365 Template Freebie!

OK - so it's been a while since I've posted anything....let's just say that with end of the year stuff, 4 family birthdays, Christmas, Bennett's new job, 3 kids, home school, my work, and the usual day-to-day stuff, that life has been beyond nuts. I'm giving serious consideration to giving up sleep!! I need the extra hours in the day!

So - have you all been intrigued by the 365 Project?? You can get a feel for what this is HERE. But basically, it's a photo a day for a year - to track the everyday things that we all forget and take for granted but also the little moments that take our breath away but are so fleeting that if we don't take the time to record them, they are lost forever....

Confession time: I probably won't do this for 2009. Heck, I haven't even started scrapping most of 2007...except for our amazing trip to Okinawa which I did as a completely paper album....may be my last one of those for a while...I'm so behind it's not even funny. I look at it this way - when my kids leave home, I'll still have plenty of projects to keep me busy!

But - in the spirit of supporting my fellow scrappers (especially the digi ones), I've created a new template to help make things go a little more smoothly. A big thank-you to Atomic Cupcake for her amazing action that created the distressed edges to the various pieces of my template! So, you can click HERE or on the picture above to get the template. Enjoy!! As always, I love to hear your feedback - any & all tips appreciated! Take care & I promise not to be gone too long.....Meg

In honor of Bennett's 1st day at the new job!!

Hi everybody! Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.....we hosted my family - it actually was pretty OK. I had several days to prep and my mom kept the kids out of my hair on Thurs so I could do all the crucial stuff....plus my awesome grandmother - also named Meg - came over and it was great for her to see 4 of her 7 great-grandkids. Then, the 5 of us got Fri - Sun to hang out......personally, I know that we have SOOOO much to be grateful for - we have each other - after that, nothing else really matters.

It snowed here in metro Atlanta today!! Cool...kinda rare - especially for pre-Feb......

Today my dear hubby, Bennett, started his new job!! We are so excited - as a computer consultant, he had been traveling on and off (mostly on!) for the better part of the last 4 years....this job is less than 5 miles from the house! He's now with a local boutique consulting firm - he's the new director of their business intelligence practice (OK, I know...the geek stuff is gettin' heavy). In honor of his new job and the wonderful opportunities for our family that it brings....I made a new paper kit! It's Bennett's favorite color - PURPLE...and of course, it has glitter and fleur de lis...also faves. These 12 papers include grunge, glitter, snowflakes, glittered edges circles, fleur de lis, diamonds, damask, flourished edges, an entire 12x12 glitter sheet, and other goodies.

Click HERE for part 1 (the first 6 papers) and then HERE2 for part 2 (the next 6).

I do have to give a shout out for some of the awesome overlays (found on DigiFree - a daily addiction) that I used to help create this paper kit...in no particular order, they are:

TotallyD Overlay Grunge01
Scrapfiends Wallpaper Overlay04
Fryske's Harlequin 2
LynneSimmons Textured Overlays Grunge1
Beth Long ColdWinter SnowflakeEdge
lvd goingincircles001
05_O_Edge Flourishes2

That, to me, is the best part of the digi scrap world - we can share our creative talents and from that create things that are greater than the sum of the parts.....wow...deep...careful, the English major is showing! Anyway - Happy December 1st!

And we're off.....the Silly Season has begun!

OK - it's officially what I like to refer to as the "Silly Season." The time when (mostly) we women run around doing 4x what the normal person should be expected to do on any given day, cooking too many big meals, being too exhausted to enjoy them when we finally get to sit down, buying gifts for people that neither need nor want what we spent too much $$ and too much time and too much energy getting, wrapping, etc.

You know - it almost sounds like I'm sort of a Grinch....I'm not. I just wish with all my heart that we could get back to what Christmas REALLY means...make it simple - a time for real peace & joy - not chaos and all about the loot under the tree. I have been trying for years to get my extended family to agree to limit gifts to things we make or maybe to adopt a family that truly needs some help...instead we keep buying cashmere sweaters and too much candy for the stockings....sigh.....

But - in the spirit of what the Season means to me and my family - I have two things to offer: first, this set of four (4) glitter alphas in gold, silver, red & green glitter - each set includes caps, lower case, punctuation and the phrase "Merry Christmas" - enjoy! You can either click HERE or on the preview to download.

Second - try and be a beacon of true peace & joy this season - regardless of your beliefs or faith, nobody needs any more stuff - but there are a lot of people out there who need to know that somebody cares. Go care......I do.

'Tis the Season.....part Deux!

OK - this past week has been a blur - I won't bore you with all the gory details (and there were some, believe me) but let's just say that I'm glad to be back home & focusing on my favorite time of year again - Christmas!!

Despite the fun that was had by all at my hubby's 20th High School Reunion, I would much rather be making goodies to give to you all...so here goes: Today there are a variety of shapes in 5 different colors/patterns. This files includes all the shapes you see here in red, green, silver, and gold glitter AND in candy cane stripes - fun! Enjoy! You can click HERE or on the preview to download. A thank you to Atomic Cupcake for her amazing actions! Check back later this week for fun Xmas words & glitter alphas.

My uncle continues to improve - despite a major setback last week. More surgery is scheduled for this Thursday so your thoughts & prayers are requested. Now I'm off to cook dinner for the first time in almost a week - yes, it's been that crazy around here. I think we're on a first-name basis with the drive-thru staff of most of the fast-foods around here....and my waistline shows it!

Exciting new things on the way!

Wow - talk about a couple of weeks of ups and downs - both personally and for the country. Regardless of your politics (and for the record, I'm a Libertarian), it has to give you pause to think that in a country where less than 50 years ago, it was perfectly legal (and even encouraged) to discriminate based on the color of skin, that so many people could look beyond the evil of prejudice and vote for a candidate who is not a white man. It is my deepest hope and prayer that Obama's presidency be one of positive growth for our country and that wisdom prevails in all situations.

But - on the personal side, hubby, Bennett, got a great offer for a LOCAL job!! It's a good move for him professionally and it will drastically reduce his travel hours - such a relief! We celebrated by christening our new fire pit - it was such fun to have s'mores out by the fire, listen to the crickets and look up at the stars. We will definitely be doing more of that this winter!

So - on to freebie-time! I have created a new Xmas kit - did I mention I love Christmas?? Such a happy time for me and my family. In today's freebie, there are 8 papers in various shades of red & green. A big thank-you to Anna Aspnes for her amazing sparkle overlay used in 2 of the papers - go check out her stuff at Designer Digitals - simply perfection! Check back in the next few days - I have a cool set of Xmas shapes in 5 different colors and some alphas to give away, too. You know me - there will definitely be some glitter in there! You can click HERE or on the preview above to download the papers. The file is large (80+ megs). If you have any trouble, you can email me at megstocks (at) gmail (dot) com and I can break the files up for you. Enjoy!

'Tis the Season.....for nerves!

OK - I admit it - I'm not good at sitting around and waiting for stuff to happen. I'm one of those people who can handle just about anything - calmly and without freaking out - except the unknown. So - this election stuff is killing me. No worries - I'm not about to launch into a political diatribe - if you've read any of my stuff, you know where I stand....I'm just ready to get it over with and deal with the consequences....good, bad, or indifferent.

That being said - you all benefit from my nervous energy! Yesterday, I mentioned that I love Christmas - especially the shiny, glittery parts. So, I made a bunch of bracket frames in various glitter colors for you. There are 7 in all - Red, Green, Silver, Gold, Purple, Dark Blue and Light Blue - give me a shout if you want them in any other colors - happy to oblige! The images above show all the colors and the red one shows what the entire frame looks like. These are all page-sized (12x12 or 3600x3600 pixels) but are easily resized for smaller pages or frames on a page instead of using them to frame the entire page (like I do!).

You can click HERE or on the main image above to download.

So - hope you enjoy these - I'd love to hear from you if you have any requests - I love to play with shapes, glitters, etc. and make fun frames, shaped papers and journaling mats - more of those to come soon!

Take care - say a pray for peace for our country and our world - we need it!

Hope everybody had a fun Halloween! My 3 mini-goblins were dressed up as a Clone Warrior, a princess, and a tiny dinosaur....fun! Hubby took them around the neighborhood and my hips are already showing the damage - can't stay away from the Reese's Cups!

I want to share a bit about me - I've been torn the past few years about Christmas - I adore Christmas - I love the lights, the decorations, the special music at church, and most of all - the time set aside to remember the birth of my savior, Jesus Christ. But - the stress caused by the commercialization of the holiday (when did Xmas become all about the loot?), had me really bummed. Both hubby and I have pretty large families and by the time you add siblings, parents, kids, it really adds up - last year we spent WAAAYYYY too much money on things - just stuff that people may or may not even want and most definitely didn't need! My attitude really suffered - which meant that my family's joy was diminished...let's face it, when Mommy isn't happy, nobody is happy! This year, I want it to be different. I want to focus on the friends, the family, the food, and the real reason for the season. That being said, I've decided that I'm going to make most of the Xmas presents - especially for the adults. I've decided to use my gifts and make digital scrapbooks for both families of some vacations we took this year. I'll also be baking some more and planning more meals with friends & family. Finally, I want to do something with our homeschool group - I have this idea about an "angel tree" but for people in retirement homes who don't have anyone nearby....I'm still working on that one.

So - now that we're into what I call the "Silly Season" - that is, the holiday madness that seems to get bigger and crazier as November and December roll along, I thought I might help out a bit by giving this Christmas-themed freebie. In the freebie are: 2 swirl glitter overlays (one red, one green) - a special thanks to OVineyVines for the cool overlay and to Atomic Cupcake for her amazing actions! Also in the freebie is a layered .psd template in the shape of a Christmas tree - the top one has a star that you can either take off or leave. Finally - the freebie has 4 acrylic snowflakes - these are pretty large but you can re-size them - they look great over colored backgrounds or even as frames behind photos. Try them repeated on various colors to make a cool background!

You can click HERE or on the preview to download....enjoy!