Christmas Around the World

Today is the day! The Christmas Around the World collab kit has been posted. This is the kit of kits. It's colossal and it's absolutely beautiful. In my opinion, they couldn't have picked a more appreciated color pallet to work from. I know I'm having a blue Christmas this year (3rd in a row for me) and many others are too. It's hard times for many folks and sad times for some too. But there is nothing hard or sad about this collaboration. You can make beautiful, fun, elegant, cheery, somber, sophisticated, quite or joyous scrap pages from the all the freebies offered here. There is something for everybody!

Here is one example from the 113 designers who are participating...


Isn't it wonderful?

So clear yourself some room on your hard drive (a lot of room!) and free up some time to download this fabulous collab kit. And don't forget to thank the designers who are giving us this kit for free!

I'm Back!

You're probably thinking I've given up on this blog. OK, I guess I have. But I didn't intend to!!! I never intended the hiatus I started back in June to last 5 months. A funny thing happened when I took a short break from blogging about scrapbooking... I realized I like designing scrapbook pages more than I like writing about designing scrapbook pages. And I just don't have time to do both :-(

However, I have now started a monthly column called "Captured Moments". It's about scrapbooking and it's hosted on my friend footnoteMaven's blog, Shades of the Departed. It's a part of her "Weekend With Shades" series and my inaugural article was published last Sunday. Elements of a Great Scrapbooking Page, suggests things to think about when designing a genealogy/family historian's scrapbook page. There's more to a good page than just throwing up some photos and a few decorative elements. I invite you to head over and check it out and see if you can't pick up a tip or two. Let me know what you think!

Genealogy Charts for Digi-Scrappers

I know I've really been slacking off on posting to this blog and I apologize for that. Unfortunately, the pace of my blogging won't be picking up any time soon either. I'm starting my summer writing project which means the time I would have spent posting blog articles will have to be channeled into time spent writing my family history (one branch of my family history that is!).

Before I completely refocus in another direction, I'd like to share one more digi-scrapping kit that will be appreciated by all my genealogy buddies. This kit is called Wyvern's Lineage Series and it's offered on the Wyverns Scrap Den blog by Susan. This kit consists of a series of beautiful genealogy charts designed in the standard 12"x12", 300 dpi format. The pastel colors have a nice vintage look to them and there are even a set of blank pastel pages to use with them for companion pages. They're just lovely! Take a look...





And here's a sample image that Susan created using these pages...
Susan has included a few coordinating elements and may have more to come in the future. I think these pages are absolutely fantastic and I want to send a note of thanks out to one of my favorite digi-scrap designers, Kyra, for letting me know about Susan's kit. THANK YOU, KYRA!
And a very special thank you goes out to Susan for creating and sharing her beautifully designed pages with us all! THANKS SUSAN! You can download Susan's Lineage kit here. Don't forget to let her know of your appreciation!

Now go get creative with your genealogy!

Digital Scrapbooking for Genealogists

For those of you who don't follow footnoteMaven's Shades of the Departed blog... I'd like to let you know that I have a guest post on Shades today. The article, Digital Scrapbooking for Genealogists, makes the case for why you should consider creating digital scrapbook pages to display your family history. If you get a chance, head on over and check it out. I hope you will enjoy it and maybe learn a thing or two.

And I'm hoping to see some of your creations on your blogs too!

Congrats to the Detroit Red Wings, 2008 Stanley Cup Champs!

The fireworks are going off and Mother Nature hasn't moved in with her version yet. Detroit is a happy town tonight! Congratulations to the Detroit Red Wings on being the 2008 Stanley Cup Champions!


I'm not a hockey fan but I am a hometown fan. I couldn't be more pleased that Detroit has something to celebrate. We've had our share of embarrassment and shame lately with our immoral hip hop mayor and his text message scandal. So it's nice to be able to pick our heads up and smile for one night anyway. YEAH RED WINGS!

I didn't use a kit to create this scrapbook page but I did use a template created by the very talented and generous Deltapdawn.

Another Place and Time: Mexico

Last week was Cinco de Mayo and several of the digi-scrap designers featured kits with a Mexican theme for this holiday. If you have Mexican ancestors or vacation pictures from trips to Cancun or Acapulco, you're going to appreciate these kits!

First off we have a kit created by Jennifer Kellams from the Scrapper's Delight blog.


This kit's bright colors and Mexican flare are sure to showcase your family photos beautifully. There are 9 background papers and 9 elements in the kit and you can download it here.

Here's another lovely kit. This one was created by Irene of the Irene Alexeeva Designs blog. She actually created this kit for scrapping pictures of a friend's wedding in Cancun. Isn't it great?


The rich textures and warm colors will set off your photos beautifully. This kit contains 4 background papers and 16 elements... plenty to create some outstanding pages! You can download the kit here.

Now, say "olé!" and go great creative with your genealogy!

Another Place and Time: Poland, International

Are you ready for some international scappin'? It just so happens that DeltaPDawn, the wonderfully talented creator of the "States" themed templates, has created a series of international themed templates that I know will be a big hit with my genea-buddies! Of course you know that I have to feature the Poland template here, but you can find templates for a large number of countries including Iraq and Afghanistan on her blog as well. Take a look...

And here's how I used the template to put a page together...


I went with the traditional Polish colors of red and white in creating this page. The kit I used came from a mega blog party (numerous designers), I don't know if it has a name. I couldn't find one. The kit designer was Marcee Fairchild of the Rambling Rose blog.

Now folks, it doesn't get any easier than this! All you have to do is download the template from DeltaPDawn's Scrapping 'Til Dawn blog (there a link to the whole series on her page), then download one of the many freebie digi-scrap kits available or purchase one of your choosing, pick a favorite photo, and have some fun!

Please don't forget to say thank you when you download. Or go ahead and post your page with credits/links to the designer(s) on your blog. They'll appreciate the link back!

Now go get creative with your genealogy!

Another Place and Time: Collegiate Kits

It's ever so nice to have a scrap kit to compliment those old college days, or the current ones for that matter! Today we have a collection of them created by Robyn at the I Know What I Like, But I Like That Too blog. Here are some samples.




I don't know how many kits were in this series but you can use the search box on Robyn's site to look up the college or university of interest to you. You can get the download links for the 4 kits shown above here. I think these are great kits and I know I'll make use of the University of Michigan kit!

Hail to the victors valiant... Go Blue!

Now go get creative with your genealogy!

Another Time and Place: The 70s

Have you noticed how the fashion trends from the 1970s seem to be all around us these days? From large flowers (often in clashing colors) and bold prints to neon colors and wide leg (elephant leg) pants, the 1970s are alive and well represented in retail stores everywhere these days.

Some of the digi-scrapping designers have joined the rebirth of the 70s with great scrap kits too. If you have photos from the 1970s you'll enjoy the kits I have for you today! Both kits are offered for free (get there quick while the gettin's good!) from the Raspberry Road Designs blog. First off, we have a kit called "Seventies Styling". Remember the popular harvest gold and avocado green kitchen appliances and carpeting that were so prevalent back in the 1970s? This kit was created with those in mind.



You can download the elements here and the papers here.

Next we have another kit reminiscent of the 1970s. It's called "Color Your World". Remember the song "Colour My World? by the group Chicago? Yep, that was from 1970. High schools all over the country played it at proms and dances back in the good ole days! So here is a great kit that will no doubt compliment the latest fashions you wore to those dances.



Now doesn't this kit take you back??? You can download the elements here and the papers here.

Get on over and download these great kits. You know you have photos just calling out to be scrapped with them! Be sure to say thanks to the designer. She's very talented and generous to share these kits with us!

Now, go get creative with your genealogy!

Review: Photoshop Express

Last week I wrote up a review of the new online photo editing and storage offering from Adobe.com, Photoshop Express. You can read my review here. Be sure to read the comments section for information you need to know. Apparently Adobe is claiming the right to use any images you upload to their site. The information from their "terms of use" page is included in the comment section.

Cars As Stars!

It just so happens that I came across some digi-scrapping kits that fit perfectly with the theme for the April 4, 2008 edition of the Carnival of Genealogy: Cars as stars of our family history! If you have some family photos with your favorite cars you will appreciate these kits for scrapping your memories of them. Check these out...

Here are some great papers and car stickers to get you started. Aren't they cute? You can download the mini-kit from the Attic Treasures blog here.

If you're after some retro cars, I have a couple more elements packages to share with you. Look at these babies, also from Attic Treasures...


Don't you just love antique cars and old Caddies? These elements will be great additions to your digital scrapbook pages. You can download the antique cars here and the vintage Cadillacs here.

If you haven't thought about including cars in your family history you might want to give the idea some consideration. If you'd like to read about my thoughts on the subject you can do so in my article, Cars, Cars, and More Cars!

Now go get creative with your genealogy!

Another Time and Place: Russian Easter

I hope you had a joyous and peaceful Easter and that you took lots of family photos! I know a lot of people are on "spring break" this week and will have some time for digi-scrapping. I have just the kit for those Easter photos... one of my favorite designers, Kyra, has created a Russian Easter kit that is just beautiful. Check this out...
Isn't it great?! Even if you're not Russian you can appreciate the beautiful hand painted eggs used in this kit. They will add elegance to your scrapbook page for the more mature, religious and quietly joyous photos in your collection. I love this kit!

You can get this kit from Kyra's blog, With a Russian/Dutch Heart. Here is the link to the Russian Easter kit. Do be sure and read the traditional Easter greetings Kyra writes about... wasn't it nice of her to share that?! Thank you Kyra!

Now go get creative with your genealogy!

Another Time and Place: The 1950s

In a previous post I shared with you some state-themed templates and introduced you to the idea of using templates in your digital scrapbooking. Today I'd like to share another template with you. This one was also created by Deltapdawn at the Scrapping 'Til Dawn blog. This template is for all lovers of Elvis and the 1950s juke box era. It's called, "All Shook Up".

This is a great template! Who's got pictures from the 1950s?

You could use the Retro Papers in pastel colors from the Nicoal Goes Digiscrapping blog for the malt-shoppe look. This is a template and colors you can really have fun with!

Fire up your iPod with some of those old '50s tunes and go get creative with your genealogy!

Ooodles O'Irish!

It's just about time for the wearing o' the green as St. Patty's Day is just around the corner. Who's got Irish ancestors? Irish friends? Irish neighbors? Who's taken a trip to Ireland? Who's gone out drinking green beer on the day we honor Ireland's beloved patron saint? I know you answered "ME!" to one or more of those questions... I know you have pictures... which means you need some St. Patty's Day scrapbooking kits! Lucky for you, I have some wonderful (free for a limited time, as usual) kits that you're gonna love!

First off from Nore's Nice-ities blog we have a wonderful St. Patrick's freebie kit. Check out these previews...

Aren't they great?!!! To download your free kit go to Nore's blog for the Feb. 29th thru March 13th posts and you will find the links to download this kit. Don't forget to leave a comment of appreciation for today's designers. Your compliments are their paycheck!

Next from the Angel Wings and Things blog we have this lovely kit called Luck of the Irish!
I just love that pot of gold with the rainbow! The swirly is a pretty cool element too! You can get this fun and festive kit here.

Here's another terrific kit with rich and textured dark green tones. There's more to this kit than is shown in this preview. Stop by and check out Claddagh Love, from Belanna's At Odds blog.. It's beautiful...


You can download Claddagh Love here.

So there you have three wonderful and varied kits to use for scrapbooking your St. Patty's Day family photos. One more little treat for you and you should be all set. Last but not least, here's some Irish word art from Kathy's Coffee Stop blog. Add some of Kathy's word art and your photos to any of the scrapbook kits above and you're all but done creating some great art work!

Now go get creative with your genealogy!

This article will be featured in the March 17th edition of Lisa's Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture.

Another Time and Place: States

Sometimes it's nice to place our ancestors in the areas where they lived. Often times we have a photo that was taken in the town where they grew up but no good "setting" for it. That's when city or state themes come in handy for creating digital scrapbook pages. Unless your ancestors came from big cities that have a theme (like "the big apple" or "the windy city") you may be hard pressed to come up with a city theme. But state themes are a lot easier to create. Each of our great United States is known for something and that "something" can become the theme for your scrapbook page.

If this sounds like just the thing to you, you'll be excited about what I have to show you today. Deltapdawn of the Scrapping 'Til Dawn blog has a series of state templates going that will give you a great place to start in creating a state theme page for your photos. She started the series back in January and is still going strong. I don't know if she's planning to do all 50 states or not but I know she's taking requests. I requested a page for Michigan and she posted it on February 23rd.
You can do a search for your state of interest by entering it in the search box in the upper left corner of the page. If you don't find what you're looking for, leave her a request as a comment.

If you don't know how to make use of a template for digital scrapbooking check out this easy tutorial done by Misty on the Misty Cato blog. You can create a great looking page in minutes using a template... most of the work is done for you!

Here's an example of what I created using the Michigan template:

It took me about 40 minutes to throw this page together using Deltapdawn's template. I could have done it more quickly but it took me a while to decide on a photo and a kit to use ;-) The papers and elements are from a kit called "Bluestorm" from the Scrappy Blue Stones blog (this kit is no longer available for free but it is available for purchase here).

So, there you go. Templates can save you a lot of design time and these in particular can help set the scene of your ancestor's pictures. They would also work great for scrapping family vacation pictures!

Now go get creative with your genealogy!

Charting Your Family's History

I've certainly been remiss about posting to this blog, haven't I? I do apologize. I got distracted with other things, namely my mtDNA test. I got my results back a couple weeks ago and I'm a member of haplogroup H. Ever since then I've been spending a lot of time creating a new blog and reading up on what's known about haplogroup H. I'll make up for my lapse by posting 3 times this week, how's that?

It's been a while since I've written about anything other than digital scrapbooking. But there are other ways to get creative with your genealogy. A new piece of software is available for creating wall charts from your genealogy data. The software is called Legacy Charting and it's available for free from the folks at Legacy Family Tree software until June 15, 2008.

This is one fun and easy to use piece of software. You do need a data file of your genealogy but just about any will do. It doesn't have to be a Legacy file (although the standard edition of Legacy is a free download if you don't already have genealogy software ;-) . Legacy Charting will accept files from most of the major database players including Family Tree Maker as well as the industry standard GEDCOM file format.

Once you download and install the program it will go out and find your genealogy database files and compile a list for you to choose from. Then you select a file and a chart type and you're on your way! There are lots of options to play with from changing chart types to changing fonts, colors, and which information to show. My favorite feature is the mtDNA chart which will display your maternal line (your mother's mother's mother's line) showing just who is carrying the same mtDNA. Something to reflect on during March, National Women's History Month. Just who are those women whose DNA we carry inside us and pass on to our children?

Legacy charts can be saved in a number of file formats including PSD, JPG, and TIFF. The charts can be printed in one piece or separate pages that can be tiled together. Just think of what a great conversation piece this would be to display at your next family reunion!

So what are you waiting for? Go get creative with your genealogy!

Another Place and Time: Africa

It's February and that means it's Black History Month here in the U.S. This week's featured digital scrapbooking kit freebie is for all those with African ancestory or for those who just like to vacation in Africa (I've always thought it would be cool to go on a safari... the photo ops would be phenomenal!). This kit is actually a whole series of kits on the African theme, in just about every color combination you could imagine. Check out these previews...









Are these great kits or what??? They are all available on the Wonderful Waste of Time blog (don't you just love that name?). You can get all the download links for these kits here. This designer is so very talented and generous to share her kits for free. Don't forget to say thanks!

Now go get creative with your genealogy!

February 2008 Digital Scrapbooking Carnival

The February edition of the Digital Scrapbooking Carnival is available here. Check it out and learn something new today! Actually, I bet you could learn several somethings from the links in this carnival. Great lessons to be learned...

Another Place and Time: Vintage Valentines

Valentine's Day is just around the corner. If you're looking for period Valentine images to use in scrapping your family photos, look no further! First I'd like to share with you a wonderful kit from Sally at Winged Heart Ohio blog. The image below shows her recent addon to a very large kit she created last year. Victorian images and Valentine's Day just go hand in hand, don't they?

You can download the addon kit here and the re-released version of her original Victorian Valentine's kit here. Don't forget to leave her some love!

If the traditional Victorian thing is a little too fussy for you with all the busyness, perhaps you'd like this great kit from Derek of the So Much To Do, So Little Time blog. Derek's kit definitely has that old vintage look too it but isn't quite as fussy. This preview only shows his elements but he's got two downloads of beautiful papers too.
You can download Derek's Vintage Valentine kit here.

Valentine's Day is the perfect time to decorate up some great romantic photos from your collections. So what are you waiting for?

Go get creative with your genealogy!

Another Place and Time: Mardi Gras

Another Mardi Gras has come and gone. Who's got pictures? If you've got pictures, I've got a great scrapbooking kit for you!

Check this out, it's a Mardi Gras blog parade. A number of digi-scrapping designers got together and created a mega kit in the traditional Mardi Gras colors, green, gold, and purple. Here's one participant's contribution to the parade. This is from Terrell's blog, Designs By Terrell S. You can find the download link here.

Don't you just love the rich colors and textures!?! You can really have some fun with this kit!

The Mardi Gras blog parade actually starts on the Moo Two Designs blog. Start there and download the first part of the mega kit. There you'll also find the link to the next participant in the parade. And the next participant will give you another free Mardi Gras kit and a link to the next participant. And so on. By the time you're done visiting and downloading from all the parade participants you'll have one great kit for your Mardi Gras pictures!

Even if you didn't attend Mardi Gras this year you can still make use of this kit. Maybe you've visited New Orleans, the home of Mardi Gras (at least in the U.S. ;-). You could use this as a theme kit for your vacation photos. Got ancestors from the New Orleans area? This would make great theme pages for family photos! If you've been to a Mardi Gras party anywhere you could also use this kit to scrap your party photos. It's very versatile. Grab it now because it won't be available indefinitely!!!

Now go get creative with your genealogy!

Another Place and Time: The 1960s - 1970s

Were you a hippie? Or do you have pictures of your relatives dressed in those classic hippie fashions... bell bottoms, headbands, halter tops, hot pants, and lots of flower power??? If so, you'll appreciate and enjoy the digital scrapbooking kits I have to show you today!

The first kit is called the Groovy 70s Psychedelic Kit. There's a basic kit and an add-on. Check this out!

Aren't these great? Don't they take you back??? I love 'em! You can download them here and here from Deltapdawn's blog Scrapping 'Til Dawn blog.

And if you're feelin' groovy, you can head on over and pick up another terrific hippie-era kit too! This one is called... Feelin Groovy. You can get the download from Peachy Keen's Digital Scraps blog. Isn't it rad? I have just the pictures to use with this kit! Great earth-day colors!
Remember, I can't guarantee how long these designers will have these freebies available so if you're interested in them go get them now! You'll be sorry later if you don't ;-) And remember to say thank you to the designers. They'll enjoy hearing from you.

Now turn on your oldies radio station and go get creative with your genealogy!