Something to Think About

For all of you who aren't sure, it is possible to be gay and Christian. It's also possible to believe in God and science. It is possible to be pro-choice and anti-abortion.

It is equally possible to be a feminist and love and respect men. It's possible to have privilege and be discriminated against, to be poor and have a rich life, to not have a job and still have money. It is possible to believe in sensible gun control legislation and still believe in one's right to defend one's self, family, and property, it's possible to be anti-war and pro-military.

It is possible to love thy neighbor and despise his actions. It is possible to advocate Black Lives Matter and still be pro police. It is possible to not have an education and be brilliant. It is possible to be Muslim and also suffer at the hands of terrorists. It is possible to be a non-American fighting for the American dream.

It is possible to be different and the same.

We are all walking contradictions of what "normal" looks like. Let humanity and love win.

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I didn't write what appears above (but wish I did). A friend had posted this on her Facebook timeline and I posted a copy on mine as well. 

The author is encouraging copy/paste if you like.

This is what it's all about - accepting everyone for who they are, even if you disagree with some of the things that they may believe. Life's too short, people. Be the person who makes a

difference.

It's been a while!

I've been thinking of creating a new website to showcase my work as a freelance graphic designer. While looking for a host, I started thinking about my other websites and blogs (and I'm most likely going to consolidate some of that stuff soon). It's been a long time since I've written a blog post and I really want to get better at that. So here I am.

I'm going to do my best to post on a more regular basis. And I'll post on a variety of topics - crafting, travel, design, and doors.

Club Scrap's Spring Chorus Blog Hop

Welcome to my blog! I’m really excited to be part of this month’s Club Scrap Spring Chorus Blog Hop!

If you didn’t start over at Club Scrap Creates! you may want to head over there - you’ll see lots of creativity, along with a list of all those participating in today’s Hop. CLICK HERE to go to Club Scrap Creates!

For this month’s post, I’m again showcasing a digital layout and card, but this time, with a twist.

When I started working on the layout, I wanted to do something that was suitable for framing, so I can up with this:

It’s a fairly straight forward layout, with a large photo that’s blended into a digital background and includes an inspirational sentiment. You could print this out on a wide format printer, or use a service to print it out full size, put it in a nice frame and you have (almost) instant art.

Or print it out at 8 inches on your home printer on photo paper and layer it onto coordinating paper from your stash. Frame it and hang it in your home or give it as a gift.

And resized to card size, you can use it to make a digital (or paper) card quite easily.

So there you have it - 1 layout, 3 ways (or 4 if you do both digital and paper cards!); hope you enjoyed these ideas!

Thanks for visiting my blog today! Your next stop on the Spring Chorus Blog Hop is Roni Johnson at http://inkstainswithroni.blogspot.com. I hope you’ll stop by and see what Roni has in store for us today!

Club Scrap's Bookshelves Blog Hop!

Welcome to Random Doorways and Club Scrap's second Blog Hop! This time, we're showcasing the March Kit, Bookshelves. I’ve gotta say, I’ve been getting Club Scrap kits for a few years now and this is one of my all time favorites! I just love the colors and imagery so much!

I'm working with the Bookshelves Digital Kit  - first up, a layout…

While this may look like a fairly complex layout, it's really not. Each month's Club Scrap Digital™ kits comes with a few ‘clusters’ - these clusters are groups of elements that have been carefully created with drop shadows added resulting in a single element that looks like it took you a while to put together! This particular layout is made up of only 5 elements - background, photo, cluster and 2 text elements (the title and the date). I really love this type of layered paper cluster, since it easily adds a lot of complexity and richness to a layout, without having to do a lot of work - it really only tok a few minutes to create this layout - I love the instant gratification!

Next, I created a digital card! I love sharing digital cards because they’re easy to make and quite versatile - you can send them via email or Facebook, or even print them out and turn them into hybrid paper cards!

This one was pretty easy to assemble - after layering a few background pieces, I added the cat bookplate stamp graphic, removed the ‘Ex Libris’ and added the “Thank you” sentiment, and recolored the stamp graphics a nice rich brown. A fiber and globe element finishes this card off quite nicely.

Hope you enjoyed my creations with this awesome kit! Thanks for stopping by!

Your next stop on this blog hop is
Roni Johnson’s Ink Stains with Roni

If you’re just joining the hop now, here’s a complete list of all of this month’s participants:
Karen Wyngaard
Pat Huntoon
Julie Heyer
Ron Perry (you are here!)
Roni Johnson
Deb Charlesworth
Deb Weller
Jill Pechauer
Tricia Morris
Hetty Sanders
Kay Williamson
Cathy Gray
Anne Marie Healey
Anne Hunter
Shona Gibson
Jen Rodgers

And don’t forget to leave comments when you visit - we do love to read your messages!!

Club Scrap's Up, Up & Away Blog Hop!

Hi, I'm Ron, welcome to my blog, Random Doorways! Club Scrap Member Hetty Sanders had a great idea to host a blog hop to showcase February's Up, Up & Away kit. I tend to play both with the paper and digital kits, but since I figured that most of the hop participants would be doing things with paper, I opted to made a couple of digital pieces (and I actually help create the digital kits at Club Scrap each month, so I especially like working with them!).

First up is a 12x12 layout using a blended background technique:

If you want to learn more about blending photos into the background, please read my blog tutorial HERE at the Club Scrap Creates! blog.

I tend to keep my layouts pretty basic, so in addition to the photo, there's just a fiber (with custom shadow) and a title that's blended into the background using a layer style. Simple but effective, I think.

Next, I made a digital card:

As a paper crafter, I love to make cards, but I think that many people just don't 'get' the use of digital cards, even though they're a lot of fun to make. I've got another tutorial at Club Scrap Creates! on making and using digital cards. You can read it HERE if you'd like.

This one was really easy to assemble - just a few layers of digital 'paper' (or backgrounds), that über-cool steampunk hot air balloon (designed by the very talented Jac Carney and included in the Up, Up & Away digital kit!) and a sentiment or 2 - didn't take more than 20 minutes to create.

So that's just a little bit of what you can create with one of Club Scrap's digital kits. Really, the possibilities are endless!

Thanks for visiting my blog today! Your next stop on the Up, Up & Away Blog Hop is Roni, over at http://inkstainswithroni.blogspot.com/, I hope you'll stop by and say hi!

(And please leave a comment if you enjoyed the post, bloggers love to get comments!)

Snow!

Wow! I can't believe it's been 9 months since my last post! It's been one of those years and I may just have to write a post about what's been happening, but for now, I just wanted to post my latest digital layout commemorating this weekend's blizzard. It's actually still snowing a little, but the worst is over at this point. Now it's a waiting game - when will the plows show up to clear the streets in the neighborhood? I really don't want to go out and shovel until the streets are clear (who am I kidding? I really don't want to go out and shovel! Maybe some industrious kids will knock at the door - I'll happily pay them to shovel the walk and driveway.

So here's the layout, using Club Scrap's February Up, Up, & Away digital kit. The photo shows the view out my front door.

Until next time, stay warm and be creative!

I {heart} Club Scrap!

If you've followed my blog or visited either of my sites, you know I'm a huge fan of Club Scrap®! Club Scrap was the first (and IMHO the best!) monthly scrapbooking club around! The fine folks at Club Scrap produce awesome paper and digital scrapbooking, cardmaking, rubber stamping, and project-making kits each month. You can learn more about them and the different kit options by clicking here.

And I'm thrilled to announce that Club Scrap now has an official blog! Please take a moment and visit Club Scrap Creates! - and enjoy the inspiration!