Digi-Mom

The screensaver on our computer is a slideshow of photos I’ve taken over the years.  You would think as someone who scrapbooks that I’d have done more with those pics but no, they’ve stayed in digital form. Thankfully,  when I decided join in on the My Memories digital scrapbooking challenges, I had plenty of pictures to choose from.

The picture used on this page is now sixteen years old! I only had given birth to one kid at that point but was featuring a very full belly as my second arrived a month later. In the shot is my eldest daughter’s hand and that of  her cousin, putting candies into a pile. We gather with my family for Easter brunch every year, except this one, and after eating the kids go play while the Easter Bunny hides chocolate treats. Then when all the goodies have been collected, the kids dump their findings into a big pile and watch eagerly as someone divides the sweets evenly between them.

The one requirement of this challenge was to use the free digital papers and embellishments given away during March’s blog train. Every month, there is a colour palette selected and the various designers from My Memories create free items with those colours. Mid-month they post on their blog pages and you hop from blog to blog  collecting the goodies. I’ve already hopped on board April’s blog train and am eager to get started on the next challenge presented by Over The Fence Designs.

Another challenge I’m planning on joining each month is called Follow the Recipe presented by Connie Prince. Essentially there are required items that your scrapbook page must include.  February’s recipe was:
-3 or more papers
-2 hearts
-1 flair
-1 ribbon
-1 scallop or lace border

My version was closely based on the “inspiration” page Connie provided which consisted of only one photo and although I quite liked how mine turned out, I wanted to include all my babies.

IMAGES TEMPORARILY REMOVED AS PER AGREEMENT WITH CSM, WILL REPOST ONCE PUBLISHED IN SPRING 2021 ISSUE!!

Amazingly, I’ve completed eleven challenges this month, four in March and one in February.  One of  my favourite things about digital scrapping is that you can easily add or delete photos or elements and move them around without making a mess…there’s enough of that in my house as it is!

“A picture is worth a thousand words, but a scrapbook is worth a million memories.”

Remedios Lina C. Villarosa-Garcia

Crafts in the time of Covid-19*

Years ago I used to share my digital scrapbooking on this blog.  I’m at it again! Yes, some of the time on my tuchus in front of the computer has been spent creatively.  I still turn to MyMemories for great digital papers, quotes, and embellishments but lately, I’ve joined its forum to participate in various challenges.

I’m going to share a couple of my recent efforts and the My Memories freebies for those who scrap digitally. These two freebies are only valid until April 19th. If you are interested in starting to scrap digitally, I have a deal for you! My Memories has sent me an email that I’m allowed to forward to as many folks as I would like and in it is a link that will let you download their My Memories Suite 8 for FREE until April 30! The software is perfect for creating photobooks of past memories and scrapbook pages of what you are doing today (simply export to a JPEG and you can easily email your pages to those you want to share it with). Just leave me a comment if you want it and I’ll get in touch with you.

Absolutely Spring: Click here or on image

Mother May I: Click here or on image

I’m a total cheapskate so most of my digital downloads are ones I’ve managed to get for free. One great thing about some of these challenges is that they give you a freebie to use on your page or as a reward you for posting, sometimes it’s a mini kit from the online shop. There are also plenty of free items in the shop and most months there is a My Memories blog hop where you can get beautifully colour co-coordinated digital items from many designers – one should be starting today on the MM blog. So here are a couple of my pandemic creations. First is my Dr Bonnie page – love that woman! – the pandemic related words were given to be used with the Staying Home scrap challenge.

Next is about another one of my passions -reading.  The Keep Calm challenge freebie had many options to pick from: Keep calm &:  Stay Home, Shop Online, Work From Home, Be Kind, Home-School, Pray, Watch TV, or Give Thanks – all of these apply in my household but I picked one.  As you can see from my page I use GoodReads to track my reading – I even have a feed on this blog – because I read so much!

Anyhoo, more another day – maybe!

“Scrapbooking isn’t about scraps of paper and photos.  Scrapbooking is about scraps of life – yours and those special to you.” 

Rebecca Sower

*Apologies to Gabriel García Márquez for bastardizing Love in the Time of Cholera for my own giggle.

Yikes!

Just realized that I haven’t posted in almost a year! Clearly my time is going by very quickly. Can’t say that I’ve accomplished anything major in the past year or even created any cards/scrap pages worth posting. Guess I should clean my craft area and get back to it.

In the meantime, here are 3 freebies for you.

I hope you can make good use of them!

It takes a long time to bring the past up to the present.
FDR

Long time no post

Hi all,

It’s been ages since I’ve posted…not much to say I guess. Anyhoo, I was going through my uploaded photos and found a few that weren’t attached to any posts so I thought I’d show you a couple. Never mind that the wedding card I’m posting was made so long ago that the bride and groom have a bouncing baby boy already! I used the bride’s chosen colours for this.

 

So here they are after over 1 and a half years!

Hey, if you are into digital scrapbooking and would love a free kit go to Design House Digital for their great blog hop and collect the coupon code letters on the way to download a beautiful kit for FREE!

Now I must go, see you in a few days, weeks or months, I can’t really say!

“I have great hopes that we shall love each other all our lives

as much as if we  had never married at all.”
Lord Byron

Cool cupcake wrappers

Here’s a great freebie for those of you who like to pretty up your summer treats.  If you have the right software, you can even make your own personal touches.  If you don’t have any software that will work for these, you can download them just as zip files.

If you are looking for a cheap ($39.97 US) but good scrapbooking, card-making software that you can use these with I can give you a code to get $1o off the software, My Memories.  If you use this code to purchase the software, you will also get a code worth $10 to spend at mymemories.com so you can get some cool digital downloads to work with. (You can find the code in the right hand column of my blog.)

http://www.mymemories.com/store/share_the_memories_kit_1  Click here to get the July 4th topper.

http://www.mymemories.com/store/share_the_memories_kit_2   look like these:

The last one is quite elegant.

This can be found at: http://www.mymemories.com/store/share_the_memories_kit_3

Using MyMemories Software to Customize your Cupcake Liners

1. Download template file and install it into your software
2. Using MyMemories Suite, choose Create Album From Designer Template and find your project
3. Now you can print and enjoy the provided template, or customize it with your own papers and embellishments.

TIP: You can right-click on the white guide and lock it in place to keep it from moving while you are working. Make sure this is the top layer of your project before printing. Instead of adding the paper as a background paper, you can add it as an embellishment so that you can move the paper around.  This is especially useful when using papers with stripes or circles, so you can decide which part of the paper you want to use. Once it is added as an embellishment, you can now select the paper and move it into the position you want it.  Just SAVE and PRINT on cardstock!

Cupcake Liner Tutorial

1.  Purchase or bake and cool cupcakes.  If cupcakes are frosted, place in refrigerator and chill cupcakes before putting liners on.  It is easier to put liners on if the frosting is cold. 2.  Print your cupcake liner templates on cardstock and gather supplies.  Each printed page will have enough supplies for 2 cupcakes. (Recommended supplies: small craft scissors, tape, foam squares, 1.25″ circle punch, toothpicks and ribbon)
3.  Using the scissors cut along outside line. TIP: Use a 1.25″ circle punch to cut out the toppers.  If printed at full size, the circles should be exactly the same size.

4.  Wrap liner around cupcake and tape at seam. TIP: If using a smaller cupcake, just wrap around at the desired height. You can place a smaller cupcake at the bottom of the liner or make it tighter and wrap it around at the top.

5.  Using foam squares or tape, attach the front and back circles together to form the topper. Insert toothpick between the circles.

6. Add ribbon onto the toothpick or at the bottom of the front circle, if desired.

7.  Insert toothpick into cupcake.  Enjoy the finished cupcakes and share.  Don’t forget to use your imagination.

If you do decide to purchase the software, the code to use is: STMMMS89083

“When you look at a cupcake, you’ve got to smile.”

~ Anne Byrn

Blog Hopping Along and tidying up

opping along and practicing some cools new techniques/challenges I'm learning from DHD for my digital scrapbooking.

If you think the H is cool, check out Daily Drop Cap for loads of cool drop caps to add to your  blog posts or digital scrapbooking!

I know I been absent for eons now, but as I have given up my SU demonstrator status, I've had a bit of a break from crafting.  My craft area is finally organized how I like and I've even pared down on some supplies (gasp!) so I can get back to the inks and papers soon.

I will soon be selling some older stamp sets and have loads of older SU catalogues to give away.  If any SU demo out there would like SU bags and a few other demo supplies, drop me a line.

Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.

George Bernard Shaw

It’s digital, Marnie!

Hey, Marnie – this is for you!  Probably not what you expected from me in terms of the photos used.  It’s way out of my comfort zone for digital scrapping but isn’t life about pushing limits??  Something about the graffiti grabbed me and I had to scrap it.  Sadly, I think only one or two elements on this page are Stampin’ Up products – but then, I don’t buy any digital stuff except SU – the rest I get for free from some amazing sites.

Enjoy!

Like what you see?  Let me know!

“gray hair is gods graffiti”
Bill Cosby

Post dating my blog

I’m sitting at the kitchen table, with the laptop, eating a yummy cheeseburger (apologies to vegetarians, Orthodox Jews, and Tim).  It’s Sunday, April 17th and I thought I’d dabble in advanced blogging.  There aren’t a lot of opportunities when I have computer access AND feel the need to do something other than play Bejeweled Blitz (curse you, Reanna & Stephen) or browse Facebook.  So, I’m seeing if I can get the deferred posting option to work for me.  I’ve tried it before to no avail, but I think the problem with my blogging was pure operator error!

Anyhoo,  I said that I had indeed done some crafting before so here is an example:

First up, the hybrid scrapbook page I made.  It is not pure Stampin’ Up as I am quite happy to look about online for free digital elements and even have a few delivered to my inbox daily.  But all of my digital work is created in My Digital Studio and with the exception of not being able to use the freebie alpha sets from some sites, I have no complaint what so ever!

My parents have (so far) been blessed with an even dozen grandkids.  I say so far, ’cause we are hoping that at least one or two more will pop out – and no, not from me!  Three is just right.

Heather was invited to a party a couple of weeks ago, so, of course, I made a card.  The little birthday girl really likes Hello Kitty 😦  So trolled online and found another SU demonstrator who had created a Hello Kitty card and I copied here!  Thanks to creatingthehive.com I found her and was able to create this little item in spite of my intense dislike of all things Hello Kitty.  However, at this point, I can’t mention her name as my stupid browser won’t open the site!  But, if I have success with advanced blogging, you will never know as I can go in and change this info!!

It’s nowhere near as good as the original that inspired it, but not too bad considering I made it in 20 minutes without following her instructions to the letter.

(I’d did manage to look her up and her name is Lynn Pratt – she’s pretty awesome)

 

The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.

Albert Einstein

And the winners are…

Remember I recently posted the entries I sent in for the Stampin’ Up My Digital Studio contest??  Well, I’ve finally managed to get my memory back in line and am now put the link here so that you can see the winners and check out their creations. http://www.stampinup.com/us/enu/18786.asp

Enjoy!

I’ve been trying to get some crafting done in time for Valentine’s Day as I have 3 little monkeys in school now and that means loads of cards for their friends.  I could easily grab those little ones from the dollar store but where’s the fun in that??  So I grabbed some cardstock in the retired colours (hey, I love my kids and even like their friends, but why use current stuff on their cards when I have a mess load of older cardstock to use up?).  As a fabulous mom, I also have stamps with their names on them – saves me the agony of watching them scribble their names over and over getting messier as they go along.  Here’s what I made – 21 for K, 26 for H and 30 for S.

Then I grab those handy leftover bags from the Summer Reading Club medals, add candy, heart-shaped lollipops, and stickers and send the kids to school!

Like what you see?  Let me know!

I claim there ain’t
Another Saint
As great as Valentine.
~Ogden Nash

Contest entries

Hi all,

I’ve been a bad girl and haven’t posting in eons!  But as the snow gently drifts down, I’m suddenly feeling the need to post.

A while ago Stampin’ Up held an amazing contest for both demonstrators and customers alike.  The challenge was to use only My Digital Studio and SU downloads in order to create 2 scrapbook pages and a card.  I decided it was time to actual submit something.  well, I didn’t win but that’s okay.  I set a goal and achieved it and have some great work to show for it – if I may say so myself.    Now that the winners are chosen, I can go ahead and show you all what I made.

The first one is of K’s feet, well not her feet, but the cool shoes she picked out to wear when she started preschool this year.  We were down in Oregon and she was so excited about her sisters’ getting back-to-school shoes that she decided to find some for herself.  Turns out she has pretty good taste in shoes.

My second entry was designed around the colours and patterns of K’s purplish flowered pants.  We were at Fort Langley and I couldn’t tear the girls away from the adventure playground.

I didn’t have to do a card – the contest was quite flexible but I thought I’d push myself and submit the maximum.  So at the last-minute, almost literally, I threw a Christmas card together.  This evening, with the snow, can you pretend it’s still Christmastime when you look at it??

So that’s what I did!  If you like what you see, let me know.  I’m going to try to be a good girl and post more.  One of my girls has already told me that I’m on the naughty list for next year, so I have a lot to do to redeem myself before next Christmas!

 

 

Art has never been a popularity contest.
James Levine