The DigiChicks issued a blog challenge. It goes like this:

Finish this sentence:

Right now, I have a loyal friend in _______________.

Right now, I have loyal friends all around me. As I am in the midst of the most major career change in my life, I find that every day I get support from my friends. Without their encouragement, positive thoughts and “you CAN do this” statements I might not have the courage to make this huge change.

Thank you everyone. I am so grateful in every fiber of my being to have you in my life and in my heart.

~~~~

Oh, and the DigiChicks are having a major grand reopening this weekend at DigiChick.com. Looks like tons of fun. Hhhhmmmm. Maybe a little digi scrapping on my horizon for the weekend.

If you are into eyelets and brads you might want to check out http://www.eyeletoutlet.com/. Their tag line is “Because eyelets aren’t just round anymore” How fun is that. I LOVE a good tagline!

One of the categories of eyelets that caught my eye was the Safari Brads. I especially like the giraffes and zebras. What’s your favorite?

Even if you don’t know what a podcast is (don’t worry, you’re not alone) you should head on over to Angie Pedersen’s new podcast - Wholly Scrap! The Scrapbooking Podcast.

SIDE NOTE:
A podcast is like a radio show you listen to on your computer, save to CD or move to your MP3 player. When you get to Angie’s podcast the easiest way to listen is to just click on the grey POD button and it will play right on your computer automatically.

I just finished listening to the first issue of Wholly Scrap! and am very impressed with it. Angie did a great job. In this episode she shares some insider secrets of CHA (Craft & Hobby Association). It is so exciting to know about the new scrapbooking supplies coming out. Then she interviews Angie Warhurst of www.boxerscrapbooks.com.

Very cool. Very fun. Plus you’ll feel very technologically savvy for listening to a podcast.

Oh how cute are those little matchbooks! You know the ones that are cropping up (pun intended) everywhere. But I’ve never gotten one because I’ve thought they might be hard to fit into a layout - color wise that is.

But…Rebecca Ludens has saved the day.

She has a terrific step by step instructional article - WITH PHOTOS -that shows how to make your own mini matchbook.

Check it out!

Nancy over at Inside Scrapbooking has compiled a sneak peek list of scrapbooking stuff that is debuting (as we speak) at CHA. It is pretty fun to take a look and see all the new stuff that’s coming out. Just think, we can do it without our feet aching from walking the trade show floor.

I find the Art Declassified stamps interesting, but I don’t quite understand how to work them. (Guess it is an in-person thing.)

The BasicGrey ribbons are calling to me…

But I have to say that the BasicGrey Hang Ten Collection Pack (pictured here) is my favorite sneak peek.

But wait! The 7gypsies 97% Complete new stuff is a must have too. (Scroll way down on the page to see it.)

Just head over to Nancy’s list and take a peek. Then come back and tell me what you find the most “Gotta-Have-ish”

OK, it is safe to say that alongside my husband (pictured here) that another true love of mine is digital scrapbooking. Last night I thought I would break into some of the free scrapbooking kits I have recently downloaded. In about 45 minutes I created this layout and I just love it.

Since I used a free kit, it cost me nothing because I have not yet printed it out. Plus I have nothing to clean up! And it was fun, fun, fun to do.

A downside I see to digi scrapping is a lack of organization and focus. So far, I have done a one page layout of a my daughter loving life in a huge snowfall and one picture of a dinner on our Alaskan cruise. But maybe the real focus is that I’ve chosen to digi scrap my husband and my daughter and that is focus enough.

Somehow I feel a bit freer to just “do stuff” in the digi side, instead of feeling compelled to get the photos into albums. Not that I plan to give up paper scrapping, but it is nicee to have this option too.

I used the Beach mini kit by Jackie Eckles in this layout.

I saw the greatest idea in the new Top Ten 2006 issue of Creating Keepsakes this weekend. Faye Morrow Bell, who always has such great ideas, suggested creating an Idea Index to keep track of all the creative, fun and gotta-do-it ideas you come across.

She suggested creating a spreadsheet and listing the ideas in it with details as to where to find these great ideas again. Sheer brilliance!

I created a Scrapbooking Idea Index spreadsheet and thought maybe you’d like to grab mine so you don’t have to start from scratch with yours. I also created a second tab to list each source as you use it (so you don’t have to wonder if you have already cataloged something).

A final bit of advice from Faye:

Do not attempt to index five years worth of magazines and idea books in one sitting! Start with this Top 10 issue and build from there.

Thanks, Faye, for the great idea and the solid advice (as usual!).

Here’s my Scrapbooking Idea Index file. It is an Excel spreadsheet file. Feel free to share it with anyone - just don’t start selling it and please leave the credit lines to Faye and me intact. Enjoy!

Angie tagged me, so here goes:

4 jobs i’ve had in my life…

1. Waitress
2. Office assistant in insurance office
3. Marketing director in a travel agency
4. Book marketer

4 movies i could watch over and over…

1. The Princess Bride (my all time favorite movie - ever!)
2. Out of Africa
3. The Breakfast Club
4. Mary Poppins

4 places i’ve lived

1. Gunnison, Colorado (born here)
2. Tabernash, Colorado (grew up here)
3. Denver, Colorado (went to college here)
4. Lakewood, Colorado (been here ever since)

4 tv shows i love to watch

1. Commander in Chief
2. Two and Half Men
3. The Book of Daniel
4. Medium

4 places i’ve been on vacation

1. New Zealand (for our honeymoon)
2. Hawaii
3. Disneyland
4. Puerto Vallarta, Mexicon

4 websites i visit daily

1. Problogger
2. MyYahoo (where I see/read a TON of blogs daily)
3. Google
4. My wp-admin pages for my blogs

4 of my favorite foods

1. Vietnamese Egg Rolls
2. Chocolate Cake
3. My Grammie’s ham salad
4. My husband’s grilled garlic bread

4 places i’d rather be right now

Since I’m working on being in the present moment AT the present moment I will have to modify this to “4 places I love to be when I’m not here”:

1. In the mountains
2. At the DU Penrose Library
3. In my scrapbooking room
4. Anywhere with my daughter

4 bloggers i am tagging

1. Tami DePalma(she’s about to be a blogger here.)
2. Shai Coggins
3. Steve Pavlina (he probably won’t do it, but I would love his take on how /if this kind of thing can improve one’s life.)
4. Ariane Benefit

I have figured out the fine art of getting free digital scrapbook kits. And, a fun art it is, I tell you. I compiled a list of 11 Places to Get Free Digital Scrapbooking Kits and thought you might appreciate it. (It took me more than a few hours to find all these sites and get this list organized - enjoy!)

When you go to these sites remember that one of the main reasons they are giving you free stuff is so that you will come back to their site when you decide to buy something. The best way to remember to do that is to sign up for their newsletters when you’re at these sites.

11 Places to Get Free Digital Scrapbooking Kits
Digital Scrapbooking Freebies List

1.
Digital Scrapbook Place
Weekly freebies, posted on Mondays. Register to get access to all freebies. Easy to find in the Freebie Gallery. Some freebies are associated with challenges. You do the challenge, submit your work and you receive the kit free. Lots of cool stuff free. THE best place to get free digital scrapbook stuff and also a great place to buy stuff too.

2.
ShabbyPrincess
Holy mother-load of freebie kits! Each month the Shabby Princess offers up a free digital scrapbooking kit. These are GIANT kits with tons of stuff in them and they are beautiful. Sign up for her newsletter too. The newsletter alone is so pretty you’ll get a scrappin “lift” just reading it.

3.
Designer Digitals
creative. innovative. fresh. digital.
Very cute digital scrapbook stuff! Don’t have to register to get it, but I highly recommend getting on Katie’s newsletter anyway.

4.
Scrapbook-Bytes
Tons of freebies. but they’re a bit hard to get to at first. You have to Register and then go to the Downloads area. Once there I recommend going to the Elements section. When you find a digital kit you like you’ll have to download a bunch of files to get the whole kit.

5.
DigiChick
You have to register to see the free kits in the Downloads section. Once there they are in the Designer Samples section of the forum. The coolest thing about DigiChick is their de-zine (a designers e-zine chock full of cool stuff). Wait, I just got it. Design. De-sign. De-zine. Oh, cute. The de-zine includes a free kit too!

6.
ScrapGirls
A smaller selection of freebies and not full kits. But very cute, fun stuff. Also have free digital tutorials. Their freebies change out often and the best way to stay up to date on them is subscribe to their newsletter. They will email you with the latest freebies.

7.
ScrapKitchen
Delicious designs for your digital appetite. Only one freebie kit at a time, but very easy to find, download and maneuver around the site. Her kits are very nice too.

8.
RAK Scraps
Each month they release a new free mega kit which is free to registered members. The pieces to the kit are released a few at a time and you must look through a thread in the forum to find the links. If you plan to participate in the forum anyway, this is probably worth it.

9.
GottaPixel
You do have to register and click on the email confirmation just to see the freebies, but they are cute and plentiful. Worth registering. They have daily downloads with kits broken up into daily pieces.

10.
Matter of Scrap
Cool stuff here, but only a couple Free Samples at a time. Worth registering and checking out the Boutique.

11.
Three Scrapateers
Have to register and come back every day for another free piece of the kit. Cute stuff though.

UPDATED TO ADD:

12.
Scrapbook-Elements
Another great place to get some free kits is Scrapbook Elements. The catch is that they give away their free stuff inside their newsletter. The good news is that the newsletter is full of great ideas and the freebies are plentiful. I highly recommend signing up for this newsletter! Well worth it.

Did I miss any great freebie digital scrapbooking kits? I would be happy to add any others if you know of them.

Martha Stewart is launching a new line of scrapbooking supplies to be available later this year or in early 2007. She will release them through EK Success. According to the Business Week article, “the new line will be called Martha Stewart Crafts. The aim is for it to be a one-stop shop for consumers’ crafting needs.”

Hhhhmmmmm, pretty interesting. Kind of cool that Martha is jumping into the scrapbooking market. It makes me wonder if there are other celebrities who scrapbook?

Also, that statement of becoming a one-stop shop is a tad odd. I can’t imagine buying scrapbooking supplies from just one place, can you?