Saturday 30 January 2010

That's why the lady is a ....Bug!

Or a bird, depending in which country you are reading.
But also you need to know your Frank (Sinatra) or Aretha (Franklin) to know what I'm talking about.
Thing is, I just want to show you these I made with the new Digital Scrapbooking Artist by Serif, an upgrade to the program that promises to be just what one needs..it works wonderful so far, but, as with any new versions of these kind of programs, it crashes a bit, so I took a rest and wanted to share these with the world.

I told you before about the opening of JustSoScrappyToo the store two of my favorite designer ladies teamed up to make a success..well, you can get this kit over there for the amazing price of U$1.50 (like every other kit in the store, there is nothing priced over U$1.50) and lots, lots and lots more freebies.
In UK terms this means a mere £1.
If you consider that these days a minimum bus ticket in the capital is over that amount....so worth it, isn't it?

This photos are from the week just gone,Sarita & Melissa git together for a sleepover as they had a special dressing up day in school, and I took Sarita for her so much awaited hair cut. I wanted to finish this book with a page showing you my daughter's love for the hairs straighteners,but the DSA2 froze before I could finish it.
I may still post it later as this program is really good at recovering unsaved work,but couldn't wait to show you these.




I have also been writing a bit more (slowly and taking care of not feeling under pressure) and I have written a review of Smilebox & Scrapblog for those who are on the search of the perfect scrapping tool, and will be writing about ScrapbookMax & Digital Scrapbooking Artist 1 & 2 versions soon.
The first two reviews were done for Rosemarie of PixelScrapbooking , if you don't yet know the site, she has the cutest freebies and posts very often, as well as amazing tutorials. I will be writing about Pixel Scrapbooking soon, but meanwhile you can read the reviews here
and here

If you subscribe to her newsletter, you wont even need to o anything but click on the links in her emailed newsletter to get the freebies, otherwise you will be loosing on some, as some of the downloads are for friends who subscribe and are passworded.
Subscribe and you'll get the password every time.

And to finish talking about freebies, you may have noticed I included another link today. This site is by Liliana, aka Malacima, called Just For Fun. well, not only she has fun in style, but also shares ALL her amazing creativity with us, her kits are amazing.
I made a page with her My Birthday Gift kit, she invited me to make a page with her latest freebie, A Secret Garden.
You can find both my page and the freebie kit here and bookmark her or come back here and click in her link at the right hand side in my blog.

So, with the JustSoScrappyToo , PixelScrapbooking and JustForFun we have stuff to scrap to our hearts content.
Have a great weekend!

Wednesday 27 January 2010

Valentines sale(kits under £1!!), discount coupons & freebies

Well, it seems I spoke a bit too soon when I said my sleeping patterns were getting better: all sleep I got in the past 48 hours is just a couple...and when I thought tiredness would win..well, I know a lot of you out there know what I'm talking about.

Remember the Love is All We Need kit form Karen @ SnickerddodleDesigns(byHer!), well, I fell in love so much with it, that I got on making cards for my friends...here is some of what I made..




Like it? want some? well, you can just go get a lot of material made by these two extremely talented girls, Karen,of SnickerdoodleDesignsByKaren author of the kit used above and most of my latest creations, and Katie, of JustSoScrappy are having a sale to celebrate the opening of their new store: JustSoScrappyToo

Following Katie (JustSoScrappy's) line of prices, everything in the store is U$1.50, plus so many freebies you will have to make time to download. There are brag books , tags kits...and, just because they are soooooo nice, they are giving you guys even more discount....(if you are in the UK...this means well under a quid!!!) So, I would say go shopping!!!!
The girls have generated a *Get to Know Me* coupon, which will give you a further 25% in your total shopping...an unmissable bargain, me thinks!
Here are the coupon's codes (which you will be entering before total checkout
For SnickerDoodleDesignsByKaren: SDD_25
For JustSoScrappy: JSS25
Note that these are to use at JustSoScrappyToo
Just enter the coupon before your final checkout...and don't forget to grab the freebies , amazing stuff!!!!
Now, I'm seriously gonna try sleep...

Monday 25 January 2010

Lets talk about nice people (and Scrapbooking software!)

Good morning/afternoon/evening....

My sleep patterns are getting better, despite my body not wanting to answer to my brain commands, but I have been in a good mood overall, so many nice people making their way into my life.
There are so many givers in the net world, even if we only talk about the scrapbooking "scene" (I could be hours writing about the amount of gifted people who share their music with the world for free, and many other forms of art...)

Starting by the one who brings us the givers as a package, Maria from Digifree, which recently has changed names to CraftCrave.
I have to admit I don't much like the new name, even my daughter made a comment as to the old name making more sense, but the essence remains the same:through this site one can have a blast reading the many blogs found by the searching engine, and get freebies to scrapbook for a year without having to spend a penny....thing is, if you are anything like me, you will feel a bit *guilty* of only downloading freebies, start picking your favorite designers and, when they become affordable, buy some kits.

When buying, I end up most of the time at Digital Crea France . They have very often (once a month at least) sales with full kits for as little as 1 Euro or 1.50, and they are my preferred style, but lest go back to the point (yeah, I know, blame the prescription meds!)

Amongst the many people who create and always give freebies, is the most wonderful Rosemarie (or RosemariePixel, as you may know her) who runs Pixel Scrapbooking
I think I came across her through Digifree, as one does, and the freebies were so cute and so many, I ended up signing up for the newsletters, which allows you into more freebies than if only searching through Digifree (or any of the other search engines, I know there is Lori and some others, but up to date, my chosen one is ...ok, ok, I have to correct myself: CraftCrave (it's gonna take time to get used to this, though!)
But she offers not only freebies but so much more, the first time I went to the site I spent quiet a long time reading, she also has such a beautiful family you can get lost into her creations, a great source of inspiration too.
The tutorials are amazing, and I have clicked in many of the adverts, there is interesting stuff I didn't even know existed.

I have been saying for a while that I wanted to post something about these people, these women who so kindly put their talent out there for everyone to enjoy, and particularly wanted to do this for Rosemarie, so I thought: what better than share my latest experiences with software?
As my concentration levels still are clouded by medication or pain levels (or severe discomfort, as the British NHS would prefer it to be described!) I wasn't sure I would complete the task properly, so it took a while, but I got started... :)

So here is where you can find my thoughts and experiences with the few programs I use & bought, starting by the not so creativity inclined Smilebox and followed by the (at least for me) winner of all prizes, Scrapblog
Just click on the highlighted names to go to the reviews, leave a comment there, come to talk to me here...but above all, sign up for Rosemarie's freebies, everything is amazingly beautiful or teaches you a lot...even if you were just born in a non computerized era (like me!), girls like RosemariePixel (who apparently was *download* instead of just purely born LOL) will help you master the digital arts in a very, very easy to understand way.

Here is a LO I made last night with a mix of elements from different kits, but where the star is PixelScrapbooking moon, which you can get for free (together with some more of different colors) when signing up for the newsletter and having access to all previous freebies.
Stay tuned for the following reviews of ScrapbookMax V 2.0 & DigitalScrapbookingArtist by Serif (used to make this LO)

Friday 22 January 2010

LOve is All We Need!!!

I have always said that.
Over & over again, love will heal, bring back a smile to your face, make days more beautiful and, at times, bearable.
And I'm talking here about all kind of love, not just the Valentine one which is now in the air...
We even contemplated the possibility of becoming a foster family at some point last year, it did not happen because of burocracy & ridiculous laws, which end up depriving children of it (love)...but that will be the subject of a much longer post.

Love is All We Need is the new Valentine kit by SnickerdoodleDesignsByKaren , on sale now at the ScrapProfessor store, with discount.
Though I haven't had a good experience with the site (I had huge problems to post LOs, contacted the owner 3 or 4 days agio and I am STILL waiting for a reply) the kit is well worth it. Yes, I know, the store does not price kits the way we like it....they are no Digital Crea and certainly have not the heart of PixelScrapbooking or Cajoline (who give us everything for free), but is discounted at U$4, and if you look at the contents, it's worth the money.
Karen has includeed 3 (three!!!) Alphas, all with upper, lower cases & numbers & simbols....apart from the most delightful elements & papers...so much that I have not included in these LO's not even a quarter of what the kit brings....

So, here is what I have done with it as soon as I could (meaning when Sarita gave up to tiredness and called me to put her to bed....at 20:00hs!!! wow, that's a record!):



There will be more coming, there is also another LO I ve made earlier today with the Word Art & kit from the previous post, will come back with time to show you that because is HR image and now I need to finish some chores...yes, I stil have a life, and quiet a full one, outside this computer...can you believe that?
LOL
Ihave edited this because I got to make two more LOs.
One is because there are a lot of people who (like me) don't have and are not even thinking on the Valentine coupley love, but have another subject of their attention to love...so, why not show it? and pet's scraps are always the same so...I thought this would make a different thing...after all, Love Is Really All We Need!, no matter where or whom it comes from if it is in harmony with our hearts.
The second one is to show you that, even if you are a fan of quick pages, this kit has everything: the other LO is purely a background and a cluster frame from the kit, only thing I did was stick my photos & write a bit of text...gotta love that frame!!!
OK, now I'm really, REALLY of! LOL

Thursday 21 January 2010

More Valentines & a freebie

So, here are my other Valentines,one of them with some dear friends of mine, to find a bit more inspiration.
These LOs were made with ScrapbookMax V 2.0, which I like a lot but I'm afraid it looses points when compared to what the DSA can do, especially if you are on Parallels (on iMac) like me. Still like working with it, the screen is bigger, no need to scroll up n down as much as I do with DSA...their prices are way too high when it comes to kits though..so I stick my loyalties to these other ladies...you will see JustSoScrappy has everything at U$1.50, which come sto a mere £1 to us...go check them out after looking at these :)
The kit & WordArt, by Katie Castillo & Karen Schulz respectively, you can find by clicking in the links in the right hand side or just by cliking here and here
Remember that, if you sign up for Karen's newsletter, you will get a freebie Cookie Alpha, just scroll to the bottom of the post to go get it!
Leave us a comment and tell us what you think, what you would like to see.





and here is the Cookie Apha preview, you will get this if you sign up to Karen's newsletter...

Click HERE to get it!

Wednesday 20 January 2010

Early Valentine

Well, mainly because I can but, really? because I just got the most amazing kit from Katie Castillo together with SnickerdoodleDesigns WordArt, the most amazing pink thing you can imagine, and couldn't wait to make something with it.

So here is the result, these done in DSA by Serif





is a bit weird to make Valentine cards when you have no Valentine (or no intention to have one for the time being LOL)
but as you can see, Karen (of SnickerdoodleDesigns) has created a beautiful word art for a daughter, one feels she is creating directly for us! Cpuldn't wait to make something with this kit, I also made some LOs with ScrapbookMax, but as my sleeping patterns have been a bit mixed and we have had visitors non stop, I'll be posting those later.

My general health is still a constant fight, but then again, when has life not been one (fight) to us?
I haven't been much motivated to write but I can feel some updating coming...
For now, just head of to the girl's blogs and get your freebies, they are well worth it!

Tuesday 19 January 2010

Fly Me to the Moon....







..is the new kit by SnickerdoodleDesignsByKaren. the WordArt is to die for, will post links to the other stores in a bit, for now here are my LO's
got a couple more which I ll be posting later...

Wednesday 13 January 2010

For the LOve of SCRAPBLOG

I'm not gonna stop long (got Sarita a bit poorly) but just wanted to share this with you guys...

I will as promised review all the other programs/designers, but we chose our winner, so here it is something we made together with Sarita:



Thanks for all the attention given everywhere!
Huggzzz

Sunday 10 January 2010

Let me introduce you....



..an amazing, hugely talented lady called Karen Schulz.
You may know her from her previous blog and her store at GottaPixel.com, as MyOwnFont by Karen, yes, she is that wonderful lady who designed the most amazing word art you have ever seen, not just pure words, but lots of art surrounding it. In case you still don't recognize her, I am posting here some of what I have done with her brilliant work.

So wonderfully gifted is this lady, that she got me to do what I had been reluctant (and very successful in NOT doing it) to do: buy from Gotta Pixel. It was seeing her baking kit, A Pinch of This, a Dash of That, and falling so much in love with it I couldn't wait to start what I had been threatening to do for almost a year: my recipe book for Sarita, my daughter.
I also bought another couple of kits, and one from Bella Gypsy also on the cooking theme, nice (and cheap as they were on a sale) but not even starting to compare to Karen's kit.
A day or so after I bought these kits, I got a couple of mails, one from BellaGypsy and one from Karen, thanking me for the purchase and, in Karen's case, inviting me to visit her new blog.
Though I thought at the time this was an automated response, I found that to be a nice touch, and put the emails aide instead of deleting them, with intentions to answer and saying so.

So magically lead is crazy world of ours, or maybe just God watching for me guided my hands and thoughts like it happens often with me, that I answered to Bella Gypsy the week after but, for some strange reason, I left Karen's email unanswered.

Then the end of the year was near and I wanted to clean my inbox, so I did, and for (again, maybe not so) strange reason I also made a comment about my reluctancy towards GottaPixel, giving her a bit of *customer feedback*... I think I did this because I felt that someone who created pieces of art such as hers (people may think scrapbooking is a *minor* art, if an art at all, but I do know well, this is no child game) deserved all my honesty and, to my surprise, here came her reply almost on the spot.

We started a beautiful communication (well, if you know me, you know I talked her to death LOL) I showed her what I had done with her kits, and after a couple of days of chatting and exchanging histories, thoughts and info...well, I know this will sound taki and ..well... you know, but this is true: it felt like we had been chatting for an eternity, that I knew this woman for ages.

But (as I have had very little sleep and still have visitors from abroad at home) you don't want me to talk you to death too.
What may interest you is that she invited me to work in her Creative Team, which means you (because I know you luff us!!!!) will be going to visit her blog and, of course, her space at her new store and watching out for more news.

I will bring her blinkie in as soon as my mind can do more than try to spell reasonably and put thoughts together , but for the time being, here at your right hand are the links to her amazing blog and the store.

The names to remember are Snickerdoodle Designs by Karen and TheScrapProfessor, but promise to come with more detailed info and show you my work with her marvelous creations.
I know already there are a lot of you who will be fascinated by her Cookies & Tea kit, I have created a few pages with it and had the time of my life.....so, there, what are you waiting for?

Promise to come update my life events soon, but with the snow fall in London adding to my already recluse status, not much to report (well, I have just given you some wonderful news, haven't I?)
:)
Oh, almost forgot, with all the excitement: I have published my Sarita's 6th year scrapblog after many stressful adventures and hair pulling episodes, so I'll probably be coming to talk about that at certain point too.
Energy levels are low right now so I'll say goodbye for now (another sleepless night behind me, and tomorrow sarita NEEDS to go to school!) with a big smile and a huge hugg to all for 2010.

Tuesday 5 January 2010

The start of something new....





should always be a wonderful thing, though not always happens that way, it has not been too bad for me this last year.
If I discard physical pain from my checking list, most was good.
Some difficulties are part of life, and I have learned to make them less difficult by applying the laws of the Simple Abundance.
I bought the book, which I didn't know existed, but still have not had time to read it.
Well, in total honesty, I do have the time, just choose to do other things like, yes, guessed it: scrapping.
(I'm reading a Reginald Hill Dazliel & Pascoe book, but that is taking me a while too, my library fines are such that I cannot renew online anymore LOL)
I assume this: scrapping is an addiction.
But hey: better than alcohol or drugs, right?

[back after a brief interval in which we ate, looked at the blanket of snow outside, I gathered my pictures for Sarita's 6th year Scrapblog and took photos of the photos, looked for the very few photo CDs we have of that time(no digital, remember?) and ate a bit more]

So, my year in a few words?
Not bad, I have to say.
Like I said, forgetting the physical pain, no much complaints, after all, we travelled, we bought a new computer, a new camera, and had some very nice people staying over...
But my year can be mainly described by my scrapping, this is most definitely what I have chosen to do and, if you take into account that I can do it from my bed, is a great, very effective pain relief which keeps me on minimum dosage of opiates, being a creative thing I'm embracing and happily assuming my addiction.

As Scrapblog.com started to get a bit unaffordable, I ended up buying two new programs, ScrapbookMax and Digital Scrapbooking Artist from Serif.
Both good programs,though the Serif one has its trouble when importing too many files or trying to make digikits...
I have reviewed SBM in Creative Spirits (and am not sure but I think I did here too) and the Serif DSA review will be up shortly.
But would like to point out to the closing of The French Frog digital store, the sale is amazing with kits from 1.38 Euros to 2.10 for full, amazing kits, many of them with alphas, plus freebies.
Thing is, The French Frog is Digital Crea France, so we wont be missing the designers, but the sale is amazing and is stuff which is going to retire from Digital Crea....

Someone who deserves a mention is Rosemarie from Pixel Scrapbooking. This young mum of three boys has a passion only matched by mine for scrapbooking, only she is a LOT more wise in technology,and you will be delighted to know that she gives free stuff every day, no sale at all, at least I haven't seen anything for sale at her page. She also gives tutorials and general tips in scrapbooking digitally.

Another mention should go to Michelle of Crafty Scraps (aka Wolvsie35 for ScrapbookMax users)
This is a very gifted lady who also is always giving away the most amazing kits, but I have spoken about her here before.

There are so many people who offer freebies or very cheap kits, it would be impossible to mention each and every one, but I will try make the post I promised sometime.

I have made amazing so many friends through the scrapping, most of them very far away on the other side of the pond, but the net makes them be closer than some of our *real life* friends.

I have some news which I would like to write down with time and now I'm starting a new year book for Sarita, will leave it for tomorrow so I can concentrate in relating the facts properly.

To each and every one of the people who have been with us one way or another through 2009, thanks so much,your presence always brightened our days.