Notes from the side of a volcano

Inspiration from the Designer Digitals scrapbooking ideas gallery

First up, a few pages using the new "Just Juicy" kit.

(by Anke)

(by Amber, who combined the leaves from "Just Juicy" and the new Worn Alpha No.06 with lots of goodies by Anna Aspnes and a great vintage umbrella stamp by Katie Pertiet to create this stunner of a page)

(By Linda, who is making me very jealous with her travel layouts! Painted rub-ons by Katie Pertiet)

Meanwhile, Debbie combined the "Red Beach" kit with the Textured Covers paper to great effect:

And Bailey used the buttons and brush from "Ballerina" mini-kit to create this colorfully gorgeous page:

I loved seeing this by Jess (using "Wild Weekend" kit along with Travel Word Transfers No.02 by Anna Aspnes and Basic Twill:Summertime by Katie Pertiet):

Wish I could be at the beach with Myra!! (She used the new template and "Red Beach" Kit):

And finally, Happy Belated Birthday to Kathleen who used "La Folie" kit (and lots of other Designer Digitals goodies) to create a fun but grown up birthday page!

Digital scrapbooking realistic paper style layouts

New in store this weekend

A new kit and two templates are new in store at Designer Digitals:

Here's how I used the new kit and templates:

And I love how Elena used the template and the kit:

Myra used the SE 107 template:

Fiona and Anke used the kit too:

Five on a Friday

1. Do you subscribe to those "groupon" type sites? I get a few that land in my inbox every morning. I try to be very strict with them. I'll only buy them if they are things I actually need. I've got a couple of canvases printed but quickly delete the ones offering aromotherapy massages or nights in luxury hotels in case of temptation.

Yesterday I got one offering very cheap tango lessons and I was tempted. What a fun thing for The Husband and I to do together (now we have Daughter-One as a willing babysitter) and good exercise too.

Then I binned the email because I remembered that The Husband and I look like this and would not make ideal tango partners:

Either he'd have to dance bent double or I'd have to learn how to dance in stilts.

 

2. Speaking of stilts, we went out to Howick Historical Village in the weekend and Daughter-Two tried stilt walking:

Suffice to say, she wasn't a natural:

Then she spotted the Pipe band and was off following them, dancing a jig:

I don't know where she gets it from, I really don't:

Finally we attended a Victorian lesson in the schoolhouse:

This was an interesting experience. The elderly woman taking the lesson seemed to be a method actor of the highest order, but as time wore on I started to sense that she wasn't so much a natural and talented actor as .. well .. in her element. She asked Daughter-two to hand out the slates then jumped on her when she dropped one, The Husband got sent to the back of the class because he was just too ridiculously tall to be sitting up the front, if I wanted to sit near The Daughter I had to tuck my legs under the seat because she was sick of being tripped up by people's feet, then I got told off for resting my head on my hand. She got half the kids, including Daughter-two, up the front singing nursery rhymes  before it was time to hand back the slates. One girl was holding hers in both hands resting it on the desk, instead of leaving it flat on the desk as told. "PUT that slate DOWN!" yelled the schoolmarm, causing the girl to giggle. "I'M NOT JOKING, I'M SERIOUS. YOU CAN'T BUY THESE ANYMORE YOU KNOW, DO YOU THINK YOU CAN JUST GET THEM AT THE WAREHOUSE?!" schoolmarm roared, leaving the tearful girl saying "I'm sorry, I didn't know" as everyone else scurried out of there. It was uncomfortable and unpleasant, but thank goodness Daughter-two coped because she has read her "Vile Victorian" books and knows that is how teachers used to behave and the subtlety that the acting had stopped passed her by.

 

3. Yesterday I spent hours at the hairdressers, after putting it off for months due to lack of time and money. It was LONG overdue. One of Daughter-two's little friends helpfully pointed out the other day that "wow, you have a lot of grey hairs" and last week I got chatted up by an old guy walking down the street with a walker. He may just have been overly friendly and a bit lonely, but he had a certain glint in his eye that suggested that he thought that just maybe he was in with a chance.

4. My layout about Keogh Hot Springs for the USA trip album was highlighted HERE.

Here are the latest pages:

5. This week's kit, coming to the store this weekend, was inspired by some artwork by Daughter-Two:

My personal fav kits

The surprise sale on all kits and elements is in full swing at Designer Digitals. If you are looking for classic, homespun scrapbooking digital kits and elements don't miss out because it ends on the 25th.

It got me thinking about my own favourite kits, so here they are ...in (almost) alphabetical order (and mostly girly because that's who I scrap)

Alicia kit, because it's so easy to scrap with and I always love the pages that result:

 

 

Backyard Expedition, because it's great for so many kid pics:

 

 

 

Bisbee, because I love these colours!

 

 

 

Kohi kit, because it has that New Zealand feel with a retro vibe and works with lots of our outdoor pics:

 

 

Late Summer mini-kit, which came together really quickly but which is just so easy to scrap with:

 

  Malabar kit, because it looks great with summer photos:

 

 

 

Red Beach kit, fun to scrap with:

 

 

 

Snips and Snails - one for the little boys but I found it worked just as well for little girls:

 

 

 

Wild Weekend kit, because sometimes it's fun to scrap with bright, fun colours

 

 

 

 

And last of all, Sweet Madel1ne kit. (This is the remixed version). Inspired by a photo of Daughter-Two, it was one of the first and always a favourite:

 

 

digital scrapbooking kits sale, digital scrapbooking New Zealand, digital scrapping NZ

 

 

Fun with Totally Trashed and Vandalised

  Love these pages by Sarah, Jodi, Sharon  and Mel (who provided great inspiration for how to just go ahead and scrap that reluctant teenager!) using the new Totally Trashed and Vandalised background:

digital scrapbooking teenager

Surprise sale

All kits and elements at Designer Digitals are on sale at 30% off until 6am Sunday 25th June (EST ie New York time).

 

 

New in store at Designer Digitals

New trashed paperpack and a worn alpha in store now.

 

I used them in this layout lifting French digital scrapbooker Nath, who had a fabulous page as this week's Saturday Scraplift inspiration (You can find the Saturday Scraplift challenge on the Designer Digitals blog):

My own Totally Trashed and Vandalized paperpack, and Worn Alpha No.06, In Distress:Textured Covers paper, Parisien Dates and Really Retro labels. Preserve WordTransfers and Find My Way fotoframes by Anna Aspnes. Painted Maps, Bead Scatterings and Taped Together Photo Frames No.01 by Katie Pertiet, Time of you Life brushes and stamps by Ali Edwards.

digital scrapbooking teenage, digital scrapbooking urban graffiti worn

Five on a Friday

1. Good morning. It's a grey, grey day, slightly drizzly, basically miserable, I woke up with a headache and feeling stiff all over and currently I am waiting on the arrival of a drain unblocker. Yes, it's all fun, fun, fun here (But I feel perfectly chirpy. Go figure).

2. Not so chirpy when I watch the poor people in Christchurch once again flooded, shovelling silt and without mains water or drains after yet another big earthquake. Not just another aftershock (and there's been enough of those) but a real proper whopper of a quake on yet another NEW faultline. In the place always thought of as the safest (and, let's face it, not the most exciting) place in New Zealand.

3. Daughter-Two had swimming yesterday, which has been going really well. But she is tired and a little under the weather AND they were trying to teach them the breathstroke kick ... without mentioning the words "it's like a frog's legs". (A light went on when I told her that as we walked home). But in the meantime she started getting very wobbly and decided she needed a break just before the end of the lesson. So I dried her off and we went into the changing room, but breaking the routine and quitting early was even more upsetting to her than carrying on so we had five minutes of to-ing and fro-ing about whether she should get back in the pool or not. In the end, she walked back out and jumped in the pool and spent the last 5 minutes kicking like a frog and sobbing. I swear if she committed to running a race and broke her leg halfway through, she would rather carry on to the end than stop.

4. After a break due to lack of time, I have got back into scrapping the USA album, using the "Lots of Shots" templates. . One of the best days of the trip:

(The strip under the photo of Mono Lake lists some of what makes up the water - calcium chloride, salt, borate, potassium, borax, strontium, magnesium, flouride, lithium, iodine, arsenic, strontium, uranium and even plutonium. I read this out to The Husband then smiled and said "oh, that's right, you dipped your finger in and tasted some, didn't you?". )

5. The vandals have been at work this week - here's a sneak peek of what's coming to the store at Designer Digitals:

digital scrapbooking travel albums

Scrapbook layout inspiration for digital scrappers

Yes, I'm still here! Daughter-One started her new job yesterday and enjoyed herself. A big sigh of relief and a celebration with gluten free/dairy free  chocolate brownies was called for. And this morning she cleaned out my wallet for her bus fare and now I am trying to decide whether to take money from her sister's purse so I can give her tomorrow's bus fare and lunch money - or take a hour or two off work and go down to Newmarket to the money machine. The sooner she gets her first pay (and collects her bankcard from the bank!) the better!

While I decide, here's some inspiration from the Designer Digitals ideas gallery:

Debbie used the new Really Retro labels:

Amber used the "Lots of Shots" templates:

Merrilee used the new Scrap Express 106 template with the "In Distress: Textured Covers" paper as a base:

Linda has just returned from an amazing trip around Eastern Europe and it has been fun following with her layouts, including this one using "In Distress: Got the Blues" worn papers:

And Linda R went fabulously summery with Scrap Express 98 template:

I love this by Terri, using the Home Handyman elements:

And a totally delightful page by Melanie in England using Forecast kit:

digital scrapbooking weather kit, digital scrapbook designs, digital scrapbooking templates, digital scrapbooking uk, digital scrapbooking New Zealand

 

 

 

New matching pages template in store

Sometimes I design a 'true" double page spread, and sometimes I design two pages that are designed to go together but can also stand alone as single pages as in this week's new Scrap Express template:

This one is perfect for heritage pages as it includes vintage style photo corners and haert. But, of course, you can clip any paper of your choice to the photos corners and other elements and use  it for any layout subject you want. As with all digital scrapping templatges, you can even flip the pages and move around the elements as you wish!

You can find it, and all my other digital scrapbooking templates, in store at Designer Digitals.