Fall Cleaning?

No, not of the house--of the computer. It is amazing to me how much I struggle with adopting a good organizational system for my scrappy goodies. I really need to do this before the winter weather sets in and I go all scrap happy. And shopping happy.

So, today I am sampling google's picasa. Anyone have a comment on it? I have been happy with pretty much everything else the google gang has invented. Anyone have a system they love more? I am always glad to hear from my digi friends!

On to some fun! Do you enjoy these guys?


M&M's can be personalized with text and photos! Yep, you can digi up some candy for a loved one. Oh they are a bit pricey, but if you need a special gift for one of those hard to buy for people on your gift list, you may want to peek at some of the options at mymms.com They really are darling!

Hey Hey Its Saturday

Is it the same where you live on this everdecreasing in size globe of ours? Is the sun shining? Well we have finally, just after the start of Autumn had a week of summer. Blazing hot, sunny all day, beautiful warmth through the day although cooler nights. The weather has been as weird this year as the world economy up and down with the feeling of inpending doom.
Still on the cheerful side of sunny we have got a job done at home that has been kind of unfinished and undefined since we moved into this home. We laid the large vegetable garden to turf. Yippee, no more weedy patch!! It was an eyesore even when it was being used for veggies, as the whole lot wanted to go back to the meadow it is. I grew beans, lettuce, tomatoes rhubarb radish, herbs etc., even potatoes. But it was getting just too much with my other commitments so we left it for 2years.
Now it is dazzling emerald green, the lawn beside it has been redesigned now with a large rock garden and mediteranean plants for our viewing pleasure. I just want to complete it with a bird bath under the small magnolia we are planting.
During the last year or so we had a upvc white garden table outside turned upside down on the picnic bench, and due to the construction of the table underneath are various sections to keep the table rigid. These filled with water during the winter and very regularly several large magpies would come and splash and bathe themselves in the contents. It was fascinating to watch from the window where I work on my pc. it directly overlooks all the above. A lot of my inspiration for my kits comes from looking out the window or strolling through the garden and the paddock behind. I take my camera with me to photograph the wild flowers or even pick some to scan and use as a basis for my work. Nature is an awesome force, so fierce and yet so delicate. Amazing what gift God has given us.
Thought I would offer you a small freebie to enjoy, with thoughts of flowers and natural things. Here are 2 textures and several extracted flowers for your enjoyment. Use them as you would like , commercially or in your own personal projects. Just don't use them as they are for commercial use. Incorporate them into something larger.

Thursday Outlines

We are fast coming to a close with the commercial freebies, as the end of the month draws near. Today I have some Floral Outlines for you. These are quite large (over 6inches in width) and are ideal for you to use as digital stamps as they are in PNG form.






You can easily add a style to them as I have with the glitter ones or colour them in or fill in with papers. Print them out and paint or use your inks for a hybrid twist! Turn them into PS shapes or brushes. I have included two black outlines and the 2 glittered ones. The link expired, but they are in the store bundled up in the $1 spot!

Get Plugged In

Have you ever searched endlessly for a dynamic plug-in to begin or complete a Photoshop or PSP project? Or felt a little intimidated using certain filters or plug ins? Look and fear no more because a great online magazine is now at your fingertips. The name of this fantastic magazine is, "Plugs 'N Pixels". Owner Mike Bedford will take you through step-by-step tutorials on how to use plug ins to make your images leap off the page.
The Plugs 'n Pixels magazines are downloadable in .pdf format and as of this posting, I counted 12 full featured magazines filled with tips and tutorials for featured plug ins. You can also subscribe to have the magazines delivered straight into your inbox.
In addition to all the great tutes, Mr. Bedford offers his readers coupon codes to be able to purchase select plug ins at a discount!
Mission Statement on Plugs 'N Pixels;
Welcome to Plugs 'N Pixels, where you can get one-stop, organized information about creativity and productivity software and related educational materials more quickly and easily than from any other source! Don't miss the free Plugs 'N Pixels ezines and free 2008 calendar! Access to the entire site is free, with no registration required! Be sure to stop by often as new information is added regularly.

Hey Hey it's Saturday

Hi again this lovely autumnish weekend. It has been a while now since I promised the elements pack for the boys Toys all at sea paper pack, but here they are. Click the preview for the link.

I have been stuck in bed with some kind of 'flu virus that has hung around for over 2 weeks now. Not feeling like doing anything.

Hope you enjoy the elements pack, link me up here with your layouts I would love to see them.

Sorry this is so short and sweet this weekend . I hope to be back in the swing of things by next weekend, so hugs to you all.

Sue

Celebrate with us!!!!

ScrapStreet is turning three!

Ok, so if I am being completely honest, we turned three on the 15th. But on that momentous day, my world was filled with flood waters. No, not the horrible Texas storms, but just an annoying amount of rain here in Chicago. The lower level of my house (can you say SCRAP ROOM!) took on water. I was out of town celebrating a cousin's wedding leaving my husband and children to fend for themselves. Eeeeekk! I flew back early to help tackle the sopping and mopping, prying baseboards, washing toys, and sanitizing every inch of the world.

When I came up for air, the 15th was only a memory.

Being a flexible scrapping mom, I grabbed my calendar and sharpie and changed the date for Friday to the 15th. See, no problem.

I want all of our blog buddies and digi friends to celebrate with us, so I made my newest kit free this week with this coupon: ann08
Pop in our store and enjoy!

Thursday is Shaping Up

Yes Thursday is shaping up for a freebie! I have been busy and suffering at the same time with a bad head cold, thanks to my eldest son. The rest of us have all come down with it in time for the youngest's birthday.... joy of joys! So sorry I wasn't able to post more freebies before now...

Today at least, I have managed to do a little freebie you can use personally or commercially. Some floral Photoshop shapes. I have included a small version of the PNG's for those who do not have PS. If I ever get the time and a clear head I will post a larger version of the PNG...let me know via the comments.

So just drop the .CSH object into your PS presets file or whichever folder you may keep your shapes in and have fun.

Link expired, get them in store with other goodies bundled up in the $1 spot!

Wednesday Inspiration - Back to School

Wednesdays appear to be back, I thank you for your patience! We've been handling some family stuff, including having our oldest start Kindergarten. How about you? How did back-to-school go in your house? Wait - you took how many pictures?! Me, too! But I have a confession to make. I haven't scrapped a single one of them! So... today let's work on finding some of that back-to-school digi stuff so we can get some school work done!
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Brushes:
Obsidian Dawn: Handwriting Brushes
Obsidian Dawn: Office Stuff Brushes
Obsidian Dawn: Graduation Sketches
Scrapbook Graphics: Calendar Stamps: $3.00
Digital Scrapbook Pages: School Brush: $4.99

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Fonts:
Desktop Pub: Handwriting Fonts
dafont.com: School-theme Fonts
FontMenu.com: Education Fonts
SchoolFonts.com: Block Letters and Cursive Handwriting
Fonts.com: keyword School

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Don't forget about the digital freebie - SCHOOL RULZ - at ScrapStreet right now. Grab it soon because I'm not sure how long it'll be free!!

Scrap Street CT Talent on Display

Click on image for closer view

Today I want to highlight a few of Scrap Streets talented CT members by showing just a couple examples of LO's they've created from my kit, "Tiarella". There is many more to get inspiration from in our Gallery. Come join in the fun and show us your own LO's!
Special thanks to Jorinde, Helen H and Jopke for their fantastic LO's!

Brushes Away

Thursday already! Where do the days go to? I know some of you have been wondering about the Boys Toys Elements from the All At Sea kit that Sue Woods has done. They will be posted as soon as she is well enough. Poor Sue has been in bed with flu and a throat infection for over a week.



I am a hoarder you know. Especially of Photoshop brushes. I have several gigabytes of them on my hard drives and I cannot possibly have used a tenth of them! Yet I still collect them free or bought. Sound familiar?



So with brushes in mind, here is another little freebie for you all. Suitable for personal or commercial use - they are ideal for making textures or patterns on papers and small tag type elements.





Based on some very old French drawings, I scanned them as best I could given they are crumbling away and created some little brushes. Not big brushes, but pretty little florals that you can colour in and change the blend modes for a variety of looks. I have included them as a PNG for those who do not use Photoshop or where the brush won't work in your version. There is also a coloured version of one so you can see how they look filled in.



Find them bundled up in store in the $1 spot - never know what bargains you will find!

About Clip Art and A Freebie

One element of Digital Scrap booking is incorporating ready-made clip art into your layouts. Upon doing a Google.com search you'll find loads of websites that offer Clipart for free, fee per download, or a membership.
You'll find pre-made colored or perhaps black and white that you can color yourself.
I would highly recommend using Vector Graphics. These are created in a higher resolution with more detail. .Jpg's, .gif's, and sometimes .png clip art will give fuzzy edges and pixelation. Vectors are optimal for resizing and print-out. Some of the more common Vector Graphic extensions would be;

.AI = Adobe Illustrator
.CGM = Computer Graphics Metafile (an older "universal" format)
.CDR = CorelDraw Drawing
.DWG = AutoCAD Drawing (common format for building industry)
.DXF = AutoCAD Drawing Exchange Format
.EPS = Encapsulated PostScript (common format for publishing industry)
.PFB = Adobe Font (mainly used on Apple Macintoshes)
.SVG = Scalable Vector Graphics (latest "universal" format)
.TTF = TrueType Font (mainly used on IBM PCs)
.WPG = WordPerfect/DrawPerfect Graphic
.WMF = Windows MetaFile (Microsoft Windows' native format)
.EMF = Enhanced MetaFile

Double check to see if the graphic program you're using will be able to open and manipulate Vector drawn clipart. Another important tip is to read the TOU of the creator of the clipart. Is it only for Personal Use OR can it be used in Commercial Use? What are the limitations, etc. etc.

Here's an early Holiday Freebie for you that I combined 3 clip art graphics.
Special thanks to Shilo for use of her Googly Eyes.

Monday Freebie

Well here is another freebie for you! This time it is a pack of 2 beautifully textured Easy Overlays. You may use these personally or commercially (provided you alter them in some way). Try different blending modes or play with the hue or saturation levels. Stack them up like pancakes!

They will be around for a while, then off to the store they go....

A Silly Sunday

Last night my kids sat giggling away as they dressed and undressed their meez dolls. My husband wandered through and realized--for the first time--that the kids can zip around cyberspace faster than he can. He sat for a bit and watched as they worked the mouse and keyboard with obvious experience. It wasn't long before he asked a few questions. My daughter googled avatars and found another site and made one for me. Ready?


Does she look just like me? She is from Face Your Manga. My son chose the red top and matching lipstick. His fashion sense made my husband roll his eyes in a bit of pain, but he could not deny that red is indeed my color.

What do you look like online? Do you have a favorite avatar building site to share?

Thursday Birthday Thoughts

Well if you have been reading the homepage of ScrapStreet you will know that ScrapStreet is turning 3 on 15th September. A noteable date for me - it is my "ex" wedding anniversary, is the day before my son's 13th birthday, is the birthday of a dear "old" friend back in UK, is a couple of days away from my parents wedding anniversary and was the day of the Battle Of Britain. Oh and not forgetting it is our beloved Dora's birthday month as well!!

So to celebrate in style I am cooking up some sweet treats for you all. I don't tend to do Commercial Use stuff, but that is out of the window this month. Stay tuned to the blog as I will pop freebies here there and everywhere, all of them available for personal or commercial use! Just don't share the link please, come here for your goodies!


How's that for a great birthday celebration? To get us rolling along here is the first freebie, some cupcakes I did for a challenge in the ScrapStreet Anniversary party that is going on in the Town Square forum. Add colours, styles etc to these and you will have yourself a fun set of cupcakes!

I will leave these birthday goodies around for a while and then package them up to go into the digi $ spot in the ScrapStreet Store, so be sure to check back often this month if you want them for free.

Link has expired, but see them in the $1 spot in store!

Free is a GOOD 4-Letter Word

Ever get weary of paying outrageous prices for your software needs? And what about the endless searching for just the right utility that won't cost you a weeks pay? Freebyte's Guide to Free Graphics Software is the list to end all lists. They've been on the internet since 1995 and they're still one of the best bookmarks that you can have in your stash.
Here's a sampling of their Guide, remember to put "Free" in front of each, because they are all 100% FREE!

• Paint Programs
• Vector Drawing Programs
• Desktop Publishing
• Icon Editors
• Cursor Editors
• Background Creation Programs
• Image Optimizers
• Image Converters
• Image Viewers
• Photo Albums
• 2-D Animation Software
• Gif Animation Software
• Animation and 3-D Software
• Presentation Programs
• Diagram Software
• Fractal Software
• Various Graphic Utilities and Services
• Advanced & Scientific Graphics Programs

They only ask for one favor for providing this list and that is;
If you know of any free good graphics tools (especially free image editing and animation software) to be listed on this page, please let us know by using our contact form!