A Little Update

I wanted to keep you posted on the happenings here. Now that I got the header for the site to Grace she is making fast progress. It was like Christmas morning for me today, when I got up and checked my e-mail there was a link from Grace to the site so I could see what she had done. Wow! I am so happy with it. I don’t know when the gallery will be done, but it shouldn’t be too long now. I still have to learn a few things about the software I will use to get the quick pages on to the gallery and then I will have to upload them, we all know how tortuous of a process that can be. I want to make sure that I label everything so you can have credit for the work you have done. So it could still be a week or so until they are ready for you. This really did turn out to be a bigger project than I thought it would be, but I have learned a lot and had a lot of fun with it.

I have most of the QPs downloaded, but it has been a slow process, I have to keep my eye on them so I can be sure I put the right name on them. At the same time I am working on the alpha and it is also the start of a busy two week with the paper I do the layout for, lot of ads to do,and that is what brings in some cash. If I did not get to your page yet I should be able to take care of it on Sunday. I am starting to feel like a one armed juggler... LOL.

I still have a little bit of work to do on the alpha and other pieces for your bonus download. The alpha is a multi-layered monster, but it is coming out beautifully. I should have it on the blog either late, late Sunday night or early, early Monday morning... LOL. You may want to get busy clearing out some hard drive space for the quick pages, there are so many beautiful ones you might want them all. See ya soon!

Update on Quick pages

I have had a few people ask if I got their QP because I have not downloaded it yet. I probably have received it but I have been so busy getting things ready for the gallery and finishing up the alpha and other things I promised you that I have not had time to download them. I should be able to get to them tomorrow. I will start getting them ready to upload so that by the time Grace has the site together I will have them ready to upload. I will keep you updated.
Grambie e-mail me and let me know it is you please.

OK, You Can Stop Now

I don’t have a firm count yet but I am sure we are over 50. If you still want to send them go ahead and I will try to get them all up. Or you can hang on to them until I get the gallery set up. Once the gallery is up and running I hope to be able to make it available to you to post your quick pages and layouts. I have gotta run for now, a lot left to do still. Don't forget to get part 5 while you are here, more to play with.
A big HUG from me!

A Special Thank You Bonus

Just a quick post to let you know that we are real close, hopefully by the time I get up (probably a little late because it is almost 3 am now) we will have our 50 quick pages. Your responses and comments inspired me to make a few more goodies as a bonus. Please, Please read yesterdays post, it has details about something exciting. This download includes 2 “carved” wooden medallions, pins and rusty metal border scrolls, and I couldn’t resist, I made a couple of striped papers. The link is below the post I would like you to read. Enjoy!




The link is below yesterday's post.

You Guys are Great and A Surprise!

Just popped in to tell you that you guys are doing an incredible job on the quick pages. I am so happy to hear that this call for QPs has prompted many of you to attempt one for the first time. I am very impressed with the range of layouts. We have not reached the goal of 50 yet, so keep them coming. I spent a lot of Monday sending out thank yous to everyone that sent in pages, I managed to send them to everyone that sent one in before midnight (I think), but I have to put that aside for awhile so I can focus on getting these beauties to you, If you did not get a thank you from me I want you to know how much I appreciate what you have done and all of the wonderful comments you made. You put a smile on my face and in my heart. THANK YOU!!

Now I have a surprise for you. I am in the process of setting up a website with a gallery to display and distribute your contributions. It might seem like a bit of over-kill but I want to do this right. I have the wonderful designer Grace Bennett setting up the site for me. I am not sure how long it will take to get the gallery up and ready. There will be a lot to do, first I will have to learn how to use the program that manages the gallery, then I will have to label, upload, place and who knows what else to the QPs. I will keep you updated on how the process is going.

So keeping this in mind you will have to be patient with me. I had to spend a lot of time looking for a web host and figuring out a few things, I also need to design some of the graphics so the site will have the feel I want. I can almost guarantee that I will not have anything new for you until Saturday or Sunday. Till then wish me luck!
Remember, keep sending then in.
P.S. The first comment I got is "What is a QP?". If you need more info on how to do one go to the previous post, near the bottom there are some good links.

Download Eastern Spice Part 5 Here

Part 4 and Let’s Make a Deal

Today’s download of Eastern Spice include one of the best embellishments I have ever made. Take a good look at this inlaid tile frame, I hope that you will feel this ONE piece alone is worth you going and giving a big “thank you” to whoever turned you on to my blog. I am providing the frame and the clusters in two “flavors” one for the muted papers and one for the “Spicy” papers. There are also two new diamond papers in those “flavors.”



Part 5 of this kit will include the alpha among a few other things. BUT I am going to ask you to work for it. Some of the other designers that give out freebies have received over 50 QPs from ONE kit. I have given you FOUR kits and I am almost embarrassed to say I have only received three, QPs and two layouts. Before I upload the last piece of Eastern Spice I would like to receive 50 QPs using ONLY elements from my kits. You can use solids that you make, and alter my pieces anyway you want. The reason that you can only use elements from my kits is that I will get the rights to the QPs. I am looking into ways to display and distribute them (possibly a web-site or another blog) and I will probably have to buy on-line storage to make them available to you. If at some future date I choose to, I would have the right to sell them. So send me your links. Please include your info so that I can include it in the description. If I do not receive 50 QPS I will send out the links for part 5 and the QPs to the people that have sent in pages. I don't want this to sound negitave because I get so much out of these freebies, I want you to take them and use them, but on the other hand I really want to see some of the results of what you have done with them. I don’t think this is too much to ask considering I am fast approaching 25,000 download, so let's have fun with this! (thank you anonymous)

As an incentive, the alpha I am working on is based on the technique I used for the frame. I will give you a little hint as to how it was made, I used Al Ward’s styles at Action FX as a starting point. I have a few ideas for next week’s kit but it will probably be Wednesday before the first part is ready. Please send the QPs ASAP so I can give you all of the extra goodies.





Links Expired

Remember, use ONLY pieces from ANY of my kits or solids that you make yourself. I do not have the right to give another designer's stuff away.
I have had a few comments that some people do not know how to do QPs, anonymous said that Dusty Bear (Laura Payton) and Tina Williams have started Yahoo groups where they do QPs exchanges and they post details of things that would be helpful. I LOVE both of these designer’s work and you can’t go wrong taking advice from them.
Here is the link to Tina Williams blog, if you have not seen her designs yet you will be amazed, I understand that her Yahoo group has info on making QPs.
Another place to go is Scrap Quick, take a look around at some of their great stuff, I bet you will leave with some ideas and a few purchases.

The main way to think about QPs is that it is a layout without the pictures. One way to approach it is just do what you would normally do for a layout then take out the pictures. The preferred format to save it in is png.
You can upload them to a file sharing site if you have one (like 4 shared, it is FREE) or you can send it to me as an attachment in an e-mail to stoneaccents@hotmail.com

Anonymous suggested that I should request a release from you. In the body of your e-mail just say that you release the rights to me for the QP you have put together with my products. Thanks and enjoy!

Just a quick post

I was trying to have some goodies up by the time I went to bed but it is 2:30 am right now and I am not going to make it. I had to take care of some ad work because that brings in cash (a very important point.) and the embellishments I am working on are REAL involved (did someone say CLUSTERS!) and wait until you see the frame!!, I promise, you will never have seen anything like it, The new pieces will be up by Sunday night or early Monday morning. Thanks for all of your great comments. Hey, How about some quick pages that I can share with everyone, PLEASE send me some.

I Got Carried Away, Eastern Spice Part 3

Well I got carried away designing paper again. I just love the heck out of making paper. With all of these papers you should have a lot of options, from soft and mellow to Hot! Hot! Hot! In the process I did not get some of the other elements made that I want to add to the kit. I have some nice journaling pieces for you and a cardboard corner that I made using Bannerwoman’s fun product, Cardboard Craze as a base. I have had a few requests to separate out the beads from the ribbon so they are included in this download.
I am working on the alpha and something SPECIAL that I am making with the beads, and did someone say CLUSTERS!! (as I have said before I LOVE clusters.)


If you did not come by yesterday, take a minute to read yesterday's posting, there is a little info about what it takes to make paper like this.

Links Expired

I’ve Been Tagged, Paper Preview and a Note About Tutorials

I just want to make sure you know that all of the kit links are still active but I will be taking Infatuation down next week.

I’ve been tagged by Happy of "Happy Scrap Girl" so here goes.

I am 6’ tall blond and weigh 130 lbs (In my dreams! Actually one of those is right.)

I am a bit of a Mac and Photoshop geek, I run a Mac dual 2 GHz with 4 ½ gigs of memory. It is 3 years old but still handles everything I can throw at it, including the 600-800 mg docs it can take to make the richly textured papers I like to make.

My nest is empty most of the time with the exceptions of my DH, my little dog Zoe, my big dog Shadow and a kitty, Cricket. My youngest DD is home from college for the summer, my DS is on to graduate school and my “middle” child, a DD is in the Air Force learning to speak Arabic.

I am a bit of a recluse having been a stay at home/home schooling mom for the last 25 years (I only home schooled for about 6 years.)

I have been scrapbooking on and off for 11 years. I actually designed a scrapbook book called “101 Photo Mat Ideas” Designing the book is what lead to me getting my Mac. In the process of designing the book I ended up falling in love with the Mac and Photoshop. The book went down the drain because I was scared to spend the $75,000 it would have taken to print and market it (I SO wish I had done it.) At the time the material was great, but now it looks like kindergarten stuff compared to what we do today.

My other hobbies use to include knitting, spinning yarn, quilting, ad hand dying yarn and quilt fabric. Since I shattered my elbow last year they are all too painful to do.

Digital scrapbooking saved my sanity. I am always happiest when I have a project, I have recovered couches, done faux finish wall treatments, sewn curtain and all kinds of stuff, but my elbow has put an end to that. I was mind numbingly bored after a few months in the cast when I saw an article in Scrapbook Trends magazine about digital scrapping. The rest is history.

I am a recovering freebie addict, it is better to give than to receive (I still do my share of receiving.) I am enjoying the heck out of this, thank you for making it possible.

I am still not sure who I am going to tag yet, so beware!

I Am Running A Bit Late With Part 3

I spent a lot of yesterday designing a floral paper for the kit. It took forever to get the flower bunches the way I wanted them so I could use them as brushes. I have included a preview of the paper with a close up so you can see the rich textures. I have had a lot of people ask me it I would do a tutorial on making papers but for now all I can say is texture, texture, texture. To make paper like this you REALLY need at least 3 gigs of memory (I have 4 ½.) Some of my papers can have 12-15 layers, some layers make a little bit of difference and some make a lot of difference in the appearance of the paper, A doc like this can be as big as 800 mgs and use a gig and a half of memory. Without enough memory this can be a painfully slow process. Well, take a close look at the paper below and be sure to come back tomorrow for the next part of Eastern Spice.
The preview DOES NOT do it justice, it looks fuzzy here but is actually very crisp.

Eastern Spice is getting Spicier

I named this kit Eastern Spice for a reason, the first part was kind of mellow but this part of the kit is HOT, HOT, HOT! I am SO happy with this kit and have a lot more embellishments and papers in process, just wait till you see the journaling pieces! I told you earlier that I wanted an exotic looking flower, well my search was kind of fruitless so I had to make one myself, I have to say I ended up with what I was envisioning for the kit. Today’s elements are one color but I am in the process of recoloring them to give you lots of options. Once again these papers are almost making themselves, there are so many ways I could go with them. I should have more of the kit ready by Wednesday so check in then.
After 3 1/3 kits I am up to over 18,000 downloads. I have decided to do something special when I reach 50,000 so be sure to keep coming back for it.



Links Expired

Don't you just love it!

Eastern Spice Part 1

I have some awesome papers for you today, I have been playing around with blending modes and textures and I LOVE what I came up with. Despite what I said the other day about not focusing on kits this is going to turn into a kit. I want to make a spectacular flower to go with these papers so I decided to check the stock photo sites for a flower to base it on. I want a spiky, exotic flower, something to go with the Mid Eastern flavor of the papers, I found hundreds of daisies and roses but nothing that really looked exotic. I have a few more sites to check and I have found a few possibles so we will see what I come up with. I have some great ribbons and journaling pieces in the works, they will be here Monday.
The swirls on these papers were made with brushes by ca_pris. http://papersweets.fan-arts.net/ This artist has an incredible collection of brushes for download.



I am getting strange messages from 4shared so I
set up an alternative download on Send Space
Download Eastern Spice Part 1 Here. 4 Shared
OR
Download Eastern Spice Part 1 Here Send Space

I am working on some papers

I just stopped in to let you know I am working on some papers. I am trying out a few new techniques with some awesome results. I should have them up some time tomorrow. In the meantime PLEASE send me some layout or QPs if you have any done. Thanks again for the nice comments and for all or you freebie hunters posting my kits. While I am on the subject of freebie hunters I want to remind you to leave some love for them. I know that it takes a great deal of their time to find and post the wonderful freebies for us, but I think many of us forget to let them know how much we appreciate them so HUG A FREEBIE HUNTER TODAY!!

Clusters, Clusters who Loves Clusters!!

I just love clusters but I did not have time to get these ready earlier. I am still working on hangers for the alpha, The string part looks good but I am not happy with the knots yet. I spent a lot of yesterday catching up on organizing the freebies I got the last three weeks, I just hate it when I let stuff pile up. I also started one of the Photoshop books I recently got. I learned a few tricks and I am working on something special, I should have it here on Thursday and possibly tomorrow I will post the QPs I have received, if you have one you would like to add let me know ASAP!! Well, enjoy the clusters.


Sorry Link has been removed.

OK, So Here is the Plan

If you read my bio you know that I have been using Photoshop for almost 7 years and I have not done too much creative with it till I discovered digital scrapping. When I first got PS I read every book I could find on all of the neat things you could do with it, but from disuse of all of the cool stuff I have forgotten more than I remember. I recently got some more great PS books and I am going to work my way through them. I have been focusing on making kits lately, the papers are SO easy for me, they almost make themselves, but I have a hard time coming up with the embellishments. So while I am upgrading my PS skills I am going too focus on making embellishments. For the next few weeks I hope to be giving you all sorts of neat things. I can’t promise that anything will coordinate with anything else but I can promise I will only put up the best of the best. Be sure to come back on a regular basis because my 4Shared is getting full and I do not know how long I will leave any single piece up.

Here is part 3 of Dusted Blossoms, I love, love, love the papers, lace and alphas. Look at the detail on the lace! Please send my some QPs or layouts so I can post them. Enjoy!



I just noticed I misspelled "Blossoms" in my preview, I have never been known for my spelling skills.

Sorry, Link has been removed,

Running a little late

I hoped to get part 3 of Dusted Blossoms posted tonight but I spent a lot of the day trying to figure out hangers for the Stone Sayings in part 2. I am still not happy with the hangers and I am too tired finish up the rest of the elements and package it up tonight. Sunday is my day to play and I plan on playing with PhotoShop and Dusted Garden. If you have not downloaded the 3 parts of Infatuation be sure to do it soon, my 4Shared is getting full and I have big plans for next week's freebies so Infatuation might have to come down. Come back after 3 pm central time and I should have the rest of Dusted Blossoms up. I am going to go to bed and wake uo fresh. Good Night.

My First (successful) Ribbons

I have always had a lot of trouble making a decent ribbon but I think I finally managed to make some pretty good ones. The “Stone Sayings” and frame have gone through SO many changes, they took a good part of the day to make. I actually ended up with a lot of good ones but none of them fit just right with the paper. I am very happy with what I settled on and hope you will be too. The one thing I didn’t have time to do is to make is hangers for them, I should have them ready Sunday. I think all of the computer problems are worked out and I am done with the newspaper, so now I have time to concentrate on part 3 and start on next week’s kit which will be up Sunday.
I have received a few nice QP’s of “Infatuation” and “Butterfly Garden” from some of my wonderful readers and I will post them soon. If you have a QP you would like to share I would love to post it. and I would appreciate getting some links to your LOs.
Thank you for all of the nice comments and for your understanding about the download problems. Your kindness put a smile on my face. Enjoy!!




Sorry Link has been removed.

Odd files

Thank you SO much for your words of encourgament, it has really helped these last few days when I have been ready to scream about all of the computer problems I have had.
I think the odd files that have been mentioned are the TOUs and my acknowledgement to Al Ward at Action FX. I use a Mac and I saved those docs in rft format. I have resaved the docs in txt. Right now there is nothing more important to me then to make sure that I get all of these problems worked out and that they never happen again. I want it to be a pleasure for you to come here and get my freebies, so if you will bear with me and give me feedback I should be able to have things go smoothly from here out, or as smoothly as the world of technology can go at least.
If you do not have the files that are visible in the preview I would like to know.
3 papers
3 Brads
2 Index cards
1 Bead hanging thingie
2 txt docs
Link for part 1 is below preview. Part 2 will be up tomorrow

It should be fixed

When it rains it pours, I can't believe the problems I have had with computer stuff this last week. It is a good thing that I am somewhat of a Mac geek. I got the latest version of Stuffit and tested the download numerious times. If you download the kit please let me know one way or the other how it goes. The next part should be here late Friday. The link is below the preview.

Dusted Blossoms Part 1 is Here!!

Boy have I had some computer problems. I spent almost 24 hours (actually I did sleep 2 hours) redoing my hard drive. The program I use to do layout for the monthly newspaper kept crashing, and I have a firm deadline so I was sweating it. I finally have that worked out and I was able to spend a little time on Dusted Blossoms. I wasn’t feeling too creative so I have only gotten a few embellishments done but there are more growing in the back of my mind. Here is what I have for now, be sure to come back on Friday for more. Enjoy!



Sorry Link has been removed.

A Little Delayed

My plan was to have the first part of the new kit up today but between computer problems and trying to get the newspaper that I work for done I am way behind. Let me tell you thou these papers are so pretty they are just about making themselves, the part that has slowed me is the embellishements. Look back in on Tuesday night or Wednesday and there should be part of it here. Thanks.

A little sneak peek

Here is a little sneak peek of next week's freebie. I am so excited about this kit, it has so many possibilities. I am working on the monthly newspaper that I do so it will probably be Tuesday before I get the first part up. Be sure to tell your friends about Butterfly Garden and Infatuation as I am not sure how long I will leave them up.

I just signed up for FeedBiz but it will probably be awhile till I do anything with it. In the meantime sure to check so you can get all of the parts of the as yet unnamed kit. Any suggestions for a name would be appreciated.

Butterfly Garden Part 2

Well ladies, I think I have a mega kit here, I had ideas for a lot more embellishments but I think I am ready to move on to next week’s kit. Butterfly Garden took me out of my comfort zone, most of the stuff I do is more on the grungy side, but I have really enjoyed it and I have learned a lot from it.
I had hoped to have a preview of next week’s kit but it is still in my mind and not on the computer yet. I have to spend some time on my real job (layout, design and ad work for a monthly newspaper) but I should have the first part of the kit up on Monday or Tuesday at the latest, so check back next week.
In the mean time enjoy Butterfly Garden and I would LOVE to see what you do with or if you make some QP’s I would love to be able to share those.



Sorry Link has been removed.

The full Alpha in the preview is included and I also sized some of the embellishments to be used as Alpha Accents.