A Scrapper's Tale

It's a Compulsion

It's true. I'm one of the world's luckiest digiscrappers. Between my gig with Kathryn Balint and my CT work for Scrapbookgraphics, I have access to the work of more than 20 top digi-scrapping designers. My hard drive overfloweth.

So why is it that I still shop? Why do I still find myself trolling the blogs looking for freebies? Part of it is that shopping is just so much darn fun. But another part is that by experimenting with different designs, I get a chance to expand my own layout skills.

One of my most recent discoveries was the work of Lemonaid Lucy, aka Lucie. While I've admired Lucie's layouts, and chatted with her in the forums, I really hadn't seen much of her design work. So I was delighted to come across this little giveaway on her blog a few weeks ago.

Aren't those frames and ribbons lucious? I finally got a chance to scrap with this kit last night, and was tickled at how well her stuff worked with my ON Designs stash. The little guy in the hat is my grandson Max.

Papers and photo frame with ribbon are by Lemonaid Lucy; cardboard from ON Designs Cardboard Swirls; date from ON Designs Calendar No. 2; stitching from Ztampf Artistitches 4.

Mark the Calendar for Digital Scrapbooking Day

When I was small, I wanted to be Bewitched's Samantha. I practiced and practiced wiggling my nose, but as hard as I tried, I just couldn't clean my room that way. Once again, I'm wanting those magic skills. Only this time, I want to be able to participate in all the great activities occurring Nov. 3 during the first-ever Digital Scrapbooking Day. Dozens of sites are participating in the festivities, and it will be impossible to be everywhere I want to be.

I guess I'll have to limit my participation to two of my favorite sites, KB & Friends and Scrapbookgraphics.

The fun at KB & Friends begins at noon with chats, games and crops. There will be prizes given away throughout the day; and what’s more, the KB and Friends fairy will be fluttering through the forum, randomly giving away gifts, such as Betty Jo Martin’s Snowflake Cottage kit.

Here’s the chat room schedule for the big event:

• Noon ET: Karen Aicken, “Talk to Me,” a discussion of favorite products and ideas you have for new products
• 1 p.m. ET: Laura Lou Bashlor, “Slice of Life,” a continuation of the KB and Friends’ popular Slice of Life challenges.
• 2 p.m. ET: Carol Opalinski, “Slice of Life,” another chat based on the Slice of Life challenges.
• 3 p.m. ET: Kathryn Balint, “Bingo,” bingo game played KB and Friends’ style, in which you post your “bingo card” in a special forum before the event, then play along in the chat room. Prizes are kits from the store.
• 4 p.m. ET: Lynn Weber, “Scavenger Hunt,” a new version of the game.
• 5 p.m. ET: Becky Hansen, “Scrapbooking 365 Days a Year,” a chat you can’t miss because the prize Becky made for participants is fabulous and would make a great gift to give away for Christmas, too.
• 6 p.m. ET: The Lily Pond girls, a group of KB and Friends designers who are debuting a new product line.

Here's a list of all the activities at Scrapbookgraphics. Kim Gabriel and I will be hosting the Frameworthy Chat at 6 p.m. Eastern time. The oh-so-talented Krista Mettler has put together an awesome freebie for those who stop by. In fact, there will be freebies given away all through the day.

I took a sneak peek at the giveaways last night and you guys are going to be so impressed.

Donna and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Today's Studio Starts Challenge at Scrapbookgraphics was to design a layout using the theme, "What Was I Thinking?" As of yesterday morning, I didn't have a clue what I was going to do, but then inspiration came and hit me hard. :-)

I've been a little under the weather all week, fighting a head cold, and frankly, I'm still not doing so hot. And, I look even worse than I feel. My eyes are swollen; I have these huge dark circles; and my skin is so dry it crackles when I smile. So, I didn't really want to go to Wal-Mart yesterday, but our cupboards were bare. When you order pizza three nights in a row, the neighbors start to talk. So off I went.

There's something about that place that justs exhausts me, so I was relieved to find an empty line and check out. It was when I was paying that it dawned on me that I didn't remember putting my keys in my purse. So I rolled my brimming cart out to the car and there were the keys, lying on the front seat just where I put them. I dug my cell phone out of my purse only to find out it's not charged. So I rolled the cart back up the hill to a pay phone and called AAA. They said they'd have someone there within 45 minutes. I rolled the cart back to the car and set up camp. An hour and a half later, they finally showed up. By the time I got home, I was cold, miserable and hungry.

The only good thing to come out of the whole fiasco was that I finally had something to scrap.

Template from Jen Caputo's Sketch Collection #21 ; numbered paper from Maya's I Got Your Number kit ; tag and string from Maya's Dumpster Diving Elements ; staples from Meredith Fenwick's Everyday Inspiration Elements; and dark papers and twisted ribbon from ON Designs Grab Bag No. 1 XL. Label from Atomic Cupcake and date brush by Denise Docherty. The fonts are Batik Regular and Century Gothic.

Getting in the Halloween Spirit

We never did much for Halloween when I was a kid. I grew up in a rural area, and it just wasn't that big of a deal. We looked forward to candy corn and candied applies, but I don't remember ever having trick-or-treaters coming to a door. It's quite a different story today.

I have one of those neighborhoods where folks literally truck their kids in for Halloween. Our streets are big and well-lit and everybody decorates their homes with pumpkins, lights and even caskets. Last year, we had about 200 kids at the door in a three-hour time span. This year, I'll be having a party for family and friends. As soon as I saw Sausan's Oogelie Googelie kit at Scrapbookgraphics, I knew it would be the inspiration for this year's decorations. Aren't her hand-drawn characters just charming?

The first thing I did was make my grandson a treat bag. I saw a bag similar to this in the Rachel Ray magazine and realized how easy it would be to do using digi supplies. And, it's cheap, too. You can catch the bags on sale for about $2 at your local craft store. I made this one using Jen Caputo’s Shapes Collection No. 1 and Sausan’s Oogelie Googelie. I simply created the design on a letter-sized sheet, reversed the image, and printed it off on iron-on transfer paper. A little ironing and I had a personalized treat bag.

My second project was to make some treat bag toppers for the party. This was another amazingly easy project. Using a 5x3 layout, I created the Treats side on the bottom half, flipped the image and created the Tricks side on the top half. I printed these out on matte paper, cut them out, topped the bags, punched some holes, and threaded the ribbon through. I'll be filling them up with cookies for the neighbors on Halloween night.

So all I have left to do is the shopping, the cooking, and oh yeah, inviting the guests. Guess I'd better get started.

Ztampf! Contest

Have you been playing along in Ztampf's 2nd Birthday Challenge? It's been an awesome 4-week contest that culminates this weekend with the announcing of the Week 4 winners and the Grand champion.

Each week three people have won $135 gift certificates, an album from KOLO, and a KOLO discount. This week, in addition to the three weekly winners, one person will win the grand prize of a $175 Ztampf! gift certificate, two albums, and a surprise package all the way from Hong Kong.

I was lucky enough to win in both weeks one and two, so I've been in scrapper's heaven, downloading like crazy from Lie Fhung's beautiful shop.

This week's challenge was to use two photos. I've entered two layouts, Dream and Imagination.

Everything here is from Ztampf. Fairy and star overlays are from Lumoz overlays (stars are blended); paper, stitching, glitter, mosaic flower and ribbon are from Phrench Phoebe; alpha set is Phrench Phoebe 1; wings are from A Perfect Blend; and frames are Naked Edge 1. The font is Dear Joe 4, and the photo action on the top photo is from Midnight Actions.

Everything here is from Ztampf. Background paper is Art Scene; overlay is Graphelia; wire border and photo clamp are Soaring; frame is Naked Edges; and glitter is Artistrokes: Soaring Strokes. Font is Arial.

Quirking It Up

Over at Scrapbookgraphics, I'm hosting Quirkshop 101, a six-week course on how to incorporate quirky techniques into traditional layouts. This week we're looking at extractions, how to use them and how to do them. If you're interested in participating, check in here. We're only in our second week so there's plenty of time to play catch up.

For this layout of my grandson. I used mainly the background eraser and the eraser for the extractions. I didn't even know the background eraser existed until this week, and I've been using Photoshop for years and years.

The copy, of course, is lyrics from the Cyndi Lauper song, Time After Time. The italicized copy reads, "Isn't it nice to know your mother will always be there for you?"

Background paper, tag, and funky circle from Sausan's Lil' Jake kit; city image is Sausan's Schnipp-Schnapp: Kidoki; date stamp is from Trish Jones's Date Stamps; and stitching from Traci Reed's Reckless. Fonts are Downcome and Dear Joe 4.

My Story

All scrappers are storytellers, and it occurs to me that all of us have a tale. Mine is one of blessings and hard times, of despair and of hope.

About three years ago, I became mysteriously sick, too sick to do my job as a communications manager for an electric utility, too sick to take care of my family, to sick to get out of bed. It would be several years before I was finally diagnosed with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue. What do you do when you can't do the things you once did? Well, you cry a little, you get angry, and then you figure out how to cope.

I was lucky in that I had a lot of people supporting me, including a husband who went out and bought me a Wacom tablet and a copy of Photoshop Elements. "I think you can use this," he said. Life turned around for me that day. Digital scrapping allowed me to be creative; it filled my time; and most importantly of all, it gave me a social outlet that has kept me going and thriving.

Today, I'm on Kathryn Balint's creative team, and on the Scrapbookgraphics Studio Crew. I'm active at Digital Art Quirks, and I hang out at DigiShopTalk. On a personal note, I'm married to my college sweetheart. We have a 22-year-old daughter, an 18-year-old son, and a 14-month-old grandson. I'm still fighting illness, but life is good, too good not to scrap, and too good not to share. That's why I'm starting this blog.

Here's a layout I did this week with the lyrics to one of my favorite Carly Simon songs. The lyrics remind me that I’m living the life I always dreamed of, and that I have so much for which to be grateful.

It goes: "Take a look around now. Change the direction. Adjust the tuning. Try a new translation. Don’t look at your man in the same old way. Take a new picture. Just because you don’t see shooting stars, doesn’t mean it isn’t perfect. Can’t you see?"

Background paper from Meredith Fenwick’s Random Bag of Scrap; bow from ON Design’s Bow Set No. 3; frames from ON Designs Frames No. 1; flower from Maya’s Origami Bouquet, Volume 2; and glitter overlay from Ztampf’s Sparkle Sprays 1. Fonts are Dear Joe Four and Bernhard Modern. Special thanks to Atomic Cupcake for the glitter action used on the text.