Credits:
Jessica Sprague Daily December Template
Fling and Georgia fonts
Jen Wilson Merry Days 9th

So here is Daily December #20.



Credits:
Jessica Sprague Daily December template
Fling and Georgia Fonts
Jen Wilson Merry Day 2nd and 9th

Credits:
Jessica Sprague Daily December Template
Fling and Georgia fonts
Jen Wilson Merry Days 3rd

Credits:
Jessica Sprague daily december template
Fling and Georgia fonts
Jen Wilson Merry Days 6th

Credits:
Jessica Sprague Daily December template
Fling and Georgia fonts
Jen Wilson Merry Days 12th

Credits:
Jessica Sprague Daily December template
Fling and Georgia fonts
Jen Wilson Merry Days 7th

Credits:
Jessica Sprague Daily December Template
Fling and Georgia fonts
Jen Wilson Merry Days 8th papers and elements

Credits:
Jessica Sprague Daily December template
Fling and Georgia fonts
Jen Wilson Merry Days 9th

Credits:
Jessica Sprague Daily December #13
Fling and Georgia Fonts
Jen Wilson Merry Days 11th

Credits:
Jessica Sprague Daily December template
Fling and Georgia fonts
Jen Wilson Merry Days 10th

Ok, I really need to catch up on the Daily December (I've got day 11, 12, 13 to catch up on). But I took a break to catch up on the Design Your Life course I'm supposed to be taking!

So here is a layout based on Week 2 Sketch 2. No credits, I'll try to add them later.

Credits:
Jessica Sprague Daily December template
Fling and George Fonts
Jen Wilson Merry Days 9th

Credits:
Jessica Sprague Daily December template
Fling and Georgia fonts
Jen Wilson Merry Days 5th

Instead here is Day 9.



Credits:
JSprague Daily December template
Fling and Georgia fonts
Jen Wilson Merry Days 6th elements and paper

My scrapbooking stash really isn't that bad when compared to many of my friends :) as you can see from the photo here (stash is mostly housed in bookcase on the right).

From Studio M

This year I joined a Stampin' Up! hostess club to limit my spending but there are still a lot of things you can't buy from Stampin' Up! so once in a while I step into a scrapbook store (usually this one www.memorycrafts.ca). While I am not their best customer you do tend to spend more than you intended when you go there.

Yesterday I had one of those days. My friend B lives awful close to this store and I had left my laptop power cable at her house the previous evening so after collecting it, I hit the store. This time the damage wasn't too bad, a mere $95 plus taxes.

Oh well, let's see what I got:

- Ali Edwards "Life Artist" - an older book but one I've been meaning to get for a while. I noticed it had been discontinued on Amazon so I thought I'd better pick it up while stocks last.

- K&Co Photo Scrap Album - I just saw these in the Quick and Easy Photo Albums magazine. My friend Cheryl (who is on the editorial board for Simple Scrapbooks and who works at the aforementioned store) had an album in that special issue and I had wondered where to get one just like it. Duh, I should have figured that the store would have them!

- Fancy Pants 12x12 Photo Pocket pages - these hold 6 4x6 photos on a regular sized scrapbook page. Again inspired from the Quick and Easy Photo Albums magazine. I already have some of these page protectors (I often use them to house photos to scrap but now plan to actually use them as scrapbook pages.

- SEI 11x8.5 page protectors - in the words of my friend B, "I think this is my size". She is often lamenting that she doesn't have an affinity for 12x12 (even though she has 3 completed scrapbooks in that size) and wants to scrap in 8.5x11. It's interesting because I have several albums in 12x12, 8x8 and 6x6 but since noticing the landscape version of the 8.5x11, think that might actually be my true size and I've been wanting to try it out. The advantages to this size are many, you can print on a regular printer, you can use regular size paper (which I tend to buy for cardmaking), in portrait orientation it fits in office binders (you can always put your landscape pages in this way too though). So my plan for these page protectors is to intermingle them in with my 12x12 pages by simply re-punching the holes (because they don't line up).

- Karen Foster Ancestry stickers - for that unfinishing heritage album (don't remind me) - this project is taking a *long* time. I purchased the papers and cardstock for it about 2-3 years ago, and I have the black American Craft Linen D-ring albums for it, but I don't have a lot of coordinating embellishments, just some black buttons and metal photo clips etc).

- Heidi Swapp Clocks Clear Acrylic Stamps - this has to be the best deal ever. For $6.99 CDN (that's only $5.50 US) I got an acrylic stamp set with 4 clock faces and 4 hands. I've been looking for clock faces like this (rub ons or acetate embellishments) for a while but now I can make my own. They are so versatile and can be used on all sorts of layouts (Ali Edwards and Heidi Swapp use them a lot so they must be good!).

- Basic Grey Archaic Chip Stickers and Paper - Boy scrapbooking supplies aren't as plentiful as girl ones, so when I saw these stickers months ago I wanted them. They are chipboard so add some 3-dimensional bulk to layouts/projects. I also got a sheet of dinosaur paper too.

So are you thinking what I'm thinking? Did I write this blog post to justify my spending spree? I think so.... maybe I need therapy.... or an intervention.

Credits:
JSprague Daily December template
Fling and Georgia fonts
Various supplies from Jen Wilson Merry Days 12th

(Note: Sorry the supplies are so repetitive. To give a consistent look to my project, I'm going to use the same supplies for each day just switching up the Jen Wilson Merry Days kit that is used.)

Here's the LO for Day 6.



Credits:
JSprague Daily December template
Fling and Georgia fonts
Various papers/elements from Jen Wilson Merry Days 10th

Just a couple of good deals today at www.designerdigitals.com both for 25 cents each.

Credits:
JSprague template
Fling and Georgia fonts
Jen Wilson Merry Days 4th

Credits:
Fling and Georgia fonts
Jessica Sprague Daily December template
Various Items from Jen Wilson's Merry Days 7th

Here is day #3. 


Credits:
Fling and Georgia fonts
Jessica Sprague Daily December template
Various Items from Jen Wilson's Merry Days 3rd

Here is my layout for Day 2.  (If you are my in-laws don't look!!!)

Well I'm off to a late start, but I'm going to be doing a Daily December album as suggested by Ali Edwards.  I'm going to be doing it digi using Jessica Sprague's Daily December digital page template.

Here is Day 1 (on Day 2 but I'll try to catch up!).


Credits:
Fling and Georgia fonts
Jessica Sprague Daily December Template
Various items from Jen Wilson's Merry Days 1st

One of the great features of the new Photoshop Elements 7 is the ability to set an album to backup/synchronize automatically. While it is disappointing that you can't do this for a smartalbum, just a regular album, it is a great feature to have these photos backup automatically online so you don't have to worry about computer failure.


There have been a number of people reporting that their backup/synchronization is getting stuck saying the files are "pending" backup/synchronization and isn't actually backing up their photos. This seems to only be a problem with existing photos in an album rather than new photos or a new album.

To check that your are photos backing up/synchronizing:

1. Click on the green arrows in the status bar at the bottom of the screen.

2. Select "View files pending backup/synchronization". If you see files in there, they are problem stuck (unless you just added them to an album that is going to be backed up).

To force backup/synchronization:

1. Create a new tag called "pending".

2. Click on the green arrows in the status bar at the bottom of the screen.

3. Select "View files pending backup/synchronization". Click any photo now displayed then Ctrl-A (select All in Windows).

4. Drag the new "pending" tag onto the selected photos.

5. Right click on the tag in the Keyword Tags and select Delete tag. If may explain that the tag is going to be removed from all the files and ask for confirmation. Say "yes" if it does.

6. You should now see your files start to backup. You can either wait to see if the "View files pending backup/synchronization" files reduce to 0, or select "View backed up/synchronized files" or go online to your photoshop.com account to see which files are now backed up.

I found the following site recommended on the Jessica Sprague Stories in Hand forum.  It's for making a computer font out of your own handwriting.  It works on both PC and Mac and is a great idea for personalizing your scrapbook pages or doing anything else where you'd like to use your own handwriting.

The site is called http://www.yourfonts.com/.  You simply print a template, write each letter, scan and upload.  Your font will then be generated and you can download a TTF version.

Here's my first attempt:

Wow for someone who doesn't really *do* Halloween, this is the 3rd blog post that is somewhat related (see Halloween Fun and Spiderman Layout)!

The kids dressed up as Belle (Beauty and the Beast) and Spiderman for Halloween but in true Canadian tradition (or BC anyway) it was raining by the time they went out so extra layers of clothing were in order. 

First they went to a kids party organized by our Strata - thanks Henri (also the photographer of the last photo), then they went out for two rounds of trick or treating (two because there are so many houses where we live and so few kids).

I still have my cold but I am trying to catch up with my "Design for Life" Cathy Zielske class.
Here is layout #1 from Week 2.


Credits:
TBA.

I've been getting a few "Library of Memories" questions from people wanting to do a digital version of this system originally developed by Stacy Julian and published in the book "Photo Freedom". I have been responding to their comments by leaving my own comments on those posts. You can read all my Digital Library of Memories posts here.

However, I haven't documented my workflow so here it is:

I use Photoshop Elements 7 for scrapbooking and organizing my digital photos (including those I've scanned) but not for organizing my digital scrapbook supplies (I use ACDSee Pro 2).


My workflow is to find photos in Elements using my LOM Digital Storage Binders (smart albums) or my LOM Category Drawers (tags) and then select "Full Edit" which open them into the Elements Editor photo bin.

I then go into ACDSee Pro 2 and use my categories to find the supplies I need, then select "Edit" (I have configured my default editor to be Elements Editor). This opens the supplies into the Elements Editor photo bin.

So now all my photos and supplies are sitting in the photo bin under the editor work area where I can see them all at the same time. I create a new document in the editor work area and drag my photos and supplies into the new document.

This workflow is efficient with only two programs open (Elements and ACDSee Pro).

Note: I have heard that there can be problems with using Elements to manage your scrapbooking supplies because of the huge quantity of supplies and the fact that Elements will generate a thumbnail for everything in its catalog (basically the system would grind to a halt). That is why I've opted to use ACDSee Pro to manage the supplies.

Saturday 1st November 2008 is the 2nd ever Digital Scrapbooking Day. There are lots of things going on, contests, crops, sales and freebies. Rather than list them here I'm going to send you to http://www.digitalscrapbookingday.com/ where they are maintaining a blog of the announcements to date.

Take advantage of the freebies and sales, like Christmas this day only comes once a year!

I will be participating in the Kelowna Public Library's "Ask A Genealogist" Day on Saturday 1st November 2008 in conjunction with the Kelowna and District Genealogy Society.  The library is located on Ellis Street in downtown Kelowna and everyone is welcome.  "Ask A Genealogist" hours are 9.30am to 4pm.  I will be there at least from 9.30am-12pm.

If you'd like to ask a genealogist something, then head on out to the library :)

It seems just about forever since I posted last but it's time for an update.  During the Summer I had my baby and things have been a little hectic every since.

However, I did manage to speak on LDS Resources at the Kelowna and District Genealogy Society's annual seminar.  I covered all aspects of FamilySearch including the two databases not available online (Scottish Church Records and Military Index), the FamilySearch.org web site, the Indexing project, Pilot Familysearch, Wiki Familysearch and finally New Familysearch.  To be honest, I wish the powers that be in Salt Lake City could actually come up with unique names for the different parts of the FamilySeach system, because it sure was confusing!  There were 29 registered for the session but I ended up with standing room only with 42 attendees :)

As a result of the preparation for that session I have been using New FamilySearch extensively and have made some exciting discoveries which I'll save for a separate post shortly.  Currently New Familysearch is only available to those with church membership numbers but you are able to access all the other sites mentioned abovve.

After my last foray into cardmaking, I've now got the bug so here is another card I worked on yesterday and I think I might be getting my cardmaking mojo back. 

Credits: Mellow Moss, Chocolate Chip and Vanilla CS, Wild Rose and Warmest Regards stamps sets, Bravo Burgundy, Mellow Moss and Close to Cocoa inks, Designer Series paper.  All Stampin Up!

After my last foray into cardmaking, I've now got the bug so here is another card I worked on yesterday and I think I might be getting my cardmaking mojo back. 

Credits: Mellow Moss, Chocolate Chip and Vanilla CS, Wild Rose and Warmest Regards stamps sets, Bravo Burgundy, Mellow Moss and Close to Cocoa inks, Designer Series paper.  All Stampin Up!

J has suddenly developed a new obsession for spiderman since we let him watch it on Toon channel a couple of weeks ago. Hence his new Halloween costume....

It's been absolutely forever since I made any cards.  I joined an SU! stamping club last month and we had a second meeting on Wednesday night.  Since then I've had the hankering to start making cards again but didn't get an opportunity (and inspiration) until tonight.  As usual I did a little bit of mass production and made 5 cards (using some already cut to size card stock bases).  I used a wheel I had never used before (although I'd had it a few months) and some pearls from my Pretties Kit (again that I've never used but had a few months).  I really like the way these turned out and will use them for any occasion simply by stamping a greeting on the front (above the white cardstock) and a sentiment on the inside (Thank You, Birthday, Thinking of You etc).

Here they are:
Credits:
Forever Flowers Wheel, Pretties Kit, Close to Cocoa ink, Chocolate Grosgrain Ribbon, White CS, Pale Plum CS, older light blue CS (can't remember name of color), scallop punch, prima flower.

Today you can find my contribution for MyScrapShop's FREE Autum Collaboration Kit over at their blog here . This is the first collaboration kit I've partcipated in and it is being given away for FREE in installments over several days with my part available today. So if you like it, download it and leave me some love. Thanks!

This is really supposed to be a two page 8.5x11 spread but I wanted to do 12x12 for consistency in I's scrapbook. These photos have already been posted on the blog so no more descriptions.

Credits:
Papers by Meredith Fenwick Baby Mine
Date Stamp by Trish Jones
Font CK Ali's Handwriting
Alpha Tab Scrapgirls Erica Hite Bookworm
Staples Meredith Fenwick

This weekend saw a digital scrapbooking sale over at scrapbookgraphics.com for one of my fave designers Meredith Fenwick.  I've got most of her stuff already but I picked up these calendar stamps which I thought could be pretty useful.  You can use them for any year, just delete the extra days and add a month and year.  I figure I can use them to make home made calendars or for dating scrapbook pages.  Not bad for $1.80.

My "Design Your Life" class with Cathy Z over at BigPictureScrapbooking.com has just started and we have two assignments this week. This is the first assignment which is to use a sketch that demonstrates "balance" in its design.

Credits:
SFreeman Back To School (striped paper)
Miss Vivi Back To School (graph paper)
SFreeman Back To School (lined kraft paper)
Raspberry Road Suburban Boy Element
Century Gothic Font

I've been looking for something to store items to be scrapped/preserved (such as the kids artwork and oversized photos) for a while and stumbled across these drawers at Winners for $16.99 each (that's CDN). I picked up two sets in the "quiet meadow" so that I would have one drawer for each child plus one for family stuff. They are already labelled and K's is already pretty full with all the artwork she has done over the last year.

I don't plan to keep her artwork in there indefinitely as I'd actually like to photograph it and print each piece on a 4x6 and put them into a photo album that everyone can look at I just haven't worked out how I will combine that with the titles like "Elephant", "Horse", "Ariel the Mermaid", "Our Garden". Until then, these drawers are the perfect solution.

A few friends and I are working on a new project together, a faithbook/lifebook.  A faithbook is a scrapbook that reflects how you feel about your faith and a lifebook is similar, in that it reflects how/what you feel about life. 

This is something we've all wanted to do for a long time but is one of those projects that gets pushed to the back-burner.  As faithbooking/lifebooking really requires no special photos (you can scrapbook without any photos at all or can use "stock" photos) we decided that this is a good project for us to do together while some of us organize our piles of family photos.

So here's my layout, the theme is my favorite creation.  As I used only Pillowgirl kits, I am also submitting this as a 3rd layout for the MyScrapShop.com creative team.


The journaling reads:
"The ocean is like God's love, you can see its beginning but not its end.
The ocean is like our soul, tranquil and still or turbulent and powerful depending on the weather.
The ocean is endless like our own possibilities, that we can be whoever we want to be and do whatever we want to do."

Credits:
Pillowgirl - It's All Me mega kit and MSS Audition Kit items
Jane Austen and 1942 Report fonts