Now that our 2009 Family Album is finished and printed (thanks Apple!!) I can get to work on our 2010 photos and scrapbook. I have been sorting through photos as I resolve to be better at weeding them out. I tend to keep EVERY photo - and find it very difficult to just toss a blurry shot. However, my computer hard-drive is filling up — as is my external - and it’s time to sort through my pictures. I randomly chose the June 2010 file yesterday, and while sorting decided to share the pictures of Sasha’s 11th birthday.

I had stopped at the pet-store on my way home as I wanted to bring her a little gift. The Pet Planet owners in Cranston are sooooo sweet and helpful — she asked if I had ever tried their doggie birthday cakes.  I guess I look like the kind of person who would buy their dog a birthday cake. What’s a gal to do? I bought my collie a cake! 

It says “Two teeny weeny layers of our Liver Brownie iced with our own chicken liver pate and toped with a piece of our Treasured Boggle”. 

Sasha shared her cake with Brandi and Cooper, even though the box was only about 6″ square. It seemed like a lot of richness for one dog. As you can see, they all LOVED it.  And yes, Sasha got the ‘Treasured Boggle’, whatever THAT was. I know I certainly didn’t smell it.

And here she is … the Birthday Girl. With a very full tummy.

Here is the layout I finished for our 2010 Family Album:

Templatae by Kristins Scrap Design at Pickelberry Pop, Kit by Verena Designs at Scrapbook Bytes. Font - CK Print and another one for the title, but I don’t remember what it was.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Time for another digital scrapbook layout, showing some miscellaneous pictures from August 2009. I love the linear look when I scrapbook, and I almost NEVER just put one picture on a page. I take too many pictures  for that kind of scrapping!

Credits:  Backgrounds and elements from the digital kit “Lyrical Romance” @ www.e-scapeandscrap.net. Atomic Cupcake provided the actions.

I did it - I finished off the York Mint Patty candies for our Christmas Craft Sale!  Next I think I will work on the gift card holders — I have several of them started, but none finished.  I’d like to get them off my counter. I hope they will be my biggest seller as I plan to make quite a few. Especially since I will be able to use what doesn’t sell, for my own gift-giving this Christmas!

OK - busy day today so off I go. Thanks for stopping by.

 I have another layout to share today … I’m just going tickety-boo on our 2009 album! Only December left to do and I can send it off to Apple. I LOVE having those hard cover photo books to show/share/enjoy.  I have a 3-1/2 year old iMac, so my iLife is the one that came with it. I didn’t upgrade to the newer version when it was released, although I see they have some great new book sizes on it. Eventually I will need a new computer, and of course it will be a Mac, and it will come with the latest iLife. Until then — 11 x 8-1/2″ is the size of our printed photo books.

I create each layout (page) as an 11x 8-1/2″ layered Photoshop file, and when I’m finished with it I save it as a .jpg. Same format as most digital photos. Then I simply drag the page from my folder into iBook, and select the ‘one photo template’ for that page. Drag the now-one-large-layout/photo where I want it to be in the book and … that page is done.

Credits:  This template is adapted from one by Katie Pertiet @ Designer Digitals.  (I got it from my Mom in my Christmas stocking last year!).  Background and string tie by Manuella Zimmerman.  Font - CK Journalling.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Yesterday was Sasha’s 11th Birthday. It’s funny - I’ve been telling people she was 11 for the past 9 months or so, but when I figured it out - she just TURNED 11. I took her picture, tried to take a shot of her with Brandi and Cooper, and also took some pics of her birthday surprise. However I don’t have time today to get them off the camera so here are some other doggie pics instead. Oh, and the group shot? I have lots of out-takes, but no picture of the three of them. I was close once — just as I was pressing the shutter the dog next door came outside. So I have a great one of Sasha and Brandi — with a blurry black streak in the center as Cooper raced to check it out. Sheesh.

The friend I met for breakfast yesterday reminded me that she hadn’t seen a recent picture of Chloe and Kira. While I was looking through my photo files to send her one, I realized that I hadn’t shared the “Blue Ball” pictures with all of you. I thought I had, but just browsed back a bit and can’t see them … so here you go. Grandma (that’s ME!!) bought Chloe this Blue Ball when she was little. She loved to carry it around - it is very heavy and she was so proud to get it off the ground and carry it. She would just trot around the yard with her Blue Ball. These first two photos were taken in June 2009 … and the top one is just because she was so darned cute. 

Same day, different pose. Just look at those goofy puppy ears.

This was taken in May 2010. Same Blue Ball.

Oh, and still on the subject of photographs … it looks like the Wedding Photo Books are in Calgary! I will check the Fed-Ex website later in the morning, but I might just have them today. I’m so excited! I’ll be able to package the ones up for Ontario and get them on their way and surprise the heck out of them.  YAY!

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Time to post another layout from 2009! I have to admit I haven’t done very well working on that album the past week or so.  I’ve been BUSY sorting through the 900+ wedding photos!  I finally did it - got it whittled down to under 170. Last night at 9:30 I hit SEND on the iPhoto photo books I’ve ordered for our side of the family. WOO HOO! First thing this morning I was up and looking at it again on my computer. 

Eventually I’d like to do a fitting scrapbook of the wedding, but if I wait for that to have an album to show people … well … let’s just say THANK GOODNESS for iPHOTO!!

My Mom’s birthday is the day after my Dads, so this page follows his in our 2009 Family Scrapbook…

Credits:  I used both “Lyrical Romance” and “Time in a Bottle” digital scrapbooking kits from E-scapeandscrap. Flower from the “Waltzing Snowflakes” kit, and the alpha for “Grammy’s” is from “Lyrical Romance”. Fonts are CK Journalling and VIP.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Time for a scrapbook page … still working on our 2009 album, but at least it’s coming along! This is a layout that will be on the right hand side in our book, and has random pictures from that month. Pictures I didn’t need to build a whole layout around, but still wanted to include in our album.

Credits:  Background papers and elements “A Spa Refresher” by Julie Mead at E-scapeandscrap.net. “2007 Year In Review” template by Katie Pertiet at Designer Digitals.com

It was a gorgeous day in the mountains yesterday, and today looks to be even better! We have had company again this weekend, so it’s wonderful to get lots of ‘deck time’ in.  

Thanks for stopping by today!

I finished my June Christmas cards, so thought I’d get them posted and put away. Last month I finished my cards, but since they were done I put them out of my mind and almost forgot about posting them! (For those that don’t know, this is for the Christmas Card Challenge 2010 at Splitcoast — where we make 10 Christmas cards each month).

I used “Beyond Birthdays’ Cricut cartridge for the pretty dove, cutting it out of pearlized white card stock. The shadow is blue patterned paper from my stash, the green patterned paper for the branch is from Basic Grey. I used the new Cuttlebug “Distressed Snowflakes” embossing folder, and inked the edges with a pale blue ink (Tim Holtz).

The words inside - in a lovely script - are by Hero Arts. The verse is “And wild and sweet, the words repeat, of peace on earth, goodwill to all”. It worked SO well with the doves - I was pleased.  So … 60 cards done for Christmas 2010.

Just for fun - here is a picture of our happy trio. They KNEW it was Tuesday morning, and were driving me crazy running around and barking at every single noise.  Tuesday is the day “D” and “J” come over to papercraft and the dogs LOVE those ladies. I told them to go to the family room and then DOWN.  They were so obedient and cute — and I had the camera right there …  what a crew.

Thanks for stopping by today - Happy Friday!

This is the right hand side to the 2009 Father’s Day layout I posted last month.

I love those (digital) crumpled frame clusters from Katie Pertiet at Designer Digitals. My Mom gives me a set in my Christmas stocking each year … sometimes even more than one set!  Background papers by Jen Wilson.

My friends are coming over to scrapbook and make cards today (we do this every week) … they will be surprised by how tidy the studio counters are after my weekend devotion to get that job done.  I still want to work on the piles on the floor, but for now — the working areas are cleared off. Just makes you want to haul out some papers and get creating!

Thanks for stopping by — Happy June!

Before I get to today’s post, I wanted to update you about my issue with one of the cut files from My Scrap Chick.  Yesterday I posted how disappointed and frustrated I was when the cake box didn’t cut so that the lid fit the base. Well I decided that it wasn’t fair to publicly rant without also contacting My Scrap Chick with my issue

They emailed me back the same day, very sorry that I had had a problem. They had gone in and fixed the file for future customers, sent me a new version via an attachment, and thanked me for letting them know there even was a problem. Which I thought was very good of them. I do understand that sometimes ‘things happen’. It is sure nice when a company will stand by their customers, willing to fix an issue and apologize for the problem.

Now I can’t wait to get home to my Cricut and try out the replacement cut file!

Onto today’s post … I am picking away at our 2009 and 2010 Family Albums.  Here is our Father’s Day 2009 page.

Nothing fancy, but — I did leave lots of ‘white’ space.  Sooooo out of my comfort zone. 

Credits:  The template was adapted from a 12×12″ template by Pattie Knox (Speed Byte #73).  Backgrounds by Jen Wilson. Font - GE Centurion.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Yay - I updated my blog header!  I loved this digital kit by Verina Designs (at Scrapbook Bytes), thinking I could use it for some wedding themed scrapbook pages.  :-)  If you are still seeing my old blog header, you can just hit your refresh button.

LOL - I liked yesterday’s card so much, I forgot I was supposed to post the right side of the digital scrapbook layout I’d started.  Sheesh. (Same credits as the right side, which was posted on the 13th).

People wonder why I make so many cards — that my ’stash’ must be huge. Well they are right — it IS huge. But I just got a card order from a friend … she needs 30 cards to send her customers, and she needed them in a day or so!  Thankfully I was albe to pull what she needed from my stash since I usually leave them blank inside. I stamped the words she wanted inside the cards and they are ready for her to pick up.

She also ordered some house themed thank-you cards (she is a realtor), and while I do have some of those made up ahead of time for her, I will have to get to work on some more to complete that portion of her order. So … good thing I make so many cards!