Ella Publishing design team call

The folks over at Ella Publishing are looking for a new design team!

What? You say you don't know Ella Publishing? Well, you should! They publish all sorts of really cute and really helpful eBooks about scrapbooking. They have books about finding time to scrap, how to use up your stash, and more. The best part? These books are downloads (so that you can save them on your computer) and they are sooo much cheaper and environmentally friendly than buying a regular book.

However, they are not just a publisher. They also have great tips, challenges, and lots of technique tutorials.

So head on over to Ella Publishing and see if you've got what it takes to try out for their team! I am!

Great FREE Photoshop patterns

I just love Twitter because I often learn things there I wouldn't have known about otherwise.  Today's fabulous "Twitter find" is this website post featuring 2000 FREE Photoshop patterns. Yep, that's right -- FREE! There are lots of designs, from cute to grungy to sophisticated, so there is sure to be something for every digi-scrapper out there!

Thanks to Ranger Ink for the link!

I am still alive... I swear!

So someone called me on the fact that I have neglected my blog. She said, "Girl, you haven't blogged since NOVEMBER!" I didn't believe it... and then I looked at my poor little blog. She was right. I have just left my sweet little blog out here, all alone for months.

Well, no more! I am back with a vengeance (HA!). Seriously, I promise to update in the next few days what has been going on with me for the last several months, and I will tell y'all about upcoming adventures, such as ScrapFest!

So what do you scrap?

"So what do you scrap then?"

I had a fellow scrapbooker ask me this at a crop once.  This came right after I said that I was not married and had no children.

So you can only scrap if you are married and have kids?  Wow.  They didn't give me that memo at the very first Creative Memories party I went to.

That was many years ago.  Now I am married.  However, I still don't have kids. 

Guess what?  Someone said to me not too long ago, "I don't know how you do it.  If I didn't have kids, I'd have nothing to scrap!" 

Oh man.  I'm breaking all the scrapbooking rules here, aren't I?

I scrap my life.  Yep, my life.  I celebrate me.  The people that I love.  The things that are important to me.

I have a great husband and we have a blast together.  I scrap that.

I have awesome friends that I love to be around.  I scrap that.

I like some really cool things and go really cool places.  I scrap that.

I am a pretty awesome person.  I scrap that.

You don't have to be a certain thing to be a scrapper.  You don't have to be married, straight, have kids, be young, be old, whatever.  Just BE yourself... and go scrap that.

Why do I scrapbook?

I've been pondering this a lot lately.

I began thinking about it back in the spring.  I was lucky enough to take a class (in person!) from Jessica Sprague (see earlier post).  Then that evening, she delivered a key note speech in which she had us all to think about why we scrapbook. 

Here's what I have come up with so far:

I scrapbook because I want to celebrate my life.  I have a story to tell.

I want people to know that I was here.  That I mattered.  That I laughed, cried, loved, lost, triumphed, and failed. 

I want to give myself a chance to play and explore.  As adults, we don't get that chance very often. 

I want to have a safe place where I don't have to follow any rules.

I want to leave my legacy.

So tell me... why do you scrapbook?

FREE class by Jessica Sprague!

I just love Jessica Sprague.  I really do.  She is so sweet and really loves to bring digital scrapbooking to the masses.  At a scrap weekend I attended, she gave a speech about "Why I Scrapbook" that brought me and the whole room to tears.  She is all about helping you share your stories.  I bought Photoshop Elements 7 and am now doing more digi and hybrid scrapbooking because of her.

So imagine my giddiness when I saw on her site that she is doing a FREE CLASS!  Yes, you read that right, FREE!  This class is called "Holidays in Hand" and it's all about capturing the memories of the holidays.  Not a digi-scrapper?  NO PROBLEM!  This class is for everyone.

Yes, it says that the class runs from Nov. 16-23, but don't let that scare you.  You don't have to sign in and do stuff every day.  You can do it in your own time.  That's another good thing about Jessica's classes -- once you register on her site, the classes you take are yours forever so you can go back to them as many times as you need. 

Registration begins Nov. 2.  Go sign up... you won't be disappointed!

Actually made a Halloween layout!

I never make Halloween layouts.  In fact, I bought the paper and embellishments (all from Imaginisce... it's their really cute "Spooky Town" collection) with the intention of doing something totally different with it.  However, I took these pictures of my jack-o-lanterns yesterday and the pictures were just too cute not to scrap.

In other news, I found out today that I have been taken off the schedule for the month of November at my job.  This is not good, what with Christmas coming up as well as the added expense of some plumbing issues at my house.  Talk about scary... Halloween has nothing on me right now!

Digi-layout

One of my very first digi layouts!