21 things that make me smile :)

1. Sleeping babies, especially MY sleeping babies. Extra smiles for both of them sleeping at the same time!!
2. A clean kitchen. A clean bathroom. A clean anything, especially if it stays that way for more than 15 minutes.
3. The sound I imagine being made when I put a staple on a digital scrapbook layout. I know, it sounds crazy, but it really does make me smile ... and want to add lots of staples to my layouts!!


4.  A hot bubble bath with a new, unread magazine and a glass of wine. Extra smiles for a few chunks of chocolate to go with it!
5.  A quiet but full house at the end of a busy day.
6.  The name of someone I know (and like) in the "From" category of my email inbox.
7.  Positive comments listed under the scrapbook layouts I post at designerdigitals.com
8.  Hot coffee with just enough creamer along with a chocolate chip cookie or warm pop tart.
9.  Cherry ZERO, icy cold from the can.
10.  A really good photo of someone I love.
11.  A well-designed scrapbook page, by me or anyone else.
12.  New posts on Ali Edwards' blog (aliedwards.typepad.com). She's just so inspirational.
13.  Dinner cooked and ready to eat, without any effort on my part.
14.  Sunshine streaming through the windows in my house, especially during the morning hours.
15.  Smiles on my little ones' faces. And my big ones, too!!
16.  The sight of the mailman or delivery guy coming to the door with a package, especially if I'm expecting a packet of photos or printed scrapbook pages.
17.  A great new book full of creative inspiration, like Ali Edwards' "Life Artist" or Becky Fleck's "Page Maps" or similar books.
18.  A great font. My two favorite additions to my collection this week ... LD Letterpress & LD Olympia Portable. The first is a distressed, stamp-like font and the second is exactly like the type produced by my gramma's old italic typewriter. I can't wait to use each of them in some new scrapbook pages.
19. The chain & pendants I wear almost every day. It's just a basic chain with a key, a lock and a ring that says "imagine" on it. Nothing fancy, but I really like it.
20.  Clothes that fit and look half-way decent. I have a ton of clothes, so you'd think this would be an easy thing. But somehow it's just not. Someday...
21.  The consistency of a routine day. Morning coffee & email. The Today Show. My soaps ... Young & the Restless, As the World Turns, Days of our Lives ... the peace & quiet of afternoon naps and time to work. Return of the boys & husband at the end of the day for a few hours of family time. Quiet again and time to reflect...

Chaos reigns.



Things are crazy around here. Somehow I didn't notice on the school calendar until last night that there was no school today and tomorrow. The boys knew, of course, and have been bouncing off the walls all day, including an additional friend of Karstin's. Somehow in the middle of the chaos, I managed to get quite a bit of grantwriting work done, plus a layout or two. But I definitely understand why mom used to say she was ready for us to go back to school whenever we had a break of more than a day or two!! Apparently, something is pretty funny on YouTube because the boys spent a LONG time giggling at the computer!! 
Anyway, here are a couple of layouts I put together for Danica's first-year album...



Now I'm off to the tub with a glass of wine and my new edition of Creating Keepsakes to check out what's new and maybe brainstorm some new kit ideas of my own ... these days, that's about the only place I can go and get a little peace and quiet!! :)

Making progress.

I can check two projects off my list. I finished my gangster layout yesterday ...

and I also created a sixth layout for the Designer Digitals contest.


If I happen to do another page I like better than one of the six I already submitted, I may swap one out. But if not, I've completed the contest requirements, so at least I'll have a shot at being considered!
The other items on my list are much more time-consuming, but eventually I'll share when I get them completed.

My current projects...

1. A "Day in the Life" album. 


I spent last Thursday taking photos all day and jotting down our activities so I can make an album depicting a typical day in my life. Turned out, it wasn't entirely typical - Jacques came home a little early and took 3 of the kids with him to the 7C basketball tourney, leaving me with just the baby and a few hours of (somewhat) free time. 


The album will still be a pretty accurate glimpse into my life at this stage, though... I have all of the photos (136+) on pages and now just need to go back and do the journaling and some embellishing.
2. Scrapbooking my uncle's 60th "gangster" birthday party.




It's not every day that I see my parents dressed up like a scene from The Godfather! We had fun celebrating my uncle's 60th birthday with a theme party in Great Falls this weekend and of course, I took lots of photos. I sat down last night to put together a fun page with some of my favorite shots - when I get that finished, I'll be sure to share...
3. Planning a layout (or 2) highlighting memories of my gramma's house.



My aunt & uncle live in the house that was my grandparents and I always loved visiting there. I took several photos this weekend of that house so I can incorporate them into some pages about my memories of the house - and my grandparents, too. 



I used to always say that my Gramma Stephens was my "favorite person in the whole world" and have been wanting to document some of my memories of her for quite a while now. Hopefully this first step will help me get that done...
4. Deciding what to do for my final entry for the Guest Designer contest at Designer Digitals.

I decided to go ahead and give this contest a try. DesignerDigitals.com is my favorite digital scrapbooking site, both their store and their gallery. I upload all of my pages there as they are completed and most of the digital goodies I buy are from that store. They are currently running a contest where you upload 6 layouts during the month of February, with the chosen "guest designer" winning the opportunity to be a guest on their design team for 8 weeks, during which time they receive all of the new products for FREE. I've submitted 5 pages so far, including the one above, and have one left... still deciding what to do for that.
Wish me luck!!
5. Working on a little gift album. 
It's a surprise, though, for the recipient, so I won't be sharing details of that until later!! :)

Soft and sweet...

... just like the emerging signs of spring, the new "Josie" digital
scrapbooking kit is packed with goodies just waiting for you to
download. Included are 8 full-size, 300 dpi, patterned papers in hues
of sage green, raspberry, soft yellow and brown. The kit is also packed
with elements, including word charms, jewelry findings, fabric patches,
beads, journaling tags, a complete alpha-numeric set of rub-ons and
more. 


 

Contents include:
8 patterned papers
5 charms (4 with words, 1 blank); with and without jump rings
3 journaling tags
2 ribbons
1 coordinating bow
1 straight silver chain
1 looped silver chain
jewelry findings (bracelet, jump ring, eyelet)
multi-colored circle sticker
beaded charm bracelet
set of 6 fabric patches, with and without stitching
complete alpha-numeric set of rub-ons




A Spring Creek Design exclusive.
Files in png or jpg format delivered as ZIP files; compatible
with most design software. Note: This product is a digital download; you will not receive any physical product.
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Sample Layouts




Note: A few items in this layout are not included in this kit (date strip, vintage frame, staples).
Also just for you ... a special FREEBIE add-on to coordinate with the "Josie" Kit ...


This FREE add-on includes:
1 charm ribbon, complete with 4 charms
string of coordinating beads
1 12x12 patterned paper
1 felt journaling tag
Get your download here: Download Krutten_josie_freebie_add-on
Be sure to come back in the next few days for another FREEBIE from the "Josie" kit! Also be sure to check out my other FREEBIES, as well as my other items for sale here! And if you download my FREEBIE, I'd love for you to leave a comment! :) Have a great day!

Good things...

come in threes.
That was especially true yesterday when our little neighbor celebrated her third birthday. Skylar, Danica and I spent the morning over at their house and had fun watching the three big girls play. It's hard to believe they're all turning 3 years old within the next couple of months! Time is going by soooo fast, especially lately.

Skylar is walking around quoting the movie, Finding Nemo.  "Are you my conscience? Yeah, I'm you're conscience." She doesn't even know what it means, but it's hilarious anyway. And Danica is starting to cut her bottom two teeth, gets up on her knees to crawl and is beginning to clap. It seems like not that long ago she was so tiny.
Then there's the boys. I let Karstin start a blog ... and unleashed an enormous writing streak! It's fun to get inside his head every day and see what makes him tick. Definitely a good decision. And Kody is on the run ... running to school, running to basketball practice twice a week and games once a week, running across the street whenever possible to play with his buddy, running around the house and getting Sky all wild and excited.
I'm beginning to see why I haven't had as much time to blog lately!
Currently, I'm working on a little gift project, plus taking lots of photos and doing a family page here and there. Need to spend more time on grant writing and I also try to squeeze in my OCR editing as often as possible, which helps fund my digital habits. Am also cooking up some ideas for some new digital kits and FREEBIES ...
Better run... seems like I have a lot to do!! :)

Free photo printing!

Hi there. Just wanted to share an online printing company that has a ton of freebies for signing up, including 100 free 4x6 and 50 free 5x7 prints every month for 6 months (not including shipping). You also get a ton of credits for other free stuff, like 8x8 photobooks, calendars, etc. If you don't use the credits, you can even transfer them to someone who will! Check it out here.
Have a great day!

Weekend recap.

Well, we survived the long weekend without daddy and had a little fun in the process. I took several photos and kept track of lots of activity so I can create a scrapbook layout out of it. Not sure when I'll get that page done, so here's a few preview photos...



Curious how many diapers I changed this weekend? 22 How many loads of laundry? 10 How many viewings of Finding Nemo? 8 How many cups of coffee? 16 And the list goes on. I did manage to scrapbook about 10 pages, somehow. Generally in the wee hours of the morning when the girls were finally asleep. That's probably why those 10 loads of laundry are still largely unfolded and sitting in piles around the house! Mommy logic: If I wait long enough, we'll wear half of the stuff in the piles and I'll have half as much to fold! Ha, ha.


Speaking of laundry and such, guess I'd better get a few things done this morning so I can focus on some grant-writing this afternoon ... and maybe sneak in a layout or two somewhere in the process!! Here's a couple from the weekend to enjoy... you can check out all of my scrapbooking projects here.





Girls' weekend.

My husband has escaped for the weekend to head east to go coyote hunting with his buddies. And the boys are with their dad shearing sheep. So, it's just the girls and me this weekend. Inevitably, when my husband gets home from these weekends, he wants to know what we "did" all weekend. Hmmm... not a lot of surprises in my answer considering the girls are just 2 and 7 months! But I thought it might be fun to focus a scrapbook layout around it, so I am currently snapping lots of photos and tracking things like how many diapers I've changed, how many cups of coffee I've had or juices I've refilled, how many loads of laundry and dishes, how many times I've watched "Finding Nemo"... Will be fun to put together the pages (and add it all up!)
In the meantime, I've got taxes to do, some grant-writing to catch up on and some valentine gifts to assemble. But I have managed to get a couple pages done in the past few days. Here they are...







You can check out all of my scrapbook pages here. And if you need a great valentine gift idea, check this out!  In the meantime, have a great weekend!

It's about time...



So I managed to pull myself away from the computer this weekend and finally rework the watch I wrote about on Friday. It took a while to be able to relax and enjoy the process without feeling like I should be doing something more "productive."


But eventually I was able to do that and I like the results. Of course, I had to do it twice... I seem to always make watches and bracelets too big the first time around. But that's okay, too. It's how I do most things - make a "rough draft" to start with, then fine-tune it until I like the end result. Here it is...

 
While digging through my jewelry supplies, I also came across some beads I'd forgotten I'd purchased to make a name bracelet for my baby girl. So, now I have another project to keep in mind the next time I feel a need for more balance.
I'm thinking that will be pretty soon! :)