My First Template Download Links Are Fixed

Sandie was nice enough to let me know that the download links for my first template weren't working. I have no idea what happened, since I haven't touched those files since I first uploaded them, but I've corrected the links, and made sure they work okay. Thanks for letting me know, Sandie. I hope you pop back in so you can get the file. :)

Hey! My Blog is Back Up!

This whole experience left a bad taste in my mouth, as far as Blogger was concerned. They never even bothered to reply to my email asking why my blog was down and how long it would take to get back up. I was very polite, asked them to tell me if there was anything they wanted me to change, but no, not even the courtesy of something that said, "sorry, but we need to look into it. The standard down time is x days." That's all it would have taken to satisfy me.

So, while I still intend to keep this blog up, I don't intend to use it much. While this one was down, I got really attached to the one over on Wordpress. The formatting options aren't quite as cool, but some of the other features, like seeing where people came over from, and which links they clicked are really neat. And so, here's the link to my new blog. I've still been posting freebie and fun from all over the web over there. Come over and see what you've been missing.

http://thescrappytimes.wordpress.com/

So Much To Do Today

And yet, here I sit. I need to get my tush in gear. Elsie, my 82 year old neighbor, needs to go to the grocery store. I need to run to the library to return some books and pick up others they have waiting for me. I need to run by town hall and pay my electric bill, since I'll be right there when I'm at the library. Then, a few hours later, I need to bring my oldest to his best friend's for a sleep over. What will I do without him? He's my most helpful child. The other three will be wild without him! But enough of my troubles. lol

Yesterday was the start of the ADSR2. Our first challenge was to scrap about a museum that we've either been to, or would like to go see. I thought of doing the Louvre, mostly because I just downloaded this really awesome Paris kit, but someone else did it, and better than I possibly could have. This is what I did instead:

The kit is Tuscany by Punky's Pixels and is available exclusively at Seaside Scraps. The font is Parade. These are all dresses from the clothing exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I just love old dresses, not that I'd ever want to wear one. How uncomfortable!

I didn't find much I wanted to download today, but here's what I did grab:

Princess Pamela has an Asian inspired kit in browns, golds, red and black called Beautiful. That pretty much describes it.

Kirsty has a new overlay called Dance.

There are some curled edges to the Rose Kit on N.B.K.

Mira has an add-on sample of her In the Shade of the Woods kit.

Verena has an incredible template at Digiscrap Boutique. The added elements on the page, which can simply be recolored, really makes it stand out above the rest. Wow! You need to comment if you want to see the download link.

Holly Rose has a HUGE Blueberry Rose kit on her blog. It's password protected, but the password is right in her description of the kit. If you read, you really can't miss it.

What I'm playing:
We had a great time at the Moo Two bingo chat. Everyone who attended got a great attendance gift. They are planning to have another one soon. I'll let you know when as soon as I hear.

No more leaky pipes!

DH fixed the pipes and today he'll patch up the two big holes in the walls and the one in the kitchen ceiling. He had to wait for everything to dry out before he could fix it. The funniest thing (well it's funny now, but it wasn't then) happened yesterday just when he finished. I was FINALLY going to get my shower, but he insisted on going first. While he was in there, the power went out thanks to a pending thunderstorm. We didn't even have a cloud in the sky at the time. It rolled in quickly though. The storm passed, the power came back on, and I was able to get my shower at last.

While I was waiting to get my shower, I was able to get a bunch of scrapping done. I did this one for the lyrics challenge at DSO. I wasn't actually all that thrilled with the lyrics we had to work with, until I made the LO. Then I was sobbing as I typed them onto the tag. I'm such a wimp. The kit is Sherbet Dreams by Punky's Pixels, available at Seaside Scraps. The template is by my ADSR2 partner, Chelsea, and it's still available on her blog for free. The font is my absolute favorite lovey font, Fiolex Girls and the lyrics are by Bill Joel.

This is the float our school PTO built for the town Christmas parade. Every year there is a theme that the floats need to conform to. This year it was Holidays Around the World. So our float had Mt. Rushmore, Big Ben, the Eiffel Tower, a windmill and St. Basil's Cathedral. My DH made the windmill and it had a motor in it and actually turned. The kit is Shirley Jean by Punky's Pixels (available at Seaside Scraps) and the fonts are Arial and Christmas.

Here's what I'm downloading today:

Teriann Hanks has a beautiful Desert Rain mini kit. These colors are awesome.

Red Black is the new kit on Amelie's blog. There's some white in there too and it's very pretty.

If Melanie Ann's Zesty Summer Mini Kit on Digiscrap Boutique looks familiar, it's because another piece of it was given out on Digital Freebies last week. So you can combine the two to make an even bigger kit! Remember, you need to comment to see the magic download link. This is only available today, July 16.

Princess Pamela is on a roll. Her Brady kit has planes, cars, bikes and puzzle pieces. This cute kit is all boy.

Pretty Bluebells are blooming on Lindsay Jane's blog.

Kim B. has a Shabby Elegance overlay today. I thought she already gave us this one, so I had to look back, but that was Grubby Elegance, and it's still available if you scroll down.

Magdalena decided to name her new kit Owl La La. I'd suggested Tootsie Pop because the kit has lots of brown in it, and the owl reminds me of the owl from the old Tootsie Pop commercials. Remember? "Mr. Owl, how many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop?" Well no matter what she named it, I call it CUTE.

N.B.K. has more of the Rose Kit available today.

RAK Scraps has started giving out the pieces of the July Mega kit. This one has a red, white and blue patriotic theme. Last month they changed the way they distribute the mega kit. So every few days they post new links and remove the old ones. These were posted yesterday, so you don't want to wait to go snag them. You must be a member to get the freebie.

Miss Vivi has part four of five of her Home Sweet Home kit ready for upload. Scroll down if you didn't get the other three gorgeous parts.

What I'm playing:

I can't forget to fill out my Bingo card and send it in for tonight's Bingo chat on Moo Two. The chat starts at 9 p.m. Eastern time.

There's a new Fun, Funky Mystery number on Gotta Pixel. You can win a cute set of pewter numbers, if you didn't already get them last week.

Today is the start of the ADSR2. I've got my running shoes on and I'm ready to go. See you tomorrow. :)

Leaky Pipes, Falling Ceilings & a Freebie Template

I've been complaining to DH for weeks that the water pressure is too low. We have a well, so I thought something there needed to be cleaned out. He finally listened to me and figured out there was a slow leak in the pipe behind the shower. He had to cut a hole in the wall to repair it. While doing that, he put in a new, high pressure showerhead. Hooray! Right? Wrong. My oldest son was the first to try it out. Five minutes after he yells down, "it's awesome!", water starts dripping from the ceiling. I made him get out and waited for dh to get back from the grocery store. He blamed Brandon and said he must have flooded the floor, but the floor is dry. All night long, the ceiling continued to drip as I sat here scrapping. (When in crisis, scrap?) He came back down at 2 in the morning for a snack and finally listened to me when I said it couldn't possibly be Brandon's shower still making the ceiling leak. So he started poking at the ceiling with a stick to "release the pressure" and whole clumps of it start coming down. So now, I have a gaping whole in my ceiling. I just turned the well pump back on because we had no water without it and the toilets, with four kids, desperately needed flushing. DH is at Home Depot getting what he needs to repair it. Of course the last time he "repaired" something, I ended up in this mess, so let's hope he gets it right this time.

So you want to see what I did while I was up until 3 in the morning? I made three layouts and 2 templates. I'm really not sure about one of the templates, because it's so easy. But since I made it, I guess I'll go ahead and put it here for anyone who might want it. I'm going to save the second one, and my LO with it, for a few days. Just to drag out the suspense.

The kit is Punky's Pixels' brand new Hailey Jo, available exclusively at Seaside Scraps. The font is Christmas Card. I'm thinking of making a template out of this one for you too, but you'll have to do your own extraction. lol

And here's the LO and matching template I do have for you.

The kit is Tuscany by Punky's Pixels and , again, it's available exclusively at Seaside Scraps. The font is Conradasaur. The template is available in two sizes. 5x5 and 12x12.

Here's what else I'm downloading today:

Terriann Hanks as a sweet Strawberry Mint kit available on Digiscrap Boutique. Remember to comment if you want the magic link to appear.

The last of Ambrosia Dawn is posted on Fishin' Mom's blog. There's a lot to this kit, 19 downloads in all. If you don't have it all scroll down to see what you're missing.

There's another piece of The Rose Kit at N.B.K.

My ADSR2 partner, Chelsea, has her own first template up for grabs. Go give her some encouragement for her first effort. I love the circles. I'll make my LO with it and show it off tomorrow.

Nana's Attic has a bunch of QP's that go with Autumn Harmony. I'm going to recommend them to the girls on my mommy board who want to digiscrap but don't feel ready to just dive in.

It's been a while since Mrs. Miles has had new tapes, but today she's offering us some for summer.

Have a good Sunday. The ADSR2 starts tomorrow. Hooray! You can watch how Chelsea and I are doing on our race blog.

Ack! I Can't Think of a Title

I didn't scrap at all yesterday. Once every week, or so, I need to take a break from scrapping and organize the stuff I've been downloading. Yesterday was that day, and I'm still not finished. I'm getting an early start though, so I might have something to show off to you tomorrow.

In the meantime, my Amazing Digi Scrap Race 2 (hereafter referred to as ADSR2, because it's too long to type the other way) partner made this adorable layout with My Very First Template (still available for free). The kit is Sherbet Dreams by Punky's Pixels, available exclusively at Seaside Scraps. And speaking of Sherbet Dreams, you can get it today only for $1.50! Don't forget to head over to Karie's blog, to snag the free QP too.

Here is what I'm downloading elsewhere on the net:

Holli Hobbi has a very pretty Sweet & Sour freebie at Digital Candy. You must be a member to snag it. While you're there, sign up for the Digital Candy newsletter. If you're signed up before the next one comes out, you'll receive a free goodie bag of Candy treats.

Sweetie Pie is the new mini kit up on Angela Niehaus' blog. It's a pink, green, brown and lovely.

Carola Mondini has a pink and green mini kit up for one day only (July 14) at Digiscrap Boutique. You need to be a member and you need to post a comment in order to see the download link on the first post.

Kirsty has a Dune overlay, Spicy Curry Splash papers, and Ticklish All Sorts papers all available for download today.

When you want unique templates, you need to go visit Princess Pamela. She calls this one Broken Template, and she also has the LO she made with it using her Josh kit (scroll down, it's still available).

N.B.K. has more tags to her Rose Kit and she snuck on late last night with Part III of her Rose Kit Papers.

There are more Autumn Harmony papers and frames available at Nana's Attic. Scroll down to make sure you've snagged all of it.

'Til tomorrow!

That'll Teach Him!

I've come up with the perfect revenge for kids who ruin my pictures by making funny faces:

The kit is Design's by Krista's Simply Chic; the wavy frame is by Kari Quinto (recolored to match); the font is Chiquita Banana. I did this LO for the July Font Challenge on Digital Scrapbooking Org (DSO). Go check it out.

I did another challenge layout yesterday. This one was for the Holiday Challenge at Digi by Design. Our goal was to scrap about Chocolate Day. Here's my entry. I just happened to have a picture of my daughter wearing this shirt from last year. Wasn't it perfect? You get a really pretty mini kit just for participating in this challenge. And all the challenge prizes on DBD coordinate, so if you particpate in all of them, you'll end up with a nice sized kit at the end.

The kit is I Love Chocolate by Lindsay Jane Designs; the Word Art is by Carol Abram; the template is by Terriann Hanks.

It's Friday, so there are bound to be a lot of new goodies to be had. Here's what I'm downloading:

Punky's Pixels (The Boss), has a free quick page from her Sherbet Dreams kit by CT member Jamie. You can also pick up the entire Sherbet Dreams kit at Seaside Scraps for only $1.50 tomorrow only. This deal expires at midnight. And if you need another peek at Sherbet Dreams before you decide to buy (as if $1.95 wasn't encouragement enough), scroll back down or click HERE to see the LO I made with it.

Marcee, aka Rose Made Designs, has a simply stunning Japanese inspired kit called Sakura on Digiscrap Boutique. Remember, if you want to download it you need to leave some love for the download link to appear. It's only available on July 13th, so run, don't walk, to get it.

There are just two more days of Ambrosia Dawn on Fishin Mom's blog. She's been putting a piece up every day or two, and I started downloading it before I started my own blog, so I forgot to mention it. You can scroll down to pick up all the pieces, and you won't even have to wait for them all, like I did.

Princess Pamela has done it again. Two great kits in two days! If pink and girly wasn't your style, her new kit, Josh, should get your attention. It's kind of burnt orange, brown, aqua, cream... heck, I can't do it justice. Go look for yourself. You won't be sorry.

There are some cute Crinkled Paper Cluster Frames on Lindsay Jane's blog today.

The little prince or princess in your life really needs a LO made with these charms by Jannidee. She also has the next piece to her baby boy kit up.

Kim B. is celebrating Friday the 13th with her pretty Shabby Classic kit.

You've got to get the BBQ Add On Kit Maria has at Digital Freebies this week. It's awesome!

If you have any little builders, or big builders for that matter, that you want to scrap, you need to pick up Calico's Designs Little Builder Freebie.

Candee has another piece to Sunny Days at Mermaid's Haven. She keeps saying it's a "odd" kit. I think it's pretty. Scroll down if you didn't get the first part.

Creative Apples has a very pretty Oceans Mini-Kit for you.

Game, Games, Games:

I almost missed the sign up for summer Bingo at Go Digital Scrapbooking. What can I say? I like playing Bingo on the web. lol If you want to play this one, you need to go download the free Bingo card and fill it with your words and send it in by July 14th (yes, tomorrow).

See 'ya tomorrow.

I fixed the download!

If you tried to download my first template earlier it was password protected. It's my first time using 4Shared and I goofed. Sorry! It's not protected any more. Thanks Anonymous for letting me know.

My First Template!

My friend, Steph, liked my Orange Julius layout so much, I offered to do one for her. I don't have any blue eyed kids, so I was dying to do a colored black and white layout with a blue eyed subject. And she thinks I did it for her, lol.

The kit is Miss Mekeila and you can get it from the Punky's Pixels for FREE! The charms are by JanniScraps and those are also available on her blog for FREE!

Now, with all this free stuff, I just had to get in on the act. So I'm offering you my very first template... for FREE! I saved it as a .psd file, and asked my Amazing Digi Scrap Race 2 partner, Chelsea, to try opening it in PSE for me since I use PSP. It all checked out, so here we go. I'm offering it in two sizes. The reason is because I have a really hard time working with 12x12 files on my computer, so I work in 5x5 at 300 pixels per inch, which is perfect for the 8x8 books I have printed on Shutterfly. So I created the 5x5 file before realizing that the rest of you probably prefer 12x12. So I'm offering both.

Here's a preview of the template:

And here's the LO I did with it:

The kit is Paper Roses by Soto Creations, the scroll borders are by Rose Made Designs, and the font is Catholic School Girl.

You can get the 5x5 HERE and the 12x12 HERE. Please let me know what you think.

Now onto other freebies around the net.

Princess Pamela has the sweetest pink and brown kit called The Abby Kit. It even has a view master slide with heart shaped cutouts!

You would never, ever suspect that Daydreamer by Melanie Johnson was her first kit ever. Go check it out, and give a new designer some encouragement.

The designers must be getting sick of creating summer kits. Lisa Majewski has a really pretty kit in burgandy, rust and teal at Digiscrap Boutique. I like the way they do their freebies over there. You must register and post a comment to receive the freebie. Once you do, the link magically appears. The freebie is only available for one day (7/12), so head on over to get it before it disappears.

Kirsty has another overlay. This one is called Mabel. She says she did it in 5 minutes while trying to order a bicycle part on the phone!

Tracy's Scraps has some really cool girl word art. If you have girls, you have to check these out.

I saw this mini kit by Misty Cato a few days ago and thought I already had enough blue kits. But I looked at it again after it was listed on Amy W.'s list and now, I just had to have it. Isn't that swirly, beady element the cutest?

Lindsay Jane has a really pretty soft lilac mini kit up.

There is a cute pink and peach mini kit with hand drawn flowers called Floralidoo on Kim B's blog.

There's a new Rose kit on N.B.K. I have a feeling there will be more pieces to this. I'll keep you informed. For right now you can get Part I and Part II of the kit, some tags and swirly ornaments.

I thanked every designer I downloaded from. Did you?

Gotta Pixel is getting ready to start a new round of Bingo. You need to send in your word list by July 20th if you want to play. Everyone who plays gets a great kit, and if you win, you get another part of it. Go check it out.

It's Funny How Things Happen

I've been dying to do another colored B&W layout, and I came across a picture of my two girls sharing an Orange Julius shake that was perfect for it. Both of them were wearing Easter hats my sister had just picked up for them at the day after Easter sale at Target. Karie's Sherbert Dreams kit was perfect for this, it even has an ice cream float element in it! I had the layout almost finished, I just needed something to hold down the tag, when I remembered a challenge that involved "something glittery". So I searched through my notebook, and sure enough, there it was. The July Element Challenge at RAK Scraps calls for black & white photos, something glittery, and fibers. I had everything but the fiber, and now I knew how I was going to hold down the tag. So here it is, Orange Julius:

The kit is Punky's Pixel's Sherbert Dreams, available exclusively at Seaside Scraps. The fiber bow is by Alexa B. and the font is called (I kid you not) Honey I Stole Your Jumper.

What I'm Downloading:

It's Wednesday, so head on over to Digital Scrapbooking Freebies to get their new Summer Picnic kit. This kit is only available free for a week, after that, you'll have to buy a subscription to get their archived kits.

Nana's Attic is trying something a little darker with Autumn Harmony.

My Sweet Baby Boy is the new kit by Janidee.

And remember, please and thank you are the magic words. :)

The Best Laid Plans...

I had to learn the first stanza of "To a Mouse" by Robert Burns back in sophomore year in high school (waaay long ago) and I still remember it. "The best laid plans of mice and men oft go astray. And leave us naught but grief and pain for promised joy." The promised joy, in this case, was my "Brothers" layout. The pain came when I realized I didn't have any decent pictures of the boys together and very few good ones of my oldest son at all in an entire 6 month period. This must have been his "look like an idiot when in the presence of a camera" phase. So I scrapped it (hey, a pun!) and made another layout mostly of the girls. I called it Splash!

The kit is Jessica Michelle by Punky's Pixels and is available exclusively at Seaside Scraps. I flipped Tanya D.'s template to give it a different look. The fonts in both layouts are Excalibur Logotype and Spahrty girl.

What I'm downloading:

Designs by Krista has a kit that is ... well, it's Delightful.

Tracy's Scraps has the most adorable LOVE template. She thinks it's dorky, but I think sometimes dorky is good.

If you like overlays, head over to Kim B's for one that is Elegant and Grubby.

Kirsty (I notice her blog header no longer says Lime Green Boogie Girl) has three overlays that I somehow missed, and I didn't see them on any of the other freebie lists. Scroll down to Sunday. She called them Ocean Spray, Potpourri and Star Struck.

If you like black and red, you need to see the new kit on Rose.li's blog. I know just how I'm using this.

Candee has a new freebie on Mermaid's Haven. She calls it Gothic Sunny Day. It reminds me of a Victorian living room.

This is just what I found since my last post. I'm sure when I get up in the morning I'll have more to show you. I know I have another layout ready to show off.

It's My Second Day as a Blogger!

Good afternoon! I woke up without a voice and just feel crummy overall, so forgive me if I'm not particularly bubbly today. (Not to mention I'm hitting backspace a lot; this blog may be typo city.)

I made my first official layout as a member of Punky's Pixel's CT last night. It's going to be a two part layout. I need to make the companion "Brothers" layout today. I'm really pleased with how this one came out. The kit is called Jessica Michelle and it's available exclusively at Seaside Scraps. The template is by Tanya D. at Digital Candy for the final part of their four part template challenge.

Here's what I'm downloading today:

Lindsay Jane has a really pretty template on her blog. I used to use a lot of templates in the beginning, but now I generally only use them if they're part of a challenge. This one really stands out though. I had to have it!

The final piece of Janidee's Camo, Lace & Bling set is ready to be downloaded. I'll be honest. I wasn't totally sure about this kit at first, but now I love it! If you didn't get the other pieces, don't worry, you can still scroll down to get it.

This one is a freebie AND a game. Moo Two Designs has their Needle in a Haystack scavenger hunt going on. You need to follow the clues to find pieces of a really pretty pink, cream and green kit called "In the Pink". All the pieces are still available, so you can collect the whole kit to date. Then keep checking back to get the rest of the kit.

And here's what I'm playing:

Do you like logic problems? Kathryn Mhire has here latest Fun, Funky Mystery Number up. You don't need to be a math genius to do her puzzles, you just follow the clues and use your head. If you PM her the right answer, she'll send you a really pretty set of pewter numbers.

I'm on a CT Team!

I've been considering applying for a CT Team for a few weeks, but as a new digi scrapper, I was afraid maybe I wasn't quite ready yet. Then, this weekend I saw this:

Punky's Pixels is having a Creative Team Call. I just knew I had to apply, and even better I was approved. Hooray for me! Even better, there's room for more CTs on her team. Click HERE or click on the picture to visit her blog. I promise you won't regret it.

Aren't familiar with Punky Pixel's designs? No problem. She's got a bunch of great freebies on her blog available for download. Here's her most recent freebie:

And if you love her designs as much as I do, be sure to check out her kits for sale, exclusively at Seaside Scraps.

Does the Scrapping World Need Another Blog?

Nah, probably not, but it's getting one anyway! I've been part of the digi scrapping world for about two months now, although I kind of lurked on the fringes for over a year, gathering my courage both to blog and to attempt my first layout.

There are some really great blogs out there. Some are a true pleasure to read, having an author with both scrapping and writing talent. Others provide a great service, like showing us where all the great freebies are. (And these aren't mutually exclusive. There are very well written, enjoyable to read freebie blogs.)

I don't claim that my blog will always be the most fun to read, although I do promise to try not to bore you to tears. I don't want to replace the freebie finders that are already there, because they're a great group of girls. But sometimes I do find freebies that none of the others posts. So in addition to needing another great place to show off my layouts, I plan to post links to freebies, and lists of challenges and contests around the scrapping community.

I hope you'll come back and visit often. Let the fun begin!