Notes from the side of a volcano

Scrapbook page design ideas

Prepare to be amazed. Look at this stunning layout byChristina.

She used Scrap Express 107:

To scrap a stunning set of photos from an expedition into the interior in Haiti:

Linda R has also been scrapping, first a birthday card using my "Party Balloons" and then a layout using the new Scrap Express 108 template:

 

And I love how Kayleigh shrunk down one of the "Lots of Shots" templates to create this page:

 

New photoshop brushes, retro USA labels and inked edge photo overlays

New in store this week at Designer Digitals:

A new collection of texture and pattern brushes for adding extra interest to your page designs or photos.

I used them here in my page for this week's Saturday Scraplift. Every day we choose a page for inspiration from the Designer Digitals gallery and challenge people to come up with their own layouts inspired by it.

Here's how I was inspired by scrapper Tylertoo this week:

You can see Tylertoo's original page (plus other layouts lifting it)  here.

(Sweet Christmas Artplay by Anna Aspnes, Frames and slide reel by Katie Pertiet, flowerpot doodles by Melanie Grimes for Studio DD).

I did a companion page, (this time adding a label from the new "Really Retro Labels 2: Red, White & Blue")

 

Also new in store are "Inky Dink" inked edge photo overlays, perfect for adding an inked (pen and ink) distressed edge to photographs. You can use them in the original black for a traditional inked edge effect, or can use a colour overlay to change them to any colour you wish.

digital scrapbooking products 4th july independence day patriotic usa distressing photos distressed photographs doodled edges photos texture brushes

Five on a Friday

1. I was just heading out the house at 2.50pm the other day when the phone rang. I quickly grabbed it in case it was something important, only to hear some young guy ask "Hi! Are you self-employed?" (spoken in an absurdly upbeat "I really want to be a breakfast radio DJ " voice).

I had only just digested this, and the fact that it was clearly a recorded message (so it was kind of a pointless question he was asking), when he carried on "Do you know the ACC has recently changed ...."

At this point I put the phone down and carried on out of the house. So I will never know what the ACC has changed and whether it was vitally important for me, as a self-employed person who pays hundreds in levies to the ACC (the compulsory injury and accident corporation that all employers and self-employed people have to contribute to). But I have never been late to pickup Daughter-Two from school and I was not about to let some overly enthusiatic recorded message make me.

So I would like to point out to the ACC that, yes, I am self-employed. And that 2.50pm is a very silly time to be making recorded calls to self-employed levy payers, since a fair few of them are probably mothers like me. But that clearly wouldn't occur to you guys or to Mr Overly-Enthusiastic.

So if it was an important message, please get Mr Overly-Excited to call back.

 

2. Daughter-One (who should finish high school at the end of this year) has just worked out that there are such things as "halls of residence" (or dorms in US speak) for university students here. It had occured to me that it would be a good idea for her to do this when she goes to university, but thought she would scoff at the idea and that DH would look at me like I was crazy since she has a perfectly fine bedroom with en suite here a mere 15 minute bus ride from the university. But both of them think it is a great idea. So I've been spending hours researching her options and planning how to rent out that perfectly fine bedroom with en suite once she leaves. Probably to a student who wants to be close to the university!

3. I've got as far as the Vegas pages in my album of our USA trip. Here's a few of them. Don't complement me on the photography of the night scenes and the Designer Digitals team members as most of the photos weren't taken by me (and, in fact, the Vegas sign shot is by my friend Jen). I did get some good city shots from the top of the pseudo-Eiffel tower though.

(Lady Luck brushes by Katie Pertiet, and Foto Word Transfers by Anna Aspnes)

4. Random public service announcement: Don't feed your dog leftovers full of garlic. I liked the moussaka we had the other night, but not the sound of air escaping from a punctured bicycle tyre which the dog made all the next morning as he lay at my feet.

5. Three new element packs are coming to the store this weekend.