Girls Rock!

This is a fun digi-page I made using the kit "Girls Rock Too" from here. (I recolored it from pink to red to match the sunglasses) It's a free kit-so grab it while you can and try out digi scrapbooking!

Another SS inspiration

Here's another layout inspired by the layout on pg 18 of the March 08 Stampin Success.They used a larger photo and brown instead of black, but I'm still happy with the way this turned out.

This is the first time I have used the computer to journal, and, well, I'm really happy with the way that turned out too. So nice & clean and not sloppy like my handwriting.

Have a great weekend everyone! I think we're going to have lots of rain here. bummer.

Jackie Pedro GSGFS01

The Great Swap Girls posted Jackie Pedro as a Featured Stamper yesterday. Anyone can play along!
I case'd This Card by Jackie. I love the simplicity and elegance of her card. I changed just about everything except the layout. I used Soft Sky, chocolate chip, seeing spots template, chocolate satin ribbon and "thinking of you" from Three for You punch box, and silver brads. I used the Boho Blossoms punch for the little chocolate flowers.

Quilt for a big girl

Here's a page I made from the layout on pg 16 of May's Stampin Success. (in case you're wondering-Stampin UP demos get this monthly) I just love the chipboard flower covered in the different patterned papers!

Supplies:
Paper: Flowers for you DP, Almost Amethyst prints, pretty in Pink, Almost Amethyst, Certainly Celery
Accessories: Chipboard flower, Celery Ribbon from ribbon originals, regal rose grosgrain, pink taffeta ribbon, clear button


Have a great day!

Bright & Fun Birthday Card

I made this for my dad's birthday a couple weeks ago. I am terrible at masculine cards. I tried to come up with something bright and cheery this time. Usually my masculine cards are dark, so I tried to stay away from those colors.

So what I did was pulled out my Summer Days SS kit and used some elements along with the fun orange blossom paper (I think it looks like one of those Hawaiian shirts!).
I used the Polka-dot background stamp and stamped half of the card with it. then layered some strips of the self-adhesive die cuts.
I used my Street Sign Cricut cartridge for the "h.b." Have I mentioned that I love that cartridge? This winter I was hoping for a real simple font style cartridge and sure enough they created one...it was meant to be.

Thanks for all for the sweet comments on my previous post!

Gotta go...someone's not too happy and I need to make lasagna for dinner tonight! See ya!

Some random things...

I don't normally brag or call much attention to myself, but I was so excited last week when I got an email from Cards Magazine telling me they're going to publish one of my cards in the September issue! This was the first time I've ever submitted anything! I guess it just pays to take the time to do it!

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Why is it so difficult for my to lose weight? Or maybe I should say...why is it so difficult for me to eat healthier? I'm sure I could lose weight easily if I just would have portion control, or just eat salads all the time, but as a nursing mom, I'm hungry ALL the time! Any tips for me?

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Ever since I've started my family blog, I've received some emails from you complimenting my photography and asking what I use for equipment and if I've taken classes. Seriously people, this is the highest form of flattery! It amazes me that you enjoy my photos!
I'm just going to post some of that tech-y stuff now. Then whoever wants to know can refer to this. or email me if you want more. Don't get me wrong, I love your emails, but there might be some out there that want to email me but just haven't gotten around to it. Keep in mind I am no professional by any means. So here goes:

Equipment:
Camera: Nikon D70
Lenses: 50mm 1.8, 18-70mm (kit lens), 70-300 tele-macro zoom (this means it is a zoom lens that has a built in macro)
Other equipment: Black fabric for backdrop, tripod. I don't use any special lighting, only a room with plenty of light from a window. I never use flash anymore (unless it's at night of course) because I love the skin tones with natural light.
Photo Editing: I use Photoshop Elements 3.0. Yes, it's outdated...I know. I'm just a SAHM and we have a budget here and there is nothing in our budget for CS3. Someday I'll have it....someday.
Photo Course: Go to www.twopeasinabucket.com. they have a 12 week photography course and you can download all 12 weeks now. This course has been helpful for me for some extra tips and tricks that I didn't know about. It will be really good for some of you because it starts at the very basics in the first few weeks. It really explains a lot of things, in language that we can understand!

There's a lot to learn with an SLR and when I got mine 3 years ago, I was really struggling to learn. I went from a measly 3mp point & shoot with huge shutter lag to my current camera, and I was really overwhelmed. I took the basic classes at Ritz because they came free when I purchased my camera. That helped a little, but what I did was just practice, practice, practice. I used the "P" mode exclusively until I was comfortable with my compositions and after that, I explored Aperature, Shutter, and now I only shoot in Manual because I can get accurate exposure.

Feel free to comment or email me if you have any questions. Hopefully I can try to help you out.


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I'll be back later today with a project!

Arte Y Pico

This award has been passed on to me by Lori from Stamp Scents. Thank you so much, I am honored. I now have to award this to five other people, they in turn (I hope anyway) will do the following... 1) You have to pick 5 blogs who deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material and also contributes to the blogging community no matter what language 2) Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to the blog to be visited by everyone. 3) Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and the link to the blog that has given her or him the award . 4) Award winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of "arte y pico" blog, so everyone will know the origin of the award. (Cut and paste the info into your blog to make things easier).

This was really hard to narrow down to only 5!! Here's my picks:
Becky
Maren
Cindy
Dawn
Angie


I've got more stuff for you today...stay tuned!!

Great Swaps Girls CC #1

Today was our first color challenge over at the GSG Blog.

The colors are Regal Rose, Certainly Celery, and So Saffron. Not a challenge for me, because I love this color combo! It's so springy and fresh.

Here I've used the Eat Cake stamps and colored the cake with markers. Then I used the Tombo Multi glue and added the Chunky Sprinkles for the candles and center of the cake. I also added some rhinestone brads to the bottom of the card. I used regal rose for the "happy birthday" although it looks kind of red in the photo. Just imagine it looking more pink :)

So if you're up for an easy and really pretty color challenge go try it out! Then link your card to the GSG blog! We'd love to see your creations!

Fancy Fold Swap

Here's the card I made for the Great Swaps fancy fold swap. I call it a triangle tri-fold, but not sure what the exact name is.
I used the Sweet Celebrations stamp set along with the East Coast Prep DP. I'm not used to using these bright colors, but like how it turned out.

On Saturday (it rained all day) I got about 4 layouts done with some older pictures that I've been putting off using. It feels good to be done with that. I also went through all of my layouts and decided I need to take all of them out of the albums and get them in date order. This will be a big job because it goes back to 2000. ugh! Why didn't I just keep everything in order at that time?? I bet I have 200 layouts to go through. Oh, and I haven't even put 2006 & 2007 in books yet, so that's another job. gee I'm getting overwhelmed just thinking about it.

It was a wonderful day here yesterday with the sun shining and warm temperatures. I opened up all of the windows and let the fresh air come in. It was great.

have a great day!

A quick thank you

I just love the papers from the spring mini. So bright & cheery! This was a pretty simple card that I made quickly. I just punched out a few squares of the Sumer Picnic paper and added some Die Cut Blooms with a Ribbon Slider & the new Olive Twill ribbon.

I've got a stamping class tonight and after that our weekend is totally free! A rarity these days. So we're hoping for nice weather to be able to enjoy the outdoors.
Have a great weekend everyone!

Technique Class Sample

I had a technique class 2 weeks ago and this is one of the cards that we made. It's a scratch and sniff card! It was a big hit!

Supplies:
Tart and Tangy stamp set, Absolutely Fabulous Stamp set, Old olive, rose red, Whisper White cs, & Bali Breeze DSP, Sugar free Jello, Embossing Powder, 1 3/8" circle punch, 5 petal flower punch, Markers: Old olive, Rose Red, Versamarker.

Sorry I've been MIA lately...I'm hoping to do some stamping today with all of this rain! If I do, I'll get it posted later!
Have a great day everyone!

Just for you!

Here are 2 overlays that I made. I'm calling them Swiss Dots overlays. One is white and one is black. They are seperate 12x12 .png files. Email me if you would like them: nsredman@gmail.com.

I'll be back later with a card :)

Take a look!

I'm so grateful to be a part of this talented group!

Finally.....NOT digital

Here's a page I created that went together really quick. I used a sketch from Sketch me if you can. Patterned paper is from the Paper Salon, Bracket from Plantin Schoolbook cartridge, title from the new Street Sign cartridge.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Cherish

Alright so you guys still think I have a life! LOL! Yes, I do love staying at home with my girls, I don't regret that at all, but sometimes I just spend an entire morning on something and don't get any housework done, and kids don't get much attention from me!

I've had a couple of you email me and comment on my recent addiction: Digital Scrapbooking. (thank you for the very sweet comments by the way!) And some of you would like some tips from me. Well, let me just say that I'm really NOT an expert. But here's a couple things that I know:

• Get a good editing software and get to know it like the back of your hand. I use the old Photoshop Elements 3.0. Seriously...it is like 3 years old and very outdated, but it does amazing things! Consider the newer version of PSE6. I've heard lots of great things. It'll run you about $100. Someday I'll get the full-blown Photoshop, someday. I think that's my husband's favorite word. He is rubbing off on me.
  
• There are lots of sites out there with tons of freebies. Just do a search. Here's one at Two P's. Looks like they have a free one every month.
• For most of the layers, you might want to add a shadow underneath so it looks real.
  
• If you're going to post your digital page, give credit. Sounds like it's a big deal. Just do it.

That's all for now. I can't think of anything else. If you have any other questions feel free to comment or email me. I'll try to help you out!

Now onto my layout. First I created an artisan edge template. I picked out the patterned paper that I wanted and moved it on top of the template (if you know about layers you would understand this.) Then I went to Layers>group with previous. Then that patterned paper took the shape of the template that was underneath! Pretty cool, huh? If you want my .psd file for the template just email me, I'll be happy to email it to you.

Alright, that's it for tonight. Have a great evening!

Credits: Chic Boutique papers from Two P's, White Frame & flower from Daydreams Kit from A Cherry on Top, Hipster Plume Brushes from Designer Digitals

Highly Addictive!

This digital stuff is so fun...you gotta try it! And shopping for these kits is super fun too. Mainly because they're so cheap!!

I got my LO idea from the cover of the May/June Simple Scrapbooks.

Credits: I used the Land of Lala Kit & stickers from Designer Digitals

This is the reason I didn't take a shower until 11:00 this morning

I need to get a life!

Zen Calm Kit from A Cherry on Top

another star border

Happy April!!
I think this type of border works best for a manly type card, don't you think?
These colors are so fun. I used paper from the East Coast Prep pack. Since I have 2 girls now I don't seem to buy paper in these colors too much, but it might work for a girl's page for summer...maybe.

Have a great day everyone!

Supplies:
Paper: Brilliant Blue, More mustard, Real Red,
Tempting Turquoise, East Coast Prep
Accessories: Brads, Rub-ons, dimensionals
Tools: Sm star punch, Lg star punch