My Digi-Scrapping Birthplace-SBB

I discovered digital scrapbooking almost immediately after receiving my first home computer way back in 2003.  Since that time I have spent countless numbers of hours glued to my keyboard turning out thousands and thousands of scrapbook pages.  I have downloaded who knows how many kits, products and freebies, and have been forced to delete many of those as the years go by because no matter how hard I try, there is just no possible way to manage and use everything!  Many of the sites and designers I first began with have disappeared from the community but others have managed to chug right along.  Case-in-point, Scrapbook-Bytes 

My SBB profile says that I first became a member there in Aug 2005.  In fact, that is where I first discovered my all-time favorite designer Rina Kroes!  Through the years, I have bounced from site-to-site and occasionally visited Scrapbook-Bytes but I really had all-but-stopped visiting the forums there.  I used to be stuck with terrible dial-up internet service and SBB was such a popular site, I could just not get in there.  However, I recently popped into the forums once again, and I really like what I am seeing there.  Now that I have good internet service, I plan to start participating more in the SBB forum rather than just popping into the gallery to post a layout.

I noticed that I have 85 pages with a current total of 1015 layouts posted in my Scrapbook-Bytes Gallery.  I laugh when I took a look at some of my first pages!  Now with years of  digital scrapbooking experience under my belt, I still have a LONG LONG way to go before I can create the perfect scrapbook page but some of those pages, and some of the products I used....at least I can say, I have most definitely improved!!!  I started hitting the delete button to remove some of those first pages from the gallery but some of them I really would like to keep.  I don't want to become a hoarder who thinks they have to keep every single thing but no matter how bad they are, some of those pages are still quite cute to me, lol!

I have decided that I am going to make use of one of the SBB Gallery features to create "My Albums".
If you have not discovered this feature, you really should check it out!  Not only can you create your own personal albums but there are lots of ways to edit your albums as well:  create album cover, sort your pages, and choose whether you want your album public or private.  I can see this feature being used as not only a great organizational tool for me but also by my family and friends who want to see the family pages, or my sons military albums, etc. 

I have been working on My SBB Albums for several hours today, and I have discovered this is something which is going to take me a little while to do but my intentions are to whittle down that number of 1015 GrannynKy photos and create some beautiful albums from that mish-mash of layouts!  I hope you stop by and leave me some lovin' in MY SBB GALLERY as I have hundreds of pages which have been forgotten there far too long, and because I am asking for some love, I plan on giving a little back as well.  For every time I post or edit one of my pages in the gallery, I will leave a comment or two in return!  That IS proper gallery etiquette (not sure of that spelling or word, lol)  after all!  It is about time that I get back to the basics as I become reacquainted with my digi-scrapping birthplace-SCRAPBOOK-BYTES!

Speaking of getting back-to-basics, here is another little pressie for you - with Kimberly Stewart's Whimsical Angels of Love  ENJOY!

NO LONGER AVAILABLE

Happy Birthday to my Brothers!

I am posting this a day late...yesterday was just a bad day for me.

Sept 23rd is my twin brother's birthday.  They are now the same age as me, at least until my birthday on Nov3, lol.  As I think of their birthday, I think of the special birthday dinner Mama always fixed for them...smoked pork chops.  That was Ronnie's favorite, and they were good...you can't buy them like that anymore.  Birthdays, always meant Mama got out the special dishes, and her beautiful glasses, and she set the table perfectly.  We miss her.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DON and RONNIE!
(I can't forget Jackie as well - I hope your birthdays were wonderful!)

I made this page with a poem I found on the internet using
The Marshmallow Collection by Rina Kroes

SBE Scripture Challenge

I just finished my submission for this weeks Scripture Challenge at SBE
I hope you don't mind but it turned out so well, I had to share it with you!
I combined Rina's newest collection Marshmallow with her Joyful Awakening Elements

My baby brother and his wife went out west for a summer vacation this year in their RV.  
I have not seen them since they got back from their trip but I have been able to snatch some photos from his facebook album!  I thought you may like to see the two pages together so I am posting them as well.

For a full list of credits, click here MY SBE GALLERY.

Happy Birthday Nicholas!

Sometimes we think little things like a card do not matter but seeing the pleasure on your face as you read your daughter's birthday card to you last year proves that notion wrong.  I have not heard anything yet but you were due to come home from Afghanistan yesterday just in time to celebrate your birthday with your family today.  What a joy this will be for you all...a birthday filled with memories to last a lifetime!  I love you my son, Welcome Home and Happy Birthday! 

Layout Credits:
Haunted By Memories Of You from Designs by Helly
available at:  Gotta Pixel and Scrapbook-Bytes 

Have A Great Week!

Well its Monday...the day is finally here!  Its the day before my DS #2's 31st birthday, and the day he is due to arrive back home from Afghanistan!  I know it will be some time before he can reconnect with dear ole Mom, and that is perfectly ok!  I am just happy he is home safe and sound once again, and I hope he is able to spend some time at home taking it easy and enjoying his family!  I love you Nicholas!!!!

I surprised Isaac by picking him up at school at Friday, and he spent the entire weekned with Granny and Pap.  We did absolutely nothing extra-special but we had a good time doing it!  I got tickled at him...Saturday evening he was playing on the swing in the backyard, and was going to show off to me doing some kind of big spectacular trick when in midstream, he figured it was a bit more than he was willing to attempt.  When he stopped, I started teasing him, and said. "That's ok!  Granny loved her little weanie"  He immediately responded,
"Granny, I am not your weanie!  I am your Baby!"  Gary's (Pap) brother was out there and he chuckled and told me that his little boy whom is just a few months older than Isaac does not like it when he is called a baby, and immediately corrects them lets them know he is a big boy.  Of course, at times Isaac informs he is a big boy as well but I am so thankful he is still content, most of the time, being Granny's Baby.  I am really dreading the time, and I know it is approaching much too fast, when he 'outgrows' his visits to Granny and Pap.  The children of my oldest son find it incredibly boring here in the holler when they visit so they seldom come.  Therefore, I cherish the time I spend with Isaac for I do realize the sweet moments we now share are numbered.

I wanted to show you just a few more layouts I have created using Rina's Marshmallow Collection...remember, today is the last day to get the Marshmallow Addons at their introductory price!

For a full list of credits, you can visit my SBE GALLERY
Have a great week!

Rina's Scripture Challenge

I love to do forum challenges throughout the digi-scrapping community.  They always provide me with inspiration, especially at times when I just can't find my mojo.  I find so many I would love to do but there is only so much time in a day so I really have to commit myself to doing only a few, otherwise, I would feel overwhelmed and just give up.  The one challenge that I really try to complete every week is the Scriptures Challenge with Rina Kroes.  Rina has been hosting this challenge at Scrapbook-Elements since 2007, and her lovely word art serves as testimony to us all each week.  For me personally, I have not attended a church regularly in many many years but thanks to Rina's Scripture Challenge, I do have my Sunday morning worship service most every week.  Read more about Rina and her Scriptures Challenge at her blog posting A 5 Month Recap of Scripture Challenges.  Browse through the forum threads at Scrapbook-Elements and the Scripture Challenge Gallery for some wonderful inspiration!

Each week Rina creates a piece of beautiful word art, and she shares it with us a free download in the SBE Forum.  The free download is available for one week only BUT Rina also periodically packages them and sells her Scriptures Scraps in the SBE store.  Right now she has  30 packages available for sell so if you have missed collecting any in the past, or have just discovered this beautiful word art...none of us have to feel sad to have missed it - it is all available to us!

I used the Word Art4 from Rina's Scripture Scraps #23 on a page I made for a friend of mine which uses Rina's newest release MARSHMALLOW  along with a few sparkles from Rina's GLORIOUS.  I also used Rina's Marshmallow AddOn which will be available as her gift to us in the September SBE Newsletter.  You can sign up to receive the Newsletter HERE.  Have A Great Day and hope to see ya in the forums!

CB-Land

Its  Tuesday and my hubby has been waiting for this day for some time now.  He  left out bright and early this morning to go pick up his friend so they could keep their appointment  with the CB repair specialist in Louisville whom is going to solve all their CB ailments!  My DH will be so happy to have his Bull Creek Sub-Station back running up to par.  Here are a few photos of his antenna and tower here behind the house.
He is so proud of that big tower!

I can't help but laugh when I think of the hours and hours he spends sitting back in his throne, the big leather desk chair sitting at the end of the kitchen table.   With his feet propped up AAAAUUDIO-ing to the world, he is the Master of the Universe...his universe any way, lol.  I do get  aggravated with his "little hobby"  for sometimes for it can seem that his CB-Land is the only world he cares about but I know that is not the case. He likes to talk, plain and simple!!  Via the CB-radio,  he joined a social network which has allowed people from all-over the world to communicate with each other long before facebook came about, and it has become his primary form of entertainment.  Just as millions of  viewers turn on the television as a means of gathering news and information pertaining to their life or to "watch" their favorite stars and shows, it is the same principle in CB-Land.  However, you become an active participant rather than simply watching for once you key-down that mike and speak, you become a part of the show.

One begins by wishing those listening  a warm greeting.  Conversations progress and develop, and before you know it, you consider  people who go by  names such as All-Mighty, Stormy, Rooster, Jungle Boy, Slim-Dog, Caveman, Monkey-Wrench,  Bomber and Stranger as your friends.   Through this form of regular contact, one listens to what ever it is another chooses to talk about. One can listen as another complains about the high price of medical care in America while another states their opinions as to the cause and others state how they believe the problem can be eradicated..  On the radio, you can participate in any conversation as much or as little as  you choose but once you speak, like it or not, you become an individual in a more complex structure, and you better have thick-skin!

Members become more closely connected  through the channels they participate on with more specific types of interdependency developing.  Regions, friendship, kinship, common interest, dislike, prestige, beliefs, knowledge, abilities and dis-abilities create more complex sub-divisions within the group.  Cliques develop with the role of outcasts being defined as anyone the "Queen Bee" dislikes.  Clique members verbally victimize the outcast in order to continue their membership in the clique, and to receive praise from the queen bee or clique-leader.  Power struggles, changing interests, increasing maturity of the clique members, or members getting fed up with the antics of their queen bee can result in more division within the group.

Oh yes!  CB-Land can be very entertaining.  There are roles available for all:  Republicans, Democrats, teachers, preachers, sex-therapists, doctors, patients, lawyers, judges, clowns, fools,  lovers, fighters, warriors and peace-makers.  They are all there, each one is dependent upon the other and no topic of discussion is forbidden.   It  is a complex world which my husband loves. I love him so I venture into his world from time to time.  I like the friendships I have found there but it can be dirty, disgusting and scary.  It is sometimes hard for me when they play their warrior games.  I do not like to hear one group speak of  their hatred and contempt toward another group.  I get hurt and I often feel betrayed.  I get angry when they try to carry over their CB-role into the real world and mark any one as trash or as outcast.  We have all proven that there is not one single person any better than the other.  None are any more guilty nor any less innocent because all of us have been playing in the game.

Rina Releases Marshmallow Mini Kits

Rina's "Marshmallow Mini's" are a collection of 3 smaller, simpler (and more affordable) coordinating page sets that can be used individually or mixed-and-matched together, whether you are creating a single page or a whole set of matching pages. Filled with deliciously sweet pastel colors of candy pink, bubblegum blue, and sunny yellow, these mini kits are perfect for precious pretty girls of all ages (even for small boys, babies or spring-time memories).

I used Rina's Marshmallow Kits to create some wonderful pages for friends of mine whom I had not seen in several years.  I recently was reconnected to them through facebook and I just wanted to let them know  I wish the very best for them and their families!

The above page is my submission for Rina's Scripture Challenge this week at SBE.  Each week Rina creates beautiful scripture word art which she makes available for one week only so don't forget to go check it out after you visit the New Releases at the SBE store.
For a full list of layout credits check out my SBE GALLERY
Have a great week!

Facebook Tag

I am so glad that I gave Facebook a try once again.  I am not out to accumulate hundreds of  Facebook friends or fans as some people are rather, I am finding it is an amazing tool to reconnect with my past.  I am still leaning how to post messages,etc on Facebook but when I see the smiling faces of people I went to school with, or cousins I have not seen in thirty years or more - well it just makes my day!!!!  And when they share their pics with me...that's just awesome!  As most of you know, I have been addicted to digi-scrapping for several years now and I am always begging my kids and family for pictures to scrap...now I have boo-goos available to me!


I want to scrap them all for us so I came up with a great idea.  I am going to start up my own little game of tag!  Whenever I make a scrapbook page using your photo(s), I will "tag" your photo/album on Facebook, and post the link to let you, my Facebook Freinds, know where you can find the posting.  I do have to shrink the pages for the web but if you would like a full-resolution copy of the page(s) so you can print it out, we can arrange that!  Just shoot me an email and we will work it out!   FYI, I do Scrap4Hire so if you are interested in having a unique one-of-a-kind album created for you, contact me!

As I said earlier, I have been making scrapbook pages for my family for several years, and when they send me pics, they know I will post most of them in a gallery within the digi-scrapping community somewhere.  However, there are a few who have asked me not to post their pictures on the web, so if I "tag" you and you would rather that I not use your pictures when making my scrapbook pages just let me know.  I will immediately remove it from the gallery!  I am not doing this for any type of personal gain but because there is something, somewhere, at sometime that has linked you and I together.  Perhaps I will make a heritage page for my family albums, or maybe I will recall a fun high-school memory that I want to share with my children and grandchildren...who knows what I will come up with but know that it will always come from my heart because for what ever reason, you are special to me!  See ya at Facebook!

The Wee Faerie Ring

As I reluctantly spent most of this past holiday weekend alone, I found myself  reflecting about memories of yesterday.  Delightful moments of pure magic often intermingled with flashes of despair, life can be most bittersweet but as I have often said, my digi-addiction is the best therapy I have known.  Through it, I can often kick depression to the curb just as it dares to pop its ugly head into my world!

My Daddy  used to tell me that I live in my own little world, and he did not mean that as a compliment, lol.  He said that I looked at the world through rose-colored glasses, and what I saw was not reality.  In his opinion, I created my own problems because Debbie's World was pure fantasy.   My brothers have pretty much told me told me that same thing over the years, and most recently, my husband told me the same thing.  Of course, they all use different words, but all of them believe Debbie's World exists only in Debbie's mind.  Ridiculed, devalued and sometimes seen as selfish, I often stand  in defense of Debbie's World.  Now mind you, wars have started over less!  However, the digi-scrapping community has helped enable me to build an arsenal that is much more beautiful and results in much less blood shed.

Within the digi-scrapping community, I often see proof that life is a fairy-tale!  Daffodils and dragons,  fireflies and fairies are as evident as the smile upon our faces as we pour through the galleries.  Designers and layout-artists  offer evidence that our lives are filled with magical moments.  Yesterday, I discovered The Wee Faerie Ring..  Her talent to see the magic has led her to create kits such as Fairy Cakes, Land of Nod, Sugar Coated and Teddy Bear Picnic.  Each kit is a free gift to us so that we can see "the magic and the dreams, its all right here with us."  Many kits also have beautiful Quick pages created from Wee Faerie kits by Jetjez.  I used both to create the following layouts...

When I was 12 years old I knocked Steve McKinney out of the tree we were sitting up in by his kitchen window when he ridiculed my belief in Santa Clause.  I knew that Santa Clause existed because he left evidence of his existence under the tree at my house on Christmas morning every Dec 25.  I will still defend my ability to see the magic and I pray that I am always able to believe in the happily, ever-after!

Big Labor Day Store-Wide Sale!

Join SBE in celebrating Labor Day with a 40% off sale
Sunday, Sept. 5th through Tuesday, Sept. 7th

  Sunday through Tuesday, September 5th- 7th (central time)
  40% off*  *excludes UBI, DOTM, Close Outs, Designer Resources, CD Burns, Gift Certificates, items regularly priced $2 or less

Run over to the SBE store and pick up those things you have had on your wish list! 

Its times like this I wish I had a bottomless pit of moolah available to my payPal account, lol!  I wanted SO MUCH but look at the goodies I was able to get this morning!

Of course, Rina and Kimmi have all of their kits on sale as well, so don't miss out on this big event!  Here is a little pressie for you today as well using Rina's Bellisima Page Kit

Enjoy!

*NO LONGER AVAILABLE*

Labor Day Weekend

I used to look forward to this weekend so much! The Grayson County Fair at Leitchfield (my home town) is always held on this weekend, and that was an event we always looked forward to! As a teen-ager, my Mother and I always went to the Miss Grayson County Beauty Contest which was held on the opening night of the Fair, and during a couple of years, I worked in the Young Republicans Booth selling hot dogs and cokes during the fair days with my brother Don. We thought we were so grown up doing that!

After I was married, I always took my crafts, my hobbies, my canned goods and baking to the Women's Building on the afternoon of the opening day. Back then, the Grayson County Homemakers, a group of which I belonged to, sponsored the Women's Bldng and encouraged all residents to bring their best wares to have them judged. I took quilts, dolls, cross-stitching, embroidery and counted cross-stitching; anything I (or my family) had made that I was especially proud of, and wanted to "show off". The display shelves would be overflowing with wonderful hand-made goodies from the talented county residents, and it was always fun to see what my neighbors had been up to during the year!

Each year, I always hoped that maybe this would be the year, I would accumulate enough points on my entries to win one of the coveted silver trays! I never did but I did usually always win 1st, 2nd or 3rd place ribbons on most everything I entered. I think the one thing, I was most proud of was the year my green beans won the coveted 1st place blue ribbon! I had always wondered how could they judge one winner out of 50 or 60 quart jars of green beans which basically looked identical. The year mine finally won, as I did one of my last cannings of green beans for the season, I took the best looking beans I had, selected the ones which were uniform in size, laid them out by a ruler on the counter, and sliced them up diagonally with a sharp knife. Each little segment in that jar was absolutely perfect...and believe it or not, that jar won First Place!!!! That jar of green beans with its blue ribbon sat proudly on display in my kitchen for many years!

The money I would win from my fair entries, though it wasn't much, always enabled me to give each of my sons a little extra money when we went to the Demolition Derby at the fair on Friday night. The weekend, always concluded with the big Labor Day Parade on Monday. My brothers and I with our families would always meet at Mama and Daddy's house, then we would walk down to the corner of the main street to watch the parade of marching bands, floats, tractors, cars and horses.
Those really were the days, and I really do miss them!

A couple of years ago, after Gary and I were married, we started a new fair tradition. As my oldest son's birthday is August 31st, we would take my son's and their families (minus Nicholas who has never been home on Labor Day since he joined the Navy) to the fair. We would meet at Mr Gatti's to fill up on pizza before we went to the Demolition Derby on Friday night. But alas, it seems this tradition was short-lived for this year with our finances being limited since DH has been laid off for most of the year, we were not able to do this. I guess, it really wasn't that a big deal to my kids for none of them have even called about it this week but I have been a little sad about that most all week. Anyway, after all of this ramblin, the point is that I am sitting here alone, pounding on the keyboard and reminiscing about precious memories of my heart when it is an absolutely beautiful day outside! I need to get up off this fat butt of mine and go out to make some new memories!

Before I do that, let me wish you a wonderful Labor Day weekend filled with lots of memory-making moments! And I would like to share a little freebie with you as well. This is a QP I think I may have posted in the past but I cleaned it up a bit...I think it looks much better so replace that old one, if you have it! I used

the Whimsical Angel of Love Mini Kits by Kimberly Stewart
In Kimmi's Whimsical Angels of Love there is a series of four mini kits which add a wonderfully sweet addition to your digital scrapbooking stash because they are perfect for all of those special photos of your loved ones just waiting to be scrapped. The precious, quirky angels are perfect to use to create those unique cards, sweet crafts and or layouts of the ones that you cherish. 

NO LONGER AVAILABLE