I was working a page last night for a challenge over at Justmommies and decided I definitely need to make some alphas. All the freebies I found were pretty simple and all the ones I’ve made thus far have been pretty simple. I think I want to make a set of really nice alphas that I can use for different pages. I am not sure when I’ll be able to work on it, might not be for a couple weeks yet because I just have so much chaos during the summer months, but that is my next project for sure. Stay tuned.
Alphas, I need to make some!
July 15, 2008 · No Comments
→ No CommentsCategories: announcements & stuff
Two page layout I made with my safari kit
July 14, 2008 · 3 Comments
These are the pics that inspired me to make my latest kit. This is the first 2 page layout I have ever made. I like how the first page turned out. I kept trying to squeeze the other pictures in there and finally decided to go ahead and just make a second page. I want to try hybrid scrapping too at some point in time, but that’ll probably have to wait until my kids are back in school. I’m feeling a little more inspired than I was before so if things settle down I’ll make another freebie before school starts back. We’ll see. I might write up some tutorials here though. I had planned to do more of them, but they are kind of time consuming so we’ll see about that as well. Anyhow, here’s my latest layouts.


Aren’t my kids cute???
→ 3 CommentsCategories: My Layouts
Safari (Zoo) Digital Scrapbooking Freebie
July 13, 2008 · 23 Comments
I will start by saying this is not my most impressive kit. I am just having lots of trouble getting inspired lately and I just couldn’t think of what to put in it. There are a few elements that I like and my papers are okay, but I feel like this kit could have used a lot more stuff so you might find you have to add pieces from other kits to get this to work right for you. I figured I might as well share it since I made it. This kit has 10 papers and then only a handful of elements. Elements are monkey, giraffe, zebra, and elephant stickers (remember I can’t draw so don’t expect too much with those, but my kids like them so good enough for me), and then a postcard and framem and stamp. I was happy with the postcard and frame. I liked how the frame turned out a lot so that was enough for me to upload it all. Oh also included is an alpha. That’s it. Sorry it’s such a small kit. Hopefully once summer settles down and kids are back in school I can create some more stuff.
Here’s the preview.
Here’s the links to my kit.
safari digital scrapbooking freebie papers
safari digital scrapbooking freebie elements
I have no idea what is up with 4shared, but since for some reason my elements link wasn’t working I uploaded another copy and changed the link for you.
→ 23 CommentsCategories: Freebies
Tagged: digital scrapbooking, digital scrapbooking freebies
My latest pages, figured I’d share
July 7, 2008 · No Comments
Since I haven’t had time yet to finish the kit I’m working on. (Have I said I’m slow before? If not, I’m kind of slow at making kits.) Anyhow, I figured I’d share a couple of layouts I did. I actually did these a couple weeks ago I think, but hadn’t put them on here yet so figured I’d share them here. I’m still working on my safari kit, but I am moving really slowly with it. I got two elements done, that’s it. I got a bunch more to make and my papers need some serious work. I am going to try to work on it a little tonight, but with all my kids home for summer vacation it sure is slowing me down.

Credits: “Haute Spring” Kit by Zoe Pearn

Credits: everything from Love Sprung by Dani Mogstad & Traci Reed except staples.
→ No CommentsCategories: My Layouts
Starting on a new freebie finally
June 23, 2008 · 2 Comments
I have had no time or creativity lately, but I finally started working on a new kit last night. I have some great pictures of our trip to the zoo so I wanted a kit to match with it. I like using other people’s kits, but I like making my own stuff too. This one I am planning to be a safari theme. I have got 7 papers done so far. I want to make at least 3 more papers and then of course the elements. I still have a heck of a time with elements. Papers are fairly easy for me. I hope I can get it finished by the end of the week.
→ 2 CommentsCategories: designing
Been super busy
June 8, 2008 · 3 Comments
I have been really busy the past few weeks and not had time to do any digital scrapbooking. I hope that I’ll have some time soon to make some new pages and hopefully another freebie kit too. My creativity has been zapped lately. I opened up Photoshop yesterday and just nothing was coming to me. I just have so much going on right now and I really have to work on this when my mind is in the mood. I didn’t want anyone to think I’d abandoned my blog. I hope I have time in the next couple weeks to work on something.
→ 3 CommentsCategories: announcements & stuff
I heart Monica Larson
May 4, 2008 · 2 Comments
I love all of her stuff! She is such an awesome designer and I only hope to be as good as her one day. I went out and bought some kits today. I like using my own stuff, but I am really slow at the pace I design. Plus, I like to be able to take my time when I design stuff and it’s fun for me using other people’s stuff too. Anyway, I made a page today with her Magical kit and I was happy with how it turned out so I figured I’d share it here. I know I like looking at people layouts for ideas and inspirations so I figure others might too. Here’s the page I made. Yep, for Leo again, but he’s just so sweet I can’t help myself.

→ 2 CommentsCategories: My Layouts
Tagged: digital scrapbooking
More layouts from me
May 3, 2008 · 1 Comment
I figured I’d share some of my recent creations. My sleepy head kit was inspired by pics I took of my silly little boy Leo. He’s such a doll. I walked in and found him asleep in my living room. He was asleep standing up! I have never seen such a thing. I have seen my kids fall asleep in all kinds of weird ways, just not this one. Anyhow, I had a bit of a hard time trying to come up with what to do with my kit at first, but it always takes me a little bit to figure out what I want to do. I think that’s all part of the creative process. Well, here’s the page I made for Leo with my sleepyhead kit.

Here’s a page I did with a freebie (Sundance from Designs by Krista). I really like her stuff. I’ve bought a few of her kits now. (Oops, and the frames were from Manuela Zimmerman. I really like her stuff a lot too.)

Next kit I make I want to go for a more realistic look. I do like my sleepy head kit, but it’s kind of cartoony and bright so I think I’ll try to do more classy and clean with my next one. We’ll see. I have a harder time with that.
→ 1 CommentCategories: My Layouts
Tagged: digital scrapbooking
Sleepy Head Digital Scrapbooking Freebie
April 30, 2008 · 25 Comments
Okay, just finished another freebie. I am pleased with how the papers turned out and how the frame turned out. I made every single part of this kit from scratch so I feel really good about that. I did use Illustrator for some of it. I drew the lace by hand in Illustrator. I am not sure if it looked the best, but oh well I think it looks good to me. Besides my kits are free. I also drew the lambs in Illustrator. Considering I do not know how to draw I think they turned out okay. The rest of it I did in Photoshop. I design all my kits at 200dpi. I know that 300dpi is best, but I have an old computer and my computer just freezes up too much at 300dpi so I just stick with the 200 resolution. They print out just fine for me. Included in this kit are 8 papers, 1 frame, a moon, a star, 5 buttons, an arrow, 2 lambs, 2 fabric tags, a staple, lace, 2 journaling papers, 2 nightcaps, and some zzzs. I hope you enjoy this kit. If you like my kits please give a link back to my site.
Here is a preview of the kit.

→ 25 CommentsCategories: Freebies
Tagged: digital scrapbooking, digital scrapbooking freebies
Cardboard tutorial for Photoshop
April 20, 2008 · 20 Comments
I’m going to teach you how I made this cardboard.

I’ll start by saying there are probably easier and other ways to do it, but since nobody else is sharing how to I started playing around to see if I could figure out how to make something that looked like corrugated cardboard. This is what I came up with and hope somebody else finds this useful.
Step 1. Make a new canvas (document) sized at 12 inches by 12 inches and 300 resolution (will also work fine at 200 resolution and I generally design at 200 resolution, but if you are designing professionally standards are 300 resolution). Set your foreground color to #856543 and your background color to #e2b379. Fill your background layer with your foreground color. Go to Filter > Sketch > Halftone Pattern. Choose line and then use the following settings size 12, contrast 19.

Double click on your background layer to unlock it and then go to Edit > Transform > Rotate 90° CW to flip your stripes to vertical instead of horizontal. Your file should now look like this.

Step 2. Go to filter add noise and add 26% noise set to uniform and monochromatic.

Step 3. Go to filter > Unsharpen mask and set your unsharpen mask to Amount: 500 Radius: 250, Threshhold: 100

Your cardboard should now look like this.

Step 4. Go to filter > stylize > diffuse > Darken only repeat this 2 more times (for a total of 3 times)

Your cardboard should now look like this.

Step 5. Go to filter > texture> grain and switch to vertical with these settings intensity: 40, contrast: 0

Your cardboard should now look like this.

I could have stopped here, but I wanted to have a little more depth so added the following.
Step 6. Duplicate your layer and with the top layer go to emboss set it to the following Angle: -130, Height 15, Amount:500. Don’t worry about the blueish coloring, we’ll fix that in the next step.

Step 7. Desaturate your top layer and change the blending mode to soft light.

Step 8. Merge your two layers and your finished cardboard will look like this.

Here’s an example of what you can do with it. I find the cardboard looks best used underneath something.

→ 20 CommentsCategories: photoshop tutorials
Tagged: digital scrapbooking, photoshop tutorial
