Last Freebie of the Year!

Hi everybody, I hope you all had an amazing Christmas! Can you even believe this year is over. I cant! It has been a crazy and wonderful year and I am looking forward to a great new year. Soooooooo, is anyone else doing the whole New Years Resolution thing? I have never done it in the past because I know how lousy I am at keeping my own resolutions, but this year I've decided to make some. Okay, I'm not going to call them resolutions because well, I'm not entirely sure that I'm what you would call resolved, I'm just going to call them goals. So Here are my 3 main goals for this year.

1. I want to read my Bible more. I want to actually make it through my "Read the Bible through in a Year" plan. I start it every year and right around Numbers I get bored and just start doing my own thing. This year I want to get the whole thing read in order!!

2. I want to play more with my kids. I have tons of time with my babies, and we enjoy our time together, but I really want to actually play more with me not just watching them while they play with each other. Things like games, and playing outside, reading (other than school work), all of those fun kinds of things. I do them now, but just not enough, maybe even try to learn how to play video games, that oughtta be a hoot!

3. I have one more and this is probably the one that most of you will have on your list too. I need to get in better shape. I need to move more and eat less. I'm not going to make some kind of goal that I KNOW I won't keep like exercise 4 times a week, or never eat goodies, I just want to make some small changes, like eating breakfast every day, and smaller meals in the evening.

So what about you guys Do you have any goals or resolutions you plan on attempting this year. I'de love to hear about them. Maybe they will inspire me or someone else. And to help inspire you, I have this New Years Word art Freebie, I put together for you all. As always, I hope you enjoy it and have an amazing holiday!

New Years Word Art Freebie Download Here

Grungy Boy Kit Freebie

I wanted to put together a freebie for you all for New years, plus, I wanted to piddle with the art journaling look, plus, I couldn't find a kit I  liked for this photo, so I made this unusual kit!   It's soooooooooooo different for me, I can't even decide if I like it, BUT hey that's what learning and growing as an artist is all about right??? I will share the fruit of my labor with you, and as always, I hope some of you will take a moment to give me some honest critiques :)This kit contains 7 papers and around 30 or so elements, not a big kit, but hopefully enough to do something with.  Have a wonderful weekend!!!

Grungy Boy Kit Papers Download Here

Grungy Boy Kit Elements Download Here

Art Journaling- You in or you out?

Well, I've decide to join Tangie's Art Journaling Caravan. I am super excited! this is a form of scrapbooking I've never even dabbled in, so this is all new to me, but the idea of expressing myself through both word and art really appeals to me, plus I've always had an affinity for the dark and grungy stuff, so I think it will be perfect for me.

I have these adorable little pictures of my grandson here from his birthday on Friday: It was my idea to practice with these, but I haven't been able to find an art journaling style kit that looks like it will work with these photos, sooooooooooooooooooooo I decided to try my hand at making them myself. Obviously I can't put any characters on the paper, I'de rather not spend time in jail, but I did want to include the colors and some abstact hints of you know who :) here are the papers I made, my question is yay or nay. I can't decide if I like them or not. If you all don't think they are gross, I will totally share the mini kit with you all, but if you guys do think they are gross, I'll just scratch the project and post on DST to find a kit that will work. So please please please give me some input on this, cause I'm just not sure!! I will be making some embellishments too, if i get the go ahead from all my friends, I'm so insecure isn't it pathetic LOL! If I get a no from you and you have any suggestions for a grungy kit for this picture, I would love to hear it!

Christmas Freebie Full Kit!

Hi all hope you are having an amazing last few days before Christmas My time is running out, so I'm going to go ahead and give you the rest of the download links for my Christmas Freebie kit. I've packaged them a little more conveniently here, but I will leave the ones I've separately posted already just in case you don't want the whole thing, just remember there are lots of goodies that are included that are only in this download. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and enjoy my present to you!!

Christmas Freebie 2012 Papers Download Here

Christmas Freebie 2012 Elements Download Here

Christmas Freebie 2012 Word Art Download Here

Always be Yourself by Melancolie Designs

Here is a stunning kit from Melancolie Designs, just thought I'de share here because the colors are so unique!:

Christmas Freebie 2012-5 flowers

Freebie 5 is chipboard flowers, hope you like and can use. Have a good evening!

Flower Chippies Download Here

Doin the Scrappy Happy Dance!!!

I probably shouldn't admit this, but i have some serious envy issues. I envy everything about this designer. I envy her amazing imagination. I envy her painting abilities, I envy where she sells. I envy her mastery of color. I envy her ability to mimic nature, heck I even envy her hair, which is fiery red. Maybe it's her resemblance to Pippi Longstocking, or the fact that she designs from a loft. She is the consummate artists muse in my eyes! She doesn't know me from Adam, I'm not on her team, and I benefit in no way from telling you this. I am just telling you this because I want you to look like a fool doing the happy dance in your living room right along with me! I just need to know I'm not the only crazy loon out there!  Run, don't walk over to www.scrapbookgraphics.com and check out the amazing products from Lori Davison. Normally I can't afford her work, as she is arguably one of the priciest designers out there, albeit she is still probably seriously undercharging for the amazing quality and quantity of goodies in her kits. Nonetheless, 17 bucks is a LOT for one kit when you are broker than a light bulb under a piano. Today and tomorrow; however, life is good and LORI IS ON SALE!!!AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH  do you hear me screamin, I said, LORI IS ON SALE! It only happens once a year from what I gather and tomorrow is your last day,   so get moving! Here is a layout I did with one of her kits. It took no time at all to make this loveliness why should it? Lori did all the hard work for me. Oh I just love her!

Wait are you still here? Oiy get outta here you are running out of time!!

Freebie Frenzy!! Holy moly look what i picked up for free!!

I happened to stop by www.digitalcrea.fr today to see if one of my designers had posted a kit that was coming out and look what I stumbled upon FREE STUFF! I thought I would share it you! Here is what I picked up all for free and there were many other things I just didn't want to take stuff I knew I wouldn't use. it looks like there is going to be a new one every day too- Awesomeness!

12 Days of Christmas Freebie 4- Acrylic Snippets

Wow, day 4 already, and I am NOT done Christmas shopping AHHHHHHHHHHh anyone else in freak out mode about getting it all done YIKES!! Well take a breath and enjoy this free download from me. This time it's a pack of Christmas Acrylics. Great for ANY Christmas project, also, please notice I added a terms of use.While I LOVE making these things for my friends, I really don't want anyone reselling that as their own.They are all for personal use only. Have a great day I'll be working on some chipboard flowers for tomorrow (I think LOL)

 Christmas Acrylics Freebie Download Here

12 Days of Christmas Freebie 3- Paper!

How about some patterned papers? I know there are a lot of gorgeous Christmas kits out there, so I decided to go with a different palette, than red and green or blue and white. Here is a pastel palette that would work great for baby photos especially Hope you enjoy it!

Christmas Freebie Paper Collection Download Here

12 days of Christmas Freebie 2 template!

Here is a free template I have for you on day 2 of 12 Days of Christmas Freebies, I hope you like it and can get some use out of it!

Christmas Freebie Template Download Here

12 days of Christmas Freebie 1 word art

Alrighty friends, its been a long time since I've done a freebie for you all, and I've been working on some word art for my self, so I thought I'de share it with you. Here it is special from me to you for Christmas! I hope you are able to use it and will let me know how you like it :) Sorry there is no logo, I lost that on the toasty computer, so I'll be working on a new one soon. Hope you all have an amazing Christmas, or whatever holiday you celebrate!!!

Christmas Freebie 2012 Download Here

Shadowing light bulb moment!

Okay, I know all you photoshop savvy gurus are going to look at this post and be like- duhh, but I had to share this super awesome trick I discovered today for shadowing!

I was doing a layout on a light background and getting really frustrated because my shadows just wouldn't look the way I wanted. I've seen all these ladies with amazing light colored layouts where everything is just so soft and beautiful and I was really wanting to get that look, but either the shadow would look to harsh or my element would look like it was just floating around. Then it came to me, like a bird turd on my shoulder, right outta the blue, CHANGE THE SHADOW COLOR TO MATCH THE BACKGROUND! It was a total light bulb moment for me. I've never noticed it before, but when you pull up the layer style menu, right beside
The blend mode is a color box. Simply click on the box and it will give you a color sampling eye dropper that you can use to sample any color in your layout, click on the color that is right below the item you are shadowing and VOILA- soft perfectly blended shadows, YAY!

If you guys are interested in these kinds of tips and tricks that I learn along the way let me know in this post, and I'll share more of my light bulb moments with you all!

Have an awesome weekend!

A little layout just for me

I rarely do layouts that aren't for design team assignments, but Lily has had an amazing sale and I bought a few kits from her and HAD to do a layout, so here it is and it felt really good just to do something for no particular reason I might add.

Some Layouts with some beautiful new kits!

Love this beautiful kit from Krysty Scrap Designs you can find it Here

Love the beautiful new kit Love this beautiful new kit from Art by January "Birds With Attitude"

Bee Creations Gold Christmas

40 - the new 20

I don't get on here much and just chitter chat, but today, well, I'm stuck on the couch and dog-gone-it I'm stinking bored, so I thought I'de ramble on a little about my boring life and air some of the crazy ramblings that go on in my mind. This weeks topic-

"40 - the new 20"

        This seems to be the new catch phrase of 2012 at least for the middle agers. I just recently read it on a magazine cover, and I've have heard it in conversations a few times lately. And let me say,  I'm more than a little curious about who started this new oxymoronic concept. I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that it probably wasn't a 20 year old, because there is no 20 year old sitting around saying , "Oh, you know what I can't wait for? Turning 40! I mean , Oh my gosh, won't it be stinkin' amazing when I'm 40.  Like I'll never have to spend money on designer bikinis to go over my rock hard body again. Or waste my time goofing off with zero responsibilities. Think of how much fun it's going to be wearing fake lashes everyday and not just for special occasions. I'll get to try out all those nice neutral shades of lipstick that won't bleed into the cracks on my upper lip! Oh, and best of all I'll never ever have to worry about being hit on by an old 40 yr. old guy again!"

         I'm also pretty sure it wasn't spawned by the 60 yr. old crowd. I'm sure I'll never overhear them saying, "Hey, don't you wish we could go back to our 40's? Remember how much fun it used to be  running around like a crazy person to meet all our children's schedules. Remember the thrill of trying to figure out how to get the money out of retirement to pay the kids college and then getting it back in before the government figures it out and penalized us! I mean, wouldn't you just love to go back to that day you when you got that letter from your gynecologist letting you know that you are now at the perfect age for your first mammogram, you know, the same time you quit getting Victoria Secret catalogs and started getting advertisements from your local plastic surgeon.

        No, I'm pretty sure the phrase was coined by us- the not quite young, the not quite old; wish we still had it, but haven't completely lost it crowd, the 40 somethings. I am not generally a pessimist I'm more of a realist I'de say, but in my opinion, No, I do NOT think that forty is the new twenty! Granted 40 isn't dead, but when I was 20 I remember running all over the park with my children and not getting tired, now I can't run to the mail box without an oxygen mask and a fully staffed respiratory unit on call. I used to stay up scrapping until the wee hours of the morning, now I find myself doing nothing but weeing in the early hours of the morning. The only wrinkles I ever had to look at were the ones in my husbands dress shirt and thinning hair was the process my hair dresser used to add texture to my trendy doo.

         Now I'm not saying that all you bad mammajamma midlifers out there gotta trade in your sports car for a rocking chair, like I said 40 isn't dead, but for some of us, it might be time hang up the bikinis, pack away the spandex, shelve the bright glasses and save the dark red lipstick for when you're 80!