Notes from the side of a volcano

Paperless Office!

New this weekend at Designer Digitals, and full of ready made elements plus co-ordinating layered templates and brushes so you can personalise them as you like:

digital scrapbooking school supplies, office supplies

 

Digiscrapping inspiration from the DD gallery

Loved seeing these digital scrapbook layouts this week in the ideas gallery at Designer Digitals. This great double page spread by Jana used the "Delightful kit":

Merrilee used the new "parisien date stamps":

I love this pretty page by Kathleen using "Natures Best Flowers", alpha from "Fred the Fox" kit, and floral sticker from  "Blossom Festival" kit (as well as lots of goodies from the other DD designers).

And Shanah made wonderful use of the "Totally Trashed and Spotty" pink background in this gorgeous page:

 

New in store and on sale

 

Further new products have hit the virtual shelves today, including these from me

 

 

Find all my kits, papers, templates and elements at Designer Digitals:

 

digital scrapbooking supplies on sale

Chatting and lifting

As part of the Designer Digitals quarterly sale event there will be a full day of chats on Saturday (US time) with freebies and challenges.

I'll be hosting the Scraplift chat at 6pm EST (New York time) - which is 10am Sunday New Zealand time.

Hope you can join us. Chat room is HERE.

Speaking of scraplifting, here is my page lifting this week's Saturday scraplift inspiration page. (You can see the page which inspired it, and more lifts, HERE.

 

Five on a Friday

1. For some reason we have had invasions of ants on food foraging missions. Maybe the unusually warm autumn means there are more of them around.

I hate them but have to grudgingly admire them, not least for the way they just keep coming back no matter how many I literally wipe out in the mornings. I keep imagining the conversations they may have with the queen ant, something like:

"I am afraid to report we had heavy losses again this morning ma'am. A large party made it to rubbish bin overnight. Man was away so it had not been emptied, however we lost over a hundred foragers in an early morning fly spray attack by Woman. We also lost several who drowned in Kettle. Worse, it appears we have lost sugar bowl. Woman has emptied it out and the sugar appears to have been moved to Store Cupboard which remains impregnable. It looks like we may have to resort to Cat Dish again I am afraid".

2. I just finished reading "Room" by Emma Donaghue, which was one of those books that you start reading then can't put down. I reserved it through the library and was number 180 on the list - which, if you consider each person would have it out for an average of two weeks, was looking like a rather long wait. But they must have bought several new copies because suddenly I got an email saying it was waiting for me. It is written through the eyes of a small boy who was born and has grown up in one small room, where he is being held with his kidnapped mother.  It was amazing how it managed to convey the sense of one room being the whole world to the child.

3. I was walking home with Daughter-Two the other day and while waiting to cross the road, overhead a younger mother talking to her 5 year old boy about his plan to marry someone (probably his babysitter). "The thing is", she said,"Emma is 21 now so by the time YOU are that age she'll be an OLD, OLD woman". Then she must have wondered why I gave her an outraged look. Way to tell your kids that life is over by the age of 37! (I thought we were well past that now - the song "Ballad of Lucy Jordan" always sounds very outdated).  And not the wisest thing to say outside a school where the majority of mothers are at LEAST that age!

4. The quarterly sale is underway at Designer Digitals.

Every regular item is now marked down 30%.

The sale continues until Wednesday May 25th at 3am EST (Midnight California time on Tuesday). This is a great time to stock up on your favorites!

5. Lots of new product in store (and, of course, on sale).

Inky Dink Page Borders, Parisien Date Stamps and Red Beach kit:

 

Here's how I used them:

Also in store, new "Lots of Shots" template set:

I've been using it for my USA album:

 

It is designed for when you want clean, magazine style scrapbooking layout designs with room for .. lots of shots. You can fit in lots of photographs on each layout and room for journaling too.

The templates come with photos right to the edge, but it is easy to add a border for printing or if you just like your layouts bordered. You can do it either before or after you add your photos. Just select every layer except the white background layer with the move tool selected, and use the corner handles to resize.

(Always press down SHIFT when pulling on the corner handle to keep the proportions the same).

Magazine style scrapbook layouts, travel layouts, scrapbooking kit New Zealand

 

Sale now on

Hop on over to Designer Digitals to check it out.

 

Digital scrapbooking inspiration from the Designer Digitals gallery

Love these pages by Elena, Debi and Terri using the new "Never Stop" element pack:

 

Amber (who is an amazing seamstress as well as digiscrapper) used "Blossom Festival" kit (along with designs by Anna Aspnes, Andrea Victoria and Katie Pertiet) for this gorgeous page:

Kathleen had fun with "Fred the Fox":

Amy had fun with "Forecast" kit:

And Merrilee made this incredibly sweet page with "Million Miles" kit:

Never stop elements

New this weekend at Designer Digitals, a pack of travel and transportation themed digital scrapbooking elements:

Plus a new Scrap Express digital scrapbooking template:

Here's how I used the template:

Five on a Friday

1. I don't believe in any Friday the 13th superstitions, but so far today the dog has thrown up, there were ants in the sugar bowl, and I was hit on the head by bird poo while walking Daughter-Two to school. And all before 8.30am. Let's hope that's it for the day.

2. I shouldn't really grumble though, as I have it easy compared to my sister who is camping out at the hospital while they try to find out what is wrong with my niece, who has been sick for weeks. Daughter-Two was happily busied herself making a "get well" card for her. She proudly brought it over to me - the front completely covered in cosses and looking like a depiction of a very crowded graveyard. Inside it she had written the number of crosses (over 200). I  suggested she colour at least some of them red so it was clear that they were actually the symbol for hospital ....

3. Daughter-Two begged to go into The Warehouse ("where everyone gets a load of tat") after a stroll along the waterfront in the weekend. She wanted to check out the toys so she could make a wishlist for her future spending. While she inspected the Littlest Pet Shop toys, I noticed these, marked "ages 4+":

Aside from the fact I could think of numerous other outlets for creativity and imaginative play for a four year old than a fake make-up set WHY would anyone buy something branded like that?

If I had a four year old that (perish the thought) thought it was cool to say "whatEVa!" and throw "I'm so sassy" poses, the last thing I would do is buy something that celebrated or encouraged it. It really is beyond me. Can't they just be sweet little girls for just a few years??

4. Getting as close as possible to me is the dog's new aim during the day. This is how he lies while I work at my desk:

5. Here's a sneak peek of a new element pack coming to the store this weekend:

 

Scrapbook layouts from the Designer Digitals team

Lots of gorgeous inspiration in the ideas gallery this week, including lots of layout using the new Blossom Festival kit:

From Anke:

From Bailey:

from Melanie:

And from Merrilee (the original Digigrandma):

Melanie also proved that a kit inspired by Venice Beach in LA can work equally well for an Portuguese beach!

Anke made this beautiful page using "In Distress: Spring Fever" papers (and sweet elements by Katie Pertiet):

And I love what Debbie did with "Fred the Fox" kit plus some extras from "Blossom Festival"

digital scrapbooking supplies