Birthday card

Here is a quick card I made for Gemma's best friends birthday. She once told me her favourite colour is green so although it's not my cup of tea I went green! I used an A4 black card and I used Die cuts with a view Glitter Stack Again! (one of my favourites) and cut out the letters with my sizzix wet paint alphabet. because I couldn't find my threading Water border punch I tried to get the same effect with a scalloped edge on my paper trimmer and a small hole punch! Not quite the same but ok. Gems and flowers from stash finished it off! Not too bad for a quickie!

Such a bad blogger!

I have been such a bad blogger lately! I have been so busy I just haven't been on my computer much at all lately! Plus I am still having computer problems! Since it came back from the menders this time round my Adobe Reader has stopped working and I don't know how to get it going again! I have tried reinstalling it but it won't reinstall! Oh poor me! I have craft discs I can't use and documents I can't access and I don't know what to do!

On a lighter note, I had my mum to stay for a couple of weeks and we decorated the girls room! We have had a lovely time and lucky us! It was craft day on QVC and on Create and craft so we had a lovely time watching all the demos and new products, might have even ordered a few!!!!!!!!

Had a horrible few days last week when my friend Janet had to be rushed into hospital again! She has been in intensive care since and for a while it was very touch and go! She is still seriously ill but has shown an improvement and is now at least conscious!

It is nearly time for the new challenge on From Screen 2 Scrap the new challenge will be posted on 1st September so go on over and check it out! Don't forget if you decide to have a try let Shazza know I sent you ! Thanks.
Bye for now!
Ali

Amazing Blog Candy! Last day to enter!

OMG! Bev has this amazing blog candy to give away! Go on over to her blog and check it out!

Today is the last day to enter so hurry!

I've got an award!

How lucky am I? My computer is fixed, I have eventually managed to send in my first submission for From screen to scrap and now I have been given this lovely award from my fellow DT member Tracy. Thanks Tracy!!!!!

Tracy has a great blog please go on over and check out her lovely creations.

I am going to pass this award on to;

Shazza

Jacqui

Sharon

Tanstar

And Debbie

All these ladies have great blogs.

Ta Daaaaah! My first DT submission at From Screen 2 Scrap

At last my first layout for my new DT position at From Screen 2 Scrap can be uploaded after weeks of computer problems!

The concept of the challenge blog is that each month we use a poster from a movie as inspiration for a scrapbook page and Shazza will also give us added extras to follow each month!
The poster for this months challenge is from a David Lynch film.

The added extras were Torn paper, use a zig zag somewhere on your page and use a single photo.

For my page I used the heart from the poster as my main inspiration. As my computer was down I was limited to the photos in my camera and I chose one of me feeding an elephant at the Zoo. It was amazing to get so close to such an awesome animal. I thought the poster was quite dark so I used dark colours and used the red to brighten things up a bit! I distressed the edge of the black card with blue acrylic paint and I used Die Cuts with a View Chip Chatter Glitzy chipboard letters. You can't see it on the photo but they are glittered! A few red heart buttons and red ribbon to add a bit of colour and chip board brackets from a QVC kit.

Torn paper - I tore the heart shape out of patterned paper

zig zag - Ric-rac ribbon frame around photo

Single photo - yep!

This was a really fun challenge and there are prizes too! If you fancy having a go please come on over to From screen to scrap and if you decide to enter please mention my name in your email! Tell Shazza that Ali sent you and I might get a prize too! Thanks.

Happy Scrapping!

Red Carpet Roll Out

Red carpet roll out is happening today! Come on over and see the inspiration for the first challenge and take part in the quizzes and games. You can win a prize if you are lucky

Here is a sneaky peak at the film poster for this months inspiration can you guess what it is?

Come and visit us at From Screen to Scrap to find out!

See you there!

Ali

From Screen to Scrap!

Even more exciting news! My friend Shazza is starting up her own challenge blog!!!!!!!!! Called.......wait for it..........


From Screen To Scrap!

Appearing on a screen near you soon!

This is going to be a very exciting scrapbooking challenge site with the inspiration for the challenges coming from the movies!!! ( hint in the title!)

And guess what! Shazza has asked little ol' me to be on the Design Team! Hows about that for a surprise! There are some really talented scrapbookers on the design team so get ready to be inspired and amazed!

We are going live tomorrow August 1st so please come on over and have a look at From Screen to Scrap

Come on all you cardmakers out there! Why not try your hand at scrapbooking, it's just like making a big card with photos on! Remember all the times you had lovely embellishments but couldn't fit them onto a card well scrapbooking is the answer! And you get to keep it too!

look forward to seeing you there!

Ali

Bloomin Computer!

Hi guys!
Wouldn't you know it! Just got into my digi scrapbooking, Joined two web sites I was really enjoying and having a great time learning loads of new stuff on my course at Jessica Sprague and my computer goes and conks out!!!!! I was so upset and was wondering where I was going to get the money to fix it when i realised it is still under warranty! Woo Hoo!!!! So it is away being repaired and I am getting withdrawal symptoms! But hopefully it will be back by the end of the week!
This is just a quick post from my local internet cafe to let my friends know I haven't deserted them by choice!

Talking of friends, Congratulations Shazza on becoming the new curator of the artastic challenge blog. It is a great scrapbooking site that has a monthly challenge with a piece of art as the inspiration, if you are into art or scrapbooking have a look and check it out! I know Shazza is going to be a great curator of the site. She already has her own great blog Shazza's Craft Connection so I can't wait to see what she comes up with for the artastic challenge blog be seeing you on there soon Shazza!

Lesson 6

Today's lesson was about TTV effects, which are effects that make it look like the photo has been taken through the viewfinder of an old camera. (I think!) Anyway the effects are great!

Here is todays photo.

Original - Another photo taken at West Kirby beach!

Altered PhotoThis photo was aged using techniques from Lesson 3, then the TTV frame was added and blended, then last but not least a frame brush was used to add the swirly bits.

TTV frame is by Tymcode at Flickr and The round frame brush is from Hof 3 in the course materials from Jessica sprague

Super Duper Bonus Challenge Round

This is another challenge using a lot of the techniques learned this week! We have to use the texturing techniques, add a frame and also use the masking technique from Lesson 4.

Here goes!

The original - Me flying Zoe's kite at the beach at West Kirby near my Mum's House.

The altered

Subtle grungs and Old Film textures from http://lostandtaken.com/ Brown paper texture and Paper frame from http://www.jessicasprague.com/

Project 3

In this project we had to use the techniques from lesson 5 and add a frame. So here is my attempt for this project.

The original

The altered

Subtle Grunge and old film texture from Lost and Taken. Brown Paper texture and Paper frame from Jessica Sprague

Lesson 5 - Textues

In this Lesson we learned how to add different textures to our photos and blending them to create different effects. Another great effect that is so easy when you are shown how to do it! I am really enjoying these Lessons from Jessica Sprague.

Here is the original photo, taken when out walking near my sisters' house in Cumbria.

And here is the same photo after adding the ageing textures!

Textures used were Subtle grunge and old film from Lost and Taken and a brown paper texture from Jessica Sprague.

Just saved the dinner!

I had promised the girls I would cook stewed chicken this week so on Wednesday bought the chicken, cleaned and seasoned it ready to cook on Thursday evening. Thursday came and I went straight from work to visit my friend Janet in hospital, stayed longer than expected and got home too late to cook the chicken as I had to get up early for work the next day. So Friday comes. I had promised janet that I would get her a bit of shopping and take it up to the hospital after work, as the food is apparently awful! Staff meeting after work had to move to the pub next door as the Dance group that uses the building after us were due to arrive any minute! Not bad I think to myself! A quick drink to brighten up the meeting and start off the weekend! Anyway four drinks and a couple of hours later I suddenly remembered janet's shopping!! So off I went! Half way round the shops I looked at my list and the bottom half had fallen off!!!! So I had to try and remember what was on it, with my slightly addled brain! Hopefully I got it all! Got to the hospital 20 minutes before visiting finished! Got stuck on 4th floor as the lift had a funny turn! Luckily it only lasted a couple of minutes and it started again! Thank God! Got to the ward hot and bothered with minutes to spare! Janet was pleased with her shopping and I had done my good deed for the day! Got home about 10 and remembered the bloomin' chicken in the fridge! So I started the stew. Browned the chicken, chopped the veg added the stock and left it to simmer. Started to watch the TV. Caught the last bit of Big Brother eviction! OMG I didn't expect Chris to go! I thought it would be cave man Marcus! What is the world coming to?
Anyway back to the dinner! Woke up on the couch at 3.15 am with a start! Heard sizzling from the Kitchen and remembered the stew! The last of the liquid was just about to evaporate! turned off the heat, boiled the kettle and added a some more water! Just managed to catch it in time! Hope it is still ok for tonights dinner!
Moral of this story? Don't cook when you're knackered!

Lesson 4 - Photo Masks

Hi Guys!

Been very busy over last couple of days! Visiting my friend in Hospital after work and not getting home till about 10pm, when I left the house at 7.15am. A couple of long days meaning I have missed a couple of days of my course over at Jessica Sprague. So today will be a big catch up day! Here is my lesson 4 photo. In this lesson we learned how to use photo masks! This is great for me as I have purchased some photo masks from Gotta Pixel and was hoping one day to find out how to use them!!!!!!!!! Well now I know and how easy it is too! Fantastic tutorials on this course show you step by step video of what to do! It has been very easy to follow! I am so glad I signed up for this course and I love the Adobe Photoshop elements 7. I so want to buy the full version after my 30 day free trial! Another thing to add to my wishlist!

Anyway back to Lesson 4, here is my photo with an added grunge edge

Grunge Photo Mask from Jessica Sprague.

Lesson 3

Another day another Lesson over at Jessica Sprague. Todays lesson was how to age your photo and then add hand tinted sections. Great effects! Surprisingly easy when you're told what to do!
This is my attempt at today's Lesson with the original photo so you can see the difference I hope!

Normal
Aged Tinted Once again the frame is a brush out of the course materials by Hof3

Lesson 2

Wow! I am loving this new course at Jessica Sprague.

Today we learned how to use brushes. Really like digital stamps, only you can undo it if you get it wrong! Can't believe how easy Jessica made it seem! I hope I can carry on tomorrow with some more practice.

Here's what I did today.

In this first photo I kept the brushes black cos I quite liked the effect.

We were also taught to change the colour of the brushes so i used colours from the photo in this try. I like both versions. not sure which one I like best! Indecisive Libran!!!!!!

Brushes were course material from Hof3

Project 1

I have started another online course. This time a freebie from Jessica Sprague. It is all about framing and altering your photo's. She teaches her classes using photoshop or photoshop elements. so I have downloaded the 30 day free trial of Adobe photoshop elements to do this course then I will try and transfer this knowledge to my Corel Paint shop pro programme! If this is too hard I will have to save up to buy the full Adobe programme.

Anyway our first project was to add a frame and wordart to a photo. I went through all my Digi downloads and finally came up with this...........

This is a photo from last year.It was a cold day and we went for a walk along Parkgate Prom. They have a famous ice cream shop there and we couldn't resist buying ice creams even in the freesing cold! Here are Gemma and Zoe showing off their ice creams.

Frame from ShopAHolic kit by Sweet digi Scraps bought from GottaPixel

Word Art from Family and Friends word art kit by Nicole Young from Digital scrapbook place

Ready Set scrap Challenge

This is my first attempt for a challenge on Ready Set Scrap.

It was supposed to be for the Word Challenge set by Kristi Brandis.

For this month's word challenge Kirsti would like you to create an item using the following word

"SPECIAL"

and I want to see layering

at least one rubon

and the colour orange in there as well.

Can be any scrapped item

As you can see I forgot to add something orange, so this attempt doesn't really count but I like it anyway. As this is a digital page I used the word 'Special' as my rubon, the photo was layered onto a white matte.

I used the 'Dive in' kit by Kristmess from the Gotta Pixel Store

Award from Shazza!

I have been given this award by my great scrapping and blogging buddy Shazza!

Thank you so much Shazza.

We met on the Soulology Scrapbooking course last year and have been great friends ever since.

Here are the rules-

1) Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link.

2) Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you’ve newly discovered. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

Since I haven't been on for a while I am planning to do the discovering at the weekend and pass it on then!

Please have a look at Shazza's Blog she has so many fantastic scrapbook pages to look at!

Blogoversary!

I missed my own Blogoversary! How sad is that! I have been without internet for a while and I missed it! I was hoping to do a Blog Candy giveaway to celebrate. Now I am back up and running I will sort a few bits out and get one going soon!

Thanks Teena from Toronto for your Blogoversary wishes!

Don't forget to check back for the chance to win some crafting goodies soon!

Bye for now