New Calendars -

I've re-done my calendars for 2011, using S4H friendly products - (S4H = scrap for hire, meaning I can sell my finished projects)  Be looking for these calendars at my Gift Show on Nov 10 and 11 at my house!

TEXAS WILD Photo Calendar 12 photos  in stand $15

DENVER BOTANIC GARDEN Calendar, 12 photos in stand $15

Thanks to the following designer for the use of their S4H items:

TEXAS WILD!

Background - Xelexel (paper) Willow Grace (overlay)

Frames - Delicious Scraps - gold bracket, re-colored by poki

DENVER BOTANIC GARDENS

Background - Xelexel (paper) Willow Grace (overlay - altered by poki)

Frames - Twin Mom Scraps (swirl) Scrap Like Crazy (frame - extracted by poki)

We're home ...

Mike and poki spent the weekend in San Antonio to celebrate Mike's birthday!  We did some of our favorite things:

1) dinner at Joe's Crab Shack on the Riverwalk

2) jazz on the patio at The Landing - both Friday night and Saturday night WOW!

3) Sea World !!!! Lots of pictures, but boy, was it HOT on Saturday!

4) supper at Schilo's Deli on Commerce Street.  I had a cask brewed Root Beer that was fabulous!!!!!

5) and finally two hours at the San Antonio Botanic Gardens:

When we visited the water lily garden in the Conservatory, there weren't many waterlilies blooming, but the place was just swarming with dragonflies, all shapes and sizes!  One of the big guys got flipped over in the water, and he struggled for quite a while trying to get himself turned back over.  I have his picture (one of the few that I have edited already!)  The ripples were caused by his struggle to fly out of the water!  He finally did get out after "rowing" himself over to the edge of the pool.  If I could have gotten close enough I would have helped him, but there was no way to get there ...

Almost immediately after entering the gardens, this monarch rewarded me with a "pose" - this was much FIRST and best shot of him!

Not much time to play with photos until later in the week - I have my monthly Christmas Card Club on Wednesday evening, and I'm not quite ready (samples are done, but not the kits!)  Have to concentrate on that on Tuesday afternoon!

I'm heading out for another trip on October 9 - to visit my Godmother/my Aunt Edith and Uncle Chuck at their new home in Northwest Arkansas!  I hope going to the Ozarks will reward me with some great photos!

It's not a secret anymore ...

Since the photos were finished, and safely stored in their album home, I couldn't wait anymore to give it to Mike - just a few days early (his birthday is next Wednesday!)  And I got my set printed by Persnickity Prints today, and wanted to show him!    If you need any printing done, these folks are quite reasonably priced, prints look great, and the service is fast.  I uploaded on Wednesday, ordered on Thursday, and the prints arrived on Saturday!  Amazing!  http://www.persnicketyprints.com/ 

Since I have to change the size of every layout I did for this album in order to upload them here, I don't think I will be loading anymore here.  If you want to see the rest of my layouts, e-mail me a psawyer04@gmail.com and I will send you a link to view them at Flikr.

Shhh! It's a SECRET!

I began my scrapbook of our Denver trip on Sunday afternoon, and by Tuesday at 5:00 p.m. I had 30 pages done, saved in two formats and ready to print. This is a surprise birthday gift for Mike.

 In order to load them here, I have to go in and save each page at a reduced pixels/inch to reduce the size for uploading, so it may take me a while to completely load the album.  I will continue to come back to this original document until the entire book is loaded.

Here's the title page -

CREDITS - background paper DigiMom Designs Summer Blues DSO Color Challenge Aug 2008. http://digimomdesigns.com/  I  used lots of items from different designers from this Color Challenge so that all match!

CREDITS - background paper DigiMom Designs Summer Blues DSO Color Challenge Aug 2008. http://digimomdesigns.com/, tags (striped) Andrea Whitt Flower Patch DSO Color Challenge Aug 2008.



CREDITS:  same background paper as previous layouts.  frame - Joni Gray jonigray.blogspot.com from Lazy Summer DSO Color Challenge Aug 2008, label - Andrea Whitt from Flower Patch DSO color challenge Aug 2008 (see info above)

CREDITS:  same background paper (see above for info), frame - Tantrum from Summer's End Blog Train, no other info available  Frame was colorized to match background.

I really love these guys - some folks call them "aliens" - this was my first time to see them NOT in a moving car.  We had to park several blocks away and hike over!

CREDITS:  same background paper (see above)  everything else done by poki

More to come - I'm still printing too!





Another calendar project

Mom has an 8 x 10 calendar frame that I gave her quite a few years ago.  Since no commercially produced calendars are made to fit it, it falls to me each year to create one.  I started working on it yesterday.  So far I have 4 months done! (usually it's much easier because I use already completed projects - but this year I don't have many!)  Here is what I did on Saturday:

January - CREDITS paper: barbi from DSO Color Challenge Aug 08 http://barbislostandfound.blogspot.com/;  dragonfly: Joni Gray from Lake House http://jonigray.blogspot.com/; frame- collected freebe, unknow source (it got separated from it's TOU document.  The photo is mine - from my "The Colors of WILD!" series.  I masked the background, and layered the same photo on top, cut to match the frame (which was colorized to match the green in the photo!)  The calendar was created by me as well using a masking technique that I just recently learned how to do with the "cheat sheet."  (I know something, when I can do it without looking at the directions!  smile)

My great nephew Blake just started public school Pre-K on August 23.  He's been in day care his whole life since Mommy is a teacher, but now he goes to REAL school, and he's very happy about it. His great achievement will be on the August page for 2011

CREDITS: paper - created by poki; frame - Vicki Parker from school rules http://vicki20.blogspot.com/

blackboard element top left, created by poki for journaling.

April's page shows flower images from Mom's backyard on April 22, 2010.  She will swear she doesn't have a "garden" - but these flowers are all perennials. And I captured them on a very pretty day!  I learned one new trick while doing these - I wanted the purple iris to stick out over the frame, but the photo to be under the frame. It took a while, but I was able to extract just the part that needed to be over the frame and layer it on top of the complete picture.  I think that it looks pretty cool, and not even detectable on the enlarged image.  It was fun!

CREDITS - paper barbi (see Jan), frames - collected freebie, unknown source. I was able to mimic the look by adding borders to journaling blocks.  net element used in journaling blocks - Joni Gray from Lazy Summer DSO color challenge Aug 08; ric rac: Marie http://freedigitalscrapping.com/

The last page I have done is for May - I actually took the photo on May 31, 2010 in Denver's Washington Park neighborhood. Mike's brother and sister-in-law have lived there for many years, surrounded by many vintage homes from the 1920's and 30's as well as some fabulous new construction made to look vintage!  I always love to walk around the neighborhood when I visited, just snapping pictures of the "pocket gardens" - splashes of color everywhere!  I created this layout when I was at the Heart of Texas Scrapbook Club's End of Summer Retreat in August at the Rockin' R Event Center.

CREDITS - background paper barbi (see January credits above) paper around photo: Helly from Apologize

http://designsbyhelly.blogspot.com/  ; fence - Carolyn Ritter DSO Color challenge Sept 2008.  label - unknown source. 

I'm back with more I have done this morning - Sunday, Sept 12

February - background Barbi's paper (see January credits) frame Helly Apologize (see May credits) all photos (there are only two, but layered with borders) by poki taken April 2010. 

Julie, Joe and Blake took a trip to Sea World in the summer 2010, and they were kind enough to share their pictures.  I really loved this one of Blake feeding the dolphin. 

CREDITS background paper created by poki, frame - Vicki from Beach Holiday http://scrapnart.com/

brad - Sindiego Through the Year July  http://sindiegosscraps.blogspot.com/

On June 23, Bryan (my nephew) and Tami became parents to Gabrielle Jean Grzonka.  On their first visit to Great Grandma's house, I took a Four Generation picture of Margaret (my mom), Sandy (my sister), Bryan (my nephew), and Gaby (my great niece).  I also included a picture of Bryan holding his daughter that I thought was so sweet.

CREDITS: background paper - DigiMom from Summer Blues, DSO Color challenge Aug '08 http://digimomdesigns.com/

More pictures shared by Julie - this is Blake having fun in Great Grandma's backyard (I think it was Dec. 23, 2009) but it looks like Fall - only in Texas would there be a little green left in December!)

CREDITS - background paper (see January credits) frame - collected freebie, unknown source; alphabet - ADSD Sept Blog Train 2008 Cornucopia of Color http://angelflyingsolo.blogspot.com/

felt leaves - Chiara ADSD Sept Blog Train 2008 Cornucopia of Color http://creativedigitalscraps.blogspot.com/

Color Challenge at DSO

I am a regular collector at the DSO Color Challenge, but I don't often participate.  The color palette this month was perfect for my PURPLE flower collection from the Spring of 2010.  I've kept this layout similar to the ones that I did for my own digital scrapbook from last Spring.  Our flower season was fantastic in 2010.

CREDITS: Background paper Tamera Anderson (tiggconn@hotmail.com), frame Tamera Anderson - both from her kit she calls Soft Serenity.

If you are interested in collecting this freebie, check out the color challenge at  http://www.digiscrapobsession.net/pals/showthread.php?t=1592
You may have to join the forum in order to participate and download freebies!  (I'm not sure - I've been a member for a couple of years now!)

Lighthouse calendar done

I sat down at my computer a few hours ago, to find some lighthouse photos in my archive so that I could work on my Lighthouse Calendar for 2011 while I'm out at my friend's studio in Salado tomorrow.  After I found enough photos to created the calendar, I just got started on making it.  Once I had my cloud photo cropped and edited for the background (I took the photo while on the Hatteras-Ocracoke Ferry on May 10, 2009 - and I specifically discussed using it as background paper when I took it!). By then I was so involved I just keep working - and voila, a few hours later, it's almost ready for the printer!  Imagine that!  I guess I will have to think up something else to do tomorrow!  (I'm sure finding a project won't be too hard!)

Here are some of the pages for this calendar: 

CREDIT: Wheel - from collaboration I collected this past week called Ahoy Matey from Stuff to Scrap. Designer is Amy Owens http://amyowensphotographyanddesign.blogspot.com/   If you are interested in finding these digital freebies, email me and I will hunt up the address for you.

(I was amazed at how clear this photo came out - it was taken with my original Sony Camera - 1 megapixel! Wow!)

I really love this light house

I will always love this one - I hope she survived the winds of Hurricane Earl this past week!)

This is a very unusual lighthouse on Lake Erie in New York

I took the hint!

My mother reminded me TWICE this week, that her 2010 frame calendar did not have a December page!  (I usually wait for Christmas pictures from the previous year, and add a page for the next year - I just waited longer this year than usual)  I was awake during the night - as has become my habit in recent weeks - so I did a layout which I will print BEFORE I go to her house on Tuesday so that she can quit reminding me!

Mike took this picture of our family on Christmas Eve 2009 at Mom's house.  Initially the color of the photo was somewhat yellow, but I was able to brighten it up and correct the color pretty well this morning.  I warned everyone that I wanted to take "official" photos - and everyone cleaned up really well.  We were nicely color coordinated for the photo op.

CREDITS:  Background paper - http://www.barbislostandfound.blogspot.com/, from DSO Color Challenge Aug 2008; Bow http://www.justanotherscrap.wordpress.com/ from Gingerbread Christmas collaboative kit.  WordArt - unknown source, no TOU in my digital collection for this one, but thought it was perfect.

I created the calendar with scan of Excel file, created a mask to create a transparent background (that's one of my favorite new tricks I've been working with in PSP8 while I wait for PSPx2 to arrive for my Desktop computer (DT)  It's on order from Amazon - and in the mail!  (somewhere) 

I can't believe that summer is almost over!

I have been so busy since returning from our trip to Denver in June!  I've just started working on my hybrid projects for Christmas present in 2010.  Over the past weekend, I was able to almost complete two calendars.  One uses some of the specimin photos from my Colors of Wild book - all Texas wildflowers photographed in 2010 - and the other uses photos from the Denver Botanic Gardens - all taken on June 1, 2010.  The Colors of Wild calendar was readied for print today, but I won't print it yet!  I'll be back at the DBG pages soon!

Here are the pages to my Colors of Wild calendar.  CREDIT: Helly Apologize (http://designsbyhelly.blogspot.com/) but poki colorized it with an extra layer under it to create the color.  I can't give credit for the frame, since I'm not sure where it came from. Calendar dates and photos all done by poki.

Denver Botanic Gardens Calendar

Credits:  Helly Apologize (http://designsbyhelly.blogspot.com/) but poki colorized it with an extra layer under it to create the color. Frame - Joni Gray DSO color challenge Sept 09 (http://jonigray.blogspot.com/) Joni I'm sure will discover that I flipped her frame, but I love it for its elegance and simplicity!  Joni is one of my favorite designers, she just isn't doing much these days due to illness.  I miss seeing new stuff from her, but she is back to the DSO Color Challenge in 2010 after a short absence for treatment.  My best wishes to her in her recovery!

If you don't expect to be on poki's Christmas list, but would like to purchase one of her hybrid calendars, please contact her at psawyer04@gmail.com to receive a price quote and estimated delivery time! (in time for Christmas giving, if that's what you want!)