New Layouts to Share

I spent last weekend at my Mother's house, kitty sitting. I got some nice photos of some of her flowers and here is what I did with one of her gorgeous Clematis vine.



I used a gorgeous kit by Ruth Davis at E-scape and Scrap called Butterfly Kisses. The preview doesn't do it justice, you really have to see the beautiful watercolor papers to appreciate this kit.

My sister lives in California, and has a beautifully landscaped pool area with lots of growing things. She sent me this photo of one of her roses, and here is the layout I created with it.




I used a kit called Manila Picks by Julie Mead, also at E-scape and Scrap. I haven't posted this layout in the galleries yet, but will try to post full credits later on today too.

Better run, I have some new pictures of Sara and Meikina that I want to put on my computer and see what I can do about a layout, I'm itching to do some scrapping!
Have a wonderful Sunday!

Blessings and hugs,
Cheryl

New Layout - Sara

Just posting real quickly this layout I finished last night. I stayed up way too late, but wanted to get it done for a challenge I found yesterday at Amanda's Blog (TaylorMade Designs). Here is one of many photos I've taken of Sara since she was born...I just don't find alot of time to scrap. For the journaling I used lyrics from one of my favorite songs, Hold on to Jesus by Erin O'Donnell, and will probably do additional pages with the rest of the lyrics.

Credits for the layout can be found here. Thanks for stopping by!

Blessings and hugs,
Cheryl

Thinking of Dad Today

I think of my dad every day. Today is special tho, it is his 8th anniversary in Heaven. I still miss him,
but am at peace with his passing knowing where he is and that I will get to see him again someday.

Words from Unnamed Hymn by Chris Rice.
This layout was done several years ago, one of my first digital pages.

I love you Dad!

Blessings and Hugs,
Cheryl

One week ago last night at 9:28 pm....

...Sara Ann was born! She weighed in at 7 lbs. 4 oz. and measured 19½ inches. This is how I first saw her, in the arms of her proud daddy.



Here is another one, she was so alert and wide eyed! Sara was about 1 hour old in these first photos. Look, she is blowing spit bubbles!



The next day I went back to see everyone, Sara's momma was still not feeling well at all so I don't have pictures of her yet. She had a rough labor, and some bad side effects from the epidural. She is feeling fine now though.



Sara Ann's Daddy feeding his new little princess...



This is Sara in her coming home outfit shortly after Mommy and Daddy brought her home, worn out from all her first adventures!




That's all for now. I have a few new ones from this morning but I'll post those a little later. Maybe I'll actually get a layout made from them. Take care and thanks for stopping by!

Blessings and hugs,
Cheryl

Adoption Day - Two Years Ago

How the time flies! It's been two years since my granddaughter was officially and forever made a member of our family! This is a layout I made awhile back from photos taken in China of the adoption ceremony. Credits are here

Even before he made the world, God loved
us and chose us in Christ to be holy and
without fault in his eyes. God decided in
advance to adopt us into his own family by
bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ.
This is what he wanted to do, and it gave
him great pleasure. So we praise God for the
glorious grace he has poured out on us who
belong to his dear Son. -Ephesians 4-6

Blessings and hugs,
Cheryl

Abide

John 15:5, 9-12


I finally got myself back to the Big Church on Sunday morning. It was awesome, wonderful to be back in God's house worshipping with other believers. This scripture was part of the sermon and it really caught my attention. I have read this, heard it preached before, but this time my heart listened. I know this is something we all need, but first off I thot of all my kids and how they have drifted away from a faith that used to be so important to them. I know how easy it is to get caught up in our daily lives which leaves no time to Abide with Him. Since I moved to Louisville, being away from my little church in Vine Grove and the fellowship that was there has contributed to my own faith starting to waver. Not that I ever believed less in the Lord, but was starting to falter and unable draw as near to Him as I needed to be. I knew, but needed to be told that in the place where I have been all these months God is unable to use me, there has been little if any fruit. I've withdrawn so much from life, like something inside me has died, how could I possibly be any good to Him? so, here is my latest page inspired by the Lord Jesus and His Words....ABIDE...to remain with, to stay faithful, steadfast. To dwell with Him...Always. Eternally.

Blessings and hugs,
Cheryl

I'm baackkk!!

Wow, it's been well over two months since I last posted. Since that last post I have survived Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years Day! Now if I could just disappear until winter is over and done! Well, life has been busy and creativity at a total standstill. Yikes! actually I think I simply burned myself out finishing Meikina's photo book. I didn't want to be on the computer, and especially didn't want anything to do with scrapping or Photoshop. But this past Sunday I made up my mind that I was going to try to break thru the funk I've been in and try to scrap. So I made myself open Photoshop and ACDSee and browse through my paper stash and finally chose one pretty paper. I wanted to keep this simple so I picked out a frame and a couple of tiny flowers. So far so good. Now, how about a photo! I didn't really have one in mind, but have gigibytes of images so I just picked a folder and opened it. There was a picture of Meikina already edited and it was just sitting there begging me to put it on a page! Well, darn, the frame I chose was horizontal and this photo is vertical, so I flipped things around a bit. That didn't leave room for a title tho, so I went hunting for something to balance the layout and found some word art that was a freebie from Designer Digitals back in 2006. I placed a little embellishment behind the frame and added a glitter style to it, wrapped that gorgeous ribbon around the bottom of the frame, placed a butterfly in a couple of spots and don't forget the date... then all of a sudden it's done! Not bad considering my scrapping creativity had dried up. But in my eyes the most special thing about the page is that precious little girl smiling back at me, and all at once I realize that is what matters. I think I will skip posting this in the galleries for the moment anyway. For now I'll just leave it here in case one or two people happen to drop by. I think right now I don't want to hang out on the forums, or play the praise game in the galleries, or write a big description, or wonder if anyone will notice my indistinctive layout and leave a comment. none of that is important right now. I just want to scrap sometimes, then share my creations on this poor little neglected bloggy, and eventually print out my layouts so someday my grandchildren will see themselves as I did while they were growing up. That's what it is really all about isn't it? Maybe in a few weeks or months I can bring myself to check in at the hub of digiscrapping and see what's going on...maybe things will be fun again and the negativity and bad things will be gone. maybe. and if not, I can still scrap! My grandchildren keep growing and getting cuter every day. The new baby will be here in about 10 more weeks or so! how time flies! Then of course my camera will get a workout, and I'll happily share photos of this new little life! And spring will come!




Here is my layout! Credits: Paper by Michelle Coleman; frame, and pretty border by Katie Pertiet; flowers by Holliewood Studios; ribbon by Annie Manning; butterfly is by Rina Kroes. The photo is mine!

Blessings and hugs,
Cheryl