Happy Valentine's Day

♥~♥*♥~~♥*♥~♥

♥~♥*♥~~♥*♥~♥

<'///><
Isaiah 40:31

Valentine Inspiration

Afternoon Romance

What better inspiration than Valentine's Day approaching, desire to make special "card" for hubby and memories of our trips to the MN North Shore (Lake Superior) with its many waterfalls & lighthouses. This layout is obviously about the waterfalls :-)

♥~♥*♥~~♥*♥~♥

I joined a challenge over at SAS (Stone Accents Studio, newly named "Digital Scrapbooking Studio"... "theStudio" for short). It was a new WordArt challenge that provided the text/font stuff and gave tutorial (step-by-step instructions) on how to turn it into WA. This challenge began with learning how to turn it into a "sticker"... by using the stroke feature under editing. It was SO exciting to learn something new that did so much! Better yet, to be able to "remember" it and use it again in this layout with the alphabet title and the little hearts used as photo anchors.

♥~♥*♥~~♥*♥~♥

Well -- the card never got made... BUT, I completed 4 layouts in only 2 days! (two of them were double-pg spreads). Techniques used included: stroke, masking, layering, drop shadows (another NEW thing for me -- SO fun!!! makes those elements pop off the page, giving it a 3D look), designed an overlay!, varying opacity, etc.

♥~♥*♥~~♥*♥~♥

Not only did I have my sweetheart & Valentine's for inspiration, but I was working with some absolutely AWESOME kits from Alice. Then there was a very special layout of memories with the boys & video games. It was TONS of fun searching for those pictures of the "then" ... and of course, even though I had "recently" seen some... there were some key pics that couldn't be found this time around. But, you can see a distinctive difference between the video games of the past and the Wii games of now. When the layout was done, it was still crying out for something... I just wasn't sure whether it would make it too busy or not. So, I went for it -- calling my youngest son who was the game guru (saved his money to buy his 1st game machine, and the next, and the one after that... )... ended up getting a memory refresher on the names of our favorite games from both him & my honey. And off to the screen & PSE5 I went (the next day) to make a "game name overlay" which I then placed on the background layers. It added just the right touch for dimension AND personalized it. I'll show you the before & after pics.

♥~♥*♥~~♥*♥~♥

But, before I show you more layouts, here's the kit I used for the MN North Shore above:

 

credits: Afternoon Romance kit by Alice at Red Ivy Designs and font: SF-Alexa

 ♥~♥*♥~~♥*♥~♥

 Happy Valentine's

 

 This is my "card" to my hubby—as you can see, the card turned into a full digi-SB layout. And my 2nd attempt (the MN North Shore) ended up being a "double-page" layout! Oh well!!

♥~♥*♥~~♥*♥~♥

This Valentine themed kit was the color challenge over at "theStudio"—"Sending Love" kit by Monika Digital Designs. other credits: font - SF-Alexa & poem written by janieinMN.

♥~♥*♥~~♥*♥~♥

And here's the fun "then versus now" about video games. . .

Video-Wii?—Then vs Now!

 

and here's it before adding my "game name overlay"

and here's the SUPER FUN kit I used—"Game On" by MagsGraphics 

 other credits: game name Overlay by janieinMN & font: SU Pittipat

The links shown for both Alice & Mags will take you to their blogs—there you'll find the links to their stores!

<'///><

Isaiah 40:31

yipee - another CT!

I was thrilled to discover Alice's Red Ivy Designs over at Scrappity-Doo-Dah's. She's the featured artist & her kit "Ami" is the current daily download. She's graciously added me to her CT (creative team). I love her artwork!

♥~♥*♥~~♥*♥~♥

<'///><
Isaiah 40:31

New Discovery!

Wishing for Summer

With more snow on the way, I couldn't help but think of summer... especially as I was organizing some photos we'd taken during our day trip to Banning & Moose Lake State Parks from July last year. So, I grabbed the photos I wanted to highlight (along with a "snow" pic) and began the layout "wishing for summer".

♥~♥*♥~~♥*♥~♥

I had perfect material to work with having just discovered another digi-SB designer, Alice at Red Ivy Designs. I fell in love with ALL her kits... hunted down her blog... and ended up using her kit "Thankful" for this layout. I used one of my own designs for the photomask (from a couple days of "experimental" designing -- i LOVE photomasks! and decided to try to make my own... came up with a set of 4). The font is SU Steel Script.

♥~♥*♥~~♥*♥~♥

Thankful kit by Red Ivy Designs

<'///><

Isaiah 40:31

Dinos, Dinos & more DINOS!

1988 Clay Dinos

I don't know about your kids, but when my boys were growing up they were into all things dinosaur (plus bugs, video games, sci-fi, etc!). In my search for pics of the skeleton models they made (MANY!), I came across the pics of the clay dinos -- all three boys made dinos AND the staging area... watering hole, pathway/road. Many of our science studies centered around dinosaurs in those days. I thought the "hand" was cute -- not sure whose it was, but can you imagine what they were thinking? Was he trying to make sure they didn't run away? or that they'd stay still for the photo? mmm....

 ♥~♥*♥~~♥*♥~♥

1986 Museum Dinos

Then we have the museum pics -- many field trips to the Museum of Science & Industry and the Field Museum of History. Now I've got the names all mixed up & I think I put the wrong one in the layout title!! OOPS! Anyway, they had stuffed animal dinosaurs, skeleton models they assembled of dinosaurs, dino stickers, dino puzzles, dino songs, dino tracks, dinos EVERYWHERE!! Working on these layouts yesterday sure did bring back alot of fun, fun memories. Now they're busy with wives (and one has 2 sons of his own)... and I'm sure dinosaurs will once again roam the earth in their family activities.

credits: DinoMyte kit plus addons by MagsGraphics

<'///><

Isaiah 40:31

just checkin' in

haven't had time/energy to scrap or work on photos this past month. have had a few exposures that knocked me down. most time has been spent keeping up with facebook (couple precious premies were born in Sept/Oct that we've been keeping tabs on & and an old friend's husband who's been suffering from SEVERE back problems (pain, surgeries, ETC!) for the last 12 yrs).

♥~♥*♥~~♥*♥~♥

have also been doing ALOT of research on vaccinations, focusing on the flu vaccine and the new H1N1 vaccine. it's absolutely horrible what our own govt has been doing... covering up the truth about the vaccines safety, over-hyping the flu/H1N1 and promoting mass vaccinations on populations that these vaccines have been contraindicated for!! (pregnant women & young children!!). more & more reports are being released of adverse reactions to the H1N1 vaccine, including deaths and many miscarriages -- the US sweeps it under the rug by declaring "just a coincidence", when in reality they're doing "real time data collection" for adverse reactions... entire countries of guinea pigs! but, with the internet, the news still gets out -- some other countries have begun banning further vaccines and are doing further studies.

♥~♥*♥~~♥*♥~♥

as i was getting more & more skeptical about getting the vaccine for myself and everything i found was supporting the NO vote, i checked with my dr to get his opinion. he agreed with me -- the vaccines would be too dangerous for me. here i've been working SO hard to eliminate the toxins from my body (chemicals, mercury, ETC!), why would i purposely inject more into my body?? it just didn't make sense.

♥~♥*♥~~♥*♥~♥

these vaccines contain mercury & formaldyhyde just to name a couple of ingredients -- those two in & of themselves is enough to make me say NO, a thousand times... NO!! i went thru thousands of dollars worth of dental work to get all the metal, amalgams & mercury out of my mouth... and am still working, slowly but surely, to detox the remaining mercury that's in me -- my initial injury took place as a child watching my dad use mercury to separate the gold flakes from his gold panning hobby. i was also exposed extensively to pesticides as a child (campgrounds & military housing). then i almost got killed off by the MWevent of Feb07 (see earliest posts) from the formaldyhyde that was emitted from the melted/burnt plastic dish.

♥~♥*♥~~♥*♥~♥

i would urge anyone reading this to PLEASE make an INFORMED decision as to whether you get the seasonal flu vaccine (which doubles your chance of getting H1N1) or H1N1 vaccine... and whether you allow your children to receive the infant/child vaccinations per the CDC schedule. all these vaccinations are designed to attack the immune system and have the high potential of inflicting permanent damage. the efficacy & safety of these vaccines are in question... studies are proving them dangerous... and our government is trying to shove them down our throats. it's a travesty!!

♥~♥*♥~~♥*♥~♥

PREVENTION is the route to go!!

Vitamin C & Vitamin D3

Exercise

washing hands frequently

keep your distance from someone who's sick

keep your distance from other's if you're sick (if able to, stay home if sick!)

Vitamin C & Vitamin D3 (repeated intentionally!)

♥~♥*♥~~♥*♥~♥

for more information, here are some websites and a video to get you started....

vaccines & their ingredients - FDA - questions about vaccines

 http://preventdisease.com/news/09/092109_H1N1_package_inserts_warnings.shtml

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/current.aspx

Influenza A (H1N1) 2009 Monovalent Vaccines Composition and Lot Release

<'///><

Isaiah 40:31

Home-School Days

Graduations 1997-1999

♥~♥*♥~~♥*♥~♥

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.

♥~♥*♥~~♥*♥~♥

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!

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

100% Bundle of ENERGY!

Ethan at 2 yrs old

♥~♥*♥~~♥*♥~♥

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!!!

♥~♥*♥~~♥*♥~♥

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.

♥~♥*♥~~♥*♥~♥

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!

♥~♥*♥~~♥*♥~♥

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!!

 ♥~♥*♥~~♥*♥~♥

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

 

  

 <'///><
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 :-)

♥~♥*♥~~♥*♥~♥

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.

♥~♥*♥~~♥*♥~♥

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

♥~♥*♥~~♥*♥~♥

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

<'///>< 
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!

♥~♥*♥~~♥*♥~♥

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 :-)

♥~♥*♥~~♥*♥~♥

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.
<'///><
Isaiah 40:31

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!).

♥~♥*♥~~♥*♥~♥

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)

♥~♥*♥~~♥*♥~♥

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

♥~♥*♥~~♥*♥~♥

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!

♥~♥*♥~~♥*♥~♥

and In A Cage (see earlier post) that showed the antics of our youngest son, Peter, when school was out.
<'///><
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).

♥~♥*♥~~♥*♥~♥

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!

♥~♥*♥~~♥*♥~♥

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.

♥~♥*♥~~♥*♥~♥

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.

♥~♥*♥~~♥*♥~♥

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!

♥~♥*♥~~♥*♥~♥

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!

<'///><

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.

♥~♥*♥~~♥*♥~♥
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!!

♥~♥*♥~~♥*♥~♥

<'///><

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!!

♥~♥*♥~~♥*♥~♥

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!

♥~♥*♥~~♥*♥~♥

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

♥~♥*♥~~♥*♥~♥

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".

 ♥~♥*♥~~♥*♥~♥

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.

♥~♥*♥~~♥*♥~♥

Until next time. . .

<'///><

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.

♥~♥*♥~~♥*♥~♥

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?"

♥~♥*♥~~♥*♥~♥

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. 

♥~♥*♥~~♥*♥~♥

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/

<'///><
Isaiah 40:31