Last Chance at DSD’s June 2010 Mega Collab

Howdy All! As a designer at Digital Scrap Designs ( Yippeee!!!) I participate in this Super Mega Collab each month! This is my part for June, below. You get this big element pack plus all the other goodies ( scroll down for reveal)  for only $5.50!

Weeee! 

Hurry and grab June’s while the price is nice!

http://digitalscrapdesigns.com/digitalscrapstore/

Valued at $96 (22 Full CU Products) – Only $5.50 During June 2010!
Scroll down for sneak peek, or visit the site to view in detail.

All of this below is included in this fantastic CU Collab.
It’s an AMAZING deal… Just $5.50 during June only!!
In July & Aug. the price will go up!

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Happy Wednesday!

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Edited: June 30th, 2010

Chair Dancing Challenge

Kristine laid down the Chair Dancing Gauntlet. Can your bootie stay still?  

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Edited: June 30th, 2010

Sweet Relief!

It RAINED!

WHOOT!

After hauling hose and the garden suffering burned leaves and poor production a drenching rain late yesterday gave us all a delight! The garden will not need water today or tomorrow at least and I can give up hose wrangling for a while! More time for Bloggin! Weee!!

Its time to plant the fall garden, but this year I am not getting that kick of excitement I usually get from the idea. I am still thinking about the shower renovation. Jack and I hashed it out over coffee on Sunday and we might have a plan we both can live with. Yippeee!! I am supposed to draw something out so we can get started. Maybe now I can get to it with the rain doing my gardening for me! Wheee! I love rain!

Onward!

My joy of a Creative Team has been doing some lovely things lately. Let me share some of these…

MoeJoe 

My Sweet Hope aka MoeJoe is up to her eyeballs in a new pup! Look at this pretty baby! Summer, School’s out for her 7 kids AND a new puppy…she is a hardy soul! I am ashamed to be whining about dragging hose! *wink*

See more pics of her new addition!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=9363&id=100000764541275

Sandy Pie

Dear Sandy has suffered a loss in her family, her Bronwyn has passed from her sight, leaving a huge empty place. Pop over to Sandy’s to leave her some love and support.

Shannon 

Shannon is winning awards all over the NET! I am so excited to tell you all what a show stopper she is…TOOT! TOOT! …that’s me tooting her horn! TOOOOT!!

Just a few of her beautiful cards!!

Delish! Check out Shannon’s Blog to see more on how she made these cards! WHOO HOO!

Vicki 

Aka Texas Bubbles is a busy lady too, she is also has a big freebie heart! I love that about her!! She went on a pretty courageous vacation of late, running off to South Padre Island for a grown up-girl vacation! 3 Cheers! She is home now and back to the working girl grind and still finds time to make stuff for us to enjoy.

Lookie!!

Run by Vicki’s blog and see what is cooking in Bugscuffle, Texas! HOOT!

Ruth Melody 

Ruthie has a new kit and luckily it called for a bit of sand. LOL! She used my Sandy Beaches Sand Styles for one of her elements. Cool Huh?

Check out Ruth Melody’s Blog for a quick page freebie by Hutchie! WHOO HOO!

Hey this should bring you up to date on all Creative Team happenings!

Happy Tuesday! Happy People!

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Edited: June 29th, 2010

Last Minute Monkey!

Hey June is almost over and here I am with  a  layout for Kim’s Color Challenge I guess my mojo needs a blankie and a nice nap, so no freebie this challenge…and I loved the colors this time around too! Hey, when the well is dry, its dry! LOL!

Sinclair is our angry cat. She just gets mad about everything. She only likes one or two petting strokes and then she bites, claws the face, or hops down and smacks a dog around to show she is annoyed. We never know if its on stroke or two, possibly three before she goes psycho! So its a bit of a surprise that she is a nighttime cuddle bug. Snuggling down into the covers and purring like Robocop. Just don’t shift in the night or you will get 4 claws in your thigh. Sleeping with fear! 

She seldom allows her picture made, we have plenty of shots of her butt, though!! These rare “face” photos got scrapped this time around.  Yes, I was across the yard using the ZOOM!! LOL! Sinclair, emphasis on the “SIN”  *wink*

There is still time to get in on Kim’s Color Challenge and get this goodie…FREEE!!!

Find out more>>

Happy Thursday!

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Edited: June 24th, 2010

Groove? Really?

Got an email from Patrice P. saying I was back in the groove! Thank you Patrice, you are a sweet peach! I will take that even though I feel like I have been bouncing around for the last 3 weeks!

Hubby’s Giant Vacation adventure is done, he tucked back into work yesterday and though we were all ready to for it to end we really had a lovely time having him home. I vow next time to take the time off my work as well, just as we took off school. I don’t know why I kept continuing to work when sometimes the fact that I was working held up the fun.

I will pat myself on the back for not demolishing the downstairs shower/bath combo plastic insert thingie and converting it to shower only and adding storage in the left over space. I have wanted that nasty thing gone since we moved in 15 years ago, but something always stopped me. Most of the time that was Jack and I not on the same page on how the renovation should go. Now we are getting there. Our 40’s are mellowing us both and we are better DIY buddies than we were in the first 2 decades of our marriage. We fought terribly for what we wanted and it was never the same thing! ( like brother and sister! LOL!)

So when Jack would go away on a Man Vacation with his best friend, Chuck. I would round up the kids and tear into something, never a little thing…repaint the interior of the house, tear out all the carpet in the house, tile where I tore out the carpet. It was insanity. I loved it! But this year, I stayed my hand. After planning it out, and writing out the supply list, I found…I really wanted to demo that shower with Jack. I also wanted to have a nice relaxing time with my kiddos. Which we did. Nate came up with a killer strategy while playing RISK and we watched some wonderful movies.

If you haven’t seen Miracle at St. Anna by Spike Lee. Rent it! I was one of the best ones we saw.  I also have to recommend All About Steve with Sandra Bullock. I know it got some Razzies but I loved it. I laughed myself silly. It reminds me of a guy I knew ( or should I say threw myself at mercilessly) and though less dramatic than the movie and I never wore shiny boots, I was that goof girl. Nice trip down memory lane!

Anyway, I might be on the road to what vacations are good for.

I am even thinking of a Girlie Vacation for myself. Where would I go? What would I do? and who would I take along?  WHOO HOO!

Any Ideas?

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Edited: June 22nd, 2010

Got My Green Fix!

Kristine from Kristine’s Place has got my Green Fix covered with this new kit of hers! Spring Fling! It was so great I dropped everything the moment I saw it and scrapped a page! Don’t you love when that happens?

SPECTACULAR RIGHT?  On Sale 25% off for a limited time only… 

A quick heads up, check your email if you subscribe to Kristine’s Email Newsletter for an additional percentage off on this kit! Don’t get Kristine’s Newsletter? Maybe you should? Cha-Ching!

This is what I scrapped…

Photos: Butterfly pic: Jodiann Cates

             Alamo pic: gpsman

Kit: Spring Fling

Designer: Kristine Pocock

Red Petal add on: PS brushes made by me, Jodiann Cates

Font: Sketch Block with CU Sugars: Bold Summer Styles added.

Happy Sunday!

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Edited: June 20th, 2010

CU Sugars: Bold Summer Styles for Photoshop

I had a blast building these. I love glitters, but I wanted something more subtle. These Sugars fit the bill!

30% off till Friday June 25, come and get some!

Sugars at Kristine’s Place

Sugars at DigiScrap Warehouse

Sugars at DigitalScrapDesigns

16 Sugar Textured Styles in Bold Summer Colors.   Match my Bold Summer Chalkies too!

A little close-up…

Happy Friday, Summer Lovers!

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Edited: June 18th, 2010

CU TOP 20 Black Styles for Photoshop

Top 20 Black Styles at Kristine’s Place

Top 20 Black Styles at Digiscrap Warehouse

Top 20 Black Styles at DigitalScrapDesigns

The Top 20 Black Styles counted down by yours truely! When my friend Kristine ( Yep! Owner of Kristine’s Place) said, " Hey how about making some black styles?"  She got me thinking. I looked through my style sets with new eyes. I had a few black styles I had made for myself but for the most part each time I wanted a tinted black solid color I had to digitally mix it up. If I was on the ball I save it as a swatch. Most often I didn’t save and I had to do it over and over. Not hard, but wouldn’t it be great to have a few to quickly click on right in my Styles Palette? So I made a dozen tinted black solid styles and used them for a few weeks to see how helpful they really were. Very! It was a snap to click a black style and get a tinted black fill, edge, line, whatever! Sure one can call up on Hex Black #000000 anytime that’s simple without a style, but clicking around in the color picker for a bit of red/black or purple black…well that’s just tedious and then one has to remember to save as a swatch. Something I often forget to do even after I have color picked my heart out and got the right color I get busy playing with it and forget to make a swatch.

So I found the ready made Tinted Black Solids a real timesaver.

Once I narrowed  the black solids down to the best ones Blackberry, Black Coffee, Blackboard, Black Smoke, BlackWalnut, Black Water, The ones I relied on again and again. I turned my attention some glossy styles and highlighted styles that look their best on black. I thought that would be pretty easy, but I found it to be quite a challenge since black can rob depth from a highlight or gloss. Re-working them again and again really paid off. I find myself using each of these quite a bit. BlackGloss, BlackMatte, BlackFlat, BlackIce.

With the Top 10 Solids all set, it was time to play with patterns. I used my thinker box to come up with some transparent patterns for everyday use. BlackLace, BlackStripes, BlackStripedFur, BlackStars, BlackChecks,  Each one is a happy surprise when used OVER a color layer. See demo. Really loved the versatility of these! Try the Black Lace over Red…VAVOOM!  Last in the show are the solid patterns. I focused on what entered my mind as black, Black Jeans, Fossils, Granite, Snake Skin, Tonal Black Checks, and Obsidian Stone. In the last week, alone, these solid patterns have been the basis of papers, a few frames and I printed out a photomat for a graduation certificate using the Granite Style. Piece of cake! So easy!!

To sum it up, Top 20 Black Styles are seamless, using large PNG images for high quality and low repeats. I just couldn’t narrow it down to 20 so there are 21 unique ones. 23 total. The 2 Stripe styles are counted as one, same with the Snake Skin style. Its just so much easier to use these with one horizontal and one vertical stripe. Saves a bunch of flipping. Who wants that when you Styling? HOOT!

Original Styles created by Jodiann Cates using Photoshop CS3. Using her own photos and Photoshop made PNGs as well as CU photos and PNGs of other artists, CU Custom Shapes of other artists.

PS7, PSCS, PSCS2, PSCS3, PSCS4 and PSE compatible.
Drop Shadow Free.
Quality Checked.
This purchase contains:
23 Top Quality Black Styles; Seamless and adjustable in .ASL format 300 ppi.

1 Text Document with Unpacking and Installing Instructions.
CU4CU  CU  PU  S4H  S4O Commercial License Included.
You may use these PS Styles to create your own products to sell. With the
exception of using them to build Styles Sets or Patterns Sets for resale

Top 20 Black Styles at Kristine’s Place

Top 20 Black Styles at Digiscrap Warehouse

Top 20 Black Styles at DigitalScrapDesigns

Check out this limited time freebie offer by Kristine of Kristine’s Place!

Freebie Alert!

Thanks ‘Stine!

Quick and Easy Floating Check Paper Tutorial with Top 20 Black Styles

This is so easy!

To Buy Styles…

Top 20 Black Styles at Kristine’s Place

Top 20 Black Styles at Digiscrap Warehouse

Top 20 Black Styles at DigitalScrapDesigns

1. Open a transparent image. I choose 300×300 image at 300ppi

2. Apply Style: Jodiann’sTop20BlackChecks17

3. Duplicate Layer. Apply Style: Jodiann’sTop20BlackChecks16

4. Add New Layer.  Keyboard Shortcuts: PC> Shift+Control+N  Mac> Shift+Command+N

5. Move Black Checks 16 Layer to Top.

6. Merge Down.

7.  Again. Apply Style: Jodiann’sTop20BlackChecks17.

No freaking out, it will look like nothing happened, roll with it, Sweetie!

8. Double Click Ctrl+Shift+N Layer. Apply DropShadow.

9. All Done! 

Here is a close up…

You can chose to recolor one or both of these layers.

10. Save as a  PSD layered image ( .PSD) for easy changes and recoloring.

11. Then Save as a JPG, reducing the Quality to 8 ( no less). Quality barely suffers, yet paper is now more compact for sharing. ( Thanks Kimmie!)

By playing with the opacity settings, adding an edge then blurring it for a softer look this is what I came up with.

Sinclair the un-affected cat gives us all much needed advice! WHOOT!

Happy Weekend Precious People!

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Edited: June 11th, 2010

Nadine

Sadly our Barn Swallows have left us, guessing its too hard to rebuild in the middle of the birthing season or they found abandon nests somewhere else. What’s This About?

I want to tell you about our Nectarine Tree, Nadine. But first a little background on our quest for a nectarine tree. 10 years ago I bought a little dwarf Nectarine and planted out by the front fence. We had to have a big machine come and dig a 2 foot by 4 foot trench all along the front fence to get through the horrible rock shelf that seems to be everywhere on our Texas Hill. So the fruit trees were lined up along the trench. Not the A’la Naturale look I was going for but at least they will live, so I thought.

The nectarine was so much smaller than all the rest and planted in the most fertile place. We fenced off the whole area so the dogs didn’t run the trees down ( We had already had that happen with a pair of fig trees near the gate. Poor. Poor. Tortured Figs! ) So anyway, we fence it off and the gate I built was too narrow for the mower to get in there!  I’m Genius-th!

So Jack went in there with his weed wacker and took down the grass. 

I worked pretty good until one day too many past and the grass got pretty long, taller than the Nectarine at 3 feet fell under Jack’s methodical slasher. The conversation after the slaying went like this.

Jodiann: How the weed wacking go?

Jack: Fine.

Jodiann: What about the Nectarine Tree, the grass there was pretty high. Did the grass kill her?

Jack: Nope, I did.

We bought another Dwarf Nectarine. I fertilized it, I mulched around it. I gave it its fruit fertilizer. I told it to grow or it would be lost in grass again. Doom! The next year when the grass got high yet again, this new little Nectarine was 5 feet tall. Weee! Jack only slashed it a little around the trunk. He saw it, just a little late. I patched it and she made it through the winter but did not grow taller. Spring came. She bloomed glorious blooms but the wind knocked them down so no fruit.

After 2 years of harping I didn’t bother to tell Jack to be careful around the Nectarine the next year. I had no worries. He got it, there is a tree there, don’t kit it with the Weed Eater. He had gloried in its blooms, taken pictures. That tree was as safe as rocking chair in a room full of cats.

Kiss Jack Goodbye Monday Morning after a Sunday when he mowed the front and weed wacked and I did the back. Wham! No Nectarine tree. It was hacked down with the weed eater and hauled off to the burn pile. Its little baby green fruit still on it. Bummer.

By this time, one just has to laugh!  I did, Jack did, the boys scratched their heads at their crazy parents mourning a fruit tree.

The protective fence came down since all the other trees were 12 feet tall. We sort of vowed to skip the Nectarine. Funny, it was Jack who wanted Nectarines in the first place. So wandering through a Tree Nursery in the middle of July we found this HUGE Nectarine Tree on sale for 25.00 US. Who could turn down that deal? It was already 12 feet. It had some dead limbs and a bad bruise on its lower trunk, but we bought it.

I wrapped the trunk bruise with herbs that discouraged beetles, cut the dead branches off, fed it cautiously on bat guano and planted it in a sheltered corner of the front yard ( it was high summer and it could easily die from sunburn and named her Nadine. I didn’t have a huge amount of hope, maybe naming her would help.  It was 2005.  The next year she was 6 feet taller as summer closed, the next year she was 3 more feet taller, but no blooms and very few leaves.  Success but fruitless.

I read about cutting back a tree like this severely would spur it into setting more flowers and having the energy to bring them to fruit. So in the early summer of 2008 I topped the tree. I cried the entire time and just as I was painting the cuts to keep the burrowing insects out…Jack came home and nearly blew an ear off with rage. I knew if I consulted him on that he would talk me out of it, so I did what married people often do. I went rogue.

2009, a small amount of blooms. An early warm up in the spring, then a plunging freeze zapped most fruit production that year. 

2010: WHOO HOO!

2010: So much fruit it bends the tree.

Enough to share with a skunk or armadillo…

Weee! 10 years of trying and failing! And now we have Nectarines! WHOOT! WHOOT!

Happy Wednesday!

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Edited: June 9th, 2010

Snake On The House

What a preposition!

Stepping out on porch to check out the world this morning, what did I find?  Bits of mud and nesting material all over.  I looked up and the Barn Swallow’s nest in the corner looked like this…

When Yesterday it looked like this…

I noticed they were about the age to fly so I took some quick shots of them yesterday looking muppet-mouthed and full of teenage-angst. Nest intact… I guess they learned to fly the hard way! With the mess on the porch, I was sure the parents had destroyed the nest to force the babies to fly. That has happened a few times in the past. When I look to the other corner of the porch, I changed my mind. That nest was destroyed too! 

It could have been a rivalry, since we have two nests at either end of the porch connected by a wide window, each the property of separate breeding pairs. There have been turf wars before.

This second nest had teens fly away about 3 weeks ago and the parents worked the nest adding fresh mud, setting more feathers ( see our guinea feathers used as padding? Cool!) and had a clutch of eggs laid for about a week.  I was looking for the eggs, thinking they would have smashed on the porch  in the hubbub. I needed to get them cleaned up before the ants invaded, but I didn’t find any. About this time Jack appeared at the door. 

I started to explain what was what. Pointing down, at the ground and gesturing to the broken nests. I looked up in his face and got the shock my life! Just above the door he just exited, between the two broken nests was…

a Texas Rat Snake. 

WOW!

Those bumps of mud snake friend is climbing over are mud-dauber nests, the little bits of mud are .unsuccessful mud-dauber nests. The daubes the Barn Swallows ate mid-build.

Its tough living on our porch.

We started counting barn swallows. Nine. Phew! All accounted for.

The eggs probably are in the pit of this fancy gymnastic snake. To get the barn swallows to calm down and get to their rebuilding underway, Jack lifted this snake off the house with a long pole while Dillon and I held a sheet to catch it if it fell. It didn’t fall more than a foot before he hit the safety sheet. Go us!! We quickly brought the edges of the sheet together to take him out to the yard. The cool day, the snake’s recent feed, and the short fall kept the snake pretty calm. It stayed in the sheet wrapper till I got him out on under the trees. Our Guineas were squawking their heads off. Snake! Snake! Snake! The terrorized snake was soon climbing our Sycamore Tree to get away from ALL that noise!

…and to think I was going to show you Nectarine Tree Photos today? It was an exciting thought to show you all that fruit before a snake climbed the house! WHOOT!

Happy Tuesday!

Jodiann

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Edited: June 8th, 2010