My hero

My MIL rescued me again. I owe her so much. I was telling her about my full hard drive. She told me that there was an external hard drive in her computer room that she wasn't using. It was my FIL and he passed away last year. She said I could have it. It is a 232G external hard drive. My hard drive on my computer is 75G. I moved all my photos that I have scrapped over to the external drive as well as all the LO that I have printed. I am in the process of going through all my scrapbooking kits and deleting the ones I never use. When I first started digiscrapping, I downloaded every freebie I saw. I can afford to be a little more picky now. I have learned that there are some elements that I just don't use much. It feels good to clean out some of the clutter I had in there. I am glad that I am obsessive about keeping my files organized though. This would be so much harder if they weren't organized.

We finally have a bright sunny day today. I am so glad to see clear, blue skys outside my window. I am not looking forward to the heat that comes with the sun though. I have to say that I would so tired of all the rain. The weather man said last night that it has rained 21 days during the month of July. This is just crazy for central Texas. Last year, I don't think it rained once during the whole summer. This looks like it will be a good day to take the kids swimming. Maybe that will be incentive for Andrew to get some of his work done quickly instead of playing around.

A new week

Here we are at the start of a new week. It is going to be a busy week for me. For starters, I need to do some cleaning of my hard drive. My computer has been crashing a lot this past week. Yesterday, we figured out why. My hard drive is about 95% full. I need to back everything up this week and clean it out. Most of what is on there is pictures, scrapbooking LO, and scrapbooking kits. It is a lot of stuff to go through and back up. I am now going to add an external hard drive to my wish list behind my new printer.

Next, I have 2 grand openings to attend. Make it Scrappy will be opening on August 1st (www.makeitscrappy.com). They are going to be giving away an awesome kit to everyone that registers for MIS before the end of August. It looks like a great kit. You can find more info about it here http://www.makeitscrappy.com/forum/showthread.php?p=785#post785 . This is Kim Cameron's home site.

Next, Digiaccents will be having their grand opening on August 1st (www.digiaccents.com). Things have been quiet over there, so I don't know much about what is going to be happening at their grand opening. Check it out though as I am sure there will be lots of fun stuff going on there. This is Kristy Oberts home site.

Purple Paper Flowers was originally suppose to have their grand opening the same day (www.purplepaperflowers.com). I am very relieved that it won't be. I am sad for them that they are having to push it back because of server problems though. I don't remember right now the exact date they are suppose to open, but I will post it here when I find out.

Lastly, I almost have my first kit ready to put on my blog. I have to finish my Terms of Use and make my preview and zip it up and then I will have it on here. I should have it done by the end of this week depending on how fast I can get my hard drive cleaned up.

credits

credits

Here are my first 2 LO for Cre8tv Grls creative team by Gina A rzaga. This kit is called Amanda's Bouquet mini kit. Gina's kits are located at Purple Paper Flowers and the link to her kits is here.

This is going to be a short post today. We are off to a cub scout activity in about an hour, then Stan and I are going out for our anniversary. I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Harry Potter

Harry Potter is the reason I have not posted in a few days. I spent 2 days doing almost nothing except reading that book. I neglected dishes and laundry and all the other chores I needed to do around the house. It was worth it though. Stan helped me a lot around the house during that time because he had spend the 2 days previous doing nothing but reading so he understood. Rachael is starting it today, so I expect I won't see her much for a few days.

Here is the first element I have ever made as a budding designer. It is still a little rough, but I like the way it turned out in general. I am still learning loads. I bought a new magazine that will help me a little more. I made some brads and some book plates the other day using a template that came with the book I bought. The next lesson is on how to make them from scratch. Once I learn how to do them from scratch, then I can make them in all sorts of shapes. I may design a few templates for each shape I make so I can use those over and over again as I design more kits. I also want to learn how to add more texture to my papers so they don't look like just painted backgrounds. My goal is to have my first freebie on this blog by my birthday. My birthday is September 23, so that gives me not quite 2 months. Stan is going to have to show me how to zip everything up in a zip file. He says it is easy, but I have never done it before.

I have 2 big anniversaries this week. My 16th wedding anniversary is on Friday. I can't believe I have been married that long. It seems like just yesterday that I got married. I love Stan more than ever and I love him more each day. I have a couple of friends that are having trouble in their marriage an I am so grateful to have such a wonderful husband. I look forward to many more years to come. My other anniversary is that I have been on weight watchers for 1 year on Saturday. I have not lost as much weight as I had hoped to, but I still have lost a lot. I wanted to lose 50 pounds this first year. I am down 44 pounds right now. I didn't anticipate all the health problems I have been having. They have greatly interfered with my weight loss. One of my medications causes weight gain and I haven't been able to exercise. Because of those, I am glad that I have lost as much as I have. I want to do a layout showing the difference a year can make. I think it will help me feel better about not reaching my 1 year goal. I still have a lot of weight to lose before I reach my final goal, but each pound gone is one step closer to my goal.

Scrappin' like crazy

I have been so busy scrapping this weekend. We had a very busy week and I didn't get to scrap much. I made up for it this weekend. I did a few layouts for Kim's team and I got one more for Aimee's team done. I also decided to participate in the Amazing digiscrapping race. I am not officially registered because I didn't find out about it before the deadline. By doing the challenges in the race, it makes me think outside the box a little more. I tend to scrap events and design my layouts around the pictures I have. This made me think of the layout and then find pictures I had to fit that layout. The first challenge is to scrap something museum related and use the word amazing in it. Stan and I went to the museum of Natural History in Houston the beginning of July. They had this huge geode filled with amethysts. It was as tall as I am. I thought it fit the challenge, so here is my layout:

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The second challenge was to make a layout using a doodle, the word "friendship", 2 photos, red, and flowers. This is what I came up with.

credits

I also did a layout for a challenge on the Make It Scrappy site. You had to make a layout using a photo of something unique to your city. This was the most unique think I could think of. I had some pics of the Texas capital building, but I thought these photos were better. I really like the way this turned out. It took me a while to find a background I was happy with-thanks Landi for having orange in your Wacky Weekend kit.

credits

Stan got me a wireless network card for my computer this weekend. That allowed us to move my computer over by my recliner. I am in heaven. I can sit in a comfortable chair with my feet propped up and scrap my heart out. I have loved it. I have to make sure I still get some exercise though. I could easily find myself sitting here all day. That would not help my weight loss efforts in the least.

Some more layouts

credits here

credits here

Here are new creative team layouts. The first one is forAimee Suarez. The kit is called Friendly Bear and you can find it at http://www.studiostyledesigns.com/. It is an adorable kit. My second layout is from Kim Cameron's kit called Dogwood Blossoms. It will be available at http://www.makeitscrappy.com/ later. I think it will open up on August 1st but I am not certain about that and I can't figure out where that info is.

Photshop Elements 5.0 came yesterday. I did these 2 layouts with it. After dinner is done, I am going to work on my designing some more. I am excited!!!!!

2nd layout for Wacky Weekend

Credits Here

Here is my second layout from Landi's kit Wacky Weekend. I was glad I got this kit because it really did fit perfectly for a broken arm. Unfortunately, I have experience doing layouts of my boy with broken arms. I wish the boys would quit giving me that opportunity. I could do without it.

A little overwhelmed

Last night, I got on the forums at DigiShopTalk and was looking through their creative team calls. I decided I was going to apply for a few. I figured if I sent in 4, I might get one. Guess what? I got on all 4 teams. So, in a 2 week time period, I have gone to being on now creative teams to being on 5 teams. I bought a note book today so I could keep track of the kits, requirements and sites I need to post to. This is going to be a lot of fun though. I think it will really help me to be more active in the digital community online. I am going to updating my links to reflect the creative teams I am on.

I think I need to learn a little about HTML also. I don't know how to put those blinking in or anything. I have seen a tutorial somewhere on how to make a blinkie. I ignored it when I saw it, and now I wish I would have payed more attention to it.

Now, for those designers that chose me to be on their teams. If you are reading this, don't worry. Once I get organized so I can keep things straight, this is going to be a blast. I am excited to be making layouts for all of you. I also look forward to getting to know all of you and the other gals on the teams. Thank you so much for chosing me.

My first digital papers

I have been asked what my first digital creations look like. Warning, they are nothing impressive. I learned how to do the most basic designs so far. I haven't even had time to practice much this week as we have been going non stop for a few days. I am exhausted. So, here is a sampler of my first digital creations. The flower papers are my first attempt to do something all on my own. The rest of them are from the instructions directly out of Renee Pearson's book. My words paper didn't turn out very well because I couldn't seem to make the text wrap like I wanted it to. I think that will happen when I get PSE 5.0. My MIL has spoiled me and ordered it for me. I am so excited to try it out. It should be here in a few days.

A layout with Wacky Weekend

credits-All papers and elements from Wacky Weekend by Landi LeRoux, quote by Charlene V., font digs my hart.

Here is my first layout from Landi's kit, Wacky Weekend. I love the way it turned out. I need to do at least one more layout from this kit. That should be no problem as this kit has so many fun elements. When I first opened the zip file and looked at it, I thought of several boy layouts. It is funny that the first layout I did with it is for my daughter. Rachael really likes the layout. That is a huge compliment because she usually doesn't express much opinion about my pages.

I picked up the book Digital Designs 2 by Renee Peason yesterday. She makes the lessons so easy to follow. I made 10 papers last night in about 45 minutes. They are pretty boring papers, but it is going to be so easy to expound upon the lesson and make papers that are more my style. For the papers I did, the PSE 3.0 worked ok. However, the next lesson was about making a background paper with writing on it. It required that you make a text box first so that your writing wraped around at the end of the paper. PSE 3.0 doesn't let you make a text box first. It only makes a text box after you have entered the text and I couldn't figure out how to get it to repeat and wrap around to the next line. I made mine using multiple text boxes. It doesn't seem to flow as well. You can see that it is 4 seperate text boxes. I do at least have the concept down and I can work on it when I get the upgrade. Next, I will learn how to make words that have the pattern of the papers I previously made. The other techniques in the book are distressing papers and elements, making elements such as brads, bookplates, tags, conches, making alphas and making chipboard elements. At the end, she talks about using brushes. I am glad that is included because I havn't quite gotten the hang of using brushes in my layouts. She also teaches you how to make your own brushes. The other thing I love it that this book was written for Photoshop Elements. I was worried that it would be written for CS3 and I would have to do a lot of altering of the techniques. I am not good enough with PSE to be able to do that. I would highly recommend this book to anyone that wants to learn how to make their own scrapbooking designs.

New kit from Landi.

Check out this kit from Landi LeRoux. It looks like so much fun. I can't wait to start scrapping with it. The bold colors are going to be great for my boys pictures. You can find the kit here if you are interested-Wacky Weekend

Speaking of my boys, they are so hyper today. Jeremy is totally out of control. Right now, he is pretending to be a Transformer and won't answer to his name. He hasn't even seen the movie. I am trying to get him to focus on his school work but that isn't working very well.

Andrew is actually doing his school work really well right now. I think the key to getting him to do it is for him to sit right next to me. He doesn't even need me to help him, but sitting next to him is helping him concentrate. I can scrap or do whatever else I need to do as long as I am right there. He has always struggled with his school work. He just doesn't like to be still and to focus on something. He has to always be moving. I'm sure he would be in trouble all the time if he were to be in public school. I am so grateful I have this chance to homeschool my kids.

Rachael is in her room doing her school work. I'm not even sure what she is doing. She finished her math and I told her to either start her biology or do her reading assignment or do creative writing. She is so independent that I now she will get all of that done with very little help from me. I usually go over her biology with her so I know she understood it. She is also going to have to do another research project. Last time, she did a biography paper on Savion Glover (he is a tap dancer if you didn't know). I told her to pick either a career or something scientific. It is always interesting what she comes up with.

This afternoon, I have an appointment with my pain specialist. I think we finally have the right combinations of medications that my pain is under control. The doctor I saw in Houston wants me to change things around, but I'm not sure I want to do that if things are working. I will see what my pain specialist thinks. After my appointment, I am going to stop at the scrapbook store. There is a book I really want about digital designing. It is by Renee Pearsons. I am hoping that I can do all the stuff with Photshop Elements. I may have to research alternate ways of doing things. I am planning to upgrade to version 5.0 as soon as we can afford it and I think that will help. I am currently using 3.0.

Creative Team layouts

Here are the layouts I did with my first kit from Landi's collection. They are from a wonderful kit called "Forever". I love the colors. They are beautiful. Purple is one of my favorite colors and she chose such beautiful shades of purple. The top 2 layouts are a 2 page layout. The very top on is actually page 2, but just so you get an idea of what it is suppose to look like. Here is a link to Landi's kit Forever.

My first blog!!!

This is probably going to be a boring blog for a while. I am making it to display my digital scrapbooking hobby. I though it would be fun for my family and friends to be able to see my digi pages and also to get updates on me and my family.

There are going to be lots of pictures of my family on here so here is an introduction. I have been married to the most wonderful man for almost 16 years. His name is Stan. He is the love of my life and my best friend. We have 3 wonderful children. Rachael is 14 and is a typical teenager in so many ways. She doesn't have an attitude most of the time though. I have been very lucky that way. She is a dancer. She started dancing when she was 4 years old. She loves tap, jazz and ballet. Andrew is 9 years old. He is very into video games, almost too much. He is very loving and generous. He loves cub scouts and is excited to be a webelo this year. Jeremy is my 5 year old. He is the funniest kid. He always makes people around him smile. I get told all the time how fun he is. He is learning to read and loves it.

I am totally addicted to digital scrapbooking. I go through withdrawl when I can't scrap. I was recently granted a place on Landi LeRoux's creative team. I feel so honored to have been given this chance. I hope I can do well and learn a lot from the other women on the team. I am hoping I can continue to learn to do more with Photoshop Elements and eventually start designing my own stuff.

That is us in a nut shell. There will be many more posts about my family and I hope everyone enjoys reading them.

Credits for layout-font-cher font, background and all elements from Awesome by Anita Designs, program PSE 3.0