Sunday, December 6, 2009

Photo Cube Ornament Templates

Back in November, I created a Photo Cube Ornament that I posted in the gallery at Heritage Scrap.  Since then I have received numerous requests for the template.


This is a 3.5 inch photo cube once assembled.  And will print on 11x17 paper.  Just barely large enough to create little scrapbook layouts on each side or just place individual photos on each side.  The 2.5 inch photo cube will print on a sheet of 8.5x11 paper, however, it works best with a single photo or a very simple layout.

Once assembled punch a hole in one corner, attach a ribbon and hang from the Christmas Tree!  The kids will love making these and they will also make great gifts for your loved ones...especially the grandparents.

I'll post pictures of the final product once I get them made and the tree up.



3.5 inch Photo Cube Template (prints on 11x17 paper) ... $1.25

2.5 inch Photo Cube Template (prints on 8.5x11 paper) ... $1.25

Your choice of templates at a very reasonable price! You will receive a layered Tiff file as well as a layered psd file regardless of which one you order.

You can order via paypal, send payment to drewmyers13815@yahoo.com or send me a personal email at janmy3rs@gmail.com and I will send you an invoice for payment through paypal.

Please provide the item you are purchasing and the email address you wish to have this emailed to in the instructions of your paypal payment.  I will personally be emailing you the file.

This item is offered only for Personal Use!

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Country Living Element Packs For Sale

Over at Hertiage Scrap we are hosting a monthly challenge, The Art of Cooking ~ Heritage Style, creating a Heritage Cookbook that we will have completed by Christmas of next year.  Its become a huge hit and I am absolutely loving this challenge!

The November Designer Collab was called Vintage Kitchen and in my opinion the best Kits I have found for creating a cookbook.  These kits are absolutely fabulous!  Take a quick look (Only 4 out of 9 kits are shown):






Since everyone is having so much fun with these kits, we're begging for more elements and addon packs to go with this fabulous Collab.  I have created 2 addon element packs for those interested.  Since I do not have my own store I am selling them through here till I can figure out a home for my products.


Touch of Country Element Pack ... $5.00

All of these elements are 300dpi, industry standard, and they have been resized or had shadows applied for the preview only. 

All items pictured included. 







Country Cooking ... $5.00

All items pictured are included.  All elements are at industry standard 300dpi.  One egg basket has a shadow and the other does not.

You can send payment via paypal to drewmyers13815@yahoo.com.  In the instructions, provide the name of the item you are purchasing along with the email address you want the items emailed to.  I will personally email the zipped files to you.  Or you can email me personally at janmy3rs@gmail.com and I will send you an invoice for payment through paypal.

These items are available for personal and commercial use.  For commercial use, these items may not consist of more than 1/4 of the total items in a kit and DO NOT have to be clustered.  If clusters are made using these elements than as much as 100% of these elements can be sold in one kit.  Please give proper credit when using these items.  Any questions please do not hesitate to ask, I'm pretty flexible.

Stay tuned for a complete package of Cookbook Word Art coming soon!!


Wednesday, November 4, 2009

International Digital Scrapbooking Day - Weekend Event at Heritage Scrap

I am so excited about this!  The Creative Team at Heritage Scrap has really out done themselves and I want to give my team a pat on the back for a job well done!  Thanks so much Team!!

Do you have exciting plans for November 6, 7 and 8? We sure do! I think it's going to be a lot of fun, just like a virtual scrapbooking retreat!


Join us at Heritage Scrap Saturday morning, November 7 at 11 AM Eastern Time for a Scrap and Chat with Helene (Victoria32). She will have us going all over to find the scavenger clues which we need to complete our layout for the challenge. Everyone who attends will receive a gift from Helene and there will be a posting gift as well!

Are you up for more challenges? We've got some fun ones! I, Jan (janmy3rs) will be hosting a Christmas card challenge, providing gifts of templates and elements to use and the winner will receive a coupon good for a holiday kit of their choice. I have a very special secret freebie in store for all of my participates!  You can read more about it in the forum.

Linda (lyndabook) will be your host of Songs of Yesteryear musical challenge, to scrap lyrics and memories. Turn up the radio and scrap away because the winner of this challenge will receive Annie's Digital Things' gorgeous Parlor Music kit.

Our very energetic Designer, Theresa Lindamood (aka ForgetMeNots) has a passion for journaling. She wants to hear your stories in the Stories To Tell challenge. Create a layout that includes journaling to tell your family's or photo's story and you could win one of her kits, sold exclusively at Heritage Scrap.

The designer collaboration for November is called "Vintage Kitchen" and it is fantastic for making layouts of all your kitchen and cooking photos and recipes. We will host a challenge using the Vintage Kitchen kits and you just may win 2 of the collaboration kits for yourself.  I must say I am really impressed with this Kit myself, I personally think its the best Collaboration Kit our Designers have put together.  It is 6 different kits, each one from a different designer with their own touch.  For the entire month of November 2009 they will each be on sale for $2.50. 

Various Prizes and freebies are being awarded for all challenges. Hope to see you there!
 

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Find A Grave

Things have been pretty busy around here for me this past month.  Between building our house, digital scrapbooking, genealogy research, kids and the hubby along with everything else I haven't had a lot of time to write.

A hobby of mine, among many, is transcribing cemeteries.  This started out just being part of our genealogy research.  We'd discover where an ancestor was buried and then photograph the headstones.  Often times we'd find other family members buried near by as well. 

While we're out cemetery stomping, we became very frustrated having missed a headstone of a daughter who had married and we didn't know her married name.  Once again we'd be back out to the cemetery.  Since many of the cemeteries we've visited were rather far from home we decided to photograph the entire section or an area of a cemetery.  Slowly over the course of time this little section grew bigger to the point where we decided to just photograph the entire cemetery.

This has proved to be extremely beneficial for us.  Often times having that database and pictures a discovery or link has been made a year or more later. 

After having collected thousands of headstone photographs and compiling databases with the information I tried contacting Ancestry to donate my finds and pictures to them in hopes of preserving the information for others and future researchers.  No luck, Ancestry never responded back.  I then turned to the Genweb sites that covered the areas where the cemeteries were located to send them my database, and found one that was actually interested and had the technological knowledge and skills to upload my information.

I was still left with thousands of people in my database that needed a home.  After a long but successful search I found a website that is devoted to preserving our family's burial location and information.  I found Find A Grave - FAG (http://www.findagrave.com/).  This site is remarkable!!  Think of it as a worldwide Cemetery.

Find A Grave has nearly every cemetery all across the United States and in many countries.  If by chance you find a cemetery not listed you can request it.  Unfortunately, not every burial for every cemetery is listed.  This is the responsibility of local volunteers, or "Contributors" as FAG calls us.

There are 2 types of Contributors.  Those that actually transcribe cemeteries and the other are people who simply create memorials for their loved ones and ancestors.

If you don't find your ancestor on Find A Grave, please add a memorial for them.  If you do find your ancestor, leave a note or flower or add them to a Virtual Cemetery so you can find them later and if you have additional information or there are errors that need correcting make a suggestion.

Once a memorial is created, you can add family links, Biography information, and upto 5 photos.  Family links are wonderful for connecting families, especially since they are often times buried at different cemeteries.  I have 3 direct lines all connected and I often times add photos of the person, headstone, obituary, important documents or anything else that is of special interest.  If the cemetery is too far for me to take the photo (eg. I live in a different state) I simply request a photo and a local volunteer will take it when they have time.  Sometimes it takes awhile (weeks, months and one time a year), but eventually I usually get a photo.

All of this is free!!!  This site is growing in popularity and hopefully someday we'll start seeing more photos and Biographies.  What better way to share your family history for generations to come.  Think of it as an Online Scrapbook!  :)

Here are some links to some of my ancestors.  Please take a look and see how wonderful this free service is.

Edward Hazard Sr. (1775-1863)
Bessie Elvira (Hicks) Myers (1886-1983)
Harley Edward Greene  (1861-1931)
My Grandpa (1932-2007)  I visit this memorial regularly, I miss my grandpa and I live too far from the cemetery to visit often.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

What are Quickpages?

After a moment of thought, I decided I'd clarify for the Beginner Scrappers out there exactly what a Quickpage is.

Generally, they are created by a Designer using their papers and elements from a specific kit to create a PNG file.  Most of them leave an area for you to add your photo and any text you want to add.

All you should have to do is open the Quickpage file and photo in your Diggi-Scrap software.  The Quickpage will show up as a single layer, hide the photo behind the layer and then using your text button create text on the layout above the Quickpage layer.

Save a copy of the file as a jpg if you decide to have it printed, make sure you save your newly created file as a new name if you want to save it.

Pretty simple!

If you don't have any Digital Scrapping software, just do a Google search for "free digital scrapbooking software", make sure to read what they offer carefully.  You'll want a program that will open PNG or PSD files since these are normally the standard file formats for most Kits you'll find online.

Christmas is Coming And So Are The Ideas

I'm beginning to stress the Holiday Season.  It seems to be quickly approaching...faster than normal and I'm not yet prepared.  Normally, I start my list in July and have it 80% finished by Columbus Day!!!  Not this year...I'm still making my list for this year....(sheepish grin)

I wanted to save the Wedding Album I did for my husband's parents for their 45th Wedding Anniversary, so to solve that problem, I decided the fastest and simpliest way would be to use Quickpages to do an album.

Lynn Griffin is a Designer at Heritage Scrap and has decided to Retire many of her kits.  Many of which are Quickpage Albums...boy did I luck out with this master find!!  Each Quickpage Album consists of about 8 Quickpages and both front and cover sheets for the Album.  They are all priced for $1.75 on clearance and I purchased several not exceeding $15. 

I was able to mix and match the pages and created a 22 page Fairy Tale Album.  I did a little shopping around and found several sites online that will print 12x12 scrapbooks and I could have this album printed in Hardcover for about $50, but will watch for sales on printing costs for this upcoming Holiday Season.  I'm well within my $100 budget per family.  You could bring this cost way down depending on how many Quickpages Albums you purchase and how many pages you have printed and whether you opt for a softcover or hardcover.

Just a thought I wanted to share with you in case anyone else is struggling with Christmas Gift ideas this year or pinching the budget due to this horrible economy we are in.

Here are a few sample pages from my album:



A Prince Is Born

This is the only baby photo we have of my husband's father.  I used the Aurora Quickpage Album ($1.75) by Lynn Griffin available at Heritage Scrap for this layout.    Lynn also has her Aurora Pagekit ($1.75) and an Add-on Pack ($1.00) as well as the Combo Pack  (3.50) and much more all on clearance in the Heritage Scrap Shoppe.

Not sure when this 75% off sale ends, but at the moment its the best deal I've found online!



Princess' Royal Parents

I just love this photo of my husband's grandparents in their younger years.  It is actually thier Wedding Photo.  I used Old Blue Bliss Quickpage Album ($1.75) by Lynn Griffin available at Heritage Scrap for this layout.  The Old Blue Bliss Pagekit ($1.75) and an Add-on Pack ($1.00) as well as the Combo Pack (3.50) and other coordinating packs all on clearance in the Heritage Scrap Shoppe.






The Prince's Chariot

This is another favorite photo of mine.  This is my husband at at about the age of 14 years old with his adoptive father's car.  What is so special to us about this photo is that when his adoptive father died he was only 13yrs old and had been given a special driver's license so that he could run the Ranch and still continue to care for his mother who never learned to drive herself.  I love the fall colors and elements from Lynn Griffin's Fruits of Fall Quickpage Album.  These kits are gorgeous and just scream Fall and Thanksgiving!!  I'm thinking of combining the Fruits of Fall Combo Kit ($3.50) with the Gran Remembered Recipe Kit ($3.99) by DigiZine's by Teri for my next project: a Heritage Recipe Book.  The Fruits of Fall Combo Kit by Lynn Griffin comes with the PageKit ($1.75) and the Add-on Pack ($1.00) as well as the 10 page Quickpage Album so I'm thinking its the best deal for your money.

To View all of the available "Last Chance Bin" Clearance Items that Lynn Griffin is reitiring visit the Heritage Scrap Shoppe!    She has a total of 54 items now on Clearance.  Many of the other Designers are also holding sales on their kits.  From the list my favorite appears to be Hunt Club by Roberta T Designs.  This may be an option for those of you who have Hunters in your family and the season is upon us.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Wedding Album for Mother-in-law Finished

These past two weeks I've been working on a wedding album for my husband's parents.  This will be either a Christmas Present this year or an anniversary present for next year.  I haven't decided yet.

The inspiration for these layouts was initially DigiZines by Teri's Fallen For You ScrapKit available at Heritage Scrap.  This isn't your oridinary wedding kit.  There are some marvelous rich colors: reds, purples, golds and pinks to create some beautiful layouts for the non-traditional bride.

I had a lot of fun using this kit.  I also spent some time trying to create "depth" with my layouts using shadows, perspective and skew.  These are by far some of my favorite layouts.


For this layout I used both Fallen for you Scrapkit and the Fallen for you Petite Challenge Kit both by DigiZines by Teri, the frame is from Jean Daugherty's Wedding Diary Kit.



The paper and frame are from Autumn in Paris Sept Collab Kit and the wordart is from Fallen For You both by DigiZines by Teri.  The flowers are a from Cari Lopez's Mega Wedding Kit and from Jean Daugherty's Wedding Diary Kit.


I used the a couple different pieces from several kits for this layout. I used Autumn in Paris Sept Collab and Fallen For You Kits both by DigiZines by Teri and the frame is from Jean Daughtery's Revolutionary War Kit.


Credits:  Fallen For You Kit by DigiZines by Teri for this layout and used a frame from Cari Lopez's Mega Wedding kit, the wordart is from Jean Daughtery's Wedding Diary Kit.

To view all my layouts for this wedding album visit my gallery at Heritage Scrap.

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Machine, Man and Electricity

OMG!!! I laughed so hard...I'm still in tears!! This is a must read!!!

The Lawn

We have the standard 6-ft. fence in the backyard, and a few months ago, I heard about burglaries increasing dramatically in the entire city. To make sure this never happened to me, I got an electric fence and ran a single wire along the top of the fence. Actually, I got the biggest cattle charger Tractor Supply had; made for 26 miles of fence. I then used an 8-ft. long ground rod, and drove it 7.5 feet into the ground. The ground rod is the key, with the more you have in the ground, the better the fence works.

One day I'm mowing the back yard with my cheapo Wal-Mart 6-hp big wheel push mower. The hot wire is broken and laying out in the yard. I knew for a fact that I unplugged the charger. I pushed the mower around the wire and reached down to grab it, to throw it out of the way.

It seems as though I hadn't remembered to unplug it after all.

Now I'm standing there, I've got the running lawnmower in my right hand and the 1.7 giga-volt fence wire in the other hand. Keep in mind the charger is about the size of a marine battery and has a picture of an upside down cow on fire on the cover.

Time stood still.

The first thing I notice is my pecker trying to climb up the front side of my body. My ears curled downwards and I could feel the lawnmower ignition firing in the backside of my brain. Every time that Briggs & Stratton rolled over, I could feel the spark in my head. I was literally at one with the engine.

It seems as though the fence charger and the piece-of-s#@t lawnmower were fighting over who would control my electrical impulses.

Science says you cannot crap, pee, and vomit at the same time. I beg to differ. Not only did I do all three at once, but my bowels emptied 3 different times in less than half of a second.

It was a matrix kind of bowel movement, where time is creeping along and you're all leaned back and BAM BAM BAM you just crap your pants 3 times. It seemed like there were minutes in between but in reality it was so close together it was like exhaust pulses from a big block Chevy turning 8 grand.

At this point I'm about 30 minutes (maybe 2 seconds) into holding onto the fence wire. My hand is wrapped around the wire palm down so I can't let go. I grew up on a farm so I know all about electric fences ... but Dad always had those piece-of-s#@t chargers made by International or whoever that were like 9 volts and just kinda tickled.

This one I could not let go of. The 8-foot long ground rod is now accepting signals from me through the permadamp Ark-La-Tex river bottom soil.

At this point I'm thinking I'm going to have to just man up and take it, until the lawnmower runs out of gas. 'Damn!,' I think, as I remember I just filled the tank!

Now the lawnmower is starting to run rough. It has settled into a loping run pattern as if it had some kind of big lawnmower race cam in it. Covered in poop, pee, and with my vomit on my chest, I think 'Oh God please die ... Pleeeeaze die'. But nooooo, it settles into the rough lumpy cam idle nicely and remains there, like a big bore roller cam EFI motor waiting for the go command from its owner's right foot.

So here I am in the middle of July, 104 degrees, 80% humidity, standing in my own backyard, begging God to kill me. God did not take me that day ... he left me there covered in my own fluids to writhe in the misery my own stupidity had created. I honestly don't know how I got loose from the wire. I woke up laying on the ground hours later. The lawnmower was beside me, out of gas. It was later on in the day and I was sunburned. There were two large dead grass spots where I had been standing, and then another long skinny dead spot where the wire had laid while I was on the ground still holding on to it. I assume I finally had a seizure and in the resulting thrashing had somehow let go of the wire.

Upon waking from my electrically induced sleep I realized a few things:

  • Three of my teeth seem to have melted.
  • I now have cramps in the bottoms of my feet and my right butt cheek (not the left, just the right).
  • Poop, pee, and vomit when all mixed together, do not smell as bad as you might think.
  • My left eye will not open.
  • My right eye will not close.
  • The lawnmower runs like a sumbitch now. Seriously! I think our little session cleared out some carbon fouling or something, because it was better than new after that.
  • My nuts are still smaller than average yet they are almost a foot long.
  • I can turn on the TV in the game room by farting while thinking of the number 4 (still don't understand this???).

That day changed my life. I now have a newfound respect for things. I appreciate the little things more, and now I always triple check to make sure the fence is unplugged before I mow.

The good news, is that if a burglar does try to come over the fence, I can clearly visualize what my security system will do to him, and THAT gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling all over, which also reminds me to triple check before I mow.