Printing layouts

I have been printing my layouts at home. I have an Epson Artisan 710, which does an excellent job. However, the paper is almost $1 a sheet, plus add in the cost of ink and I'm probably spending $1.50 per print. I was listening to the Paperclipping Digi Show, and heard about Persnickety Prints dot com. I can get a premium quality 8x8 print for 99 cents.

Persnickety Prints also has some freebies, including this gorgeous kit, crazy beautiful by fei-fei's stuff. https://www.oscraps.com/shop/product.php?productid=20944&cat=287&page=1

Another great freebie link on Persnickety Prints is to a september desktop at digital scrap cafe.

Let me know if you've had prints made by Persnicket Prints.

My girls

This is based on a sketch fromVicki Shepherd's class "A Little Goes a Long Way" I took at CK Des Moines. I used Tracy Reed's "Little Miss" papers and embellishments.

Quiet night at home catching up on scrapbooking

I enrolled in a class at ReneePearson.com called 25 days of templates (Summer). I just started working on the class and got this layout done. In this layout I used the template as is without changing anything at all.

Supplies used: CVA_SSTools_Scripts_SupplyTracker (ScrapGirls) TNT_25DaysSUM10_1 (Class material) Paislee Press kit -- Adorned (flower2-ds, frame1, glitterstamp, papers, rhinestones, ribbon, tag)

Bubbles

The older grand kids received bubble guns in their Easter Baskets at our house. I guess the Easter Bunny thought Jaren was too young (but that has now been fixed). Here's a layout of Luke I did called Fun With Bubbles.

Supplies used:
Scrap Girls:
Christy VanderWall -- CVA_SSTools_Scripts_SupplyTracker
Digital Artisan Guild:
Mask6a_MH_DCozzi
Mask6bTexture_MH_DCozzi
P_WatercolorWonder3_SJSDBDesigns
Dunia Designs Upside Down Kit:
dunia-upsidedown-paper-05
dunia-upsidedown-paper-06
dunia-upsidedown-paper-07
One Little Bird Scrapbook Designs (Oscraps):
onelittlebird_bubbletemplate

Font: Century Gothic
Font: Champignon

Life 356

So far I've stayed on task with my picture a day. Here is the left half of the 3rd week of 2010.

Supplies: Gina Marie Huff, Sweet and Simple Life 365 (January) System available at Weeds and Wildflowers Design

Scrapping those Christmas photos

Des Moines is getting socked with another winter storm. I started feeling crummy again yesterday and decided to stay home today inside where it is warm and the humidifier is running. Took advantage of being home and scrapped my Christmas morning pictures.

Supplies:

25 Days No. 25 Template by Simply Tiffany Design

Papers: Paisley Press "Adorned"

Title: Karla Dudley Designs "25 Days: Titles"

Molly B. Good

Worked on this layout tonight. Molly was quite a pistal (and can still be at times). We named her Molly but found ourselves frequently saying "Molly be good." So when it came time to send in her papers, I officially named her Molly B. Good.

Journaling reads:

She moves slower these days and is no longer able to jump on the bed. Getting on or off the sofa or off the deck is a major chore. I no longer have to worry about her running off. She has some serious health problems and her monthly prescription bill for one drug costs more than our prescriptions. I’m unsure if she can still hear me, but she can still smell and is contantly under foot when working in the kitchen. She’s been such a great companion to me and I treasure every day she’s still with me. JANUARY 2010

Supplies used: Papers from Jessica Sprague's Holidays in Hand kit; Songbird Avenue Bloom and Grow Temoplates

The Torch Relay Begins.....

The digi Olympics will be held at Digital Scrapbook Memories on February 12-18. You can help them pass the torch and possibly win your choice of either a class package to the Digital Scrapbook Retreat in Park City, UT thisApril 12-28, 2010. Check out http://forum.digitalscrapbookmemories.com/showthread.php?t=7701

Picture of the Day

Last year I participated in Project 365 and while I completed the year, I didn't post all of them. After debating whether to do it again this year, I decided to continue. Here is my cover page for January and the first three days of the year. I think this week will be food and beverage-relaterd photos.

The photo on January's cover page is from last week when I was babysitting some grandkids. Cailey and Mia were pretending to be asleep when I came back down from putting Luke to bed.

January 1: I've already posted this photo of the empty juice containers after the kids left.

January 2: Roger and I went to Bordenaro's, usually one of our favorite pizza joints, for pizza. Service was the worst we've ever had. We sat there for 10-15 minutes before a waitress even came over to see if we had been served. I might add they weren't that busy. We gave her our drink and food order and she then left and cleaned off a table, went back behind the counter and picked up her wine glass and took some sips and joked and visited with other workers and friends. She hadn't even placed our order. After waiting 10 minutes I marched up to the counter and asked if we cold get our drinks "tonight." "Oh, yes, sure. I'm sorry." I walked back to the table and she disappeared into the kitchen to place our orders. The rest of the night went okay and I don't think I had anything in my pizza or drink that shouldn't be. I'm not sure, but I don't think she should have been drinking while at work. On top of that, I seriously doubt she was 21. The pizza though was worth the wait. Love their pizza and onion rings.

January 3: Needed groceries plus I had made some purchases from one of my favorite digi shops, Weeds and Wildflowers Designs. Unfortunately for reasons that remain a great mystery, I am unable to download my purchases from this store (and a couple other ones) from at home so I have to find a public wi-fi spot to download. So we headed off to Hy-Vee for breakfast and shopping. I just had OJ and toast; Roger had their breakfast buffet. Came home and fixed the Pioneer Woman's pot roast and while it cooked, got some digi scrapping and organizing files done. Great Day!

Supplies used: All from Gina Marie Huff's Sweet and Simple LIFE 365 January Template and Kit Bundle available at Weeds and Wildflowers Design.

My own little scrap retreat

I spent my furlough day scrapping and completed some layouts for my 25 days of templates class.

Free Textured Cardstock Styles for PS and PSE

The Scrappin Cop has some great stuff on her blog. She has a style that is okay for commercial use for PS/PSE to make your elements look like textured cardstock. Check it out here.

A Note to My Young Self

41 years of advice to my younger self, for the Type+Writer class I'm taking at JessicaSprague.com. Pictures from 1968.

Interview with Cailey

As part of this class I am taking called Type+Writer, yesterday's assignment with a great strategy for journaling: including direct quotes from those around you. It could either be something that arised spontaneously, but in my case I came up with some questions to ask Cailey. I think my questions were pretty lame, but this is what I came up with:

Journaling reads:

I called you tonight to ask you some questions for my Type+Write assignment. You are not a really big talker so I prepared some questions to ask. My first question was who is your best friend and it came as no surprise when you said it was your sister Mia. Today for breakfast you had Kix, which you think is made from wheat or whole grains. Your favorite place in your house is your bed in your room and outside. You like the outside because you get to ride your bike, jump rope, draw with chalk, play in the back yard, and sometimes pick green beans from your garden. I was completely unprepared for the answer I received when I asked you where you like to go for rides in the car and why.

I'm taking a class

I'm taking a class at http://www.jessicasprague.com called Type+Writer. It is a two week course where one day I receive a journaling prompts and writing guidance video techniques for typography, which I'll then consolidate each of these lessons and create *six* layouts from all-new templates, supposedly to allow me to focus on the words that preserve my memories AND improve my skills with the Type tool. I supposedly will end the class with a whole new confidence in my writing abilities (yes, when pigs fly), a "heart filled with appreciation for all you love in life, and awesome Photoshop skills to last a lifetime."

Here is my first layout


The list is 2,280 miles driven, 3 wineries and breweries visited, 120 trains we saw, 50 hours spent in t he car, 3 hours white water rafting, 3 trails hiked, 1 Adventure. The journaling reads "Our trip to colorado was so much fun. It turned out to be a railroad-theme vacation, including riding the cog railroad to the top of Pikes Peak, riding the Royal Gorge Railroad, and visiting the Train Museum in Golden. We also visited the Holy Cross Winery, Coors Brewery, and Snowy Peaks Winery.

Wow, I'm leigh out of the day at Scrapable.net

Uploaded a couple lei-outs at Scrapable last night. I am participating in Scrapable's first ever Swim School, where I get assignments each week and learn lots of new tricks as we swim through these lessons. I was so surprised this morning when I woke up and saw the following message in the forums:

Congrats to QueenShakeNBake for LOTD, Spring.
This lei-out catched my eyes when I made my round through the gallery.
I love this colors, which shows me happiness and gives me a summer feeling. I also like to see a photo different from the family-fotos which we see mostly.



The other lesson this week was to scraplift one of several lei-outs the swim instructors and lifeguards had chosen. I chose to scraplift Digi-Chick Linda's fabulous lei-out

Linda's lei-out.

My lei-out.

Iowa State Fair

The Iowa State Fair currently does not have a category for digital scrapbooking. But the "scrapbooking" category does not specifically preclude digital scrapbook pages, so several digi scrappers I know and myself are going to enter some layouts. The deadline for entries is July 1, 2009. I've chosen five layouts to enter and have sent them to Costco for printing. I may submit a couple more. I need to look at the premium book a little closer. Perhaps next year they will include a category just for digi scrappers.

Click HERE for Contest Information (PDF)

Click HERE for Entry Form (PDF)

Iowa State Fair
P.O. Box 57130
Des Moines, IA 50317
515.262.3111 ext. 242
Fax: 515.280.4841

Thank you Denise from "Time to Scrap" for finding this information.

Here's one of the layouts I'm planning on entering:

Same photo, two different lay outs

I've been playing around with two photos of Mia I took at a soccer game when she was upset with her Momma. I did two completely different style layouts with the photos. Can't believe the difference in the two. One is kind of sweet and the other is grungey. I personally think I like the grungey one better. What do you think?

Supplies used were:

1. Nicole Young's "Retro Jive Girl"
2. Robin Gough's "Urban Myths" kit

Both kits are available at Digital Scrapbook Place.

HELP!!! Which layout is better

What layout do you think is better--the red shovel pic or the black & white pic?

4 Days to Midwest Iowa Digi Scrap Crop

Only four more days until the Midwest Iowa Digi Scrap Crop. Actually 3.5 days since we are getting together with some of the attendees Friday night. I can't wait.

Tonight I did this layout for Hummie's garden analogy challenge:

Relaxing Sunday and Countdown to Iowa Midwest Crop

Spent a relaxing Sunday with family and scrapping. Had lunch with Jeremy, Sarah, and Jaren and then off to Babies R Us to get Jaren a new forward-facing car seat for when he turns 1 in 4 weeks. Then it was off to watch the girls' soccer game. The sun was shining and it was around 83 degrees--a beautiful day. It is fun to watch their skills and confidence grow as they are now getting into the action more and more. The heat started to get to them though and you could see them start to wind down.

After soccer we came home and I did a layout for a challenge in which I had to use a provided paint strip. I really like how it turned out.



Supplies used were: Paint chip by Hummie (www.hummiesworld.com); AMC_SSEmb_DoodlePad_1a-Paper (Scrapgirls.com); karen_texturedoverlay2 and
karen_texturedoverlay6 (scrapdish.com); and Maskee Quick Bits Clipping Masks Designs by Marcee Duggar (Layer_S2_Mask5) (DigitalScrapbookPlace.com)

Only 6 more days to Iowa Midwest Crop sponsored by Digital Scrapbook Place, to be held in West Des Moines. Now I only need to get through a 3-day Board Meeting and the rest of the week.