Merry 2011 Christmas

Me and My Grandkids on Christmas Eve, Ready for Santa to come

Laura and Mariah just home from Christmas Eve Mass

The Gingerbread that Kate, Mariah and Darby
decorated for the Cookie Decorating contest
at the Marriott Resort in Orlando, on Christmas Eve.

Look Mom's - ALL CLEAN

Wishing you all a Wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year.

I am feeling very Blessed this Year and Especially at Christmas. This is a time for Celebrating the Dawn of our Salvation, the Birth of Jesus. This birth of God's son has brought forth into our Lives, a wonder and awe of the Miracles that surround us every day. There were no cameras 2000+ yrs ago, only word of mouth spread the "story" that's been told over and over again of the events that day. And historians have found little actual evidence, but they surmise that Dec 25th from what the story tell of this event, was probably NOT the actual time or day of Birth of Jesus. But long ago the tradition of this day and time was set. And the stories recorded in the Bible, were written long after the event as well. I am always amazed that without "real proof" or photos etc. that the story continues to be accepted and shared with every generation of Christians around the World. I BELIEVE and ALWAYS WILL. I Feel God's PRESENCE in My Life EVERYDAY. I know that I am Saved and Am a Child of His. This Christmas 2011, was spent with Family, some of my West Coast family came "East" to share with East coasters..My niece from San Diego, CA and her family and my niece from Portland, Oregon with her daughter came to Florida to be with their Dad..it's his First Christmas living in his new home in Florida's "The Villages". My daughter and her family and I, and those visiting Florida...all met up in Orlando and spent one day at DISNEY...a Magical Kingdom for sure. We spent some time at "each" of our Resorts / Timeshares that we each had, and all the kids had fun exploring the pools and activities going on. All the 3rd cousins had a good time together, and my granddaughter and my San Diego niece's one daughter became fast friends. I know that my late sister "Pinky/Flo" and my sweet Paul - are beaming their smiles from Heaven and are so proud of their families. They are all growing up and are happy,healthy and a joy to be around.

The WOMEN, Me, Laura, Karen, Kate, Mariah, Darby, Jessie, Diane

Fire Power

My family at Disney Dec 23, 2011

Mickey and Minnie

Cool Green Waters flowing at Disney

Red, White and Green - Everywhere in the Park

Niece Karen and daughter Kate from Oregon,
Kate in her Sparkling Hat..it really glowed

The MEN, Tony & Josh, Andy and his boys Vaughn and Ian

The San Diego Crew

Darby and Mariah

Niece Diane and son-in-law Tony

Daughter Laura and grandson Joshua
The Grandparents, Me and My Brother in Law

Andy and his oldest daughter Jessie

Niece Karen, with her daughter Kate, and nephews Ian and Vaughn

The Kick Line Darby, Mariah, Laura, Josh, and Diane

Tis a SAD Day coming..PC Crafter is Closing down

at the end of December 2011, pcCrafter.com will be closing. It will be sad for so many reasons, that a once proud site that sold some of the most varied, delightful, and inexpensive Clipart sets, has come to this end. The shopping cart of the site, has been "Broken" since early October 2011. So customers were unable to buy anything or use their PC Purse Monies, or gift certificates that they might have been given in the past but had never bought anything yet. I wrote in another post back in the Spring of 2011 that although the Message Community Forums had "been" thrown off the Internet air - with no warning!!!, that the website portion selling Clipart was "STILL" up and selling Clipart.

Although the Welcome page on the site, never changed from its first Jan 2011 message, where they mentioned how they were discontinuing the HugClub, but they did hope to find new artists and offer up NEW sets in the year ahead. But NOTHING ever happened during 2011, NO NEW ART Sets were EVER RELEASED! When ever anyone emailed, or phoned, etc. they'd always get the run around....oh, they were pleasant and would listen, but rarely were things resolved. And then in October the Shopping Cart "broke", again emails and phone calls - only told us - We are working on it and are aware of the problems. I said to them, Please advise people right on your Welcome page, that the Shopping Cart is broken, don't wait for someone to go through the process of trying to buy something and then have them see a "Sorry" you can't buy anything right now - message!
Of course they never did fix the problem or mention it up front.
And then just a couple of weeks ago: this appeared on the Welcome page
I am copying and pasting the Message that people will see at least until Dec 31, 2011

Dear pcCrafter Members,

As you know, there have been some changes with pcCrafter.com over the past several months. After much deliberation and careful consideration, we have made the decision to close down pcCrafter effective December 31, 2011.

A few things for you to be aware of:

Please download and store on your home computer any content currently being hosted at pcCrafter. After 12/31/2011, content at pcCrafter.com will no longer be available.

Any credits you may have left at pcCrafter will be transferred to Cricut.com as store credit. You can apply these credits toward purchases at Cricut.com. Click here to transfer your credits.

The pcCrafter phone number will no longer be active after 12/31/2011. Please refer any questions to the following email address: support@pccrafter.com

if you are reading this prior to Dec. 31, 2011 visit http://pccrafter.com for the complete homepage message.
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Now isn't that a "Sad" way to end things - with so little warning and at a Holiday time, when most customers won't even see it. Leaving customers in the lurch, asking them to take a store "credit" for their PROVO CRAFT - Cricut line of products Store. Customers came to pccrafter.com to buy CLIP ART Sets, not Cricut products.

I hope that anyone and everyone who is wanting a complete and total refund of any/all monies that they may have in their pcPurse or on Gift Certificates- persue all avenues of complaint - Write to the Utah Better Business Bureau, to the Attorney General of Utah, to the Corporate Headquarters of Provo Craft, and even to the home town newspapers or local TV stations consumer departments of Provo Craft's hometown. Let them know that you do not consider pccrafter's business practices to be fair or ethical, to expect past customers to take a Provo Craft Cricut "Store" credit for monies the customer wanted to spend on "Clipart" and only Clipart. So demand a REFUND of all money they are holding and let you find new places online to purchase clipart. You'll see in the side bar to the right on my blog, A clipart and printables listing of some of my own favorite places to continue to purchase wonderful Clipart or Printables online. Be sure before the 31st of December 2011, to print out any/all documentation available from your "My Account" page on pccrafter, that indicates how much money you may still have in your pcPurse, and or, print out any/all communication or verification that you have any gift certificates that have not been redeemed with the amounts listed. Make copies of everything and keep originals, and attach your documents to any letters that you write to them in this matter. Please keep it simple and professional when you write and/or phone the company. You simply want your "money" back and fully refunded to you to spend as you choose.

State Attorney General office for Utah
http://attorneygeneral.utah.gov/contact_us.html

Utah Better Business Bureau
http://utah.bbb.org/

Provo Craft.com Contact information
http://www.provocraft.com/help/contact.php

Their mailing address indicates they - Provo Craft's - headquarters are located in South Jordan, Utah - here is a link to the online news for South Jordan Utah. http://www.topix.com/city/south-jordan-ut I didn't see any links to an online "editorial" page that you could write letters or post online about an issue having to do with a Local company (such as Provo Craft), but check it out anyway to see if this might be another venue for you to register a complaint about the business practices of Provo Craft in regards to the matters of pcCrafter's closing of their Online store selling Clipart and refunds of any monies they may be holding that is rightfully "yours".

*UPDATE TO THIS POST* on Dec 20, 2011.
Over on the Hugsister Forums, a couple of gals have mentioned that they personally wrote via this email addy: support@pccrafter.com, saying that they had Money in their pcPurse'es and wanted to purchase specific Clipart Sets instead of getting a store credit for Cricut.com. Each gal said they received a timely response back from pccrafter or kkester, and the price of the clipart sets they each requested were deducted from their pcpurse, and the "download" links were next made available to them to download from their "My Account" page and Downloads.
So if you are reading this prior to Dec 31st 2011, you may want to try that email option first before filing a complaint about the company. Good Luck to all.
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PC Crafter's staff and company, once upon a time had NO Equal on the internet, for shopping for Clipart, and communicating with them was once a joy. The community message forums, buzzed with conversations, and many many "hugsisters" became friends for life. Prayers and Laughter, and Crafting Ideas were shared every day. I and others will always remember the good ole days.

But life goes on. And thanks to Lynne a.k.a. Blondemoments - we Hugsisters have at least a new Community forum(s) to communicate and share with each other.
visit: http://z15.invisionfree.com/HugSisters/index.php
See my post from April 14, 2011 which has information about the new message forum that hugsister Lynne, created for former pccrafter.com community message forum members
http://chocolateonthekeyboard.blogspot.com/2011/04/so-sad-pccrafter-messageboard-community.html

There is going to be a LOT of confused and angry past customers when next they link on over to pccrafter.com beginning Jan 1, 2012, and be most likely be redirected to "cricut.com" or worse...see a message "site not found".

Please take a look at my listing on the side bar under the Clipart and Printables heading for shopping sites for Clipart - there are still many Wonderful artists creating and offering their art in Clipart form for us. Past pccrafter artists that still sell clipart online, include Laurie Furnell, Tammy DeYoung, Gina Jane, Joy Hall, and Shelly Comiskey. And Carolee Jones also hopes to within the next year have her own Etsy Store to sell her past pccrafter art online and new art too.

My Snowman

Snowman Digi Layout created Dec 13 2011 that I posted all this same info on Facebook, the Hugsisters forum and now my Blog - so yes if you think you've seen this before, this is DejaVu

Recently I saw on Facebook that one of my favorite artists who creates wonderful clipart and art prints, and other items, had for sale at her Etsy store - some delightful handmade Snowmen ornaments. I wrote to Karla Dornacher - asking more information about the ornaments, as they didn't come up on her stores page. She wrote back saying she only had 2 left and she hadn’t yet posted them to her store. I shared with her my story about my sweet Paul's nickname "My Snowman", and also that I had been collecting Snowmen and Snow themed ornaments for years, and my grandson Josh collects Snowmen too. She graciously with her HEART offered to let me buy "both" of these unique ornaments. After returning from my trip to California, the ornaments arrived today and I couldn't wait to hang them up, the red hat one, I placed beside the Tree shaped ornament with Paul's photo inside. His favorite part of Christmas was "our" tree every year. But I would always kid him - that the trees needed "MORE LIGHTS" - there were never enough for me ;-). So included in this layout I made - I used graphics from a clipart set by Karla Dornacher named "Pure as Snow". Which was just perfect to use.

Info/Graphics Credits
Karla Dornacher
http://www.karladornacher.com/
Blog
http://www.karladornacher.typepad.com/
Karla's post about the Snowmen ornaments
http://karladornacher.typepad.com/karlas_k...nowman-fun.html
Karla'sEtsy Shop
http://www.etsy.com/shop/karladornacher

Graphics Set I used: Pure as Snow available via Karla's Etsy shop

http://www.etsy.com/shop/karladornacher?section_id=7008653

Font I used “SP You’ve Got Mail” – No, I can’t remember where I got it sorry :-(

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I came to know of Karla, through another one of my favorite artists - Audrey Jeanne Roberts, it was through AJ's Blog that she had a link to Karla's Blog - I was amazed both with Karla's art and creations, but also her Christian writings and the ideas and thoughts she shared. When any of us is fortunate enough to be able to "know" and "dialog" with our favorite artists - it is really something Extraordinary.

I so appreciate getting to know artists like Karla, but also others such as Laurie Furnell, AJ Roberts, Carolee Jones, Tammy DeYoung, Gina Jane, and Shelly Comiskey...

I never thought when I was first buying clipart, that I would EVER have contact with the actual "Artists" - I feel Blessed by their Friendship and Humbled by their Giving Spirits.

Some of my favorite artists Blogs, or where they sell their Clipart and more

Audrey Jeanne Roberts

Audrey's Blog http://audreyjeannesblog.com/

Store on Aimee Asher http://www.aimeeasher.com/shoppe/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=25

Zazzle Shop http://www.zazzle.com/audreyjeanne

Gina Jane

Daisie Company http://www.daisiecompany.com/storefront.php

Laurie Furnell

Laurie’s Blog http://lauriefurnell.blogspot.com/

Laurie’s Etsy Shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/lauriefurnelldesigns

Laurie’s store on Aimee Asher http://www.aimeeasher.com/shoppe/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=67

Shelly Comiskey

Shelly’s Blog http://shellycomiskeydesigns.blogspot.com/

Shelly sells her downloadable clipart collections at Daisie Company

Tammy DeYoung

Tammy’s store on Aimee Asherhttp://www.aimeeasher.com/shoppe/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=9

Tammy at one time was the gal behind the Blog on Aimee Asher too: http://aimeeasher.com/shop/

Joy Hall sells her clipart also at Aimee Asher http://aimeeasher.com/shop/

**Carolee Jones hopes to be opening an Etsy store in the near future to sell her wonderful Clipart sets.

Carolee Jones sells her downloadable clipart at DAISIE Company, NOTE:**currently as of Sept 17, 2012, there has been a change in hosting web servers for Daisie Company and all of the Artists sets and/or printables etc. may not be available at this time. Carolee Jones is one of those artists that at the moment, her art is NOT available - so keep checking back at: Daisie Company

Her blog http://caroleejones.blogspot.com/

Note: all these gals are on Facebook too

Christmas in Sunny Florida

This is my 2nd Christmas in my house in Florida. And so far this first week into Dec...the weather has been delightful, certainly not frightful ;-) But since many of the decorations I brought from Buffalo are "Snow" themed - as I am also a Snowman Collector - my house decor consists mostly of "Snowmen" and Snowflakes, and all my lights are "White". This year I am doing just a wee bit of decorating, I'll be out of town for 10 days of Dec. so will only have 20 days worth of "enjoyment" of all the work that goes into putting things out and about. Just looking at my Tree though is still Enough for me. I've always liked decorated trees, and for my late husband Paul, our Tree each year was his Favorite part of Christmas. One year we spent most of a Dec in Florida helping my daughter move into her new home in Fla. When we got home, around Dec 20, I told him I didn't want to bother with pulling out our artificial tree and all that jazz. But he couldn't handle not having a tree up, so he took just the "top" portion of the artificial tree, put in a little stand he made, and he decorated it with white paper shapes he cut out, and made a paper chain. It was sooooooo cute. And I was happy I didn't have to get out all our stuff, and he was happy to have our own little Charlie Brown tree.

Here's some photos of my 2011 House and Tree

Now Cut That Out!

See Create A Snow Blossom! and 1000's of others - or share your own on Cut Out + Keep

Lets Go Buffalo!!!!

Nobody Circles the Party Wagons like the Buffalo Bills Fans!!

Some of my favorite Etsy Shops

Seems like I don't take the time to Blog very much...but do spend lots of time online exploring and linking around to other Blogs. Love - Paper Crafting and Recipe blogs. But for this post I'm sharing some of my favorite Etsy Shops. I like these for Clipart and/or Printables.

Audrey Jeanne Roberts

http://www.etsy.com/shop/AudreyJeanneRoberts

Joy Hall

http://www.etsy.com/shop/JoysSketchbook

WeedsNWildflowers

http://www.etsy.com/shop/WeedsnWildflowers

Karla Dornacher

http://www.etsy.com/shop/karladornacher

Clipart collections

http://www.etsy.com/shop/karladornacher?section_id=7008653

Printables

http://www.etsy.com/shop/karladornacher?section_id=7011477

Laurie Furnell

http://www.etsy.com/shop/lauriefurnelldesigns

RetroGirls Digitals

Elizabeth, a.k.a. Slightly Crafty on message forums

http://www.etsy.com/shop/RetroGirlsDigitals

Water Lasso

This week on the I Heart Faces.com site the Photo Challenge theme is WATER!! I have enough Humidity in the Air but can't get a picture of It and have it include a Face as well...so next best thing, take a photo with "seeable" water and a "face"

Round em up - Waterhide!!
Joshua Just Hosein Around, Keeping his Cool On

Who knew..My hometown the Birthplace of Airconditioner

As I sit in my Florida home nice and cool...I am ever so thankful for the Air Conditioner Unit humming along outside. It is soooooo muggy and warm these summer days, I sometimes wonder how I grew up in a house and drove in cars - with no "air conditioners" in any windows or cooled air coming out of vents.
In my house only a couple of window fans.
I didn't know what I was missing until the day my late husband and I got a room air conditioner for "our" bedroom. My kids didn't get them - that luxury was reserved for us grownups. We figured "we" had "survived" a childhood without them, and they would as well.
After our girls moved away, we finally did get room air conditioners for their rooms though ;-) - we had one room set up as computer/office and the other was made into a "guest" room. Then 5 yrs before Paul passed away, he and a friend installed a whole house unit. I'll never forget coming home from work on a warm summer afternoon and wondered why all the doors and windows were closed. Then I stepped inside.....ahhhhhhh the coolness was ever so refreshing. I was so grateful for his talents and his ability to fix and do things around the house, that we didn't have to "hire" out for. We still opened all the windows and doors when it was in the "70's" outside, but when it got humid and hot, I cranked down the temps as fast as I could reach the thermostat.

Little did I know until reading an Article today in the Buffalo First news online, that a man from Western NY by the name of Carrier was the first guy to make air conditioners "practical" for offices and businesses, and later on for "home use".
Thank YOU, Thank YOU to Mr Carrier - you are one Cool Guy!!
Mr Carrier is buried in Buffalo's Forest Lawn cemetery.

Read all about Mr Carrier here:
http://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/blog/the_last_laugh/2011/07/buffalo-birthplace-of-air-conditioning.html

The Business that still carries his name today is still conditioning the air around us in our homes.

May is almost done.....

Happy Memorial Day Weekend

Remember the Sacrifices So Many Have Given
for our Country and our Freedom
http://www.usmemorialday.org/backgrnd.html

Just noticed I hadn't posted anything for May...guess had nothing of much to say:-). It was a nice month. I turned 64 this month, had another wonderful "Mothers" day (my 43rd one!!!) to celebrate being a Mom to the 2 most amazing, beautiful daughters any Mom could ever wish for.

Got some nice gifts, cards, & the weather here in FLA was sunny and hot all month long.

Other than just hanging out at my house - didn't do much else.

On Friday - I went shopping or looking around at 4 different furniture stores in the area with my daughter and granddaughter for a new Entertainment/Wall Unit - I think we've narrowed it down to one or 2 that I really like and can "Afford"! And of course I saw lots of other things that I would love to decorate my home with or get new of, etc. etc.

Got a new camera (a Olympus SP 800UZ), didn't need one, just found a deal and decided I wanted it...it comes with a 30x Zoom vs the 12x Zoom I have on my Fugi 5yr old camera and my 3x Zoom I have on my 9 yr old Casio camera... I really like taking digital pictures, I never run out of film and I can delete what I don't want to upload to my computer etc. And I so enjoy looking at the birds and such out back of my house. Gives me something to do ;-) and keeps me out of trouble. Here's a couple more photos I took with the new camera.

PC Crafter is CLOSED!!

UPDATE: PCCrafter has closed its Digital Doors and has gone to website cyber heaven.

I will miss the amazing Artists, and while I own quite a bit of their beautiful and whimsical art collections - I will miss seeing NEW art from them available in downloadable kit form.

But there are still 3 former pccrafter artists who do sell their clip art sets online: as of Sept 2015 they are:
Gina Jane (owner of Daisie Company.com)

Laurie Furnell

Tammy DeYoung

That's it, the majority of former pccrafter, Daisie Company and aimee asher (Aimee Asher went out of business in 2015) artists no longer sell their art online in downloadable form.

See my post from April 14, 2011 which has information about the new message forum that hugsister Lynne a.k.a Blondemoments created for former pccrafter.com community message forum members
http://chocolateonthekeyboard.blogspot.com/2011/04/so-sad-pccrafter-messageboard-community.html

and  there is a pccrafter messageboard alumni Facebook Group (pcMB alumni) online that you can be invited to join, if you are a friend of any of the members of the alumni group. 
https://www.facebook.com/groups/305104625018/ 

Many times folks will ask - what about all the clipart they had in their accounts that they hadn't downloaded yet from pccrafter. Well the website went out of business in 2011 and no content is available anywhere. If you didn't download your content in time before it closed or when you bought it, or Did NOT back up your collections and had a computer crash - You are sadly out of Luck.  Except for the 3 artists I mention above - who sell a "few" select kits that were once upon a time sold on pccrafter - You are not going to find those sets again.

Sadly there is a lot of clipart images uploaded to picasa albums and/or pinned on pinterest that is in violation of the pccrafter terms of use and the artists copyrights.  And anything found online will not be in the original dpi quality etc.    
Remember if you purchased anything from ANY digital website now, or in the past > and installed it to your computer > there are Terms of Use and Copyright information that always must be adhered to - even if the website itself goes out of business.  Those TOUs and Artists Copyrights always remain in effect.  

One of the main reasons that so many artists chose to get out of the Digital Clip art - downloadable business, is because of the rampant illegal file sharing, and disregard of their Terms or Use and/or Angel policies.  

Please support the Artists that continue to offer their art for us clip art junkies, by Purchasing their art from reputable websites and honoring their TOUs and Copyrights.   

So sad - pccrafter messageboard community is gone

Seems that the messageboard community forums of pccrafter.com are no longer online. Tis a sad day for "Me". It was those forums that really brought the "net" out in me. Most of the folks who do visit this tiny corner of the blogosphere - my blog, know me (LibMary) from those pccrafter forums.   **Update > PCCrafter closed its cyber doors permanently in 2011**
 
It was back in 2004, that one of my web pages - a listing of links to free printables was being overwhelmed from traffic from the pccrafter forums. My then free website, kept exceeding its bandwidth because of the visits I was getting. So I traced the link to a message on the pccrafter forums - and began to look around the place. I kept seeing the same questions being asked...How Do You Fill a Blank Template with backgrounds and graphics, and also How Do You Remove the White Surrounding JPG graphics. These questions were something that I never had much of a reason to think about, but I was fascinated by how helpful and friendly everyone was in trying to help each other out. I also noticed that the gals seemed to share a special bond with each other. They told of their daily happenings, asked for prayers, told of their joys, showed photos of their crafts, and opened their "houses" (you pccrafter ole timers will remember when folks got "houses" on the MSN site) for us all to visit.
Now at the time in 2004, I had already been buying the amazing graphics collections from pccrafter and had joined the Monthly Hug Club in 2003 (discontinued as of Dec 2010 when they released their last Club selections) - but I collected graphics/clipart as a hobby. I did signage for the Library I worked in, but really didn't do much else with all the stuff I bought. I just fell in love with it, and had to have it, and it was a bargain, and it didn't require any "room" in my house, only on my hard drive....that's my story and I'm stickin to it!
So I didn't consider myself a "crafter" like so many hugsisters were, but I did understand somethings about computers and software programs. As I worked in a Hospital Library that had a computer lab, and had been working with software programs and computers since about 1986..so if I ever felt I could help out with an answer - I would offer up my "How I Do It" posts and threads.
Lots of gals over the years found my help - helpful - and the seeds of friendship were sewn forever into the fabric of my life. I learned a lot from them as well so it was a 2 way or 100+ way street between us all.

When my sweet Paul passed away suddenly on a beautiful Saturday afternoon in April 2008, I sat at my computer that evening, still in shock, but knowing that I needed to connect with my "hugsisters"...and let them know I needed them to pray for me. The response was overwhelming and still stirs my emotions today. Those women are soooooo special and I'll probably never meet most of them in person, but I know them very well.

Lynne, a.k.a. Blondemoments a hugsister, gave us pccrafter sisters a gift last Dec.
She opened a new messageboard community. We all felt that when pccrafter announced that they were discontinuing the Hug Club, and not renewing some of our favorite artists contracts, that things might be winding down for pccrafter as a clipart business. So Lynne thoughtfully "thought" ahead and created a Plan B / Backup Plan for the "Community".

The new Hugsister forums aren't quite the same as the pccrafter forums, but they already have 600+ registered users, and things are Humming :-).
I still help out with posts that I think I can offer something to someone in the way of information etc. Or I offer up links or resources I hope others might enjoy discovering. Come on over if you haven't registered yet and see what we're all up to:
http://z15.invisionfree.com/HugSisters/index.php?act=idx

A Birds Eye View

I have been totally fascinated by the Eagles Nest shown 24/7 via a live camera feed.
The first baby eagle was hatched on April 2nd, the second on the 3rd and I think the 3rd egg hadn't hatched as of today the 5th.
Excerpt quoted from website:
The Raptor Resource Project brings you the Decorah Eagles from atop their tree at the fish hatchery in Decorah, Iowa.

The live video feed is streamed online 24/7. At night an infrared light provides night vision to viewers through the cam. Infrared light is not visible to eagles, they do not see it or know it is there.
Just amazing what Nature offers us: Enjoy!

Free live streaming by Ustream

Think Outside the Frame

2015 >> UPDATE to this Post  Sept 2015 <<  - this originally was written in April 2011, and in four short years, most of the websites I linked to are now gone - 
I have tried to edit and/or removed the links that no longer work.  
Please remember that websites and online businesses go out of biz or move to a new web addy - Everyday in cyberspace - so if something is important to you, copy and paste information you find useful to a word document for your personal reference. And if you see something in a digital webstore that really calls to you, buy it or do it very soon.  The majority of artists that I use their clip art in digital and real life creations - that I bought via digital stores, are NO LONGER selling their art in downloadable kits or collections.  I  bought from places such as PCCrafter, Aimee Asher and from artists that once upon a time sold digital art sets at Daisie Company  
(Note: Daisie Company.com still is open and sells the art of Gina Jane - a former pccrafter artist)  Laurie Furnell and Tammy DeYoung are 2 other former pccrafter artists that now have Etsy stores. 

Original post:
Hi,
Happy Spring & Everything!!
On Wednesday and Thursday this past week we really had some wild weather round these parts of Florida. I think they had 7 tornado's touch down within 50 miles of my house!!

On Saturday my grandkids were here for a little while and Mariah and I took a walk around the neighborhood soaking in all the wonderful "SUNSHINE" and looked at how green and flowery everything was. When we were walking, she approached a wee butterfly on the sand of an empty lot (I think someone is going to build on it soon - fingers crossed) and the butterfly flew to her finger and stayed with her through a good portion of our walk. She kept trying to let it go by all the various flower patches we passed along the way...but it kept staying on her hand till we found just the right spot ;-)

Graphics from pccrafter.com by Tricia Santry
Blooming Seasons creatable
**Tricia's Friends Forever creatable would have also been nice to
use with the photos. I love all of her artwork :-)  
This artwork is NO LONGER AVAILABLE
UPDATE>PCCrafter closed its digital doors in 2011


Update : Digital Scrapbook Place is no longer online and this set by Elizabeth Weaver is no longer available for purchase
Out of Bounds Frames/Elements by Elizabeth Weaver  formerly sold 
@ Digital Scrapbook Place. No LONGER AVAILABLE 

If you want the font I used in layout:
Get it FREE at Kevin and Amanda's
(and find lots more fun fonts)
http://kevinandamanda.com/fonts/fontsforpeas/pea-miss-mary/

FYI for those who want to think outside the frame: this technique is often referred to as
Out of Bounds (OOB)
I posted these links in a 2007 thread on the former pccrafter.com messageboard community
and just thought I'd share here on my Blog

Image credits:
Frames: Out of Bounds Elements by Elizabeth Weaver @ Digital Scrapbook Place. 
(no longer available)
Fonts: SandyTextHmk, Sheer Beauty, Slumber Party
Cute boy - my grandson Josh!
Scenic photos taken at Letchworth State Park, NY, July 2007

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I have more or less just used tutorials made for other software programs, and adapted to the tools I have in my Microsoft Digital Image software to create my out of bounds or out of the frames compilations.

Here are some links that you may find helpful in doing some of these types of things yourself:

Corel  create out of bounds photo

http://learn.corel.com/photo/tutorials/view/148/Create-An-Out-Of-Bounds-Photo

Digital Technique - How to POP out a Photo
3D Photo Technique
http://www.acherryontop.com/article?a=1178

Making Your Subject Pop Out Of A Photo With Photoshop

http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/pop-out/

Out of Bounds tutorial
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28466683@N00/153507433/in/set-72157594146002408/

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And last year (2010) I put up a How I Do It page, showing how I separate/extract a graphic from a background:
http://www.sippingtea.com/hugbees/cutoutpic.html

Happy Cut Outs!
P/S
I used one of the Out of Bounds frames that I got in the kit by Elizabeth Weaver @ Digital Scrapbook Place to create a sigtag (kit no longer available) - that I had in my posts on the former pccrafter messageboard back in 2007