I Wonder...

If we had the means and the money...
Would we have gone to the best doctors and institutions to help control your diabetes, preserve your kidney functions, and monitor your vascular conditions? Could they have prevented the dialysis sessions, the amputations of both your legs, and the disarticulations of all the fingers in between?

Or...
Would we have just enjoyed life as we used to and more?

Well...
We didn't have that luxury. We didn't have the money or the means.

So now...
You're undergoing dialysis, you have lost both your legs and four fingers in between, and you are still on the verge of losing more.

Yet...
If these hadn't all happened now:

Would you have known and felt how much your classmates really care and love you?

Would you have known that you have the courage to still go on and face life head on?

Would we have treasured all the moments that we are sharing now?

Would we have known how much we really and truly love each other?

Would we have known that we have this great love, hope, and faith in our hearts?

Would we have recognized the glory and miracle of daily living and praise God for each?

And yes...
If it wasn't you and me going through these:

Who would have enlightened a lot of our friends to be health conscious?

Who would have better shown that life has to be respected and treasured and not taken for granted for all its glory?

Who would have given the strength to your co-patients to be strong, to eat more, to continue living, and that they should carry on because there are so many reasons to?

Who would have showered every place that you go with your love of life that makes others forget their worries and problems in life?

Who would have inspired others to be strong, have faith in God, and believe that life has to go on?

Who would have known we could go on with a sweet smile on our face because we could still see all the beauty in life despite and in spite of this trial?

Would we have recognized the glory and miracle of daily living and praise God for each?

And for now, I wonder...
Having realized that life is too short to just let it pass by:

Have I done enough to let you know how much I love you?

Have we made you feel that you have made a great impact in our lives as a husband, a father, a friend, an inspiration, an icon?

Have we made you feel that for now, we wouldn't want you to go just yet and that you have to continue living just until our Almighty God calls you home and...

Not a moment before.

- Yolly Laredo

Muse: To be absorbed in one's thoughts; engage in meditation. Not intended to solve the world's problems, another person's problems, or to cover topics completely. One does not have to agree with musings to enjoy them, just as one does not have to be the same as someone else to appreciate who they are.

Would you like to earn a $20 Gift Certificate? Send your own muse to [email protected]. If it is selected for publication in the Scrap Girls newsletter, you'll get to have fun shopping!

SCRAP GIRLS CLUB

Join the Scrap Girls Monthly Club and you can have fun with the newest traditional digital and printable scrapbooking looks while saving! (A $27.94 value for $9.99 or less!)

The Scrap Girls Club contents are released on the 1st day of the month (or the closest business day to the 1st).

With the Scrap Girls Club, you will receive:

1 Collection Biggie
1 Paper Super Mini
1 8.5x11 Sheet of Word Art
1 Embellishment Set
1 Assemble Your Own Zoom Page Set
1 Designer's Choice Item

Layout by Elisha Barnett using June's Scrap Girls Club
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Created for you by Syndee Nuckles

If you prefer not to join a club, the Scrap Girls Club contents are available at regular prices in the Boutique. You can easily find them right now by checking the What's New? section of the Boutique.

Note: The Scrap Girls Club contents are always available for sale elsewhere in the Boutique at their regular prices once the associated club month is released. But all club contents are totally brand new, never seen before product releases for each month!

SCRAPSIMPLE CLUB

Join the ScrapSimple Monthly Club and you can enjoy the newest ScrapSimple looks while saving! (A $13.95 value for $6.99 or less!)

The new ScrapSimple Club contents are released on the 15th day of the month (or the closest business day to the 15th).

With the ScrapSimple Club, you will receive:

1 ScrapSimple Paper Template Set
1 ScrapSimple Embellishment Template
1 Brush Set
2 Designer's Choice Item

A commercially licensed version of the ScrapSimple Club is also available here.

Layout by Melissa Renfro using June's ScrapSimple Club
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Created for you by Melissa Renfro and Valerie Randall

If you prefer not to join a club, the ScrapSimple Club contents are available at regular prices in the Boutique. You can easily find them right now by checking the What's New? section of the Boutique.

Note: The ScrapSimple Club contents are always available for sale in the Boutique at regular prices once the associated club month is released. But all club contents are totally brand new, never-seen-before product releases for each month!

Ashleigh
Scrap Girls Member of the Month - June 2010
Member Name: caprimom

1. What program do you use to digital scrapbook?

I use Adobe Photoshop CS4.

2. Are you a Mac or a PC?

I use a PC but I like to think I'm cool like a Mac!

3. Tell us the make and model of digital camera that you use.

It's a P&S (point and shoot). Canon PowerShot SD1200 IS.

4. Name one thing that every beginning digital scrapbooker should know.

Just start scrapping. Don't worry about how your layouts look compared to other layouts. Do what makes you happy and you'll learn so much along the way.

5. If you could be transformed into a digital scrapbooking embellishment, what would you choose and why?

I'd like to be a polka-dotted patterned paper because it always adds a sense of fun and playfulness to a layout. I like to think I'm fun and playful!

6. What time of day do you find that you do your best scrapbooking?

I prefer late night scrapping. The only drawback is when I get so absorbed that next thing I know it's 4 AM and I haven't gotten much sleep!

7. What is your favorite snack?

Right now, it's Akeem's cinnamon swirl cake. That cake never has a chance of surviving in this house!

8. What is your least favorite household chore?

Cleaning the toilet - that's why it's Akeem's chore!

9. Finish this sentence. "I couldn't live without..."

My family. They add so much energy and vitality to my life. I think I'd be a dull bump on a log without them.

10. What's your current favorite layout that you've done?

My favorite layout is this one that I created for the National Scrapbooking Day Scraplift Challenge.

Layout by caprimom
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Commercial license versions of Brush Set: Baby Chronicles Biggie, ScrapSimple Tools - Actions: Photo Basics 5001, ScrapSimple Tools - Actions: Photos That Pop 1801 Mini, ScrapSimple Tools - Styles: Blended 8201 Super Biggie and ScrapSimple Tools - Styles: Basic Shadows 6501 are also available.

Weekly Layout Winners

Layout by MichaelsMomJo
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Commercial license versions of ScrapSimple Embellishment Templates: Ribbons To Go III and ScrapSimple Embellishment Templates: Just Strings are also available.

Layout by mbc72
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Commercial license versions of ScrapSimple Embellishment Templates: Bow Borders are also available.

Want to see your layouts make an appearance in the Scrap Girls newsletters?

Simply post your digital or paper layouts that use Scrap Girls products in our online gallery, and if we choose your layout to be featured in the newsletter, you'll win a prize! To be considered, don't forget to list the Scrap Girls products that you used in your layout.

Congratulations to this week's selectees. Please email [email protected] to get your gift!

Want to see past winners of the Weekly Layout Contest? Visit the Weekly Layout Winners gallery on our message board here!

FREE STARTER KIT

Free eBook "starter kit" turns your dreams of digital scrapbooking into reality today!

This dynamite eBook is 65 pages - packed full of the information, ideas, and help people need when they are about to dive into this great hobby. It answers all of the important questions new digital scrapbookers have. They are all here for you - in one easy to use eBook!

Bonus! Download the free "Warning" Label, too. It was created for you by Valerie Randall as a little bit of extra fun!

Would you like a chance to try digital scrapbooking yourself?

Scrap Girls' Refresh Collection Biggie offers you free samples of some of our most popular product types. Try making a layout, your own paper with a ScrapSimple Paper Template, a fast layout with a ScrapSimple Digital Layout Template, or experiment with a brush.

We know you'll love digital scrapbooking as much as we do, and we have thousands of products to feed your new addiction!

Ready to Take Off? In-depth Tutorials Help You Become a Great Digital Scrapbooker

Scrapbook Software Secrets Revealed!

NEWLY UPDATED! Scrapbook Software Secrets Revealed for Photoshop
NEWLY UPDATED! Scrapbook Software Secrets Revealed for Photoshop Elements
Scrapbook Software Secrets Revealed for Paint Shop Pro X (XI)

Find out what tens of thousands of people have already learned: Scrapbook Software Secrets Revealed is the fastest way to learn how to create digital scrapbooking layouts. And because this series covers so many topics with one purchase, it is a bargain!

In the tutorials, you'll see Ro working on her computer and hear her talking about why she is doing what she is doing. It's like having Ro come to your home and give you private scrapbooking lessons. You can create digital scrapbooking layouts today!

Download and CD versions available.

Photoshop and Photoshop Elements users receive:

30-31 movie tutorials
Companion eBook(s)
Collections
Other supplies

Paint Shop Pro users receive 31 movie tutorials.

MORE Scrapbook Software Secrets Revealed!

MORE Scrapbook Software Secrets Revealed! for Adobe Photoshop
MORE Scrapbook Software Secrets Revealed! for Adobe Photoshop Elements

Now that you've learned the basics of digital scrapbooking with Scrapbook Software Secrets Revealed for Photoshop and Photoshop Elements, you are ready to learn advanced skills for having even more fun while you create digital scrapbooking layouts!

Get a big boost learning how to use ScrapSimple products to make your own backgrounds, embellishments, and alphas with the MORE Scrapbook Software Secrets Revealed for Photoshop Elements movie tutorial series. You'll learn so much that your digital scrapbooking layouts will never be the same!

eBooks

Scrap Girls offers a large catalog of eBooks covering topics that will expand your digital scrapbooking abilities to new heights. Here are just a few samples:

Scrap Girls 2009 Digital Scrap Link Class: Combining ScrapSimple Digital Layout Templates

Learn how you can combine ScrapSimple Digital Layout Templates to create your own unique layout template written by Angie Briggs. You will get step by step instructions, with screen shots to follow and several sample layouts giving you even more ideas. You'll also receive ScrapSimple Digital Layout Album Templates: 12x12 Album Series 7, so that you may easily follow along with the instructions.

Scrapbooking 911 - 20 Sketches to Revitalize Your Digital Scrapbooking eBook

Are your creative juices drained? Need help finding ideas? Want a great starting place? Scrapbooking 911 - 20 Sketches to Revitalize Your Digital Scrapbooking is the answer to all of these questions. With twenty original sketches to work from, you'll be creating exciting, dynamic, and creative layouts in no time.

Scrap Girls Tutorials & Way Cool Stuff eBook Set
2009 - 4th Quarter

Subscribers to the Scrap Girls Newsletter have one thing in common: they love to learn new techniques! Each issue shares ideas, tutorials, and new ways to use Scrap Girls quality digital scrapbooking products. Now you can have all those past tutorials and Way Cool Stuff articles of the 4th Quarter of 2009 in one convenient PDF format.

Start to Finish eBooklets

Step by Step Movie Tutorial: How to Create An Old Wall Mural

Nothing could be simpler than learning to scrapbook digitally with Scrap Girls Start to Finish eBooklets. Step by step written guidelines and detailed screenshots will help you learn new digital scrapbooking skills. Included with the eBooklet are the actual digital files you need to create a finished project!

See more titles

Layout by Brandy Murry
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Designer Freebie by Brandy Murry coordinates with her Brush Set: Chicken Wire Biggie

Commercial license versions of Brush Set: Chicken Wire Biggie, ScrapSimple Digital Layout Templates: Layout Masks and ScrapSimple Embellishment Templates: Threaded are also available.

* There is a "free download" button on the details page for each gift. You don't need to put them in your shopping cart unless you are shopping for other items. Also note that if you are slow reading your newsletter, you may find this freebie has already been retired, as the freebies are only available as gifts for about two newsletter cycles.

CROPS AND CHATS

Coffee Break Chat
Tuesday, June 22nd - 5:00AM MT

If reading the Scrap Girls Newsletter and having a cup of coffee, cocoa, or tea first thing in the morning is a part of your daily routine, join Sherry Lynn on Tuesday, June 22nd at 5am MT for this month's Coffee Break Chat. We'll chat over the latest issue of the Newsletter AND create a challenge based on it! Hope to see you there!

New Member Chat
Tuesday, June 22nd - 7:00PM MT

Join Pat (PBarnes) and Carol Ann (Zaz) for the New Member Chat at 7pm MT in the Live Chat room lobby. This is a great place to ask questions about getting around the Scrap Girls site or about digital scrapbooking in general - and a great place to make some new friends. All are welcome, new and long time members included. You do need to have Java installed on your computer to access the Live Chat.

East Coast High Noon Crop
Wednesday, June 23rd - 10:00AM MT

Join April (April Showers) on Wednesday at 10am MT for the East Coast High Noon Crop. All coasts and time zones are welcome! These crops are designed to allow you to work on your own photos and themes simply giving participants a one hour goal and a fun, new challenge each week. On June 23rd, we'll do a multiple photo challenge! Create a layout on any theme, any topic, and any colors - using FIVE or more photos! Create your layout and upload it to the special High Noon Crop Gallery. You'll be amazed what you can get done in just one hour, but there is no High Noon Sheriff timing you!

Ad Inspiration Chat
Thursday, June 24th - 7:00PM MT

Join Pat (PBarnes) at 7pm MT for an Ad Inspiration Challenge and Chat. A few hours before the chat, a magazine ad will be posted on the message board to use as inspiration for a layout. You can use whatever you want to from the ad - the colors, the shapes, the composition. There are no wrong answers!

Speed Scrap Crop
Thursday, June 24th - 8:00PM MT

Ever wonder what you can get done when time is tight? Here is your chance to find out! Join Angela (angelaNussbaum) and Carla (CRS) for a Speed Scrap Crop! We'll give you six items, spread out over an hour, for you to include on your layout. It's a challenge that is also a lot of fun! We'll see you in the chat room on Thursday, June 24th at 8pm MT!

What's New Chat
Friday, June 25th - 9:00AM MT

Join Michelle (Shelbi) and Sherry Lynn at 9am MT on Friday mornings to chat about all the cool new things in the boutique. You never know who else is going to show up! What are you getting? What did you kaboodle? And most importantly show us the layouts or other projects you made with your new goodies! There's a thread every Thursday and now there's a chat, too!

Swap Crop Chat
Saturday, June 26th - 6:00PM MT

It's time for the Swap Crop Chat! We've done the swapping and created the layouts, now it's time to chat about all the gorgeous layouts! I don't know what it is, but these swaps bring out the best in everyone. This is the time to chat about the theme, the beautiful layouts and learn about the swap crop if you haven't participated before. We'll even reveal the theme for next month! Join us, Carla (CRS) and Angela (angelaNussbaum), for a fun chat at 6pm MT on Saturday, June 26th.

U.F.O. Chat
Sunday, June 27th - 3:00PM MT

Please join Sherry Lynn and special guest co-hostess TBA from our Layout Artist Team, in the chatroom. Let's complete or revamp some of those layouts that are sitting in your "Layouts to be Completed" folder. Post your layout in the UFO Gallery and meet us in the Lobby on Sunday, June 27th at 3pm MT to get some inspirational suggestions from our incredible professionals here at Scrap Girls!

Emphasis on Embellishments Chat
Monday, June 28th - 7:00PM MT

Join Angela (angelaNussbaum) and Janine (J9Buckles) on Monday at 7pm MT for the Emphasis on Embellishments Chat. This chat is geared towards challenging you to use more embellishments on your layout. Each month, you will be given a specific number challenge to inspire you to start using more elements on your layouts or to create your own cluster of embellishments!

Desktop Challenge Crop
Tuesday, June 29th - 5:00PM MT

Tired of the boring desktop wallpaper backgrounds that your PC or MAC came with? Join Becca and Angela (angelaNussbaum) on Tuesday, June 29th at 5pm MT for this month's Desktop Challenge Crop. We'll show you how to use your digital scrapbooking supplies to create a personalized desktop wallpaper of your own. For this month's theme, let's scrap our pets or any animals! And for the added challenge, try an out-of-bounds technique on your desktop layout!

JUNE EVENTS

June Message Board Game: Quotable Quotes

The object of the game is to correctly guess the layout (created by either a product designer or layout artist) that contains a quote or journaling. Each day, you will be given a word found in the clue. We will keep giving words to the clues until a correct guess is made.

Be the first to answer it correctly and win a $5.00 Gift Certificate to the Boutique! You are only allowed ONE guess per daily clue, and you are only allowed ONE win per month. When you make your guess, you must link it to the correct layout in the Boutique. We will play the game daily during the entire month of June. When a correct answer is given, the new puzzle will start the following day.

For complete details and examples of game play, visit the Monthly Message Board Games folder on the Scrap Girls message board.

Layout Contests:

June Monthly Layout Contest: June is National Candy Month and who doesn't like candy!? For this month's layout contest, use the wrapper of your favorite candy for inspiration. Does your favorite candy have a great color combination, cool fonts or a fun striped pattern? Use whatever inspires you about it to create your layout. You don't have to include the candy's wrapper in your layout but you might mention it in your description. Create your layout and post it in the June Layout Contest Gallery by Midnight MT on June 30th. Be sure to list your credits in the description or under the EXIF Properties. If your layout is one of the two chosen, you will win a $10 gift certificate to the Scrap Girls Boutique!

Club Concepts Layout Contest: Post your new layout using the current club selection (either the Scrap Girls Club or the ScrapSimple Club) in our Scrap Girls Club Members Gallery or the ScrapSimple Club Members' Gallery. Be sure to list all of the Scrap Girls products you used. If your layout is chosen, it will be showcased as a Club Concepts layout winner, and you will win a $5 Gift Certificate to the Scrap Girls Boutique!

Check our message board calendar if you have any questions about what is happening at Scrap Girls. All event times are given in Mountain Time Zone unless otherwise noted. Need help converting time zones? Check out the World Clock - Time Zone Converter. (Use 'USA-Utah-Salt Lake City' as the location for the Mountain time zone.)

Haven't received your prize as a contest winner? Please send an email to [email protected] and we'll get it out to you right away!