My political hat.

I'm going to put on my political hat right now. No, not about the election you can figure that one out for yourself as I feel is your right. No, today we're going to talk about the proposed HR 5889 and S 2913 the new 2008 versions of the Orphan Works acts. Both the House Resolution and the one before the Senate are generally the same. Any work not registered with the copyright registries will be considered an "orphaned work" and can be claimed and used by whoever wants it without paying the creator or even informing them. What does this apply to? Everything. My scrap kits, your family photos on your blog, a short story, a painting they can all be claimed by others if not registered. Now then the new registries won't be run by the copyright office either, they are proposed to be privatized so you will get to pay a bunch of different registries for the same work because if it's not registered at any one of them it can be claimed as orphaned. Who does this help do you ask? Why would they change the current laws? Certainly not the artists, and not the average Joe who could find a family snap shot suddenly in a national publication. Want to read more about these? Look HERE for the full text versions of both acts. Or HERE is a wonderful article that explains it so much better than I ever could along with more links. And finally, want to write to your State Rep or Congressperson? Click HERE to find your State Rep and HERE to find your senators. Or just type either into Google for more info. And now here's a new one for you. Have you heard of the OLPC or One Laptop Per Child foundation? It's to help educate kids around the world but specifically in rural and developing nations by giving them these neat and rugged laptops filled with educational software and wireless internet capabilities. Go to the site and read all about how much good they've done so far and how you can help. Are you going to be like me and start saving up to donate? I think that's all I have on my mind for now, but that may change. LOL! Here's some freebie tips for you as complied by our good buddy Mrs. Miles (aka- Barb.), thanks doll face! Brandy has a kit preview action for download here: http://megadoodleinspired.blogspot.com/ Jenni at Chaos Lounge has a Pretty QP: http://jen-at-chaos-lounge.blogspot.com/ Christina Renee has a little something here: http://www.christinareneedesigns.com/authenticartistry/ MoodeeBeth has some pretty papers: http://members.aol.com/moodeebeth/moodeebeth.html Bonnie from SA has a cute bird freebie here: http://bouncingbonbon.blogspot.com/ Of course Shabby Princess has a new desktop for May here: http://shabbyprincess.typepad.com/shabby_princess/ Kristin CB has two Sunshine QP`s to share: http://www.kristincbdesigns.com/blog/ Trish has a freebie template here: http://templates-n-more.blogspot.com/ Rina Kroes has a 4 x 6 bragbook QP here: http://rinakroes.blogspot.com/ Remember to leave some love and happy scrapping!

Let me CT for a moment

I'm such a bad CT member because I have little to no spare time but the ladies tell me I'm family so I can't leave. Anyway, one of my designer's, Manu-Scraps, has a great new kit out called Secret Garden. She credits me with the idea because I knew she'd do a better job with it than I could, and boy was I right! You can get it now in her DigiByDesign shop! But she also has a gorgeous Word Art freebie on her blog to match the kit! Now, let's go see what else we can find! Kirsty has another lovely page overlay, it's all swirlie! Amanda has a fabulous template. Rachel has commercial use polka dot eyelet ribbon sampler for you! (Must go thru shop.) NBK has some gorgeous Vintage Emblems. (SHe also has all her butterflies back up HERE.) Scarlet Heels has a sparkly alpha for you. Princess Pam has more ABC kit for you! Amy B. has an add-on for Rainy Day Sunday kit. Mel has a cool May desktop page kit HERE and a cool mini kit for Just For Fun part 7 HERE. Phoenix has 2 fabulous QPs from her Tropical Splash kit on her blog, they're really gorgeous! Terragina has a cool add-on for her kit Colorful Life up for grabs. Kim B. has some extras for her Ordinary Day kit on her blog. Remember to leave some love! *Don't forget the vault is open at Sophia Sarducci's Shoppe! Happy Scrapping!

Hi, my name is Amy and ....

... I'm really mad! My @!$%# school is sending me a letter saying I'll be dis enrolled at the end of the current class if they don't get a copy of my HS diploma/transcripts by then. What? I was told all my paper work had been received including both my HS and one previous college class I had taken when in the Navy transcripts. Plus how could I have enlisted in the military or taken that class without a diploma or GED right? ARGH!!! Okay I feel better now. I'm finishing up my goodies for the NSD grab bag and I'm in love with them and my CT seems to like them too, so I hope you'll all take the $1 leap of faith on me. Also starting today the vault is open at Sophia Sarducci Shoppe! It closes on the 4th of May and being emptied, so this is your last chance to grab those goodies! I don't have anything in there but there is some fabulous stuff! Emma has been on here most of the day and what time I spent was reading all the stuff for my new class. My instructor seems to be scatterbrained so far but I'll give him benefit of the doubt. So no freebie list for you, I'll see if I can put something up tomorrow while Emma is at school. Have a great evening and happy scrapping!

Woo-hoo! One down, a million to go!

Okay I know it's not a huge thing but I've finished my first college class and I'm so happy/proud. I don't know my final grade since this week's assignments haven't been graded yet, but I would have gotten a C if I turned in nothing this week so no worries. The next class starts tomorrow and I've already been looking over the course information, not too sure yet if I'll like it but we'll see. It was a super busy weekend too! Sorry I bailed on Friday but I had procrastinated on the final paper because I didn't like the topic. (Ask my Dadoo, that's classic Amy.) I baked those 6 dz cookies for church , plus 3 for us (no there's none left). Then spent some of Thursday helping pre-pack the chicken BBQ plates, then on Friday assembling them and selling to people. Emma helped/hindered but it was fun and a great fund raiser for the church. Oh and Emma had soccer on Saturday morning, followed by running errands. I also was in charge of hospitality for early service this weekend so I baked a yummy egg, cheese, sausage and potato casserole last night and got the stuff together for our Sunday school craft. Whew, did I mention the busy weekend? As to scraping stuff, I haven't done a LO in forever (Can you say ADSR?). But I am working on my grab bag for NSD (National Scrapbooking Day- May 3rd). I don't know if you've heard but NSD we designers at Sophia Sarducci Shoppe will have fabulous grab bags for just $1 each! The previews I've seen so far are to die for! they'll be $1 for one day only, then they'll either go up to the usual grab bag price of $2 (I think) or be broken up into their individual pieces/parts for the shoppe. So mark your calendars for shopping that day! And my buddy Olivia has a bunch of fabulous commercial use goodies to be released in the shoppe Monday. But get a sneak peek and a free commercial use sample on the Shoppe blog right now! Kim B. has another Ordinary Day QP made by one of her CT for you. Misty has a template for you. Remember to leave some love! Happy Scrapping!

Oh my!

I'm so not feeling well today. I think it's a triple threat of a bit of a cold on top of allergies all mixed with a healthy dose of PMS. Sound like fun? I did get a good giggle today because I got flamed on someone's blog. It's actually wonderfully written and so far off base I think she's on the basketball court rather than the ball field. But I'm not going to encourage her by linking so if you find it have a good giggle on me! :) I'm not posting a list today because I need to do some homework and bake 6 dozen cookies for church, so no time to hunt. That being said I have a few people who emailed in tips and a couple I stumbled upon that I want to share: Rose Made Designs has a Sweet Spring button alpha add-on for you. Jill has a Clearly Essential acrylic sampler on her blog. Kim B. has An Ordinary Day mini for you. Beth has a pretty QP for you. Melissa has a cool template. Nancy has her part of Hullabaloo up for grabs. Kirsty has another fabulous overlay on her blog. And finally Princess Pam has added some GORGEOUS pieces to her ABC kits! (Seriously, even if you don't collect the whole kit go grab these rainbow marvels! Too cute!) Please remember to leave the designer's a bit of love when freebie snagging! Happy Scrapping! P.S. Tammy has been diagnosed with a brain tumor and is dealing with it in a fun way, stop by her blog to give some support and for a giggle.

Madness I'm telling you...

...I've been informed I'm mad, and I'm liable to agree. This week is the last week of class for me. Last week? you're asking. Yes, well I'm taking online classes and they are accelerated so we do one class in 5 weeks rather than a traditional 15 week class. So this week I have to write 3 papers instead of the usual 2, fun yes? The next 5 weeks are also only one class, but then starting in June I get to take 2 classes at a time. Yes, that's 2 college classes in just 5 weeks, madness I'm telling you. So if you all think I'm slacking now wait until then- Wahahaha! Fortunately it coincides with Emma going to school 5 mornings a week for summer school, then the regular school term too- yay! Luckily I'm doing well in this class so far, if I didn't turn in any of the papers this week I'd still get a C so that's good, but I think I'll get them done and work for that A. Sorry no goodie last week, and who knows for next week either. I'm working on a few things including Mother's Day gifts for all the moms and grandmas in my/Emma's lives. If I have time I may just make one for you all too! :) I got an award! ... actually I think I got it a few times- lol! I'm so honored to get this award, I'm sorry to say I usually don't pass these things along until they build up because I just don't have the time. But I got this baby more than once and the blog it comes from, while I can't read it, has so many wonderful crafts and stuff it's just too much! I received this from Kim B., Valinda and an honorable mention from Mrs. Miles- thanks ladies you're the bestest! (I'd send it back to you 3 but you already know I love you and that you're super creative and always inspire me!) Here are the rules: 1) You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also for contributing to the blogging community, no matter what language. 2) Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone. 3) Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself. 4) Award-winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of "Arte y Pico" blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award. http://arteypico.blogspot.com/Make sure you visit the link above. There are crafts of all kinds shown; you are bound to come away inspired! 5) Show these rules. So my 5 creative blogs... Gina M. She's always got it so together! She makes fabulously creative goodies for us all and finds some of the most interesting links! Love her! Derek M. This dude is just so much fun! He has wonderful ideas and can carry out a theme like no other! Megs Also known as Flergs. This woman constanly surprises me with her quirky humor and lovely kits. She's just so much fun to read and it's a blast to scrap with her goodies! Shelley Is the bestest writer around! I love the humor, romance and plain old fun she packs into a book! She's just fabulous! Janna This lady has set her priorities and I love her for it. She's a wonderful scrapper but a terrific mom! She's creative and fun! So that's my 5, I could have picked more but it's a time crunch thing. maybe I'll make a super busy blogger award, but then I'd have to find the time to pass it out- LOL Okay, nothing new from me this week in the Sophia Sarducci Shoppe but there are some new Monday Madness goodies on sale today for 20% off, including all the On Vacation stuff!!! There's also a cute freebie to coordinate with the On Vacation collection on the Sophia Sarducci Blog, so go take a peek! Now let's go find some more freebies! DigiScrapBooking.ch has a Happy Birthday kit for you. Misty has a QP from her new kit Clash. Aprilmouse & Hanulienka have a lovely collab called Magic on their blog. Irene has a great set of heart doodles for you. Viviane has a bunch of wonderful freebies on her blog! Today's alpha is sweet, but scroll down. Lauren and Heidi have their parts of Hullabaloo up for grabs. Erica has 2 templates up. Novaczka has a set of old papers (elements) for you. Mrs. Miles has a Sea Lion element on her blog. Danielle is having a CT call and a little mini kit freebie called Don't Be Shy, so sweet. Minna has a gorgeous Spring Garden QP, you'll love it. Gina has a lovely template for you! Angie has a template up too. Leora has her part of Hullabaloo for you. Valinda has 3 great Froggy QPs on her blog. (Have to scroll down a bit to get to them.) Anna has a darling For Dreamers Only mini kit. Kawouette has another QP for her Tropical Island kit! (Oh, I love this kit!) Kristin has a 8.5x11 QP to match her new boy kit called Beep-Chugga-Zoom! Maria has some cluster frames called Photo Splits up for grabs. Her royal highness Princess Pam has more ABC kit goodies for you! Please remember to share the love! Happy Scrapping y'all!

Quick and dirty

Emma has recently been loosing her computer privileges due to not listening to her parents. However, today she was happy to get back on and when she didn't listen I merely said computer, she would suddenly do what ever it was she had been asked. How long this will last I'm not sure, and I'm not too happy that I have to take something away for her to listen to me (or hubby) but there you have it. Regardless after 3 days where at some point her computer privileges were revoked she was on this baby ALL DAY. When we getting ready for bed last night I asked her if she knew what we were going to do today and she said, "I get to play 'puter 'cause I listen, mama!" She was right but that wasn't what I had in mind, oh well. So here's a quick and dirty freebie list for you all to peruse: Gina has a tempting template on her blog. Mrs. Miles has Cool Polar Bear element. Kim B. has a Stick-em Arrow Note for you. Derek has a neat-o hinge. Erica has a nice plane template. Kirsty has a wintery page overlay on her blog. Red Leaf has a gorgeous QP from the Just Peachy kit. Lara has a lovely mini as part of the color challenge at DSO. Mirkak has a sweet extracted bouquet. Chrissy W. has a template up. Kawouette has a killer QP form her Tropical Island kit! (I may have to go buy the kit, it rocks!) Scroll way down, on the super long post, to get a nice template from Mrs. Wresh. Michelle has a great mini kit called Renewal up for grabs. Melothria has a neat kit called Indestructible. (Coordinating QP album HERE.) Krista has another beauty of a kit for us called Sundance. Jburkhart has a sweet definition word art up: Cherish. The amazing Princess Pam has more ABC kit stuff up. ( I know, duh right, she's so awesome!) Please remember to leave the designers a little love when you snag your goodies! Happy Scrapping!

It's all about cardboard!

Hi there everyone! Had a good weekend once I got the school work out of the way. You'll be pleased to know I got 100% on the group project, yay team! Nothing really happened here, just had a good time. Oh, here's a cute photo of Emma from last week's St. Jude's Trike-A-Thon, it was in the paper, I think. Copyright by Gray Whitley/Wilson Daily Times Now then as it's Monday that means it's release day at Sophia Sarducci Shoppe. In addition to all new releases being on sale today, swing by the blog for a free coupon code and get a set of commercial use overlays free with a $10 or more purchase! How cool is that? I have two new related goodies for you, and it's all about cardboard. Both of these, my first two in my Back 2 Basics line are up for personal or commercial use, so make sure you grab the appropriate one. First is a simple but versatile B2B- distressed cardboard alpha: Grab the Personal or Commercial use sets in the shoppe now! Next is a set of B2B- ripped cardboard templates. These are full 12x12 templates to jazz up any paper you might have. Also included are 3 different 12x12 plain cardboard papers, in case you want to use a straight cardboard background rather than mix and match with your own papers. Again grab the Personal or Commercial use sets in the shoppe now. My buddy Olivia also has a fun new kit in the shoppe today, it's called Olivia's Kitchen! It's wonderful for any food type fun you may have. And she made this adorable LO with it for me, too cute! You can also grab an add-on freebie off Mrs. Miles blog for this kit! Speaking of Mrs. Miles she went freebie hunting for me last night so let's see what she found then and what I can add to it now! Trish has a nice template for you. Tracy has an adorable Whodunit? template on her blog! Jennilyn has a great Summery desktop (no calendar) to match the collab kit Gotta Getaway. Michelle has a neat-o template for you. Anna has a Think Pink mini kit on her blog. Melanie has some cool new word arts up. Deb has a nice alpha, ala chocolate chip. Quick Page using Dani's County Fair kit HERE. Nancy has a Kinda Bright mini kit on her blog. Kate has her It's in the Air, Freebie up at 2 Peas. Candy has a great set of manly quick pages for you called Oh Brother. Laura has a neat Canvas Alpha. Genevieve has a gorgeous kit called Chance up for grabs. (Scroll down for more goodies.) Sunflowers has a Fun Freebie mini kit up. Susan has her Sugar Tree papers up for grabs. Kirsty has a neat overlay called Roving Reporter. Jeann has a Simply You set of word arts. (Very detailed and fabulous!) Ksharonk has a Faded add-on freebie just for you. Angela has some Spring Garden QP bonus for you! Jessica/MJ have part 3 and an alpha for Watercolor Dreams up, gorgeous! Lindsay Jane has some neat Birthday Inc frames. Bethany also has some fabulous new word arts on her blog. Andrea made a killer DPS template. Beckie made you an adorable spring QP combining a couple of kits! And of course Princess Pam has more ABC goodies for you! Please remember to leave these hard working designers some love when you snag their freebies! Happy Scrapping!

Lost my mind, reward if found...

So we've been super busy this week and I lost my mind somewhere along the way. If you happen to find it please return it. I'll give you a freebie of some sort in exchange. Let's see, as you know Monday I got almost no computer time. Tuesday I worked on school work. Wednesday we went to the St. Jude's Trike-A-Thon (and mommy forgot the camera- doh!). Then today I did some more school work, then went shopping. I did make you all a cute little freebie I'll show you in a minute. Sigh. It's been a busy, on the go, stressful kind of week. The birds in the backyard keep multiplying. We put up a feeder because Emma like to watch them out the window while she eats. Well last night during dinner hubby counted 32 birds all lined up for dinner too. Then the squirrel came and scared then off while he ate, and they all came back. Wonder if I should put a bird bath in too, but that sounds like work. LOL! If you swing by the Sophia Sarducci blog you can catch a glimpse of their next release of On Vacation kits. These are all inspired by our favorite vacation destination in Florida with that big mouse. If you want to see all the fabulous ones already in the shop just type "vacation" into the search box, there's about 50 goodies (mini kits, overlays, paper packs, word art, etc.) already in there and more to be released on the 21st! They're perfect to help you scrap your magical vacation memories. Okay here's your little Freebie for the week. It's a day early but I'm scheduled to compile and edit our group project for class tomorrow so i wanted to post today and give you all what time I do have to spare while the munchkin naps. It's a 4x5 inch card template. Yes, card. i made it so you could just print it out on a regular piece of paper or card stock and fold in half- instant card! So here you go: download Jumpstarts blog No. 26 Ellie has a adorable min called How She Shines on her blog. Pippi has a lovely template up. (12x12 & 8.5x11) Tammy has a fabulous mini kit called Aren't we a Pear!, fabulous I'm telling you! Kristine has like 4 QPs and 2 samplers from her Dazzle kit, just keep scrolling down. Mandy has a mini kit that's all the buzzz, so go get Buzzy! Kirsty has a new page overlay on her blog. Mindy has a Sunshine sticker so cute you have to smile! MJB has part one of her Vintage kit up, looks nice. Amanda has a nice template up for grabs. Lindsay Jane has brought back her Stamp Clusters! She also has a bunch of other frames on her blog for you! And of course Princess Pam has more fabulous ABC kit goodies for you. Remember to leave some love. Happy Scrapping! P.S. Don't forget to be on the lookout for my mind.

Spring Break!

Okay, it's spring break here so now my schedule is all thrown off! Emma and I went all about town today running errands, then had a big play date with Kullan. I didn't even get onto the computer until after dinner. And then there's no pre-school this week for the munchkin either so who knows when I'll get my school work done. Then today I had two new goodies go into the S.S. Adriana shoppe (sounds like a ship doesn't it- All aboard for Scrap-A-Lot!!) my Tag It! goodies and I completely forgot about them. You all got a Tag It! sample from it a week or so ago. (I'm slower now I know.) So here's the previews and links: Tag It! These are already assembled tags for you to just slap onto your page. Tag It! Mix and Match These are pieces and parts that you can switch around to make a zillion combination of tags. I'm also working on some sweet cardboard goodies for the shop and a template for you all here sometime soon... I hope. I'll try to get back in the next day or so to post some freebie list goodness for you all but there's all kinds of happenings going on this week, plus the BIG group project for school (can you say 1/3 of my grade?) and Emma has no pre-school. Eeekkk! Just wanted to check in and give you all a head's up! Happy Scrapping!

Rain drops keep falling on my head...

... so get an umbrella you're thinking. Or maybe then go inside. It's been raining almost non-stop this past week, but that's good since we were in a drought here in NC. Unfortunately Emma's soccer got canceled this morning, also a good thing since I'd forgotten it started today (We signed up like 2 months ago.). So she's been going stir crazy and she drew on the computer monitor. She has been banned from the computer for 2 days. Which is also a good thing since it'll let me finish my homework for the weekend. :) Okay, let's go find you all some freebies! Chris has an add-on to her Splash of Color kit for you. (Must go thru shop.) Shabby Miss Jen has a cute challenge freebie up. (You can grab even if not taking part in the challenge.) Jess has some grungy curled edge templates. (And a tutorial with even more templates HERE.) Pamela G. has a Prairie Breeze mini/add-on on her blog. Princess Pam has more ABC kit goodies for you! Ksharonk has a gorgeous spring QP on her blog. Amanda has a cute mini kit freebie for you. Mrs. Miles has a Giant Giraffe up for grabs. Amy B. has a Flowers for Mom card making mini kit. Verena has a Spring Garden QP up. Shayenne has a template on her blog. Lori has some great doodles on her blog, scroll down. Lindsay Jane has a set of nice stitched frames. Remember to share the love. Happy Scrapping!

Another Friday has arrived

It's Friday again. I have no goodie... I think, I'll have to look. But I do have a list. next week will be hectic for me since it's Emma's spring break but i also have to work on my group project for school. And sadly the ADSR #3 is drawing to a close. the last 2 LOs are up on the Glitter Goddesses blog, swing on over to see the fabulous collab Cinna and I made for challenge #12! I almost forgot. A bunch of us designers got together and made the most adorable collab kit to raise funds for the Ellie's Trust. Here's the papers preview for Sweet Belle: To see the whole wonderful kit called Sweet Belle you can look HERE or HERE, it's only on shops for 2 weeks so grab it quick. Kirsty (Ellie's mom) has made a page overlay to coordinate with the Sweet Belle kit, it's a freebie on her blog! Okay, so I dug up a small goodie for you all. It's a set of 3 strawberry PNGs that I have cleaned up. Feel free to use them however you want, personal or commercial use. No credit is required but appreciated. download Berry-licious! I'll be back later with my list- off to make lunch for the munchkin! Happy Scrapping!