Simply Darling!

Some of the photos taken of the girls at the family photo shoot. I'm just in love with these expressions, well I'm in love with what's around the expressions as well, what's a Grandma to do???

I used Andika Designs - Strawberries and Cream (from Digitals). I took one of the corner embellishments Tink had made and copied it until I had four of then I just kept turning them until I came out with the large multi-frame. Cool huh? The Sister and friends words were taken from one of Glenda Ketcham's kits - Wordart Sisters

That's the key you need to just keep playing. The background is several papers blended together and then I used the burn tool to enhance around the swirled edges. and the perimeter of the background. If you just use embellishments, papers, frames etc. in a kit as is you're really missing out. Play with the hue/saturation and change the color settings to better match what you're making. Duplicate, as I've done here and put your embellies together to create a whole new look. Enlarge, make smaller, group together, add shadows and styles for even more looks. Blend you papers, several together adjusting the opacity of some to change the look completely.

Just remember to always give credit to the designer and NEVER change and claim as your own! The designer has worked hard, putting in endless hours to create something beautiful and fun for your personal enjoyment. Don't spoil it by sharing or pirating! OK off my band wagon for a bit!

Love Is and Love Extended

Love ExtendedSeveral of the photos taken of Angi and Luke

Love Is . . .

I just loved these pictures of Angi and Luke.
I cheated though with these two pages and used Quickpages from Andika Designs White Out 12x12 Album at Digitals.
These pages are just so beautifully done and
what a snap to just insert my photos, add my text and be done.

Snowy Update

I was so sure the snow would be here and gone in a flash, little did I know that we would get inches last night.

I It started about 4 in the afternoon and snowed way into the night.

When I came home from town today Green Springs Golf course was vacant of golfers but perched on a mound was this Snowman! What a cute idea.

It's Snowing in Southern Utah

Well not today but earlier this week it snowed all day! Make me feel like I was home, only thing is here it's the moutains that surround us that are covered with powdered snow the lowlands are clear, the best of both worlds. I had to take these photos those, Palm Trees are not suppose to have snow are they? I heard on the radio this morning that you'd best be getting the Palm blankets on, I thought they were joking. Lo and behold on my way home today what do I see but palms with blankets tucked securely around the top portion (the neck I would say) just under where the frongs start. I wonder what happens to all the rest of the poor little naked Palm necks out there in this cold weather, I sure hope they don't die, that's one of my favorite things to see around here. Here's a few shots I took around our neighborhood the other day. Of course being the idiot I am with a camera I had to walk down to the golf course just so I could show family and friends who've been here it really did have snow on it. It's like anywhere else though. You become accustomed to your surroundings and forget to see the beauty. I never realized how tall the hills are behind our housing development until they have this beautiful veil of white on them. As I was stopped at the stoplight on the way home the intersection was a perfect view of Best Buy and the shopping center, and there rising majestically behind their rooftops were these beautiful snowcaps, I just hadn't realized how close or how tall they are! When I got a little further you could see the ledges leading into Zion each line of rock dusted with poweder. How beautiful it is!!

Daddy's Girl

You know there's nothing better for a Grandma than to get oodles of new photos of the kids to play with this is no exception. Another great shot of Luke and Pyper, I just love the way she's looking at her Daddy! I used a kit from Alessandra Designs - Daddy's Little Girl, appropriate name don't ya think? The word art is my own, if anyone is interested in using it post me a note here and I'll make it available to you.

Wonder - DST Gallery Standout

Well this is the second of my blending pages, this one with Zoie. I just love this picture of her, another from Photographer Erika Green. The captured, far away look was just perfect for this page. I wanted a dreamy, soft look like I achieved with Pyper's page. Thanks to Michelle at Cottage Arts who helped with the fonts for my word art (my quote by the way) I was really satisfied with how the page turned out.

I used a new kit, just released from Cottage Arts called O Christmas Tree and then blended in a snowflake paper from the Joyeux Noel Page Pak. Love both these kits for this deep wintery feel.

As soon as I posted tonight I saw where this page was picked as a Gallery Standout at Digital Shop Talk! This is a first for me I've not had a page picked there for any reason. Made me feel really good because I really love the pages that are showcased there! Check the thread out if you have time they really have some pages to inspire your creativity!

I got to thinking, after reading all the responses in the gallery to this page, that perhaps it would be fun to include the original photo here as well, that way it will give you more of a perspective of what you can accomplish by blending several papers with your photo. I think the key is to keep experimenting with the blend modes and masking away bits and pieces. It's amazing the combinations you'll come up with. But above all don't get frustrated, just have fun!

Dreaming

I work on the Creative Team for Cottage Arts. Michelle Shefveland is the owner and a true inspiration. She is a very talented lady! If you're not familiar with Cottage Arts you're really missing out. Please stop by and check out her store. Anyway, Michelle challenged the team to try the Ethereal look for Christmas, well I'm still working on that Christmasy page of Zoie, but I had this picture of Pyper and just had to try it with a 'not as Christmas' look. This is another photo from Erika Green Photography. She does a beautiful job capturing that dreamy look in Pyper.

I'm not as comfortable with this type of page, it took a lot of playing to achieve the blending of papers and elements that I thought looked right. I kept changing fonts, it's amazing how the font can set a mood of the page and I wanted one that conveyed this soft, dreamy feel. I finally ended up with Liorah. Everything here is from Cottage Arts except I did use a couple of Linda Sattgast's (Scrapper's Guide) styles. I love the finished look though and have already started another of Zoie which I think I can achieve more of a wintery feel with. I really like the contrast of the Black and White photo with the exposure of the red rose. So fun to try new things!

The quote is one of my own:
From the innocence of youth,
there do we receive
the hope
of our future.

This morning as I was checking the comments left on the page at DST I saw where I'd been featured in the Genuine Praise Blog. I wasn't familiar with this blog so please take a look, I think she has a super idea going here!

Well I've now been chosen as LOTD at Digitals. It's so uplifting when you've worked so hard on something and find out you've touched a cord with others as well! Made my day I'll tell ya!!

Sisters

Angi and the family went to Erika Green Photography Studio and had their photos taken. I was impressed with Erika's work and the poses she got the family to take. Every time I try to take Luke's picture his eyes are closed or he looks like he's at the end of a very bad weekend, lol. She managed to get wonderful pictures of him and Angi and of course my beautiful granddaughters. If you live in the SW Washington state area please check her work out I'm sure you won't be unhappy.

To do this page I used Strawberries and Cream from Andika Designs. Tink sells at Digitals and has some fabulous kits, please check her store out.

Christmas 2005

I just love these photos I found of Eddie and his Daddy, taken Christmas 2005. Eddie has changed so much in 3 years, so tall and so slim now. Wow where did this chubby little Cherub go to? Pictures like this, that show a great big hunk like Mitch cuddling with a little guy like Eddie just tug at my heartstrings, of course they're mine too, maybe that has something to do with it?? I just loved their Christmas tree and couldn't resist having it poke out the top of the frame.

I wanted to write something on the page but couldn't figure out where, then thought it would be fun to do vertical words within the stripes. They say -
Happy Happy
Merry Merry
Santa Claus
is coming to town
He Knows if
I've been bad or good
and I've been good
for goodness sake!
Font for this is Scrap Circles

I used new kits from Glenda Ketcham for this page, A Long Ago Christmas and Christmas Finery -

Best Gift

Here's all four Grandkids,
they truly are the Best Gift a Grandma could ask for!

This page made with Beth Rimmer's new kit
Christmas at Happy Jack, available at Digitals.

O Christmas Tree - Pixel Pick of the Day & LOTD

Today - December 9 - I got a notice from Gotta Pixel that they've picked this page again this time as LOTD! Thank you Gotta Pixel!!!

I did this page of memories (lots of journaling, lots of memories). As I looked at these photos and relayed to Momma on the phone what I was seeing my eye was drawn to different places in the dining room, other than the tree. It always amazes me what you see when you scan and enlarge an old photo. Often I've seen things in digital and enlarged on my monitor that I never saw when looking at the original. I agree there will always be something nostalgic and heartwarming to hold an old photo in your hand and wonder about it's origin. But it's amazing to let technology take over and see it in a whole new light. I'll post the journaling at the bottom of this post if you'd like to share my memories

I used Silvia Romeo's Cozy Christmas, perfect title don't you think? Silvia sells at several stores including Digitals, please check her things out. I also received notice this morning that this page was picked as a Pixel Pick in today's newsletter at Gotta Pixel. Sweet that others like what I do!

The journaling on this page reads:

A tree you might say?

It's not really the tree that drew me to this picture.
Yes, I must say, seeing it through the eyes of an adult instead of a Christmas crazed youngster I can see the limbs were a little helter skelter. The shape not trimmed to perfection. But the love, ah the love behind this tree would be hard matched today. This tree, as many before and many after, was taken from the woods in and around our family home. Momma, usually, would go out and search to find the perfect one and chop and drag it home. This was in the days when my memories were defined enough to take notice. I'm sure there were many years when my brother's were home when they went in search of the tree. Tinsel hanging like snow from the boughs. Carefully placed one at a time by Mom's loving hand, It's unusual to see the tree here, in the dining room. I asked Momma about it and she doesn't remember having it here, but those are the walls, the windows, the cup rack that always hung on the wall there.And upon that little shelf on the right is a small ships wheel, actually it's a lighter. So what you might ask, I remember as a very young child Billy and I fighting over that wheel, as I recall it never had fluid in it, so it never would light. But when you spun the wheel the little flap would pop up to reveal where the flame should rise. When I was in my 40's I asked my Mom if I could have this little memento of times gone by and she sadly told me she had thrown it away. So sad, a memory to remain in my mind but not my touch. Several years later on my birthday I opened a special gift from my Mom, and there wrapped in pretty paper was this little ships wheel that Billy and I had so fought over to play with.

Memories from the past that still color your present days.
What better a childhood could anyone ask for?

Eddie and Pyper

I've always loved this picture of Pyper and Eddie,
He wanted so bad to open the present for her but was trying hard to contain himself.
This is truly what Christmas is all about, expectations and excitement of the little ones!

Made with Silvia Romeo's Christmas Cozy at Digitals

Black Friday - My First Sale for Designers!

Squirrel City

These are the squirrels that live in my sisters front yard.
What a photo shoot they let me take!

In my sister’s
yard lives the most
wonderful family of
squirrels who were not
shy about strutting
their stuff for my
camera.

I used Silvia Romeo's Sunflower's Garden for this page. Silvia sells at many stores including Digitals, please check her designs out!

The Whole Cookie Story

I decided I had too many pictures left so I tried my hand at a 2 pager. It's a little interesting trying to get things to line up between the two pages. But, I like the way it turned out and I think it will make a great addition to the girls scrapbooks.

Baking Cookies with Grandma

The girls had had a fund raiser earlier in the year, selling cookies for school. I ordered bucket from each but told them just to pick what they liked. Well they decided they liked sugar cookies and would get them and save them for when I came home to visit over Halloween. Time seemed to be really disappearing, as it always does when I'm home, but we managed to squeeze a couple hours out to bake the cookies.

Grandma, in her infinite wisdom, was busy putting frosting on the tops as they cooled when Mommy kindly informed her the girls could do it themsleves. LOL it's hard to give up control you know! Well I handed over spoon, frosting bowl and sprinkles and grabbed my camera instead. Great choice Grandma!

They did a super job decorating and I even managed to make it all the way home on the plane with a few cookies that were only slightly damaged. Let me assure you Paul didn't mind a few crumbs here and there and was happily mummbling how good they were. These are the memories that last a life time. One of the my girls, I think Amber, still has the Junior Cookbook I gave the kids eons ago when they were about Zoie's age. Fun times which pass way way toooooo quickly!!!

I used Beth Rimmer's Fruitcake Folly for Zoie's page and her More Fruitcake, Please - Embellies and Papers for Pypers. I just love the look of felt here, I thought these would make a good two pager for their books.

I'm at Digitals! and a Freebie!!!

It's official as of today I am now offering my services to Designer's. I've been doing quickpages for 3 years now for different designer's and decided it was time to put out my shingle! So if you or someone you know is a designer short on time with the need or desire to offer quickpages to their customers send them my way. Click here to see my Store at Digitals. I offer Quickpages, Brag Book pages, Cosmo Cricket and Basic Grey quickpages etc. Check it out, perhaps I can help you out as well.

If you'd like to see a sample of my work check out this free Quickpage. Thanks to the generosity of Beth Rimmer and her Homestead Harvest Embellies and Pages, without her I wouldn't have had the inspiration to do this. I used a multitude of her designs in my store previews so check her out, she has some amazing designs for sale.

New Pages

The Cutest Blog On The Block

Like my new look? Thanks to the creative talents and generosity of The Cutest Blog on The Block. They've made it super simple to change the look of your blog in a snap. Most items on their blog are free, please check them out you won't be sorry!

Lake Sacajawea

Here's the lake in my hometown, isn't this just gorgeous? I was so fortunate to plan my visit for this week when the skies were clear and the leaves so vibrant! By the end of the first week here the skies have darkened and the air is really beginning to get that fall bite to it. The leaves have fallen so much since I took the first pictures but each day reveals a new beauty. I'm so happy to see all the work the Parks department has done, installing new pathways and iron railings. Everything just looks so beautiful. Of course now I see it with eyes that have been away instead of ones who took it for granted.

My Hometown!

I'm home visiting my family and took these photos yesterday on the way from Cathlamet to Longview. My son was driving along Ocean Beach Highway and I rolled the window down and just shot random shots along the way! Pretty cool huh! How beautiful it is here now, with colored leaves and fresh water simply amazing scenery! And to think I used to see this every day of my life!!!

CT Call at Digitals!

Per an email I received from Stacey I'm reposting her email here to give you all a super nudge to email her and become a CT member. Working monthly with a new designer is a lot of fun. Share in this great community today by responding to Stacey's email!

Creative Team Call for the Digitals Store

Want to work with a variety of fabulous designers, earning free kits and making gorgeous layouts for an established site? We have the job for you!

We need 4-5 more members to join our Creative Team at Digitals. Each CT member will work with a designer for one month at a time, making at least 2 layouts with each kit provided and posting them in our gallery, DST, and a minimum of 2 other galleries of your choice Emailing LOs through Yahoo groups, writing reviews in the store, and submitting to magazines are big pluses. You will be given a minimum of 2 kits per month (4 layouts total) for free, but you have the opportunity to do more if you and the designer wish. CT members will rotate to a new designer each month. Please be willing to make a minimum 3 month committment and sign a confidentiality agreement.

Email me at stacey@digitalscrapbookpages.com with a paragraph explaining why you want to be on the team, links to the galleries where you are most active, your other involvement in the digital scrapbooking community (moderator, teams, etc.,) your username at our site, and a little about yourself. This call will remain open until we find people that fit our team. We look forward to your applications!

Digitals: http://www.digitalscrapbookpages.com/digitals/

~Stacey

Founder & Designer @ Digitals

Diggin' in the Muck!

Sometimes (most times really) it's hard to find pics of my son-in-laws to scrap, and my son for that matter. When Cottage Arts released this new kit, Garage Grunge Page Pak, tonight I knew right away what I was going to scrap. These photos of Luke when he came and helped unclog my pipes in my old home in Longview. What a sweetheart, he worked so hard all day in the muck and yucky stuff but wouldn't quit until he had it fixed. It may have been over 6 years ago now, how that much time could have passed I can't quite figure out, but it seems like it was just a few days ago. (I imagine it will always be a vivid memory in his mind too, lol, but not a very good one!!!)

Journaling reads:
This, my son-in-law was above and beyond the call of duty!
The pipes had clogged, Pops, as you called him,
wasn’t here to fix the mess and you stepped in,
shovel in hand and muscles in back.
Dig, dig, digging for what seemed forever in the
backyard to reach the outlet to the main sewer pipes.
It was a dirty, yucky, stinky job but you refused to give up until it was fixed.
I know you felt like Dad was there guiding you all the way to know how and what to do!
You made me proud and I’m sure he was smiling from above
with a nod of approval and a ‘good job Luke’!
If I failed to tell or show you how much I appreciated what you did then
here it is in living color as a reminder that
when you set your mind to something
you CAN do it!
Thanks again your Extra Mom


If you haven't checked out the things Cottage Arts has to offer now is the time. Their store is brimming with all kinds of goodies!

Rogue River - Using Masking

Joyce de Jonge has just released this new kit called Paint Your Picture which allows you to lay your photo over a choice of masks and 'clip' them together to get this painted effect here, I just love how easy it was and the results. Joyce sells at Digitals, please check her out!


Here's the journaling on my page, I dated it because years from now when hopefully my 3rd or 4th generations (or later) to follow me will get a little feel for the financial turmoil our country is in right now:

In the summer of 2005 after we finished visiting the family in Washington we spent a few days before returning home to Fresno in Grants Pass Oregon. Staying right on the river our balcony overlooked the Rogue and we could watch the jet boats as they headed down the River. We took this ride ourselves, a little disappointed that we couldn't enjoy the white water trip since the water that summer was too low. But the scenery, the water, the beauty was worth the ride. This little community captured out hearts, I loved it because it was the Pacific Northwest, just a little warmer than up north in Washington. Paul loved it because it had water and green like the New England of his youth. If we hadn't already purchased our 'retirement' home in Utah this would have been the spot we seriously considered. Now economic times are on the fritz and we may have to leave this idea as a dream instead of a reality at least until the world becomes a more settled place to live and our money once again is worth something.
Written 10-7-2008

Layout of the Week!

PRESERVING MEMORIES

Gotta Pixel picked this page as their Layout of the Week. I don't think I've ever had a page picked by them before. Big kudos for me, it's on the front page of their newsletter this week! Makes you feel so good that others like what you create! I used Silvia Romeo's The Winery kit for this one. Bethany is the creator of this fabulous word art - I sure hope you'll check out her blog - Elegant Word Art by Bethany and her store. Her word art is what helped make my page so special! Most of her word art is free, but be sure and leave a comment praising her skill and generosity!

Poopy Halloween!

OK here's the scoop, I belong to a Yahoo group called 'Just Quotes' and last week these ones came through with 'poop' in them. I knew my three youngest Grandkids would be in hysterics if they saw Grandma used the word 'Poop' in a page about them. Then along comes my CT assignment for October for Digitals and I've been paired with Kathryn Estry.

















How great she has this new kit called Pumpkin Kisses and what fun have I had today morphing my GK's into new Halloween trick or treators and adding these fun poop quips. Kathryn sells at Digitals, her things are always kid friendly really cute stuff. Please check her out.

These two cuties are my Great niece and nephew Acoya and Colten don't they look ready for Trick or Treating?????