Forget Me Nots Design

Get Scrapping 2012 - January Sales

2012-01-11T16:29:00.000-08:00

During the year of 2012, I have several scrapbooking goals. First, I signed up for Your Story. Brilliant, which is a class taught by Linda Sattgast, my favorite scrapbooking teacher (Digital Scrapper/Scrappers Guide). As a later in life Mom, I want to make sure to share my story with my children while I still can.

Another goal is to organize all my photos and data on the Hopkins family, coordinate the various researchers of that family and start a plan for a book on our family history. Over the last several months I have been in contact with several distant cousins through my defunct blog, which has inspired me to start cleaning it up and organize it so that my cousins and I can be more efficient in our research as well as attract other cousins who are doing searches on their family names. I highly recommend this, as it has been a fun experience. I wouldn't put everything you know up there, just enough to share a little, my concern being that big companies glean your information and then sell it. So the plan is to share enough to be picked up in searches and then to share the rest privately.

In general, I need to organize my digital files - a process I began this fall when taking Linda Sattgast's organizing class. It's a LONG process. And I hope to begin organizing my paper photos as well.

Maybe, just maybe, I will get some family scrapbooking done as well. Designing is a Catch 22 for me - if I design, it's fun, I earn some spending money and I get to share with all of you. But, when I design, I don't have time to do my own scrapbooking. Hopefully this year I will find some balance.

That is a lot to accomplish for someone without a lot of spare time. If I reach 1/2 of my goals I will be happy.

How about you? Do you have any scrapbooking goals this year? To help you along, I have put most of my new kits and family tree kits on sale for the month of January. And some of my oldest kits I have listed for 50% off. I hope I can help you with your goal of getting some scrapbooking done!

Heritage Scrap also has a new section for SALES where you can browse by percentage off, for kits from all of the designers.

While you are looking around, please check out our newest designer in the shop, Aneczka W!

Happy Scrapping!

Gifts and Wall Art For The Home

2011-12-23T15:31:00.000-08:00

Every year I like to give my Sister-in-Law an 8x10 layout with a photograph of our children - all three on one layout and something pretty because she has a home that is lovely and even Martha would approve! This year's gift was made with my Family Album Big Heritage Kit which is on sale for 35% off through January 2nd, 2012. Most of my photography work I have printed at Costco One Hour. They use Fuji Crystal Archive paper, my local one does an awesome job, I can upload from my computer and Hubby can pick it up on his way home from work. But 8x10 is standard size both for prints and for frames and they can be printed any place that does enlargements.

Because she replaces the photo in a frame I have previously given her, I don't have the frame to show you, but it always looks lovely. This is the actual print that I propped up on the couch and photographed. In real life, the coloring is closer to the digital file above, but when I lightened the photo, the colors changed slightly. My prints come out pretty close to what I see on my computer screen. You may have to experiment with your monitor, program and/or printer to get the results you want. For instance, on my laptop, I always need to make my photographs lighter to get them printed because what I see is not what I get. But, you can see that it makes a lovely and frameable piece of art.

Here is another one I did for my Sister-In-Law. This is also created with the Family Album Big Heritage Kit and is an 8x10. This photograph of my Mother-in-Law and her little sister was a surprise find hidden behind another photograph when we removed it from a frame.

Here is the same project printed at Costco into an 8x10 and propped up on my couch. One thing that you should know in making these types of projects, Is that frames vary on the size of their opening even if they say 8x10. It's a good idea to leave a little extra space around your design because it could be engulfed by the frame.

Here is last year's framed 8x10. That one was created with Thankful, which is an Autumn and American Thanksgiving themed kit, also on sale for 35% off through January 2nd.

Here is a little peek into my kitchen. You can see the white frame on the right - it contains photographs of my Grandma Hopkins throughout her life (including one in her kitchen) as well as her bread recipe, written in her handwriting. She taught me how to cook and it's nice to have her "with" me as I work!

This year I want to work on more wall art for our home. I have found a few 12x12 frames and one from Ikea that is large but mats down to 11x11" square that will work. I am also hoping to do some 11x14 layouts that can frame larger. Really, any size frame you can create a layout for. If you have an odd size (for photo printing), for instance, a 5x5 frame, you can create a 5x5 layout, place it onto a blank 5x7 background and have it printed - just cut off the extra 2" and place in your frame.

Have you created digital wall art for your home? I'm looking for fun ideas. I think I will continue to use the 8x10 size for gifts. It's inexpensive, often under $10, if you already have kits to use and they are really priceless and meaningful. One gift that brought tears to a Mom's eyes, was photos I took of her newborn with her name, the meaning of the name and the dates. It was really cute and makes a nice wall hanging in a nursery or child's room. Please share any other ideas you may have. Happy Scrapping!

2011-12-16T10:57:00.000-08:00

Until January 2nd, 2012, most of my store will be 35% off. You can find me here at Heritage Scrap!

I apologize for being scarce around the blog and not uploading any new kits. It has been a time to be sharing with my family and rest. Hopefully in the new year I will be having some new kits and will update the blog and share more often.

Black Friday Sales

2011-11-25T08:43:00.001-08:00

Come visit my shop at Heritage Scrap where many items are 25% OFF. Most designers have this special running as well - $20 of Product for $12. You can find the coupon code on the main page of Heritage Scrap. Happy Shopping!

Hot Off The Presses

2011-11-09T16:08:00.000-08:00

Feminine and romantic are not words that describe my home. My Hubby (and incredibly wonderful man!) does not like flowers and frou frou and fluff. In fact when I asked him if he had any preferences for my wedding dress, he said, "I don't like lace". Do you know how hard it was to find a wedding dress without lace in 1998? I did. Just a trim of lace at the bottom and he was okay with that. So instead of "shabby chic", I'd say my home style is "shabby comfy". It's only in my dreams that I have a room all to myself - robin's egg blue walls and white trim. Rose covered fabrics, lace, damasks and brocades and soft feminine touches everywhere with antiques and re-purposed pieces and all orderly. No one can bring Legos in the room or stuffed animals or found treasures from the backyard! Well, one can dream, right? I am perfectly content in my happily shabby home and with my family. The feminine touches will need to pop in for my scrapbooking kits!

So with all my back issues of Victoria Magazine in mind, I created Cottage.

I've tried to create the same cottage style feel with a quilt paper, damask, plaids and flowers with "bits and bobs" to brighten up your feminine and lovely photo pages.

I think the papers are my favorite - I've tried to include more texture. As an almost life long fabric enthusiast I wish some of these could be in my fabric stash!

Here you can see some of the elements. In each kit I try to give you all the basics, plus a little surprise here and there. The button in this kit was extracted from scans of my friend's grandmother's button collection and is an antique.

You might have noticed I include a lot of frames and journaling elements. That is because even though I design kits, I still am of the opinion that our photos and written memories should take the center stage in the midst of our art.

As always, I would love to see what you create with my kits. And I would like to thank all my loyal customers for their purchases over Digital Scrapbook Day weekend. My family appreciates you! Thank you! Happy Scrapping!

DSD SALE Begins!

2011-11-03T08:44:00.000-07:00

Let's get the fun started a little early! I will be having all my products 50% off today through Tuesday. Find me in my corner of Heritage Scrap HERE.

Blessings - November Collaboration Kit

2011-11-01T20:08:00.000-07:00

Blessings is our November Designer Collaboration Kit at Heritage Scrap. I created some autumn clusters that might go well with Thanksgiving layouts.

The preview doesn't quite show it but most of the light papers have leaf motifs on them and there are some papers with damask.

You can find my Blessings in my store.

DSD 2011 Sale!

2011-11-01T15:10:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again! It's time for Digital Scrapbook Day Weekend and I'm joining the fun with 50% off My Store! I decided to begin the party early with the sale starting on Thursday and lasting through Tuesday.

My ad this week is created with my portion of the November designer collaboration kit at Heritage Scrap. It will be up in the shop soon!

Thank You Blog Trainers

2011-11-01T15:06:00.001-07:00

I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you to all the people who participated in the October Blog Train. I hope you were able to use my kit. I'd love to see anything you create - so drop in and share a link if you have! Thank you for all the nice comments left.

October Is Family History Month - SALE

2011-10-11T10:29:00.000-07:00

Find the BLOG TRAIN POST HERE

But Please Take The Time To Look Around!

October is Family History Month and in honor of that, all my family tree kits will be on sale for 25% off! Take a look around in MY STORE.

Do you need some inspiration?

Diane (aka as Diney) made these wonderful layout using my School Days kit. I love how creative she was in placing a piece of paper into the typewriter with some type on it!

Her mother won a typing competition and she had all the certificates and newspaper articles to document the event. What a wonderful heritage spread. This shows how you can document and journal and still keep the page artistic and beautiful. Thank you Diane!

I've been poking through some old boxes and was surprised to find this tintype fall out of some miscellaneous papers. I wanted to show what a tintype looks like - future generations may not know. So I extracted it into a png file and included that on the page along with a cleaned up version with lighting correction that allows us to see more of his face. This is my Great Grandfather in his freshman year of college at Hamline University near St. Paul, Minnesota. The background paper (and most of the layout) are from my Family Album Big Heritage Kit. The map on the background paper is Canada and part of the northern United States. I used the marker that looks like a bubble wand from my Family Album Genealogy Tool Kit. The circle on the right highlights the area on the map where my Great Grandfather, Fred Tisdale grew up in Ontario, Canada. The circle on the left of the indicator marker shows St. Paul, Minnesota where he went to school.

This was a really fun page to make with two wonderful finds! Like the tintype mentioned above, this little photo dropped out from amongst papers. I had never seen this, but from description recognized it as the little cabin my grandparents lived in for about the first six years of marriage. Recently I had also found this note book page which I extracted. It includes my Grandmother's thoughts written down while her her late 80s or early 90s about her wedding day and the first little home they shared together. They were just screaming to be scrapped together. So I used my recent Our Home Digital Scrapbooking Kit to create this page. Every time I look at it, it makes me happy to see my Grandma Hopkins' writing - a piece of her! I may print and hang this in my turquoise/blue bedroom.

Thank you for stopping by to visit today. I hope you've been able to find some inspiration for happy scrapbooking. Stop by my shop for 25% off family tree kits in the month of October!

Family Album

2011-10-10T09:41:00.000-07:00

Find the BLOG TRAIN POST HERE!

Family Album Big Heritage Kit was really fun to design. Since it is family history month, I thought it would be nice to have another genealogy based kit. Family Album is designed so that you could do a large family history project using primarily one kit. It does coordinate, sharing the cream colors with my Family Treasures Kit and a similar palette to His Story - Family Tree Kit and the School Days Kit.

There is a total of 97 elements in the kit. There are many pieces to mix and match to create clusters and designs.

Here are the frame clusters and some of the journaling elements.

All together there are 36 12x12 papers. This preview shows the colored papers, including some beautiful embossed designs.

There are more creamy/camel colored papers to allow journaling and to let your photos shine as the star of your family album. Three papers are maps and the ones with the colored swirls would work well for a full page of journaling your family's story.

Lots of frames, including a full page frame. There are many shapes and sizes in the metal style that initially inspired me in the kit creation, as well as some in colors from the elements and paper as well as one vintage paper frame.

And just to help you along in your pages and journaling - Titles in two fonts, in the coordinating metal style. The word "Family" is available in 2 fonts different from the title fonts.

If you want to create your own album from this kit, I have created a Shutterfly ready album cover kit. Please note, this was created with Shutterfly's own templates with every effort to be accurate, however, I cannot guarantee their printing.

Family Album Genealogy Tools is a mini kit that was a lot of fun to design. There are 4 pedigree charts - 4 generation and 5 generation, with each coming in a thick or thin metal style. The other tools are markers or indicators that can be used to single out or highlight information on genealogy charts or documents, the lines can lead out to your journaling area where you can write more about that information. Included are two quick page genealogy pages.

The family crest on the 2nd page is available in the big kit at a much larger size and is a fun way to journal or if you have a family crest you would attach it there.

Last but not least, there is a Family Album Bundle Pack with everything for a reduced price!

In my spare time (insert Guffaw here!), I will be working on an album about my Tisdale family and I plan on using this kit. Watch for layouts and ideas. As usual, I would love to see your layouts too. If you have created layouts with my kits, please send me a link to your gallery postings. Happy Scrapping!

Sneak Peek and Thank You Blog Trainers

2011-10-07T10:01:00.000-07:00

Before I give you a sneak peek at the new heritage kit I've been working on, I want to say thank you to the ladies that have been here for the blog train and have posted comments! Very sweet of you! I hope you will be able to use my pieces along with others you've collected to create something beautiful and meaningful. If you're here looking for the blog train, it's in the next post down.

Here is what I have been madly working on this week. Family Album is my largest kit yet with 97 elements and is designed so that you could do a whole family history project using primarily one kit. It will also coordinate with my Family Treasures Kit and parts with my School Days and His Story kits. There is a genealogy tool kit separate but coordinated as well as a Shutterfly Ready cover set and a bundle pack with everything! I uploaded to the server last night so it should be up in my store some time this weekend.

This layout only shows a fraction of what's coming. I am considering doing the life of my Grandpa Tisdale and his family with this kit and the above mentioned ones which coordinate.

After a busy weekend with Yom Kippur and my biggie boy turning 10, I'll be back next week with some more layouts to share, including some really fun ones from my creative team!

Happy Scrapping!

October 2011 DST Blog Train ~ Welcome

2011-10-01T00:00:00.000-07:00

Hello Blog Trainers! Thank you for coming to my little corner of the web. You can download my portion HERE. The next train stop is Amanda Heimann Designs HERE and if you get lost you can go back to the main Blog Train station.

While you're downloading the freebie, I hope you will stay and browse or book mark me and come back. There are also widgets on the right to follow my blog and you can find me on Facebook as well.

Created with my Blog Train Portion

Most of my designs are heritage oriented, though I do try to find elements and backgrounds that are suitable for both vintage and modern photos and occasions. It is important to me that we tell the story of our lives and our faith and our families, so all my kits are designed with that in mind.

Have fun looking around and I look forward to making some new friends.

Be sure to check your download for a special coupon to my store at Heritage Scrap. And while you're looking around, make sure you check out the Heritage Scrap Blog.

Thank you for stopping by today!

October Eve - Heritage Scrap Designer Collaboration Kit

2011-09-30T18:02:00.000-07:00

We had a beautiful palette to work with this month for October Eve. Kate had us envision old damask wall papers, rich textures of velvets and tapestries and the heavy scented air of October evenings, nights out at the theater or at home. I tried to capture this through the textures of my background papers. The layout is my Great Grandfather and I used it to highlight one way you could use the frame cluster included in the kit.

Here is the preview of my portion, which is found HERE. You can find the whole collection HERE. I encourage you to take a look at the other designers' kits. There are lots of sparkles, satins, damasks and other beautiful features. My kit is pretty simple in comparison but I'm kind of a "plain Jane" girl! The fun thing is that everything always works together when you take pieces from each portion and mix them together! As always, the portions will be on sale for $2.50 each during the month of October. Happy Scrapping!

School Days Fun!

2011-09-30T07:51:00.000-07:00

Isn't this adorable?! I love the picture of them holding hands and walking down the street. These layouts were made by my new Creative Team gal, Anita using my School Days Kit. I am very impressed with her work!

Her non-square layouts have inspired me. Now I'm curious - what sizes do you create? I have to admit I have used the traditional 12x12 because I like a lot of room to spread out! I was like that with my paper scrapbooking as well and I thought that would improve with digital, but it hasn't! For wall art I have created 8x10 pages and I'm considering an 11x8 album for my heritage books. It would be nice to hear from you what you have decided to use. Happy Scrapping.

Our Home - Moving Day

2011-09-29T14:50:00.000-07:00

One of my downfalls is never making the time to scrapbook my own photos of every day life. Remember our every day life is heritage in the making. In 2009, the big event in our life was buying our first home. It's modest and older, but it's HOME! It was such a chaotic time. My step Dad was right in the middle of cancer surgery and life was stressful, but we saw God's hand working in the details. It was 7 weeks from thinking, "Maybe we could buy a home" to move in day on our twin daughters' birthday! There is a lot to document in that time! So I created some kits and I plan on making a book to tell the story so that my children can see God working in our lives.

This page was created with Our Home - Digital Scrapbook Kit. Look for the other kits, including the bundle pack.

School Days Layout

2011-09-28T14:07:00.000-07:00

I was cruising through the Heritage Scrap Gallery (a great source of inspiration, by the way!), and I saw this lovely layout from Linda. Linda is very talented and has been on the Heritage Scrap Creative Team from the start. She taught me a lot when I was just a new digital scrapbooker! I have loved seeing her heritage pages through the years and almost feel like I know her family a little bit through the photos and journaling!

If I find you in the gallery using one of my kits, I would love to feature you on my blog as well. Happy Scrapping!

Layouts To Share

2011-09-23T10:07:00.000-07:00

Recently I have begun going through my photos and memorabilia. High on my priority list is to create an album for my little brother Danny (1967-1973). This is my favorite photograph of him as a baby. It really shows his personality, even though he wasn't old enough to sit up yet. Our Dad played minor league baseball, so the baseball elements were a must. This layout was created using two of my kits, My Family Tree - Baby Edition and My Family Tree - Baby Edition Add On. These kits were created to make, soft neutral baby books.

While perusing the Heritage Scrap Gallery, I found this wonderful heritage layout from Creative Team friend Helene (Victoria32). If you would like to see more of her beautiful artistry, you can find here gallery HERE. Helene is an avid scrapbooker and all her layouts go into her family albums which she prints up for her grandchildren and family. What a blessing that must be for them! In this particular layout I was impressed with all her clustering and layering. I almost didn't recognize it as coming from my own kit, but it is. She created this layout with one of my new kits, Family Treasures.

If you post one of your layouts using my kits at the Heritage Scrap Gallery, I would love to see it and feature you as well. Happy Scrapping!

Prelude To Autumn

2011-09-23T09:54:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Fall - it's the first day of Autumn today. My favorite season! You have one more week to purchase the September 2011 Designer Collaboration mini kits for $2.50 each at Heritage Scrap. You can find all the Prelude to Autumn kits HERE. And my portion is HERE.

Working on the designer collabs is fun! Sometimes the theme is one that is more difficult for me or presents designing challenges and I learn to grow from those. I particularly enjoy working with the other designers during these collaborations. Every time we do one I remember and miss the late Jean Daugherty. She was always ready to give encourage and help when needed. Her beautiful artistry is certainly missed!

Hope you get a chance to look at these before the price goes up. October's collaboration will be appearing soon. Happy Scrapping.

Our Home ~ New Kits & Bundle

2011-09-20T20:27:00.000-07:00

Our Home

Busy week here at the computer. I've been working on a new set of kits that can be used to document your home and family, your ancestors's homes, building and remodeling projects, buying and selling a home or moving. The elements are versatile and could be used to create other types of heritage or every day layouts as well.

Here is the preview of some of the homey elements. I've included a mix of modern and vintage to help you use it for a variety of pages.

Here is a 2nd preview showing all the ribbons, bows and frilly stuff.

This preview shows all the journaling elements, including titles, title clusters and lots of labels.

I always like a variety of frames to choose from, so I've given you a lot in this kit and one frame cluster.

And this shows the papers with some neutrals tones and light blues and greens. There are a few more modern prints, some blue print type papers, some old fashioned florals and damasks and a couple worn and torn overlay papers.

All of the above are from the main kit. There are some add ons and a bundle as well.

Our Home - Quick Pages

I had fun creating these quick pages. There are two gallery pages, one stair case and wall where you can "hang" your family portraits and an open book page layered with lace, tabs and other "bits and bobs". The preview doesn't quite do it justice, so I'll have to create some pages with them and share them.

Our Home - Word Art

This word art package contains titles and quotes for your home and family pages.

To help you save money, if you like the whole set, you can purchase them in a bundle, Our Home Bundle Pack. Thank you for looking. I hope you will enjoy this new kit!

My Great Grandfather and His Daughter

2011-09-20T20:08:00.000-07:00

Recently I have been going through a lot of boxes that my Mother brought me with things from my Grandma's house. My Mother saved me bits and pieces that she knew I would treasure. She kept spiral notebooks on her end table where she sat and filled them with all kinds of good "stuff"! She always said "'stuff' is a good word, it's in the Bible 8 times". She had looked it up in the concordance. That's just how she was. Anyone who lived in her town could see her little white "dandelion" head sitting on her couch in front of the front window. She read her Bible, Grace Livingston Hill and Essie Summers books. In her "handy dandy notebook" she wrote down lists (copiously) of names she liked. "My Hobby", she penned next to some of the lists. She copied down phrases that she liked from her reading (I too enjoy a well phrased novel and smile at the descriptions and words I know she would have jotted down). There were hundreds of pages of Bible study notes, lists of animals, plants and birds in the Bible and key verses to memorize (I plan on doing my devotional studies from some of these pages this year). I could go on for several more paragraphs about the kinds of things I found, but I won't! ;-)

Last night a little slip of paper fell out of one of those notebooks and I have included it on the page above. Tucked in amongst quotes, lists and so on, here and there are family history gems. It is truly like a treasure hunt. This particular note talked about her Dad, my great grandfather Fred (F.W. Tisdale), who was quite an interesting man. Because of this little note I now know where my Grandma, my Mother and I got our love of quotes. As I read it, I remembered her telling me this before. Every Monday, Mr. Tisdale would write an inspirational quote on the black board. He said it would "rub off" on his students.

The note also listed the last two places he taught and was superintendent as well as what subjects he taught. On the back side were some of the silly quotes he would say. He was fun loving by all accounts (he died in 1940) and most picture show him with a twinkle in his eye.

This man I never met, passed on so much to me through his oldest child, his daughter Holly - faith, creativity and a love of learning. There are some pesky traits he pass on too, but no need to mention those here! HA HA!

Today I created a layout with his school superintendent photo, that slip of paper in Grandma's school teacher printing and a photo of all the students of Lake Stevens (WA) High School in 1922. For the layout, I used primarily my new School Days Kit along with a key from my His Story - Family Tree Kit which shares the same color palette.

Thank you for taking a journey down memory lane with me today!

2011-09-19T16:55:00.000-07:00

School Days

Well, I've been busy designing the last couple weeks and I'm happy to introduce you to one of my new kits, "School Days" (you can link to it from below the photo above). I come from several generations of teachers, am married to a teacher and teach my own children, so it is only fitting that I finally design an education relalted kit!

Elements Preview

School Days shares the same rich color palette of His Story Family Tree Kit.

Frames Preview

So, if you have the His Story kit, you can mix and match the two kits.

Journal Elements

The elements have a vintage and heritage feel but could be used with modern photos as well.

Paper Preview

Some of the papers have scenes from childhood using some of Idgie's Heartsong's beautiful artwork.

Hope you enjoy it! Stay tuned for some more new designs! Happy Scrapping!

Farewell Sale At Faith Sisters

2011-09-16T11:45:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe I am writing this post. The hardest decisions in life are when we have to give up something good. It would be so easy to leave designing at Faith Sisters if I didn't like it there, but I do! I started out as a digital creative team member December 2008 and while I've never had the time to spend in the forum that I'd like, I've always hung around. Last summer was a design contest and then I joined as a designer. It sure has been fun and has stretched my designing abilities as I've spread my wings and tried new things. However, there is only a small window of time that a Mama has for teaching her children and spending time with them and I found that I could not balance the two sides of my designing with home educating and family life. God and family always come first.

So, with that being said, I'm announcing my "Farewell Sale" at my shop at Faith Sisters. My designs will be available there through September 30. Head on over and enjoy a great sale! After that my designs will be available exclusively at Heritage Scrap.

If you see me in the gallery or forum there, please say hi. My user name is forgetmenots. And if you've created anything with my kits - please post images. I'd love to see them.

A big thank you to Karma and all the gals on the design team at Faith Sisters. It has been a PLEASURE to work with you and I am so glad God gave me this opportunity!

Happy Scrapping!

Autumn Sales and New Kits

2011-09-15T21:08:00.000-07:00

My September sales on my Autumn and new kits, continue! Check out my shop at Heritage Scrap

And here is a sneak peek... it should be in the shop on Friday!

Family Treasures - New Family Tree Kit!

2011-09-12T15:21:00.000-07:00

Family Treasures - A Family Tree Kit is my new kit available now at Heritage Scrap for 25% Off for the rest of September. I have been wanting to create some more genealogy and family history oriented kits with enough elements and papers that a scrapbooker could make a whole album or project with one kit if they desired.

Inspiration for this kit came from sitting at my Grandma's feet, going through boxes of photos and memorabilia in 1995 and then again with my Mother this summer - looking at all Grandma's treasures which were in storage after her death.

Here are some of the elements. Being a spinner, I couldn't resist throwing in an element cluster that uses a spinning wheel! I have sought to include elements that can dress up or down because sometimes lace doesn't always fit, but then again, sometimes you feel like being fancy!

This preview shows the frames and frame clusters. I like having a lot of options!

Included are two 4 generation pedigree charts, and many elements for telling the story and labeling.

The papers are soft and nearly monochromatic to emulate the look of old photo albums, fabrics, memorabilia and so on.

Here are some of the special papers - some worn and torn, mats and file folders.

There are even two quick pages to help you get started documenting your family treasures!

You can find Family Treasures in my store at Heritage Scrap.

Happy Scrapping!

Autumn Sale at Heritage Scrap

2011-09-01T08:55:00.000-07:00

In addition the September Collaboration Kit, Prelude To Autumn, I will have select fall themed kits on sale at Heritage Scrap during September!

Thankful

Autumn Glory

Give Thanks

Heritage Scrap September 2011 Designer Collaboration Kit

2011-09-01T08:30:00.000-07:00

Autumn is my favorite season. At the end of summer and as children go back to school, autumn glides into our lives, giving us a prelude of colors and sensations yet to come. Autumn Prelude is September 2011's designer collaboration kit, a digital scrapbook kit designed to represent this changing time. It includes:

15 300dpi 12x12 Papers with 6 solid papers

20 Elements, including:
1 Large Frame Cluster
3 Frames
1 Journal Note
1 Maple Leaf Mat
2 Element Clusters
1 Ribbon (2 colors)
1 Bow (2 colors)
1 Lace
3 Flowers
1 Leaf
1 Bead Spray
1 Button (2 colors)

You can find my portion here and all the designers' portions here. During the month of September, each designer portion is $2.50. Afterwards they revert to the usual $3.99. We have several new designers at Heritage Scrap and this is a good way to check out their design work. Have fun scrapping!

Saleabration Continues at Heritage Scrap!

2011-08-19T09:31:00.000-07:00

Heritage Scrap's 3rd Birthday Saleabrations continue! I have three new kits in my store this month and all my kits are 50% off with packages 30% off. Take advantage of these prices through August.

Faith Sisters - Free With Purchase Collaboration Kit

2011-08-19T09:27:00.000-07:00

We have a lot of fun at Faith Sisters creating these collaboration kits for you. They are all for purchase of course, but you can also earn them free with purchase. And what better time than now, with a lot of sales going on. Through the end of August my shop there is 40% Off!

New Kit - Paisley

2011-08-17T10:09:00.000-07:00

Paisley is my newest release at Heritage Scrap and is a kit that I have been thinking about creating for some time. It marries my favorite pattern - paisley, with some of my favorite colors - blues and berries and purples.

As I was making some of the papers I was wishing I had them as fabric to quilt with!

I've included a special layered/laced 12x12 page as as usual several elements for journaling. Peeking out from behind are two mats. In a kit with lots of busy pattern, the mats help to create a visual resting place for your art, photos and journaling to shine.

The elements - all the "bits and bobs" to round out your layouts, including some paisley elements, flowers, leaves, lace, ribbons, bows...

Here are the frames in a variety of plain and fancy to go with your favorite photos.

So, what will this digital scrapbooking kit work well with - heritage, vintage, elegant, wedding, 80s, feminine.... you tell me! What will you use paisley for?

August Sales

2011-08-12T11:41:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Heritage Scrap!

You can shop my Heritage Scrap store here.

Don't forget my Faith Sisters store! I have a sale going on there as well. 40% OFF for the rest of the month! Some of the designs are the same and some are unique to Faith Sisters. While you're there, please check out the Heritage Challenge I am hosting.

Happy Scrapping!

August 2011 Heritage Challenge - Birth

2011-08-11T11:58:00.000-07:00

Come join me at Faith Sisters for a heritage challenge about documenting birth - our own, our children, our ancestors...

You can find the details here. There will be posting bonuses. I'd love to see your art! Please join in!

Oh Baby! New Kits

2011-08-10T15:38:00.000-07:00

For some time I have wanted to do a baby kit that would work for a baby book. As a child I remember looking at family baby books with all the information and pedigree charts and photos and thinking they were "neat"! I have had something in my mind for awhile but couldn't find the right color scheme until recently. Then when I began designing there was really enough for two kits.

So there are two kits at Heritage Scrap: My Family Tree - Baby Edition and My Family Tree Baby Edition Add On.

And there are two kits at Faith Sisters: My Family Tree - Baby Edition and My Family Tree - Baby Edition Add On.

My vision for this kit was for families to create a baby book that includes a family tree and family information in it, combining genealogy, family history and babyhood, so that as their child grows up they know where they came from. I do have plans to make a Shutterfly ready book so that if you want you can just insert photos and journaling!

As you can see the kit is versatile - it can have a baby focus or it can be used for other layouts as well. Some of the elements are more modern and childlike and some are more on the heritage side. The first kit has some titles in neutral brown and the add on kit has many titles in both peach and light green. The titles are geared towards producing baby pages with numbers for the months, family words (like "cousin", "Grandpa" etc) and title words.

Please leave me a message or email me with a link if you have created something with these (or any others of my kits). I would love to see what you do! Below You will see some of the previews:

My Family Tree - Baby Edition

Elements

Papers

Tree and Special Papers

Frames and Pedigree Charts

Titles and Word Art

Card stock

My Family Tree - Baby Edition Add On

Add On Elements

Bonus Quick Page With Add On

Papers

Frames and Additional Pedigree Charts

Some of the Words, Titles and Numbers

More Tree Paper!

Thank you for looking! Happy Scrapping!

Happy 3rd Birthday Heritage Scrap!

2011-08-05T09:27:00.000-07:00

Heritage Scrap is celebrating its 3rd birthday! When I first began digi-scrapping in 2008, I was excited when I found the work of Kate McClellan, Lynn Griffin, and the late Jean Daugherty, I was so excited! I finally had some designs that were not for children's scrapbooks (those kits *do* have their place), but could be used for genealogy and other heritage pages. A month later I joined the Creative Team and then became the Creative Team Leader. I truly believe in Kate's vision for Heritage Scrap and it has been a pleasure to work there and eventually be mentored as a designer. Congratulations on 3 wonderful years Heritage Scrap!

In order to celebrate, all of the designers have been having specials and there are some forum challenges as well. You can enter the shop here. And you can enter my shop here.

This week my shop will be 35% OFF! Happy Scrapping!

New Release At Heritage Scrap and SALES!

2011-07-29T10:03:00.000-07:00

Heritage Scrap has a new collab just in time to scrap summer vacation pictures - JOURNEYS - Vintage in feel, but will work with modern photos as well. Each designer has contributed a mini kit and they all coordinate together. Whether your journey is by plane, train or automobile or by heart, you're sure to find something to fit your art! Each kit is $2.50 during the month of August. My portion can be found here.

These are the word art titles with fun map papers, that are part of the kit.

Preview of some of the papers, including a worn and torn vintage map of Europe.

You can see all the designers' Journeys kits and add on products here.

My entire shop at Heritage Scrap is on sale and Heritage Scrap is celebrating another birthday!!! Be on the look out for special challenges and events during the month of August.

My entire shop at Faith Sisters is also on sale for 25% Off. And remember, now through the 31st, the above collab portion is free - come fly with us on our "blog plane". Scroll down to the next post for details. Make sure you head back to the Faith Sisters Blog to find out how you can get the Quick Pages FREE! You can see what mine looks like below:

Happy Scrapping!

Come Fly With Me - Faith Sisters Blog Train

2011-07-25T00:01:00.000-07:00

The August 2011 designer collaboration kit at Faith Sisters is called "Come Fly With Me". Above you can see my portion. Each designer has a little bit different take, but somehow in the end it all fits together. For my portion I chose only a few colors and gave it a slight vintage feel. There are 8 300dpi 12x12 background papers and 8 elements. All the kits work together so that you can mix and match. I am near the end of the blog train and you can download my portion here. Make sure you you check out all the other stops on the blog train as well. You can find them below:

Today's Scrap by Vicky Day

Designs By Angel

Digital Compilations by Cinda

Precepts and Promises

Lori Imel Designs

By The Shore Designs by Pammie K

Steadfast and Immovable

Remember to check out the Faith Sisters Blog as well. For a short time our quick pages coordinating with the kit will be free as well and you can read about how to get them there.

Here is my QP preview. Thank you for visiting my blog. I hope you'll enjoy the download and have fun on the blog train. Happy Scrapping!

July 2011 Heritage Challenge - Summer Adventures

2011-07-14T10:19:00.000-07:00

Every 2nd Thursday I host a heritage challenge at Faith Sisters. You can read about this month's on the Faith Sister Blog. The information can be found in the forum too. To give you a brief summary, the challenge is so that you can scrap and document what your family or ancestor's summer activities were. As always there will be a posting bonus!

88 Years later, we're doing pretty much the same thing. The beat goes on...

(Layouts created with my North Coast Digital Scrapbooking Kit available at Faith Sisters and Heritage Scrap)

New Release At Faith Sisters

2011-07-14T10:05:00.000-07:00

I created the Outdoors Adventures and Outdoors Adventures Add On kits to scrap all my Pacific Northwest pictures, past and present! This has been previously available at Heritage Scrap here and here, but is now newly available at Faith Sisters here and here.

Outdoor Adventures Kit

Outdoor Adventures Add On Kit

Thank you for looking and remember to stop by and check out my monthly Heritage Challenge at Faith Sisters!

New Designer Collaboration Kit At Faith Sisters

2011-06-24T15:22:00.000-07:00

You can plainly see that this is NOT a heritage kit! I wasn't sure how I would do on this collaboration kit but it ended up being fun. I thought everyone did a great job and it turned out pretty neat. You can get this kit free with purchase, just check out the details at the Faith Sisters Shop.

Father's Day and Birthday Sales

2011-06-17T19:27:00.000-07:00

In honor of Father's Day and my Birthday, I'm having a sale through June 30. All kits 25% off and 50% off of Masculine and Outdoor kits, including my new Father's Day word art and His Story - Family Tree kit! Sale valid at Heritage Scrap and Faith Sisters!

New Word Art For Father's Day

2011-06-14T20:41:00.000-07:00

Here is the preview for my new word art just in time for Father's Day! It coordinates with my His Story - Family Tree Kit (at Faith Sisters and Heritage Scrap You can find it at both my shops, Faith Sisters and Heritage Scrap.

June 2011 Heritage Scrap Designer Collaboration Kit - A Man's Life

2011-06-03T20:20:00.000-07:00

Here is my portion of Heritage Scrap's June Designer Collaboration Kit, A Man's Life.

And here is the paper preview. One of the requests most frequently heard for heritage scrapbooking is for a man's kit, so this month in honor of all the Dads, Grand Dads and all our male ancestors, we made one just for you! I just peeked in the store and some of the other portions are really great! Happy Scrapping!

Sunshiney - New at Faith Sisters

2011-06-03T20:02:00.000-07:00

Sunshiney is new in the shop at Faith Sisters. I wanted to create something fun and fresh to use with pictures of my twin daughtesrs. They looked at my designs and said, "It looks sunshiney Mommy!" and the name stuck!

I created this layout today with a picture of my youngest when she was four. It was a lot of fun and much different than my usual heritage scrapbooking!

Some of the elements

Papers

Frames and Journaling Elements

Shapes and Elements

Sunshiney will be 25% the next couple weeks. Have fun scrapping!

His Story - Family Tree Kit

2011-05-31T17:02:00.000-07:00

His Story - Family Tree Kit is now available at Heritage Scrap.

Here is a quick page I made as part of the kit. The watch frame is included in the kit and I thought it would be a fun way to highlight some special photos.

Here are the papers. I thought it was about time I tried my hand at some masculine kits and with Father's Day coming up, there was no time like the present! Here is the kit description from the store:

His Story - Family Tree Kit, is a digital scrapbooking kit to help you tell *HIS* story. While there are still some feminine touches of lace and flowers, the rich colors and styles are geared towards masculine pages. The kit is packed with elements to help you tell your guy's story, share Father's Day photos and any heritage photos. It's not too fancy and not too plain and there are two 4 generation pedigree charts as well as labels with family and genealogy terms on them to label your pages. Thank you for looking! The kit includes:

24 12x12 300dpi Background Papers
2 300dpi Worn and Torn Overlay Papers
1 Quick Page

107 Elements, including:
52 Labels (Family and Genealogy Terms)
1 Blank Label
2 File Tabs With Blank Insert
1 Large Envelope/Journal Paper
1 Large Envelope Decorated
1 Journal Book Cluster
1 Decorated Note
1 Journal Mat
1 Journal Label
1 Tag
7 Borders/Stitches/Lace/Trim
2 Strings
1 Tape Piece
2 Wraps
3 Bows (1 Recolored)
1 Button
1 Watch Cluster
2 Vintage Masculine Elements Clusters
2 Vintage Tool Clusters
4 Flowers
4 Flower Clusters
2 Leaves
1 Watch
2 Trees
1 Key

Elements

Frames and Pedigree Charts

Journal and Label Elements

Quick Page and Worn/Torn Paper Overlays

I am excited about the possibilities with this kit and I hope you will love it too! It will be 25% off the first two weeks. Happy Scrapping!

Memorial Day Weekend Sale At Faith Sisters

2011-05-27T17:36:00.000-07:00

Happy Memorial Day Weekend! My whole store at Faith Sisters is on sale for 50% Off!

Thank you for your patronage! Happy Scrapping!

Memorial Day Weekend Sale

2011-05-26T22:19:00.000-07:00

All the designers at Heritage Scrap have a special going on this Memorial Day Weekend. Place $30 of product from the designer in your cart, then use a coupon code (they are on the front store page and mine is FMN-MemorialWeekendSale) and receive that product for $12.50. Each designer is doing this but it is not mix and match. One coupon and sale per designer. You can find my shop here.

I'll be having a sale in my Faith Sisters shop too. I will post about that tomorrow.

Thank you to my loyal customers. I appreciate you!

Faith Sisters - New Collab & New Kit

2011-05-22T15:54:00.000-07:00

Faith Sisters has a new designer collab - Peaceful - in the shop. If you missed out on our blog train earlier, you can get the whole collab free with purchase or purchase it separately here. The front page of the store (the first link in this paragraph) has the instructions on how to receive this free. Wait til you see next month's collab, it's "outta this world"!

Previously I released my kit Regina at Heritage Scrap and today it is now available at Faith Sisters!

From a previous blog post:

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"! :-)

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

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.

Hope you enjoyed! Remember to let me know if you created something with my kit! I love to see your art.

Heritage Challenge - The Feminine Influence

2011-05-13T19:15:00.000-07:00

Heroine at Heritage Scrap and Heroine at Faith Sisters

Hello scrappers! The 2nd Thursday of every month I host a heritage challenge at Faith Sisters. Each month I try to challenge you to think beyond the photo and journal also about the story. Sometimes we become overwhelmed and think our "heritage project" has to be a big thing and it becomes scary and we never start. But if we do it one photo/layout at a time it gets done. If you don't like it, you can re-do it later. But if we wait until later to start, later may never get here! So get started! :-)

Join me in the challenge. There is a freebie word art and I will give you a posting bonus. You can read more about it on the Faith Sisters Blog. I look forward to seeing your entry!

Le Jardin Quick Page - Blog Train For Heritage Scrap

2011-05-08T21:59:00.000-07:00

Sometimes seeing *IS* believing, so with that in mind, I decided to put a picture and some writing onto the quick page I created using my portion of the Le Jardin May 2011 Heritage Scrap Designer Collaboration Kit. Each piece of the kit is on sale now for $2.50 for the month of May. And the quick page above is FREE! Just scroll down to the next post to see find the link and to see the rest of the stops on the Heritage Scrap Blog Train.

Just for fun tonight I played around with the different portions and created this page using my papers, ribbons and lace, a brush from Annie's Digital Things, a frame and fern from Lynn Griffin and additional elements from Idgie's Heartsong. The photograph is one I took at the High Sierra Iris Gardens in May 2007. My friend and I are hoping to visit there again this coming week.

Thank you for looking! Remember to scroll down for the free Shutterfly Ready Quick Page and the Blog Train!

Heritage Scrap Blog Train

2011-05-06T21:00:00.000-07:00

Happy Inter/National Scrapbook Day Weekend! Are you having fun yet?! I hope so! You have arrived safely at the Heritage Scrap Blog Train. First let me tell you about the kit that inspired our project.

My Portion of Le Jardin

Papers From Le Jardin

Our fearless leader, Kate Mc Clellan is an unabashed Francophile. Her inspiration for the Le Jardin kit came from the vintage rose, Malmaison from the garden of Napoleon Bonaparte's Empress Josephine. The soft colors are springy, feminine and elegant. Each designer has created a portion in her own style and yet they all work together. You can view them all here. Keep an eye out in the store as there are some free goodies from a few of the designers, some of which also coordinate with the kit.

Now, the moment you've all been waiting for... the blog train freebies! Each designer has created a quick page from her portion of the kit. Mine is Shutterfly Ready (thus, slightly smaller than 12x12 but easily increased in size to print as 12x12 elsewhere without reducing quality) and can be downloaded HERE. Make sure to visit every one's blog to get to know them and to download their portion as well. Then stop in at the shop for some great sales!

Annie's Digital Things (on the Heritage Scrap Blog)

Rachael Hudnall

Idgie's Heartsong

Cheryl McCain Designs

***YOU ARE HERE*** Forget-Me-Nots by Theresa Lindamood

***NEXT STOP*** Star Song Studio

Cari Lopez

Rebel Without A Pause

Lynn Griffin (at the Heritage Scrap Blog) and other Surprises

Have fun! Happy Scrapping! Come back again real soon!

Happy Inter/National Scrapbooking Day Weekend!

2011-05-06T18:11:00.000-07:00

Hope you have fun playing and shopping this weekend! Both my stores at Heritage Scrap and at Faith Sisters will be on sale 40-50% off Friday to Monday!

Be sure to stop by tomorrow for the Heritage Scrap Blog Train! There are some really love pieces to download for free as our appreciate of your support and patronage! Thank you!

5x7 Shutterfly Ready Album

2011-05-06T18:07:00.000-07:00

At Heritage Scrap

At Faith Sisters

I really enjoyed creating the Heroine Kit. While I was working on the My Family Tree Shutterfly Album, it struck me that Heroine would make a nice brag book. So I set to work creating an album that would work for Shutterfly's 5x7 brag book size which is not too expensive, so it makes a great gift.

This would make a great Mother's Day gift - too bad I didn't think of it sooner! If it fits your wedding colors it would make a beautiful wedding brag book, a small heritage overview book, pictures of the ladies in your family or other elegant occasions or a just because book. I hope you will enjoy this! Thank you for looking!

My Family Tree 12x12 Shutterfly Ready Album

2011-05-05T22:04:00.000-07:00

My Family Tree 12x12 Shutterfly Ready Album is new in my store tonight, and it will be going on sale 40% off for the iNSD weekend. This is the first of a series of Shutterfly Ready Albums I will be creating with my My Family Tree series of kits. This album was made using components of My Family Tree and My Family Tree Add On available here in a combo pack and My Family Tree - Family Files Add On.

This preview shows 2 of the 2 page spreads, to give you an idea of what it looks like. There are 18 pages (9 2-page spreads) that are meant to be used side by side with a definite left and right, but they could also be used intermixed with pages you create with the My Family Tree kits or intermixed with each other to your taste. In addition to the 18 pages, there is a title/dedication page and an end page, as well as a cover with an opening for a photo, a back cover and a spine. One of the first pages is a pedigree chart to record your family genealogy. Remember to journal. There are a few pages created just for you to tell your story!

All these pages were created with the templates that Shutterfly provides on their website. You can load your pictures into/on these pages, flatten the image and upload to Shutterfly. Once at Shutterfly, follow their directions on creating a 12 x 12 book. Shutterfly uses a size just shy of 12" square. If you are going to print elsewhere, you may have to enlarge just slightly, but this should not be a problem.

In this album I focused on the soft teal colors and elegant laces and frames. It definitely has a "dressy" feel. Soon I will be adding to the My Family Tree collection by creating a Shutterfly Ready book with some of the more modern elements found in the collection. So, stay tuned!

Some of you may be wondering why you would buy a collection like this. If you need a gift project that can be done quickly, you could use this to complete a book in an evening. Think of gifts for the holidays, anniversaries and other special occasions.

Thank you for looking. I hope you will enjoy!

Heroine - New Kit

2011-05-02T20:27:00.000-07:00

My new kit "Heroine" is available at Heritage Scrap and...

in my store at Faith Sisters too.

Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, I spent a lot of time hiking, beach combing and camping. We really know how to "make hay when the sun shines"! We take advantage of the beautiful weather when we have it. Those are some of my happiest memories, but equally pleasing are my memories of being curled up under the blankets or on the couch with a kitty, reading an intriguing book. My Grandma Hopkins, a voracious reader and student of life, as well as teacher, fed my love of reading and stories with books like the Little House on the Prairie series and others. My 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Baldwin encouraged my love of reading even more - she read out whole books to our class. There were silly stories like Stuart Little and The Borrowers and Charlotte's Web. Then she moved on to more complex stories like A Little Princess, Sounder and Where The Red Fern Grows. There was not a dry eye in the classroom when she read Where the Red Fern Grows.

My little world was expanding and growing. The world of literature opened doors in my mind, spirit and emotions and often offered a way to escape. It was around 3rd grade that I became "the little nerd in the library". I discovered the books of Marguerite Henry which delighted me and all the other girls who "played horse" on the playground at recess.

Then one day, my reading journey changed forever. I discovered the biography section! There were a whole series for girls about young women who had made differences in their world. As a young girl feeling trapped in a hopeless situation, these books gave my imagination wings. There were books about first ladies and queens and politicians and doctors and nurses. I was really fascinated with Clara Barton and Florence Nightingale. Later I ended up working in pediatrics nursing as a medical assistant for ten years. I worked with a doctor who would put his head out the door and say, "Come take a look at this!" and he would teach me something new because I loved to learn and was fascinated by medicine. I'm certain that this interest began by reading about Clara and Florence - women who paved the way for nursing to become a respected profession for women.

I've never outgrown my love of biographies. Truth truly is stranger than fiction. And I also find that the story God writes on our hearts and in our lives, is more fascinating than anything Hollywood could accomplish.

When I discovered the beautiful artwork of Idgie's Heartsong, I was reminded all over again, how passionately I devoured those biographies as a young girl. She inspired me to create my kit, Regina which features many of England's queens.

Idgie's Heartsongs' Women in History brushes inspired me to Heroine, in which I've honored just a few of the women whose stories I've enjoyed.

I've included art featuring Joan of Arc, Clara Barton, Florence Nightingale, Louisa May Alcott, Helen Keller and Marie Curie.

I realize that not everyone will want to scrapbook about these historical women or their love of history or reading biographies, so I have included lots of elements to help you design in other areas as well. This kit will work well for heritage, feminine and elegant occasions such as weddings, dances, teas and other occasions.

If you create something with Heroine or have a heroine story of your own - I would love to know. Thank you for looking and happy scrapping!

May 2011 Heritage Scrap Designer Collaboration Kit

2011-05-02T11:38:00.000-07:00

First of all, thank you to all the scrapbookers who stopped by for the recent Faith Sisters Blog train. I would especially like to thank those of you who took the time to comment and say thank you for the downloads! :-)

Spring is here with gardens, teas, Mother's Day and other special events. And to help you scrap these special times, the design team at Heritage Scrap has created a beautiful collab called Le Jardin, which means "The Garden" in French. You can find my portion here. Click on "New Products" at the site to see the other designer's portions. A few more will be added this week.

As always, during the month, the collaboration kits will be 1/2 off, which makes them $2.50 for each portion. The portions mix and match and it is a great way to get to know the style of a designer before trying out one of their big kits.

These are the papers for my portions. When I put them together for the preview, I wished that they were quilting fabric because I think they'd make a pretty shabby chic quilt! The colors actually remind me of my mother, so I am thinking about making a Mother's Day picture with them.

"Stay tuned" as I will be posting some new releases on the blog this week and there will be some surprises for National Scrapbooking Day weekend.

Thank you for looking. Happy Scrapping!

Two Downloads

2011-04-26T08:51:00.001-07:00

When you go to download for the blog train, please remember to click both downloads. Some of you are getting only one. I don't want you to miss out!

Faith Sisters Peaceful Blog Train Free Download and Sale

2011-04-25T18:03:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my blog! If this is the first time you've been here, I hope you will take some time to look around and introduce yourself. If you were here earlier and didn't find the blog train, I apologize. My brain was asleep at the keyboard and I mixed up the start dates!

Above is the preview picture for my portion of the Faith Sisters "Peaceful" Blog Train. These will later be combined as a collaboration kit, but you have a chance to download each designer's portion free. If you like what you see in my collab portion, please visit my little corner of the Faith Sisters shop. All of my kits are 25% off through April 30. If you scroll down to the previous post, you will see some of my recent releases.

And now for the information you've been waiting for, you can download in TWO PARTS, my portion here (BLOG TRAIN ENDED 4/30). If you make layouts with any of these kits, make sure you post them in the Faith Sisters Gallery. We love to see what you create. Thank you for stopping in! You can find the rest of the blog train stops here:

Digital Compilations By Cinda

Today's Scrap by Vicky Day

Steadfast and Immovable

Designs By Angel

Precepts And Promises

***You Are Here*** Forget-Me-Nots by Theresa Lindamood

***Next*** Scrap Warrior

Kreative Karma

By The Shore Designs by Pammie K

Faith Sisters

25% Off At Faith Sisters, New Kits and New Customer Appreciation Kit

2011-04-22T12:05:00.000-07:00

Faith Sisters has a brand new customer appreciation kit, just out! It has lovely soft spring colors and celebrates the resurrection of Yeshua/Jesus. All the designers work together on this and it's a great way to get to know different designers' styles. This kit, "He Is Risen" is free with any $10 purchase in the store.

All the designers who work on the collab, also put together a quick page. These are available in the store for $1. You can find my quick page here.

My Faith Sisters shop can be found here and I will be having 25% off all kits through April 30th. Yesterday I put a new kit in the store, called Flutterby Mini Digital Scrapbooking Kit. The previews, unfortunately don't do it justice (I'll admit, I need help on that!), but I had fun working with and will post a layout below. Flutterby is full of butterfly papers and elements and is lighthearted and whimsical for spring, feminine or little girl pictures. To see hte patterned papers, please check the store listing for more previews.

Last but not least, I have a "new, old kit" - one that has been at Heritage Scrap and is now at Faith Sisters, called North Coast.

Many of these papers are made with my own high resolution photographs of California's beautiful North Coast.

April 2011 Heritage Scrap Designer Collaboration Kit

2011-03-31T20:56:00.000-07:00

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

2011-03-23T17:03:00.000-07:00

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

2011-03-17T15:41:00.000-07:00

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

2011-03-11T12:29:00.000-08:00

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

2011-03-07T08:29:00.000-08:00

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

2011-03-04T14:46:00.000-08:00

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

2011-03-04T09:30:00.000-08:00

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!

2011-03-03T08:56:00.000-08:00

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.

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 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

2011-03-02T08:28:00.000-08:00

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.

Jean's Friendship

2011-02-23T18:44:00.000-08:00

As I have written previously, this January we lost our dear friend and designer at Heritage Scrap, Jean Daugherty. Jean was a magnificent heritage designer and while there are other lovely designers out there, no one quite matches her grace and style. In addition to designing and genealogy, Jean was a loving wife and mother and a Godly woman, serving her church's Sunday School more than 40 years. Sadly she lost her battle with breast cancer but she has Victory and battles no more.

February marks the end of sales on her designs at Heritage Scrap. You can go directly to her store here. All proceeds go to Jean's family. In addition, some of the designers worked together making a collaboration tribute kit called Jean's Friendship which is a tribute to our love of Jean and is to benefit her family. You can find my portion here.

These kits are available only through February 2011.

This layout was created by Helene, my wonderful CT designer, using my portion.

Here is my preview for the kit.

Another lovely layout from Helene using Jean's Friendship and title art from my Beloved kit. Thank you for looking!

Sale At Heritage Scrap - New Kits

2011-02-11T17:16:00.000-08:00

Hello Blog Friends! I haven't been posting because I have had a host of electronic issues over the last several months and now Blogger isn't playing nice so I can't post a picture or link.

I wanted to let you know that my shop at Heritage Scrap is having a sale. Most kits are 50% off through February! You can find the link in the side bar since I can't post one here at the moment. I will also be hosting a sale in my shop at Faith Sisters starting in a couple days as well.

At Heritage Scrap we have put together a tribute kit for our beloved Jean Daugherty who went to be with the Lord in January. That will be in the shop soon with all proceeds going to Jean's family.

Next in the lineup is our February Designer Collaboration kit at Heritage Scrap. These are always so fun to do and this month was no exception. I loved the colors! It should be up this weekend, so stay tuned.

Soon I'll be blogging on a more regular basis (if blogger cooperates!). Thank you for stopping by.

40% Off Grand Re-Opening Sale

2011-01-28T16:54:00.000-08:00

We've had a rough month or so at Heritage Scrap, losing our dear Jean Daugherty to cancer and being hacked and having server problems! We have finally moved to a new server, though we are still haven't gotten the forum and gallery up to par. Everything else is doing so much better and the shop is re-opened! If you are still having problems getting in, you may need to clean your internet cache and clear your cookies. Sometimes an older and saved version of the site comes up if you don't. But we are on a new server, cleaned up and no viruses or hacking problems - Yeah!

So, most of the designers are having "housewarming" specials. My designs will be 40% Off! I'll be uploading some new things soon.

2nd Thursday Heritage Challenge At Faith Sisters

2011-01-13T16:42:00.000-08:00

Last month I began a heritage scrapbooking challenge at Faith Sisters and today I posted my 2nd portion. You can read about the challenge here and post your layouts here to earn a posting bonus. I've also copied and shared the information in this post below. I hope you will join me. I think it will be a lot of fun. Each month we will cover a different topic and you will have some ideas to include in your heritage albums, life story or life books or your every day family album. If you have an idea of a topic you would like me to cover, please comment or send me an email.

Welcome to our first heritage challenge of 2011. When we think of the New Year, we often think of change. Most change in our lives occurs moment by moment and we don’t even think about it. Or we are doing busy experiencing the change to stop and write down what we fell at the time. It may seem obvious, but documenting the change in your life, your family’s life or your ancestors, could tell a lot about you as people.

This layout is the opening page in my Grandmother’s life book. Most of her grandchildren only knew her as a white haired “little old lady”. I wanted to show more than that – the incorrigible toddler, the bright student, the young woman in love, the new mother, the widow, the teacher, the woman of God and so much more. It was really eye opening for me to see her life unfold on one layout. This layout demonstrates change that occurs on an ongoing basis for everyone.

Change is inevitable, or so “they” say and sometimes the changes are big or life changing. Some experiences in our life, define who we are as person, send us off in another direction or confirm that we are right where we should be. They challenge us, grieve us, bring joy and stretch us in negative and positive ways.

Try to think of ways you or your family member have changed or experiences that have changed you. Here is a partial list:

Salvation/Choosing to walk with God

Health/Illness Changes/Disease/Surviving Cancer

Tragedy

A National Experience (e.g. The Great Depression, 9/11)

Political changes and events

Education

Career Changes or Job loss

Losing a Child or Other Loved One

Moving to Another Country, State, Province or City

Missionary Adventures

Marriage/Divorce/Widowhood

Abuse

Adoption

I’m sure you can come up with more. This is just a basic list of things that change or can change us through the course of our lives. My Grandparents lived through The Great Depression of the 1930s and this shaped who they were as people and their attitude towards things in general. But you wouldn’t know this just looking through a photo album would you? Photos are wonderful and art is beautiful, but sometimes we are left with more questions than answers. It is our job as family historians to document some of these things. Don’t forget the “story” in His”story”!

This layout doesn’t have a lot of journaling because some things I just don’t want to share with the whole Internet Scrapbooking Community! But it talks about the changes that occurred from the starry eyed bride to the comfortable and trusty love I share with my Husband now, 12 years later. The photos, one on my wedding day and one on my 12th wedding anniversary, show that to me, but maybe others can’t see that. So, this page reflects those feelings.

I hope you’ll join me in this challenge. It’s such a broad topic, you will be sure to find something to scrap and journal about. Everyone who posts in the gallery challenge section here and then lets me know here in the forum before the next challenge on Thursday, February 10, 2011, will receive the following word art as a posting bonus:

Thank you for participating. I look forward to seeing your layouts!

Catching Up - New Kits and Sale

2010-12-09T14:17:00.000-08:00

My apologies for not keeping up on the blog. Sometimes real life takes precedence over virtual life! :-) Because I have been neglectful, there is a lot of catching up to do!

Through the new year, I will be having a 50% off sale at both myHeritage Scrap shop and my Faith Sisters shop. Happy shopping and scrapping! Now for my recent kits:

Winter Song is found here (FS) and here (HS) and was designed for the December 2010 My Sweet Song Challenge - The Perfect Gift at Faith Sisters. The kit is filled with both musical and wintery, snowy elements and backgrounds with a touch of glitter in near neutral tones. Here are some of my layouts created with this:

This is my wonderful Hubby and me on our wedding day, almost 12 years ago. The lyrics are from the hymn we chose for congregational singing during our wedding.

This layout features a picture of my brother and I with our Daddy during the winter of 1968. My brother was a year old and this was his first snow! I should also mention that the ad above was created with this kit too.

Winter Wilderness is Heritage Scrap's December Designer Collaboration kit and there are some really beautiful kits. You can see my portion above. I had so much fun making that plaid background that by the time I was done, I wanted to have a blouse made out of it! :-) Winter Wilderness is designed to work with all your outdoor winter activities as well as your indoor get togethers. I surely miss living where I could walk out in the woods in the snow!

In the past I have put some word art and title pieces in with kits but this is my first actual word art package. It was really fun to create and is designed to help you journal and document your family traditions and your love of family and home. You can find it at both Faith Sisters and Heritage Scrap.

This layout uses a title from the word art package and also my Holiday Baking kit which I released last November at Heritage Scrap and just loaded into my store at Faith Sisters. It's fun for all your holiday baking and would work well for cookbooks, recipe cards and kitchen gifts.

More updates coming soon!

Customer Appreciation Sale

2010-11-25T14:06:00.000-08:00

My customers *literally* make my business. I am so thankful for all your support of my designing adventure over the last year + as I've been learning and growing. Hopefully I will be able to continue to create products that you are excited to use! To thank you for your loyalty I have extended the usual "Black Friday" sale to run from November 24 - 30 at 50% off!

Look for my products at Heritage Scrap and Faith Sisters ! Happy Shopping and more importantly, Happy Thanksgiving to my American customers. Even if it is not Thanksgiving in your country, gratitude is a great habit! :-D

Happy Birthday Kate McClellan

2010-11-11T09:07:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday to a great store owner (Heritage Scrap), designer, human and friend! And many more!

Gifts For You - International Digital Scrapbooking Day Weekend

2010-11-04T18:48:00.000-07:00

Happy International Digital Scrapbooking Day Weekend! I'm starting early with a 50% off sale in my stores and you can read about that in the following posts here. And to get you off to a good start, I've created two quick pages for you, which will be available through Sunday night.

The first one was created with my new faithbooking kit called Rejoice! You can download the QP here. And of course it comes without the photos of my family and the writing on the ribbon and tag.

The second quick page is full of autumn color with a slight heritage touch. This one was created with my new kit "Thankful" which has an autumn, gratitude and Thanksgiving theme. You can find it at Heritage Scrap and Faith Sisters. You can download it here.

I hope you will enjoy using these pages. I've left you a little bit of room to personalize. Don't forget to check out the full kits in the links above. Happy Scrapping!

International Digital Scrapbooking Day Sale - I'm an Early Bird!

2010-11-04T13:45:00.000-07:00

The early bird doesn't get worms - just great deals! I couldn't wait, so I began a day early!

2010-11-04T13:41:00.000-07:00

Until I can find a reasonable program for sending graphic newsletters, I will be sending information on new releases, sales, gifts and freebies through a yahoo group. You can sign up by email using FMNTheresaLindamood-subscribe@yahoogroups.com or go to the group page.

I have it set so that I have to approve membership because of spamming, so when you sign up, send me a little note on the sign up page so I can tell you are legit!

New Kit at Heritage Scrap AND Faith Sisters

2010-11-04T11:24:00.000-07:00

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Partly because it has been the least corrupted by the retail industry. But mostly because I feel it is a natural part of faith to be THANKFUL! I have many happy childhood memories of large family Thanksgiving dinners around my Grandma Hopkins' table. Not only did family gather, but often older widowed ladies from our various churches and friends (old and new), who happened to be passing through and/or separated from family at that time. When I married my husband and left the Pacific Northwest for Sunny California - my family Thanksgiving dinners were what I missed most. The scrumptious meal put together by loving and cooperative hands, Scrabble and "Kick It" (fussball) games, putting together puzzles and looking at each other's photos from the last year are all part of the great memories I store in my heart.

With all these things in mind, I created "Thankful", which can be used to scrap your Thanksgiving memories, but is also versatile for other autumn and family occasions. Included is some bonus word art and titles including two with Scripture and some quotes. The papers have textures of damask and leaves and I've included many photo real elements.

Thankful is available at Heritage Scrap and Faith Sisters. Thankful will also coordinate well with my portion of the Hearth and Home Designer Collaboration Kit at Heritage Scrap and Autumn Glory which is available at both Heritage Scrap and Faith Sisters.

Today through November 8, Thankful (and the rest of my store is 50% off!). If you create something with one of these kits, please let me know! I'd love to see your art!

Blessings - Last Day of Blog Train

2010-10-31T11:04:00.000-07:00

Thank you everyone who has stopped by for the blog train and especially those of you who have left comments, both here and at 4shared! It's nice to get some feedback and I hope you will come back to visit my blog again.

Today, Sunday October 31, 2010 is the last day of the Faith Sisters Blog Train. Click on the link to take you to the post with all the information. The layout above was made with my portion of the kit. I hope you've enjoyed! Blessings to you as you begin the new month... and many more!

Hearth and Home November Collaboration at Heritage Scrap (BLOG TRAIN BELOW)

2010-10-30T10:35:00.000-07:00

The November Designer Collaboration kit at Heritage Scrap is perfect for the season! You can find my my portion here. Hearth and Home is a beautiful collection with rich, warm colors evocative of Autumn, family gatherings, Thanksgiving and cozy days in front of the fire. Each designer has a different take on the theme and adds their own special touches.

*****If you are looking for the Faith Sisters Blog Train - PLEASE scroll down 2 posts. The November collaboration for Faith Sisters is called Blessings and you can receive a portion of the kit at each designer's blog until 10/31.*****

Usually I end up buying each designer's portion because we have so much fun working on these. It's fun to see how each of us comes up with something totally different and yet the components all work together! They will be only $2.50 for the month of November! Below are some of the other designer portions. If you click the "Hearth and Home" link above it will take you to the page where these can be purchased.

Rejoice!

2010-10-26T12:58:00.000-07:00

Rejoice is the first in my new series of faithbooking kits that will be available at Faith Sisters.

Rejoice in the Lord always. And again I say rejoice! Philippians 4:4

I began with a word overlay of Rejoice and created it in 5 colors with coordinating solids. There are 10 patterned papers to mix and match and the elements are created to fit both elegant and cute styles. Be watching - I will be having a Scripture and word art addition coming soon as well as more faithbooking kits in the series.

And some good news - my entire store at Faith Sisters is 40% off through this week!

If you're here looking for the blog train, please scroll down to the next post - and thank you for coming!

Blessings - Faith Sisters Blog Train - Scrapbooking Freebies!

2010-10-24T20:46:00.000-07:00

November is the month we Americans usually slow down to think about being thankful, so what better theme for the Faith Sisters November Designer Collaboration kit, than Blessings! Immediately comes to mind...

Count your blessings name them one by one,
Count your blessings, see what God hath done.
Count your blessings, name them one by one.
Count your many blessings, see what God hath done!

Okay, I'll stop singing now and give you the details! Hopefully we will bless you with our Blessings Blog Train. Go to each blog on the list for a free download of that designer's portion of the November collab. Faith Sister's is the Caboose (last stop on the train). Our train runs October 25-31.

The photo above shows my portion, which you can download here from 4shared. (I always virus scan my files before uploading, but as with any downloading, use caution) While you are here, I hope you'll take a look around at my new blog and book mark it to come back or use the "follow me" widget to the right. I will be posting book reviews as well as family history, heritage scrapping and memorabilia information. Of course there will be scrapbook pages posted as well and information on kits and sales. Leave a comment too... It will be fun to get to know you! You can also find me on Facebook and keep watching as the sign up for my email list is coming soon!

Visit the other designers here:

Susan Godfrey

Today's Scrap by Vicky Day

Scrapping With Angel

Simple Girl Scraps

Digital Compilations by Cinda

Circle of Life Scraps

Toucan Scraps

Lori Imel

Designs By Dede

Precepts and Promises

Ocean Wide Designs

Tirza for Major Scrapola

By The Shore Designs

Forget-Me-Nots by Theresa Lindamood *YOU are HERE*

Latz Design

Audra's Little Scraps

Meredith Cardall

Kreative Karma

Scrap Warrior

Steadfast and Immovable

Kaboose: Faith Sisters

And last but not least, you can buy my quick page from the Blessings collab for $1 here. Each of us has made a $1 quick page and you can find them in the Faith Sisters Store.

Thank you for dropping by - please come again! Enjoy your Blessings!

Family Treasures

2010-10-23T14:54:00.000-07:00

I am so excited and disappointed at the same time! My Mom told me about all the treasures that she and my Aunt found, going through all of my Grandma's things after they had been storage for 8 years. The disappointment comes because I'm almost 900 miles away from my Mom and can't "eyeball" them myself. My Mom had a fantastic day with her family and the two sisters had fun remember things, laughing, tearing up and then getting back on task.

My Grandma Hopkins is a social historian's dream. Growing up relatively poor and being a newlywed when the Great Depression hit, she learned to save everything! It was a bane to those who had to clean out her house where she had lived about 70 years, but a boon to me - the family's historian! So much happens in a person's life that sometimes we don't even really know what we don't know! We don't know what questions to ask!

Some of the boxes contained slips of her hand crocheted lace, fabrics and the little "bits and bobs" that you save because you might need something some day. A few held her costume jewelry and a little doll that is about 100 years old. Other things were more mundane like the apple box in the layout above. My Mom remembers that her father received a gift box of fruit every year and it was always a happy occasion when it arrived (life certainly was much simpler then, wasn't it?). This is one of the boxes - Grandma saved and reused everything.

Other boxes hold treasures that have me salivating in anticipation. Grandma kept her diploma from "Normal School", her life time teaching credential and every teaching contract she ever had from the 1920s to the 1960s! These will help me fill in the blanks as I share her story. Another treasure was a family Bible about 140 years old from the Wolcott side of my family. Several other Bibles were found belonging to my grandparents and great grandparents. Both my grandfather and great grandfather spent some time as pastors. There are even some Bible study and sermon notes from my Grandpa. Since he died before I was born, I'm anxious to read them and see if I can step into his mind a little and get to know him.

Then there is the whole wooden trunk stamped F.W. Tisdale - whose treasures are yet to be discovered. My family historian heart grows faint in anticipation!!!

Well I'll have to be patient. My poor mother can't scan and photograph everything in the first 24 hours now, can she?

I had to do something with my excitement so I created the layout above using Jean Daugherty's Apple Hill Kit which coordinated with that apple box. If any of you locals are reading this, yes, it's made about our Apple Hill! It's one of the loveliest apple kits I've ever seen and I have no hesitation in recommending it!

What unexpected treasures have you found?

Book Review and My Lifetime Story and Life Book Challenges

2010-10-21T11:34:00.000-07:00

Anyone who sets foot in our home knows that we are a family of bibliophiles, so it only seems fitting that I should begin a series of reviews about books that may be helpful in scrapbooking, photography, digital graphics, genealogy, heritage studies and so on.

As a disclaimer, I must say that I have not actually completely read this book word for word,because it had to be returned to the library without renewing because there was a hold. I read enough to put it on my Amazon list for future reference. Also it's not necessarily a book you read word for word, but pick up and thumb through and read sections that apply. It is a reference type book.

The Power of Memoir: How to Write Your Healing Story by Linda Joy Myers, PhD a therapist and president of the National Association of Memoir Writers, presents guidelines for sharing your own story with tips on both the technical and emotional aspects of the journey.

It will probably come as no surprise to you that I highly recommend everyone sharing their own story. People tend to think they are boring or that no one would be interested in their lives. But, wouldn't you want to know even a little of the daily life of your great grandparents? I know I would treasure every bit. Many families are blessed to have letters and even some journals, but mine was not and it has left me with many questions unanswered. I wonder what questions my grandchildren will one day have about me? Perhaps they or others can learn from my own mistakes and avoid them.

Furthermore, there is value in telling your story whether someone else reads it or not. As a therapist, Ms. Myers' book touches greatly on the healing aspect of telling your story. I often think of it like this - when I share my story with someone I trust, or write it down - I am removing a part of that pain from my body. It's almost like a surgical extraction though truly our experiences never totally leave us, but sharing can diminish the blow. She covers extensively dealing with controversial topics and writing the truth about loved ones.

In addition to the healing aspect, which some may not agree with or feel the need to address, there are many writing prompts in the form of both topics to cover and questions. There is advice on technique, structure and even publishing! You can read excerpts from the book here at the author's website.

So, how does this translate into scrapbooking? Well a lot of scrapbooking is telling a story in pictures and art, though we often fall short in the words department. About ten years or so ago, when I was still paper scrapbooking, I was on an email list with Angie Pedersen and she challenged us not to forget ourselves in our scrapbooks. Inevitably one person is repeatedly behind the camera telling the stories of others, but everyone is left to wonder who the mysterious camera man or woman is! Then she wrote The Book of Me and others in the series. These are excellent guidelines. Perhaps I will review that book next! You can read more from Angie on her blog.

Are you already looking to scrap your story? Faith Sisters has an excellent serial challenge called My Lifetime Story, running in 2010. You can find some great ideas and the challenges are left up in the forum so you can start up at anytime. If you would like to see what others are doing, you can look here in the My Lifetime Story Challenge Gallery for great ideas.

In heritage scrapbooking we are often telling the story of someone else and piecing together from photos, documents and interviews. The person may no longer be living and this presents more challenges. Heritage Scrap has a serial challenge called Life Book, which is currently in its 3rd round. This is put together and run by the lovely Victorian Rose Designs! There is a chat at 9PM Eastern each Monday where ideas are discussed and Vicki passes out wonderful digital goodies. You can peek in the Life Book Gallery too for some awesome ideas. I should state that the Life Book format is not only for telling the story of your ancestors but works for telling your own story as well.

Sometimes it is scary to put yourself out there or to even think about these things, but they can be blessings too. If you read this post and feel inspired, leave me a note in the comments - and better yet a link to a gallery where you have posted your work! I look forward to hearing from you!

$1 Quick Page at Faith Sisters

2010-10-21T10:36:00.000-07:00

With each monthly collaboration kit we do at Faith Sisters, we also do a quick page. For the So Fru Fru collaboration, I created this and you can purchase it for $1 here!

So Fru Fru - Earn it Free at Faith Sisters

2010-10-16T15:08:00.000-07:00

Recently I had my first adventure in designing non-heritage designs. If you can see the ribbons with roses, about half way up... then you'll know I was only partially successful and making it non-heritage. It was fun to stretch my wings a little and try something new. All of the designer's elements and papers are pooled together so you can't really see what was my contribution, but there is a lot in this and it's only HALF of the collaboration!

Right now you can earn this large, second portion of the collab free when you purchase $10 or more from the Faith Sisters Store.

Autumn Sales

2010-10-16T15:03:00.000-07:00

Autumn in my favorite season and so I've decided to celebrate by continuing my Autumn Sale. There if 40% off almost everything at my Heritage Scrap Store and 40% off of everything in my tiny new store at Faith Sisters. Different items are available at each site. Thank you for looking!

Under Construction

2010-10-16T09:32:00.000-07:00

If you are dropping in - THANK YOU - but please excuse the construction mess as I redesign my blog. Thank you for your patience.

You can find my designs at Heritage Scrap and Faith Sisters - Thank you for looking!

Remember to bookmark and come back. I will be posting new information soon and at the end of October there will be a blog train!

Beatrice Estelle Smith

2009-06-02T14:53:00.000-07:00

Recently Heritage Scrap has a new designer, Roberta T. Designs. This is a layout of my Great Grandma Bea, whom I most resemble of all my relatives and ancestors. It was created with her

Botanical and Lace kit.

Life Book Challenge At Heritage Scrap

2009-02-27T08:54:00.000-08:00

Life has been so crazy, I don't know if I have even mentioned that last month I took on a new position as Creative Team Leader at Heritage Scrap, which is a digital scrapbook store and community designed to serve the needs of heritage and vintage scrappers with special emphasis on telling the story!

My new friend Vicki has started the Life Book Challenge, which when finished will complete the entire life story of yourself or a person in your family. I chose to do mine on my Grandma Hopkins. Since I have shared so much about her on this blog, I decided I will post some of the pages here.

This page is going to be the cover or opening page of her book. I blended a photo of her taken midlife with a background paper from Jean Daugherty in the collaborative Old Tyme Rose kit, the wide lace band from Digizines by Teri's Misty Morning Kit and the narrow lace from Annie's Digital Things' Grandmother's Sewing Basket kit. Next up is the birth pages. I think this is going to be a lot of fun!

Our Prayers For You

2009-01-29T09:25:00.000-08:00

This page was made with Lori Ann Imel's Be In Prayer Remix available at Faith Sisters. My step Dad Jack will be having stomach cancer surgery on February 5, 2009 in Seattle, WA. If any of you pray, please pray for his healing and that the surgery will go well. Also, please pray for my Mom Ruth as she waits. Thank you.

Made Ya Look Monday

2009-01-19T13:40:00.000-08:00

Faith Sisters has a column called Made Ya Look Monday, where the administration chooses several layouts in the gallery that "make ya look". The layout above is one of mine that was chosen today. I created it using a wedding photo I took several years ago (and if you've been here before you have seen it in some of the heritage scrap layouts I've made) and a beautiful kit from Willro & Co Designs called Sweet Things .

I decided to play with it some more using Willro & Co's Sorbet Dream kit, also available at Faith Sisters. I'm trying to stretch myself creatively and work in some styles that are not my natural. I have a tendency to get too "tight" in my creativity and need to "loosen" up. So, I tried these heritage photos with modern design. It was kind of fun to do something different.

And today is this couple, my maternal, maternal great grandparents, would have celebrated their 104th wedding anniversary (if that were possible!).

I'll try to post more often. I have been a bit overwhelmed finding my way around forums and assignments and all the new things I am doing on the Creative Teams.

Made Ya Look Monday

2009-01-05T20:34:00.000-08:00

Today at Faith Sisters one of my layouts was chosen for Made Ya Look Monday, which features several layouts that "make ya look" in the galleries. It was a nice surprise when I checked in today.

This is my paternal Grandmother and Hubby fixed this photo for me on PSE in the days before I was working with it. My Grandma had a fight with my Grandpa and tore it. We always laugh though because we knew she couldn't really mean it because she carefully tore just the left side off and not through her face! LOL It's the only portrait picture I have of her. It's her birthday today (January 2nd when I made this), so I felt like making a layout of her.

I used a beautiful kit from Debra Ballance, called Fall Elegance (http://faithsisters.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1393). The journaling page is one of Debra's beautiful Autumn Journaling Boxes (http://faithsisters.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1759). The portrait was taken in September 1946 so I thought the rich autumn colors and designs were perfect for it.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T14:14:00.001-08:00

Did you stay up until Midnight to bring in the New Year? I talked my Hubby into staying up with me last night - usually he is bah humbug about it! Being the little nerds that we are, I was on my lap top and he was on his, but we enjoyed the night together working on our computers and sharing a late lasagna dinner after the kids were in bed.

Did you make resolutions? When I was a teenager I spent all evening working on a LONG list of things to work on over the next year. As the years pass and are filled with more important things that I ever wrote on those lists, my list grows shorter. I'm learning to lay perfectionism aside. I'll never get there and it just drives me crazy trying. That doesn't mean that I don't strive for excellence, but I will leave perfect up to God.

So my list is more like categories to work on in 2009.

1. I want to get below a certain number in my weight and I have made an extremely reasonable goal.

2. I want to eliminate clutter in my life.

3. Most importantly, I want to work on being more real in my relationship with God and growing closer to Him, focusing on some specific areas.

4. I want to learn more in digital scrapbooking and design, as well as photography.

Today I am starting off on the right foot. I am sorting through all the clutter in my bedroom. Since there are five of us in 940 square feet, my crafting area has moved all over the house in different areas. As the children grow older, my areas get smaller. I used to drool over pictures of lovely scrap rooms posted in the gallery at 2 Peas, but I am no longer discontent. I am thankful for the littel space that He has given me and I'm learning to make the most of what we've got. One blessing is that we have quite a large master bedroom, so we are also able to use it as an office area. We are still compact and it's not the romantic bedroom I'd like to have, but it works for us.

This morning I started with loading up the shelves we installed earlier in the week with my clear shoebox size plastic boxes that contain my different supplies for scrapbooking and stamping. Then I moved on to sorting through the paper scrapbooking papers. I am moving more and more toward digital but will likely still do some projects in paper. Consolidation is the word! After this break, I will start sorting through my 12x12 papers and supplies. Next will be magazines... I've been subscribing to Memory Makers and Creating Keepsakes since 1997! I finally stopped my subscriptions because my focus had changed and so had theirs, though I occasionally buy a newstand issue.

Can I tell you a secret? Organizing and cleaning craft supplies, while overwhelming at times, is kind of fun! lol I get to look at everything and say, "Oooh pretty!" or "Oh, I forgot about that!" :o)

So, in January, I thought I would talk about organizing and if anyone is here reading along with me... please join in the conversation. If you comment and leave your email, I will answer!

Happy 2009!

Proverbs 31:13

2008-12-31T16:05:00.000-08:00

This is made from Jen Ulasiewicz' Antique Sewing Essentials Mini Kit, with journaling paper and antique glasses from her Notable Mini Kit and lace piece from the Primitive Christmas kit. The layout features photos from all stages of my great Grandma's life and talks about how she always sewed, crocheted, tatted and quilted. Thank you for looking!

2008 Snow

2008-12-28T22:01:00.001-08:00

This was a fun layout to do because it is totally different than my usual. This is using Jen Ulasiewicz' "Primative Christmas" kit and her tree bark alpha. My best friend Shelley sent me the pictures via email because she knew how homesick I am! The pictures make me want to be there even more. Of course now it's raining and melting and slushy and gray. But, one can always dream!

Jen Ulasiewicz

2008-12-28T20:55:00.000-08:00

When I started back into digital scrapbooking this fall, I somehow found out about Jen Ulasiewicz and fell in love with her stuff! She has some incredibly beautiful brushes that I am dying to use in some of my heritage albums and she has also has beautiful photo realistic flowers, dried flowers and other natural elements that are so pretty. I've really been wanting to work with these but have been busy doing things for the Heritage Scrap Creative Team and haven't had a chance. Tonight I started working with them and the next layout is one of my favorites so far.

When I first saw her Vintage Lacy papers, I had this photo in mind. This is my favorite heritage photo of my great Grandparents Fred Tisdale and Winnifred "Winnie" Kirkland Tisdale. Most of the flowers come from the Blissful Blossoms package, except for the fern, baby's breath and Lily of the Valley (she calls them "Wedding Bells"), which come from the "With This Ring" wedding kit. The music paper and ivy frame come from the Vintage Antiquities Rustic Elements package. I used Edwardian Script for the font. I think I'll be printing this one up.

This is the wedding photo of the first couple's son, my grand Uncle Clifton Tisdale and his wife Nora. She had this fancy satin wedding gown that I thought fit along with the beautiful monochromatic "With This Ring" wedding set. The font is French Script.

Thanks for stopping by and making comments. I haven't worked out how to reply for comments yet, but am working on it. I also hope to do some more posting about different ideas and organizing with digital scrapbooking and not just layouts all the time.

Forget Me Nots Design

Get Scrapping 2012 - January Sales

Gifts and Wall Art For The Home

Black Friday Sales

Hot Off The Presses

DSD SALE Begins!

Blessings - November Collaboration Kit

DSD 2011 Sale!

Thank You Blog Trainers

October Is Family History Month - SALE

Family Album

Sneak Peek and Thank You Blog Trainers

October 2011 DST Blog Train ~ Welcome

October Eve - Heritage Scrap Designer Collaboration Kit

School Days Fun!

Our Home - Moving Day

School Days Layout

Layouts To Share

Prelude To Autumn

Our Home ~ New Kits & Bundle

My Great Grandfather and His Daughter

Farewell Sale At Faith Sisters

Autumn Sales and New Kits

Family Treasures - New Family Tree Kit!

Autumn Sale at Heritage Scrap

Heritage Scrap September 2011 Designer Collaboration Kit

Saleabration Continues at Heritage Scrap!

Faith Sisters - Free With Purchase Collaboration Kit

New Kit - Paisley

August Sales

August 2011 Heritage Challenge - Birth

Oh Baby! New Kits

Happy 3rd Birthday Heritage Scrap!

New Release At Heritage Scrap and SALES!

Come Fly With Me - Faith Sisters Blog Train

July 2011 Heritage Challenge - Summer Adventures

New Release At Faith Sisters

New Designer Collaboration Kit At Faith Sisters

Father's Day and Birthday Sales

New Word Art For Father's Day

June 2011 Heritage Scrap Designer Collaboration Kit - A Man's Life

Sunshiney - New at Faith Sisters

His Story - Family Tree Kit

Memorial Day Weekend Sale At Faith Sisters

Memorial Day Weekend Sale

Faith Sisters - New Collab & New Kit

Heritage Challenge - The Feminine Influence

Le Jardin Quick Page - Blog Train For Heritage Scrap

Heritage Scrap Blog Train

Happy Inter/National Scrapbooking Day Weekend!

5x7 Shutterfly Ready Album

My Family Tree 12x12 Shutterfly Ready Album

Heroine - New Kit

May 2011 Heritage Scrap Designer Collaboration Kit

Two Downloads

Faith Sisters Peaceful Blog Train Free Download and Sale

25% Off At Faith Sisters, New Kits and New Customer Appreciation Kit

April 2011 Heritage Scrap Designer Collaboration Kit

What Family History is All About

Praying For Japan

Excellent Article on 19th Century Photos and Ephemera

Heart of Wisdom FREE Scrapbooking Kit

Ruth Taylor Wolcott

Family 2010

New Kits!

A Friend Loves At All Times

Jean's Friendship

Sale At Heritage Scrap - New Kits

40% Off Grand Re-Opening Sale

2nd Thursday Heritage Challenge At Faith Sisters

Catching Up - New Kits and Sale

Customer Appreciation Sale

Happy Birthday Kate McClellan

Gifts For You - International Digital Scrapbooking Day Weekend

International Digital Scrapbooking Day Sale - I'm an Early Bird!

Newsletter

New Kit at Heritage Scrap AND Faith Sisters

Blessings - Last Day of Blog Train

Hearth and Home November Collaboration at Heritage Scrap (BLOG TRAIN BELOW)

Rejoice!