March 19, 1983 - "I Do!"

It's almost 29 years ago Jim and I were married.  My how time flies - it seems like a lifetime ago!
We met March 16, 1981, had our first official date the next day, St. Patrick's Day, at the White House in Fishkill, NY, and were married two years later in Tampa, FL.  So much has been packed into all these years: fun with family, wild times with friends, vacations, work, business trips, KIDS!, moving, pets, schools, sports, Church.  Lots of ups and downs, fun times, ick times ~ marriage!
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I was looking through photos of our wedding.  The Album is falling apart and the pictures have some damage.  I got a new album for the pictures, so hopefully there won't be too much more deterioration.  I did scan them all and fixed them up a bit in PSE7.  Then, of course, had do some scrap pages of them! 

Love the look of the folded corner and the chain coming out of the flowers!  The chain was done using a dynamic brush and then an overlay of gold tone was added.  I also like the PSE style that lets me make the photo look like
a dimensional plaque.
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These next three are some "Easy Pages", meaning I did not assemble all the paper layers, fonts and elements.  These are from "Love Honor and Cherish" by Scrap Girls designer Brandy Murry.  I just added the photos...

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and

Marie Liberatore, Jim, Diane, Leo Ladaga

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This last one is a double page scrapbook page.  I did a left side and a right side and tried to erase the center seam.  I don't think I have it quite right and will need to keep practicing.

L-R: Earl and Kris Medeiros, Shari Hugo, Gretchen Schimmel, Alan and Charleen Don, Jim and Diane, Pam Turner, Beverly (Turner) Nuermberger, Bob Turner, Phyllis and Harry Heyworth

Just love looking at pictures from "back in the day"!   Brings back so many wonderful memories and feelings.

Enjoy!

Diane

Loving the Weather, Good and Bad

"...oh, the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful..."
It's SNOWING!!  And, luckily, today is my day off!  I work part time now, 4 days a week, with Wednesdays off (usually).  So, I get to watch the snow today and sit in front of a nice fire and enjoy a mint hot chocolate!
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In one of my earlier scrapbook pages, I made the entire photo my scrap page - very eye catching.  Then added a few small embellishments.  It's a very simple page and still one of my favorites.  I DO love the SNOW!

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Continuing on a weather theme...

It's hard to believe it was just six months ago, that Hurricane Irene hit here.  Actually, she was downgraded to a Tropical Storm by the time she reached the Mid-Hudson valley, but the damage caused was still devastating!  The
day after, I took a walk around and got some photos.  It was nice to chat with neighbors who were also out to see the aftermath.  I put together a page and included a large circle shape to offset the pictures, using it for a title and some journaling.  With the journaling, you really get to tell the story of the pictures and what else was happening behind them.  A nice keepsake to look back on.

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Snow, rain... as much as I enjoy them, it will be nice to see those glorious warm, sunny days of summer arrive!  Stay warm and safe everyone!

Diane

A Surprise Visit

Don't you love surprises?!  At the last minute, Jim and I decided we could, in fact, make a trip upstate to see our daughter Kelly compete in a Track meet at Cornell University.  I had no time to make the usual Chocolate Chip cookies and shop for strawberries, track meet staples, but as least I could make a PB&J, and bring up some Gatorade (and raisin bread and a little toy stuffed "red dragon" - Go Cortland Red Dragons!!).

We made it to Cornell's beautiful campus and to Barton Hall's indoor track in plenty of time.  This winter, the weather has been quite cooperative!  Kelly was warming up for the Pole Vault, so I got one of her friends (and suite mate), Sarah, to bring the bag of over to her.  Poor Kelly was quite confused.  You see, Sarah's Mom brings goodies to each meet for Sarah, and has included Kelly, since we're a bit too far to make it to each meet.  So Kelly thought this was from Sarah's Mom, especially since she had NO idea we were there!  HAHA!  She was finally convinced we were here and looked up to find us waving like maniacs in the bleachers! FUN!

She did a great job, too!  I guess having Mom and Dad there added to the incentive to do well.  She had a PR (personal record) of 3.30m, or 10'10"!  Now, depending on where your son or daughter is in their pole vaulting career, you could say a jump of 10'10" is great or just OK.  To us, this is unbelievable!  You see, Kelly never picked up a pole until the last couple of weeks of Indoor Track last year.  Our high school does not compete in that event.  It did always look interesting to her, so when she arrived at college (as a Long Jump special talent at State University of New York (SUNY) Cortland) last January, she asked the coaching staff if she could give it try.  

I think they're glad she asked :)

I've done only a couple of scrapbook pages on this, but I'm sure there will be more to come.  The first one was of the Cortland Men and Women's 2011 Pole Vault team.  Kelly was the only woman pole vaulter during last year's spring season, so it's just her and the guys.  It was a very close knit group.  This page was thrown together very quickly.  I brought my laptop with me and spent some time scrapping in my hotel room after the meet.  I found the Cortland logos online and used those on the page.  I purchased an "action" from my favorite site, www.scrapgirls.com, to make the one photo look like several multiple photos.  (Kelly is front row to the right.)

This second page shows some photos of her making her previous PR jump of 10'8".  The digital papers used were also from the Scrap Girls site, as was the "tear action" to give the look of torn paper.  It makes it look more like a traditional scrapbook page, rather than digital. 

I love how this last page particularly gives me more of a record than just writing on the back of a photo!  But, more on journaling at a later time...

Bye for now.  Hope fun surprises await you all!

Diane

NY Giants - Superbowl XLVI Champs

Superbowl is over.  That makes some folks happy (the hype is over!) and some folks just plain lost with no football to look forward to.  I enjoy football, but I'm not an avid fan.  We lived in Tampa, Florida, for ten years back in the '80's.  We had season tickets on the 40 yard line, up in the nosebleed section.  Got to see the Tampa Bay Buccaneers up close,
sort of.  That was lots of FUN!
(Oh, and remember the USFL??!!!  We got to see the Tampa Bay Bandits.  And Burt Reynolds, a part owner of the team, and Lonnie Anderson.  Our seats were just under the press box that they were in!)

We've stuck by the Bucs all these many years.  The year they beat the Philadelphia Eagles and then went on to beat the Raiders and WIN the Superbowl, well, it was just amazing!  So, I really am happy for all the New York Giants fans.  CONGRATULATIONS!!

We do enjoy sports and so a lot of my scrapbook pages have a sports theme.  Biking, skiing, kayaking, High School and College sports, like Soccer, Track and Field, Gymnastics, Swimming, to name a few!  Haha!!!  I'll probably end up sharing quite a few of them!  But for now, I was thinking football and a scrapbook page I did that showed a technique that I really like.  I saw this, I'll call it "Frame pop-out" technique, on the Scrapgirls site and spent some time trying to duplicate it.  It works really well with photos that show some type of action.  Check out this football scrapbook page where Josh is shown outside of the photo's frame.  A fun technique and very eye-catching!

And, again, CONGRATULATIONS to the New York GIANTS and their many, many fans!

'til next time,

Diane

I can Ski!

Wednesday is typically my day off.  I was hoping for a lazy day, but it wasn't to be.  I had my final Dr. appointment.  It took a chunk out of my day, but worth it to find out I'm just fine -  no more pneumonia!  I was told to rest, and rest I did.  I pretty much felt like I was decomposing.  Now it is time to get back to being active!

This time of the year, active means hitting the ski slopes.  There is definitely a lack of snow this year.  The ski areas in the Catskills say they have plenty, though.  Last year, my first day out I was able to get in 11 runs, from top to bottom.  This year, still being a bit winded from the pneumonia, I suspect I may only get 2 or 3 in.  We'll see...

In March 2009 we had a wonderful family vacation, skiing in Lake Tahoe.  Much to our delight, we arrived in the middle of a snow storm in the Sierra Nevadas and experienced almost 4 FEET of snow.  Skiing was phenomenal!!!  My new Nikon D60 got a great workout.  Yes, I ski with my camera.  We still had a professional shot taken at Heavenly Valley ski resort.  We rarely have one of the four of us together, so I treasure this one.

Because I do love the winter, one of the first digital scrap book kits I purchased from Scrap Girls was "Flake Flurry".  It had some lovely digital paper, elements and word art in cool blue tones.  So, as soon as we got home, I put together a very simple layout.  I didn't use any "techniques".  I just put a grungy frame around the main photo and a border separating the three photos I took at the bottom.  Then a few snowflake elements to add interest.  I was surprised at how quickly it came together.

I hope you all are enjoying your winter so far!


SkiChic,  Diane

First Blog Post

Welcome!
After waiting for many years, I've decided to finally take the plunge and create a blog.  I think it may be more for
myself, to document what and how I create, but I hope you will enjoy it, too.
 
About me ~ I grew up in Wappingers Falls, NY.  75 miles north of "the city", New York City, that is, and 75 miles south of Albany, our state capital.  I did live in Tampa, FL, for 10 years.  Married Jim and had two children down there.  We moved back up to Ulster County in the Mid-Hudson Valley where I get to cross the Hudson River daily.
We've been married 29 years this March.  Our son is 23, living at home and our daughter is 19, away at college pursuing a degree in Physical Education.
 
I think I truly got started "crafting" back in 1992.  I saw a demo using rubber stamps, embossing powders and a heat tool.  I was hooked!  Of course, I was going to save $$ by creating my own cards and tags for the kids.  HA! I needed all the latest and greatest!  I'm sure there are some of you nodding along.  You've been there, too :)
To help supplement this, I submitted stamped items to Rubber Stamp companies and magazines.  Probably at least of third, or more, of the stamps and stamping products I have were the result of winning a contest!
I have been published in industry magazines, VampStampNews, Stamper's Sampler and Rubber Stamper.
I still do some rubber stamping, but over the years branched into some other areas.  I have enjoyed making books, particularly the "star book".  Using mixed media on a canvas always makes me feel like such an Artist.
Most of those have been gifts to friends and family.  I love making jewelry, both stringing and more delicate bead stitching. 
 
However, my Passion (capital "P") is Digital Scrapbooking.  I like all things digital/technical, so I'm a perfect fit for this.  Jim gave me Photoshop Elements V7 as a Christmas gift in 2009.  I purchased an e-book from www.scrapgirls.com and I was off and running.  No more glue, scissors, hard to fix mistakes with photos and paper.  Digital is so forgiving!
And, let me say, Scrap Girls has been a truly wonderful experience!  Such a great group of talented scrapbookers and very supportive.

So, what does a digital scrapbook page look like?  I'll share my first attempt at one. 

Certainly nothing elaborate, but I was so thrilled!  I worked hard to get the shading right to make the tags look like they were 3-D and layered on top.  That shading is a Snap, now!  I'll share more of my pages as we go along.  Thanks for looking!  I'd enjoy reading any comments you might have, too!

Diane