Nostalgic Scrapbook Freebies

Sorry about the delay in posting these freebies but the recent ice age has finally past and I´ve spent most of my time in the garden recently.
Here they are at last.

If you´d like to have these frames, you´ll find them here.
As for me, I´m off to the garden again...

Nostalgic Scrapbook Is In The Store

My latest kit, Nostalgic Scrapbook, is now in the store. Here´s the preview.

 Click on image for a larger view

Because this is such a huge kit I´ve had to show practically all the elements at a fraction of their actual size in order to fit everything into a single preview. A list of its contents may give you a better impression of how large it really is.

You can find more information either in the store or among my kit previews where I´ll soon be offering a set of 3 freebie sketched frames.

Thanks for looking.

In At The Deep End

While looking through my old photos recently I was reminded of a page which I´d almost forgotten. It dates back to shortly after I joined Deco-Pages almost 6 years ago when I had no experience of designing anything other than stained glass windows and murals and it´s only significant because it features the very first photo I ever attempted to restore. Talk about jumping in at the deep end! If I´d had the slightest idea what was involved in photo restoration I´d have chosen something a lot easier to begin with. Well, they say that ignorance is bliss and, if so, I must have been the happiest would-be photo restorer ever. In those days I didn´t have Photoshop to help me so I had to improvise and struggle along with the very few tools provided by my old German language version of Corel Photo-Paint 9. Looking at the results now with a critical eye I realise I really didn´t do a great job but at the time I was so proud of it that I designed a layout around it. Come to think of it, that was a first too. Anyway, for what it´s worth, here it is.

 

That´s still one of my favourite vintage photos and one I´ve attempted several times to restore to my own satisfaction. Well, that hasn´t actually happened yet but, so far, the following is the best I´ve managed. The original is on the far left, then a couple of early attempts at restoration and my latest attempt is in the foreground. Lying next to it is the back of the original on which is written along with the date on which the photo was taken, “With love from your little daughter, Lucas”, something which, for obvious reasons, baffles me to this day.

 

I created this slightly surreal page using a very few of the 85 items in my most recent kit which was named appropriately “Nostalgic Scrapbook” by Lajuana as my imagination apparently took a break after I´d finished the kit. I´ll show a preview soon and may even get it into the store within the next few weeks.

As for that photo, I´m still not entirely happy with it. I can almost feel the ghostly presence of little Lucas looking over my shoulder saying, “Surely you can do better than THAT.” Who knows? Given another 6 years, maybe I can...