Digital Scrapbooking Software

I am so sorry for the lengthy absence - life has been a bit out of control and it's taken a bit to get back on even keel and I'm happy to be back. I'm even happier for you as there's a chance for you to win a really cool product a bit later on!

A project I've wanted to work on for quite a long time is creating a recipe/memory book using the recipe cards from my grandma. I always loved looking at the handwriting of both my grandma and grandpa (especially with writing by hand becoming a dying art) - grandpa wrote in a journal everyday but most of the writing from my grandma was seen on our cards for special occasions or her recipe cards. As I spent part of my young life living with my grandparents, I got to spend lots of quality time with them and especially with grandma in the kitchen. One of my favorite memories of time at their house was having toast made from grandma's homemade bread (which she used to make twice a week to help feed her family of six kids and grandpa) and homemade hot chocolate warmed up on the stove (before microwaves were around - so much better the old-fashioned way!).

I use Photoshop all the time for my creations but I was looking for a little bit simpler way to begin putting it together. A while back I had stumbled across some software called My Memories. After a bit of investigating (and an invitation from them to review the software) I thought I would give it a try to get this little (or big) project started.

I began with one of my grandma's recipe cards and went from there. I scanned the card and a picture of my grandma in her younger days as well as a wooden spoon and cleaned them up in Photoshop before I added them to my layout. There are lots of wonderful backgrounds and additional embellishments that are included with the My Memories Suite software when you purchase it. Once I decided on the background, it was really quick work to put the page together. Honestly, choosing from all the backgrounds really was the most difficult and time consuming part of the whole process. There are so many tools to make it super easy to put a project together in no time - layouts so you don't even have to think about photo placement, embellishments and flourishes,

I can't wait to put together the rest of the pages and get the whole book together and take advantage of some of the other great features that make it really easy to share your work. I definitely want to get at least a few books printed and the My Memories Suite allows you to do that pretty simply. I can't really afford to have them printed for everyone in my extended family but the My Memories Suite also allows you to share your work virtually and even add multimedia elements such as background music which I can't wait to try out!

In addition to their software, there are all kinds of fabulous designs for your digital scrapbooking on the My Memories site. I've downloaded a few and can't wait to get even more!

Now on to the really good news for you - head over to My Memories and peruse their vast selection of digital paper packs and layouts. Once you've thoroughly overwhelmed yourself with all they have to offer, come back here and leave a comment about your favorite paper pack or layout and you'll be entered into a contest to win your very own My Memories Suite Software (a $40 value!). For an additional entry head over to their blog and become a follower. You can get an additional entry by liking them on Facebook. And one more entry for becoming a follower of their Twitter feed. That is four total entries you can get into this great giveaway - just make sure to come back here and post a comment about each action you've taken to be entered into the contest.

And if you really can't wait to win the software and want to get started with all the fun stuff that the My Memories Suite has to offer, you can use this special code to get a $10 discount off the purchase price of the software AND get a $10 coupon for the My Memories store so you can start scrapbooking away to your heart's content! Just copy and paste this code at checkout to get your discount: STMMMS63148 (Copying and pasting the code is the way to go to avoid any typos). This coupon code doesn't have an expiration date!


The contest does have a deadline, however - make sure to get your comments posted and and entries in by midnight next Tuesday, October 25 for your chance to win the My Memories Suite software! The winner will be announced right here On Wednesday, October 26! Good luck and have fun browsing!

Cutout Cuties Contest

Life has been a bit crazy around here of late for reasons which I am not able to divulge just yet, but very soon! Aside from the craziness about things I can't talk about, there are other things that have added to the busyness that I can talk about and am so excited for! 

Once the biggest and most exciting contest to hit Spoonflower was announced, I set to work designing. If you are not a member of the Spooniverse, a very exciting chance to have your designs licensed by Michael Miller Fabrics was announced - this little contest is called Project Selvage and is an amazing opportunity for an undiscovered fabric designer. I'm really hoping it's me!!! (as are a bunch of my other uber-taleneted Spoonflower buddies)

It is an amazing option to have your work seen especially as someone who doesn't live in a big city where one of these fabric manufacturers is located or you don't live right next door to the Houston Quilt Market (neither of which applies to me). I've dreamt of having my designs on display in my meticulously decorated booth at Market just down the aisle from my hero, Amy Butler. I haven't quite made it to the point of creating a scale model of what my booth would look like, bit I think I'm close!

Anyhoo..... back to the contest. The theme for the designs is Baby Boy and the entries are starting to flood in! The deadline for entries is March 24 and you begin by entering one initial design. For about the next week, the wonderful people from Spoonflower and Michael Miller will be perusing all the submitted designs and narrowing the field down to 75 and then the voting opens up to the general public. The top 10 vote-getters then put together 5 more designs to complement their initial entry and then the voting continues again until the winner is chosen and becomes a Michael Miller designer! Once that happens, the winner creates a Baby Girl collection to coordinate with their boy collection and then it's off to quilt market!

So once this little contest was announced about two weeks ago I became one with my computer for a solid week as I set to creating my designs because, as you see, I designed both my entire boy and girl collections, plus a few more pieces! I had visions for the kind of line that could grow with the baby by taking out the most baby-like fabrics and supplementing them with the complementary designs. I also wanted to create something that was more clever than cutesy and I hope my little rows of paper cutout boys do just that as that is the fabric I've entered into the contest.

Now I'm onto baby quilt designs that will use the fabrics I've designed. Last night I was sketching baby mobile designs that can become little stuffed cutout dolls once the baby is past the mobile stage. I've got other plans and ideas that just haven't made it onto paper quite yet, but they will! In the midst of my sketching, I keep stalking my Spoonflower account to see if my samples of my designs have been printed and shipped yet and once they have, I'll be planting myself right next to the mailbox waiting for their arrival!

Of course I'm really hoping I win as I love Michael Miller designs and have oodles of yards of their fabrics in my overflowing stash! But I'm just excited hoping that I make it into the semi-final round of 75. I think most importantly for me this contest is keeping me on track with my fabric design goals which are ultimately to become a licensed fabric designer! I have a big notebook with the little steps leading to the big goal. Now that I've finished one big collection, I'm revisiting some of my other fabric design collections at Spoonflower and trying to fill them out with a few more pieces to expand my portfolio of designs to take to present to the big fabric houses that fit my style. I'm also just really thrilled that I actually have the energy to do this now that I have that surgery out of the way. I have so much more energy than I've had in years!!!!

Valentine's Heart Swap

The mailman brought love to my door yesterday - my Victorian Paper Heart Swap arrived very nearly the moment after I finished my post from yesterday! I was so excited!!!! I sat on the couch admiring the lovely heart that Heidi Meyer made for me for the longest time. Then I very carefully opened and oohed and aahed over each of the little packets of goodness that accompanied the heart. I even used some of the lovely little pieces of ribbon and lace already in a wrist cuff I'm making!!!!

The big heart was quickly hung in the center of our fireplace mantel and will probably stay up loooooooooong past Valentine's Day as it is so beautiful! You can see all of the beautiful hearts crafted by this bunch of amazing women over at the Vintage Dragonfly and see more about Danielle Muller, the lovely woman who organized it all!

I also realized that this is my 100th post!!!! What a milestone!!!! I wasn't sure how I would like this blogging thing but I am addicted - it is thrilling for me to see where it is that people are stopping by from, all over the world, places I can only dream of traveling to at this point, all 50 states - I am amazed!!!! To celebrate this momentous occasion, I'm having a little giveaway. I made up an extra little packet of vintage-y goodness for the heart swap. If you want a chance to win the packet, become a follower of my blog and leave a comment here answering the question, "What is your favorite Valentine's Day food to make or eat?"

As for me, I have many and have tried many over the years including chocolate-filled croissants, chocolate raspberry cheesecake, and this year I attempted chocolate macarons. They didn't turn out exactly as I had hoped, hence no pictures, but I will persevere and keep perfecting my technique. Even though they don't loo perfect, they taste super yummy! You'll also see there is a common denominator here - clearly I am a chocolate addict and so happy to be able to eat chocolate again again after my surgery!!!!

Happy Valentine's all and have a wonderful weekend - romantic for those of you with a partner and filled with so much love no matter who you are!!!! And don't forget to enter the contest by 10:00 pm EST on February 14 - Valentine's Day!

Naughty or Nice?!

I realize it's not quite Thanksgiving yet so we shouldn't be bringing up Christmas just yet but if you are like me and make lots of Christmas presents and such, you have to start really early! Even if you don't make gifts, you still have to plan ahead if you need to order gifts or supplies.

You also have to plan ahead for Spoonflower contests as they need time to print and ship in time for Christmas decorating! The current contest just opened for voting yesterday and it's Holiday Stocking time! They're are some really unique, interesting and imaginative designs - over 60 of them actually. Go and check them out and if you're inclined to vote for mine, which you can see above, go ahead! My design is an amusing little play on the naughty and nice list - you could choose a side for whichever suits you and your loved ones on any given day!

You should also really check out Spoonflower in the next few days as they are having their first ever free shipping event - just in time for Christmas! Beginning on Monday, November 22 at 8 am EST and ending on Tuesday, November 23 at 8 am EST you can get your domestic or international order shipped for free!!!! This only applies to standard shipping, not rush shipping but they're reporting that their current turnaround time is about 7 days so you should really take advantage of this great deal while you can!!!!

Winner, winner chicken dinner!

So this weekend's dinners did not include chicken but rather homemade pizza and a really unhealthy dinner  from my younger days of visits to Grandma and Grandpa's house during lent. Fried potatoes and macaroni and cheese - not good for you but every once in a while I get the craving as do my brother and sister. My mom and her brothers and sister can't stand it and will never eat it again in their lifetimes!

The pic above was dessert this weekend - pumpkin chocolate tiramisu! So yummy! I wish I had a better picture but as we're plunged into darkness at about 4 in the afternoon now, getting good lighting is a lot more challenging.

This weekend was also the end of the contest to win some of my fabric from Spoonflower! I have to say thank you once again to the wonderful Sew4Home for their lovely feature. I continue to be astounded at the numbers of you who were kind enough to click over to my blog and especially to those of you who were so kind to leave comments. It's been so heart warming to see everything that you're all thankful for this year! So without further ado, the winner:

It was so fun to find that the winner is another very talented Spoonflower designer, Vo! I'll be in touch to get you started in claiming your prize!

Special delivery in waiting

Just look at the pretty stack of java jackets just waiting to go to their new home! Once payment arrives, they'll be on their way! I just love playing with fabrics and embellishments and trying all sorts of color combos when I'm stitching them up.

To get them ready for shipping I grabbed some of those cute red buttons I discovered at the antique store, punched some circles out of discarded cardboard coffee cuffs and secured them together with red and white bakers twine and wrapped 'em up. The final tough was sliding my business card in the back.

Now, once you've got your morning coffee or tea in hand, head over to Sew4Home. They've put together a pillow project featuring my Family Forever fabrics.

You've still got time to get entered in the contest to win a yard of my fabric from Spoonflower. Just click on to my post from earlier this week and leave your comment answering the question in the post before noon Central time on Sunday, November 14. The prize will be awarded on Monday. Have a great weekend!

Look, it's me!!!! (& a giveaway!!!!)

Anyone who knows me knows that I am not a person who likes to have attention drawn to me and am a bit too humble and self-deprecating for my own good. So today we're taking a break from our regularly scheduled program and shining a light on me!!!! If you check out Sew4Home today you'll see a great big profile on me!

I was lucky enough to meet the marvelous sisters who run Sew4Home when I was attending The Creative Connection Event back in September. We first started chatting during class on our first day and kept in touch throughout the event and once we got back to our respective homes. I absolutely adore their site and the fantastic, totally doable projects and how they inspire and empower others to create projects to dress up their homes.

To celebrate this momentous occasion, Spoonflower is helping me out with a little giveaway! YAY!!!! If you'd like to have a chance at winning one-yard of one of my designs at Spoonflower, just leave a comment following this post in response to the following question in the spirit of Thanksgiving:

"What are you most thankful for this year?"

Just leave your comment no later than noon Central Time on Sunday, November 14. I'll draw one winner from all the entries and announce the winner on Monday, November 15. Once the winner is announced, I'll have the specifics of how to choose your fabric and place your order with Spoonflower. In the meantime, you can start browsing my fabrics at Spoonflower and deciding which you'll choose if you're the winner!

Christmas in November! Ornament Tutorial

I know it's a bit early for Christmas (at least I'm not getting Christmas stuff out in July like the bog box stores!) but since I make Christmas ornaments as gifts each year, I have to get a jump on it! This year's ornaments were inspired by a couple of items, seen here:

Juice can lids and this fabulous find of red buttons that I picked up at one of our local antique stores for $2! Can you believe it?! I just had to have them even though I had no idea what I would do with them at the time.

To begin, I measured a circle to fit inside the juice can lid and cut it out of some heavy antique scrapbook paper. I aged the edge a bit with some brown ink.

Next came some vintage ledger pages. I cut some pieces to fit at the top and bottom of the circle and fancied them up with a scalloped scissors and a bit of green ink on the edges.

Lettering comes next. I first traced around the little red button that would serve as the "o" and then penciled in the remaining letters.

Then I filled in the letters with red using DecoArt Americana Berry Red.

Once the paint dried, I traced over my pencil lines around the outside of the letters with a fine paint marker and glued on a little red button.

After the glue dried, I poured a bit of DecoArt Triple Thick Gloss Glaze into the juice can lid and spread it around. I then placed the decorated scrapbook circle into the lid and poured more glaze in and distributed it evenly in the lid by slowly turning the lid at an angle so as not to create air bubbles. If air bubbles do appear, just use a toothpick to pop them.

Once the glaze is completely dry (I usually allow for about 24 hours just to be safe) add a ribbon hanger at the back. I cover the entire back with a circle of felt cut to size to make it nice and presentable on both sides.

Now it's time to start cranking out bunches of them for my friends and family! I'll be making a variety of them with Love, Hope, and Joy since those words all have "o"s in them!

Thanks again to DecoArt for giving me great supplies to play with!

Also, if you want a chance to win a yard of my Spoonflower fabrics, check out this post and answer the question following the post!

Paper Collage Fabric Design

Each week, my very favorite site in all the world, Spoonflower hosts a different design challenge. I don't enter every week as I don't have time to create for all of them and some themes just don't interest me. However, a few weeks back, they introduced an upcoming theme which captured my fancy and I set to work. I began the preparations for this particular challenge over 3 weeks ago as I wanted to have lots of time to to plan and create.

The challenge issued was for a paper collage design with a bare minimum of digital manipulation used in the design process. I set to work creating completely original collage papers and watercolor papers that were then filled with my calligraphy. You can see the original papers and additional materials of corrugated cardboard and paint chips below.

I cut and combined flower petals and leaves from these papers with corrugated cardboard and old paint chips. Then they were laid out on one my collage sheets and scanned. I performed a little digital magic to make the pattern repeat seamlessly and the fruits of 3 weeks of my labor are below.

The voting for this very creative contest opened up on Thursday and it's been fantastically fun to see the creativity of others. Some clipped from magazines, some stamped designs and then formed a design - there are just all sorts of designs out there and it's just remarkable to view them all. If you're so inclined, you should head over to Spoonflower and participate in the voting!

Fantastic Giveaway!

I just discovered this blog, Regan Family Farm, home to Marie Madeline Studios. They design wonderful fabrics and patterns and they are giving away a marvelous prize - their Street Skirt pattern and the fabric of your choice from their collection! Find out more about them and the contest by clicking here.

Vintage Workshop Contest

The Vintage Workshop is having a fantastic contest for their blog readers and I'm so excited! All you have to do is post a comment to their blog post answering the question, "What are you growing in your garden this year?" You can enter through Sunday, May 16 and you might just win one of two wonderful garden-themed prize packages of their products! I love so many of the Vintage Workshop products and patterns! I was giddy when I saw this contest as I just got my herbs planted for the season and am hoping to grow some tomatoes as well. I'm also so excited to get to meet the founder, Amy Barickman when I'm at The Creative Connection Event this September!