RIP Seth :-(

I heard some distressing news today. My favorite (and I think everyone else's favorite) Sea Lion, Seth had passed away in the autumn. I had this photo taken with him in 07 and saw him again just weeks or months before he died. Seth was truly "Mr. Personality". Seth, you will be missed.

Kits: Two papers (blended), swirly string, satin ribbon, black paper tag, green rick rack (altered) from Sunny Side Up collab by Pineapple Plantation Designs and Ziggle Designs; Layered journal and blue flower from Alice by Ziggle Designs

Speed Scrapping

Here is the LO for the latest SS.

1. You can pick as many photos as you want... BUT if you choose more than one, they have to have something in common with each other. Something in the background, a person, whatever...something must be in ALL of the pictures.
2. Choose three papers and only three...no more, no less. One must be solid.
3. Now...go back to the photos. Choose at least one and crop it into a circle. You can do more, if you like. If you only chose one photo, then it must be a circle.
4. Ok, so we are featuring SherriJD's new kits tonight, so let's add some forest elements... like, oh, Toadstools or Sprites... or other creatures, if you would like.
5. Time for elements. Let's keep with the forest theme and get some flowers, branches, leaves or other nature-inspired elements. Choose at least three...they can be the same or different.
6. I want to see some funky fonts!!! Pick a font out of your stash that you never use...or at least that you hardly use. The more unusual the better. You can use it as a title or journaling, or even make some word art...it's up to you!
7. Title your page and journal something.



Kit: Creation 23 by Createwings Designs and Catherine Designs; font is I'm Bored

Funny dream, new CT and another awesome site!

I have to laugh now that I realize the dream I woke up this morning from was not real. At the instant of waking it took me a while to believe it wasn't real. This one had me in a scrap panic! The dream was basically that my sister (from the next town) had snuck in to my house to replace my computer with NEW one, I guess thinking it was a favor. The new computer was a horrible pea green color and the monitor was normal sized but the SCREEN part was about 4 inches. The old computer with all my kits and layouts was given away and the whole dream was about my horror and trying to chase down the new "owner". None of the details in it made sense, but the computer was so funny looking. I tried to draw it for your viewing pleasure.


Lots going on in my digiworld. I just got accepted into Matahati Designs Creative Team. I just love her bold, rich colorful kits. Zakirah just put out a brand new collab with Faith True. Here is the kit and a link to the store.


Also a toot...I got Gallery Standout for March 32st at Been There Scrapped That: http://www.beentherescrappedthat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=1151

As for the other big news...if you haven't heard yet about this new place, you might be one of a handful. Although "not officially opened yet", this place is rocking and rapidly growing like you wouldn't believe. Take the time to check out the forums and the galleries are stuffed with some of the best layouts I have seen in one place.

Speed Scrap Craziness and ANOTHER free kit!

Lately, I have been having a blast during the Speed Scraps hosted at Scrap Orchard (twice monthly) and the best fun is harassing our very sweet, but devious hostess, Angie. Last night another wonderful friend, Jaye, stepped in to host when Angie couldn't. For example-Step one: We needed six papers! Now Jaye didn't make up the rules on this one, but it was a tough one to follow and everyone was gathering the pitchforks and getting ready to head over to Angie's...hahahaha. And because I had my computer torn apart and the external drive wasn't available you should have seen me scramble to find a kit to use. I had a page started and hated what I was doing, so at the last minute I dug out a kit I made myself about a year ago and pulled this together. The flower and staple are from Ziggle Scraps' "Alice" kit. I used a Template Freebie by Tracy Anderson, from Ellie's CT. (thank you!!!) The pink parts I made up on the fly during the scrap so they aren't in the kit.

It is not my best layout by a stretch, but is was cool to see that it came in handy after all! If you dig around a little you can still find it backdated in my freebies (I think it was sometime in July). I never did get around to making elements...but I might someday!

the steps:
1. choose 6 papers.
2. now choose at least 2 photos.
3. only 1 of those papers can be a true background. The other 5 must be reshaped into something. Eg. mats, paper strips.
4. you must use at least one frame.
5. add something from nature; a tree, leaf, flower, animal ( it didn't have to be organic looking)
6. add at least one heart.
7. create a title with a font and an alpha.



The previous scrap had these requirements:
(1) Pick one photo...with no people in it.
(2) Apply a filter, effect, or unusual crop shape to your photo.
(3) Choose at least two papers (more is fine). One must be multicolored (at least two colors on one page).
(4) Add some confetti, glitter, or other splatter-type element to your page.
(5)Add at least one piece of Word Art.
(6) Add a title and date.
(7) Embellish as desired.

As you can see, I was naughty:
Journaling says: March 8,2009 the day Angie tried (again unsuccessfully) to stump us all in the speed scrap.



Wanna know how you can get this fabulous freebie? It is found only on Kami's Peeps blog and won't be available long. Jemenifer has been raiding the place while "Mama Chick" Kami is away, and just giving stuff away like crazy. Go see what I mean! Click image:

The easiest tutorial you'll ever try

At least I think it is...ha ha! There is more than one way to do this but I choose to do it the easy way! This time I am going to share the secret to making sticker effects. You can do this to an element, text or the photo itself. I used this technique in my blog header. In your layout, choose whatever you wish to sticker-ize. In the sample I am using the Birdilicious Collab Kit by Ziggle Designs and Irene Alexeeva.

Step 1. Have the layer active that you want to change and double click on the layer thumb to open layer styles.


Step 2. Check the Stroke Box at the very bottom (left side).
What you will get is the default setting of a red stroke of 3 pixels. Don't panic.


Step 3. Click on the RED color sample box..this takes you to the color picker. Make all the CMYK values 0 if you want white. In this case I wanted a light natural color, so I gave it C6 M3 Y16 K0


Step 4. Now you change the stroke width: use the slider or type in the size you want. While you're in there, go ahead and apply a drop shadow.


See! Wasn't that simple!?


You can try your hand at word art...


I post the same tutorials on our CT blog for Ziggle Designs and I am starting off easy ones. I will eventually get into more intermediate tuts, so please stay tuned.

We are due for another BLOG TRAIN and here it is

The Peeps for Ziggle Designs at Scrap Orchard are at it again. Follow the blogtrain to pick up all your pieces of 12 x 12 quickpages using To The Nines. There are some really pretty pages to pick up. Here is my part. Click the image for the download.

You should have arrived from Tiffany. Your next stop is Jennifer
If you get lost, here is the starting post:
ziggle ct: www.zigglescraps.com/mypeeps

Better post these before I lose track

Made this page with Impressions of Heritage collab at Scrapbook Graphics


Here are a few more layouts made in recent weeks that I just got too busy to post.
First one is from one of the many kits I earned for NDSR, DeCrows Blooming Blossoms.


This is the first page I made with the kit I won from Liella. Isn't it a great kit?


This is one picture I really wish weren't so blurred. Believe me, I actually corrected this quite alot as it was much worse before. This was a fun day strolling Longwood Gardens (near Philly) back in the early 80's I think. One of them is my sister, the other me...Can you guess who is who?

I am on a time crunch and will update the full credits on all these, but I recall this is mostly from Hot Cocoa from From B-Creative Designs.

Til Next time...