Lucky's Layouts

National Marrow Donor Registry Drive

2008-09-11T12:25:00.001-07:00

I wanted to share an event that is dear to my heart. The National Marrow Donor Registry pairs potential donors up with patients who need life-saving bone marrow transplants. However, there aren't nearly enough potential donoros. Usually there is a $52 testing fee associated with the HLA testing to be registered in the Registry, but until September 22 the fees will be sponsored through Nascar. If you have ever thought of registering, or even if this is the first you have ever heard of it, please go read the information and seriously consider becoming a registered donor today.

Because this is so important to me (my son needs a bone marrow transplant) I would like to give you even further incentive to get registered. Everybody who emails me at luckysmithdesigns AT gmail DOT com between now and the 22nd with proof that you have registered will be entered into a drawing to win a $20 gift certificate to my store. Scrapbook supplies and the chance to save a life... how great does that sound?

Update:
It looks like you can't follow a link directly to the sponsored page. I called NMDR, and Sherry told me we have to follow a certain path for it to be free because of their security issues to avoid hacking.

First go to www.marrow.org

On the right side of the screen, under the cord blood box is a box that says "Events" Click on the link that says "Nascar Foundation Drive." About 3/4 of the way down that page, you will click on "join online now." Then finish filling in the paperwork and the Promo Code will automatically generate. I know it is a couple of extra clicks, but please don't let that deter you from joining!

Dollar Deals!

2008-09-10T06:40:00.000-07:00

I have two items in today's Dollar Deals at Elementals Scraps! My Paperworks kit and my CU Crumpled Papers Templates are each a buck. I don't require credit on my CU items! Don't forget to check out all the other great Dollar Deals while you are there! The images are linked.

A delightfully HUGE sale!

2008-09-01T15:02:00.000-07:00

Not only did I mark all my regular inventory down, but I even put all of my Bargain Bin stuff on sale! I have some products as low as .75!(The Torn in Pieces alpha I used for this ad is one of the .75 bargains.) The entire Elemental Scraps shoppe is on sale as well... don't miss out! August 1- August 4. (You might want to take advantage of the coupon at the top of my blog as well!)

Touchdown, Starlight, and Dollar Day Deals!

2008-08-24T15:49:00.000-07:00

I have several new products and a couple of really good promotions running right now! I have released a huge football kit, and not only can you purchase it at 25% off, but if you purchase it before August 31 you also receive my Team Spirit paper pack for FREE!

Midnight tonight begins ES' 2nd Dollar Deals Day. I have created a Starlight series, and for tomorrow only you can purchase any of the six kits in this series for only a dollar. This is is a huge value for as many pieces as you get! The alphabet kit has the alphabet stickers in eight different colors, and those include uppercase, lowercase, numbers, and punctuation! Don't miss out on these and all of the other Dollar Deals that will be available for only 24 hours!

Here is a layout I made using pieces from different sets in the Starlight series.

The Spice of Life, Dollar Deals!

2008-08-16T06:24:00.000-07:00

I have a brand new, spicy kit, and for today ONLY you can buy it for only $1!! That gives you 13 papers, 19 spices, 12 elements, and a peppercorn alphabet! (Images are linked.)

I have also put my Icing on the Cake alpha on sale for only $1, and while you are there don't forget to see all the other wonderful goodies the other ES designers are offering that you can grab for just a buck!

Digi Dare Layout

2008-08-09T22:40:00.001-07:00

Here is a layout I made for Challenge 95 on the DigiDare site. Click on the layout for credits!

Teacher's Pet Freebies!

2008-08-07T16:13:00.001-07:00

I have been participating in the Teacher's Pet program at Funky Playground Designs. This is good news for you because it means you get free kits for the next couple of weeks! This week's challenge is to extract eight different elements. Click here to get the info on this kit and the download link. I am not one to ask for praise, but for this contest I do ask that if you like the kits to please take a moment and leave a quick comment on it in my FPD gallery! I would really appreciate it. As always, let me know if you use these in a layout and would like me to feature the layout here! I would love to share it.

Last week we needed to make a trendy kit. With the big promo for the release of the new Twilight book, and the surge in chess' popularity, I made a chess kit. Although it isn't linked in the gallery anymore, I am going to re-open the link until Monday. If you didn't get a chance to d/l this set while the link was up, hurry and do so now! Click here to download! I am working on an add-on pack that I will be selling in my store in the near future.

New Products and a Coupon

2008-08-03T17:13:00.001-07:00

I want to apologize for being gone for so long! Life got very hectic for me, and I am working on rebuilding a routine! I have updated my blog, and plan on posting again regularly. I have had new products in my store since my last post, and these are just a few of them.

Here is a coupon you can use between now and October 31!

National Scrapbook Day!

2008-05-02T17:35:00.000-07:00

I was really excited for Jeanette when she emailed me and told me she was going to have a layout featured at Memory Makers Magazine today! She used my Major League items on this layout. I love it! Isn't the blending beautiful? Thank you so much for using my products, Jeanette, and congratulations on being featured!

I am desperately finishing up new products for NSD, but that doesn't mean the sales can't start, right? Jenn Howland and I got together and came up with this new kit, and it is in the store and ready to find happy new homes! You get 14 papers and 34 elements, as well as an alpha in this kit, and it is all fun, and bright and funky! (everything in this post is linked.. just click away!)

Right now nearly everything at Elemental Scraps is on sale for half off. This is a huge savings! I even put my commercial use paper templates on sale half-off, and that almost never happens!

This week only, when you spend $10 in the entire store, you get this big grab bag for FREE!

And I personally am going to a crop tomorrow night, and have been loading up some new goodies for myself, and in the process I discovered this great deal. Digital Couture is selling this lovely kit for only $1, and if you participate in the QP exchange you get the whole album for free! Click the picture to check it out!
Don't forget to check back this weekend!! I will have some freebies for you, and some new kits, and maybe even a promotion or two if I can swing it!

Felt!!

2008-04-13T19:52:00.000-07:00

I just released six different felt sets in my store. If you buy all six kits together you can save 30% off. That gives you six different kits for only $7.00!

I also have three sets of commercial-use paper templates up for sale now. Talk to you soon!

Gorgeous Layouts

2008-04-13T19:17:00.000-07:00

I wanted to share with you some of the layouts that my CT and other scrappers have made with some of my kits. These feature Minor League, Team Spirit, Waaa-mbulance, and Cootie Bugs. It was really so exciting to browse the galleries and see my products actually being used! Thank you so much ladies! I linked each of these pictures to their galleries if you would like to leave praise or get full credits for any of these layouts.

Beanpot by Gurlonthesun

The House Ruth Built by Greedz

Poor Baby by Berrygirl

Batter Up by Josoliviamaid Valentine's Day Snapshot by Sherri Tierney

Waa-mbulance byTracyfish

Mommy's MVP by My3Hens

And I want to thank my friend Liz, who made two of the QP's for my Batter Up album! I love the way she layers papers and elements!

Baseball add-on freebie

2008-04-10T14:47:00.000-07:00

As I was building my baseball quick page album, I created some extra pieces that coordinate with the Minor League kit. I bundled them up and you can download them here. Enjoy!

Batter Up, Minor League, and Team Spirit

2008-04-08T17:54:00.000-07:00

I have some new products in my store that I am really excited to be releasing! If you have any type of baseball pictures to scrap, you don't want to miss out on these great promotions! I wanted a masculine, mature kit that could be used with my older boys' photos, church league, pro game photos, etc, but are still versatile enough to use with all my Little League and T-ball shots. I hope you will enjoy these kits as much as I have have enjoyed making them!! I have the Minor League kit with all the papers and elements, the Team Spirit paper pack to accent any team color/combo you may need, and the 16 page Batter-Up QuickPage album.

HUGE sale and new products

2008-04-05T07:36:00.000-07:00

Elemental Scraps has a brand new look, and is having a huge storewide 50% off sale! You don't want to miss out! There are tons of new goodies, lots of new forums and challenges, and some great prizes being given away.

Here are the newest products in my store!

Belated Shamrock Greetings!

2008-03-22T19:22:00.000-07:00

As you might guess, one of my favorite holidays is St. Patrick's Day. We usually make a big day out of it... green clothes, leprechaun hats, shamrock "tattoos", green food, hunts for pots of gold, and we almost always go to a parade. This year I didn't get to celebrate the way we normally do because my son was in the hospital and I was there with him. I was working on a kit for the holiday, but wasn't able to upload anything from where I was. With the holiday being over, and since I don't have anything to use the kit for, I quit working on it. However, I don't want the work I did to go to waste, so I am giving it to any of you who would like to download it... :0) Happy St. Patrick's Day a week or so late! :0)

You can download it here.

Freebie Alphabet

2008-03-06T18:16:00.001-08:00

I wanted to scrap at least one page tonight. I was working on using some new perforated pieces I have released in my store. While I was making the page I made this alpha to use on it. I accidentally cut the tops off the d and the f, but I was able to make the f work. You can download this alpha, with both the full sheet and the individual pngs, here. Enjoy!

Freebie Paper Pack!

2008-02-24T17:47:00.000-08:00

It has been way too long since I had a freebie up here for you! I wanted to play with blending modes to see what new options I could come up with. In the process, I made these papers. I hope you enjoy them! The download is here.

Huge update

2008-02-21T16:18:00.000-08:00

I really am sorry I have been gone so long and haven't updated. We took our son down to the hospital, and got worse news than we expected, and I am now playing catch up trying to keep everything running smoothly!

I took some "me" time last week and put together a layout. That was incredibly fun! I have to do that more often. I made the majority of the products on here, and the credits are here.

While we were at the hospital I worked on making some new products. There is a HUGE storewide sale at Elemental Scraps right now, and along with all the other great deals, you can get the majority of my products for 50% off right now. That makes a ton of my stuff right around the dollar price range!

These two sets of funky mats come with a free set of stitches for each mat.

This was a portion of my contribution to the February Mega Kit, which can be bought right now for $2.50. This kit is packed full of all kinds of goodies.

These frames rank as one of my own personal favorites so far of the items I have designed. I made them all a little different, and used one of them on the layout above.

This set was inspired by this year's flu and cold season! You can buy each part seperately, or buy the full kit.

And I don't think the blinkie preview for this is going to work on the blog, so please click here to see all the different pieces this set comes with. There are circles, squares, hand-drawn borders and doodles, shapes, and a full alphabet. Here is the ad for the store sale. I hope you'll stop by and get some goodies!

http://www.elementalscraps.com/shoppe

New Releases

2008-02-06T22:35:00.000-08:00

There has been a lot going on in my life the last few weeks. It doesn't look like the next few months will be any less hectic either. My son has become critically ill again, and we will be going back and forth for different hospital stays until he is better. However, I am finding a welcome distraction in designing, and do have some new releases to share with you. All of these are in my store at ES right now, and I am working on some other new products for my KK store.

First up is a set of Electrician's Tape pieces. Right now this is part of a grab bag that you receive at ES when you spend $10. You will get goodies from several different designers in this bag, and I have seen the contents and think it is a great bag of goodies! When the grabbag promotion is over I will be putting these in my store to sell individually.

I have been making several hand-painted pieces over the last week or so. My favorites are these Painted Pretties. Each piece is painted, and then carefully sprinkled with glitter for some extra shine. I also included a seperate mat background for each piece so you can choose whether you want it on the kraft mat or not.

These Painted Swirlies and the Pretty in Pink Paint alpha coordinate with all the February ColorPlay products at ES. Keep an eye out throughout the month for different releases from several of the ES designers who are also making coordinating kits and packs with the same colors.

This is a pack of papers I made for the ColorPlay section as well. I love the CP feature. Working with a pre-determined color pallette is so fun for me!

I also released this set of Clearly Stamped Shapes to coordinate with my Clearly Stamped Alpha. I can't get the blinkie feature to work in the body of my blog, but there is a second part of this preview showing the other half of the kit. You can see it in the preview in my store!

And my last release right now was a part of the February Mega Kit, which is on sale right now, and is truly mega this month. These are just the items I made for it.... there are tons and tons of papers, elements, and alphas from the other ES designers as well!

With my life being a bit busy right now, I would really like to add a PR person to my Creative Team. You would receive access to all of my products the same as my CT does, but instead of being responsible to make layouts I would need you to help me post new release updates and send out newsletter announcements. If you are reliable and friendly and think this would be a good fit for you, please let me know!

I have been making blinkies tonight as well, and have the first couple done. I am putting them up in my sidebar if you would like to wear the "fan of" blinkie in your signatures. You never know when you might get a random prize for wearing it!

I am exhausted, so I am heading off to bed. I don't think I have anywhere I have to be after I get off work tomorrow, so please check back to get a freebie alpha I am in the process of cutting out for you! See you then!

My second store and a huge sale!

2008-01-26T17:03:00.000-08:00

I have been swamped with a variety of stuff, and some of what I have been working on is new products! My new store at Elemental Scraps was announced today, and to celebrate all the new designers ES is having a huge sale! Almost all of my new products are 50% off, and you will want to check out all the other designers too to see what the cool stuff they have made!

Here are the previews of what I have up now, and there is more to come. I am also going to have some new releases at KK this week as well!

I will be back in the next day or two with a freebie alphabet for you, and maybe even a QP or two depending on if I can get any scrapping done! Have a great week!

Play in snow? I don't think so!!

2008-01-07T14:04:00.000-08:00

***Images are clickable***

I love alphas! In fact, they are part of why I converted to digi. With six kids, I was always running out of critical letters... T, E, A, H.... and now that I am a digi-gal I can title to my heart's content and know I will always have enough vowels! So I have bundled a couple of alphas up for sale. Each is only $2.00, and if you click on the image it will take you to them in my store.

This is the alpha I made the Christmas tape labels out of. You get the complete upper and lower case.

And this was a chipboard set that I painted and scribbled on, and then scattered over a purply glitter background. (Those aren't stray pixels, but splats of glitter.)

I did make up this layout to show the alphas, and put together a layout kit freebie for you. (My youngest daughter loves to go out and look at the snow, but doesn't much like to play in it... lol)The snowflakes are from another freebie, but I made them into an overlay with the silver glitter and random sequins. You also get the aqua paper, the purple twill ribbon, the purple frame, and the purple file tab. I was going to make this a quickpage, but it was late and the crop function was giving me fits, so I bundled it up instead. Click the layout to get to the download!

Wish Me Luck!

2008-01-04T16:54:00.000-08:00

Well, I finally got all the upload stuff figured out, and my first for-sale sets are up and ready to go. There are more items to be added over the weekend, and some other projects I am working on that will be up soon as well. You can click here to go directly to my storefront at Kutnkudly.com I am really excited to get this going, and to see what comes. I will also be selling out of a second store as soon as everything is in place there as well.

First up for grabs is a New Years Eve kit, yet the pieces are still versatile enough that many of them can be used for other layouts.

And furthering my latest love for all things glittery, I made this set of Glitter Scribbles, which is a set of jumbo sized (10-12 inches) hand-drawn glittered borders. There are four designs that each come in six colors... 24 300dpi png files in all.

In the meantime, I have been working to make some samples with some of the items, and that will still always mean some freebies to share! I used the red star glitter scribble on this layout.

I have a layout set for you today. I bundled the quickpage up for you, along with the calendar accent and the "ten years old" title in case you can use them. I included the sheet of the glittered chipboard alpha as well, but I didn't have time to cut them out. (You will need the turn the "p" upside down for a "d", and the "n" upside down for the "u".) You can download the QP and matching pieces here.

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Anyway.. have a wonderful and very happy new year!

PS... have any of you seen PS I Love You yet? I am dying to go see it, and hope it is as good as it looks! LOL... I can't wait to watch a whole movie with that lovely Irish accent as a voiceover... shiver me shamrocks!! hehe

Would you like to sport the shamrock?

2008-01-02T21:11:00.000-08:00

I have been wanting to make a blinkie, and I am at a bit of a standstill in my creative process tonight, so I thought I would go ahead and see how it ended up. Feel free to grab it and add it to your signatures if you would like. Can you tell me if it looks blurry on your end? It looks fine on my screen until I add it to Blogger, and Blogger has given me several problems tonight, so I am hoping it is a temporary glitch.

If you don't already know how, I have found the easiest way to add a blinkie to a signature is to hover your mouse over the blinkie graphic and right click. Click on Copy. Open your signature editing screen at the site you post at, right click in the signature area, then click Paste. The blinking blinkie should now show up in your signature area.

To make it linkable, just use your mouse to highlight the blinkie. Then click on the web icon (the blue earth) and paste my blog address in the pop-up box. (http://luckys-layouts.blogspot.com/) Then hit enter.

It should be both blinking and clickable now.

I haven't mentioned it, but I have been invited to sell some digi goodies in a storefront, and I have agreed. I would probably be really excited about it if I wasn't so nervous! LOL. I will be back tomorrow with my first couple of kits as well as a freebie for you to download. See you then!

She loves her daddy

2007-12-26T18:54:00.001-08:00

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!!

2007-12-25T17:01:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-17T14:28:00.001-08:00

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!!

All that glitters...

2007-12-15T17:48:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-10T17:03:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-09T21:24:00.001-08:00

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

2007-12-07T20:15:00.001-08:00

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

2007-12-03T19:06:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-02T14:57:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-01T17:52:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-28T16:34:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-24T16:07:00.001-08:00

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

2007-11-24T11:21:00.001-08:00

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

2007-11-23T17:47:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-23T13:31:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-21T13:14:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-18T18:42:00.001-08:00

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

2007-11-18T09:09:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-14T20:05:00.000-08:00

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....

2007-11-14T15:12:00.001-08:00

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

2007-11-13T20:34:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-12T19:02:00.001-08:00

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

2007-11-12T15:58:00.001-08:00

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

2007-11-11T17:26:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-06T20:54:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-02T21:37:00.000-07:00

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

2007-11-02T17:44:00.001-07:00

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

2007-11-01T12:42:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-27T23:37:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-27T18:16:00.001-07:00

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...

2007-10-26T18:57:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-20T22:25:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-20T22:03:00.000-07:00