Home-School Days

Graduations 1997-1999

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Christmas Play & Spelling Bee

Well, before there was the inspiration for scrapbook layouts from grandbabies... there were our 3 sons. Our wild & crazy "zoo"! These layouts came to mind when I was working on school photos the other day of my brother & I when we were 1-3yrs old. Then, in searching for the school "event" pics, I saw our eldest's grad pic... so off I went to dig out the grad pics of the other two boys (that hadn't been scanned into digital form yet). And two individual pages were born versus just one.

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Both the corner element and the backdrop for the journaling were pages from Mags kit that I used in Kaleidoscope Kreator 3 to make interesting K.patterns. This is a computer program that I received from the Creative Home Arts Club as a test product. I love it!

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credits: "School Daze" kit with AddOns by MagsGraphics, font - CK Brownie

100% Bundle of ENERGY!

Ethan at 2 yrs old

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Another 2-page layout (top is left, bottom is right)—this time of our rambunctious grandson, Ethan. He turned 2 years old just a couple days after these pictures. We were visiting in Michigan and were there long enough to get a day to babysit. He is such a joy -- SO much energy -- so much fun!!!

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Because I'm homebound due to severe NRLA (natural rubber latex allergy) & MCS (multiple chemical sensitivities), we're not able to travel as we'd like. SO... lots of pictures!... the occassional webcam experience... and much inspiration for digital-scrapping. September has been a much better month for me, healthwise... less exposures with DH's current work schedule and less cross-reactive-pollens and less neighborhood lawn-mowing!! PTL! The less reactivity & extended work hours that he's gone has given me more time to scrap.

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I've been spending as much time as I can (off & on) working on photos. Old, OLD photos of when I was growing up.. school pics of siblings and even ancient pics of my parents when they were young! Scanning them in has been made fairly easy using the Epson Stylus Photo RX700. It even scans in from slides & negatives (had a few of those to do as well). Then, I go into my photo editing software, PhotoShop Elements (version 5) and clean them up (ie cropping, quick auto-fix color adjustment (sometimes I dont' keep the change because it changes it too much), resizing, etc.). I've also learned how to use the cloning & healing tools... so it's a breeze to coverup the scratches & speckles/spots on the photos... sortof a manual restoration of the photos. Then, I save them as PNG's ("not" jpg's)! I learned awhile back that whenever you make changes to a jpg, every time it's saved, you lose a bit of the quality from the picture. PNG's picture quality is preserved... 5 saves later, you have the same quality you had to start with!

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And the dual monitors? It's just as awesome as I thought it'd be—having 2 screens for working on photos & layouts is such a time saver! AND easier on the eyes!! and easier to get creative when can view the pictures AND the pages/elements ("large" mode) at the same time!!

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The layouts above also used the "In A Boy's Pocket" kit & wordart by Bianca at Project B Designs. Font is CK Brownie.

 

  

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Isaiah 40:31

New Grandson!!!

Jaden Isaiah

Ethan's brother arrived lickety-split on Oct 5—after just a little over 3 hours labor. He's quite a chunker... weighing almost 10 pounds!! So, we now have 2 precious grandsons :-)

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When my mom was able to email me pictures (he's 1 day old in this layout), she sent me 84MB worth!! Plenty of inspiration & I had the perfect kit to announce his arrival. "In A Boy's Pocket" by Bianca at Project B Designs. I've had my eye on this kit ever since it came out... (I'm partial to anything for boys having raised 3 sons and getting grandbaby boys!)... so, when Bianca accepted me as "guest CT" (again), of course it was the 1st kit I asked to scrap!! It has some great boys wordart -- love the snakes, snails & puppy-dog tails... you'll get to see a bit more when I upload the 2 page layout I did of Ethan with this kit.

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I hope you enjoy this LO as much as I do—babies are precious gifts of the Lord.

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credits: "In A Boys Pocket" kit by Bianca at Project B Designs
fonts - Callistroke & CK Brownie

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Isaiah 40:31

Who do I look like?

Like Mother-Daughter

1939ish and 1961—"approximately" 4 years old

During my teen years and beyond, I took great pride in looking like my Dad—it was at times my only connection to him. However, in unearthing some prized OLD family photos... it didn't take long for me to remember that my baby pictures had looked like my mom's baby pics (just like our 2nd son's baby & toddler pics looked like me). Recently, my mom told me that although I now looked like my dad... as a young girl I had looked very much like her. Well, having these treasures (currently in my possession), I began searching for a picture of me on my bike (right)... the same approx age as my mom (left). "Where's the bike?" you may ask. It's in a different picture! Both pics I had of me on my tricycle had either my face looking down or looking away—neither of which would accomplish the purpose of this layout. The greatest kick I get out of these photos, is that we even have the same expression!

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I don't know about you, but in my teen years my mom & I did not get along well at all! Now, I can say she's one of my best friends and I consider her friendship a prized treasure—one of the "jems" in my life! This layout is dedicated to her :-)

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credits: (left) "Forever Mine" mini-kit by Bianca at Project B Designs

(right) "Pink Love" kit-sampler by Graziela Mendes

Scripture wordart by Glenda Ketcham (Sept09 Scripture challenge at Digitals)

I used all the papers & elements from both these kits. They came together for a perfect showcase of my mom & I.
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Isaiah 40:31