Round Up - December

Sharing some layouts done the last couple of days as I combine design team duties for EDS (using digital kits by Melothria) and the LOAD challenge from big picture. Seem to be in a digital layout phase. Weird how that happens. Anyway the first layout is my LOAD from the 2nd Jan, featuring an old photo of my grandparents. Took some time to get there, but I am really happy with how this one turned out.

"and then it was winter" Digital kit by Melothria at Digital Arts Cafe

Next up is a layout inspired by Ali Edwards challenge to pick one word for the year. Last year my word was focus. And even though I wanted to pick it again I went another direction and chose "growth". This year I want to concentrate on getting the garden 'done'. Plus it also ties into personal and professional growth, so it's all good! This one I did on the 3rd January. I would say I love digital for getting layouts done quick, but these layouts both seemed to take ages! Such is the creative mojo some days!

"recipe for happiness" Digital kit by Melothria at Digital Arts Cafe

Lots of things going on, busy busy! Trying to get the emails out this weekend for the new card team members, plus keep my LOAD going! Lots of work to do on my site, and paper galore!

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And because I have to so I can remember stuff that happens, here is my round up of the month of December. If you don't know the rules pop by Katie's blog!

Round up
What books and/or magazines did I read this month?
Still rereading all my old mags. I got the Jan Creating Keepsakes and have been digesting that. Oh and the winter issue of Scrapbook dimensions magazine.

What movies and/or tv shows did I watch this month?
We went to see "I am Legend" which I thoroughly enjoyed. Also in December we canceled our cable this month! Big decision BUT we just weren't watching enough TV to warrant to cost. We worked out that we literally watched 3-4 hours a week, and for $40 a month that's just not worth it. So bye bye cable. We'll get an antennae to get the basic local channels and that's it.

What special days did I celebrate and how?
My Birthday! For which I got my Oly! We've been bonding since *smile*. Went out for a meal with friends. Other than that of course is Christmas this month which we went out to friends for the first time. Usually we stay home. It was good fun, totally enjoyed it!

What gifts did I give and/or receive?
Did I mention Oly? probably once or twice huh? Well I can't help it, I'm in love! I also received a printed this month, which I have been putting it's paces. Tried all the features except the CD/DVD printing. Gotta say I am LOVING it so far! Full review to come very soon. Oh I got a beautiful sweater from friends which I need to find a decent shirt to wear underneath it. Who am I kidding? I need new clothes period! Another one of my new years goals is to start buying clothes each month, I detest clothes shopping so not looking forward to that! Also in the mail in December was some doodlebug glitter from Nancy (love that girl! she keeps trying to make me girly bless her heart!). I got a book, which I'll share more about later this month once I've read it, looks cool though.

What illnesses or health concerns did I have?
Other than the cold weather giving me a runny nose on occasion? Nothing really! Of course now I have probably jinxed myself and I'll get flu or something. *sigh*

What fun things did I do with my friends and/or family?
Lots of eating out. Fun stuff with Karaoke, rock band and shopping. Bob and I were real social butterflies this month. Maybe it was the lack of TV? But we've been doing a lot more this month. Time of year I guess too! Nikki was over from India so we had lots of trips out eating and shopping. Oh and Jan was over from England visiting her brother Chris so we had outings with them too!

What new foods, recipes or restaurants did I try this month?
Went to Nirvana, in Irvine. Good buffet with Indian and some Chinese food. Nikki was over from India and cooked up some DELICIOUS food! We seriously considered kidnapping her and locking her in our house but loved her too much.

What special or unusual purchases did I make?

Hmm lets see, Oly obviously, and we bought the PS3 this month, and Rock Band. Bob got some other games for the PS3 but mostly that was about it for purchases.

What were this month's disappointments?
Gautam moved! He's living in Irvine now which is a 2 hour drive away! :( Mostly December was a month of change. Not necessarily disappointments but more unsettled. Lots of news that I can't share (soon people soon!), and lots of doubting myself in my decisions.

What were my accomplishments this month?
Lots of things this month. Few things picked up for publication. Got my digital store up and running! The Secret as mentioned above, and basically stepping back and realizing that I need to change things, and making those changes. That in itself is a HUGE factor for me!

Anything else noteworthy to record?
It was New Years eve! Totally not sure if that should go on Dec or Jan as it fell on the border of the months. I'll shove it on December. We went out to Darrell's. Mostly because we keep saying we'll go to his parties and something else always comes up (especially Bobs work, usually crunch time) but also because other people were out of town hehehe. Took Orn along with us and had fun! We drank, got merry and chatted a lot! Saw the New Year in playing arcade games and pinballs. Got to bed around 2am, happy and totally ready for2008!

More creative stuff to come!

Di

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Hybrid Holiday Ornaments

Went to a little party at Sriki's place last night. I took food, made a veggie masala, which I kinda overestimated the amount and we have a ton left. Good job we love it! Sriki made mushroom curry which was lovely, need recipe for that next time I'm there. Gautam came up from Irvine so was good to catch up with him and see how his new job is going. By the time we got home, walked and fed the dogs, it was early morning before we got to bed. Needless to say, little bit tired today!

This week on the Everyday Digital Scrapbooking blog we're featuring hybrid holiday ornaments. I made this little chipboard "joy" ornament, and you can find out details on how to make it in my tutorial on the EDS blog.

Supplies: digital papers: Melothria "and then it was winter" kit; photoshop CS3; font: Sexsmith; Chibboard: Provocraft; Alpha stickers: American crafts; ribbon: Offray; misc buttons from craft store; pen: white signo uniball

So quick and easy to do. I'm actually considering making more, if we ever get a tree up! We didn't bother decorating last year, and not sure if we will or not yet this year.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Off to create!

Di

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Ramblings & Gift Ideas

Hello all! Good weekend? We had a productive kinda weekend, ate WAY too much food though. Still stuffed. I got most of my USA holiday cards mailed today after spending much time yesterday writing cards, and sticking on labels and stamps. So tedious, I much prefer MAKING the cards instead.

Anyways, check out this gift ideas tutorial on the EDS blog. Here is a hybrid frame gift I made earlier this month. You can check out the full tutorial instructions here.

Supplies: Patterned Paper: April Staker (signs of fall kit); Frame: April Staker (frame me - flourishy overlays); ribbon: SEI; Chipboard: Lil Davis; buttons: EK Success

Special thanks to Nancy who is let me use some of her great pics of Bella bug (hence the B!). Isn't she a cutie? I LOVE that Bella's top matches this paper perfectly!!!

Hmmm what else? Well, I'm debating adding a couple more girls to the card sketch team. Just need to get myself sorted really and decide how I'm gonna do it. Also debating holding a DT call for my digi products. I just finished up another 12x12 layout template set. I'm trying to get the 8 1/2 x 11 set finished up today or tomorrow. Trying to set aside some time for digital designing this month so hopefully put some stuff in the store soon!

catch you tomorrow with more creations!

hugs

Di

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Card Share - Special Day

Sharing another card today. Another project using the ZingBOOM SIStv kit "Whimsy Woods" for the EDS blog. The patterned paper is from the kit. Using the leftovers :) cos you know that's my rule now! This is using my sketch from Wednesday.

Cardstock: DCWV; Patterned Paper: Luxe; Flower: Prima; Button: Misc; Ink: Around the Block; Font: Euphonigenic

Hybrid card, using computer fonts printed onto cardstock. One of the more simpler hybrid techniques but worth it's weight in gold for customizing your own sentiment! And as usual (like so many cards) it looks better in real life. The flower looks really bright on here and it isn't I swear! It's almost the exact color of the pp!

Back tomorrow with more creations to share!

D

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Signs of fall

So does it feel like fall where you are? Here in Southern California I don't think the weather knows WHAT to do! Seriously! It's cold for a few days, we turn on the heat, and throw on the comforter. Then days later it's back in the 90's and we have the a/c on! No wonder everyone is coming down sick.

Anyway here is a hybrid layout I can share. Used the ZingBOOM kit for SIStv. Loved the SEI papers (seems to be my SEI month!), they are sponsoring the EDS blog this month along with April Stalker (more to come with her digital products soon!). Yes, that is INKING you can see on the edges, no-one faint!

Supplies: Scrap in Style kit; Journal panel by April Stalker "signs of fall" kit; Misc. Brads; Ink: Around the block; "autumn" ribbon slide: dollartree;

The cutie pie in the photo is my friend Nancy's daughter, Bella. More projects with the SIS kit coming soon!

In other news I made bread yesterday! We've had a breadmaker a while and though the bread is ok with it, I hate that the centre has a huge hole where the mixer 'blade' is and ruins slices of bread. Well many months ago we got this silicone bakeware set from Costco, and well long story short I did the mixing in the bread machine and baked it in the silicone bread pan. This is the result!

No more buying loaves for us! Definitely worth the extra little effort. And I get to say "I made this!"

Back tomorrow with more creative stuff...

Di

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Some digital layouts!

I bet you all thought I'd forgotten how to do digital layouts huh? I admit it's been a while. Even the digital stuff of my own and Scrapstreet digital stuff has been converted to hybrid projects lately! Anyway good to get back to basics and get some digi layouts done.

Each month at the EDS blog we have digital sponsors and this month was Verna Grant. She was gracious enough to give us three kits to play with. I admit I struggled with the Halloween kit. I really think I was going through a digital layout creative block, plus honestly I am running out of Halloween pics!

Verna Grant "Spookfest" kit; font: Coffee Break

Initially when I saw the "school days" title of the next kit I was skeptical as I don't have kids and have very few school pics. But I think this layout shows that even themed kits can be used for other purposes. Plus I loved the papers in this one. In case you can't tell it's the multiple choice test paper! Very fun. The first thing that came to mind was "Test!" and the layout just grew from there.

Verna Grant "School Days" kit; font: Wonderful Wendy; Alpha: Kim Hill;
Journal spot from Geometric funk: Verna Grant

The next layout is using the geometric funk. The colors in this are tones of browns, deep red and soft blue. The browns and blues immediately made me think of this recent photo from our trip out to the beach with the girls. Loving the 8 1/2 x 11 page format. Back to my clean and simple roots for this one!

Verna Grant "Geometric Funk" Kit; Font: Wonderful Wendy

There we go, some digital for the week! Trying to get some blog posts prepped and ready to go for the weeks ahead. Did I mention it's blowing a GALE here today? Santa Ana winds for sure! The tree across the road lost a branch overnight and one of our (fake) window shutters got partially ripped off the wall. I won't even go into the state of the pool right now!!!

More creativity coming soon!

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hybrid cards...

My current phase - hybrid cards! I cannot stop making them! I did 6 so far this week. Anyways if you are interested in learning how to make a hybrid card you can check out my tutorial on the EDS blog today! Here are a couple of cards I made for the tutorial :) They use the EDS birthday freebie kit so make sure you do to the site and sign up for the newsletter to get your kit!

supplies: Papers & ribbon: EDS birthday kit; flower: Bazzill; brad: MM

supplies: Papers & ribbon: EDS birthday kit; flower: Heidi Swapp;

In other news: ouch, ouch, ouch. Went riding, and falling. Back soon with pics (what few we took) and details.

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Tuesday already?

Happy Tuesday! Um yeah, yesterday kinda got away from me with one thing and another and I didn't get chance to blog. Good news is I got a couple of layouts done for the layout sketch on the 1st! Now I need to get them scanned in etc. Also been working on step by step tutorials and screenshots for upcoming publications, amazing how much time those things take!

Don't forget to check out my latest tutorial on the EDS blog on how to make your own letterhead paper. Full details on the EDS blog.

JOIN OUR BLOG PARTY!

Everyday Digital Scrapbooking Blog is the leader in bringing you innovative tutorials and the hippest trends of the scrapbook industry.

Help us celebrate the first of many birthdays with a fabulous BLOG PARTY!
To participate in our October 1st-5th BLOG PARTY, create a digital or hybrid layout with a technique to share with us and have a chance to win a spot and reign as our Guest Team Member for 3 months!

How to participate and win: from October 1st to October 5th upload to your blog or gallery a digital or hybrid layout showcasing your favorite technique and include instructions.
Please make sure to include your instructions -instructions are very important here. Then leave a link to your layout with its' instructions on our blog during our birthday week. You can create and post as many technique tutorials as you like during our Birthday Week October 1st -5th.

The EDS team will choose one of our favorite layouts that includes instructions and pick a winner as our GUEST TEAM MEMBER!
The guest team member will reign for 3 months: November 2007 through January 2008. The Guest Team Member will receive all the benefits as our full-time Creative Team, and will be responsible for contributing at least two tutorials per month to the blog during their reign. They will also be featured in our newsletter which is sent out to almost 1000 persons world-wide.

Come visit and tell your friends to party with us at Everyday Digital Scrapbooking Blog!
(Pssst - don't forget our REALLY BIG! free kit that will be in our newsletter our birthday week!)

Be sure to join us October 1st - 5th every day for our Big Birthday Bash!

Credits: (all items from the EDS Birthday Kit)
Background and ribbon: Amy Duquette
Number & flowers: Sarah B. Meyer
Stickers: Julie Kelley

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Heads up...

Heads up for digi and hybrid scrappers! The everyday digital scrapbooking blog is celebrating its first birthday next month! The team is busy creating a HUGE digi kit for all its newsletter subscribers! I've seen some of the kit and it's AWESOME, trust me you wanna sign up! (sneak peak in the ad below) Plus you'll get details of the tutorials and other good stuff!

Also forgot to mention that my latest tutorial went up last week on creating your own floral paper. You can find details on the EDS blog tutorial here. Also check out all the other tutorials, some great info there! The tutorial created the paper below.

Just sent out next weeks card sketch to the girls, and planning on sending out the October layout sketch soon. Can you believe it's nearly October! Holy Cow! I have TONS to do today! Trying to get the new digi kit in the store for the weekend... catch ya tomorrow...

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New article available!

on the Everyday Digital Scrapbooking blog! Go check it out on how to make luggage tags!

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Digi layouts for EDS

My first month on the everyday digital scrapbooking blog CT. The sponsor was scrapkit.nl and their wonderful floral kits. I just loved the vintage floral as soon as I saw it and just couldn't wait to use it.

I used the kit in my upcoming tutorial, and in a couple of layouts below. The brown, blue and green is just such a pretty combo. Works great with sepia toned photo's. The swirls are part of a journaling kit at scrapkit.nl I just erased the block leaving the swirls. Loving swirls, flourishes or whatever you want to call them. And hey Zoe, look its the hat you sent me!

Vintage floral kit, journaling box set, available at scrapkit.nl;
font SP Wonderful Wendy

This next one is unusual for me. I love the paper though so I had to use it. Erased part of the photo and mat so that the floral pattern looks overlayed on it. Also used the floral png in the kit that is the same as the brown background design to carry the image over the photo. I think this gives the layout a lot more depth rather than just a photo on a page. Can't remember what the font is right now. Oh and I added a stroke to the title font so that it stood out more

More to share soon! Have a great Friday everyone!

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