The climb

If you aren't familiar with the song "The Climb" by Miley Cyrus I strongly recommend that you listen to it. I absolutely love the song and I think in a way it almost sums up my life in some ways. I wanted to post a you tube video of the song but I'm afraid that I just can not figure out how to do it. So if anyone wants to take pity on a poor middle aged scrappy blogger and give me a clue I would be forever in your debt....lol

Now, if you'll pardon me while I softly hum the song, I'll continue with the rest of today's post. I actually have another freebie for you. This is a quick layout I put together. I just threw the picture in since it was the first fall looking picture I could find.

I started with the embossed papers that I made a while back. You can find those at this post http://annssnapeditscrap.blogspot.com/2009/09/fall-is-in-air.html
Then I made the wreath and the happy harvest wood sign. I added a bow that was an extraction from a picture I took. I also made the tape frame. I saw something like that somewhere else and liked the way it looked. Any way, I put it all together and made a quick page for you. I also threw in the wreath, a happy harvest sign as well as a blank one and the tape frame. If you want the papers and haven't gotten them you can go to the link above. If you like this little freebie you can get it right HERE
One thing I want to mention before I go. I know there are some of you who don't do scrapbooking and so you may think that you wouldn't have any use for these freebies. They may be more useful than you think. Any of the elements can be used just like you would use any clip art you may have. Have you ever made a greeting card on your computer? Well you can use digital scrapbooking stuff to make your cards with. Really anything that you do with other clip art you can also do with this stuff. Just some food for thought.
Well it's off to do some dropping before I call it a night. Have a good one everyone.

Got time for a quickie?

A quick post, that is. To offer you a quick page. What were you thinking?

Nothing fancy, pretty basic, I call it techno-geek. For some reason I can't link the word so here's the link for the download http://www.4shared.com/file/124880631/f1704176/tg_qp.html?dirPwdVerified=e8f8cd69

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

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

There's more

Yep, I did some more layouts. Ever since I asked for cc on my kits and such I seemed to have lost my momentum for making them. I guess too much negative feedback forced me to slow down and take a closer look at what I've been doing. One of the comments I got was: "I think you are on the right track, if you keep trying you'll get there. You're quick pages are well composed and I like your templates quite a lot. Maybe you should find a niche and stick with it." Of course there was much more to her review of my work, but for the sake of my ego I'll leave that out....lol
Any way, as I said, I slowed down and took a good look at what I was coming up with. I started focusing more on looking at other peoples work. I've been able to put together more layouts that I'm actually happy with instead of just semi satisfied. I still want to be able to provide my readers with something other than my ramblings though. So for now, I'll be sticking to smaller things. (this blog reserves the right to change this claim at any time) You should be seeing more templates, quick pages and possibly mini kits. Maybe, when I feel like I'm getting somewhere I'll try and get back into kits again.
So with that said, I did a couple more pages. Wade is like a kid when it comes to bikes, 4 wheelers, or anything with a motor. We were at a friends house over the weekend and he got to do a little playing.


We also stopped at a near by beach. I love the quote by John Lennon. Especially since it gives me a reason for wasting the day away doing what I enjoy.


Finally the template that I made from the second layout. I included a quick page, a few papers and a few elements.

The download is right HERE
Also, it just occurred to me that I've only been doing the templates in psd format. After this one I will start doing them in jpeg also for those who aren't able to use the psd files. If any of you have gotten the previous templates and weren't able to use them you can let me know and I'll post those as jpeg's as well.

Thanks for stopping by today.

First day of summer

Yeah! Summer has officially arrived. Now if the weather will just start acting like summer on a more consistent basis, I'll be one happy little camper.

This weekend our little town had their sesquicentennial celebration. That's 150 years. Last night they had an awesome fireworks display. I was fortunate enough to be able to sit out on my deck and watch it from there. Of course I had the camera with me. I've never taken fireworks pictures before and I had to try it. Lets just say it was NOT a huge success...lol I got a couple shots that were sort of cool looking but by no means could they be considered good pictures. You know me though, I'm not one to throw away lousy pictures. I pulled out 3 different ones plus a picture of the American flag, layered them all together using different blending modes and VOILA! I shared it with Wade, and I really should have learned by now that he is not going to give me a positive reaction on any of my masterpieces....lol He just doesn't have the same appreciation for my creativity as I do. Hm, maybe if I did an edit of a race car, driven by a naked woman holding a can of beer he might look twice....lol


After I did that I started working on a layout for some of the pictures. I used two of my fireworks pictures and the third one (at the bottom) is part of a mural that is painted on a wall of one of the building in the borough park. I'm not sure who painted it but they did an awesome job.


Before I put everything away, I came up with another mini kit and quick page for you. You get 5 papers, 6 elements and the quick page.

Grab the download HERE Hope you like it.
I was going to show you another edit that I worked on over the weekend, but I decided to save that for my next post.

One last thing before I go. You HAVE to stop by my sisters blog and check out the recipe she posted for Monkey Brownie Bars. I'm drooling just thinking about them....lol Hop on over to http://xsurvivingmotherhoodx.blogspot.com/2009/06/monkey-brownie-bars.html while you're there could you leave her a comment and suggest that she make some to send to her sister?

Are you silly?

Don't ever let anyone tell you that silliness and playing is just for kids. I strongly believe that holding on to your inner child is what keeps you young and happy. I personally bring out the inner child frequently. Of course sometimes it's to throw a temper tantrum but that's another story...lol.
My inner child likes to draw, and I don't care if it's good, bad, colored inside the lines, or even recognizable. My inner child also likes to fabricate stories, because I really don't like drawing all that much, I do stink at it. BUT, I did have fun with a tutorial I found to make a picture into a cartoon drawing. I did this one real quick just to try it out so it's not that great, but like I said it was a lot of fun. I got a little carried away with the burn tool but I was real careful not to draw in all the wrinkles on my face...lol


I also did a little playing around a did a layout of my all time favorite aunt. This was a very old picture of my Aunt Mary. There are so many wonderful stories I could tell you about this woman but I won't bore you with all of those. She sure was something special though.

I also put together a mini kit for you. In the kit you'll find everything I used in my layout plus a quick page. I couldn't think of a name so I just went with Mary since that's who the layout was about.

You can get the download HERE

Don't forget that Sunday is Father's Day. If you need something for Dad I posted a Father's Day word art freebie a few posts back.

Have a great weekend and see ya next time.

I feel like such a slacker

I can't believe I haven't posted since last Sunday. I really had thought about it several times over the past week, but didn't have the motivation or inspiration to actually do it. I also didn't want to post without having something to give you. After all, if you're willing to listen to me ramble on about this, that or the other thing, you DESERVE a freebie...lol
And then, the rambling started....lol
My daughter and her friend were in Canada for the day. I'm not really sure where this picture was taken but she gave it to me and said she needed me to fix it for her. So she pulls out the picture and explains that she really likes it except, who the heck is that guy sitting there behind us....lol


She gave me another picture they took that day to replace mystery man

I decided to actually use one of my own quick pages. I've made several to give away as freebies but have never used one myself. What's up with that?....lol So today I was reading through some quotes and found the one I put on this layout. I loved the quote and knew I had the perfect picture to go with it. I did an edit a while back of foot prints in the snow.

So finally here is your freebie. I worked on this one on and off all week. I just couldn't seem to get anything that I liked. I started playing around with some shapes and made that funky looking bird like creature. In the download, not only do you get the quick page, but you also get 3 versions of said funky bird. On the original I used 3 different actions from atomic cupcake. With the birds if you can't find any use for them, you can open them up, leave the window open on your computer and maybe they'll fly away. (Oh my, that was bad, I must be tired....lol) Any way, I called this "Calm, cool and collected" because that's what the colors reminded me of.

Enough already, get to the download link right? OK here it is, download the qp right HERE

another weekend goes by

Why do the weekends have to fly by so fast? There just never seems to be enough time anymore to do all the things I should do and the things I want to do.
Wade and I walked down to the borough park this afternoon to check out the Mopar show they were having there. I didn't get too many pictures, guess I wasn't in the point and shoot mood today...lol


I started working on another "month in review" layout. I liked the way the one I did for May looked, so I thought I would do one for June. Maybe this month I'll have more pictures to put in it.


While I was at it I made a quick page for you from the LO. There are actually 3 different pieces in the download. One is a png file with the squares blank. The numbers are another piece so you can layer them on top if you want and also be able to erase any that you don't want showing on your pictures. The third piece is a jpg. the squares are white with a lowered opacity so you can do your journaling on them if you want but still see the background paper. (I don't know if any of what I just typed makes any sense or not, but you'll get the idea when you open up the files)

The download is right HERE.
Hope you all had a great weekend.

Bad Attitude

That's right. I have a BAD ATTITUDE!....LOL
You could say it wasn't a great morning at work. I think the straw that broke the camels back (or in this case the bakers) was when I set out to do my favorite chore of the day. Freezer work, UGH! I went in the freezer to pull things to stock the shelves and discovered wall to wall ice cream carts. These are pretty big carts and they don't maneuver real well. The owner comes walking in the freezer and said something to me (can't remember what it was) and my response was "I'm trying very hard not to say any bad words"....lol So he says, "here, I'll help you". He started to move the carts out of the freezer for me and I was standing off to the side waiting. Just as he got one cart out the freezer door, a 6-7 foot high stack of frozen bakery products came crashing down and hit me on the top of the head. I wasn't seriously injured, but I was now quite miffed. I took an unscheduled smoke break (yes I'm a smoker, so sue me...lol), ran my mouth off a little then went back to work. Then the headache started. Not a bad one but enough to be annoying and make me even more irritated. I decided right then that I was going home and someone else could do my work today. So that's what I did.

Here's a wonderful quick page that I got from http://censloft.blogspot.com/search?q= I just love her blog. She has the quick page up for a freebie, so you should stop by and grab it.


Here's my Duke. Just a pic I took of him the other day. The background is a piece of cardboard that I made. It was amazingly easy to do. Maybe I'll put it up as a tutorial for you in another post.


Now a freebie for you. At least it's here for anyone who didn't mind sifting through my chit chat to find it. (Did that sound like sarcasm?...lol) This is a small sampler kit with the things that I used to make the layout of my grandparents. It includes 1 background paper, 1 antique grunged edge, a journaling edge piece, a mask, a fern and 1 quick page.

You can grab it right HERE

Slightly toasted

That's exactly how I feel right now. It was such a beautiful weekend that I took full advantage of it and spent time outside. The sun was wonderful and I have the red skin to prove it. It was all worth it though. It was so great to have a 3 day weekend and spend it doing something besides laying around the house being lazy and trying to make excuses for why I wasn't getting anything accomplished.
This weekend we worked on getting the pool cleaned up. The water was so disgusting. I've had green pools before but this year it was red. Everyone kept asking if we had a dead body in there...lol Here's Wade and Duke working on scooping out the last of the red sea.

This project started Friday night after we got home from work. We started draining it then and it wasn't completely empty until Sunday morning. By 11:00 a.m. we had it all cleaned and ready to start filling. We just refill it with the hose. So we stuck the hose in the pool and headed out to Conneaut Lake Park. This weekend they were having what they call Doo Wop days. They had a few bands throughout the weekend and Sunday they had a DJ there. They also had a volleyball tournament on the beach and a car cruise in. I got some pictures of the cars Wade was drooling over...lol Here's a couple of them.




Last but not least a little freebie for you. I did another quick page.

Go ahead and grab the freebie HERE

Happy Memorial Day

Just a quick post to wish you all a safe and happy Memorial Day weekend. I actually can't believe I'm still up. For some reason I had my alarm set and it went off at 4:15 this morning. Not having to go to work made it easy for me to jump right out of bed instead of going back to sleep. Now it's getting close to midnight and I'm still wide awake.
Oh yeah, I said quick post didn't I?...lol
Tonight I have a couple things to share with you.
First a before and after picture of an edit I did. This was a not so impressive picture I took this afternoon while I was out on the deck and feeling a little bored.

I really liked the way the edit turned out. Looked really artsy to me. I may not know a lot about art, but I know what I like.

Here's my cheapo flip flops. I mostly only wear these around the yard and pool. I did this edit for a challenge. I thought it looked pretty cool.

Finally a freebie for you. Another quick page that I threw together for you.

Grab the download HERE

Bunches of stuff

I have so much to share with you today. By the time you leave here you'll feel like it was your birthday or Christmas time....lol OK so maybe not but I really do have a lot to share.
First up is the mushroom kaleidoscope that I was going to show you yesterday before I had the problems uploading these pictures. I don't know what was going on but every time I tried to upload these 2 I got an error message. They worked today though.
This is the picture of a mushroom, that I took last year, that became the base for my kaleidoscope.


These are the 4 different kaleidoscopes that I made. The bottom right is my favorite.

This comes from my sister's blog. She has a template freebie up for grabs. Hop on over to http://xsurvivingmotherhoodx.blogspot.com/2009/05/wowlong-time.html While you're there check out some of her stuff. She's so darn talented and creative it makes me sick....lol

I have a couple of websites that I want to tell you about too. The first one comes from http://photojojo.com/ I signed up for their free newsletter and they have some of the coolest ideas. I really liked the one called Project 1976 -making a photo history of the year you were born. The link to get to that page is http://photojojo.com/content/category/photo-projects/ I thought about doing this for each of my kids.

The other website that I want to share is http://www.blockposters.com/default.aspx You can create any size wall poster from any size images and best of all it's TOTALLY FREE! While you're there browse through their gallery and check out some of the cool ideas. I'm definitely going to give this one a try. It's 3 easy steps to a way cool, one of a kind, wall poster. First you upload your picture, then choose how many pieces you want it to be and then download your image (PDF format).

Next up is my freebie for the day. I made another quick page yesterday that I wanted to share with you. I can't remember where I saw it (brain dead) but I was browsing around and saw a page that was set up similar to this with the 3 pictures running across the page. I set out to come up with something of my own and it developed into this. The background paper was made with one of my kaleidoscope patterns, and then I gave it an aged sort of look.

You'll find the download for the quick page right HERE

The last thing I have to show you today is a project that I started this morning. Again I got the idea while I was surfing the internet yesterday and I can't remember where I saw this one either....lol I really should learn to write these things down or bookmark them. For the month of May, I'm going to take my favorite picture of the day and put it into the calendar. I may not have a photo for each day of the month. As you can see, I've already missed several days. I think, that several pictures scattered throughout the calendar would look better than filling the whole thing. A picture for each day might be a little too over powering. Anyway, if you like my layout so far, come back tomorrow (Tuesday at the latest...lol) because something in this layout is going to be my next freebie. I have my PT appointment tomorrow after work so depending on how much time I have when I get home I may not get around to posting again until Tuesday.

Remember, stop back. I'm looking forward to our next get together right here.

Finds, Fun and Freebies

The first freebie I'm going to tell you about isn't mine. If you use photoshop elements, you should check out the graffishop you can get a free sampler action pack there as well as a few other little freebies. With the sampler pack you get 5 actions, enlarge 110%, sketch, soft black and white, weaver and old romance. You'll also find other goodies available for sale on the site. I used old romance on this picture after I did all the other editing to it that I wanted.


Here is a black and white with color that I did for a challenge on cafe mom. This was a picture I took at the zoo last summer.


Here's another picture I took last summer. I know it's not very impressive...lol So why am I showing it to you then?

Because pictures like this one are so much fun to play around with in Dazzling Reflections. I think I'm totally addicted to kaleidoscopes. I've discovered that I can make some really interesting seamless patterns from them too. They may be a little too busy for some people's taste, but I like them. The top two are kaleidoscopes I made and the bottom two are the results of patterns and a lot of playing around with filters and such. I think they make for some very interesting art work.

I also had some mushroom kaleidoscopes that I was going to share with you but for some reason it wouldn't let me upload the pictures.

Lastly today is the freebie that I have for you. You get two quick pages in png format.

You can download them right HERE
I have another quick page ready to give you for tomorrow. So come back then to get that one. Have a great weekend and hopefully you have sunny skies where you are.

Terrific Tuesday

Today is a terrific Tuesday. Why? It's a long story, so if you aren't up for it you can scroll through. If you want to know then stick around. Decades ago, when I was around maybe ten or so, I was diagnosed with scoliosis. Being the young, stupid brat that I was, I refused to be fitted for a back brace. There was a girl in my class who had one and it was huge, ugly and looked so uncomfortable, and so I went untreated. Fast forward to today (You thought I was going to make you listen to 30 some years worth of whining didn't you?...lol) So, today, here I am 40 some years old (ok so closer to 50 but 47 is still 40 some...lol) and suffering for my refusal to wear a brace. Now, I can't say for sure that the brace would have made any difference but it's too late to find out and I guess I'll just never know. Back pain is simply a way of life for me. Some days it's not so bad and some days it hurts to stand up, it just all depends on what kind of day I've had. My job certainly doesn't help matters but quitting is not an option that I want to consider. You may remember me talking about an appointment I had a few weeks ago. You remember the one where I lost my prescription sunglasses? Yeah, that one. That was for a few tests I had done because my doctor thought that a lump I had next to my ribs may be caused by a hernia. All my tests came back perfectly clear (the girl doing my sonogram said that my insides take a lovely picture....lol) The doctors office sent me to a physical therapist for an evaluation. Turns out that the lump is from a deep muscle thing, most likely caused by the curve in my spine. Because of the way my back curves, the muscles on one side have stretched while the ones on the other side have contracted. By now you are probably wondering what all that has to do with why today is terrific. Well, I've been going to PT for a couple of weeks now, and doing the exercises that they have given me and today my back feels pretty darn good. The discomfort that I was feeling from the lump next to my ribs has decreased and I'm just feeling all around energetic and terrific right now. So terrific that I feel like sharing some stuff with you.
This is a picture of a tree that I took on Saturday when Wade and I went to Seneca NY. This was actually in Warren, Pa. We took a drive around Kinzu and took in some of the lovely scenery around there.

OK so what's so special about the tree? Nothing....lol But I did make a kaleidoscope out of it and this is what it turned into. I thought it looked pretty cool.


Then I played around with it in pse and made it into this

When I got done with that I was feeling so terrific that I thought I would throw together a little mini kit for you as a Ann's feeling terrific gift. You get 2 papers, 1 ribbon/border, 1 rick rack, 1 frame, 1 kaleidoscope, 1 moon with star, 1 star and 1 quick page.

Hope you like it. You can get the download HERE If you managed to get this far, and whether you take the little gift or not, I would LOVE to hear your comments. Just let me know someone is out there listening....lol