So, what are your weekend plans?

This weekend is quite busy for us. I have a farewell BBQ to go to (sad part of being a military family). She’s a good stamping friend of mine too so I’ll miss seeing her at stamp night and card swaps.

Then I need to go to the city for some errands and to also drop our friends’ car at the airport. Well, we’re going to the city for the last part, but since we’re already out there, might as well do errands. We’re out of detergent and soap anyhow. We use all (if possible… or if we can find them) organic products and there’s no health/nature store here.

Then there’s community supper again at the church where we help feed locals who are in need. This month we’re to bring corn bread and some sort of veggies. Hubby can do corn bread really well… maybe a Southern thing? Who knows but he makes them really good. He likes to eat it with that sour tasting milk stuff… oh what is it… I can’t remember…

Here’s a layout that I did using Tara Sroka’s 4th of July kit (it’s on sale for $2!). The red stars on the top right I extracted it out of a background paper. You all know how I LOVE to cut pieces out of paper… same idea, just digital. Don’t ask me what airplane that is. This was at an air show at hubby’s work. I wonder if they’ll have another one this year. That one two years ago was the last one. Too expensive I think to have it all the time. We love going because of the little kids’ activities and also the air shows. A couple of times I worked there… our university has a booth… but I quit doing that a while back… just too dang hot! So, I thought the red, white, and blue was appropriate for my very patriotic hubby and his airplanes (goodness he LOVES airplanes… between that and antique cards… he knows them by heart… seriously he can look at a tail light of a car and tell you the brand, model, and year of the car!) oh… and plus our M {::SMILES}.

Have a great weekend you all!

I just want to share a few easy to do (even when you’re sick) items. Yes, I got bored and so I had to make something, ha!

The first is super simple as you can see. I used Tara Sroka’s tag that I printed out from her Queen of Green kit. The sentiment… handwritten by me. Now and then I enjoy doing this on my cards. For the card stock I used SU’s card stock. I also did some paper piercing, to give it a little more umpf. What do you think and oh… notice, no ribbon? {::SMILES}

The next one is a bookmark. It’s for M. She’s still napping and I made this while she was in the room with me. My girl can sleep!!! She’s so funny, every weekend nights, I’d tell her before bed time that she can sleep in tomorrow. I said the same thing last night too and she curled up and said, “ahhh…. thank you mommy.” It doesn’t matter what time she sleeps, she won’t wake up earlier than 7:30 a.m. Our weekend sleepy time is 10 p.m. and on average, she’ll wake up at 8:30 a.m. at the earliest. A few times I had to wake her up at

close to 10 a.m.! Can you imagine how my life will be when she’s a teenager? I can imagine Freaky Friday with Lindsay Lohan (when she was still cute and sweet it seemed) when what’s her name, her mom, was pulling her out of bed. That’d be me.

This bookmark I created using paper from TheDigiChick called Promise Paper Pack by Danielle Engebretson. Such a cute pack and I can’t wait to use it on some layouts.

I hope she likes it. I think she will. She usually LOVES it when I make her something. She loves to read and her school started a reading club. I think this will be perfect for those long nighty night time stories. We’ll know for sure where we stopped instead of just laying it down on the floor face down.

It is gorgeous outside. When M wakes up, we’re going to play outside a bit. I am sick of blowing my nose at this point and hacking. If I can get a good night sleep tomorrow then I’ll be just fine.

Ok, another digital page. I created this one using Tara Sroka’s new kit: Fun in the Sun.

This is a quick and quite easy layout. I just used a lot of the elements in her kit and here it is. M loves her bikini {::SMILES}.

What a week! It will be full of teaching, teaching, teaching. I did a half day session yesterday and I was pooped! Today I have a Flickr and del.icio.us session, quite fun for me but need to finish up a few handout items

Here’s a computer tip for you… If you work on multiple computers, check out delicious (or any social bookmarkers really). It’ll save you a lot of time when it comes to bookmarking your favorite sites. Just a brief explanation… when you save a website to your favorites in Internet Explorer or Firefox, you’re saving it on your computer. If you’re on your computer and you move to your laptop for example, you have to resave that page again onto that laptop’s favorites. Well, when you’re using delicious, since it is a web bookmarker, you can be on the laptop or desktop and you’ll have access to the same favorites. No need to email yourself the links from work or from your friend’s computer. Just login and save it to delicious.

I also like that I can see how many other people have saved that particular site and if I click on it I can see each username and see what else that person has saved. I’ve found many sites this way… many hobby related stores that I would not have easily found.

I don’t use my Firefox/Explorer bookmark tool anymore. Everything I have is saved on delicious and I can access it from any computer. I have also installed the delicious plugin for my Firefox and Flock web browser (same plug-in) and also Internet Explorer. It’s nice, it’s just like using the regular bookmark tool. Click and save.

Keep in mind that your bookmark is public until you click on the “do not share” when you save each item (for example my bank is not public since I don’t want people to know where I bank at). You can check out my scrapbook kit bookmark if you like (I can just share individual tags or the whole bookmark) and see what other bookmarks I have. I have two accounts. This is my personal one and I have a work one too that I share with my colleagues and students.

That’s your geek tip of he week {::SMILES}.

Made a quick page using Tara Sroka’s elements, Day by Day and Weather Forecast, lines, some brushes and fonts. I love M’s picture too. I love her look and how she pops against the sephia-ish, almost b/w, background. It was really easy to do too. I’ll show you how later! This layout has no drop shadow effect. For graphic style pages, I don’t use drop shadows. I want it to look flat, magazine style flat.

I created this video based on this layout. I did however edit this layout more after I ended the video — this is the final result. I probably spent no more than 10 minutes adding the journaling and readjusting the different layers just a tad. The video was a 13 minute video but since it’s just a demo, I fast forwarded it and now it’s a six minute-ish video. I added music too, so watch out, turn your speakers down a bit. I found a podsafe site that I like with a great amount of options. I’m trying to be compliant here with the whole copyright thing. I’ve also figured out the best settings for my video output. This 6 min. video with audio is only a tad over 13 megs. Not bad {::SMILES}.

So enjoy. This video might not be considered a tutorial since it is quick but I hope it will give you a good idea on what digital scrapbooking is and a glimpse on how I work Photoshop. Oh, always remember to create a new layer each time you use a new brush style or new angle. It’s easier to delete this way. The guidelines going around the page, that’s to help me see the 1/4″ margin for printing purposes. I use WHCC and I need to give them 1/4″ for cutting. I still get a 12×12 page. If you don’t know them, try them. They are awesome. Super fast (it’s the quick UPS they use), the print quality is great and for less than $4 ($12 min.) you get a printed digi page shipped free. Oh, one of the guys who packs (Brad I think — I can’t find his card that he stuck in there, the packed by …. card), he always puts a sucker in the box for M, so sweet!

Shortcut keys used:

- Alt/Option with scroll button to magnify an area (same as the navigation function)
- Ctrl - T to transform
- Ctrl - C and V to copy and past
- Ctrl - (–) zoom out

Anybody has any good allergy tip? My poor hubby is in pain. He’s been sneezing and sniffling all day and the medication isn’t helping any.

My poor little M. She’s such a klutz (like her daddy, ha!). They were out, taking a walk, I heard her say, “you can’t catch me” and then a cry. When they got back, M had to show me her bloody chin. Ahhh… I plan on scrapbooking it. I’ll show you then.

This is a page that I did really quick. Hubby took the picture. Pretty nice, eh? This was enroute to Indonesia last summer. It was a trip that I thought would never happen but it did. If you listen to the news from the last few years, you’ve probably heard about the bombing and ethnic riots that have been going on in Indonesia. It’s such a sad thing. Because of the instability we haven’t been able to go until last year. It was the first time that my parents or my huge family really (except my sister who lives in CA) met my little family. I also felt like it was a miracle that we could go because I am bad luck when it comes to planning. Every time, 90% of the time, that I make plans to do something, it always gets canceled. We almost didn’t get married - he got called in to work. The only way we can do stuff is if we’re spontaneous or if it’s a major holiday and he’s scheduled to be off with the rest of the world. I feel like there’s a bug in the house, listening in. Hmmm… are they reading my blog now? I have no plans! I swear!!!

Ok, for the page, I use Tara Sroka’s Word Art. The brushes were found online and I have no clue where. I think DeviantArt.com but don’t take my word for it. Just simple, another graphic style LO.

Here’s a quick page that I did today using Tara Sroka’s kit and elements:

- You Shamrock Kit
- Nutritional Facts #1
- Word Frames #1
- Never Forget Stamps

Love this kit. Looks real and it’s clean. I love this page that I did. I think the green color really highlights the photo.

Today (or Thursday) I received my  goodies from SIStv. Yeah!!! Love my loot!

I think I should quit writing. I think I have very short and choppy sentences. I hope Friday is a better day. I had back-to-back meetings all afternoon and after the last one (which I didn’t know I was going to be pounced on) I was just pooped! I’m surprised that I was able to whip out three layouts today — in 3 hrs!! I’ll show you the others over the weekend. I have them on queue to post Saturday and Sunday since I’ll be spending Easter weekend with the family and maybe squeeze in a bit of work.

Have a great day, it’s Friday. WHOO HOO!!!

Silke Ledlow nominated me for a You Made my Day Award. Wow! I wasn’t expecting it. I’m one of her blog stalkers, love her simple, classy, and fun designs. You should check her out! So now I need to nominate five people…. hmmm…

1. Amy Tsuruta - Tsuruta Designs. Her cards always make me smile. They’re so simple and sooo elegant. Amy definitely makes my day
2. Cathy - Paper Cat. She’s my new SIS sister and I love her stuff and her blog. She makes my day when I see all her work
3. Allison - Your Memories. This chick is another awesome scrapbooker. Her work makes my day too
4. Melissa Goodsell - One Crafty Mumma. She’s my hero. She’s my Martha Stewart! She’s so good at everything it’s sick and her family is so lovely. Check out Bella’s sock monkey tutorial. This family makes M and my day
5. Bonnie - The Lucky Clucker. She’s one of my blogging sister and her work makes me smile. She’s really good and so she deserves the award {::SMILES}

Here are some projects that I did tonight. The first is a card. I used my scrap papers for this card and also the netting. For the flower, I used Stampin’ Up’s die cut floral. The hi is American Craft and the friend is SU’s Rough Edges Alphabet stamp. Ok, let me tell you this… I am a SU demo but I don’t recommend this Rough Edges Alphabet stamps unless you like to mount A LOT of itty bitty rubber. I hated it! The stamps are great but the process of mounting is a pain in the a**. I mounted friend and a few more. That’s it, until next time. Maybe I’ll just use it for just the word friend, ha!

Then I did this page. I used Tara Sroka’s Love Muffin kit, Hearts Do Dads, size tags, and to-do list.

I used the B/W photo technique that I showed you last week or maybe two weeks ago. If you read the journaling, you’ll know why the picture is kind of over exposed.

For the journaling, I used the path tool and I intersected two squares together (in the tutorial I intersected two circles and used the intersection, in this one I combined the two squares).

This is a pretty simple LO, another layered one — I am really liking this layering concept.

I’m only working half a day tomorrow. Yeah! Not sure what I’ll do but one is to prepare for my Stampin’ Up! workshop tomorrow night. I didn’t take the half day to do that, I did the half day just because and coincidently I have a workshop tomorrow. I’m excited. I don’t do workshops much, maybe once or twice a year, so it’s always fun.

So here’s my version of the PL sketch. Kind of like the sketch but not quite. Again I did another collage. I’ve been so into this look lately.

I used an interesting item for this page. My blogging sister, Karyn, sent me some brads. I was in a brad share that she was hosting. Besides brads and other goodies she sent me a sweet little thank you card. The card paper was gorgeous. It’s that green and light blue floral that I used on the left of M’s picture. How could you just store such prettiness? So I trimmed it and used it on my LO. She also sent me some blings and I used one on the green flower — can you see it?

Other materials:

K&Company background paper, word art chipboard , and rub-ons
Field House chipboard bird
Unknown floral background paper, brads, and net
Prima floral
Tara Sroka Nutritional Fact #1
Target ribbon
Making Memory Acrylic paint
ATG adhesive and Fabri-Tac fabric glue

I really didn’t put a lot of product on the page. It just seems like it from the picture. My desk is also not too messy from this ordeal {::SMILES}.

I really love this page. M’s so cute and the colors just enhances the picture I think. She was such a beautiful baby and now a cutie pie girl. You can see two more close-up images of this LO in my Flickr site.

So glad it’s a weekend. No big plans, just relaxing, cleaning, and more scrapbooking or digi scrapping. I need to create a few LO using Tara Sroka’s and Dana Frantz kits that I downloaded the last few days. Next weekend I have an all day crop that’s hosted by the local girls’ scout. I plan on doing digi and paper — yeah, I’ll be hauling my stuff This coming week is also spring break. Whoo hoo!!! I can take a break from grading and going to my classes. I love my French class though. So fun! I plan on taking a couple days off too from my day job. I’ll use one day to scrapbook and the other day to spend with the hubby (he’s going to take one day off). Have a great weekend everybody!!

EDIT: I forgot to mention that Prince was the inspiration for this layout: Beautiful Girl.

Last Sunday I was officially one of Tara Sroka’s Creative Team. Remember the Green layout that I did (if not, it’s this one on the left {::SMILES})? Well, she liked it and here I am, one of her CT. I am also going to be a May guest for a stamping company but I can’t say who yet until March 15th — EXCITED THOUGH!!!

I applied for Tara’s spot because I love her clean design. Her style, to me at least, is like the old school graphic designer. It’s what I learned to do when I was in graphics class (I was an advertising major… I thought I was going to be working in some big advertising company creating magazine ads or something). I love trying a little bit of everything but every so often I miss the clean layouts so this will give me the opportunity to mix it up a bit more. I also applied because I saw a lot of things that Tara created that I can use for my cards and hybrid scrapbooking. I can’t wait to create a few big items this weekend!

After checking out the other members and also Tara’s forum, I really like it. Before February I’ve never joined a CT before and the experience has been quite interesting (plus who doesn’t like free kits). I plan on being in no more than three CT at a time. This forces me to create 9-12 LO (or cards or altered craft)/mo which is about my goal for this year.

Here’s my first creation with Tara’s paper. These pattern papers are gorgeous. The design’s just lovely and the colors! Pastel but at the same time it’s not so fufu (does that make sense?). It’s suppose to be an Easter set but hey, I’m not one to follow rules, and thus this none Easter card. I printed them on card stock on my color inkjet printer. I just got a tip today that I’d get better results if I print on matte photo paper so I will be stopping at the store to get some. The stamp is Stampin’ Up! for Friends and PaperTrey’s Mixed Messages. Card stock and ribbon also SU. The brad… oh, isn’t it pretty? My blogging sister hosted a brad share and this was one of the many that I received. Lovely!! This is the first time that I’ve actually used bling-age {::SMILES}.

Ok, it’s Thursday, yeah!!! A video will be coming out on my next post!