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.