No really! This last week was a killer, a killer I tell you! My son is determined to finish the 8th grade by the semester (which is Friday), and continue on with the 9th grade. After Friday he will officially be a 9th grader, and he will finish 9th grade at the end of the year. The e-schooling thing rocks!

But, oh, it's tiring.

This is what we did pretty much 67 hours a day last week:

It was exhausting. It really isn't fun to do a year's worth of History in a semester. And for the last 2 semesters, we've done exactly that. I don't know why...well, I do, but still. I think I have brain freeze.


It's a good thing this was a long weekend.


It took me all day Saturday and all day Sunday to recuperate. My family was lucky to get any kind of dinner out of me at all...but I survived.

And today, when I thought I would get some work done around the house? Well, instead I helped my daughter all day long with her Baby Registry. Which was fun, but, ummmm, the kitchen still needs cleaned up. ;)  But since I was at the computer anyway (hey! She lives two hours away from me - this was all over the phone!), I was able to sneak in some tropical designs in between cooing over cute baby stuff...

And I'm sharing with you. If you'll come help clean up the kitchen, that is.



What? No? Alrighty then...

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Enjoy!

Hey there! I just wanted to let you know that I'm still out there, and I'm still designing (in my head). We are in the middle of semester exams here, and it's been cRaZy...

So, nothing to share right now. Unless you want to see this cool video my son made of one of his science labs. Sure you do. ;)

Anyway, hopefully next week won't be quite as crazy and I can get these designs out of my head and onto the computer. Wish me luck!

It just occurred to me that I didn't post the baby plaid papers I made. I wonder how that happened? I used some of them in the 1st set of baby elements...well...brain freeze, apparently.

I'm thinking that I need to do some layouts. Or get started on that baby album for my daughter. Something. ;)

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I hope you like them. I sure do. :)

Are you doing a Project 365? I started a Project 52 last year, but I had some computer issues and lost a bunch of stuff. Not the important stuff (yes! I do back up!), but a lot of the other pictures I took (those deemed not *quite* as important, lol).

Last year I made Project 52 tags to share. They are still available for download if you're interested.

I got a new camera for Christmas, though, and I've been playing around with the different settings. I'm hoping that this year will improve my picture taking skills. I'm having fun, and I suspect that's what's important. Here's a picture I took of some frozen mud in our driveway. Kinda looks like abstract art, don't ya think?

I'm still new to this designing thing. I'm pretty sure I've got a good handle on the papers, and now I am trying my hand at the elements. This is a little bit harder. Here's what I've done so far...not perfect, but a pretty good start, I think. School has started again, which means less time for ME at the computer, so longer between posts.

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Well, that's all for today. I'd love to see what you are creating with my creations. See ya!

Something I really love about retro stuff are the shapes. They aren't really square, but they aren't round. It's a funny kind of thing that simultaneously reminds me of the 50's and of the Jetsons all at the same time...

Anyway, retro is today's baby theme. Retro papers. Not squares, but not circles either...

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Retro is fun. :)  I hope you are enjoying my papers...

Even though my grandbaby isn't a girl - I do have a daughter, lol! So I still have plenty of use for floral papers (and lots of pictures still to scrap of my daughter - yeah, the one who's in her 20's, moved away, and now having a baby of her own...).

I suppose at some point I should actually start using all the stuff I've been creating. ;)

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School starts again today, which may mean a slow down in how often stuff is posted. That's because I'm homeschooling my son...so less time on the computer. ;)

Seems like it's time for some cardstock, doesn't it? I thought so. :)  I made cardstock in the four basic colors, and then I grunged up some of those cardstock pieces as well. I really like the look of grunge - to me it looks well-loved.

If you've created anything with my creations, I'd love to see it! Drop me a link to your creations...

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As always, I hope you are enjoying these...

I hope your year will be awesome, just as I hope mine will. :)

But since there's a baby coming this year for our family, I suspect it will be terrific. I did mention how much fun I'm having with the baby papers, right? I'm having a blast, in case you couldn't tell. This set is dots and stripes. Stripes and dots. Kinda reminds me of pajamas...

I know you are all enjoying the papers, because they are being downloaded like crazy...although not very many people are commenting...

:(

Still, I'm sharing. I'm sharing. I'm hoping you like them enough to actually say so...

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I can't believe it's a new year. Hopefully I will do a better job this year with this blog. 8-)

We found out yesterday that the new grandbaby is a boy! Woot, woot! Very excited about that, I can tell you. :)

Anyway, I'm still having a blast with my 4 basic baby colors, so if you're collecting, at some point there will be an awesome set of baby papers. Today's set is Baby Circles. 8 papers, all 300 dpi, 4 sweet & 4 grunge. I do love grunge. ;)

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I'd really love to see what you make with my papers. Feel free to link to your pics so I can see. I would love to feature them on MY blog, if you're willing. ;)

Woot! Woot! The second part is here...

These are the original Baby Grunge papers...just grunged up a little bit more. A bit torn. There's some definite folding involved. They are definitely grungy, but ALWAYS fun. :)

Enjoy!

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I'm hoping you will get some use out of them. And that you will share the ♥ in the comments section. ;)

Hi! It's me again!

LOL!

I'm back with some more baby papers. Grungy baby papers, that is... I'm sure you all know how grungy babies and toddlers can get. :)

This will be in two parts: one today and one tomorrow, although the preview will be the same. Today's papers are grungy, and tomorrow's papers are really grungy.

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I hope you like them! I'm sure having fun making them...

I can't believe it has almost been a year since I posted on here! I wish I had a good excuse, but I don't really. :(

Perhaps it was that I started e-schooling my child - who will complete 2 years of school in this one school year...

(do I sound like I'm bragging? Nah....just proud!)

Anyway, it turns out that I'm going to be a grandma come May, and I've been thinking about baby stuff a lot. ;)

So, I ventured into the world of paper designing, and designed some cutie-patootie papers for you! I'm calling these "Mockingbird" because I used the lyrics to that lullaby on the pages...

Without further ado:

Click on picture to download

Well, that's all for now. I do have a couple of other things I've been working on, so at some point (hopefully soon!), I will share them with you.

So, Digifree found me, which is way cool. But lots and lots of people downloaded my stuff and NOT ONE PERSON left me a comment. Which bummed me out a bit. I try really hard to leave comments when I download, because I know the hard work that goes into making it. It just doesn't seem that hard to me to say "Thank you."

Ok, I'm off my soapbox now. :)

As usual, I started with this template. A template that I made, and then I had to make a page with it to make sure it works. Whatever it takes to get layouts done, right??? Most of the products in this layout are from the "A Day Off" kit by Irene V. Alexeeva. One piece of paper is a Misty Cato design, probably picked up at Sweet Shoppe Designs. And of course, the template was made by me.

*Click on Preview to Download

Yep, it's a cool plastic-y green type alphabet, and I had a really fun time making it. Who knew this designing stuff was so fun? I sure didn't. I'm having fun, and I just have to share with you! It is pretty much a full alphabet, with uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and some punctuation. Enjoy!

*Click on Preview to Download

I know myself. I know I would be setting myself up for failure to commit to a Project 365. I like the idea, though. I've settled on a Project 52...which is much more doable for me. I'm already working on another project, so I will have lots of food pics, so I'm thinking 2010 will be my year in food. :)

Anyway, to help you out (and me), I've created a Project 52 set of Date Tags. I hope you like it.

*Click on Preview to Download

And you can too! Bubblescraps is offering a Brand New Outfit Scrapbooking kit FREE on her site for a limited time. It's pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. :)

And Jen, one of the CT Members at Jady Day Studios posted this template on the Babes Blog. And she was awesome enough to ungroup her layers so that all of us could use her files. Wow!

Here is the page I created with these two lovely products:

And for your patience with my move, I've created a Quick Page from this layout...just for you!

Click on the preview to download

Tomorrow I have some exciting stuff for you. In the meantime, let me show you have much fun I've been having with blurring backgrounds. This is something that I have wanted to learn because, let's face it, I'm not the best photographer. And while I try to pay attention to my backgrounds (now!), sometimes you just need to put the focus on your subject, not the background.

Like here:



Anyway, I have a great pic of Steven, but the background is SOOOOO distracting:



But with a little creative editing, I've turned the focus onto Jimmy Neutron....I mean, uh, Steven...

I have a really good feeling about this year. So far, things have started off well, and I am very excited by that! A new year, a new decade...what's not to be excited about?

And I've been scrapbooking, which is always a good thing.

I found some of my favorite pictures from 2009 and put them together in this layout.



All papers and embellishments are from the Love Actually kit by Lisa at Sophisticated Scraps. I had fun playing around with Jessica Sprague's tutorial on creating a dreamy look in your pictures. I used it on all of them, but I like the way my daughter's picture turned out the best. :)

That's not all, though. I've been having so much fun with templates that I made another one for you. I actually made the template first, then used it to create the above layout. That way I know for sure it works. :)

*Click on the preview to download:

Well, on this fair New Year's Eve, I've been messing around with different functions in PSE, trying to learn more about it so that my scrapping just gets better. There are some great PS tutorials on Jessica Sprague's site -- the Photoshop Friday index. Here's what I've been working on (this is the original photo):



And the after:



*The Grunge mask is from The CoffeeShop.

And cuz I love you, I am sharing the fun wordart I made for this pic:



*Click on preview to download.

Wow, it's been a crazy couple of days. A week ago today was Christmas Eve, and let me tell you...it got a bit scary at my house. Around 9:00 pm my daughter called me to tell me she was on her way home for Christmas, and about 15 minutes later I got another call from her, not on her phone, saying that she had rolled the car and wrecked it. She was transported to the hospital, but aside from a concussion, she is ok. But it was still a bit scary.

Of course, I took pictures of the car, which will be in my HIH album (when I finish it). I didn't get any of the pictures from Christmas Eve that I wanted, but mostly because I was sidetracked.

Do you have any resolutions for the New Year? Mine is mostly to have a better outlook on things. This has been a rough year for me, but things are starting to look up. And my plan is to keep it that way! Another of my resolutions is to create more "stuff." Maybe templates, maybe word art, maybe full on kits (we'll see!). But I really love this whole digital scrapbooking thing, and sharing makes me happy.

And as a parting gift to 2009, I created the first in a series of recipe cards. I know many of you will be planning on a new diet in the New Year (as am I--see my new blog "Vegetarian for a Year"), so recipe cards are always nice. I will keep adding completed cards as well--who knew those would be so popular?

So without further ado--Happy New Year!!!




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