Saturday Spotlight wk 4

Welcome to the Saturday Spotlight!

This week I have chosen 'Then and Now' by Valerie Rushton. (valrushton)

This is so eye catching! The photos are beautiful and I love the way Val has lifted the pink from the photo and used it in her LO. I also really like the circle framing. Plus I adore these 'then and now' pages :)!  Check out Val's other fabulous LOs on Daisy Trail 

This is my beautiful Grand daughter Rudy. She came to live with us when she was 15 years old and has just gone off to university in London. I am in the process of making her an album for Christmas.

I am married with 4 children and 7 Grand children. We have just celebrated our 53rd Wedding Anniversary. 

My other hobbies are photography and card making. I am lucky having 7 willing Grand children to photograph for my pages.

I've been digital scrapbooking for about 5 years.

The kit used for this page was 'The Mix' By G&T Designs. I really love all of their kits.

Thank you for sharing Val xxx

WOYWW 258

Morning everyone and welcome to another desk hopping Wednesday! If you have no idea what I'm talking about...pop over to the Stamping Ground.

I haven't done all that much this week. Life has been getting in the way...very frustrating lol!
But I have made this page of Matt and Debs. A typical silly moment and sums them up beautifully.
I used elements from kits by Sahlin studio, Pink Reptile Designs, one Little Bird, Amy Wolff and Kate Hadfield.

I am very excited to have been sent this photo last night. It's a red deer stag taken by my very talented son Matt. He took the photo in Richmond park London on a field trip to see the rutting. I can't wait to 'scrap' it. I love working with Matt's wildlife photos.

Have a great WOYWW everyone. I am lucky enough to have the morning off work so will be doing plenty of desk hopping (trouble is I am freezing cold as the reason I am home is that I am waiting for the man to come and fix the boiler)!

Thank you for any comments left. Every single one means so much xxx

Autumn Inspiration

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm always so inspired by acquiring  a new digi kit!  Silly really as I have so many already (sort of an addiction of mine really) ... anyway, I've had a look around and these are some Autumnal kits that I think are great and very inspiring. All I have to do now is take some Autumnal photos lol x

This first one is a collab kit over at Scrapbird  -  scrumptious!

This is Gothic Autumn from Algera Designs  Deliciously dark! 

Love this one too. Simply Autumn by Laurie ann.

Finally is 1000 Colours from Digidesignresort  A jam packed kit with so many fab embellishments.

I haven't decided which one to buy yet. Just window shopping really. But I will treat myself to one of them. Now I'm off to find some freebies.......  X

A Huge Thankyou x

I just want to say a big thanks to everyone that is following/joined my blog. I love writing my blog, but it's even better knowing that I am not talking to myself lol. I hope that you continue to find what I do interesting, helpful and inspiring. THANK YOU once again xxx

Saturday Spotlight wk 3

Welcome to the Saturday Spotlight!

This week I have chosen 'Loved One' by Suzanne Magner (suzannah3).

I just love the effects used here. Suzanne is so good at blending and always produces stunning pages. The feeling she has created with this page is amazing. And the rich colouring...just gorgeous!
You can find some other examples of her work on Daisy Trail

I am a working mum and married with 4 sons. I have one daughter-in-law and 2 beautiful grand daughters. I am a Diversional Therapist and also an Allied Health Assistant in physio, speech and OT work. I work in the local hospital in Queensland, Australia where I live. I have been scrapping for about 2 and a half years.

I created this page with a lot of emotion after listening to a patient reminiscing about the love of her life - her husband. After a lot of exploring of my inner emotions, I wanted to create how I would feel on the outside if I lost the one person in my life who has been part of it since my teenage years, where this beautiful friendship of love and respect was broken.

The white marking down the side of the face was representing a mask - a shadow of grief. I have used a lot of blending throughout this layout. I love to explore new techniques and ideas, always testing and challenging myself.

The kits I used are : Hello Fall by Natalie, Cottage Arts Click Mask 35 and Paris by Butterfly designs.

Thank you for sharing Suzanne x

WOYWW 257

Doesn't the week whizz by? Wednesday again and time to join in the desk hopping game hosted by Julia. So here's what I've been up to over the last few days;

I've been inspired to make this page by the freakily (is that even a word)?! warm weather we're having... in the South of the UK that is. I can't believe this fuchsia is still in flower. Normally, by now, it would be shrinking away from the gusty winds and cold air, and going a dull and crispy brown! 

When we have an extended summer like this, we call it an Indian Summer. I have absolutely no idea why...is it because it's still summer in October in India!!! There is probably a really obvious explanation that I have completely missed lol. But would be great if somebody could tell me the answer.

I've used elements from kits by Amy Wolff and One Little bird.

This next page I did for a challenge I'm running on my blog.

It's my son and his girlfriend. They're doing gorge walking...which I have scrapped about a lot now. This will probably be the last one I do as I am getting sick of looking at people in wetsuits lol!

Just for a change to my usual style, I've put them in a fantasy type background which I quite like as it adds to the fun of the page and when Matt and Debs are around, we always have fun!!!

The kit I used is called Fairy Garden by Alvetina on the scrapbird blog x

Thank you for dropping in for a look at what I've been doing. I love reading the comments that are left.I will come and have a snoop at everyone's work desks this evening after work. Happy WOYWW! xxx

Cut out fantasy - challenge

I've made this page for Matt & Debs by cutting them out and putting them onto a fantasy type background.
It's a fun technique and I've seen loads of good examples on Daisy Trail. I think it lends itself to scrapping the fun photos you have and makes a change from the norm.

I then thought that maybe this could be this week's challenge :)!
Purely for fun again...although I may have to put one or two favs on my blog lol x
Simply create your page, using the cutting out (also called extraction technique) Upload to Daisy Trail in the normal way - Simples!

Here are a couple of tips that work for me. They are poss not technically correct and certainly not 'expert advice' simply what I have found gives the best result ...through lots of trial and error!

1. Zoom in really close and use the largest brush setting. Grow tolerance off. Obviously you will need to use smaller for the really fiddly bits. But for some reason, using the largest brush seems to get the smoothest results...for me anyway.

2. When trimming large areas with a good contrast to the background, use the grow tolerance setting, but only have it on about 30. Any higher and I find it will start 'snatching' bits of what you want to keep...very annoying!
3. Make sure you select the best output type i.e. Alpha edged for images you want to blend into your background and Vector for a clean cut appearance. I've used Vector for my example page.
4. Of course you can play around with the 'inflate' and 'smooth' sliders, but I just wanted to keep it simple. Maybe I should cover that next time......

Place your finished cut out image onto your fantasy background and voila....job done lol! 
I've used a kit called Fairy Garden by Alvetina, available on the Scrapbird website.

Thank you for taking part last week. And a huge thank you if you have joined my blog. Looking forward to seeing your designs :) x