Making realistic digital flowers

My first attempt at making a more realistic flower using Paintshop Pro X4, drop shadow and mesh grid.  (shadow on separate layer and unlinked from the flower)

I was only able to do this with the help of a forum that I stumbled upon.  I would highly recommend anyone using paintshop pro to go and visit this forum http://www.michelespaintshop.com

The Baby Book

Heather is signing the quest page in the baby book.  A story about the baby book.  Denae has not bought anything for the baby because Daniel said she should wait and see what the baby got at the shower.  Denae bought one thing.... a baby book.  Heather went to buy a gift for the shower and wanted to get a baby book and after looking at many different books, decided on the exact same baby book that Denae had already bought!

Baby Shower Page

Denae opened the Exploding Box Card that I made her.  The expression on her face was priceless.

Quickpage

Still working on the scrapbook

I thought these photos of "My First Doll" were so precious.  The dollie was a gift from Denea's mom Pam.

     I'm trying my hand at digital scrapbooking and thought I would show you guys the pages that I've done.  This was done with Paint Shop Pro.  It's actually a lot fun but just at time consuming as "real" scrapbooking LOL

The Baby Shower was a raging success! as I knew it would be.  Any party that my sister is in charge of would not dare to fail !  She is a fantastic party planner and pulls it off every time.  The mother to be was overjoyed with her loot and all of the homemade decorations.  I will post some photos soon, I promise.

Homemade Nursery Sign

 My my niece and nephew's first baby, I made a sign for the nursery.  The sign did not photograph that well, I couldn't seem to get away from a glare in the photo when I snapped the picture looking straight at the sign.  It did better when photographed off to the side a bit.  The images at the bottom are from different nursery rhymes and the hanging is made from pink and white ribbon and white tulle.  The words,elements and images were all cut using various Cricut cartridges.

   

Homemade Apothecary Jars

I've been helping my sister create some decorations for a baby shower that she is hosting and we decided to make some apothecary jars.  These will hold some little baby items like miniature cradles, rattles, baby bottles, etc.  This is the stages of the jar creations which started out with plain jars, candlestick holders, mason jar lids and some wooden beads.  The candlestick holders were spray painted with white enamel and then glued on with E4000 glue.  I then used some little bottles with nibs that I bought at JoAnn's to hand paint the pink and black elements.  I glued the wooden beads together and painted those and then glued them to the mason jar lids (that I also spray painted) and then I hand painted the lids.  It was a very fun project and so easy! 

And another.  I'm sick at home with a head cold, so I might as well play around with Paint Shop Pro lol

     Here is the third background in the Valentine Theme and in case your wondering, the themes were all made using Paint Shop Pro.

So I guess I'm making a Valentine's Theme series and this would be the second in that series.

Here is another background, this one in honor of Valentine's Day.  If you like these, you can use them by first clicking the image to bring up the full image, then right click and choose "save as background".  You can then make your own Windows 7 Theme by right clicking on a blank spot of your screen, choose personalize and a window will come up with your available themes.  At the bottom will be the option to select a background, just browse to where the background that you saved is and click it, then when your back on the Themes window, click the "save theme" link towards the bottom, give it a name and your done.  I made these backgrounds to fit my laptop, the resolution is 1366x768.

I know, I know, it's been forever since I've blogged - sorry everyone, I've been super busy in non-crafty things.  I did fire up Paint Shop Pro last night and make a background for my desktop.  Windows 7 Themes are so lame, I wanted something completely different and couldn't find it, so I made it.  Then I got the idea that I could just make a bunch of them and change them whenever I want.  Here is my first attempt at it, not too bad for a first attempt.

     I'm starting the year off fresh... New changes to my eating habits, new hours on my job, new craft ideas and a new name of my blog.  I will no longer be selling handmade items which made the old "Notelets By Design" title of my blog rather senseless.  The new name of the blog doesn't make any more sense than the old name, but at least it's cute!  Happy New Year everyone!

Gift wrapping went slowly...

The Helpful Kitty

     Well so the holiday rush is over and all the decorations are packed away for another year.  The craft room is a mess from last minute whirlwind "omg, I forgot to make...." episodes and all is quiet in the house.... I miss the craziness of the Holiday Season already.
     I actually did take some photos of some of the projects I made and they are now residing somewhere on my harddrive ... I wasn't as organized as I told myself I was going to be when I transferred them off my camera.  I really want to show all you guys some of the things I did, so I promise I will find them and get them uploaded for all to see.  

     I made this set of popup cards for Christmas about a month ago and then promptly forgot that I made them!  LOL 

     It's a little bit hard to tell that those center images are actually pop up's, but indeed they are.

     Here are some of the tags that I've been busy making for Christmas.