Happy new year

Yes for us here it is now the New year, 2010. I will have to remember to write it correctly when I go to work this afternoon. Despite it being the holiday season there is no let up in terms of work. Greg and Mike both started at 7am this morning and I am heading in for an afternoon shift. Still on the plus side the money is always good for working public holidays.

The new year didn't start with much joy for me as I am suffering from a miserable cold. I was asleep well before midnight. But I have some hopes, maybe some sketchy resoutions for the new year. Perhaps principally I want it to be a better year than last year which was overshadowed by lots of problems with my back. I am working hard at my physio and plan to do more swimming to strengthen all those core muscles which they tell me will help. We now have two children (young adults i suppose) out working which has changed the dynamics of our household somewhat. Greg has been very busy at Bunnings while Caitlin isn't getting the hours she needs from Subway. She is hoping to do an Aged Care Course this year as there is plenty of work in that field. If she likes it then she will hopefully go on to do nursing. She is working hard on getting her hours up on her Learners Drivers licence. I am impressed with her driving and she is gaining more and more confidence. She drove us to the Airport on Christmas Day! Mike is planning on doing Uni again in the second semester. Before that we have to take 8 weeks holiday. Well, he does as he has accrued too much. We are trying to work out the logistics of a rural short term contract. I think it would be a really interesting experience. Ben's future is still up in the air because his mother was disorganised and hasn't completed his enrolment for boarding school. In fact we still haven't figured out if we can afford it! Certainly it would be good for all of us and he would really like to go. Will have to wait a few more days until they reopen to see if it is still doable.

Otherwise it is life as normal. I plan to do more photography this year, I would really like to improve my skills. My scrapbooking seems to have come to a screeching halt and I can't seem to create anything I like. I am finding it totally frustrating. I have decided to focus on cleaning up my hard drive and sorting my stuff out until I get some inspiration back. I am totally sick of staring at poor pages that I know are lame but are the best I can manage.

I have been reading a lot, all sorts of stuff. Having finished my library books I have been reading Caitlin's books which mostly seem to consist of Vampire stories. They really are most entertaining, I can see why they catch on.

Anyway work time beckons and I have to fill up the car on the way. I hope, believe that this is going to be a good year.

Just another Tuesday

Although I have to say that I like tuesdays because that is our Lucus day and we try and do something fun while we have him and today Finally the weather remembered it was spring and the sun shone and it was beautiful. We went shopping over at Parahan, and then took a picnic down to the banks of the murky Yarra river and ate on a jetty where a beautiful swan came and had some nibbles of our bread. It was really lovely to see the change in the weather and feel all that warm sun. I am so over winter.
I made a page about my mum last night. I just had this sense that I wanted to write some more of my memories down for the kids. I saw the challenge on the daily digi for More with four and the crochet flowers just shrieked Jean at me. My mother was such an avid crocheter (not sure if that is a word) but she loved to crochet. She was a complete perfectionist and all her wool was colour coordinated and she would often take a whole strand off the ball to make it the right weight. It drove me nuts! She had wool everywhere. She didn't finish too many of her rugs because she was like me constantly starting new projects without finishing the last. Anyway here is my page about my mum. Hope you like it


Everthing I used in this came from the Digi files - its a real bargain at only $5.00. So much cool stuff. I picked up some yummy templates while I was there too. Worth checking out.

Just a wee note

I downloaded a few actions and a story board from Coffeshop.com. there is just so much information on her site. Actions, tutorials, templates. Fascinating stuff. So here is my first storyboard. Photos from Tuesday at the beach. and that's it. nothing else to tell.

Time I checked in

Hi from Springlike Melbourne.
Finally I think Winter is beginning to end. I have been looking at my summer clothes a bit more closely and even managed a t shirt and cut off jeans today as it was so mild. It is supposed to rain again tomorrow, but here in Victoria that is something to celebrate because the drought has been so bad. Apparently our dams are now at 32% capacity.. that is after the last lot of rain! So I will be happy for rain because that means that maybe we could use our spa bath again instead of having to wipe the dust out. I just can't justify running it when the drought is so serious.
Anyway I am sure you don't want to read about my weather woes. I have just finished a bit of web surfing. I usually start at Ikea Goddess and see if there are any cool freebies, and that leads to blogs which leads to more blogs, which can lead to sales and specials and spending if i am not careful. But not tonight. I actually had a bit of a spend up at the weekend. The big sale at pixelcanvas for their 1st birthday was pretty good and I bought up large. Then in an inspired moment decided to reorganise my vinnie pearce stuff so now have master directories of papers and elements and wordart. I just find her products so versatile that I often mix and match.
I have to admit that when I go web browsing that there is just so much cool scrapbooking stuff out there that I have to really hold myself back. There is always new and amazing kits, and yet I have a hard drive full of amazing kits and I am trying to make a conscious effort to use what I have already got. And when I buy something new, i am trying to discipline myself to actually use it. Isn't it funny how you have tried and true stuff that you use over and over, and kits that are totally gorgeous that somehow you have never used... or is that only me?
Here's a bit of my most recent art works.


Had to make a layout of my two teenage sons making pigs of themselves with pavlova mixture. So cute. This kit is from Pure Creativity called l'il baker and plus i used her l'il baker torn papers and template set2.



And my beautiful daughter, Elizabeth. She is a bit camera shy so it is not always easy to get good photos. I think i will have to slip her a few drinks when she comes over for christmas so she will be nice and mellow... and then click!! This is all Pixel Canvas product. A mixture of Vinnie Pearce and Viva Artistry.


I decided to do a bit of digging through old photos and found these. Too cute. This is vinnie pearce's New bike kit (mostly).


You know I just love this kit. Sheroes by viva artistry (pixelcanvas). Amazing colour palette and the elements are amazing. And there is a free alpha. This is a recent photo of Caitlin. I really like it.


Have to finish off with the beautiful grandson. Lucus.. taken a couple of weeks ago as he tries to pilfer the car keys out of my drawer. He has this obsession with keys! And do you know that the fabulous Flergs, made me this Nuffing wordart. I emailed her and asked.. and she sent it back the next day. Amazing lady and so talented! I love this kit - Carver, and of course it came as this cool bundle with funky frames and glitter and all sorts of stuff.

So that is up to date photos of every one except mike me and... ahh the missing son. Michael the younger appears to have vanished again. He is the one in the NZ army. Last time i lost track of him he had been posted to the Solomon Islands and forgot to tell his mother! I do think that when boys go off to war zones they should at least let their parents know! Hopefully he will turn up in the next few days or I might have to ring his base or something... again. But no up to date photos of Michael because... he never sends me any. Bad child.

Anyway enough middle of the night ramblings. I should do some sleeping now.

Winter flu

I have been so sick with this Winter's flu. I actually ended up in bed for 4 days, and finally yesterday was up and about, although I had to have a little nap in the afternoon. I don't get sick much but boy that flu really got me! I am still sniffling my way thru the days, keeping kleenex in business i guess. People keep asking me to smell things... I don't know if the milk smells off. I can't smell anything. My son has developed this habit of reading the best before dates and won't eat stuff that is past its date. Now most of us would have a look or sniff it. I know that stuff that is unopened just doesn't seem to go off, but he is convinced that it is no good after that date. I find bottles of milk pushed to the back of the fridge, because they are old! Ack why do we teach them to read!
Anyway enough of my miseries. I was planning on writing some upbeat happy stuff about HeatherT's new stuff. She makes such original scrapbooking designs that it is always exciting to use her products. So today she released Fasteners1. at Pixelcanvas (that kind of suggests that there might be more fasteners coming doesn't it?


And I made this layout, using this plus a few other HeatherT goodies (and one of Vinnie's templates)

And over at Gotttapixel, Heather has released another in her series of Tuesday templates. These are alway excellent value and she puts so much in! Heather's layout with this template was featured at Gallery standouts this week.


Here is my layout with the template using some of HeatherT's other papers.



And finally on my list is this new pack of pearly things, pack number 2 I might add Ooh shiney2 and I am sorry to say that I haven't got my layout made with these yet. But I am looking forward to using them, coz they are dead gorgeous.

No exciting freebies from me this week.. but lots of shopping tips. See you.

Another working weekend

Tomorrow is Father's day here. Mike and I are both working! I guess we will celebrate in the evening. It sort of snuck up on me and I only just managed to get two of the 3 things I wanted to give him delivered before the end of the week. I am just so not good at organisation at the moment.... ok maybe never.
This is just a short little blog to say Hi and put in a little plug for some of the gorgeous kits I have been working with this week.
For Pure Creativity Designs I have made this layout with the new kit called Sea Reflections which is a collab with Anita Designs.


And for Sweet Blossom Designs I made this layout using the new September collab from Scrapthatidea called Falling into you. the photo mask is by HeatherT


I am still working really hard on my hybrid book, and am nearly finished the first one. It has been a real learning experience. I had not done any paper scrapping for so long, and it is hard to remember that once it is stuck down, it is stuck for good. It has taken me days to fix a bodgy sticker I put on the first day. I finally found something big enough to cover it!
Anyway, one more album and I can post them overseas. It does look amazing!
Now I am on a run of 7 early shifts so I am not hanging around chatting tonight....
see ya later.

Early, really early, or maybe just really late

I just had this idea to make a quick, hi how are you post, and realised it is 1am. But what the heck. Why waste time sleeping when there is blogging to do. I am trying to work out if I have been doing much of interest since I blogged last. No world trips, heck no local trips. Family stuff, work, you know the drill.
I have been doing a bit of scrapbooking, although I have also been working on some hybrid albums for gifts, so I have been dabbling with mouse and tablet as well as glue and ink. It is fun to do both. But I sure do miss the undo button! Still the wonderful fun of sticking stuff down, and winding ribbons and ripping paper. So satisfying too. So Creative Team wise... The new collab kit for Scrapthatidea isn't out until September, so i can't show you my layout for that yet... I am a bit disappointed because i was really pleased with it and would like to share.
HeatherT has such a fantastic new kit out called Delicacies is full of beautiful details. Available at PixelCanvas, it is particularly stunning for heritage type layouts.


I created this layout showing my grandfather back in World War 1.



And for variety a layout of Ben, now



I also made this layout, which I was thrilled with, using Vinnies Film masks and some other bits and pieces.


And then today I made this

I thought it would be fun to celebrate this very moment, with a photo I snapped this morning.
thats it for today folks, gotta do some sleeping. Have two teenage boys sleeping over so who knows what the morning will look like.

So long since i blogged

I just haven't felt like there was much to blog about recently so consequently have been very quiet. But I figure that I need to make a bit of an effort and maybe tell you a bit about my CT stuff and other excitement.
You know that it is so long since I blogged that I think it dates back to before we went to Mt Baw Baw for our snow weekend. The boys went snowboarding and the rest of us tobogganed! The photos aren't that good because the weather was pretty overcast and snowy. But it was a fun experience. Probably would have been much more fun if we had booked early so we could have stayed 3 nights in one place instead of having to shift accommodation every night! It was such hard work lugging all our stuff from one place to the other through the snow! And of course being disorganised we hadn't packed well and there was lots of bits and pieces. A nightmare i tell you! It was soooooooo expensive too. I know we could have had a week in Queenstown for the same price including ski hire etc. But you gotta try these things don't you? One of the most frustrating things was the chain hire. You have to hire chains to drive up the mountain. You don't have to put them on the car as there was no snow on the road. If you drive up without them, then they send you back down to get them. So you hire these blasted snow chains and put them in your car and then you take them back! Another good money spinner.
So.. moving on from the delights of the snow. We have been working hard since then and I have been doing lots of scrapbooking. I have now set myself a huge goal, I want to make at least 2 and preferably 4 hybrid albums by the end of the month... or at least mid September. These will be thank you gifts for the ppl we stayed with in the UK this time last year and one for each of my friends that i went with. I have been working hard and today made the first page. Will post a picture once I have it all glued down properly. I am spending a fortune buying all the supplies, had to get new paint brushes, new glue, need new ink... and it is all just so much fun to buy!

I have also been quite busy making new pages for HeatherT, I do love being on her CT because she is so creative and her kits are so different! Not only that but she has such serious talent on her team that I really feel like I need to produce the goods! (that is a positive thing!). Heather has just opened up a new store, so in addition to selling at the amazing Pixelcanvas she is also selling at gottapixel. So we have been busy getting lots of new layouts up for her kits at gotta pixel as well as the pixelcanvas ones. Certainly i was using lots of pixels! Most recently I have been playing with Schools out which incidentally is 50% off at pixelcanvas at the moment. Love the red white and blue colours, i am a bit of a primary colour nut! Here's what i came up with.

First of all here is a look at the kit:

and the matching alpha which is just way cute, is available on Heather's blog.
And here are my layouts:



Which reminds me that the last one, Train Ride hasn't been posted yet. I just forget stuff sometimes. I am getting old now you know.

I have just downloaded a beautiful new HeatherT kit called Delicacies which has the most gorgeous elements and lovely natural shades and oodles of texture. I am really looking forward to making something with it! It is in store already at pixelcanvas so don't forget to check it out.

Before I move on to my other CT projects I will take a short break to tell you how wonderful the Digital Artist Magazine is this August. Wow! For only $5 you get so many downloads that it more than pays for itself. And there is the most gorgeous kit from Lorie Davison aka Studie Lorie at scrapbookgraphics. If you have ever looked at her magnificent fantasy characters and wondered if you could create something magical, then grab DAM and download her free kit and see where all those frogs take you! I can't wait to have a play!

Now Sara of Sweet Blossom Designs has cut back a little and is now putting out her kits fortnightly. I personally think you have to be some sort of a dynamo to manage a new kit every fortnight, and how she was managing it weekly along with a job and a family!! Her new kit which has just hit the shop this week is in two parts, His days gone by and Her days gone by. It all mixes and matches and is just perfect for a heritage type layout. Lovely rich creams and pinks and blues, with aged postcards etc.







And this is the layout I made using a rather gorgeous picture of my mother which had been hand tinted. Style-wise it was a bit of a departure for me as I am usually quite linear, but I decided I wanted to try my hand at the feminine flowing look, and I am pretty happy with it.

And lastly just to had to my busy schedule I have another Ct position for Pure Creativity designs over at Digitalscrapcafe I have only done a couple of layouts for her so far but Chelcee has a lovely bright colourful style plus some gorgeous templates available in her store. Here is what I have made so far
The first one uses a kit called Going to the Beach



and the second layout is using a new colour series which Chelcee has just released. These papers are a great coordinated series in a variety of different colours. All very mix and match. To me they look like gorgeous quilting fabrics!


So.. a lovely long blog with lots of layouts. I am working on a new template for you at the moment and then i think I might have a stab at finishing off my outback kit. I got a bit hung up when I discovered that my extractions were woeful! I need to do so much more work on them. I sort of put it in a box and forgot about it for a while (figuratively speaking).
Everyone is pretty healthy and happy here, although poor Caitlin is not doing too well with her job hunting. It can be so demoralising. Still I have helped her revise her Resume tonight so hopefully that might help. I always think that it pays to make sure that they are using grown up language and have spell checked it. I am really hoping something will come up. She is a hard worker and only working one day a week she is just developing a life of leisure that really is not sustainable!
Will try to get back a bit sooner next time..

After my dissatisfied rant the other day Schellie left me this comment "It's good to try to learn new things,but at the same time be satisfied with the great things you do right now. You can never fail, it's your creativity!" And i thought how true. You can't fail because it is your own creativity. And endlessly comparing yourself with others only makes yourself unhappy. In fact I have noticed that sometimes the people you admire, when you get to talk to them have the same concerns and hang ups that you do yourself.. or I do myself i guess. So I really do have to work on being satisfied with my own work and my own creativity. They did warn us when we went to the photography course that many people are less satisfied with their photography afterwards. I think for two reasons. Firstly you are so much more conscious of what you are trying to achieve, and thus unhappy when you don't achieve it. And secondly because you are branching out and trying to utilise the camera's settings, it becomes more likely that you will have dud photos when you haven't picked the right settings. I have to admit that I am now much more conscious of my photography (see more self criticism) but when you look at scrapbook galleries the first thing I am drawn to is the amazing photographs. So many beautiful pictures, so many 'perfect moments'. That is not to say that I don't have my own share of 'perfect moments', but I am greedy... and I want more. But having said that, one of the things that amazes me the most is the people who create beautiful layouts with photos that are much less than perfect. perhaps once again it is about being happy with what you have!
Ok.. enough philosophising. This week at pixelcanvas we had a great challenge to create a page using papers that look like fabrics, use stitches and buttons, sewn-on bits and baubles, felt letters and shapes...to create your page.

Journaling: Record on your page something that is really important to you. Could be a world issue, a personality trait, or a belief...
This challenge really appealed to me, perhaps it is the 'sewer' in me that liked the idea of making a stitched up page. Here's mine. I was really happy with this.


I used HeatherT's new stitching set which I might add is on sale at pixelcanvas at the moment. They have a sale on at the moment with lots of stuff for 40% off. The ecofabulous kit is over 60% off! I have used that kit so much! And I love all the 'green' stuff in it. Heather's new stitches are very cool and look very real. Worth checking them out as I think the sale finishes tomorrow.
Then using some more HeatherT product I made this layout using her template


This template is available at Gottapixel.com for only $1.00! So cheap, and while you are there have a look at the Luxuriant kit i used to make this layout.

So it is the middle of Winter here in Australia, and way down south here in Victoria it has been pretty cold and miserable. But we have had some sunshine this week which was really cheering. Lucus stayed with us on Tuesday night, so on Wednesday i asked him what he wanted to do today and he said 'go beach'. So we did. The sun was just right for a trip to the beach and Ellie (our cocker spaniel) and Lucus chased each other along the sand. Mike and I just followed along snapping lots of photos. I have been experimenting with shooting in raw and jpeg so I can adjust the white balance and settings when i import the photos. So far i have only got to the import stage and haven't experimented with using Lightroom to 'process' the photos (as described by our guru Scott Kelby). However I must see how it works, because I took some phenomenally bad photos at the snow when I had the white balance set to flourescent when we were outside in the snow. The photos are a kind of glowing blue. Oh darn.
Our two big bits of news for the week are this.. 1. Greg the 17 yr old has got a part time job (hopefully leading to full time when he finishes school this year). And 2. We went to see Harry Potter - The half blood prince. I loved it. but i am a huge HP fan.
It's Friday now and another week has slipped by, Ben's birthday looms ever closer. His requests are simple... he would like a bass guitar and amp. I did find them on ebay for under $200 but I do wonder if we should bite the bullet and pay $400 at the local shop so we can have some after sales service since Mike and I know Nothing about guitars. I couldnt even replace a string. However Ben is now keen to play in a band (once he learns to play i guess). He has a friend who has a drum kit so I guess that is half a band... Apparently there is another boy who will be singing. So nothing will do, but he needs a bass guitar so he can follow his dream! I do miss the small children stage when they were really thrilled with whatever you bought them, and sometimes they would be just as happy playing with the box the toy came in!
Well, I guess that is another enthralling installment from the Kennedys. Stay tuned..

Today

Today there was a big event in my life. You have to understand that although I have been digiscrapping for some time now, I am still constantly frustrated by what I don't know. I am always admiring the skills of others and am rarely totally satisfied by my own work. But yesterday I put together a layout. In fact I did it quite quickly (and I might add with tears streaming down my face as I dealt with some of the most painful events of my life... darn more tears now). I had to put it together quickly and post it or i would have chickened out. So today when I found my layout at Gallery Standouts I was stunned. Yes it was simple, yes the journalling was heartfelt, but I just didn't expect to make the grade. Not me. So.. I was pretty thrilled, I felt really honoured to have been picked out. But here at the end of the day I still feel Dissatisfied. I just always want to do more. To know photoshop intimately and to be able to create brilliant art. Although I wonder if we are ever satisfied with our own work.. perhaps that way leads to complacency and that may not be helpful either.
I am determined to work on my photoshop skills though, I feel that by understanding my tools better I can work more effectively. So, I think it is time to work my way through some tutorials and try and learn how it all works better... Its kind of like a new years resolution for July.
So.. after that rant, if you are still reading, you may wonder if everything is all right in my world. And I guess it is. My children are going through a squabbling stage. I feel that it is totally unreasonable considering that two of them are almost adults. Why on earth do they behave like children? And the youngest one? He is talking constantly of the Birthday. 15 this month. I believe that he has finally settled on a bass guitar as his chosen gift. I had almost bought the video camera he had previously wanted, when he changed his mind. Typical. I guess a guitar means music lessons. Its funny how gifts have ongoing costs.
Perhaps since it is now tomorrow instead of today I should go to sleep. Before I go here is a little of my 'art'.

new template

It is a bit of a surprise to find myself blogging two days in a row, but here I am again. Last night after I logged off I decided to make another freebie template and now that it's made I thought I should post it. Although I have to admit that at the moment anything that relates to the internet is a bit of a struggle. We are having Issues. We aren't even sure what is causing the issues, I don't think it is our ISP which means it is our modem (probably). I don't really understand why a perfectly good modem suddenly starts not working properly but it appears that is what has happened. Last night I spent about an hour trying to open the 4shared site. No go. Today it opened fine. Downloads are a bit of a joke, with occasional items downloading reasonably ok, but mostly they either don't download or when I get them they won't open. I have stopped trying, as I am sick of getting frustrated by it. Now the big question is do we need a new modem, and does that mean we need new cards in our laptops as someone suggested. Essentially like most computer repairs it is all sounding expensive! Hopefully we can get it sorted this week because it has been more than a week so far of patchy internet and as i am obviously addicted to the internet, I do really need to get a decent Fix.
Theoretically with all these internet issues you would think that I would have been doing lots of scrapbooking, but somehow that is not the case. I am still not all that productive, and keep reworking the same photos/pages over and over trying to get it right!
I have made some cool pages though, here are a couple I did for HeatherT at Pixelcanvas.

This one uses her painted corners and dividers. I love the freehand look, and they are easily recoloured to fit in with your layout.



This little mini kit is so cute, it's called Growing up 2 fast. I think the whole growing up subject is on my mind a bit with all the kids having birthdays at this time of the year. Ben, my baby is turning 15 this month! And Lucus the grandbaby turned 3 last month! While you are visiting pixelcanvas you really should check out Heather's tutorials. They are amazing, detailed instructions on a variety of really useful subjects, including extractions, shadows and masks.

I have also done some new pages for Sara of Sweet Blossom designs.


This one is made with her Funky Baby kit which is full of bright funky colours, suitable for both girls and boys. And below is the page I made with Sara's All fired up. Both kits are available at www.scrapthatidea.com.

One of the comments I got about this layout was that it would make a great template, so... here it is.

Here is the link for the new template

As always I would love to see your layouts! Come back and post them in the guest book or in the comments section.

not a great blogger

I have decided that i am not the worlds best blogger... not even close. The problem is that i forget to do it, and that kind of defeats the purpose. Of course like most people I consider my life to be fairly mundane and not really 'blogworthy'. I keep resolving to do better but so far I am not going to be winning any prizes. Although I did in fact win an award a few months ago - something about being a polite blogger and leaving nice comments. I did feel very good about that as it is something I am passionate about. I know that for me personally, I love to hear from people who have visited my blog, just a hi, or thanks for your whatever is quite buzzy, when you are a novice blogger and aren't sure if you are getting it right.
But this was not a rant about the importance of leaving comments, because I haven't done much that has been comment worthy lately. In fact right this very second I am having a little afternoon nap having returned from a couple of days at the snow with the kids. Of course my kids are teenagers so I thought it would be a good bet that the boys at least would love playing in the snow and we were right. Ben loved it! Ben spent two entire days snowboarding and didnt even stop for lunch. He is now trying to work out how he could make enough money to take up snowboarding as a holiday. I think he will need a good job, because the whole snow sport thing is so expensive here. I think we could have flown to New Zealand for a week's skiing/snowboarding for less or certainly not much more. But the kids hadnt been to the snow since... well when they were toddlers i think. So we went. It was exhausting. It was cold. It was expensive. But it was fun. Greg is not a natural snowboarder. He turned up back at the lodge midway through the 1st morning for a break, he had numerous bruises and injuries from impacts with trees and snow, and I think also damaged himself falling off the ski lift. So it is only Ben that is our snow sport enthusiast. Greg much preferred playing pool in the bar afterwards. Each to their own i guess.
My scrapbooking has been limping along. I still don't feel like I am really achieving as well as I want to, I am still struggling a bit. But things are getting better. Our internet is an ongoing problem, so we might have to get the computer tech out tomorrow as we have very limited success with downloads and looking at any web sites with pictures (that pretty much covers all scrapbooking doesn't it?). Hopefully Craig can get it working properly, although I suspect that it is going to cost... doesn't it always? Now I am determined to get another template organised, I feel like i have been slack lately, so stay posted.. hopefully this week.

I like Sundays

I like Sundays now that the children are all teenagers and believe that sleeping in on the weekends is their sacred right. I completely agree, because I think a weekend sleep in is one of the great joys of life. This morning we all slept in until 10.30 which was a bit frustrating as I was planning on being 'at' the speed scrap for pixel canvas at 10.00. So I turned up late, but I caught up and managed to make a pretty cute layout.



I used a kit called Beep Beep by Karen Lewis which I had bought ages ago. I am trying to use up some of my supplies that I have impulse bought and never used. Unfortunately there is a lot of them. I have even been trying hard to clean up and even delete stuff off my EHD so that it is more user friendly. My scrapbooking now is up to 145G. That does include the layouts. But it seems rather... large! And there is a lot of stuff there that I have picked up when I was a devoted freebie hunter. I still love freebies but now I tend to consider carefully whether I really want things because otherwise they just take up space.
I had a big run of shopping this last week, so I have a duty to myself to use all that stuff. Pixel Canvas had a sale so I had to buy some stuff there, it was 40% off! Then i bought a few things by Ninascraps over at Oscraps, love her templates, very simple and graphic. Perfect for someone who is in a creative slump.

Template by Nina scraps Supplies from Jen Wilson Designs Buttons by Bed in a bag special

This layout uses a template by Timounette. another nice simple graphic design (and a freebie on her blog)

Kit Baby Boy Lauries scraps

Those two layouts were enough to remind me that I really can make ok layouts! So goodbye creative slump. And then the big excitement for my week was being invited to join Heather T's Creative Team. I am still a bit blown away by that. I didn't really think that I was up to her standard.. but she likes my style... i was seriously thrilled with that comment. Particularly as i had just spend the last week wondering what on earth my style was. Just for the record I am still not convinced I could define my style, other than "i'll have a go at anything'". Is that a style?
I have of course been hard at work reading, I got stuck into Jim Butcher and have been reading his fantastic fantasy series for a few weeks now. I am waiting for book 5 now. And I see on his website that there is a book 6 to come out in December. That would make a nice Christmas present.


Caitlin is going for her learners this coming week. I keep reminding her that she needs to study for it but she seems to be confident that she knows it. I certainly hope so, because this is the 2nd time she has booked for it. The first time she took herself there and got lost and missed the appointment. We decided that it would be best if we drove her to the appointment this time as there is less chance of her getting lost! Of course once she gets her L plates she will be after me to take her for driving lessons. It is a very scary thought. it is a few years since i took the twins but i do remember it as a very 'interesting' experience. keep in mind that I am not a very good teacher! I guess i managed to learn to drive from my parents and they were very challenging to learn from. there was a lot of yelling. And of course i was sure that I knew everything too. I can still remember driving my parents to Dunedin and dad saying, 'what did that signpost say?' Of course i hadn't even seen the darned signpost. But seriously it said steep grade trucks use low gear. should i really have been interested? Of course he made me use low gear too and everyone passed us. Very embarrassing.

I dont like Mondays

I don't like Mondays except when I worked the weekend and have Monday off, like today. And today i revelled in being off. I tried to do as little as possible, finishing my book, and working on some scrapbooking for a lot of the day. But eventually I did have to do some stuff even if the most exertion I managed for the day was cooking the dinner! I did make corned beef which is one of my family's favorite ever meals. It has to be just right... first I cook the corned meat in a bottle of ginger ale, which gives it a nice flavour. We like it served with mashed potatoes and carrots, another vege or two is ok so long as they aren't silver beet which because we get out of the garden for nothing my children don't like. They appear to prefer veges bought from the shop. Tonight it was broccoli and asparagus. Then it has to be served with mustard sauce. Lots of mustard sauce. I dont think that mustard sauce is on the weight watchers plan but I ate it anyway. It was all delicious.... thank goodness for the Edmonds cook book and Mustard sauce.
I know.. it isnt riveting, but it is the stuff my life is made up of. We have had no thrilling adventures. Right now the most exciting thing in my evening has been the search for Baking soda so Greg can make a Banana cake to try out the recipe for school cooking tomorrow. As a matter of fact we had none so he has gone to the shop to buy some. Shows how often I bake. But I do love home baking. The smell of fresh cookies makes me go quite weak. Which is why there are none here - definitely not on the weight watchers program.
To be honest I am probably not the best advert for weight watchers really. I don't tend to get to the meetings, but i have been twice. I have not managed to track what I eat for more than one day - that was the first day of course. But joining (i used the special offer join for $1.00) did remind me that I didn't like my middle aged spread much and I have lost a little bit of weight. Do you know what that means? It means that now none of my clothes fit properly. Now they are all long and baggy. I will probably have to go and buy new stuff!!!
So - I know you are probably saying, what is with all this burble... where is the scrapbook stuff? I have to admit that my mojo is a bit damaged at present. I start pages but I have a dickens of a job finishing them. I move stuff, move it some more, then delete it. I bought a couple of kits to see if that would trigger anything, but... no. It isnt lack of supplies. It can't be lack of photos... I have gigabytes of the things. It is just me. Sigh. so I have been out and looked at lots of galleries, and there are lots of inspired people out there. I did think of making a quilt, or a jumper... but then I thought, what about all my UFOs... (unfinished objects). So no new stuff. It is a good time to tidy up my hard drives and back everything up and those kind of chores that I put off. I have done a bit of reading. I read a trilogy by Jim Butcher, well I thought it was a trilogy till i found back four and five. These are the Codex Alera series and they are a good readable bunch of fantasy, great characters and the plot keeps you engrossed throughout, so they get my tick of approval. Scrapbooking? I have done some. Sara has put out a new kit called Space. A nice boy kit with great blue orange colours. I decided to pull out some of my old photos of Ben and use them. I was quite pleased with this.

As always you can find her kits at Scrapthatidea.com and she generally has them on special for the first couple of days. This one has a great stapled alpha which I love. That messy stitching is pretty cool too.
Well that is pretty much the update on our thrilling lives. No freebies today either... maybe I should write that at the top?

Pink alpha

Download here

I finally decided today that I should post the pink alpha that I made, like weeks ago, and then forgot about. Hopeless huh? So today you get, finally the last alpha for the Classic Baby kit. I do hope you liked my first ever kit. I learned a lot making it! I have been doing lots of scrapping lately, trying out different styles and trying to expand my creativity. It is amazing how many tutorials that are out there when you go looking. Youtube is a really good source for all sorts of CS tutorials. I daresay they have Photoshop elements stuff as well. I watched a half hour tutorial on how to extract wispy hair that just blew me away. It made me realise how basic my extractions are! But at the same time I came across a number of good sites with beautiful actions which are one of my favorite toys. I went looking for the Pioneer Woman's actions, having heard of them, and it turned out that she is the same Pioneer woman that cooks... i tried some of her recipes last year.
Anyway the upshot of it was that her actions are found here. And they have some free downloads which are really worth trying. There is a couple of lovely black and white actions that I was really pleased with. I used one of them to make this page.


This uses one of Vinnie Pearce's artistic overlays, which I also love, and her word art as well... The funny thing was that this photo was taken at the playground and the white bar he is holding is actually a kind of vivid orange which completely discoloured his face. I thought the photo was a throwaway, and was just playing with the action... and it just worked. Funny how that happens sometimes.
So I haven't blogged for a while. It just hasnt been that interesting! Lots of working and sleeping really. I have been following the So you think you can design contest on digiscrapaddicts.com and we are on the final round now. The kits are all still there if you are looking for some great freebies. There was so much amazing talent there.
Sara of Sweet Blossom Design has been going from strength to strength with a new amazing kit each week, and I have been such a slack bunny because I haven't mentioned them in a while. Her new kit this week is called Magic Happens and it is seriously gorgeous with lots of bling.

available at scrapthatidea.com
And the new June collab kit is also out, this is a very cool kit with a beach theme. Here are the layouts I made with it


Once again availabe at scrapthatidea.com
So that is the update. Hope you like the alpha. That is the end of Classic Baby. I think it is probably time for another couple of templates and then... maybe I will get my next kit out.

time goes by so quickly

and i realise that I havent blogged for ages. But you know sometimes it feels like there is nothing really noteworthy occurring in my life. I have been to work, helped my husband a bit with his assignment which involves the finer details of left bundle branch blocks - not sure what that is? Trust me you dont want one. It is a cardiac thing, he is doing a postgrad certificate in critical care this year amid much swearing and muttering. I am chief grammar and spelling and wording assistant. I am learning a lot about left bundle branch blocks myself.
I think that I must have SAD, seasonal affective disorder. I think it means you get down in the winter. Because I have to admit that now it is cold and frosty that I just find it hard to get up in the morning. I keep missing Queensland and wondering why we left. We have long conversations about why we left, to reassure ourselves that we did have reasons. But both of us so hate the winter that at this time of the year the reasons just dont sound good enough.
So there I am a bit down in the dumps, not liking the weather, not liking my job much, my kids are fighting lots.... dreary isn't it?
I know it will pass, and part of it has been the ongoing issue of my back pain, which really does bother me. I am often so intensely angry. I am angry with the person that created the situation where it happened. I am angry that when I have time off because I can't work, they pay me a pittance. I am angry because the pain specialist told me that my best solution was a non clinical job. I have worked for years to become a midwife, I love birthing!!! I am angry because.... it just doesnt seem fair!
So. What i should have written as a heading, is dont read my blog today because it is a big grumble.
How about instead I show you something fun?

This is Benjamin almost 6 years ago! He was such a hard shot. Always goofing off... actually not much has changed. I made this page for Digital Paper Hearts using a kit called my li'l monster by Phantom scraps. You might recognise the template? Yep decided to reuse it because it just worked so well. But I wondered if you might be interested in a little tutorial on how to make the coloured edges?
I kind of discovered this by accident, and thought, wow that is one cool and easy technique!
First of all open the paper you want to use for the edge. On CS i then right click on the paper and go layer from background. You now have a transparent background behind the paper. Now draw a big square on the paper about 1cm or so inside the edge. Dont worry too hard the first time because you can play around with this till you get what you like.
Ok next go into select>modify>feather. Pick a number from 5o to 100 px. I usually do about 50. Now your outline is curved. Hit delete. Hit it again.. as often as you like till you have the feathered edge you want. The more you delete the finer the edge becomes. Then just drop it onto your layout. It is almost like a chalked edge. And so easy huh?
I do have another technique i use to make a chalked edge but that requires making a path, perhaps i will go through that another day. Hope you like this tutorial.. love to see any results???
and i promise that i wont grumble next time.