Heavenly Crafts

As an aspiring designer, I decided to enter the Faith Sisters.com designers call and uploaded my kit last night. Whilst the swatch was really lovely, I had my usual trouble of not knowing when to stop. After all, if you have 6 colours in the swatch, then obviously you need 6 plain papers plus 6 patterned ones! All that plus elements on top, when all you are supposed to make is a mini kit.... sigh! Anyhow, after playing around with designs for a while, I ended up with 8 papers and 16 elements as you can see here:

You should check out the other would be designers though, there are some amazing kits there:

http://www.faithsisters.com/photopost/showgallery.php/cat/6664

All the kits are downloadable, so why not go and have a look? You can vote for your favourite one although you do have to be registered and logged into the gallery in order to vote. I don't think for one minute I will get any further, but it is all good experience and hopefully, one day...!!!! I'd appreciate it if you would let me know what you think of my kit in comparison to the others, as I know I need more experience, but please be gentle with any criticism, I bruise easily!

Well, by the time I had the kit finished, and because I am such a procrastinator, I ended up with far more papers than I should realistically have in a mini kit. so I took 5 papers out although looking at these now, I'm wondering whether I should have left them in and taken some of the other papers out instead....oh well, too late now! Anyhow, I thought you might like to have them so here they are:

Just click on the preview to download:) Hopefully two freebies in one day will compensate for my less than frequent postings!

Remember how I said I would be back with the brown patterned alpha made from one of the papers in may part of the "Hurry up and get here Spring" blog train? Well, I have finally had chance to do the preview and upload this to 4shared:




Sorry it's not much of a preview, but I hope you like the alpha. You can download it by clicking on the preview.

Also, Bellascraps March edition was published last week. This is the Easter edition, with articles and tutorials by Julie Ann Shahin (of Everyday Digital Scrapbooking), Becky Cutshaw, Kelleigh Ratzlaff (of The DigiChick), Lynn Clifford, and Sandy Osborn (of Print Design Services) and plenty of layout tips to guide you through your own designs.

Lliella Designs of Funky Playground Designs & Sunshine Studio Scraps has created a kit that is sure to make you “hoppy” as you scrap your Easter and Spring photos! Made exclusively for Bella Scraps readers, Egg Hunt is free with purchase! This issue also includes free download bonuses: Egg Hunt Quick Pages (4 quick pages for you by the Bellas) and Project Templates by Lynn Clifford (yours truly!!!).





IN THIS ISSUE:
• Featured Designer: Allie Llacer (Lliella Designs)
• Bellas create.
• Bellas create a bonus. Egg Hunt Quick Pages
• Beginner: Hybrid Easter Basket by Lynn Clifford
• Step Up Your Layering by Becky Cutshaw
• Bella’s Choice: Marcie Reckinger
• Using Quickpages by Kelleigh Ratzlaff
• Technique Call: Faithbooking
• Whimsical Hybrid Bird Cage Tags by Julie Ann Shahin
• Element Call: Birdies & Chickies
• Paper Easter Baskets: Easy Paper Baskets for All Occasions (on the cover) by Sandy Osborn
• Easter submitted.
• How to Create with Prima Hybrid Chipmates: Digital + Stickers + Chipboard + Epoxies by Julie Ann Shahin
• Featured Scrapper Rebecca Lavender-Roberts
• Flower Pinwheel Gift: Introducing Chalkboard Paint by Julie Ann Shahin
• It’s All in the Details: Weddings by Amy Eileen Head
• Resources & Coupons

You can buy this at the Bella Scraps shop and this edition has loads of Easter themes and ideas, both digital and hybrid. It is definitely worth a read :).

I'd forgotten all about St Patrick's day until this morning, when I was deluged with loads of St Patrick day emails in my inbox! I haven't made a St Patrick's day kit or anything, but here are a few random facts about St Patrick:

• Kidnapped at 16 by Irish raiders and taken from his native Wales to Ireland. There he was sold as a slave to an Irish chieftain.
• For six years he tended the flocks of his master, spending the days and nights in prayer.
• He escaped and made his way to Britain, where he became a priest and later a Bishop.
• He returned to Ireland as a missionary and played a major part in converting the Irish to Christianity.

The following is part of a prayer attributed to St Patrick:

Christ with me, Christ before me,
Christ behind me, Christ within me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ at my right, Christ at my left,
Christ in the fort,
Christ in the chariot seat,
Christ in the poop [deck],
Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks to me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

Tim Hughes wrote the song, My Everything, based on this prayer and I made the above tag last year to include in our church notices.

Well, that's all for now. I need to run a payroll, finalise some company accounts and prepare a corporation tax return all before I go line dancing tonight....I lead such an exciting life! I'll be back probably tomorrow with another "Hurry up and get here Spring" alpha, this time based on the brown flowery paper as requested by ABC. I have finished the alpha but won't get time to zip it and upload it until tomorrow sometime.

I haven't had much free time recently as I have been so busy (nothing new there then!). I have been out at a client's putting all their books and records onto an accounts program and it has been an up and down ride. But it is beginning to look as if in another day or so, it will all be up and running - so I just need to train them on how to use the software!

Since I have started making my own cards now, which I design on the computer and then print and cut out, I end up spending hours carefully cutting out bits and pieces for the cards. Mum and I went to a Fiskars workshop and got to try out this pencil swivel knife and basically, you hold it like a pen or or pencil and it is so easy to use. It much more flexible than holding a normal craft knife, so of course, mum and I both ended up getting one!

Ok, that's all for now. I'm hoping to be back with a freebie in the next day or so, so watch this space! In the meantime, happy scrapping!

Have you ever had one of those days when you really don't want to do any work, even though you know you should? Well, I have a pile of work to go through, and so far today all I have done is check my email and start a draft of a letter....:(. I needed some incentive so I spent a little time making an alpha using an action from Boop Designs:

Well, my daughter and I have just got back from a fantastic three day break in London. This time, we visited the British Museum, the Natural History Museum, St Paul's Cathedral, the Globe Theatre, the Clink Museum, Buckingham Palace, as well as Oxford Street, Regents Street, Leicester Square and Trafalgar Square.

DD managed to fit in some shopping time, and we saw "Zorro, the musical" and "Jersey boys". Both performances were good, but if ever you get the chance, you really should go and see Jersey Boys. The audience was dancing in the aisles and the cast had a standing ovation. The language was somewhat ripe at times, and some of the jokes/innuendos would not have been understood by my 12 year old (who thankfully wasn't there!), but the music was awesome. It was as if Franky Valli and the Four Seasons were singing right in front of us. I would definitely recommend it - just close your ears when they use the "F" word!

DD and I very rarely use the underground when in London, which meant that for the first two days, we walked everywhere. I reckon we did at least 12 miles the first day with another 10 the second day. Mind you, every time we tried to work out how far we walked, the estimates kept going up! We only managed about 5 miles the last day and succumbed to the lure of the underground as our legs and feet had just about had it! I am sitting here at my computer now and can still feel my bones aching and the blisters on my feet throbbing! It was definitely all worth it though :)!

Anyhow, after those few days away, I came back and finished off my part in the ADSDesigners blog train: Hurry up and get here, Spring! Here is a preview of my part in this. Firstly, the elements:


and then the papers:

Just click on the previews to download them.