Enter to win my newest template set!

Well, I’m back from an unexpected hiatus, and I decided to give my blog a makeover. What do you think? Do you even remember what it used to look like since it’s been so long? I still may do a little more tweaking, specifically with the new header, but it works for now.

I finally gave in and signed up for Twitter a few days ago. Kelleigh and Pam wrote about speedcleaning on their blogs last week, and that was the final push I needed. As Kelleigh says on her blog, "The idea behind #speedclean is that you clean as fast as you can so you can get on to doing the stuff that you love to do. Just get it over with." So if you’re on Twitter, you need to check out #speedclean. And if you’re not on Twitter, go sign up so you can check it out!

This year I decided to give Project 365 a go. The idea of taking a picture a day for an entire year is a little daunting, but how cool will it be at the end of the year?! So far, so good…I’ve only missed a couple days. But now I need to scrap my January photos. Have you?

I just released Volume 1 of my 2010 Project 365 Template series. Just in time to get those January photos scrapped. Each set in the series will include interchangeable week and date specific page borders. So this first set includes a solid border, borders for weeks 1-4 and date specific borders for the first four weeks of the year (i.e. January 1 – 7, 2010).



You could win my new Project 365 Templates, Vol. 1. What do you need to do to enter? Two things:

1 – Follow me on Twitter.

AND

2 – Be sure to leave a comment at the end of this blog post with your Twitter username.

I will randomly select one of my Twitter followers to win on Saturday, February 6. And in the meantime, if you just can’t wait, Project 365 Templates Vol. 1 is 20% off until February 8, 2010 at FaithSisters and My Life and Scrap.

Challenges, Challenges!

I'm hosting some really fun challenges right now over at Faith Sisters and My Life and Scrap!

The current Mystery Lift Challenge over at My Life and Scrap goes through November 15.




And this week's Faith Sisters Template Challenge goes through November 11.

Speed Scrap and a freebie!

Anybody else have kids home sick lately? DS#2 is finally going back to school today after being out for four days last week. Fever, cough, stuffy nose... Thankfully nobody else in our family got the fever part. But it sure has been going through his class at school. If we're already doing this in October, I can't wait for winter. Sheesh.

I've been so busy and off kilter with him home sick that I completely forgot to blog about the speed scrap I'm hosting later today over at My Life and Scrap (Monday, October 12 @ 2:30 p.m. Eastern/11:30 a.m. Pacific). And I'm providing the participation prize, too! It's a fun little pumpkin alpha. (Each pumpkin is approximately 1.5" tall.)





And I also have a brand new freebie template for you! Grab it quick before it goes into my store! If you use it for any layouts, please come back and link me up so that I can see what you've created with it! You can download it here.

I actually made some time to scrap!

I actually made some time to scrap using my Template #6 (scroll down to the previous post) and this amazing new collaboration between MKC and the Hybrid Kid. It's available starting today over at The Digichick.

MLAS update, challenge details & a freebie

Everyone is still working like mad behind the scenes to get My Life and Scrap back up and running. We've hit a few snags due to it being Labor Day weekend, so it's taking a little longer than we initially anticipated. But look out! When we come back up it will be EXCITING! You won't want to miss it! So stay tuned!

In the meantime, I don't want you to forget about working on the Mystery Lift Challenge. I know you will all be flooding the gallery with your Mystery Lift layouts in a few days when MLAS comes back up. (Scroll down to the post from September 2, 2009 for more info.) Here are the details about the September 1-15, 2009 Mystery Lift Challenge so you can be working on it over the next few days:

YOU WILL NEED:

* 1 neutral (solid, texturized) background paper

* 1 horizontal photo (Duplicate it two times and close the original.)

* Enlarge the first copy of your photo so that it covers the entire layout.

* Place the photo over your background paper.

* Play with the blending modes of the photo layer to blend the photo with the background paper until you achieve a look that you like (the "soft light" and "overlay" blending modes are often a good place to start, but don't be afraid to play!)

* Resize the second copy of your photo to 4x6 (horizontal).

* Put the 4x6 photo near the lower right corner of the layout.

* Tilt the photo slightly (left side down, right side up so it's not sitting perfectly horizontal).

* Put a frame around the photo.

* Add some elements, ribbons, ric rac peeking out from behind the photo and frame.

* Attach one element to the upper right corner of the photo.

* Attach two elements to the lower left corner of the photo.

* Then place a tag over those two elements. (One should be peeking out from above the tag, and one should be peeking out from below the tag.)

* Put your title on the tag.

* Begin your journaling in the upper right corner of the layout (2-3 inches from the edge) and continue down the side of the page, stopping slightly above the photo & frame. (The journaling is a 2-3 inch wide column of text, right-justified.)

* Don't forget to add the drop shadows!

And now that you've completed your MLAS Mystery Lift Challenge, you've earned a little gift! :) ***SORRY, LINK EXPIRED.***

I created a template for you to use to help pass the time while we wait for the site to come back up. Be sure to grab the template now because it will only be available as a freebie for a limited time. Then it will be going into my store. (***SORRY, LINK EXPIRED.***) Please leave me some love if you download the template, and of course come back and link me up to any layouts you create with it so I can see what you've done!

Challenges, a contest & a freebie!

August is in full swing and that means new challenges are up over at My Life and Scrap. These challenges are a fun way to get some scrapping done, and you can earn points towards free stuff from MLAS while you're at it, too!

My favorite is the Mystery Lift challenge, but that's probably because I'm the host. :) You can find all of the details about the current Mystery Challenge here.



And be sure to go check out the rest of the challenges! They're a lot of fun!
(And keep reading for another reason to do the challenges this month…)

Font Challenge

Gourmet Scrapping Challenge

Scrap Mix Challenge

Scraplift Challenge

Template Challenge

Hybrid Challenge

Lyrics Challenge

This month, in addition to the points you can earn good for coupons at the MLAS shop when you complete the challenges, you could also win a $5 coupon to my store! (And I’ve got some great new products that will be going into my store during August!)

Here’s how you get entered for a chance to win a $5 coupon to my store:

Every time you complete a challenge at My Life and Scrap this month, come back to this blog post and leave a comment linking me up to your post in the appropriate challenge thread over at MLAS. Your name will go into the drawing once for every challenge layout you complete over at MLAS. So the more challenge layouts you complete in August, the better your chances to win! Plus if you use any of my products, including any of my past or current freebies, in your layout, your name will go into the drawing twice for that layout! (Of course, be sure to include a list of all products used to create your layout when you upload it to the gallery.) But you have to remember to come back to my blog and link me up. The deadline to post your links here on my blog will be 11:59 p.m. (Central) Monday, August 31.

And now for reading all of that info, here’s a freebie for you! This is actually a sneak peek at one of the new products coming soon to my store. My Frame It Up templates are 5x7 templates for use with a 4x6 photo. Use them as a quick yet elegant way to frame and mat a photo to hang up at home, give as a gift or use in a layout. You can either use the included black or white background, or dress it up by adding one of your favorite digital papers instead. Or you can take the text border and photo mask and use them on their own in your next layout!



Here are a few examples of the template in use:

4x6 photo with text border


5x7 photo with text border overlay


4x6 photo on white 5x7 mat


4x6 photo with added background paper (from my Neutral Set #1 Paper Pack)


5x7 photo with text border overlay


And as always, if you download the sampler I’d love to see how you use it! So be sure to come back and leave a link in the comments!

Happy scrapping!

A new template freebie!

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged…still trying to figure out some kind of schedule to carve out time for my designing/scrapping while the kids are all home for the summer… But of course the kids and summer get priority. I know they won’t be this age forever and I don’t want to miss out!

Thought you’d like to know that I’m hosting the Thursday Template Challenge this week over at FaithSisters. You can check out all of the details here. Come grab the free template and play along!

Exciting News!

Woo hoo! I was asked to join the design team over at FaithSisters. I will gradually be adding more products to my store, but I have two products available so far. The first is my Backyard Explorers Element Pack. The second is Template #1. And both are available for 20% off April 3 – 5!

A Year in Review template set

One of my New Year’s resolutions? To be a better blogger! :)

I have a new set of free templates available. Each template gives you the option of using either the white border with text or a solid white border without text. Please leave a little love via a comment here on my blog if you download it. And be sure to come back and link me up if you use one of the templates. I’d love to see your layouts! Thanks!

***Link Expired***

Well, today's the day...

Today's the day that I finally "reveal" my blog to the world. :) I never thought I would want to do a blog, but here I am. I finally caved. Although I'm going to tell you right up front, you won't find much personal stuff here. This is primarily going to be a place for me to share some digi freebies that I create. I’m not sure how often I will be posting freebies…I’d like to post at least once a week. But knowing how life can go, it may only be a couple times a month. So be sure to go over and subscribe to my blog. That way you’ll never miss a freebie, and you won’t have to keep coming back here wondering, “When is she ever going to get around to posting a new freebie?!” And hey, go ahead and grab the blinkie I made, too, while you’re at it. :)

I started digi scrapping in June 2007. Didn't mean to do it...we only got PSE 5 because it came bundled with Adobe Premiere Elements for doing video stuff. So I started playing around with PSE. Googling for tutorials led me to Designer Digitals where I found Jessica Sprague's First Layout Tutorial for Photoshop Elements, and I was able to create my first digi layout! Then I discovered Jessica's web site, and life hasn't been the same since! I took her Up & Running with PSE class in August 2007, Now We're Rockin' with PSE class in October 2007, and now I'm anxiously waiting for next week to get here so I can start her Digi: In Deep class on Monday!

So in honor of my blog's "Grand Opening" I have three free templates to share with you. (Some of my friends from over at the Jessica Sprague message board have already seen the first two.) And yes, these are pretty simple, straightforward templates. There’s plenty of room to add to them and embellish to your heart’s delight. But the way I figure, if a template saves me even 5-10 minutes, that’s 5-10 minutes more for me to spend scrapping! :) So grab ‘em if you’d like. If you do use them, I’d love to see any layouts you make with them. Link me up to where you have your layout(s) posted! Who knows, maybe I’ll post a few reader layouts here on my blog.

You’ll notice that although there are three templates today, there are six previews (two versions for each template). That’s because I can’t decide which preview I like the best. So take a look…do you like Preview 1 (on the left) or Preview 2 (on the right) the best? Be sure to post a comment and let me know. I’m going to tally the votes to help me decide which way to do my previews in the future.

Thanks for dropping by my blog! I hope you’ll stop back sometime.

(The links are below the previews.)


Two Hearts Template

Heart on Grid Template

Template Freebie 3