Australia Day Layout, Free Template & Giveaway!

Oh, man! I've got the bug. I canNOT help myself - I love making templates!

Now, the smart thing to do would be to create this post and announce this freebie ONLY when I've let the FIRST freebie sink in a little - maybe a week between posts?

But, noooo. I'm just way too excited to be learning something new! And besides, I could not help but share these photos of these gorgeous little children that live in my house. Whose ARE they? Who cares, I'll keep them. Besides being very entertaining, they make wonderful subjects for my photography cravings.

I plan to do a series of layouts with these photos (and the additional 50+ in my browser), and will probably use one or two in future layouts unrelated to Australia Day, as mugshots.

Ok. Now for the big reveal. My latest FREE template. (DOWNLOAD LINK EXPIRED)

And get this! I've got oodles of traditional scrappy supplies that I'd like to cull, so I might just throw in a giveaway to the person who posts the most ingenious and stunning layout using my latest template.

Simply email a low-res copy to me at k.brine@bigpond.com or provide a link for your online gallery in my comments section, to be in the running. Deadline is 2 weeks from now: Saturday 13 February, 2010.

Good luck!

Here's my take on it:

My Very First (free) Layered Template Offering ....

Hi chickies! I have finally had a go at creating my very own layered template freebie!

In all reality, I've already been creating my own templates for my 365 projects, and I sometimes recycle a layout sketch from one of my old pages by just adding in new papers, photos and elements. So really, I've created them before, and it's been fairly easy and straight forward.

But this, well, this is different - I get to share it with you! And I've named all the layers so it's easy to navigate your way around. Joy Joy!

To use a layered template, all you need to know is how to:

1. Click on the layer you want to work on

2. Open your paper

3. Drag your paper onto your layout canvas

4. Press CNTRL-G to "clip" the paper to the shape of the layer

5. Laugh at how amazingly simple it is :)  MWAH HAHA HAHAHA!!!!!

And guess what! I LOVE making them. So I'm gonna start doing it a lot. I figure I'll start getting good at it after I've had a bit more practice. So I've some to share here, but stay tuned for more to come during the next few months, as they'll be a lot cleverer.

My first, to be released on Saturday, 6 March, 2010, at the Kaisercraft blog, will look like this:

Some of the other keen CT girls will have a play with it too, with the choice of using any of Kaisercraft's 19 digital collections, or a mixture of all :)

And here's another one just because I was in the zone. You can download this double-pager now, aptly called "katharynbrine LT2," from 4shared.

 

Please, please share your creations by posting a link or your image thumbnail in my comments section below - I'd love to see what you create with them!

And here are a few of my own layouts presented in random and haphazard order, as always! Cheers.

So What? A few phrases that sum up my dear daughter's attitude when she doesn't get her way ... Materials: Template (altered) Katie Pertiet, Paper Cinzia Loosemore, Ribbon (recoloured) Jesse Edwards & Scraps by Andrea, Stitching Lindsay Jane Designs, Letters Kellie Mize, Yarn Katie Pertiet.

I Live For This Family Materials: Elements & word art Cinzia Loosemore, Paper Paislee Press and red tab NinasScraps.

Hush: My 5yo son was sent to his own bed but crept quietly into ours and fell asleep holding a photo frame of mum and dad in his hand .... awww...  Materials: All Cinzia Loosemore, with a Jen Caputo text path.

Dirt Materials: Kaisercraft's new Camp Stoneybrook kit.

Camp Murrumbateman Materials: Same as above. Loved having a go at a totally new 3D technique!

Achievements: A scraplift from the Designerdigitals gallery. Materials: A heck of a lot of alphas from my stash, Ali Edwards stitching border, tied heart is by CS (no other information available :( ) Paper Michelle Martin, Flourish Anna Aspnes.

Wow, this post was epic. And my 1.5yo daughter has eaten a WHOLE packet of choccy biscuits while I've been preoccupied here!

Scrapping has Changed Me & DT Call & Blog Party

Hello fellow lurkers, late-night scrappers, and friends. I've been thinking this scrapping stuff has certainly changed the way I live my life. Three years ago, while I still had the urge to record our family's memories and "savour" every moment I had raising my child, little did I know it would influence so much of my daily life nowadays.

I have made lots of new friends - INTERNET friends - errr, three years ago I would have thought this was a bit creepy...

I have fulfilled my goals to get "caught up", to "get published" and to "get on a design team".

It has reinforced my desire to change careers, into a graphic design field rather than keep with news journalism.

It has given me the foresight to plan & dress children according to what colour scheme I plan the next layout to be (!!)

It has even provided me & my family a new place to holiday, after I read how good the desitination was in a fellow scrapper's holiday layout.

Most of all (and there are many more reasons, but I don't want to bore you silly) it has developed a sense of self in me - that I have a mission, a purpose, an express desire to "save our lives" on paper. To record our memories, yes, but also, to live life in a way that is worth recording. It gives me a sense of calm to know that if anything ever happened to me, my children would know how much I loved them, and they would never need wonder what their first word was, or what happened on their first day of school.

It has also given me a hobby that I'm so extremely passionate about that it infiltrates every other aspect of my daily routine. It's furthered my photography skills, journalling skills, dedication skills, competitive edge, home management & organisation, home decor; all in an environment that is positive and rejuvenating and so, so rewarding.

It sounds so awfully drippy, but it has produced a "calm" in me, as Thelma would say in Thelma & Louise. I've found my place in the world.

Anyway, if you are reading this and still hesitating about whether or not to get into the craft, then ... poo to you :P

Onto more exciting things, Emily Powers has put out a DT call, to be announced January 18. Check out the details here.

Here is my entry. Good luck to all who take the plunge and give it a go!

This is made using mostly Emily Power's Funky Love Song kit at Oscraps.

Oh, before I forget, I am participating in my first ever blog party celebrating Kaisercraft's Q3 magazine release ('cause it's been under such rigorous lock-up!). I'll be on call to answer any question you may have about scrapping, journalism, stay-at-home-mothering, guinea-pig breeding or star wars:clone wars that you may be busting to talk to me about, from 8pm here. See you there.

Kaisercraft blog party promo: "Basically, the gist of the night is combining promotions for our Q3 collections with our January digital ranges – features include:

• A sneak peek at the Q3 magazine and the six new paper ranges (Made With Love, Shaken Not Stirred, La Di Da, Devonshire, Gypsey Sisters and Peachy Keen),


• Inside gossip from Kaisercraft designers about new product collections and inspiration for our Jan digital collections


• Giveaways


• A live chat with the Kaiser design team via the blog (http://www.kaisercraft.net/blog/live-chat/)


• Challenges etc "

Make Me Famous

My 6.5-year-old son Harvey says to me, "Mum, I've got something very important to ask you - will you make this famous?" And so I have. It's now available for the viewing pleasure of everyone throughout the world. Ta-Da!

Oh, and Riley, 5years, has also requested famousness.

Twenty-Ten: Bring It On!

Welcome back in the new year. I've decided I'm going to call it "twenty-ten" rather than "two-thousand-and-ten" because it's shorter, simpler to say, and different from the way I've been saying it for the past ten years. How 'bout you?

I've set my goals, and yes, they have already been scrapped! I have been running out of photos to use for my Kaisercraft assignments, so I've needed to get creative with journalling instead.

Not too much scrapping got done over Christmas, as I was busy boozing & socialising, with many a late night and sleep-in (if you can call it that with 3 kids  screaming about the house waiting to be fed & let loose!) I have discovered Midori and Malibu again. And of course beer.

I did, however, treat myself to a big digi spend-up. And now my downloads folder is so full it's going to take me the whole year to tag all my new supplies so I can find them when I need them.

Oh! Almost forgot to announce this: I have completed my 365 project! Yes. It's just getting the finishing touches and I must say, I'm keen to do it all over again this year. I found my rhythm works best when I let myself have a week's worth of photos and journalling just about those ones which need explanation. So they are usually multi-photo two-page spreads. And I love going back through the earlier ones. Lots of details I'd already forgotten. It's a great keepsake and I'm glad I did it.

Here are a few layouts using my new stash of supplies:

A circular layout which I'll print had cut out by hand (!). It uses lots of stuff from Creashens. at catscrap.com.

Michelle Martin's devine Luisa kit @ designerdigitals.

2010 Goals uses Kaisercraft's Penny Royale kit.

Sickly Sweet uses Kaisercraft's new Candy Shoppe megakit.

Ninie Designs at The French Frog website. It's closing down so I grabbed a massive load of fantastic, quality goodies.

Another Kaisercraft Candy Shoppe layout.

Guinea Pigs: Most of the supplies are by Vinne Pearce at Oscraps.

Another Kaisercraft Penny Royale layout.

Fei Fei's Stuff at Oscraps.