Art Journaling Challenge is up! This month is about Discover

Play along to earn a free mini sampler kit!

June Art Journaling Challenge - Discover - Digitals - Digital Scrapbooking

My Page for the Challenge - Miss Bailey discovering her True!

Earn this Mini Kit sampler for playing along with us from my latest Art Journal Kit in the shop!

Want the whole kit?!  It's on sale now through Sunday!

Live with Intention - A Challenge with Freebie

This month's art journaling challenge is all about living our lives with Intention! Making a plan, setting our goals and creating our steps to make our intentions a reality. This mini kit is the perfect starting point to create this. It's dreamy colors are calming to help you focus your intentions and get serious about living them by taking that first step in defining them. Something I am very much doing right now personally! Each year starting on Oct. 31st I look back and make sure that I am living with intention. That I am doing what makes me happy, doing what answers the whispers inside me to be happy and live the life I want to live. I look at my daily life and double check to make sure that I am taking my steps to get there and redefine any intentions that need to be. Yes they do change, and yes, I do find myself doing things that are not a part of those goals. Time to look at the end results I want and make a plan to get there. By Dec 1st I usually have my full intensions defined and I spend this month making my plans, making my steps to reach the reality I want, planning how to incorporate them into my daily life. I start slow, intentional, and begin the process of incorporating them in daily so it's not so overwhelming. By the first week of January I usually have them in place in my daily life to start working towards those goals. This year I am looking for more time… (I know aren't we all? lol), but I am being very intentional to make sure that I have more time to enjoy doing what I love most which just happens to coincide with my other intention of what I need to be doing to further my career and earn enough money to provide for my family.  This means looking at how I currently spend my time, how can I do better at scheduling my time and sticking to it? Where can I carve out slots of time to delegate for what I want to be doing, and time to do what I need to be doing to reach my own personal goals. I have many smaller goals too and need to be scheduling them into this mass of time and make it all work in harmony.  When we keep our intentions in the front of our thoughts, have a plan, make small steps within that plan to work in on a daily basis, we can and will make our goals a reality. Inspiration-Passion-Commitment = Goals and Intentions = Reality My first scribbles of defining my intentions. :) Ideas to journal: Define your intentions/goals and be exacting about it, make a list of smaller goals and steps to reach that bigger goal, list some things you can do each day to live with the intention of reaching that goal. List things your've already accomplished to reach your goals for some positive reinforcement that you are on the right path and can do it. This month my art journaling took on a new form because of my personal intentions also. Not really new… but an old one brought back with a twist. Following my inner passions, I used my digi art and combined it with my fabric art and created a mini art quilt. See the whole process.  I do plan on posting a little tutorial about this too soon if you want to try your hand at mixing digi with quilting art. :)  Amazingly, this SO inspired me, so much it lit a fire inside of me, my intentions became MORE defined. I am sure I will be sharing if you want to watch as I start to implement and work this. It was also what inspired the Dec Art Journal Challenge kit and part of what you will get for free to join me in this challenge. :) So enough of my ramblings, here is your free mini kit to get you started on living your intentions. Art Journal Challenge Dec 2011 Mini Kit And if you want the full kit, you can find it here. :) Can't wait to see what you create this month! Make sure you go to the Dec Life thru Art Journaling Challenge forum and leave us a link to your page and I'll send you the prize bonus mini kit link via private message from our Dec collab. Blessings, Cilenia

Over the Hump Crop with DeDe TONIGHT

Thought I'd help spread the word. If you like online live crops than you'll want to join us at Digital's Over the Hump bi-monthly Surprise Challenge with DeDe Smith tonight.  Looks like it will be a lot of fun!  Join her in the digitals Chat room at 9pm EST.

Scrap Page Challenge - Thanksgiving or Thankful

The last Bi-Weekly Challenge before we go Monthly!

From our sweet Senovia, she is challenging us to create a scrap page.

Find her post in our forum here. 

Here in the US, we just celebrated Thanksgiving. My challenge this week, if you choose to accept it, is to scrapbook your Thanksgiving Day, meal or family. 

If you are not from the USA, you may amend this challenge to scrapbook something or things you are thankful for. 

Use five photos (no more, no less), and staples somewhere on your layout. (Have I mentioned we have a new Staples, Plus kit coming to the store on Tuesday?) Extra credit if you do NOT use the word Thanksgiving, or Thank in the title! 

Ready? Go!

Nicky

$1 Two4Tuesday, Retirement Sale, Challenge Contest

It's Two4Tuesday again! Well... sort of!  This week we have MORE than Two!  We have the entire Category, Breathings of My Heart Series, on sale for 75% off until Sept 1st ONLY as they are retiring. Most are $1 or less!  Check out the entire collection on sale in the RETIRING SOON Category! Coupon code is  BOMH We also added THREE new items today just because we couldn't wait until Friday! ON SALE TODAY ONLY for 30% off! Find them in our NEW Products Category Vintage Clusters 01Reg: $2.50 SALE: $1.75 Layered Quick Page Template QPT-32Reg: $2.99 SALE: $2.09 School Days Mini KitReg: $3.99 SALE: $2.79

SNEAK PEEK Coming this Friday!  Cilenia has been at it again with her paints.  This color scheme was our Creative Challenge to you this week!  This was the color swatch. Submit your entries into our Weekly Challenge Gallery for this challenge and be entered to WIN this Kit for FREE! Drawing to be held Friday 27th at 6:00 am PST!

Friday Freebie & Challenge

Did you get your Newsletter?  Here's a link to view online if you like.

Storybook Sweets Freebie & Challenge Art Palette 2 Sweet Inspiration Reg: $2.99 Sale: FREE We have a special little Sweet Inspiration Mini Kit for you this week as your Storybook Sweets Freebie!  Art Palette 2 Sweet Inspiration Mini!   It's ONLY FREE till Sunday! Everyone know I love to play with my paints both digitally and in real life. This week I have a design challenge with a color swatch and some sweet little freebies to get your mojo started. First my challenge to you is to create something from this color swatch for your stash. It can be anything you like, paper, element, word art, anything! And if you post your creation in our challenge Gallery and post a link in the challenge forum, we will pick one random winner to receive the entire Collection of Art Palette 2 FREE when it's released. You only have a week, all entries must be posted before next Friday! So come on, show me your artsy side!

Weekly Photo Challenge

From our Photography Bug Michelle :D

All right, folks, I've been hearing, reading, and looking at lots of black and white images lately so now it's time to see yours! 

Now that we are no longer in the days of film cameras, we get to CHOOSE which images are black and white and which ones are color, which is so very different than picking up a roll of B&W film and using it for 24+ shots. So I want to encourage you to find some of your most interesting shots--or take new ones--and convert them to black and white for this challenge (hint:B&Ws work very well when they include contrast--yup, and you've got that one covered, right?  )

If you have never converted to B&W before, there are various tutorials available online to check out (you can start with this link or find more on your own--feel free to share them here!). You can also start with the "Convert to Black and White" or "Remove Color" auto functions in many of the widely available photo editing programs. (And for those who are more adventurous---yes, we'll say that sepia counts, too. So you can consider that an option for this challenge if you'd like. There are also actions available for B&W photos and sepia/chocolate photos like this one from Coffeeshop.)

Post your B&W images in the August Weekly Challenge Gallery with the title "Tuesday Photo Challenge: B&W." Can't wait to see them! 


Original Forum Post 

Creative Texture Challenge

Veevs came up with a fun challenge for this week!  Thanks Veevs!

A few of you mentioned that you would like to see a texture challenge, just like the ones I used to host on my blog. Sooooo, how about we start now and we can do this challenge every couple of weeks? Or can do weekly if you want!

I am happy to provide a photo to play with, or if any of you want to use a particular photo we can do that too!

All you have to do is use the photo provided and go mad adding textures to it, blending layers, whatever you feel like doing! If you do use the free textures from Flickr please remember to credit the owner! 

I thought I would start with the very first photo I used textures on! And from then on I was hooked! 

Here is the photo - boats on the Thames at Richmond - I took photo from Richmond bridge!

Download Zip Here

Once you have completed your work of art, please post it in the July weekly challenges gallery!

This is what I created with the photo a couple of years ago! I will have another go and see if I come up with something totally different!

Have fun!

ps - if you have never used textures to blend in your photos please let me know so that I can post a tutorial!

Veevs

Friday's Goodies for our Summer Blast Quarterly Sale

We are adding over 20 New Products to the Shop this weekend! WOW!

And NEW RELEASES each day for our 99 cents Specials and freebies too!

Also, See today's Challenge below for a chance to WIN!

Here's only a few previews of our New Products.

And today's ONLY Specials and Freebies

Now for Friday's Challenge!
It's a Scavenger Hunt!
Here's the Layout created by our CT Stacy!

And here's a little help!  I've numbered the items and made little clues to help you find them in the Shop!

The only rules are to send this to me, CileniaC at yahoo dot com, 

by Sunday Midnight PST for a chance to win a FREE KIT of your choice!  

AND, for a second chance, use any 1 of the items in a Layout and post to our Challenge Gallery too!

You can download the PDF in the Challenge forum to make it easier too!

HAVE FUN!

Solstice Challenge and a Contest!

ok... so I want to start the party a little sooner for our Solstice Quarterly Sale.
Want to have a little sharing fun!?! 

I KNOW lots here have awesome recipes! I have some soft cover wire bound book credits and was trying to think of how to use them up! Wala! An idea was born!

I am looking for your home made recipes! Bread, cookies, meals etc etc.

Post your recipe in the forum thread HERE with an image of your creation.

I will take them all and put into a recipe book scrapbook style and pick 2 random WINNERS to receive a book for FREE! And I will offer more for sale at a discount in the shop for anyone who wants one. 

If you want to create your own page for the recipe book that is awesome too! The size needs to be 6" wide by 9" high. 
Please send printable sized pages and photos with recipies to me at cileniac at yahoo . com

Dead line for submissions is July 15th so you have plenty of time to get it in!

Tell your friends too! All are welcome to join in!

Creative Challenge

Layers and Blending... I've been working on Kara's book lately called "Land of Fae". It's all the little stories she used to tell me when she was a little girl of her fairy friends in the gardens. I've kept a journal of all her stories and when she would describe the little fairies or elves I would draw them for her in this book.

Now that I'm finally putting it into a "real" book I've scanned in many of my sketches and extracted them for the pages. What I found fun was to play with these pencil and ink sketches and try different blending modes and playing with the layers.

My challenge to you today is to play with some masks, borders, sketches... whatever you may have and create different effects. You might be surprised at your results!

The wings and elves here are all simple sketches extracted with the blending modes changed and some are even doubled up for a total different effect when one wasn't quit what I wanted. Many many possibilities! This is also how I sometimes create new papers too by this same method... blending, burning, changing opacity... the list can go on forever... but if you don't play you never know what you can create.

Here's my page for the front of her book. I have it uploaded in the gallery HERE if you want to see the credits used.

Tuesday Creative Challenge

Here's the journaling prompt...
"What's the best advise you gave or received?"

I chose the best advise of both  It's advise my Mother gave me and she even had this quote on the wall as we were growing up as a reminder. It's ALSO the advise I have put into my album "Messages to My Children" that I want to pass on.

I want you to come up with your own now and put it into a creative piece. I used some CU brushes and created my art page with gardening in mind because that's where I spent my best times with my mother and my children in the exchanges of wisdom. My mother and I would work in the gardens and sip tea at the potting shed... my children were always out there in the garden with me weeding, tending and planting and these were some of the deepest conversations.

And just as a little incentive, I'm giving some of this word art and the background paper for you to use if you like for this challenge. Get it in the shop in the Storybook Sweets section. It will be free until Friday and then added to the newest kit, The Potting Shed.

So let's see some of that advise giving and get a little creative and make something you might want to display or pass on. 

Here's my final page.
The advise? "Everything you really need to know... you learned in Kindergarten"

Don't forget to post your pages in our March Challenges Gallery. Random winner picked monthly for a little sumptin sumptin 

Don't forget to check out the Photography challenge today too!  Michelle is getting us to stretch our photographer's techy side!  And she is going to be making tip cards to share too!  Whoo Hoo!

Tuesday Challenge

So I'm a day late here... could not get my silly log in to work here. LOL
The challenge is:  Written Word
This is an easy one... just one rule!
Find 1 word and use it in your layout.

Create an art page or scrapbook page using that word as the focus. Write it once or 100 times. Pick your word first and let your word be your guide for art, journaling and photos. Let your word maybe be the inspiration from a quote too. Many possibilities.

Need some ideas? Delight, New, Cold, Sweet, Love, Imagine, Create, Serenity, Wish, Journey, Happy, Happiness, and Beauty are just a few of many you could use. Not sure what to journal if anything with your word? Look your word up in a dictionary and use the definition... or play on a definition... or just google it and see what comes up! LOTS of ideas out there.

For everyone that participates and posts in our challenge gallery for this challenge I will have a little surprise for you next week. YEA!

Here is my sample for the challenge from my Art Journal, but you could easily add photos too here.

And as an added bonus of me playing around in my Art Journal for this challenge, I created a sweet little kit out of this and added some more papers and page overlays.  Now you can get a little artsy too :)  It's called Gratitude Art Page Kit and you can find it in our shop. 
Enjoy!

Week 3 Breathings... and then some. Be ready to be entertained

Week 3 Here and Now

Sorry about being late... extreme compy problems that by 2:00 I just up and quit after deciding it was either me or IT going through that window!
Thought better to wait till I calmed down to tackle later... which never came... and was followed by DH walking in the door and me jumping him crying, "I have this other AWESOME computer just sitting there!!!  Why can't you just set that one up instead?!?  It's been 3 months since I got it!"  Which was in turn followed by "Honey... you first need to find your program discs so I can load them for you.  Need a beer?"   "YES!"  And with that the day was done.
 

Ok... now that I've gotten that out of my system... and FOUND my discs so there are no more reasons why this thing can't be set up... except that the connection for my monitor is the wrong type and DH must get a converter thingie and another one for the duel monitors... yea... you guest it... the compy is still sitting under my desk!  LOL

Ready?  This is a long post so get comfortable... but I promise... by the end you will have totally gotten in your entertainment fix for the day.


This weeks spread is about Family in the here and now… Immediate or extended. How does your family make you feel? What is it about them you see that maybe an outsider doesn’t? What do you enjoy doing together? Doesn’t matter if your family is young or all grown; if it’s large or small, it’s a part of you and your life so it needs to be here.  NONE of our's is perfect... which I will explain in a bit how ours totally rides on the extreme outer limits of each. 

So let’s find some pictures that represent what our families like to do together for a normal day or during a normal week and get them on a page where we can express how we feel about sharing life with them in the here and now. If you can’t find some that are from a normal day… take some! :D Go ahead, I give you permission to sneak up on them and take some normal day photos… (shhhh, you’ll need some more later anyways for a page spread). BIG HINT HERE KALLIE!!!! {{Waving}}

You can make it a list, write them a note or write something about them or even do a combination like I did. Think I need more pages LOL… we do a LOT together! Or at least there are moments SO worth scrapping about.
   We rarely got to take family vacations with the kids growing up because of money… and now with everyone’s schedules… a normal day IS our fun days and we have learned to make the best of them and look forward to them. I have found that 5 people in the kitchen cooking together is just as much fun, and at times more fun, than going somewhere to be entertained… besides, we have Kallie and Casey to do that!     THAT’S a whole other 2- page spread titled “Lessons in How to Cook Together as a Family” Still in sketch form, but I promise, I’ll share it as soon as it’s done.

Here's this weeks page spread:

A Technique I used:
It’s the stitches! I used the stitches to join my photos for unity and pull them together… kinda like our family!  They would tell you I have been known to get out the duct tape.. SO not true... Casey did it... or was it Adam who used the duct tape on Casey??? Anyways...


First, I created straight stitches in a line like on the ribbon. Then copied and ‘cut’ some into smaller lengths by selecting pieces with my marquee tool, and doing a CNTRL J to copy it onto it’s own layer then moved around, turned, copied again. I then put pieces overlapping on corners, snug against each other and made it look like I stitched all my photos onto my page together. Maybe it’s the quilter in me, but I LUV stitches. This idea was scrap lifted and inspired by Anna Aspnes and she has a multitude of stitches like these in her store at Designer Digitals.

My Journaling:
We are so blessed as a family. We are each other’s strength. They are my Rock!
We play together, work together, cry and laugh together. So many say this, but it is so true with us. I am amazed how much we stick together in good and in bad times. I am so proud of my children… they truly show me daily what matters most. Even though the other half is 2,000 miles away, we are all still together in heart.

Credits:  Digi Art - Breathings of my Heart kit by me of course. ;)

Now, for your entertainment:   Journaling on another page spread of mine (not shown as I think the children would hunt me down and lock me in a closet… WITH that roll of duct tape! But I'm so getting the yellow roll as suggested by one of you... makes a statement of CAUTION - STAY BACK!  Pictures withheld to protect the innocent...

This was totally inspired by a blogger friend of mine, Andy, {{{again waving}}} and I had to steel, uh borrow it, for a page since we were SO having the same kind of family experience.

Just imagine:  I had requested a picture shoot of all my kids together, there were 5 kids, 2 full grown 6 foot long wolves and 4 ferrets, that was an experience short of nothing but wailing arms and legs and ending with someone having green mud pies on their head. Got the picture in your head now?!?!  Ok… I heard someone gasp… no I did not feed my first or last born to the wolves… they were our pets… along with 4 ferrets that somehow avoided the whole ruckus by hiding in the wood pile.  We DO have our totally completely cooperative moments… but then there are these days!!! So I had to scrap both. Wouldn’t be real life if I didn’t.

Title: Kodak moments are too elusive… I’m going for a Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom feel.

"You see them all over the Internet, blogs, scrapbook magazine pages… everywhere.

The one with the perfect dad who works out and loves his wife more than high def? And the perfect mom whose IQ exceeds her weight and whose thighs don’t throw up at the mere thought of shorts?
And the kids! Ah, the kids. The perfect combination of DNA material who like each other without coercion or bribes, who are photogenic 24/7, who don’t run screaming from a camera but instead, embrace the very idea of an impromptu photo shoot and treat it like a bonding opportunity instead of a death march?

You know the family I’m talking about?

The one where the mom grabs the camera on a beautiful sunny day and ushers her children outside for some fresh air and some candids and at no time do you hear, “OH MY GOD. SERIOUSLY? NOW? MY HAIR LOOKS AWFUL. CAN WE DO IT NEXT WEEK?”
Or "DO I HAVE TO TOUCH HER?"

The family where the mom calls out “Smile!” and the kids readily comply with their big, wide, toothy grins that stretch from ear to ear, making them look genuinely happy and not at all like they’re getting their spleens yanked out of their urethras with barbecue tongs?

Kids who willingly sit next to one another for longer than 2.7 seconds without duct tape or threats of dismemberment?

Who respect each other’s personal space and don’t treat it as an open invitation to host their very own LET’S GET READY TO RUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMBLE smackdown?
I’m talking about the family in which the youngest child and the eldest child are on the same page as to what constitutes goofing around and what constitutes assault with intent to cause great bodily injury.
You know the one?

Where a hug is an act of love and not a precursor to manslaughter?
You know the family I’m talking about?

The family in which the youngest child does not try to give the eldest child an Indian rug burn on the arm and the eldest child does not smack the youngest child’s arm in retaliation, and the youngest child does not thereafter shriek in protest and stomp up to her room and wail for fifteen minutes and the eldest child does not try to defend her actions by hollering WHY ARE YOU BLAMING ME? YOU ALWAYS BLAME ME! SHE STARTED IT! And then the two middle children are not seen throwing one over the other’s back and dumping him in the pond that smells of rotting algae, and the mom does not ignore all of her offspring because she’s too busy trying to stem the flow of blood pouring out of her eye sockets from the brain aneurysm that just exploded in her head?

We are so not that family.



PS: The kid(s) who ate my ENTIRE unopened box of Vegetable Thins last night and then left the empty box and wrapper on the counter instead of putting in the trash can to conceal their theft... DRIVE up to the store and buy me another!    Please?   :)  See, I said "please"!  OH and while you're at it... replace that bottle of Balsamic Vinegar you 'borrowed' for you and your buddies cooking out at the Grand Canyon. Hey, you're gonna be in the store anyways :)  Luv You!

PSS: Don't be afraid to leave me a comment... let's me know someone actually came here and I feel loved and wanted and appreciated...
Unlike when I spent 2 hours and $300 on groceries and someone pouted and said, "There's nothing to eat in this house."

Ok, promise me this day will be better... The response I got.... "YES it will!  But didn't it make a great journal entry in your cute little book?"  I am now hunting for that duct tape.  : D

Off to set up a compy now :)

Favorite picture of the moment

This is one of my brothers Nortorious... motorcycle brothers that is, Don't let the name fool you. :) It's amazing to me how rough and tough people would perceive him to be all dressed in his leathers for cold weather, but the calm and soothing nature this man has inside is captured here on a two week 'ride-about'. I watch him here in this quiet moment with our gorgeous country behind the scene, and think how I am lucky enough to have it captured on film, to remind me that we all need to take time out from the work life, the busy life, the daily chaos of surviving and stop and enjoy the moment. He has taught me that in our time together... stop and enjoy the now, for tomorrow it will be just a memory (at least he has also taught me how important it is to get it on film too!) There will never be that moment, that look, that exact second in time, when all stood still and was good. :) This is why this is one of my favorite photos... to keep me there, with him, in that calm loving state that he has.

Luv ya little brother!