Well, I’m happy to say that it’s starting to feel like Spring in my neck of the woods. Finally. We’ve had a few days with temperatures in the 50’s and it has been great.  This weekend, it is supposed to rain a lot - but heck, it’s better than snow :).  So in our house, when pre-spring hits, thoughts turn to two things - baseball and college basketball March Madness.  I’ve already been informed (and know from previous years) that for the next three weeks there will be nothing but basketball.  We will watch games of some teams that I’ve never even heard of. That’s ok though. It’s the one time of year that my husband truly loves.

My son is thrilled that Spring training has started and he can watch his beloved Philadelphia Phillies again.  He has been known to swipe my phone to find out the latest score of a game or to find out if the game is on tv.  He also loves to throw a soft baseball in the house which does drive me crazy.

All of this sports talk leads to my pick of the week.  It is from the Nov. 2009 Mega at Scrap Orchard.  This mega has a wide variety of sports and also mini kits for cooking, theatre, dance and scouting.

I was so excited to find a mega that had a lot of the sports that my family is crazy about.  It is going to be perfect for brag books, scrapbooking layouts and hybrid projects.  What Grandma wouldn’t love a soccer or baseball brag book of her grandchildren? (Shhh, don’t tell my mom is she’s reading this she might get one soon ) I could also see this kit working in a calendar format since a lot of the sports take place over different times of the year.

Well, I’m off to enjoy the weather before it starts to rain and I’ll leave you with one of my favorite questions - “What Stories are You Going to Tell?”

Mary

Hello Everyone,

Well I’m counting down the days until Spring Break … which is next week.  I’m an assistant librarian at a very large middle school and starting next Monday, I’ll be off for an entire week.  Yahooo!  And as an added bonus, my two younest (who are in college this year) will also be off.  And to make it even sweeter and more rare, my husband is also off.  He’s a professor and his university usually takes their break at a different time than the public school system, but not this year.  So we’re all going to be together.  Not sure what we’re going to do as it’s too cold to go anywhere and we can’t take an extended trip without our dog and our 5th wheel, but we’ll think of something, I’m sure.

Last year I was having a pity party because my friends from work were all flying somewhere warm - Mexico, the Bahamas, etc.  As it turned out, I was incredibly thankful that we didn’t go anywhere.  Not that we could have anyway, hubby was working.  But the week I was off, it started to rain and rain and rain and rain!  The ground was still frozen and the rain started a small lake around my house.  As bad luck would have it, the rain started seeping in the basement windows and within a few hours, we were flooded.  Carpets were ruined and tempers were hot.  It wasn’t pretty.  Since I always try to look on the bright side, as hard as that is sometimes, I viewed the mess as a chance to clean out the bottom floor.  So not only were carpets purged, but so was all of the ‘junk’ that I thought I needed to save because I just knew that someday I might want it.  Gone!  It’s been a year and I haven’t missed any of it yet, lol.

Spring break brings always brings to mind the actual season of spring, be that far away in this northern state.  I found a wonderful layout by my good friend Bernie over at Rakscraps..  It’s simple and sweet and shows that we don’t always need to scrap photos of people.  Sometimes it’s the little things in life that make an impact on us.  She scrapped her favorite tree.  It’s touching and I’ve chosen it as the Layout Of The Day.

Until next week,

Hugs,

Snackpackgu

We thought you’d enjoy learning a little more about JennCK, MyPicTales’ featured designer for March. So, here are a few questions, both silly and serious, that Jenn answered for us.

Tell us a little about yourself, your design career, family, etc.
I am 36 and live with my boyfriend and kitty. I’ve worked in technical development and project management for over 15 years, but left the field over a year ago. I’ve officially been designing since September 2009 and am a long time paper crafter. I am also a dedicated digital layout artist and am creative for many teams and publications in addition to designing.

Do you create your own layouts? How do you share them? (digitally, traditional albums, photobooks)
I create my own layouts and I share them digitally about 95% of the time. I do print brag books and other gift items using my designs (such as blankets, mugs, t-shirts, calendars).

What is your favorite MyPicTales product?
I love the calendars!

What is your favorite creation?
My favorite kit I’ve made is Shimmer. It speaks most to my personality.

What is your favorite product by another designer?
That’s really tough because I truly love so many things. Since I have to chose, I’d say INDUSTR*E: Full Kit By Flergs. That is my go-to kit when I make gifts for my boyfriend. I’ve made cell phone backgrounds and special desktops for him and he constantly shows them off.

What is your favorite color?
Green

Who is your favorite author, musician or artist?
My favorite author has long been Jane Austen. Her stories are timeless and I love the sarcastic wit.

What hobbies do you have apart from scrapbooking?
I love to travel and we do so frequently. I’m also very passionate about animals and have a little rescue shelter in our backyard where we take care of animals people left behind.

What type of computer do you design on? What programs do you use?
I have an HP desktop and laptop that I use. I’d say I do 85% of my designing on the desktop, though. The monitor is much larger and better calibrated for truer colors. I use Paint Shop Pro x2 and Photoshop Elements 8.

What is your favorite restaurant?
Hands down, The Melting Pot!

What is your favorite holiday?
I enjoy them all, but I look forward to my Christmas Tree every year.

What is on your desk right now?
A very long to-do list and a root beer.

What is your favorite TV show or movie?
We don’t watch much TV and don’t even want or have cable. I usually catch TV shows only once they’re on DVD. We watched season 1 of Lost and had to buy the entire series. We also stream Top Chef.

What is your favorite font?
Goodness. This one is tougher than the favorite kit by another designer. I literally have over 1000 fonts. I think Ray Larabie creates the coolest ones!

What is your favorite sports team?
I don’t watch sports or have a favorite team.

Share your favorite recipe, quote or song lyric with us.
“Be the change you want to see in the world.” Mahatma Gandhi

What was the last thing you ate?
Pizza

What is the last photo you took?
I took a couple photos of my crafting workspace.

What was the last kit you downloaded?
One that I’m sure will become my new favorite… Clementine by Shabby Princess.

Thank you Jenn for telling us a bit more about yourself! Stop by the Design Center to purchase Jenn’s kit Wish while it is still on sale!

Bragbooks are just plain fun!  I see blog trains all the time with blog pages that are all done and coordinate so you can go through the process of collecting them that way.  Or you can buy a ready made book; I found this artist because she is doing a call for creative members (no, I am not applying, but was tempted).  Biograffiti. Her name caught me, I had to investigate further.

HEY, she talks about PicTales right in her description for her brag books!!

Upload the JPG pages to MyPicTales and have them printed as single page 8×8 layouts. Then assemble the pages into an 8×8 scrapbook album, print and assemble the matching card and package up with double sided adhesive and an acid free pen. This is the best baby shower gift!!

I was so in awe of this idea!

I kinda felt like a detective on this week’s entry, or digital stalker! As I went to look at Biograffiti’s work as a scrapper and wow…just look at my nana.

Kinda of a glimpse into her talent!  I hope you all enjoy the rest of your week!  Never lose the joy of scrapping!

The warmth is peaking in here in Raleigh, NC.  And I’m beyond overly anxious!  Axious enough that I flipped through last years Digital Scrapbook collection of flowers, grass, and sunshine inspired pages!  I just can’t get enough of the vibrant happy colors or the constant reminder of growth and new beginnings it unfurles!  Would you like to join me in this lovely little garden of happiness?  Check out the layout of the day for some spring inspiring goodness!

Spring by DirtyFeetDesigns

The simplicity is just stunning, and the picture drool worthy!  Fabulous job capturing the beginnings of such a wondrous time of year DirtyFeetDesigns!  Be sure to head over and leave this stunning layout some love!

I’m currently taking classes to reinvent myself, so I’m on a creative kick…not just in the arts department, but in the mundane life as a worker bee department as well.  So when I ran across this kit the name captured my interest, but the colors and quality sold me!  Needless to say it piqued my interest enough to be marked product of the day by little ol’ me!  Check out Free Spirit by Amanda Resende & Kristen Rice:

Free Spirit by Amanda Resende & Kristen Rice

That is all the fabulous digital scrabook goodies I have in store for you all today!  Enjoy your Monday!  See you soon!

Whether working on pages for photo greeting cards, custom photo books, or to create a photo album, I like when the photo (or photos) are the feature and there is journaling to explain or tell a story.  Many scrapbook ideas come from templates and product reviews.  Spend time browsing through online galleries and scrapbooking magazines to find styles that you like.

I find this layout delightful, from the special photo, balance, journaling, white space, and appeal.  It can be found here, share the love.  The kit is called “Light” and is found at Oscraps.  Tell your story in a memory album or in a special page made for framing — I hope you find layout inspiration here, and in the many galleries found online.

Happy Scrapbooking!

As Ever,
Pam

I’ve got a confession. I’m looking forward to spring. Yup. About this time every year the itch starts. The please, let all this snow melt and the days get warmer. The attempts to reason with the kids that, yes you do need to still wear hats and/or gloves is growing old.  The other day, my 7 year old asked me when he can wear shorts to school! As I bit back laughter, I replied not until it’s at least 70 degrees!

So, in my quest for spring I found this semi-fantasy kit from Studio Alana entitled Golden Moments.  This scrapbooking kit can be found at Scrapbookgraphics. 

I’m usually not drawn to fantasy kits, but this one caught my eye. I loved the colors, the sparkle and the angel wings.  I can imagine this kit being used from cards, to calendars and of course, scrapbook layouts!  It even seems to me that it is something that can be used year round.

The layout I’ve chosen is entitled Dear Baby.

This layout is done by Alana from Studio Alana and can be found in her gallery at StudioGraphics. The letter is incredibly touching - it is to her unborn child 5 days before he was born.

So, Happy Friday and What Stories will You Tell this week?

Mary

I just love the month of March. I think because it’s kind of a turning point in the year, especially where I live. It means spring is just around the corner, and we’ll be leaving winter behind. I love winter when it starts, but by about this time every year I’m just done with it. I love finding cute, happy layouts in the gallery’s around the digital scrapbooking community. This one just caught my eye, and once I read the journaling, I knew it’d be my choice for Layout of the Day. “His Name is Nemo” by lionsimba at ScrapMatters. It’s like this kit was made for this layout to be created! Just perfect and a really cute story. The layout is linked to the gallery if you’d like more information or to leave a comment for lionsimba:

I also want to show you a beautiful digital scrapbooking kit I found at the ScrapMatters store. This is “Into the Night” by Stolen Moments. I’ve worked with some other kits by this designer and they are just wonderful, so I’m going to be picking this beauty up to hopefully get my scrapping mojo back. I’ve been sick for a while and that really hasn’t left me feeling up to making many scrapbook layouts. Sometimes the perfect kit will just jumpstart my creativity.

Wishing you a wonderful March,

Hi Everyone,

This past weekend sure had a lot of tragic events occuring throughout the world and some scary ones.  On Saturday, an earthquake hit Chile which then triggered a tsunami that was headed for Hawaii.  My oldest daughter and SIL live in Waikiki so I was more than a little apprehensive.  I started calling her before she was even up, needless to say, she didn’t hear the phone.  What she did hear were the sirens when they went off at 6:00 am her time!  I guess they are incredibly loud, lol.  Well, we were texting all day.  She went to safeway to stock up on bottled water, but by the time she got there (7:00 am her time) the store was out.  Danielle said the lines were crazy - they waited for almost an hour to buy gatorade.  Then they filled up every available container at home with water, just in case the sewer system was compromised.  We weren’t too worried that they’d be flooded out though, as their condo is on the 9th floor.  As it turned out, Hawaii dodged a bullet that day.  The waters rose about 3 feet, no major flooding and no loss of property or life.  Great news.  Everyone was back out on the beaches that afternoon.  Close call.

I want to remind everyone that the quickpages are out at Rakscraps.com.  It’s a beautiful set this month and they’re free to members.  Simply sign up in RakCenter.  I think you’ll really love these and they’re so combatible with the mypictales printing options.  Simply download a qp, plop your photos in them and then upload to MyPicTales.  You can have single pages printed, or photo albums.  The quality here at MyPicTales is wonderful. 

Until next week,

Hugs,

Snackpackgu

I love Dr. Seuss-and we have already listened to Green Eggs and Ham and my kids are in double digits!  Reading is so so important.  I was flitting thru trying to find a layout with my beloved author of so many books, and had to go in the way back machine to Lizzy Fizzy’s Dr. Seuss Rocks.

Now this layout is from December of 2008! I love it!!  I wanted to find something a bit more up to date and fell in love with Alex Reads by Carolat

So-go read a book, or make one and have it printed here at PicTales!