Ha ha! She lives!

Posted on January 14, 2012 by fbdesigns

I needed to change up the look of my blog. This is a temporary fix. Anyone know of any good free themes? This one is horrible for design purposes. Like the birdhouses but the block for posts is too narrow. I need to do a lot of things but haven’t done them. I can’t believe it’s been almost a year since I last posted anything. I was working on school work and quite frankly, I just had no motivation for anything. No, seriously! It was so bad that my husband would do laundry on the weekends. I don’t know what my problem was but it seems to be gone now. Maybe it was one of those 305 day viruses, LOL. Ever since the new year began though I’ve been motivated beyond belief. I feel well and refreshed. Maybe I just needed a break. Yeah, we’ll go with that one!

 

I’ve taken on some new projects. I purchased a wonderful camera that was used from Cameta Camera. They had excellent customer service. I knew I wanted a digital camera that would last me a really long time but had the full features of changing the ISO, aperture, and shutter speed. I did some research, okay a LOT of research, and came across the Nikon D80. I ordered it from Cameta and have been in love ever since. However, that love also brought on some hate. I don’t know how to use a camera like this, even though I want to learn. The good news for me is that I have a friend who is a photographer. My friend Shelli over athas been a professional in her field for many, MANY years! I love her stuff. My problem started after I got the camera and would ask how to get better shots indoors. She’d give me some settings, I’d set them and they’d still come out bad. Yeah, doesn’t work so well over the phone.

 

So finally, a couple of weeks ago we both had some free time. We were tired of talking work related things and I asked her again about taking photos. I had just spent an entire day at my niece’s baptism taking photos, only to find out that most of them were blurry due to being indoors and my desire to not distract with flash photography. So she downloaded my user manual and we set to work for about 2 hours. Such an amazing teacher! I learned so many things and wrote them down on bright pink Post-It notes that are now attached to my monitor for continuous reference. So playtime had to become a necessity. I played in the house. I have some really poor lighting because windows are on the smaller side. But after playing with the settings, I was able to see things in the rooms where I would only get a black screen before. Here’s a couple of shots in my dining room. You can see how the settings make a difference as they get changed.

 

 
 
 

The following day I needed to take my children to their gymnastics class which has always been problematic when taking photos. Since my friend was going to be on a photo shoot, I knew I would have no life line on the phone to call. I had to study what she told me and put it into action. This being the key word because action is all that you see at a gym. Armed with my camera and limited knowledge, I started off with just trying to get the ISO and aperture just right so that I could see the kids after taking a shot. Here I am playing. See how white it is at the beginning?

 

 

Then I went to the extreme opposite as can be seen in this photograph:

 

 

Eventually, things started balancing out. I would need a different lens that would allow a wider aperture because this is as open as it will go so I would need to adjust in Lightroom or Photoshop if I want it to be better. But I was satisfied with the results:

 

 

Next, I needed to get the shutter speed down because the movements are so quick! I started out poorly and then got better. If I’d had more time I think I would have done a lot better by the end. But either way, I was very satisfied with what I did and how I was able to apply what I learned:

 


 

Here is my little man doing a superb job. He received a great compliment from one of his coaches for this move:

 

 

On to the floor moves and more shutter speed playing:

 
 

 
Later on that evening I decided to step out on my back porch and get some shots of the moon. We had clouds out and it was super cold. I first took a photo of my children playing in the snow that hasn’t been here in New York much this year. It’s so funny! Look how my daughter seems to have 4 eyes! Not a good shot but wanted to share it anyway since I got a kick out of it and it shows how you really need a tripod for night shooting.

 

 

I went ahead and took some shots of the moon with the tripod. My main concern wasn’t if they would be blurry or not, but more of the idea that you can see the moon. I accomplished that so was very satisfied. Shelli did tell me that if the clouds hadn’t been moving, my photos would most likely not have been blurry. But it’s the clouds that are moving so it’s blurry. Gotta speed it up I guess, LOL. I still like the shots though, they have an eerie feeling to them which makes them cool. Add in the fact that I did this myself and it makes it even cooler because I’ve never been able to do this!

 


 

 

 

I can’t wait until the next time we go to Niagara Falls so I can play more with the shutter speeds. I want to try and get it to where I can see each drop or to make a waterfall look like it’s stopped in motion. I also want it to be wispy with action. I am going to have so much fun with this camera! I was given an assignment by Shelli to do some nighttime work. Now I just have to get it done. I can’t thank her enough for all the help. If you have any questions about how to use a camera or if you’re in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area in need of a photographer, look up Shelli Nicole Photography. Tell her I sent you and she’ll hook you up with a great deal.

Posted in My Ramblings | 1 Comment

WOW! Been awhile!

Posted on March 26, 2011 by fbdesigns

I can’t believe my last post was in August. Time to change that! It seems like my days are too short and my weeks are even shorter. Things have been really busy around my house. School work, health problems, and daily life has just kept me from doing any posts! I found out last year that I have 2 herniated discs in my neck. Talk about painful. I did some physical therapy until my insurance wouldn’t cover it anymore. Now I just try to maintain the pain by doing some exercises but still have problems. So add that to my back problems and my bursitis/pinched nerve in my leg and you have a horse that needs to be put out to pasture. Ha ha! It’s also kept me from scrapping in volume. But I have managed to get a few done. Thought I’d share a couple with you today.


I realized last week that I don’t have a “First Year” book for my daughter who’s now 9 years old. So why not start one? I have one that’s complete for my son but not her. I am a sucker for pink. Always have been. In fact, it was my favorite color as a teenager (and still is). Only now I also like purple and green (which happened to be my favorite color as a little kid, funny how things go full circle). Now I need to find a kit that combines all 3 colors, hee hee! I could do a book about me with that one! So here’s are the items I’ve chosen for today’s layouts:






My first layout is of my daughter when she was 6 months old. She always had a smile on her face and we could get her to laugh just by looking at her. Nothing much has changed in 9 years because she still giggles when we look at her. She could be getting in trouble and look at me and just start laughing. In some ways it’s good because she doesn’t stay mad very long. At other times, when you’re trying to show her how upset you are about something, you start laughing and it makes you wonder if she thinks you really aren’t upset. I can’t get over the laughing and have tried so many things. I’ve come to realize that as long as she understands that I was upset at one point and now I’m not, I’m good!



My second layout is a favorite already. We’re a military family. I spent over 14 years in the Air Force and met my husband around the 8th or 9th year while we were in Japan. Less than a year later we were married but didn’t have our daughter until our 5th year of marriage. By this time, we’d already been to 4 other locations. Why am I telling you all of this? So you get a full understanding of military life and how often people move around. So when I tell you that it’s rare you see the same doctor for more than 2 years, I seriously mean it’s rare! So when my daughter was able to see the doctor that delivered her at the same hospital where she was born 4 years later, it was truly a treat that I just had to photograph!



So how would you like to have a great quickpage made with this gorgeous kit? Kabra made this fantastic 12×12 page and it’s available over at Rina’s blog. Just click on the image or the linked words. Enjoy! I will hopefully get something else back up here for you this week!


Posted in 12 x 12 Quickpage, Layouts | 1 Comment

New Scrapbook

Posted on August 29, 2010 by fbdesigns

I’m doing something different today. I’m so excited because this is a project with my children. My daughter was a member of the Girl Scouts for 2 years. She loved it. I loved how she was involved with the community and made new friends. However, my daughter was younger than the other girls and they were getting into things that I didn’t necessarily want my daughter getting into until she was a bit older. My son hadn’t gotten involved in Boy Scouts yet so I decided that this was as good a time as any to create a new club.

 

There is an organization called “Keepers of Faith.” Since I am a Christian and want my children growing up, knowing that Jesus died on the cross for them, I thought this was perfect. It allows kids to earn badges for different things. A lot of these are craft based, but some of them are for community involvement too. They have a lot of badges for learning Bible verses. It’s set up for a Boys side called “Contenders” and a Girls side called “Keepers.” Boys can do things in the girls book and vice versa. Since I want my son to learn how to cook and my daughter learn how to fix a flat tire (that’s not in there but I still want her to learn it), I’ve decided to combine most of their activities.

 

I’m only going to work on it about twice a month. We’ll do a craft (or other worldly thing like learning respect and teamwork) and the next time we’ll be working on Christian values. I work very hard to make sure that my children accept everyone, no matter where they are from, what religion they practice, or whomever they love. It’s my goal to help my children to create a better world through Jesus Christ. With that said, our first craft was an album. They could have just taken any kind of an album that was pre-made. They could have added papers, or just journaled. I decided to take it a step further. There’s a lot of flexibility with this program.

 

I went to AC Moore and spent $10 on a 30-pack of chipboard 12 x 12 sheets. Shame on me though, I forgot to take a coupon for 40% off and “conveniently” they didn’t have any to give me. This is what one of the sheet’s looks like:

 

 

Since this is an album that they have to create in order to get the badge, they did the majority of cutting. I did a couple of things to show them how to do it safely. They used my “handy dandy” paper cutter to slice it in half, making it 6 inches long. I have to give you a piece of advice – don’t use a guillotine, only use the blade cutters. If you use a guillotine, it will strip the board and it won’t give you a clean cut. We used a rotary cutter as it was deeper than a standard paper cutter. Makes for a nice, clean cut. Then, because I wanted a 4×6 album for each child, they further cut the longer strips down into 4×6 sheets. Each 12 x 12 sheet gave us 6 of the 4×6 sheets.

 

 

We decided that we should start out with 10 sheets each. This would be the basis for the album. Everything that they’ll do will be adhered to these chipboard sheets. Here are the kids cutting and having fun:

 

 

 

 

After you have the 4 x 6 sheets, you need to create holes. I hate the one-hole punches and didn’t think the kids would have the strength to use them. So I purchased a $4 cheapy from Walmart that was adjustable. I put the holes close enough together to make two holes in the board so that they were evenly apart. On top of that, the kids (and I) needed a guideline. So I moved the 3rd hole over and used the edge as a guide for the board. See how I’m using the edge of the hole maker on the left for the guide?

 

 

 


 

Okay, so now comes the fun part (as my son said). You’ll need some rings. These are sold at craft stores for really high prices! I couldn’t believe it! I saw them for $2.50 for 2 in the package. That’s $1.25 a piece. Are you kidding me? So I went to Office Max. They also have them at Staples and Office Depot. Unfortunately, I didn’t see them at Walmart or Target. These are called “Loose Leaf Rings” at most stores. Even though the package here says Book Rings, the website called them Loose Leaf Rings.

 

 

 

Okay, so what did I pay for these? $6.79 for 40 of them. That’s 17 cents a piece! Guess what? That wasn’t on sale! I could have gotten them cheaper. Office Max online had a deal going on for these things (wasn’t honored in the store though) that was BOGO 1/2 off the 2nd one. I could have also waited until they went on sale but who knew when that was going to be? I purchased the 1 inch rings as I thought they were perfect. I think we could easily fit 25 of the chipboard sheets on here comfortably. If I’d gotten the 2 inch ones, it would have been too big. Each child took 2 rings. and slid them through the holes to finish it off.

 

 

 


 

Now that the album is completed, they need to learn their Bible Verse and they’ll have earned their first badge! We’ve decided that since school is starting right after Labor Day, they will use this album to chronicle their memories of this year. I’ll be printing out digital papers and they can get stickers or other elements to decorate. We’ll decorate one page at a time and I’ll share it here with you. I hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial. It’s a simple one that pretty much anyone could figure out how to do and requires very little time or effort. See you next time! ~Denise

Posted in Hybrid, Tutorials | 3 Comments

New Wordart

Posted on August 12, 2010 by fbdesigns

I finally finished off a couple of albums that I’ve been working on. I’m so excited. My favorite thing to do is decorate the outside of the albums. I started out scrapping the traditional way. When progress was too slow for my tastes, I picked up digital scrapping and haven’t looked back since. However, I was still itching for that feel of working with cool elements. I get a bit of a shoppers high whenever I go to the store and see metal embellishments, stickers, and ink. So I finally figured out that my happy medium included creating the pages digitally but buying albums and decorating the outside.

 

I’d show you the outside of the albums that I just finished if I could find my camera. I seem to have misplaced it. Shhh! Don’t tell my husband. He’ll have a fit! I did want to share something that I created with you though. On the outside of one album is an opening for a photo. Instead, I took a quote that I found and created some wordart, added some pretty little brushes and ended up with a really nice looking introduction to the album. I’m pretty pleased with the results and had a blast working with the brushes. This is definitely something I’ll have to do in the future again!

 

So here’s the way I decorated it with a little preview of the wordart:

 

Click on the image above or HERE to download just the wordart. Enjoy it and tell your friends! ~Denise

Posted in Wordart | 2 Comments

New projects

Posted on August 6, 2010 by fbdesigns

I’m working on some new projects at home. Most of them involve the “C” word. Yes ladies, I said it – the “C” word. We all hate that nasty little word. Men use it to annoy us, kids never say the word if they know what’s good for them, and we try to avoid using that word with all our might. C L E A N I N G – there, it’s out! Whew! I hate that word! I’m trying to get organized without feeling overwhelmed. When school starts, I want to devote my time to making gifts for you all, doing homework (should have written that one first!), and sewing. I want to make a fabulous new shirt for my daughter. I’ve looked all over locally for a pattern but there is only one that I really like. This is the Abigail Dress Top. You can get the pattern by going to the linked photo:

 

 

I follow the “Sew Mama Sew” blog. It happens to be my favorite and only sewing blog that I follow. They have great advice. No, I’m not getting paid to tell you about the site. But I did manage to enter their contest to win that shirt pattern. Hope I win but with 263 entries, I’m thinking I’m just a number in the wind. The other AWESOME contest I’m signing up for is to win a Husqvarna Serger. You can enter too by going to this link. You have no idea how BADLY I need a serger. I’ve never had one but just know I need it. Ever feel that way? I’m an ice skating mom. I buy ice skating dresses. Have you ever known anyone that does this? They are super expensive. They will run you anywhere from $60 for the cheap end all the way up to $1000 for the expensive stuff. This mom is on a fixed military budget so I want to make some instead.

 

I’ve already purchased my very first pattern by Kwik Sew. This is the one I chose for her as my first project:

 

 

I’ve been sewing since I was a little girl. But this is a new adventure for me. The material, the stitches, the tight fit. Kind of makes me feel intimidated. However, so many dress makers have told me that my life would be so much better if I just had a serger. I’m hoping for it. Will Santa come early for me? Just to show you how badly I need a serger, my children left me a message on my youtube account:

 

 

~Denise

Posted in My Ramblings | 2 Comments

Another Bookmark

Posted on August 2, 2010 by fbdesigns

Yeah! Two days in a row! I don’t expect daily posts to last but as long as I have the time, might as well take advantage of it. Spoke to my school today and received my acceptance letter. Yes, there are advantages of going back to your old alma mater! I applied late Wednesday and already have that letter. Spoke to the VA and they are allowing me to just scan in the letter and email it. That way I can stop by tomorrow and sign my paperwork to have them pay for my schooling. Otherwise it would probably be very difficult for me to start school in September because they didn’t have any openings until the end of August for me to come in. Thank GOD my representative and the office is so wonderful….

 

I had time to make another bookmark. I made it for my son. It may seem a bit girly with the flowers but I think he’ll be okay with it. He’s 6 and doesn’t see anything as being geared towards one gender or another. I really like this bookmark too. I’m thinking I may print it out for myself too. Enjoy it!

 

Here’s what the bookmark looks like:

 

 

These are the fabulous kits I used. The designers at Scrapbook-Elements have been doing mini kits that coordinate with each other. I think it’s such a GREAT idea because you can just pick and choose what you want for a fabulous kit! These are from their Summer edition called “Summer Memories.”

 

 

 

 

I also used Changes Frippery by Tracy Ann Digital Art. Unfortunately, she closed her store. I LOVED her place and still wanted to buy more but she’s concentrating on another project. You can find her HERE. Come back soon! ~Denise

 

 

Posted in Bookmarks | 1 Comment

I’m back!

Posted on August 1, 2010 by fbdesigns

Wow! Can’t believe it’s been since February that I posted. No excuses but let me tell you what I’ve been up to. My previous post about the computer woes led me to finally purchase a new computer. Get this – I was able to pretty much fix my other computer. Want to know what the problem was? My memory sticks (a.k.a RAM). It wasn’t until the last couple of crashes that I noticed the error was finally saying memory. It never said that before. So I changed out a couple of the sticks and I’ve only had a couple of crashes since then. Go figure! I still need to replace the motherboard but will do that when I have extra money. (a.k.a – NEVER)

 

I also had to finish up my daughter’s homeschooling year. This was by far the most frustrating year ever! I think it’s her age that’s the problem. She’s trying to be independent and tell me “what she’s going to do.” Yeah, that doesn’t work well for me. She ended up finishing a year after the public schools did and she started a couple of weeks before they did.

 

Unfortunately, all my frustrations didn’t work well for my schooling. I ended up getting the boot from my school program because I couldn’t complete one of my courses. I had some medical issues and they didn’t care. It’s a rough school. Fortunately for me, the VA (Veteran’s Administration) was gracious enough to allow me to start over somewhere else in a different program. Kinda sucks though because I was 4 classes and a project away from my degree. Oh well, I’m starting September 8th back at my old Alma Mater in Human Resources. The market looks much better than my other degree which was Aeronautical Science.

 

I have gone through my old files and it looks like I may have some freebies for you. I want to go through my box account and make sure they haven’t been given to you already and then I’ll post them. But for now, I do have a bookmark that I made tonight. I hope you like it. I made it for my daughter. She even helped me with the designing. I think she has great talent. I may have her completely design the next one while I choose the kits and do the dragging/dropping. She doesn’t know Photoshop yet. Guess it’s time to teach her!

 

Here’s what the bookmark looks like:

 

 

These are the fabulous kits I used. The designers at Scrapbook-Elements have been doing mini kits that coordinate with each other. I think it’s such a GREAT idea because you can just pick and choose what you want for a fabulous kit! These are from their Summer edition called “Summer Memories.”

 

 

 

 

I need to put in a disclaimer here though. The sprinkling of stars/hearts is actually from Magical Swirls 4 by Kitty Chen. The little animals and flower elements are from Evitangel by Dawn Inskip. Here is the link for it. Hope you enjoy it. Come back soon! ~Denise

 

 

Posted in Bookmarks | 2 Comments

Computer woes

Posted on February 17, 2010 by fbdesigns

I think I wrote down before about my computer problems. They’ve only gotten worse. I updated Vista to SP2. Microsoft deactivated my product code which means that you can turn on the computer and that’s it. It kept telling me that I had an invalid version of Vista. I was so frustrated that I just let the computer sit for well over a week. I finally mustered up the courage and contacted Microsoft. If you don’t know anything about me, let me tell you this – I am NOT a Microsoft fan in any way. Some might ask why I just don’t buy a Mac. It’s simple. Most software makers create with Windows in mind. I can get far more software for Windows than I can for a Mac.

 

They fixed the problem within an hour. Normally I never allow anyone to take control over my computer, especially Dell. It’s sad to say but I know more than most of Dell’s technical support team. Years ago, one technician insisted on taking control over my computer and crashed it so bad that a new hard drive had to be sent out with a technician to replace it. That was the last time I allowed someone to take control. But since I had no idea what to do about this problem and I know what Microsoft requires of their technicians in terms of certification, I figured it was safe.

 

So where does that leave me? Still feeling unsafe because of my BIOS problem. So I’ve decided to buy a new motherboard and just forget it. But I have to wait for right now since my dog is in desperate need of x-rays. I’m praying they come back clean but they want to check for cancer. He’s a good dog, fat, but good. Speaking of fat, I’ve started a new blog for weight loss. I’m looking for as many new support lines as I can get. No one can do this alone. If you’re looking to lose weight and want someone to support you, come over to my new blog and help me, help you. I’m a “laugher” so I’ve called the new place Weight for the Laugh. I look around for comics and place them on the blog and interject my own humor when I’m writing. I hope you’ll join me.

 

I’m out of town right now but when I get back, I’ll find that freebie I have for you and post it. Until then, have a great day!

Posted in My Ramblings | Leave a comment

I’m back with another freebie!

Posted on January 17, 2010 by fbdesigns

It looks like I’ve fallen out into space with as long as I’ve been gone. About a month ago, my computer started crashing. I was getting the blue screen, the computer was constantly locking up, etc. I figured it was the memory going bad, the motherboard, or the power supply. Since I didn’t have the funds to fix it and had no intentions of using a credit card, it had to sit. I opened it up less than a week ago after buying a can of air. I started cleaning it out while it was on its side. I was able to look at the underside of the graphics card and noticed the cooling fan was tilted. In case you didn’t know it, most of your components nowadays have cooling elements or fans. Memory, CPU chip, graphics card, etc. It’s because we want our computer to be blazing and it has to cool itself off to keep from burning up. Well, that’s exactly what my graphics card did – it heated up and burned the fan off. There was melted plastic on the card. I think I got pretty lucky because it really could have been worse.

 

So my husband happened to be at Best Buy and asked if I wanted him to pick one up. $75 later and a dustless case, it seems as though my computer is running much better. I haven’t had it lock up since replacing the card. I did that less than a week ago and have been in a “testing period” since. I didn’t want to hold out too much hope and then still have problems. The video is still a bit choppy so I have to work on that. I figure it’s probably the need for memory or it’s on the same IRQ as something else. For me? It’s fixed for now. I can work on that when I have the time.

 

Now that I’m back, I’m ready to get started. I figured I’d start you off with a freebie today. I also have another one zipped and ready for you that I’ll show you later this week. For now, Kimberly Stewart has a great kit out called Winter Blessings. One of the fantastic team ladies, Tammy Dunlap, created a great quickpage for you. Here are today’s Peeks and Perks:

 

 

 

 

 

 


Posted in 12 x 12 Quickpage, Peeks and Perks | Leave a comment

Day 10 is here

Posted on December 21, 2009 by fbdesigns

 

It’s hard to believe our gifts are coming to an end. Here we are at Day 10 already! Time sure flies by when you’re downloading. Debbie has today’s gift for you on her blog so I hope you’ll join me over there to download them! Come back tomorrow for that special surprise by Lisa.

 

Click HERE to go to Debbie’s Blog entry!

 

See you back here tomorrow!

Posted in Other Freebies | 1 Comment