Passionflower Winner Announced!

Firstly, some housekeeping (oh, yay...)

Last week I offered one very lucky person a chance to get my Passionflower collaboration for free, simply for posting on my blog. I went with random.org as I only got 5 entries, and choosing one would be far too personal and the last thing I want to do is make anyone unhappy or miffed! So, it pulled up my own comment first up, and this is the winner second time around ...

Commenter Number 2

Suzy said...

Aw happy birthday and happy mothers day! me too except I'll bet you are younger :) The new kit is beautiful - really love the spectrum of colors. You're stuff is new to me but not for long ;)

6 May 2011 12:17 PM

Suzy, I'm going to comment on your blog because I don't have your email addy. 

 

Thanks for playing!

Celebrate iNSD with a giveaway + SALE!

So are you all geared up for the biggest day of the digital scrapbooking year?

International Scrapbooking Day {iNSD} is the first Saturday of May, and oddly enough, this year that happens to be my birthday! Yay! I would normally set aside the whole day to participate in blog hops, forum challenges (where the shops give out coupons for uploading your layouts with their products) and general heavy-duty shopping for goodies.

Most items this weekend will be on sale, and in digiland, you know that's going to be a steal because everything's already so darn cheap at full price!

This is the first year that I'm on the other end of the stick, so to speak, by being one of the designers offering up all these inspiring goodies!
 
Let's see what today's new releases are from ME!

Available here.

This is a collaboration between May, of Siamese Studio, and myself, called Just Me. It's a general "all-about-me" kit packed full of goodies that you will be able to use over and over again on all types of pages. Plus, there are some really, really nice little elements you will want to save for a page about yourself, just because they are too pretty and delicate to waste on anyone else!

I loved working with May, and we worked so well I don't know who inspired who more, we just kept coming up with so many ideas! This is one of my favourite colour schemes too. Siamese Studio sells at Funky Playground Designs.

Available here and here

This next one is also a collaboration kit between Danielle Young Designs and myself. Danielle sells her stuff at Oscraps and A Cherry On Top, and she is a top-class act! It's also a general versatile kit that can be used for any page really, male or female!  

And guess what? We'd both love to offer you a chance to WIN this kit, simply by adding your comment below. Danielle's giving away one on her blog too, so head over there for another chance. But makes sure your comments inspire me, ok? I like a good laugh too (hint, hint!).

The winner will be announced, um .... very soon (!). (With my birthday and Mother's Day in the same weekend, I'm going to be extremely in demand!) You can enter as many times as you like, but make sure each comment is different.


I'm also releasing some of my back-log items, like these lifted frames. (Bah! Such a boring name, but my mojo was lojo!) The idea behind these is that people who use PSE can now get the warped shadow look. It used to bother me that I couldn't lift my frames and papers when making a layout. But these should help if you've experienced that frustration too.

Available here and here

They are made in layers so each frame, photo mask and shadow is on a different layer for you to manipulate to your liking. You can "cover" the frame by simply "clipping" your patterned paper onto that layer (in PSE you press cntrl-g).

 Available here and here

Available here and here

Available here and here

$6 coupon winner announced!

Last week I offered a chance to win a $6 coupon to my shop to buy anything of mine your little pretty heart desired!

Well, I am pleased to announce the winner - Alannah! She was the third person to post a comment. Thank you to the total 6 of you who applied!! (humph!) At least the odds were really, really good, hahhahhaa!

Alannah, I will email you with the coupon code. Happy shopping :)

Grand Celebration: My 25,000th visitor!

My oh my. Haven't things changed this past year?

I can remember launching my blog counter widget thinking ..."Will this be completely embarrassing? Will I ever get into triple digits? Will it be more detrimental to display the counter, seeing as I probably don't get that many visitors to begin with?"

But I did it. Despite my better judgement (ie my sense of self preservation). And now I am glad I did, because I would never have believed I'd have reached my 25,000th visitor within 20 months!

So to celebrate this milestone, I am offering a free kit to one of the glorious people who leave a comment on this post. Make sure to leave some kind of contact, such as an email address, so I can send you a coupon. You will be allowed to pick out anything you want in my shop for $US6.00 (that should cover most things, lol!).

I will also celebrate with a week-long 25% off sale at my shops here and here, starting sometime tonight (after I've set it up!!).

You have until 9am next Tuesday (Aussie time GMT+10) to post your comment. I'll user a digital randomiser to pick the winner.
So, comment away ...

Pssst ... Some housekeeping. Sorry I didn't get to post Friday's freebie. I was swamped, and free stuff had to take a lower priority. Will this giveaway and sale make up for it? Hope so!

Tayla Kit Giveaway Winners!

ok. My bad. It's been 7 days since this giveaway competition ended and in the flux of everyday living, I completely forgot about it! So sorry girls. It's been a massive week!

The winners are (da-dah-da-dahhhhh!) 1. Libby Wilko 2.Nat 3. Yanina

Congratulations!! So girls, if you could please email me, I can reply back with your coupon codes for 100% off my Tayla kit from my shop at PolkaDotPlum.

I really loved doing this giveaway, so you can expect another coupon giveaway for my next kit - a Chrsitmas one - from my Funky Playground Designs shop. Soon. Watch this space!

My Very Own Grand Shop Opening!!!!

The day is finally here!!!

I can tell you all what's got me sooooooooooooooo excited that I can't eat, sleep, think or snort without thinking of new scrappy ideas to implement!!!

You know how a few weeks back I said everything was all happening at once? Well, the time has come to reveal just what!


I am about to open up shop!

I have been accepted as a designer at Funky Playground Designs and Polka Dot Plum. Both are places that I’ve shopped at quite a bit previously, and I am so thrilled to become a part of all the action there! Do you know how fascinating and inspiring it is to be working alongside such fabulous designers and Creative Team Members? My mind just boggles!

So I’ve been doing a lot of creating behind the scenes and have come up with a few different kits to launch at each opening. And of course, I’ll also be selling my templates that have expired as freebies.

Now before you freebie lurkers start to panic, I’ll still be offering freebies each week – besides being a fantastic marketing and exposure tool for newbie designers, it also lets me give back to the industry that has rewarded me with so much. I just feel exceptionally lucky to have found a second career that I love doing and am soooooo passionate about!

You will be able to purchase my kits here at Polka Dot Plum from Sunday (November 7 AEST),  and here at Funky Playground Designs from November 16. My designer name is Brine Design.

So, now for an unveiling!

Tayla: A general Girl Kit

Buy it here from November 7!

And here's what the gorgeous PDP creative team has done with it already:

And because I'm so excited about this, I'm going to be giving this kit away to 3 people. All you have to do is leave a comment. For additional entries, you can blog about it yourself, Tweet about it or Facebook it (or all three if you are keen!!!) and come back here each time and provide me with the links in the comment section (so I can check it out). You have until Wednesday 5pm Australian Eastern Standard Time to get your entries in. Easy, hey? I will announce the winners on my blog and email them with a store coupon to download my full kit. So make sure you check back - especially if you comment as "anonymous" (!!)

Now, I'd better get back to work on the rest of the kits! Not long to go now ....

I’ll be coming out with something new every two weeks. So thank you to all of you who are sharing my journey into another career, and I appreciate all your support and attention! Now. Go spread the word!!!

Giveaway and Woot Woot Woot!!!

Got my first layout published in the prestigious Scrapbook Magazine (United Kingdom) Issue 47 today. Well, I received my copy of the mag today, the parcel full of paper scrapping goodies had already been opened and re-sealed by Customs. But everything was in tact. And since you can't get that magazine in Australia (as far as I'm aware), I'll post a scan of it here.

How exciting! And see all of that American Crafts patterned paper featured on the cover - I want to give it away, along with the beautiful 12 x 12 paper pack I was given ( 12+ sheets, including matching Bazzill cardstock). I might keep the extra special glimmer Bazzill though. Maybe....

So, all you need to do is leave me a comment about the last thing you scrapped. I'll pick someone at random and email you. Be sure to realise you're paying the postage though, so I think within Australia a 12x12 pizza box costs about $10 to post domestically.

Also, I've been approached by a software company to have a try of their digital scrapbooking software, called Digital Scrapbook Artist 2. It's meant to be a whole lot more user-friendly than Photoshop Elements (which I currently use). So when it arrives from Customs (again ...!) I'll have a play and write up a review. If any of you out there have used the product, I'd be happy to know what you thought of it.

Got another freebie coming up on Friday, so don't forget to hop back then. Cheers.

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.

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: