Yawning away…

but just wanted to share with you the second set (out of four) of Pasteleria!

{Click on image for larger view}

LivEdesigns Pasteleria Set 2

Here’s what you’ll be downloading (if you wish to!  😉 ) Soft Sun is a patterned orange paper; Caress is a solid lavender paper; and Teal Garden is the teal patterned paper you see on the right of the preview. (Credits for some commercial use items I used to make these freebies are in the TOU.) You’ll also be getting the stitched felt oval frame with embroidered flowers (not the adorable little puppy, which is a free stock photo taken by bjearwicke. My friend Jackie would approve of the preview photo… 😉 ).

I thought it would be much easier to put a photo in the frame if I included a layer mask for it, so what you’ll be getting is a psd layered file . Just put your photo in a layer between the frame and the mask, and do a CTRL-G (CTRL-ALT-G for full version Photoshop), resize to fit the frame,  and voila! (I’m assuming everyone who downloads is using a psd-compatible software program. If there’s anyone who needs a simple PNG file, drop me a line in the comments and I’ll send you the png file  (the frame alone, without the photo mask).

Here’s where you go to get the freebie.

Missed LOAD cut-off! C’est la vie!

I missed the LOAD cut-off for Day 16 by 6 measly minutes, but that’s okay. That doesn’t stop me from attempting to create 31 layouts by the end of this month.

Here’s my LOAD Day 16 layout, (Don’t) Say a Single Word.

Daily December 11, LOAD Day 16

If you think your eyes are getting blurry when you try to read the tag on the right side, you can be assured that you don’t need glasses. Sorry… I had to blur the personal information over there.  😕

CREDITS:

Jessica Sprague’s fab Daily December template; Katie Pertiet’s grid frame; Michelle Coleman’s topper and sparkle flake; and Misty Mareda’s staples. Papers are by Michelle Coleman, Jackie Eckles, and Lori Barnhurst. Used an atomic cupcake action.

Wee Willie Winkie

is calling me to bed! Gotta go. I need to be up in exactly 3 hours as I’ve got a meeting to attend. Can’t be late, can’t be late, can’t be late (as the Mad Hatter would say).

(((((((hugs)))))) my sweeties!

PS. The next set of Pasteleria should be up tomorrow (or today… since tomorrow is today 😆 ) so do come visit soon!

Yippee!!! (First Freebie for 2008!)

Woohoo, turning cartwheels here! I finally have something to share with you, my sweeties!

I am both excited and a bit uncertain about this kit that I’m doing, because it’s a bit of a departure from the colors I normally play with.

I have to admit: I am not much of a pastel person. Way back in the 80s (yeah, that time of mullet hairstyles, eek!), there was this curious book that supposedly would tell you which colors best suited you, based on your skin color. Does anyone recall that?

They divided the fashion color palette into seasons: Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. If I remember right (caveat: I don’t always remember right 😆 ), the Winter color scheme was supposed to be best for those with very fair skin and blonde hair, blue eyes, that sort of thing; and the colors were icy blue, icy green, shimmery sorts of colors. I remember Winter because one of my sisters qualified as that. She was born with blonde hair, and she recalls worrying–when she was little–that she was adopted, because the rest of us were all born with dark brown hair… that is, until my brother was born 4 years after and he was blonde too. 😆

Oh… they’ve lost the blond and are now dark haired like the rest of us. Go figure. 😯

Anyway, I remember being a Fall, and that suited me just fine as I’ve always been partial to oranges, browns, beiges, creams, neutrals (except for that brief phase in university when I wore nothing but black and white… thankfully, that was brief. >teehee< ).

This whole off-tangent story of mine is meant to explain why I am not really a pastel person. I like seeing them; they look absolutely fresh and soft, but I don’t feel like I know them, know what I mean? (Okay, I’m strange: I’m talking like colors were people. 😀 )

Buuuuut. It’s nice to stretch one’s wings and discover new horizons. After all, my word for January is ADVENTURE. (Have you thought of your word for the month / year yet?) And this certainly qualifies as an adventure for me!

Let me know what you think about this freeb, please? (Be honest. But be nice. 😆 )

So here’s the first set of the first freebie for 2008! (ha! alliteration there!)

{Click on image for larger view}

LivEdesigns Pasteleria Set 1

I’ve called the set Pasteleria, which is Spanish for a bakeshop or a place where you get pastries and sweet stuff (pastel + sweet = pasteleria in my twisted little mind, hahaha!) You can snag Set 1 here!

What you’ll be downloading is three papers, all slightly textured: LimeLight has a scrolly thing on its corners, Baby’s Breath has scratchy wisps of white on its edges, and Lullaby has stars and a moon surrounding it. There’s also a ribbon with a heart charm, which you can resize as you wish. Thanks to atomic cupcake, CindyDoerksen, and scrapNtag for some commercial-use items I used to make this!

By the way, pastels were supposed to be Spring (on the 80s fashion palette). If I remember right. 😉

Thank you in advance for the love you leave and please do take the time to let me know what you think (so that I know if I should quit this pastel adventure and go a different route or not…  hahaha!)

And it’s back to the DDs, folks!

After a brief and very wonderful playtime spent making a layout that belongs in my generic album (which I call Viewpoint… I’ll try to get a photo of it and upload it here), I’m back to making Daily December layouts with Jessica’s fab template!

Here’s my Daily December No. 9 (“The Gift of Christmas”) and LOAD Day 14.

The Gift of Christmas (Daily December 9)

Journaling reads:

One night centuries ago, a Child was born, God’s most precious Gift to the world. Thirty-three years later, that Child would give His life so that we could share in His forever. I hope that this inspires you, my dearest son, to keep giving and sharing, especially with those who have less than you, whether you are 5 or 33 or 105 years old.

CREDITS:

Jessica Sprague’s fab Daily December template *You won’t believe how many people love this template!* plus Katie Pertiet’s grid brush, Michelle Coleman’s Topper & Christmas papers from her Merry Little Christmas kit (recolored);  Nancie Rowe Janitz’s stamps (from her contribution to the Stand Up & Scrap Mega Kit (recolored all to fit Christmas theme); Angela Barton’s postage stamp, also from her contribution to the Stand Up & Scrap Mega Kit; and the world embellie, I made using these items: Michelle Coleman’s painted heart, Shabby Miss Jenn’s knotted ribbon (recolored), and Lisa Warren’s mini globe (Lisa’s and SMJenn’s items were also from the SU&S mega kit). Also used John’s Photoblast actions on the the photo of the children below and the one of my son with his two friends. (John has the most fab, user-friendly actions; if you use Photoshop full version or Elements and you don’t have these yet, you should check them out here! 😀 )

I was so glad that the preschool that my son attends arranged a get-together last December with a large group of less privileged children, and in so doing, they were able to give my son and his schoolmates the opportunity to really know the joy of giving and sharing time, laughter, and gifts. This joy which comes from a spirit of generosity is one which I hope my son will always know, no matter how old he becomes.

Other stuff I’ve been up to

Have you signed up for the 12-Week Photography lesson at 2peas yet? It’s so much fun to play, whether you already know the basics or not. (ha! I love any excuse to play. My mental age is probably 7. 😆 )

This week’s lesson lets you play around with the shutter priority mode in your camera. If you’re using a point-and-shoot type of camera, the equivalent would be playing around with the different auto modes, sports setting plus whatever else you want to play around with to see the differences.

And it’s a two-part lesson (not supposed to peek at Part 2 without doing Part 1), how fun is that! 😀 If you haven’t checked out the 2peas course yet, do! It’s really fun. (And you’re welcome, Jeanne. Love ya).

I’m going to check the kitchen sink photos I took and, if they’re not too embarrassing, I’m going to be back in a bit to post them here!

More adventure stories later! (((hugs)))

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…

why, yes, even in my own home, as of last night! 😆

Christmas, my friends, has officially arrived in our home as of December 8th, the feast of the Immaculate Conception. 🙂

It’s a good thing that my dear hubby does not believe in filling every nook and cranny of our humble home with Christmas decor, because it makes my job of decorating that much easier. 😀 Also, it totally helps that I have five sons who can help me put up the Christmas decor (well, okay, four… 😛 )

What I really love is that I now have some real Christmassy photos to use for my Daily December album, which has been up in the air (or more correctly, stuck in my camera’s memory card), instead of the daily-any-month photos that I’ve been taking since December began. 😆 I’ve been trying to decide whether to post the photos here or maybe make a layout and post THAT here (need a push to actually start scrapping those photos, and this might be it! haha)… but while I make up my fickle mind on that issue, here’s something again for you!

(And some nice music by two of my favorite people to keep you entertained as you download 😉 )

This freebie is actually a spin-off from the Winter Shimmer kit, so you might notice that the papers are similar to some in Winter Shimmer, except they’re in more playful, brighter colors (and the striped one is new, and the creamy one has a different texture). This came about because my dear friend Jana loves pink christmases, so I decided to go ahead and make a pink version. The elements on this mini kit are not the same, though, so you might want to snag it as well. 😀

Since this is a mini kit, you’re getting all of it in one download. Aside from the four papers, I’ve made a chipboard arrow with a snowflake accent, a Christmas tree calendar transparency accent, and three silver-bookplate tags with gemstone brads. One of the tags has wordart on it. Thank you’s are in my TOU! And that’s the whole kit, my dears!

Thank you for letting me know that you can still do with more Christmas kits; this one is for you and you and you, and all of you, my sweeties!

{Click on image for larger view}

LivEdesigns Jolly HollyDays (Winter Shimmer Spin-off) PReview

Download Jolly HollyDays here. Now much as I’d love to sit on this porch swing with you, I really must go to bed as my fingers are frozen from the cold and it’s almost 5AM in my part of the world. 😀

ETA: Sorry, download link is no longer available.

Love to all, and to all a goodnight! (((((hugs)))))

Winter Goes Metallic!

with the last set of the Winter Shimmer Kit!!!

It’s getting pretty busy around here, with all the preparations for the holidays. How are things in your home? Have you done any shopping yet? (If you tell me your list is all ticked off, I’m going to sit on the floor and bawl! Or… hmm, since that’s not very productive, maybe I’ll send you a ticket so you can come and do all my holiday preparations for me! Does that sound good to you? 😀 😆 😀 )

Only 17 days to go till The Best Day of the Year, and in some places where my friends are, they’ve got snow bringing on the brrrrs!!!

Here’s something to keep you company while you scrap by the fire:

Winter Shimmer Set 3:

{Click on image for larger view}

LivEdesigns Winter Shimmer Set 3

There are 4 papers here; one is patterned, the other has a frosty, icy row of white snowflakes at the top, and the 2 are shimmery blue and lavender almost-solid ones. All are highly textured, as usual. I went crazy with the elements (and the snowflakes too, heehee), so you’re getting a metallic blue snowflake border which coordinates with all the papers in the entire kit (I tried putting it on each paper and it goes well!). There are 3 gem-centered pewter hanging accents, and so that you can hang them on your layouts, I’ve included 2 metallic snowflake brads–the ones you see on both sides of “Christmas 2007” which is a pewter Christmas label. There’s also a snowflake paper clip and 2 journaling sheets (to write your Christmas wishes for Santa? 😆 )

To make the paper clip look realistically attached, just CTRL-CLICK on the layer thumbnail of whatever element you’re attaching the clip to. You should see marching ants around it. Then target the layer that the paper clip is on. Take your eraser brush and start erasing the paper clip parts that should be behind the element. Voila! 😀

Hope you like this last set of the Winter Shimmer kit. I’ve got some exciting ideas for more freebies, but do let me know if you’re sick of Christmas freebies already (there are so many going around, right? Have you had enough? 😆 ) Download Winter Shimmer Set 3 here. There is no zip password this time.

ETA: Sorry, download link is no longer available.

I decided to do away with the zip password, as that is the reason for the orange sign coming up on my 4shared site. The only reason I placed zip passwords was to make sure that those who snag the freebies do pass by to say hello on my blog (I always love having you visit! 😉 )… but I really don’t want to give you unnecessary hassle and I can’t help thinking that those of us who have a deathly fear of viruses (who doesn’t?) may just have their fears stoked by that sign, even if it only means that 4shared couldn’t check my files for viruses due to the password. Phew!

To make a long story short, download and extract without hassles, my dears! 😀  😀  😀

Have a happy day, and thank you so much for the love you leave! (((hugs)))

Nuts? Nuts? Anyone?

I’m looking at a bunch (and when I say bunch, I mean a WHOLE bunch) of letters from three different schools that my three sons attend (one in preschool, one in elementary, one in high school) and I’m slowly going nuts. Here’s a sampling:

* Notice of Christmas outreach program for the poor orphaned children (that’s nice. I have prepared the box of goodies; just have to find some nice functional toys to share with them… that my kids won’t kill me for giving away… deadline for wrapping all of this is like an hour away)

* Notice of FOUR different days’ worth of practices for some dancing activity for parents for the Christmas program of R (my kid in Sixth Grade) – now this is NOT nice. I don’t dance unless I’m under the influence of alcohol (and, aside from a few sips of red wine now and then, I have not had any alcohol in the last 20 years… and have not danced since too–publicly at least 😛 ). I didn’t go to the first 2 past practices and I informed them that I would do anything–clean the whole school after the program, maybe even lie down on the ground and turn myself into a mat?–just to be excused from turning the dancing activity into a huge disaster.

* More Christmas programs and Christmas activities, and a parent-teacher conference to boot–for A, my eldest in high school. I truly dread the PTCs at his school because they last forever and a day. But claiming the report card takes even longer, with more winding paths to tread along, for those who don’t attend the PTC… so what choice do I have?

And that’s not all on the list of school activities to attend to (and have I told you that they overlap on days and times?)… but let me not bore you to tears.

Now here’s my question: does anyone know of a doctor who can divide me into three, or maybe even clone FIVE copies of me (three to attend to these activities plus one more to attend to real life errands and another to do my Christmas shopping) so that the original me can stay at home and play?

😆

Let’s talk of better things, shall we? 😉

{ Click on image for larger view }

LivEdesigns Winter Shimmer Set 2 Preview

Let’s talk of snow and winter and Christmas (don’t no one mention shopping lists, okay? Shhhhh! )

😆

Here’s the latest set of Winter Shimmer (with the last set slowly nearing completion). There are 3 papers here, all in colors that coordinate with the first set and the third set still coming: JackFrost is a shimmery solid, toned paper; Magical Morning is another shimmery snowflake-studded one; and the last one (on the leftmost area of the preview) is a text-patterned paper with Merry Christmas in different languages all over the world (I googled these, but the only ones I can remember are English, Filipino, Spanish, Italian, French, Kenyan, German, Hawaiian, Dutch, Russian, Latin… and I forget the rest. 😆 )

This set also comes with an acrylic accent tag (from what I’ve read, acrylic is on its way to being one of the big scrapping fads) ; a gem-dotted frosty tree accent, and two metal frames with snowflake accents. (Thank you as always to atomic cupcake {totally fab}, and to claudmey and takatula of stock.exchange for the photos I used on the preview).

Here now is Winter Shimmer Set 2. Zip password is pax (which is Latin for peace, which I really need a lot of now.  😆  )

EDIT:

Please see post above for the new link and the new zip password for this Set 2 of Winter Shimmer. I really don’t understand what is happening to my 4shared links, but I uploaded a new file for you to download. Sorry about this totally unnecessary hassle. 😦

I know that I promised this within 24 hours… but in my part of the world, I try to make 24 hours stretch as much as it can and still, I’m not always lucky. 😀 Hope you like this just the same!

Oh, and before I forget, a HUGE HUGE THANK YOU to all of you who shared your snow and winter stories with me as you downloaded. I totally LOVE reading everything you write, and it always brings a smile to my face and warm fuzzies to my heart. Sending you all warm fuzzies as well, to keep you nice and comfy in your part of the world where you can watch snowflakes drift outside your window. And thank you too, for all the invitations to come and make snowangels in your yards. I just might show up one of these winter years. 😉

Have a happy day, my sweeties!

The weather outside is fright’nin…

not here where I am, thankfully. But whenever I think of cold weather, I remember with a chuckle an email I got from my dear brother, who now lives in North America with his wonderful wife and kids in a place particularly known for its biting cold during the Christmas season. Last year, having newly moved to this place from a busy city in the same part of North America, he sent us an email telling us that the temperature was like -43ºC and he said “Now I know why that Christmas carol went ‘The weather outside is fright’nin’ ‘ ”  😆 I guess when icicles are threatening to hang from the orifices of your body, then that really is frightening!

But this new kit I’ve started is NOT frightening (I hope!) hahaha.

I’ve been wanting to create a nice shimmery effect on paper, inspired by my recent shopping spree (oh those Thanksgiving and Black Friday sales are wicked!!! 😛 ) at Little Dreamer Designs (ahem… among other wonderful places like here, here, here, and here. I loved, absolutely loved, totally loved, Michelle Coleman’s Glow Kit and had to have both the paper pack and the elements… and in the process influenced a few of my friends 😉 to pick up the same pack for themselves as well. If you don’t already have it, it is a MUST. Wonderful wonderful kit! Thank you for creating it, Michelle!

So anyway, I spent around 3 days researching and trying to find out a way to produce that nice shimmery glow digitally (aided at one point by my dear friend Veevs who is the cyber-search expert, especially–but not limited to–when it comes to sales of digital stuff… 😆 ). In the end I was so confused with all the input I had been reading that I just decided to play around with Photoshop and do a bit of this and that here and there… and this is what I came up with. I know it’s far from Michelle’s wonderful kit, but there’s nothing like the feeling of satisfaction derived from just working hard on creating something that you see in your mind and finding, when you’ve translated it onto paper, that it’s not half bad actually. 🙂 (At least for me… hehehe. I hope you like it too!)

So here’s the first set of the Winter Shimmer kit. Zip password is starlight I kind of went way out of bounds in terms of color choice here, because these colors are not the ones I would usually play with, but somehow when I imagine what winter is like, these are the colors that bounce up and down in my mind’s eye. Yeah, I know, I have only seen snowflakes ONCE in my life, when I was about six years old, in Belgium… and I’ve never even touched the Real Thing called snow. On my list of Things to Do Before I Get Too Old: make snowangels in the snow. So don’t be surprised if you ever happen upon a fifty-five year old lady having the time of her life lying on snow and waving her arms and legs about: chances are that would be me. 😆

ETA: Sorry, download link is  no longer available.

{ Click on image for larger view }

LivEdesigns Winter Shimmer Set 1 Preview

This set comes with 3 shimmery papers, one with a night winter scene called Starburst (I wish I could show the entire paper in the preview–as this is my favorite in the set, but I had to put in the other parts of the set in the preview as well). There’s also WhiteLight, a light greyish-white one with snowflakes; and Bliss-ard, which is a mostly-solid, highly textured one. There are 4 glittery snowflakes that measure about 6 inches from end to end which you can upsize or downsize as you wish… and you can use them for accents on your page.

There’s more to come, for sure… I just have to finish a special project that my playground girlfriends and I are producing for our dear Jessica. 😉

I’ll be back soon!

Oh and PS. I was extremely extremely moved and touched by your comments. Actually, I always am, but this time was awesome in a special way, because some people really made an extra effort to leave such inspiring comments. Thank you so much. (Thank you, Tina and Ruth K, for your extra thank-you’s for all those who forgot them). Huge hugs to you all! Your words, the time you take, the effort you make to write down your comments: PRICELESS. Thank you. Seriously.

Alright! Back to the salt mines! Visit soon for the next installment of Winter Shimmer!

Have a happy day, my sweeties!

Ho Ho Ho

Here’s the last part of the Christmas Lullaby kit. It’s always a bit sad for me when a kit ends… but also exciting because that means I get to do work on a new kit! 😀

And because you’ve been soooo patient with the downloads of Set 2 (all four parts of them), this one will be real quick to download!

Here’s what Set 3 looks like:

{Click on image for larger view}

LivEdesigns Christmas Lullaby Set 3 Preview

Here’s what Set 3 has: one highly textured solid paper, one glitter frame, one chipboard journaling tag with metal flourish accents and built-in flower brads, a Christmas flower jewel-accent, a paper clip with the same accent, and a safety-pin accent with the colors of the kit (with a bit of blue thrown in 🙂 ). The pin comes as a full pin to give you more flexibility; just use your eraser brush to adapt it to your layout. Thank you’s are in my TOU Credits. (And thanks also to Zela whose stock photo I used for the preview). As usual, all items coordinate with the previous sets and come without drop shadows. (I placed shadows on my preview though).

Download Christmas Lullaby Set 3. Zip password is happyhollydays … just a reminder… type in the password instead of copying and pasting it so that you don’t get any errors when you extract the files. 😉

ETA: Sorry, download link is no longer available.

I’d like to take this opportunity to give huge cyberhugs to all of you, my sweeties, who take the time to leave love as you download. I was a bit amazed that there were more than 330 downloads of Set 1 and only 53 comments. I hope there aren’t people who are hotlinking to the 4shared… I hope they’re sending their friends over here to download. It’s just the proper thing to do, don’t you agree? 🙂 🙂 🙂 So thank YOU, my dear friends. Wish there were enough words to express how wonderful it is to read your comments (and I do read them, each and every one of them, and they truly warm my heart… and inspire me to create more!)

Which is exactly what I am about to do right now. Create a new kit for you!

Have a happy day, my dearies!

You know your kids aren’t kids anymore

when they start asking permission to leave at night and you have to give them a curfew to make sure they come back before it’s light outside. Boohoo. I have two boys growing up! Two weeks ago they went to the concert of Beyonce with their cousins and had a grand time. Last night they went to another cousin’s house and spent the evening playing and “hanging out.”

Gosh, makes me wonder… what did we do to hang out when we were their age? ( Geez, seems like so long ago) Oh, now I remember: I used to “hang out” with my favorite cousin, and we’d read books, occasionally dipping into cookies and sipping on milk… I seriously doubt, though, that that’s what my boys are doing 😆

Half of me is amused and proud to see them growing into fine boys (who, by the way, do not object to and actually do follow the curfews I set–what can I say, God is so kind to me); the other half of me wants to say “hey, no, don’t grow up too fast; stay and pull on my apron strings a bit longer.” But of course, I let them go. They are boys. I’ve always known the day would come when they would pack their bags and venture out on their own. But show me a mother who doesn’t feel the tug on her heart when that happens and I’ll give you roundtrip tickets to the moon and back. 😀

So those of you with children who still have temporary teeth falling, rejoice!!! You’ve got a couple of good years to go before they start “hanging out” literally out of the bounds of the yard and the home. 🙂 And you just might find some use for the freebs in this kit! 😆

Here’s what’s in Set 3 of the Toof Fairy kit: 3 papers, tamer and less grungified this time (except maybe for the yellow one which I call sweettoof :D) . There’s a yellow brush-striped one and a blue textured paper with green stitches. I think the solid yellow and the blue-stitched one will be useful for those who aren’t visited by the tooffairy anymore 😉

{Click on image for larger view}

LivEdesigns Toof Fairy Set 3 Preview

There’s a silver commemorative tooth plate; a transparent tooth-shaped thingie which you can use for anything (maybe put a title underneath it? Maybe use it as a frame?) And then there’s a stenciled tooth and a chalk-y tooth: if you layer them on top of each other, they work quite nicely. But in the download I kept them separate in case you would want to use the stencil on the darker papers and the chalk-y one on the lighter papers… or for whatever you want to use them for.

Download Set 3 of the ToofFairy Kit. Zip password is toofsieroll 😆

ETA: Sorry, download link is no longer available.

Tomorrow I’ll be back with the FINAL set in the Toof Fairy kit, and then we move on to new freebie kits! Woohoo!!! I’m so excited! Hope you are too!

Thank you for the love you leave!

Does anyone know…

…where I can buy an additional 24 hours to add to each day? 😆

I suppose you’re sick of hearing how I’ve been swimming frantically, trying to keep my head above the water with all the deadlines that seem to choose exactly the same moment to appear and terrorize those who’ve been too busy having fun playing (yep, that “playing” person would be me… about…hmmm, a month ago? At least, seems that long ago since I had the leisure to play, haha).

Since I really can’t blame you and would even totally understand if you cover your ears/eyes the next time you read “busy” on my blog, here’s a visual instead (haha!):

OF Night

A few tidbits about this photo you’re looking at:

* Don’t look for me there. I was behind the camera, teehee. These are three of the people I was with last Saturday/Sunday. Add me into the mix plus 3 more men, and we totalled 7 owls. We worked on finalizing the editing and layout of the Big Project from 1 pm on Saturday up to… oh, 4 am of Sunday. Do I need to say that at the end of that period, my brain was dead on the floor? That wasn’t the end of it though: my friend in the middle (the fantastic layout artist) and I met the next/same day (Sunday) to do the real final work on the Big Project… from 1 pm to 9 pm. Not bad. At least we didn’t end up working till Monday (well, we did, but at least we could do it in the comfort of our own homes).

* My brain was so dead that Sunday dawn that my friend T (the layout artist) and I spent roughly 15 minutes discussing what time to meet the “next” day–which was actually a few hours away. I bother to mention this only because we realized later on that what we took 15 minutes to discuss could’ve actually been resolved in about 1 minute… had our brains been working better.   😆

* This was taken in front of the building where you will find the studio that we do our work in for the Big Project. If you look closely, you will see on the left side the legs of the building guard, who was raising up the metal gates so we could enter. See, the building closes at 8 pm… so we had to do a bit of charming and cajoling so that we could be allowed to work in the studio till midnight (which extended till after midnight, haha).

* I used John Wright’s Photoblast Pro Sapphire action on the photo… Confession time: I actually wanted to put that photo up here so I would have an excuse to play with the Photoblast actions. They are so much fun! If you’re into playing with your photos, you might want to check out John’s site HERE. I normally enjoy playing with my photos by tweaking them myself, but since a whole lot of my friends were playing around with them, and John offered a GREAT deal (essentially, 50% off on the cost of the whole pack), I … ahem… caved. And I don’t regret it one bit! John is great with his support and service too! He even came to our playground to help us out in case we had any problems with his actions (he must’ve heard all the excited chatter on our MB!). I still like tweaking my own photos, but I love that I have the choice to use John’s actions–all of which are fantastic–when I want to. Mmmmm, I am so enjoying playing with them!

What’s been keeping me company…

as I work late at night and into the morning is this… It’s been wonderful re-discovering this 80s song, and it’s upbeat enough to keep me awake… plus it’s all fall, which is fast coming, if it isn’t already where you, all my dearest friends, are! If you love dogs, or autumn colors, or great visuals, or upbeat 80s music, don’t hold back; go ahead and press that Play button! 😀

I couldn’t resist…

I know that all these deadlines have been falling on my head like one great big rainstorm ( “raindrops” just doesn’t seem to cut it 🙂 )… but I couldn’t stay away from designing some more stuff for you. I intended this to be the last offering in the Pinky Promise kit, but I have to warn you there’s one more coming up. See, proof that I think of you all the time, even when I’m caffeine-crazied… speaking of which, I have a feeling, if you squeeze me hard enough, you’ll be able to get some brew out of me–I feel like a giant coffee bean ready to be percolated, what with all the coffee I’ve been drinking like water! (It helps that we have great coffee right at home, haha).

So here’s Set 5 of Pinky Promise:

{ Click on image for larger view }

LivEdesigns Pinky Promise Set 5

There’s a grungy textured version of the cleaner paper that I released some time ago (too lazy to check which set it was in, forgive me). Then there’s a paper tag which you can use for journaling in strips, or for dates, titles, whatever… the bigger tag on the preview is the actual size, and the smaller one is for you to see how it looks reduced. You can also enlarge it if you want. It’s about 8 inches long, I think. There’s a pink textured bow, which I attached to the preview with one of the buttons I made. The square buttons on the left side of the preview are shown at their actual size. There are 2 buttons in this set only because I initially made the smaller one… and then I decided to make a bigger one so that you could reduce or enlarge without sacrificing quality… and then, since I already saved both files, I decided to just give them both to you! 😀

A bit of warning about the tag: it comes with the button stuck on it. See, I made the tag with the square accent (before it became a button, haha)… and when I was looking at it, I thought… hmmm, maybe I could use that square accent to “pin” the bow down to the preview. So I pulled it off the tag and put it on the bow… and that’s the story of the birth of the square button. 😀 (Note that the bow doesn’t come with the button attached. Behind the button in the preview is a regular knot in the center of the bow).

All items come without the shadows (those you see in the preview are there for uh, preview purposes only 😀 ). Download Set 5 here. Zip password is wide-awake (don’t forget the dash!).

ETA: Sorry, download link is no longer available.

Oh and one last thing…

I got a few comments about the teddy bear that I used for the preview of Set 4… I am so sorry, I hope I didn’t mislead you into thinking that the teddy bear came with the kit… I do remember writing in my post that I used the bear for preview purposes only (and I think I wrote the credits on the kit preview as well). The bear photo is not mine; it’s by Sarej at the stock xchnge photo site… But since your reception to the bear was so warm, I just might come up with a bear kit in the future!!! 😉

Thank you, Vicky, of DigiScrapDepot for your invitation to advertise my kits on your site… I am honored and I promise to create a teddy bear kit for you soon! 🙂

Well, this is a mighty long post, so I better get going (before you fall asleep on me!)

Back to the salt mines for me! Thanks for passing by; do drop by again soon! Pinky Promise Set 6 is coming in the next few days… and after that, more freebies!!!  😉