Cast Your Vote for a Chance to Win a FREE kit!

I'm working on a masculine kit and am not really totally satisfied with the name I have picked.  Cast your vote by leaving a comment with your pick.  You COULD win the kit!  I will do a random drawing on June 16th (the day the kit will be available) and ONE person will be the winner!

PLEASE leave your name in the comment if you must reply as ANONYMOUS!

1. Manly Boys
2. It's a Guy Thing
3. Boys to Men

THANKS for your help and stopping by Today!  Eventually, I'll give you a sneak peek at the kit, too!  :D

I finally got the SNEAK PEEK done for you, too!

3-Day Memorial Day Sale

Memorial Day is a time we Americans remember those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.  And in celebration of the day, enjoy a 15% sale in my shop (on items $2 and up).  All Bundles are 30% off.

Thanks for stopping by Today!  REMEMBER.....FREEDOM is not CHEAP!

Take a Challenge!

I've been working on the next C.A.K.E. project for June, but decided I needed a break.  So, I decided to work on some layouts.  I love doing pages of my grandchildren.  But, I needed some inspiration.  So, I decided to check out the challenges and was happy to find just the inspiration I needed!

What I've done is to make the Challenge Title linked to the thread in the forum so you can read more about the challenge and how to participate.

I also have the layout linked to the gallery, in case you want to leave me some luv or see some other inspiring layouts!  :D  Hope you enjoy them!  Would love to have you join in!  There are freebies involved!  :D

Thanks for stopping by Today!  Scrap those memories before they fade away!

Let's Talk About... Challenge

Picture This Challenge

Lyrics Challenge

Ad Challenge

He Said She Said (Quote) Challenge

Beachful Bliss Bundle - 30% Savings

The May C.A.K.E. @ $1.50/slice is over now.  But, I have bundled my portions together so that you can still get them at a 30% savings over the price of the individual slices!  Just click on the preview to find it in the store.

I wanted to let you know that DH is doing very well after his cancer surgery to remove the cancer in his neck and the 3 lymph nodes (behind his ear and near his collar bone).  He said he is a bit more sore today and felt "draggy."  We have been running back and forth to the hospital to visit one of our members who had surgery, so hopefully with tomorrow being DH's normal day off, he can rest more than he has the last 2 days (after we make our usual run to our 3 regular thrift stores, that is!  :)

Thanks so much, once again, to all those who have prayed for him before, during and after the surgery.  We are still in prayer that the Lord will see fit to heal the cancer completely and that there is no cancer in the lymph nodes they removed.  If you think of him, will you join us in that prayer?  We will find out on his follow-up visit on June 5th.

Thanks so much for stopping by Today!  Don't take your loved ones for granted!  We don't know how long we have the privilege of having them in our lives!  So, be sure and scrap those memories today before they fade away!

Final Day for a Slice of CAKE @ $1.50/slice!

First of all, thank you all for the prayers you offered on behalf of my DH who underwent cancer surgery yesterday.  They cut the cancer out from the area where the nodule was removed about a month ago.  They also removed 3 lymph nodes to test them for cancer.  Unfortunately, we will not know the results until the followup visit on June 5th.  So, I would ask that, as the Lord gives you remembrance of my DH, you would lift him up in prayer that the lymph nodes are cancer-free!  If they are, well things become more complicated!  Thank you so much for remembering him during this time!

Just a reminder that today is the last day to be able to buy the May Create A Kit Event (CAKE for short) at the sale price of $1.50 per slice!

You can build your own kit with these amazing colors. They are perfect for pool and beach time, spring and summer pages, and so many more themes. We have lots of styles to suit your taste, and lots of general papers and elements that you can use in almost any type of layout.

I chose a beach theme for my portions, "Beachful Bliss."  Below the previews are some layouts by my CTMs for your inspiration.

Thanks for stopping by Today!  Be sure and tell your loved ones TODAY how much you appreciate and love them!

Beachful Bliss (click the previews to go to the store):

CTM Layouts:

Look for our next CAKE starting June 16 (click the ad to see all the coordinating kits for May).

Prayer Request

Please remember my DH as he undergoes cancer surgery today on his neck for melanoma.  Thanks so much!

FRESH CAKE - $1.50/slice!

May is an amazing time of year in most of the North America -- colorful flowers are making their debut, the gentle rains are refreshing, and the lush green lawns are so inviting. Our designers have been busy collaborating on our May Create A Kit Event (CAKE for short): May Showers, which celebrates this time of year in gorgeous greens and blues!

Today through Tuesday, May 22, you can build your own kit with these amazing colors. They are perfect for pool and beach time, spring and summer pages, and so many more themes. We have lots of styles to suit your taste, and lots of general papers and elements that you can use in almost any type of layout.

I chose a beach theme for my portions, "Beachful Bliss."  Below the previews are some layouts by my CTMs for your inspiration.

Thanks for stopping by Today!

Beachful Bliss (click the previews to go to the store):

CTM Layouts:

Make your own bundle at the low price of just $1.50 per set for 4 days only! And look for our next CAKE starting June 16. (click the ad to see all the coordinating kits for May)

I'm Featured on "Best of the Web" DIY Crafts.......

Hello, everyone!  So nice of you to visit today!   It's downhill from here into the weekend!  DH and I have plans today to see the plane that landed on the Hudson River in NY last year as it is on display here in Charlotte, NC.

I got an e-mail a couple of days ago stating that my blog had been noticed, with the following comment:

"I’ve just discovered your site and I’m very impressed with your artistic abilities. We have an arts and crafts blog, Crafts Corners, which features anything from home & garden ideas, handmade jewelry, or art and design projects.

We would like to feature you in our Best of the Web, our weekly series recognizing the most interesting websites on the web. We are always looking to feature new sites that have content relevant to our readers."

How cool is that!  Why don't you click on the preview below, which will take you to the post I've been featured in, along with some other crafters.  My post is at the bottom.  Be sure and look around while you are there!  I'm sure you will find something you like!

Don't forget, "1st Birthday" is 20% off for 24 more hours (expires zero hundred hours EST Friday morning)!  My CTM, Judith, had a layout featured on the Digitals Blog and her layout was created using "1st Birthday."

Thanks for stopping by Today!  Scrap those memories before they fade away!

1st Birthday Featured Layout and Kit Discount - 36 hours ONLY!

Hello!  Hope you are having a fantastic week!  If not, it's hump day, so you are down hill from here into the weekend!

I wanted to share a layout with you today that got featured on the Digitals Blog.  This layout was created by one of my CTMs, Judith!  The layout is linked to the blog where the preview of the layout and kit are featured!  Fantastic write-up by Sherry!  Thanks, Sherry!

And with the featured layout and kit, I am running the kit at a 20% discount for 36 hours ONLY!  At midnight eastern standard time Thursday Night (Zero hundred hours Friday morning), the sale will end!  The link to the kit is found on the Digitals Blog by clicking on the layout!

Thanks for stopping by Today!   Scrap those birthday memories before they fade away!

Bee a Blessing

Welcome back to my spot in the world wide web!  After being the featured designer over the last 2 weeks, I took a few days off to regroup!  I've done some reading and relaxing!  I've also been working on patterns for making a Felt Quiet Book for the 2nd birthday of my 5th grandchild.  His birthday is in June, so I've got to get the felt and start working on it!  I'll share a picture when I have completed it.

I sure hope you were able to get all of the daily downloads from my kit, "Bee a Blessing" between April 28th thru May 11th!  It turned out to be such a cute kit and I sold several during that time slot at 30% off!  If you missed some of the daily downloads, I hope you were able to pick the kit up at the discounted price!  But, even if you missed both opportunities, it is still a great kit for the price.

The inspiration for this kit came from a print I have having in my kitchen.  It is a daily reminder to be a blessing in some way to someone.  We all know of someone who has been or is a special blessing to us, someone we are just so thankful to have in our lives.  This is a lovely kit to scrap those photos of our special people.  Then be a blessing to them by sharing your page with them!

There are 14 papers, all 12x12 @ 300 ppi in JPG format.  There are also 22 unique elements, all @ 300 ppi in PNG format.

Shown in the preview below is the kit and 4 layouts and a hybrid Blessings Box, all using the kit in their creation.  Click on the preview to find it in my shop at Digitals!

Thanks so much for stopping by Today!  Bee a Blessing to someone today!

LAST DAY of Daily Download and 30% off Sale

My 2-week slot as Featured Designer at Digitals is coming to a close!  Today is the last day of the party, so be sure to grab today's FREE Daily Download! And be sure and take advantage of the 30% sale in my shop as today is the last day for that, as well!

For those who have missed some or all of the FREE Daily Downloads since April 28th, I also have the kit, "Bee a Blessing" in the store. It is 30% off through today. You can click on the preview to grab it.

 

FB Freebie

Have you grabbed the latest FB Fan Exclusive gift?  Click on the preview to like my FB page and grab it!  It was created by my CTM, Judith.

Thanks for following me the last couple of weeks!  I hope to see you again soon!

Thanks for stopping by Today!  Bee a blessing to someone today and scrap those memories before they fade away!

Day 13 Daily Download, FB Freebie - The Party is Almost Over!

Be sure to grab today's FREE Daily Download that continues through the 11th! Only one more Day to enjoy the freebie and the 30% sale in my shop.

For those who have missed some or all of the FREE Daily Downloads since April 28th, I also have the kit, "Bee a Blessing" in the store. It is 30% off during my Featured Designer spot through May 11th. You can click on the preview to grab it.

 

FB Freebie

Have you grabbed the latest FB Fan Exclusive gift?  Click on the preview to like my FB page and grab it!  It was created by my CTM, Judith.

Day 12 FREE Download and Dearest Mother

Be sure to grab today's FREE Daily Download that continues through the 11th! 

For those who have missed some or all of the FREE Daily Downloads since April 28th, I also have the kit, "Bee a Blessing" in the store. It is 30% off during my Featured Designer spot through May 11th. You can click on the preview to grab it.

 

Since we will be celebrating Mother's Day this Sunday, I thought I would share my kit I created for mom, "For There's No Other."  We all have a special someone, even if she wasn't our biological mother, who we consider and cherish as Mom!  My mom went on home to heaven to be with her Lord back in 2005, so I miss being able to wish her a Happy Mother's Day and I wish I had told her, "I love you" more often than I did.  I wish I had thanked her for being so strict on us as kids growing up!  The Lord knew I needed that for sure!  If your mom is still alive, be sure and tell her how much you love and appreciate her!

The previews are linked to the store and you can get these at 30% off for 2 more days as my Featured Designer slot will end Saturday.  Normally, the bundles are 30% off, but if you don't want the entire bundle, now you can get the other items for 30% off!

The alpha is really pretty generic, so you could actually use it for other things, too!  The quick page album would be a great purchase to get some pages done quickly!

Here's a page I did in honor of my dearest mother.  This photo was taken back in early 1957.  I had turned a year old in October 1956.  It is linked to the gallery if you would like to share a comment.

 

Thanks for stopping by Today!  Remember to Bee a Blessing to someone today!

Day 11 of Daily Download and Happy Anniversary to Me!

Happy Tuesday to Everyone!  Today marks 36 years of marriage blessings for me and my dear hubby.  We actually became "an item" on March 13, 1971, so we've been together for more than 41 years!  Yep, high school sweethearts we were!  We graduated from Conner Sr. High in Hebron, KY on June 3, 1973.  Tim headed off to college in the fall to University of Louisville.  He tried to come home every couple of weeks, but it was via bus, so the funds were not always there.  When I was working I would send him money to PLEASE COME HOME!!!  :D  Finally, the big day arrived!  May 8, 1976.  It was a Saturday after he finished his semester on Friday, May 7th. 

Here's a layout I did for the "Let's Talk About" challenge at Digitals.  The kit was a blog freebie from Diana Burton back in 2009.  Look how young we were!  :D

Here's a page I did for a challenge using an old, old Digitals Team Collab kit, Angels Among Us, back in 2009, too, I believe.  My, my!  Look at those senior pictures!  Can I just say that Tim's dad was NOT a barber by profession!  :D

Fast forward to today.  We are 36 years older and (hopefully) wiser!  I know for sure we are enriched with 36 years of blessings!  This picture was taken at our son's house in Maryland when we went there to enjoy one of our blessings of being grandparents with Kara at a special Grandparents Day at her school. 

I pray I have many, MANY more blessed years with this man God gave me all those years ago!  In thinking of blessings today, I used my featured kit, "Bee a Blessing" to do this page with.  Feel free to click on the link to leave me some love in the gallery at Digitals.

Be sure to grab today's FREE Daily Download that continues through the 11th! 

For those who have missed some or all of the FREE Daily Downloads since April 28th, I also have the kit, "Bee a Blessing" in the store. It is 30% off during my Featured Designer spot through May 11th. You can click on the preview to grab it.

 

Thanks for stopping by Today!  Remember to Bee a Blessing to someone today!

Day 10 FREE Daily Download and What Inspires You?

Remember, the iNSD sale at  Digitals' is continuing through the 8th!

Be sure to grab the FREE Daily Download that continues through the 11th!

For those who have missed some or all of the FREE Daily Downloads since April 28th, I also have the kit in the store. It is 30% off during my Featured Designer spot through May 11th. You can click on the preview to grab it.

What Inspires You?

If you enjoy crafts, you can probably find LOTS of things that inspire you!  It seems that is the way it is with crafters, in general.  We can find TONS of stuff on the internet (pinterest, for instance) or in magazines, or on television, calendars, cards.....even in coloring books!  :D

I wanted to share with you how I came up with the kit you see above, "Bee a Blessing."  If you have been getting the daily downloads, in the description of the kit in the store, it mentions that I got the inspiration from a print that is hanging in my kitchen.  In and of itself, it is inspirational and has a great message that I try to practice all the time.

I had the colors for the kit picked out from something I saw on the WWW somewhere, but I didn't know what I wanted to make with them.  They spoke "country" to me, but that was about the only idea I had.

Then, one day as I was walking through my kitchen into the dining room, my eyes fell upon the print hanging right by the door going into the dining room.  I stopped and gazed at it for a few minutes, then took it off the wall and carried it to my computer table.  And the rest is history as they say!

I usually always create my solid papers first, so once I decide what texture I want to add to them from my thousands of texture photos, I can whip them out fairly quickly.  The patterned papers take me longer to do.  I'm always looking for ideas for patterns as I scan my scrapbooking magazines.  Once I figure that out, the hard part for me is the combination of the colors in the patterns.  Then I will either add the same texture as I added to the solid papers or mix them up a bit, depending on my mood at the time!  :D

Always, ALWAYS the elements are the hardest for me!  But with my print as my inspiration, these elements came together a bit quicker for me.  Another problem I have is that once I get started, I don't want to stop!  The guidelines for the Featured Designer kit states "a couple pieces for each day."   So I decided I would make 14 papers, 1 paper for each day and 14 elements, 1 element for each day.  But I ended up with several more elements than that, so in a couple of the days there are 3 or more pieces.  :D   That's OK!  It's a better deal for you!  :D

OK, so here is the print.  Around the center you can read these words beginning on the left:  Share a smile and give with a glad heart.  Bee a blessing to others...Spread kindness, love and joy...

So, I looked at the red and white checked border and decided that was the pattern for one of the papers.  I used the "Bee a Blessing" in the center to create some word art.  I used the words around the edge in various ways...on a ribbon, on a heart.  I used the honeycomb pull toy in the print to create a similar one.  I really wanted to tackle the other characters in the center, but lost steam towards the end of my kit.  Especially since I ended up with "extra" elements anyway.

OK, that's just a little insight into how "Bee a Blessing" came to bee  :)   I hope you found that interesting.
Most of all, I hope you are enjoying getting this kit in the daily downloads!

Thanks so much for stopping by Today!  I hope your Monday is a super good one filled with MANY blessings!  Bee a Blessing to someone today!

Day 9 FREE Daily Download and some PSE Shortcut Key Strokes

Hope you had fun shopping the sales yesterday during iNSD!   Digitals' sale is continuing through the 8th!

Be sure to grab the FREE Daily Download that continues through the 11th!  There are other freebies in the store, too!

For those who have missed some or all of the FREE Daily Downloads since April 28th, I also have the kit in the store. It is 30% off during my Featured Designer spot through May 11th. You can click on the preview to grab it.

PSE Shortcuts

In the busy environments that we all live in, it is helpful to be able to use shortcuts to speed things up and make those minutes and hours last longer!  :D  It's the same when it comes to scrapping!  The more shortcuts you can utilize, the more time you create to enjoy your craft!

I have a list of shortcuts I use all the time while creating and scrapping in my Photoshop Elements program.  Some of these shortcuts are carried over from the word processing programs, so some of them you will already know.  You just have to remember to use them while creating your scrapbook pages, too!

So, I hope you find these useful!  Once you learn them, you will wonder how you ever got along without them!  Also, I believe for the MAC person, instead of the Ctrl key, you use the Command key (???).

Action	Shortcut Keys
New file	Ctrl + N
Open file	Ctrl + O
Close file	Ctrl + W
Save file	Ctrl + S
Save file as	Ctrl + Shift + S
Print file	Ctrl + P
Undo	Ctrl + Z
Redo	Ctrl + Y
Free transform	Ctrl + T
Apply transform	Enter
Copy selection	Ctrl + C
Paste selection as new layer	Ctrl + V
Image size	Ctrl + Alt + I
Switch between background and foreground colors	X
Repeat last filter used	Ctrl + F
Adjust hue/saturation	Ctrl + U
Show/hide ruler	Ctrl + Shift + R
New layer	Ctrl + Shift + N
Copy (duplicate) layer	Ctrl + J
Group layers	Ctrl + G
Ungroup layers	Ctrl + Shift + G
Merge layers (active layer with layer  directly below)	Ctrl + E
Select all layers	Ctrl + A
Select and Merge all layers	Ctrl + Shift + E
Deselect	Ctrl + D
Invert selection	Ctrl + Shift + I
Zoom in	Ctrl + (the + key)
Zoom out	Ctrl + (the – key)
Fit on screen	Ctrl + zero
Fill with background color	Ctrl + Backspace
Increase brush size	]
Decrease brush size	[
Increase brush hardness	Shift + ]
Decrease brush hardness	Shift + [

Thanks for stopping by Today!  Now you can scrap those memories a little quicker!  :D

Happy iNSD! Day 8 FREE Daily Download is Ready!

Happy iNSD, Everyone!  Hope you are having fun shopping!

Don't get so busy shopping that you forget to grab Day 8 FREE Daily Download!  There are other freebies in the store, too!

Also, be sure and take advantage of all the sales going on at Digitals through the 8th and don't miss the things going on in the forum to celebrate iNSD!

Thanks for stopping by Today and happy shopping!

Day 7 FREE Daily Download and Forum Challenges

I thought I would share some page inspiration with you from my CTMs using the FREE Daily Download kit.  Hope you are collecting all of the pieces!

I wanted to share the links to the 2 challenges I am hosting:  Going Postal and Lyrics Challenge.  You can read all about them by clicking on the respective previews of the challenge prizes below.  I'd LOVE to have you join in!

Thanks for dropping by Today!  Hope you have a blessed day!

Going Postal Challenge

 This is the EASIEST challenge on the web!  :D  Here's the prize for participating.

Lyrics Challenge

Day 6 FREE Daily Download and some Inspiration!

I thought I would share some page inspiration with you from my CTMs using the FREE Daily Download kit.  Hope you are collecting all of the pieces!

Created by Anita

Created by Anita

Created by Anita

Created by Tammy

Created by Me

Created by Judith

Hybrid Creation by Lori

Hybrid Creation by Lori