Christmas Freebie

I instantly knew the direction I would take when I saw this months colors for the DSO Color Challenge hosted by Jen C Designs. The soft "country" red and green made me think of my Texas related Christmas ornaments... so "A Texas Christmas" it was! That Texas Hold 'Em Santa is one of my very favorite ornaments. Of course the kit isn't just for Texans! There are lots of goodies in there for everyone, so I hope everyone enjoys the kit. I'd love to see your layouts!

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Merry Christmas, Y'all!!!

Majestic Autumn QP & Card Freebie

This month DSO has a "Card Challenge" hosted by Christine Smith. I thought this was a great idea and would be great to e-mail to all of my family in Texas for Thanksgiving. Plus, the posting bonus is amazing! Since I just finished up my "Majestic Autumn" kit I decided to use my own kit to create the card.



I loved it so much I decided to make a layout as well...



That is my beautiful daughter, Christina and my equally beautiful granddaughter, Jewel during our fall trip to Minnehaha Falls. Aren't they gorgeous?

Since I am certainly thankful for all of you who offer praise and encouragement on my designs, I thought I'd zip these up as an extra little goodie for you this month. The card is created as a 4" x 6" at 300 dpi for printing, but you can easily resize it for emailing. The QP is a standard 12" x 12" at 300 dpi.

Enjoy!

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Majestic Autumn Freebie

I spent the first 40 years of my life in Texas where we really don't have seasons, unless hot and hotter are considered seasons. So one of my favorite things about living in Minnesota is the amazing colors of autumn. We get to see beautiful sights like this...

This gorgeous place is Minnehaha Falls and one of my very favorite places in Minneapolis, especially during the changing of the leaves. I also love to go there in the winter. The falls freeze over and create the most amazing ice formations. Yes... rushing water does freeze when it is ten below zero. BRRRRRR!!! If you are ever in the Minneapolis area I strongly recommend a trip to the Minnehaha Falls, no matter what time of year.

So I was so excited when I saw the gorgeous colors for this months DSO Color Challenge hosted by Jen C Designs. Perfect for an autumn themed kit! Since I absolutely love autumn/fall I have loads of decorations around the house... gourds, nuts, leaves, and my cute little scarecrows. By the time I photographed and extracted everything... this kit was huge. There is no way I could put it all in the preview, so there are lots of surprises in there for you. Loads of goodies for scrapping those gorgeous fall photographs.

Hope you enjoy "Majestic Autumn".

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A Touch of Class Freebie

Once again we have an amazing palette to work with for Kim B's Color Challenge over at DSO. I've been wanting to do a kit with an art deco flair and these colors were perfect. Then when I was working on the kit the colors made me start thinking of my favorite show... True Blood. I think Eric Northman would look great in this kit. But then of course Eric Northman would look great in anything. Yum!

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I hope you enjoy "A Touch of Class" and I'd love to see anything you create with my kit!

Happy Scrappin'!

Blogoversary Freebie

I know I already did my "boy" kit for this month's DSO Color Challenge, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to work with the purples since purple is my very favorite color! I had meant to have this ready yesterday in celebration of my first "Blogoversary", but alas, as always I make plans and God laughs at me.

My inspiration for this kit is my favorite thing... unicorns! All of the unicorns in the kit are from my personal collection.

I hope you enjoy "Unicorn Dreams".

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All Boy Freebie

Another month, another DSO Color Challenge from Kim B!

Since several people were feeling shorted on "boy" colors, I decided to pull the greens & the blue out of this month's challenge and create my first "boy" kit. I don't have any little boys to scrap so I never think of doing boy stuff. This kit came together so easy for me so I will definitely have to do some more "boy" stuff.

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I hope you enjoy "All Boy"!

Birthday Girl Freebie

It's that time again! Time for another great DSO Colour Challenge from KimB. This month's colors are bright and cheery so I decided to do a bright & cheery birthday kit. As usual I couldn't resist adding an extra color to the mix. Hope you like it!

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Yesterday's Garden Freebie

I love the colors Kim B chose for the DSO Color Challenge this month! So soft and beautiful. I didn't know where I was going with these colors though. They brought to mind vintage for me, but I've already done that. Then I was playing around with some shots I had taken of my clematis in bloom. They grow on a set of wrought iron trellises placed to hide my giant, ugly, yet highly energy efficient air conditioning unit. A few tweeks with color and saturation and I saw the challenge colors right in front of me. So a gardening theme it was. I realized how much of the stuff in my own garden is wrought iron so I decided to add some charcoal and black to the mix. I love the way it turned out.

Here is a shot of Ms. Jewel helping me plant some annuals to give you an idea of where I went this month. She is a born gardener and just like her MiMi she doesn't like to wear gloves. She likes to "feel the dirt". *lol*


Isn't she the cutest? Now that everything is blooming she likes to help pick off the wilted blooms. We just need to work on what she thinks is wilted. :-P

Now for a peek at the full kit...

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Enjoy "Yesterday's Garden" and as always I'd love to see anything you create with my kits.

Happy Scrappin'!

Red, White, and Blue Freebie

Bet you thought it was going to be Patriotic! *lol*

At the first of the year we had Ms. J's pics made to commemorate her 3rd birthday and of course they came out so darn cute I wanted to create layouts with several of them. However, all of the red, white, and blue I came across was full of stars and stripes. I needed flowers and polka dots! So what is any good MiMi to do but create the perfect kit to match Ms. Jewel's dress?

I've been working on this kit off and on for months and Ms. J now recognizes whenever I'm working in PSP and she asks me every time, "Are you working on my kit, MiMi?" Great emphasis and drama on the "my" here. This one was born to be a Diva. *lol*

Look at these layouts I've done so far with the kit...




Isn't she the cutest thing ever? She has MiMi wrapped so tight around those little fingers it is not even funny!

Here is a look at the kit. I even whipped up a little matching alpha for you.

Alpha
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I hope you enjoy using the kit and as always I would love to see anything you create with "Jewel's Dress".

Happy Scrappin'!

A Roll in the Grass

Since DSO is down for their make-over, I get to share my June 2010 Font Challenge layout here. This month's challenge was hosted by Nikki aka Just Passin' Thru and the posting bonus is gorgeous... so be sure and check it out.

I love the pictures I used for this challenge because of the sheer joy on Ms. J's face as she is rolling through the grass. I loved this layout so much I even turned it into a desktop wallpaper! It makes me smile every time I see it and it reminds me there is joy in the simplest of things if we just look for it.

When was the last time you went for a roll in the grass?

Kit: Magical Rain Forest by Chaos Lounge
Font: Porcelain

Beachy Keen Freebie

It's that time again! Time for another terrific DSO Color Challenge from KimB. This month the colors brought to mind the beach for me. I added a touch of Caribbean blue to the challenge colors and it was definitely beach time!

I also tried something new for me this month... scenic papers. When I upgraded to PSP X2 it came bundled with Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4 and I have been dying to play with it. I love the look... even if I do say so myself. *lol* I always see such lovely layouts with scenic papers. I just never seem to come up with great ones myself. Sooooo... if you use the scenic papers or any of the kit for that matter, I'd love to see your layouts!

I hope you enjoy Beachy Keen!

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Scenic Papers

Fabulous Fifties Freebie

I love the colors for this month's DSO Color Challenge. It instantly brought to mind the fabulous 50s! I love that era. Rock & Roll, poodle skirts, fast cars, and yummy malts. Peachy keen!!! Note: I was seriously born in the wrong era.

Since I have a little extra time on my hands this month, I also came up with a cute little matching felt pennant alpha for you.

My Mom is suppose to be looking for me a picture of her in her poodle skirt since this was her era, but so far... no luck. :-( So I'd love to see your creations with this kit! Put on your poodle skirt, bobby socks, & saddle shoes... it is time for the Fabulous Fifties!

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Coffee Time - Freebie Time

Kim's Color Challenge colors are so warm and rich this month, I instantly thought of coffee for some reason.

I do love my coffee! Folgers with a touch of cream on a daily basis. "Nips", a little coffee flavored candy my Grandmother Grace got me addicted to as a child. (aren't Grandmas great?) A heavenly flavored coffee, Chocolate Nirvana, that I treat myself with at least twice a week. Coffee ice cream. Of course I can't forget the extra special treat of a Mocha Frappuccino from Starbucks. I love them all!!!

Hope you all love the kit.

It's Coffee Time!

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Vintage Grace Freebie

I was so excited when I saw this month's colors for the DSO Color Challenge. I've been wanting to do a heritage type kit and the blues and browns were perfect! Here is a little peek at "Vintage Grace", but then you have to bear with me and let me tell you about the history in this kit.


This kit is so special to me. My Grandmother Grace left me her beautiful cedar chest full of old treasures and I knew the contents were begging to become a scrap kit. I was telling my Mother about this kit and I told her looking into this file is like looking into my Grandma's cedar chest, without the lovely smell. *lol* I couldn't believe how well everything fit into the color scheme even! Most of the items are in the kit "as is". I didn't have to alter the colors at all. There are so many special pieces in this kit I don't know where to start.

Almost every element in this kit that is "antique" belonged to my Great Grandmother or Grandmother. Most of the items come from my Great Grandmother Nora who was born in 1891 and passed away in 1991 at the age of 100. My Grandma would say they are just "costume" jewelry, but the cameo and pearls are my favorite. One picture frame is made from my husband's Father's tie clip. The paper frame is from one of the many ancient pictures I have. The journaling block is from the cover of a 1896 photograph that is in a folder type thing. Remember I told you about all the lovely old cards I came across? Well there was one post card that exactly matched this kit! It had never been mailed, so I included the front and the back for you. The doilies in the kit were made by my Great Grandmother. She made some of the most beautiful things by hand. I have several poke bonnets that she made by hand. They wore them in the fields when they were picking cotton. Most of them are natty and sweat stained, but I love them. She knew how much I loved those old bonnets, so when my daughter was born she made her a tiny little poke bonnet... by hand... at 96 years of age. Talk about a treasure! I couldn't figure out a way to photograph them and add them to the kit though. So no bonnets. :-(

I even did an alpha for this kit inspired by an old embroidered sampler. My first alpha! The fan in this kit is my favorite "creation" to date though, so I have to give you some history on it. When I was browsing WikiCommons I came across a set of public domain drawings that were done to showcase a furrier's work at the Exposition Universal Paris 1900. I love the way they dressed, especially the fancy hats. The colors were even perfect for my kit, but what to do with them? I saved them all hoping I would come up with something. Then when I was going through all my Grandma's treasures I came across this fan. It is a souvenir fan from The Alamo in San Antonio, TX. Each blade has a picture from the history of the Alamo and is actually rather garish in colors. *lol* But the fan part was so pretty! I instantly knew I was going to chop that thing to bits in PSP and put my lovely Edwardian ladies in place of the brightly colored Alamo pictures. It took me forever, but I love, love, love it!!!

Now, I have to introduce you to the ladies that made this kit possible.

The little baby on the Dad's knee is my Great Grandmother Nora. She was born in June of 1891 so I figure this picture was taken sometime in 1892.


Don't they look so serious? Why didn't they smile in pictures back then?

Now this pretty little girl is the namesake for the kit, my Grandmother Grace at 3. She was born in 1913, so this picture is from 1916.

Wasn't she cute?

I hope you enjoy Vintage Grace as much as I do. It was so much fun to create and I'm thrilled to share it and a little bit of my family history with you.

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A Laugh & a CU/PU Freebie

I've been rummaging through boxes of "stuff" my Grandma left me. Gives you a little hint on where I'm going with my next kit, which I am soooo excited about. It is my favorite one so far. I can't wait to finish it! *lol*

In my rummaging, I came across a stack of gorgeous old cards my Papaw had given to my Grandma. I'm not sure of the exact age on any of the cards because none of them are dated in any way (of course). Papaw passed away long before I was born though, in the late 40s. So the cards have to be from the 1930s - 1940s. These cards are just gorgeous. You know you will be seeing them in my kits whenever I can work them in. One card really caught my attention and made me realize how much times really have changed.

Can you imagine your husband giving you this card?


You need to beat me four times a day to make me sweet and sunny!

The "Durn it" cracks me up! Can you imagine if someone came out with a card like this today? Ha! (If you click on the images you can see them larger.)

Along with this funny little gem, I found some beautiful old Valentines cards I cut some bits from here and there. Since I don't really have time to design a kit around them, I decided to just offer them up by themselves as a little CU/PU freebie for you. Since I needed a paper to display them on, I whipped up a little scalloped edge paper from the back of an ancient Christmas card. *lol* My scanner has been putting in overtime this week. You get the original paper, plus a red and a pink version, 2 cards, a pretty cluster, & a paper heart . Everything is full size and 300 ppi.

I hope you love my Vintage Valentine as much as I do.

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Two Hearts ~ One Love Freebie Update

Wellllll... I wish I could tell you I figured out the mystery of why some people could open the jpg paper files & some couldn't. But I can't. And I'm now bald because of it! *lol*

My main problem was I couldn't even recreate the issue so I didn't know if it was in the download or the files themselves or what. I finally thought to try to download the papers on my old laptop. Success... or failure... whichever way you look at it. I had no problems downloading the files, but nothing on that computer would open the jpgs. Nothing. They were all "unsupported". I have no clue why. I wish I did. I sent myself some of the papers from the new kit I'm working on and I could open them just fine. I've never had this happen with my papers before. I don't know what I did to those papers. :-/

Now I'm worried I'm going to do it again, since I don't know what I did in the 1st place. *lol*

I tried dropping the papers into a new document and resaving them. For some reason it worked... at least on my old laptop. *lol* So for anyone having problems with the original paper files, here is the new and hopefully improved version. Let me know if these work for you.

Sorry for the trouble. :-/

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Plus an extra bonus! Chrissy of Chrissy Designs has done a lovely tutorial using this kit! My first tutorial... I'm so excited. :-P I feel special.

Thank you so much Chrissy for letting me know. It made my day!

Chrissy Designs Tutorial

Freebie Time!

I had a terrible month last month and just couldn't get into creating a simple lay-out, much less a kit. So this month I think I made up for it. I have lost myself in this kit for almost a solid month now and that was a good thing. I needed something to keep my mind off everything in life I can't control. For me that is the hardest thing. I'm such a control freak and there are just some things in life you have no control over. I keep hearing my Grandma in my head telling me that God would never give me more than I can bear. But damn... he sure pushes it sometimes. *lol* I would probably still be extracting things for this kit if my husband hadn't told me he thought I was "done with this one". *lol* Kim made it so easy for me though!

I couldn't believe it when I took a look at the DSO Colour Challenge for the month and instantly saw my wedding as the inspiration for this kit. Since we just got married in May I still have everything that was leftover after the wedding. I had the husband get the boxes out of the sub-zero attic and I had more inspiration than I knew what to do with. *lol* I've photographed everything. I hate to tell you... but you will never see a feather or lace in one of my kits that was extracted by me. OMG... way too much like work. The "happy couple" in my kit are the base to my guest book pen. I just loved the big poofy feather on the pen. I tried to extract it. I cussed. I walked away. I photographed it on a different colored background. I tried some more. I cussed a lot more. I finally chopped the pen off the people. It felt so good to just erase that whole damn feather. *lmao* I started to not even put my ring bearer's pillow in there. The lace is not perfect. But if you use it on pink or lavender it is fine, so I threw it in there.

Even if you don't need a wedding kit in these colors, there are loads of hearts in this kit. The theme of our wedding was "Two Hearts ~ One Love" so all those hearts make for a perfect Valentines kit as well. I apologize for this preview. It is a mess. Too much stuff to show and not enough room. I didn't even include everything in the preview, so there are lots of surprises in there! I hope you like it!

Two Hearts ~ One Love

Here are a couple of layouts I've gotten done along the way...


Isn't this color scheme perfect for my wedding pictures? I can't wait to go around and collect all the kits from this challenge. Between them, my posting bonus, and Kim's Passion's Blush (that I absolutely had to have)... I have no excuses for not finishing my wedding scrapbook!

Downloads for "Two Hearts ~ One Love"
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*Note* Since some were having problems downloading the papers and I couldn't recreate the problem, I decided to just re-upload the whole thing. I've split up the paper files more, rezipped them, & uploaded them to 4shared in 3 separate files this time. Hopefully that will solve whatever weirdness was occurring.

*2nd Note* I'm pulling my hair out here. I can not figure out why some people are having problems with the papers. I've seen some layouts done with the kit so I know some people can open them. This is so frustrating for me. I don't know if it is in how I created them or if it is something that happens to them when I zip them together. I'm using the same computer and same program that I did to create the last kit and there weren't any problems with those files. I am simply at a loss as to what is going on. If any of you that are having problems would send me your e-mail address, I'd like to try a couple of "experiments" to see if we can determine if the problem is in the papers themselves or in the zipped file . I am in the middle of creating a new kit and if it is something I did, I'd like to figure it out so I don't do it again. Sorry for all the problems. :-(