Question for the clever types !

I hit publish post before I remembered the other thing I wanted to ask. I want to put writing on the iceblock sticks so it looks "burnt in", if that makes sense, slightly indented. Now I only have PSE6, and I have tried the bevelling tools but they leave too big a dent.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to do this ?

Best wishes,
Erika

Creekbed stuff in Digitreats Run as requested

I had a few emails asking if I could do the creekbed stuff I used in the DSO challenge in Pam’s Digitreats Run colours. I actually had started doing the items in those colours for a layout about some wonderful creeks we had fun catching tadpoles in, building dams in them, and catching guppies as kids. Since I had saved them, and since those that asked are people who consistently take the time to leave some love, I was more than happy to bundle them, upload them and share them. They are here for you to grab. I did a different version of the ice-block stick frame that I am happier with, there are internal DS on the layers, and I rapped rope around them to bind them together.
Can I ask a favour – does anyone watch Without a Trace? What is the story with the blonde girl getting pregnant? I saw the end of an episode where Anthony LaPaglia’s character is in intensive care and she is meeting some guy with 6 weeks before the baby is due and talking about his involvement with it, but they are virtually strangers. What gives?
Best wishes,
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

A quick "word art" for you.

I hate ironing. I know we all do. So to procrastinate from doing it I have done a “word art” for you. It’s my little mantra that I chant when the ironing basket is overflowing. It is a plain PNG file, just put it on black so you can see it better here. And you can grab it here if you want to use it if you are doing a "Book of Me" type album and hate ironing too.

Best wishes,
Erika

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

The expanded layout.

I flipped Denise’s super template and did the other pictures I tried to get that day LOL to make a 2 page LO. You have to know when you are beaten, the best picture is on its own. Denise has another fabby template up in response to a request from Alyson P, for a monthly summary page. Boy is she fast, and good ! Her own layout with it is just gorgeous, makes me want to play with the So Sunny kit, but first we have to sweep out under the house and garage. I am motivated to work fast this morning LOL.
Best wishes, Erika

The "Painting" Thing

This is for the others new to PSE and here for the "learning adventure" rather than just grab and go freebie types. A couple of people asked what I meant by "painting" that floral overlay. I have copied how I explained it to someone today. Hope it helps others:

Okay how I recoloured the florals by "painting". This was from Shauna's tutorial (http://pineappleplantations.blogspot.com ) about using the colour replacement brush from your brush tools. I have PSE, not full PS like you, so it might be different. But I copied the greyscale to a new file, then opened the skip palette and selected a colour for the foreground. Then if I right click on my brush tool button on the tool palette I have a choice of colour replacement brush. Then I just chose an appropriate brush size and "paint" the fabric like a colour by numbers canvass. LOL. I found I zoomed in to paint but kept zooming out to check if I was getting a "colour balance". It did take a little bit of time, that's why I shared it, I would hate to think all that effort was just for my one layout LOL.

Hope this makes sense. I'd love to see if anyone else has a go,

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

A great template, and my layout !

On Ikea Goddess this morning I spotted this amazing template by NeeCeeBee Designs, that I snagged immediately. I had some photos I had tried to take of my kids and two of their cousins from when they were visiting us last year. We have this gorgeous park down the road from us on the river bank with a boat theme and a little boat that the kids can play in. Perfect for a photo right ? Yeah try getting two (then) three year olds, a 6 month old, and a righteous 6 year old (telling the cheeky three year olds to behave please), to all even just look at the camera normally, never mind smiles. LOL. It didn’t work, but I still wanted to capture the moment because it was such a good laugh. So this is the layout, using the NeeCeeBee Designs template, and Ellie Lash’s gorgeous Scatter Sunshine Kit. I L-O-V-E this kit (learnt from Brooke at Ahhh Scraps to spell it out for emphasis LOL). Check out Brooke's blog for a great CU freebie also. I am going to flip the template to the other side of the page where I tried to get them all sitting under one of the big fig trees (some people just don’t learn LOL).
Oh and the noisy woisy boy-sy actually took the news of no soccer better than expected, but I still made them chocolate pancakes for breaky – I am such a bad mummy. Now we just have to explain to hubby why we didn’t save any for when he gets back from diving – I am such a bad wife LOL.
Off to do some washing (it seems to multiply overnight !)
Erika

Layout for the Sunshine Studios Challenge

Like everyone else I was having fun on the hunt for clues in Scrap Orchard and the Sunshine Studio Scraps today and picking up that gorgeous kit. In addition to the amazing freebee (how generous are those ladies) I grabbed two of Ellie Lash’s kits, and one of Lliellas. I had seen these two kits on Ellie’s blog, whilst admiring a gorgeous layout of her boys.
I’ve had a set of photos I took of my daughter at 3 months old (yes that is well over 3.5 years ago LOL), that I have been waiting to scrap. You know that photo that is so “perfect” that you are almost intimidated to scrap it, or you get a form of paralysis because it becomes too important. Well this photo was like that. What made it worse was there is a strong yellow in the background of the photo that needed the right papers and elements to go with it. As soon as I saw Ellie’s Star Gazing kit, the light bulb went on and I thought of this photo. I also grabbed her Scatter Sunshine kit, which is just fantastic, to scrap some other piccies I have been stumped by. I decided to make the layout with the word art for their challenge this week because it just fitted the photo perfectly. Aaahh serendipity LOL, sometimes you just have to be patient LOL (3.5 years patient !). Anyway, here is the layout I came up with (I know very boring to lots, but I am a conservative scrapper). Now I just have to figure out how to upload it to the gallery ROTFL.
Best wishes,
Erika

Hummies Fabbie Tip

Something I forgot to mention on an earlier post. When I scanned in the iceblock stick, and went to extract it, I used Hummie's bevel technique for checking for stray pixels. It worked a treat, there were some I couldn't see (even with my glasses on LOL) that showed up. If you aren't familiar with this, head over to Hummie's World - link to your right - and have a read, she is a clever lady.

Oh and you know how when your kids are learning to walk and run and they are always falling over, banging their little heads ? I used to fantasise about putting my kids in stack hats (bike helmets) whenever they weren't sleeping. Well little mister concussion spent the day quietly at home (I am a bad bad mummy there were 2 videos watched but it kept him quiet and still) - and late this afternoon he got out his toy cars to play with in the toy room, guess who managed to bang his concussed little head on the corner of the shelf ? Where's that stack hat . . . . . .

TGIF !

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

File size

I got a lovely email from Maureen about the file size of the mulberries. As well as some wonderful feedback and kind words she mentioned:

"Noticed that the Jump Mulberry files were quite large. When I opened them, saw that they were sized at 7200 x 7200 pixels and 600 resolution. Curious as to why you make them that large. I resized them down to 3600 x 3600 pixels and 300 resolution and they did not look any different. It reduced the mb to 1/3 of the size of your files and saves room on my harddrive. Will not do this if there is a good reason; however, like most of us scrappers, we are usually on overload."

So here's the technical and complicated reason for the large file size - I don't know how to shrink it LOL. I created them at 600ppi to make sure I got a good quality and then couldn't figure out how to save it at 300ppi LOL. Sorry guys, I know hard drive space is precious. I have asked Maureen for a tutorial on how to do this. I had a similar problem trying to save previews for theDSO challenge, and it kept telling me my file size was wrong, LOL.

I did warn you all this blog was my learning adventure LOL. Will make sure I have been educated on this before I share the other textures I have been working on.

Oh and thanks for the comments about our bad day. My daughter's temperature broke and she is still coughing, but on the mend. I was worried because there is a bit of pneumonia going around here. My son is sore but functioning. The attitude of the principal at the school was disturbing but that is another story. Our school is different, it is small and community focussed, so I was a bit taken aback by this other school's attitude. And I am off to see the podiatrist at lunch time.

Anyone going to have a go at a decorated mulberry ????? Come on lvmommy you know you want to do those rose petals LOL.

And sending hugs and kisses to my nephew and niece in Melbourne and for my sister in law - nearly there - think of Fiji !

Best wishes,

Erika

Mulberry Six Pack of Digitreat's Jump

Crikey 4 shared is VERY slow tonight. And when your husband accidentally closes off IE and your upload, then it does take just that much longer ! So as promised these are the “test drives” for the texture, in a six pack of Pam’s jump colours. The file size is big, so I have split it into two parts. The first part is here, and the second part is here. Had a small play with adding some rose petals per lvmommy’s comment – it looks nice in the skip colours using the rose petal brushes from Obsidian Dawn. Don’t know if anyone wants to have a go at that – I have a couple of other things on my to-do list so I would love to see someone else’s take on that.
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

DSO Colour Challenge Elements

And here are the elements for the challenge. I had some fun with these. A couple of tried and true favourites with the tooled leather action from Atomic Cupcake, it really is a favourite and very versatile. I think it has paid for itself many times over. The torn card frame is another Atomic Cupcake action, and the reed is made from one of Stephanie’s grass brushes, and I added the reed, I made the reed head out of Atomic Cupcake’s felt action. The other frame I made the screw myself using Atomic Cupcake’s cast pewter action, and I scanned in an iceblock stick to use for a few things. The buttons are from my button tin freebies which are still available, and the ribbons are from that set too, I just added some dots to the texture. They are available to download here. Let me know what you think. The chain in the preview is not included, I forgot LOL, but it is in the Boot Camp Alpha download, so you can grab it there.
Best wishes,
Erika

My Attempt at the DSO Colour Challenge - Papers

I thought I would try a couple of different things. I have been a long time reader of KimB’s blog and thought I would have a go at one of the monthly colour challenges that she hosts at DSO. I also thought I would try something a bit grungier. So here is my go at the colour challenge. There is a bit of a theme of boys and creeks and fishing sort of thing to it. I really enjoyed the papers. The first one using brushes, which is not something I have done a lot of. The brushes are from the very talented Stephanie (Obsidian Dawn). I was really almost scared of using brushes when I first got in February. But like all things the more you play with it the more fun you have and the more you learn. I am so grateful that these beautiful brushes are available. They are so inspiring. I did a striped paper and used a grunge overlay from one of Shauna’s CU packs at Scrap Orchard. I did a bit of experimenting with them on the argyle which used one of Kim Sheen’s CU templates from Scrap Orchard, and also on the fishing rod paper and the check paper. I think the check paper is inspired by my laundry floor at the moment LOL. Mud glorious mud at our house after the rain. The denim paper has a stitched edge using Atomic Cupcakes’ action. It is not shown in the paper preview but is in that download, I just didn’t see the point in putting it on there when I had used it as a background for the elements preview. The papers can be grabbed here. Let me know what you think, it is a bit of a jump out of my rut LOL.

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