Sure way to have fun scrapbooking . . .

Had a total blast as guest designer on Scrapbooks.com this month. Here's what they do - you've GOTTA visit and try it! Every month they have weekly challenges - if you participate in one of these challenges you have a chance to become a guest designer for the following month. You get a credit to their awesome store and create a layout for one of the challenges with the design team. It was so much fun!

I created layouts for 2 of the challenges this month and here's my first one. The theme was "Strip Tease!" and the challenge was to use strip paper.

Used Scenic Route strip paper and chipboard circle. The tag and outer circle are Creative Cafe. Ribbon is American Crafts. There's some Basic Grey rubons on the big pic - hard to see here.

I created that layout at my friend Karen's house. I cropped with Karen, her sister Sara, and friend Michelle. Had soooo much fun and came home soooo inspired. Hope to see those guys soon!


Have a creative week! And if you're looking for fun and inspiration, stop by Scrapbooks.com and join in one of the challenges there!

Some Heidi Swapp Love

I was so excited to hear I got a 3rd place nod in Heidi Swapp's Club Heidi contest. This was one of those projects that I had a blast making - so much so, that I think I was up until 3am one night creating it. You know how you have so much fun making something - and it's all coming together so nicely - you just get so excited and that tired feeling never comes - and you go to bed just because you know you'll pay for it the next day? That's how I felt with this project! I'm SURE my scrapping friends understand and have been there themselves!

What I did was take apart a flea market alarm clock and make different inspirational faces for it. The faces attach magnetically, so I can switch them on and off as I like. Here's a couple of pics:





I used the gears from the inside of the clock on the designs also.

The best pics are on the Club Heidi website here: http://www.clubheidi.com/MAR08/contest.pdf


Check out the projects by the first and second place winners, Catherine Feegel-Erhardt and Jenn Luce - awesome stuff!


Doesn't Heidi Swapp make gorgeous product?! Read the notice on the club website here:
http://clubheidi.com/
about her website and monthly club taking on a new look and new funtions. I can't WAIT to see it and be inspired!

Have a great week! - betsy

Organizing Thy Desktop . . .

I am a freak about being organized. I'm so freaky about it, that I recently tackled organizing my computer desktop. You know how those little icons just end up everwhere on the screen - and you try to line them up with some type of order, but it never really makes sense?

I figured out a way to organize those little icons and it was soooo easy. Here's my desktop now:

Those lovely digital brushes are courtesy of Jason Gaylor: http://www.designfruit.com/jasongaylor/blog/ You've gotta check out his blog!

I'm going to explain how I did this, since I'm sure there are more people that want to organize their icons . . . right? . . . . ummmm . . . . there ARE more people that want to do this, aren't there? . . . maybe I'm just weird that way . . . .

Here's how I did it - realize that I am NOT terribly digi-savvy - I figured some of this out after taking an online class with Renee Pearsons - but mostly I just play around.

1. Take out a ruler and actually measure your computer desktop.
2. Organize the icons you currently have on your desktop into categories. I used "Programs", "Security", "Frequently Used Links", "Printing / Music", and "References" as my categories.
3. In Photoshop Elements create a new file with the same dimensions as the desktop you measured in step one.
4. Imagine the icons you organized into category blocks. Measure the size of these blocks and where they start and end (in inches) on the desktop.
5. Create these blocks in PSE using the 'rectangle tool'.
6. Fill the blocks with colors you want and add titles to the blocks.
7. Add brushes for interest. I decreased the opacity of my brushes to 50% so the brushes did not over power the icons themselves.
8. Save the desktop creation in PSD form so you can alter it at any time.
9. Save the desktop creation in JPG form so it can be uploaded as your desktop photo under 'My Computer' > 'Control Panel' > 'Display' > 'Desktop'

See! Quite easy, right?!


Want to also to let you know there is a cool class starting at NYCscraps.com. Check it out: http://www.nycscraps.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14&Itemid=39 The class is taught by Debbie Hodge, who is amazingly talented!

It's all about Scrapping YOURSELF - something we all do way too little of. I have a real hard time scrapping about myself. This class should be a GREAT help!

Have a creative week! - betsy