FINALLY! Summer Fades to Fall papers!

Okay, so I've had the papers done for some time now. STill working on the elements which should be up in the next day or two. I get sidetracked when I'm on the internet. I go to do something for the kit and then find a whole new list of PSP tutorials that I love! Then I start reading and exploring, reading and exploring...etc. By the time I'm exhausted I've only created one element and have learned 10 new things! LOL! I guess it'll make the process a little easier down the line though. I love to learn new things.

Anyway, here are the papers I have for you. I created so many because I was having so much fun. I hope you enjoy them. Let me know what you like about them so I can make a mental note.

You can download Here.

Exhausted.

I am pretty much exhausted today. I've been up so late on the computer these last few weeks it's starting to catch up with me. :) It's all good though. I did manage to get a new QP done for you guys using a brand new kit from Carol (Caz38) over at http://www.deco-pages.com/. It's not released yet but it will be soon. She's letting me share this QP with you for a little preview. There are some BEAUTIFUL elements included in this kit. Please visit her at http://caz38.blogspot.com/ to see the new kits. Also, she has a great preview freebie up right now. Grab it quick before it's gone! And give her some love...her doggie Brutus was injured and they're both in need of some lovin'. xoxo

Here is a brand new exclusive sneak peak at her new kit "Summers Dusk". The colors are spectacular and there are a TON of great elements to go with it. Here are just a few that I worked with.

You can download it Here.

New kit coming....

So, I'm having so much fun with the new tools I've purchased for kit making. They're mostly for making papers but it's a start. I'm getting into the swing of fall here and here are my colors for my next kit.

I'm more of a bright, cheery person so when I thought of fall, of course I thought of warm, darker colors but I had to throw in a bit of cheery to go with it. I hope you all like it. I've finished the papers now have to think up some elements.

Here is a preview of a couple papers...

I'll hopefully get the kit out by this weekend so please check back. I am also working on a QP from my first kit. Some reason it's harder to do QP's using your own kit! LOL! I'll try to have that up later today. I need some time to work on it and right now Sasha is getting ready to get up from her nap and then we have to go pick Lucas up at school. I'll be back on later! Have a great day!

Bright n Cheery Elements are here!

YEA! I got the elements done! COOL! I hope you all enjoy them. I still have to figure out how to do ribbons well. The one I did isn't that great. I do like the frames though and the doodles. Working on buttons too. Gotta find some good tuts or scripts or something to help me out with ribbons, bows and buttons.

Anyway, here is the preview. If you enjoy, please let me know.

You can download the elements HERE.

Drum Roll Please.........

Well, I did it. I finished my first kit. I have to say I am addicted now. This, of course, will be pretty rough so don't critique TOO harshly, okay? LOL. I know I have to have more focus on what elements I offer and in which colors/patterns. This first kit was more trial and error on how to create things. I don't think it's TOO bad for a first try. What do you guys think? Anyway, I am posting the papers tonight. The paper preview took me FOREVER. I have got to come up with a better way to showcase what's in the kit. I guess I just don't know how to do it really. I just cut and pasted parts of each paper, lined them up by hand, added a drop shadow and flattened. Is there a better way? For the experienced kit makers, how do you do your previews? Ugh.

Anyway, on to the freebie. I am proud to announce it's MY OWN design and it's called "Bright n Cheery". I hope you enjoy it. If you make something with it, PLEASE send me a pic. I'll get such a kick out of someone using something I designed.



Tonight I am just posting the papers as I haven't done a preview for the elements yet. I'll do that tomorrow and post.




You can download Here. Don't forget to leave some lovin'!!!

So Exciting!

Hello everyone, sorry I haven't been on as much lately. For one, I'm still finishing up my 1st ever kit! YEA! And secondly, I have started a new venture with Carol (caz38) over at at http://www.deco-pages.com/ creating some QP's using her beautiful kits! I will do a QP with her kits and post them here. Then if you like, you can venture over to her store to pick them up. Sometimes I'll make QP's out of freebies and sometimes they will be from her kits for sale. She's a wonderful and talented lady who has been generous enough to let me share a QP with all of you. Again, if you like the kit, go to her blog at http://caz38.blogspot.com/ or visit her STORE at Deco-Pages.



Here is a QP from her kit "My Girl" that I did. Aren't the colors wonderful? There are so many good elements and papers in this kit. Please check it out HERE.




You can download the QP HERE.

I took the plunge...

Yep, I went and did it. I started to design my FIRST kit last night. OMG...this is so much fun. And TOTALLY overwhelming. I think I spent the first 2 hours trying to figure stuff out and then I was in a rhythm and for the next 2 hours I got some stuff completed. Now, it's a VERY basic kit as I am learning and I will hopefully share it with you in the next few days. I want to make sure I zip it correctly, upload it correctly etc...before I give it out to you guys. Yes, of course it'll be free because well, I'm a beginner. :)

Here are the colors I used. I kind of just chose some bright ones at random. I know I'll have to get more serious about colors but this one was just fun ones.

What do you think? I hope you all will enjoy it. LOL. I know I am enjoying making it.

Well, here is the freebie for tonight/well...I guess it's morning now (YAWN)....It's from http://pillowgirlscraps.blogspot.com/. It's from her Modern Girl freebie kit. I just love that kit. Great colors (wish I could think up such cool colors) :) I'm sure most of you are familiar with her site. It's awesome! She's a great designer. Such fun themes all the time. Check it out!

You can find the download Here.

Long day...

Before I forget, thank you to all of you who sent me emails about my header issue. I think I have it figured out and will have a "new look" soon. THANKS FOR HELPING A SISTER OUT! :)

Today was a long day for some reason. I am bushed. We had that birthday party from 11-1 then it was quiet/nap time for everyone. I played around with some new filters I downloaded to PSP. I think they're going to be VERY helpful for making my own kits. Oh, that's another thing...I just discovered http://www.atomiccupcake.com/ and was all excited for all that they offer. Then I was disappointed to find that their actions only work in Photoshop and such, not in PSP. Does anybody know where I can find something comperable for PSP? AGHAGHAGH!!! Now, I do have Filters Unlimited and wondered if those files form atomic cupcake would work through that. Anyone know? As you can tell I'm in the very early stages of kit making and am trying to find enough things to help me through it. Any help would be appreciated.

Okay, now for the REAL reason you're all here...the freebie. I think I'll offer 2 tonight since I didn't get a chance to post yesterday. The first one is a Halloween freebie. It's from Caz (http://caz38.blogspot.com/) and she has a great Halloween freebie for you and a couple more that she just posted.

Here is the QP preview:

You can download Here.

This next one is from Nana again. It's from her "Over the Rainbow" kit. Hope you like it.

You can download Here.

Help!

Okay, I need a little help. I'm trying to put together a header (instead of the plain one Blogger has for me) but I don't really know the dimensions that I should create it with. CAn anyone help me? I know I'm probably missing it somewhere but I created one and it was too big. Does anyone know what dimensions I should use? THANKS SO MUCH!

Comments...(Cathy)

Some of the comments you guys leave are quite funny. I enjoy every one of them. Thank you so much! Cathy left a message on my 4shared file (Road Trip QP) about long trips with her husband and their kids. Her husband used to get so tired of hearing the kids ask "are we there yet" and their fighting that he made them put their hands on their heads until they settled down. :) I think that is SUCH a good idea. After 10-15 minutes of having their hands on their heads, I'm sure they'd get the point. Great tip! TFS Cathy!



Today is a nice day. Better than last night. I woke this morning at 4:30 AM with a HUGE headache that turned into a migraine (I think). It was so bad I was pacing around our bedroom. Every time I would lie down, it would hurt 10 times worse. So I sat on the bed, then paced and sat and paced. It took about an hour for the meds to kick in and after that I went to sleep and woke up to my son saying "Mommy, can I watch TV in your room?". He's my little alarm clock. It was 7am on the dot. His usual time to wake up and get in our bed to watch 1 show before we get his sissy and go down for breakfast. My headache was gone though. I have this little feeling that it might come back though. We'll see. For now, it's gone.



Not much going on today. DH left this morning at 6am for a work golf outing (I'm still waiting for my Stay at Home mom golf outing invite to arrive). He won't be home until 6pm (the outing is in WV...3 hours away) so I think I'm taking Lucas to get his hair cut and then for a pizza buffet at Ci-Ci's. Do you guys have Ci-Ci's? It's not bad for the price. I like the fact that I can get 10 different kinds of pizza at one time if I wanted. I especially love their buffalo chicken pizza. Mmmm... Anyway, that's us for today. I hope your week is going well. On to the freebie.



I have about 10 in the arsenal that I want to give to you guys but I don't know what to choose. Don't be alarmed if the #'s are out of order. I name them as I go and I just do it numerically. Here is the one for today:





It's from http://www.nanas-attic.blogspot.com/ and it's from her Soft N Bright kit. I think Anita creates some of the best little doodles and elements around. I mean the possibilities are endless. I especially love this green ribbon. You can download the QP Here. Enjoy! And as always, let me know if you like it. Thanks!

Bad mommy...oh and another QP for you.

371 unique users visited my blog yesterday! THANK YOU!!!

Okay, so I am a bad mommy. Last night after a little TV with Lucas he said that since he was a good boy today he gets to have a caramel apple. This is something I promised him like a week ago but we both kind of forgot about it. Well, I got hungry yesterday and ate the caramel apple. I thought I could just throw that package away and he wouldn't remember. Heck, it's been a week since he said anything about it, right? Wrong. Last night when he said what he did about getting the caramel apple for being good I had to fess up and say I ate it. Gulp. Darn! That kid sure has a good memory and he sure does know when to use it. So, after he threw a huge fit and I apologized 1,000 times, I told him we'd get more today and he could have one. The kid is smart too...he asked for some donuts (a rare treat here) and I think he knew I would give in because of the guilt for eating his apple. I couldn't help it though, those caramel apples are so stinkin' good! :)

So, on to the freebie. This is a simple one I created using enableem's (Irene Brown)freebie. It's called "Gifts" You can visit her blog HERE to get the full freebie kit. It was part of the Mega Kit for members they give out at http://www.rakscraps.com/

You can download the QP Here.

I need a bit of help and a QP for you!

363 people visited my blog yesterday! THANK YOU!!!!

Hello all! Well, I'm back with a new QP for you. This is from http://www.nanas-attic.blogspot.com/ and it's from her Muddled kit. I just love that kit. The colors are so perfect for fall. Can you believe it's going to be fall this week? I'm so excited. My favorite time of year. Oh, and I also have that Caramel Apple Pie recipe for you. Yummy!!!!

I emailed Anita this weekend about how to get started making kits. I think I'm going to try and start with papers (obvious choice) and then venture out. She had some great tips for me so I'm starting there. It's irritating that I can't make my own kits. I have the imagination for them and the vision...just not the know how. I'd love to offer up some free kits to everyone but need a little guidance on where to start. If anybody has any good websites on tuts for making elements, ribbons, kits etc....could you please either post them or email me? I'd sure appreciate it. Also, if you kit makers use anything else besides PSP or Photoshop and the program is FREE, please post that as well. I'm trying my best to find stuff but sometimes it's a slow go. And I'm not trying to be cheap at the moment, I just want to get my feet wet before I go and spend a ton of money on programs to make kits. I use PSP and so far, that's been good enough. Thank you Thank you!

Here is the recipe I promised:

Caramel Apple Pie

INGREDIENTS:

1 refrigerated 9 inch double crust deep dish pie

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup butter, melted

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

5 cups thinly sliced apples (About 5 medium apples) I used 2 Fuji and 3 Granny Smith.

1/4 cup white sugar

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon lemon juice

20 caramels, cut into quarters

2 tablespoons milk

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------DIRECTIONS:Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

To Make Taffy: In a small bowl combine brown sugar, melted butter or margarine, and 1/3 cup flour. Mix well and set aside.

To Make Apple Filling: Place apples in a large bowl. Add white sugar, 3 tablespoons flour, cinnamon, and lemon juice. Toss until all ingredients are mixed well and apples are thoroughly coated.

Spoon half of apple filling into pastry-lined deep-dish pan. Top with half of caramels and half of taffy mixture. Repeat process with remaining apple filling, caramels and taffy mixture.

Place top pastry over filling and seal well (this is very important--if edges are not sealed, caramel will leak out all over). Cut steam vents and brush top crust with milk or light cream.

Cover pie with foil and place on a baking sheet. Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes. Remove foil and baking sheet from under pie and bake for another 20 to 25 minutes, until crust is golden. Turn off the oven and cover pie back up and let it sit in the warm oven another 2 hours to ensure the caramels have completely melted. Serve warm with a bit of ice cream on the side. Yummy!.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Okay now my mouth is watering....

Here is your freebie! Download it Here.

Toilet Seats...what a pain..oh a freebie too!

LOL! Thought you were at the wrong blog, huh? Not many bloggers talk about toilet seats I suspect. Today DH, the kids and I ran up to Home Depot to get a new toilet seat for the master bathroom. What a pain. Why in the world do there have to be so many colors and styles and sizes? I can TOTALLY understand different colors but come on...it's a place to put your bum! Don't we all pretty much have the same shape bum? I think one size would fit all, don't ya think? Anyway, we wound up getting a size or shape or whatever that wasn't 100% right and with my husband who is anal, it's wasn't going to do. So, right now he is back at Home Depot to get another one. He took Lucas so it's just Sasha and I right now. We're chilling out and enjoying some Baby Einstein. LOVE the BE. It has saved my sanity many a time.

Okay, on to the freebie. Here is the one I did with a kit from Nana's. It's from her "Going to Nana's" kit. I hope you enjoy it.

You can download HERE.

Quick Quick Quick...

I just have a quick moment this morning before I go downstairs to make my caramel apple pie for our football party this afternoon. I thought I'd post a QP before the day got too long.

Here is another one from Nanas Attic. It's her baseball kit. I don't think it's available any longer but I bet she'll bring it back sometime this year. I don't know though. This QP will be good for those of you that just got through with your childs baseball/softball season. YEA! Enjoy!

You can download this QP HERE.

My poor husband...

He's really gonna think I've gone off the deep end now. I can't seem to tear myself away from doing these QP's. I mean, when I started this last week, I didn't know how addicted I was going to be. I've COMPLETELY forgetten about doing any personal scrapping. All I seem to think about now is getting QP's out for you guys! LOL! I know it'll die down but for now....this sure is fun. I hope you're all enjoying these QP's as much as I enjoy making them. I seem to be getting better and better at it as I go. It helps that I work with a good amount of awesome designers as well. When you've got great product, how can you go wrong, huh? Well, it's 12:34 and I just finished 3 QP's to distribute this weekend. Here is another I couldn't wait to give you. It's from a kit called "Sunny Days" from http://www.nanas-attic.blogspot.com/ Again, if you haven't joined Nana's as a member, I highly recommend it. Best deal I've seen in a LONG time. As for this freebie, I haven't even put my own picture in here yet. This one is hot off the presses. Enjoy!

Download Here.

Friday's Freebie!

Before I forget...please vote in my new poll (to the left). I usually do QP's that have more than one picture to them but realize that everyone is different. So, I was wondering how you like your QP's. 1 pic..2-3 pics, multiple pics ...etc. Please vote to help me decide where I'll steer my QP's. Thank you!

Hello! New freebie tonight! It's from a kit from Carol at http://www.caz38.blogspot.com/ and it's GORGEOUS! I LOVE the funky polariod frame. She's got some pretty cool kits. You can go to her blog or you can visit her gallery at Deco-Pages. She exclusively designs for them. Here is her gallery link:
http://board.deco-pages.com/showgallery.php/cat/520


I hope you enjoy the freebie tonight! You can download it Here.

Love is in the air

There is love between me and 4shared again. Happy downloading! I'll be back with a freebie later today. xoxo

Ahhh...that's the problem.

Okay, so I figured out what is happening with 4shared. It seems there are some of you out there that think I am posting my QP's on my website without getting permission from the designers and have reported my site as being illegal. Oh, not so. :) I have permission from quite a few designers to post FREE QP's using their kits. Lots of designers out there don't mind some free advertisement. LOL.

To my readers, rest assured, these files are 100% legitimate. I have been granted permission for EVERY QP I give away. There are even some designers that have emailed me to give me permission to use their kits for QP freebies. (And I totally thank you for that. It's hard enough to track down all the designers on my own!) And that reminds me, if any of you are designers and wouldn't mind me doing free QP's using your kits (of course with full credits and a link back), please email me. That would be VERY helpful.

As soon as this is cleared up with 4shared, I will be back up and running. And on a side note, how can 4shared temporarily ban me without talking to me first? That seems a little odd. Oh well.

Today is supposed to be nice in the AM and then a little rainy this afternoon and tonight. So, I think we'll head outside for some playtime here at home this morning and then this afternoon I may have to get to the mall to pick up some new Clinique stuff. Love their facial soap. Lucas will probably want to play in the play area for a while so we'll probably go when it's supposed to be rainy out.

This weekend we have a football party to go to tomorrow. The high is supposed to be 57 and rainy in the AM. Ugh. That means the kids will have to be cooped up inside during the games. We'll see. Hopefully at least Lucas will be able to get out for some running around time. Gotta run off that little boy energy.

Later gators! HAve a great weekend!

Oh so tired...Thursday

I'm just pooped today. My son Lucas is wearing me out! I guess it's that 3.5 year old attitude that's just gotten the best of me these last few weeks. Man, he's so lucky he's cute because I think I would've sold him to the gypsies a long time ago! :) Not much going on in my world today. It was GORGEOUS with a high of 74. Mmm....love this weather. Oh, and a couple of you wanted the caramel apple pie recipe. I'll post it tomorrow. I've got to get the recipe from my recipe box and I'm just too lazy to do it at the moment. So, tomorrow when I'm refreshed...I'll post.

Yes, I'm having trouble with 4shared. I'll be back ASAP. The downloads will still be there so please keep checking back. I won't post any new freebies until we've got it sorted out so you won't miss any.

I will post a couple new pics of my kids though. Just because they're so stinkin' cute and I'm a proud Mommy.

Here is my 7 month old Sasha in the bathtub. She's always smiling for the camera. Such a little girl.

Here she is again, just looking cute.

Here is Lucas giving his sister a bit kisser-roo. He LOVES to rub his lips on her soft baby hair. No joke. He does it when she's taking a bottle, when she's just sitting there, when she's getting her diaper changed. Silly boy. He sure loves her and she thinks he's THE BOMB! He's the only one who can make her belly laugh on a daily basis.

Don't ask. I have no idea what the heck he was doing. It was ALL his idea. I just took the picture.

GO BUCKS!!!!!!

Wonderful Wednesday

Today was a good day. Sasha took 2 great naps today (like always), Lucas was in school for 3 hours (time to myself) and then he had a buddy come back home with us. So, Lucas played with his buddy, I got some one on one time with Sasha and get this, I got an almost 4 year old, a 3.5 year old and a 7 month old to take a nap at the exact same time! It was HEAVEN!!! Lucas and Sasha usually nap at the same time in the afternoon (1:30-3:15) but with his friend here, I didn't know what would happen. To my delight nobody put up a fight and went straight to bed at the appropriate time. Then they ALL woke at 3:30! Can you believe it? I was on cloud 9. I got some laundry done, the house 1/2 picked up, the dishes done and got in a little free time for myself (AKA....catching up on reality TV). ;)

The only bad part to today was when Lucas got his 3 fingers crushed underneath a VERY heavy vase that was falling. He ran into a table while he was playing with his buddy and the vase fell (filled with beads) and I think landed on his fingers which were on the floor. OUCH! Poor baby. His one nail is black and blue and he's still hurting tonight. If he's not better tomorrow I'm going to take him to the doc to make sure nothing is broken. I don't really think it is but I don't want to assume that they aren't. Anyway, he's okay just a little bruised. Okay, VERY bruised.



Anyway, here is the freebie #4 I was talking about yesterday.

Dowload Here.

It's another QP using a kit from http://www.nanas-attic.blogspot.com/ If you haven't been to her site, please pay her a visit. She has the most gorgeous kits. I think she's my favorite designer. Her kits are SO versatile. She only charges $6 for a 3 month membership. Can you believe that? I think if you sign up before the end of September she'll add a month in for free! That's 4 months of kits for $6! She designs 3-5 kits per month for her members. So let me do the math... 9-15 COMPLETE kits for $6. What a steal! And if you join now...an extra 3-5 MORE kits! WOW. Can anyone beat that? Doubt it. Please go check her site out. It's amazing! http://www.nanas-attic.blogspot.com/

Edited to add...this is her "Color Splurge" kit. (Thanks Lisa!)


Here is my layout with it. Just another day at the park with my son and my husband. The love!

Real quick...

Jody, you can still download the quickpage...just can't see the preview. There is a link that says, "download" when you click on the file. Just click that and download. ;)

I chalk it up to PMS

Okay, I had a HUGE post that somehow got deleted. So here is the jist...yesterdays QP didn't turn out correctly so I fixed the link. If you downloaded QPL#2....redownload please. Sorry. I chalk it up to being a newbie and PMS! GRRRRR! LOL.

Here is todays freebie. It is a QP I made with a design from http://www.nanas-attic.blogspot.com/. The kit is called Tropical Paradise. LOVE IT!


Here is the preview:

You can download it Here.

This is what I did with it. Since my son was born in April, he was too young to go to the park that first summer. So, we had to wait until spring. This was his first park trip. He loved it. He was 11 months old and walked around the place like he owned it.

Ta-Da! Crankin' the QP freebies out!

I just wanted to say thank you for all of you that have sent me comments about the blog and QP's. It is amazing that I've had over 500 hits in just 2 days. YEA! Let me clear up something though, for those that have written me emails to let me know what I was doing was illegal, you can stop. :) I've gotten permission from all designers that I do QP's with to put these up on my website for free. I just make sure I give credit where credit is due (which is everyone of course!). Thanks for all your concern and I just want to let you know that I wouldn't intentionally commit piracy knowingly. xoxo

Anyway, on to the freebie. Here is one of my favorite layouts. My son got this HORRIBLE viral rash when he was 8 months old. My DH and I were beside ourselves being first time parents. Little did we know this is very common with viral illnesses. HA! The things you learn by living, huh? Here is the layout to make this special occassion. I hope you enjoy it.

The kit is from www.nanas-attic@blogspot.com. It's called: Foofaraw.

You can download this QP HERE.

New layout

I must say, this has got to be one of my favorite layouts I have ever done. It's my first time really using tubes. I think it turned out well, don't you? This is my son Lucas when he was 11 months old. Cutie-patootie!