Technology free zone ...

... no laptop, no mobile phone (except for emergencies of course!), no internet, no digi-scrapping, no forums, no Twitter ... rest & relaxation here I come!

See you all on Tuesday 6th July 2010!

Holiday destination reveal (& a freebie) ...

... I guess I've teased you all for long enough and anyway, if I tried to drag out the suspense for another week, I reckon I'd be verbally lynched by a number of my friends and blog followers!!! Your comments and guesses over the past week or so have given me some great holiday destination ideas for the future ... thank you! Quite of few of you guessed correctly, including Corinna, Selena, Ella & Nini (on her 2nd guess. LOL!) ... drum roll please ... on Sunday 20th June at 7pm, DH and I are getting on a plane and flying to ... the Maldives.

This will be our fifth visit to this beautiful country and each time we've been before, we've stayed on a different island (Vilamendhoo, Meerufenfushi, Lohifushi & Baros). This time, we're staying on Velassaru island and for the first time, we're staying in a water villa like this ...



Each island is so small it usually takes less than an hour to walk all the way round. They really are idyllic with white sandy beaches, crystal clear warm turquoise waters and if you're into snorkeling or diving, then the Maldives offers some of the best underwater experiences in the world!!! OK, enough of my tourism pitch (if anyone from the Maldives tourism board just happens to be reading my blog, then I'm available for work and I'm willing to relocate!!!)

On to the other big event that seems to be taking over my life at the moment ... yup, the football World Cup tournament! It all kicked off last Friday but Saturday was the big day as far as England supporters were concerned, with their opening game against the USA. Now, it's fair to say the match result wasn't as hoped, but unlike the UK tabloid press, I'm not full of doom and gloom. There are still 2 more games to play in the group stage and England can still make it through to the last 16!

Do you remember Pride & Passion #1 (with the England and Scotland WA)? Well, my friend Yvon left a comment suggesting I make some wordart for Holland, using the Dutch national team colours. Well here you go Yvon, this is specially for you (and anyone else who'd like to download it) ... Pride & Passion #2 ... a set of four bevelled edge wordart (2 with drop shadows and 2 without) featuring the Dutch national football team colours & emblem and the Stars & Stripes of America, especially for the 1-1 scoreline from the England vs USA match at the weekend!

Download here

Well folks, thanks for reading all through this post, it ended up being longer than I'd anticipated. Hope you have a great week ahead whatever you're up to!

I got published ...

... in the latest edition of Photoshop Creative magazine!!! Ha! that got your attention didn't it? And I'm not fibbing either, I did get published ... just not in the way most of your are probably thinking. LOL!

So you guys all know I've fallen for Twitter, right? Well, I responded to a Tweet from the Photoshop Creative team. They put out this simple request: "Photoshop Creative would love to hear about your style in PS! In this limited space, describe it the best you can ...". So me being the sociable kinda girl I am, I Tweeted back and told them. End of story, right? Wrong!

Imagine my surprise when I opened up the latest edition of Photoshop Creative magazine (issue 62) ... I was casually skimming through the content when something on page 11 caught my eye. Is that a picture of me???? OMGosh it is!!! What the heck is my profile picture doing staring back at me from the pages of an {inter}NATIONAL publication?!?!?!?!

Then I remembered my Tweet!!!

How fun is that? So come on peeps I want to know if you've ever been published and if so, which publication & what was the subject matter? Enquiring minds need to know!

The excitement is growing ...

... and my holiday tickets arrived today!!! It's just over 2 weeks until I'll be getting on a jet plane and heading somewhere were the sun shines, the sea is clear, the sand is fine & white and the drinks are always chilled ... sigh ... sorry but I just have to tease you all with a few more photos ...

Just how delicious does this place look? Have you guessed where I'm going yet? I'll give you a clue ... the flight takes approx 10hrs from the UK. I promise I'll stop teasing soon ... well, soon-ish!!!

Hope you all have a fabulous fun weekend, wherever you are & whatever you're up to!

Memorial Day weekend sale ...

Included in the sale over at mscraps is Che's latest kit ... Lazy Days.

This kit is about those lazy summer days that you just relax, sit under a shady tree, sip cool lemonade, watch clouds roll by and enjoy all the beautiful little things in life. Bliss!

Hope you have a wonderful weekend, wherever you are and whatever you're up to!

Football got me thinking ...

... don't worry, this isn't another football only post! But I am starting to get excited about the forthcoming World Cup tournament and my excitement grows each time I visit my local supermarket, which is now stocking a MASSIVE array of products all sporting the red & white cross of St George. Now this is all well and good, but both DH and I are actually Scottish, so as I'm sure you can imagine, it is incredibly difficult for us to walk by without feeling a slight tinge of regret, as once again Scotland haven't made it to the finals in South Africa next month.

But I started to wonder how I could combine my two passions ... football and scrapbooking. I didn't want anything specifically "sporty", so that ruled out any balls, goalposts or pitches etc, but I did want to somehow share the great sense of national pride that is currently sweeping across Britain (well some parts of it anyway!) in the run up to England's opening match of World Cup 2010.

And here's what I've come up with ... Passion & Pride #1 is a FREEBIE collection of 4 beveled edge wordart (2 with drop shadows and 2 without) featuring the flag colours of England (St George's Cross) and Scotland (Saint Andrew's Cross) ...

Click here to download

Here are a couple of layouts I created using them ...

click here for credits

click here for credits

Now, I realise that many of you reading this may not want England & Scotland themed wordart, so I'm intrigued to know which country you would be interested in. Just leave me a comment with the name of the country you either live in and perhaps a little slogan to go with it (such as "Pride of England" or "Flower of Scotland" etc) and who knows, I may just be inspired to create Passion & Pride #2!!!

It's so nice to see ...

... Leiko again! I've missed her designs so much, so when I saw she'd commented on my previous post, I just couldn't wait to find out what she'd been up to. She's just set up a new blog / website which you really must check out, if only to grab her wonderful Stroked v.1 wordart freebie.


Welcome back sweetie ... it's lovely to see you out & about again!