I'm off to make breakfast for my children in a few minutes before going to see a prospective client and just have time to post this before I get everything ready.
I managed to get some scrapping time in yesterday and made these two pages with my kit from the SAS-y Designer Contest:
I've made them into quick pages and, as promised earlier, you can download them HERE.
Happy scrapping!
Just a quick post to let you know that voting in the SAS-y Lady Designer Contest has now opened. You can look at the entries HERE and vote HERE.
I'll be back shortly with two quick pages created with my kit for the contest ;).
Well, I actually managed to finish my entry to the SAS-y designer competition last night (well, strictly, it was early this morning as it was just gone midnight when I uploaded it!). That must be a first for me, to finish something well before the deadline (3pm EST today)! I normally lurch from one deadline to another and spend my life fighting fires, metaphorically speaking.
Anyhow, do you want to take a look at what I came up with? Well, here it is, Arbour Winds:
The colour swatch we were given is not necessarily one I would have chosen myself, but I ended up really enjoying working with it as it was a challenge to come up with something that didn't look like many other kits you see these days. I used some CU stuff, but the flowers you see in the close up here are mine, all mine (insert evil chuckle here, lol!) as I took the photos and extracted them, so can't blame anyone else for any loose pixels and whatnot in those!
I ended up making far too much to go into the kit, so there will definitely be freebies coming soon! I just need to find the time to sort them out and upload them! A surprising amount of time is always taken up when designing anything in just making a preview, uploading and posting so it's not just a quick two minute job.
So why don't you all nip on over to the Stone Accents Studio and take a look at what all the contestants have come up with? The gallery can be found by CLICKING HERE. All the kits are being offered as freebies and the download links are in the gallery. There's an amazing range of kits and styles considering we all started off with the same five colours so I am sure you will find plenty there to help build your stash!
Voting doesn't begin until later today, so I will let you have that link as soon as I get it - obviously I am hoping you will vote for me ;). Roughly half of us (probably this includes me, lol!) will be eliminated in this first round. You have to be registered in the SAS forum to vote, so please don't let that put you off and just get out there and vote (even if it's not for me ;))!
OK, I'm off to finish printing our church notices now as I only have an hour now before church. And yes, it probably is leaving it a bit late but I always end up printing them off at this time on a Sunday. I just don't know where the time goes!
Happy scrapping!
Yesterday was busy - the first "real" day back at work after a holiday is always hectic and yesterday was no exception. I seemed to have millions of phone calls when normally the phone hardly rings at all. I even had one very nice gentleman from Google ring me up asking me if I wanted to take out a month's trial on google search engine (only £3.30 a day plus VAT!!!) and when after several minutes of me saying I didn't want to take out any more advertising at this time, he slammed the phone down. I don't know who he was, but slamming the phone down on me is definitely not the way to get my business, especially as I was perfectly polite to him. He must have either been having a lot of refusals that day or was totally stressed out after the Bank Holiday weekend!
Anyhow, despite being busy, trying to get my own accounts finished for once (!!!!), I managed to make a September desktop using my part of the ADSDesigners School Daze blog train:
I am afraid it is only in one size (1280 x 1080) but hey, one size can be made to fit all, eh? Just like those trousers in the Colour Purple?!!! If you really need it in a different size, just let me know and I will see what I can do ;). Oh, and in case you are wondering, the birds will be offered as a freebie hopefully sometime later this week (depending on work commitments as I do have a large set of accounts to get done for Friday so time is at a premium at the moment) - I just didn't have room for them in the original zipped file of the kit.
To download the desktop, CLICK HERE.
Happy scrapping!
Well, it is that time of the month again - release day for the ADSDesigners September Collaboration, School Daze. I have been busy zipping files an uploading to 4shared this morning but am going to make you wait a bit to catch you up on what has been happening since my last post.Well, where to start? Firstly, we (i.e. me and the guys - two of our boys and our daughter) have been in the Lake District for a much needed holiday. Of course, I took my laptop and some work with me but, as usual, didn't get anything done, or at least, hardly anything, so I guess it definitely was a holiday for me then! Much to the perpetual disgust of the children, I took millions of photos and I will probably bore you silly with the photos as well as I intend posting some here once I actually get them off my laptop and camera onto my desktop.
I actually managed to get some decent photoshopping time in whilst we were away, which is something almost unheard of! Mind you, it didn't please DD as she wanted to go on the internet (which I paid a small fortune for to get access for the week so we were all determined to get a much use out of it as possible) and could only do that once I'd finishing photoshopping for the night which was usually well past 11pm if not later!
The Lake District, as usual, was stunning. I just love it there and we spent a lot of time around Lake Windermere and Coniston Water, with the guys getting soaked as they had fun in the water. You wouldn't have thought the eldest two were 20 and 18 as they behaved more like their 12 year old brother than anything else! In fact the elder boy even braved the water completely to go swimming! Admittedly, he was frozen afterwards but he was determined not to leave the Lake District without having swum at least once.
The weather was mixed - after all, this is summer in the UK, and we were on holiday in the Lake District. Most of the rain was either overnight or early in the morning and oh boy, was it heavy! It was literally bouncing off the roads and you couldn't even stick your head out of doors for one second without getting soaked. But we managed to get in lots of walking, plus plenty of time strolling around just doing nothing in particular, as well as lots of paddling time for the guys, reading and photoshopping for me plus a memorable visit to the White Scar Caves :). Photos to follow once they have been transferred to my desktop and hopefully you won't find them too boring.
We finished off the week with a trip to Blackpool, thinking the illuminations were on. But no, despite having the internet and reminding each other to check, not one of us bothered to actually find out when the lights were switched on. As a result, when we got there on Sunday they were still putting some of them up! So no lights for us, apart from the lights I saw when I tripped up on the pavement and went flying, ending up with very badly bruised hands and wrists, one of them so bad that even now (Tuesday) I can't put any pressure on it. Of course, hubbie was all sympathy when we arrived home (not!). For some strange inexplicable reason, he seems to be convinced I am accident prone and always tripping or accidentally cutting myself when baking and so on....the children also seem to be of the same opinion!!!!!
So, back to the photoshopping and the reason for all this time spent designing. Well, apart from the ADSDesigners blog train, I have also entered the Stone Accents Studio (SAS) Designer Contest, mainly for the experience and to learn some more tips. I honestly don't expect to get past the first round but everyone seems so friendly, and I have already learnt one or two useful things. Round 1 of the contest has just been posted, and since the deadline is Sunday, I really need to get a move on!
But here (at last, I here you say) are the details for the blog train. I split my previews this time with one for the papers and another for the elements:
and you can download them here.
Included in the kit are:
- 6 papers;
- School bus;
- 3 ribbons;
- 2 styles of buttons in 2 colours (4 buttons in total);
- 1 stitched line
- 1 messy stitched circle;
- 4 crayons (red, blue, green, orange);
- 2 red patterned photo frames, on with a ribbon;
- 1 blue patterned photo frame;
- 1 pin;
- Bookworm;
- Homework folder; and
- An apple for the teacher
I have a desktop almost ready for you too as well as a few other bits and pieces that wouldn't fit in the zipped file, so keep coming back over the next few days and I will try and get everything posted.
The other designers taking part in the blog train are as follows:
http://nutnbutdezigns.blogspot.com/
http://deliscraps.blogspot.com/
http://foxyladycreation.blogspot.com/
http://digital-keepsakes.blogspot.com/
http://beckysscrap.blogspot.com/
http://fairydustprincess-magicmaker.blogspot.com/
http://heavenlycrafts.blogspot.com/
http://janalynsplace.blogspot.com/
http://magsgraphics.blogspot.com/
http://studio-mamaecha.blogspot.com/
http://mytreasuredscraps.blogspot.com/
http://tatersplace-mjstitch.blogspot.com/
http://bonniecarter.blogspot.com/
Please do go and visit each one of them as there are some fantastic designs out there and they will available for all of September.
Happy scrapping!
Note: edited to correct error in one of the previews so revised download link added also
Well, I was sat here wondering how many people might have downloaded the second set of watercolours, when I realised that you can't download something if it hasn't been uploaded in the first place! Talk about forgetful! I actually got these ready to upload a couple of days ago but completely forgot to let you know.
There are ten papers in all, and they are darker than the first set but hopefully you will like them. Click here to go to 4shared to download them.
Happy scrapping!
Well, it promised to be a dry day on Saturday, not necessarily sunny because this is, after all, Britain in the summer, so we decided to go to the Peak District. this is a part of the country we have spent very little time in, shocking when you consider it is only an hour, hour and a half away (two hours if you get stuck in a traffic jam going through Ashbourne!).
DD found a walk in the internet from Milldale down to Dovedale and back. The first part of the walk is along the river, then you cross a bridge and go through Dovedale Wood and come out at Bunster Hill, then walk round to the Stepping Stones and then back along the river to where you started. Of course, if the map and guide is left in my very capable hands, you will end up not crossing the bridge, and effectively do the walk in reverse. Not necessarily a bad thing, apart from the fact that the walk along the river is a gentle meandering walk, whereas the walk through the woods and round Bunster hill is very steep, a real killer when you have to walk up the hill and then down through a steep, narrow,muddy path through the woods when you are already exhausted after walking some 3 miles! We are definitely going to go again, as it was so beautiful as you can see from some of the 101 photos I took!
This is the start of the walk at Milldale standing on the stone bridge across the river:
The path then takes you along the riverbank and winds and curls its way along:
Whilst it was flat along the riverbank, there were some terrific views and heights along the way:
This is Ilam bridge where we were supposed to cross to go up into the woods. DD is actually going back the wrong way here, presumably following directions from me :(!
As you can see, the path follows the river very closely:
We spent ages trying to find somewhere quiet and secluded to eat our lunch, but it was actually really busy. there were loads of people around, mainly families with children, but also some serious looking walkers. This looked like being a good spot to eat, but everywhere this close to the river was damp and muddy! Not really surprising in view of all the rainfall last week.
We ended up not crossing over the Stepping Stones, mainly just because it was so busy. There were queues of people both sides waiting to Cross with at least one person on each stepping stone. We walked further round and crossed over at a foot bridge and then started to walk up Bunster Hill - a definite killer as it was just so steep! But the views were worth it!
And if you look closely, you can just about make out one brave soul rock climbing! He was actually being photographed by two women who had all the right gear - digital SLR cameras, tripods, lenses and so on, kind of put my little point and shoot camera to shame!
All in all, we probably walked about seven miles, and I have the blisters to prove it! then on the way home, look at what we saw:
The perfect end to a wonderful day!
And then on Sunday, I managed to get some Photoshop time in (woohoo!!!). I finally managed to track down a paintbrush/watercolour effect tutorial and this is the result:
You can download them here, so let me know what you think. I have another set of 10 almost ready to go so I'll upload those later this week for you ;).
Happy scrapping!
Well, two weeks ago we (myself and three of the guys) went up the Wrekin. I'd promised our youngest a run out so even though it was raining, we decided to brave the elements and go up the Wrekin. The weather was just a slight drizzle for most of the time, so we didn't even need our coats on until it got too wet without them!
After the usual exertion of the steep path up to the house/cafe where we always get an ice cream, the path eased out (well, if you can call it easing out - at least it wasn't as steep as the first part where I always feel as if I am about to have a heart attack and have trouble getting my breath!). The view was, as always, stunning, even with the looming grey clouds:
So last Sunday, when our youngest wanted to go again, the weather was completely different: no rain and, in fact, there was actually some sunshine! The first part of the walk was the usual killer. DS kept telling me to be quiet on the way up when people passed - this was so they wouldn't hear my heavy breathing as I panted my way up the hill! I don't know what he was complaining about, at least I was walking (crawling?) up and many people wouldn't even attempt it!
As you can see the weather was much better. In actual fact, it was really warm and sunny and you can see the difference in the following photos:
DS wants to go to the Stiperstones next, but that will be an all day event, as we usually walk several miles when we go there and end up absolutely exhausted. I'm always amazed just how long a four mile walk can take as I am sure the trail map we follow is deliberately misleading. There is no way I could be that tired after a four mile walk, and I am convinced the walk is really eight miles at least but is only described as four in the brochure to get more people walking!
Anyhow, I have been playing around in Photoshop and actually managed to make a desktop before the middle of the month (just!):
I've only made it in one size (1280x1024) so if you would like it, grab it here.
Have fun!
....the size of the naan bread at the Indian restaurant last night! It was hubbie's 50th birthday last weekend, so last night, our eldest son and his girlfriend took us out for a curry to celebrate. We went to this amazing restaurant in Birmingham, possibly the curry capital of the UK. The curry was scrumptious, and the naan bread to die for! We actually only went for the medium naan breads, which were probably 18 inches in diameter (we shared a couple between us), but the large ones...well, they had to be carried on two plates/baskets and they must have been 3 feet across! I mean, just what size of cooker do they have to be able to make those?!!! The large naan bread was as big as the table!
I must say, though, that they must have been the best naan bread ever, so if you fancy a try, nip over to the Punjab Paradise on Ladywood Road. I would definitely recommend it.
I've been trying to catch up on various things this week without much luck. Have you ever had those occasions when no matter what you do or how hard you try, you end up getting nowhere fast? I'm trying to get my son to finish off my new website so I can start designing in earnest but I also need to get more kits, etc made beforehand. Then I need to make some reward tags for a group I am in, plus I have been asked to write another tutorial for Bellascraps and am tracking my brains to come up with a useful one. Plus there is the never ending pile of work, always something to be thankful for when you are self employed though!
I did manage to upload some papers to 4shared though:
I tweaked the gingham overlay I have made and made the squares slightly smaller. Let me know what you think and you can download it by clicking here.
I'm off now to try and do some paint pages in photoshop. I am convinced a can get a realistic paint effect and am determined to find out how to do this!
....get the desktop for July finished!!! It's only 16 July today, so obviously I am totally up to date and on time, as per usual, lol! I'll leave the preview and download link later in this post
Things here seem to be even more hectic than usual but at least it is almost the end of term. Only one more day to go and then my youngest son finished until September, which will make life a lot easier as there will be no school run over the summer. Of course, the other two still need taking to work, but that will mean only a 12 mile trip instead of the current 24 mile trip. Gotta love those school holidays!
My youngest is really looking forward to the holidays. I reckon he needs a break from school and some time to just "chill". He's been working hard these last few weeks and whilst his school report was both good and bad. How can someone be so good at maths, history and science, achieving better than the national curriculum level for year 7, and yet have grades just below that for English and geography? He is not a stupid boy, far from it, so is this the school or the teachers or what? You have to wonder.....
We start our summer holiday sessions at church this week. This means that the house groups, etc each take a Sunday Service and it is cafe church all through the summer. So, lots of tea and coffee, with different styles of service to look forward to:).
Well, I'd better get back to work. I need to get three sets of accounts finished by this weekend and only have today and tomorrow to do it in! If you know how to squeeze an extra hour out of each day plus an extra day in each week, please let me know, I could do with the extra time! In the meantime, here is the preview of the desktop.
It is made using my part in the Summer Garden blog train, and the photos are of the Red Arrows, the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team. We saw them in action at Cosford Air Show last month and I managed to get a couple of decent photos out of the umpteen I took. Most of the others were too blurry or far away to be any good, but I was really pleased with these two photos. Due to my camera not being the fastest around (or maybe it's the photographer!), there were many photos of the sky, the clouds, some smoke as the planes moved too fast for me to get them in shot an press the button before they flew away! One day (in my dreams) I will have a digital SLR camera with zoom lenses and all that stuff, and will be able to take millions of photos in seconds, but until then, I have only a limited ability to take photos of fast moving objects!
So far, the desktop is only in 1280 by 1024 size, so if anyone wants a different size, just let me know. Click on the preview to go to the download page.
Bye for now!
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