So I am in the midst of trying to design my calendars for this year… I always make a few as Christmas presents and this year I will offer a few custom slots for those who’d like to have their own personalised calendars to give as gifts or keep themselves (check back in a week or two for more info on ordering a custom designed calendar. This year I have decided to give CD case calendars a go…. but oh there is lots of great calendar goodness out there tempting me to do something different!

This calendar by jessgonacha at Etsy is just delicious… the colours are gorgeous and I love the way she has this mini version hanging on the wall.

This calendar wallpaper by Christiaan Postma is just way cool…. not sure where you’d put it, but still really ace!

Now this you just have to have… a bubble wrap calendar… imagine all bubble popping fun. Though I am pretty sure we’d not be able to restrain ourselves to the current day in this house and the whole year would be popped before the end of the first week!

So much calendar goodness and it’s not even the end of the year yet!

1. hand pressed paper, 2. Notturno, 3. Spiky

Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.

I got a new fancy CCD scanner the other day and since then I have been walking around looking at everything in a new light. ‘Can I scan it? ‘ is the first thought that pops into my head and with this new scanner nine times out of ten I can!

To begin with, I have mostly been scanning paper… which sounds silly I know. Why do I need a fancy scanner to scan paper? My old scanner just couldn’t focus on anything slightly lumpy or bumpy, but now I can scan paper that is crumpled up, folded, scrunched, bent and otherwise warped and still get a sharp crisp image. It’s making me look at paper in a whole new light!

I think it’s safe to say that I’ve always liked paper. I like the feel of it, the colours it comes in. You can fold it, scrunch it, draw on it, stick to things, cut it, make holes in it. I like it when it is crisp and clean and new but I also like the way it ages and an old old browned up and stained book is truly a thing of beauty.  If I was rich I’d buy lots of paper, coloured paper and reams of pure white card stock, paper with a bit of texture and character, origami paper, a stack of old books… I like paper,  it’s just a good thing.

I also like making digital papers… much more than I like making digital scrapbooking elements (though that is growing of me of recent). So I’ve been working on a few paper based items to go into my shop at PBP in the next week or so, using my lovely new scanner and having a lot of fun!

Am I the only one with a thing for paper?

I’ve been feeling rather productive of late -

I’ve just finished and am about to email off the final copy of a baby card, and I’ve had a new item in the shop at PBP every fortnight (which was my goal for the past 3 months). I’m working on putting some of my doodles together as commercial use packs (after being asked a few times if I would) and learning how to make custom shapes on PSCS3 and continuing to learn heaps of new things every time I open Illustrator though I still have no clue what I am doing there!

I have two or three kit ideas burning in my brain and one element pack that is just dying to be created, but I am waiting on my new fancy CCD scanner to be delivered so I can play with it and hopefully create some really cool and funky bits and pieces to go with these great ideas. So new digi scrap designs is on hold this week (hopefully the scanner will be here by Thursday but we live in the sticks so who knows) but I still have plenty to keep me busy.

I have a few blog designs that I am about to get started on which I am really excited about. I so enjoy tinkering with my blogs (I have been working on a re-design of picklebums for about 3 months now and still not even close to done!) and really loved working on the wonderful You’ll Eat it and Like it blog, so I am looking forward to getting going on these new blogs.

My brain is also ticking over with some Calendar ideas. In the past I have created custom calendars in various styles for people in the months before Christmas, while they all turned out ok I am yet to find a style of calendar and more importantly the best way to print them that I really really love. But this year, I have plans to try my hand at CD case calendars.. like these ones here by Debf

And… I am dreaming of poster sized calendars as well! With the photos scartted inbetween the months of the year… Not sure exactly how these will work but I am keen to work on some templates so that customers could choose which style they liked, send in the photos, I’d customise the templates to fit and have them printed up, wrapped and ready to go in a reasonable amount of time. Must get to work on the templates soon I guess!

So back to work for me.. but check back here in a day or two as I have a digi scrap freebie just about ready to share

I’ve been playing with alphas a bit lately, which is really not like me because I don’t really like alphas, but I’ve actually quite enjoyed it! So this is the latest alpha in store at PBP now.

My Lolly Bag from PBP’s 2nd birthday celebrations is unpacked and is now in store as individual items. I’ve marked them all at 25% off for the week, so if you didn’t get them in the Lolly Bag you should grab them now while they are on sale.

I am contemplating adding a newsletter subscription to the blog so I can send out quick updates to everyone now and then. I already edit the newsletter at PBP so I don’t have time for anything big and fancy but I’d like to have a way to share the odd freebie, coupon or gift with people who were interested in my designs. I need to find the time to work out the newsletter addon which might just make my head explode and I am not sure the world needs yet another digi scrap newsletter… so please let me know if you think it is worth the brain strain - would you sign up?

After all the craziness of PBP’s birthday I took a bit of time out to create something fun and I thought I’d share it here as a freebie. As you can see I have been having a play with my preview design - yet again! I just can’t seem to find a preview style that I like now and will still like in a month’s time! What do you think of this one?

You can download it here via 4shared and please leave me a comment here and let me know if you liked it, if you’d like to see more freebies and most importantly if you could be bothered to sign up to yet another newsletter!

There will be no Flickr Friday this week…

I am finding myself stretched a bit thin at the moment so I am re-thinking what I want to do with this blog and my design ’stuff’ and what is the best way to move forward without going insane!

Flickr Friday will be back next week but probably at my other blog picklebums.com as I plan to make this blog not so much a blog, more of a ‘what’s new’ section as part of my custom design web site. So in future you’ll be able to find Flickr Friday and other designing, creative type, blog posts mixed in with my regular eclectic blogging.

Apologies for the disruption, I’ve so enjoyed everyone joining in and playing along I hope you come back to join in again next week

Ok so I am only getting around to posting assignment one for my Through the Lens digital photography 101 class now. I know that the next assignment has already been posted and I know I had ages to do this one and that it was pretty simple - ‘read the manual and then take your best shot’, but hey… better late than never huh?

I have to admit I struggled with this assignment. Not the reading the manual part, I can read ok. I struggled to remember much of it, or apply it, but that is why I am taking part in these classes. What I struggled with was getting a good photo.

It is dark and dreary and wintery here and our house is dark and dreary too and I really struggle with getting decent light to take photos of anything. My kids have all been sick and miserable and not wanting to sit still so I can take their photos and I’ve just not been able to snap that magical ‘great shot’ that I wanted to. So this is not my ‘best shot’, I can sit here and point out several things that are wrong with it and several things that I wish I could master to make it better, but it will have to do.

Actually, while I found this assignment frustrating, it has actually been good for something. It’s made me think about what I want to learn by doing these classes and about what sort of photos I want to take. I want to take better photos of my kids, my family, our home, the things we do, our every day life. I want to take amazing photos to make my blog posts light up like the ones I see on so many other blogs. That is what I want to learn…. so this ‘not so great photo’ has actually shown me a lot.

The next assignment is up already - it is about White Balance which is a little new to me. I know what it is, but it is something I have always done with photoshop rather than on my camera. But - I read the manual and I actually think I remember how to play with this on my camera, now if only there was some light around here that needed white balancing!

We’ve had rain here this week, and although I am not a fan of winter, we really do need the rain. So to help me embrace the cold wet weather a bit this week’s Flickr Friday theme is ‘umbrellas’.

1. Lonely, 2. Reds, 3. Umbrella blocking the path, 4. waiting for rain, 5. Rainy Days, 6. Day 124. May 3., 7. le point de vue de mon pébroque…, 8. Colour Project, 9. I really LOVE that UMBRELLA [PRE PROCESSED]

Join the fun and play along by creating your own Flickr Friday for your blog. I used the mosaic maker from bighugelabs.com to make mine, or you could create your own or simply post an image that relates to the theme then sign up with the Mr Linky below so we can all go and check out your creative inspiration!

I am using wordless wednesday as a bit of motivation to dig out some old photos for this blog. This one was taken with my old old point and shoot Nikon CoolPix when we visited my parents in the UK - before we had kids, so it was a lONG time ago! This is a Castle Ruin in Whales somewhere….