I’m Moving!

I like WordPress, I really do. It’s just that I can’t really customize it to look the way I want without hosting my own site, with my own domain name. And I am really starting to feel creative. So, for the time being, I am going to move to http://nvscrapper-notes.blogspot.com.

Until I figure things out.

Tomorrow I have some exciting stuff for you. In the meantime, as one final post, let me show you have much fun I’ve been having with blurring backgrounds. This is something that I have wanted to learn because, let’s face it, I’m not the best photographer. And while I try to pay attention to my backgrounds (now!), sometimes you just need to put the focus on your subject, not the background.

Like here:

Anyway, I have a great pic of Steven, but the background is SOOOOO distracting:

But with a little creative editing, I’ve turned the focus onto Jimmy Neutron….I mean, uh, Steven…

Hello 2010!

I have a really good feeling about this year. So far, things have started off well, and I am very excited by that! A new year, a new decade…what’s not to be excited about?

And I’ve been scrapbooking, which is always a good thing.

I found some of my favorite pictures from 2009 and put them together in this layout.

All papers and embellishments are from the Love Actually kit by Lisa at Sophisticated Scraps. I had fun playing around with Jessica Sprague’s tutorial on creating a dreamy look in your pictures. I used it on all of them, but I like the way my daughter’s picture turned out the best.

That’s not all, though. I’ve been having so much fun with templates that I made another one for you. I actually made the template first, then used it to create the above layout. That way I know for sure it works.

*Click on the preview to download:

Simple Pleasures

Well, on this fair New Year’s Eve, I’ve been messing around with different functions in PSE, trying to learn more about it so that my scrapping just gets better. There are some great PS tutorials on Jessica Sprague’s site — the Photoshop Friday index. Here’s what I’ve been working on (this is the original photo):

And the after:

*The Grunge mask is from The CoffeeShop.

And cuz I love you, I am sharing the fun wordart I made for this pic:

*Click on preview to download.

Goodbye 2009 and a template

Wow, it’s been a crazy couple of days. A week ago today was Christmas Eve, and let me tell you…it got a bit scary at my house. Around 9:00 pm my daughter called me to tell me she was on her way home for Christmas, and about 15 minutes later I got another call from her, not on her phone, saying that she had rolled the car and wrecked it. She was transported to the hospital, but aside from a concussion, she is ok. But it was still a bit scary.

Of course, I took pictures of the car, which will be in my HIH album (when I finish it). I didn’t get any of the pictures from Christmas Eve that I wanted, but mostly because I was sidetracked.

Do you have any resolutions for the New Year? Mine is mostly to have a better outlook on things. This has been a rough year for me, but things are starting to look up. And my plan is to keep it that way! Another of my resolutions is to create more “stuff.” Maybe templates, maybe word art, maybe full on kits (we’ll see!). But I really love this whole digital scrapbooking thing, and sharing makes me happy.

And as a parting gift to 2009, I created the first in a series of recipe cards. I know many of you will be planning on a new diet in the New Year (as am I–see my new blog “Vegetarian for a Year“), so recipe cards are always nice. I will keep adding completed cards as well–who knew those would be so popular?

So without further ado–Happy New Year!!!

*Click Preview to Download

HIH December 12-20

Well, today is the 23rd, so I guess I’m not too far behind. This is actually only four layouts, because December kind of got away from us. Steven was sick for over a week, and we had to get caught up on his homework before the winter break, so a lot of time was spent working on that. Also the general “Christmas is here, we better get with the program” stuff happened as well.

Steven got braces on his teeth on the 21st–that will be a two-page layout.  Yesterday will be movies, and today we have friends, so fun pics there as well. And then Christmas eve will be a 2-pager (I hope), as will Christmas day. And then we’ll see how it goes from there. But still fun, and I am so glad I participated in this!

Gift Box

Yesterday I made teacher gifts for Steven to take to school. They are tiny little gift bags that hold a tea bag of Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride Tea for each teacher. I printed two bags per sheet of paper, and they were just the right size to hold a tea bag. If you print one per sheet of paper, it should work for a bag of cocoa.

As my gift to you this Christmas, I am sharing the template I made. Along with a finished bag using Sweet Tweet Designs Roasted Marshmallows kit.

*Click Preview to Download

Soup and Cookies

Yes, I’ve been working on my pages (and I will share more soon), but I’ve also been doing other stuff as well. I made recipe cards for four of the cookies in this year’s cookie swap, which I am sharing here with you. I’ve also made a card for our go to soup (which we eat when nothing got pulled out of the freezer for dinner). It’s yummy and filling–and perhaps even kind of gourmet.

*Click on the preview to download

HIH December 10 – 11

I know, I know. I have been mostly keeping up with the picture taking, but I’ve gotten a bit behind on the layouts. I am trying to remedy that, however.  I am thinking the next couple of layouts will be 1 pagers, though–that just seems to be how it worked out.

So, without further ado:

Baby, It’s Cold

I have a freebie for you (oh, yeah–one of my own!). This is the word art I did for one of my Holidays in Hand pages.

*Click on the preview to download wordart.

HIH December 9

We pretty much did nothing on the 9th except cuddle up in blankets on the couch and watch Christmas specials. Steven spent a lot of the day in bed, but he’s felt well enough to eat dinner.

I took him to the doctor today. He has a sinus infection and bronchitis. Great. Luckily, we’ve been able to get most of his homework online, so he shouldn’t be too far behind when he gets back to school (Monday? I hope so!)