More freebie friendly greyscale stuff

Winter has officially started here, and it is bucketing down with rain and I won’t complain because we are in a drought. Normally we get the rain on the coast which is good because it fills are tanks and waters the yard and the parks, but our dams are about 70km inland and they don’t seem to get the rain. BUT the rain is actually falling near the dams as well, so we are really happy. That won’t stop me of course from being cheeky to Miss Vicki as she enjoys her holiday in Portugal.
These are some more greyscale elements for those who are wanting things they can recolour to match some other kit, or who design and share freebie kits. The terms of use are quite clear that these can only be used in kits that are shared with anyone. The file size got a bit big so I divided into two parts. The first part is here and the second part is here. I know the new format at 4shared is a pain and you can’t write a comment whilst waiting for the download once you have hit the button. But I really miss the comments, it is what motivates people to share, truly. I would love to see a hello from the other Aussies that are visiting the blog especially, some are visiting from my home town and nearby.
Hope you are having a great day,
Erika

Just for a laugh

This was created for lvmommy and Elizabeth as a bit of a joke after their fun comments that the button paper looked like cookies. Just for fun I scanned in and extracted a cookie (choc chip no less LOL), and made a couple of papers with it, two coordinating plain papers, an alpha and a brush (plus the png file). The reason being I am actually going to use it for a layout with some photos of the kids making cookies. I hope someone else can use it also. You can grab it here, and I would love to see any layouts.
Thank you K for the really lovely comments you left with the leather frames. And thank you to all that do leave comments. I do read them all, and I love to hear what people think of stuff, or have a laugh at a shared experience. I don’t think it matters where we live we all have shared experiences or hopes. The comments people leave really do mean a lot and encourage me to keep sharing anything I make. So thank you back to those that take the time to leave a message. I have even learned something – Ann Onimous (love that name) let me know that the bracket mat shape is actually a “quatrefoil”, I was very impressed. There you go – now you can all go and use the word in a sentence today.
Best wishes,
Erika

Freebie Alpha for the Caterpillar

The alphas for the caterpillar are here. A rough / grungy style one, and a prettier (?) torn cardboard one.
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

Free Alpha and Chain

I am really happy with this alpha. I have some piccies of my son and his friends over at the Barracks with DH checking out the trucks and stuff from school holidays last year. I wanted to have an alpha tag (I love using monograms) and so I used the cast pewter action from Atomic Cupcake to make them, I had to add a layer to get the indented letter a bit darker, but still see the detail. But I am really happy with the result. So I called it Boot Camp and made the tag for that, because lets face it there is a boot camp for everything these days, so that might be useful to others. I also added the Love Mum/Mom tags because I do like to “sign” a lot of the pages in my kids books, and it is a reminder that those serving have Mum’s who love them very much. The thing that took the longest was scanning in and extracting the *&^% chain. I think I owe the swear jar a bit of money LOL. I eventually got them the way I liked them, one open ended to go around wider things, and one crossed over to come through narrow gaps. The frame is not included in the download (trust it is BIG enough – sorry dial uppers I didn’t check the file size until I realised how long it was taking to upload), but I will upload the frame with some other RUN stuff I am making with my son over the next few days. You can download here, and let me know what you think.
Best wishes,
Erika (the action-a-holic)

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

The Attempt at a Sanded Chipboard Alpha

What a slacker hey ! I promised I would come back and upload the alpha, then fell asleep LOL. After dinner I was reading with the kids - we are reading the Magic Faraway Tree series by Enid Blyton. For comfort the kids come and lie on our bed whilst we read, and it was warm and cosy and ZZZZZzzzzzzz LOL. My poor body is catching up after five very intense months on a project.

Anyway, this is my attempt at stripping and sanding some paper off a chipboard alpha. This is not the best way to do this. There are grunge and sand overlays you can use, better brushes etc, but I don't have those, or the experience to know the shortcuts and tricks. So if you are one of the people who are new to all this like me, who have left some really wonderful messages and are going to have a go then do have a try. I tried a couple of other ways first and was unhappy with the results for this, but learnt something I could use somewhere else.

I was really touched and thrilled to get messages from people saying they were like me and intimidated by PSE or what others could do, and are now going to have a go. I am so pleased that by just sharing my learning adventure other people are going to try. I could ask for nothing more. So, I had better just shut up and let you have a look at the results, constructive comments and feedback welcome !

http://www.4shared.com/file/45191799/542960f1/CWTG_-_Run_-_Chipboard_Alpha.html

Best wishes,

Erika

Freebie - SPLAT alpha

I had a bit of fun with this today. I think I've mentioned that I love bold bright colours and designs for my kids pages. I had a go at creating this alpha to use on my kids kindy pages. The letter in the middle is actually a cut out so will show whatever is behind it. I did some in all the JUMP colours and five of the RUN colours (I know what a slacker LOL). But you can easily change it to any colour by using the .png file as a clipping mask. And I did the them as a brush set LOL - talk about creating a monster. It did end up getting tedious by the second half of the alpha LOL but you will be pleased to know that I persisted and included the numerals, an ' and a !, and in the PNG files I put a hyphen for those with hyphenated names - cannot remember if I did that in the brushes (oops).

Thanks for the comments and emails about the couple of people that got cranky. It is mostly water off a ducks back, but I am big on manners (ask my poor kids), and I think sometimes we all need to remember patience and tolerance, I know I have my days. I have shot myself in the foot trying to be clever with these brush files and somehow saved over one of the ones in PSE, which I will have to figure out. For those that notice - yes I do know that I got two letters of the alphabet out of order (long story don't ask - they are all there though) and the abr file ended up being called brishes instead of brushes - that is for any kiwi digi-scrappers LOL.

http://www.4shared.com/file/44706358/687b05d6/CWTG_-_Splat_Alpha.html

I am still playing with the sanded paper on chipboard. The tutorials I had relied on you using their product, which I am happy to do, but I cannot share, so I am figuring out how to do it myself.

Best wishes,

Erika