Sunday, August 24, 2008

Monday Already!!

Where did the weekend go????? I swear the weekends disappear a lot faster than they ever used to!! I never seem to get enough done out of my weekends. I would love to flip flop the week with the weekends!LOL! 5 day weekend and 2 day work week. I could get so much more scrapping done!!LOL!


Sunday we celebrated our granddaughter's 6th birthday and her Auntie got her this toy called "pixo"--now mind you all I never heard of pixo-but this is all she has wanted for the last six months. Every time she saw the commercial it was "I want that"! So Auntie found it at Walmart and got it for her. OMG! You should have seen this sweet child when she opened that gift. She was soooo excited-she said "I should have known I was getting this, I should have known I would get this for my birthday. Thank you Auntie, thank you"! Now never mind the game boy DS mom and dad got her or any of the other gifts--just "Pixos"--although grandpa and myself did get a very happy response for her High School Musical card and tee shirt that has High School Musical on it--she was so into singing to the music in the card that she let the money inside just drop to the floor hahaha! but the biggest hit of the day was Pixo. She was just toooo funny.


I made a LO out of Michelle McCoy's new kit "School Dayz" and I have a freebie for you too. Yes--my first freebie! The kit is on sale here.
This is my dear granddaughter Paige. I thought I would use her for a LO because it was her birthday weekend.

Now for the freebie part. Michelle gave me permission to give you the QP from this LO, and there is another surprise in there but you have to download to see the surprise.


You can get it here http://www.4shared.com/file/60338619/f75f5e34/schooldayz.html That's all for today. Until next time take care and have fun!!

Friday, August 22, 2008

One Week Down!!

My first week of blogging is over! I had fun--how about you??LOL!! Now I feel like I can just settle in and feel right at home.:)

I was working on a LO and I just couldn't decide which one I liked better-so I will post both. I posted the busier one with the flower arch in the galleries already--but I really like the less busier one as well. So, just for the fun of it, let me know what you think. I would kind of like to see what the majority thinks.

Both are made with Kim Broedelet's and Bunny Cates kit "I Believe" and I used Jazzieal's wordart "All About Fairies"





This first one is with the sparkle curtain in the I Believe kit.


This one is with starry sky in the I Believe kit, the flower arch is by NatashaNaST, and the different colored fairy is by Dawn Inskip.

That's it for today- Hope everyone has a good weekend. Till next time take care and have fun.

Paula


Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Where Did the Day Go????

Today has gone by soooooo fast! Of course, as most of you know I do work full time outside of my home-(9 hour days) as an office manager and I have 2 girls under me--well both girls needed off today so I was by myself, and of course my boss was there to help answer phones. But not only are we an extremely busy office, but we also have a tanning business and a laundromat. The laundromat is self serve so that requires very little attention, but the tanning booths are full service. When I got there this morning there were no appointments-NONE-Zilch! So I thought well that's good-than I can tend to my normal duties and not worry. WRONG! It's like everyone wanted to tan today. Than on top of that I have payroll to do too-and answer phones, pay bills, etc. etc. etc. So needless to say the day went fast. Than I get home and I have a page or two I want to get finished so I can post them to my blog here and the phone keeps ringing. First call wants to take a survey on what kind of tv shows we watch-told him I don't have time, but thank you for calling and click I hang up!LOL!! Than the Sheriff's Association wants a donation-can't give right now but thanks for calling-click hang up!LOL! Than I got two more calls--now mind you, I am on the NO-CALL list for these telemarketing companies-so why am I getting all these calls!!??LOL! I don't get it--why have a no-call list if they can still call you??? Well enough of that-let's get onto some fun things.

Jazzy at DSO has some new wordart going up in the store tomorrow and here are the previews for them.


You can purchase them here.
I just love her wordart!! Here are a couple pages I made with the new wordart.

I used some goodies from Kimb's new grab bag too. She has the full reveal listed on her blog go check it out!!! She has such beautiful CU stuff. And I used some elements from her and Bunny's "I Believe kit" too. The WA on this page is from "When You Dance" set. The picture is of 3 of my dear sweet granddaughters.


This one I made for the Jazzy's photo op challenge at DSO. The challenge is about making a page where you have to alter the photo in some way-in this case I actually blended two photos together-the first photo is with the bee and the thistle. I duplicated the layer and reduced the opacity-than used an eraser to uncover just the bee and thistle so they would pop-the second photo was of the dog laying in the grass-I again duplicated the photo and lowered the opacity and erased the dog part so he pop a little and than did some blending to blend both photos together so they looked like one. It was a lot of fun!! You definately need to go check out that challenge, because they describe what they did to the photo so you are getting some really good tips on photo editing!! They would sure love to have you join in on the challenges. Kim does the color challenge and that one is pretty popular. She gives you a color swatch and you have to make a LO using those colors, or mini kit if you would like, and let me tell you the mini kits that everyone makes turns into one huge MEGA kit for the month--plus you get the posting gift from Kim for joining in the fun. Now how can you beat that??LOL!!! Go check out the color challenge here and here are the colors she's using this month and the posting gift too.
What's great about this challenge is you can use the freebie mini kits posted for the challenge to make your page with-than you get the free posting gift as well. Can't beat that!!!:) Well I'm off to bed now so until next time take care and have fun!!
Paula

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Thank you!!

WOW! What a nice welcome from all of you. I want to thank you all for the beautiful comments! I appreciated each and every one of them.
How many of you work hours on a LO and than in the end delete it??? I have done that myself so many times. You get an idea, or maybe you don't have any idea at all, and you start to create a page only to delete it !! There went 5 hours down the drain.LOL! I have so many different ways of getting started on a page-most of the time I have no clue how I want to do it. Sometimes I find a kit I absolutely love-than proceed to try and find a photo to go with it, and other times I have a photo I really want to scrap-so than I start the hunt for the right kit. Sound familiar to anyone??? One of the pages I want to showcase today is one that I had a kit to use and had to find a photo to use. I absolutely loved the fabric paper in this kit and I didn't know how I was going to use it, but by high or low water I was going to use it!!LOL!! Even tho the page is basically a simple concept it still took me over 6 hours to make because I didn't know how I was going to make it. Than I started playing around with the photo effects and tried different photos until I found the right photo I wanted to use and the right look from the effects. What's so great about scrapping is there is no right or wrong way to do it. You are scrapping your memories for your enjoyment and to hand down to your children and grandchildren. Being able to post them in different galleries is just a bonus and of course a way to show off your pictures of your loved ones, right!!?LOL! Or just to get a little feedback on what you did. Here is the LO I made with the fabric paper.

This is not my usual style, and really different from what I normally do-but I really liked how it turned out. My GS's eyes are so mesmerizing I love being able to focus on them whenever I can. I used Deanne Gow-Smith's kit Purple Power which can be found here at DSO. The word art is from Bethany.
Well I have to cut it short for now--I need to get to work. Until next time take care and have fun!!
Paula

Sunday, August 17, 2008

My First Post!!!

I finally decided to take the plunge into digital blogging!! Heck until I got into digital scrapbooking I didn't even know what a blog was! Now it's just part of everyday language for me.LOL! Basically I created this blog for the purpose of bragging about the designers that I create layouts for-hence the blog name "Pkdoll's Bragbook".

My name is Paula, better known as pkdoll in the forums, and I got into digital scrapbooking about 1 1/2 years ago. I was just getting started in learning to paperscrap, (which my first thoughts were wow this is way too time consuming and messy) when I went online and googled scrapbooking to look for supplies and ideas on what others were doing. That is when I discovered ScrapbookMax and the art of digital scrapping. I downloaded their trial software and started immediately creating layouts and thought this is GREAT! So I ordered the full blown software program and began my new venture of creating memories digitally. Let me tell you it is sooo much easier than the paper scrapping and I have never once looked back. I became soooo obsessed with it that I was doing pages and looking for other ways to make things and listening to all my newfound friends in the forums that it wasn't long before I purchased another program called Photoshop Elements. PSE blew me away with all the extra capabilities you had with making, enhancing, altering and creating things that I decided to take a class at my local technical college on learning photoshop basics and some advanced features as well. I immediately became hooked on the full blown Photoshop program that I just had to have it!! I do most of my page creations in PS now, but I still use SBM as well for some of the pages I create. A lot of times I will create some elements or do some photo editing in PS than bring it into SBM to put a page together. It all depends on what I am working on and which designer I am creating for. When I create for the designers at SBM I like to use the SBM program to show the ease and versatility of that program; but when I work on pages for the other designers it is all done in PS.
I was having a really hard time trying to decide what my first post was going to be about and here I am babbling about myself.LOL!! I would like to send a special "Thank you" to my good friend and one of the designers I CT for MICHELLE-also known as "Wolvsie" for creating my blog banner at the top. I LOVE how it turned out GF! Thank you sooooo much!! Also I want to thank all of the designers that I work with for giving me the opportunity to work with their wonderful kits and allowing me to grow in learning new techniques and creating memories!!! Thank you goes to MOONBEAM (Deanne Gow-Smith @ SBM) she was the very first one to ask me to be on her team-I was so honored for that invitation Deanne-what a boost for one's ego.:) - than there is Michelle (Wolvsie @ Crafty Scraps and SBM) she was my second, and it just so happens she lives by me as well and we have an awesome friendship going on!!:) Than I want to send a Thank you to Kim (Kimb's Designs @ DSO) and Linda (Jazzieal @ DSO )!! Jazzy is the head CT member for Kim Broedelet and she and Kim had asked me to be a guest CT one month and I never left! LOL!! I am also CTing for Jazzy's new designing career at Words to Delite. And than last but by no means least there is Fiona (Angelwithin designs @ SBM)! Thank you Fiona for honoring me with the invitation to create pages for you too. I have the highest respect for each and every one of you because designing digital papers and embellishments and word art takes a special talent and a HECK of a lot of work. After trying to make a few small elements and papers of my own I have a new found respect for those of you that can do this--it takes many hours and a lot of talent to come up with new and exciting kits for people to scrap their memories with. So here's my big THANK YOU!!!!! And I love all of you!!!

WOW! this post really got long didn't it!! Hope everyone is still with me here. I would like to post a few layouts now and I decided that I was going to do these for my brother and his family. I don't get to see him and his family very often and I miss them dearly--so when I went to visit them last year I took lots of pictures and coaxed and coaxed my brother into giving me photos that he had of his family (mostly the grandchildren-because that is what he had on the computer)-his kids are all grown and we just didn't have the time to scan all the pictures of them growing up--but I was extremely happy to get what I could from him! So here are a few LO's to start you with and I will add more in another post. I promise that I will not be so long winded in future posts! LOL!!




This is my brother's oldest daughter (My Niece) and her daughter. I used a collab kit by Kim Broedelet and Bunny Cates called "I Believe". Jazzieal (Linda) lost her daughter Lori suddenly in February and she loved Fairies, so they made this kit for her. I love working with this kit-it is so versatile, and magical and just gorgeous. The word art on this page is by Jazzieal.

These two beautiful ladies are my Nieces. It was so good to be able to visit with them last year and to see how they have grown into such wonderful caring women. I did this LO for a Quote Challenge at DSO. This is my first attempt at a blended overlay. Thank you CARENA for the tut on how to do this!! I used Kim Broedelet's Storybook Romance kit for this and you can find it at DSO.


Another one of my great niece -this time with her father. I just thought these pics were adorable!!! I used Fiona Storey's kit Photographs & Memories-and you should check out her other kits at SBM
Well that's it for today folks! I have lots more to show you-so please return often to see what else I have up my sleeve. :) I am hoping to offer you some freebies in the near future as well. Till next time take care and have fun!!
Paula