Playing with Masks and Layers in Photoshop Elements

I was playing today with my Photoshop Elements and  I was trying to do a blending but I don't have the right photos for it (bright blue isn't quite right) plus he is at the edges of the photo so I ended up with just a story and page. I didn't have anything to embellish it with (nothing in PSE seemed to go) so I just used some embellishments from kits I had in My Memories. I like the way it came out but still can't wait to do some blendings. Maybe I can get some good pictures this week and give it a try on the weekend.

Giant Give-a-way on Holley's Blog in Feb.

Not only is it in Feb. but it is all month long. You can see some of the wonderful candy that she is giving away by her Jan. 16th Post. Man! That is more candy than I get to buy in a year!!! She has top named sponsors so go look! This is not some rubber left over from some company, these are quality images from places I even bought stamps from.

The reason for the give-a-way is a huge celebration on the 3 year anniversary month of Holley's Brain Surgery. You can read all about it on her blog but this miracle surgery has left her seizure free for 3 years now. Hoorah!!!!!

So go stop in and congratulate Holley. While your there, check out Holley's Blog. You won't be sorry you did.

My First Box Card

I made this box card. I am sure it is not that new and it is on other blogs but it is a new one for me.


Card closed

Card Opened (sorry, should have opened it up more so you can see.  I simply stamped the back of it but I can see putting candy, gift cards, or any other kind of small item inside. I saw one on Valita's blog done for Christmas and inside it were about 4 hand made paper ornaments.

There is no sense of re-inventing the card. Valita has a video and instruction on how to make a simple box card on her blog, Valita's Designs & Fresh Folds. 

I Love You Card

Now that Christmas is over and all the presents are given out, house back to normal, and the new year has come, I am thinking about Valentine's Day as I did my Card Lifters and made this card to give to my husband. I don't have anything inside yet but between now and then I am sure I will either find something or write something to express my love.

Reason to take up Scrapbooking

Someone sent this to me and I laughed (since it wasn't me). Look at those eyes. He knows.....

2012 in Review and Resolutions for 2013

Thinking back over the year, it sure was an eventful one. I started it out with my new camera so I was playing a lot with photos as well as my paper. After all, I have new grand-babies due in 2012 and so there was plenty of cards to make and things to do. In Feb. my granddaughter was born.

I really starting getting into my Copics and bought quite a few of them to add to my collection. I went to my LLS and took some card classes and I also went to a 2 day Copic Class.

I went to Point Sebago, ME for the scrapping weekend and met many of the people from my Yahoo Group. I can't forget that lobster dinner and the games played there called L, R, C. It is a great dice game played with as many people as you want. We used 3 embellishments to start the game and there was about 25-30 of us so the winner really had a real stack of goodies. We even played once with dollars and I came so close to winning but....if it weren't for bad luck I wouldn't have any.

There were things to buy and a baby shower to plan which turned out great. I wanted to make a quilt for the baby so I went to the store to get a foot for my machine and to make a long story short I ended up buying a foot that didn't fit my machine but when I went back to change it, Jerry bought me the sewing/embroidery machine that the foot will fit. I got free classes to learn how to embroider and so I made the baby a quilt and gave it to Christina at her shower.

The baby came early and Christina had to have a C-section since he was breech. Since Christina got off maternity leave, I watched the baby while they worked.

I found one of my childhood memories of "Grandma's Sewing Box" and bought it off eBay  I had been looking for one just like hers for years and now I finally found it. It brings back so many memories of a much simpler time when I was small and Gramma was always sewing something for us, if it wasn't a choir gown then it was an ice skating outfit. I would often spend time there with her (wish I had enough sense back then to have her teach me how to do these things) and organize her sewing box.

I kept up with my scrapping and card making. I did more pages and cards then ever before. I been active on the Fiskateer site too. I also joined in a few swaps.

Weather was once again wild as the year wound down. On the anniversary of Storm Albert, the ice storm  that put us all in the dark for days and some for weeks we had Hurricane Sandy (AKA: Super Storm Sandy, The Perfect Storm ).

Thanksgiving was special. This was the first one that I did not spend at home. Christina had to work and it was the baby's first Thanksgiving and that is what it is all about, family so we all made reservations and had it at where Christina works so she could come to the table and at least spend a few minutes with her family. It turned out really nice.

The day that the angels wept was on Dec. 14 where 20 six and seven year old children were massacred along with 6 adults in Sandy Hook Elementary School. The gun-man killed himself but he started the killing with his own mother in her home. It is a day I will never forget. I cried for days.

My anniversary was different this year. We exchanged gifts and I gave Jerry a Kindle Fire since I ended up using his old one more than he did. I got a food dehydrator so I can make some beef jerky whenever I wanted.

Christmas was different this year too. We did not spend it home. We went to Christina and Dan's house so we could see Damien's first Christmas. It was fantastic even though there was still the sadness of Sandy Hook still on our minds.

I made my goal of reading 60 books for the year. I really cut it close as I finished the last one the morning of New Years Eve.

I got my Survival Strap on New Years Eve. It is green and white, the colors of Sandy Hook Elementary School with a black support ribbon. I will always wear it to not only show my support but to remind me of just how precious life is. In a blink of an eye, it can be gone no matter if you are a child or an adult. When I look at it, not only is it hard to not have a tear leak out of my eye but it reminds me to be a little kinder and little more patient with the person who is taking to long in the gas line or the child having a fit because he didn't get the toy in the store. It reminds me to be a better person and member of the community.