Really Quick Boy Scrapbook Layout

Sometimes a picture just says it all. My nephew's expression when he saw me pointing my camera at him really needs no caption!

Sometimes I want a a very simple one-photo layout - like this. The background paper is Club Scrap Digital and I'm sorry but I can't remember where I got the polaroid frame. The postal stamp is from a dingbats alpha downloaded from the internet. The stapes are mine.

And that's it!

Digital Word Art for Children's Layouts

Eight pieces of brand-new digital word art (including one with color and styles added) especially for use on children's scrapbook layouts. Quotes and sayings from Winnie-the-Pooh to a former First Lady. Use them as titles or embellishments. All created at 8"x4", 300 dpi and delivered as .PNG files with transparent backgrounds.

Just $1.49

I hope you enjoy using these as much as I enjoyed making them!

Thx, and do stay tuned for news about my new online store where I'll have all my products and services in one place and a much easier check-out process!

The Cat and the Hummingbird Digital Page Layout

Just a quick and fun layout to document my cat, Scout, who loves to hunt birds. Digital papers and brads are from my digital scrapbooking kit, "Fresh As."

Two of my fave things: birds and cats. Getting them to co-exist together can be a bit of a challenge.

A few years back, after losing a cat to a car, we put up cat-fencing to enclose part of our yard and provided a cat-door into it. The cats come in and out but can't roam escape the enclosed garden. It has also, finally (though only after a few modifications involving trees and an arbor), solved our raccoon problem. (The little rascals used to come right into our house through the cat-door and eat all the cat food, not to mention make a huge mess with water and muddy feet.)

The Cat Garden, as we now call it, is right outside my kitchen window, also a prime location for bird feeders and we had a number of them out there. It wasn't long before I was finding dead or dying birds in the house and feathers scattered around. It hit me that we were luring birds straight to the cats!

We moved all but two of the birdfeeders to locations outside the Cat Garden. The two we left were the thistle feeder for finches and the hummingbird feeder, which we hung high on a shepherd's crook. We figured that these two types of birds would be safe since finches rarely, if ever, feed on the ground, and as for hummingbirds, well, everyone knows they are so fast a cat couldn't possibly catch one.

You know where this is going, right?

One day I came home from work and there was a dead hummingbird in the dining room. Wha'?

Ok, I thought, must be a fluke. Maybe the bird was ill or dying or very young and not too smart, maybe one of the cats just got darn lucky. No way could that happen again.

The next week when I came home there were TWO dead hummingbirds in the house. I could NOT believe it. And there was Scout sitting guard over one of the birds, looking all smug and pleased with herself, and she even had a tiny iridescent feather or two stuck to her orange fur. The little bird-murderer!

It looked like we were going to have to move the hummingbird feeder out of the Cat Garden. I pondered where the new location should be, where I could still see and enjoy them. I went outside and walked around the backyard, considering each window as a possible new location. Near the Cat Garden I looked through the mesh fence and watched Scout strolling toward a huge bush heavy with scarlet trumpet-shaped flowers.

There were two hummingbirds hovering at the feeder near the window but she didn't even give them a look. I thought that quite odd until I realized she had a destination and a plan. Moving silently and smoothly she slipped into the jumble of branches of the flower-laden bush and disappeared.

No sooner had she vanished than I noticed one of the hummingbirds zip over to the bush and begin feeding from the bright flowers. The bird zigzagged from one flower to the next, working its way down toward those blossoming near the ground.

That was when I understood how Scout had caught the hummingbirds. She'd ambushed them! I threw open the gate and strode toward the bush frightening the hummer away. Then I shooed Scout out from her hiding place and gave her a scolding which she pointedly ignored.

Within an hour I had trimmed away the branches closest to the ground leaving a gap of about eighteen inches. Now if she sat under that bush Scout would be in plain sight of the birds. I crossed my fingers and hoped my hunch was correct.

That was a couple years ago and we've had no more dead hummingbirds. I think we've finally figured out how to have cats and birds in the same garden.

Digital Freebie - Page Layout Template

(click on the image to download)

I liked this layout so much that I decided use it as the basis for today's free digital page layout template. AND I'm including the "speed limit" traffic sign that I created, complete with scratches, and mud splatters.

The traffic sign is in .PNG format, 4x4 in size, and 300 dpi.And now a little about the template.

This is the first Webajeb template in a new and improved format inspired by Jessica Sprague. Last week while reading Jessica's blog I came across this posting. Jessica had come up with a new idea to make her templates even easier to use. What she has begun doing is adding a plus sign (+) in front of the layer name for any layer in the .PSD file that is clippable.

Digital scrapbookers know that by "clippable" I mean the technique of clipping a piece of digital paper or a photo to the layer below it, causing it to take on the shape of that layer. Super handy & fast when using templates and dragging in your own papers and photos.

(If you are not familiar with clipping, or using digital templates, Jessica has put together an excellent video tutorial which you can view here.)

The plus signs on the layer names make it easy to quickly differentiate clippable layers from layers that contain text, embellishments, or other non-clippable layers.

In her blog post Jessica wrote, "I actually hope this trend catches on among template designers, and everyone starts offering a + before clippable layers."

I am happily taking her up on that suggestion because I think it's a great idea!

I hope you enjoy my newest template (and the traffic sign embellishment bundled with it). Please share how you use them and I'll feature you on my blog!

Digital Airplane Template by Mega-Doodle Inspired

I created this using the Mega-Airplane Template from Mega-Doodle Inspired (one of my fave sites for cool digital stuff). I used Club Scrap digital papers (Matrix kit) and clipped the papers to the layers - totally easy and quick. I then simply ran the render filter on blue paper for the cloud effect behind the airplane.

It can be used for banners, blinkies, and websites. CU, PU, and S4H all OK. Gotta love THAT.

How cute would this be in a blinkie with a banner streaming out behind it?

The template can be found in the Mega-Doodle Inspired store, here. It's on special for February, only $2.56 (regularly $4.00). The template includes a layered .PSD file plus 21 .PNG files, 1 for each airplane part. EASY to use; simply use color overlays or clip digital papers to each layer.

I'm really loving templates lately. Am going to try my hand at designing some page layout templates which I will make available a bit later today!

One will be a FREEBIE!

See ya real soon.....

Gorgeous Digital Portrait Page Layouts

Some photos are just too special to simply frame as is.

They deserve a little something "extra," like the technique I used to create this soft-focus, double-image effect. It looks great with either black-and-white or color photos.

I can do this for you!

Just send me your extra-special photo(s) via e-mail or my photo dropbox (click here for contact info). I'll apply this **technique, print your 8x10 portrait page on high-quality, high-gloss photo paper, and mail it to you, for the all-inclusive price of $12.00 each. I'll even convert your color photo to black-and-white, if you like, at no extra charge.

If your favorite photo is already printed, you can snail-mail it to me (click here for mailing address) and I'll scan it into digital format, again at no extra charge. I'll return your original photo to you unchanged in any way.

**This technique works best on portrait-style photos without distracting backgrounds.**

You can pay easily via Paypal, even it you don't have a Paypal account. Simply go to the Paypal website, click the "Send Money" button, enter my email address (found here), your email address, and the amount, and click "Send." Then follow the directions to either log into your Paypal account OR enter a credit card number.

These portrait page layouts make wonderful gifts. Order today!

Digital Scrapbook Paper - Barack Obama

If you missed the freebie paper, or have already purchased one paper and want one or both of the others, here they are in a set, for just $2.49! Each paper normally sells (on my website) for $1.00 each, so this is a deal. Just use the Buy Now button below.

There is more Obama paper and Word Art to come in the next few days. I hope to also get some embellishments created, too, as well as another patriotic-style alpha, I'm thinking a more formal looking one. Basically, I'm just letting my imagination take over and seeing where it takes me.

So, if you have anything in mind, Obama-style, that you'd like to see, that would really make your Inauguration 2009 pages complete, just let me know and I'll see what I can do. I always love a challenge!

I'd love to see any layouts you make with my digital designs, so don't hesitate to email them to me, or send me a link to where they are posted.

Happy scrapping, and be sure to check back for more fun stuff!

Ladybug Digital Paper and Embellishment

Love ladybugs? Then this digital ladybug and her matching ladybug paper is for you!

Whipping up a page layout will be a snap with these! Just add your photo(s), a title and some journaling, and one or more sweet ladybugs and you're done! As an added bonus, I have also included the paper with several ladybugs already added.

This mini set is just $1.49. All images are 300 dpi. The papers are .jpg files and the ladybug is a .png.

Get these items and many more here. When you are done viewing the ladybug kit, be sure to click the Home button at the top of the page and then go to my online store. LOTS of digital products and new ones are being added daily!

Finally, have fun with ladybugs!