Dolly's Dreamings

Easter Sunday and a freebie

Happy easter Sunday everyone

I hope that you have all enjoyed a wonderful  day on this special day.

I shared this freebie before but figures it might be nice to share it again

download here

I have had a lovely crafting day making a  project I am thrilled with but can't share yet as it is for a post on IACW - but I love it.

I have also had fun making a very different page for me for the Scrapology challenge this month. It was a very busy design for me and used lace which I rarely use, but I figured it was worth a go.

The page I have made is for my Austria album and I used new papers, letters and flowers all bought yesterday. see, I knew I needed to buy them.

I also used a lace doily die cut (but covered most of it up, and lots of paper lace.

and I almost - not quite but almost - managed to avoid butterflies, but gave in at the end LOL

I had fun making it up.

My photo of the day will come later as I know what I want to take but just can't take it yet!

Today I am thankful for

• first and foremost all the blessings of Easter
• a 'not getting dressed day' We haven't had one of those for ages and ages
• a tidy cupboard and drawer - yes I tackled 'the dump drawer and cupboard' in the kitchen. My my I keep some junk!

 

And finally, as I am still playing catch up posting these, this is another of my 365/6 pages. This time it is week 11 and I used two of Dawn Inskip's templates combined.

 

Templates and a freebie

I am due to be away for a couple of days with work so am posting this ahead of time. It was a post I did for IACW last month and I hope you find it useful and interesting.

It's not cheating ... it's an inspirational help

I want to talk about templates today ... templates to help give your digital scrapping a bit of a kick start and an inspiring helping hand.

Many digital designers make templates, which are easy to use, easy to personalise and make your own. They are layered kick starts which you add your own papers and photos and embellishments to, but some of the hard work has already been done. Someone else has planned the balance of the page, decided where things go.  

They are a little like using sketches to inspire you to scrap and, just as you can adapt a sketch and make it your own, so you can adapt a template and make it your own.

The templates that are on the market are very varied. Some are incredibly simple, like the freebie offered today on here. They are a simple photo placement templates that you can use as they are or jazz up as much or as little as you like.

Some are amazingly detailed and also give you things in your scrapping that you might not be able to do without a template. For example, you can't do shaped text in elements but you can get templates that you can use in elements that have the shaped text built right in. Dawn Inskip is one of my favourite digital designers and her templates are unbelievably good and often do have text paths you couldn't make yourself.

I have a couple of examples to show you, using some of Dawn's latest Photo Empasis templates which, as it 'says on the tin', let the photos take centre stage but with such gorgeous layers and elements that you can use. For example this one used a template that came complete with the cute bird and branches that were also layered so you could personalise them. This was from Dawn's Photo Emphasis templates Volume 1 from her store at Scrapbookgraphics.

 

If you like lots of layers and lots of depth in your digital pages, then templates are a really easy way to achieve this. This French page was made using Dawn's Photo Emphasis Volume 4. It would have taken a long long time to get this sort of depth but was really simple to personalise using the ready made template and then adding your own bits and pieces to it.

 

You can also use really simple templates to give a very easy graphic look and then flip them different ways to give a coordinated feel. One of my favourite ever digital mini albums was a Journal Your Christmas album from 2 years ago where I used one template - flipped four different ways - for the entire album.  It made the album a really easy thing to fit in at a very busy time of year and made it look very coordinated even though each page was different. Below are 4 pages, one from each orientation.

 

Really simple to do.

So, if you fancy kick starting that mojo have a play with some templates and, just to get you started if you haven't used templates before, here is a really simple one that you can download and have a play with.

 

Download TEMPLATE 02 IACW

 

 

Timely reminders

It's been a hard couple of days with long hours but actually both Nigel and I are pretty good about rememberingt he important stuff.

You may recall our very own 'Hello Kitty'. No, not the cartoon and no the CFH haven't learnt to speak ... yet! The Hello Kitty is a very cute chalkboard cat who frequently says 'hello' to us in all sorts of ways. He celebrates school holidays and weekends, he reminds us of dates and times and events and Nigel delights in putting things on there to make me smile.

Tonight I came home and the Hello Kitty made me smile. Nij knew I would be tired and frazzled and so Hello Kitty had an important message. I am healthy, I am home, and I am happy and ... it's Tuesday so actually three more sleeps till the weekend.

So he is my photo of the day. (and he genuinely does stand next to the calendar)

 

I have soemthing to share today I made ages ago (in December) but I never posted it. Pauline, my sort of surrogate Mummy, had had an accident with her Exploding Box. One of the cats had knocked it off and it was severely nibbled by one of the dogs and I had promised to make her a new one. She is Emily and Elinor's grandma (Bossy Nanny and yes we all call her that!) so I wanted to use some newer pictures of the girls and of her children too. She is a very special lady in my life and so I wanted to create soemthing she could treasure.

 

She was thrilled with it.

 I have uploaded a file you can download if you have never made an exploding box and would like to try one. They are really simple, great fun to make and great little gifts.

Download Microsoft Word - exploding box class for blog

It was actually written for this box here which was used in a magazine.

Today I am thankful for

• Nigel keeping me focused

And my one minute devotional today is really poignant and Oh so true again (I am loving this calendar)

Noelle, my eight-year-old daughter, is in ballet class. She is learning relevés, pliés, and ronds de jambe. The little girls cross arms and join hands and then amble left to right and right to left. Tiptoeing, aware of their posture and position, with their heads held high, they create as much beauty as their little bodies will allow. Truthfully, it’s mostly a chaotic swirl of bodies in motion, but it sure is cute.

There is one girl in the class who, even though she’s dressed in a leotard that perfectly matches the others, doesn’t blend in. Lindsey is in a walker. Her hands clutch the handles tightly. Her legs don’t allow her to do even the simplest dance step. She is assisted by a young woman who moves her from place to place, and oftentimes that is simply out of the way of the others.

After class, Noelle sat on the floor with the other girls, chatting, taking off their ballet shoes, putting on sweaters, stuffing dance clothes into their bags. Meanwhile, Lindsey was being tended to by her caregiver.

Today, Lindsey might not have performed a soaring jeté. But in a sense, I think she did. She took an art form defined by the long lines of an extended leg, the poetry of a turned wrist, and a lighter-than-a-feather gallop across the stage, and said that that definition didn’t apply to her. And so, with a piano clanging in the room, her leotard on, mirrors in all directions, girls flowing all around her, Lindsey stood in one place, not moving an inch, and in a way known only to her, danced.

Lord, no matter what my limitations, give me the courage to try.

—DAVE FRANCO

 

A ruined Netley Abbey and some FREE word art

It has been an absolutely glorious day here today. Really bright sunshine (which almost masked how cold it was) and clear blue skies. We headed off to somewhere we had often said we would like to visit and had never been to - Netley Abbey near Southampton.

I hate to harp on about it, but did I mention I loved my i phone!!!! Before we went I downloaded an mp3 file about the abbey and when we got there we could listen to the commentary about the abbey which made it so much better, knowing what we were looking at.

I took a fair few photos, many of them with the i phone. This was the first time I had really taken pictures in natural lighting with it and I have to see, no surprise, I am very impressed with it.

I liked a lot of the pictures but one of them had to become photo of the day - and it happens to be this one.

But to whet your appetitie if you haven't visited, here are a few more.

 

 

 

The brickwork you can see, looking somewhat incongrous against the beautiful stone, dates back to Tudor times when the Cistercian abbey was destroyed as part of the dissolution of the monasteries and it was given to one of Henry's favourites who turned it into a manor house.

 

We decided to stop for lunch ont he way home, which is unusal for us as we are not 'lunch' people really but we figured a bar snack would be good. We went to two pubs which were so full there was no space in the carpark and the third - just outside Lyndhurst - looked lovely. It was but we ordered sandwiches and they then said they didn't do sandwiches on a Sunday! Ah well.

I have a new page to share today - love themed as it is my week 7 page and week 7 contained Valentines day.

And in keeping witht he theme here is a free download of some word art that I made for a project Valentine themed. If you would like it feel free to snag it. It is a png file and should also work for hybrid work too.  The download is after the preview picture.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Today I am thankful for

• lovely days out
• ice cream

And even the LOL cats are valentine themed

 

A lack of achievement but a Freebie too

Today is one of those days where I just can't focus, on anything really.

I think the worries niggling at the back of my mind, OK at the FRONT of my mind, are causing the lack of focus and so I think I am going to give in and give up and just vegetate with my Kindle for a while.

I did do a couple of things today though.

Firstly I took my photo of the day for today. As I am fearing there may be a hospital stay looming I figured, just in case, I ought to get myself some decent pjs - some that weren't leopard spotted really!

I only shop at the very best stores of course and so these are some of Primarks finest and at the princely sum of £9 they won't be a waste of money even if I never use them. They look a little odd in the picture as I folded them up somewhat - the bottoms are long with lace round the ankles - you get the idea.

 
I also caught up on week 4 - how is it week 4 that is completed of 2012 already!!

I decided on a very plain graphic look this week and I have also made a template which you can snag if you want.

This is the template you can download HERE. It is a layered png file - very simple but may be of use to come of you.

 Download Week 4 template

And this is my page for week 4

 Last night I veged out in front of the TV and watched the last Harry Potter film (Nij had bought it for Christmas) I loved the books so much and it is one of the few series that was as good in film .... almost .... as on paper. I think they were very well made and hopefully we will get to see Harry Potter World in Florida in the summer.

I also started on my new scarf (Nij bought me wool for Christmas) as I finally found the needles I had put away so carefully after the green one. I reall am NOT to be trusted when tidying!

Today I am thankful for

• time to chill out
• a very supportive husband

And finally today some more of that fabulous chalk pavement art.

 

 

Gifts and FREE WORD ART

I know that I will not have time to blog properly today and so I thought I would set this up in advance to share another page created with Dawn's amazing Christmas goodies.

First of all I have a free word art for you if you would like it.

It is very simple but prints nicely and might make a useful resource for you if you would like it.

It is a transparent png file at 300 dpi.

 

If you download it I would love you to leave a comment and let me know what you think.

You can download it HERE

Now, back to Dawn's work. She has so many lush things out for this holiday season at her store at Scrapbookgraphics - and there is more to come! Just wait till later in the week.

Anyway I digress. This is a page I made with many of her new products.

Nigel and I are quite obsessive about our gifts to each other. they are all wrapped in boxes so they are all square - no clues there - and the paper all coordinates and we have a huge collection of beautiful ribbons we use each year. It is daft, but one of our traditions. We have, however, learnt our lesson about putting other people's gifts in random boxes.

One year we bought Nigel's 90 year olf grandmother a new handbag we knew she would love. We wanted to discguise it so put it in an empty cereal box and wrapped it.

Two days after christmas we had a call from her to say thank you for the lovely gift. She wasn't as effusive as we felt she might have been. We thought we had selected a bag she would love. But heck - we didn't worry about it.

Until february - when we had a call to say thank you for the christmas present amidst a lot of laughter. Yup. She'd thought it was a little odd we'd bpought her cereal. That morning she opened the cereal at breakfast and found the bag! So we learnt a lesson there.

 Anyway back to the page. I love spoiling Nigel at Christmas and many of the gifts may be small, but they are all well thought out and we just enjoy the gift giving. However, thegreatest gift is the time we spend together and for that, each and every day, I am truly grateful.

 

Free Gratitude Thanksgiving word art

It's been a bit of a scrapping frenzy here today. Possibly because I didn't scrap at all yesterday.

I had the bright idea of making calendars for gifts. I wasn't sure how it would pan out so I thought I would start with one for my office as a trial.

It took forever to make the templates. I kept telling myself once they were done it would be easy.

Well it was easier, but not easy. I have made half of mine and guess what - I am planning buying alternate gifts for everyone else as I am NOT making a whole heap of these unless they are all the same LOL.

Anyway - to go with them I needed some word art and so thought, as it had a thanksgiving theme, I would share it here as I haven't shared a freebie in a while.

There are two versions in the download. A transparent and one with a background. They are both high res png files and so should print well. I used mine on a transparency.

 

 

Download HERE

 I haven't got my calendar to share yet - hopefully it may be done at some point this week.

Today I am thankful for

• time to create
• new things to play with

 

More FREE Autumn word art

Feeling autumnal again so have another Free word art for you.

I am in the process of using it on a  page and so figured I would share it.

There are several versions in the download and they print out well so are good for hybrid too.

Enjoy

We have had a very lazy day today as it has been Nigel's birthday and we have just chilled out. Managed to wend our way out to Starbucks - well he couldn't have a birthday and not have a frap now could he.

Both of his brothers are in the US at the moment but they rang and wished him a happy birthday and we will see his Mom later. He is busy watching one of the dozen or so dvds he had for his birthday. He is hard to buy for so they are always a good option!

Couldn't resist using these pictures of the birthday boy from yesterday.

FREE Autumn word art

A very brief post whilst the new medication for my neck hopefully kicks in.

Autumn has always been my favourite time of year and I use Autumn word art a lot so I thought I would share this free png file with everyone. It will print well and should be quite useful.

Enjoy

You can download it here

FREEBIE and a chance to help

 
I have a little FREE  give away today to say thank you for helping me with a little project.

Well actually it is not me you are helping but my hubby.

He is setting up some surveys for a business venture and so has produced a sample survey for me to test out on here. It is OK - nothing will be done with the sample answers, they are just a test to see if the data collection works. And no - he won't be doing craft surveys!

This is your reward - and yes I know I should have given you the task first but this is positive reinforcment.

 

You can download the freebie - which is what I hope is a very useful alphabet - here

Now to the task. Nij is setting up some surveys for a business venture and just wants to test out the way the survey works. he's written this purely for here as a bit of fun. Nothing will happen with the responses. They cannot be tracked to you in any way.  I am not touting for blog hits or anything. It's just a way of helping him see what the survey runs like and the data collection aspect.

So, if you have a moment (it takes two or three minutes at the most) please please have a go at this short survey to help him out.

You can find the survey by clicking this button

 
Now, as you have worked for this I had better share a bit of scrapping hadn't I.

This is a page I made using the Pencil Lines audition sketch.  Yes I did try and yes I do realise I am no where near good enough! But it was fun to make the page and not a surprise I didn't get a call back.

 

The photo is of a very beautiful Alice in the snow.

Today I am thankful for

• my throat not getting any worse - so far
• an inspection that will be over soon