Jessica Sprague is so COOL!

SADNESS! Blog Train has pulled out of the station

What fun we had, though. Right?
I can't thank Kelly enough for putting this together for all of us to enjoy.

I put all of your comments into the Randomizer and came up with one lucky winner.

She is going to get my FULL digital kit called Viva Venizia.

I am sending all of your names to Kelly for the opportunity to win other stuff. So if your name is not at the top of my random list, there is still hope!

Okay, so here's the winner:



Congratulations to Ann! I am going to send you think link very soon for your free kit.

Thanks again to each and every one of you for playing!

SCRAP SCRAP SCRAP Blog Train

Welcome to the Scrap Scrap Scrap Blog Train! All the participating designers have recently been certified as JessicaSprague.com Certified Digital Designers. We are celebrating our new status by giving away mini-kits on a subject we all love - scrapbooking! Here's what you need to know:

*All mini-kits will be available for download through October 18, 2010.

*You can also enter to win a full kit from each designer on their blog. Each blog has different rules on how to enter so make sure you follow the directions!

*We will randomly select one designer's blog and one random comment on that blog. If that person has commented on all 10 blogs he/she will win all 10 kits!

*Be sure to include your e-mail in each comment so we know how to contact you when you win!


Now that we have all that out of the way, let's get this party started!

Back when I discovered paper scrapping I wanted to be surrounded by people who got it, too. I jumped onto Scrapbook.com and drummed up a bunch of people. After several months of meeting together we nicknamed ourselves the GA Peaches. I created this MINI kit to honor those amazing people.



Peach Scrap Mini Kit by ScrappyGuy Designs.
Scrap Scrap Scrap Blog Train

LINK HAS BEEN TAKEN DOWN. SADNESS!

You can also enter to win my Viva Venizia full digital kit



I will give away this kit to one lucky commentor on this post. To enter, you can leave a comment on my post.
Please include your e-mail in each comment so you can be contacted when you win. Winner(s) will be chosen using random.org.

Your next train stop is Rill Studio. Click HERE


Here is the list of all the participating designers and their blogs in order. The designers are from all over the world so please be patient if the blog train posts aren't posted yet.

Simply Kelly Designs

Kelly Hedgespeth

Blog | Store

Erica Made Designs

Erica

Blog | Store

Latz Designs

Lisa Breuer

Blog | Store

Ka Boks

Siri Fjortoft

Blog

by the Shore designs by pammie~k

Pam Meeks

Blog | Store

Butterflies and Bluebells

Catherine Wood

Blog | Store

A Little Giggle Designs

Dodie Sarchet-Waller

Blog

September Blue

Kelly Sill

Blog | Store

Scrappy Guy Designs

Gary Fryns

Blog

Rill Studio

Jackie Hatton

Blog | Store

Happy scrapping until next time!

HERE IT IS!!

Art of Digital Design at Jessica Sprague

Sadly, this amazing class has come to an end. The first ever digital designers course has come to fruition and ended as of September 30th. My full kit

has been entered and generously critiqued by Carina Gardner. The final exam has been taken and passed. The actual certificate should be on its way in no time now.

I just wanted to thank Jessica Sprague for putting this amazing class together. I know I bugged her many times about creating such a class for all of us. I am thankful that she consented. Of course, she outdid my expectations. For that, I can never thank her enough.

If you have ever looked at designers kits and thought, "I wonder how they do that." Or, "I can make that." This class is for you! It's going to become available again after the new year, so jump on this bandwagon as soon as you can!

Art of Digital Design

Are you still awaiting the announcement?

And I hope you are, because the release date is coming soon!

Stay tuned.

Huge. HUGE! TH-UGE event

coming soon to this very blog!!

Yeah, you have to wait.

New Digital Kit? Check!

I've been on a digital kit bender ever since completing Jessica Sprague's awesome incredible Art of Digital Design course. Got my mojo back! I went back through all the elements and paper packs that I've created and found 35 full kits and several other element packs just raring to go. Spruced them all up and created previews using my logo design approved by Carina Gardner herself!

But I couldn't stop there now, could I? Not only did I finish the kit required for the class, but I pumped out three brand new full digital kits! My newest one has been haunting me since last year. Venice was such a beautiful city that I couldn't let it just fade into the past. I found tons of fun things to use as ephemera in this kit. Hope you like it.

I thought I'd share my latest preview with y'all and see what you thought. AND if I can get up to 25 comments on it by next Sunday night at 7 P.M. I will bundle up a small sampling of it to offer to you for FREE. Okay, okay. So I would appreciate the love, but there's no reason why you shouldn't benefit as well, right?

Also, check me out on Facebook. I need some friends!

SpragueFest - Album Day

Good morning, fellow friends.

It is I, Mr. Exhausted. And I am here to tell you that the last day spent amongst the SpragueMates was bittersweet indeed.

We got up a little later than expected, so I just ran down to get a few snapshots of the Bagel Breakfast then got some coffee and headed back to the room.

Meg and I showed up for the Album class right at 9 A.M. and found our seats quickly. The room was packed with a rainbow of laptop screens open and ready. As the class downloads were making their way through the room, Jess had each of us stand and give some background info about us. So inspiring to hear how all these far-flung folks came together on this day in history.

Jessica lead us in opening the Exclusive SpragueFest 3 mega collaboration kit. Whoo HOO! Some really great stuff to play with. Many many templates. My personal favorite. I spent a ton of time getting my pic files uploaded, organized, and labeled correctly. Not sure if you know, but real life descends again at 6 A.M. on Wednesday morning. School is set to depart from the Fun Harbor for the rollicking seas ahead. So, I needed to use this time productively and get my photos up and running. Especially the KUH-razy ones of Carina and the Tongue. >:-)

After three hours of goodness we broke for lunch and headed over to Giardino's for some Chicago Deep Dish Pizza. We took over the entire front half of the restaurant again and shared pie after pie. Such fun hanging out with Rayvelle, Deb and Pammie K. Joan made sure that everyone took the leftovers out of the restaurant. Then we gathered for a group shot.

Shopping was next on the list for many of the Spraguers. They were headed to the Nordstrom's Mother ship. I, on the other hand was headed back to the room for a much needed NAP! We were meeting up with Meg's friend, Byron, from school later on. The Hotel Wit has a fantastic rooftop bar where Meg and Byron spent an hour catching up with each other and sharing lives over the past 17 years.

It was time to meet up with Jana, Joan, Jeanne and special guest appearance by Meg's hubby, Bennett! We were going to Shaw's Crab House for some amazing LOB-stah!! Just as we were finishing we got a text from Kari. Their Blue Man Group show was done. Would it be possible to meet up for dessert? DUH!!

We busted in on Stetson's after hours and begged and pleaded. Deborah was more than happy to accomodate 12 sleep deprived punchy SpragueMates. we ordered every single dessert they had and even some chocolate adult yumminess. What a way to wind down an incredible five days. It felt like a whirling dervish sweeping me up, but with a smile on my face the entire time really helped!

Chicago Walking Tour - Making the Noodle Happy

I am very late getting this ready for today. Bagel breakfast started at 8 AM (EEK!) and then class at 9. So, I'm behind.

Yesterday was all about Chicago. The Great Windy City that hosted the 2010 SpragueFest. Jenn's husband Tim was so gracious to offer his history buff-ness for the walking portion of the tour. He even did vast research to make sure we hit all the highlights with great information in hand. He started off with a walk down Wacker towards Fort Dearborn. Then we headed straight down Michigan. Can you imagine over 30 people all walking down the street with camera viewfinders attached to their heads? It was fun!

Our next stop was the Millenium Park with its beautiful fountains and water areas. The most exciting part was seeing the Chicago Bean. I think it has an actual correct name, but it is a huge bean shaped mirror that was so fun to just walk around. I got some amazing shots of the city skyline that looks like I took it with a fisheye lens. We lost Jess to a NineWest store for a bit, but with her being such a good shopper, she was back with us soon.

On towards the Picasso Horse statue and some beautiful stained glass outdoor museum. Next was the Theater District and the original Chicago theater sign. People started to disappear around this time. We found them later at a popcorn store. Meg and I were getting hungry around this time so we headed towards the Noodle House for some rice noodles and curry!

The next few moments were about to make us very UN-popular with the SpragueMates. As we were walking back to the Hyatt, we happened near the Transformers 3 set. It's hard to miss since it takes up like three city blocks. Anyways, people were screaming and pointing and I thought, "Hm, I'm going to take a picture now and figure out why they are so excited later."

Turns out Patrick Dempsey was right across the street waving to his adoring fans. O_M_G! I start snapping away and then my D90 just stops working. WHAT? My card was full and the security was yelling at us to move along. So Meg stepped up and took up the slack. We made many people very mad later when they discovered our secret rendezvous with Mr. McDreamy.

Back to the hotel for a brief 15 min shut eye, then down to the lobby. Wendella Boat Tours wanted us on site a half hour early before the Architecture Tour was to leave. Jana led us all over across the river to the meeting place. We boarded and then spent the next 90 mins calmly floating along the Chicago River, through the locks and out into Lake Michigan. It was a beautiful sunny day for doing this.

We got back a little later than expected so we walked immediately to the restaurant, Italian Village. We took over with all FIFTY of the Spraguers plopped down right through the middle of the place. Linguini and clams was yummy. But apparently nothing like Kristen's cream sauce experience.

I had saved myself for gelato, but made the mistake of telling Carina where we were going. What started out as an innocent gelato run quickly became a night of feral debauchery. Including wild taxi rides, noodle attacks (which Joan continues to deny), flying through the sky with just chains attached, 30 foot skyline turns, and finally begging for ice cream. We made it back to our rooms exhausted, but alive.

CHA - Day Two

I'm back and feeling fine! As soon as I had my coffee yesterday, I was good to go. And I needed it too!

Meg and I arrived back at CHA around 10:30. We didn't have to be in the Sprague Booth until noon, so we did our shopping ahead of time. We stocked up on some Christmas stamps and embossing glitter to make our cards this year. Did a few make-n-takes and Meg scored some great iron on Bling.

We had to fight our way into the booth because it was PUH-ACKED! We both jumped right in on the computer lines helping folks see just how easy Digital Scrapbooking is. The light bulbs going on and the looks of amazement on the thousand or so faces that stopped by was fantastic to see. Sadly we couldn't spend all the quality time we wanted to with each guest because the lines kept backing up. But they did get to play with the Lucky Me quickpage and get a basic gist of working with Photoshop Elements.

Before I knew it, two hours had passed. When you're talking a mile a minute about things you love, that Time sure does fly. Meg and I hopped over to the fruit smoothie boost and stocked up on strawberry and blueberry smoothies and mango smoothies. Then I sat down to make a painted letter G with glitter polka dots. Shhh! It was fun. Meg made herself a pair of earrings. BTW, Nicole? You would love CHA. So many beading booths.

It was time to go back to the booth where the eight folks or so who were working the crowd needed a break. So we all rotated duties. I found myself as the appointed computer guy who stocked inks and paper and then handed out prints for folks who came back later for their pages. Can I just stop for a second and extol the virtues of the Epson R1900? We had three machines working over time these past two days. Even with that, the quality of the pages being printed were amazing from start to finish. Even as ink ran low, I never saw any nasty striations or blurry inks coming out. We rarely had to redo anyone's pages. So many happy smiling faces went away with a gorgeous 12x12 keepsake from JessicaSprague.com.

Later on, I don't quite know how it happened, I managed to shift myself 180 degrees to the other side of the booth to work the camera. I was having so much fun telling folks to turn their shoulders out, pull their chins down just a bit, and give me some sexy hair flips. Candice, you would have been so proud of me! What a great feeling it is to see many people walk away with smiling holding a photo that you took. It didn't hurt that they also had a AWESOME Jessica Sprague layout to show it off, right?

As six o'clock was approaching and we were still clicking and dragging and printing people out, the concept of pulling down the booth began to enter our minds. I don't think any of us liked the idea of leaving poor Jenn all alone in the booth until 9 PM to pack it all up. The last guest skipped away and the lights in the convention center were lowered. We rabidly attacked the booth. There were cables flying, tape being ripped up, cords wrapping themselves almost, pictures being plucked down, banners trickled down and posters were rolled up. Joan and I had the most fun wrapping plastic wrap around the boxes being shipped. Yep, you just heard sarcasm there. When you're trying to flip a box with a 40" monitor and wrap it as well it is interesting.

Yet, the smile that lit up Jenn's face when we had everything packed and labeled and on the carts by 7:30 was worth it all.

We hobbled out to the beautiful white stretch limo driven by Driver Tom. He promptly took us back to the hotel expertly diverting around the movie set for Transformers 3. We changed and met back down in the lobby to walk over to the Tavern on the Park where Jana had finagled us a private room upstairs. The Grand Entrance was made and hugs were passed out. Here's another side note: Kelly (SeaTurtleBean), Pammie-K, and Anne (PinewoodToo) are just the cutest things in person.

We ordered and ate and talked and laughed and snapped many many pictures. So much that we felt like the papparazzi just spotted Nicole Kidman. Afterwards Meg and I were appointed the Hollywood Movie Set tour guides. We lead a group over to where they were filming a scene which apparently included the top half of a building being sheared off and embedded into the pavement below. More pictures ensued. Even one just for Meg and the hot cop.

Back to the hotel around midnight and crawling into bed.

CHA - Day One

OOF! This may take a while. I have the most amazing headache right now. I can't figure out why. I only had a glass of wine last night, but it feels like my head is having second thoughts.
Meg and I met up around 10 AM Atlanta time yesterday and drove to the airport. Made it and checked bags, then only had to stand around for half an hour til we boarded the plane. Uneventful voyage and landed around 2 PM Sprague-Time. We chose to use and EXPRESS van thinking it would get us to the hotel faster than the train. Boy, were we wrong. Traffic was amazingly bad and it ended up taking us an hour and twenty minutes. Drop our bags off in the room with the most gorgeous view of the Chicago River. Rush back to the train and take it almost all the way back to the airport. CRA-ZY!

Needless to say, Meg was about 45 mins late for her shift at the First Ever CHA Sprague Booth! Everyone did an incredible job setting it up and when we arrived it was slammed. Apparently it had been that way all day! Yay for Jessica. I managed to squeeze in hugs for all and a manly handshake with THE MR. JARED himself. So cool.

I was due upstairs for a market research group. Can you guess which product they randomly chose me to test? JessicaSprague.com. Can you believe it? I felt like such a ringer. Jenn, the marketing manager, got some really great information out of the other nine ladies though. So it was worth it to sit there and listen to all the great reviews. I almost fell over when one lady said she didn't like digi because she'd lose the social aspect of it. BWAAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! I set her straight on the fan-TAB-ulous group of people on this earth, otherwise known as the Spraguemates.

Afterwards, I went back down stairs and took pictures of the booth and walked around a bit to see all the stuff they have. This convention is humongous! The convention hall goes on for days and days. I highly doubt that Meg and I will get through it all in the two hours set aside tomorrow.

The show was over, the lights were dimmed to tell people to leave and dinner was calling. Joan, Meg, and I had the honor of eating with Ms. Carina Gardner and Crystal Wilkerson. We dined at Gibson's steak house and fought constantly with our waiter over whether Mormons were actually good people and which hunk of meat to order. He was funny. I am warning you now, though. If you order dessert be prepared to have it with at least eight of your friends. We ordered the chocolate mousse pie and it literally fed all five of us with plenty for Joan to take back to the hotel.

Let's see what goodness tomorrow brings!

FREE 6 mos. Photoshop Class

CLICK HERE

sounds almost too good to be true, but I am certainly going to try this!


also looking into their digital photography course as well!!

Logo Branding?

Today I am spending with Carina Gardner relearning all the goodness from her Illustrator 101 class (available over at Jessica Sprague's site). I need it for certain class activities. I thought Illustrator would be like riding a bike. But I can't seem to get the hang of it.
Thankfully Jessica allows us to access all of classes FOREVER! Otherwise I would be completely lost.

Blog Hoppin'

Don't know why, BUT my nose started running constantly right as I tried to lay my head down on the nice cool sheets and go to sleep.
Yeah, that idea is ruined.

I do have something else to while away the hours with, though. Wanna hear about it?
SURE you do. Otherwise you wouldn't be spending time reading my blog.

Jessica Sprague as we all know is ONE ROCKIN' CHICK! She really does come up with some inspiring ways to keep me digi scrapping. Amazing classes are certainly one way I keep racing back to the Spragueground. But now she's up to something different.

In order to celebrate the THIRD anniversary of this Happiest Website on Earth she's come up with a super fun way of making us all run around in circles.

Blog Hopping! I've heard of it being used as a way to collect a kit, but Jessica managed to make it that much sweeter by also including a word phrase with all 33 of the downloads. Once we've downloaded all of the pieces (not a quick task, let me tell ya) we've got all of these phrases to unscramble then send it all back in.

I don't even remember what the prize is supposed to be, or even if there is one. But I don't care. I love this blog hopping thing. Wait, my computer just pinged. That means download number 17 just finished!!

Wish me luck.

Type + Writer 2, Day Seven

What if???
What if Stacey Lewis is my means to becoming a rich and famous photographer to the stars? What if Sally’s Shih Tzu leads me to hand out my card to the head of the American Kennel Club? What if she wants me to photograph all 500 dogs being shown in Atlanta? What if I can support myself without having to teach? What if I went back to school to learn design? What if my family lived closer? What if we take that cruise at Christmas for two weeks and just put off visiting his dad? What if we decide to embark on redoing the kitchen and then hate it? What if I don’t finish my free calendar from Memory Maker by the due date? What if all of my students got the flu and were out for a week straight? What if these FreeMason conspiracy theorists are WHACK? What if Katie married Puck from Glee? What if Liv asks me to fly to the Phillipines to help teach a class? What if Jessica gets back to me about my ideas? What if I become a tshirt designer by accident? What if I am no longer afraid of success? What if I could lose weight without having to exercise? What if we could sell our house for a huge profit and move back to California? What if I finally write that children’s book? What if I scrapped more pages? What if I don’t finish my Christmas album? What if my family didn’t send me any Christmas presents? What if I get invited to be on Hell’s Kitchen? What if someone starts reading my blog? What if I finish with Julia Childs’s first book? What if I actually try an aspic recipe? What if I like aspic? What if Mia Michael’s regrets her new hairdo? What if my brother and sister can’t make it to Halloween Night at Universal? What if Robert Pattinson realizes that KStew is not for him? What if my parents LOVE my portraits of their child and ask me to do family shoots? What if Courtney hates me for stealing her customers? What if someone asks me to photograph a wedding? What if I take terrible pictures? What if Kit is a hardass about the shoot this weekend? What if I take too many pictures of BJ instead? What if it rains this weekend? What if it is so windy that my orange balloons never behave? What if I can’t find some gerber daisies that aren’t yellow? What if Gordon doesn’t want to come to the Dog Show with me this weekend? What if Sally accidently trips me and breaks my camera? What if the lighting is so horrible in the show that I can’t get a good shot? What if the dog doesn’t cooperate? What if this itchy spot on my face is skin cancer? What if I completely lose my hearing? What if this high pitched annoyance on the tv is put through on So You Think You Can Dance? What if she talks in this voice for the entire season? What if parents scream at me about grades?

October 21, Recipe #38

Puree Pommes de terre a l'ail

Wanna take a stab at what this one translates into? I'll give you the potato part. Go...
Okay, it's garlic mashed potato. Can't fault Julia for her comfort food. I got to push roasted garlic through a sieve and take out my secret weapon again. My loverly potato ricer. Add butter and cream and whip. I used it as a bed for my blue cheese meat loaf. I'm liking this thing called food.

October 20th, Recipe #37

Coq au Vin, Oignons Glaces a Brun, Champignons Sautes au Beurre

I LIT STUFF ON FIRE!Okay, it was cognac and only lasted five seconds. But MAN! I have always wanted to light my food on fire. Julia's recipe for the French classic seems a bit easy. It only took about an hour or so to finish. I was under the impression that this one was right up there with all day in the kitchen. My butcher massacred the chicken into ten weird pieces. I really had to watch the bones on this one. The onions and mushrooms were a nice base for the purple chicken.

Type + Writer, Day 4

Remember Me When
How funny is it that I was just thinking about my teenage self yesterday. I needed some photos to use on my JS template layout about traveling. I found some old shots of the trip I took to Canada with my French class. Out of TEN total pictures that I have. I can’t even begin to imagine how many pictures I would have taken if I went today. I wasn’t so involved in recording my life when I was 17. I was more consumed with living it. There’s a huge difference right there. I want to remember the little details and highlight them. Before it was all about getting out there and being in the moment, no thought to how this moment would shape my life. Let’s move on to another difference. As a teenager I was still wearing my kiddie pajamas. The green ones that were way too short on me. I used to pull up my athletic socks to hide the gap between them and the bottom of my pant legs. There’s a picture of me just like this scrunched up on the couch with a book planted in front of my nose. That’s what I remember most about myself then. I was always reading something or other. I still am. My tastes range from one extreme to the other. Take the last two books I have read: My Life in France by Julia Childs and Gil’s All Fright Diner by someone or other. One’s a biography of a great American chef, the other? A story about a werewolf and a vampire that travel the backroads of America ridding the world of zombies one head at a time. I was always so unattached back then. I had no idea what I wanted to be when I got to be an adult. I just took random suggestions from other people as to what I should do. Nowadays, I wish I could go back in time and smack the ever lovin’ heck out of myself. Why do they expect teenagers to know what they want to do for the rest of their lives? I certainly had no idea that educating wee minds would not thrill me to my fingertips and make my heart thump like the Energizer Bunny. I didn’t find my passion in life until I was 35 years old!! Such a travesty, I tell ya. Also, I took the easy way out of things when I was a teenager. That kind of mindset has gotten in my way too many times to count these days. I want to be successful, but when things get hard or weird I find ways to drop out and ease back. I think it’s a learned trait. One that I am working through. Another similarity? I still love horror movies. The creepier the better. I used to be okay with gore, but can’t seem to stomach the needless blood spatters going on in film today. I have so many of the movies I used to watch back then and drag them out every now and then to relive those moments when things were still dark and unknown.

Type + Writer 2: Free Write Day Two

First Trip
When I first saw this assignment to write about a trip to exotic lands, of course I immediately thought of Italy. The trip we took last June. It will probably be the highlight of my life for a long time to come. But as I thought more and more, I wanted to write about something else. The first trip that came to mind from my ‘gangly teenage’ years was the one my French class took to Quebec, Canada. It was the first real big trip I took away from my family. The first I completely paid for on my own. A bus packed full of my friends that travelled all the way to another country in eight hours was wonderful for me. I couldn’t afford the full trip all the way to France, but this would suffice. At that time I never thought I would travel anywhere further than a country attached to the one I currently lived in. I was happy to be traveling anywhere, though. If I remember correctly there were a lot of people I actually liked on that trip. People who hadn’t made my tween years hell in middle school. There was Les and Brenda, the fledgling couple. Irene, kinda odd girl from ROTC. Pete Laskaris who didn’t spend much time with us. Christa and Kerri. Boy, those two fought over who got to spend more time with me like a pack of hyenas working over a wildebeest. Snapping and yelling at each other. It was funny on some level, but then again watching your friends fight isn’t something you relish. I think we had more fun hanging out in the hotel then any of the locales we actually toured. Even the waterfall which was pretty awesome. Good thing I wasn’t into photography then, I would have totally missed out on the amazing sensation of standing underneath a torrent of water and feeling all of nature’s power. We were soaked for the rest of the day. It’s Canada, people! It was fah-reezing! Anyway, back at the hotel we were all teenagers alone in a hotel with no supervision. You can imagine some of the things we could have gotten into. Thankfully, we were all too innocent and pure to go there. However, Les and Brenda did spend an inordinate amount of time underneath those covers. Kerri and I turned up the faucets in the bathroom to scalding hot and closed the door. The ensuing steam made the others think we were up to no good. I can fully attest on the stand that NOTHING happened. I do remember wandering the city and coming upon the Hotel Frontenac situated on the hill up above Saint Lawrence River (at least I think it was that, Hudson maybe?). It was the first time I felt a vibration in my soul. The one that Nettie talks about in the Color Purple as she first views the shores of Africa. I had caught it, the traveling bug.