Monday, November 30, 2009

Calendar Teaser

Hello! It's been a few days since I've posted anything. Quent and I had a nice Thanksgiving. It was just the two of us, but it was great! It was a beautiful day, so we went on a walk. We played games, watched some of our favorite show, cooked, and ate our turkey dinner. I always think it's funny how we spend all of the time cooking the meal, and then we take like 15 minutes to eat it. Crazy!

My scrapbooking mood has been quite low these days, but today I was motivated by some friends (you know who you are!) to work on a calendar project. In 2004 (I think), I made a calendar for my dad. I used mostly Stampin' Up! supplies and it was very heavy and thick. My dad and Kelly liked it so much that they asked me to make a calendar again, and so ever since that year I have been making them a calendar. I've been creating the pages digitally the last couple of years. Last year was the first year I had the pages printed through Photoworks. I was so impressed and pleased with the finished product that I'm going to order through them again. My goal is to work on this project as much as I can because on Friday we are scheduled to close on our house. Yeah!!! It's a long story (and a long wait--4 months!), but we could possibly close on it sooner or maybe a little bit later. But no matter, it will be a few days!!! So I want to get as much done because very soon I'll be focused on unpacking (yeah...what about decorating for Christmas?). I think this is the best calendar I've made yet. It's been SO much fun! I might have to print one for myself!

Here's a teaser:



One thing that helped me with this process was creating blank documents in Photoshop and just pulling pictures on the document that I would want for that month. So when I went to work on them all of the pictures were ready for me to move, crop, etc.

I think my family is really going to like this! I can't wait!

Tomorrow is the first day of December!! Are you ready for your December Daily project?
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Thursday, November 26, 2009

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Callie Girl (take 2)

I just couldn't stand it. I had to scrap my style for this photo. I'm learning and growing with this design work...whew!
I was totally inspired by this gallery standout.


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I also used these brushes and the stain.
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Gallery Standout

This put a smile on my face! {scroll down}

Mr. Yogurt Licker & Callie Girl

Here are two more pages I created for the 2Peas Digital Creative Team:


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Can I be honest with you? (Sure!) Um...I don't really *like* these pages. I honestly felt rushed in creating them and I don't feel like I was being true to my style. I was trying to meet a deadline, focusing on certain products, and even though I'm supposed to put my best foot forward and give them my best work...I don't feel like I met that goal...for myself. These are nice pages, but I felt so much pressure while creating them, and then this morning when I was finishing them up my attitude was kinda like this: I don't care. That's not good! I just didn't want to spend more hours working on these because I already worked on them for a long time yesterday. Don't get me wrong, I'm honored to be on this creative team! I think I just have to figure out where all of this fits into my creating. I want to be true to my style and not forget why I digital scrapbook. It's not just about pushing out pages to meet deadlines. I don't get paid for this...but it sorta feels like a job. I don't know if I could do this if I was a mother or worked full-time...because there's a lot of time that goes into it. I am kinda disappointed with the results of these pages...but maybe I'm being too hard on myself. ??? Oh creative groove that is true to my style, where art thou?
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Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Water Wars

Whew! This is the first layout I created for the Two Peas Digital Creative Team. It's like having a job...haha! I worked on this layout for hours. This is my 4th and final draft!! Eeek! It happens sometimes!

I like this page, but there is something about it that's bothering me...but I'm leaving it alone (haha, we'll see about that)!


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Monday, November 23, 2009

Spring

Happy Monday! Three more days until turkey day!

I was looking through my scrapbook pages for this year and there is one page that I wasn't satisfied with, so I thought I would do another page in place of it. Normally I just leave pages alone, but I just had to. Ha! This layout was inspired by this creation.


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All products are from Michelle Underwood through 2Peas.

For the record, I know that raindrops shouldn't be under the umbrella. So let's pretend that they are behind or in front of the umbrella. Ha!

I received our printed Christmas cards today!! I really really like them! It's so fun to see the final product! The process for setting up an account with WHCC is totally worth it!
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Sunday, November 22, 2009

Holiday Cheer

This is a layout I created for the Little Dreamer holiday preview week using alpha/words. It was so much fun creating this page. It's been so much fun scrapping my childhood pictures!


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Saturday, November 21, 2009

With You

Hello! I just wanted to thank everyone who left a comment of congrats! It was so sweet of you and it means a lot to me!! *SMILE*

Here's a page I created using 2 kits from Michelle Underwood.



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I'm trying to find a balance with creating right now. I have many options now, so I'm just trying to stay focused in what I am doing! Ha! I LOVE digital scrapbooking!!
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Thursday, November 19, 2009

Guess what??

I am humbled and honored! Who would have thought that this was part of the new chapter of life? Wow! Ok, I'll just get right to it...I applied and was accepted to be on the Two Peas Digital Creative Team!!! I am SO thrilled and excited! Twopeas is a HUGE scrapbooking online store and community, not just for digital, but also for traditional scrapbooking! I am so thankful and honored to be part of this team. I feel the energy and excitement from the team; we are all ready to get started! I will have to post their blog links and maybe create a blogroll of their blogs. I love seeing digital inspiration!

And I thought I would post a page I created using products from Little Dreamer.


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Thank you all of your support and your blog friendships! You have inspired me and I want to keep on inspiring you!!
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Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Oops!

The news...will be shared tomorrow. I kept on thinking today was Thursday. Oops! Tomorrow is only a day a way...and it's already tomorrow for some of you! See you tomorrow!

Hybrid Gift Jars

I signed up to do a hybrid project for Little Dreamer. At first I thought I would create a layout, but after my printer started acting up, I decided to switch gears and create these gift jars instead. I have my friend Katrina to thank for the amazing canned salmon she gave us. It's DELICIOUS!! (Thank you, Katrina & Kirk!) The jars are talked about on the Little Dreamer blog today, as well as the hybrid calendar I made a month ago.


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I have some exciting news to share later on today!
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Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Spud

Here's a layout I created using products from Little Dreamer. I love these brightly colored pictures. I just love blending colors.


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I've been quiet around here because of a lot of reasons, but one of them is because I was working on finalizing our Christmas card design so I could order them. That goal was accomplished today and the order(s) have been made. Whoohoo! I went with WHCC and I have to say I'm very satisfied with what I have seen so far. It takes a little bit of a process to set up an account with them, but I believe it's worth it. I wanted to find a company that would print my design full-bleed (no borders). Quent is really excited because he's been thinking about having some of his photos printed. If you have any questions about printing, please feel free to ask. Their customer service is helpful, too! I've had to call and ask a few questions.

I've also been working on designing a Christmas card for a friend. It's really fun, but I notice the pressure I add to it because of making something for someone else. She likes the samples I sent, so I'm happy about that! I think I could seriously have fun designing greeting cards!

It's really weird to not be stamping our Christmas cards this year. I think we both realized that it will be cheaper to have our cards printed than stamped. And it will be a lot less time consuming. Yes, I'm all about digital these days! I keep on looking at my stamping supplies and pondering its future. Hmmm...

Sorry, I won't be sharing the Christmas card on here until they have all been sent and received. I have to keep it a surprise! Ha!
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$10

Would you like $10 toward Little Dreamer product? Then check this out!

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Everything but the Kitchen Sink sketch challenge #1

The girls are back with another challenge, a sketch challenge! I couldn't wait to get started, so I started right away. I've been going back through our 2009 pictures to see what I have missed scrapping. I thought these pictures from our anniversary would be perfect for this digital scrapbook page! I hope no one minds that I'm doing digi! I'm just not into stamping (right now). Ha!

So here's my take on the challenge! The winner will receive a $25 gift certificate to twopeasinabucket.com. That rocks! Wanna play?



All elements are from Little Dreamer. Fonts: Fling, CK Love Note, Traveling Typewriter
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Holiday Preview starts today!

Little Dreamer's holiday preview starts today! Check out more info here!!!

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Hat

Another project I've been working on is knitting a hat for myself. I saw a picture of a hat in a Knit Picks catalog and it was love at first sight! The hat has a buttoned hole for a ponytail. I just love that idea! I finished the hat last night, but I don't have pictures wearing it yet. The pattern comes from a book called Tops & Toes. Here is the almost finished product:



This hat is finished in perfect time as we got our first snow yesterday! Ahhh!

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Scrapbook Pictures Printing

Our printer is biting dust (*sniff*), and I needed to have something printed for a project I am doing for Little Dreamer, so I quickly uploaded some layouts to Scrapbook Pictures for printing. Ali Edwards talked about it on her blog once, and my friends Jessica and Carrie, had pages printed with them, too, so I thought I would try them out. I admit, I was hesitant because I really like Good Life Photo, but I wasn't really interested in paying their prices right now. The average amount per page at Scrapbook Pictures was $2.49, with some being $1.99. That's pretty good! I got the prints back today and I'm very impressed! I only had 7 pages printed with 3-4 different types of paper. I can't really tell the difference between the regular gloss and the high gloss, or the different mattes, but they look incredible!

I took some pictures of a few of the pages just to show the quality. I didn't have the greatest lighting, and I didn't want to do too much editing on the photos to take away from the look of the pages.


This is with the glossy paper. It looks great! The paper itself is very lightweight. There are no weird colors showing up.



This is using the matte paper. If you click on the image you can see the matte a lot better.


No weird colors here either! I say 'weird colors' because I've had pages printed and they had some funky coloring on them when you would look at them in certain kind of lighting. That's not showing up on these at all.

I like the glossy and the matte. I'm very pleased with the results!
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Thursday, November 12, 2009

Family Time

One of my favorite digital inspiration blogs was totally an inspiration for this page. I started working on a layout last night with this photo, but things weren't working so well. So when I saw this challenge this morning, I started creating right away. The challenge was to use an owl since owls are so trendy right now. The owl is kind of hiding on this page. Can you see it? It's my own design.


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I think this mini calendar that Michelle Filo created is really neat, so I thought I would share. It's that time of year for making calendars! I better get started!

Also, I thought this would be a great idea for a December Daily album. Katrina is one of my greatest friends and she's so creative! She was inspired by something we made in our last stamping workshop. I just love her idea! This would be so easy to turn into a small journal, which would be perfect for the December Daily. Enjoy!
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Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Tomorrow

This was one of those layouts that definitely had to be created in the 'right' time and the right mood. Life is full of ups and downs. This page talks about one of those 'downs' we went through this year. Even as I was typing out the journaling I was SO happy that we are no longer going through that stuff with the cats. Our cats mean so much to us, so when things are going on, it's really hard. Thankfully there's always tomorrow!



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Cool!

I thought these looked really cool! Only $1 today!! I'll post more later!

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Sweet & Salty

I created this page weeks ago using my own designs. I thought I would post it before it snows...ugh!



And these are Pretzel Hugs!
Lisa from Creating Keepsakes talked about these delightful things in her letter in the December issue. I'm not sure if this is exactly what they are supposed to look like, but no matter, they taste fabulous! (That's Quent's fingers reaching for one)

Here's how to make them (super easy!):

Put a layer of square pretzels on a cookie sheet and place unwrapped Hershey's Hug (or Kiss) over each pretzel. Bake at 200 degrees for 8 minutes. Remove from oven and place an M&M in the center. I just smushed it right down into the Kiss.

These are the perfect sweet & salty combination! And they are so wonderful right out of the oven. It's like chocolate melting delight in your mouth!!

Quent and I were talking about how we want to try this with miniature Resees Peanut Butter cups...Mmmm!
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Monday, November 9, 2009

Details

Remember those cinnamon rolls I was talking about yesterday?


Mmmm...


This is a page I created for our Montana vacation album using a bunch of detail photos I took while we were on our trip. I realize that I'm more into detail photography than big landscapes. I just love details!
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Sunday, November 8, 2009

Everything but the Kitchen Sink #2

Everything but the Kitchen Sink challenge was to use toilet paper in your creation. Since I'm not into making cards much these days, I wanted to create a digi-page. But then I didn't know how I would find toilet paper for such a thing. I don't have my scanner right now, so I couldn't scan any in. Last night I was looking at some of my digital elements and I saw something that I think looks like TP. So here's my page:



The 'toilet paper' is the quilted looking white thing-a-ma-jig behind the pictures. Is that stretching it a bit? Ha! No matter, I wanted to support my friends in this challenge. *smile*

Happy Sunday everyone! I'm up early this morning. I'm not sure why. Cinnamon rolls dough is rising! Mmmm...

Credits:
Graph paper
Green paper
Kraft paper
Turquoise squiggly, 'Toilet Paper', material
Flourish
Frame
Rhinestone

Don't forget about the 30% off sale going on at Little Dreamer for the rest of today!
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Saturday, November 7, 2009

Beginners

Are you curious about digital scrapbooking and would like to give it a try? Are you clueless of where to begin?

If I had to start all over again, I would take some of Jessica Sprague's classes. She is an incredible teacher and she's so thorough. I have learned SO much from her! I highly recommend her classes.

This is her Up & Running with Photoshop class. It's for beginners!

The list of all of her classes are here.

And if you decide to take one of these classes and you aren't sure if you want to purchase Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, you can always try their free 30-day trial through Adobe. I use the full version of Photoshop, but I know a lot of people who use Elements and you can do everything you would want on there (well, almost everything) and it's MUCH cheaper!

Let me know if you sign up for a class!

New Project

Last night I started a project I have been putting off for a long time: scrapbooking Quent's trips & photography. I scrapbook a lot of the pictures he takes, but the pictures I have been putting off are pictures that seriously intimidate me. I used to shy away from scrapping nature/scenic photos, but now I'm getting the hang of 'how' to scrap them. I think I've finally found a groove I'm comfortable in, so it is time to start another project.



I love how his photography and my scrapbooking work together in harmony. It's really fun to compliment one another's work like that. What intimidated me about this project is that I didn't want to take anything away from the photos because the photos by themselves are AMAZING! I asked Quent if he would like a photobook from Shutterfly with photos in it, and he said yes. I asked him if he would like me to use their templates or create my own. He said he wanted me to design the pages. And um, he said that like 2 years ago. *biting fingernails*

Another thing that scared me is the amount of pictures. There are lots and lots and lots and LOTS of his pictures to be scrapped. It feels overwhelming. So for starters, I'm starting with 2009 pictures.

Here's what I am doing:

1. Pulling pictures onto pages, resizing, and moving them around until they are in 'perfect' spots. Last night I did this for 15 pages. It was actually quite relaxing!

2. Picking out colors that compliment the pictures and starting to put the layouts together.

3. Including the journaling. I do this sometimes before I pull colors or add anything else to the page. Quent blogs his pictures, so I have just been pulling the journaling from the blog to the pages. That works SO nicely!

This system seems to be working well for me. Quent likes things more clean & simple, so I'm trying to honor that as much as possible.

My goal is to put all of 2009 pictures/layouts into one photobook.
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Happy DSD!!


Little Dreamer is having a 30% storewide sale today and tomorrow!! Also, take advantage of their blog hop FREEbies!!! Start HERE
See below for Michelle Underwood's sale!


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Also, Michelle Underwood has everything 25% off here!!!