My frou frou layout

I don’t do many 1 photo layouts. I am very much a multiple photos and usually double page layout kind of girl. But I had the picture of my daughter from last December (VERY recent by my scrapping standards LOL), that would be a one picture photo. And I actually didn’t want the photo to be too big, because she had a doozy of a bruise on her forehead that had faded to that nice yellow that looks more like a dirty mark. But this was a special moment, we had finally found a tutu for her beloved doll and they were both dressed up together to dance. I have embraced the glitter, and used Atomic Cupcake’s new glitter edge action on the circle, the papers are from Vicki’s Sophie kit (one of her very early ones), with the buckle and tag from Fizzy Pop, one of her more recent ones. The template is Denise (NeeCeeBee Designs) Template 1, tipped on its side.
We had a gardening day today (we are redoing our front yard after having a very big drain put in), and I have also refreshed the plants on our front porch. I also had the gruelling task of directing hubby about how he needs to dig out the area for the new front path LOL. Have some more textures to share tomorrow. Didn’t get time to bundle and upload tonight and I have some ironing that needs doing.
Hope you are having a great weekend,
Erika

Pirate freebies in Digitreat's RUN colours

Well I knew someone clever could do something fabulous with those tracks. Jeannie the Scrap Doctor made a fabulous paper she emailed me a preview of, by embossing it on dirt. I have asked her if she can share it as a freebie because it is gorgeous. She does have a busy weekend so we will have to wait and see. I was really excited to have my layout chosen as a finalist for Vicki’s challenge, I won’t vote for myself and I had a really tough decision choosing which to vote for, I love the simplicity and the wonderful picture and sentiment of the dandelion dreams finalist, but I also love the vibrant colour and composition of the citrus berry finalist.
Anyway I am scrapping the noisy woisy boy-zy’s birthday from last year. He had a pirate party and we invited all 24 kids in his class. It was mad, crazy and fun and I am still in therapy over the cake LOL. I can’t share the layout because there are too many kid’s faces to blur out. But I made a paper and a couple of elements for it that I thought I would share here I made the brass stuff but it seemed to “old” for a 6yr old, so I did some things in the leather (I know – not the leather again LOL). The paper uses Shauna’s wonderful commercial use overlay’s. I didn’t include the brass cannon because it didn’t look nice, I won’t tell you the description used LOL, but I am sure you can guess. The treasure map was drawn by my very talented hubby, who smeared it with coffee we had a pin the treasure on the map game and I extracted this from a photo I took of it. The burnt edges didn’t do well in the extraction so I have chalked it using Atomic Cupcake’s fabby chalking action. This is another example of why I love digi – chalking edges is faster and tidier LOL. And because it is going in my son’s album I used Pam’s Digitreats RUN colours, so I can use her other papers and elements. Oh, I also included the clipping mask I made to do the waves for a full 12 inch page. Hope some of this can be of use to someone.
We are off up the mountain to spend some time with my aunt today. Hope you are having a wonderful weekend.
Erika

A Layout, A Story and Some Freebie Add Ons for Skip and Jump

Well I put my time to better use and scrapped the pictures of my daughter’s self inflicted hair cut. This happened last winter. My M-I-L was up to look after the kids because hubby was away on exercise and I was going somewhere to see a client. Anyway on this day my daughter had said she would like to get her fringe cut, and I said I would make an appointment. She headed off to play in the play room and my M-I-L and I grabbed a coffee. I heard my daughter go through to our bedroom, and figured she was just playing with my shoes (she had a shoe fetish since she started walking). A short while later she came out and I noticed her fringe (it was GONE), so I called her over and as I stroked her head great clumps of hair came falling out. Not only had she cut the fringe but great chunks around her ears. Thank goodness for whatever angel was watching over her that day because she could easily have done damage with the scissors. It turned out my husband had left a pair of scissors in with his clippers that she had found. She had totally tidied up after herself though, all that beautiful hair, all those gorgeous curls were neatly in the bin in our ensuite. I phoned my hair dresser who said to bring her straight in and they “salvaged” a cute pixie cut from the horrid mullet she had given herself. We emailed a picture of the scissors to my husband first, and the story of what had happened. The funniest part of this is that when we picked up my son from school and asked if there was anything different about his sister, he looked then stated “she is wearing gloves”. As I said at the time, hair will grow back, but male blindness is forever. SIGH. Anyway I had to scrap these pictures, and thought I would jump out of my comfort zone with Vicki’s Citrus Berry, and the alpha is from her dandelion dreams kit. I have put together some of the items I have been making over the last few days for layouts here, there are a couple of extra things in there I forgot to put on the preview.
Have a great day,
Erika

Layout and a comment on those very clever designers

I am delving into the backlog again to do some photos from New Year's Day 05. The pics are from a visit to The Big Pineapple (I am obsessed with oversized fibreglass tourist attractions but that is another story LOL). I have been putting these photos to one side over the last couple of years because I could never get the right paper, match the right colours. I just don't have an "eye" for colour the way people like Vicki (A Work in Progress) or Pam (Digitreats) or countless other wonderful designers do. Each morning I check to see what Vicki has posted and ooh and aah at what she has created, but also at her ability to put colours together. And the more I look at the schemes Pam chose for the ABC kits the more I see those choices as being truly inspired. They are so versatile. One of the things I love about digi scrapping is the ability to make that ideal paper or element when you need it. I decided to do a striped paper that I took from the stripes on the awning of the train, but when I sampled the green from the train it didn't go with the stripes. So I tried the colours from Pam's Jump kit, and they worked because they go so well together. This is why I have so much admiration and respect for the designers, it is not just about the things they make, it is about the vision of the colours.

Let me know if anyone would like the striped paper (it is jump colours), or the word art saying "The Big Pineapple" LOL, more than happy to share, I just wasn't sure if any would use it ROTFL - how many oversized pineapples are there ?. I had fun making that title using Atomic Cupcake's action that I used on the clear elements for the Piggies layout. I love taking one of these actions and pushing to see how far I can test it, and what it can do.

Best wishes,
Erika

Vicki's Soccer Alpha and Layout !

Well this morning’s email call really put a big smile on my face. Aside from the Irish Lottery I have now won and the person who is concerned I have lost my credit card and will fix it if I send them all the details, I got a lovely email from the totally gorgeous and generous Vicki who has done this fabby soccer alpha for us soccer Mum’s and soccer widows.
If you haven’t already grabbed it you can get it from Vicki’s blog. Vicki’s Sports Mini Kit is what actually got my son set on the topic of doing a special scrapbook just about his soccer. He is going to be so excited to see this when he gets home today. I think Miranda might even be altering her layout (see below) to the new letters.
I also got an email from LJ at Bella Memorie with a layout using the sand background I did for Bargara. Her kids are so photogenic, I think she is going to be one busy scrapper.
I love that shot of the crocs on the sand. They are the details I sometimes miss but really capture a moment. I am layed up with a sprained ankle – I think I have “caught” Vicki’s accident prone tendencies. I did it outside my son’s school at pick up time with the dog and my daughter in tow, needless to say dignity went out the window. Will pack, upload and post the extra bits for that poor neglected caterpillar today. Yesterday afternoon was spent horizontal with a lot of ice around my left ankle and right knee.
Best wishes,
Erika

Lovely Layouts that made me smile !

How exciting is this. I am really honoured that two people have used the stuff I have made to do layouts and shared them with me. I remember the total thrill I got when Bella Memories emailed me the gorgeous layout of her little boy with some papers I had made, and I have to say I am just as excited this time. The first layout is from Mysty and she is going to make some QPs out of this and other layouts, because I didn’t use any actions in Bargara. I love the pictures in her layouts (I have only posted one because I am having probs uploading piccies this morning). So you can grab her QP here. The second on is from Miranda, using the soccer stuff, along with (if I am not mistaken) Vicki’s alpha from Dandelion Dreams and Pam’s G page overlay ?)
I think I am happy with some elements for that poor neglected, starving caterpillar. Will give them another check later today and post. Also I need to correct my spelling in one of the Dutch friends words. Thank you so much to Masja for letting me know. Spelling is important and I was pretty sure I must have got at least one mistake in all those words. I will fix it and post it later today.
We have finally located free and useable templates to make some dinosaur stuff so stay tuned for that over the next few days. Also I have another couple of metal alphas to share this week.
And THANK YOU again to all those fantastic ladies who left Thomas a message. He is doing it for his show and tell tomorrow and is going to show his class the blog entry and all the lovely messages people left him. He is so proud of his fruity buttons. And I am so thankful for people like Atomic Cupcake for making these actions so user friendly that my son can make things and get that sense of achievement.
Off to stop the dog from chasing the cats around the house – it sounds like stampeding elephants on our timber floors LOL.
Best wishes,
Erika

Free Brass Alpha

Thanks to all who took the time to leave Thomas a comment. He was so thrilled and it has made his day. Needless to say that will be his topic for show and tell this week. He loves watching on the feed-it map where everyone visits from and is really enjoying photoshop. He is already planning his next items !! The buttons and things are so easy to do if you once you have the fabulous actions from Atomic Cupcake. Her actions are easy to use, fun to play with and have made the transition to digi so much easier. I love that I will never be one letter short for something again.
I am slowly trying to ensure that I can either buy or create anything that I loved from my traditional stash before I get rid of it. I loved the metal stuff but used to go crazy at getting it to stick to the page and it added so much weight. So I really LOVE the actions at Atomic Cupcake to do this stuff. I have just made a little round brass alpha which was a favourite and you can download it here. I think it will go really well with Vicki’s latest kit (About a Boy) or Pam’s Run ABC Kit Please take the time to say hello if you are downloading and let me know what you think. It really is encouraging.
Best wishes,
Erika

Layout

I did this layout of our fluffiest family member, our spoodle (spaniel / poodle cross). He is a total darling ! The photo was taken last year when he had been to what we call "the poodle parlour" for a clip. I picked him up with the kids and he had a bow in his fur. My son was most unimpressed - "boys don't have bows". My husband was away on exercise at the time so we sent an email with the title "look what they do to your dog when you go away for a few months". The bow didn't even last until we got home.

The kit is Vicki's Cinnamon Toast - see blinkie on your right to get there. The title though I did myself to play with the fur action from atomic cupcake. My son and I made a yeti with it today using the paper dolls.

Best wishes,

Erika

Layout - Soccer Season

Well soccer season has started here. Training one evening a week and a game each Saturday morning (thankfully not too early). My son is keen to get involved in his scrapbook. So he helped me this morning to create the layout above (we still have to add the journalling. The chipboard letters are the ones by Kelly Mize at http://www.designerdigitals.com/ with a colour altered soccer paper from the very talented Vicki (http://vicki20.blogspot.com/) over the top. The same paper is used for the background. The label is also Vicki's from the mini sports kit, and the stretchy thing across the piccies is from Vicki Stegall's (at http://www.oscraps.com/) Rock Star kit.

I was amazed at the patience of a nearly 7 yr old (2 days to go). We shrunk some of Vicki's paper after we recoloured it, and then attached it to each letter so the pattern wasn't too big. He did it - he grabbed and dragged, positioned, and clipped to each letter (the whole alpha and numbers so we can use them again)! Kids pick these things up so much better than we do. He loves doing anything on the computer too. He loves the main photo of him tackling the other team's player. He naturally loves the defensive spots which we are eternally grateful for, because every other player on the team wants to be up front and scoring goals.

So that is our first collaborative layout and I am one proud scrappin mumma.

Best wishes,

Erika

Freebie to Celebrate Vicki's News !

Wow - congratulations to Vicki for her wonderful news (http://vicki20.blogspot.com/). I am so thankful for Vicki for encouraging me to have a go at playing with PSE and seeing what I can do. So this is my e-version of a bunch of flowers LOL, okay so its just one.

Posting some other stuff I have been playing with later.
Here's the link:

http://www.4shared.com/file/43371648/66a6e4d/White_Silk_with_Yellow_Centre.html

Have a great day and congratulations Vicki !

Erika