Greyscale Velvet Ribbon Items

Thanks for the lovely comments guys. Things are busy. I had a houseful of kids today and the rest of the week will be crazy with work stuff. Some other opportunities have been offered to me today and I have a feeling I am either going to end up with a feast or a famine and I hate having to make these sorts of decisions. So if I disappear for a day or two rest assured I am okay, just snowed under.
Another greyscale freebie for you and some test drives in Pam’s ABC Kit colours. Sorry there is no preview for the colours, but there are 4 Jump colours, 2 Run and 2 Skip. They are separate to the greyscale because there are different terms of use for each.
You can grab the greyscale Here and the colours here. There was supposed to be a forth element, but I used Hummie’s bevel technique to check for strays and accidentally saved it bevelled. If anyone knows how to un-bevel (I think I just invented a new word LOL), please let me know. And I think I am once again the clear leader in the ugly preview competition !
Best wishes to all,
Erika

A new overlay

I am a shocking and bad blogger ! I have been MIA due to a run of things that have conspired to keep me from anything scrap related other than my daily Digitreat’s fix ! Thanks for all the wonderful supportive comments, you will be pleased to know my gorgeous boy has bounced back and had already figured out who his real friends are. It is funny though how it is a universal thing with us mums that if you hurt our babies that even the normally most mild mannered of us can fire up big time. We had a wonderful weekend with family visiting for the school fete. The fete was exhausting as always (I burnt my hand whilst working on the curry stall).

So the work thing is still evolving. I am in negotiations with a consulting firm who approache me to come on board and also with a large multi-national about a position with them. Both are senior roles and will be big time in the office, a bit different after working from home for years. Hubby will be working from home so the kids won’t have to do after school care or anything, but I think it will be a bit strange for me. By the end of this week we should have a better idea of what is happening. There are still some other options we are considering, and we have been looking at some others that we have now dismissed to go overseas. I don’t know if anyone has lived/worked in Dubai, but there were a couple of good options there, Geneva and New York. After spending a lot of online time investigating those (rather than scrapping) we look like we will be staying closer to home for now. The other thing that has been keeping me away is that it is the mid of winter down here in Australia and at night the temps have been dropping below 15C which for us thin blooded Queenslanders is too much to bare. So we have rented a few videos and snuggled up with the electric blanket on. There is this fantastic Australian series called Underbelly which is based on real events in Melbourne during 1995 – 2005 with the drug wars. The series was really well made, and totally addictive. It showed on TV whilst I was on my last project and I was working up to 20 hour days so I had missed it – so we rented the DVDs and watched it over a few nights. And of course – Wimbledon, say no more. It is also school holidays here, and I have no routine, which is not good. What little time I did spend online or scrapping, was spent stalking Pam as always, checking out all Vicki’s stuff at AWP, and finally finding out what happened to Kristin Aargard, who had disappeared from the Orchard’s contest. I couldn’t find her blog for weeks but finally found it and she has been picked up by a store and she has some amazing bubbles that I am heading over to get when I get some time this week.

So I couldn’t come back without a freebie. I have another linen overlay, and of course I took it for a test drive in my favourite vehicle. The overlay is here, the test drive in Digitreat’s Run is here and in Jump is here. There is actually a fourth Jump colour included in the download, I just forgot to put it on the preview.
Best wishes,
Erika

Freebie Build a Spotty Ribbon

Thanks for letting me vent guys and thanks for all the supporting words. As soon as I found out on Tuesday I clarified that it wasn’t an oversight, because I was sure it must have been, this woman had been very vocal last year about her son not being invited to a party (only 2 boys out of 20 were invited so not quite the same). I got a very uncomfortable comment that it wasn’t so much a party as a BBQ. Yep, it was still a BBQ with all the team except my son. That is why I was so astounded, that it wasn’t just a mistake. I didn’t go into it any further with her. I am now just another person at the school who will have no time for her and not bother to offer her assistance in the future. A couple of the other Mums had asked me once or twice why I bothered with her, and I had defended her, and believed her to be a kind and thoughtful person. Well anyone who can see my son hurt that way is not kind or thoughtful and maybe the other Mum’s were right in their assessment of her. I’m with Patty – if anyone hurts my kids the lioness in me comes out. Karma will catch up with these sort of people and if not Karma the bunch of vigilante scrappers that Melissa mentioned LOL.
We took my daughter to her immunologist this morning, she has multiple allergy syndrome, and is anaphylactic to a few things. Over the last couple of weeks she had developed what appeared like a rash on her torso. No itching, it was just there. Good news is it is not a big issue it is another form of eczema, I should have written down the name, our GP will have it when we see her. Seems the cooler, drier air does not agree with her. She had ordinary eczema when she was a baby but it cleared up when we moved back to Queensland from Canberra. We are gearing up for the family arriving tomorrow, the kids are so excited, we have a weekend of fun planned. Tomorrow afternoon I am going to see a Picasso exhibit with my Aunt which should be a nice start to the weekend too.
The freebie today, aside from ensuring I win the “worst preview” award from Vicki A, is a freebie friendly greyscale to make a spotted ribbon. I have put it in as a PSD file, with three layers, for the background, a lighter coloured dot and a darker coloured dot. It makes it easier to colour in. As usual I took it for a test drive in my favourite little sports model – Miss Pamela’s Digitreats ABC Kit colours. It worked a treat. The PSD file and the test drives are all bundled up together (cause I’m lazy LOL) and you can grab them here.
Best wishes,
Erika

I'm Back

I am a bad blogger! Skipped out in the middle of the state of origin, and not back for a week. In some ways I feel like I have blinked and lost 7 days, and in other ways I feel like it was ages ago I was watching the second half of that game. Thank you for the lovely emails and messages !

Queensland won – 30 to 0, yes that is right 0, NIL, nothing ! Yeah Qld !!

So what a crazy week. Thursday I was emailed a task proposal, I spent a few days looking at it, and turned it down. It would have been insane trying to achieve it in the deadline the client wanted and more importantly it would not have been to a quality I would be happy to put my name to. I emailed a company that had approached me a couple of times in the last 8 months to come and work for them. And have been in for a discussion. The company is a very good one, market leaders, the role is interesting, in addition to pure consulting work I will be mentoring junior consultants, and encouraged to publish and present. The only down side is that it is office based. Hubby will be working from home to do the school runs, but I know this is going to be very hard for me. I love my time with the kids, I love the walk home from pre-school or school, holding hands and hearing about their day. So I have been a bit miserable about that and Mr Mojo flew out the window. Last night when I was just starting to feel a bit more like scrapping, I found out my precious, gorgeous son, a kid who does not have a mean bone in his body and is truly one of the kindest people you could meet, has been excluded from a party. From his school mates there is a group of them that play soccer together, ALL the other kids on the team from school were invited, he wasn’t. How do you explain that to him? I couldn’t give him a good explanation. It’s not like one of those you can only invite two friends to the movie scenarios, where you can put it down to a numbers thing. I find this really hard to take because last year I invited all 24 kids in his class to his birthday so no one was left out, even kids I’d rather not have had in my home. I am hoping it pours with rain on Saturday so soccer is cancelled and he doesn’t have to hear the others talking about the party they are going to that afternoon. What upsets me about it more is that earlier this week I had offered to the mother to babysit the kids on two separate occasions and cover for her with some stuff she had to do because she was snowed under – yeah but not too snowed under to hold a party. I just find it really insulting that I have done and offered quite a bit of late to help her kids wellbeing, but she can show no regard for my child’s wellbeing. It kills me to see my kids hurting and I know that in the long term this is something that will build his resilience, all those good platitudes, but I’m sorry if you told your child they could only invite 5 friends and that left 1 kid off the team out – wouldn’t you just invite 6 ? My son was really hurt, it just crushed me to see the confusion and pain on his face. And on Saturday we will have to see it again when they all head off from the soccer match to the party, and on Monday when they go to school and talk about the party we will see it again. About the only silver lining in this is that my B-I-L, S-I-L and nieces are up for the weekend, and that will provide a lovely distraction. We have planned to fill the weekend with his favourite things to do.
Anyway, I have vented enough. Something scrapping to share. I have called this Denim and Rose, but the fabric overlay is actually a heavy cotton. You can grab it here.
And a VERY happy birthday to Carole N. (I saw it on Pam’s blog). Carole I saw that you had a lovely day and I hope your friend continues to get better.
Best wishes,
Erika

Another overlay - coloured for the blog in honour of the footy

I need to say very quickly - QUEENSLANDER !! (sorry to all the non-Aussies, but this is a very parochial, tribal, football series between Queensland and New South Wales and the second of three games is on tonight). As I am grossly outnumbered by the New South Wales bloggers (Mandy aka Witchypoo, Vicki aka Digi Lover, and Maria aka Digifree), I have to do something to fly the banner. Now I am not a rugby league person, I am strictly union, and soccer for my son BUT - this is a matter of state pride LOL and we are one game down.
Thanks to all for the helpful comments on engraving. You guys are amazing. I have now learnt how to adjust my levels for DS and bevels in PSE6 LOL. That’s what the fx button is for ! Thanks also to those that clued me in about Without A Trace. I think I watched about 3 or 4 episodes when it first started in the first season. So trying to come along and pick up the storyline now is not good, but thanks to all the lovely people who let me know, I think I get what is happening. I might have to try and watch it again this week. The only TV I get to watch is gladiators on Sunday night with the kids, and the late night news before I go to sleep.
Anyway things are crazy here at the moment, I have just had a six month parcel of work fall through the week before I was due to commence due to “budget cuts” which leaves me in the lurch work wise. I am desperately trying to line up something else so very busy with that. Here is an overlay I did the other day, another floral and you can grab it here. I have coloured the preview for the blog in honour of tonight’s footy match. The real preview is greyscale as is the overlay !
Best wishes to all,
Erika

New Overlay

I have had a bit of fun this weekend playing with the super new acrylic action from Atomic Cupcake and her new clip tool. Very cute. I now need to remember who did the tutorial about drop shadows for acrylic (it was either Hummie or Misty Cato). I have also spent a fair amount of time cleaning (YUCK), and the kiddos and I made chocolate chip pikelets for morning tea (sinful but delicious). It was wintery here today because it was bleak and overcast, but I can’t say it was cold as we are still getting around in short sleeves. My ds is getting sever cabin fever not being allowed to do sport or even go on the trampoline. We got the kids one of those enclosed trampolines from Spring free (link in case you are in Australia), and honestly it is the best money we ever spent on them. Hubby rigged up a shade cover and they love it. They bounce away for ages making up all sorts of games, and when they get tired the will sit there and chat and giggle, it almost doubles as a cubby house. Anyway, three more days and he will be allowed back on. Cannot come soon enough for me.
Enough waffling. Here is another overlay for you. Would love some feedback on these, whether they have been useful, did they work well, what you might have made. If they aren’t of much use / value then there is not much point in doing them.
I actually did a bit of blog surfing today. Glad to see Vicki is back from Portugal, can’t wait to see what she does next. I was so pleased to see Denise’s layout that she turned into template 5 won the So Sunny competition. Very well deserved. And I was blown away by Jeanie’s latest instalment on For the Love of Lemons. She made furniture ! From scratch ! Not extracted ! I saw Misty Cato’s latest kits with the rooms, and was really impressed by the whole concept of perspective, not to mention her wicked extraction layout. I really should have done art, I have been having a peek at my son’s learn to draw books. He takes after his Dad, hubby is great at drawing. I have been reading about the magic dot !
On a sad note I was disappointed to read about two bad instances of piracy, with Lisa and Candee. I can only hope that karma will catch up with these people.
Okay, better get back to work work ! And its nearly time to start dinner. Hope everyone had a great weekend,
Erika

Linen Texture Overlay

I have another texture for you, and something of a tutorial about how I used it LOL talk about the blind leading the blind. I have got some lovely scrapping time in today. I have been listening to Gabriella Cilmi’s CD that I treated myself to the other day, all that was missing was a nice glass of wine. What a voice this girl has. She is sort of similar in style to Amy Winehouse but without all the drugs and destruction and waste of talent. I had heard her song Sweet About Me on the radio and it took me two weeks to find out the name of the singer. Turns out she is an Australian but moved to UK to record etc.
Anyway, on to matters scrapping LOL, this is the linen texture I use. I have had a few emails today asking about this. I simply scanned an old piece of plain linen (I told you I’m not a designer lol). To add a pattern to it, I just use a brush on a separate layer to the linen, either set to darken or lighten, then reduce its opacity until I get the right effect. Something I found out that the very artistic types already know LOL is that you get a better effect if you work with diamonds not squares. I have always tried creating my patterns in a square then it gets tiled and can look boxy. For ornate style designs, you are better working a design or pattern that is a diamond style shape (roughly speaking, not exact), so for a shape that is wider in the middle and narrower on the top and bottom. Now I don’t have a great eye for these things, so I cheated LOL. I have Kim Sheen’s fabby CU Templates from Scrap Orchard, and what I did with the leaf one I shared the other day was to grab one of the layers of her diamond templates, and put that on top of the linen, rotate it or expand if you want. Then worked my design (or position your brush) within the diamonds. When you have it how you want it just delete the diamond shape guide layer. Voila, it looks much better, not so boxy. I have included an example of a simple dragonfly on linen, I am short on time so didn’t do anything ornate, and missed every other diamond. I was originally going to put a frog in but it looked wrong and I ran out of patience. But it is enough to give you the idea. It is in a Digitreats Run colour so you can actually use it. By adding different layers of the brush either lightening or darkening you can get quite a fabulous design on your linen. By keeping the layers separate you can make it a multicoloured pattern too on the linen.
I hope that actually makes sense – I am not very good at describing things, I can’t explain anything without a whiteboard LOL. Anyway grab the linen texture here and have a play, would love to see what people come up with.
Best wishes,
Erika

Test drive in Digitreat's Skip

I took it for a little “test drive” with some of Pam’s Skip colours,. I really love those colours, they suit old vintage style stuff and more modern designs. I tried using the pattern just as an overlay on a solid colour, and then “painting” it with the colours”. I was really pleased with the result. Again everything is shared “clean” rather than “grunged”, you can add your own, either through the wonderful brushes of people like Stephanie (Obsidian Dawn) or marvellous grunge overlays that are available at just about all the scrapping digi stores. So have some fun, let me know if you have some results to share with this, and the test drive in some of Pam’s Skip colours are here.

I am like a kid on Christmas morning this afternoon, just finished the hunt at the Orchard and Sunshine Girls, plus I treated myself to two of Ellie Lash's gorgeous new kits (did you see that cute LO with her two boys on her blog) - link is to the right if you haven't, and Pam's realeased more patterned papers. I don't know what to play with first . Oh that's right, I have housework, work work, and some voluntary work I am doing (perfomance management system). AAAGGGHHH. Make that a kid on Christmas morning who is given all their pressies then has to leave them to go and visit the rellies LOL.

Okay, back to cleaning that front porch. UUUGGHHHH.
Best wishes,
Erika

Floal Linen Overlay

I found a really lovely and really old piece of fabric that I wanted to experiment with. I have created an overlay for you with it. It is actually quite versatile and you can either just recolour it in one shade to get one effect, or if you are patient (or crazy LOL), you can paint it in different colours. It is shared under the freebie friendly TOU, so please respect them. The overlay is here , for you to grab. Don’t forget to leave some love, and if you do create something with it I would love to see it, it gives me a real buzz.
I have both the kids home today, my son was still getting some dizzy spells. He was not happy that he couldn’t play tennis before school today (or go to school), but I have been too chicken to tell him he’s not going to be allowed to play soccer tomorrow either. YIKES. Might let my husband be the bearer of that bad news, hubby is out all day tomorrow diving so my son can be angry with him LOL.
Best wishes,
Erika

Two more textures

I love my podiatrist ! For the first time in years I think someone might have figured out what causes a lot of the problems I have with my feet. He really took the time to ask questions, listen to my answers and conduct a proper examination of my feet – and they are not pretty either my feet LOL. He has a plan for addressing my shin splints so I can get back to walking, and a plan for how despite my knee injuries I may even be able to get back to running. My daughter is also a lot brighter and less “chesty” today. The only worry is that it appears my son copped a harder knock in that accident than we thought and probably has a mild concussion.
I have two more textures for you today. I have left them clean for the sharing, but the leaf brush linen looks really nice grunged up. These are shared under the freebie friendly terms of use. Can I just clarify these, I had an email from someone today pointing me to a blog that was using them and not complying with the TOU. These are shared for personal use or for using (if altered) as a freebie, as long as acknowledgement is given. They are to provide a resource for people that want to have a go at designing to try it out with some stuff. They are not to be sold even if altered. They can also be used in charity kits with prior permission. I don’t think these are restrictive TOU. All I am asking for is acknowledgement and that you don’t make money out of something I have given for free. Anyway that being said they are here for you to grab. Oh and I stuck the iceblock stick in there, that someone asked about, but it isn't shown on the preview.
Well I had better go and get the dinner finished, nearly Friday and it’s a long weekend down under .
Best wishes,
Erika

Free Texture

What a day at our house. I am having trouble with both my feet, my daughter has a really nasty chest infection and my son got run over by a kid on a bike on the walk home today. The poor possum has a very bruised nose (it bled for two hours), a cut on one wrist, and bruising all over his leg. I have spoken to the school a couple of times about the kids and the way they ride their bikes and scooters on the footpath, and so needless to say I phoned the principal as soon as I had applied ice packs and cleaned up my little guy. Hey – nobody hurts my babies !

I have a texture to share, it is for mulberry paper. It works really well with Atomic Cupcake’s torn edge action. And you can grab it here. It is shared under my Freebie Friendly TOU, so it is good for personal use, or for those who design and share free to all kits. I have taken it for a little test drive with Pam’s Jump Colours to create a six pack, which is taking a while to upload, so come back later for that.
Thank you also to those that left comments about my go at the colour challenge. I am having a go at a couple of other challenges to help scrap some pictures and push my boundaries !
Best wishes,
Erika

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

Some More Greyscale Freebies

These are just some more bits and pieces for the freebie friendly stuff. I did a couple more knots / bows to tie things down. Where I am not sure how well something recolours, I have included the original. There are a few ribbons, the wide one can be used as a texture overlay too on patterned paper. I used it for the dinosaur ribbon yesterday (then didn’t end up using that ribbon myself ). I scanned in the tape measure because I want to use it on a layout about my Grandmother. A girlfriend came round yesterday to borrow my sewing machine, and as I was getting something out of the sewing box I picked up the measure and I realised it would be the perfect element for pages about my Grandma who was just amazing at anything crafty. Anyway you can grab them here. Please remember the TOU. They are intended to help people who wish to be generous.
Hope you are all having a good day.
Erika

More Freebie Friendly Elements

Well I sifted through the button tin, including all those spare buttons in the tiny zip lock bags that came with clothes, and now you can’t remember which clothes they came with LOL. Anyway, I found some fabulous old grungy type buttons, some Grandad’s cardie type buttons, and a few more shiny metal ones. Plus, a chenille flower. Don’t ask me where that came from, just be glad it made it because our silly spoodle nearly got it and that would have been the end. Hubby’s computer is still maintaining control of the scanner, but being the total spunk that he is,he even did some of the scanning (what a sweetheart, no wonder I married him). So I think I have reached the bottom of the tin for now. Some of the buttons had a wonderful character in their original form so I have included that and a grescale. There is a metal button that can have gems or other stuff added to it. Have some fun. I am going to do some more stitches and “holdy-down” type things but not tonight. My eyes are tired from extracting, I am seeing marching ants everywhere, and I need some sleep. I was pleased to see people had headed over to Shauna’s blog to check out her tutorials. I didn’t direct link to the exact tutorial because I think it is better manners to go in “through the front door” so to speak. The tutorials are easy to find and Shauna’s blog is always good for a laugh – she knows lots about wildlife, she’s sort of the David Attenborough of the digi scrapping world don’t you think ? So grab the buttons and bits here. I have promised the noisy woisy boy-zy that he can make dinosaurs on photoshop this weekend – he got a school award for good behaviour today so this is part of the reward. Please remember the TOU for these buttons, they can only be used for something offered for free to all, and please no pirating, full TOU are included.
Best wishes,
Erika

And the jump ones !

And the Jump ones here. Don’t let this stop you have some fun colouring them in your own choices !
Best wishes,
Erika

In the Run Colours for fellow Digitreats fans

I love Elizabeth’s comment about us all learning to colour in again LOL. Very true. I still stick my tongue out as I colour in LOL – it helps you keep in the lines !. Some things never change. Anyway, for those who don’t feel like colouring in, here is my recolour of the items in the run colours.
Best wishes,
Erika

In the Skip Palette

Here they are with most of them recoloured in the Skip palette for you other Digitreat fans like myself. I really love the skip colours, the more I use them the more I love them. Grab them here if you like.
Best wishes,
Erika

Freebie Friendly Elements

I have stated up front that the whole reason I started a blog and decided to share things I made was to give back a little to the wonderful community of digi scrappers and designers who have shared so much with me, products, information, knowledge, experience or encouragement. I know that there are other people like myself who want to share, either freebie kits, or quick pages, but cannot share some things due to the terms of use of some commercial use products.
So I thought I would share some items that are Freebie Friendly. These have a different set of TOU to things I have made using commercial actions, brushes or products. They can be shared if altered by you as long as YOU ARE OFFERING THEM FOR FREE TO ALL, not just to a small group and NEVER for profit. Charity kits is different, drop me an email. They do require acknowledgement, and the usual requirements of no hotlinking, renaming, or distributing. Send people to this blog. It isn’t that hard. And if you do produce something I would love to see it.
All the pieces are old scraps from the button tin or the like that I have scanned and extracted. There are some stitches and knots to hold down those buttons so they are anchored to your pages. It has taken a bit of time to extract, but it is a means of practice for me. The braid was right up there with the chain from the other day. But practice makes perfect LOL and as I overdid it on my sprained ankle yesterday I am back on a sit down and rest order from my hubby. So grab them, colour them, decorate them, and share them through RAK. One step at a time we can create change. As time permits I will probably offer more. Please note they are all greyscale, so if you are new to digi go and grab a tutorial from Misty, Shauna or Hummie (links are to your right), and have a go at recolouring.
Have a great day,
Erika