Life is crazy at the moment - besides general family, birthday, ballet, life stuff (which you can read about over at picklebums), I’ve been up to my ears in blogs and christmas cards!

Thanks to all the wonderful families who ordered Christmas cards in the past few weeks. It’s just about time to stop taking orders for these as it is only 39 sleeps to christmas (if the sign at the supermarket this morning is correct)! I will still take one or two last minute orders for the pre-made Christmas cards this week, but you will need to email me asap and you will need to have your photos ready to go, otherwise you will miss out.

In other design news… I am working hard on a bunch of digi scrap goodies to go into my ’stocking stuffer’ - a christmas grab bag that will go up in the store at PBP at the start of December. Eeek! I only have a couple of weeks left! I need to stop  blogging and start designing!

I did manage to sneak this into the shop at PBP today though…

It’s only AUD $2.50 - which is less than $2 US at the moment… so go grab a bargain!

Hey that rhymes!

Anyway…. just a quick community service announcement to say that I am sponsoring two challenges at PBP at the moment!

For starters I am hosting a Button Challenge - To scrap a lay-out using buttons and prove to the Picklemama (the name we affectionately give the owner of PBP) that buttons are not boring!
You can go grab this freebie right now and join in!

I was also approached by Pat the Pickle, who asked me, ever so nicely, if I’d contribute a freebie for the current pickle jar challenge and I was more than happy to oblige.

You have until October 15th to submit your lay-out and get the above freebie as your reward!

So go get busy!

I’ve been mucking around with more paper… digi style ofcourse!

Backed-up - Creamy Whites
Nine creamy white papers all with a bit of texture or a hint of pattern, nothing too strong so they are perfect backdrops for all your layouts.
AUD $2.80

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 gotten a lot of request for my doodles to be available for commercial and professional use of late, so I’ve finally taken the plunge and begun to put them together in commercial use packs.

Here is the first one -

For AUD $4.50 you get ten swirls in both .png and as PS custom shapes so they are easy to scale up and down as needed. I drew all these straight into illustrator so there is no jaggies or messy edges, but they are a little wonky here and there, just to add to their charm!

I don’t require credit when you use these items, but it is appreciated if you have a place and a chance to give it. Please read my  commercial use terms of use statement here.

As I get the time I will be adding some more of my hand drawn doodles into the shop at PBP as commercial use packs. If anyone has any special requests please let me know… If I can draw it I am happy to have a go and whip something up for you.

Since I am crazy busy at the moment working on bits and pieces and likely won’t have anything new on the digi scrap front for a little bit, I thought I’d fill in the gap by offering a little freebie…

You can grab these crazy ‘buttonflies’ from this link.

As usual please don’t share this freebie, if you know someone who’d like it please send them here to the blog to download! Thanks!

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!