Thankful for... My Sis!

Created using "So Thankful" DSD Blog Train Products by: Craft-astrophic, Eva Kipler, Laura Banasiak, Sweet Digi Scraps by Leilani, Litabells Designs, Memory Scraps (Che Yang Designs, Berrysweet Designs, BusyBee Designs, Pixie Perfect Designs, Yoshiko Designs, Designs by Tracy Little), Michelle Batton, Pixel Queens (Laura Burger Designs), Suzy-Q Scraps (alpha), Traci Reed, and Trixie Scraps. Template by BusyBee Designs.

Journaling reads:

We were never friends growing up... we were barely sisters. But after more than twenty years, we agreed to start over and learn to be friends. As a natural progression from that, however, I looked up one day and saw my sister - so much more than a friend. And, for the first time in my life, I know what it is like to have that person - my blood - with whom I can talk about anything. What a wonderful feeling...

This (above) is a layout I created last month on "Digital Scrapbooking Day". Digiscrapaddicts.com sponsored a "blog train" and this was created with several of the free goodies I picked up along the route. One of the hardest things to do (yet I find myself doing it often, these days) is to create a layout before knowing what pictures are going to be used. lol Then again, it's not always easy the other way, either.

When I was first starting this digi-scrapping thing (waaaay back in August, lol), it was rather easy to match photos with a kit or vice-versa. Such as this layout here:

As I was browsing thousands of photos on my computer, I only had ten or so digital kits to work with. One was hot pink and blue - I ran across the photos from H's 5th birthday and.... Ah-HA! Perfect match!

Now, however, I have nearly 200 kits and it's hard to keep up with what I have, much less think of exactly the right one when I see a photo. So, these days, I end up finding a kit I want to play with and then start digging for photos that will match.

So, back to the first layout, above... I traveled through the blog train picking up all the coordinating freebies (or most of them, at least), then used them to put together the "thankful for you" layout. When I switched over to my photos to find what to use, it was a little easier having a "theme" to work with... What/who was I thankful for? Then I saw the pics of my sis & me from my visit, last year. From there, I just needed a little honest journaling and it was done!