Wednesday 25 November 2009

The web is full of Happy Scrappers....

..maybe the proximity of Xmas, maybe the wonderful feeling of sharing is still there, always, one just need to go in the right direction.
Well, though I haven't been all that well to write too much (and time is short with my humongous Brazil album in the making!), I felt I needed to share these with you, maybe one troubled soul (as much as mine was) will get the same energy, faith and general mood cheer with the amazing stuff I have been (all night) downloading.

First of all, I would like to introduce you (if you have not come across her before, which, if you are an avid scrapper, you may have) to a wonderful, caring,giving, extremely beautiful inside and out and full of talent mum, hard worker, scrapper, designer....
Her name is Michelle and she is the driving force of CraftyScraps
This girl has a gift and she shares it... in her forums you will find at this very moment over 120 Quick Pages for free and, if you, like me, are not big fan of having it done for you, still she has many, many amazing kits, all free, apart from a few kits she sells atthe ScrapbookMax Store .
She even explains us why she gives all these wonderful stuff for free...so you can get to know her a bit more.
So, go pop into the forum, have a chat, no even registration is needed, you will come out feeling invigorated and with a *box* full of scrapping goods...some amazing felt stickers on the Xmas theme are particularly beautiful, there is a full Piano Keys Alpha (so clever, I had though about making something like that but did not occur to me how to) One of the kits that fit the most my scrapping style is the Misty Wire, with which I made the last layout in this page.
There is so much in her site, I'm thinking maybe I should give you time to enjoy it all to the fullest before I go on to the rest of my finds.....but, as I'm here and not sure when the writing fairy will come back with some energy dust....

We all know Digifree, right?
One would have thought it a matter of go and grab, but it isn't always so.
I am not very keen on the blog trains, though I know the kits, alphas, general collaboration stuff is awesome...I hardly have time lately to finish my albums (or I am not in good health, which would mean not in good mood, which will mean no scrapping...oh well, you know me LOL) so I tend to ignore the complicated process and go for the straight forward downloads.
I always, always comment, thank them, and mention Digifree.
If you have a minute or 10, GrowingPainsScrapped has a full kit, papers, elements and 2 (two!) complete (and beautiful!) alphas. 
You only need to get to their site by clicking here and make sure you scroll to the very beginning of her giving out the kit...which is called My GirlFriends.
Beautiful. You wont regret having spent the time.

With Xmas & New Year (and Thanks Giving for the other side of the pond, I almost forgot!) I was a bit worried about getting carried away with the sales and no money...
No need to worry.
There is so much stuff for free around, I doubt I would have the time to download it all!

For those of you with less time to sort through and specific needs or just fancying giving yourselves a present... my favorite site for buying has unbelievable sales:
Full kits for 1 Euro each, 30% and 40% discount on Commercial Use stuff and some freebies too.
I got to Digital Creations France through Digifree at first, but as I registered to download a freebie kit (or 10!!!) they started sending me emails with sales, I discovered designer paradise, only in an affordable level.
Every month they have at least 30 kits for a Euro (this would translate onto something like U$1.49) and they also have created another sister site, The French Frog, with most designers in both, but some variations... great stuff, affordable and lots of freebies too.

I have also made my cards @ Scrapblog, but to talk about this we need a lot more time (and energy which is almost running out here...) , so I will leave it for the next time.

Here are some layouts I made with my friend/neighbor's daughters photos last night, all kits come from the sites mentioned above, just ask me if you would like to know which one is which in the main (as I mix a bit sometimes)
Promise to come in the near future and make justice to each designer with a post each, layouts and all explained...today is just not the day...

Film Strips by SBMax (I made the circular one) top film strip (pinkyish)and stars from Petitsouris FunkyWinter, elements & word art by SummerDriggs (and SBM text editor)
Chriscraps Amazing Birthday + an old background
very old elements from some kits gotten over a year ago, various designers

GrowingPainsScrapped MyGirlFriends Kit, alpha from S Robinsons Halloween and, bellow, Misty Wire kit from Crafty Scraps, word art by Summer Driggs....the kit has a LOT more...

..maybe the proximity of Xmas, maybe the wonderful feeling of sharing is still there, always, one just need to go in the right direction.
Well, though I haven't been all that well to write too much (and time is short with my humongous Brazil album in the making!), I felt I needed to share these with you, maybe one troubled soul (as much as mine was) will get the same energy, faith and general mood cheer with the amazing stuff I have been (all night) downloading.

First of all, I would like to introduce you (if you have not come across her before, which, if you are an avid scrapper, you may have) to a wonderful, caring,giving, extremely beautiful inside and out and full of talent mum, hard worker, scrapper, designer....
Her name is Michelle and she is the driving force of CraftyScraps
This girl has a gift and she shares it... in her forums you will find at this very moment over 120 Quick Pages for free and, if you, like me, are not big fan of having it done for you, still she has many, many amazing kits, all free, apart from a few kits she sells at the ScrapbookMax Store .
She even explains us why she gives all these wonderful stuff for free...so you can get to know her a bit more.
So, go pop into the forum, have a chat, no even registration is needed, you will come out feeling envigorated and with a *box* full of scrapping goods...some amaizng felt stickers on the Xmas theme are particularly beautiful, there is a full Piano Keys Alpha (so clever, I had though about making something like that but did not occurr to me how to) One of the kits that fit the most my scrapping style is the Misty Wire, with which I made the layout above.
There is so much in her site, I'm thinking maybe I should give you time to enjoy it all to the fullest before I go on to the rest of my finds.....but, as I'm here and not sure when the writing fairy will come back with some energy dust....

We all know Digifree, right?
One would have thought it a matter of go and grab, but it isn't always so.
I am not very keen on the blog trains, though I know the kits, alphas, general colaboration stuff is awesome...I hardly have time lately to finish my albums (or I am not in good health, which would mean not in good mood, which will mean no scrapping...oh well, you know me LOL) so I tend to ignore the compliacted process and go for the straight forward downloads.
I always, always comment, thank them, and mention Digifree.
If you have a minute or 10, GrowingPainsScrapped has a full kit, papers, elements and 2 (two!) complete (and beautiful!) alphas. 
You only need to get to their site by clicking here and make sure you scroll to the very beginning of her giving out the kit...which is called My GirlFriends.
Beautiful. You wont regret having spent the time.

With Xmas & New Year (and Thanks Giving for the other side of the pond, I almost forgot!) I was a biot worried about getting carried away with the aales and no money...
No need to worry.
There is so much stuff for free around, I doubt I would have the time to download it all!

For those of you with less time to sort through and especific needs or just fancying giving yourselves a present... my favorite site for buying has unbelievable sales:
Full kits for 1 Euro each, 30% and 40% discount on Comercial Use stuff and some freebies too.
I got to Digital Creations France through Digifree at first, but as I registered to download a freebie kit (or 10!!!) they started sending me emails with sales, I discovered designer paradise, only in an affordable level.
Every month they have at least 30 kits for a Euro (this would translate onto something like U$1.49) and they also have created another sister site, The French Frog, with most designers in both, but some variations... great stuff, affordable and lots of freebies too.

I have also made my cards @ Scrapblog, but to talk about this we need a lot more time (and energy which is almost running out here...) , so I will leave it for the next time.

Here are some layouts I made with my friend/neighbor's daughters photos last night, all kits come from the sites mentioned above, just ask me if you would like to know which one is which in the main (as I mix a bit sometimes)
Promise to come in the near future and make justice to each designer with a post each, layouts and all explained...today is just not the day...

                                              

Wednesday 18 November 2009

Glad to have found....


..so many creative, nice,helpful people around lately, but there is one lady I reckon deserves a special mention...
Not only does she answer every question I have and has opened my eyes and called my attention to, for example, the world of fonts amongst many others, but she also shares her creative talent with us all:


Her name is Mary and she goes as mh51 in ScrapbookMax, she is also (rare to find, in this across the pond dominated world) in the UK, which makes me feel a special bond...
Her kits are absolutely wonderful, as are her layouts.
Go have a look and you will be as pleased as I am...I promise!

Here is a card I made with one of her wonderful kits:


Saturday 14 November 2009

A time to be Grateful...


This isn't a new thing for me, or even something to feel sympathetic with my North American friends in this time a year...
I have been doing the Simple Abundance for a while now, but today I thought (as I was just browsing DigiFree) I should thank all the designers who kindly share their art with us, which is allowing me to make the wonderful albums and books I'm making.
I'm not feeling all that well physically today, and Sarita has a friend sleeping over, so I will post names and links tomorrow...just didn't want to let my thought get lost...

Monday 9 November 2009

Creating Paradise



So... after another sleepless night (if you know me you will know this is not as bad as it sounds) I decided to share my delight with my new toy.
Everyone knows how much I love Scrapblog.com, and how much happiness and benefits I got from the site, not only the program but also the community, one couldn't hope for a better site...but lately it has been changing towards the financial side and, after much thought and seeking advice, I decided to buy a program.

I had seen the advert for ScrapbookMax when first investigating DigiFree, the price converted in British Pounds was more than convenient but, why buy at that stage, when @ SCrapblog everything (or most) was free and I was enjoying it so much....
There was also the fact that ScrapbookMax was designed for Windows and we were already working towards our iMac, so I forgot all about it.
I then embarqued in the project of  scrapping Sarita's year books and (at her request) print them.
In this I found the first difficulty with Scrapblog, as they don't ship to the UK.
Not only that but there is no possibility of ordering more than one book and paying one delivery: I had to pay postage and package within the US per book (I printed 3) and then (this I will eternally grateful for) I payed Rebecca, who is part of the team and a marvelous person, the international postage.

Have to admit though: I took the opportunity that they had at the time 25% discount on printing keepsake books, so, all in all, it worked out approximately £50 each book, which, if you shop around, will realize it isn't expensive, especially taking into account that each book had 70 pages or over....
All brilliant up to here.
I was buying credits from time to time but, as it works out cheaper to buy the U$25 at the time, this was a bit of a risky situation...and as the time went, more and more stuff had prices,less and less was free.

Then one day I got an email (presumably I registered at the time of checking out the advert) from ScrapbookMax , announcing their latest version, the 2.0, and the discount, a modicum U$47 something....
I write back (not expecting a reply at all) suggesting they create a version for Macs...
Very soon after I got a reply, explaining how I could work the program on Parallels, the program form Apple designed to allow Windows in the Macs.
Lets cut the story short: I bought it.
There are some reviews of it here:
but since writing them, I have come a long way.

It wasn't easy at first, I even went through the painful task of recovering my PC from Trojan Horses and Spyware attacks in order to work SBM in it, because the Parallels was crashing my Mac, but once I got the grip of the program (with a huge helpful hand from the SBM members and team) the making of my pages has turned into creative paradise.
There is one plus with ScrapbookMax that makes everything worth wile: the prints at home are excellent, as we retain our high resolution photos.
In a minor scale, the use of all the freebies and stuff bought in stores is usable with no fuss, no going through Photobucket and wasting time downloading. I say in a minor scale because (we need to be fair here) at the moment in Scrapblog the getting files from Photobucket is faster than it was...still: with SBM I get them drag and drop from my computer.

ScrapbookMax isn't Scrapblog.
I said and will keep my word: Scrapblog is the best program on the net.
Is fast, has a number of amazing features that make composing easy and creativity flows...but our wallets get drained as fast, and SBM does not have this problem.
The program is mine.

A few of my Scrapblog sisters have followed me to ScrapbookMax, that makes it even nicer, and plus the SBM ladies (and gents!) are a nice bunch too.

My thing with Scrapbooking is not a superficial pastime, it has a goal,is a task.
I create projects with the photos we take, I am still in the middle of producing Sarita's books and I will do the rest in Scrapblog.
But ScrapbookMax has allowed me to make my own cards, and now I'm making our Brazil album...and will be able to print and put together in those fabulous albums I got for free from Freecycle...huge leather bound albums which fit two A4s per page...
Can't wait to finish !

So, there you go, this is what I have been up to.
Wont post everything here as I have done lots, but if you are interested, there are two albums and a few loose pages here:

Now I'm gonna go think out the next step: to sleep or not to sleep?
that is one hell of a question right now! (09.33 am)
:)