Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Winter Wishes

Winter is here - and as I was looking for some snowy pics to go along with Suzy Q's Winter Wishes kit, I found these classics on my cell phone.  Miss those days...


The kit is a great bundle and currently at a discount on Scrapbookgraphics.com - click the image to take you to the kit.  I didn't use them on this page - but there are some awesome vellum elements in this kit - definately worth checking out! (and I must give credit to Pagemaps.com where I got the template inspiration for this page)




Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Ties that Bind

Suzy Q Scraps new kit releases this week - Ties that Bind.  It's a huge collection with all of this included at a steal of a price...click on the kit to take you to her store.













When I think of ties that bind - family comes first to mind - and I didn't want o do a bunch of smaller photos - so I dug deep for this family foto from our cruise a few years ago.  The colors coordinated perfectlyand what a better way to show off these cute journal cards?


Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Another Art journal style page

A new month for Art Journal challenges at scrapbookgraphics, The painted Nest Challenge.  This month (#21) - and here are the prompts.

 You get the freebies, but you have to use them on your page. (I love the reindeer).  Sissy Sparrows creates the freebies - (thank you.)  and you must use 1 of the colors as well as a phrase.






Below is my page... The kids were having such a good time together, the laughs never stopped.  That journal prompt was perfect!




I think I enjoy these challenges because I am a typically very neat scrapper - this gives me the chance to get sloppy.  I think I mentioned it before that it is a bit "freeing" in a way.  Give it a try  http://www.scrapbookgraphics.com/forum/






Saturday, November 30, 2013

December - Winter mini kit

Remember that awesome class I took at Scrapaneers with Tracey Reed?  The designer class... well here is the winter kit that I made.  It wasn't until last night that I realize that maybe I really just want to do word-art? or just something I can use for my pocket pages...
Well the kit can be picked up by clicking here.  Enjoy - let me know what ya think.


Oh by the way, my fav part.....



Thursday, November 28, 2013

Suzy Q Scraps - Holiday Lane

Great new kit by Suzy Q Scraps for all of your Holidays layouts.  Just enough glitter... love it.
Grab it here - All Suzy Kits are on sale.


Thursday, November 21, 2013

Suzy Q Scraps - MM Thanksgiving & Brand new set of Simple Story Grids!

These photos are from a few years ago, but the memory is one that I am very grateful to share.  Father-daughter dance.  I love how they got to get dressed up and spend an evening out together.  It just so happens that this lil' mini kit helped give me the perfect opportunity to showcase this moment.  I wanted to highlight them together, so the tilted photo worked perfect!



Sunday, November 17, 2013

SQS December daily & Competitive Cheer

Suzy Q Scraps has a December kit out that is great for any of your December scrapbooking projects.  However, don't let the December name limit you in uses.  These red & blue colors are great all year round.  Sammy does all star cheer - They are perfect!




Saturday, November 16, 2013

Art Journaling Challenge

I took another stab at art journaling last night.  This time I stated with a challenge at Scrapbookgraphics.com. The Painted Nest is the name of the challenges.  you can find them here... (you may need to register to view first)   I did it because i thought it would be a creative was to release some stress & some of the things that I want to say but may never get them out (not just an anger journal :)).

This challenge has a few elements you need to include, but you can use any kit you like.  I loved throwing everything on my canvas and then sorting it out afterwards. It is somehow freeing to throw a paint splat on the page - and then removing it if I didn't like it, or move it around and re-size it.  (can't do that in real life :), I have ruined a lot of pages playing with real paints).  I love the mess and still will play occasionally, but this is so convenient!

Anyway here is my page.  Sammy is struggling with relationships this year in school (girls growing up and they just aren't nice all the time).



(kit- Captivated Visions Dreamer; freebies - Sissy Sparrows (challenge 20); template - Angelclaud Artsyblends 1)

Friday, November 8, 2013

Dream On - My shining star

Suzy Q Scraps has been sending out this kit in bits and pieces on her blog.  But if you have missed it you can grab it in her store.  It's a fun kit that can be used to scrap so many inspiring stories.  Once I read the word art journaling card, I knew it was made for Ashley.  She was born to shine!


Sunday, November 3, 2013

Free November Mini-digi-kit

For the past 8+ weeks I have been taking a class at Scrapaneers.  It is by Traci Reed and it is a digital designer class.  Let me say that I have always scrapped in PSE - because it was easy for me.  This class is for PSE or PS (although most techniques are better off using PS).  I learned soooo much in these 8 weeks that I don't even open PSE anymore.  The technique tips are great and I went from a super beginner to creating a mini kit in 8 weeks.  The lessons are invaluable and once you purchase them, you can review them for life (which for me is awesome because I have already re-watched every one)  I cant even say enough about how wonderful this class was - and at the end you have a one-on-one with Traci, she really is just an absolutely amazing person!

Even though this is not the kit I created in class ( I am saving that for December) - I wanted to start using some of my things - so here is my debut mini-kit (because I am not super fast at this it takes me a while to get a kit together, this is just a min-kit) and it is free! -

I hope to create monthly mini-kits that will carry through a full year for my own pocket pages.  You will see the browns, grays and blacks through the year and similar dated journal cards and subway art journal cards.  I love paint smudges so I have a few of those in each of the next few kits and I am working on adding other elements as I have time to do them.

This kit comes with a turkey that you can build to suit your style.  There are 7 different feathers textures, and 2 bodies to choose from.

Enjoy - (click for papers)  -  (click for journal cards)    -    (click for embellishments, word-art & turkey)


Saturday, November 2, 2013

DSD! digital scrapbooking day!

Digital Scrapbooking day is like a mini holiday - (for digi scrappers anyway) but also for hybrid or paper scrappers as well.  ( I will delve in that more in a few days).  However One thing before the weekend is over that you may be interested in is this great grab bag kit - and super deal from Suzy Q Scraps.  The kit can be found here - and I have to say at $4 it's a bargain!

here is what I made with it - along with SQS simple grid templates - whipping this up was a breeze.


The page is about our crazy day we had taking Sammy all around to 3 doctor appointments in all 3 areas of the city.  We must have put on 200 miles that day traveling from Cranberry to South Hills to downtown to see the duck - then back to Dusquesne and then to Children's Hospital.  Good news - everything turned out well and tests came out well.  

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Wedding Story Suzy Q Scraps

Suzy has come out with what I think is an amazing concept - you have to check it out.  She has created two wedding kits (gray & brown), which are cute all in their own.  But she is offering to customize either kit in your wedding colors!  How amazing to have a totally custom kit ready to scrap your special day photos or phoot's of a friend or relative.  I think it would be AWESOME for Thank you's etc....

here are 2 sneaks of the kit - I didn't get mine colored yet, but the mono-tone colors really makes the colored photos pop!

(I created 2 pages for my in-laws 50th anniversary - let me know which you like better (I know which I like, but figured why not post them both anyway).





Friends & Family _Suzy Q Scraps

Suzy has a great kit for celebrating everything that you are thankful for.  I personally was so thankful for the great day I had with my kids & their friends.  Sam and I headed up to SRU to watch Jason play hockey - (they won by the way 12-1, I don't think the Akron team was so thankful that day :().  It was so nice to just have everyone together for just a moment in time..




Monday, October 28, 2013

Monday Night Nerd


It’s almost November, time for turkey, stuffing and friends & family.  I cook at my house – but we never really have a huge amount of people.  Now that my mom is in Florida for the winter, it’s just  my in-laws and immediate family.  Total 8 this year. 

Over the next two weeks I will show you how I am managing my Thanksgiving holiday with the help of  Microsoft Excel (after all this is Monday Night Nerd for a reason :))

My menu will be scaled down from past years of having over 15-18 attendees… but I will still be making the same items: Turkey, stuffing, Mashed Potatoes & Sweet Potatoes, Green beans & corn.  Dessert is pumpkin pie & Crème Brulee (oh! so yummy!).  Same menu each year – occasionally I have switched things up added or deleted but the staples are always there. (I haven’t paired everything down yet so when you look at the shopping list don’t panic J)  Also , there are 2 Green Bean recipes until I make a final decision.



I have my standard items w/ ingredients in excel already – (download here). This will be the start of my grocery list. The second tab helps me plan the cooking schedule so I can plan the timing of the food to all come out at the same time. 



This is my starting point.  I save it and use it year over year. (and my turkey cooking calculator comes with me year over year too :))

*I have my headers already filtered and sorted by grocery item so as I start checking shopping lists for prices I can just add them in.  (if you need a brush up on filters – see earlier weeks Monday Night Nerd post - here.)

Over the next 2 weeks I will be checking ads, cutting coupons (there are always baking items, Pillsbury crescent rolls, can & frozen veggies coupons in the papers this time of year).  OH! and Stay tuned.  I will be posting recipes, etc… as we get closer!

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Suzy Q Scraps 2 kits to check out...

I am a little behind on some posts - It has been craaaazy!  I am finishing up a class at Scrapaneers.com (more details on that in another post).  I just learned that my company is splitting in two, my son got some crazy infection and we spent a night in the ER, all this in less than 7 days!

Spookilicious is one of my fave kits by Suzy Q Scraps, and I dug out Ashley's old homecoming pics to show it off -

My second LO (and this was done once before and  my computer crashed), It has been inside my head all week to re-make this LO using Suzy Q Scrap's You're my Everything collection.  I did the entire LO in PS not PSE, I think I am getting the hang of it!  I wanted to use masks for the large blended photo of Sydney.  It's lots of blue but I think his orange fur complements this kit so well. And really is a kit called "You're my everything just for people?  If chocolate complimented that blue - I may have scrapped that.




That's it for this week - hopefully by next Wed I can post what I have been learning over at Scrapaneers!

Friday, October 11, 2013

SQS_Spookilicious

This is my favorite Halloween Kit by far!  Not just for Halloween - I created a great page scrapping my daughter's Homecoming dance.  I love kits that are fun, colorful, and versitile.  I am sure you will be seeing more of this one from me.





Thursday, October 3, 2013

Halloween Pinspiration

What happens when you mix 3 great things together (Pinterest, Suzy Q Scraps, Scrapbooking) - you get a quick little layout to highlight just what is happening in my everyday life.  And Pinterest certainly is part of my everyday life.  Not sure what I did before Pinterest - oh yeah - I read books and magazines.... what?  what are those?  It's quite the crazy world huh?


Monday, September 30, 2013

Monday Night Nerd - Saving Photos



I wanted to post this earlier since I missed last week’s post while I was traveling.
My mom is a great inspiration for me to start these posts – she always has questions regarding her computer and hopefully maybe this will help someone else too?  Or be a reference place for my mom J.
This weekend,  my mom had a question about opening and saving photos she receives in emails.  Everyone seems to send files differently.  If they are sent as an attachment this is pretty simple – click on the attachment (the file opens) and you can save it wherever you put your photos.
When they are imbedded in the email (in the body of the email vs an attachment) you can easily save the picture by
Single Right click on the photo (it brings up the menu below)
Single right click on “Save as Picture” –
This will automatically open up your documents and allow you to save the picture file somewhere on your computer.  Just name it and choose your folder. And click Save.

So all of this is good information – but what do you do with the picture next?  How do you view it?  what if you only want to keep the orange kitty and not the gray one? 
If you do not have any photo editing or viewing software, I personally think that Microsoft Power Point is the easiest to navigate to make changes to a photo, It is pretty powerful, and comes on most computers where Microsoft office is installed.
It can do some cool stuff:
First Open Power Point and let’s change the page setup to a blank page.  When you open Publisher to a new slide opens with a spot to add a title and a spot for a subtitle.  You can click on them and delete them – or you can change the page layout: (using the ribbon – or under the home tab, single left click on “Layout” and choose “Blank”

To insert your picture:
Go to the INSERT tab, click on picture and locate the folder and place where you saved your photo and open it.
You can select your photo and do make it bigger, smaller, by dragging the corners of the photo (you will see circles and squares around the pictures when it is selected.   I suggest always re-sizing from the corners so you can keep the photo in proportion.  Play with the cropping, color changing, etc… you can not do any damage to your photo because it is saved in your folders and the CTRL+Z button can un-do anything you change.  (yes – that is a great button!)  when you are all done you can save your photo in the technique taught above (right click and save-as-a photo) – only change the name and you will have both copies saved.
Hope this helps a little –
Email me if you have any problems or questions:  dw068@gmail.com




(title created using techogeek digital kit)

Wednesday, September 25, 2013


Trick or treat with Suzy Q Scraps. I love scrapping Fall & Halloween - It's the colors, I can't lie.  Something is just fun about the deep golds & reds & oranges...  Happy haunting is Suzy Q Scraps latest kit, it has so many fun elements, stick figures, word art, really too cute to be scary, and packed with loads of fun stuff.

I used another simple story grid (#9 I believe).  I turned off the doodle outline and thought it would be fun to sew into the page a bunch of word strips.  And the spider tied to the page with a button journal card is 2 elements and a quick line with the pencil tool.  simple but I thought it was cute!

You can find the kit here and it is 40% off right now too! - BONUS!






Saturday, September 21, 2013

Suzy Q Scraps M&M Autumn Bundle

Been busy scrapping, what else does one do when they are no longer cool enough to hang out with their 11-going-on-35-year-old daughter? Suzy Q Scraps  just came out with this adorable kit  memories & Moments Autumn Bundle - and right now you can pick up some free journal cards to go with it.  Find it all here:
Susy Q Scraps Store  or click on the photo below.  Underneath is what I made.  I love how simple to scrap with her pocket pages Simple Grids - I used Grid set #9 also found in here store or here.





Friday, September 20, 2013

Kerri Bradford Studio

Of course I am a huge fan of Kerri and her classes, designs, etc... but today her blog post is ectra special... because my card was posted in it!  I thought I mentioned how this was made, but guess I never got to it.
Well, Kerri's blog can be found here - and yep - that's my card -
How totally exciting!  The card was a quick show off of how simple techniques can add elegance to a card.  I used Kerri's "just because" from her Designer Edition Class,  first I used the silhouette to print a gradient (also taught in a KBS class) and then cut my card.   I added an external offset to the "just because" and used the silver metallic pen tool to draw the outside offset around the letters.  I had to adjust a few points of the text to allow the machine to cut it w/o losing the inside of the letter (see the "b" and the loop in the j").  I cut that out - wrapped a simple ribbon around the top - all done!

I totally recommend Kerri's classes - she is amazing!!

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Suzy Q Scraps - Pumpkin Patch LO

I have the honor of being chosen to represent Suzy Q Scraps on her design team! - i am super excited! I love her kits - they are fun and very versatile, and the more I have been digi scrapping, the more of her kits I was purchasing and using!  I waited for a design team call and applied.  Bit my nails down to stubs for a few weeks waiting for the announcement - and wallah!

Suzy's latest kit is called Pumpkin Patch (found here) & I paired that up with her Simple Story Grids #10 (templates found here) to create the double page LO of our trip to Soergels.  Aren't those pumpkins adorable?  One thing I like to do with any kit is update things to match my pages.  Little things make a big difference.  For instance - if you look closely at the raffia tie around Sammy's photo (1st LO bottom left).  The kit comes with a yellow flower attached to the raffia.  I wanted to use the plaid pattern.  I simply duplicated the layer in PSE, used my magic wand tool to select only the flower, then inversed the selection and deleted all the other stuff, just leaving the flower.  I grabbed the plaid paper, reduced the size and clipped it to the single yellow flower, and added a brad - easy breezy!

I am on her team for a year - and I hope I can do her justice!



Monday, September 16, 2013

Monday Night Nerd - Using Excel Filters

I am a bit of a nerd at heart.  It's my dad's fault from my first VIC-20 and Commodore-64 I loved technology. And a well written spreadsheet makes my heart sing!  I use them for everything, just ask my kids.  I was a past president for a few school athletic clubs (2 at one point in time) and by having my spreadsheets organized, my job was all that much easier.  I want to share a tip using filters, hopefully if this is new to you, you might feel a little pitter-patter next time you open Excel....

I built a quick gift list for my four kids.  I included sizes of a few common items that I keep up to date, and made up a few other items to build the sheet for this purpose.  It's relatively small and on one page for example sake.  but picture this as my master holiday list, all family members included & 4 children's wish lists -oh! how many rows I need each year, the chaos can be overwhelming. Let's introduce Filters.

To enable your filter, highlight your "header" row. Click on your "Sort & Filter" button and then click on  "Filter" (highlighted below with arrows). (or use quick key shortcut CTRL+SHIFT+U) when your filters are on, you will notice the drop down arrows on your header row titles.


 
Below is a list of what you get when you click on those drop down arrows.  As long as you have all of your column titles being filtered, you can manipulate what you see w/o messing up the integrity of your data in your rows. (I didnt mention the text filter, I will save that for another Monday)


Now, let's say I was headed to Dick's Sporting Goods.  I filtered by the location column, and then sort A-Z on the item column. So as I head through each department I can quickly see what I want to buy, and all the other rows of data are no longer distracting me.


easy-peasy right?    Organize groups of people, filter by grade, team, birthday months, etc.... The possibilities are endless.

If you have any questions using filters, feel free to email me :) dlw068@gmail.com. Check back next week for another Monday Night Nerd post.

Sunday, September 8, 2013

New Room LO

I spent a wonderful week with Kerri Bradford (not really personally) but taking her new Design Secrets Class (found here).  I bought my Silhouette a few weeks ago and didn't open it for 2 weeks - I was terribly intimidated.  Not sure why - I have mastered my Cricut - but this new machine scared me.

There was a sale I found on another blog that led me to KBS and a discount on her classes.  I signed up for 3 classes and sat on my butt for a full weekend.  Come Sunday night, I was off and running on the Silhouette.  Kerri makes things very easy to understand, walks you through the Silhouette step-by-step, and you get some great freebies too!  This class was no different, I found it extremely helpful, and by the end of the class day 1 I created this little baby to scrap my daughter's room makeover.

I think it will be perfect too to scrap my older daughters college apt.room - why not? - I sized it 3x4 so I could add it to project life. (you can copy the jpeg and bring it into SCAL or Silhouette Studio).  I hope you can find a cool use for it too.


Here is my LO - also created in Silhouette Studio - how cool! (Kerri's class will provide the template and walk you through how this is done) then I have my entire Lo ready to cut - pics are all sized to fit my page, and I have a game plan ready to go - OH! and my journal card gets printed and cut - easy peasy.






Saturday, September 7, 2013

what have you been up to lately?

I have been busy lately with life - older 2 kids going off to college, sammy's foot surgery & dealing with her life in a boot... We are still trucking along - trying to stay busy and fit in crafting time.  The latest is Sammy's new room - not bad for a labor day project (I needed that extra day to recouperate!).

The paint colors were picked out by Sammy:

  • Pink
  • Blue
  • Purple


Then I topped off the pink with Disney Sequin paint (wal mart $29/gallon - and for the upper half of her room - 4 walls I used 1/2 gallon of it.  It is a clear overlay ... use after color paint is dry, I only applied 1 coat - and it is super cool - perfect for girly-girls of any age!)


Her dresser drawers have chalkboard paint o them (I am still looking for the handles I want to use for the pulls)


Her mirror I also painted chalboard paint around.



The saying above I cut from the silhouette - and I will try to attach the cut file as soon as I figure out how to do that :)  - and I don't have a pic of the tinkerbell sitting on her light switch - also silhouette cut-out - I pulled the image from this pinterest post into silhouette and traced and cut it at 3" high - it looks super cute!

Post link: http://pinterest.com/pin/76701999876662993/


The room inspired me to create a   cute cut out file, for her scrapbook page about t - again - once I get this blogging thing down - i will be more than happy to share the files!


Friday, January 18, 2013

Moving

I started a new blog at this location, I have just posted a great new Hybrid Craft project to kick it off - hope you can join me over here:

http://steelcitydigi.blogspot.com/2013/01/kick-off-with-hybrid-craft.html