Just when I wanted to post for Saturday, there was no Internet!  Ah, the benefits of spending the winter as a snowbird in an RV park.  Two days - oh my!  That was so-o-o difficult!  I run to the computer for recipes, for news, and to keep up with friends and family.

Browsiing for a special layout to feature, I found this article on typography that I enjoyed (fantastic inspiration).  There are new fonts at MyPicTales — read about them in this blog!  My favorite layout this week uses the kit shown — the photo is a link to the gallery; the kit is the February kit from Digital Scrapbook Artisan Guild.

Have a great week; spend time journaling about your photos so you’ll remember the details when you create your layout.  And be sure to upload your layouts to MyPicTales to have them printed!  You’ll be glad you did.

As Ever,
Pam

I can’t believe that Valentine’s day is in about a week.  My son (who’s 7) has assured me that I (along with his sister who is 4) are always going to be his Valentine.  I laughed and asked him if I could remind him of this when he is 16 and has a girlfriend and he said I could.  I know that I need to do a layout about this comment. So along these lines I found this kit at My Life and Scrap by Samceline - I loved the title of it!

These colors were some of my favorite along with tulips. I can’t resist pink tulips.

The layout of the week was from Bec at ScrapOrchard.  It has a beautiful love theme and uses the One Love Haiti kit that I featured last week. She also used a special action that made it look like everything is jumpling off of the page.  Simply amazing.

So until next Friday - What Stories Are You Going to Tell?

Mary

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It seems to be a common desire among humans to know where we come from. Just look at the popularity of genealogy. Even in my own family I have several relatives that spend countless hours researching and pouring through old records to get the information on who and where we come from. Sometimes the most valuable sources of information are overlooked until it’s too late. Those are the people who were there, and lived it. They have stories to tell, but many don’t unless asked. If they are never asked, those stories are lost forever when they die.

I’ve started to take an interest in heritage scrapbooking. If you aren’t familiar with it, heritage scrapbooking is the act of recording and preserving old photographs and stories. Now when I say old I’m not talking about 20 years ago! 50 to 100 years old is more like it. I got started when I began scanning some old photographs of my Grandmother as a child and young adult. Now I’m on the lookout for more old photos to preserve.

The one thing I lament about scrapbooking these pictures, is the lack of details I have about who it is, when it was taken, and why or for what occassion. With my Grandmother’s pictures I had the opportunity to get the facts, and it slipped away before I even knew I wanted to know. My Grandmother died 6 years ago, and I never once asked her to tell me about her life as a child. I missed out on so much, that I’m resolved to make sure my children know about me, so that their children will as well. Won’t that be a great lecagy to leave?

For the layout today, I’d like to share a page I made with a picture of my Grandmother. Without having any of the facts of the picture, the page felt a little boring. Just a picture of some little girl….So I decided to journal about what I did know or what little facts I did have. I figure it’s better than nothing!

Isn’t the kit I used lovely? It’s not what would be considered a traditional heritage scrapbook page, but I just love the colors. It’s by Amanda Heimann Deisgns at Scrap Orchard and is called Penelope. The colors work well with so many different pictures and I highly recommend it!

I hope my little story has inspired you to find out more from your older relatives. Find out about the stories they have to tell before it’s too late!

Wow, is it February already?  I just can’t believe how fast time flys by the older I get.  Sad but true.  January of the new year has already passed.  Oh dear!  I’ve got to get going on all the projects I told myself I’d get to this winter.  I really wanted to clean out closests and wash rugs.  Ugh.  Sometimes when I get home from work, I’m just too tired to start a project - or lazy, lol.  But my days are filled with good things, so I can’t complain.  I love, love, love my job as a library assistant in a very large middle school.  And boy do we have a booming library.  Lots of classes, students and books.  Life is good.

Even though it does seem as though winter is here to stay, if I look around  I see new beginnings everywhere.  As everyone knows, February is the traditional  month dedicated to new love.  It’s all about hearts, cupids, and flaming bows and arrows.  We all like to make the connection between Valentine’s Day and romantic love but sometimes miss the other forms of love.   I found the greatest layout today and it really touched my soul.  It was a mother’s love for her child.  Nothing is purer or closer to the creator, I think, than this kind of special love and bonding.  The layout was made by britaneejean over at DST.

And don’t forget that the free QuickPages are up now at RAKscraps.com.  These wonderful pages are free to members so just sign in, become a member and download these great pages.  You can easily insert your photos and then upload to MyPicTales for printing.  It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3!

Until next week, stay warm….

Debbie ( aka snackpackgu)

Tradition has it that if Punxsutawney Phil emerges from his temporary burrow——on February 2 and sees his shadow, winter weather will continue for six more weeks across the United States. But if Phil doesn’t see his shadow, then spring temperatures are just around the corner. I haven’t heard what the fat rodent did yet, but I do believe in good shadows!  Yeah, yeah, it’s a reach…but have you ever seen a good layout and the shadows are what made it so spectacular?!?! How do they do that?   I have very bad depth perception, but I do know that you can buy shadows!

These ones keep popping up time and time again in layouts that strike me…Shadow Mistress actions for PS CS2-4.  I love them.  I have the old dinosaur CS-zero I think, so I will keep an eye out for Bec to come out with one I can use. Look at the shadows in action in BEC’s One Love done with the Charity Collab kit of the same name for the Haitian Aid and Relief.

OKay if buying shadows is not for you, I recommend Misty Cato, she has an awesome tutorial over at her site that is a huge help!  I think fiddling around with all the knobs and levers in your program is a good thing personally.

Let’s look for your shadows!

Thank you to each one of you who offered to let us showcase your projects at our upcoming trade shows. We had so many incredible submissions, we are sorry we could not print every one of them. Your creativity really makes our products shine! Several of you received a $10 gift card to MyPicTales, and everyone who submitted was entered into our contest to win $250.00 in products! We drew one random name, and the winner is……

Sharon L.

Congratulations Sharon! You will receive an email shortly with your prize code. Thanks again everyone!

So I move from WV to sunny North Carolina and have loved it since day one.  I couldn’t come up with a thing I missed until this weekend.  Snow,  I miss all that white bright snow!  And we actually got a dose of it this weekend!  I’ve spent all weekend freezing cold with a smile plastered on my face because of it!  So My layout of the day HAD to showcase someone else enjoying that cold wet stuff :)  Here is a fabulous layout by Angels showcasing a very happy child have a field day in the snow!  Leave her some love it is a wonderful layout.

Snow by Angels

And seeing as how I’m now curled up inside where it is warm and cosy the perfect followup to that cold wintery layout is Cosy Evenings at Home by PrelestnayaP Designs product of the day!

Cosy Evenings at Home by PrelestnayaP Designs

Till next Monday!

Darcy comes to us from Sweet Shoppe Designs where she is known for her fantastic handwriting and script fonts. We asked Darcy to tell us a little about herself, and her is what she said. “I am a homeschool geekish mom of 2 boys, married to a wonderful man who loves to help folks get their memories on paper in their own style through capturing their handwriting digitally.”

Not only can you order your own custom font from Darcy (a perfect gift for yourself, a teacher, scrapbooker or loved one) but, Darcy has created two fun fonts exclusive to MyPicTale’s Design Center for the month of February! All of Darcy’s fonts will work with our TaleWeaver software, as well as with any other programs you have installed on your computer! And, they are Mac and PC compatible!

Bestseller Bundle: Here is the chance to grab my 10 bestselling fonts (plus one free bonus font) in one fell swoop! If you’ve never tried my fonts, this is the ultimate pack to grab! (Each of these fonts is currently available as a single font in the Sweet Shoppe.) These have been bundled for greater value. DJB A Bit of Flaire (CU OK) DJB Angelbaby (CU OK & Euro Ready) DJB Another Mandy (CU OK) DJB Jenna (CU OK) DJB Liz (CU OK) DJB Lizzy Fizzed Out (CU OK & Euro Ready) DJB Poppyseed (CU OK & Euro Ready) DJB Sissy (CU OK & Euro Ready) DJB Smartypants (CU OK & Euro Ready) DJB Tweenybopper (CU OK & Euro Ready) Bonus font: DJB Joan (CU OK & Euro Ready) This product contains 10 True Type fonts with full alpha, numbers and common punctuation. Most, but not all, of the fonts contain European characters. This product is a commercial-free font product - no license purchase required. Read the complete terms of use

Custom Fontography

Whether it’s a fun journaling font, or a custom handwriting one, Darcy Baldwin Fontography has what you are looking for!