I’ve been postponding this announcement but… I’m going to “let the blog lay” for a while.  We have quite a lot going on in the next few months including a move out of state.  This is huge because we’ve been in this house 10+ years and have tons of clutter to get rid of or pack, a whole list of little remodeling projects to get the house ready for sale, looking for a new house in the new area, etc.  With “the girls” to look after, demanding work projects, and a heavy training schedule for my upcoming trekking trip to the UK, I needed to make some cuts somewhere, and this is it.

I hope to be back in the summer.  Meanwhile, thanks to those of you who visited this blog and left comments.  It’s been much appreciated.

I am going to keep posting to my walking blog and will occasionally post pics to the Lola blog.  See you there! 

This week you can download the last part of this kit, the elements.  File size is 73MB.   Enjoy, y’all!

Click here to download.   (RIGHT-CLICK and ’save target as’)

Another photo session for my photography class.  This was taken with a 14mm wide-angle lens held about an inch from Lola’s nose.  Bet you can imagine how fun that photo session was! 

This week you’ll get the papers for this kit.  Lots of cloth and wool textures.  Enjoy and please leave a comment!  Next week I’ll put up the elements.

Click here to download.  (51MB)  (RIGHT-CLICK and ’save target as’)

Paint-the-Moon (aka Annie Manning) just released this new kit.  It has such beautiful textures and elements, which my little preview doesn’t do justice to.  Maybe I’m desperate for Spring (um, yeah) but this really hits the spot right now.  I live the look of live flowers on a page and the long orchids in this kit are magnificent.  Add in some new Annie bows, lovely textured paper and vintage elements and you have a Perfect Day.

Check out the Oscraps site.  There are many large pictures up for this kit.

I was browsing Jofia Devoe’s designer gallery at the Digi Chick boutique the other day and loved this layout.  The white, red and blue make for a bold and fresh color scheme.  I love the huge flowers, especially the red one in the upper right corner, and the doodles and felt textures.  This page really feels 3D.  Jofia Devoe is a wonderful designer and I’ve just had to pick up nearly everything she’s done since she debuted at Digi Chick only a short while ago.  This layout is so colorful and bright.  It really shows off the quality of Jofia’s work.

Here’s the gallery page.

Maybe you’re not like me.  Maybe you already get every ezine on digital scrapbooking there is, including this one.  But I was disappointed in ezines in years past and stopped believing in them.  Is that like not believing in Santa?  I usually found that the “freebies” that came with the magazine were throw away quality, not worth the download space and the “tips” and “tutorials” weren’t all that.  Typically I paid for them and never ended up looking at them.  That may be why I resisted buying DAM.  But I finally crumpled and tried one.  Wow!

This is the highest quality publication I’ve seen yet on digital scrapbooking.  The editorial staff outlined on the 3rd page explains a lot.  Among the contributors are two of my favorite layout artists — Annie Manning and Catherine Paturet (”Chud23″), who have both been featured in my “Knockout Layouts” numerous times.  Nancy Comelab is the editor and many other of my favorite designers are contributors.  With people like this involved, people who obviously put so much care and attention into their own scrapping and kits, it’s no surprise that the quality is outstanding.

What’s good about it?  First of all, the free kit included is good, really good.  The Feb issue contains “Puppy Love” by Kay Miller, only available with the magazine.  Second, the magazine features many fantastic layouts that are all knockouts in their own right.  Nearly every one of them ends up in my ’scraplift’ folder.  There’re some terrific tips for taking and processing photos for best effect.  And one of my favorite features is a walk through of a layout creation.  This month it’s a layout by Catherine Paturet.  For those of you who, like me, have tried to scraplift some of these wonderful artists, this is a real insight into how the details are done. 

For $6.00, it’s a steal.  I’ve gotten Dec, Jan and Feb and have consumed them like candy.  If you haven’t tried it, here’s your encouragement — do!

Here’s the shop page on PDW.

This week I’m starting to give away another of my kits from 2004.  This is probably my favorite kit.  It’s all about cloth.  The papers and borders in this kit have a warm, wooly texture and there’s a great plaid in a cloth weave.  There’s also a lot of fringing and stitching going on!  The elements include some nice silver charms and stitched word art.

This week’s download includes two alphas, both cloth-textured and stitched.  Next week will be papers and the final week I’ll give out the elements.

Check out a few pages I made way back when from this kit:

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD (76MB FILE).  (Right-Click and ’save target as’)

I love murder mysteries.  And office products.  So I’m a sucker for a product like this.  Pretend to be a police officer!  Prosecute your spouse, kids or dog!  This fun crime kit includes a flashlight, police tape, badge, fingerprints, shoeprints, an arrest form, a manilla envelope and some fun word art.  I especially like the brick wall background.

Here’s the shop page.

If you like this kind of thing, one of my older favorites is Mary Fran’s “Who Done It”.  You can look at it here.

For one of my photography classes, I did a session with our two bulldogs.  I got some cute stuff.  The one above is my favorite and the one I submitted for my class.  There are more posted on the Lola Blog.

I’m really enjoying the classes and learning quite a lot.  I’d highly recommend them.  I’d taking these two:

Understanding Exposure

Techniques for Mastering Landscape and Nature Photography