Bad Blogger !

Sorry guys, I have a few freebies to share this weekend. I meant to get back Sunday night but week has been beyond mad. Meetings, specialist appointments (Emma has to have an endoscopy), first week back at school, selling a business interest. Life is mad, I am crazy. Will get the freebies zipped and uploaded for you ASAP.

Best wishes

Erika

Quick Update

For those that stop only for freebies - I will be back tonight with one so check back later.

For those that visit and read the ramblings . . . We are a hive of activity, doing some small jobs around the house that we have been putting off. The work situation is emerging and we will be able to make some decisions over the next fortnight about what we are doing and where we are going. It is both exciting and un-nerving. Anyway the paint is calling me, then we are going shopping to get hubby a new suit for an interview he has this week. I had two interviews last week, got an offer out of one straight away, and the other won't know for a fortnight as they have three other people to interview. The interviews are two hours long including the presentation I had to give and the two VPs that are doing them have only got Fridays available to do it. I hate waiting, especially if it is bad news at the end. So keep your fingers crossed we get our first choice. Whichever way the cards fall is good, and I am trusting the universe to look after us.

Back tonight with some stuff,

Erika

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

Rugby update

Okay half time score - after 40 minutes of play:

Queensland 16
New South Wales 0

Our state pride may yet be redeemed. Unfortunately my ds has been sent to bed as it is very late, and I will have to check to find out the final score.

A bit of fun

A few people have sent me this and I thought I should give it a go. Sometimes things fun and frivolous are a joy. I hope I haven't scared people off with how big a nerd I am (see to the right - got the link off Britt-ish Designs blog). Now my result for what scrapbooking element am I is quite ironic. Paper is the thing I struggle to choose or make the most. Anyway result and link is below. Would love to know what result others get.

What scrapbooking item are you
132 other people got this result! That's 30%
Your Result
You are PAPER!You are an all natural basic person who likes to act as a foundation to others. You are willing to take a backseat in most of your relationships and let others take the spotlight, while you show your support and help them shine! Underneath it all, you are the one who makes it all happen. You are the focus and stability in any group, even if you are not the leader. Others look to you to set the pace and provide ideas for ways to get things done. But Paper Beware - sometimes you get a little edgy with the people who look to you for support and can give them some papercut remarks that can hurt their feelings. Remember to watch what you say, because you are best when leading by example.
If you want to take the quiz you can find it here.

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

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