She loves her daddy

I got to scrap today, and you know what that means, right? Yep... a layout pieces set for everyone! Here is the layout I actually made. You can see the full list of credits here.


Here is the preview of the pieces you can download here. I added two of the "daddy" pieces; one with shadows and one without since I thought it looked better with them. I really am kicking myself tonight... lol... I made the entire alphabet with the red glitter, and after I had the "daddy" title in place I unthinkingly closed the alpha page without saving it. Duhhh!! Apparently just starting to feel better doesn't mean my brain is back 100%... lol

And since I had made a big portion of the layout, I thought I would add a bonus quickpage to the set if any of you like using those.

Enjoy!

Merry Christmas!!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! I had planned to post a freebie set I had all figured out in my head, but I have been very sick and couldn't think straight for most of the last week or so. I didn't get to any of my regular holiday activities, and we had a very quiet Christmas, but I have no complaints because it all still came together nicely. I generally scrap and create according to what inspires me at the moment, so I am probably going to jot down the Christmasy ideas I had and revisit them when I need them. I have a couple of new things I really want to work on now, so look for a new freebie or two in the next couple of days!

Christmas Quickcard

I am madly addressing envelopes tonight and sending my Christmas cards out in the mail tomorrow. I should start my Christmas shopping by the 23rd if things go well. Sigh... nothing like the last minute for this kind of stuff! This is the card I am sending out this year. I have to take a hundred shots or so to hopefully get one where they are all looking in my general direction.

There might be somebody out there who is even further behind than I am, so I made a 5x7 quickcard out of this. Or maybe somebody is just extremely organized and ready to prep cards for next year... lol. I have never made quickpages of any kind before, so I just saved this in 300 dpi png format. I left the white painted edge on the inside of the photo frame. You can download it here. I should be back before then, but if not, Merry Christmas!!

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All that glitters...

is green... lol.. so far at least. I have been playing with glitter, and made this alphabet for you. I haven't had a chance to scrap anything with it yet, but I might add it to our Christmas cards that I HAVE to get finished tonight. I drew the letters by hand, and then made the crumpled up paperbag mats for them. As promised, the file comes with individual pngs and a full sheet because I think having choices is a good thing... :0) They do work well with Christmas projects, but I really just made them green because that is my personal favorite color. You can download them here.

I found another layout with my stitched music alpha... I love all the textures on this layout! CLick here to see it.

It is snowing here right now, and we are under a "severe winter weather watch." Hope you are all staying dry and warm!

Locks of Love

Despite her rather dramatic moments, my little girl really is a pretty sweet child. On her own she decided she wanted to donate her hair to Locks of Love, and has spent a year growing it out just for that purpose. She ended up with a ten inch ponytail to send to Locks of Love! You can see the credits for this layout here.



I only made a few of the pieces for this layout. The pink paper was actually blended into another designer's paper, and then erased to show the cardboard background. I made the stitching and the matting sloppy on purpose... left the lines on the mat and skipped some stitches in the framing. You can download this set of layout pieces here.

If you don't already have the cardboard background, the link for it is here.

I am off to get my munchkins to bed and spend some time scrapping. I'll be back!!

Christmas tape labels

I took the pictures for our Christmas cards this weekend, and wanted to make some tape labels so I could scrap them. I made two versions of these. One is plain, and one is a bit wrinkled as if somebody bent the tape. I made them life size, and instead of a traditional tape label font I used one that just looked a little more Christmas-y to me. You can download these here.

I found a couple more layouts using some of the freebies I have posted. Thanks for using my stuff and crediting it! Here are the links to the layouts.

embroidered felt alpha (I love how she used the crocheted flower as a snowflake!)

stitched music alpha (cute!!... and thank you so much for linking to my blog!)

I started a layout this weekend, and fell asleep in the chair with the laptop on my lap. I really want to get it finished up and posted tomorrow, which means there will probably be a new page set freebie to post as well. In the meantime, have a good week!

another cardboard alpha

First of all, thank you very much for the phenomonal response to the music alpha! The sheer volume of comments and downloads simply blew me away!

I promised to upload this the other day and then didn't have much of a chance to get to it. I haven't had much time this week to get much of anything on a scrap level done, but I am hoping to get to work on a couple of pages tomorrow. My kids are in a parade tomorrow, and then I am taking our Christmas card pictures, so I should have plenty of inspiration to work with! I have started a couple of items that I am looking forward to finishing up as well. In the meantime, I have uploaded this cardboard with a pink melted felt texture over it here for you. The letters are all on a single sheet, and are only lowercase. This was a set I made to create my banner and I never got back to it to cut it apart. However, when I do have alphas that are in seperate files from here on out, I will add the single sheet of the alphas as well for those of you who prefer to store them that way. (I know this isn't the best follow-up to the alpha, but it's what I have at the moment... LOL)

Have a great weekend!

Christmas Music Alphas

This is my personal favorite of all the different bits and pieces I have made so far. There are actually two sets in this download... the one you see and the exact same set but in a very wrinkled version. This version is in individual filesand the wrinkled set is all on one sheet. I didn't have time to cut it apart. This alpha took me forever because I could not figure out how to stroke a path to make the holes follow my stitches, so I ended up brushing every single stitch hole on each of the letters one hole at a time. T-E-D-I-O-U-S!!! There has to be a better way, and someday I may figure it out. Until I do, if (well, when) I make more stitched alphas, I can guarantee they are going to be this size and this font... lol. I deliberately inked the edges and let the inking stray off the edges for a goopy look I wanted for the project I am using these for. I just wanted you to know it wasn't an excessively bad case of stray pixels... :0) You can download these here. Enjoy, and don't forget to link me up to what you do with them! I cannot wait to see these in action!

7 snowflakes

I was playing around with some different styles and textures, and thought snowflakes would be an easy pallate to work on. So in true snowflake fashion, no two of these are alike. There are a few I like more than the others, but I put all seven of them in the file to let you choose which ones you would like better. That is the nature of experimenting, I suppose... sometimes it turns out well and other times not as well. I used felt, glitter, gemstones, sequins, sheet music, and cardboard on different parts of these. You can download them here. Have fun with them!

I need to head out to Bible study class now, but I have an alpha done that I will probably get zipped and uploaded later tonight. It is the cardboard/felt set I used in my new banner if you want a little sneakpeak... :0)

Felt alpha and some Americana brackets

Last night I was working on making a wrinkled up felt alpha for Christmas cards, and when I was grabbing my intended layer style I accidentally grabbed an embroidery one and was pleasantly surprised with the results. If you also like the results, you can download this set here. This is a lowercase alpha, no numbers, but each letter is in its own png file. (Somehow I forgot to put the "x" in the preview but it is in the set, I promise!) I still want to make the set I was initially planning on, so I will work on that very soon since I need to get those Christmas cards made!

This is a set of brackets I made quickly to coordinate with the Americana color swatches from my last post. I didn't make a preview for them, but they look like the one in the "best friends" kit from a few posts down. There are twelve in the set. You can download those here.

Have a nice weekend!

Americana pieces

One of the moderators of DST, Trina, asked for some pieces to help make albums for a trip her daughter's class is taking. Well, I love grungy, and I am a HUGE American history buff, and I need to scrap all of my photos of those same places, so I wanted to help out a bit. There are going to be more pieces I make for this, but the only thing I have had a chance to do so far is plug her colors into some layered sets I already had made. However, today I did get home from work and make this newspaper alpha that I really liked, so I thought I would bundle some of this up for you and set it for you to download here. There will be more, and hopefully whatever I end up making will work for what Trina has in mind, but even if it doesn't I will just be happy to have pieces ready for my own pages! Happy scrapping! (this alpha is cut out into seperate PNGs for you)

The Boos

Since I scrapped my youngest son and his best friend, my little girl wanted to see the pictures of her and her best friend. Just like their brothers, the two of them look so much alike and act so much alike that it catches me off-guard sometimes. We are so fortunate to have a really good set of friends whose kids are great friends with our kids as well. The credits for this layout are here.

The only thing I made for this page was the background. It is a gradient canvas stamped with floral definitions. Feel free to download it here if you would like to!

Best Friends

I am not feeling well today and it is a bit snowy outside, so my laptop and I have taken over my husband's reclining chair. I plan on staying right where I am all day long... at least until the Nyquil knocks me out. Here is a layout I made this moring. The rest of the credits are listed here.
And here is a bundle of the pieces I made for the layout. The polar bear worked really well on my layout, so I added him to the set in case you have little boys dunking ceramic polar bears into fountains in your house. If not, maybe you can use him for something else... :0) Click here to download these pieces. If you don't already have the playing cards alpha, you can download it here.

I went browsing the gallery at DST this morning and found a couple of layouts with some of my pieces in them. Click here and here if you would like to see what these ladies have done with some of the pieces.

I might be back with more goodies later... it all depends on how I am feeling. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

A Layout Freebie

I just finished up my first page for today... I am moving at a turtle's pace again. You can see the credits here.
I saved the pieces I made and bundled them up into a little kit for you. You can download this set here. I am off to see if I can get anything else scrapped before this cold medicine I just took knocks me out! Happy scrapping!

12 Canvas Papers

After cooking all day yesterday and working today, I am taking the rest of the day to scrap. I made a set of canvas papers today before I got started. There are twelve in the set. You can download them here. (I hate the preview, but I really like how the papers turned out!)

This is one of them just to show you the blending on it. Have a good weekend!

a mom of boys

I have been making some alphas at night, and wanted to play with them a little bit. I made the alphas, the bracket, the paper, and the heart for this page. The rest of the credits are listed here.

I put together this little sampler of some of the pieces I made and used on this layout. I didn't use the white trimmed lime alpha, but since it is on the same sheet the black-trimmed set is, I added it to the sampler. The letters are not cut out in this sampler. I haven't had the time to cut them all apart, and I haven't had a chance to get one of the actions that will do it for me, but if you don't mind cutting your letters out, you are welcome to have them! The download is here.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Twelve Papers

I love sanded papers. In fact, I find myself reaching for at least one on nearly every layout I make... so I felt it was time to make myself a pile of them. My husband is teasing me and asking if there is any color I didn't get to.... I think I made about 300 of them. I simply do not have the patience to upload that many files, so I put together a set of twelve of my favorites (I love rich colors), and I am probably going to be including various pieces of the others in other projects I am working on. You can download the sampler package here. Enjoy!

More cardboard schtuff

The first thing I have to tell you is that these letters are really tall.... I think around four inches on the tallest ones. I made them bigger than I expected, and I just didn't feel like re-opening, re-sizing, and re-saving everything. So hopefully you can either use a jumbo alpha, or don't mind shrinking them down.... :0) They are all cut out of cardboard and trimmed in steel. You can download these here. (ETA... sorry everyone! The link is fixed and should take you to the alpha now!)

MM asked for some boy stuff, but this is all I have had time for so far. I actually have a lot of ideas for this cardboard stuff (I wish I had as much time as I do ideas!), many of which are good for boys.... after all I have four of the stinky critters myself. I have some pretty feminine pieces started (truly more grown up looking than just being girlie) but it will be a couple of days before I can revisit those again! In the meantime, here is the download for the dumptruck, excavator, and gear I have done so far.

As I was working on the dumptruck, I thought I would play a little to see if I could give a more textured look. This is actually in the trucks download already as an extra piece.

I am off to edit some photos. Two of my kids were in a play tonight, and I am looking forward to getting some of the shots from it scrapped. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

2nd Soprano

I am missing my mom tonight, and wishing she could move closer to me, so I decided to scrap about her. I used the cardboard background that I gave away in the post below, as well as the pink paper and the music brushes.. The rest of the credits are here.

I made these music notes when I started the layout thinking I might use them. I changed my mind along the way, though, so I uploaded them for you to download. Click here to grab them. I am tired, so I just uploaded the file without zipping it or adding a TOU or preview file. SFO and personal use is fine. I only ask that you don't resell them or redistribute them as your own.

I am off to get some sleep now. Have a good night!

This is for you, Jean....

and everyone else who might like it... :0) Thank you very much for the great response to my freebies! Jean left a message asking if I could make a corrugated cardboard background, so this is what I came up with. One is made with layers of cardboard pieces, and the other is solid. You can download them here. I plan on making some new cardboard goodies with these in the next day or two, so feel free to check back and see if I get them posted.

Cardboard Borders

I put together some strips of cardboard so I could use them to make some packaging items I have been thinking about. There are three stapled cardboard strips (one of the strips has backwards staples) in this set. You can download them here. As always.... please send me a link if you make something with them. I would love to see what you come up with!

Coming out of the dark

This has to be one of the simplest layouts I have ever made, either in paper or digi. I really wanted to emphasize the light and dark theme, so I used a white to black gradient over the top of the layout. The credits are listed here.

Cardboard Alpha

I wanted a set of alphas where the letters weren't cut out of cardboard, soI scanned in some cardboard the other day and used it to play around with a couple of Atomic Cupcake actions to see whether I liked how they came out or not. I was going for a painted look, but it looks more like the letters are stamped. Things happen when you are experimenting... :0) This set has the entire alpha and numbers 0-9. The drop shadows are only on the preview, which is a good thing because I really don't like how the shadows came out. The letters vary in size, but most of them are around 2 - 2.5 inches high. You can click here to download it. Enjoy!

Brought to you by the Letter B

I got a lot of "have to get this done" projects completed today, so I decided to reward myself with some scrapping time. I just finished this one up, and am off to start another. Click here for credits. Thanks for looking!

One layout at a time

It seems to take me a few hours minimum to get one layout done, but bit by bit I am getting them scrapped. I worked on this one Saturday, I think. Maybe Friday... lol... sometimes my days are all a blur. Click here for credits.

I have been wanting a set of digi cards like this, so last night I started them and I got them finished up today. They are all 1.5 wide by 2 high. There are technically four complete alphas in here... one full set for each of the four suits. These dropshadows are only for the preview...the cards themselves have no shadows. Each letter is a seperate png file in 300 dpi, trimmed to remove excess pixel space... :0) There are four different folds on different cards, and a variety of different brown shades on the letters to give them some interest. The best part is that they are free right now. You can download them here. I would love to see what you do with them!

Friday Night Scrapping

Tonight I was able to sit down and get some scrapping done. I should be writing my research paper, but I really needed to get some creative juices flowing! Here is the second one I made this evening. Click here for credits.

Journaling reads: I really admire your dedication to every group you get involved in. Football practice and games kept you away from your drama club practice so your teacher had to give your part to somebody else. You could have gotten upset but instead you picked up a paintbrush and hammer and started to help build the set. You show up for the fundraisers and do whatever you can to be involved. Things don't always happen the way you want them to,but you show up anyway. I love that about you. I love how you get involved with groups and activities and give them your all. I love how you embrace life. Keep showing up, M, and your life will be richer for it

Punk Rock Fairies

My girls went trick or treating as fairies this year, but with their crazy wigs and the pink leg warmers, they looked more like 80's punk rock fairies... lol. I used the papers from the post under this one. The rest of the credits are here.

free paper pack

I was playing around with some overlay blending modes and gradients today, and made a quick pack of papers. I haven't had a chance to do anything with them yet, so if you make anything with them please send me a link and let me know... :0) You can download it here.

Here is an imageof one of them full size so you can see the textures in it.

Here are all eight of them. Have fun!

Intense

This was a fun layout to put together. I blended a couple of papers together for the background, and used the eraser tool to have parts of the newspaper background show through the blue. I was tired of trying to tone down the red in his skin in the photo, and instead of messing with it more I just cranked the colors and levels up on the whole photo.



You can see the credits here. Now I have to pry myself away from the Photoshop and go to bed. Goodnight!

Almost a Smile

He doesn't like to smile for photos right now... it just isn't the cool thing to do... lol. However, he wanted me to take his pictures in this hat badly enough that he was willing to give it a half-hearted effort. Click here for credits

My funny girl...

She was being silly the other night and goofing off for the camera.... she cracks me up with her cheesy smiles for the camera!

I made a red grungy paper and turned it into the "silly" stamped title. You can download the paper and the title here if you would like to. Click here for credits.


This is the paper.


I am off to see if I can get anymore pages made! Have a nice weekend!

Today's layouts

I loved the fairy dust elements Mrs. Wresh came out with today. She gave a sample away yesterday on her blog as part of a challenge, so I decided to play along. This is what I came up with. I made the rub-on title, and you can download it here if you would like.

This is one of those layouts that just sort of put itself together. I was really happy with how it ended up... I adore those little guys of mine!

Scrapping again