In my Digi GIMP world

My Digiscrapping Backlog

2010-08-16T16:25:00.000+12:00

It's been a while and it has been absolute ages since I uploaded my layouts

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I'm Disneyland dreaming

2010-05-29T10:26:00.012+12:00

Credits: Sahlinstudio - rejuvenate paper, enjoy the moment papers, Melancolie - a world of sweetness elements

Credits: Pink gem from The Valentines Collection, all remaining from The Mouse Collection both available from scrapbooksgonedigital

We've enjoyed such mild weather until late May, but winter has now really arrived with a very wet & cold vengeance! So started looking around and found this awesome forum MouseScrappers.com totally dedicated to Disney scrapping with a fantastic gallery and amazing challenges. Couldn't help myself and entered my 1st Challenge and look forward to receiving my participation gift shortly. I'm in the process of getting hold of my own Disneyland photos from before Colin was born back in the early 90s, so have been scrapping Lynn's ones from 2006. All going well our 2 families will go together hopefully in 3 years time, so will end up with a whole heap more to scrap.

Violets Mini-kit freebie at Christine's blog

2010-05-18T22:26:00.005+12:00

I haven't scapped much in this colour range, but am very pleased the way this turned out. So if you like it, you better head over to her blog to grab it.
Sorry, but you won't find the stripey bookplate element in her freebie. It took me ages, but I created it using her stripey paper instead.

Credits: One of a Kind DS Violets mini kit.

Oh Joy

2010-05-14T08:13:00.003+12:00

Looks like Christine is having a sale of 30% of her products till 31 May, so a great opportunity to go shopping! ;-)

Have been scrapping this lovely sunrise photo of Barry's, and we are so looking forward to repeating this holiday spot again next summer. Is there a way to fast forward the up coming winter months?

I hope you like this Dadjne & Chloe and that I have the year right.

Credits: Glittering Joy kit by One of a Kind Design Studio available at Ahhhscrap

Waiting...

2010-04-29T22:54:00.004+12:00

My sister & brother in-law, while visiting Mum's earlier this month.

Credits: Any Year Date Design tool, The Valentines Collection, The Wedding Collection, Circles Template, Template T0047 all by SgD Designs available at http://www.scrapbooksgonedigital.com

Update to GIMP Tut: Text along Path

2010-04-20T17:17:00.003+12:00

Thanks to Jo Ann (Nanascraps), who advised she was always getting a black filled layer, there was a missing piece to my tut. It dawned on me today that step 6 was missing the select Path to Selection piece of info. Sorry everyone, I'm doing my steps in auto pilot mode. So will update the tut in the next post too so that all is in order (hopefully). Remember all comments welcome.

GIMP Tut: Text along Path

2010-04-13T20:53:00.007+12:00

It is finally here, a tutorial on how to create text along a path.

Lets start and hopefully I won't loose you.
Note: Click the image to enlarge and see more detail.

Now these steps should also work for any other shape you come across, let me know how you get on.

It's hard to believe

2010-04-10T19:53:00.008+12:00

But this baby girl will soon be a new Mummy herself, all going well sometime late September that is. This is Laura, she's the youngest and I am the eldest of 3 girls. Was visiting my Mum last night for her birthday when we were looking through some photos of Laura trying to find her in baby outfits as Mum has still got a few of her baby clothes saved. She nolonger has this cute wee little green outfit, but the 3 that Mum has saved are now 35 years old! And still look fantastic even my Colin wore them over 13 years ago too. How fantastic that Laura's own will soon be wearing them next.

Credits: "You are my center" scraplift by Christine Holtien Schultz, One of a Kind Design Studio Sweet Pea Kit available at AhhhScrap, The Wedding Collection by ScrapbooksGoneDigital, Seriously Pink by Poppy Andrews, Sweet Baby Chic by Michelle Coleman, Touch of Func by Kim Christensen, Unconditional by Jen Wilsom.

Lets toast with Bubbles

2010-04-06T22:04:00.004+12:00

I hope everyone had a nice Easter, we spend ours at home and had an early birthday lunch for Mum. My sister & brother in-law came over for the long weekend from Melbourne too. It will be the last of her travels back for a while as she's 14 weeks pregnant. Yes, how exciting - I am going to be an Aunty! My Mum too is thrilled, she sure enjoyed her shopping spree with Laura who is looking great.

Credits: One of a Kind Design Studio Saudade Mini Kit available at AhhhScrap

I should be asleep...

2010-03-26T04:49:00.010+13:00

But have been right awake since 2.30ish, so got up finally just before 4am and finished this lo. While doing so, I happened to login to Facebook and found Christine (One of a Kind DS) online so we've been chatting across the seas. This is the 1st time we were both online and it felt we were closer in distance, the wonders of technology. Then something went wrong as my last chats don't think got through to her, but hopefully my lo did eventhough the connection seems slow this morning for some reason. Am starting to feel a bit more tired now, so will get some zzz's...

Credits: One of a Kind Design Studio Saudade Mini Kit available at AhhhScrap

Hello Sweet Pea

2010-03-11T22:08:00.003+13:00

Credits: Sweet Pea Kit by One Of A Kind Design Studio available at Ahhhscrap

I can't seem to grow these yet, it's the only one surviving plant from the bunch of seeds I planted in spring. Never mind, I will give them another go again this year. Did pass some onto Lynn, hope she has a better outcome than mine. At least it looks like my dwarf beans 'Dwarf Golden Butter Beans' are taking of, I have lost count on the number of beans ripening. All growing very happily in a big pot. Just a few more days now, until we can sample our fresh garden beans. Yum!

Time just flies by

2010-03-05T22:48:00.005+13:00

Have been very slack in posting of late I see and barely scrapping. The weather has been quite good since our holiday back from sunny Oakura Bay with the Jamiegees, now a distant memory (but such a lovely one). I find myself more watering my vegies than scrapping, but that will all change when the cooler autumn weather returns.

Credits: Songs of the Sea Mega Kit by Vivayne

Credits: Dancing with Whales Collection kit by SgD

Credits: Dancing with Whales Collection kit, The Valentines Collection by SgD

Credits: Alter Art Papers, The Valentines Collection , The Wedding Collection by SgD

Merry Christmas and a happy 2010 to all

2010-01-01T21:22:00.006+13:00

Credits: Santa Baby kit by Just So Scrappy available here at ScrapbooksGoneDigital

Credits: Unique Worn Paper Set, Old NewsPapers, Brackets, The Wedding Collection all by ScrapbooksGoneDigital available here

Credits: The Wedding Collection by ScrapbooksGoneDigital available here

I am writing this post from Tauranga, as we are currently still holidaying here for both Christmas & New Year. This is our 1st Christmas away from home, the reason being that it also coinsided with a local squash tournament at Mt Manganui that hubby and I both entered. Unfortunately holidays must come to an end, and we head back home tomorrow. Our last day here was spend all day at Waihi Beach spent on the sand in 29C temparature, yes very hot and sunny!

GIMP Tut: Changing element's colour using Colorize Tool

2009-12-15T19:02:00.010+13:00

How often have got a kit but you found a certain element is not the colour you are after? Well, it's just so easy changing any element's colour in GIMP and I will show you here in just a few steps.

Some simple instructions as follows:
1. With element's layer selected, select the Colize Tool from the Colors menu
2. Click and drag the Hue slider until you have changed the element's colour to your liking.
In my example the Hue was changed to 280 to achieve a nice purple element.
3. Click OK to make the colour change permanent.
That's all, nice & easy wasn't it!

Hopefully the following screenshots are easy to follow in using this colorize feature. Let me know how you find it if you like.
TIP - Click on each screenshot for closeup.

It really is that easy. Now you have no excuse for not using any element because it's the wrong colour!

Among the Vines

2009-12-13T07:30:00.000+13:00

How perfect this kit turned out to be for our recent Picton trip photos, these ones from Forrest wines just beautifully complemented with the November daily download from ScrapbooksGoneDigital. We turned up at Forrest wines while there was already a full bus load of tourists inside so we were asked to wait outside for 10 more minutes. So we entertained ourselves with petanque and wondered around the garden and the grape vines. Both Lynn & I took a heap of photos and enjoyed a quiet moment before we were allowed into the tasting room. Well, the wait was worth it and we all enjoyed the wine talk and tasting. So much so we all ended up buying a bottle of 2,3,4 - Jamie topped that by organizing a case to be send home.

Well, howdy y'all

2009-12-10T22:43:00.004+13:00

This was fun to scrap and turns out that SimplySusan's Lil Cowpoke kit perfectly complemented my costume I wore to Steve & Jade's Halloween party. I know, it's not a traditional Halloween theme costume but I had fun wearing it! My hubby went as a gangster and it was the first time I have seen him wear a tie - hehe and CJ found the perfect size jester outfit and wore the mask he got when we went and saw Cirque du Soleil's Varekai over 2 years ago. So we all ended up being a mismash of costumes.

Credits: Lil Cowpoke kit by SimplySusan available at ScrapbooksGoneDigital

The Dec SgD Daily Download available now

2009-12-06T08:39:00.007+13:00

With the November Daily Download being such a success at ScrapbooksGone Digital, there is now a December one with a Christmas theme of course. So don't delay and grab this fantastic goodie on a daily basis, you must sign-in and order the new zip file each day. Here is the shop link.

And for those that missed some zip files from the November Daily Download, here is the post that will give you an opportunity to grab those missed parts by creating lo's using SgD shop products, but only until Dec 24, so don't delay!

I'm back CT-ing for One Of A Kind DS

2009-12-02T08:03:00.006+13:00

I Got a nice surprise last week when Christine left a message asking me to CT again after her coming out of retirement, I had to jump at the opportunity and am so very pleased that things are going well for her. So keep an eye out for her new kits either on her Blog or AhhhScrap shop.

I am also just back from a short weekend getaway to Picton with hubby's squash team taking the ferry early rainy Saturday morning. In the afternoon we ventured on a wine tour to 3 vineyards, Hunters, Framingham & Forrest. The latter didn't rush our group through and we all ended up spending the most there. A rowdy and late night for some, when woken to a stunner of a Sunday morning. The majority of the group could be found watching the All Blacks game against France in the local pub and others preferred the warm sun on the pub deck with breakfast. As it was such a stunner of the day, most of us were sitting on the sun deck of the ferry heading out of Picton. But that only lasted until most of us got chased back inside with the very strong winds while heading out of Queen Charlotte Sounds.

Credits: Early Autumn Kit by One Of A Kind Design Studio available at AhhhScrap

Don't forget, SGD Daily Download available till the end of Nov

2009-11-14T07:30:00.006+13:00

I ment to mention the other day that ScrapbooksgoneDigital have a FREE daily download available for the month of November. The contributers are SgD Designs and Vivayne, with a theme around Thanksgiving/Fall. Very beautiful and well worth it to get the remainder for this month. All you have to do is sign-in each day and re-order the next available zip file with the new daily pieces, very simple. Just click the above image it will take you to the Daily Download page at SgD.

Also noticed that the gorgeous The Wedding Collection - The Entire Collection is now $9.99 you save 33%, this is that gorgeous kit I used in my previous post double layout. It's so totally versatile, not just for your wedding layouts. Enjoy...

Getting slowly back into scrapping (Edited)

2009-11-12T21:16:00.014+13:00

Yip, it has been a while but managed to scrap a few pages in the last week. But truth be told my wee vege/salad garden has been taking me away from my scraps. Now that day light saving is here, I am tending my wee veges.

Halloween has been and gone, we made it again to Steve & Jade's Halloween party. I have no photos to show for yet, but scrapped these from 2 years ago instead.

Also last month we attended with our squash friends the annual Te Omanga Vintner's Lunch, all as invited guests of Gavin & Vanessa at the Gee & Hickton sponsored table. I can't think of a better way to spend then an afternoon with great friends all in aid to raise funds for Te Omanga Hospice.

Credits: Halloween & The Wedding Collection - The Entire Collection all available at ScrapbooksGoneDigital

Summer's End QP Freebie

2009-09-11T06:38:00.008+12:00

I've been meaning to try my hand again at creating a QP for a while and when I spotted these gorgeous papers by Christine (One of a Kind Design Studio), I'd just thought these would be perfect to have another go again. Thought to include an additional bonus QP to give you another option if you want to include your own title. Here in NZ we seem to be having a lovely start to spring and I certainly am looking forward to summer and the outdoor activities it brings.

For a copy, just follow the link to download HERE

Credits: Summer's End papers by One of a Kind Design Studio

On Cloud 9

2009-08-30T22:36:00.004+12:00

The gale force winds during the week have now followed by down pour of rains, crazy weather we're having at the moment. BB played in a D grade and below tournament in Masterton on both Friday and Saturday, unfortunately he didn't win. We all did go over yesterday for support and stopped by the local farmer's market for breakfast, where we picked up some cheese and veges.

Credits: Malencolie World of Sweetness kit, Franziska Altmann Lonely kit tag, Plumblossom Carnet de Voyage tag, template 8 Scrapmatters

Easy Photo Border In GIMP

2009-08-24T21:27:00.007+12:00

I hadn't noticed this menu option before until I worked on my recent layout and played with it. It's called "Border" and you'll find it under the "Grow" option on the Select menu.

Some simple instructions as follows:
1. Select photo layer, do Alpha to Selection,
2. Create new transparent layer,
3. Ensure that new layer is selected now, go to Select menu > Border, In pop-up window set border size to your liking,
4. Edit menu > Fill with BG color (default is set to white),
5. Add dropshadow layer if you wish and you are done.

Hopefully the following screenshots are easy to follow in using this border feature. Let me know how you find it if you like, I sure found it useful.
TIP - Click on each screenshot for closeup.

Up up & away

2009-08-23T13:57:00.005+12:00

A quick post while this is still 'fresh', yes just completed layout. After hearing how much a friend of ours enjoyed her Milford Sound scenic flight experience, BB and I made a last minute decision to take this flight too. Pilot Robert was only making the afternoon flight if we were keen to go, so we ended up being his only passengers to Milford Sound, we picked up 3 extra passengers on the way back. BB admitted to Robert that he's a nervous passenger in a small plane, to which the pilot responded he had just the seat for him next to him in the front. BB would have been happier in the back where I was sitting. The flight turned out to be glorious with a few bumps here and there, but we made it back in one piece. Thanks my hubby for doing this trip with me, what a scenic sight.

Credits: Franziska Altmann Lonely kit tag, The First kit by Poupoun

Landed @ Queenstown

2009-08-19T12:35:00.004+12:00

Boo hoo, I am full of a cold today :( and every time I step out of bed my head hurts. All I want to do is snooze and to breath properly! Some good news today, got a txt from CJ saying the doc at the hospital is taking his cast off. Poor boy had an accident at school and broke his arm, the same one he did at age 6. Boys being boys playing a rough game in the school yard, CJ put his arm out to break his fall, instead it broke it.

Credits: Photoshop Layered Template #T0021, Franziska Altmann Lonely kit tag, The First kit by Poupoune

Skiing down Coronet Peak slopes

2009-08-14T07:53:00.004+12:00

Wow, we certainly encountered the best skiing weather ever. No wind, mild temps and nothing but sun, sun, sun! Had pre-arranged our afternoon ski passes through our hotel ski concierge the previous evening over mulled wine and canapes as the weather looked very promising for some slope action. After the first 2 runs the body seemed to remember what to do and soon we were on the intermediate slopes, finishing up with making it down from the top of the Coronet Express Chair. As we hadn't done any pre-ski fitness, our bodies soon told us that we were just as well to do a half day pass. Hmmm, I think it's our bodies telling us that we're getting old!

Credits: Simply Yin template #114, Franziska Altmann Lonely kit tag, Winter Wonderland 2 papers & elements by Franziska Altmann, Ellie Lash & Flergalicious

Queenstown 40th Getaway Weekend

2009-08-10T21:17:00.007+12:00

Well better late than never... Hey, I finally managed to scrap 2 layouts from our weekend away in Queenstown for my 40th birthday. Just had a blast and found out that turning 40 wasn't that bad especially when you get extra sweets from flight attendants and your standard lake view booked room gets upgraded to a super luxurious corner suite. I did have to make a decision whether to stay with the lake view room or take the upgrade mountain view room. The concierge assured me that the mountain view suite was a much better room. Turned out that our upgrade room is twice as big with seperate lounge/dining room with flat screen tvs in lounge, bedroom & bathroom. I was so in awe of our new room that I totally missed the flowers, chilled bubbles and chocolates that my hubby had pre-arranged! Forgot to mention that we didn't check-in straight away upon arrival into Queenstown, we made a last minute decision to fly over to Milford Sounds in a small airplane. Totally amazing experience flying between snow capped mountains, though slightly scary with the numerous bumps, drops & sudden lifts. Brian was definetely more nervous flying in those tiny planes than I was, but we did it! The weather was sunnier and warmer on the west coast and we managed a nice 45 min stroll, it sure was a most incredible & magic place to visit. The flight back was a direct root to Queenstown and we finally checked in about 4.30pm into the Sofitel. Over a mulled wine we pre-arranged our next day and ordered our afternoon ski passes for Coronet Peak ski field. So we were free to explore the next morning and we headed to scenic Arrowtown only 15 minutes away. It was a stunning frosty morning and you really needed your hat & gloves to stay warm. We explored the main street and discovered vineyards to visit for later. Too early for lunch we headed for a drive to Crown Rd for the lookout overlooking the valley toward Queenstown with Coronet Peak and Remarkables ski fields opposite each other. Then drove back to Arrowtown for pies and mulled wine for lunch before hitting the slopes! No major queues on the lifts, though being a very nervous skier I needed a few easy runs before hitting the intermidiate runs. But we did finish with a run from the top chair all the way to the bottom without any major spills - yeah. Then thought to finish the afternoon with a drop of wine tasting at Lake Hayes vineyard where we met Brian the winemaker who's wife was also called Maureen (and also Asian) who's the cheesemaker. I know, totally unreal! Had this gorgeous cheeseboard with wine and planned to visit Maureen the next day at the Cheesary. Sunday was spend driving to Glenorchy then back to visit more vineyards and introducing ourselves to Maureen at the Gibson Valley Cheesary. Her husband hadn't pre-warned her we were coming, but she knew something was up when we called her by her firstname when she didn't know us from a bar of soap. Another scrumptious cheeseboard and off to the final vineyard before our hour long hot tub soak at Onsen spas. Yes the same spas as on "the Bachelor" and very relaxing. In fact too relaxing as the heat and combination of all that wine tasting, I was in need of some zzz's. We missed dinner and opted for takeouts instead. Monday morning approached very rapidly and we only had a very small window of opportunity to get in a bit of shopping before checking out. We reckoned we had enough time to take a drive up to the Remarkable ski field, very 'interesting' drive as it felt we up a mountain goat track at times. The drive was worth it and we were glad we did it as we now would like to go back for a family holiday with Colin too, but we'll have to stay in cheaper accomodation to be able to enjoy all the fun.

It took only 40 years (like Lynn put it)

2009-07-23T00:02:00.001+12:00

toot, toot - yes it's my birthday. It's a shame I'm working on my birthday, I normally don't, but that's ok as plenty of fun to look forward to this weekend. Enjoy the photos in the mean time...

In Perspective using GIMP - mini Tut

2009-07-02T20:09:00.003+12:00

Got asked by Mel how to use this wonderful tool I've just discovered, so thought to help everyone out by publishing this mini tut.

HOW TO USE THE PERSPECTIVE TOOL

1. Ensure you have the element and dropshadow in seperate layers and select the dropshadow layer.
2. Select Perspective Tool (Shift+P)
3. Click and drag the corner handles to your liking.
4. When you are happy, select Transform from window.

And how do you find the result???

July - It's SgD and my birthday month

2009-07-01T07:06:00.006+12:00

Yes, I found out late yesterday that SgD & I share the same birthday month, how cool is that. Very cool for you as it means sales and activities to participate and win things.
In the mean time this is my Template challenge for July & to make it easier there is no theme requirement - yeah. See post HERE if you want to participate.

Credits: Princess Papers, Princess Glitter, Happy Spring Elements all available at SgD

As I mentioned before, it's SgD's birthday month and will be turning 3. Looks like there will be plenty to celebrate about. See the following for more details, and check it all out from July 4th to Aug 7th.

My new found (GIMP) friend

2009-06-29T20:01:00.008+12:00

I have a new GIMP best friend, called the Perspective tool (Shift+P) and have used it here on the string & ribbon element shadows to give more realistic shadow and just love the effect. To achieve these, ensure you create the shadow in a separate layer. Then using the Perspective tool on the shadow layer and pull the corners to you liking to mimic a more realistic drop shadow on those ribbon/bow like elements. Once you get the hang of this, you'll find that your elements don't look so flat anymore. Have some fun and give it a GO!

Another layout completed for my birthday album, all will be revealed soon...

Credit: Artist kit by Seni

Dawg Gone Cute!

2009-06-19T18:15:00.004+12:00

It only took me nearly 3 weeks to complete with one restart from nearly the beginning but it's done! Here Corey is modelling his first outfit knitted up by moi - big bonus it fits him hehe. I was always a very slow knitter, no wonder I haven't attempted anything bigger in many many years.

I have forgotten how easy it is to loose your way around a pattern, and don't get me started on how many stitches kept dropping of my little knitting needles. There is a lot to be said about circular knitting needles!

Am now on a roll as I have found a new project to keep me out of trouble, this one is a crochet hoodie to keep in theme with the big boys who have new recent hoodies each too. Lets hope I'll get to finish it before I give up somewhere in the middle of the pattern...

For the love of Brackets

2009-06-11T07:23:00.000+12:00

Yes, as you can see I'm still enjoying scrapping brackets were I can. And follows the same Segway theme as my previous layout. Just couldn't help not scrap these photos of BB having a go too! I promise no photos of me on one, as I was left holding Corey on his lead and the camera glued to my face constantly ;) The joys of being the family photographer. According to the boys, it's really easy to ride those things. It's just a matter of distributing your weight and leaning into the direction you want to go, really does look like fun from the side lines. Not bad 10min fun for $10, I think I'll give it a go next time.

Credits: Template #94 ScrappingwithLiz, Papers & elements SgD Travel Kit Collection, available at Scrapbooksgonedigital

And the winner is....

2009-06-10T08:56:00.007+12:00

Thanks to all that participated in my May Template challenge over at SgD last month with the winner picked by Random.org was by sweetiekjo, congrats my dear. I'm sure you had no problem spending the $5 gift voucher in the shop.

This month's challenge is up and posted again, with a theme of Brackets, see what you can come up with using Template # T0003. These photos were taken over our summer on our way home from Tauranga. BB & CJ saw these Segway rides at Taupo, so we called in on our way back down to Wellington. Lucky for Colin, being such a light weight he just managed to get going on it as long as he distributed his weight all forward. Looking from his beaming smile, it was all worth it!

Credits: SgD "Photoshop Layer Template # T0003", papers & elements SgD Travel Kit Collection, SgD Brackets Shapes - all products available at Scrapbooksgonedigital

Finally, another double layout

2009-05-23T09:01:00.000+12:00

Looky, looky - fulfilled my May CT requirement and made it into a double layout. I knew that Steve & Jade had many honeymoon photos of their road trip from the States last year so thought that they would be perfect for scrapping using the American Rider Collection kit. I'm so pleased I asked for Steve & Jade's journaling contribution as I still struggle with that aspect...

BB & I had dinner out with them last month too at their local new Mexican restaurant, it sure was nice and so were their Margaritas. We have taken CJ since too, it just keeps amazing me how much he can eat for someone so little & he isn't satisfied with just a kids menu anymore especially with those gourmet taste buds of his ;-)

Credits: Simply Yin Template 25, American Rider Collection kit by SgD

Get your next template for free

2009-05-21T21:27:00.002+12:00

For my 2nd template - Say it with FLOWERS Challenge...
Go to this post for the link to the free template, and have a go at winning the $5 voucher to spend in the ScrapbooksGoneDigital store.

Credits: Photoshop Layer Template # T0002 available at SgD, The First by Poupoune, Spring Morning by Manue et Nini both available from DigiScrapBooking.ch

QP Freebie time

2009-04-23T22:00:00.001+12:00

I am a total ninny! I participated in a baby shower challenge at SgD last month and never got around to upload the link to my QP for the challenge. Just had been somewhat busy with all things, home, work & squash so the zip file only got finished put together this week. As Norma is absent from SgD during her maternity leave, I don't know if she has had her little wee girl yet. So I hope that all is going well for her on the home front.

If you want a copy, just follow the link to download HERE

Credits: Sweet Midnight Dreams available at http://kennasdesigns.blogspot.com/

Happy feet...

2009-04-20T23:05:00.005+12:00

Well things are good, I still have a job and we are still in our own home and I'm blessed with having loving boyz.

Have not been scrapping much of late, still busy as ever with our business stuff, squash and work, though did take last week of and ended up learning heaps about the accounting package we are using, but all good. So just managed only to finish my monthly CT requirements so far and scrapped some penguin photos from Charles & Kelly's recent Antartic trip, the lucky things!

Credits: Dancing with Wales kit & photo mask available at ScrapbooksGoneDigital

It all started with free lemons

2009-04-15T09:29:00.005+12:00

Back in late Feb my hubby came home with 2 shopping bags of lemons after giving one away to Lynn to make our own lemon cordial. We had great success with my first previous batch, but dear hubby had no idea that it only takes 6 lemons per batch. So I ended up juicing the whole lot and freezing them in batches for the purpose of lemon cordial. This started my first purchase of a wee little lemon tree and from that I have started to germinate vege seeds and planting up seedlings into a compost bags and numerous pots/containers as our own garden soil is to hard and very clayish. Dear hubby will hopefully make me one day a few timber vegie planters so in the mean time they are all going into pots! Lemon cordial making graduated into Limoncello and liqueur making for our recent homemade liqueur tasting evening organized by Lynn. All our friends got totally into it and some were very imaginative and the evening was a total success - hicup, another excuse for another layout someday...

Credits: Spring Morning by Manue et Nini available at DigiScrapbooking.ch

Be in to win $5 voucher at ScrapbooksGoneDigital

2009-03-28T08:12:00.008+13:00

Hello fellow bloggers,
I am finally back blogging again after a busy month with work, lemon cordial making, vegie seedling growing to name a few. Over at ScrapbooksGoneDigital I am hosting my very 1st template challenge as the latest new forum moderator. Using the same template, I am challenging you to scrap your other hobby other than digiscrapping. My challenge runs from now till the end of April and one lucky winner will get a $5 voucher to spend in the ScrapbooksGoneDigital shop. Follow this link to the SgD POST to download the free template to enter and participate.

And here is my take on the challenge:

Credits: SgD Photoshop Layer Template # T0001, Tiptoe Through the Tulips Kit by Mel

Oh dear, my Valentine's Freebie is very late - sorry

2009-02-20T23:35:00.001+13:00

I can't believe it's been such a long time since I both blogged and posted a freebie. I had full intentions of posting these before Valentine's, but with work, squash and committee stuff my creative mojo seemed to be lacking. So with hubby out of town for tonight, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to get it finished for posting. Papers and brad created using MickeyBDesigns Commercial Use freebies, WordArt using Marcelle font. I hope you can use it, better still send me a link to your lo's.

As per usual, just follow the link here to download...

Sun, sun, sun - The perfect camping weekend!

2009-02-09T22:29:00.009+13:00

The much planned camping weekend finally arrived, together with the JamieGees we'd pick Waitangi weekend and stayed Friday 6th to Sunday 8th Feb at Kaitoke Regional park just north of Upper Hutt. This being the same place we all stayed with Sam & kids last Easter and fond memories. The Butt-kins turned up well packed as usual, this time included trailer with 12 person tent, 8 seater table and chairs and bbq - we did leave the kitchen sink behind ;-)!

The tent proofed a hit with the kids who slept in it and where the food and kitchen items were well kept out of the sun. With the weather co-operating and very hot, the local swimming holes were very welcoming and my CJ finally plucked up enough courage to jump of the walking bridge (at least 15m high) on the last afternoon. Though it took him 3 goes, but the adrenalin was worth it for him, were as I was a nervous wreck watching!

Credits: Simplyyin template 87, Edge of Wood kit by digiscrapbooking.ch

My scrap canvas projects

2009-02-05T11:39:00.005+13:00

Wow, a busy couple of days making these hybrid canvases. Started out with a printed layout and adhered to canvas, so did these 2 for BB's birthday. The water skiing one was only done yesterday, hadn't shown the original lo on my blog to him yet, so he got a real nice surprise when he got home and absolutely loved it! Have now got Lynn totally hooked too and I think we both nearly bought out the local shop of supplies - lol. And who did I spot shopping for canvases this morning, you guessed it.

Some CT layouts scrapped

2009-02-05T07:59:00.028+13:00

I have been having fun playing around with kits at ScrapbooksGoneDigital for both SgD Club Products as well as One of a Kind Design Studio these last few weeks. Found myself really getting into the Disney theme with borrowed photos from Lynn and all going well we might have an opportunity to go to Disney World ourselves in 4 years time. Me think to better start saving soon!

Credits: Created using "The Mouse Collection" at ScrapbooksGoneDigital, store link here.

Also finished these 2 lo gifted to me by a special lady C. I'm adding some cards to my stash, this Thank You card is for my sister-in-law up in Tauranga. I have just send up a parcel for them. Hope it arrives all in tact & that they'll like it!

Credits: Created using "Glittering Joy Brag Book".

Happy Birthday my dear BB

2009-02-02T17:27:00.005+13:00

It's my dear hubby's bday, unlike me he didn't quite get to take the day off. Though he did take time out to have lunch with his parents. CJ & I didn't make it as it clashed with a hair cut appointment, never mind. Making it up by planning one of his fave dinners tonight, Lamb stew with mash and spinach - yum. The weather is somewhat cooler again today, me think 20 not the 34 we experienced on Saturday, so stew & mash will be perfect, especially with a nice drop of red win - gorgeous!

Just a quick scrap of BB from our last jet skiing day out last month, another perfect day. The little show off managed to get on one ski straight away unlike last time it took at least half a dozen times. Poor Lynn & Cameron to tried, but found the going very tough. Hopefully they will give it another go next time.

Credits: BlogTemplate4 & You Always WordArt by YouandI Designs, paper Edge of Wood kit by http://digiscrapbooking.ch/

My own QP freebie scrapped

2009-01-25T22:42:00.006+13:00

Busy day with an early start getting ready to meet the Jamiegees on the water at our usual local jet ski spot. Didn't get there for nine like some, but 10am was pretty good going especially for the Buttners.
The weather was hot, just as well there was plenty of water to keep us all cool. The youngest member of our party learned to knee board today, and T managed to get up on the first go too. We were all so happy for her. BB & I didn't get home until late afternoon and have blobbed ever since, the sun and water out there is so very tiring.

Credit: my very own QP freebie, see this post & love heart WA at http://tinasdesigns.blogspot.com/

It's here at last, Be My Valentine QP freebie

2009-01-23T22:35:00.005+13:00

I have found some spare time with my hubby being in hospital last week and this week I had a girlfriend stay all week, so thanks for your patience if you have come back in anticipation. Well the NZ summer school holidays are coming to an end another week and a half and CJ is back at school. Will keep my ramblings short, BB is back on the mend now thank goodness. So onto the freebie

For your download pleasure here

A belated 2nd Anniversary lo

2009-01-21T22:11:00.004+13:00

I have been meaning to scrap our anniversary photo from earlier this month, then found this so befitting QP. Just great when I'm still trying to find my scrapping mojo! We were out on our special day for both lunch & dinner. Photo was taken at the end of lunch by BB's brother in-law at local cafe in Tauranga, where we all enjoyed a yummy meal each.

Apologies for not having my promised QP available as yet, but thanks so much for your return visits. It should be ready soon...

Credits: Biebels Scraps Intensity QP & WordArt by WordArtFun

How about that, a scrapped LO at last.

2009-01-16T18:46:00.006+13:00

I seem to have hit a drought, with my scrapping that is. Though I have been beavering away at making my freebies, so it's nice to get my hands dirty again and scrapping for real. Just had to scrap this LO of the boyz, especially such a neat moment these two were having at the time.
You can't beat Wellington on a stunner day and yes BG did get the weather just right again as he does 9 times out of 10!

Credits: Template #46 @ http://scrappingwithliz.blogspot.com/ using Edge of Wood kit available @ http://digiscrapbooking.ch/ and AWP PlasticAlpha @ http://vicki20.blogspot.com/

Not the best of starts to the week!

2009-01-12T22:16:00.004+13:00

Well, the weekend started with a hiss and a roar! The retaining wall project got started up again on Saturday and by late afternoon the wall wall was up. Just great to see this taking shape from the inside and have a few ideas in my head now how I want to plant it up. Then on Sunday BB & I just wanted to finish of the last of the 2 posts. These still needed digging & concreting in, so after digging 2 huge holes as our first attempts kept hitting cables & pipes, we managed to get the job done in the end though BB had both back and tummy niggles. By night time the latter had developed into severe stomach pains, which started to look more & more like a repeat episode of last year's Diverticular disease (inflamed intestine). After a very painful sleepless night we decided to take precaution and go to a&e just to be on the safe side. Arrived there just after 9am, waiting, check up, more waiting, x-ray, more waiting. Finally BB admitted into his ward at 3.45pm with Divericulitis at least he's at the right place, though bored and very hungry - poor BB!

Am working on another kit and have at this stage this Add On available to "Be My Valentine", I hope you like as much as I enjoyed making them! If you come back later this week I should have a QP available too and I'll reveal the kit at the end of the month. So keep coming back to check....

You can download here

Missing in action, but Happy New Year btw

2009-01-07T09:27:00.002+13:00

Hope you saw in the New Year safely with your loved ones. We didn't as too tired from a very windy bike ride on the Rimutaka Incline earlier in the day. Did manage to go to a bbq at friends, just were too shattered to call into the Jamiegees to see in the new year, how sad is that!
We felt we hadn't had a holiday as yet and as we couldn't get ferry tickets to join our friends in the Sounds we decided on a road trip to Tauranga where BB's sister lives. Left on Sunday and we are leaving again today back to Wellington, but will be calling into the Luge at Rotorua so hopefully will have some thrill pics to scrap.
BB & I celebrated our 2nd anniversary yesterday and went out just the 2 of us for a small meal in the evening, dinner was yum just as great as lunch earlier in the day. We have managed to relax with walks and shopping while we have stayed here in Tauranga. Oops, forgot to mention we did hot pools at the Mount with peoples getting a wee bit too much sun burn, though BB and I did a night hot pools here in Tauranga under the stars with back lit gardens, very tranquil...

Freebie Christmas Glitter WordArt

2008-12-30T07:20:00.006+13:00

I hope your time off is cruisey like the one I am having right now. Not much scrapping going on yet, but am still dabbling with creating Christmas wordart. So wanted to share these 2 wordarts with you, one winter and one summer one perfect for those Kiwi or Ozzie Christmas layouts. The white/grey background is for preview purposes only and wordart is saved in png file format. I hope you can use them...

You can download them here

A quick Merry Christmas posting

2008-12-29T08:47:00.011+13:00

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with your families and enjoyed the festivities together over the last few days. For us it was spend at my Mum's place with my sister and her family there too. We couldn't have asked for any better weather as the day was sunny but not too hot. Christmas this year was really for the kids & even our Corey got spoiled with new toys and dog treats.
Well, haven't the last days just flown by. It seems like we have been eating non stop since Christmas eve! My BB being the bbq king has been on duty every day even yesterday when we joined our friends for jet skiing our bbq came with us. Nothing like a great sausy on a hot Wellington day! I took a heap of photos yesterday, so plenty to get scrapping with soon.

This year I did a bunch of Pecan pies for presents and I am so pleased how the bag toppers have turned out. My Christmas baking has been well received & are a scrummy mouthful treat, yum yum. BTW, Buttkins is our family nick name - thanks Eilish ;-)

Credits: Paper, elements & WordArt by ScrapbooksGoneDigital Christmas Collection Kit & Christmas Messages. For a limited time get 40% of all SgD Club Products.

I'm on a roll, here's my 2nd Freebie

2008-12-19T23:58:00.005+13:00

Thanks to the many visitors to my tiny blog this week I have hit nearly 100 downloads of my 1st freebie. You have come from far & wide and hopefully you'll visit again soon, perhaps to download my 2nd effort. This time I have on offer some frames, 6 glitter ones, 1 black and a grunged one I'd use for a mask. The glitter ones were created with MzCora's freebie glitter, which I just had to grab! What girl doesn't lover her bling.

Well it has been a busy week, my CJ is already on school holiday as of this Monday. So he's had to fit in by spending the majority days with either BB working or at my work. Just as well he has his own laptop and can watch the latest borrowed DVDs in peace. I am working till Tuesday 23rd, so that I have at least Christmas eve to get semi ready for the next day. Though some of the day will be spend visiting friends as one has her birthday and another has his yearly Christmas eve party.

Signing off now, it's late. Hope you have a fab weekend wherever you are. Oops, I nearly forgot the download link.

For your download pleasure here

Are you ready? Christmas is nearly here. WordArt Freebie

2008-12-13T00:02:00.001+13:00

I found myself dabbling with a WordArt this evening. As you can see I'm no pro, but thought it hadn't turned not to shabby so wanted to share my very 1st freebie with all of you out there including my nearest and dearests. Don't freek, the "GiMP Girl DesigNZ" logo isn't part of the WA. I've created it in a png file with transparent background so hopefully any editing software out there can use it. But if not, just give me a holler and I'll change if required. All I ask is if you like it give thanks where thanks is due & please leave a link if you end up using it as I would absolutely love it if I can peek at the final result of your LO! I think if you used some of that lovely bling out there to replace my stars it would give it some real sparkle ;-)

So enjoy and download HERE

Spreading Christmas Cheer

2008-12-09T08:05:00.010+13:00

Well, it has started. The mass production of numerous Christmas card & Pecan Pie baking. But there still seems to be no end to it all. Feels to me I am leaving things to the last minute again this year!!! Nothing changes ;)
We just had the most stunning weather over the weekend here in NZ, so that called for an impromptu bbq @ Dom's on Friday. Which followed by another one @ Lynn's with both BB & Dom in charge of the cooking. There was sooo much food, we didn't eat it all but we gave it a good try. Both nights we managed to sit outside till late and it was great to see kids enjoying themselves as kids do. Then Sunday afternoon was followed with Christmas drinks and a bit of a get together at Neil & Diane's. Yes, the weather was still perfect in fact it was the hottest day over the weekend. What a nice way to spend it among friends over drinks and nibbles outside on the patio.
We're of to CJ's school prizegiving at Wellington town hall tonight, I wonder if he'll get anything. His report arrived in the mail too on Saturday, he did so well - we are very proud of him. Keep it up my boy.

Credits: Christmas Spirit kit by Lisa Whitney Designs

Tree, what Xmas tree? & latest Award

2008-12-04T18:01:00.011+13:00

Well, still no real Christmas tree in sight in our lounge so this girl still not feeling like she has her Xmas mojo. So to get in the mood, I pulled out last night our wee fake tree with fibre optic lights instead. Not the real McCoy I know, but it's a start! The tree is too tiny to pose with, so got Corey to be my test subject. Doesn't he look TOTALLY bored, lol. Didn't see the point in wasting it so scrapped it straight away. Just love a QP, especially when time is precious at the mo.

credits: GirlTalk - November QP, Believe in Santa WordArt by Kathy

To my many scrapping girlfriends out there (I have friends!), thanks Cat & Sam for giving me the latest Treasured Friend Award. Also a thanks to Mel for tagging me with the same award post on her blog. You gals all ROCK! Now, I'll take a little breather from passing this award on until I have my thinking cap back, hope you don't mind sweeties.

Christmas is around the corner

2008-11-27T07:36:00.007+13:00

Thanks to Sammy, I get a reminder how close Christmas is with her countdown on her blog every time I visit over there. Girlfriend, your blog is looking fab and at least one of us is already into the swing of things. I am getting a bit more closer each day in finishing our family Christmas cards. I'd better hurry up or they could end up being shelved, hehe.
On the home front, things are steady for BB business wise and he's kept busy enough with jobs and quotes leading up to Christmas. It's a shame that things will be very quiet from Christmas till mid January with the glass suppliers all having closed factories, just what BB didn't need just having started out this month. Just as well I am still working.

Credits: Christmas Collection - kit & QPs, WordArt - Christmas Messages all available at ScrapbooksGoneDigital
, get your 25% store wide discount for month of November

GIMP Digiscrapping Tutorial - "Installing fonts for use in GIMP"

2008-11-26T12:33:00.009+13:00

I got asked this question by Cat not so long ago, which she managed to follow no problems. So thought to might as well share it with you GIMPsters out there if you wondered how.

1) First download, unzip, install font to C:\Windows\Fonts - refer to Dafont-faq for more instructions.

2) If GIMP is already open, exit GIMP and re-open OR with Text Tool selected, click on Font selection icon,
click on Open the font selection dialog (bottom right button),
click Rescan font list (looks like arrows pointing at each other at bottom of dialog).

The rescan may take a while, so be patient.

3) With Text Tool selected, click on canvas or new layer and type away with your newly installed font.

That's all folks.

What a hoot, another award

2008-11-20T18:29:00.001+13:00

Great minds think alike! It turns out when I was in the process of leaving a comment for Lynn, about her award from me, she nominated me for the same award. How about that, 2 GIMPsters on the same wavelength. So thanks Lynn, and I am very pleased you like my tuts too.

Slight hick-up is that her list is 7 long, so thought to better add a 7th love of mine.
1. My boyz - BB, CJ & C you guys keep amazing me. I am so very blessed and loved.
2. Life - although things might be tough and tight for us at the moment, we could be a whole worse of.
3. GIMP - I am totally addicted, just call me GIMP Girl!
4. Photography - probably my longest held hobby & still going strong, first joined a club at age 11.
5. DigiScrapping - goes hand in hand with my previous 2 stated loves. Our new laptop sure makes scrapping a breeze.
6. Squash - I am no A grader, but I get my kicks!
7. Good food & wine with good company, nothing better than sharing finger food and wine with friends.

Over to you lovely ladies, pass it on
1. Kristin, your designs are just scrummy & many thanks for the sweet comments you leave on my blog. My wishlist for Santa includes some spending money in your store.
2. Corry, your LO's are fantastic & your dog ones a real inspiration.
3. Norma - SgD Designs, I so enjoy being on your CT right now - keep up the great designs.
4. Mzpimptress, thanks for letting me use your designs in my blog header - your stuff has attitude, love it.
5. Twinsmom1, goodluck with your designs Mel - another great GIMP scrapper
6. Colurb, that's my boy!
7. Pursuit of scrap happiness, I take my regular peeps here - beautiful fun & bright!

Gee whiz, I got a Kreativ Blogger award - Yippee

2008-11-19T16:50:00.003+13:00

How cool is this, Scrapness left me a message on my blog to say she had awarded me this. Sooo totally unexpected - but wow THANKS!

So if I have this right, I am to pass this on to my choice of 6 blogs together with the 6 things I love. Here goes:
1. My boyz - BB, CJ & C you guys keep amazing me. I am so very blessed and loved.
2. Life - although things might be tough and tight for us at the moment, we could be a whole worse of.
3. GIMP - I am totally addicted, just call me GIMP Girl!
4. Photography - probably my longest held hobby & still going strong, first joined a club at age 11.
5. DigiScrapping - goes hand in hand with my previous 2 stated loves. Our new laptop sure makes scrapping a breeze.
6. Squash - I am no A grader, but I get my kicks!

And passing it on to you amazing ladies out there:
1. Cat, my 1st official blog follower - thank u Cat
2. Lynn
3. Fryske, who got me on my 1st CT
4. Nikkiana
5. Tanya-Faye
and
6. Sammy, who I taught GIMP digiscrapping & Blogger and more ;-)

over to you ladies have fun... sending u all HUGS

Good luck with your exams Colin

2008-11-11T22:11:00.008+13:00

Well, it's exam week for CJ. Starting with Japanese today, followed by science and social studies later this week. It reminds me of when I was at college back in Holland at CJs age. I rang him earlier after BB & I came back from taking Corey for a walk, he said it went great and that he didn't feel he struggled in any areas. Sounds very positive! Good one CJ, you put in a lot of effort in your revision work for Japanese, so hopefully it all paid off. This will be no doubt good ground work for your up and coming years at school and you'll be used to the expectations school sets out for you boys.

Credits: YouAndI Template & Wonderful kit by Fryske at Youandidigidesign by Fryske

A busy weekend

2008-11-10T12:40:00.009+13:00

With an early start on Saturday morning with voting. Turns out BB & I both are still under our old electorate, so what was supposed to be a 5 min vote turned out to be a 15 min event! Then we were off calling into a few jobs before arriving at Mum's to mow, weed & goarse (how you spell that?) removal. CJ too worked hard, water blasting paths & steps, washing Nanny's car and goarse removal. We worked solidly till dinner time and collapsed on the couch afterward. When we got home, too tired so we 3 snuggled up in bed for a DVD. On Sunday, the office got rearranged after BB bought additional office furniture for fax/printer. BB got struck by a hayfever attack, while shopping earlier for office furniture, the van still had remnants of garden waste in it which brought on a severe attack which left him utterly miserable for the rest of the day. Even with medication the sneezing & runny nose didn't lessen until about 3 hours later. Poor BB!

Credits: Au pays des rêves QP

Finished a week on a little high

2008-11-07T22:24:00.009+13:00

With redundancy looming (a casualty of an economic down turn), BB has to start all over again and we've decided for him to go out on his own. We have been looking forward to this day all week for Brian as he would be picking up his new van, although at a cost of us losing our family car last week. We had only just cleaned and photographed it last Monday on Labour Day & listed on TradeMe that same day, then sold 2 days later. I didn't even get a chance to take my team mates to interclub in it! Never mind - needs must, at least BB is now on the road , next we'll have to organise sign writing for his van. We've come up with Prime Glass, it has a good feel to it don't you think? Strong and to the point!

My scrapping mojo is somewhat slow at the moment so just a QP, but don't these two look CUTE!

Credits : QP by merepoule kit BIRDY TREE, It's my party alpha, Marydale font

It's late

2008-11-01T23:01:00.007+13:00

It's late & I'm finishing a double page Layout that has taken me 2 weeks to complete, but it's done! It has been a crap day weather wise, extremely windy and wet, yet BB and I managed to get a few things tidied and taken to the tip. Had a great session with the girls at the squash club and we all played better and harder than normal, hopefully it has paid of the next time we come up against our next and final opponents. We'll see.

Credits: SimplyYin template #71, sorry have misplaced papers & alpha credits :(

Happy Halloween to y'all!

2008-10-31T12:50:00.009+13:00

Not too much of a big thing here in NZ, but if Steve & Jade were here I'm sure we'd have a big party like last year. Speaking of the happy couple they are now back in San Diego for their wedding on Halloween, good luck you guys - have a HaUnTiNgLy good time!

So in keeping with the Halloween theme, here is my 1st CT layout for SgD using current products available at ScrapbooksGoneDigital.

This layout was created using the following SgD Club Products:
SgD Photoshop Layer Template # T0026 SgD Halloween Elements SgD Halloween Overlay

I'm on the SgD Creative Team

2008-10-27T19:28:00.011+13:00

How exciting is this, I applied and got accepted to a CT call at ScrapbooksGoneDigital! I'm really enjoying this community as they are so GIMP friendly, so it was only natural to sign up there. It's early days so am already having my thinking cap on for my monthly requirements, so watch this space.

It's Labour Day here in NZ, but my poor hubby was out working till late afternoon. So had a nice day out with CJ visiting my Mum. Hope you had a fab day yourselves too.

CJs birthday photos finally GIMPed

2008-10-25T23:12:00.005+13:00

Another week has passed since CJs birthday and I finally got around to scrapping these surprise photos of him. He's not to happy about them, but as I pointed out, the focus of the lo is not on his surprise faces - though the expression is priceless! As a SgD deadline was looming (today) and I had expressed an interest, I killed 2 birdies & scrapped the photos for the challenge. I feel like I'm loosing my digiscrap mojo, things are slowly moving in my hubby's new business and I am helping him out a lot. So only leaves stolen moments here and there, like right now in bed with laptop on my lap ;)

Credits: KHartley StinkerGreen Alpha (recoloured), Coralee Evans Wild button, Nicolina GonnaBeARockStar papers, LDD VintageRetroDreams paper

GIMP Digiscrapping Tutorial - "Creating a Sticker WordArt in Gimp"

2008-10-20T21:22:00.000+13:00

Are you ready to give this next tut a go? Well, this is my version of creating a simple WordArt anyway...

Create a text layer for each WordArt line.
In this example I have "Cherish" & "every moment" using 2 layers and different font for each.
Select Elliptical select Tool (E) and with "Cherish" text layer selected, create an elliptical selection larger than "Cherish" text.

Create New Transparent layer below "Cherish" text layer, and fill with White Background colour.

Select "every moment" text layer, do Alpha to Selection, Select > Grow & grow selection by 14 px.

Create New Transparent layer below "every moment" text layer, and fill with White Background colour (Ctrl+.).

Now move your 2 newly created white filled layers together below the text layers and Merge down together.

We will now try and create a slight sticker lifting/curling using the Gradient tool to mimick shadowing.

Select last merged layer, do Alpha to Selection, select Free Select Tool (F) with Intersect Mode selected, and click selection points around the area where you want to have your gradient shadow & finish by clicking your first selection point to end the selection.
With Blend Tool selected (L), this will fill your selection with a gradient colour, pick a grey Foreground colour, Blend Mode = Normal, Opacity to your liking, Gradient set to FG to BG, shape = Linear.
Click & drag your mouse at an angle where you want the curling shadow to go from grey to white.

Repeat above bullet point instructions where curling shadow is required.

Finish by applying layer shadow.

From In my Digi GIMP world

Happy 12th birthday CJ

2008-10-16T02:58:00.009+13:00

Oh the surprise on your face was priceless yesterday after school when you received your presents a day earlier. Well, there was no point in leaving it till Thursday with early morning school routine and you going to your Dad's in the evening. We hid your present at Lynn's these last few weeks after BB spotted this bike for you for sale. Your Dad and grandparents got your helmet and with the 2 dirt bikes now you guys can ride together. We quized you later what you thought you were getting for your birthday and said a trampoline as BB had mowed the lawns in Corey's area, so it was great to see you had no idea at all that a dirt bike was coming. A quick change later & BB showed you the ropes across the road from us and away you went. You handled the bike very well and stayed on when you did your 1st wheelie and managed to stay on! Not the case when later you picked up too much speed going up hill and not keeping your weight forward, but you did the right thing and jumped clear of the bike. As BB put it, these bikes are made for off road and spills! Your cousin Hamish dropped by on way home from school as he spotted us along the road. He too has a dirt bike so I can only imagine the fun you'll have together later on when you get better.

Won't be long now when you get the hang of the clutch and can kick start the bike yourself, well there is always the weekend now for practising...

Piñata dramas

2008-10-13T15:43:00.003+13:00

I finally got started on CJ's birthday piñata on my day off on Friday. The day started of well with CJ & I of early to the shops to buy the goodies. Several shops later, we made it home to start a productive afternoon. CJ picked a big smiley face as the theme while searching numerous images until he spotted the perfect looking face, then he set off to blow me the balloon while I got onto making the flour paste. That was until I said to blow it bigger due to small size & then it popped! Darn cheap crap, turned out to be small balloons. So had to dash of to the shops again for better ones, grumble - grumble….

Got back, this time with helium quality big balloons and with DS's help the paper mache-ing finally started mid-afternoon. From memory, I think we got 2 layers done that day.

Saturday proofed to be such a stunner of a day, got another layer done before BB and I went of to the Hutt to pick up free tickets to 'Abba Mania' from sister in-law's place and yummy curry lunch while out. We got back and I applied layer 4 and thought to speed up the process, would leave the piñata in the car to dry out while it was parked in the sun. I toddled of to help BB with the grass clippings, checked 2 times for dryness and thought to leave it a little bit longer. 10 Minutes passed and I checked up on piñata, by which time it had badly EXPLODED with 3 major rips. I could have cried! In the heat of the car, the balloon under the multiple layers had expanded until the paper mache could no longer resist the pressure. GREAT! Don't really have time to start all over again, so did the last choc & lollies shop, filled the badly ripped piñata with all the goodies and taped up as best as I could the rips and continued paper mache-ing. It doesn't look to bad now. A few more layers and I'll be finished, ready for painting. What a drama...

GIMP Digiscrapping Tutorial - "Lets Grunge some Title Text in Gimp"

2008-10-09T18:34:00.032+13:00

There are endless amount of grunge brushes available, just do a google search on "Photoshop free grunge brushes", use the following site http://hawksmont.com/blog/gimp-how-to-add-brushes/ to help you with installing/adding Photoshop/GIMP brushes in GIMP. It has been a lifesaver for me in the past.

So here we go, this is what my tutorial is all about... Please leave a comment to let me know what you think.

Type your title in a wide font, I choose Braggadocio.
Select Eraser tool, from Brush selector pick a grungy type brush, set Opacity <= 80, Set Scale to a size so that the brush you use looks smaller than the font.

Ensure your title layer is selected, click & drag your mouse over the text and see the title getting 'grunged'.

Continue erasing/grunging all letters of your title.
Change your Foreground colour of your choice, select Alpha to Selection, and fill with ForeGround colour (Ctrl+,), Select None (Shift+Ctrl+A).
And you are done.

Credits: Automnal Sweetness QP by Choukette

GIMP 2.6.0 is Here!

2008-10-08T23:04:00.007+13:00

Yip, am late back from squash & too hyped up to find my pillow. We had a home game and I had a good win. Brian reckons I am too serious on court, that might be so but if I concentrate and block everything out I tend to do much better. That might come across as serious, I just leave the socializing till afterwards. It was a 2-2 draw, team Northern just won by a winning game, never mind girls - still a good effort.

Found out a couple of days ago that there was a new version out of gimp. So thought to bite the bullet and go all the way from 2.4.2 to 2.6.0 and it has been smooth sailing so far. Have had no probs with installing my old brushes and it looks it still recognizes my stash of scripts, so fingers crossed I took the leap of faith and went with something very basic a QP with just some added text and a play with brushes. I haven't as yet caught up with all the latest release notes but it sure looks a beauty so far. Find the release notes here http://gimp.org/release-notes/gimp-2.6.html and the latest download here http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/stable.html. Thanks Nikkiana...

Credits: Automnal Sweetness QP by Choukette

I won a kit - Yippee

2008-09-30T22:12:00.016+13:00

How cool is this, I entered my "Are we there yet?" layout see my Another squash weekend has started post in a Travel challenge at ScrapbooksGoneDigital and found out today I had won. I got my confirmation email from Vanessa this morning, many thanx Scrapness. So far I have managed to download the 1st part of the kit, unfortunately our download speed is veeeeeeeeeeeery sloooooooooooooow! So will have to pick my times I think, never mind. Should be fun pulling out last year's Halloween party photos, and create using my winnings. No Halloween party this year as Steve and Jade are getting married back in San Diego on Halloween, how cool is that!

Credits: Huge Halloween kit at ScrapbooksGoneDigital

Mo GIMPed in pink

2008-09-24T08:11:00.012+12:00

Just completed my very own girlie page and just love how the shades of pinks have turned out. I got my hands on a whole stack of baby & childhood photos from Mum's a few weekends ago and have been busily creating lo for my up coming 40th next year - moan groan. I won't be publishing them all here, so if you are curious you'll just have to come and celebrate with me ;)! So far have done 4 so am really motoring along and it is sure neat to share those old pics with BB & CJ.

Credits: Bouille Template8, Inspired Papers & Elements by Ami Collofello at PixelGypsyDesigns, SoftPlum feather by Fryske, Glassy Alpha by K Aagard at http://digidelights.blogspot.com

GIMP Digiscrapping Tutorial - "How to use Photo Masks in Gimp"

2008-09-18T14:17:00.020+12:00

Here is another instalment of a Gimp Digiscrapping tutorial covering the usage of photo masks. This question was posted at ScrapbooksGoneDigital, so have created some screenshots with instructions.

Open your GIMP scrap layout:

From Blogger Pictures

Next open your Mask .png file in a separate window, keeping your GIMP scrap layout also open:

From Blogger Pictures

See my In training post for the finished LO.

Happy Gimp photo masking everyone

Credits: photomask freebie by Kristin Skjæringrud at http://www.scrapwithtemplates.com/

Another squash weekend has started

2008-09-11T21:52:00.006+12:00

This week it is our senior club champs, and BB had his 1st game tonight. But I was sure that he told me a few nights ago that I was Thursday and he was Friday. So I took my gear down just in case, but it wasn't required as all the ladies games are all starting on Friday night. The ladies draw is a bit dissapointing with only 5 entries, but oh well I'll should have a good second match. As per usual, I have Gemz for my first match, maybe she'll go easy on me, but probably not! BB didn't have a win, but he won the first game. We didn't stay late at all at the club as we were expecting Kim & Stacey to arrive with Tess who is staying this weekend as the Grieve's will be away, K's present to G. We have hyped up Corey without trying to give away Tess' name. Both dogs will get a good workout entertaining each other this way - hehe.

Wanted to scrap these road trip photos from last year for a travel challenge I'll enter at ScrapbooksGoneDigital. Not so much a destination layout, but I do like how this one has turned out. Including the blended photo of me driving the Mazda.

Credits: LDD VintageDreams-Retro papers & alpha, Date-Bit by Misty Cato, doodle by Fryske, Elegant WordArt by Bethany

No, no, NO - ski weekend photos lost, BUGGER!

2008-09-09T07:42:00.005+12:00

I have tried and tried, but the ski photos that were sitting on Brian's camera for some reason can't download. It keeps wanting to reformat the card in either re-play or shoot mode. Had some nice shots when we were on the slopes and inside the Snowflake cafe while sipping our hot chocolates. So only have these cafe scene ones while lunching with the Wins in Ohakune.

Correction: Lynn spotted a spelling mistake on my coffee prayer on lo1, so have corrected and re-uploaded. Thanks Lynn for spotting and letting me know.

Credits: LDD VintageDreams-Retro papers & elements, Vicki's A work in progress AcrylicAlpha, Template14 by Jillian Zwick of J.Z. Designs, flower, brad * chickenwire "Believe In" by Fryske.

Screenshots for GIMP create pencil lined (Highpass) tutorial post

2008-09-07T09:45:00.011+12:00

Here are screenshots for my previous post...

From Blogger Pictures

From Butt-kins Web Pages

Credits: Little Dreamer Designs "VintageDreams Retro" paper

GIMP Digiscrapping Tutorial - "Create pencil lined like drawing in Gimp"

2008-09-04T07:44:00.011+12:00

The following is a pretty cool technique to use on your photos and Scrapness over at ScrapbooksGoneDigital asked me how I did this, so here are the instructions.

Start with just a single photo and perform the following instructions:
* duplicate photo layer - apply the following to the copy of photo
* Colors > Invert
* Image > Mode > Grayscale
* set the blending to colour dodge (don't worry if your layer goes all white, the next instruction will reveal all )
* Filter > Blur > Gaussian blur - about 50 radius setting
* Image > mode > RGB and merge layer with 1st original photo layer
* now add just merged photo to your layout page and set blending to overlay (I used multiple) Happy scrapping

Credits: Meadow kit by Rainbow, heart messystamper by Misty Mareda, chicken wire, tied bow "Believe in" kit by Fryske, dymo font

This is {Me} too

2008-09-02T20:45:00.003+12:00

Feeling a bit shattered today, but can't put my finger on the cause. Will try and have an early night tonight and see if that makes a difference. BB and I are having an early dinner out with his family tonight, my suggestion as we didn't get a chance to see them on Sunday, so a night off cooking mid-week is a bit of a treat.

Have just completed this lo for a challenge over at ScrapbooksGoneDigital I am currently participating in called "Introduce yourself Challenge" and was looking for an appropriate photo of moi, when I came across this action shot. I am rather pleased the way it turned out and have included some minimal facts about myself.

Credits: Optimism Template, dotted paper & alpha "Love in Paris" by Kristin Aagard at http://www.digidelights.blogspot.com
UrbanJungle paper & elements by Coralee Evans aka MzCora

Win some, lose some

2008-08-31T09:49:00.007+12:00

Junior club champs just finished yesterday at our club and Colin participated quite well. First game was on Friday night which he lost and meant he moved into the plate for his draw. This was followed up with a win on Saturday morning and meant he made it to the Plate final at 2pm that afternoon. Turned out he had to play his class mate Aaron from school, unfortunately Colin got beaten but he did so with a smile on his face and wasn't worried about the result. He certainly has improved over these last 3 weeks as him and I have had at least a couple practices a week after school, he now has fewer faulty serves and the aim now is to work on his backhand next and stop him from over running his shots. Something we will work on over spring and summer to give him a head start next year as the junior season has now come to an end. CJ didn't get a price but got a Subway voucher for his smile and attitude on court! All 3 Jamiegees did very well, finishing all 1st in their draw, well done guys! Will post some squash photos later when I get some more time.

Here is another LO I completed this morning and was working on at the club yesterday.
credits: SgD Template 7, SgD Club PS 3 at http://www.scrapbooksgonedigital.com, Stierney Preppyboy addon paper,
Little Dreamer Design VintageDreams Retro

Good excuse for a Mulled Wine weekend

2008-08-26T17:52:00.010+12:00

Well, we didn't get as much skiing done as we had hoped this last weekend. All started with having to wake up at 3.30am on Friday morning as we wanted to be on the road by 4.30 as we had a 5hr drive to Taupo first to drop off one of Brian's work vans, now surplus to requirements. As you can imagine, not the easiest of drives with only about 4hrs of sleep and me driving our fully loaded family car following Brian in the van in darkness for about 3 hours until sunrise! We made it to Taupo, dropped the van off and turned around for a drive back to Ohakune to our cosy accommodation for the weekend and made it in time for some afternoon skiing at Turoa ski field. Visability was prety much non existent, but we were just happy to have gotten in some skiing at least. Couldn't take any pics as we skiied in the rain, never mind. Saturday morning wasn't any better, still no visability and we were so keen to try our upper mountain ski passes. We did our 1st run in white out conditions while looking for a particular trail down I wasn't able to find. After making it to the bottom we decided that the conditions were just too crap, so decided on a refund on our all day pass and head back to Ohakune to join the rest of the Win family for lunch in town. As you guessed it, Murphy's Law, the mountain decided to clear and we missed out on the best skiing we could have had, apparently it was warm and clear blue skies - oh well lunch was very nice and we still had mulled wine left over from the previous evening, yum yum. Sunday was total blizard conditions, no chairlifts were going, so Morgan & Colin hired out a toboggan each. The fun didn't last very long in those conditions & to top it all Morgan got hurt sliding over the bank and hurting his lower leg on a water hydrant and needed some medical attention when his leg swelled up with a nasty looking bruise, which turned out to be a broken leg - poor Morgan! So that left just a half days skiing on Monday afternoon after we all packed up in the morning. We did our best skiing on our last day with visability of about 1km. With plenty of runs down we all improved some what & Colin now out skiis us both, the little speed demon - haha.
Well, we must have done ok as I can feel plenty of sore muscles today...

Just a quick post

2008-08-19T21:05:00.001+12:00

The weather is settling down into fantastic skiing weather, with Friday so far shaping up quite nicely for a half day skiing. We can't wait.
Just posting a quick lo I finished over the weekend of a get together with friends bowling now a few months back. Hopefully this will load quickly, so I am not late for training again - hehe. Well Murphy's Law, blogger got stuck on me so am uploading it now 3 hours later and was late for training again!
Just did a big shop, isn't it funny how you always manage to spend more then you set out especially when you shop for goodies to take away for our ski weekend. We won't be starving, that's for sure...

credits: Digitreats RUN paper, Twoboyz00 paper (recoloured), Flerg's A Mother's Love Stitched flowers,
Vicky's AWP BabyBoy alpha, Stitched arrow Monique Gascon

Boyz & their toyz

2008-08-18T20:54:00.003+12:00

What a busy Saturday we just had. Brian inherited an old farm/dirt bike from his brother, so once we got it back home, it didn't take long before all 3 boys got riding it. Corey is so into wanting to be into all the people action, so being on a dirt bike wasn't a worry to him. BB took him for lots of rides then Colin was next. He has been wanting a bike for a while, only natural when both his older brother and Dad ride too. CJ can't touch the ground yet, but in 1st gear he looks very much in control, doesn't he? Well, the smiles just said it all.
Then BB & I were of in the evening to our friend Geordie's 50th, great party catching up with good friends and didn't see our bed for the evening until 4am.
Sunday was spend recovering ;) but we did manage to pick up some new ski pants for the boys, BB's seemed to have shrunk - not! Also got measured up for some skis & boot hire, hopefully we get some good skiing in - there is over a 3m base at present but weather has not settled down as yet. Lets keep fingers crossed.

In training

2008-08-13T18:10:00.006+12:00

Last time Colin went to junior squash night he wondered if he could put his name down for our junior club champs at the end of the month. I said of course he could as it was open to all junior members and he remembered how much fun he had last year, plus the goodies he got for just participating. So I suggested that perhaps he would like some extra practice during the week after school. CJ now catches the train to the club where I meet him from my work and we practice twice a week. It is paying off as his serves and game has already improved somewhat in the short space of time.

Finished scrapping my birthday blooms from last month, gorgeous aren't they!

credits: Hoosfunky papers by Amy Sumrall, Datebits date by Misty Cato, Quote by Anna Aspen, frame by Kristin Skjæringrud, overlay created from UrbanJungle flower by Coralee Evans.

OMG, Bethany created my Dog Tired WA request

2008-08-12T21:03:00.011+12:00

Well, did I get a pleasant surprise this morning when I just happend to checkout http://elegantwordart2.blogspot.com/, low & behold there it was her latest post titled "Dog Tired". I started reading and came to the 2nd paragraph and I let out a squeel of excitement as I read "This WordArt request is from Maureen." I had left a little comment on her blog that I was looking for a Dog Tired WA and ended up altering one of her old ones, see my previous post.

So here is the revised version with a special thanks to Bethany for her wonderful word art. Such a talent!

Be on the look out for my next GIMP tutorial, I'll be covering creating manual/perspective shadow as applied to WA and I have used a little bit of gradient on the corners to make it look it has a slight curl.

Credits: dog WordArt - Elegant WA by Bethany, papers Pawprints - LorieM Design, paper cluster - DaniellaYoung Designs, frame - Tout_simplement by ImagineByFran

Well done Colin

2008-07-30T22:20:00.004+12:00

After school Colin produced a school certificate and proudly announced that the award was given out to about 25% of top academic students in his year. Well done Colin we are very proud of you, keep up the good work. He sees it as an incentive to achieve an even higher honor by the end of the year. School has centainly been good for him and is taking up each and every challenge.

Well another dog layout I'm afraid. Isn't it cute, we took Corey to our good friends Kim & Geordie a few weeks back, who have Tess and she is about 5 months older than our boy. Well, we can't even mention Tess's name infront of Corey as he just gets too excited and starts to cry and howl. Very cute I know.

LO credits: papers Pawprints - LorieM Design, paper cluster - DaniellaYoung Designs, frame - Tout_simplement by ImagineByFran, altered dog WordArt - Elegant WA by Bethany

Our boy, GIMPed

2008-07-29T21:09:00.006+12:00

Finished this layout of Corey over the weekend, quite liked how this layout turned out. I must be in a dog layout frame of mind as I already have another one on the go.

The weekend was reasonably quiet too, though we saw it in with sharing my new batch of mulled wine with the JamieGees on Friday night. I have a new favourite recipe which is a favourite with everyone, so will be making sure I'll bring up the crockpot on our ski trip. Must have mulled wine for apres-ski of course!!!

The latest is that the Wins are joining us on the ski trip so it will be a full house, hopefully we won't be experiencing blizard conditions like poor Matt & Joanna who had to spend the night up on the mountain as they closed the road earlier on Saturday and having returned their rental gear where stranded with only the clothes on their back! As you can imagine they'd spend it very cold.

LO Credits: LoriM Designs PawPrints Addon, twoboyz00 papers, ScrapGirls frame

What a GIMP Geek!

2008-07-25T19:26:00.007+12:00

I've been playing around trying my hand at writing a GIMP script, well not quite a brand new one from scratch. I decided I wanted a script that does both a blur border and copyright text in one script. So found a separate script for each so created/merged the two into one. That was still a bit of a mission as I'd never looked at a script before, let alone actually make it work. But I did it, 2 days later. And it still works with allowing user input for border colour and copyright text/colour/placement etc. I thought it was pretty cool that it worked in the end.

Oh, and what do you think of those gorgeous blooms, a surprise gift of hubby on my birthday of course!

Happy Birthday to ME!

2008-07-23T10:18:00.017+12:00

I'm officially one year of the big 40 - ahhhh! Have the day off work as I think everyone should and have a totally me day, so that I have time to blog, scrap and shop. The day so far has started of well, with the opening of numerous birthday cards from family including one from Brian, who included a Bid Wednesday Lotto ticket and some Kiwi scratchies, so keep your fingers crossed for me! Then had breakfast out and am at home for the moment to post these lovely photos of my orchid that was a gift from my Mum - isn't it stunning??? Tristram came by first thing this morning with a birday card that included a voucher, so will be of later to have a go at spending it ;) Thanks Char, Barry & Tristram - you guys spoil me...

Our next skiing holiday is now booked

2008-07-16T17:51:00.005+12:00

Yeah, we are going skiing again. Accommodation all booked out for long weekend next month. This year we have got a place in Ohakune it self, so we will be visiting Turoa Ski Field. The plan is that Brian's sister and family will join us too, but we have had to change their preferred date from early September to late August. Hopefully this will still work out for them, if not we will have spare accommodation as the place sleeps 9. Just as well we are getting this for a good rate. As you can imagine we are all so looking forward to this.

LO Credits: MBblogfreebie kit by Mandy Mystiques Design, Fonts: 2Peas Blocks - Winter and Rockwell Condensed and my own GIMP tutorial to create the curved text.

A Beautiful meal to finish the week with a glass of Black Chook

2008-07-12T09:22:00.009+12:00

We went to our good friends Lynn & Barry for dinner last night. Having had a very busy week at work again, not having to cook was soooooo good! Lynn must have been busy all day preparing and had made us all individual Beef Wellingtons. My Brian being a typical bloke, ate his first all by its self as he just loves a good steak and pastry is his next weakness! Then potatoe bake and he nearly got away with not eating any vegies! We brought over our last bottle of Black Chook and saved it too have with our meal, just simply DEVINE. Make mental note, must order some more....

some layouts again

credits lo1: All Work in Progress alphas by Vicky at http://vicki20.blogspot.com/,
Love in Paris kit by by Mhulshoff for SYTYCD at http://scraporchard.com/
credits lo2: papers by digitreats, scrapalinquent, imaginebyfran, twoboyz00, NSD template by Kami at ScrapOrchard, bracket from Duval Street kit by scrapalinquent

Sunday morning bagels

2008-07-10T23:05:00.012+12:00

Yum yum, remember these Connor? It was so cold here over the weekend that even with the oven on the temperature in the house still felt like a fridge for most of the morning. Never mind, the wait for these gorgeous bagels was worth it.

I have managed to get some time of next week, being the 2nd week of the school hols here, so no work for me this Monday and Friday, YEAH, two long weekends in a row!

GIMP Digiscrapping Tutorial - "Creating curved Elements"

2008-07-09T21:19:00.023+12:00

I don't claim to be an expert on writing a tutorial of any sort, but hopefully you will find this useful. Let me know how you found it as I'm curious, especially how you applied it to your LOs.

I am not a designer, so have created this tut with other people's handy work. Thanks to Gratefull4U kit, yellow Duval Street paper by Elizabeth Quintana and photo frame by by Viviane at http://viviane07.blogspot.com/

Step 1

Open the background paper of your choice in it’s own layer. Create a new transparent layer, use the create new layer button on the Layer dialogue for short cut.

Step 2

From the GIMP main menu, select white as the foreground colour. Select the Rectangle Tool next and click/drag your mouse to draw a narrow rectangle. Fill it with white Foreground colour.

Step 3

From the Filter menu, select Distorts then Curve Bend

Step 4

Click points along the straight line and drag points to represent the desired curve. Select the copy button, this will ensure that the curve is copied to the lower edge of the rectangle, then select OK.

Step 5

Change to the Fuzzy Select Tool and select the white of the curved layer. From the GIMP menu select the 2^nd red circled mode, and with your mouse select the space under the white curve and fill with white Foreground colour.

Step 6

Duplicate the solid white curve layer in the Layer dialogue. Add new paper to the layer stack above the duplicate curve layer. Cut new paper from the shape of the duplicate curve layer and Merge Down layer.

Step 7

To create the thin white border between the curve and background paper, select the white solid curve layer. From Layer Menu select Autocrop layer. From GIMP menu select the Alignment Tool, set Offset to -20, and select bottom right Distribute button.

This tutorial can be applied to curving text and other elements such as straight stitching too.

You want a GIMP Digiscrap tutorial?

2008-07-09T18:20:00.005+12:00

I read a PS article on how to bend/curve and element and wondered if I could do the same in GIMP. The answer is "Yes we can!" So then tried to do a step-by-step tutorial so that my little Gimp friend Sam out there can follow. I am nearly there, just thought to post this to see if I would get any interest out there. Leave a comment if you think a tutorial describing this is useful to you or you want a specific GIMP question answered.

The little digger that could!

2008-07-08T20:21:00.008+12:00

I nearly forgot I had done this LO last month. Brian was very keen to get working on shaping the free fill that got delivered over a week's time. I can't remember how many loads we got, but 10 small trucks for sure! So Brian decided to do the job himself by hiring a digger from our local Hire Pool. On the first day of driving the digger, Brian found it took the whole morning to get the hang of it again. So of he went driving and digging and I carried on with other jobs as Brian looked comfortable handling the digger. Unfortunately the digger had the last word, trying to even out the fill, the digger launched forward as Brian was driving over the uneven surface, and he fell forward out of his seat. Then the digger right itself, but Brian was still falling forward. His head got cut in the process, colliding with the digger arm. As you can guess, nasty gash and lots of blood. Just as well I was handy near the house, we stopped the bleeding with rags and medical kit supplies as Brian didn't want to end up at A & E for the afternoon while having forked out for digger hire. Men!
After a clean up and patch up by me, he went back on the digger to get on with the job he started. Only damage done his split forehead, and I a stress headache watching him for the rest of the afternoon...

Bye bye PowerShot A85, hello Canon D40 DSLR

2008-07-07T20:55:00.015+12:00

OMG I have a new toy, it's my early birthday present and I totally love it! Brian and I went shopping 2 weeks ago to look and see what was around and came home with this awesome baby. As you can guess I have been playing lots and my early manual SLR days are coming back, but I still need a lot of practice. Just as well I have a 1 and 4 Gig memory card!
My work has been totally stressful so not as much scrapping done as I would have liked, but having the new camera sure makes me want to scrap again.
Life has been hectic, Brian has been busy cementing retaining wall posts and installing the kitchen splashback. Unfortunately after only 4 hours on the wall, one small piece decided to crack by itself while Brian was admiring his handy work, bugger! We ensured that the same piece this time was toughened, so the 2 cut outs weren't going to give us the same trouble.
Now for some new camera photo shots...

Have I got my cousin hooked on GIMP yet?

2008-05-25T19:42:00.007+12:00

I wonder if I have Conny hooked yet. Got an email from her during the week wanting some help, so I pointed her to this site http://www.scrapbooksgonedigital.com/TUTORIALS/. This hopefully will have everything to get her started. Remember Conny, start with the basics and make small baby steps. I remember using this site in the past when I first started out with my GIMP, and it sure helps having those step by step instructions & videos.
It has been cold weather this weekend, so a good excuse to get more pages finished. These being from Colin's 9th birthday in 2005. I don't participate in Halloween as not a New Zealand tradition, but since Colin celebrates his birthday in October it sure was a good excuse to have a theme party and Colin's mates still remember the fun times had.

Credits LO1: Crazy Garden Alpha by babs, Template by Simply Yin, paper from Macabre kit by Jan Crowley at www.oscraps.com

Credits LO2: Scrap Orchard So You Think You Can Design week 3 template by Janel Scraps, paper from Macabre kit by Jan Crowley at www.oscraps.com

Bad blogger...

2008-05-20T22:00:00.016+12:00

Can't believe it's the 20th of the month and this is only my 2nd entry for the month. Turns out I have slowed down in both blogging and digiscrapping, just slowed down not stopped thank goodness.
I happen to look at my squash grading list and I was briefly a D1, my highest grade. Unfortunately had a few losses so am back down in D2, hopefully this will give me the kick up the bum to try harder and get back to D1. Am standing down tomorrow, so will have to wait till next week to get my chance to another win hopefully!
Laura left for Melbourne last weekend and I visited Mum on Sunday and gave her a piano lesson.. She was very excited with me bringing my old piano music around and she pick a new piece to learn for herself. Looks like her piano practice is helping keeping her fingers supple and the Arthritis at bay.

credits LO1: Brown background paper from Grateful4U kit at DST, Papers, flowers, buttons, tag from Tout Simplement kit by Fran at imaginebyfran.blogspot.com, Frame by Katie Pertiet at DesignerDigitals.com, WordStrips by Nicole Seitler at SugarplumPaperie.com

credits LO2: Template - by moriginals.blogspot.com, Journal paper & flowers by imaginebyfran.blogspot.com, Papers & WordArt from Circle Combination kit by CentaniDesigns, Jessica Sprague July title/doodle