Happy New Year, Happy New Me

Jennifer Arbon of Word Art World has posted an amazing digi template on her blog and Facebook and with it I have been able to create a digi page full of pictures of me from different months of the year.

This is only my second ever digi page and it is far more elaborate than the 1st one I did. Having said that the template made it so easy, once I had the pictures all in place and grouped it all together I just needed to pretty the page up. 

I used a graphics program called Xara. I have been using it for a good few years and it is worth every penny. It is great for DTP projects, photo collages and I use it all the time for my digis.

The 'papers' and elements are all from a kit called New Years Eve by Peppermint Creative which is only $3 in their store. It is a 2010/2011 kit but apart from the 2011 date all the other items in it are still relevant.

The pictures were taken in the following locations:-

JANUARY - Grandma's Birthday Meal

 FEBRUARY - Aberystwyth 

MARCH - Chester

APRIL - Hot Air Balloon 

MAY - SIL Jill's Parachute jump (1st attempt) 

JUNE - Cornwall Holiday 

JULY - SIL Jill's Parachute Jump 

AUGUST - London 2012 Olympics 

SEPTEMBER - Bath 

OCTOBER - Isle of Wight 

NOVEMBER - Stratford on Avon 

DECEMBER - Sister Michelle & Chris' Wedding

As a person 2012 was a massive year of growth for me. With the help of the most wonderful counsellor I have got the the very root cause of some of the most painful times of my life, battled some bloody massive demons, crawled out from a very dark pit of hope and despair and I am now the most happiest, light and carefree that I have ever been in my life.

In February 2011 I started this journey and whilst it has been extremely painful at times it has honestly been the most rewarding thing that I have done. Without question, everyone who has seen me go through this has seen a massive difference in me. I am still the same person I was just got rid of tonnes of excess baggage, gained a lot of self confidence and I am now losing weight and tackling my health issues.

2012 was a fabulous year but I have absolutely no doubt that 2013 will be so much better. My future is so bright, I am a great big ball of happiness that twinkles and shines so brightly that no one will ever snuff it out. It may diminish from time to time as everyday trials and tribulations take their toll but it will soon bounce back.

Happy 2013 everyone 

I would like to enter this page into the following challenges (in Alphabetical Order):-

2 Sisters Challenge - #124 Anything But a Card

Anything But A Card - #9 Anything Goes

Artistic Inspirations – #21 Anything Goes

Crazy Amigo Challenge – Happy New Year

Forever Friends - #52 Anything Goes

Hiding In My Craftroom - #78 Freestyle

Jen’s Digi Stamps – Let’s Celebrate

Kaboodle Doodles - #152 Anything Goes

Make It Monday –  #121 Anything Goes

Ooh La La Creations  – #120 Reflections (reflecting on the past year)

Order of the Opus Gluei - #147 Free For All

Paper Makeup Digi Makeover – #69 Anything Goes

Whoopsi Daisy – Celebration (of me and how far I have come in 2012)

Crafty Cardmakers 6th Challenge

It's a new challenge today at Crafty Cardmakers and it's all about Autumn, either the colours or the season itself.

I love Autumn, it is my most favourite season. I love the warmth of the sun on a crisp morning and the beautiful colours of the leaves on the trees. I love walking in the park, wrapped up warm against the chill in the air but with the warm sun shining on your face. I love kicking up the leaves with your feet and looking for conkers and squirrels. Days like these make you glad to be alive an be able to appreciate the beauty all around us.

The starting point for my DT card was a paper piecing pattern I found on a challenge blog called 365 Cards. The challenge for Day 213 is to use the pattern provided to make a traditional carved pumpkin for Halloween but I wanted to make it more like a Harvest festival idea as I don't DO Halloween. I printed the pattern onto thin card and coloured it with various shades of Promarkers from Joanna Sheen adding stripes and lines to create depth and shadows. I used 3D foam pads to raise the design off the backing and also raise the leaf.

The backing papers are from a HOTP Creative Cardmakers pack. The glittered chipboard shapes are from Let's Make Cards and the sentiment is a great digital scrapbooking freebie I picked up recently from Vicki's blog, A Work In Progress

I hope we will see lots of people taking part in our challenge and look forward to seeing your creations.

365 Day 87, Papertake 16 & Flutterby Wednesday

I am very proud of this card because the wordart on it was MADE BY ME !!! I have done my own digital wordart and I am really chuffed with how it came out.

For a long while now I have been downloading freebie digital scrapbooking kits but other than printing out a few elements to make cards I haven't really done much with them. I used a free kit called Cinnamon Spice designed by Stacey Towers over at Stacey's Scraps. She is one of a group of very talented designers who regularly give away full kits as freebies and this is still available (link are to her blog and the kit)

The original bracket was square and I changed the shape to fit the quote. The colour was terracotta but I just played about with it in PaintShop Pro to try and alter the colour and it worked! I changed the colour of the swirl in the background too. The hardest part was getting the wordart to look right, it always looks effortless when you download them, it may be to them but it wasn't to me!

The challenge over at 365 Card for day 87 was to use the word 'eye' on your card. I didn't think I had anything in my stash so decided to look on the tinterweb and find a quote. I came across a fabulous site called Quotes Daddy. They have a huge database which is searchable by keyword, I typed in eye and went from there. The quote I used is from Audrey Hepburn and I thought it was beautiful.

" For beautiful eyes look for the good in others

For beautiful lips speak only words of kindness

And for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone"

I thought it would be a great quote for a RAK card to cheer someone up who is going through a rough patch. Who knew Audrey Hepburn was so wise ??

The layout of the card is sketch # 16 at Papertake Weekly. All the papers on this card are scraps, the butterflies are from a Forever Friends pad by Papermania. The floral is a Creative Tones pad also by Papermania. The ribbon is cut from the same sheet. Sakura glear glitter has been added to all the spots on the butterflies and I have used Stickles for the centres of all the flowers.

Last but not least I have added a glittered butterfly diecut from Let's Make Cards. The butterflies have allowed me to enter it into Danni's Flutterby Wednesday challenge # 60 for this week.

Digital Scrapbooking

I've done something new for the first time last night and I am so proud of myself.

I have been collecting freebie digital scrapboking downloads for a while, especially certain designers who like using brighter colours such as Mel Hains and Vicki Parker. Up till now it has been something that I have printed off to make cards with, a term called a hybrid crafter where you will use digital downloads alongside traditional shop bought craft items.

I always  had a penchant for using them as they are intended, but have never scrapbooked and certainly didn't think I would be able to master the programs to make a page up. Paul bought me Paint Shop Pro for Christmas last year and I have mainly used it for photo editing, but I'm not very good at the programme....I get annoyed when it doesn't do what I want it to and lose my temper. Paul just laughs at me :) Last night with his help I used a Quickpage and started off small....

I have made 2 versions as he wanted me to see what the different methods would be with a programme I already use a bit Xara (that's the first one) and PSP (that's the bottom one). The QP by Cy Fisher is already made up from a Mel Hains kit and I have added my photo, the butterfly and the text. In both cases the text was made up from the individual programmes so they are not as elaborate as some of the designer's alphabets....tippy toe steps first. 

I have downloaded a great PDF file off the internet that gives you great hints and tips on compiling pages and what you need. It does say that I need to re-organise my digital downloads to make them easier to find. I have got a reasonable good system but it needs refining down further to make use of keywords and also you need to give credit to the designers so I need to ensure they are labelled up properly so I'll be able to tell who did it.  Looks like I'm going to have a lot of work.....tippy toe steps !!

I want to have a go at making a page from scratch so that will be my next experiment..... Not sure which programme to use yet. Xara is easier because I already have a reasonable knowledge of the programme, but PSP is the more professional programme and I really SHOULD learn how to use it and all the features it has......going to have to think on that one.

I wanted my first page to have a picture of me on it, Paul calls me 'Beautiful Lady' and I can hosnstly say at 37 I look so much better than I did when I was younger. Paul and I have been together 20 years in July and he has seen me blossom from a very shy kid who wasn't happy in her skin to someone who is more confident and the inner beauty has finally blossomed to transform me into the beautiful butterfly that I am today, shedding lots of the baggage that held me back and stopped me being the person I have become. I owe Paul and some very good friends a massive debt of gratitude for guiding me and giving me tremendous love in my darkest days when I REALLY needed it. I am a VERY lucky girl to have such wonderful people around me and I am tremendously grateful for them.