A scrapping tip :)

Patterned papers.  I love to look at them, but wow do they mess with my journaling (because I do journal.  Sometimes.  Honest!).  I've more or less relied on tags or a piece of solid paper "pasted" in my journal spot, but sometimes this works, and sometimes I just don't really care for the effect :(  So when I read a cute tale on Sir Scrapalot's blog about overcoming this problem by gently eroding the patterned paper to allow for journaling, I thought it was an inspired idea!

This was all fresh in my mind when I began work on Bohemian Fall, which has some vividly patterned papers.  So in order to help the scrapper, I created solid papers with the same texture as each patterned paper.  All you need to do is slip the plain paper behind the patterned one, and with a large soft eraser brush (set at a low opacity) remove a bit of the patterned areas until it's light enough to no longer interfere with your journaling.  Then just merge the two layers together and you're ready to write!

Here's a layout I did using this technique:

Heya, misery! Want company?

Today was one of those days where I had twelve million four hundred and seven ideas floating around in my mind.  Unfortunately, it was also one of those days where I was unable to execute anything, other than a couple of minor successes that were more incidental than focused.

I remember when I first started scrapping days like today terrified me.  I was convinced that I'd lost any creative spark I may have possessed.  I was convinced the creative spark would never come back.  And finally at some  point, I usually decided that the creative spark was an illusion and I might as well just go wash dishes. 

Fortunately, having traveled along this path before, I know that probably even as early as tomorrow some of those ideas zinging around in my head will come to fruition (the creative ones, not the dishes - please don't tell my husband!) and things will go relatively smoothly again.  It doesn't keep me from feeling like the day was a failure, but it does lessen the fear that I've lost it all, LOL. 

So, rather than spend any more time playing Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook (which, curiously, is also not going well) I redecorated my blog with Colorado Cliff.  At least the day wasn't a complete loss!  And now I'm going to go write down as many of the great ideas as I can still remember...

Scrap Happy :)

I've done a lot of scrapping in the last few days, and I have to be honest, it feels really good!  I am bound and determined that I WILL get books done for Christmas this year, so I need to be organizing and getting the right layouts done!

I think my favorite is this two-pager of some of our Mesa Verde pix, scrapped with Colorado Cliff.  I'm getting pretty fond of the two page layout, even though they seem to take me FOREVER to accomplish. I couldn't find a template in my stash that seemed right, so I just fiddled til I came up with this.

My daughter took this photo at a wedding last weekend.  It cracked me up, seriously.  I took it off her blog and used Wendyzine's enlarge action on it, twice (so it wouldn't actually look very good if I printed it) but I wanted to play with it and my new kit Bohemian Fall.  I'm learning that sometimes I want to scrap just for the fun of it - I don't necessarily print them out but I have a good time!

These two are companion pages showcasing my husband's annual motorcycle trip.  I'm pleased with the way they turned out.  Again, a two page layout whether all one or companion pieces really seems to work with the way I want to present my photos these days.  For this pair, I used a background from my Remembrance kit and fooled around til I had sort of a carved star and maple leaf to suggest the two countries.

As I said, I'm pleased with the way it worked out, and I made a template of the second one as a jumping off place for future layouts (Jen Wilson at Simple Scrapper had a template with the stroke and the drop shadow on the photos spots, and it makes it such a snap to get a handle on a multiphoto layout that I shamelessly copied the effect on mine)

Admittedly, a simple template in a day of elaborate options, but you're welcome to use it if it helps :)  I'm one of those independent scrappers who likes to come up with my own embellishment placement but find the photo spots very helpful.

Download HERE

And don't forget, all of my kits are on sale for $1.50 for the rest of the week at PDW for Talk Like A Pirate Week!

Argh, Matey! It be Time fer Sales and a Huge Freebie!

It's time for the Sales Event of the Year at Plain Digi Wrapper!  That's right, it's the annual Talk Like a Pirate Sales Extravaganza, and you are not going to want to miss it- all of my designs will be on sale for just $1.50 each!  It's a great time to stock up and have a little fun (not to mention retail therapy with no guilt trip!)

And to get this Pirate Party started, I'm going to do something I haven't done in a long time...

I'm giving away a full kit!

(Offer expired, sorry!)


Happy Shoppin' to ye, and enjoy yer plunder!

Colorado Cliff in the Store!

As any other scrapper often does, I have a backlog of photos to scrap that I keep thinking, "I'll get to that."  Chief on that pile are the photos I took on our little mini-vacation last May.  After nine years in Colorado, I FINALLY made it to Mesa Verde, LOL!  The main thing that held me back was that I wanted to make my own kit to scrap my pictures, and the muse wasn't quite ready to do that.  Until now!

Colorado Cliff reflects the lovely colors and distinctive textures of the southwestern corner of Colorado, but it would be extremely suitable for a host of outdoor photos and the more masculine spectrum of the scrapper's arsenal :)

Here it is, with just a few layouts to get you started:

Layouts by Jennifer:

(and one from me)

Colorado Cliff Page Kit will be on sale for $4.50 this week :)

Ready for more Pirate fun!??? Free Kit to get started!

 This is what I found in the PDW gallery.  While I'm not exactly sure what it means, I do know what the prizes potentially could be, and trust me, you WANT TO SIGN UP.

And to help with that trust, I'm offering everyone who signs up for the Pirate's Log Challenge a free kit of their choice!  PM me a link to your post in this thread and I'll send you a coupon to my store good for a free kit :)

So what are you waiting for???  

Last chance to get the Booty Bags at PDW!

Tomorrow the booty bags will be spilled into their individual parts, so today is your last chance to save!  For those of you on the fence about whether you want to spend money on something you haven't seen, I'll reveal the contents of mine:

and that's it!  $3.00 in my PDW Shoppe!

Ahhh, back to me!

I'll be honest, I'm a bit uncomfortable with the grabbag concept (at least as I interpret it) so preparing items for mine stretched me.  Not that being stretched is a bad thing, mind you, but I was absolutely delighted to go back to working on something that felt a bit more "me."  And I can already tell it's one of my favorites!  The color palette was plucked from a real life drive past Montana fields that are ripe and ready for harvest, and the most beautiful glowing gold you can imagine.  Combine that with a stormy sky backdrop and the evergreen windbreak near the farmhouse, and you have Montana Gold.

And some lovely layouts from my team:

(Layout by Jennifer)

(Layout by Candy [template from Studio Dutchie])

(Layouts by Lori [template on LO2 by Scraps of Candy])

(Layout by Sondra)

And last, one from me :)

I've also made an alpha to coordinate with the kit :)

You can download it HERE

Talk to Me - "Momma said to be prompt"

My bones can just feel it - fall is just around the corner!  And the beginning of a new month brings us a new journaling challenge over at Plain Digi Wrapper :)  Come on over and check it out - I'm giving you a pack of journaling prompts to help you get started telling your layout's story this month!

Check out the challenge HERE :)