Cocoa & Coffee Road Trip

Hey Y'all!  There's a Blog Train going right now.  FREE STUFF!!! (I love free stuff!) Go to the Stuff to Stamp's "Cocoa & Coffee Road Trip" starting at: 
http://a-mdigitaldesigns.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/take-road-trip-with-stuff-to-stamp.html 
and start downloading your freebies!  It's a great way to see what your favorite designers have contributed and meet some artists you didn't know before.  Have fun!

A week ago, we found a stray dog, covered in fleas and looking very bedraggled. Today, this little Pekinese is all smiles and happiness. It'll take a while for all her hair to grow back in, but a little love has gone a long way with this little Sweetie.

I used "Dog Family Pack" by PapierStudio for the bulk of the page. The "Puppy Love" word art is from "Love My Pet" by Albums to Remember. The fonts are "GoodDog Cool" and "Gretoon."

My Memories is having a fantastic weekend!They have a Blog Train where at least 35 designers are giving away free kits! I am having a ball collecting so many goodies! Go to http://www.mymemories.com and click on the "blog/forum" tab. Start at catdesignz and work your way through. The MyMemories Facebook page has been running contests all day, since it's National Scrapbook Day. Right now they have a contest to do a page where whatever photos you use must be black & white.

Here's my first. A photo of my great-grandfather Walter and my great-grandmother Araminta Owen. Don't they look lovely?

And here's my second entry. My Aunt Irene is in the middle. She is Araminta and Walter's daughter. Irene's daughter, Belle, was getting married to Frank Allen. His mom is on the left and my mother is on the right.

This week's MyMemories Blog challenge is the number 5, so here are 5 photos of Luke - taken on his first birthday. I mounted the photos over 5 papers, decorated with 5 buttons on the corners and 5 flowers on the vine. Happy Birthday Sweet Guy! Notice the bib says "Grandma gives the best Hugs!" Ain't it the truth!!!

Getting Started with Digital Scrapbooking

Getting Started!
I've had so much fun with digital scrapbooking I thought I'd share with you. I tried making layouts using Photoshop, but it was a little complicated for me. I found this page on Facebook called MyMemories. I lurked for a while and thought maybe I would give the software a try. Everyone said it was really easy, so I decided I was going to "bite the bullet" and buy the software. It was $40, but a friend gave me a code to use to get $10 off the software, plus $10 to spend in the shop mymemories.com. I figured that was like half price, and I'm a real bargain hunter, so maybe this would be the thing for me.

First, I went to the website and took a look around. They had all these free kits you could download, whether you had a PC or a Mac. Plus, if you choose not to buy the software, you could download them as "General" files and use them in Photoshop. Well, what's better than free? Then I looked at the Dollar Store. So many kits for $1.00!! Wow! You get the papers and embellishments with some of these kits - for $1.00? Loving that.

Downloading the software was easy and so was downloading the kits. Once I got the software installed, I opened up the file for one of the kits, and it automatically downloaded to my Applications folder. Cool Beans! I decided to try one of the "Quick Pages." The designer puts together everything but the photo. I have SO MANY photos I need to get scrapbooked! Holy cow! It was so easy! And it looked really professional. I really liked it, so I decided to try a page using the kit and make it up myself. Not super good, not super bad. I uploaded a jpg of the page to the MyMemories facebook page and asked for critique. A lady said it would look better with "shadows" so I gave that a try. What a difference! It looked like all the photos and embellishments jumped off the page! Go look for yourself! It's http://www.mymemories.com

I am having so much fun with this! If you think you might want the software, I'm going to do for you what my friend did for me. If you buy the software, when it asks for a Promo Code, cut and paste this:

STMMMS31635

It's best to cut and paste so your get all the letters and numbers correct. That will get you $10 off the software and the software will come with a coupon for $10 any purchase in the store.

If you decide to give it a try, let me know. I'd love to share pages and tips with you. If you decide not to get the software and continue to use Photoshop or something like that, also let me know. I'd love to swap ideas!

Africa

It's been quite a while since I posted. Thank the Lord, we've had some work and many more children are going to be adopted.

Saxon Holt is having a contest this week on the MyMemories Blog. Use any of her kits to make a page. This page has been kicking around my head for the past few weeks, ever since I bought her "At the Museum - Africa" kit. We've helped a lot of families adopt from Africa, Ethiopia especially. Every family comes back with tales of the street children, especially in Addis Ababa. As many orphanages open, they are filled to capacity in less than 24 hours. So many parents dying of AIDS, there just aren't enough relatives left to care for the children. So the kids are forced on the streets. Prey to whomever is bigger or stronger. Some organizations are trying to spread rumors that the children in Africa are being trafficked. Spend a day in Addis Ababa. Worse, spend a night there. There are so many true orphans wandering the streets, who would need to steal any from their parents? Get real! The eyes of these children haunt me. My dream is that organizations like UNICEF would make it easier for these children to be adopted, and stop putting up roadblocks. These kids need to be safe. They need families!
I'll get off my soapbox now...

We had a light snow on Monday. This is after Sunday being 70º! I wasn't sure how long the snow would last, so I hurried and snapped as many photos as I could. The first thing that struck me as I left the house were the spiderwebs. Spiderwebs filled with snow. Just beautiful!!

I used Saxon Holt's "Snowy Day" for the papers and elements and http://www.dafont.com/halloween-spider.font for the spiderweb font.

My side garden was just getting green with all the lily-of-the-valley leaves shooting high in the air. I love the glossy emerald green leaves.
I used "Winterland" by marieh and (see below) http://www.dafont.com/santas-sleigh.font for the font.

I didn't use any kit for this. Just my photos and some free clipart I got off the web for the daffodils. The font is from http://www.dafont.com/kingthings-christmas.font

I've been playing with my Scrapbooking, even though I haven't updated the blog till now. Here's my efforts from two weeks ago when MyMemories had a BlogContest to tell a story with one word.

I misunderstood and did this one first:

And I made this companion page to go with it.
Isn't this a fun idea? My daughter went to a birthday "tea party" for one of her best friends and they had this idea to take pictures with their faces in the frames. I think it is a great idea!

Here are some more pictures from the same tea party.

More for Saxon's Deal

Still trying to get all Saxon's kits for $.99 each. She has so many different themes and all fun! I am going broke saving money! But this is so much fun. I really love seeing my pages as examples of her kits. I feel like a star!

This is from her kit "At the Museum - China." I was so shocked when I opened one of her papers and it was almost identical to a photo I took in Changsha at the Yuelu Academy of Classical Learning, now known as the Hunan University. The photo on the stairs is our adoption group getting ready to enter the University.

The next page is from the kit "At the Museum - India." Aurora had a presentation on India to give. I have a shalwar kameez from India and although I'm much bigger than Aurora, with the right pants, she was able to pull it off. She just had LOTS of breathing room! I have a number of scarves made in India, so we picked the prettiest one, lots of my jewelry, and did her makeup. She didn't look very Chinese when we were finished, but she was so beautiful. She'd only let me take one photo, so it had to have a very special kit to evoke the Indian spirit. I thought this kit filled the bill beautifully.

This is the kit "Vintage Valentine." The kit had a real nice "old-time" feel. It's delicate and beautiful and I thought the photos of Uncle Cennie with his two youngest boys could stand the more feminine touches due to the love you can see the man has for his kids. It's too bad he was squinting in the sun in the one pic. Mom says he was quite the handsome older gentleman. He gave Mom one of her first jobs. She said he was a wonderful employer who always made you feel special and you wanted to do your best for him. I love how this kit goes so well with Uncle Cennie's straw hat and gives you the feel of days gone by.

The kit here is "Loss of a Good Man." It's masculine, but gorgeous colors. The duel frame was really handy for showing the contrast from the Pop who held me back in 1960 and the older, wiser version holding Luke 51 years later. My dad loves little kids and it really shows on his face. I love the way this kit let me show that.

Saxon Holt's Deal

Saxon Holt of "A Saxon Creation" said if she had any kits that had 5 or fewer example layouts, she'd give you the kit of your choice for $.99 if you'd do a page for her. She saw my Valentine pages - where I'd used her kits exclusively - and gave me a kit for $.99. Oh Boy! That was exciting! So, I went hog wild!

I started using the kit "Snow Day" and came up with a page of my dog Scuffy, playing in the snow.

I asked for the kit "Zoobilee Zoo" for $.99 and I got it! SCORE!!!

So I started looking at some of her other kits and found "Honey Pot Bear" only had a few sample pages and I had that kit. I had wanted to use it to do a page of Luke in his overalls. He had these brown overalls that reminded me of a pair I bought his Mom when she was a baby. They had Winnie the Pooh on the bib. I had Winnie the Pooh on just about all her clothes, and toys, and walls, and bedding... you get the idea. So I made this page of the Sweet Baby Luke.

Saxon let me have "Gloomy Day" for $.99 for doing that one. Then I saw her kit "Very Valentine" didn't have 5 sample pages. I had been looking for a great "girlie" kit to scrap some pages from a birthday party Aurora had attended. They had this really great idea to pose with picture frames and the photos came out so clever! I really liked what they achieved and I had to make a really special page for them.

the kit comes with some really beautiful background papers. I put the polka-dotted paper as the background and then I saw a paper that had an interesting design on it. I wondered what the design would look like, if I matched it up like tiles. So I made the background paper into a smaller square, then made a copy and flipped it. The two designs looked great together, so I did two more squares, just upside down. I really liked the effect.

I got "At the Museum - China" for $.99 for doing that one.

I had some pictures I wanted to use her kit "RAWR!" for, and although she had more than 5 sample pages on that kit - and I knew I wouldn't get a $.99 deal for it - I just had to scrap that page anyway. You know how sometimes pictures will just call out to you and ask for a special page? That's how I felt about doing this one. Luke is getting so big and he's just so full of personality, this kit really fit the bill.

Late last night I saw "Radar Love" could use more sample pages, and I thought about what pictures would best fit the kit. There's a special young man in my life I watched grow up from the bratty little kid he was, to marvelous man he is today. He fell in love with an incredible young lady and they married. They have two kids now and live far away in Wisconsin and I miss them very much. Their wedding was incredibly beautiful. I thought of those wedding pics as soon as I saw the kit. Whatcha think?