Gift Idea

My sister and her boyfriend are relocating to California at month's end, which is exactly on the other side of the continent from us. I wanted to get them a going-away gift, but knew they wouldn't want to lug a lot of junk cross-country. Digital gifts are the perfect solution!

I made a collage of the kids' photos, printed it and framed it for them. I plan to create and send yearly photo books to them, so they can keep up on the kiddos. (I hope to still see them once a year and then we'll definitely fly out for visits when Kiefer no longer needs a pack n' play for sleeping and a high chair for eating.)

Anyway, here's the gift I made for them:

I also changed "niece" to 'granddaughter' and "nephew" to 'grandson' and printed those pages out for the grandparents.

Credits: Vinnie Pearce's Block Page Mask; Pea Weenie and Rockwell Condensed fonts; Mimilou Designs 'The Fairy Garden': paper; ScrapGirls 'Refresh 2': Amanda Sok style (altered color), used on names; Adobe PSCS3.

Buckey OOB (out of bounds)

Feel like I've been neglecting my dear, sweet boy in my pages of late. Here's one when he was still a wee babe...*sigh* (I indulged a whim and purchased FluidMask3, which is a program to help extract images. I used it here and I think I like it! It's SO much faster than trying to extract with a brush, lasso tool, or even Photoshop's Magic Extractor.)

Credits: Angie Briggs 'His N Hers' kit (Scrap Girls): papers, frame, borders, word art; Syrin 'Traveltime': staples; Patient Page font; Adobe PSCS3.

Gift for my MIL

My mother-in-law's birthday is tomorrow and we are hosting a party for her on Sunday. She insisted on 'no gifts,' but my husband asked me to scrap her a 5x7 of our kids. Here it is:

Credits: 'The Wonderful World' (Choubinette); Natali Designs 'Funny Stitches'; 'The Fairy Garden' (MD Designs); Bernhard Modern font; Adobe PSCS3.

Making a Splash!

My daughter's swimming abilities have really improved this summer. I think it has a lot to do with watching other kids get their faces wet and fish the sinkers off the bottom, since apparently I have totally lost my street cred and have no idea what I'm talking about! Anyway, she's 'swimming' under water with her trusty pink goggles. Luckily, I have an underwater camera and captured this great shot to mark the occassion.

Credits: Amanda Resende & Kirsten Rice 'Free Spirit' (AfterFive): frame (recolored); MD Designs 'Piece of Paradise' (Digital-Crea): wave, starfish (recolored); Kristen Rice & Fruitloop Sally 'Serene Island' (Digital Artist Magazine June '09 freebie): fish, waves, BG paper, alpha; Segoe Print font; Adobe PSCS3.