My Very Own Kit

Can I show you a layout I haven't even posted to a gallery yet? It's made with a kit with the totally boring name "Bookshelf" - but the exciting thing is that I made the kit! First ever. I joined a designing contest at Brownie Scraps in order to basically force myself to learn more about how to use my scrapbooking program(s). It's a little overwhelming for me (the 'minis' we're being asked to do are way bigger than the 'minis' asked-for in another contest I've been following!), but I did learn a few things last week putting the kit together. So, success! The layout I made from the kit is my favorite thing about it so far, though! Here she is:

I used a few elements from the Skraphappens CU grabbag, and a great tutorial I found on making a plaid from a photo (tho not this one :) ). (That grab bag is a Charity kit, by the way - check it out!)

Happy to know a little about re-coloring, creating a palette and creating a plaid from a photo now -- but I want to figure out making my own designs, too. What I'm really missing are Jewish kit themes - always know in my head what I need for a layout, but rarely find the kit for it. I mean, how has no one hooked me up with a "Hebrew School" kit yet?? Seriously? But I don't think tooo much of that is out there yet. Maybe I'll have to check in on Barb Speck and see what she's been up to lately!

Wow. It's been a long time.

I dropped off the virtual planet for a while - well, not all of it, but the blogging and the running of a website for sure. Life has a way of taking over, I guess, and the third child kind of did me in for a while. When I got back, I found that the blog I had been faithful to for such a long time was completely gone...apparently, with the demise of the site where it had been hosted. There was so much there that I'm very sorry to have lost - anecdotes about the kids, birth stories, photos...sigh. But in the greater scheme of things - oh, well! Can't save everything, can we?

I'm at the point in my life where I'm approaching a milestone birthday and still trying to figure out how to do what I want to do in life, now that I'm in a place where I can't afford the time or funds to finish up the schooling I need for it. I'm also in a very anxious place in Real Life. But I'm now also in a spot where spending a few hours a month working on scrapbooking the most precious bits of my life has more meaning (and more value - as happiness therapy!) than ever. So here I am again! I'm doing digi scrapping almost exclusively now, because the overwhelming quantity of scrapbooking Stuff and Scraps almost did me in last time. I'm very happy to contain any disorganization (and all of my supplies) to the laptop and a new online backup service. (Note to anyone who may be reading this - don't back up with Mozy. I did, and was not able to recover my files. Now I'm with Carbonite..good luck to me if I ever need it, and may I not!)

I picked up a couple of Creative Team positions pretty much as soon as I got back into the game - after all, the only thing nicer for digiscrapping than a gorgeous kit with which to work is a free gorgeous with which kit to work! So you'll be seeing my favorite layouts for Vicki Eggins of Dana's Footprint Designs (hosted at www.digiridooscraps.com), as well as for the designers of Skraphappens.com. A BIG thanks to my online scrappy friend Dee Bibb, whom I think I might have known from the late, great Scrap Friends site - whose Facebook post about the new Skraphappens site formation was my springboard back into scrapbooking. I owe you big, Dee!!

Oh, and speaking of gorgeous kits and Skraphappens - the image at the top of this post was created using Little Girl Blues by Chunlin Designs over at Skraphappens.

Happy sleepless Tuesday early-morning! I'm so, so happy to be back!