The Golden Nugget Library

About a month ago, I came across the Golden Nugget Library, which is a genealogical resource of California databases. I can't recall how I found the link or what I was looking for, but I noticed that there was a small post about needing volunteers to transcribe bios.

Since I've always been fascinated by bios, I figured it would be fun to volunteer and help transcribe. After all, who knows what I'd learn in the process? So, I sent off a note, and within a few days, I was transcribing my first bio. 

The bios I'm working on are for folks living along the northern California coast. It's been interesting to read about these people who started the towns I once lived in. Here's a sample of the original page from one of the bios I'm working on:

Courtesy of Golden Nugget Library

If you click on the image, it will take you to the transcription of the page. As you can see, the subject of the bio, Frank H. Moon was born in 1861. Most of the bios I'm currently helping to transcribe are about folks back in this time period. The book was published in 1904, so it's understandable that these people were history makers in California at the time. 

One interesting thing about working on the transcriptions is trying not to correct some of the mistakes I find, like sentence structure or missing commas. The language of that time is so much more formal, yet there is a familiarity in the writing, as if the writer of the bio is trying to make the person your friend. Nevertheless, it's been fun, and I'm looking forward to continuing the transcriptions in my spare time. I know it's giving me ideas of what I'd like to include if I wrote up a short bio of myself for my All About Me book. 

Enjoy your weekend!

Shop Till You Drop

When I was in my 20s, I actually enjoyed shopping. It was fun to be out and about. As I've aged, however, shopping tends to be more of a chore, especially when it comes to clothes shopping. I loathe shopping for clothes for myself, which is why I normally just buy something, then take it home to try it on. 

About a month ago, I was doing a little retail therapy online, looking for a pair of shoes to replace my favorite leather Keds that had seen better days. I came across some Converse shoes that were a suitable replacement. I went ahead and ordered online. But, when they showed up, they were too small. Having never worn (or even tried on) a pair of Converse shoes, I had no idea what my size would be in that brand. I decided that I would go and seek out the same pair of shoes at Macy's so I could actually try them on. Lo and behold, they actually had this particular style in stock! Even better, it was on sale and they had a size to fit me! I was so excited, I went ahead and purchased them and was on my way in less than 15 minutes - most of that spent waiting in line to be rung up.

So, when ninigoesdigi's Shop Till You Drop collab with Designed by Soco came out, I knew exactly what purchase I was going to document - my new Converse shoes!

Check out the Shop Till You Drop collection:

Shop Till Your Drop Kit by ninigoesdigi & Designed by Soco

Shop Till Your Drop Journal Cards by ninigoesdigi & Designed by Soco

Shop Till Your Drop alpha by ninigoesdigi

Shop Till Your Drop templates by Designed by Soco

Shop Till Your Drop washi by ninigoesdigi

Aside from loving the colors, the elements and washi tape are just plain fun! And that's how it felt to put the following layout together using one of the included templates from Soco:

By cyranoscrap for ninigoesdigi

I know lots of women who go ga-ga over shoes, but these are more my speed. They will definitely be a part of my everyday wardrobe!

In the meantime, grab the Shop Till You Drop packs (click on the previews for each to go directly to the pack) for 20% off through the weekend. Or, save a bundle by picking up the collection. (And then you can do a little more retail therapy!)

Harmony

After a bit of a hiatus, Blue Flower Art has a new release this week - Harmony.

Courtesy of Blue Flower Art

The gorgeous plum accents of Harmony called to me. Luckily, I found a recent photo that just happened to have the same shade. And, this photo also captured a brief moment in time between me and my son.

By cyranoscrap for Blue Flower Art

CREDITS

All supplies from Blue Flower Art, unless otherwise indicated

Kit: Harmony

Template: Art Therapy Text Strips 2

Fonts: PW01Script (journaling); Underwood Champion (text strips)

Add a little Harmony to your life while it's 20% off through Sunday!

Newborn - Precious and Sweet

Heather T.'s latest release, Newborn, took me back into my photo archives, searching for my son's baby photos. Back when he was first born, I had very little time to do any actual scrapbooking. Any spare time I had was spent trying to catch up on sleep, do household chores, or tackling any neglected tasks. Being a single parent without much help the first couple of years was definitely tiring and trying. Scrapping the moments was definitely not high on my priority list, no matter how much I wanted to do so. However, I digress.

When I saw Newborn, I was immediately inspired to find my son's cutest photos of his first month. There were so many! I swear I took at least a couple dozen or more every single day, trying to capture everything. But, I narrowed it down to just three. 

First, here's a look at Newborn, filled with pastels of green, yellow, and purple:

Courtesy of Heather T.

And my captured memory:

By cyranoscrap for Heather T.

It's only one layout (so far), but at least I can add it to his baby book. I have a lot of photos to scrap!

If you're like me and still trying to catch up on those baby photos, pick up Newborn while it's on sale this week. And enjoy your trip down memory lane!

Life Is...

I love capturing the big events in life - milestones, holidays, celebrations, and the like. But I especially love when I capture the small things - the everyday things that go on in life. When ninigoesdigi came out with her new release Life Is, I wanted to capture something simple in my everyday life.

First, take a look at Life Is...

Courtesy of ninigoesdigi

As you can see, Life Is provides plenty of potential to capture some great life moments. But, it also works for the small things, like this...

By cyranoscrap for ninigoesdigi

CREDITS
Life Is kit by ninigoesdigi
Circled No. 3 template from Designed by Soco

Yes, blowing bubbles is not a major life event. But it's always quite wondrous to see how much fun my son has with them. He won't always be so enamored with bubbles when he gets older, but at least I have this moment. 

Life Is coordinates with the April Mini-Os at Oscraps, so you can mix and match as you please. Get all the April Mini-Os at a greatly reduced price through Sunday!

Say It Big - Or Small

I like big titles and I cannot lie. 

Sorry, but I couldn't resist saying that, especially with this week's new AlphaMasks 1 from Design by Heather T. These masks are versatile, allowing you to use them for a full-size 12x12 layout, but also for a small journaling card. Now that's more bang for your buck! Here's the preview:

AlphaMasks 1 from Design by Heather T.

And, here are a few ways to use the masks full-size (12x12):

By Heather for Design by Heather T.

By Julie for Design by Heather T.

By cyranoscrap for Design by Heather T.

 I also used one of the masks as an overlay for a 4x6 photo:

By cyranoscrap for Design by Heather T.

As you can see, these AlphaMasks have lots of uses - all based on your imagination! Pick them up for 20% off through Sunday!

Open A New Door

Doors are an interesting symbol. To me, doors can be an opening to something new or a closure to something you want to put behind you. Either way, they are beautifully presented in the new Open A New Door Collection from Crafty Button Design. 

Hand-drawn doors and elements and hand-painted art dolls and backgrounds, along with thoughtful quotes, are combined in this soft new collection. Here's a closer look at the packs in this collection.

First, the elements pack, which includes the hand-painted art dolls and hand-drawn doors. The doors in this pack are watercolored, but you can buy the sketched doors in a separate back.

Open A New Door: Elements by Crafty Button Design

The hand-painted backgrounds...

Open A New Door: Backgrounds by Crafty Button Design

 And last, but definitely not least, my favorite part of the collection - the hand-drawn doors.

Open A New Door: Sketched Door Brushes by Crafty Button Design

Finally, to see how you can use all the packs together, here's a little bit of eye candy from the creative team:

By rarou47 for Crafty Button Design

By Erin for Crafty Button Design

By Skinospot for Crafty Button Design

By snowdropz for Crafty Button Design

By Thimbleberrie for Crafty Button Design

I loved the look of this collection so much, I was inspired to create a few things for my planner. I'll share those in another post. In the meantime, the Open A New Door collection is on sale through Thursday! You can purchase the elements and backgrounds as a kit (and get 30% off) or as individual packs. Have fun creating!

Butterfly Kisses, Happy Pack, and Scribblies

Happy Spring! And a good way to jump into a spring-like day (today's local high temperature is going to be 74 degrees) is to give you a glimpse into the newest releases from Heather T.!

Today, Heather has a new release called Happy Pack! Filled with the springy shades of peach, yellow, and green, this cute pack vibrates with joy. (In fact, when I saw the word art with "this is my happy dance," I immediately thought of Snoopy dancing - haha!)

Happy Pack by Heather T.

Next up are two CU (commercial use, but also okay for PU-personal use) packs: Scribblies 4 and Scribblies 5. If you're one of those scrappers that needs a little personal touch with splatters or messiness (especially if you art journal), these two packs are perfect!

Scribblies 4 by Heather T.

Scribblies 5 by Heather T.

And finally, Heather teamed up with Tiramisu Designs to bring you another spring-like collaboration that is free with any $10 purchase this month: Butterfly Kisses. The gorgeous butterflies alone get my heart fluttering - wow!

Butterfly Kisses by Heather T. and Tiramisu Designs

As you can see, Heather was definitely inspired by spring! Happy Pack, Scribblies 4 and Scribblies 5 are all 20% off through this Sunday. And don't forget - if you spend $10, you'll also receive the collab Butterfly Kisses!

Have a super weekend!

The Key to Artsy Papers

This week's release from Pretty Dutch Designs is The Key to Artsy Papers, five artsy papers with paint and gesso in shades of yellow, black, and purple. 

The Key to Artsy Papers by Pretty Dutch Designs

Get artsy in an easy way! Take a look at our CT creations:

by Chantal for Pretty Dutch Designs

by Geraldine for Pretty Dutch Designs

by Sharon for Pretty Dutch Designs

Artsy papers make art journaling pages so easy. Add The Key to Artsy papers to your stash for 40% off this week. And don't forget - Oscraps is celebrating its 10th Birthday, so most of the store is 40% off!

More Artful Planner Stuff

As I had figured earlier this year, I've ended up using my planner as my Project Life memory keeper. 

This week, I had a little bit of time to work on a few planner pages. I used the new Planner: Melange Dividers Pack 01 and Planner: Painterly Template packs from Crafty Button Design. First, let's take a look at the new packs.

The dividers:

Planner: Melange Dividers Pack 01 by Crafty Button Design

And the templates, complete with paint "doodles" and word art to use on your pages. 

Planner: Painterly Template Pack by Crafty Button Design

Both of these new packs are 20% off through Thursday (St. Patrick's Day!). Amber also has some select packs that she thinks would work great for planners on sale for 50% off. (Peruse the Crafty Button Design store to see those products.) One of my favorites is Viva La Vida Words, which is a great source for quotes to use on the planner divider pages. And, if you want to include some inspirational words on the pages to fill up the odd spaces, check out the Urban Whimsy Word Art Brushes. Journal card packs, like Arftul Everyday Cards Vol. 5, can also be pulled into your planner. (I showed an example in a previous planner post.)

Now, let's see the two new planner packs in action! What I loved about the dividers pack is the ability to customize it with quotes or whatever I wanted. I've wanted to include quotes in my planner, and the easy way to do this is to put them on the dividers. I did a couple of dividers with quotes:

Perfect - planner divider page by cyranoscrap

CREDITS
All products from Crafty Button Design

Divider: Planner: Melange Dividers Pack 01

Word art: She

Butterfly: Frost Fairies

Unique - planner divider page by cyranoscrap

CREDITS
All products from Crafty Button Design

Divider: Planner: Melange Dividers Pack 01

Then, since I seem to be using my planner more as a Project Life keeper (haha!), I included a grocery list that I had originally typed up on my phone. I suppose the "easy" thing would have been to just grab a screenshot from my phone and include it on a journaling card, but what would be the fun in that? ;)  At least this way, I was also able to capture a few notes in the empty margin of the page of other errands and reminders that I had for the week. Mundane stuff, I know, but I know that even a year from now, I'll come across this and find it amusing to see what was going on in my life that week and what I bought at the grocery store. That is what I love about Project Life!

Shopping list planner page by cyranoscrap 

CREDITS
All products from Crafty Button Design

Shopping List: Planner: Melange Inserts Pack 01

Checkboxes, arrrows, word art: Planner: Painterly Template Pack

Lastly, I created a two-page spread to summarize Week 9. In the pack, there is a printable PDF of the template, but I opted to use the digital version in Photoshop so I could print my pictures with it. To help me stay within the painted guidelines, I just created boxes on the layer below the template, then clipped photos and background papers to the boxes. Finally, I finished off the page with just a few elements since the pages were already busy. 

Week 9 Project Life planner pages by cyranoscrap

CREDITS
All products from Crafty Button Design

Template: Planner: Painterly Template Pack

Papers: Amber's Pages, Vol. 5, Watercolor Backgrounds Vol. 1, Cotton Candy Papers

Elements: Gypsy at Heart, Home, Lady-Tude, Sew Perfect

Another gal on the Crafty Button Design team prints out everything and then fills in things as the week progresses:

Planner pages by Jennifer for Crafty Button Design

If I were a little more on top of things (ha!),I could definitely do it this way. ;)

I was thinking more about how I could stretch my planner to do more creative things with it. I'll be sharing in the weeks to come - as life allows me the chance, that is!

Here's to a new week! Spread a little creativity when you can!

Photo a Day for February - COMPLETED!

Celebrating National Tortilla Chip
Day on Feb. 24

Amazing to believe, but I finally did it. One photo a day for a month - I finally completed a WHOLE month! 

Okay, so maybe it helped that February was a short month. And I'll even admit there was a day or two where I almost forgot to take a photo until it was already close to bedtime. But I went ahead and got my photo in. 

Whew. What an accomplishment. As I mentioned in a previous post, I have been trying to get a photo a day for at least the last couple of years, if not more. I always missed a day somewhere, even if I took way more photos than the days in the month. 

I'm not sure why it was such a big deal to me to get a photo a day. I've read where other people will just substitute a pic from another day of that week to make up for the missed day. But I can't do that. No matter what, I knew that I had failed to capture a photo for each day. Darn that perfectionist streak in me. 

So, I will continue to strive to take a photo a day for another month. I don't know if 'll accomplish it, but it's worth a try. I'm trying to come up with tricks to remind myself to capture a daily photo. Aside from scheduling it on my calendar or setting an alarm on my phone, I'm not sure how to accomplish it. Even if I don't get one every day, I'll still have record of this one month. And I'm okay with that. :D

Oops!

One of the things about scrapbooking is whether or not to include those not-so-great moments in life. You know the ones - the toddler throwing a tantrum, getting into fights with your significant other, the house is a mess and company is coming...the bad days. There are even worse days, of course, like when you end up getting injured or having an accident. Yep - THOSE days.

On Friday, Heather T. released the Oops Collection - a set of five packs dedicated to all those "oops" moments.

Oops: Elements - courtesy of Heather T.

Oops: Flair - courtesy of Heather T.

Oops: Word Bits - courtesy of Heather T.

Oops: Papers 1 - courtesy of Heather T.

Oops: Papers 2 - courtesy of Heather T.

And, if you purchase all the above packs, you get this Add-On pack for free!

Oops Add-On (Free with Purchase) - courtesy of Heather T.

This collection is perfect for you if you have kids. As you all know, there are LOTS of oops moments when kids are around, lol!

Strangely enough, however, that isn't what I used the collection for. I did try to find photos of "oops" moments, but for some reason, they must be archived on another hard drive. But, I did find a moment that was pretty significant:

Ugh by cyranoscrap for Heather T.

Yes, the aftermath of a fender bender. Whenever a car accident happens, even minor ones, it just puts a damper on the day. And on this particular day, my fender bender occurred on the way to a job interview. Needless to say, I was a little stressed that day. 

Anyway, the Oops collection is perfect for a moment like this or others. This collection is part of the February Mini-O's at Oscraps, so you can mix and match with other packs! The Mini O's sale runs through the end of Monday, February 29th - yes, Leap Day - so be sure to pick them up while you can! (Just click on the packs above to reach the Mini-O's.)

Introducing Melisande

It's Pickle Barrel time at Pickleberry Pop! Get dozens of designer mix and match packs for just $1 from February 19-22. And this month, Heather T. has a new collection consisting of three packs: Melisande.

First off, I was completely taken by the name of the collection. It just rolls off my tongue. It's like a magical name that I would use to name my daughter, if I had one! But I digress... Let's take a look at Heather's contribution for February's Pickle Barrel:

Melisande Elements - courtesy of Heather T.

Melisande Papers - courtesy of Heather T.

Melisande Templates - courtesy of Heather T.

And, of course, a little inspiration for you from Heather's design team:

By latz for Heather T.

By justk for Heather T.

By cyranoscrap for Heather T.

From now through Monday, get all three packs of Melisande for just $3! Wonderfully versatile, you can also mix and match with other February Pickle Barrel offerings to make a collection that works for you! Happy scrapping!