Been taking a course in Procreate called "Jump Start Your Creativity".  It has been a lot of fun and the idea is to start getting into the habit of drawing if not everyday, a few times a week at least.  I often feel intimidated sharing my drawing because I have never felt very good at it.  BUT, I do enjoy doing it and so I'm breaking out of my "comfort" zone and just sharing with you what I've been doing. 

I posted in early June after I completed the first week of the course. I started the 2nd week right away, but "life happened", and I got away from doing it.  So I just finished week 2 last week.  It was "plant week".  Here is my progress tracker... and then I will also share the drawings up close. :) 

The fun things that I learned in week 2 were how to use blend modes more and using the liquify tool to make shapes.  Also learned more about adding texture and patterns to the drawings.

Here the 5 drawings I did up close...

So what are you working on?  

Summer is Almost Over!

Wow!  I can't believe it.  Seems like school was just getting out and we were all looking forward to a summer break.  Here where we live, kids are headed back to school this week.

Our daughter that still lives at home, will be Homeschooling for her last year! 

I know she is looking forward to graduation in the Spring. I will have to be honest and say, I am too! Although it will be strange to not have any kids in "school".

I have been working away on designing and also on learning new things...

My August Buffet released today and I have a couple more really fun kits that are set to release on the 4th and the 11th.

Here is my August Buffet... it is the 8th kit in my limited series, "Celebrate This". 

You can find this collection in my shop by clicking on the image above.

Besides designing, I have been trying to be creative in other ways.  I have always enjoyed decorating my home, and freshening things up, but I realized a while back that I had gotten in a rut, and really wasn't doing anything to the house.  Granted, we have plans do some major fix-ups, but I think I had let that become an excuse for not paying much attention, (other than the general cleaning) to the house. 

I read a blog post about Decorating your house without spending a dime... and I thought, whoa... now that will fit my budget! LOL!

Here is the article if you would like to read it for yourself.

So that inspired me and I spent some time re-arranging furniture in our main living areas and just using some things in a different way.  It was actually a lot of fun, and not only did things feel fresher, but definitely cleaner, as I moved stuff around and cleaned behind some things that had not be moved in a while.  Another fun thing about it is that I got the idea to move my Mom's old Hoosier cabinet into a more prominent location.  Cleaned out all the "junk" I had been "hiding" in there, and turned it into a 

"Coffee Bar"!  That actually made me really happy, because not only is something that I inherited from my Mom, that was always really special to her, now out in a place that I see it every day, BUT, it is also being put to work, and I now have my "Coffee Bar", I have wanted to do for a long time. So YAY!

Besides these, things, I have also continued to work on Procreate.  Not as much as I would like, but I am working on trying to be more intentional in planning time to do the actual classes.

So what have you been up to?

I would love to hear from you.

 

 What have you been doing?

I have been working on a course for Procreate.  It's called "Kickstart Your Creativity with Procreate".  It is by Lisa Bardot.  Anyway, I finished the first week, and I really wanted to just plow ahead, but then in her introduction to week 2, she said that was fine, if that is what you wanted to do, but she felt it was better if you pace yourself, (honestly I've never been very good at that! LOL!).  She recommended that if you found yourself wanting to do more "art"... to go back and either try to repeat the previous drawings from memory or apply way you had learned from a drawing in a completely new drawing. So that is what I did last night.

Here are my first week's drawings.

So last night I drew an apple practicing the things I learned  when drawing the pear...

And I also made a cookie trying to apply some of what learned when making the donut.

So that is what I've been doing lately along with creating some fun new kits and collections for you all!  Who knows maybe one of these days more of my doodles will show up in my kits! :)

Hope you have a blessed week!

 So years ago when I first was introduced to Digital Scrapbooking, I loved making layouts and even worked on albums... then about 8 years ago I started designing, and that was super rewarding and I totally enjoyed the creative side of that... BUT, I have found that my actual scrapbooking has suffered a lot.  Crazy... but I design kits for other people to scrap with, but then seldom ever have time to actually do any scrapping for myself. 

So I have started learning how to scrap using my iPad.  I am using Afinity Photo2 for the iPad, and while there is a learning curve it has been a lot of fun to get back into scrapping!!

Here are a few layouts I have made. If you would like to see the kits that I used to make them you can click on the image and it will open a separate page in the store for that kit.  

This layout was made using my Celebrate This: February.  This is the first layout I made on my iPad.

This is an older layout I did, using my Ageless Wonder Kit.  This is a kit, I was inspired to make for a friend, who was looking for something to use for her mother's 90th Birthday Party. 

This is a layout I made using an older kit, but it is probably one of my favorite kits. :)

This was made using my Everyday Memories kit.

I started making some Mini kits in March.  These kits have 10 background papers and 20 elements. This one is Game Night.

Our Grandson, got to play Basketball last fall.  (I thought basketball was played in the winter, but I was wrong, at least here.) This one I made using my newest kit in my Let's Play series. "Let's Play Basketball".

I made this kit for a challenge I host at Gingerscraps.  This challenge we were suppose to use "white space"... I will be honest and say, I usually perfer to fill my page up, but it was fun to challenge myself. I used my Love A Lottie, kit I released in February.

This layout was made using my Happy Paw-lidays kit.  It is the first kit for my 2022 Christmas Album... I actually made it on the airplane as we were traveling home from Chile back in March. 

What are you scrapping these days?  What program do you scrap with?  

What am I doing?

I am so bad about keeping up with blogs and journals.  I have great plans, but seem to struggle following through.  I post my sales and business related stuff on FB, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest and send out a Newsletter... phew! 

I think I'm just going to use this to share some of my journey... so if you are interested, this is what is going on with me and Memory Mosaic, right now. :) 

I have wanted to learn to make some of my own elements from scratch... I know it might surprise some of you, but most Digital Scrapbook designers use a lot of CU templates we purchase.  That is why, as you look at different designer's kits, you are likely to see similar graphics, just put together in different ways.  Not that this is bad, it is totally normal and acceptable.  We all have our own take on stuff and most of the time kits come out totally different.  But, still I have wanted to "up my game" a little, so with that in mind, I have signed up for a couple "Procreate" classes, and I have been playing around in the program.  

My daughter, (who is a very talented artist in her own right) sat down with me last night and showed me how she is making "stickers" in Procreate.  I honestly probably learned more from her one on one, side by side on the sofa, time last night, than I have learned from all the classes and videos I have taken! :)  

So here are a couple things I drew last night... not finished but yeah, fun. 

Just a couple doodles, I haven't actually turned them into "stickers" yet, and I'm not sure where it will end up as far as "scrapbooking" goes, but it was fun to play around with. And it got my creative juices        flowing. :) 

The other thing I've been working on is learning how to make Scrapbook Pages on my iPad... I will save that for another post. :)  

What new things are you learning?  How are you being creative? I would love to hear about your adventures. 

-Joy

WELCOME FEBRUARY!

 Hope everyone is doing well.  We are dealing with some freezing rain here this morning, but it is suppose to warm up as the day goes on.

February 1st means time for the New Buffet Release at GingerScraps!  If you aren't sure what the "Buffet" is you should check it out!  All the designers work together using 1 color swatch and make some amazing kits/packs.  Most are available separately and bundled.  So you can mix and match what you want, if you don't want the whole bundle.  These are always marked at 50% OFF from the 1st-5th of the month.

Here is mine for February: 

This is the second in my limited series on finding ways to celebrate each month. Did you know that February 3 is Feed the Birds Day, or that February 13 is World Radio Day? There is literally something to celebrate every day of the month!!

Hope you have a blessed day!  Stay safe and Happy Scrapping! 

 Life Happens

I had such great plans of making sure to have new posts on here as a weekly thing... Oh well, we see how that is going so far! LOL!

BUT, I won't give up! I can do this thing. :)

The last couple weeks, I have not been idle.  I have finihsed and uploaded all of my new kits and packs for the month of February, and this week, I will be starting on my products for March!! SO YAY!!! 

Here were the new items in the store last week...

Both of these are still marked at 30% OFF in the store!

Here is a Sneak Peek... at what is coming in February...

Also in February, we will be participating in the GingerScraps Newsletter Hop!

Be sure to sign-up for our Newsletter to participate!