My wish for just a date.....

didn't come true. There was more to be added to my teddybear lay-out than I wanted, BUT.... It turned out pretty neat, even if I say so myself!  If I change my mind, I may take off the wire, and re-arrange the cluster, but the blended picture of Perky, is definatly there to stay.... We'll see.

Granted, I haven't done a whole lot of them, but I don't think I've done a progressive scrap that had this many twists, turns and flat-out switchbacks as this one.... Nobody got stumped to the point that they quit though and that was cool! Go take a look at: Progressive Scrap Gallery

Here's my final result.....

I'm going to look at the pictures I took Monday, and see if I can put some pages together. Maybe even practice extracting..... There's a way to include the little fuzzies in hair and such, but I don't remember where I saw the tips, so I'm just going to play, and hope I remember what I did, when I get there LOL 

There's no way this side of the universe (barring a lottery win) that I'll be printing them, but it IS a nice way to spend a wintery, cold, rainy, better stay inside day LOL. As long as I have my helper nearby, full coffee-cup and some music.... I can hibernate as good as the next bear! LOL 

If I could only have a view of our Christmas tree while I was doing it..... deep sigh!

Tomorrow is supposedly a nice dry day of 48 degrees, so we'll make a trip to storage, and see what we have that we can do without, and maybe (gasp) even find things we've been looking for to take home with us....

Stay safe, and have a VERY blessed 2011!

Life goes on.....

Well, Christmas is over (Tree is staying for a little bit longer though, don't want to lose that holiday feeling yet) and life goes on. Mike is back to work, after 1 day off. I have 2 doctors appointments and 1 test this week, and than it's 2011 already....... I pretty much lost out on 2009 and 2010.... I'm hoping I'm going to enjoy and remember 2011!

We have things we would like to do next year, wishes for each-other, and a small leftover supply of optimism that we are keeping close to our hearts. We've learned over the last 18 months, that Murphy's Law, is anything but a myth.... Anything that CAN happen, WILL happen.... and we don't want to jinks anything LOL

Did my picks for LayOut of the Week at Ivy.... tough one, and I was sooooo glad we were given extra time this week.... I keep thinking it's Monday, and I about had a heart attack! I thought I had missed it again. Than realized it was Sunday, and went in a panic, because it was after 10! (WAY after 10)   But found out that we had extra time... THANKS DENISE!!!

Just put the finishing touches on the 4th step in the progressive scrap at DigiDesignResort... I'm out of ideas! SO GLAD there's only one step left, and I hope that amounts to nothing more than putting a date in! LOL

Not sure how these work, but I'm quietly thinking that Elaine goes thru the gallery to figure out what the next step should be to keep everybody thinking LOL It's fun though. When I started, I would have liked to leave the page "as is", but now that I added things, it DOES look better..... 

Last step should be done by the 31st, and than I have to get cracking on the next MEGA from IvyScraps.... Haven't heard anything about it yet, so I'll be as surprised as you are!  The December kit was so much fun, I've been trying to take pictures to match the kit, so I can play some more LOL. That was probably not the smartest move I've made in a while, but hey..... Gotta have some fun too.

Made moms potato salad for Christmas.... well, let me rephrase that, I instructed Mike on what to do next. I tried peeling potatoes, and was about one and a half spud into 2 pounds, when my hands were cramping so bad, I couldn't even hold on to the knife, let alone work it without risking serious injury, so after that, My ROCK took over. He's soooooo cool! I didn't even have to ask. He just came in, parked my butt on a chair in the kitchen, and started! We have an agreement. I try, and if I need help, I'll ask. Sofar, it's the "I try" part onlybecause I still have a hard time asking for help. Mike knows when to let me be, and do things at my speed (A snail would beat me, most times) and when I'm so frustrated with myself, that I'm ready to cry. And than he just quietly comes in, and takes over..... Don't know what I would do without him.

Didn't send any cards this year, again..... BUT, atleast I had enough sense to send some thru email.... I KNOW I forgot a bunch of people, and I hope they'll forgive me. I tried over time, to keep reconstructing my email address book, every time my computer blows up, but..... you know how that works, right? LOL 

AND! drumroll please.....

The store at FLIGHTS OF FANCY 

is set-up, and open. The GrandOpening is not there yet, but... go take a look and sign up for the news letter, so you don't miss it! 

(Yours truly puts the NewsLetter together, so I'll let you know when it's available on the site, but... it never hurts to get an advance copy in your email! Am I right?

Gotta run, maybe I'll catch up with you before years end, if not 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Did you ever.....

Google for blog-trains?
I hadn't, until today! MAN O MAN did I NOT know what I got into LOL

I had on the calendar that on the 15th, a blog-train would start, but in  my foggy state of mind, never bothered to add where.... so, since google is pretty much my best friend, I did a search, figuring "how many can there be?

i should have smelled trouble when it came up with a possible list of extra searches, but no, I just HAD to hit enter.... 478 and 6 zero's!!!!

I quietly closed the search window and started going thru the blogs I look at on a regular bases....

I found the one I was looking for, (the one at bits and bobs) and while going thru it, and catching up, I found 3 more, so.... I'm, going to make my goal this week...Staying out of trouble, more or less LOL

Got some train travel to take care of but just in case I'm not coming up for air before Saturday.....

Have a great Christmas every one!!!

Hugs,

Pauli

I should have been

trying if I could use the vacuum-cleaner, without crying, do dishes, even if it is one cup at a time, maybe even, fold clothes, but............. I didn't.
Honestly, who didn't see that one coming!?!? LOL

I was checking email, and saw that the progressive scrap at Digital Design Resort started yesterday. Tomorrow, we'll be traipsing into Chicago for my passport and some other stuff we need to do at the Embassy, and the deadline for the first step of the scrap is tomorrow midnight, so .... I HAD to do it today.......

I started with the picture. I've been wanting to scrap that puppy for a long time, and this just seemed the right time. I didn't have any word-art to go with it, like the instructions said, so I made my own, by putting a rust style on Baskerville alpha, and using a couple of letters of the cat-silhouette font.... The bad thing is, I like the page just as it is, and don't want to put anything else on it..... and there's 5 steps in the scrap. I'm going to be in SOOOOO MUCH TROUBLE!!!!!

Now that I have that out of my system, I'm going to see if I can get interested in those dishes! LOL

Dishes are done, and I checked on "my" sites... Guess what? The voting started for Lay-out of the month at Ivy Scraps. Go take a look, and vote for your favorite. And the new vote for Lay-out of the week is up too...  Couldn't believe my eyes.......

gotta get some sleep, alarm will go off at 2.30  EEK!

please do not open hallmark cards......

Hi,  I try not to be an alarmist, but this one is bugging me!!!  I just got an email from my sister, so it's in Dutch, however, here's the geste of if.....

There's a really nasty virus out there, attached to Hallmark E-Card!  Because of more people sending cards around the holiday, somebody thought it would be fun to attach a virus to e-cards....... SO, DO NOT OPEN ANY HALLMARK CARDS !

The virus was discovered by McAfee, and made  CNN as the most destructive virus yet! There is no remedy for it, and it WILL destroy the core sector of your harddrive!
SO PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE be careful and do not open!

Forward this message to as many people as you possibly can, so the destructions will stay to a minimum...

Hugs,
Pauli

I just found the COOLEST thing!

I was surfing, and I came across this cool idea!

Mind you, I'm a geek, and my hubby loves old cars and taught me to love them also, so this is a VERY logical "must have someday" item LOL

Feast your eyes!

It's a 500 gig Delorean flashdrive!

Is that cool or what!?!

It's on preview at MacWorld.com  There's no price for it yet, but you can bet your shirt, that I've bookmarked it!    Mike would probably use it for time-machine system back-up, but I KNOW he would love it!

New monthly Mega at IVYSCRAPS

IvyScraps  has a new Mega. It's full of wintry/Chrismassy stuff. Don't take my word for it though....Go have a look here.

I was supposed to try and get some housework done, so I can start setting up the Christmas tree tomorrow, but I opted to play, while I could. It took me a long time to put these together, not because the kit doesn't have anything, but between the awesome amount of stuff to sort thru and having to take breaks because my hands didn't want to work...... I started Sunday! My hands are killing me right now, but I wanted to share and I'm taking the rest of the day off LOL.  I'll put the required links and such in tomorrow, or when my hands will let me. Meantime, go check the the kit at WWW.IVYSCRAP.COM

My sister supplied (unintentionally I may add, LOL) the snow pictures. The tree is ours, from last year.

Talk to you soon!

Goodmorning!

It's SNOWING!!!!
WHOOHOO!

On a more quiet note (cat just ran hissing out of the room and hubby looked a little peeved) I just made my picks for the Lay Out of the Week at IvyScraps.... Couldn't just stick with one, because there were so many beautiful pages this week. Last week too, but I messed up and forgot to turn them in... so sorry about that.
Go take a look once the voting-list is up!

Deco-pages is officially "no more", and I miss it already, but.... who knows.....

We went to Pella yesterday, and picked up some Dutch goodies for Thanksgiving weekend..... How I miss being able to go to the store, and pick up things, instead of having to plan for it, and hope the weather will allow it..... Oh well, such is life LOL.

I'm going to do my photoshop lesson today, if it kills me, so I don't get kicked out of class. I really like the lessons, it stretches my brain, and knowledge of PhotoShop, but my hands are not always (read rarely ever)  able to do them. Even typing this blog, takes an hour, because my hands will go dead in the middle, and my fingers keep hitting the wrong buttons, or none at all, so ... it's interesting, to say the least. Just got my umphteenth reminder to do the lesson, or get bumped, so I better do something, able or not. It's a free class at Yahoo-Groups, and I understand that if I don't do my lessons, I keep the space occupied for somebody that can do them, I just wish my hands would understand, and work with me! LOL

Time to take a break, and start "school" after that.....

talk soon, just wanted to share the winter weather update.

Oh Boy!

It's been a rotten week, healthwise and to top a "perfect" week..... I completely forgot that it was our turn to pick the layout of the week nominees, I checked the first 4 days of the week, but not after, because....... no brain! Just when I think I'm getting better, and I remember things, I get proven wrong by something that  really needed to be done and I forgot about....... But I managed to surf a little over the weekend for International Scrapbook Day, picked up a couple of freebies and found a steampunk blogtrain I'm going to have to check out :-)

I did not know this (shockingly) but Mike loves the stuff! So..... since I'm working on his lifebook at Heritage Scrap, I decided, if I follow the blogtrain (Provided I remember where I saw it), I may have enought material to use thoughout the book. Since he also likes Art Deco, I was initially going to go that direction, but I think I'll be able to combine the 2 and make it look good..... It DOES mean, that I'm going to have to redo the pages I've already done, but, since I've not been able to do them on the schedule in the forum, I'm only talking about 3 or 4.... Glad I found it out now, and not when I'm almost done LOL It's ok though, because as I'm doing the pages, I think of tons of things I want to add, but that either require research or worse.... HAVE MIKE TELL ME!  He's a doll, but to get him to talk about family, growing up, thoughts, happenings and feelings, is not an easy task. Just as an indication how much fun that is.... It's easier to build a website with 60 pages from scrap! LOL

I'm going to visit Heritage Scrap now for a chat on what to put together for next week, so I'll let you know.

For now, here's the page I made for todays entry: Siblings

OH, Before I forget. I just found out that 2 of my pages were selected for entry in the Lay Out of the Week challenge over at Ivy Scraps ! COOL HUH!

(I wonder if I can vote for myself??????LOL )

Go take a look, and vote :-)

talk soon,

Hugs

ALMOST FORGOT!!!!

I must be thinking, if I don't post this, the site will stay open, but I know that is not true.

The last News Letter for Deco-Pages.com is posted

The official closing date is late-night on the November 11

you can check it out here

Sorry, don't have much to say.... I'm sad that the site is closing, and glad we had it at the same time....

We'll  meet again.

Hi there!

I couldn't sleep, and my hands didn't hurt too much, and the computer wanted to co-operate, so .......

it was a good night all around, and I'll fall over later :-)

The new Mega kit at Ivy Scraps is out, PLUS they're having a birthday party!

I made some pages last night:

I liked the top of the calender so much, that I never even noticed that it was THIS YEARS......

I'll work on that, and replace it before I print this puppy :-) but for now, I wanted you to see it.

All four lay-outs are made with "thankful"

You can get the kit here: 

Thankful

To check out what the other CT's have done with it, go here  

But give them some time to put their pages in.... some of them require sleep :-)

The kit has 64 papers and 126 elements. I tried to use them all, but I ran out of good thoughts :-)

However, there's some challenges I want to try, so you never know

Thankful

Thankful

I think I'll leave it at that, for now..... Got some cat-wrangling to do.... 

it's been way too quiet, way too long!

vintage patina

I was looking thru my scrapbooking stuff on the computer (I'm actually trying to organize about a terabyte of scrap-stash, 5 minutes at a time.... so it'll take a while) and found this quick page from Retro-Design and I knew I had just the picture for it too.... ( I pretty much LOVE all her stuff, but have to get by on freebies for now. This one, is actually still available at Deco-Pages!! Check out the whole kit here: Vintage Patina )
Here's the result:

I LOVE old black and white movies. And over the last year, I've had ample time, be it forced, to  indulge!
I was rerererere-watching The Thinman with William Powel and Myrna Loy the other day, and noticed that the same statue is in their front yard :-)
It looked familiar when I took the picture, but I thought it was because we'd been in the garden before LOL.

Talk later :-)

I am sad today......

The first site that introduced me to digital scrapbooking, and the fun of taking part in challenges, is closing down.  DECO-PAGES.COM will go off the web on November 11.

I am working on the last newsletter, but my heart is not in it. I'm going to miss the site, the people and the fun.We're all hoping that things will go in a way that we can connect again, but you never know. We're going to try and stay in contact though. 

For now, this is pretty much what has been on my mind, so......

I'll be back in a while.

This is the very first digital lay-out that I ever posted...... 

It was (and is) a THANK YOU to the site and designers.

WOOHOO!

MADE IT before the 15th!!! :-)

The Newsletter is up at Deco-Pages.com
Go take a look!

download here

Oh, and did I mention that I REALLY REALLY REALLY LOVE the kit I used?

OOPS!!!

I was bad...... I forgot to post the new kit, available at Ivy Scraps....

And it's SO COOL!

I looked at it, liked it, played with it, and completely spaced the bit where I tell you about it!

Check it out!

MASKED ELEGANCE

It's full of things to scrap halloween/costume parties with, but also everyday life.

It's got warm colors (LOVE the red paper) and elements (Silhouettes and elegant masks)....

You just have to go see for yourself!

The kit is a collaboration of 6 designers, and comes with 64 papers and 126 elements.

And....... It's HALF OFF right now!

Here's a page I made with it.

MASKED ELEGANCE

(Still working on another, can't find the picture on my hard drive I want to use. And I KNOW it's on there!)

So, after finding that special picture, I think I'm going to spend a little bit of extra time organizing my HD...... It should cut down on the "search-time" and increase the "play-time"! 

Ok, no news yet on the organizing, but I DID find the picture I was looking for! LOL

Here's the page:

MASKED ELEGANCE

Don't take my word for it that this is a great kit, Go check it out for yourself.......

MASKED ELEGANCE

GOOOOOOOD MORNING!!!!

I had some penned up ideas to get rid off, so I made this with Lori Statons new kit:

AUTUMN SPLENDOR.

I LOVE THIS KIT!!!

Check it out here 

Deco-Pages Newsletter hit the stands today......

JEAAAAAY!!

The News Letter is out! Finally!

There's still time for the challenges, but you'll have to hurry!

Go check it out ......

download newsletter here  

It may take a little bit to download, I hadn't figured out how to flatten, merge and optimize untill I was almost done........

Have fun, go check out the website at http://www.deco-pages.com/

Remember, Point in Time challenge at "The Studio" runs thru the 15th of the month, because I was so late putting it up. HOWEVER....... The October Challenge will go up more or less on time this month :-)

Ivy Scraps will have a new Collab, so watch here and in The CT Gallery for inspiration

If you're in to challenges of the fun kind....

Digi Designs Resort  has some really neat ones.

http://heritagescrap.com

has REALLY nice things for scrapping that family tree stuff!

and till the end ofseptember, they're having a sale as well.

I hadn't been there a while, but I remembered what I liked about the site, and the products.

They also have 2 chats a week for any one interested in family tree and preserving family memories.

Mondays is the "Life Book" chat. Here, over the course of 6 months, you'll build a book of someones life, including front and back cover. It's all in the Forum

Tuesdays, is more for the research on how to GET the information to put in the book, or just plain find information for the tree :-)

Go check it out, both chats start at 9PM Eastern Time.

Soo... I think I'v bent your ear enough for one day........

See ya soon :-)

First ever....

This was my first introduction to speed-scrapping.........

PFEW!

I've never done a page in under 4 hours until today!

I LOVED IT! I would have loved it even more if I had my old dependable I-Scrapbook, but I think I did alright with PhotoShop.... I'm learning in a hurry, but the best part is, when you get stuck, there's atleast 4 people ready to help..... It's fun!

The picture seams too bright compared to the rest of the page, but I don't know how to fade it, so, I think I'll keep it :-)

DigiDesignResort has another SpeedScrap on October 22nd, and I have EVERY intention of being there!

The kit used is the collab "Sand in my Toes" from DigiDesignResort. 

The mask is by Carena.

Thanks for stopping by....

Hiya!

Thanks for stopping by!

This is SUCH a weird month, and I have the sneaky suspicion that it's not over yet......

Here are the updates on my favorite scrap sites.....

THE STUDIO, is still having a birthday bash going... till the end of the month, they have challenges, random give aways, the works! Go take a look!

They also have a designer challenge going. There's some really wonderful stuff to look at, and download! Please say thanks, and vote for your favorite designer?

I finished my CT pages for  IVY SCRAPS. I'm SOOOOOO SLOW in photo-shop, but I'm learning a lot, so I guess, eventually, I'll be ahead of the game LOL. Once I figured out that on a MAC, you don't copy and past elements into the documents, but open them in another photoshop project and drag them over.... it went a lot faster, since I didn't have to clean things up before I used them.... so silly. Now if I can get a handle on the difference between merging and flattening ....... ROFL

The kit used is the Ivy Mega for September: COZY AT HOME.

The kid used is my nephew

The photo's are my sisters

The alpha is mine, created with rust-style

The program is photo-shop

Here they are: 

The kit is not necessarily fall related, but it's getting colder out, leaves are turning, and it's my favorite season, so....... fall pictures it is! The other CT's have done some wonderful things with the kit, go check it out and leave some love :-)

DECO-PAGES newsletter, is still in the works. I thought I had everything just right, and went to put the links in, and it turns out, I either missed a bunch, or picked the wrong ones all together because things started showing up, that I'd never seen before...... So, please be patient, it'll get there!

The Mega download this month is  GO TEAM GO, and it is wonderful for all pictures with sports, and family events. Whether you like to watch peewee football, or the big guys or my favorite, IOWA HAWKEYES College, it's all there, so go visit, look around, download a thing or two and have fun. Don't forget to sign up for a gallery, so we can see what you do?

Here are some of the previews of the download

That's it for me for today, I'm going to figure out what I did with the News Letter!

Deco-Pages Newsletter hit the stands today......

Hi,

The newsletter at Deco-pages got posted today. I'm not crazy, it IS the August one LOL

There were problems with the uploading computer, and since I'm still trying to fidget with the September one...... It's a new one, either way.

Here's the link: deco-pdeco-pages NL

The challenges are over, as they are shown, but there's new ones! 

Go check things out!

I'm LATE!

I SO had every intention to get going, and have everything in place ON September 1st......

You know that road that's paved with good intentions?
I'm in the fast lane on that one! LOL   I'm late on my challenge Point In Time, I'm late on my IvyScraps CT duties, I'm late on the Deco-pages Newsletter and I'm sure I'm completely in the dark on other things that needed doing!

Chemo-brain isn't as far a thing of the past, as I thought it was, so if I lose the notepad that substitutes for my memory..... well, you get the idea. The other thing is that computers have a way with going a different direction than you want them to, or at least the program I use for all of the aboves did. I have to re-install it, and find the disk first, because with the download on the website, if you DON'T have a key, it has "trial copy" all over it RFL. Now mind you, the whole idea of downloading it, was that I can't find the program disk.... I'm wondering if it would be faster to try and get everything done in photo-shop......

YA, it's been THAT kind of week!

Hope to be back soon with an update but in the meantime, don't wait for me to tell you what's going on at my favorite scrap sites.... go take a look:

Deco-pages

Ivy Scraps

Don't forget, that The Studio  has a birthday this month!!!

Have to go hunting now, bye!

FUNDRAISER ALERT!

Today I received an email from the Big Cat Rescue. One of their Bobcats is sick and his daily medical attention is digging into their budget for the other animals.


Please go visit StopBigCatAbuse.com and help this awesome cause, even if its with $1.00

This picture is taken from the Big Cat Rescue website.

Their website is being redone, so tthe link above is temporary. You can also visit them at Twitter or Facebook

Random observation.....

Still having "chemo-brain" I sometimes second guess myself.... 

Yesterday, I went for my 4th cup of coffee, and realized I had to brew a fresh pot. I was wondering if I had forgotten the other 5 trips, because our coffee maker makes at least 8 mugs......?

It all fell into place, once I realized which cup I'd been using!

Sometimes, it's just funny, not having a functional brain.

Club-Deco kit for August

Due to unforeseen events, the newsletter hasn't made it online yet but I wanted to let you know about this months Club-Deco kit at Deco-Pages.  It's called BooBoos and Band-Aids.

I've attached a couple of previews for you. There's still time to sign up for Club Deco to get this kit absolutely free.

Awesome freebie at Deco-pages by Retro Design.

Retro design has this freebie, that's just perfect for all your "not so new" stuff, you still want to scrap!
I'm always late posting the lay-out that go with these, so this last one, I combined with the one before it.

Keep an eye on the "designer freebie" section of the forum. There's REALLY nice stuff to find!!

Here's the page I made with the freebies: Shabby Frame, and Shabby chic room QP. Both by Retro Design.

I LOVE these 3 shabby chic room kits. I don't even need a picture in them, to just fill up the room. A while back, I made one, with nothing but "stuff" in the room. I had some photo's in frames, but nothing else. Never had so much fun making a mess of things! LOL

News

These are pages made with the new AUGUST MEGA at IVYSCRAPS:

This one is for a photo-swap at Digidesignresort.com

The circles are to have the names of the kids, and the date they went out to dinner. It doesn't feel "done", but without the information, I'm kinda stuck.

This picture was taking many, MANY moons ago in Holland, when I was in Kindergarten. It's not really a "BACK" to school picture, but I like it with the kit. We don't have any kids, and nobody would let me borrow theirs, so........ I had to do something LOL.

Digital Scrapbooking Studio

I'm back.....
The POINT IN TIME - HERITAGE CHALLENGE at "The Studio" for August is up.
The time frame is 1950 - 1955.
What was daily life at that time? What kind of cars, clothing, foods, architecture etc was part of your ancestors existance. What were the concern, hopes, dreams, new ideas.......

Come join me and scrap more than dates and names for your family tree. The add is made with "SOCK HOP DINER" by CJ's Dreams. Check out her blog here

WOW, it's August already!
I guess I'm having fun, because time is sure flying......
Just finished up the news letter for Deco-pages, and all that's left to do, is the actual upload to the site. As soon as that's done, I will post a link here.

One down, 2 to go......

I need to honor my commitment to Ivy-Scraps' CT, and I just remembered, that I haven't submitted a page for my Point in Time Heritage Challenge for JULY! That's really bad, since I'm the one "hosting" it ROFL. I guess that means I had 3 to go, because I don't have an August challenge to post yet, either......

Better get to work and sleep tomorrow :-)  Not bad, actually. I've been up since Sunday 5.30AM, and it's now Monday 6AM. There's something to say for not being able to sleep. You get LOADS done!

I'll be back......

SUMMER IS FOR PICNICS and HOME COOKING

This month at Deco-Pages they're having a blast. The mega kit for club members is called:

Grandma's Home Cooking. It's stuffed full of kitchen/food related items. Makes me want to get into that kitchen and make some memories come to live!!

Here is a look at the various designers' contributions. And believe me when I say, EVERY one of the monthly club kits are this much fun!

While you're checking out the ClubDeco, download the News Letter, see what's going on, and join the fun!