Spring Things papers

Happy (almost) April 1st to you!

It seems a little bizarre for me to be giving you anything with a spring theme as we were having snow here today. And it wasn't just a snowflake here and there--at times it felt like it was coming down in snowballs. I guess that's one of the joys of living in Minnesota (or Minne-snow-ta as some call it).

I'm glad I got this done at all--I completely forgot about it until earlier today! With everything that's been going on here lately with my grandfather's health, a rather sudden trip to Arizona for me, the job search, etc., it's been a crazy month. So this month you're getting a smaller contribution than normal from me. The good news is that there are 49 designers taking part in this months collaboration and I've seen some of their stuff--there is some awesome stuff in store for you.

I've got some great stuff coming up for you soon. Check back here on Thursday night when I'll have a sneak peek of next week's kit, "Funky Grunge," and I've got some add-ons to the "For the Boys" kit coming out soon, too. To be sure you don't miss anything, either bookmark or follow my blog (the follow button is on the left-hand side of the page)--it's that easy!

Without any further ado, here is my contribution to this month's collab. You get two papers and one patterned worn overlay.

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There are a total of 49 of us participating in this month's collab and each person's contribution will be free for the entire month of April. If someone's contribution isn't posted yet, please check back, we're spread out across the globe. And please, please, please, leave some love for us. Your comments make us smile!

Here's the list of the other 48 participants in the April 2009 ADSD Blog Train:
Mags
Mardesia
Willow Grace Designs
Blind Sight Designs
Anne-Marie
Gina
Linda
Lisa
Lois AKA Ladye
Melanie
Crystal aka sAmazed
Jennifer
Penny
Digital Keepsakes
JIC Creations
Dawne
by God's design
Foxy
Crystal
Jody
Lynn
Laura
Cre8
Wendy & Sarah
Wendy
CandysTreasures
Anne
Zena
Bonnie
Gail
BlueVelvet DeZigns
Aubrey's Mom
Jen
TMA Designs by Lynn
Beckmoore
EmCeeScraps
ScrapperGirl Designs
Liz
Brandi White
Morgaine Creations©
My Sweet Tater
Designs By Mel
Lei
Judith
Donna
Lacson
Erika {aka PinkuPixie}
Panda Bear Designs
Catherine

Is it Spring Yet?

I am sooooooo sick of winter! The weather in Phoenix was so nice last week--highs in the upper 80s and low 90s. I returned home (at 1:00 am on Monday) to 40 and rain. Yuck! Now that I've tasted spring, I cannot wait for it to arrive--and stay--here!

I want to thank you all for the good wishes, thoughts, prayers, and energy sent in my family's direction the past couple of weeks. As I've mentioned, my grandfather's health isn't great but he's hanging in there. He's strictly following his new low-sodium diet, being careful about his fluid intake, and is resting when he needs to. He saw his kidney doctor today and she said he was holding his own and, at least in her opinion, can head for Minnesota as soon as he is given clearance by his primary care doctor. He will see that doctor tomorrow and we should know more tomorrow afternoon. If all goes well, my grandparents will be back in Minnesota in time for Easter. That will be a great celebration for our family for sure!

Tonight I've got a little mini-kit for you. A few weeks ago, Amber of Stolen Moments Design and Nicole of Digi-Designs by Nicole did a collaborative kit called Fresh. (I *love* their stuff.) The kit featured some of my very favorite colors: bright blue, yellow, and bright green. I saw that Amber was hosting a "Whet Your Palette" color challenge at Digital Candy using similar colors and I just had to do something for it.

The layout below is of my good friend Kiera's little guy, Reichen, and her mom. Kiera's mom was recently diagnosed with breast cancer and just had surgery yesterday. (She's doing really well.) Kiera posted this great photo of her mom and Reichen on his blog and I thought it would make for a good layout. (Reichen has made other appearances on Shel Belle Scraps--he's such a charmer!) I used MOriginals template #023 for the layout. The yellow dots were made with paper from Amber's portion of the Fresh kit. I also used my "Just Because" alpha and my date stamp in the layout.

And here is my mini-kit. There are four papers and nine elements in all. I didn't create an alpha for this kit, but I can suggest several I've already created, including Hope, Celebrate Love, Just Because, and White Chocolate. Those alphas would coordinate nicely with this kit.

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See you again next week with some fab new stuff. Have a great weekend!

Mimosa alpha

(Just a quick reminder that today's post is a scheduled post as I am out of town looking after my grandparents. If there are any problems with any of the links in the post, please contact me via a comment or an e-mail and I will get the links fixed as soon as I can.)

Hello again! Have you all recovered from your St. Patrick's Day celebrations?

Today you get the alpha for Mimosa. I used a font called Locked Window which I downloaded from SearchFreeFonts. I've included upper and lowercase letters, numbers, and punctuation. The drop shadows included in the preview are not included in each letter. I had to include some drop shadows so the I didn't get lost between the two M's in Mimosa. Hopefully you'll enjoy this alpha and will be able to use it with other kits as well.

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Remember that there won't be any BB pages for you tomorrow because of Sandy's injury. They will be here at some point in the future, so be sure to check back. (Better yet--become a follower of this blog. Click on the left-hand side of the page to follow this blog and ensure you don't miss anything!)

I'll be back sometime next week with another freebie for you!

Mimosa elements, part II

(Just a quick reminder that today's post and the one for tomorrow are scheduled posts as I am out of town looking after my grandparents. If there are any problems with any of the links in the post, please contact me via a comment or an e-mail and I will get the links fixed as soon as I can.)

Happy St. Patrick's Day to you! Although I am not one bit Irish, I have been to Ireland and I must say--I cannot wait to get back there. It is so beautiful. And, if you're interested in the history of St. Patrick's Day, you can learn more about it here courtesy of the The History Channel. I hope to celebrate the day by wearing green and listening to music by the Corrs, Damien Rice, and U2.

I'm back with the other half of the elements for the Mimosa kit. I included some different items in this kit including real flowers and leaves, a cute chick made with one of Scrappin' Cop's awesome templates, beaded wire, and some borders. Those kinds of elements just seemed to fit with this kit's theme. I've got a huge master list of possible items to include in a kit but I know that everyone's taste varies, so if there's something you'd like to see, please let me know. I'm always open to suggestions and constructive criticism.

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See you again tomorrow when I'll bring you the alpha. Have a good one and may your St. Patrick's Day celebration be safe and happy!

Mimosa elements, part I

(Just a quick reminder that today's post--and the remaining ones for this kit--is a scheduled post as I am out of town looking after my grandparents. If there are any problems with any of the links in the post, please contact me via a comment or an e-mail and I will get the links fixed as soon as I can.)

One of the nice things about this kit being a result of the color challenge is that lots of other designers are using the same color palette. I guess it's a little like taking part in a collab except that everything is coming out at a different time. I'm always interested in what other designers include in their kits. One thing I'm not very good at remembering to include is wordart or talk bubbles. But, you're in luck! Joni Gray has created some using the same color palette and has them available for free on her blog! Here's what they look like:
If you click on the picture, you'll be taken to Joni's blog where you can download the wordart, text bubbles, and jelly beans.

And, if you want good wordart, check out CT member Ginger's blog. She creates great wordart on a daily basis for you to download--and it's free!

Now, for today's portion of the kit from me. Today you're getting the first half of the elements (shown below). The drop shadows are included for preview purposes only. There are 13 elements in today's download.

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I'll see you again tomorrow with the second half of the elements for this kit!

A new kit: Mimosa!

Howdy all! I hope you're all having a good weekend. Life has been really hectic--and more than a little stressful--around here. I guess it's in tough times that you learn what you are really made of. My grandfather's health is declining and while he's doing OK, he's not great and has to begin dialysis this coming week. I will be flying to Arizona mid-week to visit him and look after he and my grandmother so my Mom and her sister get a brief respite; I guess one of the "perks" of being unemployed is that you can leave at moment's notice and I will be taking advantage of that this week. (My grandparents are what you'd call "snowbirds"--residents of the Midwestern part of the United States who head south for winter.) We're hoping his health remains stable for the next few weeks so he can get his doctor's clearance to return to Minnesota permanently. If you wouldn't mind keeping our family in your thoughts and prayers, we would all greatly appreciate it.

In advance of my trip, I've scheduled the posts for the rest of the week and have tested the links for the downloads. They all appear to be working. If one of them doesn't work, please leave a comment or e-mail me. I will try and get it fixed as time permits. I will have some internet access but not as much as usual, so please bear with me if it takes a day or two to get something fixed.

On to other things...

You know how sometimes you're full of creative ideas and other times you feel like your mojo has left you altogether?'ve bee In feeling that way lately about my designs. I took part in a six-week mentoring class offered by the great Lisa Minor. I submitted a great color palette and had all sorts of ideas in my head about what things would look like. Then I sat down to design and I was stuck. I'm still sort of stuck but I'm getting closer and closer to finishing it. The result of that class, Funky Grunge, will be offered in a couple of weeks.

Fortunately (for both you and me), I stopped by KimB's DSO Color Challenge and saw the really cool color palette she had selected. I've never taken part in a challenge before--but I'm always up for one--and I have to say, this kit came together very fast and I love the results. Hopefully you will too. The nice part is that because this was a color challenge, there are a whole lot of designers who are creating kits using these same colors. (Click on the link above to be taken to the forum where you can see what other designers have done with these colors.)

My CT once again did a fabulous job with the kit. Their creativity continues to amaze and inspire me. (There will be more layouts from the CT later this week. We're a busy bunch!)

Mary

Michele

And my layout (made using Andrea Gold's template #380)

A quick heads up: Sandy (a.k.a. Louisiana Lady) is on the mend from shoulder surgery, so there won't be any BB pages this week. However, she has told me that once she is feeling better, she will design BB pages for this kit (and others that may come out while she is recuperating). So, don't worry--the pages will be here eventually. But please leave some love for Sandy here and wish her well! We miss you!

Here's a preview of the full kit. the full kit contains 12 papers, 25 elements (including a page border), and a full alpha (upper and lower case letters, numbers, and punctuation). There will also be some BB pages for you later in the week.

And here's a preview of today's portion of the kit, the papers. There are twelve papers in all (only 11 are shown); five solids, and seven patterned.

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Have a good rest of the day and I'll be back tomorrow morning with the first set of elements for you!

Just because: an alpha and a sneak peek

Hello! It feels like forever since I've had any fun stuff to share with you. Don't worry, I'm back today with a full alpha for you.

It seems that problem with 4shared has been fixed. It turns out the ads on the site were the problem. 4shared has removed the problematic ads but there is also another solution: use the Firefox browser with the AdblockPlus extension. I've used Firefox since version 1.3 (they're on 3.0.7 now) and LOVE it. It's faster, uses less memory, and has far fewer problems than Internet Explorer. Best of all, it's FREE. You can download it here and the Adblock Plus add-on can be downloaded here.

I'm still working on the For the Boys truck and car add-on. The custom shape set I downloaded had far more rough edges than I'd thought. So, it's taking longer than I had anticipated to get those done. One question, what sorts of formats would you like them in? I've been doing rubons, stickers, and puffy felt for the ones I've finished so far. If you have other requests (chipboard, painted metal, etc.), please let me know!

I was working on a layout the other day and needed an alpha for it. Unforutnately, I didn't seem to have the right on my computer, so I had to design one. And, lucky you, I'm sharing it with you today! I used the Century Gothic font and the edged plastic action from Atomic Cupcake in making it. It's got white edges, so it's versatile for lots of different kits. I've included upper and lower case letters, numbers, punctuation, and lots of international symbols (euro, pound, umlaut, tilde, etc.).

Download from 4shared here

Download from FileSavr here

(Yes, I realize that I spelled symbols wrong on the preview. Oops.)

And finally, a sneak peek at next week's kit, Mimosa. I saw the color palette KimB had chosen for the March Color Challenge over at DSO and ran with it. I love the colors and I think the kit is super fun; I'm excited to see what you do with it.

See you Sunday afternoon (Central Time) when I'll introduce the papers for Mimosa. Have a great weekend!

Happy Square Root Day!

Happy Square Root Day! What is Square Root Day, you ask? It's an unofficial holiday that occurs when both the month and day are the square root of the last two digits of the year. Today, it's 3/3/09 and three is the square root of nine. The next time we will celebrate Square Root Day will be in seven years, one month, and one day, so be sure to enjoy this "holiday" while it lasts!

A few weeks ago I hosted a poll that asked if you'd be interested in CU products. Overwhelmingly, you were definitely interested. (I think people were in favor of those kinds of products nearly 10 to 1.) So, on this "holiday", Square Root Day 2009, I bring you my first ever commercial use product--metallic ricrac. This was actual ricrac that I purchased, scanned, desaturated, and extracted. Not a very fun process, but I did learn a lot. There are two desaturated 13" pieces of metallic ricrac; they were done at 300 dpi so they're of print quality. I included a couple of colored pieces for you as well. You've likely seen these in some of my past kits, including the Hurry Up and Get Here Spring collab that came out earlier this week. I've got some other metallic ricrac CU freebies that will come out sometime this spring (think bows, knots, folded, looped, etc.). In the meantime, this will get you started.

I've uploaded the file to both 4shared and FileSavr. From what I've read in various places, the virus problem on 4shared may have been due to the ads on the site. I can certainly understand why you may be wary of downloading files from there, so I have put it in two places for you. Please know that I keep my computer up to date and scan each and every file before and after zipping it to ensure that it doesn't contain any viruses, worms, trojans, etc. Having been struck by a computer virus a few years ago, I know all too well why it's important to be careful.

Without any further ado, here is your first Shel Belle Scraps commercial use freebie!

Product is no longer available. I will be releasing it in a multi-product pack in the future at my Stuff to Scrap store.