April 2011 Heritage Scrap Designer Collaboration Kit

Spring Symphony

Heritage Scrap has a new designer collaboration set out and you can view all the portions here.  The link for mine is just above.



Here is a view of the papers for my portion of Spring Symphony.  It will be $2.50 for each portion during the month of April 2011.  While each of us have a slightly different style, each designer used the same color card and theme.  The kits will work together 'mix and match'.

Here is a layout I created using my portion.  This is a hummingbird we saw buzzing around the flowering fruit trees at the nursery earlier this week.  The kids and I really enjoyed watching him.  It's pretty hard to get a clear picture when their wings beat so fast and they are on to the next flower before you can change your settings!

This layout is also made with the kit and I used a great template from Armina Designs.  This showcases some of the photos I took while at the nursery.  Since I love to photograph flowers, my camera usually goes with me when I take a trip to pick up what I need.  As a photographer, I really like using templates like this to share as many of my photographs as possible in an eye pleasing manner.

If you have fun using this kit, or any of my kits, I'd love to see your art!





What Family History is All About

A friend on Facebook posted this blog post written by her friend John Mahan, a photographer.  I am not familiar with his work, but looked at his portraits posted on his page and he definitely has "the eye".

As a family historian, I have spent many hours sitting at my Grandmother's feet asking questions or at the dining room table, interviewing Great Aunts and Uncles.  But now that my Grandmother is gone (95 7/12 years were not enough), there is so much I want to say, to ask, but most of all I want to just be with her.

John's post reflects that.  When a camera is seldom far from you, sometimes it is difficult to "be present". This well written post poignantly shares a time when he was able to be "present" with his father.

Remember in doing your family history - be PRESENT!  There is no prize for the person who has the most blanks filled in on their genealogy forms!  All the data in the world will not replace the important moments shared.  Most data can be recovered some how at a later time - but time stands still for no genealogist!  Cherish the time you have.  Respect your elders (didn't you learn that in Kindergarten?) and make memories that bless your interviewee as well as yourself.

Take the time to read Mr. Mahan's post - he is a word smith as well as a camera artist!

Praying For Japan

The crisis in Japan is discussed every day until the point that some people become numb to the fact that these are people, just like you and me, who were going about their everyday lives, are enduring tragic and life altering experiences. Some are gone forever.  Some may never recover from emotionally crippling losses.

When I see pictures like these, I weep.

Most of us, even if we aren't scrapbookers, have photographs on the top of our list of things we will grab if we are leaving our homes in an emergency.  These people never got a chance.

If you're a praying person, please pray for them.  The road to recovery is long and arduous.

Excellent Article on 19th Century Photos and Ephemera

This Archiver's article was written by Debra Clifford, the "Mayor of Ancestorville".  I follow Ancestorville on FB and she has a lot of information and helpful hints.  I thought this would be interesting to those of you on the family history trail.

Heart of Wisdom FREE Scrapbooking Kit

I love Robin and the ministry at Heart of Wisdom.  She has a great ministry and store for homeschoolers and she also has wonderful materials for those who are learning about their Hebrew roots.   One resource that she provides on a regular basis are kits and quick pages that can be used for homeschoolers and Bible study, especially for lap books.

Currently she has the above lovely kit, Creation, available for free.  What a generous gift.  This kit is perfect for faithbooking.  In addition to the gift, on the same page are some links to tutorials to help you get started out with digital scrapbooking using Photoshop Elements, if you are a newbie!

If you create with Robin's kit, let her know.  I'm sure she would love to see what you are doing with her art!

Ruth Taylor Wolcott

This layout is about my ancestress, Ruth Taylor Wolcott 1838-1928.  I used a stacked paper from the My Family Tree Add On kit and embellishments were added from the My Family Tree Kit.

Family 2010

This is created with the quick age in My Family Tree kit.  I added a few extra flowers and a word art title. 

New Kits!

Regina is the Latin word for Queen.  One of my interests is reading biographies of women in history.  I am definitely not a feminist, but I do find it interesting to see how women have lived the gift of life they have been given and how they have used their talents.  Over the last several years, I have been reading biographies of many of England's and western Europe's queens.  Last night I finished a well researched work on Catherine of Aragon, the first and real Queen of England's King Henry VIII.  When I saw the Queen stamps from Idgie's Heartsong ~ Scrap's in the Key of Life, I was inspired to transfer my interest into a kit.

Some people have royal lineage in their family history, some people are history buffs, some love to re-enact and go to Renaissance fairs.  This kit would be perfect for you.  You will also love it if you enjoy the colors of teal and aqua, and you could use it for many elegant occasions like weddings, anniversaries, feminine photographs, your "Princess" or whenever you feel like being "Queen for the Day"! :-)

You can purchase Regina at Heritage Scrap.

Regina contains 30 12x12 300 dpi papers, plus one fancy lace mat and a worn and torn overlay.  I have tried to create layered patterns with texture and color reminiscent of fabrics found in the royal castle, along with other bygone touches, such as handwriting and lettering.  Some of the papers have Queen's images on them.  The preview doesn't do them justice!

Of course every Queen or Princess needs her jewels and is surrounded by elegance, texture and color.  I've provided 65 elements so hopefully you can find something you enjoy!

Here are the journaling elements provided in the kit, along with the portraits of Queen Elizabeth I, Mary Queen of Scots, Queen Charlotte, Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II makes a showing on the postage stamp.

Here are the many frames of the kit including the elegant border cluster featured on the bottom.

My Family Tree is my second new release at Heritage Scrap.  It is designed to be a vintage and elegant family history kit without taking itself too seriously.  You can make both casual and dressed up layouts with a choice of 58 elements, 32 papers, a pedigree page (in 2 colors) and a quick page.

The papers are designed to be soft and textured and mostly monochromatic so that you can let your family story and photos shine.  They are suitable for creating a book with continuity in the pages and design.

Here is a view of some of the elements you have to choose from.

Frames and frame clusters for My Family Tree digital scrapbooking kit.

Naturally several journaling options are included as well as a 4 generation pedigree chart/family tree page in 2 different colors.

Included is a lovely quick page to get you started and word art titles in 2 different fonts - elegant and casual, as well as 2 different styles - glitter and wood.

I had so much fun designing My Family Tree, that I created an Add-On Kit which is available separately at Heritage Scrap or in a Combo Pack which will save you money.

Here you can see the quick page, the quick page album cover and the stacked paper pages which are ready for you to use and further embellish.

Next you will find an additional pre-made 4 generation pedigree/family tree page in a more casual style, a frame cluster and a border cluster.  In addition there is a floating png 4 generation pedigree chart in the 5 colors of the kit which you can also use as a clipping mask with any papers you have from other kits.

Last, but not least, there is word art to complete your pages!

Switching, gears, in my Faith Sisters shop, I have a new faithbooking kit called Love Conquers All.  It features papers and elements in burgandies and roses with a touch of green and cream in a heart and love motif.

Here is a preview of the colors and papers.

There are lots of elements to choose from.

These are the frames and journaling elements.

And no faithbooking kit would be complete without word art!  Here you will find quotes from Scripture and about love.  The word art is also available separately.

Thank you for looking at my latest work.  I hope you will enjoy it.  Currently the gallery at Heritage Scrap is down due to some coding errors from the old server, but we are hoping to get one up soon.  You can also post in the gallery at Faith Sisters with any of my kits.  I would really like to see what you are creating with my art. Please contact me via email, facebook or one of the stores to let me know if you have posted any work.

Happy Scrapping!

A Friend Loves At All Times

Have you stopped in at the Faith Sisters Shop recently?  One of the fun things I do there is participate in a themed collaboration kit with the other designers.  Each designer puts together some papers and elements that get put in together with everyone else's to create a large kit.  The best thing about this is that you can get it for FREE! 

This is what you have to do:

Buy $10.00 or more and get this product for FREE!

Just follow these simple steps:

1. FIRST add $10.00 or more of digital scrapbooking products into your shopping cart

2. THEN add this product to your shopping cart

3. Enter this coupon codeduring the check out process: FSCFLAAT_13

One of the neat things about collaboration kits is that you get to check out different designer's styles.  Each kit has been a challenge for me, in a good way.  I learn something new in my designing.  I use color choices that don't come naturally to me.  And I am stretched to fit my designs to a theme.

This month the theme is A Friend Loves At All Times and is about loving your neighbor.  Stop by the store and check it out!

While you're there, take a peek inside my small, but growing, shop at Faith Sisters where I have some of my heritage designs but also some faithbooking designs.