Sunday, February 17, 2008

Valentine's Day

I hope everyone had a nice Valentine's Day. My sweet husband gave me more RAM for the computer so that I now have 1.5 GB, Photoshop CS3, and a 500GB external hard drive! All things I really needed and wanted because I have been very busy.

My first commercial use products will go into the stores tomorrow (Scrapbookersplayground and Kutnkudlyskreations). Below you can see the previews of 2 sets of roses to be recolored. Each set will only be $4.00 at either store.










Already in the stores is Hearts and Flowers - my Valentine's Day kit. The papers and elements are also suitable for any layouts where you want a romantic look.





And if you don't want the whole kit, you can buy the papers and elements separately. In the preview below, not all elements are shown.







I also have another Bits & Pieces kit for digital artist trading cards (ATCs) in the stores now. This one, shown below has a Valentine's theme.




And if you've been kind enough to look at my previews, I have a small giftie for you - a quickpage made from Hearts & Flowers:






You an download it here: Link expired but I will offer it again soon.

Please leave me a comment and let me know what you think of my recent work. Hugs to you all!

Crop 'Til You Drop!

Looking for some good chat and scrapping fun? Join Diosa for Scrapbookersplayground's Crop 'Til You Drop. Starts at 7:00pm Eastern and continues until the last scrapper leaves. The theme this time is orchids and Diosa has some great kits prepared plus lots of good freebies. Check here for more details:

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Heritage Helpers

I know a lot of you are doing some genealogical research now that you're involved in scrapping. I see a lot of inquiries on the groups I'm in about sources for family trees and other materials used to record family history, so I thought I should tell you about a new series being launched by KatScraps at Scrapbookersplayground called Heritage Helpers.


The simpliest and most accurate way to describe this series is to quote from Kat's description:

It's finally arrived! The long awaited first series designed especially for Family Historians and Genealogists.
Genealogists have long been looking for an attractive way to print and display all the different kinds of data they accumulate when doing family history research, from census data to cemetery photographs. Here, at long last, is a kit series designed especially for this purpose. Each page was specifically designed for a particular data record, giving you an easy and attractive way to display your family archival material.
I have named this series after my maternal grandfather, "Edgar Hart". All of the sample images you will see throughout this series depict my actual family data, so you can really see how it looks with real world data.
The Base Kit:
The first item you should have is the Base Kit. It is intended to give you additional tools that you can use to enhance or make additional pages to the Expansion Packs that will be coming. Rather than offering one huge kit with everything, I decided to divide up the material into relevant subsets, so that you can take only the parts you need or are working on currently, or so that you can purchase it in small, easy to manage pieces. Using the base kit, you can easily personalize ready-made pages, or create your own coordinating ones.











http://www.scrapbookersplayground.com/Cart/index.php?main_page=product_scrapbook_info&products_id=7835

The above pack of charts would be useful in any family album even if you don't plan on doing any more research than the information you can obtain from living relatives.





http://www.scrapbookersplayground.com/Cart/index.php?main_page=product_scrapbook_info&products_id=7834



http://www.scrapbookersplayground.com/Cart/index.php?main_page=product_scrapbook_info&products_id=7832




http://www.scrapbookersplayground.com/Cart/index.php?main_page=product_scrapbook_info&products_id=7833

Stop by Scrapbookersplayground and take a look at these great new products for keeping family history and take note:


INTRODUCTORY SPECIAL: For a limited time, buy any two Expansion Packs at the same time, and receive a coupon for the Base Kit FREE!

Web Of Life

I recently was asked to do some layouts with Web Of Life by my friend Echo of Echo Designs (Scrapbookersplayground, ScrappersZone, K-Joi Studios). It's a wonderful kit for anyone who wants to celebrate their Native American heritage or just has an appreciation for Native American culture. The very name of the kit, Web Of Life, speaks to the Native American belief in the interconnectedness of all things - a philosophy we would all be wise to heed.

I decieded to make a series of postcards, with the seasons of the year used loosely as a theme.
The one below I think of as my summer postcard because so many travel during the summer months. This Cherokee blessing is one of my favorites.


I was thinking of spring when I made this one because every spring our garden is home to a rabbit or two. Also the color red is considered a color of renewel and growth.

This would have to be my winter postcard, speaking as it does of life as a brief moment in the cycle of death and rebirth.

And this would be autumn. Blue suggests cooling. But I admit, I mostly chose it because I liked the way it looked with the elements I wanted to use. Written on the card is a bried version of a Navajo prayer.


The page below is intended to celebrate the Cherokee heritage of my cousins who are of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation being originally from North Carolina.



If you are interested in obtaining a copy of Web Of Life, it is currently for sale at Scrapbookersplayground: http://www.scrapbookersplayground.com/Cart/index.php?main_page=product_scrapbook_info&products_id=7732



Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Update

Yes, I've been a bad blogger! The holidays set off my fibro and chronic fatigue and I haven't quite caught up. However, I'm working on it.

My thanks to Misty who sent me some great layouts she made with my Icy Mini kit. It's so nice to see what someone does with your work.

News - I'm now the creative team person for Echo Designs. Echo is such a sweetie and creates lovely kits. You can find her work here:
http://www.scrapbookersplayground.com/Cart/index.php?manufacturers_id=151&zenid=6a56de579f3e975846a8cdc59bb4a083&main_page=index
at Scrapbookersplayground, or here at K-Joi Studios:
http://kjoistudios.com/shop/index.php?main_page=index&manufacturers_id=31&zenid=5b539e16e6af66771be4debb4a9e6760
or Scrapperszone which is back up:
http://scrapperszone.com/store/index.php?main_page=index&manufacturers_id=6

In a moment, I'm going to upload a bunch of things I did with Echo's Web Of Life kit.


Bigger news - I now sell at Kutnkudlyskreations too! You can find me here:
http://kutnkudlyskreations.com/shop/index.php?main_page=index&manufacturers_id=10
I only have 9 items over there at the moment but will be uploading my ATC kits tomorrow and by the weekend will also have my rose templates in the store too.

And for all of you interested in genelogy, watch this space because I want to tell you about a new product being sold at Scrapbookersplayground that might be just what you're looking for.

In addition, I'd like to mention that I'm hosting 2 monthly challenges at SBP: Inner Landscapes - a journal scrapbook about the place where your heart, mind and body meet. And a monthly ATC (artist trading card) challenge. There's a crop/chat for the challenge with freebies the first Monday of every month and each participant in the challenge will receive a zip including all the ATCs made. Hope you'll join us.

More later - have a Round Robin file to send off.
Hugs!