Butterflies and pearls ...

... lots and lots of them! In fact I've lost count have many I've made over the past few weeks, but the end results have made all the hard work worth while. The invites are done and are bundled up just waiting to be hand delivered to the bride-to-be ... I can't wait to see her face tomorrow!

Hope everyone has a great weekend and if you're reading this post in the USA, then I hope you have a wonderful Labor Day weekend and get to make the most of any late summer sunshine!

Back to my creative roots ...

... like many digi-scrappers, I started out making cards. Paper scrapbooking was a natural step in my creative evolution, swiftly followed by my conversion to all things pixel, jpeg and digital! But it's good to go back sometimes, isn't it? To try your hand at crafts you've not touched for months (or even years!). When Sue Cummings announced that she was going to be hosting the Designer Spotlight Challenge over at oscraps, I jumped at the chance to go back to my roots and create a card front that you can either use digitally or printably (making up words again I know!!!)

My card design features Sue's new kit called Sketchbook Artistry (cool name, huh?) and is just a sweet way for you to say "thanks" to someone you love.

This is how it looks printed out, matted onto a pre-scored white card blank, with re-printed butterflies layered on top to add dimension ...


Now, Sue's renown for her generosity, something which often rubs off onto the member of her Creative Team (of which I'm lucky enough to be one!) and not only can you download my card as a FREEBIE, the but you can also pop by my fellow team member's blogs and download the cards that they've designed for you too!!! Check out this list ...

Sue C

Val

Veer

Linda

Jessica

Zoe

Nadia

Elina

Kym

Eszter

ElisaC

ElisaH

Nini

Laurie

Maria

[EDIT: as Sue's spotlight week is now over, the above freebies are no longer available - sorry!]

Phew ... I'm exhausted now! But that's not all ... oh no ... head on over to the Designer Spotlight Challenge thread at oscraps and take part in Sue's fabulously fun challenge of designing your own card and you could win a shopping spree at Sue's shop!!!! So what are you waiting for?

TOU's: all cards are copyrighted and cannot be redistributed without permission.
Note: Feel free to to post the links to these greetings cards on your blog, but please do not share the actual downloads. Kindly send them to the blogs of my friends and leave comments along the way. We love to hear / see how you're going to use these cards.

Thanks for stopping by and have fun browsing my friends gorgeous designs!!!

Summary of a CT call ...

... have you ever applied to be part of a designer's creative team? I've been incredibly lucky throughout my digi-scrapping journey and I've been asked to join a couple of teams without having to experience the nail-biting tension of applying through a CT call. Having said that, I've also applied via a couple of calls, some successfully, others not so. But each time I apply, I get the same sense of anticipation and I nervously watch my inbox just waiting for the email to arrive.

Well last Thursday, the email arrived and it went along these lines:

Jaime: "I would love it if you would consider being a part of my new creative team. What do you think?"
Me: "Yes, yes, definitely yes!"
Jaime: "I'm so pleased, I'll be announcing the news after 15th August, so could you keep it quiet until then?"
Me: "Sure, no problem!"

NEVER has it been so hard for me to keep this exciting news to myself!!! I can't tell you how many times I wanted to shout out "I'm part of Three Paper Peonies CT!!!!" ... well, now I can ...

I'M PART OF THREE PAPER PEONIES CREATIVE TEAM!!!

You can find out more about Three Paper Peonies and read up on the other members of Jaime's new team on her blog and of course, don't forget to check out her amazing store at MScraps ... be warned, it's utterly gorgeous & totally irresistible!!!

I don't embarrass easily ...

... which is probably just as well, because Tina O'Flynn [of Creations by Tinamarie fame] has only gone and published a whole Q&A session about none other than yours truly on her blog!!!

Now I must confess to having been "in" on the whole thing (obviously) and it was great fun answering Tina's questions, though I have a funny feeling I'm gonna get called Suzy Bluesy by all my friends now! If you wanna know the reason why or even find out who I had a crush on when I was younger, then head on over to Tina's blog to read more!

Now being part of Tina's CT means I get to play with all her yummy goodies before they hit the shops. Here's a little number I created using elements and papers from a variety of Tina's kits, all of which are now available in her store over at Little Dreamer Designs.

Click here for credits

Cute, right? Well, as a special "thank you" to all my blog readers, Tina very kindly agreed that I could turn my LO into a template (layered .psd file) and offer it as a freebie here on my blog. Now you too can create your very own version of Paradise!

Click here to download

I really hope you like the template and enjoy using it and of course it goes without saying that I'd love to see any pages you create with it, so please feel free to leave me a link in the comments!

Sail away, sail away ...

... the first thing that sprung to mind when I saw Sue Cummings' latest kit was this golden oldie:

Somewhere, beyond the sea

Somewhere waitin' for me

My lover stands on golden sands

And watches the ships that go sailin'

Sung by Bobby Darin

Releases in 1960

If you haven't heard it, head on over to YouTube and search "Beyond The Sea" and you're bound to find it. It's a classic for sure!

But back to the kit ... just check this out ...



Isn't is fabulous? The colours are so mellow, the texture and patterns of the papers so sumptuous and of course a kit from Sue wouldn't be complete without some truly inspirational quotes and word-art! The kit will be available in Sue's shop at oscraps later today and if you're looking for boat loads of inspiration, then don't forget to check out Sue's gallery too!

A welcome return ...

... when Leiko Beck announced she was taking a break from designing, I was gutted. You see, I'd only just joined her CT and I was so looking forward to creating lots & lots of pages using her gorgeously whimsical designs.

Fast forward a few months and out of the blue I get an email from Leiko saying she's designing again (albeit a one off special) and that she's guest designer at ScrapInsider during August and to celebrate, she's created a number of exclusive goodies!!!

Firstly a gorgeous full kit called Needle & Thread, which is just bursting at the seams (pardon the pun!) with beautifully coloured patterned papers, cute stitched effect elements and a full alpha set.


Here's one of the pages I've created using this kit ...

Secondly, Leiko's created a fabulous set of texture overlays, delightfully called Over It ...

Gorgeous aren't they? They're super easy to use too, but in case you get stuck Leiko's even provided easy to follow instructions ... simple! Why not treat yourself to both kits whilst you can and to make things even more tempting, they're currently on offer with 20% off!!!

My virtual world is restored ...

... at long last I have a secure and stable Internet access and it's all thanks to my shiny new Dell Inspiron laptop, which looks just like this ... So "hello" my friends and fellow bloggers!

I actually purchased my new laptop last weekend, but it's taken longer than anticipated to get it all set-up with my scrapbooking programme (Photoshop 7) and all my "favourites" (which, by-the-way, I hadn't realised how much I rely on these little shortcuts.) Trying to remember the web addresses of all the forums, galleries, shops and blogs I visit regularly was an absolute nightmare! In fact, there are still a few sites that I've yet to bookmark, like the gallery at oscraps (I really miss that place, don't you?)

So now that I have super speedy hardware, you'd think I'd spend all my time scrapping right? Well unfortunately not. Since coming back from my holiday, I've been working back at my old office(!) My old boss asked if I could help out whilst they were rolling out a new software release and of course I said yes. It was weird at first, but now it feels like I've never been away. For the past two weeks, I've been working a regular 9am-5pm routine and I'd completely forgotten just how little time that then leaves for being creative. Having said that, I'm determined to get back into a positive scrapping and blogging routine!

I'll be posting again during the week and this time I'll have some exciting news about a wonderfully talented designer making a very welcome return to the digiscrapping world!!! Care to guess who it is?