Whoa, a new product is actually available?

Goodness, it's true! This is just a quick note to say that I finished up a quickie project and got a new little embellishment set available over at Digitals. The It's a Swirl World Word Frame set allows you to emphasize a word or phrase on your layout, in swirl-ridden style. ;) You can pop over to Digitals to check it out, and I created a layout using it that you can find here. (I'm on a computer right now that doesn't have access to the files for me to give you a pic here, but I'll get that corrected later.)

Other Seebee's happenings

Taking a break from the brain block issues this morning to work on another little "project". I'm in the process of working up the wording for a limited commercial & S4H license to go along with a few kits. These will be the same kits that are already available, but for a little more money, you will have a license that allows you to use the kit items in your S4O/S4H projects, use on the design of your personal blog, use to create cards/products for your photography business, etc. So, stay tuned. I'll post here when those products are up & available.

Brain block!

Well, I'm in the middle of working on papers for August bonuses. It's hard going for me this time, although papers are usually not a problem. It's coming up with designs that work with this month's theme. :) (I won't spoil it for you yet.) My brain's not doing a great job, or my drawing skills are lacking...something like that. I'm sure I'll get through it.

Also, I signed up for Digitals' Christmas in July special, which is coming up. (In this month, obviously. ;) ) Look for more information on what that's going to entail soon! If I can get past my brain block, I'll see about getting some freebies together for that time for the SF blog. But I can't promise anything since it's been hard to get on the computer this summer. (My daughter is a waterbug and she keeps us outdoors a lot!)

TTFN!

New kit, Bug World, is out!

It's finished and now available at Digitals! I enjoyed making this fun, colorful kit, which started out with my son in mind. But it ended up taking a more general "kid" turn, so it would work well for boys & girls, IMO. For instance, I can envision a cute "baby's first crawl" page with the Crawling Snail tag. :D Anyways, you guys are more creative with scrapping ideas than I am! I'm just happy to finally get it finished & up and running. You can click on the Kaboodle link at the right, or the Digitals store link to learn more about it.

This week's Seebee's WW sale products

Just a quick note to say that I have marked down 3 kits for this week's Wonderful Wednesday Sale at Digitals. Look for Appletime, That Happy Feeling, and Plush Jazz Summer to be marked at 30% off on Wednesday, June 3! (I think technically the sale starts at 2 AM Eastern, but don't hold me to that!) Happy shopping!

As for me, I've just about finished my next kit, called Bug World. I've got to put the final touches on the example layout and get everything uploaded. I would think it'll be up by Thursday at the latest. Then, I have plans for another embellishment/template set that will be pretty nice if I can do what I plan to do. LOL! Plus it's about time to work on the July bonus stuff for the Digital challenges. And on top of that, my daughter's last day of school for the year is on Thursday, which means working around her craziness. So yeah, I'll be busy. ;)

Hey, if you didn't already see it, I put up a new Seebee's Freebies freebie last week; it's my first Dream Trip mini kit, and it was designed with castle pictures in mind. I even made an example layout which I have forgotten to post! Maybe I can remember to do that tomorrow. (I'm on a different computer right now.)

Take care, and I'll talk to you soon!

How about an exclusive Seebee's shopping discount?

For anyone reading this blog, I've got a nice coupon for you. Enter this coupon code (d1006afeaf) to get 50% off any Seebee's products you buy in a single order! This offer is good May 15-31, 2009, and is only good once per customer. And I've not NO restrictions, so it's good for half off of any of the Seebee's products. (Buy 'em all if you like!) Go to:
http://digitalscrapbookpages.com/digitals/index.php?main_page=index&manufacturers_id=153
to start shopping! Thanks for reading!

New series: Photoshop Love!

I came up with the idea of starting a new series of posts by me called "Photoshop Love". (Other rejected titles were "How Photoshop Saves My Bacon" , "Proud of My Photoshop Crutch", and "Photoshop: Changing The World One Clone Stamp At a Time!") Here's what I'll do: I'll post a SOOC photo (that's straight-out-of-camera), and you can see just how bad a photographer I can be. LOL! Then, I'll show you that by the awesome power of Photoshop/Photoshop Elements, I'm able to get a salvageable photo out of these...let's call 'em "missteps". :) So, look for the label "PS Love" on this blog for these if you ever need a good laugh or want to feel better about your photography. Just sayin'! :D

Please keep in mind that I'm not trying to say that the "after" pictures represent the most stunning photography in the world. Mostly this is just to show how much fun it can be to play in Photoshop.

So, to start this, here's one of my most dramatic rescues. I have this picture of my daugther back when she was crawling, and we'd just bought this tutu/tulle skirt from Gymbo. I liked the little bare feet with the skirt, but there were soooooo many distractions. (That's a nice euphamism for toy junk, btw.) Here's the SOOC .jpg, although it was resized for the web post here.

So, we've got junk, we've got flash shadow, we've got bleckh. I ended up doing something I now call "digital housecleaning". Let me tell you, real housecleaning is much easier! Your digi tools of choice for digital housecleaning are the clone tool and healing brush. This was all done back in PSE4, btw. It involved some cutting and pasting of clean areas of the wall, too. Some blur was added, too, to help mask the clone job. And, the first step was, of course, to crop it.

Anyways, here's the after:

(Now why can't my house always look this neat? Oh, right...kids!) Hope that was interesting. Thanks for looking!

No work for me today, I guess.

Darn it, it looks like our desktop monitor died last night. The good news is that we have another monitor to swap out with it. But that won't happen 'til later today, after my daughter's home from preschool. I was getting closer to finishing that kit, too. Well, there's still plenty around here to occupy my time.

Just dropping in to say hi!

It's been quiet here lately, hasn't it? :) I find myself to be on the computer less, so there's your problem. Doing cleaning, cooking...getting back into sewing...that kind of thing. The most likely way you'll hear from me nowadays is through Facebook or Twitter. My FB account needs approval for adding you, but anyone can follow me through Twitter. Look for "ChrisBeasley". (I went crazy with the name there!) And if you look over to the right >>>>>>>>, I just added the ability for my latest 5 Tweets to show up here.

And yes, I am working on a new kit; I'd say it's about 2/3rds of the way finished. It's got some fun, bright colors; nice for spring/summer! I need to start working on my June mini kit bonus, though, so it may be a few weeks before it's up. (Or not. You never know!) Once it's in the store, you'll probably get a FB status update or a Tweet about it.

New baby announcements finished!

So, after I finished up the February bonus for my Q & A challenge at Digitals, I got to work on these baby announcement photo cards. We're all suffering from baby-on-the-brain at Digitals, because the store owner's expecting. :) This is making me wish I had been a designer/digiscrapper when my kids were born; I would definitely have sent something like this. So, marvel at the pics of my daughter and son. (He's only in the 1 announcement, and the other two examples have stock photos. Which is why the pictures are better. LOL!)

Here's the link to the girl cards:

http://digitalscrapbookpages.com/digitals/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=&products_id=14026

and the boy cards:

http://digitalscrapbookpages.com/digitals/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=&products_id=14027

After I get the March bonus complete, I'll either be working on a new spring kit, or more announcements. Or something else...you never know! :)

Yummy! Microwave Chocolate Pudding

So, a recipe that I find myself making often lately is this quick & easy chocolate pudding. I have to admit that I like making things from scratch more than from mixes. I have a hard time justifying the cost for convenience foods. Although, I know that a box of instant pudding isn't all that expensive, but this tastes much better. :)

This is from the 365 Great Chocolate Desserts cookbook.

OLD-FASHIONED MICROWAVE CHOCOLATE PUDDING

1/2 cup sugar

3 Tablespoons cornstarch

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 1/2 cups milk

2 (1 oz.) squares unsweetened chocolate, cut up

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a 2 qt. glass bowl, mix sugar, cornstarch, and salt until well blended. Gradually whisk in milk until cornstarch is completely dissolved. Add chocolate.

Cook in a microwave oven on High 7 to 9 minutes, whisking every 2 minutes, until mixture is cooked through, smooth, and thickened. Whisk in vanilla. Pour into 4 individual serving dishes.* Cover with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming on top. Refrigerate until cold.

* I just put it in a plastic container in the fridge with the plastic wrap and then portion it out as needed.