Scrapbooking inspiration and a quick tip

As most of you who have followed me over the years knows, I'm part of Designs by Connie Prince's creative team.  I got lucky in 2013 and joined her blog team.  I say lucky because I love promoting her products and I horde her templates and kits.  I say horde because my stash of her products is enormous.  Many of the layouts I've shared on this blog and on previous blogs I have had over the years have been made with her kits and templates.  Connie is amazingly kind and supportive and I'm so happy that I'm part of her scrapbooking family.  

I've had short periods of time where I've been on other creative teams, some of those designers have retired from designing because like me their lives went off in a different direction and some of the teams I walked away from when life got to be too overwhelming for me to keep up with scrapping on a regular basis.  This summer I've found a desire to scrap more consistently and a ton of "new to me" designers have caught my interest.  One of them had a Creative Team Call going on so I applied not sure if my long absence would keep me from being considered.  I'm excited to say, I was accepted to be a part of Wetfish Designs' CT!  

One of the side benefits of all this is I'll get to share some inspiration with anyone who stumbles by my blog.  Another benefit is my photos will get posted more often instead of sitting on my external hard drive.  After all, photos should be shared!

Here are a few of the layouts I've made this month.  There are more to come but hopefully these will inspire you to explore your creativity today.

July WAS Styles by Wetfish Designs

Kit: Cape Cod Summer by Wetfish Designs

CU: Junk Edges1 by Wetfish Designs, Old Paper Template 1 by Wetfish Designs, Grunge Textures from my stash

Font: Beauty Nature

Kit: Cape Cod Summer by Wetfish Designs

Kit: #2026 July by Connie Prince

Template: Only One Volume 12 by Connie Prince

Kit: Simple Things by Aimee Harrison

Kit: Rainbow Bridge by Wetfish Designs

I know my scrapping will slow down over the next few weeks because I'm headed back to my full-time teaching job but it has been a blast getting to scrap memories and photos that I've taken over the years.  I have also been enjoying playing around more with different things within Photoshop and Lightroom.

Quick Scrapbooking tip:  Blend your text into your background papers.  

I want my text to look worn into the background paper.  I use a technique on nearly every layout that I learned years ago to make the text look like it is written on the paper, not "floating" above the paper.  I use a small tweak in FX (styles) in the blending option to help the text set into the texture of the paper it's sitting on.  I learned this years ago but the website I bookmarked with the tutorial no longer exists.  However, I found this one: Friends Don't Let Fonts Float by Polly Anne on the Lily Pad Blog that explains it perfectly.

I hope something I shared today inspires you to explore your creative side.  Thanks for stopping by and I'll see you on the flip side!

Author Recommendation: Ginny Sterling

 I have no idea how we got through nearly the first half of the year without me blogging.  Actually, I do know.  Life got exceptionally busy with the job I was doing and when I had some "down" time, my husband and I hit the hiking/walking trails to help me with my mental and emotional health.  Those times were priceless and necessary so I could meet the everyday demands.  The good news is my job situation has resolved where I should only be on one campus this upcoming year.  That does come with a pay cut but it will be less stress which is 100% worth it.

So with that behind me, for the past month I've been in recovery mode. After one last week of school related professional development, I've spent time doing some things that fed my artistic and nature loving soul.  I love being able to go sit outside in our shade garden in the morning before everyone gets up (or it gets unbearably hot) with a book (or Kindle), a crocheting project, and soak in time surrounded by nature.  

That brings me around to what I wanted to share with you today.  I'm a pretty eclectic reader, tending to stay on the fiction side of literature but I jump around from one genre to another.  Recently I've been catching up with some of my favorite Christian Romance, clean romance, cozy mystery/romantic suspense, paranormal romance, and paramilitary/military romance/suspense authors which also usually populates suggestions into my Kindle as I finish another book.  I thought I would start sharing some of the authors/books that I've discovered and enjoyed for those of you who are bookworms like me.

One of my current favorite authors in the clean, closed door romance genre is Ginny Sterling.

Ginny writes stories that take you on a roller coaster ride of emotions.  One minute you are laughing, the next you are secretly wanting to hug and kick the main characters, and then you find yourself crying and hoping for the HEA (which there's plenty of that to go around).  I discovered this author several years ago with her Healing Hearts series and Flyboys series.  Both of these are military pen pal based but connect to each other as both of the series unfolds. Another thing that pulled me in was that she put the USA setting in Texas and included towns within driving distance of where I live.  Matter of fact the town I live in made an appearance in one of the books!  I've since then read her Flirt's Battalion, Reserve Ranch, and Baird Farm series.  There are more of her books on my TBR list and I haven't found one that I didn't like.

This is a layout that I did as part of a challenge at Ginger Scraps about meeting someone real or fiction on our "bucket list."  I would love to meet Ginny Sterling at some point and I was close when she was at a book convention in Dallas but the tickets for that convention sell out super fast!

Layout credits: 

Template: The Jive Five Vol 13 by Connie Prince

Kits: Reading List, Paint Chips Hot Purple, Paint Chips Resolution Blue, and Paint Chips Blush Pink by Connie Prince

The photo on the layout is one from one of our May hikes/walks.  This was up at Farmersville, Texas and is part of the Northeast Texas Trail.  The Northeast Texas Trail is a 130 mile rail to trail conversion project that runs from Texarkana to East Dallas.  There is currently a study underway to get the trail designated as the state's first linear State Park.  

I'll have another author to share with you next week. Happy reading!

First photo 2026

It's currently only 17 degrees outside and I am not ashamed to admit that I'm not a fan of this type of bitter cold.  However, I braved it just a bit to get a few photos to document the 1st ice storm of 2026 and to try to get a macro photo or two.

Did you take any photos today?  Have you made any photography goals for 2026?  

My goal this year is to enjoy the process of taking photos.  To see the world from different perspectives.  

Wishing all of you warmth and safety this week!

Photography Challenge - Seeing the world from a different perspective

This year I've started to challenge myself to work on my photography skills and part of that journey has been learning about macro photography.  I have so much more to learn but I'm having a blast!  

What is macro photography?  It's a genre of taking extreme close up photos of small objects to see the fine details.  My main focus in macro photography is plants and flowers.  Some people really get into insects but I'm happy with non-crawling objects.  

Yesterday my husband and I went on a hike at the Cedar Hill State Park.  The weather has been awesome lately and Saturday was the first opportunity we had to go since Fall Break.  The beginning of the day we encountered some light rain (which worked out in my favor on a few photos) but it also meant that they closed a few of the trails to help preserve them.  Cedar Hill is definitely a place we want to visit again sometime.

I thought I'd share a few of the photos that I captured yesterday.

That last two of the water droplets are some of my favorites.  You can see the reflection of the foliage behind it through the droplet!  

This one isn't a macro photo but while I was distracted by what looked like a red thumbtack stuck on a tree (which my husband said it looked like some sort of marking tag), my husband noticed this birdhouse just off the trail. Maybe the tag was placed so the park rangers could find the bird house later?  I don't know but it made for a lovely photo opportunity.

Maybe this will inspire someone to pick up their camera and try capturing some macro photos.  I would love to see your results if you do!  Let's inspire each other and share some joy along the way.

Just a Thought

 I worked on a layout yesterday after being inspired by some photos that I had taken of some propagations that I had going.  Have you ever thought about how the growth of plants is much like life in Christ?  Here's the layout that I made using Connie's Paint Chips Sweet Pea kit and her Pics Galore Vol. 48 Template pack.

Just in case you can't read the journaling:

Plants are the very picture of life with Christ.  When you allow God to lead, new life, growth, new beginnings, and renewal can happen.  Sometimes you have to be stripped down to the very beginning like the wet stick/node pieces in the top-middle photo.  But given time, nurturing, and the right light (Christ), what was once lost is new again.

This verse was placed on my heart today as I thought more about what God has said about our growing in faith.

As I continue to pursue a life with Christ as my Savior, I know that I can only represent Him to others if I have a personal relationship with Him. Peace in this life isn't possible without walking in faith. There are too many distractors, too many roadblocks, too many emotions to sift through on a daily basis. Only God can sift through it all and provide us with a clear path.

Here is one of my favorite songs that expresses this hope.

May this encourage you today. My prayer is that in this chaotic world, that you will find peace, that you will feel the love and grace that God has given us.

Scrapbook Journey + Freebie

Digital scrapbooking is one of my creative outlets that has wove it's way in and around my online world for nearly two decades.  I had to sit back and really think that through before I typed it out.  Two decades?  those years flew by in the blink of an eye.  I originally started this journey when my oldest children were maybe three and just born.  I remember wanting to put together a screen saver for my parents that would have photos of the kids so they would feel connected to us since we lived about 4 hours away.  I searched online for free background images just to make it a bit more polished and fell down the rabbit hole of designers offering freebies on their blogs.  Digital kits to create scrapbook pages to print.  

It didn't take long and I was hooked.  I always wanted to get into paper scrapbooking but several things held me back.  First of all, supplies were expensive and we just didn't have the disposal income to fund another crafting hobby.  Second, pulling everything out and putting it back up in a hurry seemed like a lot of work.  I have this thing about needing/wanting everything to have a specific place and with paper scrapping there's a lot of supplies to store and we had limited room.  I'm also not one that can leave unfinished projects laying out and with creative time at a premium, the time spent taking out supplies and cleaning up seemed like a waste of precious time.  With digital scrapbooking all that wasn't an issue!  Winner!

So there's the backstory of how I got into digital scrapbooking.  I know I have some of those early pages filed away on an EHD somewhere and I'm sure they are cringe worthy but we all have to start somewhere and the memories those pages hold are dear. I'm sure that some of you have similar stories of how you got into scrapbooking.  Now onto current events.  What have I scrapped recently?

The first one was made with #2025 May by Connie Prince and Banner Play Vol 1 by Connie Prince template.

The second one was made with Memories {Bundle} by Connie Prince as part of a challenge at Ginger Scraps.

The last one was made with #2025 June by Connie Prince.

Participating in the challenges at Ginger Scraps helps me have a focus and prompt for my creative journey which I need at the moment.  My mind is still very cluttered with teaching/job tasks and I need something to guide me into the creative side of my brain.  Otherwise I find myself just staring at the screen.  I have also found that I absolutely can not open Facebook/social media during my creative time.  Once I do that, I get sucked into watching videos.  Yes, I'm discovering new things but at the same time, I'm not being productive.

Here's a couple of blasts from the past. The middle layout above is of our youngest daughter.  She's about to graduate from High School (a full year ahead of schedule).  She's currently taking her final class as a Summer Credit Advancement course through our school district.  By July 17th she will be completely done.  She has always been a trailblazer, one to find her own path and follow through with her decisions.  

I wish she could see herself through my eyes.  Every time I look back at the layouts from the past 17 years I see a fearless, imaginative, inquisitive, creative, and joyful child.  I pray that she never loses that spirit as she enters this next chapter of her life.  

Those moments captured in those three layouts are why I scrapbook.  As I pulled them up I was transported back to the moment those photos were taken, the moment I scrapped about and how I felt.  The nostalgia brings all the emotions back to the surface and makes me appreciate what I have in life.  Three pretty awesome kids who are finding their own way in this world, finding ways to make their own marks on the world around them.  A loving husband who has made sure I know that I'm loved, that I'm enough, that I am valued.  We just celebrated out 30th Anniversary this past week.  We have a good life and together we are finding joy in the small things.

I have another 4X6 card front printable for you today as a "thanks for stopping by" freebie.  You can get the download by clicking on the image below.  Thank you for taking time to visit today!

~Susan~

Propagations - begonias and coleus

Part of this plant journey that I find fascinating is propagation.  What's that?  Taking a cutting of a plant and growing a new plant from that cutting (or at least growing a new vine to go back into the original pot to make the plant look fuller).  For the past year, I've done easy propagations like golden pothos, cebu blue pothos, marble queen pothos, and heartleaf philodendron.  I also propagated an adasnonii monstera from a vine my mother-in-law gave me that I've managed to keep alive.  Oh....that may be what those NOID small leaves are that I just potted up from my node propbox.  I guess we'll know in a few months. 

So today I got brave and took some cuttings of the beautiful coleus plants that my husband has growing in our shade garden.   Crossing my fingers that these root in a couple of weeks.  The first photo shows some coleus cuttings I got from my friend Jane a few days ago.  She has a small plant shop and I love getting plants from her!

Here are our cuttings from today.

There's one peeking in from the left that I need to go back and take a better photo of.  It's one of my favorites! 

This next one isn't a coleus but I think it's in the same family.  It's called a purple shield.  I'm hoping it roots like the coleus.  I guess we'll see in a few weeks.

I didn't take any cuttings of the outdoor begonias.  Their leaves are huge and I haven't figured out what I'm going to do to propagate those yet.  I know I really want to try because they are so unique and I need to get going on that soon so the cuttings have a chance to get established before I need to acclimate them to indoors.  The purpose for these cuttings besides me learning something new, is that we're hoping to overwinter these indoors and either transplant them outside next Spring or have a big enough plant that we can propagate cuttings from that into small plants to have a full shade garden next year.

On to the indoor begonia propagations.  I have photos of the ones that I started leaf cuttings of a couple months ago.  I'm pretty sure these were started mid to late April but I'm not 100% certain.  We had purchased a few begonias (I shared a couple photos of those the other day) from Lowes as little plants.  You know, those small starter plants that are only $5 - 8?  One of them may have been a rescue because it was not looking so hot and I just had to downsize it into a tiny cup the other day hoping to get it to size back up.  It's looking healthier but it's got a long ways to go.  I took one leaf from each plant as an experiment to see if I could propagate from a single leaf.  I think all but 2 have survived and are starting to put out new growth!  Look at the root growth on this first one!

This is the baby leaf (smallest of the bunch) from the plant that I'm desperately trying to save.  I guess this is my insurance plan in case the other plant doesn't make it.  As soon as the original plant puts on a significant amount of new leaves, I'm going to take a couple more and get them started.  Until then, enjoy this cutie!

I have a couple of begonias that look very similar to each other but one has a dark center what the other one is missing that trait.  The outer edge is slightly different as well. 

This last one is so iridescent!  The silver and light purple are stunning!

What are those cups?  They are snack cups with lids that you can get at Wal-Mart.  I have some coco coir in them and the lid keeps the environment humid/moist.  These sit on a shelf under a grow light with a couple other propagations and right now my philodendron micans (you can see part of the micans vine in that last picture).  

I hope this inspires you to try propagating some of your plants.  I have a couple cane begonias that I want to chop back a bit and propagate but they both had new leaves emerging up top today so I put it off again to let those come on out. That's going to be a new adventure!

Thanks for stopping by again and checking out more of our plant journey.

~Susan~