You Glow Girl!

I did a LO the other day which I feel is a little simple but still pretty. (Please click on it to view credits at my DST gallery.) I made it simple because I honestly was so excited by the effect I created that I wanted to use it right away and didn't have time to do anything more than this.

So then I realized that this might make a pretty cool action... the photo effect, not the LO, lol. :D Click on the action example to view it bigger.

So here is the action for you to download. You'll want to read the Tips for more ideas on how to utilize this action to its utmost.

And remember to give credit and leave a little love below in my comments area. Thanks! :D

Have a Seat... this is gonna be long....

I had some fun and wonderful news yesterday morning. I won Doris Castle's Lost Mojo contest!!!! Yipeee! The prize is a $25 GC to her store too!!!! Super Yippeee! I love her style and although I had tons of fun with her 70's style kit doing the LO, I love her soft and flowing style of most of her other kits and can't wait to acquire more! :D

Here's the LO that I created with her cool kit called "Lost Mojo" which you can pick up at ScrapbookGraphics

If you would like to read the journaling or make a comment, you can go to my gallery at DST here.

Now, what is written below was actual written yesterday. It was originally an email to my sweet friend Barb (aka Mrs Miles) and she asked that I post it on my blog because she thought it might amuse you all. So please excuse the fact that it is one long run on paragraph (nevermind the fact that is probably one big run on sentence) that was kinda the way it happened... a long run on moment... here goes... pull up a chair if you haven't already... although how you're at your computer and you're not on a chair... well, nevermind... here goes...



I was writing you this letter when I heard Amelia upstairs doing something that didn't sound good... so, I go upstairs as the phone rings and answer it... its the realestate agent calling to see how the house is coming along and if its ready to sell... I walk into Amelia's room and although its torn apart (which is to be expected with a small room crammed with lots of toys AND a two year old) nothing seems out of the ordinary.... until the realtor is in the middle of a sentence and Amelia walks by and I see a large white clump of "something" in her hair at the back... at first it didn't click but then... oh no!.... yup, sure enough, I go in and the large canister of Balmex diaper rash cream is covered with it ... on the outside!!! And then I notice, the changing table, the changing cover, a stuffed animal toy, a really nice Hawaiian quilt... her pants and then horror of horrors, her face... near her mouth!!! This all happens while I'm still on the phone with the realtor! Thankfully she's understanding and gets off the phone quick after saying she'll be coming over later with her husband to check on something we had talked about earlier. So first I try to get Amelia in order and except for the face and hair and a some whitishness to her pants, she seems fine. So I take the canister down, wipe it off with a cloth and read, "Keep out of reach of children. If swallowed, call poison control immediately." OK, ok, don't panic, don't panic I say to myself... I go downstairs call 911 and they connect me to poison control... and as poison controls connects... Amelia falls and hits her chin! And she's unconsolable... screaming crying to the point I can barely hear poison control person who no doubt thinks the crying is poison related.... sheeshhhhh! So, miraculously through the crying, I answer her questions and she tells me that it should be ok because they normally don't eat so much because its thick and hard to swallow... but does she know my DD I ask myself? Hmmmmm.... so give her water she says... which I do.... and then I go upstairs to survey any more damage and to contain that which has already been contaminated by the white smearing mess that doesn't want to go away easily... all the while asking Amelia if she ate a lot... she's babbling and saying yes and no because to her they're all the same... when I key in on the fact that she keeps mentioning our dog Hoku... and then it slowly and horrifyingly dawns on me... the DOG! She fed it to the dog... and we have a lab mix who eats anything and everything!!!! So I start calling her ... and calling her ... and calling her... now we don't have a big house by any means so for her to not only not hear me but to not come (I'm using my sweet "I love you doggie" voice) is getting me a little scared... my creative imagination which is good for scrapbooking isn't so good when put to the task of envisioning a dog that just ate loads and loads of something that says, call poison control immediately on it! I will admit that there are definitely days that I wish I didn't have a dog but when it comes down to it, I would never really want her to go... and especially not THAT way! Egahds!!! So I go running downstairs and turn the corner all the time calling for the dog, only to realize that while trying to get things straightened away, I had locked her in the basement!!! Whew!!! Still, our usually all black (well super dark brown really) dog has big splotchy toddler sized handprints in white all along her side! Does the fun ever end?!??! So, I try to clean her up best I can and looking at my wreck of a house (remember I said we are moving and I'm cleaning out closets that have been closed for two years, gulp) I decide its best to get Amelia in the tub instead of try to straighten up. So about five minutes after I get the shampoo in her hair, the doorbell rings!!! Right! Of course, I knew something else was gonna happen... so as much as I hate to do it, I tell Amelia to stay in the tub I'll be right back... and I run down to the door... and its the realtor and her husband. They wanted to check on something (that's necessary) in the back and they can't get through the gates as they would normally do because the snow is blocking them closed. Sighhhhh. So, as much as I abhor the thought, I open my door to let them in... into my super, super messy house with tons of stuff scattered everywhere, laundry flung down the stairs which was going to be put into a basket to go downstairs... dishes in the sink, stuff, stuff, stuff EVERYWHERE! Ughhhhhhhhh! So, they say no problem and they go through the house (more mess in other rooms) and outside... then I rush, rush, rush Amelia out of the tub and desperately try to assemble some order in my home... at least enough to make me feel like I'm not a complete wreck of a housekeeper... and they come back in and thankfully leave quick enough so I make lunch for Amelia and set her up then fix myself a bowl of the same pasta, pull the chair out to sit down.... and the dog throws up!!! OH MAN! Can I tell you that I am the absolute last person you want to clean up throw up? Give me the stinkiest most disgusting diaper and I'm fine but a little throw up and my stomach revolts against me, against gravity, against everything and then some! So, with my yummy dish of pasta sitting there almost saying "na na na na na na na," I go to clean up the mess...

OK, that's my day so far... how about you?

A Record!

Two posts in one day! Wow, this is totally a record for me! Lol. I wanted to share some of our yummy chocolates with you all. And since I can't afford to give you the real thing, I thought I would share it digitally. Someday when our site gets up, I'll put the link to our store on my blog... until then, enjoy these! (And the best of it all, no calories!!!)

Click on the photo to eat them up! :D


Oh yes! Please tell me if you like them or not. :D

Has this Ever Happened to You?

Hey all!

I am just kinda well, arghhhhh would be the best way to put it I guess. I just left a chat at a site that I thought I would check out for the first time. I have bought a few small things there (it will remain nameless) and I totally respect their talents so I thought, let me check out a chat. Well, I tried and tried to get "in" on the discussions but there was more of the little chitty-chatty stuff and when I would try to say something, it was lost so quickly. I said hi a couple of times and no one answered. I asked a very pointed question about something they kept talking about that I didn't understand and waited for an anwer... but no one did. I felt totally invisible and unwelcomed.

I know, I know, chats move fast and people can easily get lost in the shuffle but I made a point of saying it was my first chat there. When I was on a moderator team and a creative team on a couple of different sites, I always saw it as part of my job to make sure everyone felt welcomed and that you at the very least said hi to people when they entered the chat. I still do that as a matter of fact, at least in the sites where I'm well known.

I'm not really running the site down... especially because you all don't know which site I'm talking about. I guess I'm more or less just getting this off my chest because I felt totally let down and kinda depressed like a new kid in school who couldn't even be noticed by the popular girls let alone talk to them. I do have more important things in my life of course and this is so small but it bothered me enough that I just wanted to vent a little to the only people who could understand. Its kinda pathetic really and writing about it is helping me get it... ok, I'm feeling kinda silly now. Its just a darned chat afterall right? Lol... ok, never mind! Let's go back to being happy little scrappers now. :D

How Do They Do It?!?!?!

I really wanted to play around and create some different Valentines papers for you all but somehow I got stuck creating the same paper, over and over and over and over! I am hoping you all don't mind. I'll make this post brief and get right to the point... :D If you would like to download these papers....



then click here! :D Have a great day and please leave a comment if you download. :D

I just had to...

I really don't like forwarding things... unless I totally love what it says or I know the person who I'm forwarding it to will totally love what it says... that said, I got something from my sister and I wanted to share it with someone... so I thought of you all and said... ah ha! I don't have to forward it... I just have to post it! So here goes....

:D

YOU KNOW YOU ARE LIVING IN 2006 when...

1. You accidentally enter your PIN on the microwave.

2. You haven't played solitaire with real cards in years.

3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of three.

4. You e-mail the person who works at the desk next to you.

5. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they don't have e-mail addresses.

6. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home to help you carry in the groceries.

7. Every commercial on television has a web site at the bottom of the screen.

8. Leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn't even have the first 20 or 30 (or 60) years of your life, is now a cause for panic and you turn around to go and get it.

10. You get up in the morning and go on line before getting your coffee.

11. You start tilting your head sideways to smile. : )

12. You're reading this and nodding and laughing.

13. Even worse, you know exactly to whom you are going to forward this message.

14. You are too busy to notice there was no #9 on this list.

15. You actually scrolled back up to check that there wasn't a #9 on this list.

AND NOW U R LAUGHING at yourself.

Go on, forward this to your friends. You know you want to!

Pinata Time

Well, I have been away from giving lately and thought I'd make up for it... sooooo, this is kinda like a pinata bursting open with goodies... somethings were in my harddrive and just needed a little tweaking, like that Christmas alpha I promised sometime back... sorry. What started me off though was the idea for the thermometer. Once I did that, I thought I'd just dust off a few more things and throw them out to you all and see how you like them. I made one with and one without the words since I thought you might want to put something else there. My thought is that you could have arrows pointing to the temperature markers (left off the numbers too for you Celcius people wink, wink) and instead of numbers, you could put fun things like "too warm but no sun" or "Frosty is melting" ... well, I'm sure some of you can come up with some better stuff than that, lol. So, here they are in no particular order. Just click on the image to go to the download. And please, leave me some loving not only because its the right thing to do but because it makes me feel good too! :D















PS The blue background on the snowman and the drop shadow / blue background on the thermometer is there only for viewing purposes. . :D

Hmmmmm....

Well, I am terrible... I haven't gotten back to this sad, sad, saaaaad blog in quite some time. I appreciate all the wonderful emails and comments from all of you, my friends. There was a very dear person who wrote an email to me and I honestly "lost" it... I am soooo, soooo sorry! If you read this, please email me again. You were so sweet and understanding and wrote such a lovely long letter telling me to keep my chin up and giving me a wonderful (and much needed) pat on the back. I don't know what I did to lose it. I am a bit of a scatter brain most of the time and I must have opened another window then got distracted, then distracted again and so on and so forth... which isn't as hard to do as you think when you know that I have a two year old that's quite rambunctious. But, I ramble... I just wanted to tell whoever that was that I really meant to reply and thank you in depth but I can't seem to figure out where that email went to! Ughhhhh.

Now, to update those of you who wonder what is going on in my life. Well, hopefully something good! I haven't even told my family this or any of our friends, although my DH has told his (which I guess are mine too) friends but until it comes from my lips, I've not told anyone this yet! (Hmmm, technically then this is coming from my fingers not my lips so am I telling you?!?!? Lol.) OK, really this rambling is getting out of hand! Now onto my dish....

We might be moving! YEAH!!!! I have some mixed emotions about this but for the most part I am thrilled! I am trying to not get too excited because this is going to be very hard for my DH to do and he may back out at the last minute but given the circumstances, this would be the absolute best thing we could do. If anyone reading this is from Long Island, you will think yeah, so what but for the majority of the rest of the country, this will be shocking. Housing on Long Island is nuts... I mean really, really nuts! We have been thinking of downsizing our house and our lifestyle but when a normal little house on less than an eighth of an acre of land goes for half a million dollars (yup, $500,000) and up, what downsize are we talking about?!??! Seriously, we looked at a run down house on a postage stamped size of property in a nice neighborhood (the only reason we looked) and it was $469,000! The taxes were a little over nine thousand a year! Now our house is nice and it has appreciated some in the three years we've lived here but not enough to afford a house half the size on one eighth the property!

Soooo, moving would be swell! Awesome in fact! Where would we move to? North Carolina is where our mental compass is pointed and it seems to be the destination of most leaving Long Island. Keep us in your prayers that this is the move we need to make and that all goes smoothly.

Peace, Love and Hugs my friends!

I haven't scrapped...

well, yes I have but I haven't felt like I've really created anything lately. Now I feel like I have. I really, really, really didn't have time for this today and I really, really, really should have done a million other things but for the moment, I'm on a high because I LOVE this LO! I used an awesome template that is available over at Kathryn Balint and is by Janna Billman. Check it out and snag it if you still can.

So, here is the LO I am so proud of ... to see the credits, please visit Kathryn Balint's site... and if anyone knows who did those wonderful small streamers, let me know ok?

Thanks! Comments appreciated. :D

Sorry, no freebies...

Normally I like to keep things light and fun but I guess I can't really do that today. Its one of those days that makes it difficult to be happy and I think I'm going to just put it down (or out) here for cathartic reasons. If you would prefer the freebies, don't worry, they will be back. I don't like to be like this for long and hopefully I won't.

I'm so down because my wonderful life has been slowly fading away for the past couple of years and last night was just a real scary night. My DH lost his job on Wall Street a little over two years ago and we have been living off of our savings. He opened a business, a chocolate store, and we just can't seem to catch a break. Sales are not what we were hoping they would be and we are going deeper into debt than out of... sighhhhh.

Last night, DH was so depressed that it literally hurt my heart. If there is such a thing as an empath, I would be pretty close to it. Whatever someone else is feeling, is what I am feeling. I just wanted to hug him and hold him and cry but he just wants to stand there and stare at the wall.... its just one of those kinda days... well, years really.

I am not going to say that we are not blessed because we are very, very blessed! My DD is the absolute best thing in the whole wide world and we have each other and knock on wood our health.... we better have that since we don't have any insurance! (Thankfully DD does!)

OK,I'm not going to go on and on, its just not productive but I just had to get some of it out. Its just one of those days... sighhhh.

And for those of you who hung in there and read my heart thats out here on the web, I promise I'll be having a wonderful new Christmas alpha coming soon!

Big Hugs to all my friends!

Vroooom, Vroooooom

OK, I will admit that I've watched a Nascar race or two in my life... well, watched most of it at least... lol. I married a racing person and as the saying goes, if you can't beat 'em join 'em... so I've joined, lol. If you or someone you know is a racing fan, then this quickpage may be of interest to you. I purposefully made this racing generic... if you race on a dirt track on the weekends or you've gone to a race at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte or if you just have a lil one who likes to zoon around in his/her car, this will work for ya.... have fun! And remember, if you like it, please say so in the comments. And if you use it, I really, really, really would love to see it! And here's another incentive to leave a comment... I have more racing themed goodies to give out if I know that you appreciate this kind of thing! Thanks for coming to my humble blog!



:D

Oh yes, the letters (and the white area of the frame) are empty so you can either slide a picture behind or add your favorite fun paper to make it unique. I've left space for journaling too but then I'm sure you could have figured that out all on your own... lol. :D

Here's the link!

Who Doesn't Need a Hug

Every Now and Then?

I found this wonderful video on AOL news this morning and I thought it was such a great way to express the love I feel in the scrapbooking community. I think almost everyone in the digi-world has this in them and would love to share such open, honest love if given the chance.

The story behind this video is interesting too. Seems the gentleman doing the hugging was going through some tough times and decided that instead of wallowing in them, he would do something life affirming and uplifting... hence the "Free Hugs" sign. When a singer noticed this interesting fellow, he did this small film and then put his music to it. That was pretty much the most that ever happend to it until this sweet hugging gentleman then went through some further tough times and the singer put the video up on YouTube to let everyone "Give a Hug" to someone who needed it... the original hugger! How cool is that? And now, he's become an internet You Tube celebrity... even been on Oprah! So, how 'bout you? Need a hug? :D

Black & White

Well, it was supposed to be purely black and white but its somehow went into shades of gray... lol. Soooo, here's another alpha for you! I was trying a new style of shiny text and found a great tutorial for all you Photoshop people. If you like, check it out here! And here's the list of similar tutorials I found while looking.

So, here's my result. I don't know what made me think of putting the smaller lowercase letters inside the uppercase letters but I like it... hopefully you will too. And of course, if you like it I would really appreciate your telling me so in the comment area... because afterall, I'd like it! :D Click on the image to take yourself to the download. :D

I Give to you ... the MOON!

I am trying to come up with something witty about giving you the moon but frankly I'm stumped. Be a dear and leave a witty comment, may be telling me what I should have said... along with if you like it or not please. Lol. Thanks for looking.

Oh, yes, I thought this would be fun on a Halloween LO I created and since I couldn't find a full moon anywhere, I thought you might be in the same boat... soooo, here's the moon for you tonight! Full, (hopefully) beautiful and oh so bright! (The black night sky behind is not included, lol.)

:D

Catch the Moon here!

OK, I gotta stop!

Hello again... wow, this is a record for me! Three freebies in three days! But honestly I really should be doing something else, like working on my business but I am easily distracted... arghhhh. So, I saw a cute alpha someone had with a racecar theme then thought, I'll try that.... next thing you know, I'm making a Halloween alpha! Go figure!

Well, since it came out pretty cute (it helps to start with a cute font, lol) I thought I'd share once again! So, you know the program, be the wonderful person you know you are and leave me a thanks or a thanks and a comment. I am so loving all the wonderful comments that have been left and I gotta say, it totally makes me want to make more! Lol.

Thanks all... oh, here's what it looks like btw. There are actually four alphas and one letter shows you an example from each of the four. Have fun and please show me anything you use these for, I really would love to see it! :D

Here you go! :D

Oh, sorry, one more thing. If you missed any of my other freebies, they are all still available through the links below. :D

A Divine Thanks!

I am getting a little carried away with giving away freebies but I have to say that its all because of you! Well, you the ones that make my life happy by giving of yourselves with your wonderful comments! I also wanted to extend a thank you to all my DivineDigital.com friends and friends-to-be because I recently was chosen to be the Last Scrapper Standing in their six week competition! It was lots of fun and there were some extremely talented ladies putting out beautiful LOs too. I am still realing with the fact that I was chosen over many of them... some of them are such inspirations to me as well!

Oh, in case you'd like to see, here is my winning LO and if you'd like to read my writing (yes, that's my icky ol' handwritting scanned in and placed on the cool notebook), you can go see it here.

Sooooo, today's freebie is actually something I created while in another round of the competition... here's the LO I used it in
and here's where you can see it.

So now I don't think the big doodles will do anyone any good since they really are all one gigantic doodle surrounding my DD but the butterfly and the dragonfly would work, right? But I can't leave well enough alone... I still had to play with them so I created a hybrid of these doodles. I'm thinking it something more along the lines of a glitter glue / vellum wings kinda thing. I actually am giving you two pngs of both critters, one with shadows and one without. I just recently learned how to create shadows on transparent objects so I thought I'd give it to you in both forms in case you would like a transparent shadow.

OK, I'm rambling and that cute lil' sweetie above is going to wake and start screaming soon... yup, she rarely wakes quietly... and well, then Mommy's free time isn't so free.

BUT of course what is free, are these two fun critters and you can download them right here! Just please remember to read my TOU and be nice to me by leaving some comments... because after all, the more comments I get, the more I feel like making and giving fun freebies!

Oh, yes, almost forgot... the swirly paper behind the dragonfly is only there for show... sorry. :D

Ho Ho Ho... yummmmm, cookies!!!

Thankfully these are totally fat free and amazingly calorie free too! But they still look yummy to me! Lol... hopefully you'll think so too. There are all the letters of the alphabet, numbers plus a question mark, exclamation point and a period... hopefully that's all you'll need. The drop shadow you see is only for viewing purposes and you will find these flat, all contained in one file which of course I do not want any bloody pirates getting into their greedy lil' hands! Avast ye matey's be kind and direct their sails to my waters where I'll give them my booty or someone will kick them in theirs!!! ;)

I did these quite a while ago for a freebie during a Christmas in July crop and I'm still not sure if they got handed out or not... sooooo, I'm thinking I would really like to know they get used or at least appreciated...

sooooo.... hint, hint, hint... please leave a little something in my oven of lovin' for my baked goods!

:D

Here's where you can find these yummies, all nice and warm... straight out of my harddrive! :D

Posting of Steel

Don't ask me why but I made these funny lil' words. It really boils down to the fact that one day I was checking out some Photoshop tutorials and playing around. When I found the tutorial for making steel text, my mind went to an obvious place.... and these were born. Actually, I only did Man of Steel and then just revisited to make the others. Come on, we all know a toddler of steel right? Well, at least I do! Lol.

Here's the link for the Steel Text. They are in seperate PNG files and there isn't any background or shadow. :D

So leave a lil' suga if you download please by commenting below. Oh, yes, someone asked me to reupload the links for things but I just checked and they are all still valid so download away. The Autumn QP was reloaded to 4shared and that new link is in the post below.

Oh, yes... one last thing. I found some other great Photoshop tutorials at Wacom.com so check those out if you are a tutorial fan. Here's the direct link to the tutorials.

And still they Fall

Hello again!

I am happy to hear that the link ran out for my freebie quickpage! That means that it was downloaded 100 times which is very cool to know that you all like it that much. Very cool. :D

So since there are still more out there that would like to get this, I am happy to give you a new link. I have been having some problems with YouSendIt for some reason so I am trying 4shared. Let's see how it goes. Here's the QP link.

And in the previous post you'll notice I mentioned some additional papers. I broke it into two downloads but still don't have a preview. Consider it a grab bag and if you like it keep it otherwise you can put it in your trash, lol. Here's the paper link

And if you wanted to get a couple of goodies that have no reason whatsoever to be put together. They are some sparkly kissing fish which I digitally cut out of a picture I took of my DD's shirt and a crocheted doiley which I think might look cute on the side of a page... let me see please if you use any of these! :D Here's that Crochet and Fish link.

And here's a preview of the fish and the crochet





And last but not least, please, please, please leave a comment if you download anything. I really like to hear from people! :D Oh, and just one more thing, drop shadows are only placed on the above two images for preview purposes. Have fun! :D

The Autumn Leaves are Falling

OK... I think I might actually try to use this blog. I made up some freebies and I would like to give them out so I thought, what the hey, use the blog you made silly. So here goes!

If you download this, I really would like a comment. Consider it the payment you give for what I am giving if you like. That said, please don't hotlink to the freebie, instead send them to this poor pathetic blog so that they too can leave a comment. That's all I ask. :D

Oh, yes, the preview shows just a quickpage but you will find some papers and and an overlay to create your own papers as well.

You can download this Falling Fall Leaves QP and other goodies here.

If the link runs out, please let me know and I'll be happy to upload it again... how many times I'm not sure but I'll see how popular it is and how many leave comments too. One last thing, if you would like the leaves, please let me know and I may upload them as well in the future.

:D

Rebecca