My father passed away in the early hours of the 17th, after going into shock from massive blood loss. Needless to say, I currently don't have the heart to start creating anything or sharing anything interesting here. I don't want to leave you guys hanging, but I *WILL* return slowly next month. Please stay tuned, everyone, and thanks for your lovely support so far.
Hello everyone. I'm sorry I haven't posted in so long, but life is getting in the way and 2009 is simply determined to go down in flames and take everyone with it. There's a lot of chaos here. My dad went in hospital Sunday night and he came very close to dying on Monday. He's been on life support but is doing better now. The recovery process will be very long and possibly arduous, with his leg being amputated as well as his kidneys and liver having been compromised, so I may not update much until I return to Canada. I'm at the hospital for a good 12 hours every day, but today it's icy out so we've been unable to leave to go visit. There's a lot more going on as well, unfortunately. So I will come back to you all as soon as I am able to do more scrapping and making new things!
I'm afraid I'm unable to finish the 12 Days of Christmas freebies here on my blog. My father went into the hospital last night, and he took a turn for the worst and we came very, very close to losing him. He's beginning to stabilize now, but it's still a very touchy situation. They've got him intubated, on tons of different drips and blood and plasma, and they've got him on dialysis. They're trying to keep a good outlook on things and so are we, so your thoughts and prayers this holiday season are greatly appreciated. Mom and I will be at the hospital every day, so I will not have the time to post on here a lot. I'm sorry I can't finish the 12 days of freebies.
Love and tired hugs,
Mary
Hello everyone. I'm going to double up for tomorrow and go ahead and post Day 7's freebie. My dad is very ill and will most likely be admitted into the hospital tomorrow morning if not sooner, so I won't be around to post here.
Day 6:
Click to go to full-size word art, then right-click to save to your computer.
Day 7:
Click to go to full-size word art, then right-click to save to your computer.
I also have a little something else today, a gift tag template! There's a little challenge at DSP to create a gift tag, and I thought I'd share my template with you :)
Click the image to go to the full-size tag, then right-click and save to your computer.
On the 8th I shall have a new set of Christmas-themed Backgrounz for you :)
Here are two layouts I've done since last night. Heidi Kuester is the featured designer for December at DSP, and there are currently two awesome posting bonuses by her as a reward for making 5 and 10 layouts using her products. I think I've got 5 done so far.
Using her Merry Mistletoe Backpack and Santa's Snowflakes kit, along with Christine Gundersen's Spots & Baubles QC...
Using Heidi's Softly Spoken kit...
I really like seeing my pages improve with composition and inspiration!
Love and snowflakes,
Mary
It's Snowy Saturday in Virginia! Here's some word art for you today!
Click the word art to go to the full size version, then right-click and save to your computer :) Full-size word art is 1500x600px.
What's your favourite Christmastime treat? Mine are peppermint pinwheel cookies, real easy-peasies. Here's the recipe for them, straight from my mother's recipe box!
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 stick) butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp mint extract
Red food colouring
Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together. Beat butter and sugar until mixture is fluffy. Beat in egg yolk and vanilla. Stir in flour mixture a bit at a time until it forms a soft dough. Divide dough in half; add mint and red food colouring (however much red food colouring you put in is up to you--my mother always put enough to make it pink but not red) to one half of the dough. Roll out each colour dough to a 16x10-inch rectangle between sheets of wax paper. Remove top sheet of wax paper from red dough and place dough, top side down, on top of plain dough. Peel off wax paper. Tightly roll dough like a jelly roll. Wrap in foil and freeze. Remove from freezer 30 minutes before cooking. Cut roll into 1/4-inch-thick slices and place on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake in 350*F oven for 10 minutes or until firm but not brown. Makes 5 dozen cookies.
Love and lots of cookies,
Mary
Woohoo, it's FRIDAY!! It's also the 4th day of 12 Days of Christmas, so guess what, you all are going to get my very first kit, which was for Saturday Night Live 56 at DSP! If any of you want it, that is. Hee hee. It's not too bad for a first try!
Click here to start downloading Tasty Treats!
I really don't know what on earth is wrong with the blog comments! I apologize for any inconvenience, but I can't for the life of me figure out what's going on there. Hmm.
~Here a new layout from me.~ It's for Christine's latest Goodies with Gundi challenge over at DSP, using her kit Amazing Cobalt. Click here to go to the challenge and see the gorgeous kit! I'm recommending her Amazing Cobalt Value Collection because it's totally worth it! All those intense blues and charcoals and touches of sparkle are absolutely wonderful. I realized that I've been making too many layouts with darker, more neutral or warm colours, and I definitely decided I need more bright, funky layouts, so I've really been throwing them out there lately :D
It's a sunny day down here in Virginia, and a chilly but sunny one in Canadaland. I can't wait to go back home, argh. I've been working on my permanent residency stuff while working on scrapbooking... now that's multitasking! I told my DH that if I successfully get through all this paperwork, I can do ANY paperwork in the world. Now let's just hope they approve me quickly.
Good afternoon! Here's the freebie for Day 3 of 12 Days of Christmas! :)
Click here to download SMD_Believe_Wordart.zip
I'm glad you all are bearing with me as I continue to learn and experiment with designing stuff for digital scrapbooking. I know I have a very, very long way to go before I'm as good as those who I follow on here, but I think I'm off to a fair start :D
Today I'm plugging http://grannyart.blogspot.com. She has tons and tons of awesome graphics to use for anything you desire; she states that everything she makes for free is for unlimited use! I'm using/editing a few of her things in my SNL 57 kit, which is almost done already. Her great stitches really come in handy!
I really need to make a full layout for this blog and tidy things up, but that's one thing I'm not versed on yet is creating my own Blogger layout. Eeek. Anybody have any tips on that?
I think I might make a book of Christmas recipes using the kits from SNL 56...hmm.
Love and lots of candy canes,
Mary
Happy Wednesday! I forgot to mention yesterday that it was the start of the 12 Days of Christmas Freebies here on my blog! Well, the time zone for Blogger is behind my time zone, since it actually posted on November 30th instead of Dec. 1st, but I digress. For day 2, I have a pretty quickpage for you called Snow Surprise!
Click here to download SMD_SnowSurprise.zip (Quickpage and TOU)
Hope you enjoy! Check back tomorrow for another freebie :) And remember, more comments mean more freebies!
Love and plenty of hot cocoa,
Mary
Happy December 1st! Here is my kit for the Worldwide Christmas Scrapbooking Freebies blogtrain! Click here to see the list of designers offering free kits! I'm so happy to be a part of this.
Click here to start your download!
I hope you all enjoy! :) Please give the other designers in the blog train time to put their kits up due to varying time zones.
Good afternoon from a very rainy and windy Virginia! It may be colder in Ontario where my husband is (and where I'm immigrating to), but at least it's not rainy and windy. Ick. Makes me just want to sit here and eat stew and drink hot cocoa. I have the hot cocoa, but not the stew... eurgh. Oh well...
I've made a Christmas card for everyone!
This was made using Lauren Bavin's gorgeous new kit, A Christmas to Remember. Click here to go see it in the DSP store. I really like how shiny I got the font to look; I used the Diamond Plate action in PSE8.
Sunday Scrappers is having a really great challenge for the next two weeks, which is where the Christmas card idea originated from. Check out the current thread here to read details about that and the hamper that Jill (Greenfingers) will be compiling! If you're not currently a member of DSP, I would love to see you join! It's the one thing keeping me sane while away from my husband :)
Tomorrow is when all of the free kits for Worldwide Christmas Scrapbooking Freebies go up! Don't forget to check back tomorrow for my kit! I will also be putting up my Tasty Treats kit from SNL56, in the slim chance that anyone wants it xD
Hey guys! I was informed that the download link to Christmas in the City was all funky, so I deleted it and reuploaded it. Please let me know if there is still an error, but it should actually work and download as a zip folder this time :)
http://www.4shared.com/file/159195182/c8613f11/SMD_Christmastime_in_the_City.html
Hi guys! I didn't end up getting CS2 installed, after all... the disc was corrupt and wouldn't install! Grrr. So now I have a trial version of PSE8 and I am LOVING it so far! I haven't stuck to finishing November in the T Dot like I wanted to, but those elements will be coming eventually!
So guess what? I'm giving you all a holiday treat, a Christmas page kit!
Click here to download!
Kit contains:
- 1 snowy sky paper
- 1 wine swirls paper
- 1 cream & pink snowflakes paper
- 1 pink glitter paper
- 1 city skyline
- 1 streetlamp with wreath
- 1 group of pink baubles
- 1 group of shopping bags
- 1 lit up tree
- 1 cream and pink scarf
- 1 group of glitter snowflakes
- 1 tag
- 1 pink ribbon
I hope you all enjoy! It's got a slightly different theme than other Christmas kits I've seen :)
I will be participating as a designer in Worldwide Christmas Scrapbooking Freebies, so look for my contribution here!
Happy Scrapping!
Good afternoon, everyone! Or good evening, or good morning, depending where you are :)
I'm moving on from PSP to Photoshop. I found my old CS2 disc, which I'm totally excited about! Now I can get to more proper kit-making and even open my own store after I've practiced a bit.
The elements to November in the T Dot are on their way, slowly but surely. I felt really limited with PSP, but I can do so much more with PS. I want to include things like crystalline "rain", a streetlight element, a nice frame, and a splatter of glitter. My cuter squiggly elements are going in their own small, cutesy grungy kit, which will be called Love in the T Dot. Papers and elements for Love in the T Dot will be released together. Projected release dates for November in the T Dot elements and Love in the T Dot kit is November 20th. Like the Backgrounz!, these will be free for you to download indefinitely. :)
I also have something exciting planned for December! I'm going to do a 12 Days of Christmas here on this blog, running from December 1st to the 12th, each day offering a new surprise freebie. All together, these freebies will be a whole kit!!! They will *not* be up for indefinite download. The kit, with all 12 freebies put together, will be offered free on December 24-26 for those who missed the 12 Days, but after that it will be for sale for just $3.
That's all for now! Now I'm off to install CS2 and get to work!!!
Hi guys! This is my first freebie post, and I'm really excited about it! I have a set of Backgrounz! for you, six papers to do with whatever you please (of course crediting my blog when you do so!). They're going to be part of a kit later on, I haven't finished the elements yet for November in the Tee Dot, but I hope to within the next week and offer them up for downloading.
Click the picture to start your download! All Backgrounz! are 12x12 sized and are 200ppi.
November in the Tee Dot's colour scheme is from this photo my amazing mother in law took overlooking Toronto this month.
Do any of you have any suggestions for the elements? I'm making a couple sketchy frames, a journal tag, a border, a trail of golden stars, and I just can't think of what else to make for it. :) I'd love to hear from you!
Hello and welcome to my brand spankin' new blog! Here you will soon find some free stuff for your digital scrapbooking needs, including alphas and page kits. You will probably also find some pixel art, life updates, and of course my digital scrapbooking journey as I improve my skills.
I joined Saturday Night Live on DSP, and the theme for this month is "Christmas in the Kitchen". Check SNL 56 out HERE! Here is my FIRST EVER page kit, Tasty Treats!
This kit will be available to the blogging public sometime in January. In the meantime, watch for a couple free page kits (including a Christmas one!!) and other odds 'n ends.
Now I need to go get this blog customized. It's looking pretty bare so far! :)
