SDBT: Younger than Springtime

"Younger than Springtime are you
Softer than starlight are you
Warmer than winds of June
Are the gentle lips you gave me..."

I. Love. Spring.

I love the flowers - both popping up from the ground and budding out from the trees.
I love the warmer temperatures.
I love the fresh air.
I love the promise of new birth.

So whether you like to listen to birds singing to like to get your hands in the dirt of a flower pot or garden, I tried to have something for you this month for the Scrap Designers Blog Train.

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As usual, our designers have a great collection for you going along with this theme, and we've added some new people this month, so be sure to check in with everyone!

Joy’s Creations 

Miggins 

Rush Ranch 

Promethean Concepts 

Made by Angelhaze 

Skinni’z Statz, 

Scrapz and Stuff 

KJDdesigns 

Kolor'Scapez! 

Kreated 

Becky’s Creations 

DigiJen Scraps <-- You are here!

AnnieC Digitals 

Moore Blessings Digital Design

Thanks for dropping by! Be sure to keep scrolling and pick up my word art that I FINALLY finished to go along with the March blog train with the theme "Oh, What a Beautiful Morning!" (Be ready for some sass...I'm not a morning person. LOL!) And I'll see you back here next month.

SDBT: Oh, What a Beautiful Morning!

Confession Time:

I. Hate. Mornings.

I am a night owl by nature. When I let my body decide its own clock, I'll go to bed around 2:00 to 3:00 a.m. and sleep until 9:00 or 10:00.  To do otherwise is to sentence myself to hours of laying in bed, wide awake, thinking. Then I get frustrated that I'm not going to sleep, but I'm not getting anything done, either.

So, in spite of the fact that I absolutely love the musical "Oklahoma!'...it was the first musical our high school ever presented, and I got to play Ado Annie... and it was a launching point for my favorite actor when Hugh Jackman got to play Curly in a West End production......

Yeah. I still hate mornings.

So you'll find a bit of sass in this word art collection, which was designed to coordinate with the March 2019 Scrap Designers Blog Train (but which I had to skip because work was C R A Z Y that month).

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See you back here next weekend for the May blog train - "Younger than Springtime"!

SDBT - The Rainbow Connection

Welcome to the April Edition of the Scrap Designers Blog Train!!!!

I hate that I missed March, but my job tends to be a feast-or-famine kind of thing, and March was definitely a feasting month. So when the work comes, you have to take care of it. But for those of you who regularly stop here, I almost have a word art set ready based on the March theme of "Oh, What a Beautiful Morning!" It will be posted (she says with her fingers crossed) within the next week, so be sure to keep checking for it.

Now, as to this month's theme of "The Rainbow Connection".....

First, I love rainbows. I love all the colors. A friend of mine once had her house decorated with a rainbow theme in every room and I thought it was the happiest house I'd ever been in.

Second, I love The Muppets. Even as far back as high school (and that's been awhile), I had a button that proclaimed "Kermit for President" and I did my persuasive speech on that subject in my senior speech class. (It was the 1980 election season.) Animal was always my favorite, though - maybe because I've always had a soft spot for drummers.

So I absolutely couldn't miss this month's blog train and the chance to play with all the colors.

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User's note: The song quote ("Someday we'll find it, the Rainbow Connection...the lovers, the dreamers, and ME") is actually a 12x12 file designed to border the top and bottom of your layout page.

And the other stops on the blog train are:
Songbird Scraps Designs

Rush Ranch 

KJDdesigns 

Skinni’z Statz, Scrapz and Stuff 

DigiJen Scraps 

Becky’s Creations 

Miggins 

Made by Angelhaze

Promethean Concepts 

Lady DG Scrap 

AnnieC Digitals 

Moore Blessings Digital Design

Be sure to get connected with my Facebook page so you'll know when I finally have the March word art ready at DigiJen Scraps Word Art. 

See you back here soon!

SDBT: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

The anthem of young women for 30 years.

This is going to be a musical year for the Scrap Designers Blog Train. Each month, we're building our kits around a chosen song. This month is the Cyndi Lauper anthem, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. (If you're one of the three people in the world who haven't heard this song ever, click the link and listen right now! It'll give you a bounce for the rest of your day.) Of course, "fun" may be different for different people. Thankfully, our designers realize that, so there's a wide variety of fun ideas represented in this month's train.

You can visit our designers and pick up their goodies at their blogs:

KJDdesigns
Songbird Scrap Designs
Rush Ranch
Miggins
DigiJen Scraps  <-- You Are Here
Promethean Concepts
Joy’s Creations
Made by Angelhaze
Skinni’z Statz, Scrapz and Stuff
Scrapbookcrazy Creations by Robyn
Lady DG Scrap
AnnieC Digitals
Moore Blessings Digital Design

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Hopefully you'll find something here to give a kick to some of your "girls night out" layouts. Have fun (but not too much fun!) and we'll see you back here next month!

DigiJen: AnXiEtY

Anxiety.

Right now, it's taking over family life.

I know there are many different kinds of mental/emotional struggles that people deal with. As a member of a couple blog trains, I've designed kits about various kinds of mental illnesses.

But right now, our family is living with anxiety.

My 12-year-old grandson has struggled at school for awhile, mostly in math. He knows the material, but isn't able to process it and get it from his brain back onto the paper for his homework and tests. Then he started to get overwhelmed with time pressure (i.e. during tests) and would simply freeze up, unable to do even the work that he knew.

Then he started worrying about things that might (but probably won't) happen - having everyone leave while he's asleep in the middle of the night, or having his loved ones be in a wreck if he isn't with them, or people breaking into the house and kidnapping him at night.

A few weeks ago, my husband and I had to be out of town for several days for a funeral. With us gone, his anxiety spiked and went into full-blown panic attacks that were so bad he missed a couple days of school and his mama missed a couple days of work to stay home with him.

Since then, we've all been learning coping skills to help him fight back when his anxiety starts to take hold. His mama deals with anxiety as well, so she is the perfect person to walk him through this new journey. The same for his teacher at school - she also lives with anxiety, so she understands and knows how to help. He has a solid therapist ("solid" meaning she's really good, he just doesn't like going) and a psych nurse who prescribes his meds. And his grandpa and I are learning more about anxiety every day so we can help him, too.

One of the things I've learned is that people who deal with anxiety can't always find the words to express to others what it is they're experiencing. I've created this set of word art in the hopes that it can help someone find their voice and use their artistic talents to chronicle their journey. I've also intentionally NOT included a lot of graphics so the focus can be on the words.

BTW, I know it's hard to read here, but the text block above - the conversation between a person and his brain - is the way my grandson found to explain to his friends at school what anxiety is like.

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Besides my word art, the layout above includes:
Template: "Love Birds" by MDD Designs (available Feb. 8th)

Kit: "Boys Rule" by Magical Scraps Galore

If you deal with anxiety, my love and prayers are yours. If you have any coping strategies to share, I'd love to hear them. We are definitely in a brainstorming mode right now, trying to give our grandson an arsenal of weapons to fight back with when anxiety starts to take hold.

See you back here in a few days with the Scrap Designers Blog Train!

SDBT: All through the Year (Jan-June)

First of all...HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

Second...welcome to 2019!!!

I'm going to make this short and sweet because I'm already a little bit late getting my part posted --

The ladies of the Scrap Designers Blog Train are starting off the year with a H U G E calendar kit for you! Each designer chose a specific month, created their own palette, and put their own ideas together. Unfortunately, that leaves someone like me - who does what I call the "pop" pieces, or the little bits that add just a "pop" of interest to a layout - kind of wondering what to do.

Well, I finally figured it out, but it was pushing deadline, and of course I couldn't come up with a little idea. 😃 So you're going to end up getting half of it now, and the other half when I get it finished. (But since I leave my links active indefinitely, even if you miss the debut of Part 2, it'll still be here when you come back next month.)

Let me give you the links to all the incredible work done by my train partners:

Nellie Bell
Rush Ranch
AnnieC Digitals
Songbird Scrap Designs
Miggins
Promethean Concepts
Skinni’z Statz, Scrapz and Stuff
Joy’s Creations
Lady DG Scrap
DigiJen Scraps  <-- You Are Here
Made by Angelhaze
Moore Blessings Digital Design

Now for the goodies you can pick up here!

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There are two files for each month, January through June. It's pretty easy to figure out that January is about new beginnings, April includes Easter, May is for Mother's Day and June celebrates Father's Day. 

What might not be so obvious (so I feel the need to explain a bit) is that February's typical "love" theme focuses here on loving yourself, because if we don't love ourselves, it's pretty hard to love others. And while it's easy to see that March has something for St. Patrick's Day, the other March quote relates to International Women's Day (March 8th). Ever since the wave of Time's Up and #MeToo that hit the US last year, I've grown in my conviction that we as women need to support other women, that we need to bond together rather than tearing each other down.

So, I hope you're able to use not only my words, but the designs of our other contributors, whether it's in making calendars or simply to have a great stash of month-and-holiday-themed bits to create layouts all year long.

Have a great month! For those in the north, stay warm! For those in the south, stay cool! And I'll see you back here soon.

DBTL: Endometriosis Awareness

If you're like me, this is the busiest, craziest month of the year. Families are getting together. Offices are having staff parties. The kids have programs and concerts at school. There's shopping to do and presents to make.

I speak from experience when I say that endometriosis can make any of these things nearly impossible to do. It's the "private pain" that some women have to deal with every few weeks, and in order to get any relief at all, some have to take enough painkillers that THAT makes it hard to function.

That's why it was so important to me to participate in this month's Digi Blog Train List theme of Endometriosis Awareness. Actually, when I was finally able to find a gynecologist who would convince my insurance to let me have a hysterectomy, it was discovered that I had adenomyosis - or as I call it, endo's uglier, nastier big sister.

If you have painful periods, please educate yourself about endometriosis and adenomyosis. You may not need to live with the pain every month.

Several of our DBTL designers decided to sit out
this month because of hectic holiday schedules, but we still have a great collection of goodies for you. Stop by the following (and be sure to leave a little extra love when you pick up your freebies):

Nellie Bell Sunique Boutique
Dea’s Design
Dreamn4Ever Designs
DigiJen Scraps <-- You are here
Shuckclod’s Stuff
DBTL FB Page (click picture, SHOP NOW) 







And here's my part. A lot of these can be used for general encouragement layouts.

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Have a great holiday season. Hug the ones you love. Enjoy the season. And I'll see you back here next time.

SDBT: Winter Frost

We made it!!!!

We've survived 2018! Well, I think I'm going to survive - I still have WAY too much to get done between now and Christmas! LOL!

In any case...the nice thing about living in the northern hemisphere is that each year ends and begins with the cold quiet of winter - nature's way of making us slow down and assess what we've done and what we want to do.

This month's Scrap Designers Blog Train helps you slow down, too, with several beautiful offerings from some talented designers. You can find them at the following stops:

Promethean Concepts
KJD Designs
The Rush Ranch
Skinni’z Statz, Scrapz and Stuff

Songbird Scrap Designs  (NOTE: Tammy has been caught by the blizzard moving across the Southern US and has no power at the time this blog train went live. Please keep checking back with her blog - she will get things posted ASAP.)

AnnieC Digitals
Joy’s Creations
Made by Angelhaze
Lady DG Scrap
DigiJen Scraps <-- you are here
Moore Blessings Digital Design

And now.....

I've done something different this month. Because winter means so many different things to so many different people, I've actually taken a poem I found and divided it so each line is a separate file. This way, you can use the main header/title and then find the word bit that fits your layout best.

What I Love About Winter

by Douglas Florian

Frozen lakes

Hot pancakes

Lots of snow

Hot cocoa

Skates and skis

Evergreen trees

Funny Hats

Thermostats

Sunsets blaze

Holidays

Snowball fights

Fireplace nights

Chimneys steaming

Winters dreaming

(The "BRRR!!!!!" file is just my own commentary on the season.) 

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I hope you enjoy your winter - whether you're having it now or whether it shows up 6 months from now - and find some time to get some scrapping done.

Have a wonderful holiday season...eat too much food...and hug someone you love.

See you again soon!

DBTL: Leukodystrophy Awareness

One thing about participating in this blog train for the last 18 months - I've learned about a lot of new-to-me conditions that I never knew existed before. IOW, my awareness has been raised. So I guess the train has served its purpose. :)

This month is no except. For November we are focusing on Leukodystrophy Awareness.

As always, our designers have created some wonderful bits 'n' bobs for you - all you have to do is go gather them!

JIC Creations
Dreamn4Ever Designs
Nellie Bell Sunique Boutique
Dea’s Design
Moore Blessings Digital Design
Shuckclod’s Stuff
DigiJen Scraps <-- You Are Here
DBTL FB Page (click picture, SHOP NOW) 


As for my part this month, since I couldn't find much specifically on leukodystrophy, I decided to make a general word art pack about living with chronic illness and pain. And since a sense of humor seems to be one of the best weapons in any health battle, most of these have a slightly dark-humor-ish twist to them. 

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I hope you are able to use these in your layouts, no matter what your battle is against.

For those of you in the US, have a Happy Thanksgiving. For the rest of you, get geared up for the Black Friday specials that are coming at you this weekend in Digiland!

SDBT: Kindness Is Contagious

My grandson has recently discovered the fun and joy of "paying it forward" - going through the drive thru and paying for the order behind you as well as your own. Of course, he's really eager to do it when it's MY money that is being spent. The one time I said, "I'll do it, but you have to pay me back out of your money at home," and he responded, "But, that's for me to buy GAMES!!!!"

Next lesson: It's not meaningful if it doesn't cost you anything. LOL!

However, I love that he has picked up on the whole pay it forward spirit - something that is celebrated with this month's Scrap Designers Blog Train theme, "Kindness Is Contagious." As usual, I have a handful of word art designs to add some variety and pop to your layouts as you showcase those in your life who are particularly kind.

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And here is where you can find the offerings from our other designers this month. We've had some new people join our group, so there's a lot to pick up!

Angelhaze

Lady DG Scrap

AnnieC Digitals

Joy's Creations

Moore Blessings

KJD Designs

Songbird Scrap Designs

LEA Art Designs

Skinni'z Statz, Scrapz and Stuff

Promethean Concepts

Sugarbutt Artistic Designs

The Rush Ranch

DigiJen Scraps <-- You are here 

I hope you enjoy. For those of you in the US, have a wonderful Thanksgiving. And for everyone, be sure to schedule time for yourself as the holiday season approaches so you can rest, reflect and appreciate all that is going on.

'Til next time!

DBTL: Crohn's Disease Awareness

You know how once in awhile you get hit with the sudden urge to go use the restroom? Or maybe you have an instant stomach ache that is so bad it has you doubled over?

Now imagine that being a regular thing - like daily. Or even if it's not happening, there's always the very real chance that it COULD happen. No matter what's going on. No matter where you are.

This is reality for people living with Crohn's Disease. Please take a couple minutes before going on your downloading spree and learn a little about this condition. It is one of the "hidden disabilities" and you may be just the person who is able to help someone who is having an attack, if you only recognize it for what it is.

Go ahead. I'll wait.

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Now, on to the downloads!

The number of designers participating this month may be small, but we've come up with some great items for you:

Swing by these stops to download your goodies:
Nellie Bell's Unique Boutique
Moore Blessings Digital Design
Dea’s Designs

Shuckclod’s Stuff
JIC Creations
DigiJen Scraps  <-- you are here
DBTL FB Page(click picture, SHOP NOW) 

And now, here are some word art sayings and phrases that I hope you will find encouraging, whether you're dealing with Crohn's Disease or some other chronic illness.

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Have a wonderful Halloween - and I'll see you back here in a few weeks for the November Scrap Designers Blog Train!

SDBT: Movies & Popcorn

When the world gets to be too much, it can be like a mini vacation to just sit down, pop some popcorn, and put in a movie to watch for a couple hours. Or better yet, get out of the house, turn off the cell phone, and actually go into a dark theater where there are no distractions (except a bladder that threatens to explode because of the oversized drink you picked up on the way in).

Some movies become cultural touchstones, with lines that become part of pop culture:
"ET phone home."
"May the force be with you."
"AS...YOU...WISH!"

"My precioussssssss."

(You can probably tell what my favorite movie genre is.)

A good quote can also serve to add some punch to a layout. The quotes included in this month's collection represent some of my favorite movies (or movie franchises) and also are good life lessons to remember (and use for layouts). I'll also admit that some of them seem more important during the tumultuous times that we're having in the USA right now, so that influenced my choices somewhat.

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Be sure to follow the blog train and pick up all the goodies to finish off the layouts honoring your favorite movies:

Songbird Scraps Designs
Rush Ranch
KJDdesigns
Joy's Creations
DigiScrap Angelhaze
Skinni’s Scraps and Stuff
AnnieCDigitals
Nellie Bell
DigiJen Scraps  <-- You Are Here
Promethean Concepts
Moore Blessings Digital Design

AND...one more surprise...if you don't mind a couple of repeat files, I created a set of word art earlier this year based on my most favorite movie to come along in a L O N G time - "The Greatest Showman." I quit counting once I saw this one in the theater for the 10th time. The music is infectious and a GREAT mood lifter! The set is still available for download if you want it:

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Whoo! Have fun...enjoy celebrating your movie moments...and I'll see you back here soon!

SDBT: Farm & Fair

Welcome back to another blog train!

Lori always seems to find themes that really pique my interest, and this month is no different.

You wouldn't know it to look at me now...all suburbia living in a college town, enjoying pizza delivery and having a grocery store less than five minutes away...but I grew up as a farm girl. I played in the hay loft, gathered eggs from chickens (while dodging the mean rooster), bottle fed calves, swam in a pond in the back yard, ground corn for the cows. I'm the only person my age I know who had water trucked in and dumped into a well, remembers a hand pump at the kitchen sink, had bath water heated on the stove, took baths in a washtub sitting in the middle of the kitchen, and actually used an outhouse on a regular basis. (We finally installed a water heater and running water and built a bathroom in the corner of the basement when I was about 10.) Later, when I was in high school and we lived on a different farm, my dad switched from raising cows to raising turkeys, so I learned all the steps involved in THAT process.

I won't say I loved it, but it was a solid way to be raised and it was good to know how to work.

Now, here's the funny part.

Lori (who organizes this train) paired "farm" with "fair." She didn't realize she had a county fair queen in her group of designers, I'm betting. 🤣🤣🤣

Sadly, all the pictures of me AS queen (with the tiara and sash and all that) were mostly in the newspaper. The few prints I got were black and white (and overexposed) and are buried in a tote full of pictures in my closet. But this was the "contestant portrait" that all of us girls had taken beforehand. And just so you know...it's not all glamourous. Not when you have prize-winning pigs trying to sniff up your skirt or have to wear a fireman's coat when you're sitting on stage in the middle of the muddy demolition derby arena. (But the free elephant ears were definitely a perk!)

So yeah...farms and fairs. You're pretty much talking about my life up to the time I left home for college.

That's why I was so excited to create this word art for "Farm & Fair" month!

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 And if you haven't seen the rest of our designers' offerings, you really should! With a picture of a magnificent rooster as our inspiration this month, we had nearly every color and shade available for our palette. Go grab some goodies!

Sugarbutt Designs
Songbird Scraps Designs
Rush Ranch
KJDdesigns
Promethean Concepts
AnnieCDigitals
Skinni’s Scraps and Stuff
DigiScrap Angelhaze
Nellie Bell
LEA Art Designs
DigiJen Scraps  <-- You Are Here
Moore Blessings Digital Design

Hope you enjoy what we've put together for you this month. See you back soon for the next blog train. (And I have ideas like crazy...one of these days I'll have time to create some non-train bits for you.)

As always, to keep up with the latest releases of my word art, go like/follow my Facebook page:
DigiJen Scraps Word Art

Hugs,

DBTL: Rhesus Disease Awareness

It's time for the Digi Blog Train List to take off again!

This month the designers are focusing on Rhesus Disease - the whole reason expecting mommies have to that that Rh test and possibly a couple of rhogam injections.

If you're like me, you know that Rh factor is a thing, but may not completely understand why or how it works. Considering that it can be a life-threatening condition, please take a minute to read read the web page from Mount Sinai Hospital and learn a little about it.

Many of the designers are creating child- and baby-centered offerings this month to go along with the theme. You can get all the parts by visiting the blogs below:

Nellie Bell's Unique Boutique
Dea’s Design
Dreamn4Ever Designs
JIC Creations
Shuckclod’s Stuff
Ostrea Designs
DigiJen Scraps  <-- you are here
DBTL FB Page(click OFFERS)

Like the other designers, I focused on that special bond between mother and child - whether that child is little or grown, whether that mother is sweet & tender or pushed into her "mother bear" mode.

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Thanks for stopping by! As always, if you want to keep up with new releases, I'd appreciate you liking my DigiJen Scraps Word Art Facebook page. I don't do releases on a really regular schedule (other than the blog trains I do), so Facebook is the place to know what's happening!

SCBT: Let's Hear It for the Boys!

For whatever reason, God saw fit to give me only one child - a daughter.
And she became a mom while she was still in high school, having a son.

Because she was single and still so young, I ended up doing more than a lot of grandmas have - or GET - to do with their firstborn grandchild. We have had two different stretches of time where they have both lived with us, making us a three-generation household, while she has finished high school and gotten through college. Even when she has had a place of her own, my husband and I have been the "safety net" - a place for our little guy to stay so she can have a break or go out with friends and have a bit of a normal life like other 20-somethings.

Consequently,  my grandson - now nearly 12 - and I have a really special, really close bond. He absolutely has my heart and I would do nearly anything for him.

So it was wonderful for me when this month's theme was announced: "Let's Hear It for the Boys!" My problem isn't letting people hear about my incredible Little Dude...it's learning when to shut up talking about him. LOL!

Special Outing - Sept. 2017

I definitely had my own kiddo in mind when creating this month's word art - hopefully you have some boy in your life who can be described this way, too.

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And you can pick up a wide assortment of items to go with these quotes as you scrap about your favorite fella. Just stop by the blogs of these talented designers:

Promethean Concepts
Songbird Scraps Designs
Rush Ranch
Lady DGScraps
DigiScrap Angelhaze
AnnieCDigitals
DigiJen Scraps <-- You Are Here
LEA Art Designs
Moore Blessings Digital Design

(I'm posting mine a few hours early, so if others don't have their parts posted yet, please be patient and check back later. I have a long work day ahead of me tomorrow and won't have time to be online.)

Enjoy! And since I don't have any predictable schedule of when new word art gets released, the best way to know when something new drops is to connect with the DigiJen Scraps Word Art Facebook page.

Thanks for your love and encouragement.