Template 42 and Sweet Dreams

Once again, it's been a week since I've posted anything. I've been really sick and tired a lot lately. Any guesses why? :) Because...Emma is going to be a big sister in January. Yep, that's right! We're having a baby! We're excited, yet I'm a bit apprehensive as to my ability to take care of more than one child. I'm sure it'll work out ok, I'm just a bit nervous about it. I am concerned about being able to get the various items we'll need. Thankfully, we already have lots of baby stuff already, so there's not AS much needed this time. Well, I guess a lot will depend on baby's gender, which we won't know for quite a while yet. I'm almost 8 weeks, after all. Anyway, I'll save all that rambling for my LJ, since I'm sure not everyone in the digiscrapping world wants to read all about it;)

Oh, but I DO have to share the awesome deal I got on a twin mattress for Emma! We decided to get her a twin instead of a toddler bed since toddler beds don't last all that long. I looked on the school's bulletin board and saw that someone had a twin mattress for sale for $20!!! We went over Friday to look at it and then bought it! It's a little older, but it's in good shape and will work perfectly. We bought some bedding for it at Walmart tonight. Emma seems really interested in it!! She layed down on the mattress before we even bought it, and when we got home with her new bedding, she wanted to lay on her new quilt! Now to get the room rearranged...hopefully we'll get to that on Monday. But, of course, John will be doing almost all the work by himself since I shouldn't be lifting much of anything. I'll be the supervisor instead;)

Ooh, before I forget, thank you thank you thank you to those who donated!! We really appreciate it! We still don't have a lot, but we DO have enough to cover everything now (mostly thanks to my awesome mom for depositing money into our checking account). Now if only PayPal didn't take a percentage off the donations...oh well. They have to make money somehow, right?

Aaanyway, I haven't had much energy or motivation for scrapping these days, but I DID host a speed scrap on BAM Thursday night and made a page according to the directions I gave out. Here were my instructions:

1. Select ONE photo and make it the focus of your page.
2. Select 5 papers - some plain/textured, some of various pattern. Interpretation is completely up to you.
3. Use one paper for the background and layer the rest in blocks under your photo.
4. Cluster as many elements as you'd like around your photo. You can use elements in other places if you like (border, etc), but remember to keep your focus around your photo.
5. Use some bling somewhere in your LO.
6. Use (or make) an alpha and a different font to title your page.
7. Journal around the edge of your page. It can go around more than one edge, but you can only have one line per edge.

And my page:



Credits:
Kit - ValerieN Designs, Like Dreamers Do
Fonts - Scriptina, Pea Sara Script

Haha, I just HAD to use a font with my name in it;) If you like the kit, hop on over to Digiscrap Addicts and grab all the super-awesome free So You Think You Can Design kits. This particular kit is by the awesome girl I CT for:) She's going on to round 4!! Wish her luck! She just opened a new store at Pretty Scrappy, since Digital Candy is closing down. Be sure to check it out! She has a ton of cute kits for sale.

Today's template is the above LO:) Hope you like it! Template 42 is a single page LO in PSD format. As always, feel free to leave comments, links to your pages, and/or donations;) I love hearing back from you! Here's the preview:



You can download it here.

Anyway, that's all for tonight! I need to go take a nice relaxing shower. Night all!

Template 41 and Financial Confessions

It's been almost a week since I posted anything here. And what a week it's been. I've been sick off and on. And totally drained. Hopefully I'll feel better soon! But I do have a template today. It may look familiar, as it's the LO I made a QP for ValerieN Designs. She said it's ok to make templates out of my QP LOs:)

But first, I have some confessions to make. I hate admitting this, especially in such a public setting, but...we need help. We're poor. And it sucks. We THINK we'll have enough for June's rent, but we won't have enough to cover our utilities or any other necessary expenses like diapers (which we're running low on) or toilet paper, etc. We try to live as frugally as possible, but we just don't have enough. John is working as many hours as he can get, but retail is getting hit SO hard in this economy that hours are hard to come by. He's going to look into donating plasma (there's a plasma bank RIGHT behind his work, and there's also one down the street from us) and we're contemplating the possibility of him getting a second job. We want to avoid me having to work outside our home. Right now, me working really isn't a good idea. Plus, there really aren't any decent paying jobs around here anyway. I can't donate plasma for health reasons.

Normally, my parents would help us out, but this economy is putting a huge strain on them financially. The software company my dad works for had to lay off half the employees awhile back. They then cut Dad's hours down to 2 days a week and everyone remaining got a 10% cut in pay. He's still there, but he's not making what he used to. Not to mention how the economy has affected his stocks/retirement fund. Mom said they probably COULD help us if need be, but I hate to ask it of them when they're under so much strain. They've already done so much to help us. John's family would love to help, too, but I don't think any of them are currently in a position to do so, either.

This economy sucks. I hope there's a stimulus package coming out - that would help us SOOOO much. We'll get student aid and loans come September, but until then, we're essentially on our own. We'll likely have to get help from our church in the meantime. Thankfully, we already get help with food, so we don't have to worry much about that. We just need to learn to budget our food expenses better.

But I AM looking into legitimate ways to earn money online. John and I recently signed up at YouData (after some friends verified their legitimacy), where we can earn a little bit by viewing ads. So far (since last night), between the 2 of us, we've earned over $3 in just minutes. If you're interested in signing up, feel free to use me as a reference - I get $1 for each person who uses me as a referral;) Click here to sign up with me as your reference:)

I've also added a PayPal donation box here on my blog. Feel free to donate!! We'd REALLY appreciate it. Even if it's only $1. Seriously, if I had a dollar for every download I've had, I'd be in great financial shape. I give all the digiscrap stuff I make away for free. I'd hate to have to charge money for the stuff I make. Plus I don't think I'm store-quality yet anyway LOL (though I've seen some pretty ugly stuff in stores...). I LIKE giving things away for free because the only digiscrap stuff I can get right now are the freebies. It seems more fair that way, if that makes sense. But with our finances the way they are, I might have to look into charging for stuff. I want to avoid that if at all possible. Which is one of the reasons why I put up a donation box. If I get enough donations, I won't feel compelled to sell my work.

I also added Google's AdSense to my blog. I doubt I'll make much (or anything) through that one, but hey, every little bit helps, right?

I'm trying not to stress about our financial status, but it's SOOOO hard not to. Especially since there are some things we'll need that I have no idea how we'll be able to pay for. But we have plenty of time to worry about that.

Anyway, now that I've thoroughly depressed everyone and made everyone feel sorry for me, I've got a template to share! No new pages today; maybe later tonight I'll get to one. But at least I have a template, right?

Template 41 is a single page LO in PSD format. As always, I'd love to hear back from you and see your pages. And donations are always welcome and appreciated:) Here's the preview:



You can download it here.

That's it for now! I MIGHT make another page and/or template tonight, but we'll see. It really depends on how I'm feeling. Anyway, time to get Emma ready for bed!

A Wonderful Mother's Day

I had SUCH a great Mother's Day! Oo, looks like I need to make this quick because blogger says there's a scheduled outage in 15 min. So here's the short short version;)

John's master plan was to make me breakfast in bed, but since I woke up before anyone else, that didn't quite pan out as planned;) BUT he did make me an awesome yummy breakfast. Emma slept in, so that was nice. She hung out with John in the kitchen while I downloaded a bunch of free digiscrap kits.

Then I got to open my gift. John got me Bride Wars on DVD, a pack of Oreos, and a box of orange sticks. I loooove orange sticks! They're SO good! If you've never tried them, you totally have to.

Church was great. I loved hearing the cute little primary kids sing! I totally teared up - even though Emma isn't QUITE up there yet. She'll be old enough for nursery at the end of the month, though, so she will be soon!

John also made a yummy pot roast with potatoes, carrots, and onions in the crock pot. He got it all set up before we went to church - that way, we didn't have to wait for our dinner. We typically do crock pot meals on Sundays, since church is 3 hours long and we usually get home closer to 5 PM (it ends at 4, but we both have after-church responsibilities).

Oh, and another awesome bonus is we finally have a real choir director!!! YAY!! And it's NOT me! LOL, it's my brother-in-law!! I'm all for that! He DID say he'll have me direct sometimes, though. Poo.

Anyway, back to Mother's Day. After we ate a super yummy dinner, we vegged for about an hour. We called our moms and they both loved their gifts! I knew they would;) After all, it's a digiscrapped gift featuring the adorable Emma. What's not to love, right? (It's in the previous post if you want to see it.) Then we went up to the gardens for a nice walk. It was a gorgeous day! We took pictures and enjoyed each other's company.

Then we went home and enjoyed a yummy dessert of chocolate cream pie before we got Emma ready for bed. After she went to bed, we cuddled up and watched Bride Wars (on our ClearPlay, so we didn't have to hear any of the swearing). It was hilarious! Then we sat around and talked about various things for awhile. And that was my awesome Mother's Day! I could totally write more, but I'm on a time constrait with blogger's scheduled outage. I hope all you other mothers out there had as great of a day as I did!!

Oh, and I didn't have to change a single diaper ALL DAY LONG. It was seriously awesome.

Template 40 and Mother's Day

As promised, template 40 is up! Yay! I made 40 templates in time for my brother's 40th birthday^_^ How cool is that? Yes, my brother turns 40 on Mother's Day this year. It happens every now and then. My mom's birthday sometimes falls on Father's Day, too, so that makes it interesting. Anyway. Now that it's Mother's Day and I'm pretty sure both our moms won't be reading this until after they see the gift, I think it's safe to post it now;) I printed one for us as well, and it's already hanging up in Emma's room. She LOVES looking at it and pointing at her picture! Here's our Mother's Day gift to our moms:



Credits:
Paper - me
Glitter and purple flower - Kimi's Kreations, BCC2
Pink flower - Miss13, Storia Bella addon
White flower - Choukette, Sweet Envy
Ivy - Melancolie, Le Temps du Lierre freebie
Rose leaves - Corinne, A Touch of Spring
Fern - Mag Designs, Sweet Envy
Font - Scriptina
Atomic Cupcake action - jelly

And template 40 is of this LO. Since the original is an 8x10, I made 2 versions of the template - one in 8x10 and the other in 12x12. I purposefully left a siginificant amount of negative space around the edges of the photo so it wouldn't get covered up by a frame. Here are the template previews:

8x10


12x12


You can download both versions of template 40 here.

And it's time for bed. Night all! And Happy Mother's Day to all you mommies!

Template 39

Template 39 is done! No LOs of this one yet, but I think it's a fun one. A word of warning, though: if you have journaling all across the bottom the way it is in the template, watch out for the crease! You don't want your words cut off as a result. Template 39 is a 2 page template in PSD format. Here's the preview:



You can download it here.

Stay tuned; template 40 will be up soon!! Just in time for Mother's Day. Oh, and since it is now officially after midnight, Happy Mother's Day to all you mommies out there! Hope you all have a great Mother's Day and that your kids and hubbies spoil you the way you deserve;)

Template 38 and How to Host a Murder

I have a new template and a new LO to share! But first, some sad news. Many of you have probably already heard, but Digital Candy is shutting down:( I'm so bummed. I know that they're doing what they feel they need to because of the circumstances, but it still stinks. I was just starting to get comfy and settled in there and then this had to happen. ValerieN Designs, who I CT for as a QP maker, has her only store there, so now she's looking around at other store options.

But now for some happier things!

On our little trip over the weekend, we played this AWESOME game called How to Host a Murder. There are several different games under this guise, all with their own titles and themes. We did Powar and Greede. It was SO fun! And, of course, we took lots of pictures. And I made an awesome page from some of them. LOL, I originally had picked out 14 pics, but cut it down to 9. Not an easy thing to do! Anyway, here's my page, which qualifies for the weekly challenge on BAM. The challenge was to scrap a progression of pics, lots of journaling, and use a newer kit.







Credits:
Papers - Ziggle Designs, Red
Fonts - Ghostwriter, Cold Night for Alligators, Jane Austen
Atomic Cupcake actions - rough litho, jelly, colored glass, colored chrome

Template 38 is the above LO. It is a double page template in PSD format. Enjoy! I can't wait to see what you do with it! Oh, and I made the magnifying glass myself, so you get to have it in the template:) Here's the preview:



You can download it here.

As always, I'd love to hear back from you!

And now that my toddler is down for a nap, I'm going to take a much needed shower!! More to come later!

Template 37 and Your Cute Smile

I'm baaaack! Sorry it's taken so long to get back to posting since our little trip. We got back on Monday. And we STILL haven't unpacked all the way LOL! We've been a bit sleep deprived to put things away. We didn't sleep well on our trip at all - mainly because Emma had SUCH a hard time sleeping while we were gone. She slept perfectly as soon as we got back, of course. Despite that, it was a fun trip:) We got to spend time with friends we don't see very often. In fact, the last time we'd gone down to visit was when I was pregnant with Emma...and she's nearly 18 months. I'll be scrapping lots of fun things from that trip, which will likely be turned into templates, so stay tuned!

Speaking of templates, I set a mini-goal for myself this morning. I want to have 40 templates by Sunday. Why? Because Sunday is my brother's 40th birthday;) Yes, on Mother's Day. Bwahaha, he's so going to kill me for posting that (if he even sees it).

Aaaanyway, I DO have a new template today! It's of a LO I did for a speed scrap on BAM yesterday. These were our instructions:

1. Choose 3 pictures, and make one black and white.
2. Choose 4 papers. One should have a pattern.
3. Frame the black and white picture, but don't use a frame.
4. Embellish around your black and white photo, and attach your other 2 photos with whatever you like.
5. I want to see something shiny. . Put it wherever you want on your page.
6. Title your page. Use 3 words, and two different fonts.
7. Do something to the edge of your page. Use an overlay, brushes, or frame your page. Journal and date if you like, and you're done !!

And my page:



Credits:
Kit - ValerieN Designs, Froggies Pad
Glitter styles - Kimi, BCC1
Flower brush - Obsidian Dawn
Fonts - Scriptina, Too Much Paper, Tracy
Coffee Shop Creamy Chocolate Black and White action

And now for the template! Template 37 is a single page template in PSD format. Here's the preview:



You can download it here.

As always, I'd love to hear from you and see your pages!! Oh, and I do have a few pages some of you have sent me to post, so those will be up soon! I love seeing them! Thanks!

Glitter Elements - BCC2 Expansion

And today is the last of my BAM Color Challenge Expansions! I should be back from my trip by now, but I wanted to pre-post all of these just in case. Today you get a fun glitter elements pack. Kimi made these AWESOME seamless glitter styles (and sheets for those of you who can't use styles) and she let us use them in our color challenge desings:) I couldn't use them much for the baby kits, since glitter should be used sparingly with baby themed kits. But I loved them so much I just HAD to play with them and make some pretty glittery elements to share! I made so many that I had to split it into 2 downloads - and I very easily could have kept going! But I had to stop SOMEwhere;) Anyway, here's the preview:



Glitter Elements links:
Part 1
Part 2

Like the paper? It's in yesterday's Sweet Baby Neutral kit;) It's also featured on my blog, but it depends on your screen and resolution as to whether you can see it. It's the brown paper on the sides.

I'd love to hear back from you and see what you do with anything I make:)

Sweet Baby Neutral - BCC2 Expansion

And today is neutral day! It's also my neice's 8th birthday. Happy birthday Alex!! I don't know if you read this or not, but have a great birthday!

Anyway, Sweet Baby Neutral is a smaller kit than the boy and girl versions, but it can definitely be used with either. It's pretty versital, so it can be used for whatever you want:) Tomorrow I'm releasing a big glitter elements pack (I had to split it into 2 downloads), so don't forget to check in again tomorrow! If you missed Sweet Baby Girl or Sweet Baby Boy, they're just a few posts down;)

Here's a preview for Sweet Baby Neutral:



You can download it here.

Don't forget to come back tomorrow for some free glitter elements! And as always, comments are very much appreciated:)

Sweet Baby Boy - BCC2 Expansion

And today you get the boy version!! If you missed yesterday's Sweet Baby Girl and the blog train the day before, don't panic! They're still available below;) If you're here for the blog train, it's a couple posts down. Tomorrow you get the neutrals:D Here's the preview for Sweet Baby Boy:



Here are the download links:
Alpha
Elements
Papers

I hope you like it!! Feel free to send me links to your pages - and a little love is always appreciated;) Tomorrow I'll have the Sweet Baby Neutrals up and available for download:) Night all!

Sweet Baby Girl - BCC2 Expansion

As promised, here is the first of my expansion kits!! Be sure to grab the matching minikit in our blog train, located in the previous post! And check out all the other awesome free minikits the other girls have made:) Be sure to leave them some love!

I'm pre-publishing my expansions this weekend. By now, I should be at my friends' house. She's in the blog train, too:D I'm a bit bummed about the weather forecast, but oh well. It's supposed to rain the day we want to take the kids to the zoo:( Time will only tell I guess. Anyway, here's the preview for my Sweet Baby Girl expansion. Come back tomorrow for the boy version!! It'll be posted at the same time since I'm pre-posting;)



Download links:
Alpha
Elements
Papers

Enjoy!! I'd love to hear from you and to see your pages using this kit! And don't forget to stop by tomorrow to pick up the boy version!