After weeks of praying, thinking, studying and just barely keeping up my mommy duties, my friend bluntly asked me that thought provoking question. It jolted me to reality. I guess I had just jumped in and hadn’t stop to ask  myself why I would inflict my heart message to the critique and standards of a panel . My answer to her, which was the best one I could come up with at the time, went a little like this, “It’s a personal challenge, sort of like doing a triathlon; I have no problem talking on and on but I want to see if I can communicate what I want to say within the 3 and 5 minute time allotment”. I know that God has a message He wants me to share, therefore, I wanted to be prepared when He called me to share it. I didn’t want my delivery, “ums” or lack of time to distract from the message I am called to speak.

Now that I am back from the conference, I can’t wait to share with my friend all the things that God had in store for me during this test of endurance and self editing. What I initially thought was just a simple challenge, produced a myriad of confirmations in ministry direction. It’s fun to see how we can jump in, flail and doubt, see it through and be unexpectedly changed in the process. I am thankful for her thoughtfully blunt question that held me accountable to pay close attention to the little details God would reveal to me throughout the weekend.

And what was the summary of my evaluations? Don’t change a thing, keep doing what you are doing! Ha, my friend was right! I guess I had to go through the angst just to find the peace that I could have tapped into all along. I love it when God does that-It’s a Holy Spirit thing! Maybe I’ll be quicker to remember that next time.

Signing up for the speakers track at the Proverbs 31 She Speaks conference seemed like a decision on a whim, but it has set me on a path of resolve and I can’t wait to see what God has at the next turn.

Col 3:2  Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.

Isa 62:1  For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, And for Jerusalem’s sake I will not keep quiet, Until her righteousness goes forth like brightness, And her salvation like a torch that is burning.

From what I can tell, the ipad will be able to do just that. I can have separate albums (scrapbooks) with my pages  loaded in order. I can zoom in and out and view my page as vivid as I created it! I will be able to easily edit my pages and reload them at anytime, unlike traditional scrapbooking where it is costly to remake or reprint an entire page.

Not only can I use this technology for my newly created digital pages, but also my scanned scrapbooks from the past. I will be able to integrate my old and new library into one thin hand held piece of technology! (check the storage capacity as there are 3 sizes of ipads)

http://www.apple.com/ipad

Scanned Scrapbook Page

Scanned Scrapbook Page

We offer a 12×12 scanning service using the Epson Expression 10000XL- Photo scanner. This high quality scanner can scan 3D items, even above the glass and allow great quality scans of your chunky elements! Scan your albums and have them safely preserved, printed, or made into a DVD!

Advantages:

1. Safely preserve your precious memories from damage or fire.

2. Share your albums and layouts with your children, family and friends by having your scanned pages printed, put on disc or uploaded to your facebook page!

Quality:

1. The Epson Scanner is so great, I have scanned pages with Jolee’s Boutique items and you can’t tell the difference from the scanned and printed page and the original-you’ll have to touch it!

2. Because it has a 12×18 flat bed, you can scan heritage items that are oversize.

3. The fine details like the texture on a solid paper stay true and make the scan look like the original!

For more information and pricing, klik on the “scanning” page.

1. Pay attention to the light source-don’t take the photo with the sun directly behind your subject. If you are shooting people, be careful that they are not not looking right into the sun, causing them to squint!

2. If you are taking Easter or Passover pictures, don’t just take photos of the people, take interesting pictures of the elements that make up your celebration. i.e. flowers, baskets or sedar plate. These will make great supporting photos for your layout.

3. Did you go somewhere special? Take a photo of the sign, home or invitation (or scan) to remember where your celebration took place.

4. Make it interesting and take some close-ups and funky angles.

Have fun and record the beautiful creation and feasts that our Maker made for us to enjoy!

I had so much fun using the “knocking on winter’s door” kit to make this holiday card! I added a glitter snowflake that we made in previous years by scanning it and dropping a shadow behind (to the right of the Stafford tag). I also scanned the star of david ornament that my son made for Chanukah and placed that next to the 2008 tag. My oldest son took the picture of the two of us together and we snapped the boys outside near our fence…with a sheet draped over. Our youngest was healing from the chicken pox, so the photoshop elements healing tool came in handy to get rid of the “pox”. He was wondering if I could also erase them off of his face, too bad they haven’t come up with that technology yet! Costco made it easy to upload and have the 5×7’s printed, just like any photo that you would bebdeveloped….I just love digital scrapbooking!

Have a wonderful holiday celebrating God’s faithfulness. Praise Him for sending the Messiah of Israel in order to make peace between God and man. The Messiah for all nations, making His salvation a light to all the earth giving eternal blessings to all who trust in Yeshua-Jesus!

I am sorry to say that many of the ladies took one look at the computer and walked as far away from my table as possible. I hope that they will someday realize that paper scrappers too need the Photoshop Elements photo organizer! I will be having photo organization crops so that we can all learn the software better and keep all of the thousands of photos at an easy reach.

Digiscrapping is the way for me, I love how quick and easy it is. I can reproduce my pages instantly and make as many books as I want. I will definately be making lots of “photo” gifts and cards for the upcoming holidays. If you aren’t so sure about all of the “computer” stuff, let me assure you that after 3 crop/lessons you will be well on your way.

I started my digiklik studio business in order to have the girls over for laptop crops. I want to teach the program and provide a beautifully decorated, fun, and “scrap” free place to work on preserving our memories.

If you are not sure that Elements 6.0 is the best digiscrapbooking program, just look in the magazines or google it, you will find that it is the industry standard (with the exception of full photoshop). You can be as simple or as creative as you want; there are no gimmicks that trap you into proprietary digi-elements.

I don’t sell this product, but I do recommend it because I hate to see people getting started in a program that will not grow with your future creativity. To see some of my digi layouts, check out the gallery tab in the navigation bar.

I am offering instructions and laptop crops to make it easier to transition into the digital world. There are so many great templates out there to get you started so that you will look like a pro even before you know what you are doing.

Digital Scrapbooking will sharpen your mind while you are having fun & preserving your family memories. Learning technology can be fun if you have great layouts to prove your progress. Give it a try…………..my 5th grader did it, you can too!