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.

new template!

I was sitting here tonight and thought... why don't i make another template. And so I did. How easy is that? It's one of those classic templates which always look good, and with a bit of imagination you can make it look really good. Here we are enjoying a rainy weekend. I say enjoying, because we really do need rain. But since my plan was to catch up washing this weekend, it kind of doesn't really work. I guess that is why I have time to make templates.
I have been having a great time downloading some fantastic kits from the DSA So you think you can design competition. Today their newsletter came out. It is worth a look, as there are lots of discount coupons for some great scrapbook shops. I had a great shopping spree after the last one. Anyway I am in the middle of watching Billy Conolly travelling to The Ends of the Earth. It is a great series, so i will post my template and go.

I made this layout a while ago for a challenge at Elemental Scraps using
Elemental Scraps Zazzle Collaboration Kit.
Miss Vivi Starting School background paper.
Fonts Pea Susan, Palantino Linotype

Download template here
As always I would love to see what you have made, I am getting a few beautiful layouts in my guest book at the bottom of the page. Maybe next year I will be brave enough to try for the SYTYCD challenge!

Classic Baby Alpha

Today I did it. I sat down and made the first alpha for the Classic baby kit. You note that I say first. Well with so many colours in the kit it was hard to decide what to do with the alpha. Make something non gender specific? But I just wanted to give the flag alpha a go, and i had the flags all made... so that is what you've got. A flag alpha. Blue and only upper case at this stage. But I have supplied a blank flag if you have a yen to put your own letters on.

You can download it here. Now its late at night here, or to be more accurate early morning so I am off to sleep.. enjoy.

sorry about the absence

Well it is a couple of days since I blogged. In fact quite a few days. I think that I was so relieved to have finished my kit and finally uploaded all the parts that I kind of breathed a sigh of relief and sat down to vegetate a bit. So no, I haven't made the alphas. I have had one suggestion of a flag alpha like the baby banners i made. What do you think of that idea? It is quite appealing. Other concepts that are making my shortlist are a baby block alpha or a stitched down alpha. All of the ideas are good. Just need to get on to it.. if you have any ideas let me know. Today was a monumentous day! I got an email with a link to a layout made with my Classic Baby kit!!! wahoo that is the first one! And a beautiful comment today about one of my templates. What a buzz that was.
I have finished my night shifts so am enjoying a few days off. However I had better get myself organised and go and do some agency shifts or the money flow could be grim. I hate that! But I figure that I had lots of years as a stay at home mother and now I just gotta go and work. I really notice the change now I am a working mother. I used to have time for much more time consuming meals and could spend all day getting things ready. Now I am constantly looking for easy meal ideas. Our shopping has changed too, with more instant food and prepackaged stuff. I am a bit sad about that as I really do try to avoid lots of packaging and much prefer fresh food. But trying to juggle work and home and fit in scrapbooking requires a few sacrifices.
My reading is going along slowly, still on Petrodor, and they were right when they said it wasnt as good as Sasha, but there you go, I had to try it.
So, I guess you are wondering when there will be some more goodies to try out. But if you are after high quality freebies then I would be hanging out at www.digiscrapaddicts.com where they are having a cool contest called So you think you can design. All the kits are free to download and there are so many great kits! Definitely worth checking out.
I am currently having a wee Vinnie Pearce crush. I really like her stuff, it is just different. Different and interesting. On Mothers Day I had a wee spending spree (I figured it was too hard to get Mike to go shopping for digital kits and so I did it myself. He bought me perfume though - Arpege, which I love, and the children bought me new essential oils as I use them so much. I love citrus smells. Mandarin is my favorite, along with, sweet orange and grapefruit. The house always smells so fresh! Caitlin bought me the collectors edition of The Notebook, knowing how much i had enjoyed the movie.
We had a beautiful day with Lucus this week, although he has got a nasty cold. We had fun and just hung round home really and played. Of course I took one or two photos as well!
So.. I plan to get to work on a few more templates. It is fascinating how popular they are. I think i have 10 times as many downloads for the templates as for my kit.
You'll just have to keep checking back because I have no idea when I will get the next template done.

Finally

Yes here it is the final part of Classic Baby. I have to admit that the alphas are not yet done. But when I do night shift I am fairly non functional so it is not too surprising. The alphas will be along in a day or two. If anyone has any ideas about how they should look, feel free to share your ideas in the comments section. I do hope with the whole kit now finished, that I am going to see some finished pages in my guest book? I am really excited to see what you do with it.
So, you know that I have been working nights = that about sums up all I have been doing. Last night I was present at a beautiful waterbirth. So wonderful! I have finally finished my book Sasha by Joel Shepherd and am reading the squel called Petrodor. Have heard that it isn't quite as good, but we shall see. So far I have read like 5 pages before i fell asleep! Sasha was an excellent read if you like fantasy type fiction. No gnomes or dwarves or elves in this one, just an imaginary kingdom.
So now to the business you are waiting for.......



Here it is the last part of the elements. I do hope you like them, I did try to make a good variety and make plenty of boy things as well as girl things. Now i understand why people tend to make boy kits or girl kits. Every now and then I would look and realise that I had more pink than blue, and then I realised that I had virtually nothing in the neutral beige tones! Keep in mind that this is my first effort! I was particularly proud of the fuzzy blanket texture which I made myself, by scanning a baby blanket! It just goes to show how creative we can be with very little effort.
Enjoy!

Thursday

Well it's 8am for me, and i have just got into bed after my night shift! But before I go to sleep I really wanted to give you the first part of the elements. There are only two element packs, so I had better get the alphas done asap or you will be waiting and wondering where they are. No chit chat today coz sleep is really looking good.

Download elements part 1 here

The rest

The rest of what you are asking? Well today is the final installment of Classic Baby papers, but there is more. It is also the grand unveiling of the elements. After many days of hard work, and lots of fun I have finally finished the elements for the kit. There is nearly 70 of them because I was enjoying myself. I have to admit that the alpha is not yet done... it is my next project... i am thinking maybe two alphas since it came out such a big kit. Maybe i will make a grunge version next. I have to admit that i usually do grunge, and this is a bit of a departure for me. Usually i like to dirty it up a bit. Anyway I have to show you the elements, because hopefully you are as excited as me.
Now not all the elements are shown because there just wasn't space. But I tried to give you an idea of what is in there. I will zip them up and upload them over the next couple of days. As usual I have probably saved them too big and that may be a bit of a pain, but i hope you will be patient as it is my first ever effort.... they are cute aren't they?
And of course the final installment of the papers......


Today is a mix of browns and greens and whatever hadnt gone before, I hope I got them all. I think there is a couple more than the preview as I got a bit carried away.
Winter seems to have hit Melbourne and it has been cold and windy and often wet. Today the sun shone for a while, but it wasn't warm. I got up early to go to work and it was definitely chilly then. I start back on night shifts tomorrow so will have to excuse me if i only pop in to post my files. I have just finished reading another JD Robb book, I know, i read a lot of them, but they are seriously readable then moved on to Luanne Rice, apparently she is a new york times bestselling author. I am not too sure what that means, but this is the second one of hers i have read, this one was called the Edge of Winter. It was good, a mellow kind of story. Her other one I read was called Dream Country, it was a real tear jerker, this one was softer with an interesting story, but not hard work if you know what i mean. I have just started a fantasy type book by Joel Stepherd called Sasha. It looks quite ok, but have only read a few pages. You can tell what I do when i am not scrapbooking!
So that is me for today, look out for the first part of the elements over the next day or two, and feel free to send me (or put in my guest book better yet) any layouts you make. this is my first ever kit that i have released... My outback kit that i had planned to start with has a few bits and pieces that need tidying. I got a bit ambitious with extractions and am still trying to get them perfect. Do you ever wonder why you started?

next installment

Well it was a busy weekend. I did a bit of shopping .. i mean it was NSD so i felt i should. Then today i did real shopping when i took the boys to the market. Then we finished up at the mall buying the last of Caitlins birthday presents. It is her birthday tomorrow so we are now prepared. Got home dog tired and of course work rang and asked me to work a night. So that is where I am going this evening! In a few minutes i will have a nap and try and get a few zzzs before work. But i thought that i must log in and post the next installment of the Classic baby kit. I am hoping that you are liking it. The elements are coming out pretty cool....... I am nearly done, I think there is 47 elements so far, but I keep getting new ideas and having a play with it, and then making something new. I am having lots of fun, learning about how to do it all! So that is all the chat today, just a matter of giving you the link and logging off i am afraid. Classic Baby Lemon and White