Crafting Rainbows

The Studio Color Challenge -- New Kit

2011-08-24T18:56:00.007-04:00

Class is over for the summer and, well, summer's gone. The children started school this week and traffic has returned to its normal snarled mess. I, on the other hand, neglected to sign up in time to get any classes this semester so I'm taking some time off for R&R. Normally, I don't attend in the summer but decided to go ahead and take a summer class then missed the deadline for fall. As a result, I'll have to take two classes next semester to get back on target but for now I'm taking a much needed break. As a result, I looked around to see if anyone was sponsoring a color challenge and found one at The Studio. I was inspired by the following anonymous saying: Summer will be gone in September but it's still something I'll always remember. So, here's a sentimental little scrap kit that I put together, sorta sweet with a touch of shabby. I hope you like it as much as I enjoyed making it. As always, this digital scrapbook kit is for personal use only.

Download Summer's Gone

If you download, please take a moment and say hello. Thanks for dropping by!

Happy Birthday E-scape and Scrap - Blog Train & Freebie

2011-06-30T22:55:00.011-04:00

Toot, toot!!! All aboard the E-scape and Scrap Blog Lucky 7 Blog Train!

E-scape and Scrap turns 7 on July 1st and we're celebrating!

The Designers have created a fabulous kit, you won’t want to miss, just for the event. **AVAILABLE ONLY AT E-Scape & Scrap store**

Here's a peak at what the whole mega-kit looks like...

Check the ESS Boutique to see how you can get this kit for FREE...

Here's a layout that I made using the ESS Lucky 7 kit.

And I made it into a Quick Page for the ESS Blog Train to share with you ...

Download the QP HERE with no waiting!

You should have arrived here from Snickerdoodle Designs by Karen.

Your next stop on the ESS Lucky 7 Blog Train is: Sus Designs.

If you get lost or derailed along the way, return to the ESS Blog Train Station for a list of all participants and don't forget to say Happy Lucky 7 Birthday!!! Remember, this is an International Train so not all the Trains maybe at the depot at the same time! Thanks for dropping by.

Hugs,

Lainey

Happy iNSD, New Layouts, Freebie

2011-05-07T13:47:00.007-04:00

Wow! This semester was the hardest ever! It was even more intense than when I took 5 classes in one semester while working fulltime. Each class required a lot of reading and assignments and I ended up working every day after work as well as all weekend long. I finished on May 1st and have a few weeks before I start summer school. I'm only taking one class during the summer so I'm hoping to have a little more time for my blog and scrapbooking.

I've created some new pages but have been lax in posting since I've been super busy. Roxi has a gorgeous new kit out called Funky Brights. It's really fun and great for most anything you can imagine. Here's the pages I've created. It's available at Digital Design Den and E-scape and Scrap. It's Roxi's birthday this month and she is celebrating by having a 50 percent off sale all month long.

Piper played with some soap crayons and painted here face and is now ready for her bath. The family came to visit a week before Easter and Piper was in her stinky phase and refused to willingly take a bath while at Granmom's and Grandpa's. Since she has returned home, she's back to loving her bathtime.

Lily loves animals and was totally delighted when a friend of the family went on vacation and she got to help take care of Sam.

I blended a swirl element into the mat and used a photo frame as a mat for my title. I desaturated the photo to empahasize Lily's sweet smile. Our daughter took the two pictures above but I photographed the two below while the family was visiting over Easter.

I love the mischievous look that Lily has on her face on Easter morning. And my last page features the Easter eggs that we made.

To view the images and credits, click on the pictures to be transported to my gallery.

Next up, Cathy has an iNSD grab bag available at Scrapbook Elements, it's only available through Saturday through Monday, (5/7 - 5/9/2011), Central Standard Time. For a full reveal of the products within her bag, visit Cathy's blog. Here's a couple of pages I made using her grab bag.

My daughter Jennifer and granddaughter Lily created a photo story about a flower fairy which I used to create the page above using products from Cathy K's Grab Bag. The next page uses photos of Piper fixing her scooter.

As a special treat, I created a quick page and word art from the page I did using Roxi's Funky Brights. My thinking was by making the word titles that spelled cute a separate item, you can use it or not depending upon your photo. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed creating it for you. Also, this is an immediate download; no waiting required!

Download Lainey's Quick Page and Word Art using Funky Brights by Coppercurls

Happy iNSD! Have tons of fun!

Thanks Arty-Pharty!

2011-01-31T22:59:00.003-05:00

I heard back from Lisa aka Arty-Pharty and she posted her CU Denim Texture Pack on her blog if you want to try it out as a seamless pattern. Hop on over to Arty-Pharty Blogspot and check out Denim Textures.

Thanks bunches, Lisa, for taking the time to go through your archives and re-release such a wonderful goodie!

Hugs,
Lainey

Creating Digital Scrapbook Papers + Freebie

2011-01-31T00:50:00.007-05:00

Wow, long time, no blogging. Sometimes life just gets in the way and blogging has to wait until things calm down a bit. Spring semester classes have started up and I’m keeping very busy with two classes this semester; one on teaching community college students and the other called instructional patterns. The good news is that they mark the end of my classes in education and the beginning of my area of specialization. Yippee, I’m moving closer to completion!

I’ve been test driving some new Commercial Use (CU) products by Coppercurls Designs. What fun I’ve been having making digital papers. The two products that I used were Wallpaper Pattern Set 1 and Paper Blenders, both items are available at Coppercurls Designs’ shops at Escape and Scrap and Digital Design Den. I went the simple route but are some very luscious looking examples using paper blenders in Roxi’s store. So in the middle of writing this up, I just had to try them out…. I took two papers that I made for the Fall Guy kit and in a matter of minutes made the awesome page below.

Back to my original plan, I combined paper 2 from Wallpaper Pattern Set 1 and paper 2 from the Paper Blenders. My first thought when seeing the wallpaper paper pattern papers that they would be really great used to emboss the papers. I haven’t made embossed papers before so my first thought was to use a tutorial and learn a new technique. I found a tutorial on making embossed text and ended up with a really nice looking embossed paper. The bad news was that I had not really followed the instructions very well and when I tried to write up the instructions for you, I was unable to duplicate the results. Lesson number 1 – take good notes so you can reproduce “your masterpiece”. So when trying to remember how I did the first paper, I came up with paper number 2, where I filled the background with color, added two layers of wallpaper pattern, and topped it off with the blender paper blended as Overlay. On the first layer of the wallpaper pattern, I contracted the pixels by one and filled with purple color. The bottom layer, I filled with pink a little darker than the background and used Gaussian blur with the radius set to 2.2. Here’s how it turned out. I like how I was able to achieve a two-color effect with the wallpaper pattern and hope to employ this in different ways in future papers. I like the soft transition created by using the Blend mode in overlay.

I still hadn’t forgotten about the embossed paper which I think looks so elegant so I tried another google search and came up with one for Photoshop Elements called Embossed Textured Paper at Alibony. I skipped the part about the texture since I was mainly looking for information on how to make the wallpaper pattern look embossed. Here’s the embossed paper. I used a color fill on the base page. I added the blender paper which I recolored to #0c3932 as the second layer with the blend mode set to multiply. Next used Karen’s instructions to create the embossed paper look. I changed the color of the wallpaper pattern from black to a soft tan color (#f2dbc6). I really liked the shabby look that the multiply blend mode created here.

Then as I was going over the instructions for the embossed textured paper, the textured part caught my eyes and so I after I filled the blank page with color I created an adjustment layer and selected pattern. For my pattern, I selected Arty-Pharty Denim, texture 4 – a CU product created by Lisa (http://arty-pharty.blogspot.com/). I looked briefly on her blog today but I didn’t see it there anymore but there are probably similar products available or you could just scan in a piece of denim. Update, folks, I sent an email to Lisa and she posted her CU Denim textures back on her blog so hop on over to Arty-Pharty blog and pick yourself out some goodies. I like using seamless patterns because they are relatively small and designed so you can’t see how the pattern repeats. I’ve been disappointed with a lot of commercial use glitter when you fill in a large area, you can definitely see where the pattern repeats. I find that unacceptable so I usually do something to “fix” it. I also thought that the wallpaper pattern should also have the same texture as the background so I recolored the wallpaper to the same color as the background offset the design by a couple of pixels and copied the adjustment layer to use with the wallpaper pattern, I then merged the adjustment layer with the wallpaper and reversed the offset. I inserted the blender paper above the embossed layer (on the paper above the blender is between the background and the embossing) and used it a clipping masked for a layer filled with the soft tan color (#f2dbc6). I then set the blending mode for the blender to Pin Light. I love the way this paper turned out: soft, elegant, a little shabby.

As you can see, the possibilities are endless! I have only used one paper from each set and am so ready to play around some more. I have bundled up the four papers that I’ve shown you here click on the preview or the link below it. Even if you don’t make commercial use products, it can be fun to make your own custom made papers for your projects.

Download Lainey’s PaperPack Coppercurls Designs Sampler.

Thanks for dropping by. If you’d like more details, with photos, on how I made the papers, please leave a comment. Why don't you stop by Coppercurls Blog and tell her thanks for the great paper tools.

Sad News

2010-12-16T00:46:00.001-05:00

I found out today that Jazzy died yesterday, December 14, just several days after her birthday. Last month my dear friend Mimi celebrated her 69th birthday on November 24 and then died on the 28th -- two sad and similar events; two precious friends that I will greatly miss. Appropriately poignant words escape me now so I will just say adieu until next time.

It's Jazzy's Birthday Celebration!

2010-12-11T14:02:00.001-05:00

The semester is finally over!!! Wahoo!!! This has been the hardest semester I've had since returning to school although I only took two classes -- another semester I had 5 classes and not so much reading and homework (thank goodness or I'd never completed it *LOL*). Anyways, that's why I have been absent so much.

However, I did want to drop in and tell you that it's Jazzy's Birthday and she's having a big Sale-e-bration at Digitals.

So stop by Digitals for 30% off all Jazzy's designs. Why not stop by Jazzy's Words2Delite Blog and wish her a Happy Birthday? Have a great day and thanks for dropping by....

DSO Color Challenge October Freebie

2010-10-23T23:50:00.001-04:00

I've had so much homework this month that I didn't know if I'd get around to making a kit this month. Fortunately, I took today off and just played in PSE! I'm really excited because I've ordered PS CSE 5 and should be getting it before the end of the month. The good news is that there's a hefty discount if you are a student. It's worth checking at Adobe if you're eligible for the student rate.

This month's colors were perfect for a guy kit and since it's fall --- I called it Fall Guy. So here's the preview. There's a few recolored items that didn't make it to the preview and the drop shadows are just on the previews except for clusters which need a little shadowing. Everything is for Personal Use --- send your friends to my blog for the download.

Download Fall Guy.

Thanks for dropping by!!

Freebie Time

2010-10-21T22:33:00.004-04:00

It's time for another UBuildIt event at SBE! The theme this time is Naturally Male, and Cathy K's Designs has 6 new products, each for $1. There are 3 sets of papers and 3 sets of elements. Buy one set of papers and elements to make a great mini kit, or buy all 6 for a full-size kit.

UBI Naturally Male Papers 1

UBI Naturally Male Elements 1

UBI Naturally Male Papers 2

UBI Naturally Male Elements 2
UBI Naturally Male Elements 2

UBI Naturally Male Papers 3

UBI Naturally Male Elements 3

Here's the pages, I made using Cathy's new kits:

I made a QP for you using the layout above. Click here or on the image to go to Cathy's blog and download our freebie!!!

Hugs and thanks for stopping by!!!

Another month... Another Freebie!

2010-09-11T13:00:00.000-04:00

I bet you haven't heard this one before: How can it be September already??? *LOL* School started and the time seems to be flying by faster than ever. Working full time and taking two classes this semester has drastically impacted my scrapping time. I'm sure it's the right decision for my long-term goals, however, the short-time me really misses my playtime.

Yes, the Party's Over.... we had a blast at Escape and Scrap's 6th Birthday party. I sure hope you were able to drop by and play a bit. Fall is in the air and here's a few new pages I've made at ESS. Coppercurls Designs has a gorgeous new fall kit called Fall4U and here's a couple of pages I made with the kit, both featuring DGD Autumn. The page is her first day back to school picture and the second one features her pet gecko. Click on the image to view full sized, to see full credits or leave comments in the gallery.

Julie, Kay, and Karen have a great fall kit called Fall Means Football and I used a fun photo of little miss Piper for this page.

Over at DSO, I used LP3and3Dogs Designs (aka Lynn) newest designs, Daisy Fresh elements, Daisy Fresh paper pack, and Wicker Alphas, with an adorable photo of Piper. Her mom said they were out for a walk and she just plopped down in the grass and said picture me... kids say the cutest things! Also, received gallery standout at DSO last week for the layout. Drop by the gallery for a larger view and to see the full credits.

Kim's monthly color challenge at DSO is in full swing. I thought the color palette this month was soothing and relaxing so I made a little mini-kit and called it Tranquility. My sister-in-law went to visit my daughter a few weeks ago and took some precious photos of the grands. I selected an adorable photo of Lily and used my new kit and All About Fairies word at by Jazzy's Words to Delite.

Ok, now to what you've been waiting for... here's my newest kit for Kim's Color Challenge at DSO. There are about 20 elements, some shadowed, mostly not and 4 papers. Not all items are shown in the preview or to scale. There's no waiting for the download, so why don't you take a moment and leave a comment in the time you saved not having to wait :-) This kit is for personal use only. Do not distribute to others, send them to my blog.

Download Traquility Digital Scrapkit by Lainey

Thanks for dropping by and have a great September. Also, today is 9/11, take a moment in remembrance of those who lost their lives and for all who were forever changed by those events 9 years ago today.

Happy Birthday Escape and Scrap

2010-08-29T23:31:00.001-04:00

Guess who's having a birthday celebration???? Escape and Scrap (ESS) is celebrating their 6th birthday and site re-opening all week long starting Monday August 30th.

ESS is celebrating our birthday and our re-opening with lots of games, prizes and a Treasure Hunt for our beautiful birthday celebration kit. Here's a layout I made using the ESS Birthday celebration kit and posted in the Birthday Challenge Gallery.

Drop by the ESS Blog and Nifty Boutique for more details. Each day there will items available in the boutique for only 66 cents each plus find the hidden treasures.

Thanks for stopping by!!!

New Layouts and Hot Tropic Freebie

2010-08-14T22:27:00.001-04:00

New Layouts: DSO
It's been a while since I've done any scrapping because of vacationing and remodeling. Vacation is over and school starts in a couple of weeks so I've taken the opportunity of a quiet weekend to do some pages with some of the lovely photos that my daughter took.

Jazzy's Words to Delite is back with some beautiful new word art. She currently has four new sets available at DigiScrap Obsession. This word art is from Potluck and contains a variety of themes and styles. I used Kim Broedelet's lovely July Color Challenge posting bonus kit and slightly recolored the word art to match my page. Click on the page to see all credit and larger image in my gallery.

Every month the designers at DigiScrap Obsession create mini kits using a common color palette; this month the theme is Picnic Promenade. I used LPand3 Dog Designs kit as well as Jazzy's Words to Delite. Click on the page to see all credit and larger image in my gallery.

For the next page, I created an overlay from Lynn's (LPand3dogs Designs) word Rub Ons from Picnic Promenade. I used photos of our granddaughters playing at the lake during their summer vacation in Florida. As usual, click on the page to see all credit or view a larger image in my gallery.

New Layouts: ESS
Escape and Scrap (ESS) experienced some major outages from their web hosting service and I'm glad to report that everything is up and running again. I created a page using the free kit from the ESS blog, Hot Mess, which is a statement describing the state of their store due to the bankruptcy and loss of service. Visit the ESS blog and grab a copy for your hot summer pages.

For our Creative Team Reveal this month, our topic was "Dog Days" and here's a page I did with our DGD and little mini-schnauzer, Heidi. Visit the ESS blog to see the whole story.
I used Cotton Candy Splash (papers) by Ruth Davis and Torn Newsprint Elements by Julie Mead.

Hot Tropic
It's been really hot and humid here this summer. So when I saw the newest color palette by Kim for the DSO's monthly color challenge, I immediately thought of hibiscus flowers. I made a mini-kit this month with 3 papers and 9 elements. Hope you have as much fun using it as I did creating it. As always, it is for Personal Use Only.

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Thanks for dropping by...

The Nifty Boutique, Escape and Scrap is bouncing Back!

2010-08-05T19:03:00.001-04:00

The Nifty Boutique, Escape and Scrap, where I am a Creative Team member has been down for most of the summer. If you've been wondering where we were—we are reconstructing after not only host site issues but fraud and bankruptcy on their part. All of this came without warning. But true to the the heart of the Nifty Boutique, we are working behind the scenes in order to re-open the site and celebrate a belated birthday party of 6 years! Drop by the Nifty Boutique blog where our awesome designers are giving away a series of mini kits called Hot Mess. The idea behind the kit is that we will hang on and overcome the adversity. Here's a page I made called Un-Stop-able: that's how I look at our situation! Thanks Julie for hanging on and being tenancious! Thanks to Digi Designs by Cheryl, Sus Designs, and The Busy Elf Designs for their Hot Mess mini kits which I used in creating my page.

Stop by the Nifty Boutique, pick up some cute mini kits and catch up with our return to digi-scrapland!

New Freebie for July!!!

2010-07-18T16:22:00.001-04:00

First off, I'd like to announce that I joined the creative team of Lynn of LP and 3 Dogs Designs, an exclusive designer at Digiscrap Obsession. I've already made two new pages using Lynn's newest kit, Soft and Sweet. The colors are gorgeous and I just love the papers. It's currently on sale, so if you like it now's the time to dash over to DSO and pick it up.

Both photos were taken during a day trip to the zoo. Lily and friends were in rare form and posed for this picture. I also used Jazzy's word art, Girl Power as well as Lynn's Soft and Sweet. The second layout is of Piper posing in front of the mirror in her Cinderella dress. Click on the image to see the full credits for each page.

Time continues to fly by at an extremely elevated pace. I have taken a few moments this weekend to relax and create a new digital scrapbooking kit called Blue Moon. Hope you like it as much as I enjoyed creating it.

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Thanks for dropping by and hope to see you again soon.

News - Word Art Freebie

2010-07-12T13:23:00.000-04:00

I'm on the Creative Team for Jazzy's Words to Delite. Jazzy is an amazing person and I love being on her creative team. We've been working hard preparing for her second anniversary celebration. Unfortunately, Jazzy has been having some medical problems and had to return to the hospital. She asked me to let everyone know where she is. If you get a moment, please send Jazzy some special thoughts or prayers for a speedy recovery. You could also drop by Jazzy's Words to Delite blog and leave her a message. I made this card for you, Jazzy, and am sending you cyber hugs and wishes for a speedy recovery!

If you'd like to use my word art for Personal projects only, click on the image to bring it up full size and then save the image.

Have a great day and thanks for dropping by!

New kit for June

2010-06-28T22:49:00.001-04:00

It's that time again ... another color challenge from Kim at DSO. This month's palette of colors are gorgeous and remind me of the beach so I made a little beachy kit ... Beachy Keen.

This is a personal use kit only. Although there are two previews, all the files are in one zipped file. If you need it split up to download, let me know and I'll create two smaller files. Note: I used the wrong circular frame in the preview and in the original zip file. The one in the zip file has been corrected but I didn't update the preview.

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Thanks for stopping by and if you haven't seen the Escape and Scrap Blog train, read my previous post. There's only a few more days for the download so don't delay.

Toot! Toot! Alll Aboard! Escape and Scrap Blog Train Stop #8

2010-06-10T23:11:00.001-04:00

Welcome Aboard the E-scape and Scrap Summer So Fine Blog Train. You should have arrived here from stop #7, Erica's blog. If this is your first stop, you can go to the train station (the Nifty Blog) to get a list of all the train stops. You've reached freebie stop #8. Here you will find two quick pages and an alpha --- all made with the awesome new kit --- Summer So Fine at the Escape and Scrap Boutique. This amazing kit is available for purchase or you can get it free with any $10 purchase.

To download the samples I have created, you can either click on the previews or the links below. NOTE: Both quick pages are in the same zip file; you may click on either image but both quickpages are in one file. [Hope that's not too confusing.] As always, these items are for personal use only. Don't share the files or links but send your friends to my blog --- that way they can be directed to all the gorgeous links fore Escape and Scrap Summer So Fine Blog Train!

Download the ESS Summer So Fine Alpha

Download the ESS Summer So Fine QuickPages

Several people reported problems with the link for the Quick Pages so I have added another link. I was able to download without any problems but since I own the file that's not a very good test. If this link doesn't work either, please let me know. Sorry for any inconvenience. Ok, I fixed this link, too --- It was just too weird, I did the same as always but when I checked what it copied to the clipboard it was the previous link and not the new link.

New Link for ESS Summer So Fine Quick Pages

In an effort, to cover all possibilities, here are two more links --- one for each quickpage:

Quick Page 1 Quick Page 2

Thanks for dropping by!

Toot!!! Toot!!! All aboard!!! Quick!!! I hear the training pulling out --- the next stop is Kay's Blog where you can pick up this lovely card alphabet displayed below.

Remember, all blog train downloads will be available through the end of June 2010 and you can return to the station (Nifty Blog) to see a list of all participants. Escape and Scrap is an International Boutique so all train stops may not be available today --- The train officially leaves the station on June 12th but not everyone is in the same time so postings --- I mean train stops --- may not all be open at the same time! Once again, thanks for stopping by!!!

Color Challenge, Layouts, and a Freebie

2010-05-25T22:36:00.002-04:00

I didn't know whether I'd get to create something for the DSO Challenge this month or not. It's been crazier than usual with the remodeling and construction going on. I keep meaning to post a few pictures but then the posts would be even longer than they are now *LOL* First off, I want to show you a few layouts.

This layout I did for a challenge at Scrapbook Elements and it was selected layout of the week in the SBE weekly newsletter for May 12th. Click on the image to view the credits at my SBE gallery.

I did an article on extractions for this month's E-scape Artists Team Reveal and used Painting Winter Wonders Elements and Papers for this layout with Lily. Click on the image to see the credits.

And this week when I visited Digiscrap Obsession I was surprised to see that my layout was selected Gallery Standout yesterday. I used Silver Celebration by Legacy4Life and Jazzy's Words to Delite Just A Stitchin. To see the entire list of credits, click on the image to visit my DSO gallery.

These photos bring back pleasant memories of our daughter's wedding on May 22, 2004. My parents couldn't come for the wedding because my mom was sick but Jennifer was able to visit my mom on her birthday, May 25, for a quick visit. That was mom's last birthday and today my thoughts are on my mom. I miss you mom!

So here's a little mini scrap kit that I made for the Color Challenge at Digiscrap Obsession. Just a little reminder that DSO will be doing some remodeling beginning on June 1st so don't be alarmed if you find some down time. The shop and blog will not be affected, just the gallery and forum. This kit contains two papers, an upper case alpha plus numbers and punctuation, 1 flower, 1 shabby heart, 1 lace strip, 1 ribbon, 1 jeweled bow, 1 frame, and one flower cluster. While there are shadows on the preview, the only item that has shadowing is the flower cluster.

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Don't forget to give your mom a hug and don't forget that father's day will be here before you know it.

Thanks for dropping by!

Happy Mothers Day and a freebie

2010-05-08T23:44:00.000-04:00

Happy Mothers Day. This is a quick post because I wanted to share a little word art freebie with you. The mat is one I made for a kit last May called Mother's Garden and I added the embroidery and text -- I really love the quote: I love my mother as the trees love water and sunshine -- she helps me grow, prosper, and reach great heights. Hope you have a memorable day with your mom and don't forget to take loads of photos!

Download Mothers Day Word Art

Thanks for stopping by!

A couple of freebies

2010-05-02T23:50:00.000-04:00

Hope everyone had a great time for INSD! I know I did!!! I have a few freebies but they aren't located here, I just have links to where you can pick them up. Jazzy posted a QP that I made from her word art and Kim's Merry A Round kit, both exclusive and available at DSO.

Drop by Jazzy's blog to pick it up.

Next up, it was my turn to make a desktop calendar for Escape and Scrap. Here's my preview...

Drop by the Escape and Scrop Blog to snag the calendar and see the credits.

Thanks for dropping by!

New Layouts

2010-04-19T08:58:00.000-04:00

Wow! Can't believe how long it's been since I blogged! All my plans for revamping the blog have not happened. My daughter and family came for Easter and the following Monday, I had a severe allergy problems and have been miserable ever since. I'm finally starting to feel better. This weekend I finished my homework before noon on Saturday and have taken the opportunity to catch up on some scrapping. Finals start this evening so I won't get back to scrapping again until I finished my semester finals next Saturday.

Today's line up includes three pages using Jazzy's Words to Delite at DSO and three pages for Escape and Scrap. Jazzy's been a bit under the weather herself and spent a good bit of time in the hospital recently. Her computer decided to end it all and she's had to replace that bad boy as well. First off, DSO has started a new monthly uncollab several months back called Pick ur Bits. This month's edition uses some lovely colors...

Here's a couple of kits from DSO Pick ur Bits I picked up to use with Jazzy's word art:

Here's Jazzy's My Montage Word Art, click on the image to visit her shop at DSO.

and , tada, here's my layout. I used some recent photos of Lily --- they just shout SPRING to me with her flower chain tiara... click on the image or here to see all the credits for the page.

The other two pages use Jazzy's latest and greatest word art, Swing into Spring, which is available exclusively at DSO. Here's the word, Kim's kit, and my pages. Click on any picture for more information.

The second page, with Piper in her purple dress uses Kim B's July 2009 Color Challenge posting bonus 2. Most of Kim's challenge gifts can be found in the $1.00 or less bin at DSO; use the Designer drop down menu and select Kim to see her awesome kits.

Here are some pages I did using Kay Elfin's awesome new designs, Tuscan Steam Punk Elements and Tuscan Steam Punk Papers, which are available at ESS (Escape and Scrap).

And here's another page using Just Jessa's Designs Temptimg Template Set #5 and her Winter Wonderland kit. Unfortunately she is no longer a designer at ESS but I still love using her products. Thanks Jessa; I hope you get back to designing soon! The adorable little frame was made by Julie Mead and is part of her Soldered Sentiments collection. I used some photos of Lily from her first ballet recital yesterday for the page below.

Click on any of my pages to visit my gallery and see complete credits for layouts.

Also, Jazzy and I have a little surprise for you ... I'll be back later on to Spring it on you *LOL*

Thanks for dropping by.
Lainey

New Layouts and Freebie!

2010-03-21T12:58:00.000-04:00

Note: I'm going to be doing some major spring cleaning and revamping my web page in April. If there are any old freebies on my blog that you'd like, please download them by March 31st.

I can't believe how quickly the time flies by... I have been really neglecting my blog lately as I rush around going to work, doing homework, and remodeling. Time on the computer has shrunk considerably as the warmer weather beckons me outdoors.

Here's a few pages that I have worked on the past few rainy days.

This month at Escape and Scrap our CT challenge was to create layouts using clusters. I selected Ingborg's adorable kit, Blossoms and created these two layouts... click on the photos to view the credits at my Escape and Scrap Gallery.

Cathy K has a new kit out starting today and it's called Power Builders and is available at Scrapbook Elements.

I don't have any little boys or power builder toys *LOL* so I used the kit to present the DGD Lily's pensive and thoughtful nature. You can view the credits by clicking on the pages below.

I just wanted to remind you that the Help Haiti kit is still available at:

Digitals
Divine Digital
Scrapbook Bytes Album
Scrapbook Bytes Kit

Please consider purchasing this kit. All proceeds will be donated to Compassion International (http://www.compassion.com/) and go to help the relief efforts in Haiti.

Here's a little sampler kit that I put together for you...

Click Here to Download Help Haiti Sampler

Thanks for dropping by and have a great day!

Help Haiti

2010-02-20T00:45:00.000-05:00

Late yesterday afternoon the Help Haiti collaborative digital scrapbook kit went on sale at Divine Digital and Scrapbook-Bytes and later this weekend, it will be available at Digitals. I feel honored to have made a small contribution to this worthwhile project. And what better purpose than helping Compasssion International bring relief to Haiti?

Compassion International exists as a Christian child advocacy ministry that releases children from spiritual, economic, social and physical poverty and enables them to become responsible, fulfilled Christian adults.

Today, Compassion helps more than 1 million children in 25 countries. To learn more about Compassion International and get involved further in their child sponsorship program, please visit their website: http://www.compassion.com/

The kit is priced at $8 and contains over 40 zips of product (30 zips of papers, 12 zips of elements and 1 zip of templates and hybrid products. This is a HUGE, HUGE kit! And the album is priced at $5 and you get 20 quickpages, 12x12, PNG format. All items are personal use. Please pass information about this kit on to friends so we can really show our support for Compassion International!!!

Links to Kit:
Divine Digital
Scrapbook Bytes - Help Haiti Collab Kit - Help Haiti Collab Album

The kit will also be on sale at Digitals this weekend, so if you are a Digitals fan and want to pick it up there it will be available soon. (I'll post a link as soon as I find out what it is.)

Cyndi Wetmiller, Wetfish Designs, saved her portion of the kit for a freebie for everyone so you can start to play with the colors and theme before buying. Stop by Cyndi's blog to download her portion of the Help Haiti kit which is shown below.

Click her to visit Cyndi's blog and sample the Help Haiti kit.

Don't forget to say thanks if you download the kit and please purchase the kit to help Haiti. Thanks for stopping by!

New Pages, New Color Challenge Kit

2010-02-19T23:51:00.001-05:00

I'm still convinced that time is just moving way too fast... January disappeared and now February is half over. I hope everyone had a great Valentines Day. Jazzy has been really busy creating loads of beautiful word art about Love. Two of the latest kits, I've worked with are Grandparents Love and For the Love of Family.

Renee of By Dezign generously RAK'ed me with her first scrapbook kit, Letter From the Heart, available at Kristine's Place. Thanks Renee!!!

Here's the layout's I made using Renee's kit and Jazzy's Word Art, Grandparent's Love.

The photo is of dad and Lily as a baby. To view the credits, click here or on the photo.

Next up, I used Jazzy's For the Love of Family Word Art... the preview is shown below.

I found an old photo of my dad's maternal aunt and uncle taken for their 25th wedding anniversary. I practiced using custom shadows and making "metal" letters using various styles and actions. I love the soft colors and doubled papers from Renee's kit. Thanks again, Renee! Click here or on the page above to see the credits.

Moving right along, I accepted the challenge and created a kit for the DSO color challenge. I really love the blues and browns in this month's palette. Thanks Kim! Check out the DSO Challenge blog to participate in their awesome challenges and posting bonuses.

This month my kit has 8 papers and 24 unique elements. I couldn't fit it all on one preview, so I have three previews... the contents of all previews are in one file. Without further ado, here they are...

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Thanks for dropping by and if you like the kit and download, please leave a comment.

New pages ... New Word Art and Freebie

2010-02-05T18:34:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure where this week has gone ... I started this blog post on Tuesday and am just now getting back to it. Scrapbook Elements has a new U-Build-It (UBI) kits which premiered today and Cathy of Cathy K Designs has two packs for just a buck a piece. If you are unfamiliar with U-Build-It, the designers at SBE use the same color scheme to create color coordinated items for $1-$2 each so you can mix and match designer pieces. It's a good opportunity to try out items from various designers with only a small investment. Here's a preview of Cathy K's Designs UBI Legacy of Love - Papers and UBI Legacy of Love - Scatters...

And here are a couple of pages I made using her Papers and Scatters. Click on the images to view the credits.

Gorgeous, eh? I love the colors -- pretty but not so girly so that you can use for your guy photos, too!!!

DSO also started a similar program this month at their shop called pic ur bits... Their kits this month are called Forever and After... you guessed it ---- Jazzy has some Words to Delite that coordinate with the DSO designer kits...Here's a preview of Jazzy's Words to Delite word art:

and here's a couple of pages I made using Jazzy's Forever and After Words to Delite Word Art:

A few more photos of our niece's wedding. I'm halfway to having a wedding album made so that I can send it them for their 1st anniversary. DSO is going through some server maintenance on their forums and gallery so I'll just let you know that the top layout uses Soft Whisper kit and the bottom one uses Heartsong both by Kim Broedelet at DSO. This doesn't affect their shop so come on buy and check out Jazzy's word art kits.

Now, if you've made it this far, you deserve a prize and I have something special for you today. I used my PhotoFrame Template and made a glittery red version for Valentines Day. Jazzy donated some of her Grandparents Love Word Art and Sheryl donated some of her photos for the preview. So you could say that this is a triple granny treat!!! Here's how the glittery word art photo frame looks with Sheryl's adorable photos. Click on the photo on the left for a closer view. This treat is for personal use only!

Download Glittery Frame with Jazzy's Grandparents Love Word Art

Thanks for dropping by!!!

Time is flying by ... New Kit

2010-01-26T00:34:00.002-05:00

Time is just traveling way too fast. It's hard to believe that January is almost over. Seems that I'm always busy but accomplishing things very slowly. Classes have started up again and work is moving forward full steam ahead. I get a little time to create layouts and work on new photoshop skills and practice making scrapbooking kits. I was way behind on my calendars this year and during the ML King 3-day weekend I did a marathon calendar; creating 37 pages in 3 days. I did a few more challenges at SBE (Scrapbook Elements), created a couple of pages for Jazzy, and am working on an altered art 365-day rolodex. I know for sure already that I won't get 365 cards done but I plan to do as many as I can to get a little extra practice in on journaling -- I hope to post something about this project soon. I hope to have 20 pages completed soon of our niece's wedding so that I can create a photo book and send it to them before their first anniversary.

I used Jazzy's newest word art, What Love is to create a couple more pages for the wedding album. I sometimes have a hard time thinking of anything to say to go along with my photos so I like adding a bit of word art to create a finished look. [Click on the photos to view the credits.]

Aren't they just the cutest pair?

I also created a new scrapkit for Kim's Colour Challenge at DSO. Here's the preview and you can download by clicking on the preview or using the link below.

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Thanks for dropping by.

New Pages, CU Freebie

2010-01-08T00:35:00.000-05:00

It has been really cold here for the past week. The good thing about the cold weather is that I can spend some time in front on my computer keeping warm... *LOL*

I created a couple of pages using Jazzy's new word art, Classified Teens, available at DSO.

I used these phrases on a photo of my mom right before high school graduation and other one with our grand-daughter, far from being a teen-ager in the photo but sure was a perfect photo for the word art. If you click on the layouts, you'll be taken to my gallery to see the credits for all the items I used on the page.

By the way, I saw the cutest idea on a layout a few days ago -- a digital sticky flag -- you know, the kind you use to mark pages in a book. I use them all the time at work to mark important information in technical manuals so I don't have to look in the index. Anyways, the crafty person had used this digi-sticky flag to cover up/hide parts of the layout she didn't want to share with the world --- names, faces, etc. I thought it was pretty amazing. I saw the designer and went to get some for my pages. When I tracked down the designer, she had stopped selling and so there weren't any digi-sticky flags for me to purchase. So I figured it's a rectangle with a drop shadow, I can do it myself so, I did... I'm using it on my latest page and covered up my mom's name and then used the little stickey thing and wrote "Mom" on it... so you can use it for notes or flags or as a digital cover-upper!

Download Stickey Flag from Mediafire.

If you download, please leave a comment. Thanks for stopping by!

Happy 2010 -- Word Art Freebie

2010-01-01T22:18:00.000-05:00

Can you believe it??? It's 2010 already. I started off early this morning making this little word art thingie and I can't believe how long it took me to finish it. Here it is. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it. Ran into a few snags but it's all just a learning process.

Download Happy 2010 WordArt.

Thanks for stopping by.

December 2009 DSO Color Challenge Freebie

2009-12-29T23:56:00.003-05:00

Just a quick posting to share my DSO Color Challenge kit for December. It was "ify" whether I'd get this one done but I did it!!

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Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Holidays --- Freebie

2009-12-24T00:05:00.000-05:00

Can you believe it's almost Christmas? I've been running around at a break-neck pace since I finished my finals on Dec 5th. Shopping, Christmas Cards, and 2010 calendars have been the focus of my evenings! Frantic searching for Zhu Zhu pets were fruitless; I had more success with Christmas Cards and calendars. Here's the Christmas card I ended up making, printing, and emailing to everyone...

I used Painted Holiday by Julie Mead -- a set of Photoshop/PSP brushes with a couple of matching papers. I love to use brushes and I love how these have a water color look.

Remember the Christmas layout I showed you earlier in the month? If not, here it is again...

Click on the image to see the complete list of credits for the page.

I contacted Cathy and Jazzy and they both gave their permission for me to distribute a Quick Page based on my layout!

Cathy's kit is called Oh Holy Night and is available at Scrapbook Elements.

I then added A Christmas Song Word Art by Jazzy's Words to Delite available at DigiScrap Obsession...

Thanks for sticking around.... Hope you have a Merry Christmas or a Happy Holiday season if you celebrate something else.

Click here or on the preview to download.

Don't forget to stop by Cathy's blog for her 12 days of Christmas freebies and Jazzy has some goodies on her blog, too!!!

Merry Christmas!!! Happy Holidays!!! Thanks for stopping by...

Happy Jolly Christmas --- Freebies times 12!!!

2009-12-15T22:35:00.000-05:00

Cathy K's newest Christmas kit will be arriving at SBE (Scrapbook Elements) on Sunday, Dec. 20th!

Shhhh --- don't tell anyone but Cathy's doing 12 days of Christmas freebies on her blog which started on Monday and will go through Christmas Day. Here are previews for Days 1 and 2 which are available on Cathy's blog. The first two days feature Cathy's soon to be released kit Happy, Jolly Days!!! We'll just have to wait to find out what kind of goodies will be there tomorrow!!! The photos link to Cathy's blog or use the link below the previews.

Head on over to Cathy's blog and download out the goodies!!!

Happy 40th Anniversary, LO's, CU Freebie

2009-12-12T22:45:00.000-05:00

Well, I had every intention of posting this before noon today and soon it will be midnight. I had decided that in celebration of our 40th wedding anniversay that I would give you a CU (commercial use) item, something that I made "by hand". It's a little something -- a template for those cute little photo frames that look like department store frames with the little keyhole at the top. Anyways, I was getting ready to package it up and noticed some little anomolies and then threw that one away and made a new one...

Back to the anniversary -- here's a recent layout that I did at SBE using a photo of DH. Click on the photo or here to see the credits.

Yesterday, I created a LO using Cathy K's new kit, Oh Holy Night, and then added some of Jazzy's Words to Delight -- A Christmas Song. What a delightful combination.

The photo I selected includes our creche on the shelf in the background that I purchased for our first Christmas in 1969.

BTW, don't forget to download the Photo Card Template. It's easy to use, just use it at a clipping mask and add a little bevel to give it some depth. If you need any help, leave me a comment and I'll write something to explain how to use it. I didn't include the samples because they were made with my old design and I didn't have time to make any more and still post this on December 12th. I'll be including a few personal use photo cards in my December kit.

Download Lainey's Photo Card Template.

Thanks for dropping by and Happy Holidays!

Jazzy's Sale and DSO Color Challenge Freebie!

2009-11-28T22:28:00.001-05:00

Just a reminder that you've only got a few more days left to take advantage of Jazzy's 50% off sale.... So, if you've been waiting for a fabulous sale, this is it!!! Run on over and pick up some awesome word art at bargain bin prices at DSO.

November has been a busy month with lots of fun with friends and family. It's also the end of the semester and I'm busy preparing my final which is due next week. I took a quick break today and made a little mini kit for Kim's Color Challenge at DSO. The kit contains 2 papers, 1 worn paper overlay, a swirly string, a mini bow, a ribbon tied in a bow, a small bunch of weeds, a flower, two frames, and a glittery film strip.

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Thanks for dropping by.

Giving Thanks And Free Recipe Card

2009-11-14T22:36:00.000-05:00

Thanksgiving has always been a special time to me. I have fond childhood memories of large family gatherings with loads of food, fun, and family. I have used Cathy K's Giving Thanks, her newest kit at Scrapbook Elements, along with Blessings Word Art Overlays by Jazzys Words to Delight at DSO.

The first page features our newest family members, Piper in the foreground, and Lily in the background. Playing in the leaves was always one of my favorite fall activities. We would all go outside and rake the leaves and then I'd jump in the leaves! What fun that was!

The second page is one of my mom in her kitchen preparing Thanksgiving dinner. I know, she's wearing a sleeveless dress but cooking is hot work and she often opened the doors and windows to cool down the kitchen while she was cooking a big meal. I used Giving Thanks by Cathy K's Designs at Scrapbook Elements, Giving Thanks, along with Autumn Daze Frames and Word Art by Jazzys Words to Delight at DSO.

Just a little reminder -- Cathy K's newest kit, Give Thanks is on sale at SBE on sale until midnight CST. And, Jazzy has her whole shop at DSO on sale for the month of November for her birthday. Happy birthday, Jazzy! I heard you were sick and I'm hoping you are getting better!!!

And I also made a little freebie for you... It's a 4x6 recipe card. As an example, shown below, I've used my Pumpkin Oatmeal recipe, one of my favorite fall breakfasts, high in fiber and so good for you! The download contains my sample recipe card for Pumpkin Oatmeal and a a blank recipe card for you to use for your favorite recipes.

Download Pumpkin Oatmeal Recipe Card and Blank Recipe Card

Thanks for stopping by.

Jazzy's Having a Sale

2009-11-11T23:19:00.000-05:00

Jazzy has awesome word art and this month it's all 50% off.... So, if you've been waiting for a fabulous sale, this is it!!! Run on over and pick up some delicious bargains at DSO now. I'll be back soon to show you some of Jazzy's awesome art.

Thanks for dropping by.

I'm back!

2009-11-08T10:47:00.000-05:00

I had a great time visiting with my daughter and her family in Maryland!! I was able to help with Halloween costumes and trick-or-treats. It started to rain later in the evening so Piper and I headed in while the more adventuresome members of the crew grabbed their umbrellas and headed back outside.

Here's a couple of pix from Halloween. I made Lily's tutu for her Monarch butterfly costume. It's really ironic when we took Lily for her dance lesson on Monday that one of her classmates was also a monarch butterfly!!! Kids are just so smart these days!!! Lily is playing hide-n-seek while we snap a few pictures of her before it gets dark.

Look at how lovely the leaves are:

I think that's what I miss most about living in Virginia... spring and fall...

Before long it was night and we went out ....

Originally Piper was going to be a flower but when she saw Lily in her butterfly outfit, she insisted that she wanted wings.... so Jennifer raided the dress up box and Piper was a little fairy.

Sunday morning Jennifer, Autumn, and I headed to Annapolis and had brunch at Reynolds Tavern. We had a great time...

Before I knew it, my vacation was over and I had to come back home. It's taken several days for me to get caught up with reading my email and such.

Thanks for dropping by!!

Freebie Time Again!

2009-10-24T15:32:00.000-04:00

Hi!!! I've been posting a lot about layouts I've made so I just wanted to share a little Quick Page from a layout I made of Piper using my newest kit, TechnoSweetie!

Download TechnoSweetie Quickpage

Have a great day and stop by when you're in the neighborhood!

Candy Christmas

2009-10-24T09:55:00.000-04:00

I was RAKed by Kim Broedelet with her newest, cutest Christmas kit.... Thanks for the early Christmas pressie, Kim!!!! It's called Candy Christmas and contains all sorts of delicious candy creations...
Here's a couple of "sweet" pages that I made with Kim's kit:

Thanks for dropping by!!

More Wedding Layouts

2009-10-24T09:29:00.000-04:00

I'm still enjoying creating new layouts with photos from our niece's wedding. For these pages I used Andrea's kit, Timeless Beauty. I also added a bit extra embellishment by using Jazzy's Words to Delight, Wise Words available exclusively at DigiScrap Obsession. Both products are available exclusively at DigiScrap Obsession.

The lovely couple sharing cake .....

...and dancing and toasting.

This last page also uses a swirly decoration from Jazzy's Posting Bonus for October for her Altered Photo Challenge -- for more information, check out the DSO Forum. All you need to do is create a layout using some technique to alter the photo and tell us how you achieved the effect. There's still time to participate if you like this lovely set of word art and swirls.

Thanks for stopping by!

Playing Catch Up and a Freebie

2009-10-17T22:45:00.000-04:00

Working overtime sure cuts into my blogging time -- *LOL*. I've still been doing some layouts but haven't had much time to post them on my blog. Today, I want to show you some pages I've made using CathyK's Designs. Last weekend, I used Cathy's Festive Fall, Festive Fall Addon, and Festive Fall Alpha to create a page for the Title Take Challenge. This month we needed to create a page and use Autumn Leaves or Fall Leaves for the title.

Click here or on photo to see the credits.

Next I made a couple of seasonal cards for the SBE monthly Card Exchange [Note: you may need to register in the forum for this link to work properly]. If you get a few minutes, you should check it out -- it's a great way to get loads of cards. All you do is make one card and then at the end of the month, you get all the cards that were created for the month. Each month there's a new theme. It's an easy way to stock up on your card stash. Since this month's themes were Thanksgiving and Halloween, I made two.

I used CathyK's Festive Fall page kit for my Thanksgiving card. It would also be good to use as a thank you card, too.

For my Halloween card, I used CathyK's Spook Fest. I love the font Gothic Flames I found at daFont for this card --- I think it adds just the right touch. I used a stroke in red to give it a dramatic effect. For a closer look, click on the images and you will be transported to my gallery at SBE.

Just a few more pages... tada --- CathyK has a brand new kit called It's Your Birthday available today at SBE with loads of cute elements, silver words, and a checkboard alpha!!!

It's right on time for little miss Piper who turned two last Saturday. Here's a page I made using a photo from birthday number 1.....

And then I made another page using a photo from her birthday tea party last Saturday morning.

And because you've hung around for such a long time while I got my blog caught up ... I have a little surprise for you... A quick page made from Piper's first birthday page. Enjoy!!!

Download CathyK Design's It's Your Birthday QP by Lainey

Have a great day and stop back by when you're in the neighborhood!

DSO Color Challenge Freebie

2009-10-17T18:39:00.001-04:00

Another month... another DSO color challenge hosted by Kim Broedelet. On October 10th our youngest granddaughter Piper turned 2. I had every intention of doing a freebie for Piper's birthday but with work and school I just didn't get it done. So, for this month's color challenge kit, I used Piper as inspiration for my theme.... Here's a layout that I made using the kit.

As you can see Piper has her own style and dress. She loves computers and tools too. She was up in my lap in a flash when I got out the trusty laptop and the first thing she did was try to take my mouse *LOL* So this month's kit is called Techno Sweetie in honor of Piper. Here's how the kit turn out: a little grungy, a bit geeky, and loveable. Hope you like as much as I enjoyed creating it.

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Thanks for dropping by!

Wedding Photos

2009-10-08T19:35:00.000-04:00

More lovely wedding photos from our niece's wedding last month.

I used Kim Broedelet's Soft Whisper kit for both pages.

The second one also uses page also uses Kim's soon to be released Commercial Use Product, EdgeIt 3 Mixed.

Although the edgers are a full 12x12 inches, I used an edger on the photo for a great distressed effect. And the word art is from Kim's This Is Love mini kit -- a freebie from her blog last fall.

It's been a long day so that it for me... thanks for stopping by!

New Fall Layouts and a Freebie

2009-10-04T13:02:00.001-04:00

It's now officially fall and our temperature fell to a chilly 50 degrees the other night -- of course, it bounced back up to the high 80s in mid-morning so it was a bit of relief from the Florida heat. Anyways, everyone's thoughts have been focused on fall and I do love fall -- it's much nicer in other parts of the country where you get changing leaves and cooler climates. In Florida, fall is very subtle; not as hot and the grass turns from green to brown. Most of the trees keep their leaves so there's not very much along the lines of brilliant fall folliage. We used to have a couple of ornamental pear trees that turned a magnificient orange each fall but eventually they grew tired of the sweltering summers and one spring they just didn't come back.

Over at Scrapbook Elements (SBE) they've started a new tradition called U Build It (UBI) where all the designers created small parts of a kit for $1-$2 using the same color palette. This week they debuted Abundant Fall and I got a chance to use Kathy Krenek's contributions to create the layout below. You can click on my LO to my gallery and see the credits.

I used all three of Cathy's UBI Abundant Fall kits, each priced at $1.00, for my layout:

Cathy K's UBI Abundant Fall Burlap Bits,

Cathy K's UBI Abundant Fall Distressed Papers, and

Cathy K's UBI Abundant Fall Frame Clusters.

Next, fall always reminds me of Halloween and Cathy also has a cute new Halloween kit, called Spook Fest.

which I used to make a page about our granddaughter Autumn from last Halloween. And, yes, the mask on her face is part of Cathy's kit *LOL*. Click on the page to go to my gallery and see the credits.

I also used the kit to make a treat topper for putting on your goodie bags for good little ghosts and goblins. You can print two toppers on one standard-sized 8.5x11 sheet of paper -- I think that you can probably fit two on an A4 paper as well -- I just can't remember if it's a little bigger or a little smaller than American paper. Anyways, I left a journaling block on the back for you to print a message such as your name and address, a poem, or personalized greeting.

So what are you waiting for? Head on over to Cathy K's blog and pick up the treat topper that I made and treat your trick-or-treaters to a real treat!

Quick Posting - PreSchool Days Word Art

2009-10-02T10:17:00.001-04:00

Just a quick posting to show you some awesome Word Art by Jazzy available at DigiScrap Obsession:

The PreSchool Days Words to Delite by Jazzy was perfect for a couple of photos of my granddaughter and neice. I used a new kit from Designs by Sassy to accompany the word art:

Click on the photo or Here to see full credits on my LO called First Day. The photo was taken last month for our granddaughters first day at her new PreSchool.

Next up is a photo I took of my neiece when she came to visit Florida for Christmas. I love the little kimona she's wearing -- what a sweetpie she is! Click here or on the photo to view the credits.

Thanks for dropping by and have a great day!!!

A New Day ... A New Freebie

2009-09-22T22:59:00.000-04:00

Lynn, LPand3Dogs Designs, has a gorgeous new kit called Lizbeth available at DigiScrap Obsession. The colors are gorgeous -- purple, green, and blue.

It was perfect for a layout of my niece's wedding as her colors were purple and green.

I also used Jazzy's About Life Word Art. I changed the colors to match my layout. I love Jazzy's word art --- It just adds an extra special touch to my page. Thanks Jazzy!

LPand3Dogs Designs' Lizbeth is also versatile and perfect for a beach photo of our littlest granddaughter. The word art that I used on this page is by DigiVickie and is available to download on Vickie's Blog.

Lynn consented to let me give you a quickpage made from the layout above. Remember that all my freebies are Personal Use only. Please send your friends to my blog to download and do not share or post my kits and quickpages on Share Groups.

Download Quickpage made from Lizbeth by LPand3Dogs Designs

Thanks for stopping by!!!

Fish Tales and a Freebie

2009-09-20T00:57:00.000-04:00

Fishing has been a family tradition at my house as long as I can remember. I think I got my first fishing pole when I was 4 years old. Anyways, Cathy has an adorable new kit called Fish Tales and it is perfect for fishing and outdoor photos.

It also coordinates with her previous kit, Campfire Stories and Campfire Stories Metal Rimmed Alpha so you can use them all together.

Here's a couple of pages, I made using Cathy K's Fish Tales. The photos were taken during a couple of deep sea fishing trips at Nags Head, North Carolina.

I had a lot of fun playing with this kit and made a Fish Tales Border and a Fish Tales Photo Frame Cluster.
Here's a couple more pages that I made using the Fish Talkes Border Cluster and the Fish Tales Frame Cluster. I also used Cathy K's Grunge Masks on a paper on the Frame Cluster page for a bit of a different paper overlay look.

Stop by Cathy K's Design blog to pick up the Fish Tales Border Cluster and Frame Cluster. Thanks for stopping by!!

Freebie Time

2009-09-19T16:27:00.001-04:00

Hi!!! I've been busy and have created a new freebie kit for you using this month's color swatch from Kim's DSO Color Challenge. The dark colors inspired me to create Urban Fun and I hope you like it! I had a blast creating this grungy, funky kit which also includes a full uppercase alpha plus numbers. I included a blank tile so you can add whatever other letters you'd like. Have fun!!!

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Thanks for dropping by and have a great day!

New Kit and a Couple of Layouts

2009-09-16T21:00:00.001-04:00

It's certainly been a busy month. It seems like I've been going non-stop since Labor Day. I worked all that weekend and Monday then left town on the 10th for our neice's big wedding! What a wonderful time we had!

The weather was perfect! Even though the forecast called for rain, the weather held out until after the festivities!!!

I did take a few minutes and created a couple of layouts with Charlie's newest kit, In Memory Of... at DigiScrap Obsession. The muted colors are perfect for just about everything from weddings to fond memories.

Speaking of weddings, I took some old photos of my grandparents, one from around the time of their wedding in 1927 and another from their 40th anniversary in 1967 to create this first page. Jazzy's Words to Delight Words About Life word art was the like icing on the cake and I think it turned out beautifully!

And this year was our 40th anniversary of my high school graduation and there was a big reunion this summer, unfortunately I couldn't make it but some of my classmates shared some wonderful old photos of my home town and I used them to create the page below.

I'll have some goodies for you Saturday so check back in this weekend. Thanks for dropping by!

In the meantime, Lori has a cute QP using Charlie's In Memory Of... kit posted on her blog so what are you waiting for? Go check it out!

More Layouts and the Big Grab Bag Sale at DSO continues

2009-09-06T23:06:00.000-04:00

It's certainly been busy around my place.... I worked and installed a new server on Saturday and today I worked on homework. I finally finished and am taking a few minutes to show you some more pages I made from some of the Personal Use GrabBags at DigiScrap Obsession. At only $3 each they are great bargains!!

From Kim's bag --

I made this LO of our granddaughter. She was so excited last year when grandpa gave her a guitar for her birthday!

Click here to see credits for my layout.

Check out Kim's blog for quick page freebie and a link to some awesome word art.

Using Lynn's (LP and 3 Dogs Designs) Personal Use grab bag,

I used a photo of sweet Lily.

Click here to see credits for my layout.

Lynn has a scrumptous quick page freebie on her blog.

With Mel's (Melanie Ann Designs) Personal Use Grab Bag,

I made two more pages. One at Happy Harbor at SeaWorld with Lily and Jennifer.

Click here to see credits for my layout.

And the second one features a big bird we saw at SeaWorld.

Click here to see credits for my layout.

Melanie has a lovely quick page freebie on her blog.

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to say "thank you" when you go and collect your freebies!

Labor Day Weekend Sale and a Freebie

2009-09-06T09:45:00.001-04:00

For me, Labor Day weekend has always been an indicator that summer is over and fall is here. Of course, in Florida things are a little different than in Virginia where I grew up -- school starts in August and fall is still very warm (to non-Floridians, this means hot!).

I'm on Cathy K's creative team and she has come out with a new kit today called Campfire Stories that also reminds me of late summer and fall. I can smell the marshmallows burning on the fire and I remember picnics and cookouts when I was growing up. I didn't learn about s'mores until our girls were children so this is a later memory of burning, I mean roasting, marshmallows. When our daughter and her daughters were visiting a few weeks we made s'mores too. Now you can make them anytime!!! You just pop them in the microwave and in a few seconds, you have a s'more!!! Anyways, Scrapbook Elements is having a 40% off sale through Monday and if you like to maximum your dollars (and who doesn't with the economy the way it is!), check out Cathy K's newest kit.

Here's a couple of layouts I made using Campfire Stories. Both photos were taken by my daughter. The first one is of Lily smelling a cute little flower and the second one is of Lily, Piper and their dad on a nature walk. As you can, Cathy's kit is very versatile and even if you don't do any camping is very fun to use.

Speaking of fun to use, on the second layout I blended three separate papers together: the bottom layer is a blue denim paper, the middle layer is a green map paper, and the top layer is clouds. Also, I used one of Cathy's grunge masks on the photo itself.

Also, I made a litle freebie for you from Campfire Stories and you can pick up at Cathy's blog.

Stop by Cathy K's blog if you want to download the Campfire Stories Quick Page.

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to smell the marshmallows!

New Kits, Big Sale and Freebie

2009-09-03T23:29:00.001-04:00

Wow, it's been a busy week --- I started back to school, there are big digiscrapbook sales galore and I've been making loads of beautiful scrapbook pages --- Yippee!!!

First off, DigiScrap Obsession is having their second annual PU (Personal Use) Grab Bag Week! For $3.00 you get to sample some fantastic products worth much more than the price you'll be paying. I'm going to give you some clues by posting some pages that I've made using the DSO Designer's fabulous grab bags.

Next, I had the pleasure of working with Lynn's grab bag ---

Again, another recent vacation photo, this time of our youngest granddaughter Piper who is growing up way too fast...

And Lynn, LP and 3 Dogs Designs, has generously agreed to allow me to distribute a Quick Page made from this layout.

Download Lainey's Quick Page made with Lynn's DSO Personal Use GrabBag.

Enjoy! Stop by and check out the grab bag sale at DSO. Thanks for stopping by!

Hugs,
Lainey

Couple of New Layouts

2009-08-22T21:01:00.000-04:00

Loucee Creations has a new kit called Country Living. The colors are deep and rich plus there are fun animal stickers and a few rustic wooden elements. It's on sale at DSO right now.

It's just adorable and perfect for summer pages. I teamed it up with Lynn's Summer Wordart 2, also available at DSO:

and here's what I came up with --

Monday we spent the day at the Tallahassee Museum. They have a turn-of-the century farm with out buildings and animals. DGD Lily is strolling along the path.

And the second page is DGD Lily enjoying a treat while at Gatorland on her recent visit to Florida.

Drop by Loucee Creations' blog to see more cute pages and there's also a cute add-on kit there too.

Thanks for stopping by!

Busy, Busy Month

2009-08-22T14:43:00.002-04:00

Well, August is just about over and we've been ultra busy. Our daughter and granddaughters came for a visit on the 5th and left on Tuesday, August 18th. I got a bad cold and am just now recovering. Seems my computers were feeling a little puny as well and I spent a great deal of time nursing them back to health. We're all pretty much back to normal, or as normal as we get, *LOL*. I still don't have all my apps running on the new laptop and recently rebuilt desktop but I'm doing a little at a time on an as-needed basis.

Great news while on vacation!!! I applied and was accepted on the Creative Team for Digital Scrap Obsession, DSO!!! Yipee!!! This morning I created a little freebie for the DSO colour challenge. I love the colors and I think it turned out wonderful. There are 4 papers and 4 elements. Shadows are shown on the preview but are not on the elements. There are two versions of the bouquet, one with shadows and one without.

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Have a great day. I'll be posting some new layouts soon. Don't forget to say hello, I love reading your comments. Hugs, Lainey

Happy Birthday Rachelle

2009-08-03T12:10:00.000-04:00

Rachelle is having a month long birthday party over at her blog (http://doodelle.blogspot.com/). Stop by and wish her a happy birthday --- you can tell her that I sent you.

As part of the party there are going to be games --- the first game is Insomnia... we are requested to complete the following sentences, so here are my replies:

"I can't sleep till... I'm sleepy!"
"I can't live without... food, water, and a few other vital necessities!"
"I know that it's love because... I can sleep!"

Happy Birth Month, Rachelle!

Hugs,
Lainey

A New Month, A New Kit, A New Freebie

2009-08-01T23:38:00.000-04:00

It's really hard to believe that it's August already and the kids will be heading back to school in a very short time. I'm getting ready to head down to Orlando and meet the grandchildren and spend some time at Disney and Animal Kingdom. What a photo opportunity that will be!!! Can't wait to dust off the camera and get going!!!

Cathy K's at it again!!! Another fabulous page kit. This one is called These Days and is perfect for any occassion or everyday scrapping. With date pebbles and year tags plus month and day labels, it would also be good for 365 day scrappers. The color combination is just lovely with soft tans, blues, and greens plus a little red for just the right punch.

I used the big frame (not shown on the prevew) to display some photos of Piper playing outside in her boots. It's been raining a lot at her house and she has had a fabulous time splashing in puddles and enjoying her boots.

I also made a quick page from my layout so you can try out Cathy's new kit, These Days.

Download Lainey's Quickpage from These Days by Cathy K Designs.

Thanks for dropping by.... until next time, Lainey

Different Freebie

2009-07-26T13:08:00.002-04:00

With all the computer problems both at home and at work, there's been little time to do any designing this week. So, while cleaning up my hard drive to move everything over to my new computer, I found this paper pack just lurking on my computer. It's not doing anyone any good just sitting on my hard drive so I thought I would share it with you. It's not my usual stuff but seven gorgeous beach photos that I made into regular 12x12 digi-scrap papers.

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Once again, they are for personal use only. Enjoy and if you use them in a layout, I'd love to see your creation.

Also, Rachelle is having a month long party over at her place so stop by her blog and sign up --- I hear the goodie bags are awesome.

Cheers,
Lainey

It's Been A While!

2009-07-19T11:36:00.001-04:00

Wow, it's been a while since I've blogged but I had tons of computer problems ... first my data server crashed and I just got that rebuilt yesterday. Last week there were database problems and working late every night to get stuff back to normal. Sometimes I really don't like computers!!!

Well, since I've the computers up and running I had a bit of time last night to play... and create some new scrapbook pages. First off I used Cathy K's newest kit, Splash, available at Scrapbook Elements.

Plus her awesome template from the Scrapbook Elements Monthly Template Challenge to create this page of my granddaughters playing at the beach in St. Augustine.

I also completed another page using Cathy's K Blog Train Freebie Spring Blossom ... I just ADORE this mini kit and used it to create this cute page of granddaughter Lily.

That's all for now. I should have a new kit for you by next week end. Thanks for stopping by!

New Designer, New Kit, New Layouts, Quick Pages

2009-06-28T21:11:00.000-04:00

A short while ago, perhaps even as long ago as a month, my favorite doodler, Rachelle, had a one kit CT call. I responded and the kit that I got the pleasure to work with is That American Spirit by RachNess designs. It's a gorgeous kit with subdued shades of red, white, and blue; a little retro, a little vintage, a little grungy, and a lot of fun. It's available at Scrap Outside the Box and is available for half-price right now, a phenominal bargain at $2.50 for only 8 days! You can also stop by Rachelle's blog, aka Doodelle, and say hello and look at her fabulous doodles and see some of her other fabulous work.

I made three pages using That American Spirit. The first one is our granddaughter Piper just splashing away at Wakulla Springs on a recent visit to Granmom's and Grandpa's. The second one is our granddaughter Autumn playing softball. It's ironic that I was working at FSU at the time and her softball team was called FSU. The third one is a heritage photo of Frieda who was a WAC during World War II.

Anyways, so that you can get a taste of "That American Spirit", I created a couple of quick pages from my layouts.

Download 2 Quick Pages by Lainey from That American Spirit by RachNess designs.

One Fine Day QP Freebie

2009-06-17T22:59:00.001-04:00

Hi, just a quick posting to share a quick page with you from Cathy K's latest kit, One Fine Day, available exclusively at Scrapbook Elements. Cathy is the Featured Designer at SBE (Scrapbook Elements) for June and most of her digital kits are 30%, including One Fine Day. If you are on the SBE newsletter mailing list, you are in for treat because Cathy's newest kit, Stars and Stripes, is included in the June 2009 edition of the SBE Newsletter. If you are not signed up for the SBE Newsletter, bounce on over to SBE and sign up now. You're too late for the June issue but you'll be ready for the great articles and freebies for the coming months.

Here's a peek at One Fine Day...

Click on the image to look at Cathy's kit at SBE (on sale for 30% until June 30th).

Here's a LO I made using my Quickpage. It should look familiar because I showed it to you in my last posting [*LOL*].

And, here's a quickpage for you. So that you can get a close up look at Cathy's new kit. Just add a photo and some text --- voila! you're done!!! As usual, this quickpage is for personal use only. If you want to share with your friends, share my blog URL and send them here to pick up their own copy.

Download Lainey's QP made from One Fine Day by Cathy K's Designs

Thanks for stopping by and come back soon!

News, Fathers Day and Other Cards, and FREEBIE

2009-06-13T16:53:00.001-04:00

Just popping in for a quick hello and to share some stuff with you. First off, some news!!! I' on Cathy K's Creative Team (CT)!! Yeah!! Cathy K Designs can be found at Scrapbook Elements. She has some really awesome kits so drop by and check them out! Here's a page I made with her newest kit, One Fine Day. There's loads of cute acrylic elements and fun stuff in this kit. I've used a photo of our DGD waiting for Daddy to come home from work.

Here's a peek of the whole kit...

Click on the image to look at Cathy's kit at SBE.

More news: I'm going to be a guest CT for Rachelle next month. Yay!! More on this later. Her newest kit isn't finished yet.. can't wait to see it!!!

Lastly, I wanted to share some Father's Day cards with you. Well, mostly Father's Day cards. One just says "Thinking of You" plus I've taken all the text off and sent them along plain so that you can use for other occasions. I used stuff from my last two kits to make the cards. The ones on the left side of the preview are 4x6 inches and the other two are 5x7 inches. I usually just print the 4x6 inch ones on heavy paper, fold it and cut it out so that I have a "regular" card and write a message on the inside. You can also print them on matte 4x6 photo paper and write a message on the back like a post card. There are numerous ways to use them... You could also use to send an electronic greeting rather than printing them out. On the 5x7 cards, I like to print them on purchased 5.5x8.5 inch cards that I purchase with enveloped... just print it, jot a quick message and pop it in the envelope. These cards are for personal use. Send your friends to my blog if you want to share. Click on the image to see a larger version.

Download June 2009 Cards

Have a great day and stop back soon!

Exclusive Kit at PhotoCraft School House and New DSO Color Challenge Kit

2009-06-07T13:13:00.001-04:00

I've been really busy since my last posting and I have some fabulous news! I was a guest designer for the latest School House Lesson Kit at the PhotoCraft Schoolhouse When you purchase Lesson #6, it comes with my exclusive kit, Mama’s Garden as part of the package. So if you like learning about how to use Photoshop, check out PhotoCraft SchoolHouse Kit #6. This month’s kit includes making puzzle pieces from your photo, creating a digital butterfly, a French Memo board template, cutting and displacing your photos, fanned note sheets, creating journal strips, folded frames and my new exclusive PhotoCraft Schoolhouse kit, Mama’s Garden.

Here's a layout of my Aunt Leona's 90th birthday party.

And here's what the whole digital scrapkit looks like:

And a photo of the PhotoCraft Schoolhouse Lesson #6 in its entirity:

Also, there's a free sample of my kit at in the Gallery at PhotoCraft Schoolhouse as well as loads of other resources such as free tutorials in forum plus it's a great community with loads of support both in the forum and gallery. If you're interested in learning Photoshop and/or Photoshop Elements, they have an awesome instructor, Priss Steelman. Last fall I took the 3 part class on learning Photoshop and Elements. I used to use Photoshop 5.5 back when I was designing web pages. Once I moved into networking and had to purchase my own software, I reverted back to my ole favorite Paintshop Pro. Unfortunately when Corel bought it I dubbed it Pain-Shop Pro because it was such a memory hog that it was forever crashing my PC. When I found out about the class through DigiCraft Cottage, I jumped right in and it was a great experience so if you’d like to learn more about Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, give ‘em a try @ PhotoCraft Schoolhouse.

I've also created a new kit for Kim's monthly Color Challenge at DSO. Don't these colors just shout "SUMMER" to you???

This is my favorite kit (don't I just say that every month --- each new kit is my favorite until I make the next one --- *LOL*). I learned a lot making this kit from text on a path to turning seashells into flowers. Here's a couple of pages that I made with the new kit.

Did you see the little purple flowers???
I made'm out of seashells and sprinkles from some of Kim's commercial kits. I think they turned out just darling. And here's a couple of previews with links to download the kit.

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By the way, not all elements are shown in the preview. I made a lot of the papers rather plain this month and have included a couple of overlays: one with "Sail Away" text as used on the blue "watery" paper and the other with wavy text and boats that I used on the so that you can use them on whatever papers you want "beigy" paper. I noticed that the element pack is pretty hefty at around 60MB this month. Does that cause any problems for anyone -- should I break it in to two parts? If you run into difficulties, let me know. Also, there's a second shell flower that I used for the leaves on the first one. I only included a shadowed version of this element, if you need one without the shadows, let me know. I should have my layouts turned into quick pages in the next couple of days. So, if you like QPs stop back in in a few days.

Thanks for dropping by and have a happy day!

Hugs,
Lainey

Cards Made with New Kit

2009-05-21T22:01:00.001-04:00

Just wanted to share a couple of 5x7 cards I made for Card Challenge using my latest kit Another Time. Fonts that I used are Goudy Stout, Poor Richard, and Vladmir Script. The brads on the first card are from a kit I made last fall called Warm'n'Cozy. Pearls and rope shown on second card are not included in the kit.

Thanks for stopping by and come back soon!
Lainey

DSO Color Challenge -- Another Time Freebie Kit

2009-05-10T18:34:00.002-04:00

I've completed another of Kim's DSO Color Challenges --- this makes number 12!!! I love this month's color palette.

You can create a layout or kit to share using one of the color challenge kits or anything you like that uses these colors! You geat a great bonus for posting as well To play along, head on over ot DSO and check it out in the forum -- if you haven't registered, it's easy and only takes a couple of minutes!!! So here's what I made this momth with the color swatch. The colors reminded of summer fishing and water sports. There are 8 papers (one isn't shown in the preview) and two overlays -- a worn overlay shown in both the paper and elements preview and a grungy overlay shown only on the elements preview.

There are 16 elements and not all are shown on the preview. There are an upper and lower case duct tape alphas, one blue frame, two frame clusters, three three-photo frames (one with a string), one stringy journal block, a cardboard sailboat, a lighthouse, a fish net, a string, a fish thing, a fish rubon, and a fish sticker. All items are for personal use only. Don't share: send your friends to my blog to download their own copy and do not share through file services or email groups.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Happy Mother's Day!!! -- Word Art Freebie

2009-05-10T18:25:00.001-04:00

Hello and Happy Mother's Day... I made a few word arts that you can add to your Mother's Day layouts. Each one is approximately 3.5"x2.5" (ATC size) and 300 ppi. Enjoy!!!! To download, click on the picture and right mouse click and select "Save As".

Froggy Mini Album

2009-04-30T21:51:00.000-04:00

For several years I have been making these cute little mini accordion albums and always keep one in my purse. They are small, portable, and ever so cute. A dear friend is keeping her grandchildren while their parents are deployed away from home. Sheryl, I made these froggy mini-albums for your grandchildren so that they can keep photos of their parents in their pockets.

Here's a sample I made using photos from my grandchildren when they came to visit for Easter/Spring Break.

Here's another view...

This is what it looks like when you print the page out --

See how half the pictures and text look upside down? That's how everything is oriented correctly when you fold the paper. Basically, it's a quick page that requires you to put in one row of pictures and text, turn the file 180 degrees, and the put in the second row of photos and text. If you are unfamiliar with quick pages, you place your photos on layers below the quick page and you put your text in layers above the quick page. This mini album fits on one single sheet of 8.5x11 inch paper. Once you print it out, trim along the outside edges, fold it in half horizontally, and glue the white sides together. Fold along the lines and you're done!

In addition to the pretty pink froggie design, the zip file also contains one in blue for your little dudes. Clipart used in the min-album is by Heartbeatz Creationz (www.heartbeatzcreationz.com). As always, no hotlinking and this item is for Personal Use Only.

Download Lainey's Froggy Mini-Album.

Thanks for stopping by!
Hugs, Lainey

2009-04-26T17:21:00.000-04:00

Overlays are so much fun to use and so versatile. For example in my newest kit, Vintage Spring,

I purposely included a paper using a border as an overlay, a similar paper without the border, and the border itself so that you could participate right along with me while I show you some of the fun and interesting ways to use elements or papers as overlays. For this tutorial, I am using Photoshop Elements 5.0 and even if you have a different version of Photoshop or another program such as Paint Shop Pro, the concepts will be the same and you should be able to apply the concepts for use within your program. These are the programs that I am familiar with and I don’t know whether it will work with other software.Let’s begin by looking at my paper which uses a border as an overlay, Lainey_VintageSpringPaper1.jpg:

This is just a 600x600 ppi preview shown above, good for showing on the screen, not good for full-sized 12x12 inch printing. My previous posting contains all the items shows in the preview.Here’s the overlay that I used on my plain, textured paper. The name of the overlay is Lainey_VintageSpringBorder.png. [The background is actually transparent and not white – the fact that we can have transparent pixels within the graphic image is why we use the .png format.] So, let’s begin by using one of the plain papers in the kit, Lainey_VintageSpringPaper2.jpg, which is shown below.

Open both the border paper and paper2 within Photoshop Elements (or your graphic program).

Make sure that the background paper is displayed in your work area (Active Image Area) then drag the border image from the Photo Bin on top of your background paper. When you see the box on your background you know that your border will be copied into the background image when you let go of the mouse. Here’s how it should look before you release the mouse.

When you release the mouse, the border image will be centered on the background paper:

Move the border to where you want it for your finished design. I want mine to be at the very bottom of the page so I will make sure that the border layer is selected in the Layers Palette Bin and press Ctrl t (Command t on a Mac) to use the move tool* to reposition to where I want it on the screen. Once again look at Layers in the Palette Bin and locate the Blending Mode Menu (on the left-hand side, within the red oval) and the Opacity slider bar (on the right-hand side, within the red oval). By default the Blend Mode type is “Normal” and the Layer Opacity is 100%.

For a soft look, lower the opacity to 50%*. Click on the right-facing arrow head and move the slider bar to the left to lower the Opacity.

For other looks, select the down arrow head next to “Normal” (Blend Mode Menu) and try out the options. Some of options that I use the most are overlay and color burn. Just click your mouse within the Blend Mode box and you can scroll through the options and see how they look. You can also combine Opacity and Blend Modes for more variety. Here’s how the paper and border look using the Overlay Blend Mode on the border image. Play around and see which one you like best.

I don’t know about you but I have a hard time printing out blog articles, I get the first page of the document and then the rest is just gone. So, if you’d like to print out this tutorial to use at your desk while playing in Photoshop, you can download my tutorial in PDF format here.

So now you should know when people talk about overlays, they are most often talking about using the Blend Mode Menu or Opacity to visually merge two images together. The options selected determine the results.

If you have suggestions, for other topics, let me know and I’ll try to cover them in later postings. Or perhaps this is just too basic – let me know what you think!

*If you need some basic help with starting Photoshop Elements 5, you can print out the Custom Guide’s Photoshop Elements 5 Quick Reference here or if you are using other software, you can check for Other Custom Guide Tutorials here.

Thanks for dropping by!

Time is Rushing by...

2009-04-25T13:45:00.000-04:00

I really didn't know if I'd get a chance to participate in Kim's Color Challenge at Digiscrap Obsession this month because of all the stuff going on -- a special visit by our daughter and family, end of the semester and finals, after hours projects at work, etc. But, yay!!, I finished a new kit that I'll be able to tell you about next month and --- ta da --- a new kit for April called Vintage Spring. I love how it turned out. How about you??? If you snag it, please leave a comment; your comments inspire me to continue to provide qualty products at no cost. As always, no hotlinking, please send your friends to my blog and all my freebies are for Personal Use only.

I want to Download Lainey's Vintage Spring.

Thanks for stopping by!

March 2009 Color Challenge - Spring Chick

2009-03-15T11:03:00.003-04:00

Can you believe March is half over already??? Where does the time go? I've been busy with work, school, and a little scrapping now and then. Anyways, another month another Color Challenge at DSO. There are tons of gorgeous entries. Why not hop on over to Digital Scrap Obsession and pick up some lovely freebies? Just go to the Forum (you need to register first, though) then find Challenges, and the info is under Color Challenge - MARCH 2009. "Easy Peasy" as Kim would say!!! My inspiration for this month's kit was from some chick doodles that I scribbled one day. I scanned and colored them and built the kit around them. BTW, not all elments are shown in the preview, there are more ribbons and tags --- I just ran out of room to display them all.

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Thanks for dropping by!!!

I've been Tagged!!!

2009-03-15T10:31:00.000-04:00

Beth (Beth by Design) tagged me to go to my photos directory and find the 6th file in the 6th folder... Well, here it is Beth --- our lovely little Lily in Dec 2007. How cute!!! [Photo frame is by Kim Broedelet from her kit Heartfelt.]
I'm on Beth's Creative Team and she has just released a gorgeous new kit --- Natural Moods at Digi Scrap Obsession. It's on sale now plus you get her matching brag book for free!!! What an awesome deal!!!!

Heres a couple of pages of our granddaughter Autumn.

It's still winter where Autumn lives so I created this Spring page for her. Autumn has always loved lady bugs, so I included a cute little lady bug for her!

Bet you can't tell I'm missing the grands... *LOL* Here's another one of Autumn with the lady bug. Our daughter says that it's really hard to get Autumn to smile for photos these days. She did get "almost" a smile here and the photo is just so gorgeous. Thanks for the almost smile, Autumn!!! Well here you have it, Autumn in Spring pages using Beth's Natural Moods.

Thanks for stopping by. I enjoy reading comments so feel free to leave a message.

Happy Birthday Jennifer!!

2009-03-15T01:51:00.001-04:00

Today's my daughter's birthday and I have a little present for you. I finished my DSO Color Challenge kit and made a little something Eggstra Special because it's my baby's birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY JENNIFER!!!!

Actually there are two border clusters in the zip file --- one that has the Spring beads and one without. Enjoy and thanks for stopping by.

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Friday Freebie -- QP from Roche by Kim Broedelet

2009-02-19T18:00:00.002-05:00

Have you seen Kim's news page kit??? It's part of her friends series and is called Roche. Drop by Kim's blog and pick up the lovely matching alpha and there are links to some really gorgeous quick pages there, too.

The photo doesn't do it justice and there are just soooo many lovely elements to play with that it's hard to decide what to use. I made a couple of pages and there are still so many more possibilities to explore.

Here's Lily playing in the snow.... I just love the expression on her face:

And here's another of some lovely flowers from a park near our home.

I checked with Kim and she says its okay to give you a QP made with her kit....

Roche by Kim Broedelet is on sale for a limited time so drop by Digital Scrap Obsession and pick it up while it's on sale. To download the QP, click on the text or photo below.

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Thanks for dropping by and come back soon!

Wednesday Quick Page

2009-02-11T11:22:00.001-05:00

Hi! I made a layout using Kim Broedelet's newest grab bag. It turned out gorgeous and decided to share it as a QP. As always, this QP is for personal use only!

Download Love2 QP (Link Fixed).

I didn't get the link correct the first go-round. I have fixed it and tested that the file downloads and unzips. Sorry for the inconvience. Also, if you missed the Valentie QP from January 2009, scroll down or use this link. Thanks for stopping by!!!

Another Month -- Another Freebie

2009-02-08T09:46:00.001-05:00

Time once again for another of Kim Broedelet's color challenges at Digi Scrap Obsession. Here's the color pallette:

As an aside, if you've never been to Kim's blog, do yourself a favor and drop in. Kim's postings are outrageous and her freebies flow freely. Anyways, the colors this month are fabulous, Kim!!! Thanks Kim for sponsoring the color challenge and for all your wonderful freebies!!!!

Typically not colors you would associate with Valentine's Day but I thought I'd think outside the box and make a Valentine's kit, nonetheless. Most elements are versatile and you can use them for just about anything.

Here's a sample layout I made from some outside photos of our granddaughters. The frames and stitching are made by Gunhild and you can download them from Gunhild's blog. She's been doing Friday freebies for quite some time now and has tons of marvelous freebies. Thanks Gunhild!!!

The kit which I call, Have A Heart, has 8 textured and grungy papers, 1 worn and tattered paper (not shown in the preview) and an assortment of hearts and other elements. If you make a layout, please feel free to email it to me or leave a comment here and I'll post it here on the blog. Also, if you'd like me to share my layout as a quickpage, leave me a note. I hope you have as much fun using it as I did making it for you.

NOTE: The jar shown in the elements preview is not included. If you'd like a jar to fill for your pages, please visit Deb at The Scrapping Cop and you will be amazed at all the marvelous freebies she is giving away. Thanks Deb for your generosity!!!

If you download, please leave some love -- It's February and there are no wait times! *LOL*

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Hugs and Thanks for dropping by!!!

RAKed Again!!!

2009-01-21T17:36:00.000-05:00

I can't believe my phenomenally good luck!!! I WON the GRAND PRIZE -- Véro Pettingill's ENTIRE STORE!!! There's an action, glitter, styles, and some really cute kits...

Visit Vero's Blog for more details, to say hello, or to pick up a few freebies. Vero sells her designs at the DigiScrapShop under the brand The Scrapping Tree.

Here's a layout I made with Vero's An Icy Christmas Kit.

I made the little "S" hook that attaches the ornament to the alpha. I just typed an S using "A Yummy Apology" font, simplified the layer, flipped the layer horizontally and vertically, and then used a Burnished Silver action from Atomic cupcake for a three dimensional, metal effect!! Voila --- an ornament hook!!!

Thanks for dropping by!!! Hugs, Lainey

I've Been RAKed!!!

2009-01-17T10:41:00.001-05:00

Thanks to Danielle Corbitt, Star Studded Designs for the RAK!!! Her lovely new kit is designed with love and hearts, perfect for Valentines Day. Stop by Danielle's Blog and see all her new stuff (hint: there may be a freebie there, too)!!! I've got my eyes on her Celestial Sparkles!!!

Danielle's kit was just perfect for a picture of our two littlest granddaughters sitting on Daddy's lap!

Hugs and thanks for dropping by.

Guesss What??

2009-01-13T15:15:00.000-05:00

I’m on a new CT (Creative Team) for Beth Long at Digital Scrap Obsession. Beth has just released a brand new kit called “Autumn Splendor”, with rich textured paper, tears, grunge, and splats!!! It's so versatile, though you can use if for just about any type of photos you may want to scrap.

Here's a couple of pages I created using Autumn Splendor:

Our granddaughter Autumn used some Christmas money to get a new pet --- an African pigmy hedgehog --- isn't he just the cutest lil' guy? Autumn named him Mr. Snuffleapagus and calls him Snuffy for short.

Autumn Splendor contains 12 papers and 53 elements! Isn't it gorgeous:

Autumn Splendor is on sale at 25% off the regular price now through January 17th and if you buy Autumn Splendor while it's on sale (through January 17th), you can also get this matching 12 page Brag Book Album for FREE!!!

All you have to do if you want the FREE Brag Book Album is email BETH your invoice number after purchasing the kit (her email address is in the TOU’s in the download – or you can send Beth a PM at DigiScrapObsession).

Ohhh --- I almost forgot to tell you --- Beth has an Add On sampler pack that matches Autumn Splendor on her blog:

So click on over to Beth's Blog and check out her sampler!!! Don'f forget to check out my freebies while you're here, though *LOL* --- click on "Freebies" in the left column to see them all at once.

Thanks for dropping by and stop back soon!!!

Another Freebie!!!

2009-01-13T00:02:00.003-05:00

Just stopping by breifly to share a little something with you .... I've got another flu/cold and stuffy head so not thinking clearly. I did want to share a layout I made this weekend using some of the new products from Kim Broedelet’s January grab bag.

Kim's bag is on SALE until January 16th at midnight Eastern Standard so pick it up now before it's gone!!!

I also turned my layout into a quick page freebie for you to use if you'd like.

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Thanks for stopping by!!!

Old Freebies Will be Going Away Soon

2009-01-09T07:55:00.001-05:00

FINAL REMINDER. I'm going to be cleaning "house" on January 11th and everything over 6 months old will be archived. So if you see an oldie, please grab it now. Don't forget to pick up my newest freebie, A New Day:

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Thanks for dropping by.... don't forget to say "hi" and come back anytime.

Reminder --- Old Kits will be Removed 1/11/2009

2009-01-07T00:55:00.001-05:00

I'm going to be cleaning "house" on January 11th and everything over 6 months old will be archived. So if you see an oldie, please grab it now. Don't forget to pick up my newest freebie, A New Day:

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A New Day - 2009 - A New Freebie

2009-01-05T08:25:00.002-05:00

I am always amazed at how quickly the days/months/years seem to disappear. It seems like yesterday that it was 1999 and I was worried about Y2K, a rather anti-climatic event due to incredible planning of the IT community. The premise was that since most year fields in most databases were only 2 digits, how could we distinguish between 1900 and 2000. So there was a frantic pace to fix all computer programs and databases and include 4 digits in the date field so that we don't have any problem figuring out which century the data references. The irony of the whole situation is that every form that I have filled out recently is back to using 2 digits for the year field. Did we not learn anything or have we put more "smarts" into our computer programs and the computer fills in the first two digits for us? I vote for the latter -- that we have learned from our mistakes and use this knowledge to improve functionality. But I digress.

January, marks the seventh month that I have been designing digital scrapbooking freebies. Once again, I used the color swatch provided by Kim Broedelet for the DSO Monthly Color Challenge. However, this month I added a couple of dark colors to the swatch for contrast. Yesterday was the anniversary of the death of our oldest daughter and I dedicate this kit to Michaela and have named it "A New Day". I hope that you enjoy my newest creation and I'd love to see any pages that you make with it.

As a reminder, all my freebies are PERSONAL USE ONLY. Please send your friends to my blog to pick up their own copy --- no sharing and no direct linkings. Thanks for your understanding.

Here's a couple of QP's I made to match the kit...

Thanks for dropping by.... don't forget to say "hi" and come back anytime.

Oops, almost forgot to let you know.... I'm going to be cleaning "house" and everything over 6 months old will be archived. So if you see an oldie, please grab it now.

Merry Christmas - Happy Holidays - Freebie Time!

2008-12-21T10:36:00.001-05:00

I'm late, I'm late! What happened to December? I got sick when I went out of town for Thanksgiving and I've been playing catch up ever since. I finally got my DSO Color Challenge completed today ---hooray!!! Hope you have a wonderful holiday season and a Happy New Year.

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November Freebie

2008-11-12T20:17:00.003-05:00

Boy, time sure goes by quickly. It's been a busy month and there's still a lot to do. For the Color Challenge at DSO this month, I created a couple of layouts and thought that you might like the papers and frame clusters that I made for my pages.

Both of these LO's feature DGD Lily, on the left was her first day of pre school and the one on the right she is dressed as little red riding hood for Halloween.

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Please leave a comment if you download.
Thanks for stopping by.

Quick Page Freebie!

2008-10-20T10:19:00.003-04:00

Hi, I created this layout to test the kit I designed and decided to share it as a quick page. Hope you like it. I've shown it here with a photo of our DGD Lily. By the way, the cluster frame is included in the kit, it's just sort of hidden in the preview.

If you download, please say hello. {link expired}

Freebie for October Color Challenge at DSO

2008-10-14T20:19:00.001-04:00

I love the color palette for Kim's October Color Challenge at DSO... Lots of soft colors which reminded me of shabby chic. So here's what I came up with... flowers, a butterfly, lace, and some grungy papers. Hope you like it.

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Thanks for dropping by and leave a comment. Don't forget to scroll on down and check out some of the other scrapping kits available on my blog. There are tons of wonderful kits available at DSO so head on over there, too!!! See you soon.

Freebie Time!!!

2008-10-11T10:17:00.001-04:00

I made a paper out of a fabulous photo my daughter took at a pumpkin farm. We thought you might like to use it for your fall photos. I had planned on putting it up yesterday for our granddaughter's first birthday celebration --- Happy First Birthday Piper!!! --- but didn't get the preview finished until today. Anyways, this is a limited time freebie and will only be available for the month of October. As always, this paper is for Personal Use Only.

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If this is your first visit to my blog, click on the Freebie link in the left-hand column and feel free to snag any of my previous freebies. Thanks for dropping in!

Party On!!!! Fall Splendor Blog Party

2008-09-30T20:57:00.001-04:00

What happened to September?? Can you believe it? September is over already!!! I have a little surprise for you that I've been wanting to tell you about for a while --- We're having a Blog Party!!!! SURPRISE!!!! It's going to be a fabulous event!!! There are 60 designers participating in our Fall Splendor Blog Party. Many thanks to Kristine for planning, orchestrating, and hosting this event!!!

That's a preview of my contribution which I call Fancy Fall; as with all my kits, it's for personal use only. There are six fancy papers and a complete fancy alphabet which includes upper and lower case letters as well as numbers and some special characters. Here's a better view of the alpha.
The alpha can be downloaded as one big file or you can download the parts separately if you have a slow connection or if you just want part of the set.

Remember, you don't need to download the links below if you download the Fancy Fall Complete Alpha.

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To return to Fall Splendor BlogParty Central, visit http://blogpartycentral.blogspot.com

Thanks for stopping by and hope you enjoyed your stay!!!

Warm'n'Cozy Elements

2008-09-10T09:43:00.004-04:00

Well, I was going to wait and dole these out on a daily basis but I finished everything last night and thought I'd just give you these last three parts all at once! ENJOY!!

I created two element packs for Warm'n'Cozy. The first one is mostly rusty-looking metal pieces and the second one contains the softer fabric-looking elements. I also included the background papers so that when you download, you are getting everything that you see in the preview. The papers are the same ones that are in the paper packs so you can delete these if you have the paper packs.

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DSO Color Challenge Warm'n'Cozy Paper Pack 3

2008-09-10T09:35:00.002-04:00

Okay, let me start again since I just lost my first post. This is last paper pack for Warm'n'Cozy, my kit designed for DSO's monthly color challenge.

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DSO Color Challenge Paper Pack 2

2008-09-09T09:41:00.001-04:00

Here's the second paper pack for my DSO Challenge kit, Warm'n'Cozy. Tomorrow I'll be finishing up the papers with paper pack number 3.

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DSO Challenge Paper Pack 1, Freebie

2008-09-08T17:04:00.000-04:00

Can you believe it?? We're all ready a week into September!! I've been doing pretty good at keeping up with my blog since I started doing the monthly challenges at DSO! My newest kit is called Wam'n'Cozy because the colors remind me of the crisp, cool days of September from my childhood. Now that we live in Florida, cool and crisp are reserved for the 4 days that we call winter --- **LOL**!!!

Have you seen the new grab bags at Divine Digitals? I love to play around and make my own stuff so the Cindy Ritter - Cyndi Wetmiller commercial use duo is totally awesome and each lady also supplies you with an additional commercial use gift after your purchase. Check out Strickly Reveal for a peek at what's in the bag!

I'm doing things a bit differently this month and breaking up the kit into several pieces. Today's paper pack for the DSO Color Challenge was made using one paper from Cyndi Wetmiller's new commercial use kit, French Country Overlays Set One. This is Cyndi's free gift when you buy the commercial use grab bag!!! How's that for a deal!!!

The paper overlay that I used looks like a wood block print and by combining with other overlays and colors, the combinations give variety and texture to the papers.

Download Warm'n'Cozy Paper Pack 1 from MediaFire.

Please leave a little comment/luv if you downlaod the papers! Have a great day and hugs until next time!!!

Misty Morning Layouts and Quick Pages

2008-08-15T08:15:00.003-04:00

I created a couple of pages using my latest kit for the DSO Color Challenge and thought that I'd share them with you as quick pages.

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Misty Morning - August 2008 Color Challenge

2008-08-09T23:44:00.002-04:00

Can you believe it? It's August already?? Where has the summer gone? Seems like just yesterday school was out and now everything is buzzing about back-to-school. This month's color challenge was a lot more challenging than last month's. The colors really reminded me of beaches but there's been so many awesome beach kits out lately I wanted to do something different. I stuck with the water theme but let my mind drift to cool mountain streams -- such a nice thought on a hot summer's day. Anyways, here's my latest foray into designing -- Misty Morning. There are 8 papers and 16 elements, not all are shown on the preview. Papers are 12" x 12" and all items are 300 dpi.

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Summer Heat - July Color Challenge at DSO

2008-07-13T13:00:00.002-04:00

Ta da ... I finished it early!!! I'm really happy with the way this kit turned out! There are 12 papers and 15 elements.

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July DSO Challenge

2008-07-12T00:01:00.003-04:00

I'm still working on my new kit for the July DSO Color Challenge. I have a little preview using a couple of QP's I've created from the kit, which I've named Summer Heat. Can you tell it's really hot around here??? **LOL**

As usual, the quick pages do not include my photos, there is just a "hole" for you to add your favorite photo.

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Thanks for stopping by!!!

Freebie for Color Challenge at DSO

2008-06-11T00:25:00.002-04:00

I created my first freebie --- a kit for Kim's Color Challenge at DSO (http://www.digital-scrapbooking.org/). For details, visit the Forum. I designed the kit for my husband and called it Mother Nature's Son. He loves playing the guitar and being outside.

Shh... I made this page as a Father's Day gift for him:

Here's a preview of the kit:

To download click {link expired} or on the image above. If you download, please leave a comment. THANKS!!!

2008-06-05T13:46:00.000-04:00

Blog Me!!!

I'm participating in monthly challenge at Divine Digital hosted by Cyndi Wetmiller, Wetfish Designs, called Blog Me.

As Cyndi explains it --

"...we're making interactive quickpages together and using our blogs to show the quickpages being made from start to finish! Kind of like a circle journal, but this is a "circle quickpage." How fun is that?

Well we have ten scrappers, including me, and I start the ball rolling by posting Phase 1 of the first quickpage we are making with my kit "Ellie and Lucy." This is a kit I designed for Kirsty Wiseman's daughter, Ellie, and her pet turtle, Lucy. You can read about Ellie here: http://www.kirstywiseman.com/ellie.html

50% of all the proceeds from this kit will be donated to Ellie's trust fund to help Ellie with her battles in the world of medicine. Ellie actually picked the colors, pink for her and green for her turtle, Lucy. I hope you like it and purchase it since it is for such a good cause. This kit is packed with great stuff. There are 23 papers, each unique and rich in texture and color. Then there are 32 elements, also unique and colorful. And at the heart of it all is Ellie a little girl fighting hard to be a normal teenage girl in Manchester, England and her little turle, Lucy. You can purchase the full kit, "Ellie and Lucy," here:

http://divinedigital.com/boutique/product.php?productid=4566&cat=0&page=2

Here's Cyndi's initial QP to start us off:

Check on Cyndi's blog for the progress of the QP!!

Blog Me List---Check out the blogs of the "Blog Me" Participants!

http://www.wetfishscraps.blogspot.com/
http://simplyscraps.blogspot.com/
http://angmag55.blogspot.com/
http://claysmommy.blogspot.com/
http://relocateddixiegir.blogspot.com/
http://fwts.blogspot.com/
smith5160 hosted by: http://www.wetfishscraps.blogspot.com/
http://treasuredreflections.blogspot.com/
http://grandmaspixels.blogspot.com/
http://memorylanecreationsbycharlene.blogspot.com/

Happy Scrapping --- oh yes, when we get through with the QP, we'll be sharing it at the end of the month!!!

2008

2008-01-24T23:14:00.000-05:00

I'm not really a very consistent blogger it seems. Try just seems to fly by. It's already the end of January. This is just a quick posting. I wrote a quick article about Tabbed Browsing and wanted to see if I could share a PDF file here. Nope --- will have to use another method. I uploaded it --- here's the article on Tabbed Browsing.

Mid December 2007

2007-12-17T00:10:00.000-05:00

I've been keeping busy making gift calendars and craft projects for Christmas. Here's an ornament I made in PSE 5 using the tutorial from Scrappers Guide. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

2007-12-01T16:22:00.001-05:00

Where the heck has the year gone? I can't believe it's December! *LOL*

Again this year Ten Two Studio is having a Christmas countdown with graphics suitable for altered art. The price to participate is linkware so I am letting everyone know that you can countdown with Ten Two Studio at this URL: http://countdown.tentwostudios.com/