Rustic Christmas Freebie

So, I came to the conclusion that the way this week is going if I didn't put the freebie up today something else would happen and it wouldn't get posted til after Xmas. That wouldn't be good, so here it is :)

http://www.4shared.com/dir/4996443/1d4a5e97/Rustic_Xmas.html

This is a big kit, so there are 3 downloads in that folder. We are talking over 110 mbs in this kit! Show me what you do with it if you get a chance!

Long time, No entry....

So, it's been awhile since I have been able to post, and to make up for it I will be posting a big Xmas kit freebie sometime this week. I was going to put it in the store originally, but since I've gotten so far behind decided to give it as a holiday gift instead. This has been a rough December for us. On the 1st we lost our beloved 12. yr old dog Jed. It was pretty sudden, and even though he was old he seemed healthy until that day. We were all sick with colds after that, but I never got better and ended up spending almost a week in the hospital. We thought I was out and done last Thursday, But I had to go back this weekend and it turns out I have pneumonia on top of everything else. We still have all of our Xmas shopping to do and have no tree yet either. I am really quite medicated and still not really capable of functioning and I have a procedure later this week too, so my husband may have to do all of the shopping himself which is frightening considering what he tends to think are "good" gifts for the kids. Yikes! Hopefully I get well enough for us to do all of the family visits we have or the kids will be disappointed. So, check back in the next few days and grab Rustic Christmas. It's full if grungy holiday goodness :)

New SAS-y lady contest dates...

Taking Thanksgiving into account...
Otherwise we had to worry about a strike...

New SAS-y Ladies Wanted!

Freebie and stuff

This will be a short post today, as my computer is seriously misbehaving, but I wanted to get a freebie up. It seems as either thing 1 or thing 2 (aka the kids) has gotten something on my keyboard causing shift to mysteriously stick and cause all sorts of stuff to pop up when I type, so I am having to write this all on my tablet screen. This is easier said than done, considering I have messy handwriting, and pre-edit it looks like it is recognizing some ancient language instead of English. So, for the freebie, some samples of upcoming stuff to the store. I have been in a glittery mood recently. Now if only my house sparkled as well as my designs. So, glittery stuff is HERE. Enjoy!

Freebie for CT call

HERE is the kit for the CT call. Please send a page made with it, the address of your favorite gallery and a bit about yourself to phreephorm at yahoo.com. Or,just grab the kit and enjoy it if you are not interested in a CT spot:)

CT Call

Hi all, due to to the heavy winds from a storm passing off the coast,we had to cancel our party we were holding tonight. Bonfires, forests and heavu winds don't mix well, lol. So, I am getting some computer work done instead of the cleaning I have to do. What a hard decision, lol. At any rate, I have unfortunately lost one of my CT members, and think I could actually use 2 more considering I have a mess of new products that I will be releasing within the next month and a half. So, I am putting together a little kit for anyone interested to make a page with and apply. I have very easy requirements, just several layouts/month, posted in 3 places, and I am very lucky to have such an awesome team, so you would be joining some great women and great scrappers. Every once in a while I may need help making previews or that sort of thing. So, I will be posting the minikit in a bit, along with complete info on the call. Enjoy Digiscrapping Day! Maybe i'll even get around to making a layout :)

SAS-y Princess and some new ideas....

So, we have crowned our 1st SAS-y Princess, and I am pleased to announce that it is one of my CT members Randje, whose layout "Wendy's Whimpers" was a big hit. If you haven't seen it, check it out in the gallery HERE.
Randje won a $20 store gift certificate and the honor of being crowned our 1st princess. The next month's contest has begun, so make sure to post your awesome layouts into the SAS-y Princess section of the gallery so we can check them out. And leave Randje some love on her layout! It is gorgeous, simple, and has beautiful photography.
Thanks to all of our Trick or Treaters who made it such a successful event. Everyone left such great comments that we were inspired to start planning some other great blog events for the month of December. Keep checking the newsletters for more info about our holiday blogging events.
Thanks also for all of the great bday wishes you sent me. I read them all yesterday after getting a nice morning of sleeping in after my evening out. Before we got to go out for my bday I took the kids trick or treating. One of my son's friends had asked to join us, and right before called to ask if we could take his little brother too. So, I found myself as the only adult trying to control 4 kids - 2 11 year olds, a 7 year old & a 6 year old. I must've looked stressed because 3 different people offered me a beer, lol. I declined though, figuring the only thing that could look worse than a woman trying desperately to control 4 kids in the dark would be one drinking as she did so. So I had my beers later in the evening after my husband and I met friends for dinner and drinks. Hope everyone has a good weekend! I have some cleaning to do for a party here tomorrow, and then a visit to the in-laws on Sunday,so I doubt I'll check in again before Monday.

Trick or Treat

So, I am posting this now because I know things will be too crazy here in the morning. Costumes are not finished yet due to serious kiddie indecision, and I am now shooting a wedding tomorrow too. Everyone should be up and running by 8am EST, so start out at JulieO's blog, reachable by going to Stoneaccentsstudio.com and selecting blog at the top, and join the hunt.
Here is my treat :) Click the bag to get it!
Now, on to the next stop! Click the doorknocker to see what other treats you'll get!

A New SAS-y Lady, Trick-or-Treating & My Bday Sale!

So, this has been a crazy busy week not only for me but for the rest of the SAS team. First on today's list of news is a big welcome to our newest SAS-y lady, Darlene! Go check her out in the store. She has some really cute designs and some great commercial use stuff and it is all available starting today!
So, tomorrow is my big 3-0. I am officially feeling old,lol. In actuality, I am one of the younger ones in our set of friends, although we have only one other married couple in our main circle of friends, and only one other has a child, so with 12 years of marriage and 2 kids under my belt I have always felt old anyways, lol. And 30 is young now, at least it seems that this generation gets started everything much later than my parents' generation did. Having a Halloween bday has always been odd. As a kid it was hard to get away from that theme for birthday parties. Now, we take the kids trick-or-treating and then drop them off for the night with my parents and head back out to the Rams Head, a local tavern in downtown Annapolis, where we meet up with all of our friends to celebrate my birthday. This will be our 10th year doing this, and conveniently we don't really have to set plans, our friends just know by now to meet us there around 9pm. We grab tables out on their back patio which has a bunch of heaters and enjoy dinner, drinks and conversation. I always order pretty much the same thing too. I get a beer that is about $10/bottle (yes, that much is nuts but it is soooo good!) and get a grilled chicken sandwich with crab dip on it for dinner. I live in Maryland, so it's all about the crabs.
Tomorrow at SAS I will be having a 30% off sale in honor of my 30th. The sale is on my whole store, and I just added 2 new products, By The Sea Glitter Doodles, and Commercial Use Overlays Set 1, which has 3 brick textures and 2 wood shingle ones all taken from photographs I've shot.
We also have our Trick or Treating set up for tomorrow. I have been busily setting it up. It will start at Julie's blog which you can get to by going to the front page of the store and clicking "Blog" from the middle of the list at the top. You can then grab your treat bag and click on the doorknocker which will take you to the next treat! You won't miss the doorknockers, they are all decked out in cute Halloween embellies from Digitreats Halloween kit. Both her kit and TerrellS' kits were a pleasure to work with in making the trick or treat supplies. Check them out in the store, they are both awesome. There are some really good treats going into these goodie bags. I know there will even be commercial use items in some, so make sure you make the whole circuit and fill up your treat bag. There is sure to be more Snickers than boring lollipops when it comes to the quality of these goodie bags!
Well, I have costumes to finish and some last minute details for tomorrow's trick or treat to go take care of, so see everyone tomorrow when the door-to-door dash is on! - Heather

Ugh. Dumb Blog!

OK, why is my whole blog always all of center, and why did my links on the sidebar disappear. My preview below is cut off :( and I can't get my sidebar to the other side. And my header is all weird. HELP! :) Tips and Tricks needed!

Halloween Fun at SAS...

So, we are planning some fun over at SAS for Halloween, and I have been busy coordinating it. Halloween is also my birthday so it's always been a bog holiday around my house. I want to put my blog in "costume" for the day, but haven't decided what it should be yet. For my birthday I will be running a 30% off sale on my whole store, and there will be details on that in this weeks newsletter. If you don't get it yet you should definitely sign up for it. There is some pretty cool stuff in there, and there is always freebies to be found. There will be one from me in there this week along with some others, but you have to look hard to find them ;) You wouldn't think we'd make it too easy would you? Hide and Seek is always more fun when played with freebies than it is when playing with a kid who hides in plain sight and giggles and talks to you while you pretend you can't find them, lol. Anyway, speaking of fun and freebies, I just finished making the announcement for what us SAS-y ladies are doing to celebrate, so here it is. I am pretty excited about it so you will probably hear a lot more about it from me before the day actually comes. I'm like a little kid anyway, and when it comes to planning this I am having a ball and my fellow designers are playing along (although possibly rolling their eyes at me as they do, lol). So, without further ado, at least for this post...

Yay! My laptop is home :)

I finally got my laptop back, complete with a new battery, ac adaptor, and motherboard. My baby has finally returned. I should be posting a freebie this weekend, and my CT will all have parts to give too. I meant to finish it by today, but got to do more hospital time on Wednesday. There are some cool new challenges as SAS, and also we have plans for some Halloween fun. Halloween is my 30th birthday, so I will be having a 30% off sale that day, and will have some cool new products up before then. Our newest SAS megakit will be debuting soon, and let me tell you, since I've seen previews of everyone's work, it is absolutely beautiful. I love store megakits because they have each designer's personality and design style in them, giving you supplies to make any type of layout.
I got lucky for this weekend, my parents headed out to a lighthouses of New Jersey tour, they did the Maryland one last month, and since the kids had off school today for a teacher workday my parents decided to take the kids. A kid-free weekend. I am ready for it! Sleeping in, no middle of the night kitchen raiders (my 6 yr old from time to time helps herself to snacks of every variety in middle of the night, generally waking me by the noise she is making), and no SpongeBob. Now, from time to time I can enjoy an episode, but somehow it seems that every time they turn on the TV SpongeBob is on and it always seems to be the ones I've seen a gazillion times. I can even quote some of them from start to finish now!
Next weekend we actually get another kid-free weekend...amazing, huh? My husband and I are heading to Assateague Island to go camping with friends. If you have ever been there, or have read the book Misty of Chincoteague, you know that the island is inhabited by wild ponies who do a famous swim from one island to the other each year. Now these ponies are not afraid of humans, but they are wild and can bite. Last February my husband and I went there and while we were stopped on the side of the road taping a group of them one ran up out of nowhere and stuck it's whole head in the car right in my husbands face. It was hilarious. I may have to post the video. And we had just finished reading the sign about how they can bite badly. The video is priceless, and my husband was trying to roll up the window but there was a big pony head all the way in right in front of the steering wheel. This time we'll be camping with them. Hopefully none join us in our tent, lol.
Well, I've better get back to what I am designing. I am in middle of using Painter to watercolor and chalk in fabric I scanned in for batik, tye-dye and other styles of painted fabric backgrounds. I'll try to get a sample of them up this weekend too. Have a good weekend, and I should be back with a freebie, so stop back by!

Check my CT's blogs for a freebie this weekend!

I am finally stopping procrastinating and am taking taking my laptop in for repair. I wanted to make sure you all got a weekend goodie though, so I have asked my awesome CT to post some quickpages made with my kits or a goodie bag that I put together. There is only one goodie bag, so if my whole CT posts it it will be the same one in each place. You should check out all of their blogs though because aside from the fact that they may have some QP's up, a lot of them are quite talented at designing themselves and they often have great freebies on their blogs. My CT is:


Maria - http://scrapmuss.blogspot.com/
Nicole - http://scrapalongwithme.blogspot.com/
Erika - http://ppbits.blogspot.com/
Miranda -http://scraprandje.blogspot.com/
Kelly - http://blog.deloria.name/

Check them out, they are a great group! - Heather

Home Depot Blues, lol

I got to spend much of my weekend at Home Depot staring at plumbing parts and water heaters. The good part is that we will finally have hot water again. the bad part is that for some reason my husband feels that I need to go with him while he spends hours trying to figure out what parts we need. Every suggestion I made was greeted with a bit of exasperation and a "no". So then I start getting frustrated. Why am I even there? Apparently my husband needs to bounce his ideas against someone, but doesn't need an actual answer. Why do men do that? I did however get to stroll the paint and tile aisles and get some great color and texture inspiration. But I can never admit this to hubby or he will permanantly use it as an excuse for every Home Depot invitation that I decline. I think one of the kids should have to go. Aside from being cute and sweet they can show me other reaons of wht they are useful, lol. Kids make great excuses for getting out of going places you don't want to go. Check back tomorrow for a freebie born out of the Home Depot inspiration. I have to go print out the layouts I made for an album for my dad. It's his birthday today :)

Another new product and a Freebie :)

I am on a roll with managing to blog and get designing done. I made a new product today, Super Stars. It is 50 different stars with all sorts of different styles and finishes. It was fun to make because I kept exploring all of my layer styles that I have downloaded and got to use a lot for the 1st time. While I was at it I decided to make some more of them to give out as a freebie so you can see the variety in the stars. There is something in the set that will fit pretty much any layout. I hope you enjoy playing with the sample :)

http://www.4shared.com/file/25553224/fda06977/bostian_superstarsfreebie.html

Are YOU the next SAS-y Princess???

I managed to finish up one of my new kits, Bubblegum Pop, and also uploaded one I made a few weeks ago called If You Build It. They should be in the store as SAS soon. Check out the previews :)
Also everyone should head over to Stone Accents Studio and check out the new section in the forum called SAS-y Princess. Every month a spectacular layout will be chosen and the creator of it will be crowned SAS-y Princess of the month. Rules are pretty simple, you can see them in the forum, the main one being that the layout is made from things sold in the SAS shop. The absolute BEST part is that each month the scrapper named SAS-y Princess wins $20 store gift certificate. That is an awesome prize just for being creative and showing us your SAS-iest layouts! We also have a lot of great challenges going with beautiful posting bonuses.
It is such a great group over there. So, if you have not yet signed up at SAS and you join the forums this week, leave me a comment here and I will PM you a little treat through your SAS message box. Even without getting the goodie it's worth joining us because we have a lot of fun, but I just thought I'd make it SAS-ier for newcomers. This offer holds up through October 15th :)

New Products Coming Soon,and a Really Cool Tutorial.

I am finishing up on several new kits as well as some new commercial use items. Hopefully I'll have them up in the store within the week. I have had a relatively busy weekend and K has been super high energy this weekend. Luckily my husband didn't work both days this weekend so K is busy outside "helping" him paint and also prepare the house for the gas lines we are having installed soon. Our water heater died a month or so ago and we only have 120v running into our house so we can only use a small water heater - at least we are often on time going places since that also means short showers...Anyway, we decided to have gas put in so we can get a normal sized water heater, be able to use the gas dryer we were given instead of hanging everything, and also buy a stove/oven which we do not have at this point. Everything is either nuked, grilled,or put in the convection toaster oven. I think the first thing I'll do when we get an oven is to make a lasagna and a cake or something :)
My third child Toshiba the laptop has to go to the doctors tomorrow morning for a big fix. It was going to go in on Friday but since they said they wouldn't even look at it until Monday I asked if I could just drop it off then. That works out well because I have spent whatever time we have been home double backing up everything. All files copied to both my external hard drive and DVD. I want to figure out the most efficient but least time consuming way to print out thumbnails of all of the scrap supplies and viewable files and label them by which DVD they are in and then put them in a binder with CD sleeves placed with the printouts so that I can locate files easily, like looking through a catalog. I need to do this with all of my fonts also. I think I have heard there are easier ways then to actually go through and type a line in each font. I have hundreds of them, but that could take forever. It would be easier in the long run though, being able to view them all to pick my favorite one for a layout. If anyone has a great method to make this whole process easier and faster, or a suggestion about a downloadable software that will automate this, leave it in my comments along with your email and I will send you a little goodie bag of samples of my new products for your efforts. I have my DVR all filled with good movies and shows that I have been wanting to watch but find impossible to do so if there is anyone else home because of the constant distractions. And now my husband has come to the conclusion that he doesn't really like all the shows we've always watched together so I record them too. So, while Toshiba is away (have I mentioned she is a tablet screen, which raised her status from pet to 3rd kid, lol) I have lots of stuff to view while the kids are at school and I will finally be able to clear some space on the DVR for all of the new seasons of my favorite shows. In the meantime I finally got my 6 year old Sony desktop working and I am going to burn all of my files off of it so it is faster for K to use on Webkins and her other kid games. C has a Toshiba laptop of his own and it is so much faster than the Sony so when they play online games against each other it makes her computer slower even though it should be faster wired to the Fiber Optic router instead of wireless like the rest of the family. If I clear off all of my old files and get rid of some of the larger programs, like the majority of the Adobe and Corel families that now reside on my laptop it should be faster for her after I defragment it.
I came across a really cool tutorial today. It shows you how to use Photoshop to make a pumpkin carving template from your pics. You can find it here: http://www.worth1000.com/tutorial.asp?sid=160999
So, don't forget to leave me the ideas or tips I mentioned above to get a goodie bag, and check Stone Accents Studio this week and see all of the new products and cool challenges. Also to debut on my blog later this week will be the formal introduction to my very talented CT. some of whom have made awesome quick pages to give out on their blogs and in the gallery at SAS. And, to celebrate my SAS-y new CT will be a new freebie or two. Also, if you would be interested in either a CT position or being a guest CT member you still have a chance to let me know. Check out my CT post below for more info :)

New Freebie and a Little Challenge...

So, I have a new freebie for you guys today, a blue fiber alpha with white stitched trim. The fiber part is like homemade paper, kind of like mulberry but with more fibers. It almost looks denim, but you can tell it's not. I have been in the mood to play with fibery papers, remembering how much I loved to tear them and have the frayed look in whatever paper piecing I was doing when I paper scrapped. So don't be surprised if you see some of that in my upcoming kits at SAS. You can download the alpha here. But after you do, keep reading...I have a little challenge for you :)
http://www.4shared.com/file/24816254/6a56b128/stitchedgefiberalpha.html

So, now for the challenge. I have been having odd dreams recently, a lot of them are also memories of things I had forgotten. Times at the ocean with friends, things that happened in school, etc. And then there have been some odd dreams that I don't even want to go into or you all are likely to think I am more nuts than I actually am, lol.
So, for the challenge I want to see some layouts made about either a recent dream or a dream that stands out in your head. One so odd you'll never forget it. This is your chance to scrap with no boundaries. Make your pages as fanciful as your dream or however you want. This is all about your creativity and a little view of yourself, not about recording events etc. for future generations. I will be making my page this weekend and posting it in the gallery at Stone Accents Studio. If you care to join me in my challenge either PM me your layout link there or leave it here on my blog and you will get a fanciful mini-kit as your reward. You don't get to see it first...where's the surprise in that lol, but trust me, this kit is all about being eclectic, fun and different just as each and every one of your dreams are.
By the way, this whole idea came out of an odd dream I had last night about being in Ocean City with my friends as a teenager, but trust me none of the events in the dream ever happened when we were really there, although if they had we would have had one wild weekend lol.

PS: Still need more CT people. I'll make you a nifty little animated blinkie ;)

Need a CT that is as nutty as me...

Yup, now that I am feeling quite a bit better and am on a designing roll I need to put together a CT. I have been on a designing roll in the last few days, looking like quite the freak as I sit waiting for my brakes to be fixed or stand waiting for my kids at the bus stop talking to the other moms all while drawing, writing, and scribbling frantically notes in my little notebook of big ideas. I keep finding inspiration, and since I am rather eclectic my kits can be of many different styles so I am seeing ideas everywhere! I now have some items up in the store at Stone Accents Studio, and am running a monthly photography challenge there and will be doing Photoshop tutorials also. So, if anyone has any odd photo questions drop on in the forum and ask away. I have been professionally shooting for about 12 years now, but had my first darkroom when I was 13. I still get nostalgic for the scent of Dektol and Fixer, lol. And it was a great place for a teen to hide away from the parents ("Don't open the door mom, I have paper exposed!") Haha, at least my kids won't pull that on me...what are they going to say - "Careful mom, my USB cable is exposed"? I think not. I actually still have 2 enlargers, and the rest of a full darkroom setup and I keep thinking that one of these days I'll set it all up, break out on of my 2 film Nikons and shoot some B&W, but then I grab my Nikon D100 instead. So, now that I've gotten way off topic, back to the CT thing. I am pretty easy to work with, understand that we all have real lives outside of our digital ones, and that there are times when you can't take something else on. That's why I want a easygoing CT so we can help each other out with stuff when necessary and that a fun hobby (or lifestyle as it seems to have become) stays fun with no crazy pressure. I really want a diverse group. I don't care if you've been doing this for years or are just starting out. I actually think that would help me better see the needs of my customers in the ease of use and fun department. I also gladly take constructive criticism and suggestions for what you (my CT) might want to see in the future. So, don't feel you won't be good enough, or worried that being on the CT will eat up too much time, just let me know if you are interested and I can guarantee it will be a fun experience!

New Freebie and Letting my bad out...

So, this preview doesn't really do these numbers justice, but wait 'til you see them full size. They are fairly large, around 3 or 4 inches each and I think they'd be cool on a bday page, but they still look pretty cool scaled down. Each number is filled with tons of little tiny beads in different colors giving them a bright shimmery effect. And for those of you who may be interested I will be putting the whole alpha upper, lower and punctuation up for sale at Stone Accents Studio. My first couple kits should be up there today sometime. I was sick and missed sending my work in for opening day. This number set and the coordinating alpha actually remind me of SAS since they are unique, shiny and fun. If you stop by our forums you'll see what I mean. The place really feels like home and everyone from staff to members are just amazing people. Each person seems to bring something new to the board, and even if I didn't design for them I would have made it my home anyway. You can grab the number set http://www.4shared.com/file/24603127/8eec70fe/Beaded_Numbers_Freebie.html?dirPwdVerified=5b534dda
Now on to a Kiddie view of behavior. My 6 year old daughter is as wild as they come. She is sweet but she wakes up at 6am and it is hard to get her to fall asleep before 10pm. I truly don't know how she functions considering she never stops moving or talking during that time. So anyway, last night was Back To School night at her school, and her teacher says she is the most quiet, respectful and compassionate child in the class and that she is always on task and never breaks rules. Last year her Kindergarten teacher said pretty much the same thing. So, we asked her how she can be so good at school and always causing some sort of mischief here at home. Her response? "All day long I hold my bad in, and when I get on the bus I let a little out, but when I get home I let it ALL out" lol. That statement was from last spring, but she apparently still follows that rule.

Template Pack Freebie

So, as I said before,I have created a 4 pack of PSD layered templates as a freebie to celebrate the opening of Stone Accents Studio. You can grab the template pack HERE.
If you have not gotten a chance to go over to SAS, check it out! There are a lot of great products, challenges, tutorials, galleries, forums and the works! If you use any of the templates, post them in the SAS gallery and PM me to let me know where to find it and a special treat may appear in your SAS mailbox! Enjoy! -Heather

For some reason the link stopped working. Try copying and pasting this address:
http://www.4shared.com/file/24344547/e725706e/FreebieTemplates.html

Wow, I am finally back online!

After more than a month of nasty illness and mass quantities of meds I am able to join the land of the living again! It is the opening week of Stone Accents Studio and I am finally able to upload stuff to my shop. To celebrate this milestone I will be posting a freebie pack of 4 templates on Sunday for your scrapping pleasure. They are a lot of fun with stitching and glass accents already on them. I hope everyone has been checking out the new store, the whole team has put in immense amounts of work, especially JulieO. They are champs for putting up with my absence and I appreciate each and every one of them! So, aside from checking out the store, stop by their blogs and give them a bit of encouragement for all of their hard work. You can find the links in a post below, and I hope to see you Sunday to snag your template goodies :)

CT Call

Hi all, I need to get myself a CT together to make some layouts and get the word out about my designs over at SAS. I have a rather eclectic style, meaning my kits can range from victorian stuff to messy/wild stuff. A little bit of everything depending on my mood, lol. Anyway, what I need is a team who wants to play with my designs for free and who is willing to make cool layouts with my new kits and post the layouts to SAS, DST, and at least one other gallery of your choice. Every once in awhile I may need some help making kit previews, but mainly just the layouts. So, if you are interested, please email me at Phreephorm(at)yahoo.com with your name, a bit about yourself, and a link to your favorite gallery with your work. Please, if you are interested don't be shy, apply anyway as I am a pretty new designer and would love to help some of you who are also kinda new and who feel they may not be good enough for a CT. Just like I am different in each of my designs, I would love a diverse CT to show all levels of scrappers what can be done with my designs. Thanks, and hope to hear from some of you :)

Feeling SAS-y!!!

So, I am finally able to reveal some news that I've been very excited about for a while now. I am so proud to be a part of the SAS-y designers over at Stone Accents Studio! Let me tell you, not only are these ladies great designers, but they go out of their way to make our site feel comfortable and fun. I hope you'll join us over there in the Forums and the Gallery and not just check out the fun, but think of it as your home as well. We have a lot of cool things planned, and today you can stop by each of our blogs to pick up a goodie and share in our excitement.
You can find my Gardening Mini HERE.

Now stop on by not only to check out Stone Accents Studio,
But go to my fellow designers' pages and pick up their goodies as well!

Julie O
Pillowgirl
Skrapper Digitals
Kara Perrien Designs
CanDesigns
DigiTreats
Terrell S

I can't even begin to explain how excited I am about my fellow SAS-y ladies, and the site itself. Everyone who has worked on it has outdone themselves and I appreciate all of the hard work that has been done. This site promises to be different from others, and I love that everyone involved in it is as excited about it as I am. Now go get your SAS-y treats, lol!

Random Scraps Grab Bag

So, I've been doing a lot of designing recently, but none of the kits are yet to my satisfaction for sharing. In the meantime I have come up with a lot of bits and pieces that I don't think I'll include in anything big, so I decided to do some "Random Scraps" bags. The first one is HERE
There is over 45MB of stuff included, lots of papers, tags, and more, most coordinating. Enjoy, and I will maybe finally have another kit up over the weekend, as the kids are going to my sister's from Saturday until Tuesday. I am very excited about the quiet. Well, the quiet after the party/cookout we are throwing Saturday night in honor of their absence, lol.

Cool Tutorial

I get a cool newsletter called The Photoshop Roadmap. There are always cool things in it from tutorials to brushes. Today there is a great tutorial on Pop-out photos, which I've noticed are getting to be one of the new trends in digi-scrapping. For some reason it won't let me place a hyperlink today, so here's the address: http://www.showandtell-graphics.com/picture-pop-out.html
And the address for the site & newsletter: http://www.photoshoproadmap.com/
Check them out. Very cool.
I am almost done a new kit, based on rock & music. It, like the others keeps getting bigger and bigger, lol. I should have it, or a chunk of it posted within the next few days. The glorious days of my kids being at camp from 8:30-4:00 are over, that lasted 2 weeks, although I am not in the least a morning person so the wake up and drop off was rough, but the quiet days were great. They leave Saturday to spend 3 nights in Virginia Beach visiting my sister with my parents, and then in mid-August they are going to Texas for 10 days with my parents to see my uncle. My parents have also apparently promised to take them camping for several nights at the end of August right before school starts. I'm not sure my parents know what they are getting themselves into since they won't be able to just send the kids home when they get annoying like usual. While I will miss the kids a lot, I am looking forward to the quiet, as my house seems to be a World War 3 battlefield most of the time now with the older one thinking he can discipline the little one, then the shreaking starts, then the physical part of the battle, and I become the referee. My nerves are shot by bedtime which keeps coming later and later as the kids lay in their beds not sleeping but screaming at each other. Did I mention my parents are DRIVING from Maryland to Texas with the 2 kids in the backseat of a Subaru Outback wagon together? I remember those days....It won't be pretty. Perhaps I should send my parents some emergency valium, lol.

The Big Bang phreebie kit

So, I started a small little Independence Day kit to go with the loads of pictures I know I'll take, and ended up with a HUGE kit to share. Not all of the elements are shown in the preview, and you can't really get a feel for the texture and design of the papers from it either. There are 17 papers, 4 alphas (all upper case) and 34 elements included. This kit was a lot of fun to make, I started it using the trial version of PS CS3, and it ran out while I was still working on it. Then I couldn't get my old PS7 to work, even when I reloaded it so I had to reformat my laptop and start from scratch, but it wasn't a huge deal since I had everything backed up. I wiped out my drives to avoid going into PS withdrawal, lol. I didn't have a working copy on my PC for several days and it was getting depressing. I played in CorelDraw, Corel Painter, and Illustrator, but none was close enough to my precious PS to make me happy. Then on Friday my husband bought me CS3 as a get well gift. I have had an extremely bad kidney infection all week, and even though I've been on antiobiotics since Wednesday it has not improved at all, and may have gotten worse. I've had tons of these infections, and 2 kidney stones before, and this is the first time I have had pain from laying on my left side or touching my left kidney area. Usually it hurts, bot not to the touch. I spent much of the weekend doped up and playing in Photoshop. Hopefully it starts to improve soon. I am already on one of the strongest antibiotics, and after being no fun for my kids all last week I made a lot of plans for this week thinking that after this many days of antibiotics I'd feel much improved. Tomorrow One of my friends is coming over with her friend from Florida and her friend's son to go swimming down at our beach with us and to go pick raspberries in the woods. They came over the weekend before last and the kids got along great as we swam, kayaked and crabbed. I need to catch more crabs this week, nothing like Cheasapeake Blue Crabs steamed with Old Bay and the necessary Maryland touch, adding beer to the water for steaming. Yummy! Now that I've rambled on forever, we get to the good stuff. The kit is in 3 downloads in one folder. You can access that HERE. Please remember to TOU and leave me a comment to entertain me if you can! Oh yeah, and I was getting bored with all of the standard 4th of July kit names I could come up with, they had all probably been done, so I went with The Big Bang for a dose of some fireworks and contraversy in one, lol...

Summer Lovin' Part 4, (finally!)

Well. there is still a lot more of this kit to come, but I've managed to package up quite a bit of it today. There are 11 papers, 2 glittery file folders, a couple of felt tags, some small vellum tags, another heart embellishment, 6 photo corners, 3 in each style, 3 ribbons, and because I was extra indecisive, 9 label holders in asst. colors and styles. I couldn't decide which ones I like best. There is still a mess of stuff from this kit to upload, then a smaller July 4th kit, and then a bunch of asst. embellishment sets. The problem in putting them up is never making the stuff, it's packaging it up and making a preview and loading it all that I never seem to get around to despite my best intentions. Oh well, I try, lol. You can get it HERE.

Wow, An Actual Layout, lol!

Well, I got a layout done, and am now working on packaging up some more phreebies for you. This layout was made with the Charlie's World kit from Mermaids Haven, with the exception of the long brown tag which is from the RAKscraps May Mega Kit and was made by T. Williams. Since I am a Professional Photographer it is rare for me to be in a picture, and until this January we had no family pictures. My friend Mike who is also a photographer came over and shot it on our beach at my house for me. I am a very lucky girl whose ancestors picked up a great very large piece of waterfront property. It's been in the family for about 200 years. I like to say we are the only poor people living in this area, and sadly it's not a joke. I have actually been asked who I work for when returning home from taking a walk. I am not a snooty person but reminded him that his family had bought their property from mine. Too bad I don't clean as well as the maid he assumed I was, lol.

More of the Summer Lovin' up soon!

Now that school is out, all activities have ended and life in general is slowing down I should have several more parts to the kit out this weekend. Sorry it has taken so long! I also have some other random freebies and have started a new kit to be given out after Summer Lovin' is done. The only hint you get is that it is music related.

New Look...

Ok, well now my blog is a bit more personalized, but how do I get the whole thing centered, or looking like their is not so much blank space. Any ideas?

Finally getting around to part 3...

Wow. It has been a crazy week around here. School lets out next week, and to go along with that my daughter turns 6 on Sunday. So, we have both Kindergarten plays, promotion ceremonies, 2 school picnics, my 5th grade son's elementary graduation, the party for that, another kid's b-day party Saturday, and then several days of asst. b-day activities for K. She has been so tired out that every bedtime has been a nightmare of tantrums and overtiredness. I still have to buy and wrap her gifts. I have way more of Summer Lovin' to put out, but for the moment here is 15 more pieces. I will try to get more up before the weekend is out, but it probably will be at 1am or some other equally quiet time. Enjoy. You can download HERE.

As always, no hotlinking and please follow TOU. It is pretty open so it shouldn't be hard to do :)

Summer Lovin' Part 2

So, here's part 2. I didn't think I'd have time to put it up today, but luckily our schedule thinned out a bit since I was exhausted anyway. There are still so many more papers and elements for me to package up. It's crazy, I don't remember making so much and I keep getting new ideas and making more. Today there is 3 more papers, some felt tags, gem tags, a 5x7 overlay/frame, and some more different heart elements. Not sure if I am forgetting anything, but I think there is 17 pieces today. Many more tomorrow if I get a chance. My parents are taking the kids and We are heading to a cookout at our friend's house with a bunch of our friends so we can see the puppies one of his German Shepards just had this past week. Very cute! If I get a chance tomorrow it won't be until late again like today, otherwise sometime Monday. You can get part 2 HERE.

New Kit Phreebie "Summer Lovin" Part 1

I have been working on a new kit, "Summer Lovin" and it is getting really large, so I am going to break the downloads up over several days. So far (and I'm still making more of it) there are 8 patterned papers, 5 ribbons, tags, a bunch of glittery elements, silver word art, and a bunch more elements. I can't seem to stop making more, lol. Thanks once again to Seishido for the use of her awesome brushes. Get part 1 HERE.

And now some Circle Papers!

This may be my last post for the day. Four paper sets should make up for my lack of posting over the weekend, lol, and I have several more to post tomorrow. So, for today's finale I give you the Circle Papers. There are 4 different colors in the download, and if you are a Photoshop User you can always select Hue/Saturation and change them (or any papers, etc. for that matter) to fit your layout's color scheme. Enjoy, and download HERE.

Seafoam Papers

I think this may be my favorite set of papers I've done recently. I made them up in Corel Painter and I called them Seafoam because the coloration/texture reminds me of the bubbly foam that is left when waves rush out. There are 2 downloads and I believe 6 papers and once again no preview so I am posting an example from each zip file. The 2 files are in one folder which you can get to HERE.

Squiggle Papers

OK, here's the next paper set. This one actually has a preview :) The brushes are freeware from the very talented Seishido. You can get the papers HERE.

Chalked Papers Phreebie

So, here is the first of many paper sets I plan on uploading today, or as many as I have time to before I pick my daughter up and we head over to her friends house. They caretake a beautiful island near us that has buildings that date back to the 1800's and have a history of first being a summer camp for kids with polio, and then a speakeasy, and the place is very cool. The doctor who originally built it had it all done in brick which was brought to the island. It's really quite amazing. He had a thing for Napolean, a historical whimsy I guess, and had a guard tower and replica jail built on the island as well. There are stables, and still reminders of the camp, metal bunks and all sorts of interesting stuff. I once again had issues creating a preview, so here is a sample paper from the pack. You can download them HERE.

Wow, I have fallen massively behind in my blog efforts. I have many freebies to post and will hopefully get some of them up today. After I said I was putting some up later in the day last Wed. I ended up spending the night at the hospital instead. And each day after that there has either been a party or I've had computer trouble. I can't believe it's been almost a week!

New Phreebies coming up a bit later tonight.

Once again I am going to do two today for missing yesterday, during which I got to spend the majority of my evening and night in the hospital. I have another cool paper pack and some elements, not sure which yet though. I have to dig out my Photoshop CD and reinstall it so I can get everything ready to post. Unfotunately CS3 is going to have to wait a few weeks since I had to spend what we had saved for that for a bunch of medicines and a follow up at my doctor today. Makes me sad, but I can wait a bit for it. If I wait until next week after I sign up for my classes, one of which is advanced Photoshop I can buy the whole suite with all of those programs for less than $600 by buying the educational version since I'll be using it at school. That is more than 50% off the MSRP. I am still using version 7 now, so I wouldn't qualify for the upgrades, and besides, this new suite has updated versions of several other programs I use. Anyway, check back later for more goodies!

2 Phresh Preebies & the perfect excuse for CS3

So, I don't know if I mentioned that I had my husband convinced to buy me the Adobe CS3 suite which has Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver & InDesign among others in it, but I know how to use them all, and now my want for them has possibly become a need. When I went to start up Photoshop to make a preview of todays papers, it kept telling me it had some non-fixable error and was closing. I'll try to reinstall tomorrow, because I'll still need my Photoshop fix while my new software is being shipped, and we are buying it on Tuesday. At any rate, there is only 1 example of the 5 sheets of paper in this pack to show you, but the others look the same but in different color combos. I am also putting the fabric flowers to match the painted ones up, in all 3 sets of colors. In the interest of saving time and space I am only going to post a pic of one of the sets, the other 2 are brights and pastels like my other set. You can get the papers HERE and the fabric flowers HERE. Enjoy, and let me know what you think!

Several Phreebies Later Today.

So, yesterday I didn't get around to posting before we went to a cookout for a friends birthday, and by the time I got home in the wee hours of the morning I couldn't get the internet to work for me. At the moment I have to go save my 11 year old son from the hands of my mom who has turned his relatively easy diorama project into his own abobe clay personal hell, lol. When I get back from the the rescue I have several Phreebies to post to make up for yesterday. Perhaps some fabric flowers in many shades and another cool paper pack or mini kit, not quites sure yet. So, check back later for some goodies!

Still in a Nature Mood...

So, today I decided to interupt the flower stash to instead give out some of the papers I made yesterday when I was playing in Corel Painter. They all have an interesting texture to them and some have leaves and some tendrils of vines. I love playing around in Painter almost as much as I enjoy Photoshop. I am a lucky girl; to have both of those programs along with Adobe Illustrator, CorelDraw, and Macromedia Dreamweaver. I also have several other Adobe programs that I don't use as much. Before life got so hectic with kids and all of their activities I was going to college for graphic design with a web design option.I have also been a Professional Photographer for over 10 years now so I can easily rationalize buying all of this great software. I love a good excuse to play :) I was thinking it might be cool to import the leafy tendril vine from the papers to Photoshop and turn it into a fabric ribbon, so a kit just may end up being made out of these papers. I made about 20 other papers yesterday, as I played well into the night, and straight through til about 3am. That is the only time I know I can enjoy working on the computer without a whining or tattling child joining me. When I had my kids 5 years apart I remembered the good points about that same age difference between my brother and I, but now that mine are older I am definitely remembering all the bad points too, lol. Anyway, you can get the papers HERE. They are pretty big files from all the textures, etc. so it is broken into 3 downloads in one folder.

Fresh Painted Flower "Phreebie"

So, while I have not managed to plant all of my spring plants, I have had a chance to create some painted flowers based on that same favorite flower picture of mine. Which happens to be one of the flowers still sitting sadly beside the door waiting to be placed in the garden. On Mother's Day my children were going to plant them for me as a surprise, but got through a few pansies before they decided it was a boring task. I usually love to garden, but for some reason (Photoshop perhaps?) I have not gotten in the mood for it this Spring. It's been such an odd Spring here in Maryland also, hot one day, freezing the next, so that too has put a damper on my gardening spirit. At any rate, you can download the flowers here. Just like the ric rac they come in several color sets, but for some reason I only made a preview of 2 sets instead of 3. Who knows? I have been making some cool chalked papers in Corel Painter today, so look for them within the next few days.

Another "Phreebie"

So, Todays "Phreebies" are 3 sets of glitter ric rac, all 12" long in pastel, regular and bright colors. They come packaged together and if I can get the previews looking normal (this is literally the 12th time I've tried to post this) you will be able to see all three sets. Many thanks again to Atomic Cupcake for her super actions which have made my husband a Photoshop widow, lol. You can download the files HERE.

HELP PLEASE!

Hi, I want a really cool blog but am new to blogger. Can anyone tell me how to customize this? I have a relatively good knowledge base in web design and html but don't want to screw the whole thing up. Thanks!

Really Crappy Week...And My 1st "Phreebies"

So, it's been a rough few weeks here, I have been really sick and even had to miss a week of work due to a kidney stone and kidney infection. To top it off, on Friday I got fired for not making my full time hours due to the illness. I have spent the weekend in bed feeling sorry for myself, making Mother's Day a miserable event for both me and my kids, but on the plus side I got lots of Photoshop time and created a bunch of freebies, the first of which is a kit with no name. It is created from a picture of a flower that I shot and a lot of really cool Atomic Cupcake actions. I hope you like it, and I also hope I figure out how to put it on here OK.
Here is the link. (I hope, lol)

Heather needs...

So, I've been sick all week, and have worked on lots of freebies that I hope to get up this week. In the meantime, here's my google "Heather needs" list, lol.

1.Heather Needs Men ...Now!(I'm sure my hubby of 11 years would disagree)
2.HEATHER NEEDS NEW BOOBS(Really? Mine are actually huge so smaller would be nice.)
3.Heather needs to start wearing a brassier(I never go without, lol)
2.Congratulated for defending herself from unkindness
3.Two therapists
4.A rest
5.To access information ubiquitously to provide…(huh?)
6.To stick to her career as a country artist(I'm a photographer,is that OK?)
7 To find the right balance between emotions and logic (this would be good...)
8.A family who will commit to her one hundred percent
9.Heather Needs Some BodyGuards (I wasn't aware that I was in so much danger
10.Heather 'needs £10000 a day'(how much is that in US funds?)
11.Heather needs to impress US
12.Heather Needs Gatorade. (I am kinda thirsty, lol)

I've resisted long enough...

So, I've resisted long enough. I've finally broke down and started a blog. Mainly to record all the weird things my kids do and say, and to post my scrapbooking layouts and freebies for digi-scrapping. There may also be a side of knitting, photography or whatever weirdness pops into my head at that time. I guess I'll start off with a Kaeli story. So, we were heading down 665 the other day when Sinead O'Connor came on the radio. I turned it down and told Kaeli how Sinead is from Ireland and how she liked to have a shaved head. Kaeli's response..."So does Britney, but she did it herself." Uhhh, Kaeli is 5. How the hell did she know that? So, I asked her. She got a snooty little tone and replied "Uh, I do watch the news you know." OK then.