No...I don't design for any of these companies.  No...I was not given these products.  They were purchased by me and I fell in love with each and every one!

1.  Fiskar's Fingertip Craft Knife

There is no way I can describe how this tool works...so I took a photo of it in my hand to show you:

I do a LOT of craft knife work in my crafts...this knife is soooooooooooo sooooooooooo comfy! It just seems to be molded to your hand!  I cannot give enough praise for this tool!!

2.  Doodlebug Sugar Coated Chipboard Alphas 

The colors are gorgeous! Fabulous size! Letters range from 1" to 1 1/2".  Each package comes with 3 of each vowels and s and t, two of the rest of the letters and INCLUDES 4 hearts, 4 brackets, 1 exclamation mark, 2 &, 3 semicolons, 3 periods, 3 flowers, and 2 asterisks.  Love these letters!

3.  American Crafts Vinyl thickers

American Crafts alpha stickers have always sported the best fonts!  Then...to feed my love for dimension...they created thickers.  The newest material...vinyl.  Initially I had thought that the vinyl would be a very thin material.  BUT...when I received my order...they are as thick as the foam thickers and have such a LOVELY texture!  It looks like "real imitation" leather.  (Anyone know which 80's movie that phrase comes from??;) lol

4.  Glitter

No company specifically...any glitter will do.  I have a new found love for all things that sparkle!

5.  Fancy Pants Fashion Sense Pins

They add just the right touch!  I love these embellishments!!

6.  Luxe Designs :: Color Me

Such fun whimiscal designs!  So much fun these are!  I even love them as is:D

I look forward to browsing the new releases for the year at CHA Winter:D

Here's to a FABULOUS new year to you and yours!

Love, Tracy Austin

Merry Christmas everyone!

Iris

--caroline

Okay, so I may be starting the recovery a little early this year, but Christmas is going to be very relaxed compared to the last few weeks...and I can't wait. Just a low key day down our way this year. I  had to forego the tree, and the decorations, and the cooking (!!) as we finally moved house and there is just no way to be organised to do it all..not to mention that the last fortnight I worked 122 hours (Looks like a lot when you actually write it down. I'm sure the people who do the time sheets at work looked twice as well.)

Anyway, the big move has occurred and I am REALLY looking forward to getting my scrap room done (more like half a room, but better than just the dining table.) But there are some tragedies that have occurred...both of my cameras have been misplaced in the move! I am certain that they are packed in boxes somewhere and that they will turn up when I start to get stuff unpacked. This means, though, no photos of the new place, or any of the cool scrapping finds that I have come across while doing the Christmas shopping (the one part of Christmas that I have managed to attend to). Sorry, people. In lieu of this just scroll around this blog and look at the eye candy provided by the other girls. Amazing. Such talents - and all of them just great people to get to know. Merry Christmas, MMM 2008!!

And every one else, Merry Christmas! I hope for all of your sakes that things are quiet and peaceful..and that your cameras are not languishing unused somewhere in a mountain of boxes!!

Amelia

I absolutely love the photos that I took of my daughter this fall. Everything about them is great—the look on her face, the outfit, the poses—everything but the lighting. Augh! It just wasn't the right time of day when I took the shots. I really wanted to use one of the shots to frame and give as gifts to the Grandparents this year, so I worked on "fixing" my favorite shot to make it work.

The original (the background turned out grey/blue and my daughter is too dark):

How I fixed this photo (in Photoshop CS):

1. Convert to grayscale: Image/Mode/Grayscale, then convert back to RGB: Image/Mode/RGB.

2. Adjust levels:  Image/Adjustments/Levels (adjust sliders to get desired contrast).




3. Duplicate background image. Set layer to Overlay and adjust Opacity (I like the look of this, makes the whites and little brighter and the blacks a little darker).



4. Flatten image.

5. Adjust contrast in face by making a selection of the desired area and giving that selection a Feather of 20: Select/Feather/20. Then adjust levels:  Image/Adjustments/Levels (adjust sliders to get desired contrast).



6. In a new layer and make a selection of the skirt and give the selection a Feather of 20. Fill the selection with desired color: Edit/Fill/Foreground Color. Set layer to Overlay and adjust Opacity.



7. In a new layer, use Brush tool in Airbrush mode to airbrush blush onto cheeks. I used an opacity of 10%.



8. Sit back and enjoy your Photo Fix! This was my final image after doing a little more tweaking in some of the above steps. What do you think? Do you think the Grandparents will like it?



Amy

I feel like I am so far behind this year!  However, today is my day to "let go".  Today is the official start of our Christmas with my parents' arrival this afternoon.  Whatever isn't done, just isn't going to get done... so I might as well just enjoy what I did get accomplished!

Speaking of what I did get accomplished.... I actually got cards done this year!  (last year we moved over Christmas so I didn't get them done)

Here are our cards....

front:

inside left:

So I don't take up too much more room... the inside right is some wordart with our Christmas greeting and our names.  The back has our new contact information.

The card was made with the Merry and Bright Collab kit at Scrapartist and Lauren Reid's Wonky Templates at Oscraps.com.

Happy Holidays!!!

Tracie

My family has a few Christmas traditions we like to keep each year, like cutting our own Christmas tree (my husband refuses to buy one that is pre-cut) and taking a tag off an Angel Tree in our community and buying a gift for a child (we started this last year with our daughter). But, one tradition, is really only my tradition ... watching White Christmas. This is something that I have to do AT LEAST five times between Thanksgiving and Christmas, but I'm even happier if I can watch it more than that. I mean, who doesn't love the Sisters number? Or when Betty, Bob, Phil and Judy sing Snow on the train to Vermont? And my favorite line ... "Well isn't this cozy? Boy girl, boy girl." I watched this cheery movie for the 3rd time last night and I may need to pop it in again tonight while I work on some Christmas knitting.

Any of you have any Christmas traditions that aren't necessarily family trations?

Amy

     
Happy Holidays everyone! It's almost christmas!! :)

Iris