Thoughts for a New year!

A New Year is soon upon us! How time flies away from us, slippier than an eel and as substantial as mist. Do you plan on making any resolutions? I try, but on the whole I prefer to make a goal that I can work towards rather than some rash promise made in the heat of the moment.


One of my goals is to do more journaling in my layouts, even if these layouts are just for my eyes or those of my family! I have come to realise that I have nothing written down from my own parents and only snippets of stories remembered from my long gone grandparents. I want to pass on something tangible to my children, not for now, but in years to come.


On that note, here are some New Year quotes and sayings to think over and maybe even scrap your layouts and other projects with these in mind.



Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account. Oscar Wilde

Many people look forward to the New Year for a new start on old habits. Unknown

A New Year's resolution is something that goes in one Year and out the other. Unknown

Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors and let each new year find you a better man. Benjamin Franklin

Year's end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us. Hal Borland

Cheers to a New Year and another chance for us to get it right. Oprah Winfrey

We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day. Edith Lovejoy Pierce

New year, same goal. Joe King

Let this coming year be better than all the others. Vow to do some of the things you've always wanted to do but couldn't find the time. Call up a forgotten friend. Drop an old grudge, and replace it with some pleasant memories. Vow not to make a promise you don't think you can keep. Walk tall, and smile more. You'll look ten years younger. Don't be afraid to say, 'I love you'. Say it again. They are the sweetest words in the world. Ann Landers

Look not mournfully into the past. It comes not back again. Wisely improve the present. It is thine. Go forth to meet the shadowy future, without fear, and with a manly heart. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


Finally, the last freebie of 2008 from me and very appropriate it is to, if you are going to record your resolutions or as in my case to do more journaling! Some star shaped journal mats.

You can get them here for a while!

I hope you and yours have a very safe and Happy New Year!

Need A Little Dough- Re- Mi After The Holidays?

As many scrappers know already there are hundreds if not thousands of beautiful patterned papers available to us. Naked & Angry has provided an opportunity to turn any of your own pattern designs into cash!

From the Naked and Angry Site;
How it works Anyone can come to Naked & Angry and submit a pattern design to be voted on by other Naked & Angry users. The design will be scored for 14 days at which time it will be given a final score. The highest scoring designs will be manufactured and products will be created inspired by the patterns. The winners will receive a $750 cash prize and 1 free Naked & Angry item. Who created it Naked & Angry was created by a team of web designers and developers called skinnyCorp. skinnyCorp also created the community-driven Threadless.com which invites designers to submit tee shirt designs to be scored by the Threadless community. The winning designs are printed and sold from the site. Naked & Angry is an extension of Threadless.com - one which focuses on higher quality products through the more subtle pattern approach. What it hopes to become Naked & Angry aims to manufacture products and garments created from winning pattern designs ranging from ties to tops to pillows to belts to socks to sweaters to wallpaper. The goal is to choose five winning patterns every season to create 5-15 various items.

From what I understand you must design in either Photoshop or Illustrator to be considered. More information available and Naked and Angry's website. Good Luck!

a gift for you

I have been a totally bad blogger! So sorry! Can I make it up to you with a little gift?

We have some gals that are brand new to digi scrapping. They are unwrapping those Elements programs and looking at them all puzzled. To help them out with an easy first project, I put together a layered template with a few glittery elements in a nice basic silver.


Click on the photo for a quick zip on over to the store to grab it. It is in the dollar spot, but is free with the code: ibelieve until Christmas. I hope you enjoy!

If you are a brand new digi friend who is looking for some help using this or anything else, pop on over to our boards and give a shout. You may find what you need, but if not, someone is happy to help!

Happy Holidays!

Christmas Thoughts

Well Christmas is soon upon us so here are some thoughts of Christmas to share and maybe scrap:

Christmas is tenderness for the past, courage for the present, hope for the future. It is a fervent wish that every cup may overflow with blessings rich and eternal, and that every path may lead to peace. Agnes M Pharo.

I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. Charles Dickens.

I wish we could put up some of the Christmas spirit in jars and open a jar of it every month. Harlan Miller.

Christmas gift suggestions:
To your enemy, forgiveness. To an opponent, tolerance. To a friend, your heart. To a customer, service. To all, charity. To every child, a good example. To yourself, respect. Oren Arnold.

Christmas! 'Tis the season for kindling the fire of hospitality in the hall, the genial fire of charity in the heart. Washington Irving.

The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other. Burton Hillis.

May Peace be your gift at Christmas and your blessing all year through! Unknown.

Christmas is forever, not for just one day,for loving, sharing, giving, are not to put away like bells and lights and tinsel, in some box upon a shelf.The good you do for others is good you do yourself... Norman Wesley Brooks.

May the spirit of Christmas bring you peace,The gladness of Christmas give you hope,The warmth of Christmas grant you love. Unknown.

Gifts of time and love are surely the basic ingredients of a truly merry Christmas. Peg Bracken.

It is the personal thoughtfulness, the warm human awareness, the reaching out of the self to one's fellow man that makes giving worthy of the Christmas spirit. Isabel Currier.

As long as we know in our hearts what Christmas ought to be, Christmas is. Eric Sevareid.

I hope you are all going to have a Happy Christmas and a Peaceful New Year.

Shopping: The Hazards of Boredom

For all the guys who ever get dragged round the supermarket against their will and perhaps some of the girls, should try a few of these too - may liven things up. Proof of what can happen if a wife or girlfriend drags her husband or boyfriend along shopping.

This letter was recently sent by Head Office to a customer in Wigan: Dear Mrs. Cater, While we thank you for your valued custom and use of the our supermarket Loyalty Card, the Manager of our store in Wigan is considering banning you and your family from shopping with us, unless your husband stops his antics. Below is a list of offences over the past few months all verified by our surveillance cameras:
1. June 15: Took 24 boxes of condoms and randomly put them in people's trolleys when they weren't looking.
2. July 2: Set all the alarm clocks in House Wares to go off at 5-minute intervals.
3. July 7: Made a trail of tomato juice on the floor leading to feminine products aisle.
4. July 19: Walked up to an employee and told her in an official tone, 'Code 3' in House Wares..... and watched what happened.
5. August 14: Moved a 'CAUTION - WET FLOOR' sign to a carpeted area.
6. September 15: Set up a tent in the outdoor clothing department and told shoppers he'd invite them in if they would bring sausages and a Calor gas stove.
7. September 23: When the Deputy Manager asked if she could help him, he began to cry and asked, 'Why can't you people just leave me alone?'
8. October 4: Looked right into the security camera; used it as a mirror, picked his nose, and ate it.
9. November 10: While appearing to be choosing kitchen knives in the House Wares aisle asked an assistant if he knew where the antidepressants were situated.
10. December 3: Darted around the store suspiciously, loudly humming the theme tune from 'Mission Impossible'
11. December 6: In the kitchenware aisle, practiced the 'Madonna look' using different size funnels.
12. December 18: Hid in a clothing rack and when people browsed, yelled 'PICK ME, PICK ME!' 13. December 21: When an announcement came over the loud speaker, assumed the fetal position and screamed 'NO! NO! It's those voices again.' And; last, but not least:
14. December 23: Went into a fitting room, shut the door, waited a while; then yelled, very loudly, 'There is no toilet paper in here.'

Wednesday Inspiration

Just a sketch today - I'm working on a little blog highlighting while researching other freebies, so today is a simple sketch of a layout I just finished using the ScrapStreet.com's digital designers' collaboration kit from this December. Want it: go here! Yuletide Whimsy (or click the image). There are some freebie Yuletide Whimsy quickpages in the store, too! (if you want to see what the CT did with these quickpages and this kit, go to page 40/41 in the December mag - cute stuff! Watch my Wednesdays closely, I'll have a freebie Yuletide Add-On here in a week or two!

So here you go, to get you in the Christmas spirit!

Little Christmas Pirate by Lindsey Krauss. Supplies:
Digital Kit: Yuletide Whimsy by the ScrapStreet.com Digital Designers,

Fonts: 2Peas Boulevard, Times New Roman,

Pirate: www.tiltedmill.com.