Hello Friday Freebie!

Hi again, this is going to be a super brief post - with the usual excuses, places to go, people to see, chores to do.

I spent longer on this template LT005 than I intended to, but I was having so much fun. I have used a free vector shape from Jason G-Somebody called "Fresh Foliage" to make the flourish brushes you see here. I wish I could remember his full name, he didn't include a TOU with his free download. Which reminds me, neither do I yet, so if you plan on downloading my work, please don't copy it for your friends. Send them to my blog and leave some love. Also give me credit if your work is published.

Here it is. It's a double-pager: 24inches by 12 inches, 300dpi. (DOWNLOAD LINK EXPIRED).

And here is my take on it. When I made it I fully planned on clipping a photo to the brush, but it didn't end up that way. Would love you to show me yours if you've done that yourself. I made this layout using 3 Paper Peonies' kit called "Imagination".

Make sure you leave a preview or link to your layout gallery to show me how you've interpreted it - it makes my slaving all worth while ;p

Have super weekend!

10-minute Layouts

Ok. I know this may shock some of you die-hard crafty fans out there. But sometimes all I want to do is get down my story and throw a photo in with it, and call it done. It is at these times, I'll revert to using a template, or simply open up just one kit, and use only what's available within that kit for that layout. This makes the layout really quick - 1. I don't have to think of where to place each part of the page - the sketch has already decided that for me. 2. I don't have to go searching through my supplies to find something special - I've limited myself to just what's in the kit.

Now you could work with this method as a paper scrapper too. You just need to have your photo printed out, and grab only a handful of supplies to sit upon your table before you begin. Don't, whatever you do, rifle through your stash midway through the layout - that's cheating. Use only what you have dedicated to the layout from the start. You'll be amazed at how much stress and indecision it frees up. Just go with the flow.

I like to put on my background paper (or cardstock) first. Then pile up all my elements into a bundle on one corner of the layout page. Then I insert my photo where I want it. Then I add drop shadows (even sometimes use the ghastly photoshop presets!) and save, resize for web, save again. Done.

Here is one I've just done. No kidding. Less than 10 minutes.

Ok, I know this is one of the rare occassions where I haven't used any journalling at all. And if I had a bit more time, maybe I'd add something to justify this page in an album. Like what he's into right now. Or what we were doing on this day (but I'm going to do another page explaining this). Or do an interview with him to see what he's thinking about lately. Or re-tell some dream or story he's come home with since starting school. But tonight, I'm happy just to play and leave this as it is. A wonderful 10 minute page with a very simple message, I love you.

This page is made using Sabrina's Love Me Do kit from Shabby Pickle.

Fabulous Freebie Friday!

Welcome to the new Friday Freebie. I hope to expand my skills in digital scrapbooking and graphic design by posting each Friday something I have made during the week. And you get it all FOR FREE!

It makes sense to me to guage whether or not people are interested in stuff I make, because I hope to one day become a digital designer. But for now I'm happy just using you all as guinea pigs (giggle - I'm a GP breeder in another life - look up my cavy website at http://www.piggywink.blogspot.com/) and testing out my creations on you, the unsuspecting public!

I will also be giving away some quick pages. These are pages that are already done for you, papers, elements and writing, with a space for you to just insert your digi photo/s. I plan to sell these when my online shop is up and running. But for now, they are yours, free.

I ask that you not reproduce my designs or templates, or give out my link for them, to your friends. If they like it, send them back to my blog and they can download it from here. I'd also ask that if/when you get published using my designs, please credit me. C'mon, it could be you in my shoes one day! I am a strong believer in "what goes around, comes around" so please be mindful that all of us are a part of this wonderful scrappy adventure and your support of fellow scrappers is part of what makes this such an astounding industry.

So, enough lecturing for now. Happy scrapping. Oh, and don't forget to email me a jpeg of your finished layout. Or provide a link in my comments section - we all want to benefit from your scrappy talent!

My free template this week is one I made to create this layout using Kaisercraft's digital Loire Valley kit. Download it (DOWNLOAD LINK EXPIRED)

Chore Charts & Recent Photobook Work

Just thought I'd remind anybody who wants to know that I've started posting freebies on Fridays, so tune back tomorrow for some free digital goodies. I'm just getting started on designing, so please leave me some love if you approve, or leave some constructive criticsm if you must!

I just made these so I don't have to yell at my kiddies so much in the mornings. They are in Kindergarten and Year 1. Sometimes I feel like a drill sergeant!

Now onto some of my latest scrap-for-hire work. This is a 5 x 7 inch brag book which will be spiral wire-bound at the top and covered in clear acetate for protection. I did it as a freebie for our local preschool teacher, because she's just wonderful! She wanted photos of her new grandson interspersed with animals from her farm.

See you tomorrow.

New CT Team, Published Layouts and your Template Layouts

Ok, just returned from playgroup, where I yelled my lungs out singing "Grand Ol' Duke of York" amid the din of tamborines, clarinets, cymbols, maraccas etc. skillfully hammered by about twenty 1-4 year-olds. But it was my out-of-key singing which gave the rest of the parents a severe headache!

Thank you to all the lovelies who emailed me the layouts they created with my freebie template as a base. Here is the original layout that inspired the template. It's by Tara, who has lots of awesome layouts & challenges here.

This is Melissa's, who is just getting into digital scrapping and is picking up the skills sooo quickly!

So far this template has had 35 downloads and the one before that has had 90, so I'm very pleased with myself atm because I would looove to entice some more Aussies to "the dark side". And seeing as there are actually some people using them, I'll definitely be posting more freebies in the future. It's all good.

Here's Brittney's using the earlier template. Both are still available to download if you want to give them a try.

In other news, I'm on another Creative Team - for e-scapeandscrap. Do you remember when you used to dream about being invited to a toy store or a lolly shop and being told "you can have everything you could possibly want" ... well, I HAVE IT! I have complete access to everything in this store here. I'm dying to go on a creative bender with all this scrappy goodness!

Here's my intro page

Lastly, want to toot the advantages of buying the latest Scrapbook Creations magazine - it's a great size, the featured layouts are nice and large so you can scan over every single details and read the journalling, and because I"M IN IT! Twice. So get to it! Issue 75.

Which True Blood Character Are You?

More on True Blood. Created by BuddyTV

A Crop Night & Tooth Fairy Boxes

Morning all. Each first Friday night of the month a group of local friends and I meet up at someone's house and we have a crop together. Some do cards, some do stamping, a couple to quilting and embroidery. I've even turned up with my socks to sort - anything goes, as long as it's a job you've wanted to finish and it can be done in the company of good friends.

I used to go all out for these nights, organising and preparing to do about 20 layouts in the night. Then, when I turned to the dark side and went digital, I used to lug my laptop and EHD and got a lot of photo-sorting and pages done. But now, since I've changed back to a desktop, it's kind of hard to take to a crop.

So it was back to the sticky-hands type scrapping for me, which I like doing every so often when I've set aside enough time to enjoy it. I started and completed two tooth fairy boxes for my sons, who are on the cusp of losing their first teeth.

I bought and downloaded a tooth-fairy specific digital kit from here. I also had some tooth-specific patterned papers from Anna Aspnes here.

Then I raided the cupboard for some approriate tins to recycle. After measuring them up and resizing my digital papers to match (and adding a few digital embellishments and stitches), I printed them out on Stampin' Up Whisper White smooth cardstock. The ink didn't bleed, so all's well.

Because I had two different shaped tins, I changed the background stitching from a square, for Harvey's square tin, to a circle of stitching for Riley's round tin. I then cut them out with my trusty ol' Kolozzle knife and template (do they even still sell those??)

Then it was just a case of cutting and sticking and adding some ribbon or jewels (yes, boys DO love jewels too!). Done. And the best part is that the boys couldn't wait to see them the following morning!

Incidentally, since I already had this table cloth out to use as a photography background, I threw it on the kitchen table and when my DH returned home, he remarked on how "clean" the house looked. That's the power of the 1950's type house keeping ;p

Two Little Pixels Blog Hop Freebie

post freebie pack in here for 4 feb 2011