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I am a tattoo loving pierced up Christian soccer mom to 4 living a crazy life I love. I am Not Everyones Mama.

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Finally – A Christmas Card – DONE!

Posted by Heather Manning On November - 24 - 2010

Christmas2010-sm

It looks a tad awkward at the bottom because that is where our last name goes.  You thought Manning was my last name….it’s my maiden name.  :)   I know, you all knew that.

Credits – Christmas is all around – Malina
I’m Worn Out Photo Edges – Heather Manning (http://digiscrapping.net)
Font – DJB BREWHAUS SPECIAL & DJB Elegant – Darcy Baldwin

Uploading to http://purpletrail.com right now.  Interested to see how their printed cards turn out.  I hope it’s as good as Hy-Vee and better than Wal-Mart, which always comes out darker than it looks on my screen.

Have a great day!

Amplify

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5 tips for editing and creating beautiful digital photo projects

Posted by Heather Manning On November - 23 - 2010

This is right up my alley everyone.  If you follow my blog, you know I love digital scrapbooking and I love photography.  I have my own digiscrapping store that is sadly neglected right now and I’m behind on scrapping, but it doesn’t make my love for it any less. As sick as I am right now, I couldn’t help but jump in on this post!  You can do so many things digitally when it comes to your photos!  Here’s my own tips.

1 – Start digiscrapping, of course!  You can have your pages printed out into books from places like Artscow. You want to use a photo editing software, I use paintshop pro, but I also have Adobe Photoshop Elements, and you can also use Gimp, which is free.  Here’s an example of one of my favorite pages I have made.

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That one was from Alyce’s birthday.  I try to scrap a page for each of the kids birthday!

2 – Don’t just document the special occasions.  I take so many pictures of my kids.  I scrap everything.  To me, the simple every day occasions are just as important as the big holidays.

That’s one of Jordan, playing the Wii before doing his chores.  Something like this is just as important to document as his birthday.

3 – Don’t forget yourself!

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Mom tends to be holding the camera all the time.  Make sure that you have pictures of yourself to remember too.  The kids will want those as they get older.  I’ve done quite a few all about me pages for them.

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There’s my bucket list. :)   Just things for the kids.  So when I’m gone, they have these memories of me.

4.  Use digital photos to make your holiday cards – or any cards.  I always make our Christmas card, which I need to get done this year.

Here is last years.

2009ChristmasCard-SM

I also make their Valentine’s Day cards -

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You can also make your own cards.  I don’t have a picture on this one, but you could totally add one for another special touch.

sendingyoucardpreview

5 – It doesn’t always have to be serious.  You can have tons of fun with digital photo editing.  Make an ATC card and print it out and laminate it.  Then sneak it into your husband’s wallet!

ILovePato-sm

Just a little something to make him smile when he got into his wallet.

I do that kind of stuff all the time.

There are so many different things you can do with digital photos, changing them with PSP scripts (that I have in my store), many people have actions for photoshop available. You can use masks, overlays, frames, tons of details that you can add to a picture.

If you want to start digiscrapping, you can Google digital scrapbooking freebies and you’ll come up with tons.  I have quite a few samples in my own store you can start with too.

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There’s one where I extracted Alyce on the slide and placed her on the page.  You can do things like that.  You can do selective coloring -

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Notice her shirt and shoes are the only colors in the picture (and they were pink, I changed them to red to go with the red on the layout.)

Or you could go with all black and white -

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One where I extracted Katiana and put her in a fantasy world -

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Another fun one about me – HATED this hairstyle.  Had to scrap it.

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And another neat one – my absolute favorite layout ever and one that I won a wacom tablet with -

If you want to see more of my layouts I have made, with credits for who the kits belong to, click here and you’ll get all the posts.

I could go on and on with this one, giving you more and more tips.  If you can think of any questions, post them in the comments and I will definitely get to you on those!  You can also check out tutorials on digiscrapping that I have up.

About Adobe Photoshop Elements:
Get a complete solution for photos. With Adobe Photoshop Elements 9, you can make your photos look extraordinary with easy-to-use editing options. Share your stories in beautiful, personalized print creations and Online Albums. And easily organize all your photos and video clips from one convenient place.
More info:
http://www.adobe.com/digitalimag/explore/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/AdobeElements
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/PhotoshopElements

I wrote this blog post while participating in the TwitterMoms and Adobe blogging program, making me eligible to receive a $50 gift card. For more information on how you can participate, click here.

Amplify

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Scrapped My Butt Off

Posted by Heather Manning On March - 22 - 2010

I started out thinking the Say Thanks challenge over at NDISB was an awesome idea.  Someone suggested we scrap with one of the kits we got as a prize for an ADSR challenge.  So I did.

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I used the kit we got from Scrappity Doo Dah for this layout.

Credits – Lynn Marie – Tattered CU Overlays
Scrappity Doo Dah – ADSR 5 kit
Heather Manning – Soft Wash PSP Script
Darcy Badlwin – font – DJB BRITTANY

Then Ernie suggested the “It Can’t Be Over Challenge”.  He suggested we scrap our favorite part of the Amazing Digiscrap Race.  I went with a duo-type layout.  The picture shows having a lot of fun, but it also can be used in my kids’ albums, the primary reason I scrap.

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Microferk Designs – Shades Of Me Daily Basics
Lynn Marie – CU Tattered Overlays
Fonts – DJB DIANE Mc cript

And then I just couldn’t stop.

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Credits –
Microferk Designs – Camo Boy
Heather Manning – 50′s again PSP Script
font – Darcy Baldwin – DJB KATHERINE

And another

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Credits –
Gotta Pixel – Jan 2009 Collab
Heather Manning – Soft Sepia PSP Script
Simonetta Rossi – Farmed Iron Alpha
Font for date – DoradoHeadline
Font – Darcy Baldwin – DJB MEGAN

If you can’t tell on that last one, I dug way back in my stash.  Jan 2009 collab.  Time to use stuff I haven’t used that I have had sitting here forever!  That kit was actually a new year’s kit.  I just liked the paper and the elements for this layout.

What’s up with the huge rush in scrapping?  I have 8 free photo books from Artscow that need to be used by April 1 I think it is.

I think I have 60 layouts that I need to print right now.  They are 20 page books.  So that’s 3 books.  I want to print an extra 2 of 1 of the books to send off to grandma in Mexico and give to my mom, that’s 5.  I still have 3 more books to use.  So, I need to scrap another 40 pages by April 1?  Probably not going to happen, but I can give it a good college try.

I still haven’t scrapped Christmas yet.  Or Halloween.  I could probably work in a couple layouts for those.

Just put my oldest 2 on the bus.  Back to school they go.  I was talking to my friend Diane in Ohio (the teacher) and she doesn’t go on spring break for 2 more weeks.  I kind of wish that ours was later also.  It was so wet and soggy and cold at times, the kids couldn’t get outside to play very much.  Oh well, only 2 1/2 more months to go and school will be out.  They can play outside all they want then.

Can you believe that?  I feel like I just took Katiana up to the school for the first time and she’s almost done with kindergarten.  *sniff sniff*  Next year Jordan will start his last year at the elementary before going off to the junior high.  I think here in a month or so we’ll be picking out the instrument he wants to play next year (and through high school).  Jordan’s been flipping back and forth between the trombone and the french horn.  I guess we’ll just wait until it’s time, then let him hold each of the instruments and get a feel for what he wants to do.

I still have my clarinet my grandma bought me when I went into 5th grade.  It needs recorked and repadded, just some overall maintenance done to it before it’s playable.  Well, it’s playable now.  It just doesn’t sound very good.  I get it out every once in awhile to play and the poor thing needs some work.  I’m hoping one of the girls will want to play the clarinet and I can pass it down to them.

On school still, you know what I was thinking about?  I will have 3 kids at the elementary school at the same time.  When Christiano goes into kindergarten, Alyce will be in 2nd grade, and Kat will be in 5th.  We’ll be taking over the school.  Kat won’t rejoin Jordan until he is a senior and she is a freshman, but Jordan will reunite with his cousin in 6th grade.  Our district has 6 elementary schools and 2 junior highs.  Taylor will be in 7th grade when Jordan goes up to 6th.  Then they will both be at the high school when Jordan goes into 9th. It’s a family thing.  Kinda cool that Carter (my nephew) and Alyce will be at the junior high together the whole time (they are only 3 months apart) and Christiano and Cambria (my niece) will be up there at almost the same time (6 months apart).

We plan these things well in our family don’t we?  Yeah, like we planned it.

Ok, I’ve rambled enough.  I’m going to go either scrap some more or I bought some things yesterday to get started on a new kit, though I can’t decide if I need more or not.  We’ll see which way my mood swings me today.  It might swing me right back into bed with Christiano and Alyce. :)

Have a great day!

Amplify

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ADSR Challenges #11 and #12

Posted by Heather Manning On March - 17 - 2010

I can’t believe this year’s Amazing Digiscrap Race is over for me.  Unless they sneak in a #13, which would be A-W-E-S-O-M-E! I need to find a site that has lots of challenges that I can do.  I know ever site has challenges.  I need to find one that is good for me.

Challenge 11 was found over at Polka Dot Plum, which you have to love, just for the name alone.

Welcome to Polka Dot Plum’s ADSR Humpty Dumpty Challenge. The designers here at Polka Dot Plum created this plum gorgeous template, a really unique layout for you racers to use, and then our kids got a hold of it. Yes, 5 minutes away to answer the phone, and this is what was left of a beautiful layout. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to take this template and put it back together again. Now, how you do that will be entirely up to you and your partner. Each team must take these template parts and create 2 entirely different layouts(one from each of you). Each piece must be used at least once, and you are welcome to resize, recolor, transform, use as a clipping mask, but the basic shape must still be there. The grey "photo spots" do not necessarily need to hold the pictures. You may also add anything else you feel fits your artistic vision. These come as a layered PSD file and separate png files, so any program should be able to use it. We can’t wait to see what you ADSR creative geniuses create for us!

Click here to see the template we needed to use.

And my take on it –

freezingkat-sm

Credits –

Credits –
Heaven Gate’s Design – Little Angels
font – Darcy Baldwin – DJB BRITTANYscript

I’m not used to making “white space” layouts.  That’s what I started with.  Did I add too much to call it a white space layout?  Either way,  love how it turned out!

#12.  Oh #12.  The drama.  I bet Aimee had no idea that her challenge would cause grown women to panic the way they did.  Challenge #12 was found at Aimee Asher Elite.  The instructions –

Welcome Racers!  We are so happy to be a stop in the race this year. We wish each of you luck!  Here is our challenge….  Download these templates and create your own card and matching envelope using any digital or traditional scrapbooking elements and papers you already have. We welcome you to post in our gallery as our members and guest love to browse for inspiration.

Then she had to add this

**** this is not a hybrid, this is either digital or traditional or hybrid**** Just be creative and have fun. No printing required.

and this

My apologies for any confusion… you do not have to print. Just want you to have fun and create something wonderful and enjoy!

What was the drama about?  In the preview picture for the challenge, the card is shown printed out. People were upset that it was a hybrid challenge.  See my note on hybrids below. I suggested, as did others, that you just make the card digitally, then layer it on a 12X12 sheet to show it off.  I didn’t think anyone was going to have to BUY a printer to complete the challenge. 

If just printing something makes it hybrid, each and every once of our layouts would be hybrid once we printed it for our albums.  According to The Hybrid Chick, hybrid is –

What is hybrid scrapbooking? It is a fusion between “traditional” and digital scrapbooking. It is combining physical supplies that you might pick up at your local scrapbooking store, and the digital supplies that you purchase at your favorite online shop. It is mixing two art mediums to create one unique project. And, it is a BLAST!

I guess if because when you print the card out you have to use scissors to cut it out and a little glue to seal the envelope you want to call it hybrid, that is cool.  To check out some really awesome hybrid projects, hit Digishoptalk’s hybrid gallery.  Those ladies can rock it!  This here is an awesome example of a hybrid card.  See how there is lace?  Things standing off of the card?  It’s beautiful!

Ok, sorry to my non-digi-friends visiting, I was just a tad frustrated at the response to challenge 12.  We were making it so much harder than it had to be.  The ADSR rules state that we would never have to buy anything to complete a challenge.  That includes a printer, I would think.  In fact, for this race, I haven’t bought one new thing.  I have reached back to kits that are eons old.  Ok, like a year or so.  (That’s eons to me I guess.)  I haven’t digi shopped for awhile and have just been working from my stash that pretty much takes up an EHD.  I’ll shop again on the next scrapping holiday.

So, on to my card – which I didn’t print out BTW.  I am planning on printing it, but I am out of cardstock.  My children seem to think anything that is white and in my desk drawers is for them to draw on.

sendingyoucardpreview

I actually was really excited about this challenge.  Now I have a template to make all kinds of cards.  Not that I couldn’t have gotten one before, but I never thought of it.  So woohoo!  look out family, I’m not buying any of y’all birthday cards anymore.  You’re stuck with my creations.  Unless of course I’m out of ink and cardstock. :)

Credits –

Anna BV Designs – SYTYCS week 1
Font – Darcy Baldwin – DJB AngelBaby

The whole point of the ADSR is to stretch yourself, try new things, learn new techniques, HAVE FUN!  This was my 4th race, 3rd that I’ve finished, and it was a blast!  I say if everyone decides to race next year, don’t take it so seriously, have fun with it!  The ADSR was not created to be a source of stress to the racers.  NDISB does the digiscrapping a great service by hosting the race every year and I’m grateful to Theresa and Ernie for it.  It gets bigger every year as more racers join and it cannot be an easy event to host, but they do each year with such an enthusiasm.  I’d like to thank them both for the Amazing DigiScrap Race.  I love participating each year!

On to other news.  New Moon comes out March 20!  Woohoo!

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Either Pato or I will be at Walmart at midnight to grab it. 

I didn’t share about Tuesday night.  Tuesday we had gone to Walmart (where I received the mother of the year award) and the lady told me that New Moon was being released that night.  I was sure it was coming out March 20.  I thought she had to be mistaken.

Pato came home from work and said, New Moon is in Red Box already.  I was all, huh?  No way!  He said yes.  I said, I’m going to go to Walmart and grab it.  Needless to say, it wasn’t released yet.  I almost bought myself an Edward t-shirt so that I wouldn’t have made a wasted trip to Walmart, but then I thought you know, I’m 35.  How cool would I look walking around with Robert Pattinson on my chest?  So, I didn’t get it.  Came home all disappointed and went to bed.

Have a great St Paddy’s day and may the luck of the Irish be with you!

Amplify

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ADSR Challenge #9

Posted by Heather Manning On March - 13 - 2010

I only had 1 challenge to do this week since I did the intersection where I scrapped my bucket list (speaking of which, I scrapped I wanted a motorcycle someday, here’s a motorcycle accident attorney.) *knock on wood we don’t need that soon*, Kristi scrapped challenge #10, which was over at Inspiration Lane.

Challenge #9 was found at OScraps.  The instructions were -

Hello, racers! Welcome to Oscraps! We’re very excited to be the next stop on your journey.
Now, on to the challenge…
The first step of the challenge is to look at the color wheel. You and your partner must choose opposing colors on the wheel, so for example, if you pick blue, your partner must use orange. It should be the predominant color in the layout but it does not have to be the only color used. Please use THIS color wheel to make your selections. As long as you are using opposing colors, they do not have to be in the same band.
[you can see the color wheel at the OScraps link above]
The second step is incorporate this quote in some way.
“Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.” – Mary Lou Cook
You can use any part of this quote as your inspiration. For example, you could make a layout about growing. You could make a layout about breaking the rules, etc. You can use any part of the quotes or words from the quote. The quote itself does NOT have to appear on your page.
The third step is to include the following:
You MUST include paint. This item is mandatory.
Then, pick 7 more from this list:
swirls
glitter
black and white photo
2 alphas
something metal
stitching
patterned paper
funky font
journaling
Please note that an item does NOT count for more than one category. So, for example, if you were to use a glitter swirl, it would either count for swirls OR glitter, NOT for both. You MUST have different pieces for each of your seven mandatory items. Also, if you decide not to use a black and white photo, that’s fine, you can still use color photo(s) or no photo. You can use anything else that you want on your layout as long as you meet the mandatory requirements.

And here is my layout.

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My page is yellow green opposite of Kristi’s.

Journaling -
Jordan knows the rules. Chores
before electronics. If you don’t
keep your eyes on him he sneaks
off to play the Wii or the DSi.
Grounded every time.
Credits:
Lynn Marie – Tattered Overlays
Micheline Martin/Melissa Bennet – Rough And Tough Collab for everything not listed individually (included 1 patterned paper)
Micheline Martin – Paint Splatters, staple, A Dribbly Mess 1 & 2,
DigiDesigns By Nicole – Dreaming Big Alpha
Darcy Baldwin – Pokey Spots alpha, Font – DJB Sorry For That, DJB STACY
Funky Font – Frizzed BRK

On to other news, you know the weather is changing in Iowa when people start getting sick.  Christiano was up all night with a stuffed up nose that was just ticking him off to no end.  Which in turn, ticked me off to no end.  I see a nap in my future today.  Katiana has a runny nose too.  Someone needs to learn that her tongue is not a kleenex.  insert gagging noises Christiano is a little warm today.  Not enough to make me run for the thermometer and the dr’s phone number, but warm enough that with his crankies he’s got going on I gave him Tylenol.  Hopefully he’ll stop hanging off my knee here and go play with his siblings when it kicks in.  He doesn’t want me to hold him, he doesn’t want me not to hold him.  He doesn’t know what he wants.

Since we’re discussing Nano, let’s talk about his vocab.  At least the words I understand.  So far we have 2 Spanish words (arriba – meaning up – that he only says during a certain episode of Dora The Explorer and den – which he says when he hands something to you) and one English word that came out last night.  Boobie.  *sigh*  I went to nurse him last night.  Got it out.  His eyes got all huge and he said, booooobie.  Then he laid his head on it.  Like it was his teddy bear.  Maybe I should have used the term nurse more often instead of boobie.  Oh, wait, he has 2 English words.  I’ve been working on Up with him for a couple of months.  Because it’s so much more pleasant to hear up than a toddler crying at your knees dragging on your shirt.  He says that now.  Up-uh.

My youngest 3 have had a tendency to be slow on the actual speaking real words part.  Nano is doing better than the girls did.  The girls didn’t start talking until 2.  Then they took off and didn’t ever stop talking.  I think, and the DR says, it’s because they are learning 2 languages at the same time.  I’ve discussed this before on my blog, but for my new readers, in our house Pato only speaks Spanish to the kids and I only speak in English to them.  That way they immersed in both languages at the same time.

Hasn’t helped man.  My older 3 won’t speak Spanish to save their lives.  They understand almost everything, but they respond in English.  Ok, they understand everything when they so choose to.  If the instruction is to clean their room in Spanish, they have suddenly forgotten what those words mean.  They do know that if daddy starts spouting off in English that they had better move their butt because his patience has been tested to the limit.

Here’s an old but funny example of them understanding.

Pato puts my MIL on the phone with Katiana -

MIL – Qué estas haciendo? (what are you doing?)
Kat – Watching TV

MIL to Pato – Qué?  No habla Español?  (What she doesn’t speak Spanish?)

Pato – Sí entiende, pero contasta en Inglés. (Yes she understands, but answers in English.)

MIL – a whole stream of things about her grandkids not speaking Spanish. :)

His family in Mexico has told me before that I really should talk to them in Spanish all the time so they get a better grasp on it and want to speak in it. My response is they live in the USA and need to have a good grasp on English first.  They’ll speak in Spanish when they are ready.  They understand it, they just choose to use English.

Alright.  Someone needs to do the dishes and since it doesn’t look like anyone is jumping up to volunteer, that must mean it’s me.

Have a great day!

Amplify

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Nano and The Shoes

Posted by Heather Manning On March - 4 - 2010

First, I got my ADSR challenges 7 and 8 done.  Got to share those.

Challenge 7 was found at Scrap Orchard.

The Bucket List
Scrap 50 Things you would like to do in your lifetime. (While a Bucket List is typically a list of 100 things you would like to do in your lifetime, we’ve cut the number down to 50, given that you are all under a serious time constraint. However, if you would like to list more than 50 things, you may!)
When making your list, please keep your items realistic, things you could actually do, achieve and cross-off your list. For instance, we would all love to win the Lottery, but we have no real control over or means to ensure we are the winner, so it’s not a feasible goal. Your items can be small, outrageous, bizarre, modest.. just make sure you have at least 50 of them!

Here’s my take –

bucketlist-sm

Journaling – Things To Do
1) Get over my phobia of going out and
doing things w/friends 2) Start eating better
3) Lose 40 lbs 4) Go to Scotland 5) Be
more patient 6) MOVE THE KIDS OUT OF
MY BED 7) Go back to school 8) Go Back to the Bahamas 9) Read the entire Bible 10) Find a church I like and attend regularly 11) Make regular trips to Mexico to see
family 12) Save $$ 13) Go to Disney World 14) and Land 15) PAY
OFF BILLS! 16) Learn how to do eyes like Jennifer Love Hewitt
17) Be happy with me 18) SCRAP MORE! 19) Go to London 20) and
France 21) and Italy 22) Bungee jump 23) Learn CPR 24) Own a
horse 25) and a house 26) own a motorcycle 27) Swim better
28) then w/dolphins 29) Walk by the ocean 30) Fina a good fake
tan 31) eat lettuce 32) and like it 33) Cook better 34) Play more
w/my kids on the floor 35) Lasik surgery 36) ride in a small plane
37) own cowboy boots 38) and a hat 39) Sky Dive 40) get a dog
41) meet Joey McIntyre 42) See NKOTB again 43) Be less shy IRL 44) Sing
more 45) Play the piano
again 46) Fix my clarinet 47) NERTZ w/mom 48) Spend more time w/family 49) and friends 50) LAUGH MORE!
CREDITS –
Heather Manning – Doodly Do Frames (paper), Stacked P Frames, PSP Script – 50′s again, A Winter’s Morning (white paper), As Time Goes By (collab with Vonnie’s Digiworld and DigiOverdose) pin,
Christina Renee – Story Boards
Jen Ulasiewicz – Pulling Weeds, Picking Wildflowers, Shabby Heart Hanger, Natural Wonders Collection, Luscious Lace, Neutral Ribbons, Forest Floor Treasures
Kim B – First christmas (Beads)
Vonnie’s DigiWorld – Bead Frame
Fonts – Darcy Baldwin – DJB AngelBaby, DJB PLAIN JAIN

And number 8 was found over at Elemental Scraps.

We’ve all said "someday…". Whether it’s "someday, I’m going to get this filing cabinet cleared" or "someday, I’m going to find happiness" or anything in between. So, we want to see your "someday".
In order to allow as much creative license as possible, we have very few stipulations about what you need to use on your layout, but of course there are a few.
- Your layout must contain journaling. Whether you choose for it to be 1 line of journaling, or an entire page of journaling, is up to you.
- Somewhere in your journaling or title it must say "someday". If you want to make the title ‘Someday’, that’s fine. If you would rather make your title something else completely and just mention ‘someday’ in the journaling, that works too. Even if you happen to have a ‘someday’ word art you want to use, that’s fine as well! As long as we can see ‘someday’ on your page somewhere, it counts!
- We love elements here at Elemental Scraps, so of course we would love to see some on your page. At least 10 of them! But, use your creativity! If you want to use 10 pieces of ribbon and no other elements, that’s fine! If you pick one button, 3 staples, 2 flowers, 3 ribbons and a frame, that works too. If in doubt, feel free to add more.
- I am currently obsessed with tone on tone papers. So, I’d like the background of your page to be a tone on tone patterned paper. If you don’t have any tone on tone papers in your stash, you can use the one below. Otherwise, tone on tone paper you already have will work.

Someday-underwear-sm

Yeah, I thought yesterday’s Project 365 picture was perfect for a Someday layout.

Title – You will be very mad at me for this picture someday
Journaling – Christiano emptied out the basket of
clean whites and pulled out mommy’s
pair of "reserve" panties. Thought they
made a good necklace. At least I
rearranged them so the "granniness"
of the panties didn’t shine through.
Credits –
Rina Kroe – Almost Midnight Papers, crumpled edges, In the eye of the peacock, Glass Pebbles,
Flergs – Helter Skelter Frame and splat, pretty Things stitches, Week 1 SYTYCD (off white frame, staple, tag crumpled edge at top, rivets)
KStudio – Stitches 2
Scarlet Heels Media – White Alpha
MelGen – Star Spangled (white start and tape above frame)
Christine E. Bourque – Age Your Photos
Jaya Prem – Boys Will Be Boys – bottle cap
Fonts – Darcy Badlwin – DJB Sorry For That

8 layouts down, 4 more to go until the challenge is over.  Woohoo!  Last year I didn’t get to finish the race.  I was very very very pregnant with Christiano and miserable.  I gave up.  But I am going to make it to the end with Kristi this time!

On to Nano and his shoes.

He hates them.

Actually, he likes his Robeez but when the snow is melting on the ground and it’s slushy and gross, those aren’t the shoes I want him walking in.

The other day I got out his new tennis shoes, put them on.  I went to stand him up and he immediately lifted his legs up so I couldn’t put him on the floor.  I kept trying, he’s shaking his foot, trying to yank his shoes off.  I get out another pair of his tennis shoes, put them on.  Same thing.  Last pair.  Same thing.  Child hates shoes.  It was so nice out the other day I thought it would be fun if he could walk on the sidewalk to the car himself.  That didn’t happen.  The first pair I put on him was the lightest pair I tried.  He has 2 pairs of adidas that are heavier and kind of clunky.  Those were picked out by daddy for the coolness factor.  I pick out his shoes based on weight and clunkiness factor.  Either way, he hates all of them.

I told my SIL this morning I think I’m going to invest in a pair of crocks for him.  Thick enough sole that he can wear them outside but maybe light enough that he won’t notice having them on his feet so much?  Otherwise, I’ll have to try a light pair of sandals which will be so not cool looking seeing as we live in Iowa and he’d be wearing socks with them until June.

I’ve got to find something he’ll wear.  In the spring we’ll start going to mom’s house all the time so the kids can run around outside, hang with grandma and grandpa and their cousins, plus there is soccer season coming up.  He’s going to have to start wearing shoes.

The Robeez would be ok for soccer games when the ground isn’t wet.  But if the ground is wet or we go out to mom and dad’s where there are sharp little whatevers that drop out of the trees on the ground he’ll need to have a pair of shoes with a hard sole on.

On to parent teacher conferences, both kids’ went really well.  Yay!  Jordan still performing above grade level according to his testing.  He’s ready to move up to another group in reading w/a couple of other kids in the class.  No behavioral problems that are out of the ordinary for him, lots of when Jordan puts his mind to it and gets down to work he excels talk.  (I felt like I was back listening to my mom talk about how my parent teacher conferences, back then they weren’t student led – Heather tests above grade level, she has the ability, she just needs to apply it.)  I noticed in Jordan’s better writing assignments that he has finally stopped writing every letter backwards.  The only one I noticed that was consistently backwards was the number 6.  We tried to explain to him that it does matter if it’s backwards that he needs to make an effort to switch that the other way.  A perfect example popped up when she was showing me one of his unit tests and the only one he got wrong was one where he had put the answer was 2.  I said, this is division, why do you have this goes into this 2 times?  He said, that’s not a 2, that’s a 6.  SEE!  That’s why you need to write your 6’s the correct way. Mama wins!

Katiana got her first test results back that I’ve seen (Pato went to her first conference in the fall due to a raging migraine on my part) and she did wonderful.  She’s a little above average too.  Her teacher sent home a list of words that she needs to know by second grade to practice with her on.  It makes me laugh because she has gotten through the first 3 pages of the words and needs to work on the next few.  The next few also have these short words and I’m sitting here saying, you don’t know these, yet you can read me your whole Dora The Explorer needs to figure out how to be a princess (not the exact title I’m sure) book?  There are only a couple of words in there that she stumbles over, dwarfs being one of them. She’s able to sound out the big words and she has the word princess down pat.  I think they need to do testing with the Dora books instead of whatever they are using.

Things were pretty normal yesterday.  Not a horrendous amount of bickering.  Not a great amount of listening. People are still grounded from their electronics and I’ve been dealing with a rib that feels bad.  (Hence the lack of the KettleWorX review last week.)  I rolled over with Chrstiano last week to nurse him on the other side and I felt something go pop right at rib height on the right side.  Now breathing hurts and bending down to pick something up just about sends me to the ground.  I keep thinking it’s going to feel better soon and it doesn’t.  You can’t crack a rib rolling over in bed.  That’s just silly, right.  It’s the bending down that hurts the most and when you have a 3 year old and a 1 year old, and your oldest 2 that you could call on to bend down for you are in school during the day you have to bend over a lot.  I’d go to the doctor, but I never go for me.  Unless I’m dying.  Which I’m not.  It’ll get better eventually.  Nothing hurts forever right?

Have a great day!

P.S.  Please take the time to read about my friend’s little boy Bryce.  I’m just asking for thoughts and prayers for this little guy.

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ADSR Challenges 5 and 6

Posted by Heather Manning On February - 27 - 2010

Another week done for us.  I was up until 3 last night getting these done so that I wouldn’t have to spend Pato’s day off scrapping.  It’s not even a whole day off.  He has to go in at 5 because someone is sick or something. 

Alright, challenge 5 was found at Pretty Scrappy and here were the instructions:

The requirements for this challenge are fairly simple. Follow the guidelines being as creative as possible using the recipe below. You can incorporate other items into your layout, but you must use at least 6 of the items listed. Since this is the month of Valentine’s Day, your special challenge is to incorporate CHOCOLATE into your layout. So, 6 items in the recipe and chocolate!
* 1 ribbon * 1 tree
* 1 button * 1 staple
* 2 papers * 1 set of stitching
* 1 frame * 1 tag
* 1 flower * 1 alpha

And my layout:

chocolatemartini

Credits –

I used 2 papers, 1 staple, stitches, 1 frame, 1 tag, 1 flower, 1 ribbon (well, 2 ribbons, and I made the tag myself from parts of the kit. Smile
I didn’t have a chocolate martini to take a picture of or any alcohol to make one. Sad
Picture of the chocolate martini – [ link ]
Kit –
Artemia (collab)
Vera Lim – Journaling Pads

I want a chocolate martini now.

Challenge 6 was a roadblock.  That means one of us didn’t have to do it.  Kristi and I were duking it out over who doesn’t have to do it.  Lady has a strong right hook.  I lost.  So, I headed over to Scrappity Doo Dah, one of my own stores that I am on hiatus from, and got the instructions while grumble grumble grumbling at Yvonne (one of my dear friends and the owner of SDD) and Laura, a very sweet person and one of Yvonne’s right hands.

Here’s what we had to do:

Theme: Scrap Yourself!
Directions:
1. Select 2 papers, solid/solid, solid/pattern, pattern/pattern.
2. Lay your first paper so that if covers the entire workspace.
3. Take the second paper insert it into your LO and decrease the size so that the paper is slightly smaller than the bottom layer.
4. Shadow the top layer.
5. Select a photo of you when you were younger and another one of you taken within the past year.
6. Photos should be 4 x 6. They can be vertical or horizontal. They can be color, sepia, or black/white.
7. Place the younger version of you in the top right quadrant of your layout.
8. Frame it.
9. Place the most recent photo of you in the lower right hand quadrant of your layout.
10. Frame it.
11. Select the following number of elements and cluster the areas around these photos.
Buttons – 4
Flowers – 4
Leaf//Leaves – 2
Heart shapes – 2
String / Twine – 2
Glitter/Bling – 2 (If you have glitter on a flower or other element, you can not count it towards your glitter/bling requirement)
Metals – 4 (this can be staples, keys, brads etc… it must be obvious)
Ribbon – 2
Flourishes – 2
12. Type up 10 words to describe yourself. They can be in any font, as long as its legible, and would prefer they be positives about you.
13. Tuck these words near your clustering — they must be visible and not hidden by elements.
14. Insert the following Title, anywhere on your layout : This one is for me!

It actually wasn’t as hard as it looks.  I’m just one who is used to the instructions use 25 different items from 25 different designers while going by this theme.  :)   If you look through the gallery, even with the detailed instructions our layouts came out showing our own unique scrapping style.  I also haven’t scrapped an AAM (all about me) page in a long time, so now there’s one for this year’s book.

Here’s mine:

ThisOneIsForMe-sm

Yep, that’s me as a baby, wasn’t I cute?  I know they probably wanted us to go with 10 words that were adjectives and not nouns, but since they didn’t tie me down to that, I went with 10 nouns for me. 

Credits:

Maelia Designs – Capturing The Memories (2 papers)
Heather Manning – Old Edges – frames
2 buttons from Maelia Designs (Capturing The Memories)
1 button – Kim B – toof fairy (white ridged stitched button)
1 button – Armina – Simply Me (white flower button)
1 flower – Maelia Designs (Capturing The Memories)
1 flower – Kim B (First Christmas)
1 flower – Kim B (toof fairy)
1 flower – Microferk(Summer Breeze)
2 leaves – Kim B (Heartfelt) – 1 under my baby picture on the right side)
2 hearts – Weeds And Wildflowers (I heart you)
1 string – Kim B (Baby’s First Christmas)
1 string – MGL – 365 kit
1 glitter – Micheline Martin (Going Green)
1 glitter – Micheline Martin (Glitter Stamps)
4 metals – Christina Renee (Metals) 3 clustered under baby pic on right side
1 ribbon – Karah Fredricks (Naughty)
1 ribbon – Kim B (Baby’s 1st Christmas)
2 swirls – Flergs (NSD Freebie)
Anita Stergiou – Tag (Brand New Day)
Blythe Evans – Bubble Fun alpha
Font – Darcy Baldwin – DJB BRITTANY, DJB Angel Baby

If you are newly introduced to the digiscrapping world as you are passing by my blog ever week, you’ll notice that in my credits, it’s usually Darcy Baldwin who makes the fonts I use.  Got to give a shout out for Darcy.  She is one of the best font designers I know and she has more fonts than you could ever imagine.  If you need one, she’s got them.  Plus, she can make your handwriting into a font for you.  (I had mine done a couple of years ago.)  I actually need to get caught up on my Darcy fonts. I haven’t bought any for a few months.  I usually buy her big packs and just get a bunch at once.  It’s an addiction.

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ADSR Challenge #4

Posted by Heather Manning On February - 20 - 2010

Yay! Got my part done.  I have them sent off to Kristi to make the preview of the 4 together when she is done.  I’ll share that when she sends it to me.

This challenge was hosted by Digitals.

ATC’s 1 & 2. Since its the season of love, each racer will make one Artist Trading Card on the theme “The One I Love.” Think of your spouse or significant other, children, God, pets, friends, etc.
ATC’s 3 & 4. Then each racer will make one trading card honoring their ADSR teammate.

You must upload all 4 cards in ONE combined preview image to the ADSR gallery at NDISB

Artist Trading Cards (ATCs) are 3.5″ x 2.5″ mini-layouts. They can be horizontal or vertical orientation. They are meant to be light-hearted, humorous, and often have an altered look but that is up to you. They usually have a partial picture and a small amount of text, the rest is decorative. You can use these as Valentines, bookmarks, brag books, badge albums, and so much more. Have fun with it!

I have always wanted to make some ATCs, just haven’t gotten around to it.  Now I had to.

Kristi wanted to scrap an ultrasound of Christiano’s and she asked me to scrap her brain scan. Perfect for altered art, no?

I kind of poked a little fun at us digiscrappers while making this one. 

KristisBrainATC-sm

Journaling – This is your brain on digital scrapbooking
Kristi’s brain

Beads – check Wings – check Crown – check
Glitter – check Flower – check Ribbon – check
Birds – check Alpha – check
Ripped Edges – check

Credits –
Sherrie JD – ATC Scene 2
Tangie Baxter – Crowns & Wands, duct tape alpha, wings collab, halloween blog freebie with Sherrie JD (glitter swirl and crows), Jan Grab Bag papers
Armina – flower (Warm Scent)
Anna BV – hot add on (ribbon)
Catherine Design – Beads (Bisou)
DeDe Smith – Imagination (Beads)
Tracy Ann Take two Aged 2

Fonts – Darcy Baldwin DJB DEBBIER2, DJB Sorry For That, DJB SISSY

And the one on the one who I love 

ILovePato-sm

credits –

SherrieJD – ATC Scene 2, HeartSing, ATC Baby Stamp
Tangie Baxter – Wings Collab, Crowns And Wands
Catherine Design – Bird (Bisou)
ArtisanNotebook – FreestyleFrolic – stamp, daisy overlay
Andrea Burns – twitterpated (heart stamp)
Tracey Rennemo – Amaranthine collection (bling in crowns and on wand)
Fonts – Darcy Baldwin – DJB RITAscript

Challenge 4, checked off.  Well, for me.  Not for Kristi and Me.  LOL  I can’t wait to see hers.

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Where the Sidewalk Ends
Animal Farm
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Little Women
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The Joy Luck Club
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A Time to Kill
The Silence of the Lambs
Odd Thomas
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Twilight
The Devil Wears Prada
Confessions of a Shopaholic
Dead to the World
Dead as a Doornail
From Dead to Worse
Dead and Gone
Dead in the Family


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