My new camera!

Woohoo! I got my new camera today and I am in love! It's a Canon EOS 1000d and it's perfect for me. I have so many things that I should be getting finished, but couldn't resist a play today - check out these photos just taken on automatic (which is much more awesome than my point and click) - can't wait to learn the manual settings! First up is Lily pulling a strange face, but I love how she is totally in focus and the background blurred slightly - drawing your eye to her face. I know those of you who know anything about photography are not going to be impressed by this, but I am!! LOL!

And this photo is really funny - I actually caught Lily's tongue licking hubby's face - with my old camera, it would have been a blur!

And this is my absolute favourite photo of the day - it's of my gorgeous boy, Pompey. Again, the photo draws you into his face. As I said.... I am IN LOVE! I know I have so much to learn and I cannot wait! TTFN.

Friendship template freebie

Did you see my latest kit in store? It's made with a colour palette that Kim H sent me for her CT appreciation kit. I loved the palette and I love the outcome of the kit - I hope she does too :)

So, a reminder of what 'Friendship' looks like - you can buy it for just $3 here.

And here's the layout that I did with the kit. When Sara was visiting, we went to London and walked so much that I got blisters! So, the only solution was to buy some flip flops from a nearby store. Usually, I would begrudge buying a pair of shoes unnecessarily, but check out these beauties (ignoring my horrible feet)!! :D

And so I made a template from my layout just for you - it's template number 15 and you can download it here {link expired} for 7 days, then the link will expire. TTFN.

Bad to the Bone part II

Did you pick up the papers for Bad to the Bone? You need to get them quickly if you want them as the link will expire tomorrow!! Today, you are getting the elements which will expire in a week when I post the alpha. Did you also check out Laramie's blog for the freebie add on to this kit? If not, check it here :)

So, click here to download the elements and remember to leave a comment to let me know what you think of the kit and link me up to any layouts that you do {link expired}! TTFN.

Retiring kits - don't forget!

OMG - I can't believe this is my 1000th post! And all I was going to say was to remind you was that I am retiring some kits!! LOL! I feel I need to do something a bit more exciting, so I am heading off right now to put my store at 20% off for the next 24 hours! You won't need a coupon - just shop and enjoy (you will need to spend $1.50 before discount otherwise the paypal fee wipes out pretty much all the money I would make on the sale after discount!!!) Oh, and these are the retiring kits that will be gone forever after the end of July! Click here to browse the 'retiring soon' section of the store.

Friendship kit and a freebie template

Well, this kit has been perfectly timed. It's the second in my set of CT appreciation kits and this one is for Kim H who just this week had a new baby girl! Congratulations Kim - sending lots of love to you and your family, especially little Kapri. So, this is what Kim's kit looks like - it's called Friendship:

I called it Friendship because I feel that my CT are wonderful friends that have joined me in my digi journey and Kim has been on my team for quite a long time now. You will recognise her style easily - it's very simple and very stunning - this is the layout she did for me with her kit.

How cute does the proud big brother Cutler look waiting for his sister to arrive? Such a cutie!

And this is what all of my other CT girls did with the kit - they have really showcased this one beautifully - I am impressed beyond words girls!

So, if you like this one and want to have it for yourself to create your own wonderful pages - head on over to the store here and you can grab it for just $3 until my next kit release when it will go back to $4.

Yesterday, I mentioned another template that I had for you next week. Well I've decided to give it to you today instead - it's from a layout I made with a freebie kit by Nathan called Remember the Past - I hope you like it. {sorry, link expired}

Challenge time!

OK, many of you participated with our World Cup challenges at Scrap That Idea and we had some fun chatting to each other along the way. To keep that going, I have decided to do regular challenges and keep the forum so that we can all continue to chat. Sound like fun?

Basically, it's all going to run on a points based system - you get points for submitting a layout, making comments on other layouts and also for winning of course. There will also be prizes for winning challenges - kits from my store. As an added incentive, your points will add up to be converted into coupons for my store, so everyone is a winner in one way or another. All of the details are contained in the challenge thread of the STI forum.

So the first challenge you get a freebie mini kit to play with. However, you only get it by registering at the forum and posting in the challenge thread that you intend to take part in the challenge - it's a participation freebie, not a general freebie to everyone, so if you don't intend to play along in any of the challenges, please don't register because I have to validate the registrations manually and it does take a lot of time :). Some people registered before for the World Cup promo, but have been deleted because they never posted in the forum - if that is you, you will need to re-register if you want to play this time - sorry for this added step, but I want to keep the users pruned to the ones who use the forum - it's easier for me to administer that way.

So, the freebie is ready and waiting for those who are playing - here's a peek at what it looks like:

I can't wait to see you all at the forum and playing along to win prizes and coupons. TTFN.

A freebie before tomorrow's new release!

Who would like a freebie? It's been a while since I did a template and I thought I'd let you have one today - I have another one to come next week, so watch out for that too! I am still feeling really crappy, so I think I may make a call to the doctor today - it's been more than a week now since it started (although it wasn't too bad for the first few days). I also have to cancel my hair appointment because 2 hours in the chair for a cut and colour is not something I think I could manage today.

So, back to the freebie, I did a layout with Summer Party and haven't shown it to you yet - here it is featuring the gorgeous little girl of my brother's girlfriend!

You can still pick up Summer Party here for $3 until my new kit hits the store tomorrow. In the meantime, click here {sorry link expired} to download the template that I made from my layout (available for one week only). I hope you like it! TTFN.

New CT members

I am really late with this post too and I'm struggling right now, so I should be in bed, but you know how things play on your mind if you don't get them done, so this is one of those things I can tick off the list :)

You may remember I had a CT call not so long ago and from that search, I found some wonderful galleries to look out - so thank you all for applying. I was looking for one person because I had already found one lady. Dawn has been a friend in scrapland for a long time and she is a great designer. However, she has stopped designing for a while to concentrate on some time to herself and asked if I wanted a new CT member and I was over the moon - you will see her amazing talent over the weeks with my kits.

This is what Dawn looks like and a little about her:

My name is Dawn Mills and I live on the east coast of Florida. I have lived in this area of Florida since 1980. I have four children, who are all out on their own now. I also have 6 grandchildren, 2 girls and 4 boys. They are my drive to preserve the past so that they know our family, which is now spread worldwide. One Sister, 4 brothers and my beloved parents who live in southeast Missouri has not lived around each other for a while now so I found digital scrapping a great way to share my children with my family.

I have always been a creative person with a lot of hobbies. I have tried my hand at drawing, cross-stitching, needlepoint, sewing (clothes and crafts), and ceramics over the years. My two favorites are: 1) Digital photography, which got me interested in digital scrap booking so that I could show off the thousands of photos that I have, and 2) Quilting, which is very time consuming but relaxing while watching a movie. I still love it, but haven’t done much of it in the past few years, too busy Scrapping, blogging and hopping around Scrapland. ~Snowsmoon’s Design aka Dawn

And my CT call found Juli - she has applied for my team a couple of times since I first had a CT and this time I really couldn't resist :) Her scrapping style is beautiful and I am sure you're going to love it! This is what Juli looks like and a little about her:

I have been married to my husband Brett for 3 1/2 yrs. I will be starting my 4th yr teaching 6th grade in the fall. I started digiscrapping in October of 2008 and am completely addicted. I am excited to be on Vicki’s team, she was one of the very first designers I came across when I discovered digi and have been a huge fan ever since!













Now I would like to show you some layouts I've done recently for the other girls at STI. First up is Howdy Cowboy - Sara's latest kit:

And Stacey's latest kit is a beautiful Summer kit called Summer Daze.

Finally, I have joined a new CT as a guest (so not every kit), and that CT is Nathan's - I did a collab with him a little while ago. He has a new freebie kit called Remember the Past - take a look below. I hope you like them. Back to bed for me. TTFN.

When Friends Meet!!

I owe you all a post about Sara's visit from Australia and here it finally is!! Sorry that it's so late, but I have been feeling really crappy since she left - a really horrible head cold that has spread to my chest - blah!!  

I have to tell you, that many people asked me if I was nervous about meeting someone in real life for the first time and them staying in my house with their whole family. I have to tell you, I wasn't at all. I have been friends with Sara online now for a couple of years and I think we know each other fairly well. We also knew our hubbies would get on as they are really similar.

So, they arrived on Saturday and looked surprising good considering they'd spent more than 24 hours travelling. The kids were in high spirits and really well behaved (even though Sara worried about them from time to time). They are a real credit to their parents! They were excited about the stairs in my house as they don't have any at home - we were convinced there would be an accident and sure enough mid-week, Aiden fell down almost from the top. He wasn't hurt - just a bit shocked thank goodness! I made dinner the first night they were here, which is incredible as I very rarely cook! I think it went down well - everyone finished off their plates and seemed happy!! We had an early night after the heavy day. It was funny that Sara and Dave closed the windows in the bedroom when Rob and I had ours WIDE open and left off the covers because it was so hot! That's the difference between Australia and England's climate! Crazy!

The next day we had a barbeque with a few friends and neighbours and introduced the Aussies to an English party for the World Cup final! I even introduced Sara to Pimms which she loved and is talking about finding in Australia now.

The next day saw the start of the sightseeing - we went to South Wales to visit some castles. We saw Chepstow Castle - this is both of us having our photo taken at the entrance:

Tintern Abbey - a beautiful abbey in ruins, but still very impressive:

Raglan Castle - with a moat and looking like the perfect castle:

In both castles, we were looking for princesses for Megan, but we didn't find one - the theory was that she had to go shopping for shoes :) Megan bought it, so that's the main thing!!

Tuesday saw us visiting the Georgian city of Bath - there is lots to see and we looked at the main sights, but we also enjoyed the Lion parade - there are 100 lions in and around Bath and we managed to find 30 of them - here are a couple with the kids posing!

Then we went to Trowbridge near Bath to visit some family friends of Sara's - we had a lovely lunch with them - they were so welcoming to us - I really enjoyed meeting them.

On Wednesday, we 'did London' with my hubby as our tour guide - it was hectic and we were absolutely exhausted at the end of it, but we saw so much - here is a snapshot of what we saw. This is most of us outside Buckingham Palace (Sara is taking the photo):

This is the Houses of Parliament and the iconic Big Ben:

And another easily recognised landmark - Tower Bridge which we were really lucky to see opening:

We saw a lot more, but I don't want to bore you too much!! LOL!

Thursday was a rest day - we chilled out, went for a walk, the boys went to the pub for a couple of drinks. Then in the evening, Sara and I had a girls night out! We had tapas at a Spanish restaurant, then watched Eclipse whilst drinking cocktails - very decadent!! We really enjoyed the movie and thought it was much better than New Moon. Sara is definitely team Edward, but I have to say, I am team Edward one day and then team Jacob the next - the film didn't resolve that!! LOL! Here's a photo of Sara and I ready to go out!!

On Friday, we visited the zoo in Bristol for the kids - it's a gorgeous zoo and I think the kids really enjoyed it. We then went to look at the iconic symbol of Bristol - the Clifton Gorge Suspension Bridge. Unfortunately, it rained - A LOT - and we got wet so we didn't walk across it, but we did see it from the viewing point! Isn't it spectacular?

On Saturday, it was time to leave... :( We really enjoyed the visit and having all of the family in our home for the week. I hope they enjoyed it too and felt comfortable in our company - we certainly enjoyed theirs very much. 

Now - I am waiting for Mel and Stacey to visit!! LOL! TTFN.

Bad to the Bone freebie

A while ago, I asked my CT members to come up with a colour scheme or photo from which I could take inspiration to make a kit for each of them. I've had some gorgeous inspiration and my CT members are working on layouts with the kits I've made right now. The first of these kits is going to be a freebie and it was make for Laramie. She sent me a photo of a t-shirt that was just crying out for a grungy rock kit and I made this - Bad to the Bone! Take a look at the previews....

And take a look at the layout Laramie made with her wearing the t-shirt that inspired the kit - how cool hey?

These are some other layouts from my CT - all showing off the kit beautifully!

Today, you get the papers. You'll have to check back next week for the elements and the week after for the alpha. {Links now expired} TTFN.

The alpha for 'When Friends Meet'

I meant to post this last night, but it was Sara's last night with us and we went for dinner and spent the evening chatting over a drink! However, I can let you have the alpha now - click below my preview to download and click here to get the word art from Sara. Remember to leave some love! TTFN.

Download the alpha here.

When friends meet - it's a summer party!!

See what I did there? I put the names of both kits I'm going to show you today in the blog title!! LOL! Well, we're having a fantastic week, but I'm starting to feel a little tired from all the activity and early mornings (I have no idea how Sara does it every day)! Today we are going to London, so I am setting up this post before we go. I will show you some photos of the visit later in the week when there is a little bit more time.

Firstly, can I show you my latest kit? I have been slow at posting this, so I must do it now. The kit is called 'Summer Party' and this is what it looks like in all it's glory!! It's just $3 - go grab it!

And this is what my CT did with it. I have a couple of new CT girls who I will introduce to you properly later, but be sure to check out Juli and Dawn's layouts in here too.

Now back to the freebie, the elements for 'When Friends Meet'. Now, I am not sure when Sara's will be posted, but check back if they're not there - we won't be deleting the links for quite a while! Click here to go to Sara's blog and click the link below my preview to download the elements from me. TTFN.

Download elements here.

When friends meet....

As you may know if you read my blog, Sara has come to stay with me in England from Australia for a week. It's fantastic to meet in real life and we are having a great time. Today, we went to Wales and saw some castles and an abbey. Whilst we were in Chepstow Castle, we had our photo taken and I used it to scrap this layout.

Do you like the look of the kit I used? Well, that's good because you get to collect it for free!! It's a collaboration kit that Sara and I made just for you! This is how both parts of 'When Friends Meet' look. The first preview is from Sara and the second is mine. If you click here, you can head off to Sara's blog to collect her papers, and if you click the link beneath my preview, you can download my papers directly from my blog. Please leave a few minutes if Sara's papers aren't ready because she's just slower than me at blog posting!! LOL! Love you Sara!! Check back on Wednesday to collect the elements. TTFN.

Download my papers here.

Winner of 'My Guy'

Congratulations to Heather! You are the winner of 'My Guy' - please send me an email to vicki at scrapthatidea dot com and I'll forward you a coupon to go get it! Congrats! And thank you for all your great comments, I loved hearing who you'd scrap with the kit!

Layouts!

I am such a bad CT member and I wouldn't blame Stacey if she fired me!! I haven't shown you her last two kits and she has another out in two days time!! Naughty me! Anyhoo - take a look at what she has to offer....

Firstly, this is called 'Grams & Gramps'. I don't have any photos of my grandparents in digital form (I must rectify that), so I scrapped Goofy and me at Disney! Take a look....

And she also has a kit called 'Happy Campers' for which I did have some photos! This is my layout and the kit preview is below. TTFN.