Ms. Moneymaker (post 2 for the day)

She's back! She's sporting a brand new dress and better feet. Don't you love those knobby knees? She also has a name. Before I tell you what it is, I have to explain how I chose it. I printed out a copy of the first one I did and actually cut it out and had it standing up against my computer monitor. I was trying to think of a unique and different name. Then it hit me. The name of a woman I used to work with years ago. Addie Moneymaker. Now on the off chance that Addie may some day stumble upon my blog, I want to make it clear that I in no way feel that my new friend resembles her. I just think she's got a cool name.


I want to thank everyone for all the comments on the last post. I have decided against the boyfriend. Addie will be getting a pet instead. I'm just not quite sure what yet.

Top droppers for July

Another month has come and gone. I want to thank everyone who has been visiting my blog. Here is my list of the top 10 EC droppers for July. If you want some cool new places to visit in blogland, all of these are good choices. Check them out.

I wasted the morning and made a friend

I'm on vacation this week and I am totally wasting the days away. Unlike most people with fabulous, or at least fun travel destinations, I spend my vacation at home. Rather than ruin the whole vacation feel with things like housework, I choose to do pretty much nothing. I suppose technically nothing would be incorrect however. While I may not be physically active I did give my imagination a work out. I made a friend. Of course this is not a living breathing friend, but she won't ever tell my secrets and she challenged me to keep on going and finish what I started.
I present to you my new friend:

How many of you are rolling your eyes right now and wondering if I have been spiking my diet coke with rum? Hmmm? So maybe I have gone over the edge here but I had fun doing it. She definitely needs some more work. She has no feet other than that heart shaped black blob beneath her legs and I'm afraid that her hands would be totally useless should she ever need to use them. Worst of all she has no name.
I wonder if I should make her a boyfriend?

The fog has lifted

I feel like I've been in a complete fog for the last several days. I haven't wanted to do anything but lay around and sleep. Today I finally feel like the fog has lifted and have a little bit more energy, YEAH!
To share a couple edits with you. This first one was a picture I took of one of those plastic outdoor chairs. The chair is just a plain off white sort of color. I added a blank layer over the original picture and colored in the roses. Then I just played with different blending modes till I liked the way it looked.


Just a random picture I took when we were at the last concert in the park. Mainly all I did was crop the picture, clone out a coke bottle and a persons butt, then messed around with levels and color curves.


I also did a couple layouts. I had that song "I never promised you a rose garden" stuck in my head. I'm not sure if that's the title to the song but maybe you know which one I mean. Anyway, I took the edit I did of the chair and used it as an overlay for the top of the page. I used the words from the song to put on the page of the book and dug up a picture from our wedding. Not your typical wedding layout, but then I'm not necessarily your typical scrapper.


Here's another one. I used pictures from my walk at a nature trail I visited as overlays on both papers.

Of course I made a template of the last layout for you.

But, I also added in all the things I used for both layouts.

So here ya go, template number 11 with a bonus

Trash or Treasure?

The store I work at got a case of pears in the other day and they were packed in this wood crate. I snagged it up before it went out in the trash because I know that there is something I can do with it, I'm just not sure what.

I actually have two of these now because I got one about a year ago too. So far the only thing I've used it for is to hold magazines. They are a nice size, measuring 19 1/2 inches by 11 1/2 inches and 10 inches high.

If I could just get my crafty brain to start working, I know I could come up with something creative to do with them.

So tell me, what would you do with them?

Funny Friday

I have to start off by sharing a comment left on my post about the fruit flys. J said "You'll like this solution:Drink 7/8's of a bottle of wine.Leave the open bottle with the remaining wine on the counter. Every so often shake the wine bottle and drown the buggers that are licking the inside of the bottle! (Just remember ya can't suck down the last of the wine...) A dark colored bottle makes it a bit more attractive! "
Thank you J for the suggestion, I may just have to try it. I also loved the reminder about not sucking down the rest of the wine...lol I would have left you a comment elsewhere but your blogger profile is set to private.

OK, so on with the rest of the post. Here's a layout I did last night. I used another one of June's great kits from http://censloft.blogspot.com/ The kit is called "Everyone" because indeed, you can use this kit for everyone. Great for scrapping those less than frilly pages.


I did something I haven't done in a long time. I sat down and made a wish list. Sort of like those Christmas lists you make every year when you are a kid and want it all. For years now, whenever someone has asked me what I want for birthday or holiday I always say nothing. Truth is there are things I would like to have but they are always things out of price range for the person asking. So just for fun (or out of boredom) I thought of a few things that I've been wanting to get. Just as soon as the old bank account says I can here's what I'll be getting.


Last but not least I have a little something for you. Rather than the typical 12 x 12 template, I decided to do several 4 x 6 templates that can be used for making brag books. There are 5 templates included in the download.



Hope you like them. Grab them right HERE

What is it and how do I get rid of it?

Do you know what this is?


This awful dreaded creature along with many of his annoying relatives vacations every year in my kitchen and I can't stand them. Say hello to Drosophila melanogaster. You may know him by his nick name, fruit fly. As I said, every summer, these guys have a field day in my kitchen. I'm not quite sure what it is that I have in there that is attracting them so but I can't stand them. They hang out by my kitchen sink and fly all around while I'm trying to do dishes. I discovered one thing that helps get rid of them and it's cheap and easy. All you need is some vinegar and dish soap. I take a shallow dish and fill it half way with vinegar then add a couple drops of dish soap and leave it sitting out. They are attracted to the vinegar and when they land in the dish they die. Of course you end up with a really gross dish full of vinegar and dead bugs but they wash down the sink quite nicely.
I can't believe I even did a scrapbook layout of these nasty guys.

You'll pardon me if I don't offer a free template with this one...lol
Have a great day everyone and may the fruit flys stay away from your house.

I have a couple of layouts that I thought I would share with you today.

This one is an old neighbor of Wade's. He passed away last winter and these were some pictures I had taken of him last summer. I remember the first time Wade took me to meet Gordon. He told me he was a little odd but he was good people...lol He was such a friendly person. I didn't know him all that well but every time I saw him he acted like we were old buddies. The kit I used for this layout was from the "Wish you were here" blog train. I can't for the life of me remember who's blog I got it from and I don't have that information in the kit. So if this is your kit, thanks so much for the freebie. I would love to put your link up if I had it.



The sun did come out yesterday and it turned into a beautiful day. We headed to the park again for another free concert. The band this time was "Highway 61 revisited" They did a Bob Dylan tribute. They were good but I don't think I liked them as much as the first band we went to see. I think next weeks concert is a Janis Joplin tribute.




I want to thank Vickie at http://digivic.blogspot.com/ for this lovely award. If you've never been to her blog you should check it out. She creates some awesome word art.



I also received this award some time ago from Miawa at http://eachstepitakewithgod.blogspot.com/ I don't think I ever posted that the last time. I am so sorry my friend, better late than never?



A few people that I would like to pass this award on to



Miawa http://eachstepitakewithgod.blogspot.com/ right back at you. It seems that your posts always have the message that I'm in need of at any given time.



Connie at http://onekraftkrazykid.blogspot.com/2009/07/just-finished-this-purple-afghan-for.html With all the crochet projects you do I just may pick up my hook again some day soon.



and last but not least I'm also going to pass this on to June at http://censloft.blogspot.com/ Even though Vickie already gave it to her, she deserves it twice because she does most definitely have one lovely blog and she is one of the sweetest bloggers I know.

Something for a gloomy Sunday

Maybe where you are there's sunshine, but here it's cloudy and cool. The kind of day that makes you want to lay around and do nothing.
I've been reading about ATC's lately and I'm rather fascinated by them. I've been thinking about making some myself, of course mine would be of the digital variety. I read an article somewhere about using an old deck of cards to make them on. What I was thinking of doing was printing out the pictures that I do and then gluing them on to the playing cards. Then I would cover the other side of the card with paper and add my contact information. I'm not sure what I would do with them after that but it sounded like fun. This is a picture that I did to put on one.


This is just a random picture I took of Wade while he was riding down the street on his bike, obviously edited.



I discovered a website called Creative therapy The don't do challenges, they refer to them as catalysts. I liked the concept and I plan on going through them to try and spark some creativity.
Another site I found was One Little Word Here, they post one word every other Wednesday. You take it from there. You create whatever you want based on that one word. It can be scrapbooking, hybrid, digital art, whatever, anything goes.
The word right now is "Why" so I created this layout.

The kit I used for this layout was a freebie from http://www.freedigitalscrapbooking.com and was designed by Marie Stones. I believe the name of the kit is "Mother's Love"
Now I have a freebie for you. Here is Template number 10. This is what I used for my "Why" layout. You can download it right HERE

I do have some other things that I've been working on but I can't seem to finish anything lately. I get so far and then it's like I hit a brick wall. BAM!...lol I guess there are just too many of life's little dramas running through my brain these days and it's playing havoc with my creativity levels.

Send Chocolate

Today I'm just going to share some recent edits I did. Each has a before and after picture. None of these started out with anything specific in mind. I just opened them up and started playing.

When I got to this point with this picture I thought it looked like there was a tiger in the background...lol I liked it so I called it finished and named it Tiger in the grass.

Another stunning work of photography (NOT)

But it made for a pretty cool edit.

As much as I would like to let Duke run free in the yard, I just can't do it. Maybe some day a fenced in yard for him will be in the budget, but for now, the chain.

and the edit.

By now you may be wondering why the title of this post is "Send Chocolate". If you've noticed, lately all my edits and layouts seem to be on the darkish side. I haven't done anything recently that even resembles bright and cheery. It can only mean one thing. I have a chocolate deficiency. So for the sake of pastel hues and sunny shades of primary colors, SEND ME CHOCOLATE.

Whatever it takes

That is the name of a song I heard on the radio this morning on my way to work. It's by Lifehouse and I really liked it. The link will take you to the page that has the lyrics to the song.
Speaking of whatever it takes, sometimes you have to do whatever it takes to get you going and inspired. To get me going and inspired I'm still surfing the Internet and checking out all the wonderful kits and pages that others are doing. I'm also trying to get myself back into doing more editing with the mounting pictures I have in my files.
This is a picture of a weed I took the other day. Some people will take pictures of anything. Believe me I do mean ANYTHING. There are some of my pictures that I would be embarrassed to show you because the subject matter is just way too strange....lol


Here's the edit that I did to it. There were several layers to this one. A couple of layers where I used filters, a couple with other pictures I've taken to use as textures and then the final layer was a tissue paper texture. I was pretty proud of this one. Of course there's no one around here to show it off to so it had to be part of the blog post.


This is a layout I did last night. The kit was a freebie from www.deliciousscraps.com

And here is the template I made for it.

This template also comes with a bonus. I was doing some playing around and made a couple of papers, a frame and a few swirlys. There's also a texture overlay and a quick page.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Smooth sailing

At least it is for Duke anyway. He's loving the new boat we bought him last weekend. He's always wanting to get in the pool. He'll get on the rafts, float out in the middle of the pool and then sit there and bark because the raft isn't moving anymore. To make things easier on us and more entertaining for him, we tied a rope to this one so that we can pull him back in.



Once you pull him in you have to give him a push and send him back out again. He would gladly play this game all day.


After pool time was over, I did a little freebie searching. I found a kit called "Happy Summer" and the link to download it is http://digitalcrea-galerie.fr/blog/?p=148

And here is the template that I made for the layout. You can download that HERE

Before I go, I want to thank those of you who answered my question yesterday about buying or not buying digi scrap stuff. Some of you had said that you go with freebies or stuff you make yourself but have resorted to buying under certain circumstances. I'll admit that I have come close to buying. I've had stuff in a shopping cart but then that little frugal voice in the back of my head always tells me, "You don't need that."

Another person added in her comment about thanking the designer for her freebies. She said that she usually only does if it's something she found really impressive. (not her exact words but I can't recall how she put it, sorry) Anyway, I'm afraid I have been guilty in the past also of not thanking someone for their freebies. Since I started this blog though, I've been more conscientious about doing so because I know how it feels to put all that work into something and not have anyone say anything. There are so many very talented people out there who are generous enough to share what they do with us that the least we can do is say "thanks". So to all of you wonderful designers out there who I've snagged freebies from in the past and not left a comment, I sincerely apologize and offer a HUGE Thank You.

The last of the die hards

I think that I may possibly be the only digital scrapper who has NEVER bought one single thing, with the exception of my program, photoshop elements. I've never purchased a kit, an element, a template, an action, or a brush. Everything I use is either a freebie that I got from someone else or it's something that I made myself. I've been in forums before where I've mentioned this and the response has been "Oh don't feel bad, I held out for the longest time too." I don't think they understand. I don't intend to ever buy a single thing. I have no desire to spend money on something that can be done for free. If I wanted to spend a fortune, or even a little bit that would turn into a fortune, I would try regular old fashioned scrapbooking.
I'm curious here. Am I the only one like this? I really want to know, leave me a comment and tell me if you are a die hard freebie collector or do you splurge and hit the shops.

Now for some sharing. I finished June's month in review layout. I also got started on the one for July.


This is one I did from some of the pictures I got over the weekend. The big kid in the background is Wade. I took the picture while we were riding the tilt a whirl. Love the grin on his face.


The picture in this layout is of a little rock I have out in my front yard. I couldn't find anything I liked to do this layout so I dug deep into my old stash of freebie kits and found this one. I can't remember where I got it from or even how long ago it was. I do know the designer though. The kit is by Jeannie Papai designs.


And finally the template I made before I did the layout. I don't know how useful anyone is finding these templates but if you would like it, you can find it HERE