate America from MA3 at Scrapbook Max.

Happy Birthday, America!

Heritage Blog Hop

The As Time Goes By heritage blog hop by DigiScrap Express goes live today! Here's the list of bloggers participating:


Kolor'Scapez! Freebies - http://kolorscapezfreebies.blogspot.com/
BeaconScrap - http://beaconscrap.livejournal.com/
Purple Dragonfly Creations - http://purpledragonflycreations.blogspot.com/
Creekside Cottage Designs - http://creeksidecottagedesigns.blogspot.com/ YOU ARE HERE!
Angi's Place - http://amtamburo.blogspot.com/
Crystal's Creations By Design - http://crystalcreationsbydesign.blogspot.com/
Desert Bloom Designs - http://desertbloomdesigns.blogspot.com/
VanJo Designs - http://harley310.blogspot.com/
Digital Keepsakes - http://digital-keepsakes.blogspot.com/
Kez Creates - http://kezcreates.blogspot.com/
MoveFearlessly Designs - http://movefearlessly.com/blog
MLH Scraps & Such - http://missladyhawke.blogspot.com/
Lindas Dream Designs - http://lindasdreamdesigns.blogspot.com/
Scrapin Daisy - http://scrapindaisy.blogspot.com/
Digi Cyber Scraps - http://digicyberscraps.com/
Designs by Teri~ - http://terisscrappinplaytime.blogspot.com/

And here's a preview of my contribution:

Click the links below to download:

Elements 1

Elements 2

Elements 3

Paper

Digi Design Academy Charity Blog Hop

Welcome to the Digi Design Academy Charity Blog Hop! Recently our dear friend, Trish had a Breast Cancer scare and she decided to use her experience to remind and encourage others to take exams regularly.Early detection is vital! So all of her friends at the Digi Design Academy (and Trish herself) have put together this great mega kit for all of you!

A donation is not required of course, but would be greatly appreciated. The charity that Trish has chosen as the benefactor is http://www.breastcancer.org/ and the donation button below will take you directly to the site to donate if you wish.

This bright and fun mega kit contains:50+ beautiful papers! 70+ incredible elements! 4 amazing full size alpha sets! and set of 5 lovely word art pieces!




Here's my contribution: (not all items are shown in preview)

Papers Here

Elements Here

And here's the blogroll for the rest of the contributions to this great mega kit!

http://melissas-place.blogspot.com/
http://waiteforthemomentdesigns.blogspot.com/
http://creeksidecottagedesigns.blogspot.com/
http://abyscraps.wordpress.com/
http://kimberkattscraps.blogspot.com/
http://cindyrelly.blogspot.com/
http://amberpony.blogspot.com/
http://skrapperdigitals.blogspot.com/
http://www.mitsybelle.blogspot.com/
http://digitalscrapbooking.grabthe411.com/

Another quick tip!

Thought this was an easy tutorial for making those custom shadows on your layouts. You know how some elements look like they're bent higher on one side because the shadow is larger and farther away just on that one side? Well, here's a very easy tutorial for PSElements (since we don't have the warp feature necessary to do it the quickest way).

I found this at Digi Scrap Addicts website under their tutorials. It's by Megan Turnidge and is really easy to follow. The pictures really helped me to understand and I can see where it would get quicker with practice. Anyway, thought I'd share it with you! Click on this link here:

http://digiscrapaddicts.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1224

Be sure to join up while you're there! Looks like a great place! I see several tutorials there I want to try.

Want to make those great bent and curled frames that they say can't be done with Photoshop Elements? Try this tutorial that I found at Scrapable Digi Scrap Paradise.

http://www.scrapable.net/forum/showthread.php?t=335

Ok, gotta run. I'll be at a family reunion this Thurs through Tues so probably won't be back on but the Hope for the Cure collab kit by the students at Digi Design Academy goes live on WED right after I get back so be sure to stop by and get your links to the other blogs donating kits.

Hugs, everyone!

Just a quickie!

I've been working on two different kits for you, one the heritage blog train I mentioned before (which doesn't seem to be as big as I had hoped. Too many people are busy this spring, I guess.) The other is one I'm doing for the Digi Design Academy that got me started on this journey!

Sherah Kraan of Skrapper Digitals is the teacher there and she has another great lady who helps her out with the PSP users. This "lady" (don't know if she wants her name out there or not) just found out she may have breast cancer. Of course we are all worried for her but in the process of discovering her diagnosis, she has decided she wants to help out by donating to the Hope For A Cure. The students at the DigiDesign Academy have agreed to help by designing a Hope For A Cure charity collab kit. It will go live on May 27th so I'm gonna be busy this next week. More about this later.

I just wanted to pop on here and let you know where I found a GREAT and inexpensive (read cheap) tutorial on building a "light studio". Great and fancy name for a box that you put your flowers or jewelry, etc into to take photos that you can then extract. I had a terrible time figuring out where and how to take pictures without shadows. Here is a link to a tutorial on how to build one from just a box in your basement and some of that plain white tissue paper left over from your Mother's Day gift bag. Just set a bright lamp beside the box and "Voila!" The only thing you may not have laying around is white poster board but for 50 cents you can get a really great "light studio"!

Click here to go to the tutorial. Be back later with more info as I find it.

A Thank You and National Scrapbooking Day!

I have to say Thank You to all my friends who left me comments on my last post. You guys are the BEST! Thanks for all the praise and encouragement you've given me. And, as I said, I will still be around.

Some of you thought someone had been "mean" and were ready to stand up and fight for me. LOL! I'm very glad to have the backup as I'm not much of a fighter. Just ask my little sister. Bwahahahahahahahaha! (Now SHE's tough!) But, No! They weren't saying anything mean to me. As a matter of fact, I went looking for the constructive criticism and it was very well meant and very well received. They very helpfully let me know where I had messed up and how to fix certain things and that's what I've started working on. Leaving it up to you, my friends, I wasn't growing because, being my friends, you all bragged on everything I tried whether it was good or not! LOL! I love ya for it but it wasn't helping me improve. So, I went to some others to get an unbiased eye and this is why I'm trying to correct the way I do things. But, you all can keep patting me on the back all you want!!! Feels good and brings a big smile to my face! As I said, you guys are the absolute BEST friends anyone could have!

Now, did you all remember that tomorrow is National Scrapbooking Day? Well, plan to spend the day on the digiscrapping sites because EVERYone is having a big celebration! I'm going for the sales but there will be prizes and challenges and games and monkeys and elephants and high wire acts.........Oh, well maybe not the high wire act but I'm sure we can find monkeys and elephants in many of the stores!

Some of the places I"ll be visiting that day:
http://www.godigitalscrapbooking.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11240

http://digitalscrapgarden.com/parlor/showthread.php?t=2374

Stone Accents Studio is celebrating ALL MONTH LONG because they have a new owner and are redesigning the entire forum and store! You can win a YEAR of products at the Extreme Makeover Challenge!

http://www.stoneaccentsstudioforum.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=146

Digi Scrap Obsession is having a 50% off sale ONE DAY ONLY on all PU and CU items:

http://digital-scrapbooking.org/shop/products_new.html

Can't miss the home of one of my favorite Fantasy kit designers, Lorie Davison:
http://www.scrapbookgraphics.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5540

Well, that's just some of the places celebrating tomorrow. Be sure to stop by!

Time off

Hi, all! I know, I've been missing since Easter. So sorry. And I'm going to be taking the next month off from designing, too. I'll still be around. You'll see me in the forums and galleries and I'll be making some layouts for Jazzy. I'll be letting you know here on my blog what I've learned and how I'm doing. But I won't be creating any freebies.

I've had some friendly constructive criticism from a few sources and I've decided to stop giving any more freebies until I have a chance to back up and start out again. I have to apologize to you all for the kits I've been giving away. The only good thing I can say is that they were free and you can throw out the bad stuff and keep only what you want and you won't be out any money.

I'll be concentrating on "quality control" as Jazz always says. She tells us her stuff "has gone to quality control and if it's OK will be in the store soon". I don't have a quality control department other than you folks out there. And when I found out that some of my stuff isn't measuring up to the standards, I decided that if I want to do this, I should do it right. So I'm going to stop giving (for a LITTLE while) and do some more practising on my own before I come back and start giving again. I don't want to get a bad name before I ever put my stuff into a store. I have the Heritage Blog Train pulling out on June 1 and I've already committed to that. So, see? I really will be back.

Thank you all for coming back time after time even when there were things that were sub-standard in the kits. You're all a great bunch of friends. Anyone with constructive criticism can let me know here. Without criticism there is no improvement. Just click on the word "comment" below this post. Anyone? Come on. You really will be helping me.

Good Friday

With the holiday weekend upon us, I began to reflect on what Easter really means. Today is the day my Lord died for me. And for you. Three days from now is the day He arose from the grave. If you truly believe that, and have asked the Lord to forgive you your sins, then I'll be seeing you in heaven! If you haven't yet, then I pray you soon will.

From my earliest memory, my family attended church at least 3 times every week. Sometimes more. If we attended every function, the only night I would have off was Saturday night. My mother, younger sister and I sang as a trio in church. The old time gospel songs are so much a part of my memory that I sing them as lullabies to my grandbabies.

I picked out a few of my favorites and made them into wordart for you. They are very simple so you can fade them into your backgrounds if you like for a subtle touch or make them stand out on the page. I thought they would go well with landscape photos showing the glory of God's creation or they can make a statement all their own as seen in this simple and quick layout I made of my cousin's husband and son. The background paper is from a kit called Fantasy Land.

"The Dawning of that Day" would be a good one for those beautiful sunrise photos you can take Easter morning after the Sunrise Service. "Precious Memories" is perfect for those old family photos. I'm sure if you think about it a little, you'll find lots of uses for these. They are all done in black but can be easily recolored to match your layouts, as I did for mine above.

Here's a preview:

And here's the download link:

Easter Wordart

I hope you all have a very Happy Easter and that you take some time to thank the Lord for your salvation.

EDITED: I was asked about my terms of use on this wordart set. I should have included my usual TOU, I guess, but I wanted this particular set to have no restrictions. I leave it in the Lord's hands and in your own. Let your light shine with them.

Another one???

Can you believe it? I got Kimb's Color Challenge done EARLY! Yippee! I'm so glad to get that out of the way. Hahahaha!



This time her colors made me think BOY and since I got a new grandson back in December, I have had boys on the brain, anyway! So, wanting to do a kit for the new Boy in the family, I was thinking and thinking and then, while shopping, I saw a cute little onesie for Caden using these exact colors! So that's the theme I went with. Aviation! Caden's big brother, Cameron is obsessed with helicoptors ever since he saw his dad take a ride in one. So the chopper on the front of the new shirt fits perfectly into the family! And I'll be able to make some cute layouts for the boys.



So can you! Here's my part of Kimb's Color Challenge. A preview is just below. Notice the big "X" over the girlie color. (We only had to use 3 of the colors for the challege.)
And here's where you can pick up the kit:
Aviation elements

Aviation papers

Now, gotta pop on over to Crops2dawn's blog. She says she's got a couple things for me. Why not stop over there and check her out!

FREEBIE!!!

It's been so long since I gave you one, I wanted to be sure you saw this! LOL! It's very late (or very early, depending on how you look at it) and I'm headed to my bed so this is just a quick post to let you see what I did tonight. I got it up on Kimb's challenge thread 1/2 hour before the deadline, but at least I did it! LOL! And Kimb's going on holiday for 2 weeks and probably won't even see it. bwahahahaha!

Oh well, I hope someone sees it in the gallery and likes it. I couldn't believe no one else saw Sherbet in these colors!!! Don't you see ice cream sherbet?

That was the first thing that popped up in my head when I saw the March color swatch but thought that everyone else would be doing the same thing. I was working on genealogy and didn't think I'd get around to anything this month but then Kim stopped by last week and was so nice NOT to mention that I hadn't done a kit for her challenge (even though I DID do a heritage layout for her) that I started feeling like I should TRY to make a little mini one. AND since no one else saw ice cream sherbet, I already had the theme in mind. Hahahaha! AND because I just love Kim to death (she's just so sweet) I quickly went to work. Be sure to pop by Digi Scrap Obsession and get the many other beautiful freebies Kim's friends have all made. And the April colors are already up, too! So be watching for the freebies there to start soon.

Here's the preview:

And here's where you can get the download:

DSO March Color Challenge - SHERBET

Oh, and tomorrow I'll be back again. Renee at By Dezign gave me a blog award for being "Totally Awesome, Loyal and Hard Working". How GREAT is THAT???!!!!! I just hope I'm worthy........and can find 10 other people to pass it on to that don't already have it! LOL! And you just HAVE to go see her new blog layout. Kimb made it for her and it's Totally the PRETTIEST blog on the net!!! See you later!

Spring!

Time to change the blog again. Spring is here! I'll work on the blog this weekend.....maybe. Doing some genealogy again, for a change. I've only got just so much time, people! LOL! My love of genealogy gets in the way of my love for digi-scrapping and my love of living a comfortable life gets in the way of both!

Yeah, I have to work a full time job, sometimes 2 jobs, to be able to take care of myself and my family. Just like a lot of you. So my "spare" time has to be divided up between my favorite pasttimes. Genealogy won this week. But I love the research involved and I sometimes jump up and do the "Happy Dance" when people I'm looking for pop up and say "Here I am!" Then I'm on the phone saying, "Mom! Guess what I found!" She's the one who got me started in genealogy and she's the only one who still gets as excited as I do.

Well, almost as excited as I. LOL! I think she's a little jealous. When she was researching our family tree, she had to do it all in her own handwriting, make umpteen trips to the local libraries as well as the archives in Washington, D.C. She had to write letters then wait weeks for them to be answered or visit all the relatives and interview them. (Thanks, Mom for passing that all along to me!) Now, in the "modern" age of computers, I can find a ton of things out from my comfy chair, sitting in my comfy room with a couple of grandbabies on my lap. (Thank you, Bill Gates and Ancestry.com)

Researching my family tree has given me a better understanding of time and of family. In genealogy, the American Civil War wasn't that long ago. My grandfather was born in 1881, just 16 years after General Lee surrendered to General Grant and Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. Granted, my grandfather was in his 40's when my dad was born and my dad was nearly as old as I was when I became a grandmother when he had me. But still, it doesn't seem like it's that long ago when you think of who in your family was actually alive then. By researching each and every one of them, they become alive in my mind and I can see them as well as I can see my grandparents. I know what they did for a living, where they lived, who their neighbors were. Sometimes, you even know which ones were rascals, which ones were lazy and which ones worked themselves to the bone to provide for their families.

You know that someday in the future, someone's going to want to know who their ancestors are. What will YOUR descendants find out about YOU?

Ok, I felt guilty......

.....for not being here more often and then not having anything to give you when I DID get back here so made you a small freebie. It's just a couple of Wordart masks you can use when scrapping the little ones. You can clip your photos to it or clip a paper scrap and make it a mat. And have you seen the kits where designers make "tape" to put on your layouts? I was just thinking, a piece of tape would look cool over the best friends picture. I haven't worked on making tape yet but you can get them a lot of places. Try it! I was picturing the best friends necklace we shared when I made this but I know my best friend could always patch my broken heart. Here's a preview:


And HERE is where you click to get the download. Awwwww.....it feels good to give!

Wow....how many days has it been?

A couple of weeks anyway. I'm sorry if you've been stopping by, hoping to catch up on what's been going on with me. I've been busy with odds and ends, here and there.

I've signed up for a Heritage Blog Train due to pull out of the station on June 1st. The heritage style and colors really appeal to me so have been tinkering around a little already on what to include in my "box car". I also found Facebook is a nice place to catch up with my family and friends! I've never been on there before this and WOW! I've been runnning around, looking at everyone's pictures, getting updates on their "status". My favorite scrapbooking sites have "groups" and a ton of fellow scrappers are now "my friends" on there, too! Even my favorite authors have pages and groups. It's been a lot of fun!

I DO have some new layouts of my own to show off. I used to do ALL the challenges I could get done in a month. I like learning new techniques and styles and of course, the posting bonuses for doing their challenges are always worth it, too! Plus, it's nice to read the comments from everyone on a layout I've done. Here's some of my latest layouts.

I just LOVE how this came out. I used a kit by Lily's Designs called Dark Angel. And to be truthful, the background IS the paper. But I extracted my niece in her wedding gown from a picture I took at her wedding and adjusted the photo a bit (worked with the contrast and highlights, etc.) I had to take the photo on some stairs so we could get a good shot of the train but the photo itself really left something to be desired. But once I got it onto this background, it just became magical! I got some swirlies from Flerg's kit "Color Theory". I faded the edges of the 2nd photo and made it sepia to match the background.

Jazz's new wordart was the perfect addition to the layout! It just came out in the store at Digital Scrap Obsession and is at 25% off for this week. It's called "I Thee Wed" and has everything you could ever want for a wedding layout or album. Here's the preview.

This is page two of my niece's wedding layouts. Used the same Dark Angel kit and once again, Jazz's wordart was the perfect touch. I faded the edges and took the opacity down to fade her photo into the background a bit, then just a few more touches and it was done! This layout was nominated as Layout of the Week at My Scrap Shop. Keep your fingers crossed for me. I won't know if it won until next Sunday.

This next one is a layout I did for my cousin. It has my Aunt Jean and Aunt Kitty and Kitty's daugther, Paula. Mirror images of each other to my mind. I used Skrapper Digital's A Treasured Past, JulieO's Vintage Dream, Jean Daugherty's A Stitch in Time and a freebie from Ambowife called Bearly Remember.

After I did this one, I decided the photo of Paula was too blurry. And even though I loved how well their smiles and expressions were exact matches, I decided to try to get a better copy from Paula. She sent me a larger file but again, the photo was just too grainy, the eyes too blurry. But when she sent me the 2nd photo, she included a couple more of her and one of her mother, too. The expressions are not exact matches but I loved how they still resemble each other though each woman is looking a different direction. This is the one I decided to keep (with some additional changes) and added it to our family tree.

For the AD challenge at Stone Accents Studio (their posting bonuses this month are a collab kit called Fairy Garden) we had to use an old soap ad for inspiration. I got to finally scrap this photo of my grandson. Used Jofia Devoe's Sweet Melody and Lily's Design's A Secret Garden.

Well, hope you liked what I've been working on. I'm not sure if I'll get a kit done for Kimb's Challenge this month. If I get a sudden inspiration, I might tackle it but right now I'm drawing a blank. But there are TONS of freebies already in there. Go See!!!

A HERITAGE kit this time!

Yea! I just LOVE doing my family genealogy (although, I admit....digiscrappin has taken over a big portion of the time I used to spend doing it.) At My Scrap Shop, the theme for Feb was Heritage/Vintage and every posting bonus was designed with this theme in mind.

One of the challenges they have there is the Members Design A Kit, or DAK for short. Trish picked the color pallette for this from a site for old house colors. Here's the link to where she got the idea. http://www.oldhousecolors.com/2007/0...-house-colors/ There are some interesting color names there like DRAB, SHUTTER GREEN and Inside White vs. Outside White. LOL! But they made for interesting colors for my Heritage kit.

It's just a mini this time, 12 papers and a few embies. One is an 1870 US Fed Census that I "doctored" up to look older than the scanned images at Ancestry.com (which is where I got this one listing one of my ancestors.) Hope you like it.

I only had 2 days as I did Kimb's challenge first and that was after procrastinating on it for about 2 weeks. (grin) Well, I do tend to put things off 'till the last minute. LOL! So, anyway, I will probably get around to doing an add-on to this one as I like heritage kits so well. And the wordart add-on that I did for Grandmother's Parlor will go with this kit nicely, too! I especially like my gold scrollwork that you could use as a border on any of the papers and the scenery of the barn is a picture I took of the old barn at the family farm that's been in our extended family since the early 1800's.

Here's the preview:

And here's the links to download:

Elements 1

Elements 2

Papers 1

Papers 2

So that's it for this weekend. Hope you can use this kit for your own family tree pages!

I've been tagged!

I almost forgot. Bunny Cates tagged me this morning. I have to go to My Pictures, go to the 6th folder and then to the 6th picture in the folder. This is my photo. It's my grandmother, Lillie Missouri Gay Spiker and do you see what she's wearing to rake the hay field????? A DRESS!!!! For goodness sakes. Can you believe it?? LOL!!

Now I have to tag 6 other people to do this same 6th folder, 6th picture thing. So hear's my choices:

1. Crops2dawn

2. PkDoll

3. Vanessa

4. Bekah

5. Eilajean

6. Cindyrelly

You've been tagged, ladies! Let's see those pics! Here's your instructions:

•Go to your photo folder in your computer

•Go to the 6th folder of photos

•Go to the sixth picture

•Put the picture on your blog and a description of it

•Invite six friends to join the challenge

•Link them in your blog.

Layouts to show you

And they all used my new kit, Bring Me A Dream! I just love it when I find layouts people used my kits to make. I enjoy seeing the different ways they used all the elements. This first one is from my loyal friend, Crops2Dawn, who always cheers me up and pats me on the back whether I deserve it or not. She even had a "pity" party for me on my birthday and got "skunked". Well, she pretended to get drunk. LOL! (See my comments area on Fri 13th) She's a dear, dear friend even though we've never met. I love this layout of hers!

The next layout is from my ever faithful follower, Eye! And just look where she put Mr. Sandman! LOL! So, so cute! Great page, Eye! I just LOVE it!

And this next one is from another good friend at SBM and DSO. Makeyesup made this wonderful layout of her granddaughters just one night after Christmas. I doubt Mr Sandman had a hard time getting them to sleep after such a busy day. Aren't they sweet?

Thank you, ladies for your beautiful work and for letting me show them off! I'm glad you like the new kit. I just love seeing sleeping children, don't you? They are so warm and sweet and innocent.

Ok, just one more and this one is my own layout of 2 of my grandsons. And yes, there's Cameron the model for my Mr. Sandman! He loved playing the part and was so patient with me taking his picture. I love you, Cameron!

I have a couple things on my desktop that I'm working on. We'll have to wait and see what gets done first! Keep checking back for the next chapter in my journey to become a digiscrap designer.

Freebie for you!

I always liked the song. The words changed depending on who was singing........a man or a woman but it always made you want Mr Sandman to turn his magic beam your way! As I told you, these colors just didn't sit well with me. I couldn't get anything from it until I was singing this song to my grandbaby and......well, here's what I did with Kimb's Color Challenge this month.

A little different from all the flowers and hearts others were doing but I hope you like it. Here's the prevew. Not everything is included in the preview as I did several colors of some of the elements. Lots of glitter and stars and even a sparkle so you can make everthing shine!

You even get my own Mr. Sandman if you want him. Or make your own little man into Mr. Sandman!! His bag of sand is separate so you can use it anywhere with anybody. Your downloads are here:

Elements 1

Elements 2

Papers 1

Papers 2

And don't forget to stop by Kimb's challenge to collect all the free kits in this color palette so you can have one MEGA sized kit!

I know, I KNOW!

There's just one week left to get my kit done for Kimb's Feb color challenge! My excuse? Well, Feb's a short month! It crept up on me faster than normal! Hahahaha! Awww......you know me. Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow! But I am working on one. If you go to DSO, you can still get TONS of freebies already from those crazy people who always seem to get theirs done EARLY! Like Crops! She even had the nerve to do an ADD-ON already! Hahaha! And it's gorgeous, as always!

These colors were really NOT my style. I saw 60's psychedelic (goodness! How do you spell THAT one?) right off the bat! Long hair, bell bottoms and hippies dancing around with flowers in their hair. But I kept looking at them, trying to see ANYthing else. Started going off on the spring side with hyacinths and crocuses, some tulips........ but just couldn't get it right. So I'll save those for later in the spring. FINALLY, I think I may have hit on something.......Want a hint? Ok, but you gotta sing this in your head as you read it...........you ready?...........Are you sure?...........nah, let's leave it a surprise...................... No?................Ok try this...............Mr Sandman, Bring Me A Dream! Uh HUH! Had to sing it, didn't ya! Now, if only I don't change my mind again. Guess it's STILL gonna be a surprise then, huh! HAHAHAHAHAHA! Check back next week. (Better make it that weekend. sigh)

Forgot to tell you.....

I've got my own MONTH! Bwahahahaha! Yep, Eilajean made up a month JUST FOR ME! Eilajean was someone I met through Crops' blog and she never fails to entertain me. For my birthday, she made me a very special card using my Dec Color Challenge kit. When I read her post, I burst out laughing. I can't tell you any more. You've just got to visit her blog and check it out. See Friday 13th post. And thanks again, Eilajean! You're the BEST.

I've got some pretty layouts....

And I just HAVE to show them off! Another good friend from SBM, SACannon, has made a layout using my Grandmother's Parlor kit and allowed me to show it off to you! Sue had my name for our After-Christmas gift exchange at SBM and sent me some wonderful things from her area of Ohio, USA. Her layout is of a wedding photo of her aunt and uncle! Isn't it a beautiful photo?

And then my good friend, Eye has sent me another one. She is making a wedding album for herself and is trying to include something from every person at SBM! I am SO honored to be included in her album. Wasn't she a beautiful bride?

I just love having people send me their layouts!! If YOU use any of my kits, will you please send them to me? I'd love to show them off!!

I've been working on some CT layouts for Jazz this week. She has been VERY sick with pneumonia and has been trying to stay in bed and OUT of the hospital so she hasn't been blogging since the end of Jan. I miss her! She could REALLY use your prayers. But she did manage to get some new word art into her store at DSO! Last I checked it was marked at 25% OFF and is called Love Day Tags! Hurry here and get it before the sale goes off! Want to see a preview? OK!

REALLY cute, huh! And they aren't specific to lovers. So many of them can be used with children or grandchildren layouts as well. Gotta love THAT! Sue used one of them in her layout above of her Aunt and Uncle!!


I haven't used any of these YET! But I did use some of her latest kits. These next two are of children of a friend of mine. I used Jazz's Girl Power for this first one.

I did this layout for Jazz's Photo Op Challenge at DSO! She hosts a challenge where all you have to do is "change" your photo is SOME way. Doesn't matter if it's sepia or b&w or something a little more advanced but you have to include HOW you changed it so that the rest of us can try the same technique! And your posting bonus is always some kind of wordart! Cool, huh! For this layout, I extracted the little girl from the original, hit copy layer, then turned the "eye" off so it would be invisible. Then working on the original again, I used smart blur to soften the picture so it looked more like a watercolor. For the top photo, I did the same but then used the Hard Light blending mode and faded it into the background. Then turned the "eye" back on for the extracted girl so she would be still in place over her blurred image but she would still be clear. And voila!

For this next layout I used Jazz's Tiny Love Notes from DSO. This layout has been chosen as a Gallery Standout at DSO! I'm so tickled. By the way, my layout of my parents kissing (see the Jan 29th posting below) has been nominated for Layout Of the Week at My Scrap Shop! I'm on a roll! LOL! Anyway back to THIS layout. This is the baby sister of the girl in my above layout. Aren't they both just the sweetest things? Perfect little posers!

I made this one while practicing on my cluster work. I just love how it turned out. Wasn't sure about using wordart for this and asked my SBM friends for their opinion on the clustering and got some great advice! (I can always count on my friends there to help me out! Thanks, guys!)

Well, guess that's it for today. Stop by the SBM gallery and leave my friends, Eye and SACannon, some lovin' on their layouts, will ya? And tell them I sent ya!!

What a night.......

It certainly didn't turn out the way we planned. The girls surprised me early in the day to say we were getting pedicures before we went to the restaurant. WHAT??!! But I didn't shave my legs! That's OK, Mom. I'll bring you a razor to work. Can you get off early? Sure, we had several cancellations so no prob.

That's when the trouble began. Rachel took her 4 kids to her dad's place as her stepmother promised to watch all the grandkids for us. (Her first time alone with all of them.) Cassidy met her there and dropped off her 2. Then, for some reason, Rachel's dad insists she get tires on her van before we go out. In the mean time, my boss lets me off work at 3:00. BUT I have to wait on the girls. At 5:00 as my co-workers are all leaving, he says "Are you sure they're coming?" Rachel has no cell phone so I'm wondering the answer to this myself but I continue to wait. At 5:40 they pull up and haven't even gotten her check cashed yet. "We'll be right back." Ok. So I'm rolling my hair when they get back. Then I have to shave my legs. In a sink that hangs off the wall. So here I am with my leg all hitched up in the sink when the girls knock to get in.

Now, I KNOW they have my camera out there and I'm just sure that's what they are planning so here I am trying to keep the door locked while shaving as fast as I can. They find the key and are breaking in, I'm pushing against the door, still with one leg in the sink.......well, we were certainly having FUN! And NO you can't see the pic! Bwahahahahaha!!

We got our pedicures done and came back to pick up my cell phone and saw there was a message. Seems the stepmother was suddenly too sick to watch the kids. We couldn't find anyone else to watch them so the girls headed out to pick up their kids and I headed home alone. Stopped by Chick-fil-a and got a sandwich. I hate February.

Late that night the girls called and said to meet them at the ER. Stepmother had to be taken to the hospital in an ambulance and they need ME to watch all the grandkids. So now I'm feeling bad because I thought the kids were just too much for her to handle alone. I am SUCH an evil person. I WAS actually going to send a Thank You card after my evening out but now it will have to be a Get-Well card! I go and pick up the babies. Next morning I find out they couldn't find anything wrong with her and were just putting it down to a virus. Hmmmmm........

One good thing, I think the girls were as disappointed as I. We were all getting along and having a good time teasing each other. Then BAM....February rears it's ugly head..............But we do have pretty toe nails. Wanna see?

Doin' the Birthday Shuffle

I can't dance. Ask anyone. I just sorta shuffle around so......I'm doin' the Birthday Shuffle! Looks kinda like a Boot Scootin' Boogie but it's not! And stop laughing, you guys!

I already gave you your gift so now it's time for me to get goodies! ...............................uh hum..........yeah, that's what I figured. Everyone at home is still in bed on this special day. And I'm sitting here at work waiting for the mad rush of calls from yesterday's wind storm. BUT.....they promised to take me to a Japanese Steak house and sushi bar tonight! Yippee! I love that place except when they throw the food at you. Hahahaha! Never been to one, you say? Well, it's quite a treat. Ya gotta try it at least once. But watch out! All the ones I've been to have this one moment when they throw a bite of food at you and you're SUPPOSED to catch it in your mouth....................right. I NEVER let them throw my food at me but the guy next to me will invariable miss and it lands in my hair. Yuck! I try to time my bathroom break for that "one moment". (Good tip there for you.)

And yes, BABY sister, I DID get the large one that swivels........ so I don't have to turn my glasses upside down like Mom! LOL! And remember, you've had bifocals a LOT longer than I have!!!!! See Crops! You aren't the only one with evil sisters! But I sure wish they were all 3 here to go with me to the Steak House tonight. (Yes, Jean. That means you too!) But the BABY is in Florida and I don't think she wants to fly 2 hours up and 2 hours back just to go to the Japanese Steak house with me. She could be here before the others who are in West Virginia yet still nearly 4 hours drive from me but it would cost her a good bit more than them. But if she REALLY loved me....................

Well, the calls are starting so I better get to work. Hope your day is bright and shiny! (And that I GET something bright and shiny, too. Heehee!)

I'm Baa-aack!

Couldn't stand it anymore! I missed my computer! Sad, isn't it? That I couldn't get out and find something else to do? Well, I did but it was shopping for a new monitor! LOL!

Sorry, Crops! I just don't want the hassle of Vista if I can get around it. I took Eilajean's advice and got the new monitor for now. I remembered Circuit City was going out of business so got a good deal on one. I am UP, SET and BACK on TRACK! Now when my computer goes down, I'll still have a good monitor to add to the laptop I'll get then. I really want a laptop so I can do my creating anywhere I want......in the car, on vacation, etc. But I'll hold out for a little longer anyway.

Thanks everyone for all the comments and downloads of Grandmother's Parlor and the wordart add-on. You've all cheered me up immensely! And now I can get back to working on new stuff! Yippee!

Wow! This wind is ferocious! 40 and 50 MPH winds here with a lot of damage everywhere! My day job as a CSR for an auto glass replacement company is about to get even busier. (sigh) We are still trying to catch up after the ice storm and now THIS! I'm at work right now and the front door keeps getting SUCKED open! That's right! It opens outward and is being sucked out! Then things in the office keep getting blown around. It's gonna be a bad day. Yeah, it's February. At least there's no damage at my house.........not yet. We've tried to prepare and have everything "battened down" that we can think of. Hope you all are safe where ever you are!

Computer trouble

Well, shucks! My computer monitor went kerpluey. My repair guy says "Replace it." But now I have a choice to make. Buy just a monitor and keep my computer tower with XP and hope it doesn't go next or buy a notebook with that yucky Vista on it. I'm going to wait to see what my Tax refund might be, could be I can't afford the new notebook anyway. But this curtails my designing until I can make a decision. Luckily, I already uploaded your birthday gift and I'll give it to you early, just in case something else goes wrong. (It was going to be handed out on Friday the 13th. Yep! Every so often my birthday is actually on Friday the 13th!!!) I can still get online at work, so let me know if you like it or not. That will cheer me up, anyway.

I hate February. I know it's my birthday month but if something is going to go wrong in my life, it happens in Feb. My husband left me on my birthday, then the divorce was final in Feb. My dad died in Feb. My 1st cousin died in Feb. Last Feb, my mother was gravely ill and we almost lost her. She has since promised me NOT to die in Feb! LOL! These are just SOME of the things but they are the most devastating. So, here we go again. Keep your fingers crossed for me as this is just the beginning of the month. Who knows what else can go wrong before March 1st!

Ok, my birthday gift to you! (Say a prayer as you download. My bad luck has never rubbed off on anyone else before this but it helps to be on the safe side!) I just made up a little group of genealogy wordart to go with Grandmother's Parlor. I love genealogy!! Hope you do, too!

Here's the preview:


And you can go here to download:
Grandmother's Parlor Wordart Gift

Ok, hope this works and you can see the preview. I've never tried to put an image from photobucket on here before. I always upload a pic from my computer so hope you can see it and that you like genealogy as much as I do! Until next time - BIG HUGS!

Workin' on somethin' new!

I've got a birthday this month so thought I'd give you all a gift! LOL! Well, they are all gifts as I'm not confident enough yet to apply to a store and.....well....... I just like doing the freebies so I don't disappoint anyone. If I mess up, you can throw it out! LOL! Anyway, I'm working on something to go with my Grandmother's Parlor kit and, if I get it done, Kimb's new color challenge at DSO has PURLPLE in it (as in Amethyst, February's birthstone) so thought I'd work with that and see what I come up with. Purple is my sister, Bobbi's and my daughter, Rachel's favorite color so I can't name it after either one or the other will get jealous! Bwahahahaha!!! I love you, guys!

So be sure to check back on the 13th for my birthday gift to you and watch for my color challenge contribution, too!

Layouts to show

Eye from SBM did another layout for me using my Grandmother's Parlor kit. It's of her beautiful daughter, Sheena. I love the way she used the frame over and over to create a new frame. And she used one of the flowers behind it so it looks like ruffles. Isn't that creative?

And Jazzy has new wordart in her store at Digiscrap Obsession. The first one is called Funky Love Lines and I used it for this layout of my parents. The kits I used were called Flitting Fall Faeries and Rough to the Touch by Studio Lorie at Scrapbookgraphics. Gives their romantic kiss a Gone With the Wind look, don't you think? The photo was taken about 1944.

And here I used her new Girl Power kit. This is my beautiful granddaughter, Tayler. I love her SO much! I used 2 of Carena's Designs kits to make this. Her Princess Story and Susan kits.

So go check out all these new kits from everyone and enjoy your weekend! We'll be watching the Super Bowl at my house. How about yours?

Grandmother's Parlor

My Grandmother's Parlor was just inside the front door. It had double doors that slid back into the wall on either side. It was where the family gathered to share their day, play games (no TV, you know) and sit and watch their siblings court their future spouses. I never saw it in it's heyday. My father was born during the depression and after most of his siblings were grown. I never even knew my grandparents. But the old home place is still in the extended family and the parlor has been remodeled after going through 2 major floods. But in my mind, I imagine a room with lots of flowers on the upholstery and hand-made pillows, prizm fringes on the lamps, antique pictures on the wall and cherry woodwork everywhere.





With this picture in my mind, I designed my new kit using the colors of Kimb's Jan Color Challenge at DSO. Sorry it took me so long to get it to you. Time just seemed to get away from me and here it is the last week of Jan already. I struggled with the prizm fringe for a couple weeks. Still not what I want but it's OK. Anybody know of a good tutorial for prizms? LOL! After this I don't care if I see another prizm. I included an old antique photo of a relative of mine. You can always kick him out if you don't like having him around. The hatbox and gloves were gifts from a family wedding. I hope you like this one.

The scrapbook, hatbox, gloves and rose in the bottom corner of my preview are a cluster but all parts are included individually, too.

You can go here for your downloads:

Elements 1

Elements 2

Elements 3

Papers 1

Papers 2

See ya, next time!

Awwww......

Look what I got to show off!! Finally I've found someone who's used my kits! My very good friend, Eye, from Scrapbook Max sent me this layout she did of her kids, Sheena and Ethan running into the house from out in the cold. They live WAY up north. I absolutlely LOVE what she did with it!

Isn't this "Cool"? Thanks, Eye!

Eye was one of the first friends I made at SBM. She gave me lots of pointers on doing layouts (as I was a complete idiot!) I had never done digital scrapbooking and when I found SBM it was so EASY! I loved all the things I could do and I didn't have to cut or paste anything! LOL! And I didn't have to buy the same thing again because I cut or pasted it wrong! Hahaha! Eye taught me how to make Out Of Bounds pics for the first time, too!

She is so very generous with all her time and efforts at giving us lots of freebies herself that I'm so glad I can finally give something back to her. Come on over to SBM and look in the Embellishments for some of Eye's freebies. Thank you, Eye for everything you do for all of us at SBM.

Jazz's New Wordart

Hahaha! When Jazz sent me her new wordart, I just sat and laughed my way through it. Then of course, I had to start thinking of which photos I could use for these.

Her new wordart is called Humor Fest! Get the idea? And they are just cute little sayings that will brighten your spirits. Here's the 1st photo I thought of when I read this quote. We'd gone to Disney World and Universal Studios. My sister's husband broke the rules by riding this........."caterpillar"? It's in Dr. Seuss Land so I'm sure that's not what it's called. It's in the "baby" gym area with the slides and the springy rides and the cushioned floor. Wanting to make my grandkids smile, he climbed into the saddle. But he had quite a time getting back OUT of that saddle after he got in! Bwahahahahaha!

Here's the simple layout I did. Just blended the "best" photo into the back ground so you'd be sure to see him real good! Hahahaha! The kids really liked Universal Studios and getting eaten by Jaws was a real "treat".

Awwwww......such nice memories. We'll have to think about going back again soon.

Look for Jazz's Humor Fest wordart coming this week to her store exclusively at DigiScrapObsession.com.

No comment on Grandmother's Parlor. I promised to work on it and I did.........I just didn't get it done with 6 grandkids running in and out. But I made a lot of progress. Should be ready soon.

Just one more!

Ok, just one more sketch effect done in PSE of my new grandson, Caden. The kit is from GoDigitalScrapbooking.com and is their January Collab kit called Winter New Year. The fairy is from a kit called Enchanted Forest by Madame Mim and Milla Designs. The wordart was done by my friend, Bekah_E. It's a freebie from the Magical Moments Challenge that she is hosting at her new store, Enchanted Studio Scraps! I'm so happy for her! Way to go, Bekah! I wish you luck with your new endeavor.

I'm going to be working on Grandmother's Parlor this weekend! Promise! I've just had so many commitments I haven't had much time but I WILL try to finish it this weekend. See you on Monday!~

Cold! Brrrrr!

It's so cold here (and going to get colder) that I was inspired to change my desktop to one a bit more appropriate for winter. (Mine still had Nov's calendar on it! LOL!) I used another kit from WaterLO Project and it's FREE! Yea!

This is my digital sketch of my granddaughter, Adreanna. Doesn't she have the most beautiful eyes? I think this looks considerably more "chilly" for a wintertime computer desktop, don't you?

New Layout!

I've been so busy that I've been ignoring my duties as CT for Jazzy at Words to Delite so I made a layout for my daughter, Rachel, of her new son with her dad at Christmas. (My ex-husband...... so this was a labor of love for my daughter.......and I do mean LABOR!) Nah, it wasn't so hard! I just kept looking at that smile on Caden's little face! One of his first! Isn't he just adorable?

I used a kit by WaterLO Project called At The Goldmine and scraplifted a layout I saw there by Libca. The Caden Ornament was given to me from a friend at Scrapbook Max, Mommabird, when Caden was born.

The beautiful wordart is from Jazz's Tiny Love Notes available at DSO. I did recolor it so you could see it on the dark background. Here's a preview of her new kit.

I'm still working on Grandmother's Parlor but I'll have it done soon! I promise!!

"Surprisingly Simple" challenge!

EilaJean has challenged all her readers to post this on their blog today. Seems there is a "surprisingly simply" way to help with world hunger. Just a simple click and money will be donated to the Hunger Site. So, because I'm one of her readers and because I believe we should all try to help where we can (and because I love to do challenges) I'm going to paste her info here on how YOU, too, can help stop world hunger. Doesn't cost you a penny, just a moment of your time each and every day. Put it on your homepage, put it in your favorites, paste a sticky note at the top of your computer; whatever you have to do to remind yourself that someone needs your "click" today!


The link is below - if you would like to head over now and check it out...
http://www.thehungersite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=1

(quote:EilaJean) "This is the post on Snopes where I checked out the validity of it... I pasted it in the blog so you could read it yourself. So now I have done one more thing to make the world a little better place... and there are still 11 1/2 months left in 2009. WOO HOO! I really do hope you will check it out... do it, and pass it on."

snopes.com: The Hunger Site http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/charity/hungersite.asp

The Hunger Site Claim: You can direct money to hunger relief simply by clicking a button on a website.Status: True.Origins: Over the last few years we've seen a plethora of altruistic appeals circulate on the Internet, each one claiming that you could donate money to a worthy cause or right some terrible injustice — at no cost to you — merely by taking some simple action, such as forwarding an e-mail message. (See our Jessica Mydek page for one example.)

All of these messages were hoaxes — until The Hunger Site came along. At The Hunger Site, you can "donate" money to hunger relief simply by clicking a button. How? The Hunger Site, the creation of John Breen, a 42-year-old computer programmer fromBloomington, Indiana, was funded by various companies who sponsored the site for a day. Every sponsor donated the approximate cost of 1/4 of a cup of food to the United Nations' World Food Program for each user who clicks on the site during the day. (If multiple companies were sponsoring the site, the amount of food donated was multiplied by the number of sponsors.) Breen created the site in June 1999 as a personal project to help deal with hunger in developing countries, and the response was soon so overwhelming that he spent most of his time administering the site even though he received no income, loans, grants, or donations to compensate him for his time and effort or pay his expenses. Eventually The Hunger Site became part of GreaterGood.com, a shopping portal where customers could direct up to 15% of the cost of every purchase to causes they selected. GreaterGood.com ceased operations in July 2001, and The Hunger Site was temporarily shut down until CharityUSA.com took over its operations a few weeks later.

Other sites also offer similar means for visitors to aid various charities:

l Animal Rescue Site
l The Breast Cancer Site

Additional Information:

World Food Program
The Hunger Site (World Food Program)http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/charity/hungersite.asp?
print=y (1 of 2)1/13/2009 9:40:19 AM

snopes.com: The Hunger Site
World Food Program

The Hunger Site press release (World Food Program)
Last updated: 8 October 2007
The URL for this page is
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/charity/hungersite.asp

Urban Legends Reference Pages © 1995-2009 by snopes.com. This material may not be reproduced without permission. snopes and the snopes.com logo are registered service marks of snopes.com. Sources Sources:Kirby, Carrie. "Millions Eat Because People Click a Button."San Francisco Chronicle. 20 December 1999. Rowe, Peter. "Fighting Hunger with the Click of a Button."The San Diego Union-Tribune. 15 July 1999 (p. E1).
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/charity/hungersite.asp?
print=y (2 of 2)1/13/2009 9:40:19 AM

Oh, dear!

There's a couple of new shows coming on that I've just GOT to watch, 24 and American Idol being the top two. How am I ever going to get anything done in the designing field? 24 is on AGAIN tonight. Part 2 of the season premier. Then tomorrow and probably Wed and Thurs, too, is American Idol's pre-Hollywood tryouts. I used to have a cheval mirror that stood in the next room and was angled so that I could see the TV from my computer chair but the grandkids knocked it over and broke it. My computer has a TV tuner built in but PS uses so much memory that I wouldn't want to bring them both up at the same time, can't see it well enough behind the PS window anyway since I need that screen BIG! LOL! Well, this is a problem that I'm just going to have to fix! Guess I need a new mirror! Hahahahaha!

(silence.........) Well, isn't my life just the most exciting thing. I've got nothing new to share. But what can I expect? I spend my time at work or in front of the computer or the TV. Maybe I should go visit Kimb! She ALWAYS seems to be having fun! Hey, Kim! Here I come! (in my dreams.)

It's almost done!

I worked off and on all weekend on my DSO color challenge kit. I decided to go with a victorian feel and named it Grandmother's parlor. Get the idea? But now it's 7:30 PM and I have to get stuff packed away so I'll be ready to watch one of my favorite TV shows, 24. The season premier starts tonight!! With the writers strike, 24 got put on hiatus last year so it's been a LONG wait! But a new day is about to begin.

So anyway, I've run out of time to finish my kit. But be looking for it in the next few days. I think you'll like it. AND, I'll TRY to get on here more often. Now that the new baby's here and Christmas is over with, I think I can get back into the swing of things. I've got LOTS of layouts to get done!! Gotta run!! Jack's back!

57 Flavors

I thought my daughter had all the kids in the room with her, she thought I had the littlest one, Adreanna. Has that ever happened to you? Probably so. Well, I walked into the kitchen and the refrigerater door was standing wide open!

I yelled back into the other room, "Who left the door open?" I heard this little tiny "Me!" from behind the fridge. When I looked over, this is what I saw!
She'd opened the children's yogurt. ALL 6 OF THEM! Bwahahahaha! I couldn't help it. I ran for the camera! Of course, if she'd spilled them, I'd have been a bit more upset! Haha! But no, she had a couple spoons in a couple of them and was trying all the flavors! OK. Maybe not 57 but all 6 flavors!

Most of them were on her face! Here she looks like she's looking around saying "What? What are you looking at? I didn't do it!"

She tried to share with her brother after we found her. But then we managed to get her to take them to the table.

Could you be angry with this little face? Me, either! Hahahahaha!

Well, I'm working on a new kit for the DSO Color Challenge. It's a very soft color swatch this time. I'm thinking fantasy or English garden maybe? Of course, I've never been to England so I'm guessing about how their gardens look. LOL! I'll let you know soon what I decide.

Ok, you get 2 today!

I just had to show off this pic of my new grandson, Caden. Look at that hair!!! It's so long! LOL! If you knew us, you'd know why this tickles me so much. My family always has bald babies. Or mostly bald. And they tend to stay that way for the first YEAR! Caden's hair is so soft and long. We know it's probably going to fall out soon and wanted to be sure we got good pics of just how MUCH hair he used to have before he joins the ranks of the other babies in the family........and his Great-Uncles Jeff and Gary. LOL!

Happy New Year!!!

I hope you all had a happy and safe New Year's Eve. I spent the evening reading a good book! LOL!

I wanted to share a few of our Christmas pics with you. I love seeing children unwrapping gifts, don't you? The excitement is mostly mine, I must admit. LOL! I can't wait for Christmas to get here and then.......just like that, it's over. Oh well, it'll be back next year. Above you can see the cake we had for Christmas Eve. My sister, Cathy, made it all. Even the trees and the cookies for the people.

Below is my mother's tree with most of the presents under it. A couple people came after this bringing more. In the background you can see my grandchildren looking for reindeer tracks in the mud. (We didn't have a white christmas, just a wet one.)

Then this is my daughter, with 2 of her children and Tyler on the floor waiting to start!

Adreanna opening gifts!

Cameron and Tyler LOVE the new gun. Tyler already has one like it so now they can play soldier together! It makes lots of noise and has a flashlight for night playing.

A group shot toward the other end of the room. You can just see my grandchildren, Rheanna and Tayler in the foreground. We had a total of 29 people there all unwrapping gifts at the same time. Course, most of it is just for the kids. I was sitting in the center of the room, taking pics toward both ends so it's a huge room and THIS year we each got a trashbag for our corner before we started so the paper cleanup was a breeze! Except for my poor brother, Jeff, who had to carry out 12 garbage bags to the road for pickup! Usually, we have paper piled waist high and someone has to go through and gather it all up afterwards. LOL!

Caden got to meet some new relatives. (And they got to meet him!) Here's his great-grandmother (my 80 year-old mother). And below, Caden meets his cousin, Derek.

Before I go, I want you to see a "pencil sketch" effect I did of one of my granddaughters. This is the original shot of Rheanna from Christmas.

And here's how the "sketch" turned out!

Cool, huh! I did one of all 4 of Rachel's kids. I'll show them to you another time. Hope your new year is bright, happy, healthy and prosperous!