January Desktop

Shabby Princess has their new January desktop for download on the blog. I really love their stuff. Follow the link to get their freebie: http://shabbyprincess.typepad.com/shabby_princess/

New Toys

I don't have any giveaways right now, but I'm working on something fun. I just wanted to share that I got a cordless mouse and tablet for Christmas. Once I get the hang of the tablet, I should be able to start doing a whole lot more fun things for digiscrapping. I can't wait to get started.

"Yes, Virginia" Elements, Alpha and Quickpage Freebies

Okay, I want to hurry up and get this kit out to everyone. I know several of you will be ready to start scrapping your Christmas memories as soon as possible. Today I made a quickpage for you along with the elements and alpha for the "Yes, Virginia" kit. I hope you all get some great pictures of your friends and family for your scrapbooking albums. Click on the links to download. Merry Christmas!

"Yes, Virginia" Quickpage

"Yes, Virginia" Alpha

"Yes, Virginia" Elements

New Kit "Yes, Virginia" and Freebies (of course)

Hello all! I just couldn't resist making another Christmas kit. I figured most of us won't be digiscrapping our Christmas memories until after the Holiday, so it's still not too late to make another kit. One of my favorite pieces to read during Christmas is "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus". I decided to create a kit around the letter. The actual letter is quite lengthy, so I just put in my favorite parts. I've posted a close-up of the letter by itself because the kit preview doesn't do it justice. All the vintage artwork is from Digital Imagery Plus. If you haven't been to this site and you love retro greeting cards and such, you really must visit. Most of the images they give away are not under copyright, so you can use them for all your creative endeavours. I just love it! Today I am giving away the papers for the kit. Just click on the preview to download. Remember to send me links to any of the pages you create with my kits and please, please, please link back to my blog. I'd really appreciate it. Merry Christmas!

Snow Alpha Freebie

I made a fun, glittery snow alpha to go with the "Let It Snow" kit. I've also thrown in another snowflake for you. I loved the way the snowflakes turned out so much that I thought a matching alpha would be fun. Click on the preview to download. Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

"Let It Snow" Alpha Freebies

Hey everyone! Today I have the alphas for the "Let It Snow" kit. I like my alphas on one big sheet. This way I only have to open up one file, and I can keep going to it to copy and paste the letters. It seems simpler to me. Anyway, if you don't like my set up, I apologize ahead of time. Think of it this way; it's less to download :) One alpha is upper case and the other lower. Click on the preview to download. Again, I'd love to see what you guys make with the kit, so please leave me the links.

"Let It Snow" Elements Freebie

Hello guys! I'm back again as promised. I can't promise I'll always be this prompt. I can be a little scatter brained. Thanks for downloading the papers yesterday. It's nice to know people like my work. Today I have the elements for you. Remember to send me the links to pages you do with the kit. I would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to see them. I'll be back soon with the alphas. Just click on the preview to download. Also, let me know if you have any problems with the files. I'm pretty new at this. I also use GIMP to create my kits, and I want to make sure everything works with PhotoShop. Merry Christmas!

"Let It Snow" Papers Freebie

Today I am giving away the papers for the "Let It Snow" kit. There are four. I will be giving away the elements and alphas soon so check back. My work is for personal use only. I'd love to see what you all create. Click on the preview to download the papers. Merry Christmas!

Felt Overlay Freebie

I've wanted to make this for some time. I really like the look of felt elements in digiscraping kits. I know there are ways to create felt by blur and adding RGB noise, etc. I could never make it look right, so I made an overlay. This overlay works better if you use multiply in the layers mode. Then you can mess with the opacity to make it the right shade. It will make colors a bit darker (especially bright ones) so be prepared. Let me know if you have any major malfunctions. Have fun and I'd love to see what you create. Just click on the image to download.

"Let It Snow" Free Background for Your Blog

Do you like the background I made for my blog? Well, you can have it on your blogger blog, too. Simply follow these directions:

• Change your template to Minima (this is the only way this will work) If this makes you nervous, save your current template to your desktop.


• Go to layout, page elements, add a gadget
  
• Choose to add an html/javascript gadget


• Paste the following code in the box and save:

<style type="text/css">body {background-image: url("http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn109/momsdaword_bucket/letitsnowblogger.jpg"); background-position: center; background-repeat: repeat; background-attachment: fixed; }</style><div id="tag" style="position:absolute; left:0px; top:30px; z-index:50; width:150px; height:50px;"></div><div id="tag" style="position:absolute; left:0px; top:30px; z-index:50; width:150px; height:45px;"><a href="http://in--stitches.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://jandbhall.googlepages.com/tag.jpg"/></a></div>

Let It Snow Desktop

I know it's half way through the month, but I still had an urge to make a new desktop using my "Let It Snow" kit. If it tickles your fancy, download it by clicking the link. I do need to give props to Sueli Colbert Designs for the date stamp I used. She has a lot of cool freebies on her website, so make sure to check her out. Enjoy!

"Let It Snow" Freebie Quickpage

Here's a free quickpage I made from my new kit "Let It Snow". Click on the preview to download the png file. I'm considering giving the kit away soon so stay tuned.

Corduroy Overlay Freebie Redo

Okay. I fixed the problem with the download. If you're still interested, just click on the picture below to access the zip file for both the large and small overlays. I'm sorry for all the confusion.

Corduroy Overlay Freebie

I made some corduroy overlays for a digiscrap project I'm working on. I thought I'd share them. There are two files depending on whether you prefer a small grain or a large one. Click on the preview to download.

Freebie "Let It Snow" Wordart

I recently finished my first decent digiscrap kit called "Let It Snow". I'm giving away the wordart for free today. Click on the picture to download. The green background is for perspective only. The file is a png. Thanks for supporting my first giveaway. Hopefully there will be more to come.

What do you think?

I found this site through my friend's mom's blog called thecutestblogontheblock.com. I thought I'd give creating my own background a try. I used a kit called Limeaide by Summer Driggs. What do you think of the new background?

Monarchs!

Wednesday evening Jack and I were playing in the backyard. I looked over at my butterfly garden and saw this...

Monarch butterflies were everywhere. They usually come around the first of October when my frostweed blooms. They can't get enough of the stuff. I took some video, but it was dusk and the footage wasn't good. I haven't had any success with the Monarchs laying eggs in the garden, but I really enjoy them stopping by for a drink. :)

Daddy's Girl

"Annie" by Raspberry Road Designs/ Template by Kenzi Dawn Designs

Here's a scrapbook page I made for my good friend. Isn't the picture too cute?

Dallas World Aquarium

Here is my latest digiscrap page. I created it using a template this time. I actually made the background paper and the little fish myself in GIMP. I would love to start creating my own digiscrap kits. I like using the templates b/c they're faster, but I do feel like I've lost a little creative freedom.

Ouch!

I was weeding my butterfly garden, and, boom, out of nowhere a wasp stung me through my glove! The good news is I think my immunity to the suckers is building b/c my reaction is minimal-just some swelling and throbbing. I know some people whose whole arm would swell. I love butterfly gardening, but the same plants that attract butterflies attract every stinging insect on this planet. And since you're supposed to protect the caterpillars, pesticides are out of the question. Wasp and yellow jackets love to eat my baby caterpillars too. Darn you wasps and yellow jackets!

My Printer Is Here!

My HP 9800 came today. Yeehaw! Like I said earlier, I found a good deal on this wide format wonder on Ebay. Of course, after my purchase, I decided to read the reviews. I always do that; buy first--read reviews later. The reviews were awful. I'm happy to report mine is working beautifully without any kinks. I printed off some Fourth of July part invites, pics of my son, and a digiscrap page (12X12). Everything turned out awesome. I'm excited about being able to print out my digiscrap pages now. I also have some plans for ubercool birthday cards. Did I mention the ink cartridges are ten dollars cheaper than my old Epson's? Most of the people who complained about it on Ebay were trying to use it for their businesses. I can see how a cheaper wide format HP would not be a great choice for high volume printing. It seems like you'd need one of those huge printing press like machines to do that kind of job. Anyway, I am happy for now creating digital masterpieces in GIMP and playing with my new printer.

New Projects

Here are a couple of things I've created in the past few days:

Big Hydrangeas!

My sister is asking people to post pics of their biggest plants. She also wants pictures of cute animals and kids. My kid's asleep and my animals aren't cute. So there! Anyway, here is my big hydrangea bloom. Yeah, I know, you've all seen bigger, but I'm proud of my blooms this year.

Happy Father's Day!

Arghhhh!

Today has not been a great day for me and my creative endeavours. My printer officially died. I am very disappointed because I was planning a super cool Father's Day card for the hubby. Now I have no way to print it out. I'm just going to have to show it to him on the computer tomorrow. LAME! I did buy a wide format printer off Ebay. It should be here next week. It's an HP 9800. The super cool thing is that it will let me print off 12X12 scrapbook pages. This guy had a ton of them in his warehouse and was selling them pretty cheap. Don't worry; he's a platinum seller and had over one thousand positive reviews. I'm safe.

The gardening is coming along slowly. I bought my son a bubble machine, and he sits in his exersaucer and watches the bubbles float by while I get a bit of gardening done. The zinnias are looking good, and I have several that reseeded. It's going to be zinnia crazy around here soon. I hope it looks nice by my Fourth of July party.

Viva mi garden!

Since school let out, I've been working in the garden as much as I can. Things have gotten way out of control. Last year I really didn't keep up with anything at all b/c I was mondo preggo. Now I try to sneak out when the baby is sleeping or preoccupied with daddy. I took some pictures of all the things going right in my garden to give me a little perspective. I tend to get pretty doom and gloom when my gardening tasks overwhelm me. I also went and bought some pretty zinnias today to help me get inspired.

A change of plans

Okay, so I've decided to devote this blog to showing off all my creative endeavors. The first is the actual layout of the blog. I used a free digiscrap download and created the header myself in a free program called GIMP 2.o. It's getting late; I'll post some of my GIMP creations later.

Don't Laugh...

So I finally started sewing. I received the sewing machine on Christmas Day, but I had some mental hurdles to jump over before I could get started. You see, my mother had an evil sewing machine when I was growing up. Every time I got inspired to learn to sew, her machine would laugh at me and eat the thread (it would actually get all wound up in the bobbin). Most of my memories of sewing are marked with frustration. Because of this, I was convinced I was going to destroy my new sewing machine. I needed to build-up my self confidence. I tend to be one of those people who give up on things if I'm not awesome at them from the get go. Unrealistic I know. Needless to say, I've missed out on some cool stuff. I recently shared my fears with my mother, and she told me that sewing machine had some major malfunctions and my experience would be much better. You know what, she was right.

Okay, so my first few attempts at sewing are nothing short of hilarious. I had some left over felt from my son's Halloween outfit, another hilarious endeavor. If you're curious, check it out here. I decided to practice by making a little purse type thingy and a hideous puppet. I originally intended to give the puppet to my son, but I'm afraid it will give him night terrors.

My biggest issue right now (other than producing insane felt objects) is that I'm not comfortable with the speed of the machine. I have a hard time following a line, etc. My mother suggested I draw some designs on a piece of paper and practice following them with my needle (sans the thread). This will be my next adventure.

Sewing for Dummies

Okay, so I've wanted to learn how to sew for a while now. When I was little, my grandmothers would make me dolls and clothes. My mother graduated from her sewing nook and turned my brother's room into her own sewing paradise. She's makes wedding dresses, baby accessories, quilts (her favorite), and anything else she feels like creating. In fact, if you visit my son's blog, Just Jack, I often take pictures of him playing on a special quilt she made for him out of my grandmother's fabric. My sister loves to quilt; my sister-in-law is a genius with yarn. I've wanted a more productive hobby (blogging is great but at the end of the day you don't have a product in your hand). Watching these women create things has inspired me to give it a try. Here's a picture of a doll my mother made for my son Jack. We call the doll Little Jack.

On a whim, I asked my mother-in-law for a sewing machine for Christmas. I honestly thought she would never find one cheap enough. Well, to my surprise on Christmas day I opened this: