I grew up watching the Honeymooners,  back in the day when all televisions were black and white. I just loved watching Ralph Cramden and his best buddy Ed Norton,  try to bring any one of Ralph’s many dreams to fruition. There aren’t any episodes that I can recall where Ralph’s dream was actually brought to be, but that didn’t stop him from trying and he went through the same process right up to the final episode of the series.

 

            As I sit here today reflecting on my own dreams, I see a similarity in Ralph’s dreams and my own; because I have many, many unfulfilled dreams in the storehouse that is called my memory. I don’t want to be completely like Ralph forever, however. Although my dream failures may not be as comical as Ralph’s were, the end result has nevertheless been the same. Since in this day and age, all things must have a name, this condition shall be now be know as Ralph Cramdenitis; with an “official” definition noted in all reputable dictionaries as: a condition that is characterized by unfulfilled dreams.  But, just as there is a named condition, generally there is a cure, and I’m certainly hoping to find it. My search for answers always send  me to the bookshelves, so I stumbled across, and read, an excerpt from a book entitled, Women of the Bible, by Ann Spangler and Jean E. Syswerda, that shed light on what I think may be the cause of Ralph Cramdenitis. The most important element of any dream was missing – God!

 

“God hints at his purpose for you by planting dreams within your heart.” After reading this sentence, it seems to me that since it is God who plants dreams in your heart, then if you fail to allow God into your heart to water that dream, it will fail to grow or will eventually die. End of story!

 

So as the ensuing text in the book suggests, starting this first day of 2009 I will begin the task of writing each of the dreams of my heart down, and will spend some quiet time focusing on each of them. I will pray to the Lord thanking him for His love, asking him to reveal to me which, if any, of the dreams of my heart he wants me to pursue, and to bless that dream as His glory and due.

 

Have a most wonderful day, and a truly blessed year.

This is a freebiedigi-daily Dream Ticket.zip” embellishment that you are free to use in your personal or scrapforhire projects. No resale or other commercial use please.

 

 

 

 

Well, it’s almost the 4th of July, but unfortunately for most of the flooded midwest, the corn will not be knee high. We’ve had so many things affecting our economic situations in the last few years, that most of us are struggling more than ever. We cannot give up faith, though, because these are the situations that make us stronger than ever.

Independence Day has always been one of my favorite holidays. Almost everyone enjoys the patriotic celebrations which usually end with a fireworks display. I personally love the really loud ones with the thunderous boom that tends to shake the ground, if you’re outside.

Some of my neighbors, however, started their celebrating a little early this year and were lighting off fireworks well into the wee hours of the night. We didn’t mind them so much as our Maverick, who is just frightened to death of not only fireworks, but thunder, lightning, and even the flash from a camera. It’s really sad to see such a large dog reduced to a cowering, panting puddle. We give him the tranquilizers his vet prescribes for him, but we hadn’t anticipated our neighbors’ early celebration, so we were a little behind the cue ball on this one. He’s doing much better today though, although still a little groggy.

Today, I’m introducing the new addition to my store; the Independence Day Kit, which has  themed background papers and elements in shades of red, white, and blue that are just perfect for all of those 4th of July or other patriotic holiday photos you have of your children,grandchildren, or even of yourself! There are many elements to provide you with many scrapping options.

PLUS . . . There is a BONUS DOWNLOAD with some additional elements. They coordinate with the kit and will add some additional flair to your pages. You will automatically receive this bonus download upon the purchase this kit.

Papers Preview:

Elements Preview:

Link to my store.

It’s been awhile since I’ve given a template freebie, and I guess the 4th of July is as good a time as any. This template freebie is another collaboration by my friend, Jene, and myself. The template includes a 4th of July date wheel which Jene created using the Jene’s Time Machine Kit. This date wheel is just fantastic and will allow you to add a special date to all of your layouts. The date wheel is completely flexible since you are provided with the psd files for each element of the date wheel. The kit includes two date wheels,  a star pointer, a hexagon pointer, and a triangle pointer. Simply color the wheel, add papers from your digital scrapbooking kit, or add your own special graphic or photo to the center — the possibilities are virtually endless.

The following is a preview of Jene’s Time Machine Kit that you can purchase in my store.

This is a preview for the freebie 4th of July layered template. This is a great freebie template and can be used to scrap several of your Independence Day photos. As I said previously, this layered template also has a special 4th of July date wheel with it. The link for the freebie template follows the photo below.

Link to Freebie: Happy 4th of July from Jene and Shirley!

Well, tomorrow IS Fathers Day and I know how busy everyone is and that some of you are probably looking for a quick, personalized Fathers Day card for this special occasion. I met a wonderful friend a year ago in the digital scrapbooking circuit; her name is Jene. We have become great friends over this past year and have found we have so much in common other than scrapbooking.

Jene and I have collaborated on a wonderful freebie Fathers Day card for your personal use. It has been created with papers from my Scrapbooking Dad Kit and with an absolutely fabulous date wheel that Jene has created. The fully customizable date wheel will soon be available in my store.

The Fathers Day card is in png format, so all you have to do is slide your photo under the opening and voila! your card is ready to go. Done in 300 ppi for best print resolution and sized at 4.25″x5.5″.

Papers used to create the card came from this kit which is on SALE in my store until June 15, 2008 at MIDNIGHT:

 Hope you’ll be able to use this to make your Fathers Day card stand out from the rest! Enjoy! Download link.

IMPORTANT: I JUST NOTICED THAT THE 4-SHARED SITE SEEMS TO BE HAVING SOME TYPE OF TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES. IF YOU CAN’T ACCESS THIS FREEBIE THROUGH THE DOWNLOAD LINK — DO NOT DESPAIR — JUST CLICK ON THE PHOTO OF THE CARD AND YOU’LL BE TAKEN TO MY STORE AND YOU CAN STILL GET THE FREEBIE THERE!

It’s almost Father’s Day 2008 and I created a kit called Scrapbooking Dad so that I can scrap some of my old photos of my Dad. My Dad was usually the one with the camera so the number of photos he is actually is very few, and quite frankly not all that good. However, they will always be treasures to me, right along with the wonderful memories of him.

The Papers:

The Elements:

My Dad loved all of the holidays (in fact, I think he even made a few up) and he participated fully in each one throughout the year. He’d get so into each one that he’d never let the work involved to create a family celebration overshadow his enjoyment of that particular holiday. He joined in everything from the planning, cleaning, decorating, shopping, to meal preparation. Father’s Day, however, was the one celebration that he’d actually “take it easy” and let himself be “pampered,” so I guess that was one of my personal favorites because we’d actually get to surprise him with our plans.

My father led a quite simple life; he worked hard, he loved to fish and camp; but mostly enjoyed spending time with my mother and his children and grandchildren. We are all truly blessed to have such wonderful memories of The Best Dad. So, for Fathers Day and everyday I wish for every child the gift of having their own Best Dad.

Below is a layout created with my Scrapbooking Dad kit which is on sale in my store for 50% — but only until June 15th at midnight. So hurry on over there and grab one while it’s being offered for such a great price.

As a Freebie add-on, I created this cute Best Dad frame that allows you to add two photos:

You can get it here:

Be sure to check back into my blog in a couple of days as I plan to have yet another wonderful Fathers Day freebie up.

Thanks for stopping in!

Well . . . I finally finished it! The female counterpart to Lloyd’s Prom Kit that I promised is now in my store. My granddaughter, Rellie-Girl, attended her Senior Prom the first part of May so now I am busily scrapping her wonderful photos. Rellie-Girl’s Prom Kit is a huge digital scrapbooking kit that will also help you scrap all of your lovely prom photos. It has 15 coordinating papers and 40 elements. The kit is extremely versatile, done in shades of blue, pink, and beige; it can be casual, elegant, or even looks great “grunged” up a bit. Rellie-Girl’s Prom Kit is the female counterpart to my Lloyd’s Prom Kit.

The wide range of papers and elements will allow you the flexibility to create layouts that are elegant, sophisticated, or just plain fun. But don’t limit your imagination to prom; the pieces of this kit can also be used for other layouts where you need a softer female look. Elements included are: a pearl butterfly, a string of pearls, bows, a glittered butterfly, buttons, photo corners, a rose corsage, daisies, a prom dress, frames, journaling mats, a white stretch limo SUV, ribbons, a chrome staple, glittered swirls, prom tickets, and some wordart. All papers and elements were created at 300 ppi for best print resolution with no drop shadows (unless they are inherent in the design).

I’m having a ton of  fun using this kit — I’m just having a hard time deciding on which version of the pages I like the best! Below is one of the pages I did about Rellie-Girl having her make-up done on Prom Day. Having her make-up done by a beauty consultant was one of the special events that took place during her day-long prom preparations and my daughter was able to capture it on film. And as you can see, I’m real pleased that she did

As a freebie, I made the layout above into a template, which  looks like this:

The link is here.

I woke up this morning feeling really tired; maybe it was because of the weird dream I had last night. I’m sure you’ve all had some dreams before that were so out of the realm of anything rational, that you just don’t have a clue where they came from? Well, last night was my night. I dreamt that for some reason we had to do an emergency evacuation from our home. I can’t remember exactly what the disaster was or what caused it,  but believe you me it had me in a frenzy; running around,  grabbing emergency supplies that seemed to be stored all over my home (up the stairs, down the stairs, in this closet, now that one, in the bedroom, in the garage). Whew! What a chore! The one last thing I remembered to grab before we left was my laptop — funny that should be on my list of emergency supplies (and I knew EXACTLY where it was)!  The anti-climax for this dream was that we made it to wherever we were headed all safe and sound with no adventures along the way, that I remember. Huh?

If there are any among you who interpret dreams, I’d love to know the significance of this particular dream. However, in all reality, I think that  it’s probably my subconscious telling me it’s time to do some spring cleaning, LOL! I think I’ll spend a portion of my Mother’s Day making sure the spare batteries,  flashlights, etc. are near each other so I don’t have to run from room to room grabbing things on less than a moment’s notice. And, then maybe NOT! There’s always next weekend.

Today I have this awesome layout to share with you. It’s done with some of the “blues” from Lloyd’s Prom Kit. If you haven’t seen any of Lloyd’s Prom Mega Kit yet, just scroll down and check out some of my previews.

Get more details in my store.

These are the papers from the Mega Kit:

These are the elements from the Mega Kit:

Here’s a preview of the Mini-Kit which has papers and elements not included in the Mega Kit:

And here are previews of the Quick Page Tweakers that complement the Lloyd’s Prom Mega Kit and the Lloyd’s Prom Mini-Kits (each with new papers and elements):

This layout was created using some of the blue items from the Mega Kit with a couple of new items added in for good measure. They will only be available in the Template 0508 file.

This layout is simply stunning! And, it also makes a great template. So, here is the preview of the Template freebie:

Here is the link!

I can’t believe that it is May already. We’re still running about 3 weeks behind weatherwise here in the midwest. Although the tulips are finally starting to really bloom,  it’s still pretty chilly and rainy. But it is Spring, and almost Mother’s Day.

I always love the cards I get on this special day from my children and my grandchildren; especially the handmade ones. Do you hang onto the cards and trinkets you get? I do. My favorites of course are the collection of melamine plates that my son made for me each year when he was in daycare. He’s embarrassed now by his childish scribbles from way back then, but they will always be cherished as some of my most prized possessions.

I know that I’m not the only mother who has these priceless treasures. I think it would be great fun to hear what others of you are stashing away that was prepared by the loving hands of your little ones. Please leave comments so we can all share and reminisce over the treasures we’ve either given or received on Mother’s Day.

Hope you all have a wonderful day and give and get much love.

Here’s my Happy Mother’s Day freebie template which will let you scrap 6 photos!

Get it here.

Link will expire in 72 hours.

Last week I wrote a glowing post about how it is finally Spring — NOT! It is coooold, and actually SNOWED a bit yesterday! There wasn’t even a chance of my running off to the garden center last weekend, because there was no doubt that Spring had not arrived in the Midwest. 

What are Quick Page Tweakers, you ask? Well, let me fill you in:

Quick Page Tweakers (TM), QP Tweakers, or even Tweakers are sets of digital scrapbooking supplies I’m selling in my store that are comprised of papers and elements from digital scrapbooking kits that I create. They are perfect for  digital scrapbookers of any skill level because they combine the ease of use of a quick page, a template, and a mini-kit allowing you to scrap complete layouts in record time.

I have nothing against regular quick pages, but I do feel that scrappers need as many options as possible to create fantastic layouts as quickly as possible. This is where the Quick Page Tweakers come in, because unlike a standard quick page, where “what you see is what you get,” Quick Page Tweakers (TM) are provided to you as a set of two pages, all in layers  so that you can “tweak them” for the look you want for your lay outs. You will be able to move papers and elements around and re-color to suit your individual needs. And, they are priced very reasonably considering the flexibility for re-arranging and re-coloring and the most important aspect, THEY ARE REAL TIMESAVERS. Quick Page Tweakers (TM) are also Personal, Professional S4O/S4H friendly. Details are in the TOU. All papers, elements, and templates included in Quick Page Tweakers (TM) are copyrighted and the name, Quick Page Tweakers is trademarked.

Here are previews of my first set of Quick Page Tweakers which I created from Lloyd’s Prom Kit.

Page 1:

Page 2:

The following preview is of the layered template freebie I’ve prepared for you. Please note that this link will only be active for 72 hours. Click here.

All comments greatly appreciated. Thanks for stopping by!

Oh my goodness, it certainly has been a looooooooooooong, hard winter but suddenly it’s Spring in the Midwest! I’m starting to feel great. It’s just amazing what a little bit of sunshine and temperatures that touch the 70s can do for your soul. My husband and I have a little game we play every Spring whereby each of us tries to be the first in our household to spot the “first” Robin in our little town. The only ones that count though are the ones from “our town.” There’s no prize, just the dubious distinction of being the first one to notice one of nature’s great wonders. BTW, I won this year! Sounds silly doesn’t it, but you know, sometimes its the silly things like this that help keep marriages strong.

We started our vegetable and herb seeds and are getting the raised beds ready. I’m really excited about being able to spend a little time outside — even after working a full 8 hours, I’m still managing to find a few minutes to do something out there. I noticed a beautiful planter that someone put outside already,  and I had to really keep talking  myself out of running out to the garden center because it’s probably about two weeks too early to put out some of the flowers I like. But, we’ll see what this weekend brings though, because I’ve really been bitten by the “Spring” bug –LOL!

Spring is the time for high school proms and I have two new kits that I’ve been working on — a prom kit for the guys, and a prom kit for the girls. My “guy” kit is finished and is in my store. You can see it here. It’s called, Lloyd’s Prom Kit and is named after my dear friend Jene’s son, Lloyd. I designed this kit so that Jene could scrap the photos of this handsome lad in high-style. Lloyd’s Prom Kit is huge and has over 225 mb of papers and embellishments. There is also a Lloyd’s Prom Mini-Kit that has an additional 65 mb of papers and yes, more embellishments. 

Lloyd’s Prom Kit Papers:

Lloyd’s Prom Kit Elements:

Lloyd’s Prom Mini-Kit:

Oh, and my special freebie for you is a two-page Lloyd’s Prom Template:

LINK TO TEMPLATE IS HERE.

Don’t forget — There is a girl prom kit coming soon, so be sure to stop back to take a look at it.