I have been itching to learn photoshop for many years. I’m not sure why it took me so long to start learning. Last September I went to my family reunion in Kentucky. I took several pictures of my family’s property. At the time, I really felt good about the pictures I took. When I bought my Macbook, I really felt like I needed to install and learn Photoshop. I’ve been slowly learning via Lynda.com. I’m so proud of myself that I have been able to get going so quickly with this program. I’m glad that I waited because Photoshop CS3 is really cool! I have really only scratched the surface of what you can do with the program. I try to learn a little everyday, but I know that it will take me many hours of studying to learn everything. Thankfully I love my MacBook so much, I don’t mind spending time staring at it!
I will definitely be posting more of my photoshop creations. I also want to find out what other scrapbookers are doing with Photoshop. I did a few searches on TwoPeasInaBucket and many scrapbookers are talking about the new CS3. Stay tuned!

This week has been very hectic! I haven’t had much time for crafting or scrapbooking. Our meet-up group met on Monday, July 16th, but I missed it! I am still very bummed! My brain is full. I am looking forward to finishing some projects and getting back in the groove next week.

Today was my monthly Stampin’ Up group meeting. I spent most of the weekend re-organizing my office and scrapbooking / craft space. I think I finally am somewhat organized in my crafting approach. I created a space in our spare room for using all the messy tools that come along with scrapbooking. I now have a place to emboss and paint and cut all my projects outside of my scrapbook space. So after the shuffle, I planned out which projects I wanted to do today. I needed to make a thank you card and some cute birthday cards with the left over scraps from the CKC. Here are the results. Click on the photo and it will take you to my scrapblog where I’ve added more detail about what inspired me and the results.
I used these Stampin’ Up stamp sets in creating my cards:
Best Bar Codes
Paint Prints
The Art of Life
Snapshot (oldie but a goodie)
Au Chocolat Paper (I wish I would have bought more of this paper)

So after months of saving, I bought my MacBook on Saturday! I used to have the white ibook, which I purchased in 2001. For obvious reasons, I was in need of an upgrade and last year I got a Mac Mini. Although I love my Mac Mini, I really missed having a laptop. Now I can work anywhere!

After I organized all my projects and my crop space, I realized I have several pending projects. I can’t wait to get some of them finished. Others are going to be ongoing. I have to say that I like having things to create. I enjoy the sense of accomplishment. I will share more of my creations this week.

Another great class we took at CKC (Creating Keepsakes Convention) Ft. Lauderdale. I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED the Big Fat Chunky Book and the 10×20 Wall Hanging classes that were given by Quick Quotes. I had so many creative ideas after these classes. I really wish the classes were a little longer, because I had to finish up most of the projects at home. Like many scrapbookers, I have tons of these mini albums laying around my house without pictures. I think I take the classes more for learning cool techniques. I am going to add pictures to these projects, soon hopefully! I am itching for the next CKC or CKU. So much fun.

We took some really cool classes at CKC, Here is the Scrapblog I did of the Tagalicious class presented by Close to My Heart.

So my sister and I enjoyed an exciting weekend of scrapbooking and shopping for scrapbooking supplies. (Actually mostly shopping).

We created some pretty amazing scrapbook pages and other unique memory items.
This was my first time ever attending a Creating Keepsakes event. I think it was also CK first time here in Ft. Lauderdale.
We took the following classes:
SEI 5in1
Tagalicious
10 x 20 Canvas Wall Hanging
My Big Fat Chunky Book

All the classes were well worth the money. I think the ladies that facilitated the “Tagalicious” class were very ambitious. The project was probably better suited for a 2 hour class. There were some really awesome ideas and my sister and I finished the project up later in the evening.

My favorite class by far was “My Big Fat Chunky Book.” It was totally not what I was expecting, but I LOVED it. I am now a fan of Quick Quotes. I had never heard of them before this event.

I was so surprised about how many things I saw at the convention that I had never seen before. I consider myself an avid scrapbooker, meaning that I am in at least one scrapbook store on a weekly basis and I read all the magazines. It blew my mind that I came across cool stuff that I had never encountered before. All of those good creative juices are flowing, flowing.

We were really exhausted by Saturday! I also finally broke down and bought a Crop-A-dile. It’s very kewl! Here’s to design inspiration!