Just a few thoughts of mine...

Summer's Here!

I have two fun kits to remind you about that are perfect for summer photos! Sweet Watermelon and the Sweet Watermelon Add On Paper Pack are a great celebration of a yummy summer fruit! Ants at the Picnic is a fun kit filled with food and ants, wait ants? Well, they are some pesky little guys that tend to bug us at our picnics, so I couldn't leave them out.

Get a closer look at the kits and check out the list of stuff you get for only $3.00. (Paper pack is only $1.75)

Sweet Watermelon
Sweet Watermelon Add On Paper Pack
Ants at the Picnic


I also have a bonus for you. It is a frame that comes in the Sweet Watermelon kit. I hope you enjoy it. :) Just click on the image below for your frame!

Frustration

Ugh! I'm working on the Father's Day gift for my DH and it isn't going without a hitch. I just thought I would share a quick note of advice since I am learning from my last two projects! Right now for my husbands gift I bought this cute little photo cube. I made several layouts and will be putting each one on a different side of the cube. I've got my five pages done (three of them you can see below). I got ready to print...the cube says it holds 3.5 x 3.5 pictures. So away I go shrinking my layouts to that size. Then I worked to get each one on my one sheet of 8.5x11 photo paper. My computer is a bit slow so I wait forever for my print preview to pop up so I can see if it is just right or if my layouts have been somehow cut off. Finally get it right and print and that is another 5 minutes of waiting. I happily cut out each layout. I was thrilled cause I would be done soon. Next step...to glue the layouts to each side of the box that came inside of the cube. Box and layout in hand, I discover that they lied! The box doesn't hold 3.5x3.5 pictures, it holds 3.25x3.25!!! Ugh!! I hate when I end up wasting photo paper and ink cause it costs a pretty penny! I had to go back to the drawing board and resize and wait for my print preview and print and then carefully cut out AGAIN!

I just went through a similar situation for Mother's Day. I bought two 6x6 frames that I made a special layout to put in. I printed the layouts out and was ready to put them in and not only did I have to trim and trim them to get them to fit in the frame, once I got them in there I discovered that the frame could hold a 6x6 picture in it but you would only be able to view a 5x5 image!! So I had to reprint those!

So, my message here is to make sure that you measure your frames or other craft project items that you intend on putting a layout on before you shrink your images and most definitely before you waste time, paper and ink!!

Featured Designer @ Digitals

We have a new featured designer at Digitals, Jamie Conn. She has a sale going on for 25% off!! And every day until the 18th you can get a free download to collect her kit Games People Play don't miss out on that!

I picked up her kit Elemental Nature, I was attracted to the beautiful greens! It was the perfect kit for me to scrap some pictures and postcards that I have of Oklahoma. I think that you will love this kit. It has some awesome rusted metal elements and the papers have a very nice texture to them!

Have you seen all of her stuff yet? Take a peek. She's got many adorable kits to choose!! Pick some up while you're looking! :)

A New Kit!!

I have a new kit in the store called Daddy Daddy. It would be the perfect kit to use for creating Father's Day gifts and cards. The kit is only $3.00 and has more that 30 pieces. I think you will love it!

Daddy Daddy includes 6 background papers, 2 awards, 2 brads, 1 chain, 1 "Daddy" charm, 2 painted wood doodads, 1 chain fastener, 1 paper clip, 1 staple, 1 heart doodle, 2 inked paper strips,
1 journal block, 7 stapled labels, 1 frame, 1 name plate, 1 metal photo corner, 2 photo mats, 1 torn border, 1 torn corner, 1 vellum sheet and 1 piece of word art.


I've created several layouts with it already. I've been having some fun creating the layouts for a cute little plastic picture cube that I bought at Michaels. I have three more layouts to go to fill it.
Here are the three layouts that I have done so far...
Best Pick of Dads is a tribute to my DH!! I wanted to let him know just how great a dad I think he is to our children.
Love Mine Daddy is a layout from my daugther...well kind of, obviously I made it but it is filled with her words! :)












My Dad is a layout from my son to his dad! I asked him why he loves his dad and he began to explain. The words are a break down of what his explanation meant.

I also have a great freebie to give my blog readers! A Happy Father's Day tag that doesn't come in the kit, it's just a special little extra something!! Download it and have fun!

Retirement Sale!!

Only today and tomorrow left for the retirement sale and then all the kits will be gone!! Hurry up there are quite a few to pick from and they are all 50% off!!!

Here is a peek at a couple of them and some layouts made with the kits as well!

To paper scrap or to digi scrap...that is my question

I have such a collection of paper scrapping stuff. It would be a real shame to stop paper scrapping. But yet I've been so busy with digi scrapping that my paper stuff is just collecting dust. What to do, what to do? I would love to have more time to do paper scrapping. The problem is that it is too permanent compared to digi scrapping. Once I've glued something to a spot it's stuck. Because of this paper scrapping takes me much more time and I need peace during that time or I just can't think. Peace is something I don't get very often. And if I think I can steal some time and get upstairs I very quickly realize that was only a dream!! I end up with my girl climbing up on my chair and me asking me for buttons and stars or beads, grabbing pieces of paper and pictures. I finally breakdown and give her some star confetti stuff and trying to get her situated in another corner of the room. Does this work? Nope...soon she is back on me again asking for something else. And when I think I am okay cause Andi isn't crawling on me anymore she starts in with questions and talking to me that interupts all my thoughts and so within about 10 minutes or so I give up because I just can't think!

My DH says he prefers my paper scrapping to my digi scrapping. I guess that is my fault because I have yet to print a single layout that I've created digitally and he perfers something he can hold and look through. I need to get printing! Ugh.

So anyhow, I just don't think I can part with my paper stuff but when will it be used? Who knows... but I am done letting memories pass by because "someday I will paper scrap that one." I am going to start and have started making some layouts that share a story. Most of my digital layouts have just been made to show pictures or kits but now I will be sharing some real moments in my journaling. I've been inspired by Glenda Ketcham's great journaling!! :)

Here are a couple of layouts I did with more journaling than usual...
Dinner Adventure
Auto Driver

Two days down...a lifetime to go

Yippy...I've actually used that dusty old treadmill again and for two days in a row!! I have been meaning to get back into a regular workout routine for months now and just haven't done it. It had been quite some time but then when Justin started school I got off my butt and got a routine going and lost some of the jiggles! Then right when most people start their routines (January) I fell off the wagon. I got sick, just a regular old cold, but that was enough to stop me. Then I was doing it sporadically but no true commitment. So hopefully I am not jinxing myself here but I think that I am ready to put some effort into this again! I joked with my DH that I got skinny for winter and then chunky for summer!! LOL. Maybe if that's going to be a pattern I need to head down under! :)

Time Management

I am fishing for any ideas on better managing time. Anyone out there have any great ideas? I have always been a procrastinator and that is a tough habit to break. But on top of that I have a hard time dividing my day up. I'm a stay at home mom so really I should have a ton of time, right? But I either end up on the computer all day long or cleaning all day long, etc. I never seem to figure out how to do a little of each.

As far as long term time management that is even worse. Like Christmas always comes up like a big surprise, I'm never prepared for it. Now in two weeks I have a birthday party for my son and daughter. We've had the date set for some time and now it's almost here and the only thing I have done is invitations (important part, huh?) but nothing else is done. Now I know I will be scrambling to get everything together.

Anyway...any helpful advice would be appreciated! :) Thanks.

Featured Designer at Digitals

If you haven't checked out the featured designer at Digitals you should take a peek! Her name is CarolAnn Smith...and you can see her designs here. She's got some great kits and while she is the featured designer you can download little bonuses from her every day.

I got a hold of her kit Under the Boardwalk and created a layout of my little girl on a trip to the beach. This kit was a lot of fun to use. My favorite part the kit is the awesome "Beach" sign. I used it in my layout and I added the word "day" on top (I didn't have room in my layout to put it anywhere else). The colors of this kit are very nice and relaxing and make me want to drive out to the beach now! Too bad it's so far away! LOL.

Take a look around CarolAnn Smith's gallery to see some more of her designs at work! And while you're there, let me know what you think of my layout!! :) (shameless, I know) Hee hee.

Retirement Sale

Hurray...I have a sale going on. I'm getting rid of some of my old kits. Some that are the very first one's I ever made. I'm making room for my new designs! :) I hope you will go take a look at all that I've got on sale. You can pick up kits for as little as $1.50 and I have two alphabets and a quick page for only .75! It's quite a deal!

The sale is going on now until June 10th and after that all these kits will be gone! So don't miss your chance to get these oldies but goodies!

My Digitals Store

I have another new kit! Hurray!! I seem to be on a flower kick... This new kit is so pretty, I just love the way it came out. Purple and yellow look so good together! What do you think?

I made some wonderful patterned papers but also remembered to include solid colors as I have had many people comment that they also like to have solid papers in their kits. I just added a bit of texture to the solids. :)

There are several borders and some inked strips of paper (since those seem so popular lately), some tickets, eyelets, brads, decorative tags...it's just filled with fun stuff!

I finished layout of my kids with this kit. I think it came out pretty nice...but it helps when the picture is nice, too! Are my kids cute, or what? I am just a bit biased but I think they are adorable, especially in this picture looking like they get along! :) LOL

I created a special tag just for my blog readers. Get it here. Hope you like it and have fun with it and decide you want the whole kit! :)

Get the kit.
Comment on the layout.