This blogging stuff is lots of fun and it has kept me occupied the last several days moving my older blogs over here and adding a couple of new ones. The way this site works you have a template where all the sections are pre-programmed. For the most part you are good to go with that, but I get restless and want to make it "my own" - which doesn't necessarily mean it is better!! Unfortunately, to make changes you have to delve into the "code". I only have a little database programming in my background, but it seemed pretty straight forward, so I deceided to try.

So, we have a new banner and some music. The music was the hardest, it took me all afternoon yesterday to get it anywhere near what I wanted. The programming wasn't hard, it was finding a place to put the music.

The next thing I wanted to try was to upload my own video into YouTube and put it in a blog. So, I decided on Oh, Beautiful Star of Bethlehem. Clay only sang this song at the Raleigh JNT and it was dedicated to his grandfather. I was very fortunate to get a last minute ticket in the first row - now, it was all the way to the side, on the right facing the stage, so my view was obscured a little during the cookie scene. The rest of it was great. It was a cool seat for other reasons, people came and went through the curtains right in front of me to go backstage. When Clay's grandfather left (presumably to go to the men's room) they walked right in front of me. I knew who it was and looked up at Clay and took the picture that is at the bottom of my last blog. Clay had a worried look on his face that I didn't quite capture in the picture and I found out what he was worried about in a few minutes when he sang the bluegrass Christmas song to his "papa". Luckily, papa got back in time. LOL. It isn't the best video, because of the angle and the microphones in the way, others sitting more in the center took much better video, but this is my personal experience and I'm happy with it.

Be sure to turn the music off in the Jukebox before you start the video.



Now, I really have to get some "real life" stuff done.

Technorati tags:
Clay Aiken
Bluegrass

Whew, I figured out how to change the banner yesterday. So, as a consequence, don't have a blog thought out.

So I thought I'd share a picture with you. My kids gave me Photoshop Elements for Christmas and I have had fun playing with my pictures and creating digital scrapbook pages. I had lots of pictures of the Sacramento and Glendale, Az Independent Tours - but they were my first attempt at concert pictures and they were taken with a camera that just didn't do the job. So, I found myself playing with the filters in Photoshop and I kind of like the results on this picture I took of Clay via the Jumbotron.



I do love fedora Clay.

Technorati tags:
Clay Aiken

One of the side benefits of finding Clay is finding other artists to enjoy. This has happened to me via sites like Rate the Music and Promosquad. I got hooked on these sites because of Clay and have had to sit through a lot of nasty stuff in Promosquad. RTM is not so bad as you can choose the kind of music you like. Promosquad now asks you to provide a radio station you like and play available music that is in the same genre as that station. When they have presented all that to you.....then comes the rap.

One day I got a notice from RTM that a survey was available for one song. I clicked on it, had never heard of the artist. Listened. Hmmm. don't know what that was about, but it was nice. Get into Google. Nah, couldn't be a country music artist. Well, yes it could.


And the rest is history. I have only been to a few Keith Urban concerts, compared to how many of Clay's I have attended. He doesn't wear a hat and he doesn't wear boots. But his concerts are energetic and lots of fun. Definately country rock. Don't ask how many Clay concerts I have attended. I won't tell you. It's embarassing.

A video I thought Clay Fans might appreciate. Think "The Way".....and skateboards. Turn Clay off in the Jukebox in the sidebar to the right before you start the video.



A couple of pictures I took at a concert. The flying hair one cracks me up. Clickable.







So, that's my little story about how I found Keith. Now, the other day, while I was doing Promosquad I heard another song that caught my attention and I went googling again. This guy really is a little....well, obscure. He has no album out yet, but appears to be working on one, in fact when I inquired on his message board if anyone knew when the album was coming out, he responded personally and said "quite soon". Or something close to that. LOL. No, it's not Clay, but a young man by the name of Jared Lee. He's cute and bright and his voice is appealing to me. Click on the little icon below to hear a song called "Why do I have to Choose". It has become an earworm for me, I can't get it out of my head. I really think he has possibilities.

(Hee, I have to go back over to his site to get the link, guess I'll listen once more)





Links for Promosquad and Rate the Music in case you want to check them out. In Promosquad there are three main areas of interst, the Jukebox, Polls and Fame Gauge. Clay doesn't have any songs in the jukebox right now, but his name does come up in the Fame Gauge and you can rate him there.

Promosquad

Rate the Music

Technorati tags:
Keith Urban
Jared Lee

Well, we are down to the final four and last night we got ......ELVIS NIGHT.....
I was pleasantly surprised and thought Taylor and Elliott did an admirable job. I had been dreading hearing Chris sing "Suspicious Minds" as that song kind of became a Clay Aiken song during the Jukebox Tour last Summer. Chris did ok, but I thought both of his songs were boring and just lacked any spark whatsoever. And, poor Katherine, who I have been rooting for was just "OFF"

For your listening enjoyment, here is Clay singing "Suspicious Minds" at the GMA Summer Concert last summer. Enjoy!!! Turn Clay off in the Jukebox in the sidebar to the right before you start the video.




While I think it would be a fantastic upset and an interesting finale, I don't think they will let Taylor and Elliott be in the finals. At this point, in my opinion, they should be. American Idol would have absolutely no idea what to do with either one of them. Chris and Katherine would be easier to market. So, at this point I think it will be Chris and Taylor with Chris winning and Taylor coming in second. Hey, second didn't hurt someone else we know. LOL.

A little eye candy to close my post.




Click to View Full Size
Taken in Raleigh, NC at the JNT05
(I admit to adding a little "stained glass" to the window)

This is my first blog under Marhaven Musings. The previous blogs were all brought over from my blog at Clay Aiken's fan site. I will continue posting them in both sites as they seem to translate fine.

Today's Topic - Cats.

I have adopted two cats. They come from completely different sources and were not really a planned addition to my household as I have a major move coming up.

A month or so ago we went into Petco and there in a cage was this awesome Siamese Cat. The real thing, beautiful blue eyes, long lanky body, long skinny tail that seems to have a life of it's own. Well, here she is:




Click on Picture to see full Size


She is two years old and was brought to animal control. A dog rescue group immediately rescued her and brought her to Petco along with some of their dogs. Here she is up on the top of the cabinets and the question mark she makes with her tail is because she is wondering why I am screaming "Don't knock off the Fiestaware".




What the heck is Fiestaware??

Her original name was "Muddy". Muddy? What the heck kind of name is that? She is much too elegant to be muddy. So we tossed names around and when my son said "Jasmine" I knew that was it. Jazzy, for short.

So, a month goes by and my neighbors are having a garage sale and I wander over to say hi and check for any books. Three darling kittens are sitting in this large dog carrier. The husband had brought them home from work as the mother cat had been killed by a car and the kittens were orphaned. They were about 4 weeks old. I begged off adopting one because I already HAD a cat I didn't mean to have .... and finally, when advised they were going to the pound if they didn't find homes this weekend, I relented and said to let me know if they had to do that.

Yep, on Sunday they show up at my door with one little kitten. They found homes for all three and one guy didn't come back to pick his up. Well, to make matters worse, it was the cutest of the bunch.




How could you even think of sending me to the pound??


I haven't really named her yet, but I think "Baby" is going to stick. She is so tiny, usually kittens are 6-8 weeks old before they are adopted. The first day or two was rough because I didn't know how Jazzy was going to take to this new creature getting in her way. But it worked out and now they are the best of friends and when you hear the thud of little feet running through the house it could be Baby chasing Jazzy or Jazzy chasing Baby. Baby does not back down!!






The Baby gets into everything and likes to sleep on my feet while I am sitting at the computer. All the cords, etc are a fascination for her, so I have had to try to tidy them up a bit so she can't chew on them.




Hmm, I wonder what she keeps in here.


Another shot of Jazzy that I ran through the watercolor filter on Photoshop Elements.





It's going to be fun having cats in the house again. It's been several years and I miss the company.

April 18, 2006

Genealogy has always been a part of my life. A long while back, when I was in my 20's and first working on my family history a friend asked “Why are you interested in all that? Those people are all dead”. And, of course, she was right. My interest and focus has always been in the older generations. It’s all about the past for me. And the history - I find it fascinating to study the history swirling around my ancestors....I have a need to know what was going on in the world during their lives and how it affected them and subsequently, me. It is, after all, just one long chain from one generation to another.

My project had been put away in boxes for many years. The last time I worked on it you had to make inquiries through the mail. All my correspondence copies are carbon copies. Really dating myself here. Now, we have the internet. OMG, the information out there.

So, now, during this Clay drought I have drug it all out again and find myself again obsessed with ancestors who forged the first road through Ohio, ancestors who started a couple of glass companies you would have heard of, ancestors who emigrated from Austria because of religious persecution, ancestors who didn’t do much of anything but run a mercantile - but lived from 1833 to 1929 and saw so many changes in the world.

I was working on the glass companies guy (My great grandfather) and while searching on a name in a database I was interested in I started lamenting that my name was so common you had to weed out a lot of “wrong people” hits. So, on a lark I typed in one of my more unusual ancestor names - Christopher Retallick Short. Short, of course, is not uncommon but the Retallick sure is. Christopher's mothers maiden name was Retallick.

And, wow, I got some interesting hits. So I did a complete reversal, put glass company guy on the back burner and headed to Cornwall. As was my father I love being an “armchair traveler”. He would have loved the internet. Cornwall fills my mind with thoughts of quaint little cottages, smugglers and pirates (after all, that’s where Penzance is!!). It’s a place I have always wanted to go, ever since I first heard of Christopher Retallick Short many years ago.

This old Raphael Tuck postcard reminds me of how I envision Cornwall.






Now, the name Retallick was probably originally Tallick and the Re a pronoun like “those” as in “those Tallick’s”. Another theory has it as a place name and there are a couple of “Tallick” homesteads in Cornwall, one of which is now called “Retallack” and is an American type amusement park. If it were a place name, the correct spelling would have been Tretallick, or “the house of Tallick”. However it came about, the name originated in Cornwall and any Retallick, Retalic, etc. throughout the world can probably trace their ancestry back to Cornwall.

I also discovered this week that I was pronouncing it all wrong. It is not Ret-a-llik, but R'tallik (rhymes with metallic).

There is a project underway to transcribe all Cornish records into a database for access on the internet and in that database I found 1841 census records for Christopher Retallick Short and his wife Mary Anne Williams at her father’s residence in Lanivett, Cornwall, England. They had a one year old son, William. The Short’s were about to leave for America and my great grandmother Mary A Short was to be born on the boat on the way from England. Unfortunately, her mother died during the voyage, whether from complications from the delivery or a disease, I do not know. Christopher, his son William and brand new daughter Mary arrived in Perry Co, Ohio in 1842.

In 1909. that baby's daughter, my great aunt Molly, visited Cornwall. This postcard was sent to her father John D. Allen (the husband of Mary A Short) on July 13, 1909. She says “ Lunch here at White Hart Inn. We visited this church and are spending the day in the village. Molly”. Christopher Retallick Short was baptised in this church on 4/30/1815 and his parents were married here, as well.






I have spent days wading through Cornish records. There is lots of information to dig into. One of my research problems is the same names keep being used over and over and over. Then I discovered why - During the period from about 1750 to 1875 many families in Cornwall used the following naming pattern:

The first son was named after the father’s father.
The second son after the mother’s father,
the third son after the father,
the fourth son after the father’s eldest brother.

And the same convention with the girls. So, there are lots of Christopher and William and John - over and over again. Gets very confusing.

The Retallicks of Cornwall were farmers or, if they left the farm usually showed up in the tin mills or the mines. Christopher Retallick Short’s occupation in the census of 1841 is shown as “Iron Miner”.

The mining is finished in Cornwall, as is the fishing. Cornwall is quiet and picturesque and relies heavily on tourism for survival.

I have a lot of work yet to do on this family, but I do know that if I ever get a chance I would love to visit Cornwall and see the places where my ancestors lived and walked and worked. I expect if I could sleep in one of those old cottages for a night I might have dreams of King Arthur. And, maybe I could stand in the moonlight watching the standing stones and feel a connection with my Cornish ancestors.

Who knows, maybe Clay will tour in England one day and I won’t be able to resist killing two birds with one stone.

Oh, and I have some old pictures that I know must be Short’s (some of them tintypes) but I don’t know who they are. Daddy could never tell me any more than they were “Shorts”. But, here is one of the baby girl born on the boat on the way from England. She looks a bit stern, but maybe 9 kids will do that to you!! LOL.






Mary A. Short Allen
1842-1900

April 15, 2006

Thought I would share a few more bird pictures with you on this quiet Holiday weekend.

I get a lot of mourning doves and finches, and usually don't bother taking their pictures, but the other day I gave it a whirl and here are a couple.





Clickable - Guess we could call this one Doves and Lavender






Coming in for a landing....






Guess you could call this a "finch kiss".....

I love the cactus wrens that come, they have such pretty coloring and speckles and stuff....here's one with a fat little tummy.





The curved bill thrashers are a little intimidating with their huge beaks and red eyes, but in this pic it looks like the sun feeder is looking on with kindness, don't you think?






A couple of new birds recently. The white crowned sparrow only comes through here on a migratory pattern, but they visited me for a couple of days. This is through the window, so not so good...






And, lastly I was very excited to see this guy in my yard as it is only the second cardinal I have ever seen. They are spectacular looking birds. Catch your attention right away!!






Everyone have a nice weekend and those that celebrate Easter, I hope you have a wonderful one.

April 11,2006

Silhouettes have been around since cave man days. They became especially popular as an art form in the early 1700's, slowly fading away as photography became the mode for capturing an image.

The English called them "shades." Their popularity was established by 1720, and spread to France, where they picked up the name silhouette (see below) and then to the United States later in the century.

The word silhouette comes from a reportedly unlikable gentleman by the name of Etienne de Silhouette. Silhouette, a Frenchman who was a finance minister to the Duke of Orleans was certainly not the originator of this type of art, but the French were very impressed by his work and they came to refer to all works of this type by his name.

The first silhouettes were painted from an individual's shadow, later other methods were developed, some quite complicated. But, the truly gifted silhouette artists were seemingly ancestors of Edward Scissorhands (kidding) and quite literally cut the image out freehand. Silhouette portraits are usually black cutouts, which are then pasted onto a light colored background. Occasionally they are reversed with the cutout in white on a black background.

Today I scanned some old family pictures and while looking for something in a box found a couple of silhouettes. These are of my great-grandparents, Lucien B. Martin and Mary Emma Martin. The date is 1885 and I like to consider how and where they might have had these made. They were about 35 years old at the time (1885). The cards have yellowed with age, they might have originally been white.






Click to see them larger.

ETA - OK, here is my feeble attempt at a Clay silhouette.





Again, clickable

April 6, 2006

I posted the following story on my home board, but I thought I would repeat it here. I have a website where I am compiling information about my family, my digital scrapbook pages, my Clay Aiken concert experiences, pictures and just anything and everything about me. So, after I posted my previous blog I moved it over to my website and added more of the Crescent City postcards. I did some research on Frank Patterson, who was the photographer who made most of the “real photo postcards” I had of Crescent City, and discovered he was in San Quentin from 1940 to 1946. Not a nice man, by the way. His business was sold in 1944 to another photographer named Laws. So, most of my postcards had “Pat” on them and were undoubtedly photographed before 1940, but one said “Laws” and would have been after 1944.

I was cleaning up this postcard.....here it is below.....when I had a weird feeling. Obviously I had been here before, we lived in town until I was in the 5th grade and I wandered all over the place and certainly I arrived home from college a few times to the Greyhound Station.....but it was something else.





So, I kept staring at the darn thing and eventually I zoomed in and you should have heard me hoot!!!






The summer between my 5th and 6th grades (remember we had moved out to the country) I got a phone call from a schoolmate who asked if I could come into town with my dad on Saturday and he would take me to a movie. I know, a little young, but it WAS my first date and this young man was very cute. So, I went and I’m sorry to say I don’t know what the movie was, but I do remember walking around after the movie and talking and talking. I remember being at the waterfront, which is across from the Greyhound Station and that somewhere around there he bought me an ice cream cone and he walked me back to my dad’s store while we ate our ice cream. It was strawberry.

Now, check out the cropped piece of the postcard again. The young man’s name was Jimmie Day.... check the name of the Deli - LOL - .this old postcard captured a place in time when I was so innocent and the world was a safe place for a 10 year old girl and boy to wander around a small town without anyone worrying about their safety. While I had remembered the day fondly, I had forgotten the movie (I will never get that back) and I had forgotten where we got the ice cream but now I have that piece back. Unfortunately, Jimmie and his mom left town at the end of summer and I never heard from him again.

The Greyhound Station, the Day Deli (if it still existed) and, in fact all of the first few streets of Crescent City were damaged or destroyed in the Tsunami that hit March 28, 1964.. Eleven people were killed and I believe it was the only Tsunami to hit the continental United States to cause loss of life. I was in San Francisco at college when it occurred.

I have had these postcards for years but had never looked that closely at them. It’s amazing what treasures you can find in a scrap of old paper. And now it is digitalized and recorded and I highly recommend everyone who can do this with your old family photos and papers, do so. Blow things up and check the detail!!!

Edited to add...had another brainstorm and went looking for some old pictures. Yep, found some from the 5th grade and here is Jimmie Day.





Oh, and Crescent City is in California on the Coast about 25 miles south of the Oregon border.

April 3, 2006



All pictures are clickable....



While sorting out a collection of old family postcards this weekend I discovered something about my family I was not aware of. Not a big thing, just a little tidbit. I knew, from being told and seeing pictures that prior to my being born my parents and my three older siblings had made a trip from their home in Lancaster, Ohio to California. They drove all the way up the California coast and discovered a town called Crescent City. Later, in 1949, a second trip was made, but this time it was to relocate. I blogged earlier about that trip.

What I didn’t realize was that the “first trip” was really two trips. I have postcards from 1936 and 1937 and I made the assumption it was the same trip, the Martin family famous “first trip” until it occurred to me my sister was born 12/26/1936. August 12, 1936 finds Mom & Dad in Curtis, Wi and August 25 in Ogden, Utah. As my sister was born in Lancaster, Ohio (home) they obviously came home and headed out again several months later. While this doesn’t seem like a great adventure today - they were pulling one of the first house trailers and the trip in 1937 included the new baby, a nursemaid AND a two year old and a five year old.

Travel trailers first appeared in North America in the 20's and their owners were called Tin Can Tourists. By the 1930 - 1940 period they were called House Trailers. Then in the 1950-1960 period the industry divided into what we know today as RV’s and Mobile Homes. Just a little trivia for you.

Here’s the earliest postcard I found - these first two were written by my mother and sent to her mother.









And the second from Ogden, obviously Mom didn’t care for Wyoming.











Now, I must have some pictures taken during this adventure, the Martin’s have always been picture taking fools and I now have the challenge of trying to pick out some Wisconsin/Wyoming/Utah roadside scenery. I am not entirely sure they had the house trailer yet as all the pictures I have with the trailer are from the southwest and California. My feeling is they enjoyed the first excursion, came home, my sister was born, bought the trailer and headed out again as soon as they could. This time they took the southern route through New Mexico and Arizona....I remember Mom complaining she hated Arizona.....no air conditioning in the vehicles in those days!

On the back of this picture Dad has written “Here’s where we were stuck in the mud in Carlsbad, NM”. Great looking spot, Dad!!







Bisbee, Az and Tombstone in these two shots. Another mystery in the Continental Divide pic, my mom is in the foreground in that splendid flowery dress, my brother John is the dark haired boy age about 4 here and my brother Roger is the blondie, age about 2....I always assumed the other woman was the nursemaid, but who the heck is the small child. A thought running around in my head is that it’s the nursemaid’s child??? Will have to ask my brother John about it before I do my scrapbook pages of this trip.










.
This is John looking a little apprehensive...perhaps he’s discovered how lethal those cactus can be.






From Arizona, the next known stop was Yosemite, where the family car was photographed driving through the famous Wawona Tree. This is actually a postcard, but not used, so I did not scan the back. The tree has since fallen. I originally had this as being in the Redwood County, but further research proved me wrong!!!






This next postcard is actually a photo postcard, as is the previous one of the car driving through the tree. I suppose you can still do it today, but I never see it. I have tons of pictures my dad did that are printed on postcard stock. Here is one of my Dad (isn’t he handsome, LOL) and John and Roger. On the reverse you will see the family has arrived at my Aunt Jennie’s in California - this card was sent by my dad to his mother (Jennie’s sister).











And another great one where they are camped. Very Bonnie and Clyde like, don’t you think?











After visiting with Jennie & her family, Mom and Dad are headed north towards Crescent City. Here is another photo postcard of the “rig” with my Mom and brother John sitting on the front bumper. They have made it to the Redwoods. Again, this postcard was not "used" so I have not scanned the back.







They made it to Crescent City, I have a bunch of souvenir postcards that may have been from that trip, but there is no writing on the back so I can’t really date them - but here is the front of one so you can see approximately what Crescent City looked like in the 30's and 40's. This is also a photo postcard, collectors call them real photo postcards. The writing on the card is actually scratched on the negative and then the photo is printed on the aforementioned photostock paper that has the address & correspondence sections printed on the back and voila, a postcard. The photographer in this case proves to be one Frank Patterson, who was well known as a Northern California photographer. After some research I discovered that Mr. Patterson, who at one time had 228 dealers In Northern California and Southern Oregon selling his postcards, was in San Quentin from 1940 - 1946, so I would suspect the photo’s are pretty representative of Crescent City in the late 30's.







In those (olden) days you could drive all the way from San Francisco to Crescent City along the Coast, which is what I remember my folks telling me they did. Today you can only go as far as Fort Bragg on the Coast and then you must go back to Route 101 inland to complete the trip. Here is a last postcard that Mom sent her mother on the way home. If you look closely you will see the road along the cliff. I have been up Route 1 as far as Fort Bragg many times and I can guarantee you it would be a hair raising trip pulling a trailer.











So, as best as I have been able, with postcards and photographs I have tried to re-create a couple of trips my parents took in the late 30's.

March 28, 2006

OK, so my blogger is fixed, I guess I should blog!! What have I been doing while I am waiting for news of Clay’s CD....ok, back to Digital Scrapbooking. I played with a page for my Heritage Scrapbook. In an earlier blog I mentioned I was going to put a lot of old family pictures into digital scrapbook pages so they could be shared with family .....and, in this case, friends - that would be you!!

Those of you that do all the wonderful banners and blends and wallpapers, just skip this part, because you are way ahead of me. Here’s how I did this page. I was on a scrapbooking website where they have contests using colors and this weeks had four colors I liked although I only used two on this page. I created a new 12 X 12 blank page and remember my little eyedropper thingie? I copied the teal color and filled in my blank page. Then the next layer is that swirly thing on top of the teal....made it a little bigger and moved it around until I was satisfied. Then I added the stitching and the keys from a free scrapbooking kit I had downloaded. Mix and march is wonderful. Next I picked out three pictures of dad when he was young, scanned them, cropped them, spent a lot of time with the blemish tool blanking out white spots....probably should have spent more time on that one, I have very little patience. Plopped the pictures on top of the pile of layers, then I added the purply strips and using my eyedropper borrowed the second color from the contest page. Added all the lettering, put frames around the pictures and voila ! ! !






Clickable

This is really a lot of fun and very therapeutic....I didn’t stress about anything for quite awhile while I was putting this together. And, I have lots of pictures. I promise I won’t bore you with any more of these, just wanted to show you a neat way to preserve your ancestry.

Clay.......it’s at least 10 past “quite soon”.....

March 21, 2006

More on digital scrapbooking. I am such an amateur! ! But, it is so much fun when I figure out how to make something work. I am using Photoshop Elements 4, which I got at Christmas. Prior to this I had done 2 regular scrapbooks, one for my Clay concerts in 2004 and the second for 2005. As I have been to a lot of concerts the two scrapbooks are quite bulky. I only have my last JNT05 in Raleigh to do to finish 2005. The “old fashioned way” requires me to pick out the pictures I want to use, upload them to Snapfish or Image Station and wait for the pictures to arrive. Then I need to make a trip to the scrapbook store to purchase papers, stickers, embellishments and tools for crimping, stamping, etc. It can be a very expensive process. Michaels loves me.

Now, I can google digital scrapbooking and find tons of “freebies”. Papers, embellishments, tags, kits - which include coordinating papers and elements. Embellishments and/or elements are little pieces you add, such as ribbons, brads, stickers, picture frames, etc. You can also buy & download digital “kits” that are usually larger and more expansive than the freebie kits.





Here is a birthday page I made for my granddaughter’s 2nd birthday. Her initials are MEM, which is the same as my great grandmother. Maggie will inherit some cool things with the initials MEM on them!! Lol. This was a “kit” I purchased. I did add a font that wasn’t in the kit. Can you identify where the font is from? If you google on free fonts you will find places where you can download fonts. This particular font was from a site that has a lot of movie title fonts……for free!!!





You can make all kind of things into background paper. This batik background I found at a textile design site. Just had to resize and/or crop to the 12 X 12 size. You can make your papes any size, regular scrap booking usually is 12 X 12, so I keep that same size. Should you decide to print out your pages, it is easy enough to resize to 6 X 6 or 8 X 8 and fit on normal size photo paper. I did discover it is difficult to find square picture frames. My DIL did a digital scrapbook page (She uses Scrapbook Factory) and framed it for her grandmother who was coming to visit. She placed it on the nightstand beside the guestroom bed and her grandmother was absolutely thrilled. Framed Scrapbook pages make great gifts.

What I learned from making this Clay page was the little eyedropper tool in Photoshop Elements allows you to grab a color from anywhere, in this case the batik background and use it for fonts, or as in the case of the bottom picture of Clay, re-color the background.

So, I recommend this for anyone. The scrapbook pages can be shared with family and friends by a program like photo bucket. Or you can print them out and put them in regular albums.

Click on the pages to see them full size.