(i) National Scrapbooking Day!

Pictures/previews for this page have been removed due to Designers retiring and stores closing

and Scrapbook-Elements has a sale....don't miss it! And some really fun challenges. Go ahead and check it out!

Apart from the goodies Kimberly Stewart and Rina Kroes have on sale, (click on their names to visit their Blockbuster Sales!) several of the Creative Team have freebie items on their blogs....just allow for time zones and the like, so if you arrive on a blog and it seems to be a dead end, please come back and check again as it will be all up and running soon! You'll find a list of blog 'stations' at the end of this post.

On the blog here I have a set of 3 bookmarks made, largely, with items from Rina Kroes' Grab Bag.

Now by way of explanation : I make my bookmarks at 5"x7" and have them printed at a local store. I then cut the print in half and stick the two sides together. I like to finish the corners with a corner rounder, and sometimes I punch a hole in the top and add a ribbon/tassel.

You will also notice that 2 of the bookmarks have tags on one side: I use these little journal spots for customizing the bookmarks when I give them away as gifts. I like to slip a pretty or functional bookmark into a birthday or Christmas card.

You can download the freebie HERE
I also have a couple of bragbook pages made with Kimberly Stewart's adorable 'Ted E Rabbits' kit.

You can download the freebie pages HERE
After you have downloaded your goodies, hop on board the blog train again for your next visit.
These are the stations you'll find along the way:
Kimmi Stewart's Blog (The Royal Court)
Kabra's Blog (Kabra's Korner)
Debbie's Blog (GrannyNKy's Notes from the Holler)
Denise's Blog (The Rich Scrapper)
Lor's Blog (Lorilei Murphy)
Tammy's Blog (Creative Thoughts)
Rina's Blog (The Reluctant Recluse)
We hope that you will enjoy the ride with us. Happy scrapping!

I found another Grab Bag....

Yes! Another Grab Bag that is certainly worth it's $3.00 price tag! Terrific bargain and available for the month of May:



I have made a couple of pages with the 2 full kits included in this Grab Bag:

The first one shows Mr J Exploring. I like the idea of him dashing of into this cute little cottage to see what interesting experiences may be inside. He is still as curious and enthusiastic now as he was back in 1988...

And another page for my Nature Around Us album, featuring more Fungi! (the template for the notepaper is by Shalee Tippetts and the staples by Rina Kroes)

I also have a freebie for you today, featuring one of the Grab Bag kits!

You can download the Quick Page HERE

And to collect a few more Quick Pages for your collection....here is a mini blog train for you to follow! Have FUN!

Gypsy Couture Blog (http://gypsy-couture.com/blog/)

Wendy (http://wendywscraps.blogspot.com/)

Sharon (http://www.digitalcreations.typepad.com/)

Dani (http://danivignoli.wordpress.com/)

Ashley (http://scraplikemad.blogspot.com/)

Laine (http://lainescrap.wordpress.com/)

See you tomorrow...with another blog train! Busy little station this! Whooooot!

ROFLOL.

May Desktop Calendar

Rina Kroes has a gorgeous desktop calendar for you today!

You can download it from Rina's Reluctant Recluse blog HERE

Must Have Grab Bag

Pictures/previews for this page have been removed due to Designers retiring and stores closing

If you buy only one item this (i)National Scrapbook Day make it Rina Kroes' Grab Bag.

I will add links and LO's as soon as those are available. Meantime, mark your calendar...




Unless you are familiar with Rina's bags, you will not believe what you get for $2.95. And if you know Rina's bags : yip...it is true to form!

Fresh New Joyful Awakening

Pictures/previews for this page have been removed due to Designers retiring and stores closing

Rina Kroes' new kit from last week, Joyful Awakening, really celebrates the freshness of spring time!

And this week Rina is releasing a set of Quick Pages for the Joyful Awakening Page Set. There is also a set of cluster frames, a danglement and an alpha! What a fine collection!

I have a freebie Quick page for you to download today. You can get this Quick Page HERE.

Hop on over to Rina's Reluctant Recluse blog and you'll find another quick page HERE.

Scoot over to Debbie's blog and pick up another beauty.....and while you are collecting....scoop up a delightful cluster on Lorilei's blog!

Wow! Just look at the collection you have now!

Remember Rina's new items are on sale only Sunday and Monday. But with National Scrapbooking Celebrations coming up next weekend, go ahead and add all you like to your wishlist....you should be able to pick up a few good bargains then too!

Garden Treasures

Pictures/previews for this page have been removed due to Designers retiring and stores closing

Yesterday morning the sun was shining, so I grabbed the camera and headed out the door. I went 'treasure hunting'. I found several great images...and these of the Grape Hyacinth were among them. What incredibly vibrant colours! I love visiting 'old friends' every year when they pop up for the growing season!!!

So last night when I went to scrapbook with some more treasures (aka friends) I scrapped this page :

For it I used Gypsy Couture's "Kiss of Spring" page set and her "Hang Tag Alpha", both re-released at the Digichick store. (and on sale for today!)


Here's hoping I get to scrapping some of the other pictures soon!

Seaside Holiday Memories

Pictures/previews for this page have been removed due to Designers retiring and stores closing

When the last letter arrived from my mom last week (yes, she writes, and she writes regularly, long wonderful, chatty letters! and at 80 something her writing is as neat and as steady as ever it was!)...but back to the last letter : it contained more negatives! yay! Included this time is the one of my sister on her little chair, featured in the Joyful Awakening LO a couple posts back, as well as a few coloured film negatives....hmmmm it was not until the images appeared on the computer screen, that I recognized them!

Oh the memories! A family holiday, now with just my brother and I, both sisters were 'out of the house' by now, and Mom and Dad.

I immediately knew how I wanted to scrap them as the colours reminded me of Rina Kroes' "Tropical Sunset" page set. I went one step further though and used her 12x12 Quick Page Album. (Previews and links at the end of the post!)

I like this page as is....but I also started adding additional elements......

till I ended up with this...and now I can't decide which one I like best! LOL (click images for credits)

This picture needed some help, so I decided that we would have an interesting page even if the picture leaves 'some' to be desired (Mom tried to fit us as well as the seal into the picture!)

and then there was this picture, of our 'new' car...and lots of memories associated with our vehicles, came to me. That is something I never really thought about before. I also noticed the (small) size of that Jacaranda tree behind the car. I remember that tree being HUGE.

I have more LO's....but maybe I'll show you those another day....maybe...

Here is Tropical Sunset with the most wonderful colours!

and here is the 12x12 album. There is also a 4x6 album (and yes I've used quite a few pages from that one too ;-) )

I might just get to like using Quick Pages, they sure speed up the scrapping process!

I'm off to finish a page and do some work on a drawing...catch you all later!

Joyful Awakening!

Pictures/previews for this page have been removed due to Designers retiring and stores closing

Walking around outside yesterday, that is exactly what it felt like. I actually felt warm, there is lots of new growth on all the 'dead' twigs, the birds are a twitter....everything seems to be experiencing a "Joyful Awakening" and that is the name of Rina Kroes's new page set for this week. I think it is beautiful.

I've been scanning negatives again....and when I saw this picture....I knew I had just the right kit for it. I already had my page done with Rina's new kit, but swapped the pictures out. This picture goes so beautifully with Rina's Joyful Awakening Page set.

Hop on over to Rina's Reluctant Recluse blog for a freebie QP as well as links to more goodies!

Shaggy Mane : Fungi!

Pictures/previews for this page have been removed due to Designers retiring and stores closing

Fungi, mosses, lichens....fascinating stuff! Like a world inside a world. Ever since I was a kid I could spend hours looking at the intricate details contained in these exquisite creations.

We have a most wonderful collection of these beauties here where we live and I have collected a fine bunch of pictures. It is time to add these to my "Nature Around Us" album.

For my Shaggy Mane (Inky Top) page, I used Gypsy Couture's new 'Secret Places' Page Set. I think you will agree with me that it suits the subject matter perfectly

LisaMarie (aka Gypsy Couture) also has a cool Add-On freebie to 'Secret Places' on her blog HERE. Don't miss it....that is where I found the cool alpha for the word 'shaggy' in my LO! And the scrap piece of paper my friend Rina Kroes gave me...
Now if I can just get all my pictures organized (and the fungi etc properly identified!) I can add quite a few pages to my album!

Vintage Baby Pictures

Pictures/previews for this page have been removed due to Designers retiring and stores closing

Although I hesitate to call my sister 'vintage' ROFLOL....even she would admit that these pictures, coupled with Vickey Morrissey's "Baby Mine" have a very distinct vintage and heritage feel to them. I'm working on 2 Bragbooks, one for my Mom and one for Dad. The idea is to show them with the kids and grandkids, only. I thought it would be fun for them to share with their friends! It has taken me close to a year so far though. Every time I think I have processed all the pictures....I get more negatives. Not complaining.....nooooo I'm having way to much fun for that!

One of the great advantages of digiscrapping is that I can easily make repeat LO's to suit a specific person's taste or album. I like that, as the personal touch is important to me. I like to think about a LO and choose colours and items that I know will be special to my recipient.

Here is a look at Vickey's kit


and in this LO you can see one of the Quick Pages and the alpha that are included with the set.


A set of 4 Quick pages is also available separately, for easy album making!


I can see a few more of the black and white pictures in my collection being scrapped using this page set, for sure!! Thank you Vickey!

Taking Easter Eggs Hunt Pictures?

....then I have a couple of Bragbook pages for you! Our boys are looong since out of the egg hunt stage, but this page set "Ted E Rabbits" by Kimberly Stewart was just too cute to leave 'untouched' so I thought I would make a couple pages for those of you who have kids happily hunting this weekend.

I have 2 magnetic 4x6 photo holders, that I keep permanently on my fridge. Then throughout the year I change the pictures (BB LO's) as I like.....I was thinking along these lines when I designed these co-ordinating pages....maybe I'll sneak up on one of the real bunnies running around outside for a few pictures for my fridge...what do you think? Is that a good idea? LOL

Happy hunting for great pictures with your camera!

You can download your pages HERE

Thanks for dropping by!

Gypsy Couture : New Release : A Splendid Story

Pictures/previews for this page have been removed due to Designers retiring and stores closing

New release from Gypsy Couture today : "A Splendid Story" The kit has a nice selection of items for a fantasy style LO, but would work as well for just a 'regular' LO....hmmm, now that is an interesting distinction, isn't it?

and the Add-On, which you can pick up on LisaMarie's blog....together with a QP freebie. Be sure to read her whole post....there's more hidden goodies to be found!


I went a little whimsical for my LO featuring a picture of my brother and I many years ago! He was and still is the best of brothers, and a 'Forever Friend'


I also added a very narrow 'stroke' to the alpha to help make it stand out a bit more from my bg paper. And a freebie Quick page for you, made with LisaMarie's "It Could Happen" Page Set also available at the DigiChick.


You can download the freebie HERE

I actually did some scrapbooking!

Pictures/previews for this page have been removed due to Designers retiring and stores closing

Wow! Funny how sometimes life gets busy in other ways isn't it? For someone like me who likes to do lots of different thing, I suppose that should not be a surprise...I could never do everything I would like to in every 24 hour period!

But it was nice to actually sit a scrap a page in the middle of the morning...

It was done for the Hooked -on-Templates challenge over at Scrapbook-Elements. it is a bi-weekly challenge and I try to do these as often as possible. 9The current one runs until the 11th) I enjoy using templates, although I probably could use them a whole lot more. Still being familiar with Rina's templates, I knew it would be a good one...

* Sorry, this image is no longer available*


.....and besides that posting gift was definitely worth scrapping for!
* Sorry, this image is no longer available*

The page set I used is Kimberly Stewart's Angel Bears Pink (Angel Bears is also available in blue and red as well as a combo pack with all 3 inside)

I chose the pink one, as my sister (the baby in the pictures) really loves pink.

And for these pictures of my curious brother, I used Kimberly's Little Penguins Page Set. I love how it turned out!

Tomorrow I'll be back with a LO of a 'new release kit' and a freebie...catch you then!

The Missing Tooth

I was delighted to see this LO, by Denise, using my little freebie 'It's Out!' kit...I think it came out great! Thanks for sharing Denise!

Click here to go to Denise's blog for the details!

And for a look and download links for the freebie go here. (The QP for the above page in included in your download btw!)

The sun is shining today...but the weather man says we should expect clouds and rain by tomorrow....so I had better get out there with my sketchbook straight after lunch, or I'll miss my opportunity!

Catch you all later!

Vroue Monument - Women's Memorial

Pictures/previews for this page have been removed due to Designers retiring and stores closing

A time to reflect, honour the deceased, forgive...and then move on...

I added the greenery and white flowers for hope and the pink ribbon, for the women of my nation. Stark, bleak and honest...but not without hope. I don't know if you can read the writing here. It is just a translation of the words on the memorial itself. And a line, that can only be read when you zoom into the actual picture reads: "I will never leave you nor forsake you" the promise that all our hopes are pinned on, for it is founded on the very character of God. Whatever Jesus promises...that He will bring to pass. He cannot fail.

Lisa (Gypsy Couture) re-released her kit 'It Could Happen' at her Digichick store this week. it is delightfully playful....but when I scanned the negatives of the pictures featured in my LO...I knew this kit had what it takes to scrap them.


How is your hunting for those 'treasures' in the Scrapbook-Elements Treasure Hunt coming on?
Don't forget to drop by at the forum thread to find (and ask for!) clues! We are fast running out of time!!!