New Kits In The Store

Lajuana´s been busy recently adding more kits to the store for me, one completely new and two from my collection. If you have a look in the store I think you´ll agree that, as always, she´s done a wonderful job. This month the new featured kit is Summer Past which I designed last year and previewed here on the blog in February.

Flight Of Fancy is a kit I particularly enjoyed designing because I love bling and this kit is full of bright sparkling elements to welcome in the spring.

And on the subject of spring bling, Garden Treasures is an elements pack which I couldn´t resist adding on as it goes so well with Flight Of Fancy. In fact any of the glittering creatures in it would add an eye catching accent to any floral or garden page. By the way, it includes the only snail I´d welcome into my garden!

You can see the kits in the store HERE. As usual I´m offering some kit freebies. If you´d like them, you´ll find them HERE along with more info about the kits.

Good Moos

As you know, I haven´t had much to laugh about recently but yesterday I received a short video that still makes me smile whenever I think about it.

A few weeks ago I was looking through some online stores when I came upon something totally unrelated to my search which instantly made me think of Diane who breeds Longhorn cattle on her farm in Texas. Have a look at the video and you´ll see why I simply had to get it for her. (Make sure you´ve got the sound on.)

Isn´t that too silly for words? Don´t tell me it didn´t aMOOse you. I know it brightened my day.

As for the other good moos, my computer isn´t quite as empty as it was last week. I´ve reinstalled most of my graphics related software, and thanks to Deb and Diane, have replaced some PS presets which I´d thought were gone forever although PS itself is still impossible to reinstall. However, I do still have it on my laptop and while I was playing with it a few days ago I discovered several folders full of my brushes, styles and custom shapes which I´d totally forgotten were there as I´ve never actually used my laptop for designing purposes. Now that really was a cause for rejoicing. As for my photos, most of them I have on DVDs but many of my vintage family photos will have to be scanned and restored again. My cousin, Neville, has some of the originals and has kindly sent them to me to add to my collection. I´ve still got all my kits though the one I was working on when my computer went belly up has gone forever. However, I´ve managed to get back the old photo I´d built it around and have at least made a start by beginning to redesign the layout. It won´t be the same but I hope it´ll be a reasonable facsimile.

So altogether things are beginning to look up again. I´m feeling a lot more positive now and don´t have as many moo-d swings. I´m not quite ready to be put out to pasture yet and, who knows, I may even have a brand moo kit before I´m an udder year older. When that day comes I´ll party till the cows come home...

PS Deja moo - the feeling that you've heard this bull before.

Computer Disaster

My computer was infected with a particularly nasty virus. When I finally got it back I discovered that the damage was even worse than I´d imagined. Every single folder has gone. Every image. Every document. My entire scrapbook has gone including a kit I was working on. I´ve very little left after years of designing apart from what I´ve got at 4Shared or saved on a DVD. Not so much as a brush or a style was spared. All my programmes will have to be reinstalled. I´m having trouble reinstalling PS as the installation disc refuses to recognise the fact that it isn´t there any more and keeps coming up with an error message. It´s a nightmare and I don´t know if I´ll ever have the heart to start designing again from scratch as I´ve lost literally years of work. I´ll eventually get all my kits into the store. Maybe by then I´ll have recovered from this disaster.

Valentine Glitter

On a dull winter´s day the magpie in me begins to flutter around looking for something glittering to take back to its nest. It snowed last night but under the overcast skies it´s just lying there with not a glittering snowflake in sight. Sooo...with Valentine´s Day just around the corner I decided to cheer myself up by creating some more glittering hearts to share with you.

Hope they´ll cheer you up too. If you´d like them to brighten your day, you´ll find them HERE with love from me to you.

More Kits In The Store.

This month´s featured kit is Simply Serene, the companion kit to Sweetness And Light.


With Valentine´s Day in mind, I´ve also added two old favourites of mine, Heart Of Gold...




...and All That Glitters.


Finally, and for no other reason than because I love both the coppery colours and the textures in this particular kit, Vintage Patina.


They can all be seen in my store and among my kit previews, each with its own freebie(s). You can also find examples of use in the store and here on the blog.
Thank you for looking!

Flying Pig Meets Sparkling Lizard

I´m a magpie by nature. Anything glittering always attracts my attention so when I saw a sparkling lizard recently in a shop window display I just had to buy it. I already have a silvery pig candle with glittering nose, toes and wings which was a good luck gift last New Year – that´s one candle that´ll never be lit! - so when I got my lizard home I introduced them to each other and now they sparkle together beautifully under my silver filigree table lamp. An ill-assorted couple maybe but at least the glitter will never wear off their relationship!

I created this page using a combination of my recently released kit, Sweetness and Light, and its companion kit, Simply Serene, which I intend to release soon along with a few of my other kits. The diamond glitter and the silvery beads are from the latter. Everything else is from Sweetness And Light though I desaturated the ornate gold frame to suit my page. The jewelled heart is a freebie which you´ll find HERE.

By the way, with Valentine´s Day approaching, I thought I´d give my room a more feminine romantic look again. Besides, the colours go so well with both the kits mentioned above, I couldn´t resist altering my room to suit them.

Sweetness And Light Escapees

I´ve just remembered a couple of jewelled elements which narrowly avoided being included in Sweetness And Light. I think they´d coordinate beautifully with it and also with its companion kit, Simply Serene, which will be my next new featured kit so I tracked them down, rounded them up and decided to offer them as freebies.

If you like them, you´ll find them HERE

And The Winner Is...

I´m happy to announce that the winner of my kit-naming contest is Julie for suggesting I name my kit Sweetness And Light. As Julie said herself, although it has a vintage look, it also has a lightness and airiness about it which would also make it suitable for contemporary layouts and these are the reasons I chose that name.

Congratulations, Julie, and thank you, everyone, for your suggestions which I´ll bear in mind for future kits. You´ll all receive a little posting gift for your participation...which reminds me that, although I may already have your email addresses as I have an inkling of who you may be, I can´t identify the first two contestants by their user names alone. So that I don´t send your gift to the wrong person, please email me to verify your identity.

Sweetness And Light is now available for sale and you can see it complete with its new name HERE in the store and HERE along with a freebie QP created from the kit.

Happy Birthday Helen

Helen, I decided that you needed to revisit your birthday room to celebrate your birthday today.   You may recall the room was created from the perfect QP Room in Shabby Chic Rooms Part 2 where I also found some roses to place into your vase and a book where I marked the perfect place for you to read.  You have had such a busy year with designing new kits, I doubt you have gotten much read from the book!  I'm so excited about your new kits that will be available over the next few months in your new store.

I saved Deb's silver and gold cake and Diane's silver leaded hearts and alpha birthday decorations to use again in your birthday room.  If you tire of reading, just relax on the gorgeous pink pillow from Shabby Chic Rooms Part 2 and dream once again about the blue bonnets you planted from Diane's seeds that will hopefully return again in the spring.  With all the winter weather, it might be hard so I added a visual for you to gaze upon.

Happy Birthday, my friend...I hope you have a perfect day!!!

New Store And Kit-Naming Contest!

At long last I finally have my own store and will be able to offer for sale all the new kits which I´ve created during the past year. Special thanks go to Lajuana aka Scrapladyandmore without whom this wouldn´t have been possible.

At present I´ve released only my past and present Christmas kits plus Nouveau Summer as it´s a special favourite of Lajuana´s and she´s created some quite spectacular layouts using it as a Christmas kit. From now on I´ll be adding to the collection in my store with at least one special featured kit every month which you´ll find posted here on my blog along with coordinating freebies. The first featured kit is, of course, A Christmas Carol, along with which I´m offering a freebie QP created from the kit but you´ll find many other freebies among my kit previews which coordinate both with this kit and with its companion kit, Noel Nouveau.

And now to the kit-naming contest....You may remember that in November I posted 2 layouts created from a kit I was currently working on. Well, that kit, although long since completed, is still unnamed. With 50 items, which include no recoloured duplicates, it´s quite a large kit. I hope you´ll like it when you see the previews.

I hope that you´ll help me to name it by offering suggestions below. If I choose the name you suggest, you´ll receive the kit as a prize and all contributors will receive a Christmas themed QP and a set of coordinating festive embellishments. You may suggest as many names as you like and can even come back later if another name occurs to you as this post will remain open until I announce the winner. So make sure you copy the link just in case I post over it!

NB If you´re unknown to me and wish to take part in this contest, you´re very welcome to do so. Just remember that I won´t have your email address so you´ll have to contact me in order to receive the link and password to your prize/posting gift after the contest is over. You´ll find my contact info at the bottom of THIS PAGE.

Thank you all in advance. I hope you´ll enjoy this challenge to help me to get this, as yet unnamed, kit into my new store. Good luck!