Come to the $2 Groundhog Day sale at PDW

Click on the image to go to my store!

Shutterfly is giving you an 8x8 present for your Valentines

Please, please take advantage of this great deal! I made this "Year in Review" book in 2007 and was very impressed with the quality.

This offer doesn't expire until the end of next month, so you have plenty of time to get your photos together and make a free book. I made a book in 2007 and was very impressed with the quality.

Shutterfly has some pre-designed theme pages so all you have to do is plop your photos into the spaces and then type out some text. But, if you're into 'digital scrapbooking' and want to customizeyour pages, you can do that, too. They have free templates on the web site that you can use in Photoshop or your favorite photo editing software to help you make sure your custom pages fit correctly when they're printed.

The coupon includes a custom photo bookcover, too, which is always a nice touch. if your book turns out to be more than the included 20 pages, you just have to pay for the extra pages. Click on the advertisement below for a larger view.



Happy scrapping!

Happy Robbie Burns Day!

Project 365 (2009) - Week Three Complete

15. too tired to take anything but a picture of my pillow.
16. lynn joins the ranks of the beaver sisters
17. a rustic christmas angel that will stay up all year long
18. jessi’s son merlyn’s 1st birthday cake
19. monday me: left hand
20. the capitol building looks like a fancy cake on inauguration day
21. attack cats

I'm using my Full Moon Crazy kit for all of this month's layouts.
It's currently on sale for only $2!



To see more of my 2009 Project 365 layouts, visit my special Project 365 Lifestyle blog.

Good Karma Friday: Eco-friendly printing ideas

We all want to do our part to save resources by being conscientious about wasting paper and ink to print e-mails ("I just have to show this funny joke to the guys and gals at work!") and documents and such, but sometimes you really do need a hard copy to hold in your hands. Next time you find yourself in that situation, and it doesn't matter what font you use, try Ecofont from Sprang. It will make you feel a wee bit better about revving up the printer...and it's free!

Ecofont (based on Verdana) is designed to use up to 20% less ink - which is also good for your printer supply budget, too. How does it do this? The tiny 'dot' pattern is actually blank spaces where ink doesn't print.

To make you feel even better, use recycled paper in your printer as often as possible. You can find it at your local office supply store or by searching on "recycled paper" in your favorite browser. Another good source is Conservatree with information for professional and individual paper buyers, how to choose the right paper, papermaking instructions, tips on reducing waste, and much more. I also found recycled paper information in the Eco-Mall with a list of sites for printers, artists, and companies that make paper out of alternative things (even elephant poo - no kidding!).

By the way, I don't recommend using any of your own handmade paper - it's generally a bit too thick!

On this historic day...you get an Inauguration Day Freebie!

Many of us around the world are creating scrapbook pages about this historic day. Here's a free word art title to help commemorate it. Click on the image to download it.

Please send your friends to this blog to get their own copy. They may learn something here that they didn't know before!

Good Karma Friday: Donate 44 cans or $44 to a food bank near you

In honor of the inauguration of the 44th president of the US this next Tuesday, the Family Works Food Bank in Seattle has started a special food drive. They are asking you to collect $44 or 44 cans of food to donate between now and the inauguration. If you are not in the area and would like to donate cash, they have a link on their web site. If you have local food bank, donate to them instead.

Like many other food banks, Family Works Food Bank has seen a dramatic increase in need in recent months. With so many more people in need, they also needed more donors. That's when a bolt of inspiration came from President-elect Barack Obama. Mr. Obama is calling for more community service along with his motto, "Yes we can." That's the motto of Family Work's inauguration food drive.

YES we can pull together,

YES we can work together,

YES we can build a strong community together.

Remember - donate to your local food bank often. There are people in need all year long, not just at the holidays.

Living the Project 365 Lifestyle

Introducing a special dedicated blog just for my Project 365 layouts, photo ideas, and motivating tips: The Project 365 Lifestyle. Join me on a continuing year long journey. Visit often!

Project 365 heats up in 2009 - it's everywhere!

Caution - this is a bit long because there are so many ideas for getting started that will help you right now!

Last year, participating in Project 365 was popular, but this year it's everywhere you look - worldwide!! I've heard of at least five digi shops that are hosting, challenges, numerous Facebook groups you can join, a paper scrapping kit by Becky Higgins (that has sold out already!), and I'm sure there are many more folks out there who are participating in their own ways. Some participants on Facebook and are going to post their photos and layouts in their personal photo albums. Invite your family and friends to play along with you...it's fun to take photos together! Don't forget to have the kids play along - it would be amazing to see the year from child's point of view.

I just can't say enough about this project and highly encourage you to join in. By 'join in" I don't mean you have to JOIN a group if you don't want to. I did it all on my own last year and really enjoyed it. It sure was an easy way to create a comprehensive album about our everyday life that will be fun to look back on for my whole family - after all, they were mostly involved, too! I'll still make special albums about events or vacations but I think this will be the way I create my annual family album from now on.

Feel free to start your project 365 anytime - a few of you already have - and don't be afraid to start late. January 1 isn't the only good date to start...lots of other countries and nations have their new year starting on a different date. And, if you want to do a pregnancy theme, you'll definitely be starting on an alternate date!

Are you a teacher? Do a shortened version with your class and document the school year, a semester, or a quarter. At the end of the designated time period, choose a different weekly layout from each pupil and have an art show...so many possibilities.

Since I am such an advocate for documenting life this way, I decided to host Project 365 in the Plain Digital Wrapper challenge forum and give away the weekly templates, featuring 7 photos per page, that I created for my 2008 album...all totally FREE. I created all 52 of them (and a cover) to document my photos because I was too lazy to upload a photo to my blog every day - LOL! My 2008 photos are not all placed into the templates yet - I'm up to week 34.

I have also created a Project 365 with Plain Digital Wrapper (PDW) group on Facebook where anyone can join and post photos and comments.

If you're hesitant or aren't ready for such a commitment, why not start out doing a photo a week? Once you get in the habit of taking your camera everywhere you go (even to the grocery store) you'll find it's actually pretty easy. And with all the free templates out there - including mine - putting it all together is a snap!

My 2008 Project 365 was about our everyday life and interesting things I observed. One day I took a picture of an oil spot in a parking lot on a rainy day just because it had a cool rainbow effect! Since everyday life is pretty eclectic (mine is anyway), I decided to NOT have a particular theme except for making the background the same for facing pages. However, if you need to have a theme or a theme helps you get inspired, why not do a week for each family member and pet, a week or two for a vacation or trip, 365 days in the garden, 365 days of recipes (for all you foodies out there), add in a photo of you or a family member once a week (very fun to look back on at the end and in the years to come!), or if you have a DSLR camera, play with the settings and document what you used for your photo.

Secret tip: I actually had a few uninspired days last year where I just couldn't find anything to take a picture of or I just plain forgot. To fill in those days I took extra shots of the garden, scenery, indoor closeups, etc. It's not really cheating because I did take the photo - it's being 'creative' in finding an easy solution! ;-)

I'll be posting more tips and storage and printing ideas as the year goes along. I'll also be giving out extras (papers and elements) from time to time. But, with 7 photos on a page there isn't much room! Besides, I know you already have a bunch of digi stuff in your collection - here's a chance to use some of it!

Good Karma Friday - Show your Wikilove

Like many of you, I use Wikipedia almost every day and now Wikipedia needs help to keep it free of charge and free of advertising - a thing near and dear to all our hearts! The job of the Wikimedia Foundation is to provide easy access to information for people all over the world. As a non-profit, it is dependent on our help to do that. Donations directly support some of the most popular collaboratively-edited reference projects in the world, including Wikipedia, one of the world's top ten most popular websites and the largest encyclopedia ever compiled in human history.

Our donations will help in several ways: helping to cover the increasing cost of managing global traffic to one of the most popular websites on the Internet, helping to improve the software that runs Wikipedia, and recruiting new volunteers and building strategic partnerships with institutions of culture and learning.

Donate here!

Be aware that there a minimum donation of $30. The donation processing has certain fees and processing costs attached and the minimum donation covers those costs as well as allowing the donation to get where the donor wants it most: to support free and open global knowledge.

Here's a Q&A web page that talks about the foundation and how it spends the donations.

Homecoming 2009 - Let me tell you that I love you...

I don't know if you can see The changes that have come over me In these last few days I've been afraid That I might drift away So I've been telling old stories, singing songs That make me think about where I came from And that's the reason why I seem So far away today Oh, but let me tell you that I love you That I think about you all the time Caledonia you're calling me And now I'm going home. ~ 'Caledonia' by Dougie MacLean

The year-long festival kicks off on the 250th anniversary of Robert Burns birth, 25 January 2009, and runs until St. Andrew's Day, 30 November 2009. The events center around five main themes - Robert Burns, whisky, golf, great Scottish minds and innovations, and Scotland's culture and heritage. A few of the scheduled events are:

• January - a celebration of the songs of Robert Burns at the Clyde Auditorium in Glasgow
• May - a month of whisky with distillers across the country opening up their doors
• July - the biggest Clan gathering in 200 years in Edinburgh
• November - a celebration of Scottish music throughout the country

Get details, plan your trip, and more on the Homecoming 2009 web site: http://www.homecomingscotland.com

New Digital Celt designs coming in 2009

In addition to miscellaneous yet-to-be-imagined digital and hybrid products, I am definitely planning to create the following fabulous goodies!

A special Homecoming 2009 digital scrapbooking kit including a convenient matching 20 page "Semi-Premade Pages - template with a twist" album to get those memories scrapped and printed to share with your family and create a lasting legacy.

A Homecoming Heritage Add-on Pack featuring family heritage/genealogy quick pages will also be available in early 2009. Customize your album and add your family tartan and Clan badge to your pages with a Clan Pack.

Don't see yours? New Clan Packs will be added frequently...and you can always send in a special request.

A Celtic Child collaboration kit with my online designer friend Belanna, is in the planning and development stages so I'm not sure what it will contain, but you can bet it's gonna be great!