1st Competition!

I participated in my 1st digi-scrapping competition this past week or so. The "Back to School Page Contest" over at Scrapper's Guide (where they have some awesome video tutorials and a great subscription to their newsletter / ezine -- you get new video tutorials every month (4) and a full digi-scrap kit to practice with -- I subscribe cuz their tutorials are SO easy to understand... and the voice you're listening to is pleasant!).

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School Grads

my mom and dad 1952-1953

credits:

font - CK Magnificent

"Autumnal Mist" kit by

Boo Silva at BooLandDesigns

(Sept color challenge over at SAS)

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Janie's School Days

credits: Wordart by Kathryn Estry (4/09 Digitals Challenge)

Scripture by Glenda Ketcham (5/09 Digitals Challenge)

Kaleidoscope pattern (using paper preview from Kiss the Indian Summer)

was made using Kaleidoscope Kreator 3 - http://www.kaleidoscopecollections.com/

"Kiss the Indian Summer" kit by Nicole at http://nbk-nicnic.blogspot.com

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Janie in Kindergarten

credits: "Rock-n-Love" kit by Nicole at http://nbk-nicnic.blogspot.com/

(previews in earlier post)

"Photo Mask #7" by Doris at http://tempusfug.blogspot.com/

I'm hooked on photo masks! It's fairly easy to make your own if you're doing simple shapes... but for a more elegant look, I go to the pros -- Doris & Binty have designed my favorites!

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and In A Cage (see earlier post) that showed the antics of our youngest son, Peter, when school was out.
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Isaiah 40:31

LOTD & 2 Monitors!!

Fiona Elegante & Gooseberry Falls Collage8 both won LOTD (layout of the day) over at GroovyScraps. It's not only fun to get the recognition, but I really enjoy the encouraging comments the members make. For example, when you've spent pain-staking time on an extraction... 'normal' people don't always realize the work that goes into many layouts, but the 'digi-scrapping' community does. Those little pats on the back mean even more with my "restricted" social life (the isolation of living with NRLA & MCS).

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TWO MONITORS!!! yipee! I was SO excited about the possibility of using dual monitors for digi-scrappin'! I did my homework, including watching a video on the Dell website... ordered the little adapter (my video card was already set to go... had the input for 2 monitors)... and a new monitor for hubby-dear. When everything arrived, I took DH's old monitor (same exact monitor as mine) and got it up & running in very little time. I chose the 'use as extended desktop' option. IT'S absolutely AWESOME!

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South Pacific was the 1st layout made using both monitors -- love the ability to just click and drag photos, papers, elements over to PSE 5... versus the slow snail way of file, open & then navigating thru folders (with extremely limited view). With the 2 monitors, I have file explorer open on one side and PSE 5 on the other. Being able to have the photos open in large view while selecting the papers & elements is such an advantage (I also don't forget what I already have opened). I can even view the digi-kits in the larger filmstrip to see details, etc.

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Another advantage is when I'm uploading photos to my galleries. I can click & drag the credits text, or copy/paste SO quickly! With the file open on the left (with the credits info for that particular layout or CT kit), I'm uploading photos on the right. It's so very practical! -- and anything that makes my time more efficient is a must... whether for creativity or daily tasks.

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How do we hybrid (hands on) scrap? We have to have this huge table and we spread everything out so we can see what we have and try this & then that several times before our final selection. Dual Monitors have now given me that capability with digi-scrapping! I love it!

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So thanks to the digi-scrappin' community and my friend over at LAForum for planting the seed of thought in my head. Another thing that's so great about the 2 monitor setup is reading my email! I can be reading my email on one side and the weblinks open on the other (without losing the email in view!)... no longer have to toggle back n' forth and only see one at a time. It's great!

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Isaiah 40:31

Gonna Rock Around the Clock Tonight....

Nicole just released this fabulous kit, "Rock'n'Love"

This stunning & rocky style kit by Nicole fit Peter & Elise's personalities to a "T". And a 2-page layout took shape. I had SO much fun with the layer effects and opacity settings in PSE 5. There are 5 papers used for the background... can you tell? My favorite effect was using one of the papers that has light & shadows resembling a tree branch... perfect for these pictures as you'll soon see. Varying the opacity created just the right amount of texture & dimension that I was looking for. The awesome elements were just that... awesome! It was just as fun to choose the elements as it was the pictures. And of course, because of the memories of this trip to Red Wing MN when Pete & Elise were visiting in May... 2 or 3 pictures were not enough. After all, it's the pictures that were telling the story of the fun we had that day.

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Love Is An Adventure!!

The newlyweds have SO much joy in each other's company—we had a blast taking tons of photos. I tried posting them side-by-side because it's a 2-page layout, but the photos were then too small to be able to see & appreciate all the wonderful accents & highlights from PSE 5 photo-editing effects as well as the nifty papers & awesome elements from Nicole's kit. Head on over to http://www.nbk-shoppe.de/ asap to pick up this wonderful kit, "Rock'n'Love"... you'll be glad you did!!

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Isaiah 40:31

Goofy Antics

In A Cage

Here's our most energetically creative child of the family at age 10 & 11. The top photo was Peter once again taking center stage at his older brother's 13th birthday party. What a clown!!

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Then, in 1992, Francesca (a very lively Schipperke) joined our family. And of course, Pete had to show everyone how flexible he was. This prompted Mom (me) to make a mad dash for the camera and these pictures were the result. This was prior to our digital camera, so imagine how thrilled I was to find this wonderful "scrapable" succession of photos that tell the story!

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Mags designed a very fun kit, "School Daze", as part of the ADSDesigners blog-train for September. If you hurry over to her blog, these are free during the month of September. After that, they'll be available in her store along with her other great designs. I'll be working on layouts for her "Dyno-Mite" kit soon (having trouble finding the pictures that I "remember" us having!! may have to improvise).

credits for this layout:

School Daze kit plus Crayon Craze Addon by Mags Graphics

her blog - http://magsgraphics.blogspot.com

her store - http://74.220.215.217/~magsgrap/store/

Boy's Lace wordart by JillDZines

blog - http://jilldzines.blogspot.com/

her stores - http://store.scrapbook-elements.com/index.php?main_page=index&manufacturers_id=143

and http://www.scrapdish.com/store/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=49

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My next CT assignments, in addition to "Dyno-Mite", will be using a beautiful vibrant autumn kit by Nicole ("Kiss the Indian Summer") and a fun boyish kit by Bianca ("In A Boy's Pocket"). You can get a sneak preview by clicking on their banners over on the right under "guest CT for".

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I've been having fun this last month scanning in OLD school & family photos. Hoping I'll be able to use some of those in the next month or so.

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Until next time. . .

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Isaiah 40:31

Spring, Summer, Fall. . . Party Time!

Here's a gorgeous kit by Doris, "Travel the World"

I thoroughly enjoyed using the elements & papers in Doris's kit to make the following two layouts. The 1st layout was inspired by the travel theme in this kit. It made me think Polynesian (from the palm trees to the pineapples & birds of paradise) and provided the perfect backdrop for our son Peter and a talent show that took place almost 2 decades ago.

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South Pacific

 credits: "Travel the World" kit by Doris

"Tell Me" wordart by Annie's Little Footprints

He was 9 years old here (almost 10). Marci, the fabulous vocalist, told us just the other day that one of her memories of that day was Peter's repeated question -- asking over & over again -- "do I HAVE to wear the coconuts?"

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Gooseberry Falls Collage8 ♥~♥*♥~~♥*♥~♥

Doris's kit, "Travel the World" has a bit of everything... full of gorgeous colors, textures and oodles of elements. I had a great time playing with PSE 5 for both of these layouts... using several papers and changing the opacity of each to allow the pattern from one to bleed thru to the paper above... creating texture and dimension (just as if I were doing the hands on (hybrid) scrapping... only SO much better -- no waste, get to use the product as many times as I want, can do blending that's not possible without digital scrapping and best of all... no chemicals! no rubber/latex!). I even experimented using the burn tool on the blue & gold papers to soften the edges. 

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Hurry over there now to take advantage of this great sale they're having for their Fall Party. There's also a fun competiion going on ... lots of prizes ... both Nicole and Doris have fabulous designs to work with!

http://www.nbk-shoppe.de/

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Isaiah 40:31

My Favorite

Fiona Elegante

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This layout, with yet another gorgeous photo of my sister's grandaughter, Fiona (by Danielle Dunes at http://daniellenunesphotography.blogspot.com/), is my favorite thus far. I used the kit "Forever Love", along with Binty's photomask, plus some misc elements & wordart from a few other kits. I had alot of fun with the layers in this one... using varying layer opacity settings with the background papers (used 3!)... and used the layer effect "darken" on Doris's sparkly hearts element (#18) to add texture & pattern to the background behind the photo.

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I had a pretty rough weekend with nrla/mcs exposures & reactions, but wanted to get this all uploaded today because Binty showcased this layout on her blog!). So, the links for the various kits that were used in this layout are listed below the pictures of the kits (be sure to check them out, they were all FREE at the time of download!). So until next time, enjoy!!

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"Forever Yours" kit by Amber Gray at AmberGrayDesigns
http://ambergraydesigns.blogspot.com/2008/10/freebie-forever-yours.html

Silver Twilight Alpha - Amber Gray Designs - (sparkle)
http://ambergraydesigns.blogspot.com/2008/10/freebie-silver-twilight-alpha.html

Mini Kit Originals No.1 - Boundless - Pamela Funk-Parr at Scrap Originals
her blog - http://www.scraporiginals.com/blog/
the kit - http://digitalpaperhearts.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1_133

Natural Beauty - Kathryn Estry - In Other Words 2009Aug challenge at Digitals
http://digitalscrapbookpages.com/digitals/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=26_186&products_id=15543

Photomask2 by Binty - http://bintysscrapbooks.blogspot.com/

"Sweet Valentine" kit - Doris at tempusfugit - (18)
http://tempusfug.blogspot.com/

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Isaiah 40:31