Morning Sun Designs

New Kit from A-liya

2010-04-16T20:38:00.003-04:00

A-liya has a beautiful new kit out called "Treasures of My Heart".

Hope you are enjoying the beauty of spring this week!

New A-liya Kit

2010-04-07T11:18:00.003-04:00

A-liya released a lovely new kit with some beautiful Easter elements and soft spring colors. It's so dreamy. You can find her new kit "This Day's Wonders" at Sunflower Scrap.

There is a new photography class Fundamentals of Digital Photography by John Greengo starting today at 2pm EST. I highly recommend it! John's photography classes are nothing short of amazing! Definitely a must see!

Hope you're having a wonderful day!

New Sunflowers Kit

2010-04-04T22:00:00.004-04:00

Sunflowers has a great new kit out called "Child of Nature". It's full of all kinds of flowers, greenery and lots of wonderfully earthy elements. Definitely a must have.

The flowers have been stunning this spring. I think the cold weather really gave all the trees and flowers an extra boost, it really is stunning!

Hope your Easter was wonderful!

Please Do Not Disturb

2010-03-20T21:55:00.003-04:00

A-liya has a beautiful new kit out today called "Please Do Not Disturb" . It's got a wonderfully refreshing feel to it as well as lots of unique elements!

Here are my two layouts! I was very pleased with both of them and I particularly like the first one!

The weather this week is positively divine! Hope you're enjoying great weather as well!

New Lilas Kit "Precious Moment"

2010-03-18T10:59:00.004-04:00

Today Lilas released another stunning kit, Precious Moment . The colors are so delightful and I had a great time putting together my two pages. It's overflowing with lots of great goodies and she even has a beautiful add-on freebie on her blog. There's a contest to win two free kits of your choice or one kit of your choice by submitting a layout using her add-on.

Hope you're having a great week!

New Sunflowers Kit

2010-03-17T10:20:00.006-04:00

Sunflowers Designs has another great kit! Definitely a fresh, clean look with a very springtime feel to it! It's called Spring Fever and you can find it at Pickleberry Pop .

"Spring Fever"

"Spring Flower"

Lots of stuff going on this week so I should have more layouts posted, tomorrow and Friday! Busy, busy, busy! :)

Sale at Creative Victorian Designs

2010-03-16T16:36:00.003-04:00

Just thought I'd pass on a great sale that Netta is having from March 16 - March 18th at her store Creative Victorian Designs. Everything is 40% off for these three days! A great opportunity to stock up on some wonderful kits and CU items!!!!

And check out my newest CD albums while you're there!

I hope the spring weather has found it's way to you. I currently have crocus and daffodils blooming in the yard!!! Spring at last!

Shabby Country Life

2010-03-08T16:30:00.003-05:00

Sunflowers Designs came out with another great kit today called Shabby Country Life! It's got lots of beautiful flowers and organic elements. Not to mention an amazing alphabet! Here's the two layouts I did!

Looks like spring may finally be arriving here in Virginia. This weekend was in the high fifties, low sixties! Can't wait for the spring flowers to start peeking out!!

New Kit by A-liya

2010-02-26T20:09:00.003-05:00

Just wanted to share my two newest layouts using A-liya's new kit called "I Fell in Love with Spring". It's perfect for all your romantic layouts not to mention those carefree spring moments you've captured! I love all the great flowers in it, not to mention all the PINK! Gotta love pink!

Hope you're looking forward to spring as much as I am!

New Shape Albums at CVD

2010-02-26T13:25:00.004-05:00

Just wanted to share two of the shape albums I made which were released today over at Creative Victorian Designs. The first one is from Dino Prime and the second one is from Unicorn Purity. They are both teaming with lots of great elements, especially the unicorns and dinosours! Very cool stuff.

I am seeing lots of hints of spring in the air, hope mother nature isn't just teasing us! :)

2010-02-25T09:54:00.003-05:00

I just finished up two new layouts for Sunflowers Designs using her kit Happy Dayz. The colors are perfect for adding a bit of brightness and fun to a layout. Especially with spring not to far off! :)

That cute girl in the pink dress is me! :) I scanned in some of my old photos so I could use them for layouts. It's tough only have nephews to scrap with.

The snow if finally melting here. Looiking forward to some spring days ahead!

Romantic Purple

2010-02-19T22:00:00.003-05:00

Just wanted to share a few layouts I did with Lilas newest kit, Romantic Purple. It's got a great mix of elements for almost any style of layout. Plus some beautiful word art! It's gorgeous!

"Magic Mirror"

"Sweetness"

"Love"

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

New Layout

2010-02-09T21:05:00.005-05:00

I just had to share a layout I did with the latest Lorie Davison kit Called "Greymouse Manor Winter Ball". I had so much fun working on it. I spent quite a bit of time adding a slight purple hue to the elements to give the layout continuity as well as make it more believable for a night time scene. And I am pleased to say that Lorie Davison saw it in the Digishoptalk gallery and comment on it! :) I am just beaming with pride. I'd say it's my favorite layout to date.

"Ticket to Swan Lake"
Greymouse Manor Winter Ball, Flitting Fall Faeries, Faerily Moonlit by Lorie Davison
Clouds by Creative Victorian Designs

The wintery weather continues for us here in Virginia. I am happy to say the daffodils are poking up through the ground, so hopefully spring won't be too far behind!

Have a great week!

New Valentine Kit from A-liya

2010-02-08T22:39:00.003-05:00

A-liya has another great kit out in time for Valentine's Day. It's called Valentastic Day! (Love the name!) Loves of fun and romantic elements for all your scrapping needs. Take a peek!

And here's the two layouts I did with it!

Brothers Forever

Love You Both

It's been crazy here, lots and lots of snow that doesn't seem to end! I can't remember the last time we had weather like this. Reminds me of growing up in Vermont.

Read a great book called "The Public Domain" by Stephen Fishman. Lots of great detail information about what is and isn't in the public domain and how to find public domain items to use. I really enjoyed his easy to understand approach to the material. He also broke the book up in to chapters on specific topics, like art, photography, books, music, etc... That way you could concentrate on the parts that you were interested. Definitely recommend it!

Hope you're having a great week, despite any bad weather you may be having! :)

Good Night Moon

2010-02-05T11:19:00.003-05:00

Sunflowers Designs released another great kit this morning. It's a collab with Anja J called Good Night Moon. I had so much fun working with this kit I did three layout! :) I especially enjoyed the carriage layout. I getting better and better at the extracted fantasy style layouts. I guess practice makes perfect. Her new kit is available at Pickleberry Pop and Digital Scrapbook Art. Enjoy!

Looks like another snowy weekend here in Virginia! Hopefully that means I can get caught up on my sewing and scrapping!
Stay warm everyone!

New Layouts

2010-02-02T21:29:00.006-05:00

I did two new layouts using Sunflowers Designs kit Rosy Cheeks! It is full of great flowers and beautiful elements. I had a great time doing these two layouts. The pinks and blue together make such an amazing combination.

Beautiful Baby

Rosy Cheeks by Sunflowers Designs

Laughter is the Best Medicine

Rosy Cheeks by Sunflowers Designs

I've got several more kits to do layout for! Plus a new One Kit Call which is going to be a blast! Busy, busy. I'm really looking forward to Rosane Olson's Lighting class at Creative Techs tomorrow. Wish it were a 10 week class instead of a 5 week class.

Here's a few photos I took of my nephews this weekend.

Hope you're having a wonderful week!

A-liya's New Kit

2010-01-27T18:30:00.003-05:00

Check out A-liya's new kit. It's a collab with Adelina called "Forever and Always". It's overflowing with beautiful elements and gorgeous papers. Definitely a great deal! Here's a preview of it.

Here are the two layouts I did with it!

Friends Forever

Forever

Have a wonderful day!

Endless Story

2010-01-19T18:52:00.004-05:00

Well I am thrilled to be joing A-liya's CT Team! She was the first designer I won a RAK from at Digishop Talk, and I've been hooked ever since! Her new kit, Endless Story is just stunning. Lots of elegant elements and great papers, it was lots of fun working on my designs using it.

Here's the kit:

And here are my two layouts!

Endless Love

Endless Story by A-liya

Full of Love

Endless Story by A-liya

More layouts coming soon! I've been very busy. :) Have a great week!

New Kit by Sunflowers Designs

2010-01-18T19:12:00.006-05:00

Sunflowers Designs has a great new kit out just in time for Valentine's Day! Lots of fun and romantic elements to fit most any layout style!

Here are the two layouts I did with them!

Forever in Love
2 Love Is 2 Be by Sunflowers Designs

Full of Love

2 Love Is 2 Be by Sunflowers Designs

Hope your week is off to a great start.

Two New Bracket Albums at CVD

2010-01-17T19:07:00.006-05:00

Two of my bracket albums were released yesterday at Creative Victorian Designs. The first one is from the Gallant Intentions kit and the second one is from Perpetual Mischief. I had a lot of fun working both of them, they have such a great selection of unique elements it made the pages so easy to put together.

I've been busy scrapping lots of layout for the After Five Designs January Challenges. I must say these two layouts were a lot of fun and turned out just how I hoped (wish that happened every time)! The colors in both designs are some of my favorites!

Dreams Come True

Light up the Night kit - January A5D Collab

Resolutions

Live, Laugh, Love by Createwings Designs

More layouts to come! Hope you had a great weekend!

Great New Kit from Sunflowers Designs

2010-01-15T12:07:00.004-05:00

Sunflowers Designs is giving away a gorgeous new kit called Mellow for free for one week! I already downloaded it and finished a layout with. Here's a preview of it

Here's the layout I did with it.

She also has a great sale going on now until Jan 21st.

Enjoy your weekend!

Lighting Class

2010-01-13T17:03:00.003-05:00

I just finished watching the first lesson on Lighting by Rosanne Olson at the Creative Techs live web classroom. This week she went over using natural lighting for portrait photography. She is a fantastic teacher and I learned alot in just this one class. She recommended getting a stryofoam mannequin head to use for practicing lighting techniques. They are relatively inexpensive and allow you to learn how light falls on the human face. She spent a fair amount of time going over the importance of learning to identify the direction of light in photos. Mainly through the placement of catch lights in the eye and shadows on the face, specificly the nose. I was very interested in her discussions on using reflected to fill in the dark areas on the face for the proper effect. I can't wait to practice using a fill card to reduce the shadows. Can't wait for our next class!

I recently was chosen to join A-liya's CT team. I've always loved her work and I already have quite a few of her kits. I worked with her latest kit and finished up two pretty layouts. The kit should be coming out soon. I also did another two layouts for Sunflowers Designs, plus a bracket album for Creative Victorian Designs! Busy, busy, busy!!!

Hope you are having a warm sunny week!

Contest

2010-01-06T19:15:00.006-05:00

I got the most beautiful kit at After Five Designs as part of their On the House Challenge. It's called Vintage White by Lily Designs. WOW! Is it every gorgous. I couldn't get over the number of elements included in the kit. Here's my the layout for the challenge.

A Day Without Rain

Vintage White and White Chocolate by Lily Designs

I also did another layout using K Studio's Pomegranate Twist. I so love this kit as it has lilacs in it. I am so enamoured with lilacs. Plus the colors are to die for! :)

Curious

Pomegranate Twist by K Studios

I watched the John Greengo photography show today. He was talking with Rosanne Olson about her photography work. Talk about inspiring. Her black and white photographs were amazing. I was very impressed with her use of blur to add focus to her images. The effect was very powerful. It's funny how we are told again and again to get everything in focus and once we have that figured out, they go and change the rules! ;) I am really looking forward to the start of her four week class on lighting next week.

Hope today finds your full of happiness!

Busy Scrapping

2010-01-04T19:54:00.004-05:00

Well today I decided to work a bit on some embroidery projects that had been building up while I've been so busy scrapping. I actually made some pretty good progress so I rewarded myself by doing another fantasy layout. I'm really happy with this one. It has a very similar feel to the one I just complete, but on this one I tried to incorporate a few more whimsy elements.

Wonders of the Forest

Flitting Fall Faeries, Drifting Snow and Flying Dreams by Lorie Davison

Today was the first day of the Creative Techs Photoshop CS4 Handbook. Looks like it going to be a great class with lots of details on working with Photoshop from a photographer's point of view! All these photoshop classes have really helped pumped up my skills and move my layouts to the next level. Now I just need to get an updated version on PS and I will be all set!

Hope you have a fabulous week!

New Layouts

2010-01-03T09:11:00.005-05:00

I've been busy this weekend. I did three more new layouts. I've been trying to expand my style a bit. I have several kits by Lorie Davison and K Studios that are more outside my typical scrapping style and I've really wanted to push my boundaries a bit. Here they are!

Live the Life

Drifting Snow and Flitting Fall Faeries by Lorie Davison

Perfectly Imperfect

Pomegranate Twist by K Studio

My Happiness

One and Only by Mystique

Hope your staying warm on this very cold winter day!

New Kits

2010-01-02T08:52:00.006-05:00

Well all these holiday sales means I now have piles of great digital scrapbooking kits just waiting to be used.

I spent last night working on a new bracket album using the Dragon Ascendancy kit from Creative Victorian Designs. I was a bit nervous because it's not my typical style kit, but I had a blast working with it and for once I wasn't getting low on ideas by my last page! I'll post a photo once it's available on CVD.

I also worked on a personal layout last night using Mary Pop Designs' Winter is Coming kit. The colors are some of my favorite and it's got a winter theme, what more could one want? I am very happy with it. Can't wait to work on a few more layouts with it.

Have a great day!

New Bracket Album

2010-01-01T19:33:00.004-05:00

Here's my newest bracket album that I did for Netta over at Creative Victorian Designs. I used the Enchanted Solitude kit. I adore the beautiful blues and greens, plus the glow trails and flowers were stunning. I had a lot of fun working on this.

I had thought at first it might be hard to work with the bracket shape after working strictly with straight lines up to this point, but I adore the bracket design, and now almost all my QP work is with that shape. Who'd have guessed?

Sending out good wishes that your new year is all that you dreamed of.

Up and Running

2009-12-29T14:30:00.003-05:00

Well the good news is this post is being done on my new computer! I've gotten most all my software set up and ready to go. Now I just need to transfer my external hard drive over and I will be done.

I have decided to try out ACD See Photo Manager for organizing my digital scrapbooking supplies. I've been very frustrated not being able to see any of my white png elements without bringing them in to Photoshop first. It just ends up taking way to much time and so I don't end up using those elements which is a shame. The only downside so far with ACD See is that it supposedly doesn't work well with Windows 7. I downloaded a thirty day trial to see how I liked it. So far it has worked fine, but I also haven't really spent a whole lot of time pushing it to see how it does. I'd love to be able to buy the full version if it works with my operating system. I'll post my progress with it.

Creative Victorian Designs is having a huge sale on the retirement room. Everything is 65% off. I stocked up on tons of stuff. I can't resist a good deal. Here's the flyer.

I got two pet photography books and a CS4 Layers book from my Amazon wish list for Christmas! Can't wait to sit down and read them. I'll let you know what I think as soon as I've read them.

Have a wonderful day!

2009-12-28T06:53:00.002-05:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! I've been busy getting my new computer set up. I got a great deal on a new desktop system on Black Friday and I've been holding off setting it up until after Christmas. The best thing is that I will finally have sound, my old PC has been without sound for over a two years now, you don't know how annoying it will be until you go that long without it. With my new system I will be going with two monitors. This is going to make doing layouts so much nicer as I can have one screen strictly for the folder I am working out of and one screen for Photoshop!

So far the transfer has gone really well. I already have the new computer up, running and on the internet. I am now trying to get all my software installed on it. Having an external hard drive will make transfering all my thousands of scrapbooking supplies over a breeze!

There is a new online photoshop class starting over at Creative Techs call Photoshop CS4 Photographer's Handbook. I've already signed up. I have been thrilled with the quality of their online classes so far and learned an enormous amount. I highly recommend signing up and best of all it's free!

Hope you have a wonderful Monday!

2009-12-24T11:57:00.004-05:00

I was busy this morning doing my digital shopping. There have been tons of fabulous sales on digital scrapbooking supplies and I've been stocking up!

Yesterday I worked on a new layout. I did the layout with and without text and sent it out with text as my New Year's card. Here's the version without text. It's done primarly with Lorie Davison's Drifting Snow kit. Her kit is truly a work of art. I've done lots of layouts with it and never seem to run out of ideas. That's my crew running through fresh snow after our first real storm in ages.

"Winter Escape"

Drifting Snow kit by Lorie Davison
Brushes by Obsedian Dawn
Leaves by A-liya
Branch by Helly Designs
Branch by Lilas

May all your Christmas wishes come true this year and your holiday be full of love and happiness.

New Layouts

2009-12-23T11:11:00.004-05:00

Thought I'd share a few layouts I did with Sunflowers kit "Warm Hearts".

You can see the kit here:

Now's the time to pick up anything on your wish list since her sale has already started at PBP!

Wishing everyone a wonderful Christmas!

Icy Kissed

2009-12-21T12:04:00.006-05:00

I recently joined Sunflowers Designs fabulous CT! I got a chance to work with her newest kit, Icy Kissed, which just came out today. I love all the blue and white elements. It really captures the feel of winter, especially since we have 20" of snow on the ground right now.

Here's the two layouts I completed with the kit.

Here's a look at her new kit:

She has a big sale coming up starting Decmeber 24th, 50% off on all her items. A great opportunity to stock up! :)

I hope all your holiday preprations are going well and your shopping is done!

My Kit and a Freebie

2009-08-28T19:14:00.003-04:00

I am thrilled to finally be to post a some pictures of my first kit "Morning Sun", some layouts I did, and a new freebie QP. I had a lot of fun putting together my layouts. I have really enjoyed using th sun rays overlay in my designs, it seems to add a nice glow to the clusters I created.

My hope is that once I get a few more kits together I can start looking for a digital scrapbooking store to sell my kits in. Right now I'd like to be actively seeking a "home" for my work by the end of September. I always find that it helps me to have a deadline to keep me moving! :)

So here's my kit, the elements, papers, and layouts.

Now here's the QP freebie I created from my kit. Enjoy!

Download from 4Shared

My First Scrapbooking Freebie

2009-08-24T21:53:00.008-04:00

I have officially completed my first digital scrapbooking kit! The title is "Morning Sun". I must say it was a lot of fun, though a bit intimidating as this was my first attempt to put a full size kit together on my own. I am lucky to have a nice selection of commercial use items to help round the elements I included.

My inspiration came from the morning glories that grow in my yard. You can see Griffin here posing with one when he was just a pup. (This photo won me a $500 jewelry gift certificate!)

In the next day or two I will be posting some of the previews of my kit as well as layouts that I have completed.

To celebrate my first creation, I have a freebie, a cluster frame that I created. I'd love to get any feedback on my work, so please feel free to leave a comment or drop me an email.

Download from 4shared

Thanks!

My New Digital Scrapbooking Home

2009-08-21T15:03:00.003-04:00

Welcome to my blog! This is my first adventure into the world of blogging. I hope to feature some of my digital scrapbooking creations, photos and other design work here. I just finished up my blog layout last night. What a task that was. Having never worked with CSS(web code) I found all of it a bit intimidating. Luckily, I stumbled across some great tutorials that walked you through the process of customizing a blog. Hope you enjoy my finished product!

I really wanted my blog theme to reflect some of my style and design inspirations. I hope to occasionally do an overhaul of the style to keep things current with my scrapbooking trends. I'd also like to add a gallery and collection of great links to digital scrapbooking and photoshop tutorials.

In the coming weeks look for me to begin adding some digital scrapbooking freebies (S4H friendly and CU). I'm just beginning to get some scrapbooking kits together and I've been so busy extracting elements from photos that I think my computer may go on strike soon!

"Nothing happens unless first a dream." - Carl Sandburg