Notes from the side of a volcano

New Baby scrapbooking kit

New in store at Designer Digitals this weekend:

 

 

A baby digital scrapbooking kit perfect for baby girls, but lots of papers and elements that work for baby boys as well.

 

Five on a Friday

1. The New Zealand dollar continues it's valiant attempt to break through the stratosphere and remains absurdly over-valued.

I am so over all the journalists who keep spouting the "it's a great time to go shopping" line as a result.

Sure, I have picked up a few  needed books at Amazon.co.uk (love that free overseas shipping) but unless you want to go online for everything it is still "are you taking the mickey?" time when you hit the shops.

$4.75 ($4USD) for a green pepper? Um ... maybe not

The other day, after our trip to the movies, I popped into the posh department store next to the cinema so Daughter-Two and I could use their very nice restroom. I noticed they had NYDJ jeans in stock. I bought some in the States (for about $75USD) and they are great. How much in the store here?

$335 (about USD$290).

No thanks.

 

2. We just got back from a flying visit to Wellington, where Daughter-One was checking out the university and halls of residence (aka dorms) in case she decides she wants to get even further away from us next year.

We had a record snow dump this week, and we had a great view of Mt Ruapehu and Mt Ngauruhoe from the plane:

The mountains you can see from Wellington were also totally white, the first time I have ever seen so much snow from Wellington.

She loved Wellington of course. It's several years since she has been there. I love it too. Everything there seems that little bit more funky. Even the Greenpeace charity collectors are a cut above. (We were both in fits of giggles after passing a French one doing his questionnaire routine with someone he had stopped on the street outside the Paris crepe stall - "Would you describe yourself as an animal lurver?" in a totally delicious but perhaps slightly over rich accent).

3. We were staying right in the city centre, but next to the Boulcott St steps which lead up to the university. When I was a student in Wellington I stayed briefly in the halls at the top of the steps in one of the old houses which have now been knocked down and replaced by an unfortunate late 80s/early 90s cheap looking block. I had a converted cupboard in the old house. It was so small there was only room for the tiny bed and a cupboard made from untreated timber with a faded curtain hung in front of it with thumbtacks. Downstairs was, bizarrely, a dumping ground for old stoves and the front room was full of about 5 of them rusting away.

The newer halls (see the orange building below) are definitely a cut above:

We sat and ate lunch by the historic graveyard which the university is now encroaching on before wandering around the campus a bit. (That's them under the arrow):

Here's the view they were looking at:

Just so she didn't think it was all designer buildings, I took them down some more steps to Adams Terrace, where I flatted for a while at the risk of Vitamin D deficiency. (Two minutes walk up very steep street and steps to the lecture theatre, but at the cost of never seeing the sun).

Then we took the cable car back down to Lambton Quay and had a walk along the waterfront and the city library.

The next morning we had a quick walk around the Cuba Street area and an hour in Te Papa (Museum) before the flight home.

 

We found this groovy caravan which seems to be a mobile dress shop. I leant my case against a building while I took a photo, then noticed it was red-stickered:

We quickly scarpered (would be just our luck for an earthquake  to hit while we stood and gawped at the sign) but not before two things occured to me:

- why stick up a big notice saying "Earthquake Prone Building - Do Not Approach" and then add two columns of small print that you cannot possibly read unless you do approach and stand there for some considerable time reading.

- surely it is an "Earthquake Vulnerable Building" not "Eathquake Prone"? Unless it sits on some unique metre-long constantly moving faultline of its own and, while everything around it stays still, it rattles about like the earthquake simulator in the museum.

4. We arranged for someone to come and feed and walk the dog a few times over the 24 hours we were away. I gave very careful instructions but still felt very uneasy and had visions of him being locked in the house alone if the dog walker somehow couldn't open the door. And then we returned home dragging our bags and I went to open the door .. only to find the key I had given the dog walker stuck in the lock. WHY can't I have useful premonitions? Like the lottery numbers maybe?

It would have been a total disaster pre-renovations but now we have two other doors we can use to get in the house, and when I got inside the dog was perfectly happy. The dog walker texted to explain the key disaster had happened after her last visit luckily.

 

5. Here's a sneak peek of the new kit coming to the store at Designer Digitals this week:

 

 

 

 

Scrapping with scanned baby photos

When Daughter-one was born we only had a cheap (really cheap!) camera, no idea how to take a decent photo and a much more relaxed approach to memory keeping.

Which all adds up to a sad lack of decent newborn photos. In fact, there are only a handful and most of those I thought were pretty unusable. They would have been thrown out only they were all we had so luckily I kept them.

When I say poor quality, I mean POOR quality:

So I scrapped them anyway, and after a bit of cropping and fiddling about in Photoshop, I now love them:

This is a companion page to this week's Saturday Scraplift page, which was inspired by the very talented Denise. You can find the original page HERE.

I had a couple of photos of my mother holding newborn Daughter-One and while I was scrapping them I realised that I even had a cute "new baby feet" photo if I zoomed in on a section of one of those pics:

So, if you are asking yourself how you can scrap old film newborn baby photos which are poor quality, I say scan them and go digital. The photos may be blurry and poorly lit, but you have the satisfaction of making the most of what they are and ending up with more than you thought. I love that little foot shot.

Cleaning them up and improving the quality can be as simple as increasing the brightness and contast. (I duplicate the photo layer before I play with the brightness, or I put the duplicate layer on screen or multiply or soft light blend mode. Then I can use a soft brush to erase the parts that DON'T need to be lightened or darkened). Using Sharpen-Unsharp Mask is also a must.

(If you are looking for tutorials or advice on starting digital scrapbooking, look here - and you can aslo get help and advice in the forum at Designer Digitals where newbies are made very welcome).

 

New Photoshop Texture and Pattern Brushes and new collage template in store

New in store this week at Designer Digitals:

I used the collage style multi-photo digital scrapbooking template here:

collage scrapbooking template, event layouts, digital scrapbooking Auckland

 

Five on a Friday

1. Winter in New Zealand ...

Most people who emigrate to New Zealand say they have never been colder than during a winter here. Not because we have harsh winters (well, not up in the North) but because so many of the houses are so poorly insulated and heated.

I remember reading about some  Air Force types over here on secondment who packed up and returned to England because they couldn't tough it out living in the draughty wooden houses on the base here.

One thing New Zealand weather can be relied on is to be unreliable. Take last week. It turned bitterly cold, I even looked at the sky and thought "I can imagine it snowing" (which is unheard of in Auckland) but it didn't of course. It hailed instead.

Then, two days later, we went to Bethells beach and walked the stream to the sand hills (they are black because it's volcanic sand) and did this:

 

She had to do the obligatory "falling over the cliff" pose:

Then she paddled in the river and got thoroughly wet and sandy. She was even begging to swim in the lake.

Two days later and it was cold and miserable again.

 

2. As soon as I wrote that snow would be "unheard of" in Auckland I had to go off and google that, and it turns out it did snow once in Auckland  in 1939 (July 27th ie next week). I can just imagine all the people coming out of their houses and staring up at the sky in cliched alien invasion sci-fi movie style.

3. This week's Saturday Scraplift inspiration at Designer Digitals came from the gallery of  Lee Ann, and I was really happy with my page inspired by her :

You can see the original inspiration page, and other lifts of it, here.

 

4.  Today the Daughters and I went into the city to see "Arrietty" (a Studio Ghibli adaption of "The Borrowers" ) at the historic Civic Theatre as part of the Auckland Film Festival.

Daughter-two was captivated by the twinkling lights in the ceiling and the Moorish inspired interior. The film festival director came on stage before the film started to remind people it was in Japanese with English subtitles and that they understood they may need to quietly explain to children who couldn't read. We had a quiet laugh because sub-titles are the best thing for Daughter-two, she loves having something to read and can follow what is happening much better when she does.  It was beautifully done and we all loved it. It's the first time Daughter-Two has sat through a whole movie in the cinema. One minor wobble ("I think I might leave now") when the mean housekeeper said she would trap the little people but she soon got over that. It's actually quite a milestone.

Then I tried to get them to pose together in the foyer afterwards (well, like I said, it was a milestone). But Daughter-two tried to put her arm around Daughter-One and she doesn't do touching.

 

5. Some new Photoshop texture and pattern brushes coming to the store at Designer Digitals this weekend, along with a new template. This page is a sneak peek of the template:

 

 

 

 

Looking for great scrapbook page designs?

You can't go past the Designer Digitals ideas gallery, which is full of inspiration for any scrapbooker whether digital or paper. (Excuse my grammar - having written that I now have the image of a scrapbooker made of paper working away on a layout but I shall move on ..)

Just a few of the layouts from this week:

(by Elena, using Lucia Kit)

By Jen, using Gothic Kit (Have YOU been to Harry Potter 7 yet?)

 
(By Amy, using Worn Edges Mixed No.02)

(By Christina, using Scrap Express No.102 template).

 

Distressed scrapbook backgrounds for beach and outdoors

New in store this week at Designer Digitals:

Plus some new retro stickers with a sporting theme:

 

You can find them both in my store at Designer Digitals.

Here's how I scrapped with the new backgrounds:

And I love this by Melanie:

 

And this by Paula:

Five on a Friday

1. I went shopping the other day. It doesn't happen often. But I desperately needed new shoes, having worn my trainers into a discoloured, holey state. Plus, they are not waterproof and there is nothing more dispiriting than preparing to collect Daughter-Two from school and putting back on the cold, soggy shoes still sitting in a puddle from the rain-soaked morning walk to school. So I bought some black boots (on sale of course). Then I went crazy and also bought myself some peppermint essential oil because I read it was good for headaches.

2. Shopping is exhausting so I came home and shook a few drops of the peppermint oil onto a facecloth and lay down on the sofa to see if it really would help me shake off a nagging tension headache or if I would just end up smelling like a large After Dinner mint. Clearly the answer is (b) because the dog immediately jumped up and started trying to lick my face and then the combination of cold facecloth and peppermint oil made my face feel like it was covered in dry ice and I had to jump up and splash warm water all over. So the relaxation factor was not great. And I realised shortly afterwards that the headache was due more to a cold that The Husband must have passed to me rather than tension anyway.

3. It was "Red, White and Blue" day at school yesterday. Not (belatedly) for the 4th July but for Bastille Day. Daughter-Two has the perfect skirt (bought in the US on the last trip) plus a blue wool coat from London that Daughter-One used to wear. I sorted all these out, but it was her that ran off and came back with Daughter-One's old school hat. And when she walked into the classroom, all the other girls (mostly dressed in (blue) jeans and white or red hoodies) cried "Wow! You're Madeline!". She felt like a star all day.

She also had a commemorative Paris scarf from the (1989) bicentenniel of the French Revolution. Sometimes it pays to have an old mother ....

 

4. When I first took up paper scrapping in Singapore, I bought some papers and other supplies from a South African woman who was selling scrapbooking stuff from her home. I wanted to try using ripped paper on my layouts but was nervous about ripping my lovely (and very expensive) papers and I remember asking her if there were any tips or tricks. She looked at me like I was slightly crazy and said "um, no, you just tear it".

I never did use torn paper very often because there's no going back and changing your mind once you have ripped that paper.

Which brings me to another reason to love digital. Not only can you re-use (and recolour) your papers as often as you wish, it is also easier to digitally rip, tear and generally trash your papers. I have lots of templates at Designer Digitals with torn paper, and Anna Aspnes has lots of torn edges in the store as well.

5. And one of the team took a look at this week's new product and commented, "you love to tear it up, don't you?". And it's true. Here's sneak peek:

 

digitally tearing, realistic tear paper digital scrapbooking, ripped edges, torn paper digital

 

Page design ideas for digital scrapbooking

It's wild, wet and windy here on the edge of the world but always fun to check out the ideas gallery at Designer Digitals, which this week included lots of summery pages.

Bailey's Independence Day page used striped paper and flags from Malabar kit as well as the new "Really Retro Labels: Red, White and Blue":

If you are looking for photoshop texture brushes, check out how Debi used the latest "Hint at it" set here:

Find all my photoshop brushes here

I love this adorable page by Amber about her little boy's surgery on his teddy:

Teddy bear imagery for digital scrapbooking from "Mr Ted" mini-kit:

Debbie used "Old Farm Kitchen" for this delightful page:

 

And Jen has been scrapping her Disney adventures (the orange paper is from "Deep End" kit):

digital scrapbooking New Zealand

 

 

New Worn Alpha edges

A new product at Designer Digitals - another set of templates for creating your own worn edge alphabet in a bold uppercase style:

Just drag on your own paper and clip to the letter (full instructions are included).

I used it here on a page about Daught-two at Aikido class (a Saturday Scraplift lift of a page by Besus which you can find here).

Five on a Friday

1. I was sitting watching TV the other night when the couch started shaking and I knew it was an earthquake. Because it felt like a big truck rumbling past and there aren't any trucks here on the side of the volcano. So I jumped on the internet and the first thing I saw was a tweet from The Husband (who was in his office closer to the epicentre) quoted on a news site.

It was a pathetic little earthquake. More of a tiny tremor really. Which the folks in Christchurch very quickly pointed out to all of us. But when you live in the middle of a volcanic field even a tiny shake makes you go "hmmm".

2. As well as earthquakes, there were birds falling from the sky. Or so it appeared. Daughter-One came back from riding her bike with a thrush in her jacket pocket. It had been thrashing about on the ground (probably stunned from crashing into something). So we put it in the cat cage (covered with blankets so it was nice and dark in there) where it shuffled into the darkest corner. We left it alone for a few hours and when I lifted up the blanket to check it was peacefully lying. On its back. With its little curled up feet pointing up to the ceiling. "I'm sorry" I said to Daughter-One, "it is a former thrush".

How nice to have a teenager that rescues injured wildlife but does not fall to pieces when they go (literally) belly up. And who gets the Dead Parrot sketch references.

3. Then, last night, I dreamt about another small earthquake. Got up this morning, checked my emails and news sites, did the school run, did the pre-cleaners-tidy-up, walked the dog, checked my sites again ... and found a worried thread at Designer Digitals asking me to check in. Because apparently a large earthquake in the Pacific Ocean was sending a tsunami this way. It's nice to have people concerned about you - but I can't help feeling there might be more reliable ways to find out about such things. Anyway, by the time I read the thread then turned on the news, the tsunami threat had been lifted.

4. I've finished the USA album. Now I just have to find a photobook printing service that prints full-bleed 10 x 10. (I usually do 8 x 8 but this needs to be bigger, but 12" x 12" is too big - just call me Goldilocks).

Here are a few of the final pages:

( I used my own "Lots of Shots" multi-photo templates, as well as Lady Luck brushes by Katie Pertiet and Foto Word Transfers by Anna Aspnes - all from Designer Digitals).

5. Here's a hint about something new coming to the store at Designer Digitals this weekend: