Digi Scrapping Summer

Welcome to my blog! You have, hopefully, arrived here after visiting Linda Norman's blog. Look around and enjoy!

Summer in southern California is beach time. Even those of us who do not live near the beach like to go down and enjoy the sun, the fresh air, and various beach activities. My daughter, Heather, participated in the Beach Babe Classic, a chance to ride her bike at the beach and to get out in the fresh air and raise money for a good cause. I have been able to fit 18 photos in this project and it is a good start on her memory book of the new “out of the box” challenges that she has set for herself.  It is going to be a fun year of new experiences.

I am what they call a “tradigi scrapper”. That means that I do both traditional and digital scrapbooking. To me, there is nothing like holding a photo in my hands and remembering the time, the place, and what was going on when that photo was taken…it is a very personal experience. The advantages to digital scrapping are many:  I can work on my lap without spreading out all over the dining room table; I can put more photos on a page, without cropping, and still able to maintain a high resolution photograph; I can print the full page to fit whatever coverset I am using, and preserve my memory; and there is so much digital artwork available, that once purchased, can be used over and over.

The layout I have here was created in Panstoria’s Artisan software. It is an excellent software developed by the same people who developed Creative Memory’s StoryBook Creator program. It is very user friendly and preferred by many digi scrappers. It is very reasonably priced, compared to other software. To find out more about it, CLICK HERE. Digital artwork is also available for Artisan and I used software purchased from the Panstoria store on this project. The papers are from “To the Beach” digital kit by Creative Memories; the filmstrip is from “Grunge Graduation” digital kit by Creative Memories; the bike came from an internet search; and the rest of the embellishments came from the website for the California Girl Series. If you are interested in purchasing digital content CLICK HERE.

Thank you for visiting my blog. The next step for you is to visit Diana Brinsley and her blog!

Here is a complete lineup in case you get lost along the way:
Becki Adams:  Becki Adams Designs
Debbie Hodge:  Get It Scrapped
Sarah Fitzgerald:  Click Write Share
Linda Norman:  Scrappy Therapy
Lynn Bisset:  Photo Tripping With Mama Lynn  You are Here!
Diana Brinsley:  D. Brinsley's Memory Keeping Blog

Oregon Journey

I recently went to a retreat on the Oregon coast. It is an annual gathering of friends that met on Facebook. We have since become close and look forward to this retreat every spring. This year, I chose to drive myself instead of flying. I allowed a little over three days (which should have been four), and drove up the Pacific Coast Highway. For those of you who are not familiar with this, it is a beautiful, scenic highway that runs along the coastline of California. It continues into Oregon and Washington as U.S. Highway 101.


This was the first long trip that I have ever taken by myself, and it was a personal journey as well as a means to an end. I discovered the silence of my own thoughts, that eating a meal by oneself was not a scary thing, and that ending a trip by meeting good friends is pure joy.


Sharing with you a 2 page spread from the book I did to chronicle my journey.

Pixels2Pages "Celebration" blueprint; digital artwork by Jumpstart Designs "Beautiful Spirits Emerge" (available from the Panstoria store, see link on this page).

Favorite Photo?

Do you have a favorite photo, the one that you remember when talking to friends about the pictures in your scrapbooks, or on your phone? I have taken a lot of photos in my long life, yet there are less than ten that come to my mind as fabulous and spectacular. As you know, I am an affiliate for Panstoria and the Panstoria Print Shop, and through these companies, there is the ability to take a photo that is special and make it into something that is truly dramatic. One of my favorite photos is the one here. It was taken around 5:00 in the morning as we were waiting for the ferry to take us from Port Angeles, Washington, to Victoria, BC. It was just dawn and we were waiting in line to board when I wandered around and peeked through the chain link fence and saw this scene. I never expected to see something this picturesque on the dock of a ferry boat. To make it extra special, I put it into the Artisan software and edited it based on some instructions from Pixels 2 Pages, then had it printed on canvas through the Panstoria Print Shop. I now have it in my living room where I can see it every day.

Try doing something special with one of your favorite photos…you won’t be sorry!