Lots of Layouts, Little to Show!

Wow! I've been waiting and waiting to post stuff on here, but as it turns out, seven of my latest layouts have been accepted for magazine publication, and the rest of the stuff I've been doing (including playing all day with Kaisercraft's digi goodies) is embargoed until they publish it on their blog or website or magazine, Q3.

Wow.

Things are really rolling along. Have designed this year's Christmas card - all digital again this year, as time's run out for hand-made. Doing it on the cheap by getting it printed 4x6 inch and writing on the back with my photo pen.

Usually do a Year-In-Review letter too. That's what makes it such a huge task! But since I've been keeping a 365 photo diary this year, the need doesn't feel as strong. I will summarise our update in terms of what each family member has done this year, but that's it. No 7-page newsletters this year! (Shhhh, I can hear your sighs of relief!) I just don't see the point of sending just a card to people whom I've not talked to throughout the year - I see Christmas Cards as the chance to catch up on everyone's families and I relish receiving more than just a simple "To Kathy, from (blah)". That's just pointless!

Here it is, and I wish you all a very merry holiday season!

Used Catscraps neautral background paper (the one they use on their blog header - so love the texture!), and the rest is from Oscraps' Paislee Press and Fei-Fei's Stuff. These shops are awesome. Individual and right up there in the quality department! Shaui is probably giving birth as we speak, so good luck to her & show her some love for STILL pumping out great products and pages so close to the arrival!

Here are some more layouts I've completed, although I will be sending them off for consideration in the Aussie mags too, so all you may get to see (if I'm lucky)  is an "Out for Publication" sign, sorry.

This was made using Kaisercraft's Bloom Mega Kit (marked down indefinitely - I bought it for $17 and thought it was good value! Now it's much cheaper!) and a template from Kitty Designs at Oscraps.

Really love this photo! In hindsight, I should have lifted the colouring and shadows on the left photo. But it's done now, so .... This was created using a mixture of supplies from Designerdigitals Michelle Martin, TaylorMade Designs, Lynne Marie at Catscraps, and AWall at 2littlepixels.

 This last one's my most favourite in a long time. Don't know what it is - maybe the colour scheme, maybe the very fun kit (Lynne Marie's Matilda) + extra's. Or maybe it's just that I've been working my bum off creating using specific supplies, and LOs from ONLY one kit, that I let myself "creatively splurge" on this one - this was for pure utter enjoyment and I LOVED IT! No restrictions. No rules. No deadlines. No specific criteria except my own - to just play and preserve a memory.

And I've never been able to use a bracketed die-cut paper successfully, soooooo, LOL!

Welcome to a new look!

Needed a spring clean, both in my house and blog. Wish my house looked this sparkly clean :p

Tell me what you think, suggestions to improve it & what topics you'd like me to cover.

If you like it, become a follower so I don't feel silly!

My new shop section is still under construction. It will sell real-life products such as personalised page layouts, memory books (ie graduation, baby, year-in-review, life-in-review, special birthday), baby announcements, brag books, canvases, business cards etc. Basically anything you need a pretty design for. I specialise in personal memory books, which make excellent, heart-felt gifts at Christmas (wink, wink!)

As well as offering printed complete pages/albums, I also sell the digital image so that you can print it yourselves at home or in the photolab of your choice.  If this interests you right now, just email me & we'll get started. You'll need to choose your digital photos, write out some journalling to accompany them (I can help you with this :) and pick a template from my digital layouts album (or we can design a whole new one if that suits).

In the future the shop will feature more templates and quick pages to choose from.

This is it  for now. Time to roll up my sleeves and get house painting.

Spring Sunshine & Colours to Match

Well it's been a crazy, crazy week without a computer! I know I've said it before, but I really, really rely on it to do everything - banking, keeping contact with friends & family, doing photography, keeping a schedule, etc etc.

Good thing is, that after I freakishly deleted 55GB worth of photoshop projects with just ONE click of a button, the computer geeks were able to restore most of them back to my computer from the netherlands of cyberspace. I really don't know what came over me - I decided to spring clean my computer storage and somehow copied one photoshop folder and pasted it onto an EHD, but then went back to my computer and deleted a different folder instead - one that I had NO BACK UP COPIES of. Huh.

Bad thing is they couldn't restore my EHD, so three months worth of photos are lost forever. I do regular back ups, but it has obviously been longer than I thought between burns.

Trying to keep up with my new scrapping commitments was a test - especially without a computer with Photoshop, but it has all turned out ok. Challenging. But ok.

So. BACK UP REGULARLY. Maybe every month. And not just to an EHD - Burn, baby, burn onto DVD.

Here are some layouts completed today.

First Swim Nov09

These first two use the "Little Shores" kit from Designerdigitals. I just love these colours atm. Although I've never been a fan of yellow, I think it goes well here, and you can't really get away from it with those floaties! The kit just shouts Springtime and Fun and Kids and Water, doesn't it!

I've also been happily playing with the newest digital collection from Kaisercraft, called "Hideaway". It's got so many possibilities! Just love the gorgeous bird stamps. I wanted to use so much stuff all on the one layout, but had to restrain myself.

As my layouts have not yet appeared on their blog, I can only show you a glimpse.

If you are new to digi, try downloading their free kit "Tag This" first.


Cya,
Katharyn

Oh. My. Gosh. I'm in the Kaisercraft Digital Design Team!

To say I'm extremely excited would be understating it, as I've not stopped jumping up and down and chanting about Kaisercraft to my littlies (who are watching me through bizarre but interested eyes) since I found out this morning.

I peeked into Kaisercraft's blog and saw that the new designers had been unveiled. Breathed a disappointed sigh, as I must not have been accepted. Surely I would have been notified before they announced it publicly. Sigh. Oh well, next time maybe.

Completely ignored the fact that I have not been able to check my emails since yesterday morning because my email computer is being fixed. Webmail's not working either.

Read down the blog and - WHOA! There's my name. MY NAME! I hope it's mine and that it's not a mistake. Perhaps there are two of us that share that name?

Read through the bio's of others who had been accepted and I'm so totally blown away to be working with such interesting ladies - most of which are from overseas, no less, and have totally professional scrapbooking blogs, classes, designs and publications going on. OMG! Check them out here.

This is going to be so much fun. Can't wait to get started. Hope to make a whole new set of cyber buddies. Broaden my photoshop elements skills. Try out all the new digital supplies. Maybe even teach a few tutorials. Chat on cyber crops and inside forums. See what I mean? Scrapping is just such a social outlet, even if you don't go out to crops! AND I'm documenting our family's lives to boot. I so love scrapbooking.

And now I can tell Dear Hubby that I have to scrap - it's my job. Cool Bananas!

I cannot upload any new layouts today, as my own computer with all the storage is under repairs (I accidently deleted 57GB of layouts. Errr, I'm trying not to panic. It's not the end of the world. Yet. )

So I'll check in a bit later in the week. Cheers! (Soooo happy!)

It's All About ME.

Whoopee! No one can accuse me of not documenting stuff about me. I noticed today that my layouts have a healthy smattering of information about my likes, favourites, hairstyles through the ages, my wedding, first loves, lessons I want to pass onto my children, and even my childhood memories.

Here are a few to share. If you want a closer look, larger versions are available in the gallery. Just click the icon and my picasa web gallery opens up. While you're there, check out my new Hybrid, OTP and Traditional Paper galleries too.

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Daughter & Mother

Animals Deserve Preservation Too!

And I don't mean of the taxidermy variety!

Lately I've noticed how I've developed from being a baby's-first-year-milestones-only scrapper, to someone a lot more inclusive of EVERYTHING around me - hence, a lot more everyday layouts, animal and pet layouts, monthly summaries and even a 365-photo diary!

I know I get a kick out of remembering my first childhood pets, and I'm sure my kids will appreciate the odd page or two dedicated to our own family pets. I'd also like to document my Dad's grazing and farming experiences, especially his skills as a prided working-dog trainer and cattle musterer. Living on a farm for 18 years, the ONLY photo I EVER took of the farmwork I participated in, was one time when we were branding calves. Let's just say, it was for a school art experimentational project, and it LOOKS like that too! And I was covered in a lot of manure, so handling the camera WAS a bit out of the question!


Here are some animal layouts from my archives:

Our late dog, Tate, was with us for 13 years, through university, first jobs, our first home, Valentine's Days, graduation etc. so this double page LO is a retrospective of those years.

Bug-Catching:

This last one is actually a hybrid layout, more of which I'm planning on showing you next week. I created the worn, torn frames on photoshop, then cut them out after printing. I was so hankering to use some new DCWV "Woodlands" paper! And of course, it's been a long time since I've been able to use my favourite little Adorn It! mini letter stickers. I still love the look of them!

And some other recent digi LOs I've dabbled with:

Whoever witnesses a double rainbow?? ....... Me. Lucky, eh?

Most of the supplies here were free from http://www.threepaperpeonies.blogspot.com/. The textures are AWESOME!

And I'm branching out from http://www.designerdigitals.com/ supplies and delving into http://www.oscraps.com/ - especially Leora Sanford, Kitty Designs (although this kind of fantasy style is only an occassional play for me), Paislee Press (YUMMY!) and Fei Fei's Stuff.

This next one was a story I've told many a time, but for some reason, never scrapped it! I found a photo from that era (we just happen to have a lot of cranky, tired, tantrum shots anyway) and recalled the story as best I could. It's a shame most of the kooky little details have faded now, but the general jist has now been immortalised in print! Yay!

I had to screenshot, copy, crop and paste little sections of the police ribbon off the NSW Police website. Then I just duplicated them several times to extend all the way across the 12 x 12 page.

Still keeping a record of Dana's life stages. Do I have to remind you how quickly it's gone?

Why I don't Scrap In Order

Because I don't enjoy it as much.

Simple.

As Janet put it: thedailydigi

This is exactly what I do. And I even do it with paper layouts. I use up some of my favourite papers or elements on two or three layouts at a time. They are of different children, they are of different time periods, they are about different topics. So they will never be side by side in an album.

And if they were .... so what?

As I explained to Master 4 today, the police come to the scene of an accident to help people, see if they need an ambulance, and to figure out if anyone has done something bad to cause the accident. I don't think they'll chase me up on my scrapping albums when I use my products more than once on adjoining spreads!

Cyber-ically Challenged

When you enter the world of digi scrapping, you realise pretty quickly that you have to master a new language and learn to communicate online in ways that are far more advanced than, oh, say - email (which is the level of my comfort zone).

I have found myself registering for "forums". (You can read through topics of hot discussion to find out if anyone else has had your computer glitch before).

You can "Upload" to "Galleries". (Placing your low-resolution images of your layouts onto the web in special scrapbooking galleries for other people to admire/revolt from and comment on).

You can "Post" "new Threads" to ask someone a question - about scrapbooking, digital genius, or just plain old general around-the-water-cooler discussion.

You can create an "Avatar" (A low-resolution mugshot of yourself, or any image you identify with, which is attached to your comments/threads/posts so that others can put a face to a name).

You can squiz at other scrappers' galleries and "scraplift" their designs (so long as you credit them by using a "hyperlink" back to their original image post). Coming from a journalist's background, it's odd to learn that this is actually an accepted practice - share the love, no commercial royalties involved!

You can create a "hyperlink" to direct viewers back to your own blog/website - and you can set it up so it opens on a separate page instead of them navigating away from their original page of interest. This is always good for people like me, who feel a resolute need to FINISH whatever page I started, which equates to having 50 computer pages open at once. No wonder my high-powered computer runs so terrifically slow.

You can create a "signature" which includes flashing signs identifying the sites you consider favourites or where you've done your last cyber-class etc. It's great "word-of-mouth" advertising which users are usually happy to promote because of their online loyalties.

You can participate in online "challenges" - basically to keep your scrapping mojo happening. New ideas, new thoughts, scrapping outside your comfort zone - and with any luck, you'll win something!

You can buy must-have products immediately - I'm talking at 2am in the morning when you need something to finish your MASTERPIECE page. Well, at least YOU think it's a masterpiece. Time will tell .... Just go online, search for that charm/paper/whatssit, add it to your cart and hey presto! You can download it immediately! (Well, as long as your credit card isn't already maxxed out ...)

You can chat with the product designers. I mean seriously, it's a bit special they are talking to little ol' me, isn't it! (gush gush gush!)

You can do all this while rocking your baby to sleep. Enough said. One hangded.

You can make new firends who share your interests. Noice.


Pretty soon I'm going to undergo my first cyber scrap. And cyber chat. I've never chatted online before - it first came about when I was at university and was basically a porn fetish thing. So, (sarcastically) WILD as I am, I haven't yet tried it out.

Will keep you posted as I learn more about this whole new world. It's such a learning curve, but one which is so totally exciting to a stay-at-home mum who's been out of the office environment for SIX YEARS!

Good Aromatic Recipe for you!

This is something to warm us all up in this suddenly-blizzardy weather.
So much for my total clean-out of all the winter clothes from the family's wardrobes! But it's all about layering, right? (12 layers of t-shirts, 6 layers of shorts, 3 layers of knee-high socks???)

Mmmm cooking this right now in the slow cooker - is smells sooooooooooo good! Write back if you give it a go, tell me what you think. It's part of an email recipe exchange I'm participating in.

Enjoy.

"This is a fantastically aromatic dish that tastes even better than it smells.
Says it serves 6, but I find even halving it serves about 8.
Serve with pappadums brushed in oil & done quickly in the microwave, and rice.
Yes, you will probably need to go shopping for all the herbs the first time, but after that, all you need is yogurt, chicken & cream. "

Chicken Moghlai Curry
½ cup butter 2kg chicken pieces
3 onions 2 tomatoes, quartered
3 cloves garlic tblspn salt
3 Bay leaves 2 tblspn curry powder
1 tspn powder cinnamon 1 tblsp paprika
5 whole cloves 2 cups coconut milk
1 cup yoghurt 2 tspn grated ginger
2 tblspn poppy seeds 300ml cream
¼ tspn saffron 3 tblsp lime/lemon juice

1. Melt butter in large saucepan, sauté onions and garlic until golden brown
2. Stir in bay leaves, cinnamon & cloves. Simmer for 5 mins.
3. Add chicken and cook for 10 mins.
4. Stir in tomatoes, salt, curry, paprika, coconut milk, yoghurt, ginger & poppy seeds. Cover and cook on low heat until chicken is tender.
5. Stir in cream, saffron and lemon.lime juice. Heat thoroughly.
Serves 6.

· If coconut milk isn’t available, heat together 2.5 cups water and 1.5 cups desiccated coconut. Stand for 15 mins and strain.
· I usually use canned whole tomatoes for a stronger taste.
· Who the hell can afford saffron? It’s just for looks anyway.

Aqua, Teal, Bazzill Whirlpool - Colour of the Moment!

I used to HATE the colour teal. I thought it neither a blue, nor a green. And I'm a black 'n white personality kinda gal. Either here, or there. No in between. But now ... Well, I just can't get enough of this colour.

Here are some colour schemes using variations of teal/aqua which I find really inspirational.

You can find more of these colour scheme swatches here.

And here are a few of my own layouts demonstrating my newfound love of this colour! Sorry if you've seen some of these before, I don't have much in my LO stash because the weather's been so glorious it's a crime to stay inside!

Also, my scrappy buddy Chantal has started her own blog. Check it out here. Congratulations Chantal!

Cavy Files

Meet the latest additions to our house - Jake & Elwood (namesake = Blues Brothers - a terrific piece of cinematography the likes of which will never be repeated again and can NEVER be replicated digitally) Moxie, Sadie, Abigail, Taz, Cadbury, Frozone, & Milkshake. Our Cavies. Or, if you prefer to be politically incorrect, our new guinea pigs. But they do not come from New Guinea NOR are they classified a species of pig. If fact, you do not want to KNOW their classification as it might put you off. (ala rodent - eww ww!)

Here they are, along with their birth certificates:

If you'd like to purchase a special pet for your home for $15 AUS , contact me via email and I'll let you know when the next litter is due. Not available to post (poor piggies!). Especially internationally!

So, here's what I have been doing in this exceptionally fine weather - motorised scootering, building cages (LOVE this workshoppping with electric tools), bike riding, driving 20 mins to deliver forgotten lunch boxes, entertaining friends, ordering landscaping supplies ready forthe Assault on Summer. Oh, and 365-ing.

Also have started yoga-ing via podcast because my fantastic instructor Justine, no longer practises in Murrumbateman :( But, my classmate Belinda has gone and got her own instructor's certificate and has now opened this studio, and is planning on practising in Yass in the near future! Yay! In the meantime, I'll stick to these - they are free and worthwhile! (Link didn't work - click on "itunes store" then search for "yoga dvd")

Remember the old gaming arcades and hand-held computer games like Donkey Kong and Space Invaders and Pacman? Well, the boys have been a bit tired of the old nickjnr computer games of late, so I found these really cool free online games - check them out, they are a bit of fun on a cold rainy day.

Lastly, here are some of my latest LOs:

Thanks for looking. Cheers.