Midnight Owl Designs

"gonna wish I had a little heads up, little lee-way, little more time"

2011-11-22T08:44:00.000-08:00

I adore that song by the way. So much so that my freak October snowstorm themed kit borrowed it's name. This mini kit was part of my DSD grab bag, but if you missed out on that, you can now buy it separately. It includes 12 papers, and 26 storm/emergency themed elements so you can be much more prepared than we were personally for 18 inches of snow and a week without power.

I've made a matching alpha for you all. You can download it here.

Want to see picture of the storm damage? I swear our town looked like a war zone. Driving to my grandparents the day after, you wouldn't believe how many streets were closed. There were trees on the road every where, and power lines were hanging so low (if not completely on the street) that many places turned into one way roads.

This was an hour into the storm. We had just lost internet and I was pretty grumbly about it, which led to the week long joke, when the power went out an hour later, "and then mother nature decided to teach you what real deprecation is..."

And this is the next morning. We had to get a neighbor to remove the two trees in the front of our yard because so many of their branches broke. The house looks so weird now.

And this was two days later, as we were headed out of dodge. We're pretty much the antithesis of outdoorsy, roughing it people, and once the gas ran out on the grill and we were no longer able to boil water for coffee, we were so gone. We ended up holded up in little motel one state over, calling our answering machine every couple of hours to see if we'd gotten power back yet.

I'm all for adventure, but I think I could live without having to go through that anytime soon. My grandmother had to go back to 1937 to even have a storm to compare it to. And my sister, who's going to school along the coastline, barely got a couple of inches, and was back in school the next day.

"i've got a long long way to go"

2011-11-21T09:39:00.000-08:00

I spent most of the weekend, you know, when I had a free minute or two, stress scrapping.

Here is step 3:

Yes, that is me. I was apparently dressing myself at the age of three, and to this day, I ask my mother why she let me leave the house looking like that. And she only answers, "You'll understand when you have kids."

This is what I needed:

Add a photo to your round or octagon shaped frame
Something Round (not a paper shape): Delph - Around the World Add-On (it was originally a peacock button/brad type thing that I recolored and added to the scatter)
A piece of cardboard - Tricia Curtis Designs - Natural Feeling Collab (the tag)
Add another frame but this one must be a square or rectangle shaped one (square frame created with fx in photoshop)

I think the most surprising thing about this step was that I was looking for a button in my DDR stash (cause we're pretty much only supposed to use their products) and I couldn't find one. I had no problem finding a pine cone last week, but I had to make my own pink button. I really need to get on fixing that. I love my buttons (remember that layout, lol)

Here's what I was doing over the weekend, while hoping the children wouldn't forget their lines over Thanksgiving break:

Credits: Sugarplum Paperie - Daisy Summer Days

Credits: CatScrap My Life Collab

Credits: Sugarplum Paperie - Every Day of the Year; Erica Zane - Apple A Day, EZ Journals, Silver Lining, Messed Up June, In My Life, Doodle Me Christmas, Happy Homemaker, Smarty Pants, Sultry Summer, All Fall Down, Messed Up May, Sketchy

"every night feet tucked in close to you"

2011-11-18T17:27:00.000-08:00

I've been scraping again. With as much that is going on, with the play and designing, and everything, that statement kind of makes me feel guilty.

Here's step two of the progressive scrap:

I needed to include the following:

Pine Cones (located on either side of the flower) - Prelestnaya P - CU Freebie
Something Yellow (a ribbon): MCD - Spring Imagination Collab
A Type of Flowe: Delph - Treasure of My Life
A Box: Aurelie - Mothers Daughters Sisters Friends Collab (the heart shape that I scattered)
2 Different Types of Leaves/Branches: Mistica Designs - A Touch of Fall; Delph - Spring Imagination

This is one of those challenges where I see the instructions, and I'm like, there is no way I have a pine cone in my stash, and how in the world am I supposed to use a box and make it look like it should be there. But I think I like how this is turning out so far. It's way to early to say that I know. I'm probably jinxing myself.

Credits: Mistica Designs - Breathe of Fall

"i will not let myself cause my heart so much misery"

2011-11-16T07:04:00.001-08:00

(ps. I'll have new releases and a freebie for you tomorrow!)

It's progressive scrap time again at DigiDesign Resort. I have such a love/hate relationship with this challenge. It's really fun, and always super challenging, but then again some of the directions just drive me right up the wall. Let's be honest, being more than a bit neurotic probably doesn't do me any favors here. Let's see how much of a problem child I end up being this month, huh.

Here's my step one -

Step 1 Credits:
Three Papers: JanetB - CU Crumpled Bag Freebie; Silke - Gift Box Add-on; Because of You Collab
One Frame - (created with fx in photoshop)
A piece of wood - (took photo of wood plank)

(pps. someone tell the radio people to stop playing such depressing songs!)

"it's been so long that I forget"

2011-11-11T19:25:00.000-08:00

I should be doing something else right now, I'm sure of it. Problem is, I can't remember what that is. I pretty sure it has nothing to do with stalking pretty picture of cookies on Pintrest, but that may just be me. I'll try to figure it out, keep me away from the left over Halloween candy in the mean time.

Dear Microsoft...

2011-11-10T11:14:00.001-08:00

STOP IT!!!

Stop automatically updating my computer without my permission!

Stop losing my work on me!

Stop turning automatic updates on, after I have turned them OFF!

Whatever you are trying to install is not more important than whatever I am working on at any given moment. So stop it!

Dear Adobe,

When is some kind of auto restore function coming?

Please and Thank you!

"what am i supposed to do when you play it so cool"

2011-11-07T07:20:00.000-08:00

I did some actual scrapping over the weekend, imagine that. I almost never have time for that anymore. It felt like it was such a luxury that I was able to.

"life too easy to be so damned complicated"

2011-11-05T07:14:00.000-07:00

Happy DSD everyone! (Happy shopping!)

I've got a grab bag for you. It includes two mini kits, one for my kitties, and one that ended up designing holed up in a motel a state away while our power was out for an entire week (grumble!) There is also a fun paper pack with a matching alpha. You can get the whole thing over at my store for just $5.

And if that's not enough: my entire store is going to be 50% off for the weekend.

"local country station just a blaring on the radio"

2011-10-27T11:19:00.000-07:00

"...and many more"

2011-10-26T05:54:00.000-07:00

Happy Sixth Birthday NDISB!

We're having a blog train to celebrate. Want to pick up all the pieces found in making all these lovely pieces - just go to the forum and play our cupcake treasure hunt!

Download here - http://www.megaupload.com/?d=0VD0S506

NDISB - Starting point
Pamla Klenczar
BrownEyedSusan
JellyBean
ScrapDragon
aneczkaw
Willy Designs
NDISB Forum
A Little Birdie
SnackPackGu
Designs by Marcie - you came from here
Midnight Owl - - You are HERE!
Grandma K - - you are going here
Nanas Dinkys Scraps
Chunlin
NDISB- Ending Stop

"happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear NDISB"

2011-10-24T06:04:00.000-07:00

We have a week full of fun and prizes for you all, this thread will give you the run down of what's in store, check out the other threads in this section for games, challenges and FUN!

Every time you play a game or enter a challenge, you will be entered into a random prize draw to win one of lots and lots of fun prizes.
The prizes range from Gift Certificates to Quick Pages, Cluster Packs to Albums

Our designers have worked tirelessly over the last few weeks to make sure there are plenty of goodies lined up for you to win,, so participate as much as you can because each challenge layout and game you play will qualify you to go in a draw to win a prize.

To qualify, you must post your layouts in the special birthday gallery we have created, and post in the relevan threads.

At the end of our week, we will enter every single name of those who participated in our celebrations into a random prize draw for some huge prizes. Here is what we have in the kitty for you to win,,,

A full copy of Paint Shop Pro X4, provided by COREL

Full yearly memberships to DigScrap Connect which include access to the monthly sponsor kits.

A 1 month, 2 month and 3 month membership to Digital Scrapbook Artisan Guild

We also have some fab prizes lined up from Cassel of Creation Cassel, including lessons for the Scrapbook Campus

and yet more Gift Certificates and coupons from our fab designers!

These are truly awesome prizes, don't miss out!

I've got two new kits out for our birthday celebration, For All My Ghoul Friends, a happy hand-drawn Halloween kit, and Shower You In Love, a baby/wedding shower kit.

"i'd be a fool to let you go with someone else"

2011-10-08T10:25:00.000-07:00

I was doing some scrapbooking last night...I know, it has been awhile.

Credits: EZane - All Fall Down, Bluebird, Happy Snapper, Informal, Moment in Time, Perfect Moments, Silver Linings, Amused, Cute Little Kaylee, Early Bird, First Time Ever, Love Happens, Sketchy

Yeah, that's me as a little little baby. I'm like three weeks old, according to what my grandma wrote on the back. The original picture was pretty horrible, I mean, the whole middle of the picture was pretty much washed out. Blending it like this, I could still save that memory, even with the picture is horrible.

Credits: EZane - Perfect Memories and Perfect Beach Memories

Me again, playing in my grandmother's backyard in a giant tub - well, it's not all that giant except compared to me at that age (about 10 months).

I'll have to make double pages for these eventually, cause they'd be great for my baby album, but that will have to wait for another day. At least I got my creative stride back.

"drowning worm and killing time, nothing too ambitious"

2011-09-14T10:06:00.000-07:00

I was shown a version of Windows 8 (my desktop now dual boots to the developers preview, aren't I a lucky girl), and after my initial shock of 'why do you want to turn my computer into a 22'' phone?" I'll agree I am rather intrigued. It's super fast and very modern looking, and while it waits to be seen how I can do my extreme multitasking,

An excuse to buy another laptop next year, a touch screen maybe? We shall see.
I feel like I never get anything done on Wednesdays, I wonder why that is?

"don't think for a minute I'm gonna sit around and sing some old sad song"

2011-09-12T11:19:00.000-07:00

Have you signed up for our newsletter at NDISB yet? I'm giving away a really fun mini in the issue coming out this 15th.

"drop everything now and meet me in the pouring rain,"

2011-09-08T07:00:00.000-07:00

I've got a new kit out...or well, the expansion of a mini kit into a new kit. I'm really excited this one is finished (I lost most of it in the Great August Computer Meltdown of 2011) and I've got some really fun things in the works for the coming weeks.

Here's what it looks like scraped with; see, I am still chipping away at my vacation pictures. If I'm lucky I'll get them all done by the time we can go on our next one (hahaha)

And don't forget the freebie!

Download it here: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=FNQURJKB

And for an extra freebie, sign up for the newletter at NDISB. I've contributed a free mini kit that going to be coming out the 15th.

'the new is in, the new is in, and i'm feeling better already'

2011-08-23T05:14:00.000-07:00

Enough dawdling, my store at NDISB.com is finally open! And we're starting it off with an expanded version of Fish Food. I love the colors of this kit, and drawing all those fish was so much fun. Remember to scroll down to the bottom for the matching freebie!

And some examples of how it looks like scraped with...

Get the freebie! - http://www.megaupload.com/?d=01R29ZCT

"people all round the world, join hands, start a love train,"

2011-07-28T05:34:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the First Digi Scrap Connect Blog Train. This blog train is comprised of 24 fabulous designers who have been participating in the Design Factor Challenge the last 5 weeks. We decided to have fun with it and turn it into a great Blog Train and thus Flowers, Ribbons, and Strings Oh My!! the blog train was born. We hope you have fun collecting the great mini kits. If you get lost along the blog train, just return to Digi Scrap Connect to find the list of all participants.

Here's my mini kit Ship Shoes. Grab it now, before I expand it into a full kit and put it in my very first store (I'm a bit excited about this, can you tell.)

Here's the list of all the participants if you've gotten lost, or like me, you like to start at the bottom, ;)

DigiScrap Connect
{Home Station}
Piccolina Designs
JDK
Skrapz
Dancing
Princess Designs
Inspired By
Dominic Designs
Dana's
Footprints Designs
Milly Dee Designs
Amanda and Millie
Designs
Rose Thorn
Designs
NanaScraps
Kim
Hackworth Creations
Scraps by Mara
Digital Gator
Designs
Snackpackgu's
Designs
Rumki Designs
Designs by
Angel
Scrapdragon
Designs
ScrapN2Nspire
Rebecca
Meyers Designs
Ramona
Memories
Binty
Designs
Lizard Dau
Designs
Digital
Harmony
Foosa Moon
Creations
PamlaKlenczar
Midnight Owl <-- You Are Here!

"how hard it is to make it look so easy"

2011-07-25T09:48:00.000-07:00

I've got Rascal Flatts stuck in my head. It's pretty funny cause J is going to Flatts Fest next month, but she hates country music. I've been playing them ever since I heard she and her friends got tickets.

I've actually started a new album, Songbirds to both record the little things this year and show off my complete obsession with music. Here's what I got so far:

"i dropped a quarter in the jukebox and played that girl a tune"

2011-07-12T11:38:00.000-07:00

Been super busy between work (yay for everyone taking vacations in the summer so I get extra hours!) and the Design Factor competition, but I did come up with this one for the Iron Scrapper competition over at Scrap Orchard:

I had to squeeze seven seashells into it. Lots of fun. Although when I print this, I really should see if I can do something about those photos. Yuck.

And one more for that competition:

I have to admit, this is pretty much me playing around like whoa. These elements were just asking for it thought, lol.

I'm going to Boston for the week (I've got a conference there) so here's wish you all well.

"when i asked if she believed in fate, she said yes"

2011-06-15T00:00:00.000-07:00

I see bright colors. Things must be looking up. Or at least I've been pretending better.

The kit, Wild Child by KimB, came with lots of fun 60s/Native-ish elements, and I have a confession to make: while it is way too much fun, I have no idea what else I can do with this kit. At least how it was intended to be used anyways.

"i know that came out a little country, but every word was right on the money,"

2011-06-07T08:15:00.000-07:00

For some reason (that I can't understand, I mean I shouldn't be this busy) I've been having the worst time actually finishing layouts so far this month. I swear I've got at least a half dozen saved in my June folder that need pictures and journaling. Craziness.

Anyways...

The colors for this month's MAK over at Scrap Matters are summery in what I think is a pretty fun, and surprising way. My desktop calendar for this month:

I was 11 the first time I got to leave the country. My mother and I went down to Cancun for a business conference. And this is the only picture we have with me wearing my glasses, before they were reclaimed by the sea. And consequently, this was the only part of Mexico I remember actually being able to see.

There was also some pretty fun "boy" pieces too; which is probably a good thing, cause I've probably got more sparkly girl kits than I know what to do with. And how fun is that title too, hehe.

And here's baby K. It's really funny how much he and J look alike in their newborn baby pics. It's a really good thing where ever my mother got the pictures processed dated them on the back.

This one is also K, but I was kind of a dunce, I just realized now, and didn't label this one properly. Oh well, I guess there is always editing before printing right.

"this lunch break is going to take all afternoon, and half the night"

2011-06-02T08:10:00.000-07:00

I've been feeling very vintage lately - not in an old kind of way, more in a look how much I can grunge everything up kind of way. Erica Zane's Happy Snapper (and Happy Housemaker - let's just be honest, I bought that one to continue on my vintage binge) was pretty much perfect for that.

Messing with photos is so much fun. Not that this photo wasn't old enough to begin with - J can't be any more than three here - but adding some texture, and fiddling around with the colors to give it this real vintage lo-fi feel, just gives the photo more interest. Of course, I'm sure there are some people reading this and going "But Lia, this picture captures a memory of J. Isn't that interesting enough?" But hey, I've always been, bigger and bolder is better.

I gave this picture of K much the same treatment, a little less extreme, but the process was the same. And look, I keep saying I don't know what to do with all those fun banners...

And let's just take a moment to praise the puppet warp feature in CS5.5. Those ribbons were not anywhere close to being straight.

And one more (well, there is a second side to this one actually; I put it together as a 365 page before I realized I didn't have the pictures for it, oops). Using music on my scrapbooking pages is too much fun though.

"the fact that i'm still breathing means i'm still alive"

2011-06-01T20:55:00.000-07:00

The weather has just been crazy insane. I mean, seriously what happened to spring. And must Mother Nature take it out on us with all these storms.

Apparently I was bored enough to actually scrap about the weather for this template challenge. I have officially reached a new low.

"they're the world my world revolves around"

2011-05-29T13:37:00.000-07:00

Back with another of my favorites by Creations by Rachael. I just love the flowers included in this kit. It's Sunshine on My Soul.

This one is me, back when I was a itsy, bitsy thing. The swing was on a clothesline in my grandmother's backyard. We used to spend all of our summers there while our parents were working.

"i'm telling you to loosen my buttons baby"

2011-05-27T23:22:00.000-07:00

First of all, I feel like I probably should apologize for the lyrics titling this post.

Now that we got that out of the way, look how I spent my afternoon (and most of the night too, let's just be honest). So I have two versions of this layout, cause I can't figure out which I like

"one is one too many, one more is never enough"

2011-05-22T12:16:00.000-07:00

It's the last challenge of ADSR 6. I think I'm going to miss doing this every week. It was way more fun than I thought it would be, even though most of the challenges drove me absolutely up the wall.

Here the complete list of my challenges for this year's race:

Challenge 1 - Facts About My Family

Challenge 2 - Cuts Outs

And because I fail at following instructions, I had to redo it:

Challenge 3 - Family Games

Challenge 4 - Was an intersection about travel, and my partner did that one.

Challenge 5 - A Recipe Challenge, with the theme of getting away from the family

Challenge 6 - A sympathy card challenge

Challenge 7 - A scene challenge (this is the one that drove me the most crazy, I mean what in the world would I ever scrap with a chipmunk or squirl for. I could rail about this layout for ages I swear. But I got away with bending the rules like crazy, and being quite a bit passive aggressive in the journaling).

Challenge 8 - Had to answer the question 'What is Family'

Challenge 9 - This was my favorite layout of the race, it was a layout we did together, my partner helped with the title, were we could only use six lines of journaling, and as many elements or papers as we had family members.

Challenge 10 - A quality that we have, that someone else in our family has.

Challenge 11 - Was our favorite family recipe, and for the first time, I was using this kit for what it was meant.

Challenge 12 - A template, 365ish challenge. Another one I didn't like so much because the instructions were so specfic that it drove me nuts. I prefer challenges that inspire creativity instead of those that limit it by being so super specfic. Again, I'm pretty sure you can tell from the journaling.

Challenge 13 - The theme was family by situation instead of by blood

Challenge 14 - Another challenge we shared, The the title had to be "My Doppleganger". I did the layout, and my partner put in the journaling and pictures. I still don't know what this challenge is about.

Challenge 15 - The last one was a journaling challenge, where we had to scrap out our digi families. I lucked out getting this kit over iNSD

"there's not a thing that I would change, cause you're amazing"

2011-05-21T19:51:00.000-07:00

I love this kit, Just the Way You Are, from Creations by Rachael. The bright colors are so much fun and so very versatile:

I remember loving this museum, our parents would take us during the summer. I loved the drive up to Boston and just walking around that city. But the children's museum was really the best. There were so many things to learn and so many things to play with. I kind of can't wait until I have kids of my own so I can bring them back there.

"here you go, pulling me right back it"

2011-05-20T11:20:00.000-07:00

So C has been playing this acid rock station all afternoon, and for the last 20 minutes I swear it's been playing classical. Apparently it's time to party like it's 1776.

That's ok, I guess it's pretty easy to scrap to classical music. Or at least it's slightly more relaxing than my current thing for scrapping while watching reruns of Criminal Minds. Who knew?

Fun and blocky, right? Ever since I saw one of the HGTV Design Stars do this with art on the walls during the finale, I've been all about this look. Credits for this layout include: OScraps Collabs - Life, Tropical, Retro; Danielle Young - Passionflower; Micheline Martin - Little Miss Attitude; GeniaBeana - Hazy Silver Alpha; Jen Yurko - Textually Speaking,

"keep on dancing til the world ends"

2011-05-17T06:45:00.000-07:00

Have you seen this new kit by Creations by Rachael, Just The Way You Are, yet?

It was so much fun to play with, lots of bright color and so very versatile,

"bring on the sunshine, bring on the good times"

2011-05-15T06:47:00.000-07:00

The month's Make-A-Kit pieces make me so happy; I swear it's the yellow. I mean what else would it be, lol. It's not really a color I scrap with a lot, but I guess I was feeling a bit flexible. For once, go figure.

This one is perhaps my favorite. I love blocking. And the overlapping frame/curling ribbon thing came out so well, imo.

But wait, there's more...

The stained glass effect of this layout was really fun to pull off.

And a pat on the back for the clustering on this one. It was originally for a template challenge, and I rotated it, shrunk it, and deleted a whole bunch of extraneous elements before coming up with something that actually looks good.

I think by now you can definitely see which pieces I like the most (that yellow button flower and the butterfly are probably in ever layout I've done with these kits).

I like the curves of this layout, but looking back at it, I'm really not sure where the title came from. Who knows?

I love how simple this one is, and the dandelion paper. And this is me too, without those ugly glasses I used to where so I have no idea how I could see anything, but hey, it's a cute picture of me, so I'm not really complaining.

And one last one, my desktop calendar. See more blocking, it's an addiction, I swear.

And fin. :D

"never waste another day wonderin' what you threw away"

2011-01-10T14:15:00.000-08:00

Credit: Chelle's Creations - Beauty Within, Jade Day Studios - My Girl

"you say it best when you say nothing at all"

2011-01-03T13:37:00.000-08:00

My January Desktop Calendar:

Made using WMsquared - Frosty, Zoe Pern - So Sweet, Plum Dumpling Designs - Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow