Using a Digital Pencil

I have a new tutorial on using a digital pencil over on the Scrapbook Trends Blog this morning. It's a great trick for creating framing around your photos!

Not much to post today. Big day with work stuff and I have a very sick little boy. I hope he's feeling better than yesterday. :( I hate seeing my kids in pain or not feeling well.

The Angel has a Sister . . .

A twin in fact, and since her family has given permission for her story to be told here I thought it would be all right to link you to it. This is the little girl that broke my heart the other day. Can you imagine the suffering of her twin sister? Would you like to help?

My friend, Jennifer McGuire is doing a card drive for positive and uplifting cards for Ellie's surviving sister, Grace. Let's lift Grace's spirits and send her a card or two. I know that my kids loved receiving packages when their big brother was ill and after he passed. And anything we can do to help is a GREAT thing!

The details can be found here on Jennifer's blog.

Penny Black

I was asked to design a card and a layout for Penny Black, a fabulous stamping company with lovely designs. I was thrilled to play along!

I wanted a lot of techniques for this layout. I stamped this background stamp on white cardstock and punched it out with the Making Memories punch to create a tag. I "kissed off" the butterfly from the "Illumination" stamp and then added a sentiment from this stamp in green ink. I also made that stamp into a tag. I used the same "enjoy life" stamp to create a long border strip in blue. I used the little flower on this set to create a background on the tan cardstock. I inked only the bottom part of this stamp to create the yellow label stamped image. I inked the fern from this stamp with green ink to stamp on the green strip. And I repeatedly stamped this stamp to create the pink border. This layout contains NO pattern paper and yet it looks as if it does. Stamping on cardstock with different techniques you can create your own looks.

On this card I stamped the flower stamp from this set several times with Versamark ink and then embossed it with clear embossing powder. I used markers to color the flower on the "Illumination" stamp set and stamped it twice. I used the "today, tomorrow, . . ." stamp from this set for my blue border. I then cut it cut and mounted it overlapping just a bit on the card. I stamped this background stamp twice on my rust strip to create a longer border (having a cut out cling stamp makes this easy to do). I inked the "thinking of you" sentiment from this stamp with two different colors of markers and stamped onto some canvas for the sentiment.

You can find more beautiful ideas from additional designers any time on the Penny Black blog.

Dare Me?

I think your suggestions about it being too dark are right on the money. I'm looking at other ideas. What about this:

Oh my freakin' hilarious!! (And it's at Target of all places.)

Circle Challenge from the Scrapbook Trends Blog

Today I issued a new challenge on the Scrapbook Trends blog. It's quite easy so I hope that you'll play along. All you need to do is to create a project with a circle on it, and post a link to it in the blog comments by Sunday, July 4 by midnight CST. Easy enough, right? :)

Here's my version (love this template by Vinnie Pearce):

Today I send my girl off to girl's camp. Is it normal to be already missing her? I really prefer it when all my kids are under my roof.

On another note, I've been shopping for a new couch. Mine is about 10 years old and has definitely seen better days. I had always planned on recovering it, but the frame seems to be suffering a bit. (Three kids will do that, you know.)

So I'm leaning towards a small sectional (this will go in our family room). I have always preferred light, upholstered fabric but that is hardly practical for a family room couch as my current couch can attest. So we've been looking and looking but so many couches today are microfiber, which isn't my favorite texture. Saturday we found a black leather couch for a steal (and it's going to have to be because I don't have much money to spend). But I've never wanted leather in my family room before. Do any of you have leather furniture? What do you think? Love it? Hate it?

Here is the one we're leaning towards:

If we go with black, that's going to change a lot of my decor as everything I have has been tan with red accents. Even my wood has had a redish tint. So I'm thinking of the following items to switch up the room.

This rug:

These curtains:

This accent chair:

And these pillows:

Too much black? I'm debating. That's why I love that green, hydrangea pillow from Etsy. I showed my husband, and his response was "I need some time to think about it. I didn't realize we were going to be changing the entire room." And I'm thinking, "Did you really think I could just go out and get a black couch and not be bothered by the way nothing else matches?" Sigh. Men!! So opinions people! What do you think?

Taking a Breath Before Plunging Back In!

I'm neck deep in CHA projects, and if you could see my office floor (or the lack thereof) you would totally believe me. It bugs me to no end to have piles of stuff everywhere, but when I've got multiple projects going on at one time, I'm a "piler."

Hmmm. Are you like that? Do you work on more than one layout/card/project at a time or do you complete one at a time from start to finish? I'm a multi-tasker so I'll return e-mails while I'm printing photos or work on article text while my stamping project dries.

Besides working and the tiredness I feel from that, I feel like I've been crying all day. And I haven't. It's my darn allergies. Benadryl pills have become my new best friend. They're the only medicine that seems to cut through the water eyes and itchy throat. It also helps me sleep REALLY well. LOL!

I have a few things to share with you. One is a wedding themed layout that went live at 2Peas today. You can see more photos of the project, as well as, purchase the supplies here:

This is my brother and my new sister, Elizabeth. She is super fabulous and the mother of super cute Amelia. I am so proud to have them as MY family!

I also have a Bo Bunny card to share with you. LOVE the camping line. The colors are right up my alley. Funny because I'm a big fan of camping (unless you count a nice hotel room).

See the floral frog holding the card? That's from a fellow GG. I think of it every time I see her. I feel so lucky to know these girls. It amazes me every time. I'm super sad to not be working with Melanie Bauer any more but I applaud her choice to follow her heart and stay home with her girls. Love ya, Mel!! I've been able to work with Jamie more and more at 2Peas, and I just love her too. I tease her that her voice lulls me into buying things. She's seriously sweet!

Oh, and remind me to show you something. Remember how I said I couldn't show you Little Yellow Bicycle's newest releases? Well, guess what?!!! There's an ad for them in the latest Better Homes and Garden's Scrapbooks, Etc. I'm going to scan in the ad to show you, but I need some "away" time from my computer.

Wishing you a very happy Friday night! Guess what I have a hot date to do? Yep. Work. :( Oh, well. It's all good.

Seven Times is the Charm!

I have received letters to report for possible Jury Duty SEVEN times. Yep. Seven! However, every single trial (except the latest) was cancelled. My latest summons was for yesterday. So I dutifully called the night before to see if the trial was proceeding, and it was.

So yesterday I reported to the court house at 8:30 a.m. completely nervous about what to expect. I mean, I watch a LOT of Law & Order, but I also know that TV doesn't always represent reality. ;)

About 20 of us were ushered into a room, where the court gave us a number and had us watch a video about serving as a juror.

Then the Judge came in and told us they were going to select the jury and that when the jury was selected the trial would begin. He suspected the trial would only last one day. Yep. ONE DAY!! At this point, I'm crossing my fingers and my toes hoping I do finally get to serve.

The judge asked us basic questions, and then each of us was ushered one by one into the judge's chambers to answer a few more questions.

When we returned to the court room, the judged asked eight of us to stand and dismissed the rest. I was one of them!! He then swore us in and the trial began.

The charges were drug possession and resisting arrest. The entire arguments and trials took about 4 hours with breaks for lunch and snacks.

Once closing arguments were over, we received very thorough instructions from the judge.

And then we met as a jury to deliberate. It took us about an hour, and we didn't agree all at once. We talked and talked and talked through one of the charges and at first we were divided right down the middle. But as we reviewed the state's case and the laws they had to prove we all came to the same conclusion.

The court read our verdicts for each of the charges and we were dimissed.

Something I had been so worried about turned out to be fascinating! The accused could have settled or taken a guilty plea but decided to be judged by a jury of his/her peers. It was amazing to watch the process. And I was pleased to see how seriously each of us took the law and the evidence and the testimonies. We wanted to make sure that we made the right judgment on each of the charges.

I will be taken out of the jury pool for now. But when and "if" I get the chance to serve again, I will have a greater understanding of the importance of my service. What an amazing experience!

Good People!

I'm very lucky to know such good people--like my blog readers. When I'm down, you're always there to cheer me up. Thank you for understanding my heavy emotions last night! I'm so grateful for you!

I'm doing better this morning. The grief just sometimes catches me off guard and to know that other people are going through what I've been through makes my heart ache. So thank you for listening!

I have one project to share today before I head off on other tasks today. There is a tutorial on the Scrapbook Trends blog today on clipping photos and pattern papers to shapes within your photo editing program. (I use Adobe Photoshop CS4.) Here is the layout I created. You can see how I've "clipped" pattern paper and photos to the circles and squares. It's really quite easy to do so I hope you check it out!

And thanks again for being there for me!

Somebody Else's Baby

Somebody else's baby got called home tonight. I came across it on a blog. I won't share the details or the entry as it's not my story. But I cautiously read through the comments. It killed me. I cried. I'm crying now. To know that someone else was called home to heaven, while so very sweet, is so excrutiatingly painfilled. So I asked her, I whispered to her little photo, "Tell my boy I love him. And I'm sorry, sweetheart."

I wish her family all the love I can send!

Book WINNER!!!

And the winner is . . .

Please contact me at js_gallacher@hotmail.com with your contact info so I can mail out your book!

2Peas Mini Album a Month Class: Travel Tag Album

You can check out this fun travel tag album here at 2Peas. I've included the travel games I used in the downloadable pdf.

You can also watch a helpful video to see how I accomplished this album.



And if you're so inclined, I hope you'll participate in this month's class challenge: create a tag shape or a travel themed album to be included in a drawing for a 2Peas Gift Certificate!

If you have any questions about the album, just post them in the 2Peas Education Forum under the "June Mini Album a Month" thread.

No Rest for the Weary!

When it rains it pours, at least here in Utah in June and during CHA crunch time. I wish I had some great photos to show you, but I haven't been taking much while I've been working (of the kids that is).

I will say, that I received my Little Yellow Bicycle package yesterday afternoon and I've seen two lines being released for them this summer. Um, WOW!! They continue to out do themselves. There is one particular line that I think people will go nuts over. I wish I could tell you more. I wish I could give you a peek, but trust me. They have really done a great job.

Since I can't show you any of that stuff, I thought I would share a few older projects. This is from March's Stories to Tell article, which had a "Wish" theme:

You can download this issue here at Scrapbook Trends.

And then there is this one from May 2010's article, which had a "Heritage" theme. I wanted a layout that would introduce my kids and grandkids and their kids to my son, Joseph. I also wanted to show that heritage layouts don't have to be from the 1900's to count. They are any subject that leaves a legacy of memories!

You can download the May 2010 issue here.

And then I had the opportunity to work a few years ago with my friend, Angelia Wiggington, on her book "Playing with Paper" which you can purchase here on Amazon.

I wanted to share one layout from that book to peak your interest. I liked this two pager. It's nice and simple, but I sometimes struggle with 2 pagers in the 12X12" format, and I like how this one turned out.

Now I'm off to work on some more stuff. It's going to be a looooooooooong day, but hopefully a productive one!

We've Been Busy!

Sometimes I totally think I have a handle on things, and then I realize I never really did. Sigh. It's the truth, though. Things are crazy busy around here. In fact, I awoke at 2:45 a.m. this morning and decided that I might as well start working. Yeah. It's just that crazy.

One reason things are crazy is that the big scrapbook tradeshow CHA is right around the corner. And while that means a house full of new scrapbooking goodies, it also means lots and lots and lots of work. I only wish the tradeshow happened in February and September. Those months are pretty easy for me. LOL! Instead I'm crunching in June and December during times when I'd, frankly, rather be playing with my kids. Oh well. They certainly aren't awake needing anything at 5:30 a.m. in the morning are they? Hee, hee.

Another reason we've been busy is that my ever amazing husband ran his second marathon in 4:30. I'm super proud of him. He has trained like crazy, and had a great buddy (thanks, Adam) to cheer him on and run with him this past Saturday. The poor runners got dumped on as a huge rain storm came through, but it kept the weather much cooler than it could have been. I am super proud of him, but who in their right mind wants to run 26.2 miles? I mean seriously?!!! The kids and I got to the finish line as he hit the 25th mile mark so we timed it perfectly to see him cross. (In fact, I almost missed him because I was going to run to the bank really quick. Glad I didn't!)

Here's the boy watching for his dad:

Here's Brett coming around to the finish line:

Here's Brett crossing the finish line (see that great time):

Here's Brett with the kids right afterwards (I can't believe he's even smiling):

And here's the boy who thinks the medal should be his. LOL!

What a great accomplishment, babe!

Happy Birthday, Laura!!

Thank you Lynn Ghahary for organizing this fun birthday blog hop for a VERY cool girl. I had the chance to meet Laura Vegas for lunch one time (with a bunch of other super fun gals) when she was in Utah visiting some of the companies for which she works. She is very quiet (sorry I talked your ear off, my dear, very nice, and totally beautiful. Since then we've been online friends; and I've so enjoyed getting to know her better. She constantly inspires me with her beautiful work, the lovely way in which she lives her lif,e and the kindness she shows everyone she meets.

Here's wishing you a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY, my friend!

Lynn arranged for 40 friends to create cards for Miss Laura so be sure to follow the blog hop to the next card. Some of you have arrived from Erin Terrell Clarkson's fabulous blog. (If not, you can start at Lynn's blog or just keep going from here.)

Here is my card:

[insert card]

And now you can follow the hop to Mary MacAskill's blog (another SUPER awesome designer and friend) here.

A Few Contributions

I have had the pleasure of working on a few Memory Makers books (before I began writing for Scrapbook Trends Magazine). I recently received one of these books back in the mail. This particular book was written by Kathy Fesmire, and I was really touched to be asked to participate. It's always more fun when you get to work with peers you admire.

Her book, "Time to Scrap" is filled with practical ideas on how to add fun elements to your scrapbooks. You can find the book here. With ideas like creative backgrounds, using household items, and using sketches this book will be a great addition to any home.

Here is one of my favorite layouts in the book. I used magic mesh on cardstock circles and attached tags to them with safety pins.

I will giveaway one of these books to one lucky winner. Just leave a comment in the comments section below in order to win. This book will be sent snailmail to one randomly selected winner. All entries must be submitted by Sunday, June 20th at midnight MST to be included in the drawing. Good luck!

On a personal note . . . the braces went surprisingly well. I think I was more nervous than she was. I'm hoping to get some photos of her today (if the weather clears up for a bit). And thank you for understanding my feelings about Joey's grave. It meant a lot to know that other people care as well! (And that there are still nice people in the world!)

A Little Disappointed in People

Last night we finally got to go to see Joseph's grave. Brett had decorated it just before Memorial Day but the rest of us had not yet had the opportunity to go. Imagine our disappointment when we pulled up to find that our hanging baskets had been stolen. And then upon further examination, we realized that someone had pulled the Clone Trooper from the back of his tombstone. We were so hurt! Who would desecrate a child's grave? My husband was especially hurt. This is just one of the ways that he still takes care of Joey. I hardly knew how to comfort him. What should have been a sweet and tender experience was marred by someone else's thoughtlessness. Some of the beautiful flowers and decor were still there and the kids collected pine cones to put on his grave, but I'm still really disappointed that someone would do that to another human being. I just don't understand. :(

I'm trying to think positive thoughts about. Maybe a little child pulled off the Clone Trooper. Still wouldn't his parents wonder where he got it. I hope someone that really loved flowers took the hanging baskets (but this is the second year in a row so we're starting to feel a little targeted). I don't know.

On a definitely more positive note, I can share some of my Bo Bunny guest designer projects now. :) I cannot tell you what a sweet and welcoming team they have over there. Not to mention what fabulous designers they are! What a great group of people! You can see their fabulous designs on their blog here.

Here is my layout focusing on "Dad." That "man" sticker just speaks to me. I love graphic stickers like that. I kind of built the page around that one little sticker. I layered those arrow stickers with pop dots and then trimmed them up. Gotta love a camo pattern. :)

And here is my layout using the "Paradise" line. I wanted my photo to match the muted colors in the papers so I toned down the colors in Photoshop. It works perfectly now! This line is great for summer and for the beach. Gorgeous rust oranges and denim blues in this line, with a pop of bright yellow. Love it!

And don't forget to check out today's "Work It Out Wednesday"  on the Scrapbook Trends Blog which features the I-top Tool from Imaginisce. You can find the instructions here.

I'm off to celebrate with my daughter her final day of freedom before she gets her braces. Poor thing. :(

Silhouette/SEI Blog Hop

Sigh . . . two companies of whose products I love. What a match made in heaven! And seriously this "On the Coast" line from SEI is just so delicious, how can you resist? If you're starting here, be sure to visit the Silhouette Blog for more ideas.

The first project is a graphic layout. I like using die cut shapes that work well together like the camera, "The Big Picture" title, and the "snapshots" subtitle. These shapes all represent my love of photography. Another technique on this layout is that I cut a straight triangle border but then slightly bent it into a curve before adhering it to the layout. So fun!

Supplies:

* Cardstock: SEI, Provo Craft
* Pattern paper: SEI
* Gem stickers: Bo Bunny Press
* Craft Twine: craft supply
* Buttons: JoAnn's
* Corner Rounder punch: Fiskars
* Font: Century Gothic
* Shapes:

borders_C00232_23067

camera_C000235_23067

snapshots_phrase_C000541_20509

the_big_picture_phrase_C00588_20509

triangle_border_MED_1257

arrow_1559, circle

This layout makes me happy. I love the orange, lime green, navy blue, and gray color combination. Although the papers are beach in nature, the backsides of the papers are neutral shapes that go with everything.

Supplies:

* Cardstock: SEI, Provo Craft
* Pattern paper: SEI
* Buttons: American Crafts
* Craft Twine: craft supply
* Stamps: Hero Arts, American Crafts
* Stamping Ink: Stampin' Up
* Photo Corners: Canson
* Font: Century Gothic
* Shapes:


boat_set_C20091110111255_20509 (for the negative part of the waves to create the mini scallops)

fern_artisan_C00375-19210

word_live_out_loud_C00084_19547

negative_strip_3_2339

1_piece_leaf_cluster_C00660-19210

flower_layering_C20091110143758_19210

tab_play_1916

Of course this set calls for a card, and I've been hoarding sailboat shapes in my Silhouette Library. I combined two shapes to make this card. I used a sailboat from one shape and the waves from another (if you look closely at the above layout you can see I also used the negative scallop shapes on my Live Out Loud Layout).

Supplies:

* Cardstock: SEI
* Pattern paper: SEI
* Photo corners: Canson
* Embossing Folder: "Swiss Dots" for Provo Craft
* Stamp: Hero Arts
* Stamping Ink: Memento
* Twine: craft supply
* Button: craft supply
* Shapes:

boat_set_C20091110111255_20509

sail_boat_C00688-19210

And finally, I wanted to create a cute neighbor gift so I made this "I Love You" seashell box. It's filled with jelly beans. I cut the top part from light blue glittered pattern paper and the bottom from lime green pattern paper. Then I put a label on the front with a stamped sentiment and seashell sticker. Some ribbon and a buttom finish off the look. Now I just need a trip to the beach.

Supplies:

* Cardstock: SEI, Provo Craft
* Pattern paper: SEI
* Ribbon: American Crafts
* Button: Basic Grey
* Twine: craft supply
* Stamp: The Stamps of Life
* Stamping ink: Stampin' Up
* Seashell sticker: Bo Bunny Press
* Gem stickers: Bo Bunny Press
* Shapes:

adorable_box_15_C00591-20509

fancy_label_C00011_24282, circle

Have you all of today's SEI/Silhouette inspiration? Make sure you check out everyone's blog for the visual goodies!