Magical Monday = Eldon with Flower

Eldon comes to you by the blog There's Magic In The Air and this weeks FREE image is "Eldon with Flower" and the challenge was to use ribbon and a bow. Well, I just love this little image and to read the story behind how Eldon came about you can read the details over at "There's Magic In The Air" as well. Now I really didn't make these cards for the challenge, mainly because I had them made prior to the challenge. I can do that since I actually drew the image! LOL.. but I thought he turned out so cute I couldn't wait to use him!

With Eldon, I intentionally kept him free of stripes, dots and other patterns, mainly because I wanted crafters to be able to "dress" him up in different ways and be able to change his look if they wanted to. I did this with the images below. I had a lot of fun making "designer Eldons"!

As we all know, a good Designer Team and Guest Designers are a very important component in representing an image. Seeing how one can use it creatively and inspiring others is truly a gift of talent. I certainly feel like I have been given a wonderful gift in the talent through my Designer Team and Guest Designers. I also feel very honored that they would step up and represent me, honor my images with their talents, encourage and uplift me with their words; all while sharing their work and inspiring all of you!

Now, I also feel very honored to by all who participate and share their wonderful work in the challenges as well. I truly love hearing what feedback I am getting. I realize that others are lurking and snagging the Free image and running, but I did expect that as well. LOL, I guess I would love to see the ones that just lurk and snag eventually leave a message of thanks and/or a link to their card/project that they made with it, even if it is at a later date. Although I am thrilled to see lots of people stopping by and taking advantage of my free images!

I thought this was a fun image and wanted to send my August team a little hand written note of thanks for the first month of success and support they have been for me. I decided to use this image for that and the designs are really quite simple, but I think they turned out cute. So, before Eldon made he's debute I was already creating with him. These are the cards I made my team:

Nilla, I am not sure if your card ever arrived, I believe this was yours.. I kept it a little more flat since it was going international, but I don't think it ever made it to you. (tear tear) I don't have much luck mailing to Malaysia, not sure why but things just don't seem to make it... it should have arrived by now!

This card I sent my friend Lynn for her birthday. I added a little birthday hat on him to make him a little more festive for a birthday! LOL...

OK... well that's it for Eldon with flower! I can't wait to see what everyone does with him!! So, if you stopped by to see my cards, leave me a message, beacause I don't get nearly enough luvins!! LOL... ok.. so I'm needy, what can I say.... don't you love reading posts left for you? So, I hope you stop by TMITA and snag Eldon, it's kind of my farewell to summer as fall sets in!!

Have a great day!

My FIRST Digital Layout!

OK... this is my very first complete digital layout that I have liked. I thought since I have been collecting digi stuff, I should at least give it a try. I did love making this, no mess to clean up, but I also love to just get my hands on things to and make that mess regardless of cleanup, if you know what I mean. I thought since I was giving Stephanie a plug on her freebie kit, I should at least try it out and show ya what you can do. Now even though this layout has a lot of her kit in it, I still used some other kits and mixed them. I just wanted a little splash of another color (I am so like that) so I pulled in some elements from another kit called "Spontaneous Delight" by Shally Princess @ http://www.shabbyprincess.com. I do love how this turned out and the only thing I would suggest when making kits from my first time user perspective is add ribbon or fibers! I love love love ribbon and fibers, but that is just me, but I kept wanting to put some ribbons on here and had a hard time looking for some in my downloads. Which brings me to another question? How does one organize their digi scrappin downloads to keep them organized and know where stuff is?? By seperate files for paper, embellishments, ect? If you have any great suggestions there for me, leave me a note, I sure could use some! Also, for my picture I took it into my photo editing and changed the color to match the papers and also added some distress to it, which looks great on this layout. So, be brave and mess with youe photos too and try different things out there. Thanks for looking and remember to stop by Stef's blog and link it to yours! If you like what you see, just click on my title to this post and it will take you directly to her blog! Enjoy and tell her Nina sent you!

Freebie Digi Scrap Kits By Stef

Well, I thought I would share some great freebie digi kits with you from Steph Scraps blog. She designs these herself and would love to have some traffic come through. So I am giving her a plug here, plus we all get an extra add-on if 10 people place a link to her blog, so go check her out and if you love what you see, and you will, link her! Her link is in my side bar under "Places I Love To Hang" or click on this title. Although I don't digi scrap, I just kind of mess around in it right now, it is all kind of new to me, I do love to downloads her kits and a few others because some day I will sit down and make a digi layout. I might just try this new kit out and do one, if I do, I will post it here and give Steph all the credit. He blog also has some more great links to other digi blogs. So, if you are a digi scrapper make sure you check them out, they are great eye candy!