Just letting you know I'm going to extremes to make this an interactive blog!!!
I have installed several new features, some silly, others helpful, and all of them a novelty for myself (if nobody else, tee hee!)

So, for all of you who are inspired by art, there are daily photos of my favourite artists Henri Matisse (namesake of my only daughter!), Salvadore Dali (and if you haven't got it already, install the exquisite free Dali font from here - it rocks!) and Claude Monet.

For those of you who like to be organised, or at least pretend to be, or aspire to be, I have links to the websites I use for household tips & home-hub folders/schedulers.

If you have trouble making decisions, there's a coin-flipper. Alas, it's British - where's a Penny when you need one?

I have installed a tic-tac-toe game you can play in cyberspace, if by chance you get bored muddling around all this craftiness (!) Heaven forbid!

You can work out how to get from A to B by using my Google Map interactive directions tool. Mainly for me to look up because I'm too tight to buy another updated road map.

Yoga poses! This is designed for me and you to get off our arses, away from the stupid computer, and s - t - r - e - t - c - h. Let's face it, your back shouldn't be this creaky at only 33! I promise to try each and every pose with you ...

Um, I can't remember what else I put on. But go see. Of course, I won't be keeping them all up forever, so keep checking back for whatever else I find.

Don't forget to click on the survey question too - I'm really keen to find out if I'm the only person around here who races for the toilet duck cleaner immediately after accepting a visitor request! LOL!

Here is some scrappy stuff I'll add in with no particular topic in mind ...

A scraplift from the DesignerDigitals.com gallery

Catching the bus:

Using filmed photos from years and years ago ...

Colors of Africa

Colors of Africa
Originally uploaded by hvhe1

Yes, these imagez make me thinkz i need za new camera!

red / rot

red / rot
Originally uploaded by upsa-daisy

Morteratsch

Morteratsch
Originally uploaded by upsa-daisy

Kinda makes you want to go trekking, hey.

Now that's a view

sunrise / Sonnenaufgang
Originally uploaded by upsa-daisy

Flickr

drops / Tropfen
Originally uploaded by upsa-daisy

and yet more ....

Sea-buckthorn / Sanddorn

Sea-buckthorn / Sanddorn
Originally uploaded by upsa-daisy

And more ...

Running On Empty

Running On Empty
Originally uploaded by Canonshot Mole

Some cool images on Flickr

Layered Templates & Grid Sketches

When I'm being a lazy scrapper & just want to get the story down and find an appropriate picture, I find grid sketches work best. Working to a design formula.

Not that I'm a sketch user. I find them too limiting and uninspiring. But I'm all for sapping someone else's creative energy when mine is running low.

My biggest hurdle when sitting down to create a page is not the journalling (just make that up as I go along, as if I'm talking to my great, great, great grandchildren), nor the imperfect photos, nor the obsessive need to get each date spot on. No, it's the damn way I bunch everything onto the page and attempt to make it look cohesive, interesting, and not too daunting for an unsuspecting visitor to peruse.

Sometimes it all comes together smoothly. Sometimes it does not!

Since discovering digital scrapping, this problem has been virtually solved (and yes, I did mean the pun!). In the digi world, they use page sketches or maps, but they call them "Layered Templates". And they are wonderful!

It is basically having someone else cut out all your paper into pieces that fit together on the page nicely, in a pre-designed layout of your choosing. You still get to pick all your (digital) papers and photos. And "pin" them onto their design. (Using the fantastically quick Ctrl-G shortkey command).

So, it's like cheating. But in a legal way. And at first I was not sure I liked using other people's designs. But hell, some of them had done exactly what I'd just spent 5 hours trying to do, and they'd done it better. With drop shadows! So, why waste the time laboriously placing everything on the page yourself, when you can use a Layered Template?

I used to dog-tag the corners of my scrappy magazines when I saw a design I liked. If I was keen enough, I'd then try and use the page as a sketch. But my idea of proportion sucks. So that's why I jumped for joy when I found out Ali Edwards (scrapping Goddess) was selling her page designs as templates - Whoopee! I had tried before to scraplift her page designs, to varying degrees!

Here are some pages from Ali's books "A Designer's Eye for Scrapbooking with Patterned Paper" and "A Designer's Eye for Scrapbooking" (which I got for a steal through http://www.amazon.com.au/ when the Aussie dollar was good.)

Ali's design:

My digital version:

The digital layered template:



Ali's Design:

My traditional scrapping attempts are still sitting in the WIP pile, unfinished! Here are some digital LOs using the same sketch.

Ali's Design:

One of my traditional paper LO's using the design:

Another, that I can't lay my hands on, but I know it was inspired by one of Ali's LOs. I've done a couple of paper LOs using versions this design.

And the digital template that came much later ...

Ali's Design:

Can't find Ali's origianl version of this next design, and they have not yet made it into a template. This is my version of it. I'm sure they'll release it sooner than later.

The official templates available from http://www.designerdigitals.com/

You can also use the templates to do traditional paper scrapping if that's your thing. I find it quickens things up a bit if you don't need to worry too much about the design of the page. Another thing to do, as I started off this blog with, is to use a grid. Simple. It looks neat, it is aesthetically pleasing to the eye, and it's timeless (so you won't cringe at the page 5 years down the track!).

Like these:

Sorry about the dodgy scans of my old paper layouts!

So go on, create some of your own pages using the designs I've highlighted here, or some others that replicate your style. Then make sure to post a link so we can all see them! Or email me a low-resolution version (72res) and I'll publish them for you!

Cheers!

100 Things to Do: Themes

If you are stuck for themes to scrap about, check out this list of 100 things below. It’s obviously American so you might need to substitute all of the landmarks for Australian sites, like the Great Ocean Road, Bondi Beach, Uluru, Darwin, I don’t know, what other places of interest are there?
As I was filling it out (my answers are in red) so many new ideas to scrap about came to mind! There are so many that scream out “MORE INFORMATION PLEASE!” Try it yourself. And make sure to paste your lists in my comments section so I can learn a bit more about you too.



1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band (no, I don’t think so, but I teach piano, does that count???)
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland (Nah, gotta see Australia’s Seaworld, Dreamworld & Movie world first!! One day...)
8. Held a praying mantis
9.Climbed a mountain
10. Sang a solo (only in the shower or loudly on the bus to school)
11. Bungee jumped. (My back would snap!)
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch (learnt digi scrapping during 2008, traditional scrapping 2005, black & white photgraphy during Yr 12 (1993) & introduced to the world of art in Yr 10)
15. Adopted a child (have thought seriously about it.)
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables (Nothing like a warm juicy tom thumb cherry tomato picked straight off the vine!)
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you're not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb (poddied some too)
26. Gone skinny dipping (grandfather’s 70th – don’t ask!)
27. Run a Marathon (Yeah, what about all those school Cross Countries, drinking water from the taps in people's gardens along the way!!!)
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise :(
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing (used to do it reguarly during uni – out in real nature, none of this indoor stuff!)
40. Seen Michelangelos David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt (huh?)
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant (random act of kindness that was rejected!)
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie (only the one's taped on our own little camcorder!)
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class (during uni)
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen (while I was interviewing the founder for a story)
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving (never – fly enough in my dreams, LOL!)
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar (Dana and Riley’s Christening – yum! Thanks Mum, beautiful dip!)
72. Pieced a quilt (– didn’t work)
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job (florist, tee hee!)
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle (used to own one myself!)
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book (does 1000s of news articles count??)
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car (Hyundai excel sedan)
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper (Guyra Argus – I had my head circled in a competition, won a bicycle flag!)
85. Read the entire Bible – attempted. Never got past the first bit of Genesis.
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating ( plucked roosters and ate them.)
89. Saved someone's life (My 3yo son’s when he fell into the pool)
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous (tons, all interviewed for newspaper stories though: Colleen McCollough, Bryce Courtnay, Peter Reith, Ita Buttrose, lots of Olympians, lots of other Aussie politicians, Wayne Carey, um, I can’t think of them off top of my head!)
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby (or three)
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Read an entire book in one day (what else do you do at 14 yrs living on a farm!!)

Other perennial favourites I like to revisit every so often are:
10 things about you right now;

Funny things you said (make sure to use their own language, grammatically correct or not!);

Birthday Letter (describing everything about them at that point in time, and what they think about stuff and what you like about them);

Interview (ask all kinds of questions, it's great to hear their interpretations of money & the cost of living and religion and all those BIG universe ideals/rules.);

Technology - everything like cars, tv's, toasters all change over time and it's funny to record them now because they'll probably be obselete in 5 years time!

Can you think of any more ideas? Post them by clicking the "comment" link at the end of this post.