I Am Alive!

Just to reassure you all there. I haven't disappeared off the face of the earth. I am still here, I have just been very, very busy.

I won't bore you with the details, suffice it to say between gearing up for the end of the school year with 3 children and all that entails and work coming out of my ears, I don't feel like I've had a spare minute in the day.

I will bore you, in another post, about my running progress and my Race for Life thoughts and results but I'm going to keep this post short.

I have managed to do some cooking, for which I've promised to post the recipe for a particular Oreo cookie cupcake (watch this space), and have fitted in some digital scrapbooking so I'll leave you with a couple of layouts:

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Supplies:
Merry and Bright - Kate Hadfield & Kaye Winiecki

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Supplies:
Patterned Papers - Bombay Flower - Amy Hutchinson
Krafty Papers - Naturally Krafty - Kate Pertiet
Painted White Paper - Fly Me To The Moon - Gina Miller & Jacque Larson
Flowers - Various Kits - Studio Flergs
Glitter Alpha - 1 Night - Gina Maria
Swirl Brush - SS Foliage Swirls
Digital Glitter - Mine

I intend to do a page to go with the last layout to show the actual photo that I used on our Christmas cards that year so hopefully will get this done soon. I know, they're Christmas layouts. Christmas in August? But I've never been one to scrap seasonally. So there.

And in terms of scrapbooking I do have a plan. Let's hope it all comes together. And the plan? It's a loose one I admit but I'm going to try and hit a year at a time, hence the 2 layouts above of 2002, starting with the photos I've taken since we moved to a digital camera. Those photos will be scrapped digitally. I'm then intending to get them uploaded and printed in a nice bound book via Photobox or something. I'll think about the pre-digital photos some other time!

It's All About Me Blog Train

Today is the day. It's all about me. Me. Me. Me.

Hopefully you have found your way over from Amy's blog, so welcome to my part of the blog hop.

This is a project that I've been working on the last few days, and will be working on for the next few I feel! (Procrastination is my middle name after all...). You can find all the details on it here at Mel's blog, along with all the other participants if the train gets derailed somewhere along the way.

I'm pretty much digital all the way now, although I don't seem to be able to get rid of any of my traditional scrapbook supplies. Perhaps I'm a hoarder (shock... horror... not good!). Pretty much most of my supplies are from Songbird Avenue's De-Lovely kit, which you can find here.

As I've already hinted at my project isn't complete. So far I've managed to draft out what I want to include, have produced a few digital pages for a few of the prompts, but I am also missing some photos for which I'm waiting on my camera battery to recharge before I can take them. I plan to get them printed via Photobox into a small stylebook so each page is set up for printing at a size of 7" x 5.5". I will upload all the other pages as I finish the project over the weekend.

Prompt 1
What's your favourite indulgence (treat, dessert, beverage)?

Prompt 2
If you had one free afternoon to do anything you wanted, what would it be?

Prompt 3
What is something you use every single day, something that you could live without - but wouldn't want to?

This one is easy. It would have to be my iPhone. I use it for everything. I use it for my Couch to 5k training running programme. I play games on it. I listen to music. I pretty much use it for everything bar making phonecalls or sending texts! LOL. I'm just not much of a mobile phone person. Don't get me wrong I do use it as a phone, just not as much as I use it for everything else!

Prompt 4
What is something you buy in bulk, just to make sure you don't run out?

Toilet roll. 'Nuff said...

Prompt 5
Where in your home do you love to be?

In bed. I love my bed. I love my bedroom. I love the furniture, the colours, the quiet space that's just mine and Richard's. (I want to be there now but I'm typing this up in preparation for it going out at 7am!).

Prompt 6
What in nature most inspires you?

The sea. The smell of the salty air, the sound of the seagulls. It all takes me back to my home town. And I particularly love the beach in the winter when the sea is wild and there is hardly anyone there. It's a great place to just sit and be.

Prompt 7
What store wouldn't you want to live without?

This was a hard one as I'm really not much of a shopper (who knew...?). So I would probably have to say Sainsbury's as without grocery shopping, well, we'd all starve! LOL.

Prompt 8
What is a little thing you do, to spread cheer to those you love?

This has become a bit of 'thing' in our house now. I love to make my family's boring sandwich lunches special. I always cut their sandwiches into little triangles. I usually then make 'mountains' out of them by standing them up vertically, crust sides down on the plates. And then I add 'specials' - Noah particularly likes 'specials'. They really are only little extras, like Babybel cheeses, a couple of cocktails sausages or small egg/bacon bites. Richard just cuts the sandwiches in to 2 rectangles, straight in half, right down the middle and I expect they taste just as good... but I love to present them nicely to them - and I know it does make them happy because when I prepare packed lunches there are always cheers!

Prompt 9
What is your happiest colour?

This varies but for the last while it's been turquoise closely followed by pink (but NOT Barbie pink - yuck).

Prompt 10
What book has given you a new perspective on life?

The bible - obviously. Lots of tips on how to live your life in there.

Prompt 11
What is your favourite season?

Winter. It never used to be, not until we lived in Canada. I love the white crisp look of snow. It's magical. And, particularly in Canada, when you mix that with bright blue, clear skies I'm happy, happy, happy. I also would rather be cold than hot. If you're cold you can always add on more layers. When you're hot, well, there is only so much you can take off!!!

Prompt 12
What symbol, character, motif or design do you love?

Prompt 13
Do you have a collection?

In a word. No. I'm not much of a collector, although I'm still debating whether my traditional paper scrapbooking supplies could be classed as a collection. I collect the stuff, don't use it and won't get rid of it. So what do you think? A collection or not?

Prompt 14
What is something you are really good at?

Now this is where I show my insecurity as I can't really think of anything I'm really good at. I've thought about writing about my work (I'm pretty good at that), or digital scrapbooking (but am I really good or just so-so?), or what about cupcakes? I was never good at cookery in school but in the last couple of years have discovered a love baking. To be exact a love of baking cupcakes. I have some nice photos of some of my cupcakes so I think I'm going to say I'm really good at making cupcakes.

Prompt 15
List three words that describe you?

Mother, wife, runner (had to include running in this project somewhere, didn't I?). I plan on using 3 photos, one of Richard, one of the children and one of my smelly running shoes.

OK, that's all for now, but I promise I will update with the completed project in the next few days.

Time now to pop on over to Cheri's blog to see how she's interpreted the project, I know I will be.

Blog Train & Fun Video

Just a heads up to watch this space as I am taking part in a scrapbooking project blog train this Saturday. It should be fun and interesting so pop on by and take a look.

And I'll leave you with this fun video I saw on Facebook the other morning. It was on my home page to greet me first thing on Sunday morning and made me smile so hopefully it will you:



Mommy Rhapsody from Church on the Move on Vimeo.

Handwritten Fonts

I try, I really do. But somehow it just never looks quite right.

What am I talking about? I'm talking about using my own handwriting on my digital scrapbook layouts.

When traditional scrapbooking I've always been an advocate of using your own handwriting on your layouts - ask anyone who took my classes, they'll tell you... I was a hard taskmaster when it came to journalling. So for me when I switched, and yes I've definitely switched, to digital scrapbooking I wanted, really, really wanted, to use my own handwriting on my layouts. But it just doesn't look right. I don't know why, perhaps it's just me.

So I'm working on it but in the mean time I've stumbled across a great site that offers loads of really great hand written fonts. And what's even better is they are free! Yes, free.

Check out Kevin and Amanda. My particular favourites currently are Firefly Castle, Pea Brooke and Grant's Ghosts.

Warning: clicking on the above links may cause you to lose a couple of hours...

A Layout!

Finally. Finally completed a layout. Finally getting back to what I love doing.

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Supplies:
Yo Ho! Yo Ho! - Emily Merritt
Checkerboard frame - mine

I know it's no great spectacular, but I'm back on the scrapping wagon and I'm pleased with it. And that's all that matters, isn't it?

Watch This Space

Freebie Friday #2 will be arriving later today.

This week and over the next few weeks I've decided to try out something new. A whole digital kit. Each week I will post a download link to different parts of the kit, which if you come back each week and download you'll eventually end up with a whole kit. I've not done this before. Finished a kit that is. So hopefully this will spur me on to do just that.

So what's on the menu this week? Some beautiful softly embossed dotted papers. Don't forget to pop back later today and check it out.

A Layout

Credits:

Papers: Softly Dotted - Amy Wolff, Once Upon A Whimsical Morning - Lilypad Designers, Deacons Closet Reloaded - Studio Flergs, Sweater Weather - Kate Hadfield
Scalloped Strip Masks - Katie Pertiet
Happy Overlay - Mary Ann Wise
Flowers: Fresh Air - MSA Collab, Time After Time - Ferguson & Rockwell, Katie Pertiet
Paint Splotches - Studio Flergs
Label/Pin - Katie Pertiet
Glitter Action & Journaling Label - My Own

JYC 2008: Prompt 3

Still playing catch up but as I was enjoying doing this before I was interrupted (I would say rudely but my mum may read this :D ) I'm determined to take back that enjoyment and carrying on with my journal this year.

Prompt 3 is all about christmas cards. Hmmm.... another thing on my to do list!

JYC 2008: Prompt 2 (Mark II)

OK, so I couldn't leave it alone and yes, I'm now significantly playing catch up on the JYC 2008. In my defense this is NOT because I've been pfaffing with improving/changing/revising Prompt 2 (Mark II) but because I've had my mum staying with me for the last week and I've been busy. Very. Very. Busy.

But I have improved/changed/revised my JYC 2008: Prompt 2 entry and it is below for your perusal. Comments welcome :D

JYC 2008: Prompt 2

So I'm managing to keep up. I know, I know, it shouldn't be too difficult as it's only day 2 but it's twice as long as I managed last year!



And yes, I still need to upload the credits for yesterdays and I haven't had time to do the credits for todays either but I will... OK?

JYC 2008: Prompt 1

So as I said in my last post it's Journal Your Christmas time again - and this year I plan to give it 100% and try and get more than just one page done! And I'm off to a good start as I've already completed the prompt 1 page (click on the image for a closer look):



I'll update this page with the relevant credits tomorrow, it's too late now I'm off to bed.

Layout Share

I've actually managed to find some time to do some digital scrapbooking so thought I would share them with you here:

 

Full credits can be found here

 

Full credits can be found here

A Missed Marketing Opportunity?

So I wonder if there is/has been a missed marketing opportunity in the world of digital scrapbooking?

This gap in the market has come to my attention because I have been looking for one: a square digital photo frame. Not a portrait or a landscape digital frame but a square one, perfect for displaying all my digital photo layouts.

Why can't I find one? Does one exist? And if it doesn't, should it? I'm sure there must be lots of other digi-scrappers out there who would like one too... 

And if there is one, where can I buy one?

Week 3 - Digi: In Deep

So, I'm behind. So, what's new? Work has been getting in the way of all my fun. Lately whenever I'm on the computer it just seems to be all about the work.

However, I, along with many other parents in England, had a child home from school today because of the teacher's strike and so... I couldn't work - yay!

And so... I got to play and this was the result of week 3 of Jessica Sprague's Digi: In Deep class:

Click on it for a bigger version. I am so pleased with this LO. I learnt so much. If you ever want to learn more about digital scrapbooking then you can't go far wrong than taking one of Jessica's classes - they are just fab!

So what did I learn? I learnt how to create a photo cluster - something I've seen on lots of digi LOs but didn't know how to do. I learnt how to manipulate the photo cluster to show only colour inside the frames but black and white outside. I learnt how to take a photo with just the focal point on my finger and the rest of me out of focus - cool!

And yes - that fingerprint is mine - we learnt how to do that too!

I'm most pleased with my ghost flowers - that was self taught... I'm so clever... LOL...

A Couple of Digi Layouts

I've just realised that I didn't post the last LO of my Jessica Sprague online digital scrapbooking class, Now We're Rockin' With Photoshop, so here it is:

As I learnt so much from this class I enrolled on the follow up one. Jessica is fab and gave all those who signed up in the previous class not only a heads up on enrollment (releasing enrollment to us a couple of days early) so that we could be guaranteed a place but also gave us a discount!

Anyway, here are the two LOs I have done using the week 1 lesson. The first is a basic follow of the video tutorials she gives and the second one is our 'assignment' based on the things we learned. Not overly happy with the second one and I don't know why... any thoughts appreciated.

As usual just click on the images for a closer view.

 

Learning...

... lots of new things.

I recently signed up to do a Jessica Sprague online digital scrapbooking class, Now We're Rockin' With Photoshop, and I am learning so much, you wouldn't believe it. Now, I don't by any means consider myself an expert in PS but neither do I consider myself a complete beginner. But I have been amazed by how much I have learnt by doing this course. It's worth it for the short cuts alone!

Here are the class layouts for the first 3 weeks (it's a 4 week course):

       

I love Jessica's use of brushes, not something I've used a lot of on my previous experimenting with digi-scrapping, but something I think I will use more of in the future. Can't wait for next week's lesson and will definitely be signing up for the next course (Digi: In Deep).

The other thing I've been learning (apart from how to exercise patience when Noah is involved in the equation) is web design. I signed up last September to do a course in basic web design at the local college and even though I did learn something, to be honest the course was just too slow for my liking and I didn't learn anywhere near as much as I would have liked to. The course was due to go on and develop further and I was considering enrolling but decided against it, which is lucky because not long after I received an email from the course tutor saying the course had been cancelled as he was ill.

Buy boy am I glad that I did decide not to sign up because I got pointed in the direction of Lynda.com - and cool is that site! There is so much there to get your teeth into and learn. I feel a little like a kid in a sweet shop: where to start, where to start? so much to learn, so little time.

I've taken on the web maintenance of a local church (NS Church). So far I've only tidied things up a little (created a template, done a bit of CSS to create a more uniform look to the site etc.) but do have some ideas about bringing up to date and giving it a bit more of a 'wow' factor. I feel it is far too wordy at the moment and looks slightly outdated but I don't want to run before I can walk and also I need to be a little sensitive and not just start out by saying too many negative things. The code was all over the place though, hardly any CSS used (mainly just setting out fonts used etc.) so it has taken a lot of time and effort to even make the small improvements I've made but at least now the maintenance of it is much quicker and easier.

OK, that's all for now, my brain hurts.