I've never been one to watch the Discovery channel but I do love it when I make a discovery of my own. I found an amazing blog recently that I have to share with you. It's called Shadowhouse Creations.  The author of this blog is Jerry Jones, a self taught Photoshop digital artist. Let me tell you, his work is amazing. Aside from being very talented, he's also very generous. He offers textures, brushes and tutorials.

I picked up a couple of his textures the other day as well as a mask and did some playing around

The holidays are over, the snow is flying, and things can get back to normal. That is, of course, if there is such a thing as normal.

I'm in love with a site that I'm talking about. I'm in love with a site and I just have to shout. Catchy tune huh? But it doesn't sound quite right.
Oh well, on with the post. I found a site the other day that I instantly fell in love with. It's called Peacefully Folding Blog It's loaded with inspiration for someone who loves loves loves crafty things but can't come up with ideas on her own. Hey that's me! Anyway, you'll find all kinds of origami projects here, as well as some other great projects to make from paper. Some of them are her own and some are links to other sites.
I found these really cool paper flowers. The tutorial for making these is at Sunshine Memories

I made a couple just to try it out. I think I'm in a major crafty mood now. You go check out the links and I'm going to go do something crafty.
Have a great night.

You guys have really just been making my day with all your wonderful and kind comments. When I first started blogging (almost a year ago) I wondered if anyone would ever read this besides me. I know my husband and kids have absolutely no interest in what's here at all. I never imagined that I would have as many followers as I do today. Most of you I've come in contact with through Entrecard, and for that I am very grateful.

I was going to try and respond to all your comments to my last post in the comment section but I'm never really sure if anyone ever goes back and reads those or not. The majority of the comments had to do with digital scrapbooking and how to get started. I've put together a few links for you that should help you on your way.
First of all if you are looking for freebies, you can start right here :) Check the categories section on my blog to find what you are looking for. I have kits, templates, word art and other assorted stuff. Click on freebies and it will give you all the posts that offer freebies.
Two other places for great freebies come from
http://digivic.blogspot.com/ and
http://censloft.blogspot.com
Not only do these two ladies offer beautiful freebies but they are a couple of the nicest bloggers I know.

for tutorials you can try
http://www.scrapbook-bytes.com/a-tuts/publish/index.shtml
http://www.gottapixel.net/blog/?page_id=310
http://scrapbooking.about.com/

These are of course only a few to get you started. If you can't find what you're looking for you can do a search using the keywords "digital scrapbooking tutorials, or digital scrapbooking freebies"

For those of you who have done traditional scrapbooking but never tried digital all I can say is that it's much cheaper and a whole lot less clean up. Not to mention that in digital, if you cut a piece of paper the wrong size or shape there's is nothing lost because there is always the "undo".
Now you don't get that with traditional....lol

Have a great night everyone. Hopefully I'll be back with some goodies for you soon.

I tried to join the "wordless Wednesday" bandwagon but I just can't do it. I have to type, I need to be heard. (and I like the clicking sound of the keys when I type) So what do I have to say that is so important that I MUST be heard? Well.... I want to tell you about a blog that I absolutely love reading. If you are in need of a smile, chuckle, laugh or just want to read something new you HAVE to go to Life is good Believe me, you will enjoy her blog.

I've been so busy playing with my camera, visiting a whole lot of wonderful blogs, working on some edits, and just plain enjoying the weekend that I haven't come up with any new layouts or templates for you. I do have some things to share though.
Here's a random picture I took of a truck. (I'm really not expecting any ooh's and ahh's here)


This is the edit I did to it. I thought it looked pretty cool.


Now for some places you might like to check out:
If you're looking for a new background for your blog check out Simply Chic
You'll find some really cute ones and they're free.

Want to see some awesome pictures? Check out Project Visual
You can find out how he does these pictures.

Visit www.planetphotoshop.com for a quick and easy way to add light depth with layers. I've tried it out on a few pictures but need to play a little more with it.

Need textures to add to your edits or scrapbooking? Go to inkblog.com You'll find textures and brushes there. The latest addition is 10 high resolution waterlogged map brushes.

Lastly I want to say THANK YOU to all the new visitors I've had here lately. I appreciate you comments immensely. I do try to respond back to everyone, however, for those of you who are anonymous or those without blogs I'm not sure how to show my appreciation. So know that I do appreciate each and every one of you. Keep coming back I love the company

As if I don't already spend enough time on my computer, I am now totally in love with http://www.entrecard.com/ I have found so many great new places to visit through there that I have to share some of my favorites with you.

http://vanillaseven.com/ beautiful pictures here
http://freecraftfair.com/ craft business resources
http://digivic.blogspot.com/ a must see site. beautiful word art freebies here
http://censloft.blogspot.com/ one of my all time favorite blogs to visit since before I found entrecard
http://www.creationsbycarlota.com/ her latest layout that she posted is just beautiful
http://confessions-of-a-psychotic-housewife.blogspot.com/ she posts about great deals and product reviews
http://luceljuliana.com/ a little of this and a little of that
http://renaescraftycorner.blogspot.com/
http://conversationswithmoms.com/
http://everyday-adventurer.blogspot.com/ love reading this one.

These are my top droppers at the moment, but I do seriously enjoy each and every one of them.
Some others are
http://www.picturetopeople.org/blog/blog.html must see if you do any editing
http://thephotoshopper.blogspot.com/ the name says it all

There's more I could go on but I'll stop here

Don't ever let anyone tell you that silliness and playing is just for kids. I strongly believe that holding on to your inner child is what keeps you young and happy. I personally bring out the inner child frequently. Of course sometimes it's to throw a temper tantrum but that's another story...lol.
My inner child likes to draw, and I don't care if it's good, bad, colored inside the lines, or even recognizable. My inner child also likes to fabricate stories, because I really don't like drawing all that much, I do stink at it. BUT, I did have fun with a tutorial I found to make a picture into a cartoon drawing. I did this one real quick just to try it out so it's not that great, but like I said it was a lot of fun. I got a little carried away with the burn tool but I was real careful not to draw in all the wrinkles on my face...lol


I also did a little playing around a did a layout of my all time favorite aunt. This was a very old picture of my Aunt Mary. There are so many wonderful stories I could tell you about this woman but I won't bore you with all of those. She sure was something special though.

I also put together a mini kit for you. In the kit you'll find everything I used in my layout plus a quick page. I couldn't think of a name so I just went with Mary since that's who the layout was about.

I have so much to share with you today. By the time you leave here you'll feel like it was your birthday or Christmas time....lol OK so maybe not but I really do have a lot to share.
First up is the mushroom kaleidoscope that I was going to show you yesterday before I had the problems uploading these pictures. I don't know what was going on but every time I tried to upload these 2 I got an error message. They worked today though.
This is the picture of a mushroom, that I took last year, that became the base for my kaleidoscope.


These are the 4 different kaleidoscopes that I made. The bottom right is my favorite.

This comes from my sister's blog. She has a template freebie up for grabs. Hop on over to http://xsurvivingmotherhoodx.blogspot.com/2009/05/wowlong-time.html While you're there check out some of her stuff. She's so darn talented and creative it makes me sick....lol

I haven't been very motivated today so I don't have much to offer. I'm working on things but seem to be having a problem with finishing anything (except for maybe the bag of combos snacks that is laying on my desk....lol) When I do get my act together, some of the things that I will be offering you are:

Yep, that's right, part 1. I have several different things I want to share with you today and I thought it would be best if I broke it down into separate posts.


I came across a website today that I found so entertaining. I'm sure that I could have wasted the afternoon away playing here. You have got to check this one out. Especially if you do any kind of photo editing or scrap booking. The website is BGPatterns I'm not sure about terms of use for any of the patterns you create. They didn't have anything on the website as far as FAQ or TOU.

Here are a few of the patterns I made while I was there.




Head on over there and make some of your own. When you register you can save all your patterns right there on the site. You can also download them to your computer.

I went on a mission in search of inspiration earlier today because I've felt like I've been in a creative slump lately. I have made numerous attempts at editing several pictures and just couldn't come up with anything that grabbed me. Normally, when I do an edit, I don't consider it DONE until I can look at it and say "Now that, I like" The last few days the only words coming out of my mouth while I'm working on something are "Nahh, Ehhh, or simply a big sigh" There have been several new scrapbooking projects also that have fell victim to the delete key. My best friends seems to have become Control Z a.k.a. Undo.


So on my voyage I found several interesting web sites that I wanted to share. The first one is http://www.wordle.net/ You can either type in several different words or insert a link and it creates a word cloud. This is one I did by entering the URL for my blog. You can print them out when you're finished. I tried saving the picture to my computer but the resolution is too small for it to be readable. But I thought it was really cool. It's fun to play with anyway.
Another website I found was http://www.jessicasprague.com/ She has quite a few tutorials that I plan on going back and looking at some more. They are all categorized into photo editing, type, ps brushes, drawing and patterned papers and general ps tips.


This one I've known about for awhile but it's worth sharing. http://www.colourlovers.com/ Before I found this site, I just picked colors randomly when doing a scrapbook page. After going to colourlovers and picking out a color palette I was much happier with the way things turned out. It makes a big difference when you have the right color combinations. No guessing on which colors to put together to get the best look.


The final thing I have to share with you today is a freebie. I was just playing around and came up with 12 Christmas theme doodles. I think my favorite one is the cat.


to get the freebie click here

That's something I learned a long time ago. I've always had a problem following that concept though. For years now, I've been diving head first into one project or another, going along great, until I see something else that I want to do. Rather than finish project one I'm too distracted by the new project I want to start. Before you know it I've got a box full of unfinished projects.


I was going through the files on my computer today and noticed I'm doing the same thing with my digital projects. I was starting a new project today and found at least a half a dozen unfinished ones. I'm happy to report though that I did a little cleaning up and incorporated some old, unfinished projects into the new one.


What is the new one you ask? Could it be another freebie? Why, yes it could. I was inspired by Laura at http://lauras-little-corner.blogspot.com/ She made the cutest little turkey the other day and it gave me the idea to work on a Thanksgiving kit.


I'll give you just a little sneak peak at one thing that's in the kit. If you want the freebie you'll have to keep checking back until I get it all together.

One more thing before I go. I was reading through some posts on cafe mom today and came across one that I have to share with you. This lady has got a fantastic blog where she offers all kinds of CU freebies. If you're in to scrap booking you have to check this one out. It's fantastic. http://magicallmoments.blogspot.com/